Episode Transcript
[00:00:18] Well, hey there, and welcome back. This is another episode here of Grace and Grit Mindset Podcast. And. And do you hear my dog in the background? She's scratching herself, I guess, and that's that loud clanging sound that she's got going on. Anyway, so here we are. And I'm super excited.
[00:00:42] I always say that, but I really am because I'm always so kind of in awe when God gives me what I feel like. It's just this revelation.
[00:00:51] And really all I'm doing in these. In these episodes, I'm just sharing, like, something that I feel like the Lord shows me and to just help you and encourage you along your life and on your path. Right now, I don't know if you're driving to work in your car, if you're at home, or maybe you're at work listening on your earbuds, I don't know. But I just pray that today, this podcast episode finds you in a place that maybe will be a good reminder for you of some things that I think are so important to us as believers that we often find ourselves forgetting.
[00:01:31] We get so caught up in the challenges that we face in our life. We get caught up in watching what's going on in the news, what's going on around us in our lives, with our kids, with our spouses, with our parents, at our jobs. It feels like everywhere you go, there's just drama, drama, drama, drama everywhere. It's like if you look at what's going on right now in our nation, it's chaos everywhere. And if you. You know, I've talked about this before in some of the previous episodes, but if you kind of live in this place where all you do is watch the news or pay attention to the negative that's circulating, it can really pull you down and rob you of peace and rob you of joy and rob you of all the things that God wants you to live with that are actually your rights. They're your birthrights as a believer, as someone who walks in fellowship with God. These are your birthrights now because of what Christ did and the price that he paid to reconnect you to the Father, reconnect us back to the Father. So I don't want you to miss that. I don't want you to miss that. You could be walking in such beautiful peace right now. Joy, hope.
[00:02:40] All these wonderful things that the Lord is. He doesn't just promise them, but he is Joy. He is hope. He is peace. Like, he doesn't just have it. That's who he is.
[00:02:51] And he wants us to experience that in its fullness right now, in this very moment that you're walking through. And maybe you're walking through something super hard.
[00:03:01] Guess what? He still wants you to experience peace and joy and hope in the middle of that. And so as I was thinking about what to share with you today, I could not get away from this idea of tabernacle. And you know, God desires to tabernacle with us. And that's what I kept hearing was that Scripture. And I had to look it up because I wasn't sure where it was. I really was kind of pulling two things together. I was pulling together what Jesus says when, you know, if. If someone invites me and my father in, we will come and make our home with him, we will dwell with him, we will abide with him. So I was thinking of that scripture, but I was kind of marrying it to what's found in Revelation, where the, the city, the New Jerusalem comes down from heaven. And this is after everything has happened of all horrible things, and Satan has been locked up in the pit, the bottomless pit, and God, Jesus and the Father are coming down out of heaven. And it says that they come to tap. It says that now God has come to tabernacle with his people. And I actually want to read that scripture to you because it is so beautiful.
[00:04:10] And when I read it, or when I heard it in my spirit rather, I didn't even really know like, like what was I hearing. I couldn't even piece it all together. I had to look it up. But I felt it so strongly and it just really touched my spirit. And I was crying thinking about this. So envision this as I read Revelation 21, just a little bit to you. Imagine this happening, see it with your eyes, close your eyes if you can, and just listen to this. And I saw a new heaven and a new earth. For the first heaven and the first earth were passed away, and there was no more sea. And I, John, saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, behold, the tabernacle of God is with man, with men. And he will dwell with them. And they shall be his people. And God himself shall be with them and be their God. And God shall wipe away every. All tears from their eyes. And there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain, for the former things are passed away. And I just felt like he wanted to me to remind you, remind myself Today that there's going to come a time where God is going to tabernacle with us. So what does this mean? Because it's like a really fancy word. And when I think of tabernacle, I think of the tabernacle of Moses, and I think about how that was a representation of what was happening in heaven and God's eternal design, where it was eventually going to play out here in Revelation. This is the picture.
[00:05:58] This is what that tabernacle was all about. And I have a whole teaching I did on this at a conference in El Paso this earlier this year. And it just. Oh, my gosh. Just all the things that the Lord taught me about the tabernacle and what it means and how. How amazing it is and the holy of Holies and what each compartment meant and all that. That's not really what I want to talk about today, but I just want to touch on the fact that the tabernacle of Moses was supposed to be a picture, and it was supposed to be a foreshadowing of what was to come later.
[00:06:31] And it was this idea of reconnection that. That God has with his creation, with us, with his people. That was always the design.
[00:06:41] So what you have is this beautiful picture again of the Garden of Eden, almost like it's brought full circle. And once again, because in the beginning, right when he creates Adam and Eve, he tabernacles there with him. Well, he's there sometimes. It says that he walks with them in the cool of the evening, so he would come visit them. But the idea here, and what we see and what John is seeing, and he's trying to tell us what he's seeing, is that the whole scene. City. The whole city of Jerusalem, which is like heaven. It comes down out of heaven, y'. All. It. I don't know, man. I'm getting chills just thinking about this. It comes down out of heaven, and the Lord is saying, I have made all things new, and now I'm going to tabernacle with you. This was my idea all along.
[00:07:32] And you know what? Sometimes we just need to remember and we need to have kind of that reminder of we need to get our eyes back on the eternal and stop looking at the momentary light affliction that we might be walking through. I'm not discounting it.
[00:07:47] I'm not saying it doesn't hurt.
[00:07:50] But I'm saying there is something way more amazing on the other side of this existence.
[00:07:58] And sometimes we need to get our eyes back on that and who he is.
[00:08:03] Can you imagine for One second.
[00:08:05] If you think about the fruit of the spirit, you know the words that describe the spirit of God, these beautiful attributes of God, love, joy, peace, patience, gentleness, kindness, long suffering, these beautiful humility or meekness, these kinds of things and self control. These words that we look at and we kind of just go, I need to be more patient. I need to be more long suffering. I need to be kinder. But the thing is, they all. They all emanate. They all come from Him. And the only way we can have more of that in our life is to actually be with him more and kind of come to this consciousness. Awareness. I'd rather say awareness. I don't like the consciousness thing. It sounds kind of New Agey. This awareness that when he tabernacles with you, which, by the way, that is what he's doing right now. He is tabernacling with us in. In our temple, in our. In our body. He lives with us. Okay, so we're getting a foreshadowing of this. That's the reason when feel his presence, we feel. We feel love, don't we? We feel peace, we feel joy.
[00:09:10] We feel this beautiful, perfect bliss that we can't even put into words. And that's why we're so excited to tell people about Jesus, because we're like, man, if you only felt what I feel right now, you would give everything for this relationship with Him. And so we get that in these glimpses, in these moments right now in this life. He's so kind to us, to remind us, hey, I'm tabernacling with you now, right?
[00:09:35] So we have a piece of it. We have His Holy Spirit living inside of us. Jesus said, if any man loves me and keeps my word, my Father and I will come and make our dwelling there. So we know that we have the Holy Spirit of God living inside of us. We have this.
[00:09:53] I would say he's there, but it's not come to fulfillment yet, right? There's not. The true, like the new Jerusalem, the new city has not come down to where we're actually, like, physically with God right now. We have this spiritual thing that we can't even see, but we can feel it. We know what it feels like when. When we feel him. We know it. I mean, there's no one on this earth that could tell me that I do not know God or His presence or I can't feel him or know that he's real. I know it in my bones.
[00:10:27] I mean, people, martyrs have died because they know this. And they will not Deny who Jesus is, that he is the Son of God, and that God is real. They won't deny it because they've had this experience with him. And God is so kind that we get to have these moments in this life where we are. We know we're tabernacling with him. He's. Well, he's tabernacling with us. Rather, we feel him.
[00:10:54] You know, it's. It's like when you think of the picture of Moses and he builds this tabernacle, it's portable.
[00:11:02] That's what tabernacles are. They're tents. Usually they're portable. And so as the. As the Israelites traveled around, they. They just took the tent, the presence of God, they took it with them wherever they went.
[00:11:16] And that's a beautiful thing, right? It really is. But the picture that you're seeing in Revelation is this permanent dwelling.
[00:11:26] So no longer is it this situation where we are here, separated from him, and we're kind of like strangers and aliens. Here is what scripture calls us, that we were like alien strangers. I can't remember the exact verbiage for it, but it's something like that, that this is not really our home. And the reason it's not our home is because he's not fully here yet.
[00:11:49] When he descends, when the city comes down and Jesus descends and God is with us here, it will be our home. He will, because he is here, it will become our home. Right now we're kind of in this weird place where we're experiencing his presence, and we know he's with us, just like the Israelites had the tent he's with. He's inside of us.
[00:12:13] And it can be challenging because sometimes we feel him, sometimes we don't, right? So we have these moments where he wants to grow our faith or he wants us to trust him and believe Him. And so there's no feeling, there's no. We can't see it, we can't always hear it.
[00:12:30] But we just hold tight to this truth of who he is, this character that we know he has, that he's faultless, and he cannot lie. So we have that going on, and we're thankful for it. But in that day, there will be no more of that going on. We will be with him for all eternity, y'. All. And I know when we think about heaven, we think about rewards a lot of times, and we think about getting to see our loved ones, and those things are beautiful. But nothing is going to compare to being in the presence of God, being in the presence of Jesus getting to experience him. I mean, we can't even do it in this body because this body can't take it.
[00:13:14] This body is corrupt, right? Even though we've been redeemed spiritually, this body cannot be in the presence of God because of sin.
[00:13:23] And so we couldn't even take it. And I've had these encounters sidebar here, where I've had to ask God to stop.
[00:13:34] I could feel him so strongly moving on me in a real physical way that I thought I was going to die. And I. I just had to say, listen, Lord, I feel like I'm dying right now.
[00:13:47] And, like, I would have.
[00:13:49] I don't know if any of you have ever been close to death, but there's this weird thing that happens where. And it's the whole tunnel thing. Like, you don't. All of a sudden, you. Things sound really weird and you get really weak, and everything grows really dark, and everything becomes like a tunnel almost.
[00:14:07] And. But you can't really talk because you're just kind of in this weird place between being in this life and being in heaven. And I've had that encounter. And the Lord, I felt his hand upon me so strong that it was literally killing me. And I had to. And I couldn't even talk, but I just said, in my spirit, you're going to kill me, Lord. I cannot take your presence that strongly. And so, I mean, this went on for a few minutes. And finally I. Because I was thinking to myself, I was at a church service when this happened, and I thought, these people are going to have to call an ambulance because I think I'm dying right now. And finally the Lord relented a little bit.
[00:14:50] I wish I could have seen what was going on, you know, with my natural eyes. All I know is I was in the presence of God in a way I have never been in my entire life.
[00:15:00] And it was so powerful.
[00:15:03] And I don't know y', all, but this is what we're going to live in perpetually.
[00:15:09] It is going to be so amazing that there are not even words that we can use.
[00:15:15] They. They don't even exist in our languages that we have to describe this perfection, this tabernacle that we're going to have with him.
[00:15:23] And I don't know that excites you or not, but when I was thinking about that earlier today, I just started crying because I was thinking, this is what every human heart longs for and doesn't know. Like, this is. It's him. It's his presence.
[00:15:40] And people are going out and they're doing drugs, they're, they're doing horrific things or they're just looking for this in relationships, in maybe, you know, accomplishments or achievements. They're really looking for this, this perfection that only exists within God. This, this beautiful being that there's something about him that feels like home. It feels like this, this is what I was made for. I was made to be with Him.
[00:16:13] And we're going to have that. And, and I'm thinking, why would we not want to tell everyone we know?
[00:16:20] See, it's not about, here's, here's what I have a problem with, with church and a lot of well intentioned, legalistic religious people who try to make this all about rules and regulations and the things that you shouldn't do and you're a sinner. And yeah, oh, it's true, we're all sinners.
[00:16:39] That's really not what I want or I feel led to build my entire premise for someone getting saved on. What I really want to tell somebody is, you have no idea what you're missing.
[00:16:53] Like, we are so messed up. But he made a way for us to get to him. And everything you've ever wanted or dreamed of or any, any deficiency that exists within you when you meet him, any brokenness that you have, anything that's wrong, he fixes it.
[00:17:14] And that's the beauty. And being with him for all eternity is not because you were so perfect and you had to this amazing person. It was because he loved you so much that he died because he wanted to reconnect you to himself. That's the gospel.
[00:17:30] It has nothing to do with us and our amazing feats and accomplishments. And how can we get. Every other religion is, how can I get to God? Christianity is, God came to us. God came to us because he wants to be with us. That's His. He is complete love and beauty and perfection and everything that the human heart longs for and tries to find in other ways that cannot fulfill it.
[00:17:56] So I don't know if this is exciting to you, at least, at the very minimum, I hope that this is a reminder of what you have to look forward to, what I have to look forward to.
[00:18:10] But I want to encourage you even in this moment right now, Jesus said, I'm going to say it one more time. This is from John 14.
[00:18:23] I think it's John 14. It may be John 15. Ish. Let me see. I'm going to read it to you. Okay. How about I just read it to you so I don't like make stuff up I don't like to make stuff up.
[00:18:35] So let's see, here we are looking at John 14:23. Jesus replied, Anyone who loves me will obey my teaching. My Father will love them. And we will come to them and make our home with them.
[00:18:51] What?
[00:18:53] We will come to them and make our home with them. And all he asks you to do is to love him and to obey his teaching, to do what he says to do. Is it really that hard? I just think we really complicate this, you know, because when you have the Holy Spirit inside of you, obedience is not that hard.
[00:19:10] You want to do the right thing because he's living through you and you just. Your desires change and now you want to be. So it's not about you trying to force yourself to want things, to obey him or whatever. No, it's about, he's taken over in a good way.
[00:19:28] And now your desires are what he desires. And it's not a struggle anymore, like, to be obedient. It's like, well, he said to do it, so I'm going to do it and he's going to help me. And he will. He always helps us. He doesn't ask us to obey and then not help us.
[00:19:43] But I am struck by this, you know, my Father will love them and we will come and make our home with each of them. And so this, this word, we will come and make our home. It's also translated abide. We will dwell. I was hoping that it was the same word as tabernacle, but it's not. But it is the same thought.
[00:20:02] It is this. It is similar in that we have the present, the spirit of God. I can only get over this. We have the spirit of God living inside of us.
[00:20:13] Like, how is that even possible?
[00:20:15] God, who created everything that exists, His Holy Spirit lives inside of us.
[00:20:24] So here's my question. If that's true, why do we not have peace?
[00:20:31] Why are we walking in a hopeless, joyless place?
[00:20:36] Why are we miserable? Why are we struggling with thoughts? Why are we finding ourselves in negative thought patterns? I mean, it's a legitimate question that I'm asking myself. I'm asking you.
[00:20:51] It doesn't make sense, does it? So what's the missing component here?
[00:20:56] Is it that we are not communicating with him? We are not fellowshipping? I love fellowshipping because it just has kind of that old world feel to it. You know, it's. It's a different feel than communication. Like, communication is okay, I have something I need to tell you.
[00:21:14] Right. Communication conveys.
[00:21:17] Let's have a Conversation. Let me slip you a note. Let me give you a phone call. Let me text you. That can be very impersonal, but fellowship is different because fellowship indicates we're actually living in the same place together, possibly in a fellowshipping situation. Or it could be like, hey, we. We eat together, we do life together, we come together and we celebrate. It's a different. It's a very much more intimate thing than just communicating with God. So that's my. That's my question. As I'm saying all that I'm asking you and I'm asking myself, are we focusing fellowshipping with God?
[00:21:57] Because that's different.
[00:21:59] That's like two people on a journey, and they never leave each other's side, and they're talking to each other, they're eating together, they're doing the tasks together that have to be done every day. He wants that kind of relationship with you, where he's involved with every aspect. It's not just a Sunday morning where you go to church and for five minutes, 30 minutes, whatever, two hours, you sing a little bit, you hear a great sermon. That's wonderful. Y'. All. Not knocking it. Needs to happen. Needs to happen. But that should just be like, the highlight of your week. Like, that should just be like the cherry on top, because the fellowshiping needs to happen between you and God, so that can look different for everybody. I'm not saying it has to look a certain way for you, but I am saying there needs to be an awareness.
[00:22:50] There needs to be a constant attention focus. Sometimes it's just an attention thing where we just need to focus on him and just remind ourselves that he's here. Getting really mindful, getting really still. I talk about this a lot because I've learned the value of. In. My last episode was called the Art of Being Still. Go back and listen to it getting still before him because it shows him that you prioritize his presence above anything, anything else. Right? I mean, it's kind of like dishonoring to God when we're like, hey, I love you, but I don't really have time to talk to you, and I really don't have time to listen. I just want to tell you all my problems when I do talk to you. I certainly don't have time to fellowship because that would imply, like, we're actually breaking bread together, spiritually speaking. We're actually, you know, doing life together. Like, you're with me in these tasks. But if you remember what Jesus says. Jesus says, I'm trying to remember. It's in The Gospels and I can't remember the exact Matthew 11:28. That's where it is.
[00:23:56] Take my yoke upon you all you are weary and heavy laden. Come to me and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you. My yoke is easy, my burden is light. So there's this idea.
[00:24:07] There's this idea. What he's saying is, hey, I want to partner and co labor with you too. So the fellowshipping is like.
[00:24:16] I can just see it in my head, like I'm in this vineyard with him and we're tending to the grapes or we're harvesting the grapes, but he's doing it with me. I'm not out here just slaving away for him and he's not giving me the strength and he's making it really hard. That's not what the picture is. The picture is this beautiful relationship where he's the vine and I'm the branch. And I'm drawing all of my.
[00:24:42] All of my strength and source is coming from him. But he's doing things with me. He's partnering with me. It's. It's like a marriage, you know, I mean, one person doesn't do everything. If they do, something's wrong, right? It's this, let's do this together, together. And that's what fellowshipping is. It's togetherness.
[00:25:02] It's coming together. And just. I can just see it, like drinking a cup of coffee with somebody, like a really good friend, and how that conversation is so beautiful and you walk away from it and you're really miss that person.
[00:25:15] Gosh, why haven't I reached out to them more? Why haven't I been more mindful of this and been like, why didn't I make this a priority?
[00:25:26] I mean, you know, we just get so busy with the distractions of this life and the cares of this world, and we forget to fellowship with God, we forget to tabernacle with him.
[00:25:37] And I mean, it's such a. It's such a missed opportunity and such a beautiful blessing that I think it's God's beautiful gift to us that he lives with us at any moment, any moment that we want to say, you know, I want to fellowship with you, God. I want to hear your voice right now. I want to worship you. I want to talk to you. I want to experience you in this moment. I want to walk outside and see your creation and connect with you. Because you made this for me. You made this for us to enjoy. Lord, I want to walk with you. I want to experience Art. Creating art with you. This is a huge deal for me right now. I am in creative mode and I love to create with God because it is this amazing time of just.
[00:26:28] I could just do it for hours. Like I could.
[00:26:31] I can make.
[00:26:32] There's so many things I like to do. I mean, not just music, not just this kind of stuff, not just writing.
[00:26:38] I like to take pictures. I like to. I'm about to start taking pottery classes.
[00:26:44] I make all kinds of cool are, you know, designer soaps. And I create these recipes that he and I are like. I'm like, what do you want me to do now? And I have like a pull one way or the other. These are all things that he and I are doing together.
[00:26:59] These are not my ideas. This is not just me being a super creative person. No, all of it's coming from him. It's me connecting to him and he's showing me things and I see it in my head and then I start doing it. I just work with him and create. He gives me the idea and the vision and I just use my hands and do it.
[00:27:20] And he wants to do that kind of stuff with you too. That's fellowshipping.
[00:27:24] It's not always just like, yes, it is the Bible and reading and of course it is, duh. I mean, so do I really have to say that? Yeah, get in his word.
[00:27:33] It comes alive to you. That's fellowshipping. You know, even watching.
[00:27:37] There's. We're so blessed in this time because we have Christian produced movies and TV shows and series that we can watch. We have YouTube. There's sermons everywhere. There's beautiful worship music that you can turn on.
[00:27:53] That's fellowshipping. You know, instead of watching the trashiest, sleaziest show you can find that everybody else is watching.
[00:28:00] And honestly, it really, for me, it vexes my spirit and I have to let go. What is wrong with me? Like, I just feel gross for three or four days, you know, but if I watch, like, I don't know, the chosen or I watch some. Something else, that his spirit has been invited into it. Yeah. I may not agree with everything theologically, but the point is I'm fellowshipping with him. I'm looking at him, I'm talking, I'm thinking about him.
[00:28:26] Gosh, my life is so much better and have peace and I have joy and all the beautiful things he wants to give me. There are all the gifts that come along with knowing him and there are so many, so many gifts that he has to give us.
[00:28:38] Salvation is just the beginning. Salvation is the biggest one, of course. And without it, nothing else matters.
[00:28:46] And. And if he didn't do another thing for any of us, that was enough. But he's so generous and kind that he's like, oh, no, here's some more stuff. Here's some more stuff I have for you and y'. All. He just wants us to constantly open these gifts that he. He's get. I'm just so excited about it.
[00:29:02] His presence is such a gift. And I just think about, someday the new Jerusalem is going to come down out of heaven and he is going to tabernacle with us in the flesh.
[00:29:17] We will have our new bodies, and we will never cry again. We will never hurt again.
[00:29:23] It will be perfection. It will be bliss.
[00:29:28] And we'll have our loved ones there, hopefully, and I know I will. And maybe even a couple of my little animals that have died along the way that I love so much. I've asked God, can you have my little puppy there for me? You know, I just think it's amazing, and I just want to remind you today of that. That's what we have to look forward to. But what we have right now is his presence inside of us, too.
[00:29:51] And turn inward, turn towards him and fellowship with him so he can revive your spirit. He is the source of all life, all hope, all goodness, all beauty, all of it, y'. All.
[00:30:07] So I am.
[00:30:09] I'm gonna wrap this up, and I'm excited that you join me today. And listen, if you don't know this, I do have another podcast with my husband called the Marriage Altar, and we are certified and Married for a Purpose coaches right now. And we about to launch some different things that we do to help people who maybe need a reboot in their marriage. Maybe their marriage is struggling. And, you know, maybe it's. Maybe it's to the point where it just seems hopeless, or maybe it just needs a little work. Who knows? It could be anything. It doesn't really matter. What matters is that we feel called to help people bring their marriage back into alignment with God, to help them walk through that process, to give them. To help them rediscover each other, to help them reignite their passion for the marriage and to align them with God's purpose for their marriage. Help them figure that out. Because if you don't have the purpose and you don't know what God is doing with your marriage because he has a purpose for it, and everybody's purpose might be different for their marriage. It is different.
[00:31:21] Then you guys are working against each other, probably and there's probably contention and strife and we want to help you. So make sure that you jump on that podcast, the Marriage Altar. You can find it anywhere that you listen to podcasts.
[00:31:37] I may even throw it in the show notes here so you can find it. But if you follow, follow us on that platform as well. I'll be releasing some information on how we will be offering some classes. We're also offering some very individualistic marriage reboots. We only work with one couple at a time and it is, it is a two night thing, two day thing, very intensive but very worth it. So we'll be releasing that information soon and how you can sign up for your marriage reboot. But anyway, that is all I have right now and I'm so grateful for you and I pray that this week you experience the manifest presence of God in your life and that you're reminded that he is always with you and that you can fellowship with him anytime you want. Until next week. Bye.
