Lakewood Bible Study | Lisa Osteen Comes & Paul Osteen, M.D.

((music playing)) Good evening everybody and welcome to Monday night Bible study. I am Pastor Jeremy along with Pastor Lisa Ostein Gomez and Dr. Paul Ostein and we're excited to sit down again this week. Uh the last two weeks we have been talking about hearing the voice of God and we've answered such questions as how do we hear the voice of God?

What are the practical signs or ways that we know that God is speaking to us? And then what do we do from there? We talked last week a little bit about relationships. How do we know if God is speaking to us about a particular relationship? Do we have peace?

Um what are some signs that we can see? We want to encourage you if you want to go back the last two weeks and look at those. We would encourage you to do that. This is going to be week three of our discussion on hearing the voice of God.

This week we are going to specifically talk about how do we hear the voice of God for change of season or a change in life, a transition. How do we know it's time? How do we know there's a change? Or how do we know we're supposed to stay?

And I think these are really good questions for us to ask because all of us, no matter your age or season, all of us go through seasons of life and we all want to know, God, what are you saying to me in this season? So, we want to say thank you once again for being a part tonight.

Um, if you want to follow us, you can text Bible study, two words put together, Bible study to 77377. Bible study to 77377. Or you can email us bible stududy atlakewood.cc. And uh we would love to hear from you, hear from your emails, um, and let us know what what God is speaking to you about. um how has the ministry u ministered to your heart or send us questions and we'd love to answer those questions on Monday nights um so that we can answer specific things that you may uh wonder about.

Um but tonight we're going to go ahead and start right now. I'm going to ask Pastor Lisa if she would pray for us. Um and then we're going to get started. [clears throat] I'd love to. We're so glad that you joined us tonight and we're just going to come together in prayer and believe that God is going to speak to you today.

Father, I just thank you for uh your word. Thank you that we can come together and fellowship with one another and just hear from you. And I just pray that tonight we will all be like a sponge and just soak up everything that you have for us. Father, I pray that you would give us wisdom and direction.

And I pray for my brothers and sisters that are watching tonight that you would encourage their hearts, that you would strengthen them, that you would deliver them from fear and worry and anxiety. Father, that you would just give them a a a word induced season tonight. We bless them, Father, in Jesus name.

Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. All right. Well, we're going to go ahead and get started. Um I do want to I do want to make mention um we had a few people write into us, but we had one um specific woman who wrote into us and uh she talked about um how how God had spoken to her over the last few weeks just watching um about hearing the voice of God and that it confirmed things in her heart.

Um but uh she knows who she is. We won't name her, but she knows who she is. But we just wanted to let you know um that we are praying for you and we pray reconciliation with your family. We pray reconciliation um with your relationships and we know that God will do that in your life.

We're believing with you and for you in that. And just know that we have seen uh emails, we have seen correspondence with people and that that means the world to us um so that people can um can know that number one they can respond back to us but know that we are standing in faith for them.

That's right. Because that's what we do, why we do uh what we do. You know, you all we got you. [laughter] Um, but I want to go ahead uh with without uh taking any more time, I want to go ahead and and launch into our first question and that's simply this.

This is our third week. Um, in seasons of transition and change in life, this is a big one, no matter the age. How do I know to go to leave this season or that the season is changing? or how do I know to stay in this season? Or that um if there's a challenge going on in my life, how do I know that I'm to work through the challenge that I'm supposed to stay in this spot that God's called me to?

Or that God is transitioning me to something else, a new career, a different um you know, a different season of life. Um maybe it's uh even back to the relationship question, we can speak on that. Um but Dr. Paul, I'm going to I'm going to uh spotlight you for a second and ask you, has there been a season of change or transition in your life that you can speak to?

Yeah. And explain to us a little bit how you knew that God was transitioning or changing you in that season. And how did um we we can talk about con his voice being confirmed, all of those things, but would you speak to that? Yeah, I mean this is a really good discussion because I think we all we're all learning and we're all, you know, growing in that area, but I think the one of the things you have to understand um it's always good for me to go back to and that is change is just a part of life.

Yeah. Yeah. I mean, you know, change is a sign of growth and but change is just part of life and very often what we'll talk about will be kind of times when we can make the decisions to go along with God's plan for change. But sometimes change comes on us and and it catches us by surprise or is almost forced on us, Jeremy.

And so, you know, sometimes those are situations where we have to just, you know, we have to adapt to a new season that was more or less forced on us. I think of somebody going through an unwanted divorce. I mean, it's not something you necessarily were prepared for.

It's something that comes upon you. And so, but what you're talking about are the changes where God, you've been doing what you feel like God's called you to do, and then all of a sudden you feel like, you know what, maybe something's new in the future. God has something new and different.

And a lot of nuances to the to the question, but one of the things I would think about is that when I'm in in God's will, I've heard his voice, I'm doing what he's called us to do, called me to do, things are usually easy for me. That doesn't mean that I don't have to fight life through.

It doesn't mean that things, you know, can't be difficult and I have to persevere, but there's a grace to do it. And so, you know, you have a grace to work in children's ministry. You have a grace to be in a counseling ministry. You have grace to practice surgery for many years.

And the other thing is that there's a there's a satisfaction that comes with that. In other words, you're doing it and it and it's satisfying partly because mostly because you're doing what you feel like God's called you to do. And uh and I don't want to minimize to um Jeremy that all of these times of transition, God proves us on one level until he transitions us to another.

So that's why it's very important to realize that in transition are are we are we wanting to change just because it's hard and our flesh doesn't like it or are are we really feeling like this is a a God thing? So what was once satisfying maybe not as satisfying anymore.

And then what was Go ahead. You said you said that God proves us. When you say what what do you mean by God proves us in that moment? Is he is it training? Yeah. He lets us go through hard times to see if we'll stick to it. And and if if we've heard him clearly in the season before until he clearly tells you again, daddy taught us this.

Don't don't make a move until God God clearly keep doing the same thing God told you to do until he clearly tells you to take the next move. Good. So I think sometimes it's just being faithful to the call that you have on you and not giving up because it's difficult and and let let me tell you even in transition once you get into a new transition there'll be a period of time where it'll be difficult.

So difficulty and working through hard times and perseverance is is just part of it. But I'd say easy was hard what was satisfying is not. What was working is not working really anymore. And really I feel like it's sometimes the the grace for that season is beginning to lift.

And when you when you sense the grace is beginning to lift, that's very often that you need to have your ears really attuned because God's going to speak to you about the next thing that he has in store for you. Now, he may have already told you what it is, but often for me in my own life and the big transition I made from practicing surgery, that grace lifting was just him preparing me to say, "I'm about to speak to you about what I want you to do."

So, I think those things just sensing the grace is is lifting. And sometimes that's difficult to do in the middle of it because you think, "Am I just complaining or am I just resisting it because it's hard?" But you'll know on the inside. You'll know that the grace is is lifting and a season is is coming to an end and a new one's about to be birthed.

That's good. You you said um with with the grace lifting that things can change. You're you're you mentioned specifically what you were passionate about before or excited about before. the fire burned in you before starts to dwindle. It starts to change, right? Can you speak to that? I mean, yeah, I can tell you the the big point that I would have on this would be my transition from practicing surgery for many, many years, 17 years in Little Rock.

I was good at what I did. I was in a practice that was a dream practice. I had dream partners. I had a great house, beautiful house in the country that we just built. I was a deeply involved in our church there and in ministry at our church.

People call me a surgeon pastor. So I I felt like I was just doing what I was wired to do. Every cylinder was firing, you know, fully. And it was satisfying. It was rewarding. It was fun. Um, but then at about 40 years of age, 42 years of age, um, and that would be about 1997, all of a sudden, even though I was better at surgery than I'd ever been, even though I was, you know, was more satisfying than had ever been, I began to lose the joy for it.

And Jeremy, I didn't know. I thought I talked to my pastors about it. They thought maybe I was going through a midlife crisis or maybe I was burned out. But after a while, you're only 19. How could you be going through a midlife [laughter] crisis? But you know, after a while, I begin to realize this this this uncomfortableness.

I begin to sense this is a spiritual thing. This is the grace lifting. Yeah. And daddy used to tell a story about when a when a mom eagle got the eaglets ready for the to launch them into to flying, she would take the down out of the out of the nest and all of a sudden there'd be briars, there'd be sticky points and all of a sudden it become uncomfortable for that little eaglet.

And and really that was a great analogy to what I felt like I I was feeling and that is that it just it wasn't comfortable anymore. And so I almost kneejerked and I think it's really important point that I learned here. Sometimes when you feel like the grace is lifting, you just immediately want to get away from that uncomfortableness.

And if you're not careful, you'll kneejerk and you'll do something out of just out of your flesh or before God's timing. So, it's really important that you wait and until you clearly know the next thing that God's called you to do. So, that was a lesson that I learned there.

Don't just knee-jerk. I almost signed up and did medical missions and every time I tried to fill out the line last line of the application, it just didn't I didn't feel peace about it. Again, that's God speaking to us. Yeah. And so, I I said, "No, I'm not going to do that.

I'm going to wait until God speaks to me until I clearly know what I I I I um it's the next step." We'll talk about this later, but daddy used to teach us that the pillar of fire and the cloud by day. When it lifts, it's about ready to move.

Um, then you know it's almost time for you to move. I felt like the fire had lifted. The pillar of the cloud had lifted, but it hadn't moved. Yeah. And during that period of time, you just have to sit tight. I had to sit tight and wait until God clearly instructed me what to do next.

That's good. You know, and even when you think about it, God is so good to give us that warning period and not all of a sudden this be this sharp change and transition. He is just letting us know, hey, I'm about to do something. I'm I'm warning you and the grace is lifting.

And that's we need to understand that just it doesn't mean move just yet, but it means really pay attention, really listen. You know, you know, Jeremy, can I I I was meeting with some missionary friends of mine this this week, two days ago, and they came in to talk to me about this, and they were a little embarrassed about it, and I I said, "What do you want to talk about?"

They said, "Well, you know, this school that you helped us start 20 years ago, and you know, it was going good." And and it was just wonderful. But then, you know what? It became hard and the money dried up and teachers moved and and the situation was different. and and he looked at me, he said, "I just don't feel like I I have the grace to do it anymore."

Well, he was sensing that, you know, God was and and I I just encouraged him, you know, if God's closed the door for it's time for this thing to be shut down, shut it down. Don't feel bad about that. That's just God closing the door and waiting to open a new door for you.

So, very thing that Lisa is talking about, God prepared them for for for this transition. That's good. Yeah. I I was going to I was going to make a point and and I'd let either one of you can jump in and say I I was going to make a point about what you just said.

It it seems like and I'll throw this out there in my own life. It seems like there have been times of transition or change in my life where I can't I'm I'm looking for specific things that are quote unquote wrong. It seems like there are challenges popping up.

It seems like, you know, finances for something is is dwindling. seems like people are changing and you know there's less support or there's you know relationships are are are changing. It seems like the effectiveness that I feel in my role is changing like I don't have the same um influence.

Can can y'all speak to that? Because my question is this. Is that a sign that change is coming that you can't necessarily pinpoint any one specific thing, but everything seems like it's being rolled back away from you? It seems like everything is changing and uh and particularly not just the passion and fire, but but the resources, the relationships are ch.

Can y'all speak to that? Is that a sign? Yeah. Well, I think about was it a life? Can it be a sign? Yeah. Yeah. I think it definitely can be a sign. And u I think about Elijah at the book uh at the brook cherub. Is that what it is?

And the brook dried up and it was time for him to go on. That's a great example where it was time for him to move on. But sometimes things begin to dry up and change and you know they don't work like they used to. And and I I think my dad used to say about to to ministers and pastors, look, don't don't be too prideful to to change or say this is not working anymore. or it's time to move on and do something different.

You know, sometimes we can get stuck in that, you know, that well, I want to seem like a success. I want to be a success and if this isn't working anymore, that means I'm not a success. But it's maybe just the brook has dried up and God is saying it's time to do something different because there are all different seasons in our life.

And I I I'll just give an example uh in my own life where I've I felt the same thing. I remember before uh our dad passed away that, you know, I was in all the services and I always enjoyed being in the services. I love to hear my dad preach.

I I I heard him all my life and never heard him preach a bad message. But I would be sitting in the service or being at work and I just felt like something's not right. Something's not right. There's I don't know what it is I'm feeling, but something I don't know.

I couldn't put my finger on it. Like you said, I couldn't put my finger on it, but I just felt something in my spirit. Well, little did I know that it would be months after that that our dad passed away unexpectedly. And so, this became a big season of change for me.

You know, I was uh 16 years over the volunteer ministries. I enjoyed doing that. I was uh just always uh busy in the day-to-day activities of the ser of the of the well the services and and the different ministries. I was at work every day and uh you know loved it.

And so all of a sudden my dad passes away and you know I'm called on to preach every week now. And so I thought how is this going to happen? This is a huge transition. Not only that, Kevin and I had 18-month-old twin girls at home, and so I wanted to enjoy them, too.

And so, all of a sudden, I realized I was going to have to change. God was switching me from the day-to-day uh activities of the church to being at home studying, preparing, and preaching. And that was sort of I knew it was God, but it was sort of hard for me because number one, I just all of a sudden I I sort of missed out.

I felt like I missed out. You know, Paul, Joel, Kevin would tell me about what's going on at work. And you know, it's like I didn't have my fingers, my hands on the pulse of everything that was going on in the church anymore. And um the other thing is I just I I felt like um you know I needed to spend more time studying and getting ready to preach.

And so uh I know what I was going to say. I I had a moment there. I can remember I was used to working with my husband. We enjoyed working in the ministry. We had offices right across from each other. And so every day it was lunch with my husband and all of a sudden I wasn't with him every day.

And I missed that. And so all of these things were happening and it was hard a little bit on my flesh, on my emotions, and yet I knew it was God. And so transition can be hard sometime, but if you'll just go with it, if you'll just flow with it, if you'll work with God, you'll see that it will turn out for your best.

And so little by little, you know, just following God, making those [clears throat] steps, taking those steps of obedience, staying home, preparing, studying, doing what God had always put in me to do. I knew I was supposed to preach and teach. I was just coming into a place where I could do it more.

And so, this is what God wanted me to do, but even though it was a little hard for me, I just had to go with it. And so as I did it, you know, it became easier and the grace was there and I could let go of things and I needed to let go of things.

And then I got to the place where I thought, "Thank God, I've let go of things." And I was in my new season and I was flourishing and I I realized this was all God. And I just had to give it a little time to walk it out and realize that I have the grace to do this.

But I could not hold too tightly to what I used to do. It's hard sometime you want to hold because that's comfort. That's I don't know that your confidence is almost in what I could do so well, but you had to switch it over to what God wants you to do.

That makes sense, you know, but I I realized God was working and I'm in my purpose now and I'm in my this is my season and my purpose and destiny and all those years, 16 years prepared me for what I'm doing right now. Yeah, that's so good. I I want to hit on two things and both of you have sort of inferred or or pointed in that direction.

And so I want to I want to move that direction a little bit, but can you speak to one specific moment where uh you were the uh you were working on staff in as a director of ministries and then um transition came and God spoke to you in service.

You were sitting behind Pastor Joel. He spoke to you in service about your father and then about Pastor Joel. Can you speak to that one moment? Exactly. That was amazing because this is uh like right after my dad passed away, we had a great memorial service and I think I mentioned it before, but I mentioned it real quick.

But you know Joel had only preached one service uh one sermon and when daddy died uh he came over to my house and he said uh to me, "Do you want to preach on Sunday?" And I just said, "No, I wasn't ready. I just didn't feel like I was ready."

And so he said, "Well, I'm thinking about doing it." And so when he said that, I got so excited. It's like, "Oh, God is moving. God is moving." You know, and so I said, "Well, if you preach Sunday morning, then I'll preach Sunday night." And then I told about how God spoke to Paul.

And so he came and we were rotating and we had other people to help us during that time. But the first time, the very first time that Joel preached after my dad spoke, okay, I was sitting behind him like I always did with my dad. Excuse me. And he was right here.

And so many times, you know, because of what I did, I would remind my dad of announcements or of things that needed to be done. And and so I was right there. I could talk to him real easily if I needed to. He could talk to me. So I was sitting in that position behind Joel.

And I just went just like this to remind him about an announcement. And in that quick second, I mean, I felt like it was a minute that God spoke to me in a second, but uh but it w it wasn't. It was just probably a few seconds. In that second, when I was moving to hand him something, the Lord spoke to me and he said, "Just as you have served your dad for all these years, I am transitioning you and now I want you to serve your brother."

Mhm. And when he said that to me, I there was such an excitement in me and I just thought, "Oh my word." Because I went from, "What am I going to do without daddy?" Oh, yeah. To now I have my new assignment. That's good. And so it just happened in a split second.

And so I told Joel the announcement. I sat back and I thought, "Okay, God is working. Joel's in his assignment. I'm in my assignment. Paul's in his assignment. The Holy Spirit has led us all together. And I've just been honored, you know, to serve Joel and Victoria in this assignment.

I I love it. It's It's such an honor. And I'm just so thankful that God was in charge when my dad left and there was so many transitions that God was in charge of all of them and he took care of all of us and he just led us step by step and put [clears throat] us into place when it seemed chaotic.

God had it all under control. That's good. And he put us into place. That's good. Uh, in just a second I have another I have another follow-up question, bigger follow-up question to all of this, but I want to end with this um for this specific direction we've been talking.

Um, can you speak to you you've said it multiple times, the emotional or the sentimental, can you speak to that? You, let's say you're you're going through a change and you feel God is moving you. Is it hard sometimes to let go sentimentally of what you've what season you've been in?

Yeah, you you were in Little Rock, Arkansas. I mean, you were you were uh as the young kids say, uh killing the game. Um you you were doing a fantastic job. You were you were uh you know, medically with the hospital and everything. Can you speak to that?

Yeah. You know, I mean, my story is much like Lisa's, but I was satisfied. I was enjoying it. I went through that season where the nest was was very uncomfortable. And I say season, it was two years. Wow. And that was two years of just kind of, you know, having to fight life through there because I just wanted to get I wanted release.

I wanted to be not feel uncomfortable anymore. And your flesh always wants to feel comfortable. Yeah. And sometimes you have to persevere in being uncomfortable waiting for God to speak to you. But Jeremy, driving home from the memorial service, the last place in the world I'd want to come back and live is is Houston because it's so hot.

And not but I love my family, but it's just hot and I love the seasons and I love my practice. I love everything about it. But driving home from the memorial service, I can tell you US59 at the Cleveland exit. Three words and we're talking about hearing the voice of God.

This is the most profound that I've ever heard. Not in my brain, not audible. Give up your practice. Move to Houston and help. Wow. And you know, it made no sense to my head. But for two years, God had prepared my heart. And it made perfect sense to my heart.

And I immediately knew that was what we were supposed to do. I mentioned it to my wife. She said, "If you think that's the case, let's do it." And you know what? We made this bold move. But to your point is that I left what I was comfortable with.

I left what I was good at. I left what you know was easy me for me to do something that I enjoyed. I tell everybody it's like putting your Isaac on the altar. You had to, you know, had to put him up there and just say, "God, I'm giving him to you."

And the other thing is I'd trained for all those years to do it. It seemed like a waste of of all my training and ta talent, so to speak. But and then after I made the transition, it was not all easy. My house didn't sell up there for 18 months.

Lost a lot of money there. You know, a lot of things would say, "Well, you made a mistake. You made a mistake." But when you've heard God's voice, you know, you know it. And there was no doubt in my mind I'd heard it. So, I had to transition through a lot of of just being uncomfortable.

I used to tell people in Little Rock didn't know where I'd gone and people from Houston didn't know where I'd come from. It's like I felt kind of in between two places. But over time, I began to settle into my to my role here and begin to, you know, see that God was birthing new uh talents in in me that I didn't even know I had.

But let me just fast forward now. That's 20 years ago. Yeah. I wouldn't change my life for any life on the planet. That's good. Because I I don't Most of you know that few years after that, God gave surgery back to me. Now I get to practice surgery in in places where they have no surgeon.

Um, I get to I've got to watch what has happened with this ministry and been a part of what's happened with this ministry over the last 20 years. All the 150 nights of hope and all those different things. So, I I have the most fulfilled, satisfying, rewarding, enjoyable life right now.

And, you know, you have to fight through the difficult times. You have to fight through the change. But goodness, I wouldn't change my life now to go back. You know what? It's much more rewarding to be in the center of God's will. doing just what he's asked you to do.

Um he satisfies us with good things. You know, we don't even know how, you know, you'd think a boat, you'd think a lakehouse, you'd think something else would satisfy you. This is soul satisfaction. That's good. So, I I would just I would just encourage people. There may be uncomfortable as he's changing.

It may be uncomfortable when you get into the new season, but that's just part of it. Yeah. You know, I like that scripture. I think it's in Isaiah. Behold, I'm doing a new thing. Can you not perceive it? Real important that you perceive it. And then it's real important that once God speaks to you, you act on what he's told you to do.

That's so good. That's good. When I was growing up, um my my mother especially, but both of my parents used to say they would uh I'll use my phone as an example. They would say, "Hold your season and calling just like this before God." Because if you hold it tightly, he's he's got to do a lot more work to remove it.

And it may be painful or more difficult. But they would say, "Hold it just like this with an open hand." Yeah. And say, "God, you you've given this to me. You've given this season, this calling, this moment to me. Um, and and I want I it's yours, but I want to make sure that I'm following you.

So, at any point um you can take it out of my hand and either give it to somebody else or move me to something else, put something else in my hand. That's good. And um I remember um uh Brian Houston had a message about calling and purpose. And he used it from 2 Timothy chapter 2 where he talked about the difference of calling and purpose.

And he talked about purpose is what's in your heart. Your calling is what's in your hand. Purpose is the big picture of your life. Your calling is what you have in your hand at the moment. You know, I think about uh King David, anointed king at 17, but then he was right back out with the sheep for another 13 years before he took the throne.

And the whole time he's out in the field, he could have been thinking, I'm the anointed king. I'm this is my next thing. Why have I not gotten the throne yet? Why have I not moved? And maybe it was because God was saying, "I have more to train you in in this time.

I'm I'm leaving this in your hand for now. Will you be faithful with this?" And I think that good Jeremy for me is always, you know, I I want to look at at the the details of it. I want to look at the the markers. I want to say, "Okay, are things in place?"

The other thing that I would say that that I was challenged with with mentors and my parents and people who would speak into my life about hearing the voice of God and this is a big one I think for me um you know because uh people ask me all the time what do you think about this and I always go money and details money in details money and details so but I think hearing the voice of God if I can speak specifically to one thing I don't know that more money is necessarily God's will right and I don't think I I don't think more money is a reason to go and I don't think less money is a reason to stay.

If money if our if our mindset I would just I I would always caution people to have a mindset of more comfortable more money means this is definitely God or leaving and going somewhere where you have less money or what looks like natural material resources um because God provides in things of the next season.

Yeah. So, um, all right, final question for this. Can I say one thing about that? I think it's really important that people realize that when God speaks to you, very often he doesn't give you the details. And if you're wanting to God to say, "Okay, I want you to do this.

I want you to do that. I want you to do this. I want you to do that." Very, most of the time it's not like that. I'd go be bold to say it's not like that. He'll give you give up your practice, move to Houston, and help. But he's not going to give you all the details of what you're going to be doing.

So, you know, if he if he's put a little bit in your heart, if he's spoken a little bit, obey that a little bit because he may not give you the details. I I I love that scripture says we walk by faith and not by sight. I mean, you may not have enough money.

You may not have, you know, all all the support you need. You may not it may not be as comfortable, but you know what? If God's spoken to you, you don't have to have the details. Just just obey what he's told you and let it all play out.

I like that scripture that says that they failed to let God's will unfold. I think it's in Psalm talking about that the Israelites, you know, God's God doesn't give you the whole map. Yeah. Some of you guys don't even remember what a map is, but we used to fold the maps up.

He gives you one little part of the map at a time, then you unfold another part. Look at Joseph's life. Unfold another part. That's how that's how you walk out this Christian life in faith, listening to the voice of Jesus, obeying him. Yeah. in this one little part of the map and then pretty soon you got as you come to the end of your life you realize the whole map is a beautiful tapestry that he's made of your life.

Is that is that uh is that what what Abraham was facing because God called him specifically and he said just leave leave where you are. I'm not even going to tell you where to go. Just leave from where you are because this season is over. Exactly. That's the faith.

That's the faith walk. Wow. Yeah. Because if I'm if I'm Abraham, that's to me that that's part of the sentimental thing is that he, you know, God said, "Leave your family, leave your land, all the things, you know, of course, he took his immediate family with him. He took his his household with him."

But he he left Orur of the Calaldanss. Everything he knew, he he was a he was a polytheist. He was a polytheist. And God spoke to him and said, "I am I am that I am. I am the true God." And he said, "I want you to leave your your uh homeland and I want you to go to a place that I'm not going to tell you.

I just want you to just walk in that direction, you know. And sometimes I think that that can be the scariest thing in a change of season if we if we feel like we've heard the voice of God. We're going, "Okay, where am I going?" And God goes, "Just start moving steps that way."

Like, "Okay, but where?" Yeah. You won't know all of that yet. Just trust me. Just move just go east. Yeah. And you know what? Things may not go your way. Exactly. in in your season. You know, I I I'll tell an example, but you know, you may know you're in the will of God, doing exactly what you you God called you to do, and then something happens and you think, "Oh my goodness, did I miss the will of God?"

And you have to know, don't don't let anybody anything talk you out of getting out of the will of God just because you have some opposition, things don't go your way. But I I was thinking about something that happened to me. I had been over the uh uh volunteer ministries for probably two years.

And uh one day my dad came in real sweet, not even uh you know just it was real kind way. He just came in with my brother-in-law, my new brother-in-law, and he said, "Hey, Lisa, I was thinking, you know, he needs some training." and he said, "I think I want to take I want to give him all the volunteer ministries and let him run them and oversee them."

And I stood there and I I I said, "Okay, okay, [laughter] that's fine." I thought, "This is this is the will of God." I thought this is what I was supposed to be doing, right? And so he said, "Okay, you just give him all the information and uh we'll just do it that way."

And so I just got all the information. I sat down with him. I told them everything that I did and I said, "Here you go." And they walked out and I thought that was strange [laughter] because now what is my job and what and I was doing other things.

I was doing some teaching. I was uh doing some ministry. I'd worked on my dad's publications and all, but I just thought that was so strange because I love ((music playing)) doing the volunteer ministries and it was just like a little bit of a vacuum and I think you know am I out of the will of God?

And so I just thought, I'm gonna keep a right attitude. Yeah. I'm just gonna do keep doing what I the other things I'm doing and God, you got this. I'm not going to worry about it. And I just had to constantly remind myself, don't don't be jealous. Don't be uh don't feel bad.

Uh don't don't despise the fact that he's doing it and you're not. Just keep the right attitude. And uh so anyway, that happened about for a year and a half. And my dad came back one day and said, "Okay, you know, he's going to go pastor a church and here's all the here's all the volunteer ministries.

I want you to run them again." And and that happened. And so I just picked up where I had left off. And he had done a great job with them, had added to them. And um you know, it was just different. And I I could have really gotten uh maybe bitter or I could have gotten thinking I had really missed the will of God, but it was just something that happened right in the season that I was in.

And I learned a lot through it. I learned a lot about character and and just being flexible in ministry. We got to learn to be flexible in life. Things don't always go our way, even in the will of God. And so, you know, I just say that to, you know, stick stay in your season.

You know, hold it lightly like you said, but don't let the enemy or anyone boot you out of your season. That's good. If it's your season. Yeah. Yeah. That's good. Jeremy, can I say two things? One is I see a lot of people that will say, "Well, God told me to do this and three months later God told me to do this and God told me to do."

Generally speaking, it's not that. you know, generally speaking, God speaks to you, you know, for longer periods of time than that. So, just resist the fact that just because it's uncomfortable or you don't feel like you're quite fit, stay faithful in that season. I love what Lisa said.

Think of all the things you could have gotten bitter, you could have gotten angry, you could have resisted, but you had to pass all those tests. Yeah. So that God could Yeah. But but the other thing I was going to say is that u and I'd love for y'all to comment on this.

I think it's important to when there major directional changes that you feel like God's going to give has has given you. If you're married, make sure you're in agreement. Yeah. Because the Bible says, get this scripture right that how can two walk unless they're in accord. It's good.

And so the last thing in the world you want to do is to, you know, do something that would jeopardize your marriage or not talk it through or make sure that your spouse is on the same page and make sure your spouse is on the feels like it's it's God's time.

So can y'all comment on that because I think it's really important. When I asked Jen on US59 at Cleveland X, I said, "I feel like this." She said, "I'm in 100%." Yeah. That's the only reason we did it is because she was in it 100%. Now, if she had said no, I would have taken that.

We would have prayed about it and we would have waited for God to to reveal it to her if that was his his will for us. But I think it's important to be in in in unity there because I've seen other times where it's caused great conflict in a marriage.

Oh, yeah. That's that's exactly what what Tara and I walked through leaving uh our hometown for to come to Houston. Um we we I remember we had gotten you know we we'd heard some things and some people had spoken into our lives about the transition and change about they how they saw us leaving and I always knew that I never wanted to move or do anything unless we were in it was an absolute yes for both of us or it was a no.

Yeah, there's there's not a lot of middle ground for me and and so I think it you know for us it was definitely um sentimental and emotional but I think from the beginning of that transition we both knew and I think that's why it was emotional and sentimental for us because we ministered on staff with her family.

Her sister was our worship leader and my brother-in-law who's my best friend is now the senior pastor at that church. I mean it was close family and friendship ties for years. I mean, he's he and I were born by the same midwife in Dallas, Texas. We've known each other our entire life.

Um, and so it was that, but but it was long. It was months of conversation of saying, "Yes, I still feel and here's the here's the interesting part. God came to me months before at the beginning of the year and said because we were trying to have children and I felt like the stress of the job was hindering her physically and so God I just prayed and God spoke to me and he said have her quit her job which financially for us at the time was not feasible.

It was not frugal if you want to say but I felt it in my gut and I came to her at the beginning of the year and I said I think it's time for you to lay your job down and to transition to somebody else. Four months later, we're getting the phone call to come to Houston, and God was already preparing her to unnst.

Yeah, that's good. And God confirmed three things in a matter of two weeks. Boom, boom, boom. The transition from her job, the move to Houston, and then baby stuff. And I and I just felt like, okay, God, uh that agreement between us was the thing. I'll give you one other quick one.

We were going to buy a car in 2010. We wanted to buy a new SUV. um we wanted to have kids, so we wanted to upgrade um our car. We wanted to buy an SUV. And I remember going and looking at cars in Dallas and and telling her, "I think this is the car."

And she goes, "I don't think it's the car." We fought [laughter] for a week. And I'm telling you, I've this is one of the few like close to knockdown dragouts we've had in our over a car. She found one online and she said, "I feel like this is the car."

And I and I said, "Fine." In frustration, fine. Let's just go look at the car. We're 6 minutes into the test drive and I stop at a stop sign driving. She and I just put my head down and she looked at me. She goes, "This car and it went the one."

Now, [laughter] does God always speak to us about things that we purchase? I don't know. Some people he may for me this was not about this particular car. Um I'm a firm believer that Proverbs when Proverbs refers the first eight chapters refer to wisdom as she I think it's for a specific reason.

She makes her call at the city gate and wise men will listen to her. I think there's a wisdom and a and a gut thing that God has given to my wife and to women as a whole that there's something in that relationship when we talk about transition, purchasing things, change in life.

I listen to my wife's voice because there's a wisdom that she has from God that I don't see. Yeah. Beautiful. and um and it's come through some arguments and it's come through some some change. Um but now I know if my wife has any uh trepidation or or um hindrance in any way in her gut, I always stop and go, "Okay, we're going to wait.

We're going to wait till we have peace together because there's something in her that doesn't line up that she's feeling." How can two walk together unless they be agreed, right? You got to have that agreement, that unity in your marriage. Um, okay. Final thing. I want to say one more thing.

How does God confirm? Do we have time for that or do we want to do we want to wait? No. I think that's a great thing. You mentioned confirmations. You had three confirmations today. I think God confirms things. You know, when I was making that transition, first thing I did is call my mother.

Yeah. And my mother wasn't really big on me leaving my practice, but she said, "If you feel like God's called you, we want you." I called Joel. Joel said, "You're welcome." I called Lisa. So every step of the way, you know, God confirms it. But something happened to me about seven years ago that I actually brought a picture to show this.

But six, six, seven years ago, God put it on my wife Jennifer in my heart to start this conference called the M3 conference, which is mobilizing medical missions conference. And I'd had it on my heart for a long time. I didn't feel like I had the ability to do it.

Some people came alongside me here at the church and they said, "We would help you." And anyway, we were in the in the in the first year of birthing that conference called the M3 conference. Yeah. And things were hard and things weren't falling in place and I had resistance and then the registrations weren't as fast as I wanted them to come.

But I felt like clearly God had spoken to us to do that. And um anyway, in the midst of all that, we went to another conference. I'm on the board of a particular organization. And I went to a conference that they were putting on and we were in a rental car driving home, driving back to the airport to turn the rental car in to fly home and we saw this picture of this car right beside us.

At least I don't think you've ever seen that, have you? Let me see. Oh my goodness. Focus on M3. Focus M3. So, you know what? It's just one of those little things that happens. I I don't even know. There may be an angel in that car. I don't know.

But it's one of those little things that just God God said, "Just keep at it. I'm behind this. I'm in this." And you know, now thousands of people come and it's birthed and we're in our sixth year this year. But the point is is that sometimes people will come alongside you and confirm it.

People God will put you in situations like this that it just confirms what he's put in your heart. And doesn't always happen. Sometimes it doesn't happen. But when it's there, it's a sweet thing to let you know, you know what? You're in God's will. Yeah. That's good. So good.

That's good. Uh I think that's I think that's a good place to stop tonight. Yeah. And I think uh we have more for next week that I want to discuss. Um a couple of specific things. We'd love for you to tune in next week. We're going to actually talk about um God speaking to us um for other people.

When and how does God speak to us for other people um uh in in in this world in our relationships? And then we're going to talk about how do we impart hearing the voice of God to the next generation to our children and our children's children. Um because it is I mean uh you you know the Bible is very clear in Exodus that God desired for the children of Israel to pass on the the legacy of their faith to the next generation.

So but we're going to go ahead and end tonight. If you enjoyed it tonight, email us and let us know. Text in. Follow along with us. Um thank you to Pastor Lisa and Dr. Paul. Once again, we're going to finish by praying. Dr. Paul, do you mind praying us out?

I'll do it. Lord, thank you for this time we've had. I just pray for each one of my brothers and sisters that are uh watching this, listening to this, that uh Lord, I know that um perhaps they're in a season of change or they're in a season of uh you're getting the nest uncomfortable.

And Lord, I just pray you'd give them wisdom. And I pray that, Father, that you would um help them to be able to just settle in their hearts that they can hear your voice. And Lord, put themselves in positions where they can hear you even uh to the maximal way, Father, to quiet themselves, to get alone, to seek your face, to desire you, to put you first.

And as they do all those things, Lord, I just pray you'd reveal your your will and your word to them. You'd speak to them. And thank you for the the the the comfort that we have where you said that my sheep know my voice and everyone every person listening to my voice, they know your voice and they will follow you.

They'll obey you and they'll live out the destiny that you have for their lives. Father, we just pray that and we declare it in Jesus name. Amen. Amen. Amen. And amen. Thank you for watching once again tonight. Uh follow along. You can watch the previous two weeks if you'd like to.

Uh but follow us again next week as well. We'll be right here. And um until then uh we'll see you next week.