Dr. T Ep 49

David W Ebel: Yeah. Welcome to the God Says Yes Podcast. You are welcome here. Welcome to another episode of God Says Yes. My name is David Ebel, and I'm your host. And this is going to be a special edition because we're here for you. You see, God created us one at a time, special. And he created us so he could have a relationship with us. But unfortunately, sometimes life gets hard and we get hurt, whether we get betrayed or belittled, cheated, ⁓ promises not kept. Family members who do things that are just inexcusable. Or maybe even at church sometimes church hurt happens. I mean, church hurt happens because not everybody who comes to church knows the Lord Jesus as their savior and and and has love in their heart yet. And if you've ever sat in an ER, which I have many times, people that come into that ER, they're not all happy. Many of them are cussing, sc ⁓ screaming, threatening, everything. They're they're miserable. And that without realizing it, they're splashing off that misery on the rest of the people in the room. And when you come into church, which is the ER room of the body of Christ, not everybody comes in as joyous about it. Some of them don't even know why they're so miserable, but they're there and they're miserable. And without intentionally doing it, they can they can spew their misery on us who've now been forgiven and are trying to live an innocent life. And that hurts. It really does. And on behalf of the body of Christ, I want to apologize. It is not God's plan to wound people. It is not God's plan to cause anyone to pull away. But it is it is the enemy's plan to get hold of the unhappy people and get our eyes off of the love of God and onto the wounds and the betrayals. And that's why God says yes as a podcast is here. We want to meet you where you are. We want to this is a place of no judgment, this is a place of peace, is a place of hope. And I've been doing this over fifty years and I've I've been sharing this love ⁓ internationally and I can't even count how many times I've told my story, but it's because God changed me and gave me a story to tell. And that's why we're here. So as always, I bring with me special guests. And today I'm bringing Doctor James Turkleson. ⁓ goes by Doctor T, much easier to say. But ⁓ Doctor T, we're glad you're here. Welcome. ⁓ thank you, David. I I'm thrilled to be here today and ⁓ very much looking forward to our conversation and ⁓ how the Lord will unfold ⁓ our our episode today. Well, ⁓ tell us a little bit about yourself. We don't like talking to strangers, we like to be making friends, so please help ⁓ catch us up. Okay, yeah. Well, I I've g ⁓ just ⁓ retired a few years back ⁓ from a large behavioral health network. I'm a clinical psychologist by trade. ⁓ but Retired from that, but not to full-time ministry. ⁓ God has me speaking at various ⁓ locations, conferences on behalf of his kingdom. ⁓ so I'm a faith leader. ⁓ I also ⁓ am a professor at Liberty University teaching graduate studies and counseling programs. I'm a disc facilitator, so I help leadership programs develop unity and create cohesive teams. ⁓ but I'm also a podcast host like yourself. ⁓ my program's called the Dr. T Show. And I have two primary focuses. One of those is voices with purpose to get people like you're doing ⁓ to be able to share their story, their testimony with others to bring that hope, ⁓ to bring that message of God's grace and love, and to help clear up some of the misconceptions and misunderstandings that are out there regarding the faith. ⁓ and that show, that program is called the Doctor T Show, and that's ⁓ basically ⁓ can be seen or heard ⁓ on any of the platforms that are out there that That host ⁓ podcast. There's also the fact you're an author. And I'm an author. Boy, I neglected to say that, and that's actually a key part in in my journey. ⁓ I'm author of Awaken, ⁓ exposing the web of deception that threatens our faith, family, and freedom. So I'm about promoting that as well because that was a word that was birthed in me and then birthed out of me ⁓ by the Holy Spirit. And ⁓ there's a whole story around that, but ⁓ that is out there being promoted because it's a message for today. At the end of our podcast, we'll have a chance to discuss that a little bit and and tell people how to get that book and and also how to find your website. But for right now, ⁓ we've got some questions that we always try to get answered. And so give me one second here. I'm gonna do a technical thing here. My microphone was not in the best position and it was it was concerning me that I would not be heard clearly and that's not a good make that adjustment. I can't believe I left the author out. My goodness, I'm gonna have to that that that that started this whole journey, was this whole author message. Yeah. How how dare you be human? I know. I know. I love it though. Well, i i it's the it's the choice we've been given and I I choose it gladly. Yeah. So ⁓ and the interesting thing is those human moments Don't bring about embarrassment. They bring about the reality of God's grace, God's grace. Just draw me closer to Him. Exactly. So our we're gonna ask our simple questions that we ask every guest, and then they get to elaborate according to their life and their heart. Okay. The first one is who were you before Jesus? Okay. Are you asking me that now? Yes, sir. Okay. I didn't know if we were back live or you were still editing, so if you want to go forward right now. Okay, okay. ⁓ Well, you know, that's a great question. And ⁓ you know, immediately I you know there's a number of thoughts and emotions that come to mind. And the reality is I was still someone that was beautifully created, uniquely and magnificently and fearfully by the Lord. And and and it was something that was a an awesome product because it was created out of his love. However, I didn't have the awareness of that before God, before Christ. So I walked in a very finite perspective, ⁓ letting failures and defeats, you know, pound me and letting lack of ⁓ resources limit me and ⁓ as well as not not just opportunity, but my hopes and my beliefs in life. So pretty much I was walking around ⁓ pretty lost, ⁓ without a lot of hope and without a lot of vision and without a lot of purpose. Okay, and then When you met Jesus, how did that change you? ⁓ wow. Tell us your your change story. Yeah, I had a ⁓ I I you know, w ten years old, I had a miracle experience with God. ⁓ I grew up in a broken home. two sisters, two brothers, so there are five of us. Mom raised five of us on her own. started out, she didn't even have a high school education, so we of course fought for food stamps and everything else. But before my parents split, I was in the back of my dad's vehicle one late morning. I was about ⁓ ten, ten years old, I think. And ⁓ he he was in the bar and doing an all nighter like he does and and ⁓ through my process in the winter in Minnesota, ⁓ feeling my my limbs go numb and thinking I was gonna freeze to death, I started crying out to God. And ⁓ my first chapter of my book ⁓ is called My Story and it starts out with a ten year old boy heard angels sing. And so while I'm in the car praying and crying and out to God, lights appear when I hear singing, my body warms, begins to tingle, and all of a sudden everything was fine. I was at peace, I was warm, I was in harmony with God, and I was singing with angels. I don't remember what happened after. Fast forward ten years, because I lived ten years then still far from the Lord, not knowing God, and as a rebellious young man and teenager and all the way into the military. three months before I was to be discharged, finishing my tour ⁓ in Europe, ⁓ walking back and forth to town, and in this case it was Vernheim where many of the G.I.s would go and do all the things that they do that that don't amount to any good. But one day back and I had to continue to walk by this chapel. Well, a didn't know it then, but I know it now of course, but a revival had broken out. So every time going by this chapel there was this singing, the place was lit up and I just kinda get by it as fast as I could. This particular night coming back, my body stopped and it froze. The Lord, it literally had to be the Lord, because I had no intention of doing this, turned my body towards that chapel, walked me across the street, which was in the barracks, but just a little bit down from my barracks, walked up the steps, and a gentleman opened the two doors and looks at me. I walk up the steps, I'm standing there and he says, Do you know Jesus? And I said, No, but I want to. I knew about Jesus, I knew about God. There were certainly some spoken things growing up in a Lutheran church and from my experience, but I didn't know him personally. As soon as I said yes, but I want to, I broke down, I wept. I could feel the burdens lift, the demons lift, the addictions lift, the horrible desires. I could feel it all go and we prayed the prayer of salvation and that changed the destiny in the course of the future path for my life. Spent the next couple of months ⁓ finishing up my tour, but in that church every night, growing and learning and the grace and knowledge of the Lord, and also jumped right into ministry because your GIs were coming in and getting saved, being healed and delivered and freed, and you name it. So I was part of ministry for three months. Got out, started a Christian college. That's another miracle in itself because I I haven't shared this with a lot of people, but it's in my book. I finished ten years of high school. As a young man, I was working six six five at night to five in the morning. At 16 years old to put bread on the table and to make ends meet. There wasn't time for school. Somehow God provided an opportunity to go to a a program while I was in Europe and I got a high school diploma through Big Ben Community College, Moses Lake, Washington. Well, that still wasn't enough to get me into college, so the chaplain and wrote a letter to the college, because God said go to college, wrote a letter saying, Hey, this man's reformed, he needs an opportunity. I got a response back saying we'll accept a one term probation. So I finish my tour, start college that next fall. I'm on a probation term, get called into the dean the dean's office the very next at the end of the semester because I made the dean's list, right? For grades, for good grades. And he looks at me and he says, I'm not saying you cheated, but explain how this happened. 'Cause he had a transcript that didn't exist for two years of For the my my for junior and senior, and what he did have was nothing but failure. How did this happen? And I said, that's simple. I didn't used to care, now I do. I didn't used to have purpose, now I do. And God changed my life, and He had already given me a mind that was quite good and capable. I just hadn't used it. I went on and then did my bachelor's in psychology, my master's in counseling psychology, my doctorate in psychology and counseling. All with honors, ⁓ one of the highest and quickest through all all my programs, and I say that only to bring glory to God for the transformational power he can make in my life and in anybody's life that is listening today. Exactly. Hope, regardless of your start, regardless of where you're at, today, you can change your today to look totally different for a tomorrow. Amen. People real think that their history, what happened before, i is inconcrete. I look at it as a as a reference Just a reference. What I'm not willing to do again, what I really want to do again, and how will I be open to God when He wants to do it again. Yeah. So my history does does not define me. My history refines me. It helps me figure out what I want to be when I grow up in Him. But but when that when that happens, God opens doors. I mean, I'm I I'm I can t if it was a different podcast, I could tell you how many different times over and over and over and over again. That God did that in my life. And that's why that this podcast exists, because I want other people to discover what you and I have discovered. So now, James, Dr. T, ⁓ how did it change your life? Bigger picture. So it gave me purpose, it gave me direction, started college, went through all my college career, began working in the field, starting out in community mental health. And then throughout my career I've been chief psychologist in children's homes. I spent five years on a Native American reservation building and providing services, been supervisor for doctoral programs, clinical, ⁓ and operation director for large behavioral health programs and in private mental health centers. So I've spent a whole field working in it, but always promoting faith based stuff in the way that I could that was acceptable. Not sure I'd survive today, however, in the in in the behavioral health brother, because It was getting hot and heavy my last couple of years just because of the woke movement and and the language that they were starting to basically require us to use that is basically anti-biblical and doesn't align. But that's for another day. But regardless, I was able to do that quite successfully and I ministered quite a bit through my career. I've been an elder in churches and served in churches and and basically a faith leader throughout my my career and faith walk. ⁓ but then when I retired from behavioral health in twenty twenty, and this is another significant moment in turn, and so I bring this up to encourage any of you out there that wonder if you've missed the call or if it's too late. Okay. It's never too late and you've you and just because you haven't heard the call yet or answered the call yet doesn't mean it's too late to answer that call. Okay. So I was playing a lot of golf after retirement and thinking, okay, this is good, I'm retired. But and I was doing a little bit of consulting, a little bit of counseling, but not much. But the Lord keeps kept stirring my heart and saying, No, no, no. There is much more I have for you to do. And I I kind of was ignoring that, not paying too much attention. Twenty twenty five, February twentieth, my birthday, three AM in the morning. I wake up like somebody had just shaken me and it was internal and my spirit was shaking was was was stirring and and and and my my brain. brain was running and and I heard this in my in an audible inside of me that said, get up and write. I got out of bed, three in the morning and started writing my book. Seven years, seven weeks later, awakened was birth. And I say birth because that's the best way I can explain it. All of this that was in me had to come out. I wrote for 10, 12 hours a day and and it came out. And when it was done, now I still had to edit and stuff, but when I was done, it was like I gave birth. That's the relief I felt. That that word that God had put in me came out and was put into this book. Then of course I went through the editing process and got it published and it came out in December of twenty twenty five. So it hasn't been out very long. ⁓ when it came out, I was given the opportunity to do a book signing on the day that my book came out at a church function. So that launched it. That was wonderful. I've been speaking about the book everywhere. ⁓ and it also then has opened avenues and doors for me to meet other folks, talk about my book. ⁓ and do speaking engagements at different locations about the book and just about the overall message, which is one you and I are going to embrace even more today, and that's of God's love and grace and it's never too late. So what I would say to you with this, you know, and here I was ⁓ seventy years old and God said, Get up and write. It's not too late. Start again and and and fulfill that call. Because I've come to realize, folks, that our call and and the Bible teaches us that that the call and the gifts of God are irrevocable. And He has a plan and a call for you. And so it's not a matter of if, it's a matter of when. If you haven't started it, it's not too late to start. So you'll need to answer that call. If you don't feel prepared, then then get a coach, get someone to help you over the hump. But God will also equip you for that call. He's not gonna leave you blindsided or or or or serving ⁓ without any kind of visual. He will equip you. He will give you direction. If we commit our ways unto him, he directs our steps, right? And and and so it's never too late. ⁓ and I think, David, we're gonna talk a little bit about some of those discouragements that keep people from from moving forward. And and I would just say off the bat and then we'll turn it back to you for some questions. But here's one of the things I've discovered is that just as God is real, we know that Satan is real. Just as God is a good God who gives good g good gifts onto his kid and equips us, the enemy wants to steal from us. He's a father of lies, the master deceiver, and and he will disguise himself in all kinds of forms to keep you from moving forward in your path. But he also uses tools. He uses things like discouragement. He uses things like failure. And he uses things like disappointment. He uses things like lack of hope. And he uses those as roadblocks and impasses to stop us from walking forward in God's call. And I would say to you that all recognize those things Give those things on to the Lord and know that He that is in within you is within you is greater than He in the world, and that He can put those things aside and behind you regardless of whether you cause them or not. God's grace will cover them. He will you can let those go and you can move on in answering God's call and walk in His favor according to His eternal plan for you. But He the enemy uses those things to keep us from moving forward. Absolutely. It's it's it's You know, and I I I hear people saying all the time, Well God did this to me, God did this to me. No, that's not it. Life happens. Yes. What God can do with what life happens. You have a bad day, God the enemy says, You're miserable, it's gonna you're stuck. God says, No, I'm meeting you there and let's let's see what we can do with this. Let we can help you through this, we can give you victory, we can give you hope, we can give you a a plan you never even discovered yet. You know, and in the the We're done when we wake up in heaven. Yeah. Until we wake up in heaven, God is not done with us. Our culture says sixty-five and out. No, no, it's that's when your your job description changes. Yeah. Your ministry is up and down, you between you and God, God and you, you and God, God and you. The reflection of that, like a periscope, it what this goes like this, then out of that becomes service. And that job description changes. Whether it's loving people, whether it's visiting nursing homes, whether it's writing books, whether it's public speaking, whether it's one on one sharing your heart or doing podcasts, you how you do that reflection will change based on God's plan for today. But if you can build this relationship that never goes away, that comes without strings, it's unconditional, when you s when you trust God with that, forget about what man has done. Man's a screw up, man's a failure. Without God's help, we're all doomed to be failures. But when we give our lives to Jesus, we're born a second time into a this new life of joy and hope and peace. Doesn't mean it's gonna be easy, but it means we have hope. It means we're not alone. We're not stuck with what we've got. And as a result, we can be somebody that we never even dreamed. If you told me when I was twenty that I was gonna live to be seventy four, I would have made fun of you because the doctor said I wouldn't live to be twenty. Yeah. But you know, I've d God has done all these crazy things, fifty years of ministry, international speaking, written multiple books, all kinds of stuff. But the reality of it is those are just those are history stories now. Yeah. Those aren't today. I live here. I live between here and here. And God's plan is from here and here and here and here and here. God is got God is not done with me. God is not done with you. And if if you've had some difficulties, then you've had difficulties. Welcome to real life. But God doesn't leave us or forsake us, He's with us always. So we're not stuck. We're we're just coming to a realization how much we need God. If a little kid is standing on the curb and wanting to run into traffic and we grab him and say, No, honey, that's not safe. We may want to get across to the ice cream trucking at three year at three and four years old, but they we don't see the bus coming. If the Heavenly Father grabs us and keeps us from the problem. And then he redirects us to a safe place where we he can do beautiful things with us and we'll last a while. God's plan for us is amazing. But we have to get past them and to him and to what God has planned for us. Wouldn't you agree? ⁓ I think that's well said. I think you you covered covered it very well. And I love what you said because this is true. You know, life happens. Rain falls on the good and the bad. Man didn't follow God's Blueprint in the beginning. When Adam and Eve fell, it changed the course of destiny for man on the planet Earth. God intended for man to live forever. God intended to walk and talk with man on the planet and have that relationship with him on a new creation that he created. But man chose a different path. Man chose to sin and fall from that grace and experience death. And then thus we created, we have created a planet of difficulty and challenges. When bad things happen to you folks, it's not bringing it your way. It's not God bringing it your way. The Bible tells us that God only gives good gifts unto his children. But God does allow us to experience the consequences of a fallen people, of a fallen planet, because that was the route that was chosen and we inherited this from the beginning. But God didn't stop there. He said, Okay, I would like to create for you a way out of that. Now you still are going to be consequential, you'll experience the consequences involved of being on this fallen planet. But the difference is I will be with you through it. I'll walk with you through it, and I'll give you a different plan for eternity. And we get so stuck on looking at our little eight eighty, ninety, hundred years finite life on this planet and think that's all there is, and that's what it's all about. We fail to look at the eternal timeline of God that extends out beyond visual. And the further you go out on that eternal timeline, the smaller our lifespan looks. So folks, what I would say to you, God is at work in your life for eternal purposes, not just the finite. He does care that a parish that a f that a sparrow will fall. He even cares about that. So he does care about your troubles and challenges that you will encounter on the earth, but he's working in that not just in the finite. But for eternal purposes. So what that means, he's working in us what he wants us to be when we join him in heaven and in eternity. Okay. So then we have to realize that, okay, these things happen as a consequence of the fall. They're not God given. So all these things that have come my way, God, you promise to be with me through it. You will, and you're going to build those things in me and character in me. And I have come to realize, David, in these more recent years, that it isn't just some things that work together for good. It isn't just the good things that turn out that God's doing something in me. It isn't just occasionally. The Bible says what? All things work to good for those that love him. So now even in those troubles that come my way, though God didn't bring them, he will use them to create something good in me and in his eternal plan and purpose for your life. Exactly. So now that's where our faith and our trust and relationship comes in. So now we're walking through on this limited time frame, which is very small in the spec and regards to eternity, with God with us through those things that we're going to experience from a fallen man planet, and we have his grace with us that's efficient through all things. So we walk through it with hope and we walk through it with victory, even though we experience some tough times and challenges. So don't let the tough times, challenges, the would have's and should have's hold you back from the call. Let go of blaming God or thinking God should intervene to stop this from happening because man chose it. And also folks, God doesn't send anyone to help. We already are doomed there when we chose to fall and sin. So we are all on a track there. What God did is send His Son to keep us from going there. So now we have an opportunity to say, I don't want to go there. I'm going to choose Jesus, that route for the Savior of my soul, so I can experience this eternal plan that you have for me. So we're already destined. God isn't sending us there. We chose that with our fallen nature. God though put an intervention in a bridge. A mediator, a scapegoat, the Lamb of God, to be able to keep us from going there. That's his love and grace for you. Amen. The Bible tells us without the shedding of innocent blood, there's no forgiveness for sin. In the Old Testament, they would they would take an innocent lamb and when it was sacrificed, that blood would hide our disobedience. Sin is when you know what right is and you do the wrong thing. It's disobedience. So when we when the blood would hide that s that sin, then God could look at us in spite of that. When man got to the so hardened in himself that he would go party and then buy a lamb on the way to the the sacrifice. Yeah. Sort of the old God forgive me for what I'm about to do thing. Yeah. You know, and and so that that was no longer innocent blood because it the the underlying plan was was not innocent. So Jesus came, became a man, lived a life without sin, allowed himself to be ⁓ the crucified, the electric chair of the day. And allowed himself to to die and shed his innocent blood. So with the forgive the shedding of that innocent blood, our sin is washed away. Amen. Not just erase like a chalkboard with a little shadow left. As clean as the day before you were born. It God when God looks at you because of that blood washed forgiveness, he sees an innocent heart ready for him, with no restrictions, with no limitations. And now for when we get there, then we begin this new look. But the big argument I hear regularly is but I got hurt and I can't forgive them. I can't you know, ⁓ how how do I get past this? I can do everything, but I'm bitter at this person. I can't res I I resent that person. And I even when I pray, I'm mad. Address that from from a you from a professional point of view and a spiritual point. Yeah, definitely. ⁓ actually I've I'm addressing many of those issues related to that in in my Peace Pace podcast. Because we you you if you have that approach and that attitude, you won't experience the peace of Christ. That peace of Christ that surpasses all understanding that He gives to us must enter a heart that's practicing the principles that are written in the Word. And so so here's here's what I'd say to you if you're experiencing that. I would say, Okay, I understand. And in the human form and in the human side, and in your carnal man, okay, I get it. Go ahead and hold that. I understand. It's justified. But We were also justified when we were found guilty and we experienced grace through Christ. We didn't earn it. It's the free gift of God. Because he moved us then into his supernatural plan. And folks, you have to move from the carnal ki mindset, which justifies your anger at that person, because they earned that anger. But we move from that carnal into God's eternal plan and his principles and and his spirit wisdom and and we have to say, Okay, I also then Need to practice and exercise the same grace that Christ provided for me. I must spiritually forgive and let it go. That's supernatural. It's out of my carnal. It goes into the spirit man. But we've got to get there if we're going to have two things. One relationship with God and two experience his call and walk in peace. So so so if we're to walk in that fullness, we've got to practice spiritual principle, and that is forgiveness. And the Bible's very clear about, you know, you must forgive others if you want Christ. To forgive you. And and and so when we hold that grudge, what we're actually doing is holding a roadblock between us in relationship with Creator and the call that He has for us in our life. So I would say to you, you don't have a choice well, you have a choice. But if you want to walk in God, you don't have a choice. If you want to walk in his grace and in his call, you must let it go. If you want to walk in the carnal mind, yeah, from a carnal standpoint, you can justify it, eye for an eye, somebody did you wrong, do wrong to them, it makes sense, but it'll keep you from the spiritual realm. And God wants to move you into the spiritual realm where you find grace, you find peace, you find harmony, you find your purpose, and you find your call. So as hard as it is, folks, it's not helping you to hold it, it's harming you. It's not doing anything to that other person to to change the situation, it's only harming you. I had a conversation yesterday with someone who ⁓ kind of has all these critical judgments of of you know things that he observes, and I said, So how is that helping you? Well, it's not. How is it impacting them? Well, it's not. So does it have any negative impact? Yeah, it creates stress and harm and da da da. So so that grudge and holding of that does have an impact, but the only impact is negatively on your emotional, spiritual, cognitive, and physical sense. Enough of that actually makes you ill. And so I mean, even from a logical psychological standpoint, you gotta let it go, brother. Yeah. Well, i if God forgives you, you must forgive them. Yes. And and people say, Well wait a minute, but that but but I want to hold them accountable. No. If if you ⁓ the honest truth is if you go back and talk to that person, they don't even remember the the offense. They've moved on with their life. All that's left is you is that you now you're renting their their wound in your head running around, replaying itself over and over again, infected and and and and it's it's it's poisoning you one one bite at a time. When when so when you f when you let God forgive you and you forgive them, you don't forgive them for to approve of what they did. You forgive them so you're free. Like when you take a tree and you want to get this big tree out of the way, you you you start digging you find the roots. You you cut a couple of roots, it doesn't get rid of the tree. Right. It's just a couple of the things that hold it down. You've got to go in there and you've got to cut all those roots out one at a time. And when we when all those things are holding you, you can't move, but when they're cut Then you can remove the thing that's in the way. And that's how it is with forgiveness. When you finally want to be forgiven, you forgive them, then God can for can help you forgive you and get and clear out the path, get the rotor rooter out and get all that garbage out of the way so that you have a clear path between you and God and He can do all these amazing things. One other psychological dynamic in that is people think, okay, if I let go or if I forgive, I'm letting them off scot-free. Folks, you're holding a grudge doesn't do anything to them. It it's not impacting them anyway. So you're not letting them off with anything. All you're doing is freeing yourself because the harm being done by you holding that is against your inner self, spiritually, emotionally, psychologically. So so don't think for a moment letting it go is letting them off. It's not letting them off. Nothing changes other than you're gonna treat yourself better because the reality is that judgment of their behavior isn't going to be justified by you anyway. God creators is the judge and in that day he will judge all people according to their deeds and according to their heart. So regardless of what you hold or don't hold, it isn't gonna change what God's gonna do and you're not gonna do what God is gonna do anyway. Let it go. It's not helping you, it's hurting you. It's not doing anything for them to help them or hurt them. It's only impacting you. Agreed. So if you're poisoned by these unforgiveness and all that, the antidote is says Jesus forgives you, you forgive them for Jesus' sake. So that Jesus can have free reign in your life and he can begin again where you got stuck. Yeah. He'll put he'll spiritually pull you out of the mud, clean you off, put you back on track, and help you discover the life that he's been waiting to give you all along. Wouldn't you agree? I would totally agree. And in a in a spirit and this just came to me too, another spiritual dynamic there. Is the word tells us also when those do you harm or wrong or persecute you, anything that comes what we're supposed to do is not hold a grudge, we're to pray for them. Well, why on earth would the Lord have us pray for them? And here's why. Because he knows their attitude or their behavior isn't really anything that's about me, it's not harming me other than if I choose it to choose to be harmed, it's harming them, it's poisoning them, it's keeping them from God. And he would have us pray for them because they're on a track that could lead them to destruction. So he's concerned about their behavior. He's already given us the ability, the capacity to forgive, to let it go and to move on. So that's why when these things happen, he doesn't say get even, he doesn't say hold a grudge. He says pray for them, 'cause he's worried about their eternal soul. He knows that he's going to take care of those that believe and choose to follow and walk in his ways. Man, I wish I'd said that. That's that that is so so exactly what I'm thinking. ⁓ God is a god it's the the neat thing about God is God doesn't speak out of both sides of his mouth. If he's saying it, he's saying it. And we who who who are prayed up and open, we we can hear. God reveals to us, we understand. And it's the same truth. And that truth is that God doesn't want you miserable. Yeah. If you wanted that, he wouldn't have sent Jesus. He wants you to be joyful and have a good life in spite of pain or poverty or anything else that's holding your life description is not who you are. Your life description is where you're living today. Who you are is what happens before Jesus, what happens when you meet Jesus, what what God does with when Jesus works in your life, and the life that you get to live, the privilege you get to live joyously for the rest of your eternity. So You you are defined by willing to your willingness. If you're willing to sit there miserable, then you're willing to be miserable. Yeah. If you're willing to change, Jesus said, I have the way, the truth, and the life, and no one comes to God the Father but through me. So if I if I'm willing to finally turn off the the anti-thing in my head and open up the w the open heart and let God through his Holy Spirit work in me, I will be a different person. And in that different person, all these other opportunities. Including healing, hope, joy, peace, and all the other beautiful things he's got planned, those become manifest, those become real in our lives. Amen. And I've had people say, Well, that's too easy. No, no. If it wasn't easy for whoever whoever in the the Bible tells us to go tell the everyone. If it was complicated, not everyone could absorb it. God created it in a simple enough way that anyone can receive him. Anyone can be forgiven. Anyone can start a new life. And that's the key. Whether you where whether you're in a c country where where they don't even know anything, they they live in in huts, or whether you're living ⁓ with mansions. Yeah. The same needs, the same reality is the same. Yeah. Before, when you have medium, the life change and what happens next. That doesn't change wherever you are in whatever situation you're in. So it don't sit on the curb on the side of life watching it go by. Trust God to get you off the curb, to move move you past whatever got you stuck to the curb, and ask God to change you from the inside out through the love of Jesus Christ and the blood that He shed, clean up the mess and start you fresh. So you can have the joy that Dr. T and I have. You can have that too. And i you've got a do have a golden nugget for us, something that you want us to take with us that we could we can ⁓ can we can pray over, concern, ⁓ meditate, whatever over the next week or two? I do. and and let me precede that, however, with this, 'cause then this will the golden nugget'll actually make a little more sense. But and consistent with what we've talked about today, it's it's those roadblocks and those impasses. And I think about how many years we've spent, you know, being exposed to the world system, the carnal systems. you know, and all the things that that that come our way. And we have three enemies to our soul, folks, and and to our spiritual life. You know, one of those is Satan himself, and he is real, just like God is real. And there is a spiritual war going on, and I talk about it in my book. There's a battle of good and evil. So that's always trying to compromise our voice and come against us and create havoc on our life. Then there's the world system that's man created. All those carnal things out there, they throw commercials out, no matter whether it's phar pharmaceutical or sexual or Or exploitation or I mean, just continuing to bombard us to mold us into a world of perspective. But then there's also our own flesh. And that those that's those things that come up, the carnal man, Paul says it is that always fights with the spirit man in regards to doing the will of God. So we have our own temptations and our own flesh. So we spend and I'm saying all that to say we spend so many years with all of those being reinforced and supported and developed, and we don't spend near enough time developing the spirit man, our spiritual life. So what we're talking about today, David and I, is really plugging in more to that spiritual life that will then magnify itself and overcome many of those enemies of our spirit, and it will grow in you, and then we grow in the grace and knowledge. But sometimes, and here's why I wanna precede it with this, sometimes we have to do a reboot, a reset. Sometimes our foundation isn't maybe what it should be. And we try to patch things and we try to to to learn something new or do something new. But if it's not built on that foundation and relationship in Christ Jesus and understanding that His grace is sufficient for all things, and we don't practice those basic principles about letting go and forgiving and trusting in Him, then we can try to do whatever we want on the surface, but it's not going to stick. So take a look also at that foundation. Do we need to just kind of start over and do my prayer of salvation and my commitment to the Lord and saying, Lord, I'm letting I'm asking forgiveness and I'm forgiving others? I'm asking for you to wash my sins away. I'm asking you to help me let it go. I'm asking to help you to refresh that call in me. And I'm helping you to do all that. So here's what I would say to you, and then the golden nugget, that wherever you're at today, wherever you're at in regards to the continuum of your walk in the Lord, I would have you just say to yourself and look in the mirror and say, It's okay. And I say that because it's okay reflects God's grace. Grace says what? It's okay. Okay. It doesn't mean keep doing it. It doesn't mean that that you did the right thing. It just means I'm covering it. It's okay. Grace means it's okay. So today the Lord would say to you, wherever you're at, whatever you done, whatever the opposite, it's okay. Now, with saying that, let's move forward. Let's walk in his truth and in his principle. Let's accept that grace. Let's answer that call. Let's move in that call. Let's let the past go. Let's forgive others. Let's walk in his grace and his forgiveness and move on. Okay. So don't let the things of the past interfere with moving forward. By saying it's okay, you're eliminating the power of the roadblocks. As long as you empower those roadblocks, assign weight to them, they'll hold you back. So look in the mirror and say, It's okay, and say, Jesus, now move me, and he will. ⁓ that's the best golden nugget I've heard in a in months, because it's okay. It's it's not just ⁓ it's not just a saying. It's a commitment from God that He's gotcha. Yeah. When a kid when I'm sitting at the edge of the pool and I step in because the gr the granddaughter wants to jump into my arms and I say, Go ahead. And she's she's afraid, she's little. And I say, It's okay, come on, I'll catch you. And she finally takes that that r risk of faith and jumps, and I catch her. She is so relieved, but it leaves an imprint that it that he that it's safe to to jump to grandpa. Yeah. Yeah. But if w we are doing the same with the heavenly father, the one who's never sinned, never failed, never betrayed, never done any of these things. And he says, Okay, you're on the edge. It's okay. I'm gonna take you just the way you are. Come ahead and jump. That's the beginning of the rest of our lives. So with that in mind, ⁓ changing the subject slightly, tell me about your book so that we can so others can get that book if they'd like it. Yeah, thank you, David. ⁓ yeah, and and what was happening is all this downtime I was having playing golf and everything else, I stayed up on news, stayed up on current events, followed ⁓ you know, things in in in print regarding persecution on the church and the extreme ideologies attacking our traditions in every form and fashion against the church, the government, the family. And it just kept stern and becoming heavy. And and that's what was birthed then. The Lord just put this in me to put it out. And so I address secular humanism, the woke movement, D E I, ⁓ the the the faulty packaging that they're doing and the in the the naming of things that they're calling good. They'll they'll use they'll use terms that sound good and are socially acceptable. You know, like ⁓ affirming care or or ⁓ planned parenthood or ⁓ women's health. And in reality they don't reflect that at all. If you really look at the practice that's being practiced, ⁓ you know, and the gender ideology that's going on and this transgender movement and and and the the gender cha change thing for for our kids. And these are not healthy outcomes or healthy procedures or and and they're all anti biblical, non biblical. But but the terminology that the left is using ⁓ tries to wrap it pretty and make it sound good. ⁓ you know, I did a thing recently and it's in my book, when we talk about Planned Parenthood, for example, they're not planning parenthood. And I used their own statistics to quote that and I forget the exact number. It was like ninety seven percent of those conversations that they had over a given year resulted in the opposite. Okay? And when we l you know so so and and then when they use the term women's health, there was nothing healthy about aborting a baby. There's nothing healthy to the baby. And there's nothing healthy on the mother. So why would we call that woman's health? You know, so so everything has to be tried to be they attempt to fold it into acceptable language when it's a disguise. And that is exactly what the enemy does to our soul. He disguises things. So that along then with this ideology about the anti senit senatism regarding the Jewish population, ⁓ the nation, the country, we now have ⁓ you know, Islam mayors, ⁓ I think there's forty of ⁓ across the nation now. ⁓ there's this tremendous attack on our traditional Judeo Christian values and and it's coming everywhere. And the bottom line, David, is it's not just by happenstance. It is an intentional spiritual war by the enemy that's wanting to change our culture. The attack is a cultural and spiritual attack on traditions, family, church and government. And and it's it and those are the three ordained institutions of God, incidentally. And that's where the attacks are. They're trying to create that downfall and overtake. And it's huge. And so the burden on my heart was there. I write about it. It's very clear in there. But it doesn't just stop there. I provide a framework on how to build and become equipped to handle it. ⁓ Equipping believers for that spiritual warfare, a call to action, ⁓ laying out that there is a purpose and a plan and a voice that everyone has. But that voice is different. The purpose is different. How God will use you is different because there's many parts to the body. But we just have to say give him our yes and then find out how he wants us to walk out that call. So how do we get that book? It's everywhere. Amazon, ⁓ Barnes and Noble. You can go to my website, drtconsulting.org. ⁓ I have it there along with other resources. and then ⁓ also if you would ⁓ you know we talked a little bit about my podcast. I just want folks to know that I've started a series I call Establish in Your Peace Pace. And I just did the first one just got released ⁓ yesterday or two days ago on building the foundation. And so I think if folks were to follow that as well as your podcast, but if they were to follow particularly the pe Peace Pace series, they're going to be able to be able to develop ⁓ and establish those tools and resources they need to have that strong foundation and walk in the peace that Christ has promised us. All right. Now, slowly so that the people who are listening on Spotify have time to write. Yes. Give us the website address nice and slow so they can get it. Thank you, David. Sorry if I sped that up, but ⁓ yeah, it's ⁓ just like Dr. T, it's DRT Consulting dot org. So all one word. D-R-T-C-O-N-S-U-L-T-I-N-G. Dr T Consulting dot org. And your and the same way give us your your your pod you know your your pod your pod hosting. What is the how do we find that? ⁓ YouTube, Spotify, anywhere, ⁓ it's called the Dr. T Show. So it's the DR space T space show. Okay. Well, it better to to be overly careful than have someone not get it when they want it. Yeah. Agreed. It's harder when you have to play it back four times to get that information. So it's absolutely and if anyone has questions or wants to connect ⁓ you know, you my I was gonna provide my email, but you can get it right through my website because there's plenty of opportunities to hit connect and my emails there. ⁓ so go to my website, you can find out about ⁓ other services that I offer. ⁓ I offer coaching ⁓ s for for stress mitigation and and ⁓ helping to walk ⁓ that the N that peace space. So there's there's there's many valuable services available for anyone out there. That's awesome. Well, I think we've covered a lot of ground and and our I hope our listeners and our viewers are ⁓ can can really feel something in in what what's been said. Because that's our prayer from the beginning is that this would be a blessing to our our viewers and our listeners, encouraging them to get off the curb and get back into life. Now ⁓ as we normally do, ⁓ I'm going to close in prayer and then I have a challenge for everybody before we go. So let's pray. Heavenly Father we just love you so much. We come in Jesus' name and we ask That you would be real to those that are listening and viewing. That regardless of how they got there, how they got there isn't the issue, it's where they're stuck now. Lord, reveal yourself. Let them know your love. Help them, Lord, to to to to use the faith that was wired into them in their spiritual DNA, their hope, to to trust you. Because you're not man, you don't fail. And to trust you and to give our give you a chance. Ask you know, God show them that if they give you six months, you'll change their life forever. Though they might discover how amazing it is it happens immediately. Six months of practice living for you will change your life in ways that you that people would never dream. Lord help them to to know how much you love them. Help them to know how how powerful your love is. Bless them and heal them and deliver them from the things that hold them back. Be glorified in their lives and And make a difference for eternity because they've trusted your love. We pray all this in Jesus' name, and together we say Amen. Amen. Now here's the challenge. Seek after God, he will be found. Wanna know him better? Jesus said he was the way. So seek Jesus, he will help us know God. And together God will be waiting patiently for you to s to open your heart and change your life. Seek after God. He will be found. He's waiting for you. This has been the God Says Yes Podcast with David Ebel. Yes, podcast. You can get his latest book, When the Doctors Say No, God Says Yes, at Amazon.com.