Jai Roza

David W Ebel: 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 host. After fifty plus years of ministry, it is still my pi my passion and my mission to encourage people to find out who God is, to find out how much He loves them, how they're custom made to love, and that they were there's no oopses with God. Everything's intentional. ⁓ we we don't look the same on the outside because that's not the mission. The mission is for us to be reached on the inside so that we can We can be connected with God and He can lead us and guide us and heal us and direct us and provide for us and give us peace in the middle of our storms and whatever whatever else it takes. Sometimes we get e hurt. People betray us or say say things they shouldn't. Sometimes it's church hurt, which is tragic. But when we realize the church is actually the emergency room of the body of Christ, not everyone comes to the emergency room ⁓ going yippee, some are kicking and screaming. And when sometimes those people who need God so much are acting out before they get him. And as a result, it splashes over on the innocence. And on behalf of the body of Christ, I apologize. It's not what we should be doing, but I can tell you that if you measure God by the failures, you've missed God. It's not the church building, it's not the denomination, it's not all these other things, it's not the performance. It's trusting God with your heart. And giving him room in your life so he can reveal himself. That's what's going to change each of our lives. And that's why we're here. So ⁓ I'm excited to have you here and and and I'm excited that w my ⁓ my brother Jai Rosa is here with us. And Jai is ⁓ is an interesting man and and I say that in the best of ways because God he has it has takes interest in people. He invests in the people he loves and sends them to to love more people. And I that's where you fit in. Would you introduce yourself? Yeah. So I have ⁓ I have my wife and I have been married. Tomorrow is actually our nine year anniversary. ⁓ so that's that's coming together. And then ⁓ we have two cats, no kids so far. It's just hasn't been in God's plans, but you know, where he leads, we will go. And then ⁓ yeah, I'm my my full time job slash mission right now, and a large part is because of how supportive my wife is, is to be able to to use this platform, not just podcasts, but like the the Eden's Conflict platform to help bring others to Christ through games, music, graphic design, and really try and spark creativity in in the minds of others. Awesome. And ⁓ so we we we now know you and ⁓ it's it's excited for our viewers to be able to to recognize you, to to know to to earn a little level of trust that you're not just some stranger, you're You're a regular guy that loves Jesus and that makes you exceptional. Because the God in you is what makes you exceptional. So, ⁓ I I know that you have a beginning to your story. Would you tell it to us? Sure. So the beginning of my story is I'd say my journey with God began when I was a child. So as a child, my parents I grew up in a Christian home and ⁓ reading Bible stories and we had those ⁓ I don't know if you've seen them. They're like the blue books that are just the Bible with illustrations. And they're little old, like painted illustrations from like the 1950s. So I grew up l listening to those stories, looking at the pictures, and then ⁓ around the age of eight, I had a very traumatic experience that completely shifted me away, or at least made me aware of myself more in a way that is not beneficial, or not that it's not beneficial, but not ideal, and that was that I was molested at at the age of eight. And so I didn't know how to approach that with anybody else. I didn't know how to present what was going on internally. But I remember the day after it happened being more self aware. And the best way I can convey it or describe it is similar to how we see Adam and Eve after they've eaten the fruit, is that it was like there was suddenly this awareness of their nakedness that they didn't have before that. And we today we'd say that's the shame. But as a child at eight years old, I don't know what that is. It's just this immediate awareness of I am a different person now from yesterday. And there's something about me that others don't know. And I don't know that I ever want them to know. And so that began my self-discovery and self-exploration of like what is this thing that I that I'm feeling and that I'm experiencing? And like, is it good? Is it bad? What is that? And it gradually it became this self-awareness of my own choices and dictations of what I believe in. So as I became older, I began to ask deeper questions. Well first I I I that experience kick started my, I'm gonna say, ⁓ my journey into the into maturity at a younger age than I think it should have, ⁓ to keep it family friendly. And I ended up picking up getting addicted to pornography at by the age of 12. It's like I already knew how to I could barely read, but I knew how to search terms on the internet. So it's like that kinda gives you the mindset of like what I was being exposed to. And again, it's like back in the early two thousands, home computers were still fairly new. So there wasn't all the parental protections of what could be nowadays as back then. So I didn't have those limitations and and I just it completely changed the way I think about life. And by the age of fourteen, I began to I'm already beginning to ask and and question the faith that I grew up in, as in like, well, why do we do this? ⁓ because this is the tradition we do. Well, why do we do this? ⁓ because this is how our family does it. ⁓ why do we do this? And I I began to not be satisfied with the we do things because that's just how they're done. Answers. And I began to explore outside of the faith and be like, well, why do other people believe in what they believe in? And eventually this led me into the like the camp of what I would call new age Christianity. ⁓ a mixture of kind of new age philosophies brought into Christian perspectives and trying to mingle the two together to make them work. And so I began to call myself a New Age Christian by 15. And but I've also begun to have these encounters ⁓ around the same time encounters with spirits that were guiding me through my own meditation. So I was practicing ⁓ Eastern meditation and and learning how to see the body and New way with energy movement and being one with the universe and all this fluffy stuff. And it's like, and then all of a sudden a voice is speaking to me and it's telling me how to go to even deeper levels of meditation. And as I'm listening to that voice and letting it guide me, I'm hitting breakthroughs that other people who were practicing what I was practicing didn't understand how I was able to do that. So it's like, ⁓ well, there's this voice that's guiding me. And and for a child, it's like You're told, hey, read your Bible to have a connection with the God of the universe. But then all of a sudden, I have this alternative way to have a connection with this higher power, and it's actually talking to me. And so that began this point of like, well, what do I trust more? The book that's boring to read? Or the voice that I can talk to just by learning how to go into myself and commune with the greater universe as a whole. And that began my journey. To the point where by the time I was seventeen, I had about a dozen voices that I would commune with. And now they they were demanding more control over my body whenever they felt like it. So it went from a we are guiding and coaxing you to a we tell you when and like to let us in. And if you don't, we will punish you for not obeying our orders. And so literally this kind of I'd say like this Stockholm syndrome of, you know. Going back to them for the power, the feeling of completeness within them, versus like leaving it to seek something that's actually healthier and beneficial for my life. now sometimes people say, Well, like, how do you know this was real? How do you know it wasn't all fiction in your head? You were just imagining these things. The main premise, and I won't go into a lot of details about the stuff I was doing, but the main thing that stood out to me was one of the first things that stood out to me was the ability to ask questions of the spirits about people. And then the spirit would tell me things about the person. And then if I asked the person those things, they would tell me, How do you know that? Like, how would you possibly know who bought me this sweater or when this event happened to me or what was involved here? So that's how I know it's like it wasn't me and it wasn't just in my head. It's like there was something else there. But by 17, it was like I thought I had made the decision that it's like I my life is out of control. I was failing school. I was addicted to Pornography and and starting to mess or look at at substances outside of that. And I was just like, what is the point of living? And that was, I think, where the spirits were coaxing me towards, where it's like the abuse was a way of driving me to a point where I choose to end my life. And that's when God intervened and he revealed himself, not in like a profound like came down and and I'm God of the Bible, all this, but he did it through somebody who. Called me the night that I was planning to take my life. And that call in that call, God revealed himself just for a moment, and it basically planted a seed that said, I can always choose to end my life. I can't always choose to figure out what that was that I just had an encounter with. So let me just go look and see if I can see it again. Let me go find that thing. And that began my journey into seeking the God of the Bible and the God of the universe. The true God of the universe, not myself. That's a that's really deep. It's ⁓ I can actually identify with ⁓ chunks of that. ⁓ ha those things happened in my life as when I was young as well. Not as not as dramatic as yours, but it was very real. And ⁓ I can ⁓ understand. So then what happened? How how did you know how how did Jesus become real to you? Life changing real? Yeah. The way that I think God became real was in discovering the truths that countered the lies I had believed. And so what I mean by that is Christ took my understanding of what I thought I knew and basically turned it upside down on its head. So a quick example of that is by my my life has a history of like seeking God and then running away from him. Seeking God and running away from him. Like there was constant back and forth, this tug pull push and pull towards God. And even after I had been re-baptized and and decided to like commit to the faith and I'm going to seek God and I'm leaving my life behind. I'd have these screw ups would like you go go through six, seven months of not not looking at pornography, not doing any substances, not talking to the spirits, and then just have a weekend of binging in all three. And it's like it's like the weekend would end and it'd be like, God, what's changed? Like I haven't changed. Look at me. I'm still the same lying C conniving, you know, distrustful person. And I'm listing my repetitive list of sins that I've done and being like, God, I'm sorry, I'm here to repent again. And and you know, it's like I'm still the thing that that you know I said I've given up. And there was this one particular time where I'm doing this, and then the Holy Spirit says, Stop. It's like mid midway of my confession, he's just like, Stop. He goes, You are not allowed to talk about yourself. Except the way that I talk about you. You are not allowed to call yourself anything but mine. And that realization about the fact that it's like the spirits are telling me, see, you are unchanged, therefore you are still one of us. You're still this disgusting outcast from God that has no affiliation to him. And then it's a realization in that moment that it's like they don't speak for God. So let me see what God says about me. And when I start to unfold, that starts to unpack, all of a sudden I realize if I can't talk about myself except the way that God talks about me, what can I say? I'm born again, I'm saved by the blood of the Lamb, I'm a prince in the kingdom of peace, I'm an ambassador to eternity through the throne that is that Christ sits upon. All of these things are Him, but my role is to be one that is adjacent, one that is guiding others to the source. And until then, it's like because he died for me, the only thing I can claim for myself is what he calls me. And so who am I to decide for myself what I am when he has defined me as something new, a new creation, a remake of the old. And that, like that kind of lesson made me realize just how many places in my life I was believing the lies of myself that I tell myself and the lies that the enemy was telling me. Or the lies that others just simply echo and repeat and we assume are correct because enough people are saying it. And that's why like the scriptures are so important. That's why learning to understand the Bible and to like study it for yourself, know the scriptures to prove yourself for your own salvation. It's like it's for you to know, not because it's it's a spell book where it's like, ⁓ if I repeat this this word or if I say these These phrases like a chant, it's like that drives the spirits away. No, no, no. It's so that you understand what's actually happening between you and God. Amen. So so that that to me is where it's like like the way Christ has been at work in my life is to to constantly remind and constantly teach me that same lesson through a plethora of ways. And now where I'm at, I've been working on this this project of mine for going on 14 years now. that that has led me to realize that it's like I am not meant to just be a vessel that holds on to the spirit. I'm meant to be a conduit through which he passes through and reaches others. Amen. And so the reason we have like the dead sea is that all it does is take in water, it never gives out. So you're not meant to be a sea that's dead. You're meant to be a river that he flows through. That the love that the water of life can flow through in the lives of others. And that's the beauty of what I love doing now, is the fact that it's like, There, when you start to realize that it's like your life purpose is to be a conduit through which the spirit can influence others, all of a sudden it's no longer, did I read my Bible today? Did I, you know, take time to to witness? Did I did I ⁓ you know honor God with enough of these things? Did I give enough tithe? It's like all of a sudden it becomes How can I bring God into every situation that I interact with? How can I be That vessel, that thing that shows, that's constant light that is constantly flowing out. But it's not me. It's simply me being willing to let him do his thing in me. And so finding those places where I'm actually stubborn become reasons to rejoice because now I understand what I need to give back to him, what I need to give up to him, what I need to surrender to him. ⁓ oftentimes I'll try and work with people that ⁓ feel trapped, right? They feel helpless. And they're like, I don't know how to give up this thing that I know is harming me, but I can't see myself apart from it. Let's just say drugs, right? So I at one point in my life I was like, I can't see my life functioning without smoking marijuana. And so I don't know how that's possible to give that up. And it was in this process where I was like, finally became convicted that I shouldn't be taking the stuff, but that I couldn't see myself apart from it, that I could then go to God and say, like, God, This avenue, this element, this thing in my life, this framework of ideas that support the th the fact that I have a medical reason to need marijuana. It's like that entire idea I give to you, I'm not going to stop using it. But if you want to change it, you have my permission to change, edit, alter whatever you want. And what gradually took place is that the change began in me not to stop using. But to start inviting and exploring the areas of my life where I was willing to come to him and be involved with him. And to start expanding his his dominion, his his influence in those elements of my life. So I began to say, okay, if I'm gonna wake up and I know that I'm gonna smoke, I'm gonna spend the first few minutes of the day truly giving God all of my heart, mind, and soul with as if my life depended on it. As if the when I ended this prayer, I would drop dead. So it's like, can I truly say what's on my heart if if these were my final words? And in that mindset, now it's like it's not me that's speaking, it's him in me, but it's my willingness to be honest about what I'm struggling with. And guess what? After that experience, I still went and smoked. But now I had this moment of conviction where it's like, I don't need to smoke this much. I don't need that that thing today. I maybe I can wait a little bit. And This even played out in a way where, funny story, when my roommate and I both became kind of converted at the same time, and this was after college, ⁓ we were like, okay, we can't see ourselves quitting smoking. But we do think we need a witness for God. So let's have Bible study for our neighbors. Well, how are we going to get them involved? Let's offer free weed. So every time people would come to Bible study, we had free weed for them to smoke. Guess what? Nobody ever skipped Bible study. But gradually God started working in our lives, and He was just like, Hey, come to me first and worry about what you need to give up afterwards. And so my journey was that where it was like, okay, God, we're here, we're gonna do Bible study, and we're smoking. And the next day it would be like, that was really good. But I don't remember what we talked about. So let me okay, we're gonna wait to smoke after we've read the Bible. ⁓ yeah, that makes sense. We'll we'll do that first. Okay, yeah, yeah. We'll read the Bible first, then we'll start smoking. ⁓ yeah, that's better. And then it became that was better, but I I still don't remember everything. Okay, I won't smoke until the Bible study's done. And then it's my reason to smoke. And then it became, do you want to smoke today? No, I'm gonna read my Bible today. Like I really wanna focus and like I'll I'll smoke tomorrow. I've given myself permission to do that. But today I want to spend time in God's Word. And eventually it was just like, When was the last time we smoked? Like I can't remember it. And it'd be like, Whoa, it's been a few weeks since I thought about going to pick up the the bomb for for smoking. So that's how you know that it's like it's God at work and not you. It's learning to surrender and to give yourself up to Him so that He can be the one at work. Amen. And you know it's it's a it's gotta be progressive. ⁓ sometimes people you'll they'll hear a sermon, come and give your heart to Jesus and he'll change everything. Come and feel the power of God and and be changed. And they it's like take two aspirins and you'll be fine in the morning. Unfortunately, that's not the promise that God made. That's not the relationship he had. If he did it that fast, we wouldn't be d dependent upon him. We wouldn't be open for him to be able to lead us and guide us and do the beautiful things he wants to do. It's imperative that we c we come to the realization that God is smarter than us and it's okay. Yeah. The reason why we want to be in control is because we tr we try to be our own God. ⁓ yeah. What what runs your life becomes your God is one of my favorite slogans. And ⁓ it's so it's so real because we use worry and fear and bitterness and all kinds of things to give us reasons to not give God full room for him to do his best in us. Then we wonder why other people are are blossoming and we're trudging. And it it's because g g somebody else gave all and you gave half of all. And when and as you were figured it out one inch at a time or enough one foot at a time, ⁓ every every space you gave God he filled. Yeah. And ⁓ and you're the you're the right now you're living the example of what can happen when a life is surrendered. Willfully Yeah, we'll truly surrender. Just once either you surrender daily. Yeah. ⁓ yeah. And that's that's what exactly where Paul says it. It's like he calls himself the chief of sinners. But then it's like, why isn't he why like what has changed then? It's his learned surrender to his entire person every day. And you can begin that in the small things of your life. God is still teaching me places to surrender and how to surrender to him in those things. But what matters is do I Am I learning to be the willing to to have a willingness to do that, to let him be that change in me? And the places where I'm not willing are the best places because that's where the most potential lies. But sometimes we have to go through a trial in order to understand the totality of how that thing is influencing my life. And so that I then understand all of the places I need to surrender to have that transformative experience. Well, powerlessness It's a big deal. When you when when you let other things run your life, you have no power. No. When you give your heart to Jesus, you give your right to power to him. And he takes it gently and lovingly, as an innocent parent would do. And he begins the job of restoring, rebuilding, renewing, ⁓ reinspiring, do doing whatever it takes to help us discover. What God had planned for us all along that we were fighting so ⁓ so desperately. Yeah. Yeah. And and that's I like how you said that. To to add to that too, is that it's not just that you're giving up your your willingness for power, it's that then he's giving you authority to his power. Like he's putting that in you. And that's why we say it's Christ at work in us. It's not us. We are the members of the body, but we are not the source. We are simply extensions of his divine will enacted. And we know we're in alignment with the will when we are in alignment with his word. So that's why we look at the word. That's why the word is so powerful. Even what I say today, I tell people if they play my game, I'm like, this game is not a cure-all drug. It's not going to teach you. It's like if you look at this and say, Well, this is this thing will teach me salvation. It's like, no, this thing will teach you the basic framework of why you should accept. promises of scripture over the lies of temptation. Because every temptation is just that. It's a lie. But we don't have we we can't see ourselves in anything else outside of that. And that's why Christ even says he's like Satan, the father of all lies. He doesn't say the father of all supernatural power outside of God. He's like, which means everything that you think Satan has influence or control over you is simply the lie we've we've believed so that he has control over us. And in in turn we're actually giving him authority in that area of our life. So how do we learn to undo the lie and not even undo it, to return our attention back to the truth? Because where the truth lives, lies can't exist. Agreed. Totally. Yeah, the the thing that ⁓ when you're talking about that, what what hits me is that ⁓ I I know that when I c I can't swim. I just medically don't I'm disabled enough I can't. ⁓ but I didn't tell my kids they couldn't swim. I took them as and made sure they could swim and that they could swim wonderfully before I let them know I couldn't. Because I didn't want one of the restrictions of this world to hinder them from what they could do. Yeah. It's the same thing with faith. When we try, even if it's hard for us, that doesn't mean it's gonna be hard for them. We need to try and give our best to God every day. And the biggest thing I have to do is I have to open my heart and say, Okay, every day spring cleaning, go in here, what's wrong? What do I need to what am I holding on to? What is not right in me today? What what what am I holding on to that what bad habit am I I'm am I sliding back into? And have him show me so I can fix it. I can ask for forgiveness. I can invite him to be master of that too. I was you know, I my master before Christ. ⁓ was a destructive evil being. And all he wanted to do was to destroy me to hurt God. Yeah. I mean, because his relationship with my relationship with God was destroyed by the father of lies. But when I c finally realized that and I gave everything to God, there was nothing left for that old mu old master to to to ⁓ to own. Yeah. So now he just comes and whispers in my ear and lies to me. And that's that's the thing. It's like, why is Satan so driven, the enemy? Why is he so driven to to destroy us? It's because he sees a glimmer of God within us. He wants to destroy God, but he can't touch him. So he goes for that which is closest to his semblance, which is what Genesis tells us, right? Humanity was made in God the image of God. So he goes with that which is closest and smashes up as much as he can. Because in some way he's Exercising a little bit of authority over God concept. And it and that's just it. It's like like that's the biggest lie that he can get us to believe are the lies we tell ourselves. So Adam and Eve thought they were receiving knowledge of evil, intellectual knowledge by eating the fruit. The lie was that they were actually receiving experiential knowledge of evil, firsthand knowledge of evil. And now all of us have the intellectual knowledge because we were born into the experiential knowledge. So but you're not trapped in that. And Christ proves that by saying, Not only will I take on the full experiential knowledge of evil and death, I will then go through the process of death and return from it, where you shouldn't be able to come back from. I will go beyond the point of return and return. To prove that I have dominion over this thing that you think rules over you. Exactly. Now, you've you've you've you've given us a really good foundation. Now, how does that apply to where you are today and and what hope does it give us to our view viewers and listeners? Yeah, I I look for the the place where people feel, like I said, hopeless. It's like the understanding, my my biggest premise that I try and help people understand is that. Happiness is a choice. And what I mean by that is like, my ch we don't we don't comprehend the full gravity of what Christ's sacrifice gave humanity the ability to do. The ability to aim for something that is unseen. And we see this in the description of faith in in Hebrews, right? Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of that which is unseen. So If I say that the happiness I aim for is outside my current scope of view, then that means I've still chosen happiness even if I don't feel like it. Because it's beyond the horizon. Now, the fact that I believe it is beyond the horizon of my current mental, emotional, spiritual site is still a choice I'm making. And in doing so, I am exhibiting or I'm creating the the Premise for faith to exist in me. My sight is set on that which I cannot see. And that takes on many different forms. Some say, ⁓ it's learning to focus on eternity, it's learning to read the Bible and believe the promises, it's learning to go into deep prayer and have a conversation with Christ where even if you don't hear him audibly, you know he hears you emotionally. But any of those practices you choose to exercise, it's still Christ at work. So My choice is the ability to do those things. Amen. That's what God has given me. And so now what I try and teach people is like, do you know how to make a choice? Do you know how to exercise the will that God has given you through his sacrifice? Because if Christ didn't die, it wouldn't matter how good you and I exercise our choices. We would be destined to die. And there's no return from that. But Christ dies. And then comes back and says, Now all who believe in me and my decisions, I give them the authority to choose life. And so now every day that I'm alive, I'm choosing, I'm learning to choose, learning to exercise, learning to make a choice that actually matters. Without Christ, no choice matters. In Christ is the only choice that matters, because now I'm actually choosing a different path from what I'm destined for in the human race. I love it. Now, as we cl as we get toward the end of our our podcast, I always invite our guest to give us a golden nugget. Something people can mull and and gnaw on over the next week or so. You know, whether they pray or they they meditate or they they think deep thoughts or however they process it, what would you give us as a valuable nugget that we can apply to our lives in the weeks to come? So I think the the biggest thing in understanding the choices we make is being able to take a step back and examine ourselves in the moment. And this is a practice called presence of mind, which is not to be confused with Eastern meditation of like channeling and viewing yourself in this third-person perspective. This is this is different. It's a mental exercise where I look at myself and I look at my my my current situation from the perspective of somebody else. So it's like, If I if I ask and you could do this for yourself, do you remember a time where you made a choice that got you hurt when you were younger? Sure, right? Like we all have those things where it's like, yeah, I did a foolish thing and I I paid the consequences of that. ⁓ yeah. Are you still suffering from that pain today? Probably not. Like maybe you're like, well, I you know, I broke a wrist and then now I've got lifetime of constant aches and pains in my wrist. But in this immediate moment, do you still feel the same level of pain as you did back then? No, right? There's n you're you have moved on. You you have you you know the pain was real, but in the current situation you're at, there's no pain. At least not in the way that it was. Now, are you going through pains today that you tomorrow won't care about? Probably. Maybe you're discomforted from the chair you're sitting in. You'd be like, Tomorrow I'll be walking around, I'm not even gonna care about this chair. Or Life problems. Hey ⁓ there's a bill coming up that I don't know how to pay for. It's like but a year from now I'm not gonna care about the bill that's due tomorrow. In the same way you could take that pro concept and go forward and forward and forward in time. And I say, what would you in that person's perspective say about these problems? And let's take it all the way to your last day of life. You are now on your deathbed and you're thinking back to today, this moment, this conversation. What problems are you having today that you on your deathbed will still care about? Probably nothing. In fact, you on your deathbed would give up everything to be back where you are today, experiencing today's problems. Why? Because today gives you opportunity for tomorrow. But what about this? And this is where the believer or the non-believer their opportunities end. They can only see their life up to the final day of their life. And so that's as far as they can ask for direction or guidance from that perspective of themselves. And now they can align themselves to try and make better choices. But eventually it ends. But the believer has an advantage. To the believer, they can take that one step further and say, what would me in eternity, beyond the reach of sin, beyond suffering, beyond pain, beyond worries or cares, now standing before the throne of eternity, have to say about my problems today? And does that version of me still worry the way I'm worrying about today? And chances are you're gonna be like, that version of me would not care about a flipping thing that I'm dealing with today. Because all I would be able to do is say, look at the one that I'm standing in front of. Look at the presence that I am finally in. Look where I finally am. Everything I've hoped for and believed is finally real. And I'm here. And now there's you today that's looking at yourself and saying, But my problems, my worries, my concerns, my addictions, my blah blah blah blah. Versus you in salvation, in eternity, looking back at today and being like, why are you worried about that? Why are you caring about that? How can that version of me still look at me today and say, this is where you're different? So that's what I say, that's what I encourage people for, that's what I I I tell them is like here's your golden nugget. Learn to see yourself from the perspective of eternity. Where what would you in eternity say about today's problems and ask, is that really that much of a burden? Or can I move forward? Can I choose something else? Choose to aim for that which I cannot right now. See? Choose happiness, eternal happiness. In Christ's presence versus my temporal problems and dealing with my current things. Doesn't mean you're not going feel pain, but it means your focus, your attention is on that which is currently beyond your vision. Amen. One of one of the scriptures that has always comforted me is he says he never leaves me or forsakes me. He's with me always. Yes. Boy, that has been so helpful when I hurt or when somebody lets me down. Where a promise doesn't get fulfilled. ⁓ that that God that God didn't move. Yeah. And He didn't send bad things to me. He just He just turned decided to allow the thing to happen and turn it to the good anyhow. So that out of even out of the difficult things, He can get good things out of those so that we can grow and we can we can become more of what God desired us to be from the beginning. Yeah. So you know, there's not one tear that's wasted. Yeah, and that's the beauty of it. That's that's the beauty of salvation and eternity in Christ. Is like it's simply a choice to to focus my attention on outside of myself and and focus my attention on him. And now you're living what the Christian experience is to see Christ always, to make him your vision, your standpoint, and say, if I don't see him in this situation, then I need to learn to look for him. Do I know where to look for Christ in any situation? And that becomes my mission and purpose. And now all of a sudden all the burdens I have go away because not because the problems have left me, but because my attention has f shifted from the problem to looking for the solution. So even if the problem still exists, I know that a solution exists somewhere else. We are seeking the problem problem solver. Yes. Not being stymied by the problem. Yep. Well, you know, this has been amazing. I am so grateful that ⁓ you you you have come on the can on the podcast. ⁓ for those that didn't don't realize it, we've tried over and over again and it was difficult. The enemy just did everything in his power, even today, to to try to stop us from having this conversation. But it's obvious to me that that that God had his hand in it and the story needed to be told. And we're we are determined. I'm no longer stubborn. I'm I'm I'm passionately determined. ⁓ you know, because that means stubborn means I did it on my own. Passion means I get that motivation from God and I'm determined to do it his way. Yep. So that's my that's my new definition instead of being boneheaded. I'm passionately determined. But Yeah, take it and use it, brother. ⁓ the short of it is that ⁓ we we're grateful that you came. I would imagine we'll we'll have you back on again. You can think of the next topic we need to cover and we can cover it too. I have a feeling that you have a vast d depth deep well of of ⁓ godly wisdom that you can share with us at different points. He so ⁓ what we're going to do is we're going to close in prayer. Then after we close in prayer, I have a challenge for everybody. So let's pray. Heavenly Father, we are grateful for the privilege that we have to be together. We're grateful for the stories that can be told of how wonderful and powerful you are in spite of all the things that have been done. God, you love us when we when we made bad choices. You've loved us when we were addicted. You've loved us when we were We were possessed. You've loved us when everything we could possibly do wrong, but you still loved us. And you've been waiting with through your Holy Spirit, leading and gently calling us to get close to you so you could set us free from all that ugly. And you can replace the ugly with peace and joy and hope and and love and all the other good things that you've promised. God, I'm I I'm grateful that you've done that in in Jai's life and in my life, and I pray that you'll You'll be you'll be real to our viewers and our listeners that they will develop a hunger to know you personally. Not because of the things you've that we've done or done wrong or done right, but because you've done it right and we want to be a part of you. Lord, please bless each of the the those that are present in our discussion. Make a difference in their lives and and God make something change within them through your Holy Spirit. Be glorified through their lives. As they open the door to their heart and give you a shot. Father, we're grateful for this privilege and we ask that you do something mighty in every life. In Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. Amen. And so my challenge is always the same. If you want to know God, seek after him. You want to know him better. Jesus is the way to God. Get to know Jesus. He'll take you to God and show you the way. Be glorified in God's work and watch the wonders happen. This has been the God Says Yes podcast with David Ebel. Connect with David, email him at GodsaysYesPodcast at gmail. You can get his latest book, When the Doctors Say No, God Says Yes, at Amazon.com.