4.9.25 – Rest In The Life

SPEAKER 01 : 0:09

Welcome to Call to Freedom with Barbara Carmack. This is Jimmy Lakey, and I’m delighted that you are joining us for this half hour. You can reach Call to Freedom at Box 370367, Denver, Colorado, 80237, or by going to the website at www.freedomstreet.org. If you want to leave a message or order a Word Power Daily Reading Bible Guide or a Freedom Street Express newsletter, you can call us toll free at 1-877-917-7256 and leave your name and address, including your zip code. If you want to talk to Barbara right now, she is expecting your call. You may call that same toll-free number, 1-877-917-7256 to speak to her. And now, let’s join Barbara in the studio.

SPEAKER 02 : 1:04

Welcome to Call to Freedom. I’m so glad you joined us today. Kimberly has an anointed message and you’re going to enjoy it. You’re going to grow from it. You’re going to expand your perception of God and people around you. Whoever gives heed to instruction in the word of God prospers. When you heed, that means you’re believing what you’re reading every day and you’re putting it into action every day. Whoever gives heed to instruction in the word of God prospers. And blessed is he who trusts in the Lord. And that means all people. He, she, they, everybody. Blessed is he who trusts in the Lord. And that’s so important to know that. You are blessed to dispense for in him you live and move and have your being. And I’m so blessed to know that you are prospering in the Lord. I want to hear from some of you that you are doing well. I know I’ve heard from several of you that relatives have been healed that God is working in your life that is wonderful to know that it really is it’s a blessing for us who are on the air every day it’s an encouragement but also an encouragement to other people who are asking the Lord for Answers to their prayers. And so this we’re going to have a meeting this Saturday on April the 12th. And that’s our monthly call to freedom meeting. And it looks like it’s going to be very warm in Denver, like 85 degrees. So we may have lunch on the patio and we’ll have a study on the precious food. precious blood of Jesus, the sacrifice lamb, which I believe is very, very appropriate because it’s Passover for the Jewish people. If you would like to stay for lunch and would like to bring a side dish to accompany the beef casserole I’ll be serving, If your last name begins with A through M, bring a dessert. And if your last name begins with N through Z, bring a salad. And we will enjoy, or your favorite dish, we will enjoy it. We always do. So bring it on. My phone number is 1-877-917-7256. God bless you, and I hope to see you this Saturday. April the 12th. It’s a busy time. I know it is. So I bless you in the mighty name of Jesus. Welcome to the program, Kimberly.

SPEAKER 03 : 3:28

Thank you. It is a busy time for so many of us. And it’s so good to remember that it is for withness, that we need to be with each other. If you haven’t heard me use that term before, withness, I think I made that up. But being able to be with each other, it’s about relationships with each other and relationship with the Lord. That is what this life all boils down to. It’s what we get distracted from and we forget that we’re made for a relationship. We start having other goals and other agendas in this life, and they distract us in such a way that we don’t treat each other very well. but relationship is more precious than humans really give that value to. And so we don’t want those distractions. I’ve realized even when I’m reading my Bible, I can be distracted with behavior that I read about, possessions or control. And I was just looking for parables this morning that we have all interpreted in ways that cause us to see performance. or behavior, possessions, control, or maybe a lack of performance. And we perceive that as being the moral of the story. We think performance is the moral of the story. Like the 10 virgins, you know, there are five wise virgins. They brought enough oil and the five foolish virgins did not. So we think that it’s about how much oil we bring.

SPEAKER 02 : 5:08

Yes. Because again, it’s our performance that you’re talking about. Yes. That most of us grow up in life and then we’ve got to unlearn what we grew up with because God doesn’t care for performance. He likes the humble. He likes the contrite in heart. That’s right. Yes, that’s right.

SPEAKER 03 : 5:28

Yes. And so I just just to give a small perspective on my life. Oh, my evaluation of the 10 virgins. Those five wise virgins were ready to enter the door when the door opened. And the five foolish ones got distracted and they thought they could go find oil on their own. And they did not enter into the doors when the doors opened, when the doors to the kingdom opened. They went running around looking for oil and they weren’t ready to just walk in in relationship and know that they can come empty. We don’t have to come full. Full of what? What could we possibly be full of enough to offer the king of all kings who created us in the first place? Yes.

SPEAKER 02 : 6:20

I love that perspective that you give about the ten virgins. I really do. I’ve never heard about anything like that before. And I really appreciate that.

SPEAKER 03 : 6:31

Well, it is about relationship.

SPEAKER 02 : 6:33

Yes.

SPEAKER 03 : 6:34

And so when we know how loving and how generous our master is, then we lean on his generosity. We lean on his love. We lean on his faith. It’s his faith that perfects us, not our own. We cannot have enough faith in ourselves. No, that’s right. So Job 28.10 tells us that the one who digs out channels through the rock, his eye sees all treasures and precious things. And what are those precious things? I believe they’re relationships. And what is the rock that we must dig through? Because it’s obvious that some work has to happen in order for us to create new channels and new pathways. And it does feel like digging through rock. If anyone has ever attempted to dig through rock, that is hard work. And yes, I have attempted to dig through rock. And we’re not really talking about physical labor here, but we’re talking about intentionality. We have to be very purposeful in digging through our natural instincts that this human mind has and bringing those thoughts that we would have naturally or instinctively, bringing those thoughts to a halt in order to think of relationship.

SPEAKER 1 : 7:55

Yes.

SPEAKER 03 : 7:57

So the work is not digging through rock. The work is catching or stopping instinctive and natural responses and applying a fruit of the spirit like patience, which is a supernatural response. Anytime we are given patience for a situation, we have to recognize that that is a miracle because the human nature is not patient at all. So it’s not a natural response to be patient. It’s a supernatural response. And we can’t come up with that on our own. We have got to ask. We’ve got to ask for it. And we need help. The work is choosing that over our natural instincts. That’s what the work is. because our natural instincts tend to kick in with every situation that we come across in life. So it’s difficult, it’s difficult to stop that natural instinct. It’s not difficult in the sense of physical labor, But sometimes our physical needs a timeout. We just need to step away from something for a while and be patient. Just put ourselves in a timeout when our flesh wants to overreact. So that’s the difficult part because our flesh wants to scream and overreact.

SPEAKER 02 : 9:19

Yes. It’s like in verse 23 of the same Job 28 that you’re talking about, we’re mentioning and he’s mentioning wisdom. Where does wisdom come from? And God alone knows the ways to wisdom. And in our human life. behavior we try to find wisdom in this world we go to college we learn things online we have to be instructed we have to go online to find instructions about everything and God alone knows the way to wisdom there you can find that wisdom in this world and he knows exactly what to do in your life to help you find that wisdom you need when you’re looking for something for an answer to something He knows it all. And why do we go to the worldly system, Kimberly, for the most part, and look for wisdom from human levels? It’ll never meet it, God’s wisdom, never. Right, right.

SPEAKER 03 : 10:22

And really, it’s about having a relationship with him in the first place. It’s not even about gaining the wisdom. It’s not. It’s about having relationship and leaning on him, talking with him, letting him know that you feel weak. or that you feel inept at handling a situation. And that relationship is what is a treasure. That relationship is what is precious to us, not the wisdom. He is wisdom, but it’s relationship with him. That makes it a treasure and precious. The results of us leaning into him and connecting with him in such a way where we are truly reliant. We rely on him. That is… the reward. It’s so rewarding. And verse 11 of Job 28 says that this one who’s digging these tunnels, these new pathways, This one controls the overflowing floods and brings the hidden things out to the light. Well, overflowing floods, that is describing emotions. Our emotions and our pathways can act like rivers that have passageways cut out from years of flowing in one direction in our mind. And those overflowing floods can be really powerful But the fruits of the Spirit will measure those pathways against love and control the floods of emotion in order to accomplish God’s new path in our lives. And that might sound complicated, but it’s really incredibly simple. Love one another as I have loved you. That is what Jesus has commanded us. It’s a new command that he has given to us. Love one another as I have loved you. It’s that simple. That is how we dig through the rock of natural instinct of love. emotion that wants to overreact or that wants to shy away and avoid. I have that part of me too, that doesn’t want to engage. It just wants to avoid, you know, but love one another as I have loved you. God does not avoid any of us. He doesn’t shy away from being in our lives. When we are making poor decisions, he does not shy away. He is God with us. He is Emmanuel. So it’s the enemy that is out to steal and kill and destroy this, this very thing that I’m talking about, this relationship, this love. The enemy is out to steal, kill, and destroy. That’s what John 10.10 says. And He wants to destroy relationship. That is all he’s after. Sometimes that comes by stealing or destroying our jobs or our families, our homes, or our livelihood, whatever it is, our status in this life. He can tear down just about anything. We’ve seen it happen. This is a broken world that we live in. But what does it really destroy? It really destroys relationship. It causes us to question our relationship with God. Some people question it so severely they decide there isn’t a God. And it doesn’t matter if a person has decided that. Truth will still be truth. Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life. He will still be in place and forever, eternally, everlasting love will remain regardless of what conclusion a human being has come to. Yes. Ah, so good. This is so good, Kimberly. Jesus quoted from the Old Testament. He quoted from Deuteronomy 6, 4, and 5. And he quoted this. It’s really laid out in many different books in the New Testament. Matthew 22, Mark 12, Luke 10. 1 John 4 mentions the same thing, that the most important commandment is to love the Lord your God with all your heart. heart, all your soul, all your mind and all your strength. And the second most important is to love your neighbor as yourself. Yes. Those commandments are holy and like whole as a whole, whole cake, holy and completely relational. If we will sit and meditate on these two laws, just think about it. How do we love the Lord? How do we love people? We do it by following all the other, you know, you’re not going to steal from someone you love. You’re not going to murder somebody you love. You’re not going to covet. You’re not going to lie to somebody you love. All the other commandments are in place because they teach us how to love. So love is the end. And These two laws are unconcerned with who is right and who is wrong. These two commands of loving the Lord and loving other people, they’re very indifferent about who observes and upholds the rules the most. Because those specific laws celebrate connection and reconciliation and bridge building between each other. That’s what they’re there for. Yes. This truth might be hidden from the younger generation. It was hidden from me when I was in my youth. There’s a natural progression of growth in humanity and from baby to adult. We start out as babies and babies receive so much attention. They are overwhelmed with attention and affection being held, being carried, transported everywhere. There’s relationship there. with a baby because the baby can’t do anything by themselves. So relationship is established. when we are infants. Now, I don’t know, maybe we get our fill of that baby stage. We get our fill of relationship and being coddled over and having someone else involved all the time. And that’s why when we hit that adolescent stage, we become distracted with our own agendas. I don’t need your help anymore. I remember some of my kiddos that were still pretty young when they were pushing my hands away and saying, I don’t need you to tie my shoes. I can tie my own shoes. So maybe we have our fill of someone else being involved and that’s why we start pushing others away and say, I can do it. I can do it on my own. And then we become easily distracted with other agendas like education and gaining knowledge or forming a career and having status. Maybe we get distracted with family or prominence. And we set these goals for ourselves and forget that we were made for love. And withness, being with others. Yes, yes. The enemy would distract us. That’s what the enemy does and try to destroy connection. Most discouragement and depression has isolation at the root of it. Humans become despondent when they believe no one understands them, that no one is with them. And we were made for withness. So trying to find that connection in the enforcement of a law or a rule or a tradition, when we try to push tradition on other people and get other people to do things our way, that only acts as a divider. And it does not help bring connection. It does not help bring relationship back into focus.

SPEAKER 02 : 19:10

Yes, that’s right. I really like the Mark 12 scripture that you gave here about Jesus talking to the religious leaders. And there was a debate going on, but he was answering every one of their questions. And these leaders, they knew about the law. In fact, they had memorized the first five books of the law. And if any of you listening have tried to even memorize some of the first five books, it’s just so difficult. It’s impossible with all the laws and everything. And when Jesus said the most important commandment is this, listen, O Israel, and that’s what you were talking about the first part of this program, Deuteronomy 6, 4 through 6. Listen, O Israel, the Lord our God is the one and only Lord. And you must love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and all your strength. And the second is equally important. Love your neighbor as yourself. No other commandment is greater than these. And so the religious leader, one of the religious leaders replied, well said, teacher. You know, this is God speaking in flesh. Well said, teacher. You have spoken the truth by saying there is only one God and no other. And I know it’s important. It’s important to love him with all my heart and with all my understanding and all my strength and to love my neighbor as myself. This is more important than to offer all of the burnt offerings and sacrifices required in the law. And realizing how much the man understood, Jesus just loves to pick our minds sometimes and find out, huh, what does this child really believe? And realizing how much the man understood, Jesus said to him, you are not far from the kingdom of God. And after that, no one dared to ask him any more questions. No one asked him any more questions because they knew he had wisdom far greater than they could ever have.

SPEAKER 03 : 21:13

Right. Because he was staying focused on the relationship. And that is what that, that is what that one was affirming and saying that you have spoken rightly. This is it. It’s about relationship, loving the Lord, your God with all your heart and soul and mind and strength and loving your neighbor as yourself. And I think you looked up first John for that passage in the message translation and it, In the message translation, it really does focus in on relationship. If you’ve got that in front of you, I would love for you to read that.

SPEAKER 02 : 21:50

Yeah, it’s pretty long if you want me to read all of the verses, but it’s just so well worth it. Yeah, do it. Sounds good. And friends, as you listen to this, I know that… You love getting hold of all new teaching and step-by-step things that are going on. And, oh, you love to memorize the steps and get acquainted with all the new books and all of the advice that is given today. You can just fill it up above your head. But here’s John’s one. And John, remember, was the disciple who always was as close to Jesus as he could get. and he says my beloved friends this is chapter four let us continue to love each other since love comes from god everyone who loves is born of god and experiences a relationship with god listen to that experiences a relationship with god verse 8 says the person who refuses to love doesn’t know the first thing about god because god is love so you can’t know him if you don’t love This is how God showed his love for us. God sent his only son into the world so we might live through him. And we live through him. Salvation is his. Faith is his. And grace is his. We don’t have any part of that. We believe in him and he pours salvation on us, faith on us, and grace. And this is the kind of love we are talking about. Not that we once upon a time loved God, but that he loved us and sent his son as a sacrifice to clear away our sins and the damage they’ve done to our relationship with God. That’s what sin does, Kimberly. It damages our relationship with God and separates us from him for a time. It’s so important to learn to be holy as God is. And then verse 11. Do you want me to continue? Yes, please. Yes. Good. Love is brought to full expression in us. This is how we know we’re living steadily and deeply in him. And he in us, he’s given us life from his life, from his very own spirit. Also, we’ve seen for ourselves and continue to state openly that the father sent his son as savior of the world. Everyone who confesses that Jesus is God’s son participates continuously in an intimate relationship with God. Again, that word relationship comes in, Kimberly. So we know it so well. We’ve embraced it heart and soul, this love that comes from God. God is love. When we take up permanent residence in a life of love, that’s where we’re headed for, friends. We live in God and God lives in us. This way, love has the run of the house, becomes at home and mature in us so that we’re free of worry on judgment day. Our standing in the world is identical with Christ’s. Amen. Amen. Oh, this is so good, Kimberly. Some people stop at the point of salvation and say, well, I’m saved, I’m going to heaven. They don’t mature in a love relationship. Oh, we don’t have time. It’s so good. I know, I know.

SPEAKER 03 : 25:50

I want to continue this subject of love. So good. Can I come back tomorrow?

SPEAKER 02 : 26:00

Can I invite myself back? Yes, come on back. Because we need to really cover this scripture. So many people say I love, and they don’t have the first inkling about God’s kind of love, Kimberly, that agape, unconditional love, no matter what others do to us. We love them in spite of what they do to us. Yes. Yes.

SPEAKER 03 : 26:22

And we are challenged. We’re constantly challenged in our growth and in our maturing process. As we continue to grow and we are exposed to different people and different situations in life, we are always challenged. We never reach this place where we have arrived. So let’s talk about that more tomorrow, what those challenges might look like and how we can continue to develop love of God and love for each other.

SPEAKER 02 : 26:52

God bless you and take joy.

SPEAKER 01 : 27:01

Thank you for listening to Call to Freedom with Barbara Carmack. You may get in touch with Barbara at Call to Freedom, Box 370-367, Denver, Colorado, 80237. Or you may leave your message at 1-877-917-7256. Call to Freedom is a listener-supported radio ministry. Barbara and her power partners invite you to come on board with us and become a network of hands holding up Call to Freedom ministry. Our partners support Call to Freedom with prayer and monthly financial support. You will be blessed supernaturally. We invite you to visit Call to Freedom’s website, www.freedomstreet.org, where you can hear Barbara’s daily radio broadcast 24 hours a day or order materials. You may share your praise reports and heart cries by mailing them to Call to Freedom, Box 370-367, Denver, Colorado, 80237. Or you may email us at barbracarmack at freedomstreet.org. Until next time, remember, Jesus loves you, Barbara loves you, and take joy.

SPEAKER 1 : 28:38

Thank you.