In this heartwarming episode of Call to Freedom, Barbara Carmack takes listeners on a spiritual journey through love, growth, and the teachings of John 15. With the power of a joyful heart, discover how a life filled with soul-rich experiences can create a positive ripple effect. Listen in as Barbara and her guest, Kimberly, delve into the profound scriptural insights that teach us about intimate union with Jesus and how it impacts our daily lives. Whether you’re new to faith or seeking deeper understanding, this episode offers encouragement, wisdom, and a pathway to living a spiritually empowered life.
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 04 :
Welcome to called a freedom. A cheerful heart does good like medicine. Have you ever heard that? It tells you that when your heart is full of love and full of joy, the body is going to react to that. And in Proverbs. Oh, my God. I got into Isaiah. There’s so much good stuff here, folks. You need to really get into the word of God and you’ll never be the same. You’ll never be the same. And then when things happen, it’s like you’re prepared for it. And it says here in the New American Standard in Proverbs 17, verse 22 says, A joyful heart is good medicine, but a broken spirit dries up the bones. And I believe a lot of stuff that’s going on in our bodies is because we are not in a relationship with Jesus Christ. We don’t know him. And because we don’t know him, that love that he will pour into our hearts, as we’re going to find out in John 15, is not there for us to pour into other people’s hearts. So I just want you to know a cheerful heart. Oh, I pray today that you will have a cheerful heart. A cheerful heart does good like medicine. Praise the Lord. And I have you are blessed to dispense for any of you live and move and have your being. I got to get that one in. And if you’d like to listen to call to freedom programs, you know where to go. Freedom Street dot org and click under resources on radio shows and you can listen any time day or night. If you get off at 1030 at night or whatever, you know that you can go to freedomstreet.org and click on so many different interesting things. You’re going to grow in the word by listening to freedomstreet.org. You can also donate there. Our scripture for this week is John 15 and verse 12. I’m going to read a little bit more in the message. This is my command. This is Jesus speaking in John 15. Love one another the way I loved you. This is the very best way to love. Put your life on the line for your friends. You are my friends when you do the things I command you. And that’s because he has the very best for you, friend. He really does. I’m no longer calling you servants because servants don’t understand what their master is thinking or planning. No, I’ve named you friends because I’ve let you in on everything I’ve heard from the father. He is not withholding anything from you. If you will listen. Oh, listen. Just listen. Take some time and listen. You will be amazed how much noise there is around your ears during the day if you turn everything off for just a little bit and listen. It’s a beautiful thing. It really is. And then you can hear the birds outside and you can hear all kinds of things going on in nature because he loves you so much. Well, welcome, Kimberly. It’s so nice to have you join me on the radio.
SPEAKER 02 :
Well, thank you. You mentioned to me that you wanted to be talking about John 15 today. I know that’s where your memory verse is and you really love the chapters. Yep.
SPEAKER 04 :
One of my favorite. Well, you know, when you go through the book of John, oh, that’s one of my favorites. And then the sixth chapter. Oh, that’s really a good favorite. Go on to chapter 11 chapter. Yeah. And you continue to grow. See, that’s the ultimate. They’re growing. We’re going to talk about branches today. If a branch doesn’t grow, it gets brittle and old and finally falls off. But if a branch is nourished and watered, it will grow. And that’s what God wants us to do. Keep growing, not get stale.
SPEAKER 02 :
Yeah, that’s right. The growth is becoming like him. We think of him as being so exclusive because of the law and rules and religion that has been presented for so many. Well, not just decades. It’s hundreds of centuries. It’s millennia. And because humans have that idea, very black and white idea of rules and following laws. And we tend to think of God like that, but he’s not like that. And the fruit that we are to produce is to become yielded like he is. Your memory verse from John 15, 12 says, this is my command. Love one another as much as I have loved you. Well, what is that? How much did he love us? He loved us so much that he came as a human being to this planet. And then he didn’t call the shots. He actually allowed humans to call the shots all the way to a cross. Sure. And so that’s a very yielded life. And he is asking us to yield. I think that’s a difficult thing, but we want to start more toward the beginning of chapter 15, I think.
SPEAKER 04 :
So good. And we remember the words of Peter in John 6 when people seem to leave him because of his words. And Peter said, Lord, to whom shall we go? When he said, OK, are you going to go to are you going to leave me? Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. And that’s what we are just encouraging you to get into the word of God. I know your life is busy. My life has been busy, too. It’s kind of slowing down a little bit in my later years. But still, there are ways that the enemy tries to keep you off track and distracted from the word of God. And that’s where the real meat, the real food is.
SPEAKER 02 :
The real relationship. Okay. I think I’m going to go ahead and interject right here that getting into the word of God is not the same as getting into the law and a set of rules. It’s not the same. It’s not about living out every word according to a set of rules. It’s about relationship. It’s about finding him in relationship and letting him know you more in relationship. And there’s a yielding that happens when we’re in relationship like that.
SPEAKER 04 :
That’s right. And this morning I was saying to Kimberly or asking her, did you have breakfast? And she says, I have food that you know not of. She’s always saying, I have food that you know, know not of.
SPEAKER 02 :
Well, and I’m not just saying that as something silly. I honestly, the more I develop relationship with Jesus and it’s for me, it is through the word of God. And I don’t know. I’ve talked to a lot of people who say it just doesn’t make sense to them. Well, you know what? Still stay involved with it. Memorize when you can memorize a verse and let the relationship grow just from the one verse and really understand who, who our God is to you and who you are to him. That’s even more important. How loved you are, how, how much he is depending on this plan of his to come through. And it will, it’s God’s plan. His plan is going to work because he’s God.
SPEAKER 03 :
That’s right.
SPEAKER 02 :
And we get to come alongside and say, I’m on board with this. I’m on board with who you are and what you’re doing, but we can’t come on board with it if we don’t know him and if we don’t feel like he knows us. So that relationship is what we want to establish.
SPEAKER 03 :
Yes.
SPEAKER 04 :
And I find that people that say, I love the Lord, that’s something that they desire more than they know, because Jesus is the word. And if you really, truly love him, you’re going to get into the word. I know I’m done, but I’m going to start reading from John 15. Jesus is saying, and this is from the Passion Translation. He’s saying, I am. Remember yesterday we were talking about I am. We’re discovering I am God himself. in these chapters. I am a true sprouting vine. Now, in the Old Testament, many times, well, probably five or six times, Jesus is described as a sprout, a root coming out of the ground, a little sprout, a tiny seedling. And when you see that, you’re going, whoa, what can come of that? What can come of that? What can come of a baby in a manger? To show people the way to God? That’s ridiculous. I mean, the world says that’s ridiculous. But he says, I am a true sprouting vine, and the farmer who tends the vine is my father. He cares for the branches connected to me. by lifting and propping up the fruitless branches and pruning every fruitful branch to yield a greater harvest. That’s what we’re here in this life for. Kimberly, we’re here to bear fruit. And so many times you said in order to bear fruit, it comes from dirt.
SPEAKER 02 :
Yeah, well, it also comes from being pruned and being pruned is not, that’s not a fun process. Having something cut off from your life so that you can bear fruit. But when the branches of a tree get really long, they don’t have as much strength in them. And so being able to hold fruit is harder when you just let it all go wild. When you prune that and you and I would say for me, that is taking the advice that I am given from the word of God and yielding to it, even when it’s difficult. But I am practicing yielding to him. The same way that I practice yielding to others. And, you know, I have to wonder about Jesus when he was here. So holy, pure, the righteous one. He’s God in the flesh. And yet he was yielding to plans and to humans who were not holy. not pure and he was yielding. So being able to balance that out in life, it feels like compromise. It can feel like compromise when you are yielding to another human being who has other ideas And I’m talking about in relationship. I’m not talking about just any random spoken piece of advice out there. I’m talking about relationships with your family, relationships at your job, with coworkers, and learning to live that surrendered and yielded life that says, you know what, I’m choosing to love others the way Jesus loves me. That’s applying this memory verse that you have for this week.
SPEAKER 04 :
Yeah. Yes. And this is all for us. All these words that Jesus gave the night before he was crucified. This is right before he was on the cross. All these words are for us. And he says, the words I have spoken over you have already cleansed you. And that’s such a delight to think when we yield ourselves to him. He’s the one. Holy Spirit is the one then that goes to work. Cleansing and instructing and teaching and allowing us even, yes, to have some falls, just like newborn babies. Sometimes we’ll fall, stumble over things, but we’ll get up and we’ll go on because Holy Spirit is teaching us. And verse four says, you must remain in life union with me for I remain in life union with you. He’ll never leave you, friend. Jesus will never leave you for as a branch severed from the vine will not bear fruit. So your life will be fruitless unless you live your life intimately joined to mine. So some of you are thinking, yeah, some of you are thinking. My life, I look back on my life and what have I done? Well, if you give your life to Jesus, you’re going to bear fruit and no comparison. You can’t compare yourself to a person over here on the next block that is a bank manager or a bank president. And you have had a, quote, normal, average life. No, you can’t look at your life like that. God is putting you into a position in which you will influence those around you. He knows exactly what he’s doing. And you are a bearing fruit. You are a fruit bearing plant. And that’s what’s so beautiful.
SPEAKER 02 :
Being intimately joined with Jesus is such a privilege, an honor. And then hearing the way that he says this in verse four, you must remain in life union with me. That’s how the passion translation says it. It says, remain in me and I will remain in you. It says that he does remain in us. He has never left us or forsaken us. He goes to the highest of high places and the lowest of low places. This is the heart of our God. And he has told us that in the Old Testament. And here it is in the New Testament. I remain with you. I am in you and with you no matter what you’re thinking about your boss or your coworkers or your family members. I’m still with you in those thoughts that you have. So now will you turn those thoughts? Will you give them to me and yield to me and be in life union with me? unite those thoughts that are hard for you, that cause you to stumble, that might cause you offense. We were talking about being offended last week and complaining over those offenses. Well, Jesus, that’s not how he walks out his life. He doesn’t complain about all the thoughts that are running through our mind. That’s right. But he’s inviting. It’s a constant invitation, inviting us to give up those thoughts and those patterns so that he can replace them with new ones.
SPEAKER 04 :
Oh, absolutely. Verse five says, I am. And we’re reading from John 15. I am again. I am. the sprouting vine and your my branches how he loves to just hold you as you live in union with me as your source as your source friend jesus is your source fruitfulness will stream from within you but when you live separated from me you are powerless And that’s where we find a lot of people find themselves exhausted. They have extended themselves too much. They’ve gone into too many activities thinking they’re going to be successful if they incorporate so many clubs and meetings and all of this into their lives. If a person is separated from me, he is discarded. Such branches are gathered up and thrown into the fire to be burned. Kimberly and I were talking a little bit about this. Does that mean that he’s forgotten the person? It might be that he’s refining them with fire. And that’s what we are hoping because he says here, such branches are gathered up and thrown into the fire to be burned. But but verse seven. But if you live in life union with me and if my words live powerfully within you, then you can ask whatever you desire and it will be done. And so many people have gotten bitter over this, have been in unforgiveness. Well, God said to ask anything and he will do it. You cannot be with that attitude. You’ve got to be yielded to him and give him absolute all of you. And then you ask whatever you desire and it will be done. I think mainly, Kimberly, because we change our desires. Our desires are changed from the earthly physical desires, although he will meet those as well. But our desires become spiritual desires that Jesus lived out.
SPEAKER 02 :
Well, this is just also a reflection. We’re still in that same section here of being joined with him. And he has already shown us that he is joined with us and has stayed with us. We are the ones. It’s our job now to change our mind, to change our opinions, change our agendas. and turn them so that they become his. I’m excited about that because maybe this section of talking about the vine and the branches doesn’t make a whole lot of sense if you’re listening today, but it could be maybe looked at as I am the head and you are the body. The head and the body really cannot be severed, and then you’re still walking around. It just doesn’t work that way. So looking at Jesus as being the head and realizing that we are his body and that we want to align ourselves. Could you imagine just yourself walking around all day long with an idea that your mind wants to show the body this is how we walk or this is how we eat, but then your body just takes over and it has its own cravings and its own patterns and it walks differently and it eats differently than what your head is wanting.
SPEAKER 04 :
Yes.
SPEAKER 02 :
Well, it’s time. It’s time to turn and to become one with each other and to say, you know what? I’m not trying to convince you to come along with my cravings, my desires, my agendas. I want yours, Jesus. I want to have your agendas because they’re just better than mine. Your plan is greater than mine. And that’s a hard place to get to. But we’re getting there.
SPEAKER 04 :
Yes, it’s like Psalm 37, verse four. Delight yourself in the Lord and he will give you the desires of your heart. Now, Kimberly, when your father died, that verse of scripture hit me so hard. I said, Lord, how can I delight in you when my life partner is gone? How can I delight in you, Lord? The rest of that verse is delight in the Lord and he will give you the desires of your heart. Well, along came Darren Carmack and he got me the desire. God got me the desires of my heart in a mighty man of the word.
SPEAKER 02 :
Yeah. Now there aren’t very many people that can even relate to that. I understand. And so I’ll just put it on another level with, with my situation and just say, I have been learning that my desires are actually his. Yes. It comes to that. And when we come to that place and we realize, oh, what I think I’ve been desiring, what I have been grabbing for and grasping for is actually more trouble than I thought it would be. And so I really want you to have your desires. Now, just teach me how to walk that out. Teach me how to be in line with you, intimately joined to you, like this section of John 15 is talking about. So that you can have your desires because really that’s who I am. I am your desire. I am made for you to have your desires. That’s right. Now help me align my mind, my thoughts, habit patterns. Help me align them with you. Yes. It’s my heart prayer every day.
SPEAKER 04 :
Oh, praise God. Yes. Verse eight. When your lives bear abundant fruit, you demonstrate that you are my mature disciples who glorify my father. And now verse nine. This is a key, friends. Now, some of you think that God doesn’t love you or that Jesus doesn’t love you. Here is verse nine of John 15. I love each of you with the same love forever. that the Father loves me. Now, we know from the Gospels that Jesus went away to be with the Father many times during the night because the Father loved him, and he got everything he needed to sustain his life as a human. See, he was all God and all human. He wanted to show us how to live the example of being a human being on this earth by looking at him. I love each of you with the same love that the Father loves me. You must continually let my love nourish your hearts. No other love. God’s love nourishing your hearts. Oh, that’s just one of my favorite verses. I found that. It’s like years and years you read through the word of God and all of a sudden there’s a verse that pops up and absolutely shocks some of you and actually brings such joy to you when Jesus says, I love each of you with the same love that the Father loves me. Oh, praise God.
SPEAKER 02 :
In another version, it says, remain in my love. So when we remain in his love, we’re choosing to love. We’re choosing to practice that love. Yes. Practice. Yes. Practice his love toward other people. And that takes some… You have to do that on purpose. That takes some intentionality. You’ve got to really… Really look at who he is. And he did not condemn anyone. He did not send anyone away. He was only corrective toward the very religious ones who knew the scriptures really well. That’s right. But everyone else was welcome. It was a very welcoming spirit that he came in. And that’s how we want to be. That’s right.
SPEAKER 04 :
And he says in verse 10, if you keep my commands and those are commands of love and and commands of relationship and wonderful things for you if you keep my commands you will live in my love you will live in my love just as I have kept my father’s commands for I continually live nourished and empowered by his love we want to be empowered by Jesus love we want to be empowered by God’s agape and many of us don’t know agape We don’t know that. Unconditional, no matter what you do to me, I will love you. That kind of love? Whoa, we don’t know that yet. We are going to know that love. My purpose for telling you these things is so that the joy that I experience will fill your hearts with overflowing gladness. Now, as I said just a few minutes ago, joy, Jesus had joy the night before he hung on the cross. He had joy. Yes, there’s a joy that can never… The enemy can never take that away from us. A deep, abiding joy of knowing that God loves us.
SPEAKER 02 :
Well, yes, we’ve been told that it was for the joy set before him that he went to the cross. And when we see those situations, we can get focused on how difficult it was. He was also trembling in that garden as he was praying, Lord, please don’t. I don’t want to walk through this. Take this cup from me is what that means. Take this cup from me. I don’t want to drink this cup. That’s right. And at the same time for the joy set before him, he was saying, nevertheless, not my will, but yours be done. I yield to you. I yield to this situation that I’m in. This is how we want to live our lives. You might be living with somebody that’s very difficult to live with. But when you yield yourself to the will of God and say, not my will, but yours be done, show me how you will resurrect this situation, how you will redeem it and restore it when I simply choose to walk in your love. And this is the kind of walk that is continually nourished and empowered. It’s his love that nourishes us and empowers us. You were saying at the beginning of this program that I often will say I have food that you don’t know about. I feel nourished by the word of God and not just the words that are written on the page, but the relationship that comes from this union and this yielding. There’s a relationship that comes in that that brings so much joy. I want that kind of relationship. Yeah. You know, and sometimes we long for that with other people. People are going to let you down, but not God, not Jesus. So really looking forward to that kind of union and being nourished and empowered by that love relationship, not just learning to walk out the rules, but learning that there is an opportunity. A talking with a witness, a witness and a listening to and then following that. There’s so much joy in it.
SPEAKER 04 :
There is so much joy. So the greatest love of all is a love that sacrifices all. And so you’re not depending on that person to be perfect in your eyes. You’re loving that person with a love of God. And that’s so important. We’re going to continue this. This is so good. Chapter 15 and going into 16 of John and introducing Holy Spirit, our comforter, our guide, our teacher, the spirit of truth. So join us tomorrow. God bless you and keep you and take joy.
SPEAKER 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. Power 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.
