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 Call to Freedom. Fan into flame the gift of God. God brings Holy Spirit into our lives, which energizes us, gives us the power, extra power that we couldn’t even dream of doing. And it’s us who put the key in the ignition. I mean, it used to be that way. Now you’ve got fobs, and now you can just start it from the outside several feet away. But in my day, you had to stick the key in the ignition, and it would start up. That’s what we do. We put the key in the ignition, and Holy Spirit then takes over the engine, all the tappets. Tappets? Is that what it is? Carburetor. Carburetor. You can tell I really know a lot about engines. But then Holy Spirit takes over. Isn’t that beautiful? Fan into flame the gift of God. For God did not give us a spirit of timidity. Now that’s in some translations, but most of the translations say, for God did not give us a spirit of fear. And boy, that fear can paralyze. God doesn’t want you paralyzed or not in motion. He wants you to be at work in his kingdom to… bear fruit and oh do marvelous things things you couldn’t even ask for or think of so god did not give us a spirit of timidity but a spirit of power and love and self-discipline praise god sound mind and that’s second timothy one verse six and seven and i’m so glad that you joined us today kimberly is on the other line uh you are blessed to dispense for in him you live and move and have your being And Kimberly, I’m just going to invite you to come on early.
SPEAKER 03 :
Oh, and amen to all of that. Great way. You’ve been talking in reverse.
SPEAKER 04 :
Okay, Kimberly, you’re breaking up, sweetheart. You’re just breaking up. So… Anyway, praise God. You are blessed to dispense. I already said that. So you are blessed twice. Our memory verse for this week until Kimberly gets that line cleared up is John 17, 17. Sanctify them in the truth. Father God, thank you for bringing your truth into these radio waves. Clear to Tulsa, Oklahoma to Broken Arrow so that we can hear. Kimberly, clearly in Jesus name. Oh, sanctify them in the truth. Thy word is truth. Don’t belittle the word of God. Well, I read it once in a while. Don’t do that to God. He spent thousands of years writing these wonderful love letters to you. He doesn’t want you just putting it in a pile in a corner somewhere. His word is truth. In the New Living Translation, John 17, 17 says, make them holy words. By thy truth, teach them your word, which is truth. Don’t you want the truth? It’s the word of God. In verse 18, just as you sent me into the world, Jesus says, I am sending them into the world. Praise God. Rachel, do we have Kimberly on the line? No, we don’t. We still don’t. Okay, well, we’re going to start anyway, because I am full of the glory of the Lord. And what is the glory of the Lord? It’s not just a flame of fire or a cloud over some kind of physical temple, although we are all temples of God. So where is his glory? in you his glory is in you what is his glory jesus jesus said he would be in you i just read that in john 14 he said i will be in you i am your sheep i mean i am your shepherd you are my sheep you hear my voice because you know my voice you will not be scattered you will not run away because my voice is tenderness and love for you praise god I know that in Psalm 100, verse 3, and Kimberly and I were talking about this today, that it’s really a wonderful memory that I have of the girls jumping up and down on the bed and reciting Psalm 100. Yes, that’s the first chapter that their dad had them memorize and recite. He was good at memorizing chapters, so he wanted us to do that as well. So I know that Psalm 100, by the days when Kimberly and Dana were jumping on the bed, yes, shout joyfully to the Lord all the earth. Serve the Lord with gladness. Come before him with joyful singing. Know that the Lord himself is God. And I’m reading from the New American Standard. It is he who has made us and not we ourselves. Oh, the world just trying to say that they’re God. They’re the ones that create everything. They are not. They are not, my friend. Oh, we are his people and the sheep of his pasture. Enter his gates with thanksgiving and into his courts with praise. And it’s coming up, but not just once a year at Thanksgiving, folks. We need to thank him every Every day of the year, give thanks to him. Bless his name for the Lord is good. His loving kindness is everlasting and his faithfulness endures to all generations. Praise God. It’s so wonderful to know that we are his people and the sheep of his pasture. You know, sheep are stupid and dumb, but God knows that. And so he’s so gentle. He’s lifting you out and reassuring you. He’s hugging you today. I hope you feel that hug in your spirit. Well, Kimberly, are you there? I am.
SPEAKER 02 :
Yes. You’re talking about stupid sheep there. That’s so funny. Last week, we were talking about being the children of God. And this week, we just want to look a little bit at what it’s like to be his sheep, because so often in the Bible, Jesus refers to us as sheep. And David in the Psalms refers to us, his people, as sheep. So bringing up that verse from Psalm 100, that we are his people and the sheep of his pasture, that’s just one of the many verses. But yes, sheep need help. Sheep are not able to take care of themselves. They can’t hunt for themselves. They can’t provide for themselves. They… are not really always wise. They are overtaken with pestilence. Sometimes when the bugs are flying around them, they just start running wildly to try and get away from them. And so a shepherd has to be with sheep to treat them with salve, to keep the bugs off of them, to provide for them, to lead them to water, to make sure they’re eating. Sheep need a lot of care. And without the shepherd’s care, sheep are easily lost and vulnerable to prey. Well, that’s describing us as people.
SPEAKER 04 :
That’s right.
SPEAKER 02 :
And one more fact about sheep. They even need help getting up when they roll onto their sides. They have to have their little limbs and hooves under them. They can’t get back up from a position on their side. And so they’ll panic. When they get too far over onto their side, they start panicking and flailing with their limbs. And as they’re flailing, they might roll all the way over onto their back. Well, at that point, they’re so vulnerable that they would be dead without a shepherd’s help.
SPEAKER 04 :
That’s right. It’s like the familiar phrase we all know. I have fallen and I can’t get up. And so as we get older, we realize when you fall, it’s very difficult, especially when you’ve got achy joints or some aren’t aren’t working well to be able to get back up. So, yes, Kimberly, we are sheep. We are sheep. Yes.
SPEAKER 02 :
And if we look at that in the scenario of feeling like we failed at something in life, we have fallen and we might panic. We might be in despair, discouraged, so disappointed with ourselves. And that is not how our Good Shepherd wants us to continue in life. Hebrews 13, 20 says, Now the God of peace… who brought up from the dead the great shepherd of the sheep. Through the eternal covenant, even Jesus our Lord equip you in every good thing to do his will. working in us, even if we did get onto our side, onto our back, and we need restoration. And that is what a shepherd calls restoring the soul of a sheep. They go and restore their soul by putting them upright again. That’s that term. So this verse in Hebrews 13, 20 says that the Lord, it is he who who is equipping us in every good thing to do his will, working in us that which is pleasing in his sight through Jesus Christ, to whom be the glory forever and ever. Amen. Amen. It’s him. It’s him. It’s not us. It’s not our abilities. It’s not whether or not we’re strong enough, smart enough. It’s him. It’s his work in us and through us. Yes. Oh, that’s so good. Yes. I have a lot of friends. I’m so thankful for my friends. And many of them care about my health and my well-being, and they’ll start asking questions. And sometimes those questions are fear-based questions out of concern. And then I have other friends who care a lot about having information on their terms. And so their questions are really intense and confrontive. I’m not afraid of confrontation, so somehow I attract those kinds of people. And it tends to make me feel like I’m pressured to give more information. That’s right, yes. And their intensity might cause me to feel that pressure and feel stressed. And then I might feel obligated to give them what they want. Well, that obligation, that can feel almost like a responsibility, like it’s my responsibility to answer their questions. It’s my responsibility to meet them on their terms. And how many of us are really aware of the decisions and reactions that we have to pressure, stress, manipulation and obligation?
SPEAKER 04 :
Oh, Kimberly, that’s so rich. It’s so good because we have I can. Oh, over and over again, I felt such responsibility to give people the right answer or to be able to enter into their conversation that it was it was pressure and stress.
SPEAKER 02 :
It was right. Yeah, I started talking with Jesus about that because he came. God came in human form to show us how to live in this life with perfect peace. And that God of peace that we’re talking about from Hebrews 13, that God of peace wants us, His sheep, to experience that peace. He’s constantly inviting us into it. So Jesus, how do you do this? How do you talk to fearful people and manipulative people? How do you handle these questions? It’s because the world is power hungry and tries to aggressively guilt us or shame us, manipulate us, obligate us. And that’s the world thinking. And too often, That pops up even in our own minds. Yes. We want the information that we want, right? We like to have information or we are concerned about something. And if we don’t get our questions answered, we don’t even realize how we are falling into these old patterns of manipulating with our questions.
SPEAKER 04 :
That’s right. Oh, that’s so good. Yes.
SPEAKER 02 :
So we might start feeling obligation or putting obligation onto others and wanting actions or reactions in a way that will appease that hunger for information. And it just heaps responsibility on us or on others. That’s what it does. But we are his people, the sheep of his pasture. We are being called to just come lay down like sheep who are being very well taken care of by a good, good shepherd.
SPEAKER 04 :
That’s why I believe that so many people have to take things to get to sleep because this responsibility is such a heavy one. heavy weight on them. Their energy is gone. Their focus is gone. And so they’ve got to take, you know, relax them or whatever it’s called to get to sleep. And it’s just really sad how we cannot just say some scripture, Kimberly, feel and not just feel that peace, but know that peace is there for us. Yes.
SPEAKER 02 :
Yes. Praise God. He has a name. That peace has a name. He has a name. And it’s Jesus. And we do want to know him.
SPEAKER 04 :
Yes, we do. Prince of Peace. Yes.
SPEAKER 02 :
Yes. You know, that’s such a good point that it messes up with our sleep. It messes up our rest, our time of rest. And sheep, if you think about it, sheep are not very responsible. They’re just not. They’re not. They’re not responsible. When you think about all the things we listed previously, how they even roll onto their sides and need help getting up. They’re just not responsible. So just like sheep, we are not created to trust in our own abilities, although we try to. And when we try to trust in our own abilities, that’s when we get off on our side or onto our back, and then we’re flailing and we’re panicking, and we don’t know how to get back up. Yeah. That’s when we really need our Good Shepherd. And you know, he is so patient and so kind. We are learning to trust. in our Good Shepherd. And when we trust Him, who knows how many times it takes in a lifetime that we try things in our own effort and have to come to Him again and say, okay, I messed it up. I need help. When we trust Him, we are able to actually lay ourselves down. We are decreasing and He is increasing. And that’s what we want. We lay ourselves down in quietness and rest. And laying down is a beautiful act of surrender. It is not an act of defeat or hopelessness.
SPEAKER 04 :
Weakness, yes.
SPEAKER 02 :
That’s right. No. It is actually trusting and hoping in someone greater to work the victory on our behalf. Yes, yes. So in contrast, the world is aggressive, manipulative, and they use power to control. And if we’re not careful to stay humble and keep laying ourselves down, we will find ourselves being aggressive about getting a project finished. I was telling you this morning I’ve been working on painting my room. And in the past, I have just prepped the entire room that I’m working on, taped it all off, pulled everything out, taken everything down, and just done it all in a day. Well, those were in younger years. That was in younger years. And I don’t have help doing this, so I just thought, you know what, I’ll just do one corner at a time, one wall at a time. Well, that’s actually almost been harder And I have wanted to just manipulate this and go get, you know, either Matthew or Levi or somebody else and say, get in here and help me.
SPEAKER 04 :
Yes.
SPEAKER 02 :
Put the responsibility on somebody else. But I’m his sheep. And Matthew 10, 16 encourages us that even though we feel vulnerable and we feel weak as lambs going into a pack of wolves, to be wise as serpents and harmless as doves. And I realized that in order to be harmless as a dove, I need to surrender to the fact that my agenda, my timeframe of how I want to finish painting needs to just be laid down, just lay it down and it’ll get done. And even if it doesn’t get done, in one week’s time it will eventually get done if it’s two weeks three weeks it will get done that’s right so um first peter 2 20 through 25 i’m just going to read this whole section this is so good um And this has everything to do with our attitudes and trying to control a situation or manipulate or obligate, feeling responsible or putting responsibility onto others. because that can feel like we’re being mistreated when we do that. So listen to 1 Peter 2, starting in verse 20. If you are mistreated when you do right and suffer for it and you patiently endure it, this finds favor with God, for you have been called for this purpose. For what purpose? To be mistreated when you do right? Wow. Yep. For you have been called for this purpose since Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example for you to follow in his footsteps, who committed no sin, nor was any deceit found in his mouth. And while being reviled, he did not revile in return. While suffering, he uttered no threats, but kept entrusting himself to him who judges righteously. And he himself bore our sins in his body on the cross so that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. For by his wounds, you were healed. For you were continually straying like sheep. But now you have returned to the shepherd and guardian of your souls. Oh, that’s so good. Wow. That shepherd, that guardian of our souls. He showed us how to do life, just obeying as he went along his way, journeying through this world.
SPEAKER 03 :
Yes.
SPEAKER 02 :
Obeying. It’s not like Jesus decided to have his own vision to preach the gospel. And let’s see, I’m going to go to Syria first. I’m going to go to Damascus next. I’m going to go. He didn’t start mapping it out and planning it out for himself. He just started walking and being led and obeying. And that is what we’re called to do. Just be led and obey as a sheep. Well, okay, as a human being, let me say it this way. As a human being, that feels awkward to us because we want to have a plan. As a human, we like to have our plans and our routines and our schedules. We love agendas and we like to check things off our list.
SPEAKER 04 :
It’s like, Kimberly, how we were trained through the world system. We were trained in a different way, and Jesus had to come to show us God’s way of doing things. We’ve got to learn God’s way. Put down the earthly teachings that we had and everything, even though in some ways it was good, but no, it wasn’t. God does it spirit to spirit. Now we’ve got to learn a whole new thing, putting down our life, laying down our life, even when we have to suffer and patiently endure it. Boy, the world says, no, you don’t have to patiently endure it. You go and sock him. You go and get even. And so we’ve got it totally opposite. Totally. Totally.
SPEAKER 02 :
Right. Yes. And, you know, the Old Testament, we read an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth. That’s part of the law. But when Jesus came, he said it is no longer an eye for an eye or tooth for tooth. But I’m saying to you that if somebody slaps you on the cheek, turn to him the other. If somebody sues you for your shirt, give him your coat as well. Wow. Yeah, it’s a completely different system by the grace of God, by the love of God. And a sheep will learn how to lay down and rest in that love, rest in that grace. It’s a beautiful action to lay down in the pasture that God has put you in and trust You’re a good shepherd with your surroundings and with the people around you.
SPEAKER 04 :
Yes. Oh, this is so good, Kimberly. And I hope those of you listening can maybe listen even a couple of times because you can go to freedomstreet.org and click on the radio shows under resources and you can listen as often as you want to and take notes. That’s important also. Kimberly, we need to learn God’s way of doing things. and lay down our way of doing things.
SPEAKER 02 :
That’s right. We want to learn to be sheep. And I think it’s good to focus on that this week. Last week, as we were talking about being his children, I was thinking about myself as a child, and you and Daddy were so generous with, I feel like maybe I was a little bit spoiled and maybe entitled. And sometimes as children, we end up taking on entitlement instead of just knowing that we’re blessed. We start to feel this entitlement come on and and then we’re demanding something. And we need to balance that out with the sheep. You know, we are the sheep of his pasture. We want to remember that we’re looking to him for every direction. It is his rod and his staff that comforts us and guides us. And we want to be looking to that, not setting our own demands and our own ideas, our own agendas. But really trusting him.
SPEAKER 04 :
Yes, that’s one thing people like you need to watch for. Because when you’re gifted by God, not only in music, but in all kinds of other areas, and that can tend or lend to pride. And so that’s one thing that we have to look out for when we’re gifted and we’re talented is, that we don’t puff up ourselves and say, look what I did. That’s so true.
SPEAKER 02 :
It is. That’s so true. I admit to it.
SPEAKER 04 :
Yeah, you were gifted in so many areas. Yes.
SPEAKER 02 :
Well, and when I see others that have come from a past of addiction or even just, Other whatever we would put a label on to say is just a filthy past, you know, something like that. We we might label that pride is just as filthy. It is. It’s awful. It’s just as filthy. So I admit to that and I am learning to be a sheep. And, you know, for those of you that are.
SPEAKER 04 :
Are we gone again? Okay. For those of you who are listening, you can listen again at freedomstreet.org. You can go on the radio shows and listen to today’s program. I believe it’s just one of the most anointed teachings. We learn to be sheep. God bless you. It’s been wonderful being with you today. Also, I want to recommend… The Bible Guide, it’s there on Freedom Street. You can just download it the month that you’re reading it. We’re going into December pretty soon. There are other, oh, Darren Sessions used to be our CDs. Now they’re MP3 forms, so you can go there and listen to angels or listen to Breaking the Curse. It’s just a wonderful thing to listen to. So God bless you as you go online, freedomstreet.org. And if you see that little donate button and Holy Spirit is saying, I want you to give, You just go on there and donate to Call to Freedom. I hope this program has been a blessing to you. 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.
