Join Barbara Carmack and Jimmy Lakey as they delve into the powerful message of finding rest and hope in the Lord amidst life’s challenges. Drawing inspiration from the psalmist, they explore how God’s unwavering presence can serve as a rock and salvation. Through personal anecdotes and scripture, this episode sheds light on overcoming impossible situations with faith and surrender to a higher power.
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 370-367 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 :
Ah, the leaves are falling here in Denver, Colorado. Welcome to Call to Freedom. Oh, I pray that you will find rest in the Lord today. As the psalmist said, my soul finds rest in God alone, for my hope is from him. He only is my rock and my salvation, my stronghold. I shall not be shaken. oh and remember that friend when you get into a situation where you think oh i can’t get out of this it’s impossible what am i going to do ah take a breath just relax lean back and let god take over i know it’s i know it’s difficult i’ve just had those days in the last couple three days where I’ve had to yield things to God. And he’s so precious. He brings either on board someone or he takes advantage of his power and his might and gets us out of those dilemmas. If you’re like me and you look back over the years when God has delivered you, oh, he is mighty to save and he is mighty to deliver. You are blessed to dispense for in him you live and move and have your being. I just heard that today on Creflo Dollar. He’s talking about in God you live, in God you move, and in God you have your being. So if you find it hard to move, you just thank God that every part of your body is God’s. And God is moving your body, your legs, your feet, your hips, your pelvis, your arms. Everything in you is being moved by God Almighty. Praise the Lord. Our memory verse for this week has been Isaiah 52 verse 7. How lovely on the mountains are the feet of those who bring good news. Oh, people are waiting to hear good news. Who announce peace and bring good news of happiness, well-being. who announced salvation and say to Zion, your God reigns. So you can say with me today, our God reigns. Say it with me. Our God reigns. Hallelujah. Oh, Kimberly, thank you for joining us today on KLTT 670. Oh, welcome to Call to Freedom. You’re such a part of Call to Freedom. I shouldn’t say welcome. Thank you.
SPEAKER 03 :
I know. We’ll figure out a new way to talk. I am so blessed to be a part of this day and age where there is revival sweeping over our land. And I was just listening to… Nancy DeMoss Wagemuth, before we came on here at one o’clock, talking about Isaiah six, the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord high and lifted up and his train filled the temple. And I actually am feeling like I’m just going to follow this. Like I’m just going to add on to this. It pairs really well with the idea of the ladder connecting heaven to earth. And that was the theme of last week when I was talking with you. I’m kind of continuing on that theme of ladders. Okay. Why am I stuck on the concept of ladders? I had to ask myself that question because it might not be of any interest to anyone else. So why talk about ladders on the radio? Right. So the answer is actually really, really simple. I want our Lord to have the desire of his heart. He has been so generous to us, assuring us that He’s looking out for us, that we don’t have to fear anything, that He wants to give us the desires of our heart. He quiets us with His love. And when do any of us turn around and think about the desires of His heart? We are here to help Him have the desire of His heart. That is why we’re here. It’s why we were created. That’s amazing. Yes. We are not just running around here, looking up, trying to build our faith by believing that he will give us more of our heart’s desire. We’re here to fulfill his heart’s desire. And sometimes that includes the conversation between us where we’re letting him know what our desires are and he’s fulfilling those. And that’s wonderful. But what about us just turning our eyes to him? and saying, I want what you want. So when I heard that verse, Isaiah 6, the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord high and lifted up. This is talking about a beloved king who did a lot of good for Israel. And the prophet Isaiah really loved him. They were cousins.
SPEAKER 02 :
They were cousins. So yes, they had seen each other for years and had been relating to each other for years. So Isaiah was really sad to hear that Uzziah had died.
SPEAKER 03 :
He was closely connected and he loved what Uzziah was doing for the nation. And so yes, to see him die was devastating for him. He took that grief before the Lord. He looks up and he sees the Lord high and lifted up. It’s as if King Uzziah needed to be pushed aside, taken away, so that the Lord could come in and his train filled the temple. I heard someone teach this once, and I’m just going to run with it right now. Okay. Where… Back in the days of war, before Jesus came, there was a tradition that when there was a war, and there was a victorious king, he would cut the robe of the other king. He would cut it off and he would have it sewn to the bottom of his robe. And so the more countries he conquered, the more robes he would cut, the longer his robe would become. Hmm. And I kind of like that vision, that idea. That’s a good picture of when we lose something in this life, because we’re in this life and we have expectations in this life. And sometimes those expectations become so big, they actually become a king to us. We have dreams. At first, we might be dreaming of being educated more so that we can have a career. That career might bring us status, right? And maybe a certain amount of power. I’m talking about these different kings that might be our dreams. So status could be a king. Power can be a king. Your career can be a king in your life. Maybe marriage and relationship and family. or having a home, driving a certain car, your health and being stronger. These things can all become kings to us. And when we lose these things in this life, to me, that’s like losing those bottom rungs of the ladder. It forces us to climb heavenward. It forces us to look more toward heaven and toward what the Lord himself would like. for us to have what he is building, the kind of kingdom he’s building. And when we’ve been taught to pray, thy kingdom come, thy will be done. It is so that we will be getting our eyes onto his kingdom instead of keeping them on ours. So every loss that we have, if we’re willing to be thankful that the best is yet to come, and have a heart of gratitude that keeps climbing up with our eyes set on Him, then we could consider that as that robe being cut. Now it’s being put on His robe. Now, if His robe, if He is high and lifted up and His train, the train of His robe fills the temple, That’s us. We’re the temple. We are His sanctuary. And when His robe fills our temple, that means that we are looking to Him for every single area of our life. Every loss we’ve ever had, every hole we might feel in our hearts, He fills it. His train fills the whole temple. When we look to him and see how generous he is, how good he is, I have seen that. I have seen that in my life. And I want him to have his dream come true. And that’s why I’m talking about King Uzziah. about the Lord’s train filling the temple and about these ladders that we, we start leaving those rungs behind that are closer to earth and keep climbing toward heaven.
SPEAKER 02 :
Yes. Oh, amen. Yes.
SPEAKER 03 :
So I was reading second Peter chapter one and, um, Verses 3 through 8, it tells us that we have been given everything we need to make this connection to heaven for the divine partnership that we were made for. And that is the Lord’s heart’s desire. His heart’s desire is to be partnered with us. So putting our eyes on that desire is connecting with him now. It’s connecting with that divine being we were made for. And it gives us, in 2 Peter 1, this gives us a ladder of virtue to consider climbing. In fact, as I was looking at the headings in my Bible, it even says ladder of virtue there. So here’s a ladder for us to look into. And let me read from 2 Peter 1, starting in verse 5. Now for this very reason also… applying all diligence in your faith supply moral excellence and in your moral excellence knowledge and in your knowledge self-control and in your self-control perseverance and in your perseverance godliness and in your godliness brotherly kindness and in your brotherly kindness love For these qualities are yours and they are increasing. Yes.
SPEAKER 04 :
Yes.
SPEAKER 03 :
I love that concept. They’re already ours. These qualities are ours and they’re increasing. We… we get to choose whether or not we’re gonna focus on these qualities and allow them to increase or focus on our bitter resentment or regret or blame at what caused those, what caused King Uzziah to die. Isaiah could have been just angry about it and said, okay, I don’t like how he died. I think he should have lived longer. And when our expectations and opinions get in the way of God’s dream, of us really focusing on Him and entrusting ourselves to Him, then we’re not climbing that ladder with His desires in mind. We’re climbing with negative feelings. We don’t want to do that. We want to make better decisions than that. So this section of 2 Peter 1 is telling us to be diligent, be devoted to adding to your faith. Yeah. We start out with faith, but now we add to it. And we need to really look at the fact that we have to first believe. We must believe. You must have faith. And then you add to that belief. But it all starts on that first rung of this ladder with faith. Including faith, there are eight rungs to the ladder of virtues here in 2 Peter. And eight is the number of perfection. It’s the number of new beginnings. So really, Peter is encouraging us to begin in this new creation life. it’s never too late to begin that climb on that ladder to have faith and then to have goodness, which moral excellence is being good, doing the right thing. So. We want to be looking at that new creation life. It’s a new beginning in this old world. And we’ll start out with faith. I gave an example last week. Well, just told everyone about my daughter and how she had gotten married five years ago. It’ll be five years tomorrow. And five years ago, when she married our amazing son in love, and I like to call him son in love. He’s not son in law. He’s son in love. I am so thankful for him. she made a decision on her wedding day to not have me in many of the wedding photos. And back then I did not believe, I didn’t believe the good things. I didn’t have faith that her decision was beneficial for me. So I didn’t understand it. I couldn’t think of any good reason that she could give me to leave me out of the pictures during my recent trip to visit her. When I learned that she has always remembered that I don’t like to have pictures taken of myself. And she was just telling me that now that she’s a little bit older, she feels the same way. She doesn’t want pictures of herself. Well, when she mentioned that to me this last trip, I had a choice to make. Will I believe? Will I believe the best, the best of her? And and will I change my mind about how it went five years ago? And what if I chose to say that, oh, I know my daughter. I know her attitude. I know her misgivings. I know how she ticks because a lot of us do that with the ones that we’re closest to. We think we know them. So what if I chose to believe that there was malice in her decision five years ago to leave me out of those wedding pictures? I could do that. I could choose to believe the worst. And many of us do that. But that is not faith. Faith is not just believing any old thing. I can believe that when I drop a teacup on my stone floor, it’s going to break. It will break if I drop it. But that’s not faith to believe that. That’s just knowledge that’s gained with experience. And sometimes our experience in this life, it twists. Our ideas are twisted about what that was really for. Faith believes the best in other people. Faith believes the best outcome. Faith is hooked in. trusting that God is in the middle of it, no matter what anyone else is doing, no matter what their intentions are. Faith believes that God is on the throne. His train fills your temple. So you will trust Him with whatever the decision is, even if it feels hurtful.
SPEAKER 02 :
As you look back, and this is five years, some things that were so important at that moment, we’ve got to step back and say, is this going to be of eternal value? Is this going to be important to me five, ten, fifteen years from now? Most people who have that album full of their wedding pictures say, They either have a new marriage, there’s been a divorce and they have a new marriage, or that album gets shoved into the back of the closet and they really don’t look at it anymore because now their family is all important and all those things. So we’ve got to say, how important is this in my life that I can be hurt by what someone has done? And we have to take that step and think, is this really important enough for me to divide the relationship here?
SPEAKER 03 :
Right, right. Because our God is a God of reconciliation.
SPEAKER 02 :
Yes.
SPEAKER 03 :
And he’s given us the ministry of reconciliation. So… If we don’t have faith, believing the best, we will walk through this life wounded with no hope of repair and reconciliation. Faith believes all things are possible. And we know that Jesus gave us this example. He experienced very hurtful things, but he did not defend himself. He did not manipulate situations. He trusted God. the father. And he, he talked about him as his father. And now he has given us open access. He’s our father too. We can trust him also. So we’ve got to start with that kind of belief, that kind of faith that trust that father God will always do the best for us.
SPEAKER 02 :
I was just reading today in Mark 9, Kimberly, and that’s such a wonderful chapter. It’s full of Jesus and the Mount of Transfiguration, but comes down to this boy who was demon-possessed, and his father just, he says he’s throwing him into the fire all the time, and his father’s telling him about all that has happened to his son in history, in the history of his son. And then he comes back and if you can help us. And Jesus said, if you can, all things are possible. If you believe, if you believe that I am that I am. And of course, the father said, yes, yes. And, you know, the rest of the story that Jesus cast that unclean spirit out of that boy. They thought he was dead, but he lifted it. up to life again. It’s such a good example.
SPEAKER 03 :
Really good, because if… What do you mean, if? If you can. What do you mean? Of course I can! Do you not know who I am? I feel like sometimes that’s exactly what Father God is saying to us. Do you not know who I am? Get to know me. I’m really good and I’m really big and I can do the impossible things. You know, so whatever your situation is today. Hmm. As you’re listening, whatever circumstance you find yourself in, start with faith. And if your faith just isn’t there yet, it’s okay. Jesus is the one who said, just the faith of a tiny, tiny mustard seed is enough to say to that mountain, move and get out of my way. And that mountain is sometimes our negative feelings. I want to say… Most of the time, that’s what the mountain is. It’s our negative feelings. And we’ve got to be able to say to those negative feelings, get out of my way. I want to choose to believe the best. I want faith in my life.
SPEAKER 02 :
Yes.
SPEAKER 03 :
So I know they start with faith.
SPEAKER 02 :
That’s right. I know that in Isaiah 6 that you were talking about, we see King Uzziah, who was a great king, but we don’t see him writing any books or prophetic word. And here we see God transitioning that prophetic word to Isaiah 6. and saying, Isaiah, I need you now. Uzziah is gone, and now I need you. And he first had to show Isaiah that he was a clean, his soul and spirit were clean before God. And then he said, whom shall I send? Who will go for me? And that’s when Isaiah could say, oh, Lord. I am willing. Send me. And that’s when God just opened up the prophetic word to Isaiah. And we know that Isaiah is, oh, the book of Isaiah, Kimberly, is now my favorite book of the Old Testament. It’s just so full of promise, even through all of the bad stuff going on. So full of promise for his people.
SPEAKER 03 :
Yes. You know, now that you went that direction, here we’re just kind of wandering all over. And I don’t know who this is for exactly, but I want to keep following this. The way that you surrender, the way Isaiah surrendered and said, here am I, send me. When Jesus talks about us becoming like little children, that’s exactly… what childlike is. It’s trusting the Lord with your path and saying, here am I. Whatever you have me in the middle of, I’m trusting that you are going to be in it with me, that you’re going to work all things together for good, that we are partnered in bringing heaven to this earth. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done. And having that childlike faith I really believe that that is something that our God wants. He wants us to become more childlike and not hang on so tightly to our own ideas. You can see that transition happen with a child. You know, when children are really small, they just go wherever you take them because they have no other choice. You’re putting them in a baby carrier and they just, wherever you take them, that’s where they go. That’s right. And they somehow start making this transition into toddler that starts to say, no, I think I know what I want. And that’s that shiny red thing over there. I want that shiny red thing. And they might start, you know, crying out even before they’re verbal. they might start throwing a tantrum and we see the transition into forming opinions and forming ideas of where they want to go, how they want to be held, or they don’t want to be held right now. You know, so this happens in the toddler stages. And as you continue on through those child stages, more and more opinions are formed. And you can end up with a personality in your home that’s constantly butting heads with you, constantly challenging your authority, and maybe not honoring the direction that you would like to go. And we know that the Bible tells children to honor their parents. Honor and respect your parents. the parents at some point need to learn some of that back toward the child. As the child becomes older and older, learning to listen and honor both ways is actually really important. It’s not supposed to be just a one-way street. A lot of times it is, and the Lord works it out. He works it all out. He works everything for good. But learning to listen to someone else, to their heart, and their dreams and their ideas and learning to honor them to working together. This is how we develop harmony and unity and We’ve been in 2 Peter for a little bit, but I’m going to go back to 1 Peter 2 because becoming like a child, 1 Peter 2 tells us, it encourages us to submit ourselves for the Lord’s sake. It’s kind of like you were saying with Isaiah, surrendering and submitting and saying, here am I. Send me. Submit ourselves for the Lord’s sake to every human institution. Wow, I think a lot of people would be, what? Submit to every human institution? That’s what it says. Submit yourself to every human institution for the Lord’s sake. For the Lord’s sake. Whether to a king as the one in authority or to governors sent by the king to punish evildoers and to praise those who do right. Honor all people. Be submissive to your masters with all respect, not only to those who are good and gentle, but also to those who are unreasonable. For this finds favor. If for the sake of conscience toward God, a person bears up under sorrows when suffering unjustly. Yes. I think kids, as we’re growing up and we’re children, we start looking around and we start thinking, oh, that’s not fair. I don’t get to have that shiny red thing over there. And that’s not fair. Now I’m going to throw a tantrum because that’s not fair.
SPEAKER 02 :
Yes, we’re going to have our own ideas. We’re going to talk more about this tomorrow. Kimberly, you’re on a roll right now. We’re going to look into this ladder and increasing of our faith. And I hope you will join us tomorrow in all of this because this lends to our knowledge and our faith. 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.
