Shownotes
If God feels silent or distant, you are not alone. Join Vonda Coble as she shares honest stories and practical steps to help you recognize spiritual distractions, let go of independence, and nurture your faith.
You’ll find encouragement and relatable guidance for belonging, hope, and authentic relationship with God—no matter how messy life gets.
Scriptures Referenced
Genesis 1:26-29, 2:8-9, 2:16-17, 3:1-6; Matthew 16:24; Mark 8:34; Luke 9:23; John 15:5-8; James 1:2-8
Key Insights
- You were to depend on God and others for belonging and purpose.
- Honest faith needs maturity, surrender, and intentional listening.
- You are seen, loved, and heard by God—even when circumstances, doubts, or emotions threaten to isolate you.
- Living out faith means embracing community, accepting yourself, and giving grace as you grow.
https://springhouse.captivate.fm/episode/abide-when-he-seems-silent
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Gathering Times
- Sundays, 9:00 AM
- Sundays, 11:00 AM
- Thursdays, 6:00 PM
Contact Info
Springhouse Church
14119 Old Nashville Highway
Smyrna TN 37167
CCLI License 2070006
Transcripts
Are you paying attention to the thread? Are you paying
Speaker:attention to the thread? The Lord is doing things if we will pay attention and
Speaker:wake up. And you know, here's the thing, it's not only don't give if you're
Speaker:not supposed to give, or give when you do give, but here's the thing, I
Speaker:love the ability to be able to give and do it not just
Speaker:generously, but cheerfully. I get to do it cheerfully because guess what?
Speaker:It's not coming from me and my provision. It's coming from His provision.
Speaker:Provision, and I generously get to sow in when He says, "Do this," right? And
Speaker:so we want to be obedient in that. Guys, are you good this morning?
Speaker:Is God good in your life this morning? Yeah? Are you glad to be here
Speaker:today? I'm glad that you're here. If you're joining us on livestream, thanks for being
Speaker:here, and like Katie said, you can still come on up here. We have a
Speaker:seat for you. Guys, you're in for a treat this morning. I am so
Speaker:grateful for the lady who's about to come and present to you.
Speaker:I know that she has been wrestling with this Word. I know that she's been
Speaker:soaking in this Word, and I know that the Lord has has something for us.
Speaker:So if we'll prepare our hearts that they'll be pliable and soft for it, welcome
Speaker:my sister from another mister, Vonda Coble. Come on
Speaker:up here. That was great.
Speaker:I love you. Oh well,
Speaker:my stuff is over there and I thought somebody was going to bring it out,
Speaker:so I'm just going to
Speaker:Do a little dance until that time comes. It's fine.
Speaker:How's everybody doing today? Good? Doing good? It's Saturday.
Speaker:The Lord has pushed the rain. You know, I work with somebody who
Speaker:would just simply say, "It's not gonna rain. It's not gonna rain." Even though the
Speaker:forecast says it's gonna rain, "It's not gonna rain," and it doesn't rain. It's like,
Speaker:"Okay. All right, Jesus." Pastor, thank you so
Speaker:much. See? Where you want it at? Where's the seat? Right here.
Speaker:This is good. This is good. Is my little clicker here? It's in my
Speaker:pocket. Yes, it is. I thought you might need help. Thank you.
Speaker:Thank you, Pastor Wayne. That was definitely an honor.
Speaker:I met Pastor Wayne in 2002. But anyway,
Speaker:we're gonna go ahead and get started, if that's okay with you guys.
Speaker:Abide when he seems silent.
Speaker:That's what we're gonna talk about this morning. If you would please stand
Speaker:as we read the Word together.
Speaker:We're gonna read John 15:5-8.
Speaker:All right, here we go. I am the vine,
Speaker:you are the branches. If you remain in
Speaker:me and I in you, you will bear much
Speaker:fruit. Apart from me you can do nothing.
Speaker:If you do not remain in me, You are like a
Speaker:branch that is thrown away and withers.
Speaker:Such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire,
Speaker:and burned. If you remain in me and
Speaker:my words remain in you, ask whatever
Speaker:you wish, and it will be done for you.
Speaker:This is to my Father's glory, that you bear
Speaker:much fruit, showing yourselves "to be my
Speaker:disciples." Dear Heavenly Father, thank you so very much
Speaker:for your Word. Oh, for your Word has
Speaker:power in it. Thank you so much for the Word that
Speaker:was read this morning because there's power because it
Speaker:came from you. God, I ask that you open up our
Speaker:eyes to see what it is that you have for us today.
Speaker:Open up our ears, dear Heavenly Father, so that we might be able
Speaker:to hear what it is that you have to say. And
Speaker:God, soften our our hearts so that we might be able
Speaker:to surrender and move under your molded hand.
Speaker:God, whatever is from Vonda Lynette Coble, let it slide
Speaker:to the side so that your Holy Spirit can be heard
Speaker:this morning. In Jesus' precious name,
Speaker:amen. All right, let's have a seat. You guys are
Speaker:going to have to forgive me, um, as Pastor Kevin said,
Speaker:um, I have been in this word for a while,
Speaker:and it's kind of overwhelming me. So if you would, please
Speaker:forgive me. And then the worship this morning just kind of
Speaker:totally overwhelmed me. So I'm gonna do my best. I
Speaker:got my tissue here in my pocket. So if you'll just ride
Speaker:with me, we'll ride together, okay? So this
Speaker:word that we read this morning from John 15:5-8
Speaker:is really about answered prayers. It's about
Speaker:having our prayers answered. And I think it's interesting
Speaker:because in the Word, in the New Testament,
Speaker:you'll find about 10 places— I found 10, you
Speaker:might find more— that it says, "Ask anything in my name,
Speaker:and I'll give it to you. Ask anything in my name, and
Speaker:I'll give it to you." And so, I thought it was interesting. I tried
Speaker:to actually get away from that section, and the Lord said, "No."
Speaker:That's where I want you to read. So, I said, "Okay, God." So,
Speaker:as I'm reading, I want you to notice a couple things.
Speaker:The word "if." The word "if." So, let me
Speaker:do a little background information, and that is, I'm gonna pull
Speaker:this up a little closer. So, forgive me, 'cause I'm not as strong
Speaker:as I look.
Speaker:But I am a schoolteacher, pretty much, is what I've been
Speaker:for 18 years. I taught in the classroom. So, you're gonna
Speaker:see a lot of things. I dumb things down.
Speaker:You could say that, but I also try to make it as simple as possible,
Speaker:because an educator, we have a difficult task, and
Speaker:that is to teach something, and
Speaker:people learn so many different ways. So you have to teach something, and then
Speaker:you have to assess to see if what was learned was learned. And then if
Speaker:you realize it wasn't learned, then you have to go back and reteach, or you
Speaker:have to enhance. So I'm a teacher at heart. So everything that
Speaker:I do is kind of simple as much as possible for
Speaker:my level. Level anyway, because I'm trying to teach.
Speaker:So if you look at the passage there, it has a word that keeps
Speaker:popping out, and that's the word "if." If.
Speaker:If. And "if" is a conjunction. Okay?
Speaker:So a conjunction is a joining word. So that simply
Speaker:means stuff has got to connect. Okay? So I
Speaker:looked up the word "if," and it says, "If."
Speaker:Yeah. Oh, I'm sorry. I went to— I went— yeah,
Speaker:there it is. I'm so sorry. It's two things here. Forgive me. If.
Speaker:And it is a conjunction. In the event that.
Speaker:Allowing that. On the assumption that. On
Speaker:the condition that. Right?
Speaker:So, we have if. If you remain in me. If you
Speaker:do not remain in me. If you remain in me. So, we've
Speaker:got all of these conjunctions here, okay? And so, the
Speaker:next thing is, if you remain "Remain in me, Jesus,
Speaker:and my words remain in
Speaker:you." So, we have something here where there's a
Speaker:little connection that has to happen. So, my next question
Speaker:is, "What is remain?" Remain
Speaker:is exactly what it is. It's a verb. It's something we must do. And it
Speaker:says, "To stay in the same place or with
Speaker:the same person or group." So,
Speaker:"If, if you remain in me and my words
Speaker:remain in you, ask whatever you wish and it will
Speaker:be done for you." So then the question is,
Speaker:does God speak to us?
Speaker:Does God speak to us? Well, for
Speaker:us, and I say us as believers, it's very
Speaker:simple. The answer is in the Word. It's right
Speaker:there. What I love about the
Speaker:Lord is that any question that you
Speaker:actually have, there's an answer to it. There truly is.
Speaker:And for believers, for us, we can find it in the Word. So
Speaker:I'm going to read to you. I'm gonna be doing a lot of reading, if
Speaker:that's okay with you. I'm gonna read from Genesis 3:1-6.
Speaker:So if you have your Bibles, you can turn there too. Genesis
Speaker:3:1-6. 6.
Speaker:Actually, it's not Genesis 3. I'm so sorry, that's another spot.
Speaker:I need you to go to Genesis 1. That's it. Let me go back a
Speaker:little further. Genesis 1, and we're gonna read 26 through
Speaker:29. There we are. There we are.
Speaker:It says, then God said, does
Speaker:any "Or let us—" Push pause. So, sorry.
Speaker:Let me rewind a little bit. I'm reading from the Amplified,
Speaker:so it's going to be a little different, okay? So, please forgive
Speaker:me. It's gonna be a little different. Unpause.
Speaker:1:26, "Then God said, 'Let us,'" Father,
Speaker:Son, Holy Spirit, "'make man in our own image, according
Speaker:to our likeness.'" Not physical, but a spiritual
Speaker:personality and moral likeness. And let them
Speaker:have complete authority over the fish
Speaker:of the sea, the birds of the air, the
Speaker:cattle, and over the entire earth, and
Speaker:over everything that creeps and crawls on
Speaker:the earth. So God created man in his own
Speaker:image. In the image and likeness of God he
Speaker:created him, male and female. He
Speaker:created them. And God blessed them,
Speaker:granting them certain authority, and said to them, "Be
Speaker:fruitful, multiply, and fill the earth,
Speaker:and subjugate it, putting it under your
Speaker:power. And rule over," dominate, "the
Speaker:fish of the sea, the birds of the air, and every
Speaker:living thing that moves upon the earth." And
Speaker:I looked up the word that I kind of messed up, and that's subject—
Speaker:subjugate, and it means to control, to be under.
Speaker:Okay. So interesting enough, right there we
Speaker:see God is already speaking. How many times did we hear,
Speaker:"And God said..." Talk to me, people. How
Speaker:many times did we hear it? A lot. I know at
Speaker:least 2. Okay. Also, just in case, you know, I also expect you to talk
Speaker:to me like if we were in a classroom. And when you see me do
Speaker:this, that means talk to me. Okay. So just so you know. So this is
Speaker:what I want to know. What is God's image? What is God the
Speaker:Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit? What's the image?
Speaker:What is that image? Talk to me. Love.
Speaker:Holiness. Pure.
Speaker:Righteousness. Kindness.
Speaker:Who? Peace.
Speaker:Sovereign. Nice. Sacrifice,
Speaker:relationship. Okay. All right. If I had to, if
Speaker:I had to, if I had to take all of those things you all
Speaker:just said, would the word good work?
Speaker:Okay. So we were created in the likeness
Speaker:of good, right? Purity,
Speaker:righteousness, holiness, peacefulness, pure
Speaker:love, right? That was the image. It was not this. This
Speaker:wonderful thing that's going to dirt. It's not
Speaker:this. It was the image, right? The likeness of
Speaker:what we were created in, right? So when
Speaker:he created us, he created
Speaker:us to hear
Speaker:him. Would you agree?
Speaker:So let's look at— because he's the one who created us,
Speaker:let's look at Genesis
Speaker:2:8-9, for just a second.
:8-9, "And the Lord God
:planted a garden, an oasis in the east, in Eden,
:delight, land of happiness. And he put the man
:whom he had formed, created, there. And in the garden,
:the Lord God caused to grow from the ground every tree
:that is desirable and pleasing to the sight and good for food." and
:good, suitable, pleasant for food. The tree of life
:was also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of
:knowledge, recognition of the difference between
:good and evil. Then I want us
:to go to 2:16, 2:16 and 17,
:okay? And the Lord commanded— there he is speaking again—
:the man, saying, 'You may freely,
:unconditionally eat the fruit from every tree of the garden,
:but only from the tree of knowledge, recognition of
:good and evil, you shall not eat. Otherwise, on
:that day you eat from it, you shall
:most certainly die because
:of your disobedience,' is what the Amplified says. Interesting.
:So, Does God speak?
:Yes! If we don't do anything
:else this morning, can we please clarify
:that? Does God speak?
:I'd love to say all the time.
:He definitely speaks. So, I'm gonna do a little
:bit of history, if that's okay with you. From Genesis to
:Malachi, there are 20— 39 books in the Old Testament,
:right? And I have another Bible
:that was my very, very first study Bible that I got years ago,
:and it's falling apart, and so I'm a little embarrassed,
:so I don't bring it in public. So I got this new Bible,
:this Amplified Bible, so you all see that. But my first
:study Bible, I I read, because
:from Malachi to Matthew, it gives a little bit
:of the history of just life in general, what
:was happening with the Israelites. And I read something that I wanna
:share with you that I thought was so interesting. It said this:
:For more than 400 years, the heavens
:seemed to close to the nation of Israel. They
:heard nothing from God.
:Now we know, we started from the beginning, we know that God speaks. We
:know that. We've already clarified that. He speaks. So
:the question is, what's happening?
:Is it the speaking, or is it maybe
:something else, right? Seems. The
:word seems. That it means— it's
:a verb— the impression of being.
:Can we agree that that simply means it's not
:necessarily true? There's an impression
:of it, right? So it's not necessarily true.
:Why does God seem silent?
:Well, we already clarified
:that he speaks. Yes, do we agree? He speaks.
:So why does he seem silent? Well,
:we also recognize with the word "seem" that is
:not necessarily true.
:So, I believe the Holy Spirit has helped me with 3 things,
:3 points of why does God seem
:silent, because it's not him. Who is it,
:y'all?
:As they used to say in the good old days, "Womp, there it is."
:The problem is us. And so, I
:titled this "Spiritual Static."
:Spiritual static. We have
:spiritual static in our life.
:And with this spiritual static, I've broke it down, like I said, into
:3 places that I believe that we struggle with.
:And the first is we are deceived.
:Can you say deceived? Deceived is to
:cause to accept as true or valid
:what is false or invalid.
:So In Genesis 3:1-6,
:here we go. Now, here's Genesis 3:1-6. I knew I had it.
:Here it is. Genesis 3:1-6. I'm gonna read
:this. Now, the serpent was more crafty,
:skilled in deceit, than any
:living creature of the field which the Lord God
:had made. And the serpent, Satan, said to the woman,
:can it really be that God 'God has said you
:shall not eat from any tree of the garden.' And the
:woman said to the serpent, 'We may eat
:fruit from the trees of the garden, except the fruit from the tree which
:is in the middle of the garden. God said
:you shall not eat from it nor touch it, otherwise
:you will die.' But the serpent said to the woman,
:'You certainly will not die.' Now,
:in my book, there's an exclamation mark. So I'mma do that
:again. "But the serpent said to the woman, 'You certainly
:will not die! For God knows that on
:that day you—' or, 'On the day you eat from it,
:your eyes will be opened.'" That is, you will
:have greater awareness. Hmm. "And you will
:be like God, knowing the difference between good
:and evil." And when the woman saw that the
:tree was good for food, and it was
:delightful to look at, and the tree to be
:desired in order to make one wise and
:insightful, she took some of its fruit
:and ate it. And she also gave some to her
:husband with her, and he ate it. Now,
:y'all, That was a lot. That was a lot
:right there. And so I'm not even gonna try to unpack it all, okay? But
:I'm gonna tell you a couple of things. When I was reading
:this, the Lord reminded me
:at the beginning, what was the first thing that God said after he
:made them in the image? Does anybody remember what he said?
:Say it again. Well, he did say that. He said that a little later. It
:was something that I was reading, actually, this morning. He said, "To be
:fruitful and multiply." He actually said that second. Good job. You're with
:me. He said he
:was going to give them authority over
:what? All the things.
:Even the things that were crawling, that were creepy, right?
:The fish. You all, Eve had
:authority over
:the serpent. Things that make you go, "Hmm."
:Now, listen, I'm a teacher. I totally understand authority.
:I teach people this high. I teach people this high.
:Now, when I teach people this high, I don't have a problem with saying, "Sit
:down." Just like that.
:Now, when I teach people this high, I don't say it like that. I
:say, "You know what? I think it would be wise for you, at this
:moment, to have a seat." There's a difference.
:Okay? Now, both ways I told them what to do.
:But there's a difference. This serpent comes, all she had to say was,
:"Pfft. Nope. Sit down.
:Uh-uh." So, I said, "Lord, well—" That was the
:first time I actually paid attention to that. She had
:authority over.
:So Satan tempted her
:by getting her to doubt goodness. Now, looky
:here. Now, let's go back. Let's go back. What are all the things that God
:said could happen? You got authority. All of this stuff, you got authority over.
:See that stuff up there? Authority. Stuff right there? Authority. Then
:he said, be fruitful. Now, all the youth are gone, so I think I'm
:good. Okay, we all know what be fruitful means.
:Okay, that was fun. Not only are you
:authority, authority, authority, go have some fun. He
:blessed them. The Word says he blessed them. He gave
:them everything. All of this is yours, right there,
:yours, right there, that's yours, right in the back, yep,
:yours. But listen, this thing right
:here This— do not eat from
:this, because on this day you will know something that
:you haven't known. Now here's the key.
:Evil— because remember we said the image was good. Evil was
:already creeping around. Evil was
:already there. The problem was they had never been
:disobedient. We heard about
:disobedience this morning already. The evil was
:there, right? But they were all good, and they had
:authority, and they had everything. Don't be
:disobedient. But the enemy was able
:to deceive. One of our
:spiritual statics is we get
:deceived. Okay, there was a time
:in my life— I'm gonna tell you the last time I did a cartwheel. The
:last time I did a cartwheel. I was at a party, okay? I was at
:a kid party. I was dressed up as Barbie and feeling good, okay? It
:was a costume party, and I was like, "Yeah, I'm doing this." And they were
:like, "Do a cartwheel." "Sure!" Did a cartwheel. And then I— "Sure!"
:Did a cartwheel. And my girlfriend— thank you,
:Jesus— she said, "Vonda, do you think you're doing a cartwheel?" I
:said, "Girl, yeah, I'm doing a cartwheel." And let me tell you why I thought
:I was doing a cartwheel. I stood.
:I went, both of my hands touched the ground. My
:head felt that I was upside down.
:And I landed. Isn't that a cartwheel? Well,
:what she did was she videoed me.
:I was very appreciative to the video. I saw the video, and
:I saw that I was deceived.
:That was not a cartwheel. That was the last time I did
:a cartwheel. But it
:felt like it was a cartwheel. It felt like it to
:my body, my physical flesh. It felt like it to my
:brain. I was upside down.
:And my feet were off the ground.
:But I was deceived.
:We are deceived often.
:And we do not even recognize that we're
:deceived because the enemy has a way
:to present it. You all, we are human beings.
:The enemy deceived one-third of
:angels. Angelic! I still— it still
:blows my mind. What did he say to them?
:Because it's not like he was trying to give them any power, because he was
:trying to take it all for himself. He deceived them.
:Who am I, a human being without
:the Holy Spirit?
:He's already told us I can do nothing without him.
:We are also in places
:of lack of surrenderance due to our desire
:to be independent.
:Eve was deceived because she had a
:desire, because the enemy said,
:"You'll be like God." Here's the thing, we
:are created in his image, so we all want
:to be 'Like the image, but we
:are not God.' But he
:deceived her, and she thought,
:'I—' You know what? 'Yes, I
:can be like God.' And
:that is because the exact same thing
:that was in the enemy, he deceives us
:with, and that's called Independent,
:every woman. You know, sorry, sorry, that's a song. I just
:thought about it, you know. Independency. There was a
:song that Whitney, and I am a Whitney fan, I will tell you.
:Sad story, but beautiful voice. That whole song,
:I'm every woman, it's
:all in me. Lies! It
:is not! I wasn't created to be
:all in me. I know that is not
:true. And so many times we take small little
:things, we take them for truth, and then we start walking in them.
:No, I was created
:to be dependent.
:Created to be dependent. I'm not
:independent. In Matthew 16:24, I'm gonna read
:this for you. It says, then Jesus said to
:his disciples, if anyone wishes to follow me as
:my disciples, he must deny himself,
:set aside selfish interests, and take up
:his cross, experiencing the willingness
:to endure whatever may come and
:follow me, believing in me,
:conforming to my— conforming, excuse me, to my
:example and living and if need be,
:suffering or perhaps dying because
:of faith in
:me. The reason why
:Jesus said this to the disciples is because the cross
:actually meant something in the Roman time.
:What the cross actually meant in Roman time was
:Death. When you saw someone
:carrying their cross, they were going
:to die. Period.
:It was a commitment.
:We think carrying our cross is, "I got to carry the
:burden." Now, that
:can't be true because in a different place, It actually says
:I'm not supposed to carry the burden. He actually says he'll carry the
:burden. So there's confusion. That's why it's very
:important to find out and read, my brothers and
:sisters, because this is a
:committed death.
:If you're gonna follow Jesus, you are
:committed to dying. What,
:Vonda? What are we gonna die to?
:Don't get me started. I gotta die to
:my feelings. I gotta die to my flesh.
:I gotta die to my opinion, even in
:America. I gotta die to my pride. I gotta
:die to my fear. I gotta die to my unforgiveness.
:I gotta die to my— I gotta die to my
:I got that to my— I got that to my— right, dot, dot,
:dot. That means there's more to follow.
:Me, it's a committed death,
:but we have static because we don't
:surrender, because we want to be
:dependent. Now listen, I'm very big on—
:I am a very black and white person. The Lord helps me with the gray.
:I'm very black and white. And so to me, if I don't know how something
:works, I need to go to its original purpose.
:Because if you do not know the original purpose of something, you will
:abuse it or it will abuse you inevitably.
:So I was originally created
:to be dependent. So every
:time I try to be independent, I
:will either abuse myself or someone else.
:We already clarified that God
:speaks. Yes? Yes. Let's
:clarify. Let's today— let's today
:let it be known and hold on to it.
:God, help us. Help us today to
:start with the reality The truth that we
:were created to depend on you.
:Help us, God, to get that settled in our spirit,
:settled in our mind, settled on our
:lips. In Jesus' name, amen.
:We were created to depend
:on God.
:We have static because of
:a lack of maturity in and with faith.
:Now I gotta go here. We don't always like to go here, but I'm
:going. James 1.
:Oh, it's like I can't get away from it.
:2-8.
:Consider it nothing but joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you
:fall into various trials. Be assured that the testing of
:your faith through experience produces endurance,
:leading to spiritual maturity and inner peace.
:And let endurance have its perfect result and
:do a thorough work so that you may be
:perfect and completely developed in your faith,
:lacking in nothing. If any of you lacks wisdom
:to guide him through a decision or
:circumstance, he or she is to ask
:of the beloved God, who gives to
:everyone generously and without rebuke or blame, and
:it will be given to you. But he must ask
:for wisdom in faith without doubting.
:Huh. Or the one who doubts
:is like a sea that is blown
:about and tossed by the wind. For such a person
:ought not think or expect that he will receive
:anything from the Lord, being a double-minded
:man, unstable and restless in all
:his ways. Everything he thinks, feels, and
:decides Let's break
:that down. Consider.
:Consider does not mean it has to be. It means think.
:Think about it as pure
:joy. When you are faced with many trials,
:with various trials—
:thank you, Lord, you didn't tell us to do it. You told us to think
:about it. Just think of it as joy. Why, you ask?
:Because there's a process that's happening. And the process
:is that you are being tested. Your
:faith is being tested. Push pause. I just wanna
:fix something really quickly. The world has been saying that God
:is like a teacher when he gives you a test, and he's silent.
:That's not true. I've
:heard pastors say that, and I'm a teacher. Now, Some
:teachers do that. Some teachers are very quiet during a test.
:But in my opinion, which I can give an opinion because I've been in education
:for about over 2 decades, the best
:teacher is the one that when a child has a question,
:she asks or he asks another question to cause them to think.
:See, I'm not trying to give the kid the answer,
:but I want them to think. So for me to just
:say, don't ask me nothing, be quiet, we're taking a test,
:versus I can't give you an answer, baby doll, but I can tell
:you this, or I can ask you this. Because sometimes the Lord will
:ask you questions for you to think.
:If you look in the New Testament, you will
:see all kinds of question marks in red.
:Jesus is wanting us to think. Think.
:Unpause. So,
:the testing of your faith happens for you to produce
:endurance, patience. And then
:endurance must finish its complete work
:so that you can be mature.
:Because it messes up our hearing.
:So we know, does God speak?
:Who has the problem? Okay, and
:we have 3 that are just standing out here. We are deceived,
:we won't surrender, and we're not
:mature. Now I told you a while ago I'm a first grade
:teacher, so I've got I got something to share.
:And that is— oh, thank you, Lord— his Word.
:It says, "I am the vine. You are the branches. If you
:remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit.
:Apart from me you can do—" Say it, people. "Nothing." Say it
:again. "Nothing." "If you do not remain in me, you
:are like a branch that is blown away and withered.
:Such branches are picked up thrown into the fire and burned.
:In other words, they're not about nothing. If you
:remain in me and my words remain in you,
:ask whatever you wish and it will be done for you.
:This is to my Father's glory, that
:you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be
:disciples.
:Active listening. When I was in first grade, I
:taught this every year. Active listening. What does it mean
:to active listening? Because remember, it's not that the Lord
:doesn't speak. It's us. It's because we are not
:listening. So what is active listening? What does active listening look like, sound
:like, and feel like? I'm an educator, so I try to break everything down.
:So here are a couple of things that I'd like to share with you. Active
:listening looks like So
:take all hearing out. What does it look
:like? Reading the Holy Bible.
:It's what it looks like. A person reading
:if they want to. Active listening. Fellowship with
:other Christ followers. It's what it looks like.
:It looks like what's happening right now, us getting together.
:It looks like avoiding places that do not honor the
:Holy Spirit. I was talking to somebody. And
:I was talking— we were talking about a show, and they said, "I can watch
:that show. I didn't let the Holy Spirit see that."
:I was like, "Okay, come on." There are places that you don't need to take
:the Holy Spirit. Okay, I'm just saying.
:I'm just saying. Can you go? Yes. My brother this morning
:said, "There's a lot that I can do, but should I?"
:There are places that you should not take the Holy Spirit.
:Being silent, being still, thinking.
:That's what it looks like. It looks like when
:we're actively listening to God, that we're really slowing down in
:life and we're taking time to listen.
:It looks like tears, frustration,
:joy. Praise, expression.
:When you're listening to God, I just want you to know you're not gonna hear
:everything you want to hear.
:So it may look like, oh, oh God,
:did you not hear what he said to me?
:Did you not hear? And so my face is distraught,
:because that's what it looks like sometimes when you're listening to the
:Lord. Sometimes it looks like this
:because you're overwhelmed. That's what it looks like
:when you're listening to the Lord. It looks
:expressive. It
:looks like Fruit of the
:Spirit. You can see kindness. You
:can see patience. You can see
:goodness. That's what it looks like. Active listening, what does it
:sound like? So this is, you don't see anything. What do
:you hear? What does active listening sound like when
:you're listening to the Lord? Speaking God's word,
:quoting his word out loud. I told
:Jonathan this morning, "Jonathan, I enjoyed
:reading all that last night." He said, "Yeah, I thought there would be a
:couple." I said, "Do you know why?" Sorry, this is where I get
:emotional. There is power,
:real power in the
:Word. Every time you
:speak speak it, power comes into
:the atmosphere. And so this is why people like
:us, we need to stay away from sayings, you know,
:"It's all good." No, it's not all good. But all things
:do work together for the good of those who love the Lord and are called
:according to his purpose. Called according to his purpose, Vonda, check. Love the
:Lord, check. It will work out for my good, but this whole "it's all
:good," no, it ain't. Have y'all not seen the world?
:It's not all good.
:But there is power when I say, "All things
:work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to
:his purpose." There is power in here.
:So, when things happen in your life, speak the
:Word. If you haven't memorized it, get it and
:say it out loud. Watch the atmosphere that you're
:in change because there's power.
:It should sound like you're speaking it. I'm sorry,
:I told you I'm already overwhelmed for the things that the Lord
:is saying to me, but there is power and I
:have authority. I have power because
:of who lives in me, so I can say greater is
:he that lives in me than he that is of the world,
:because there is power in
:this, and I got it.
:It sounds like discussing words
:for a better understanding.
:And I said discussing for a better understanding because
:I'm not gonna argue about what God said.
:I ain't got to argue with nobody about what the Lord said. I ain't got
:time for that. I think it's interesting how people think you got time. Listen, I'm
:a principal at a school, and I have to talk about people's dress
:attire, right? And they'll say, "Well, Miss Copeland, she always gets on me." And I
:think to myself, do you really think I get up in the morning and say,
:"Ooh, I'm going to work today, and I'mma find 3 people out of dress
:code"? Is that really what you think I
:do? I want you to logically think of
:that. I ain't got time for that. I got a lot of stuff I have
:to do. I don't have time to explain and
:argue what somebody else said.
:But we can discuss it and unpack it. That's what we're doing right
:now, y'all. That's all we're doing. That's what it should sound
:like. Got time to be arguing with somebody about the Bible.
:It sounds like silence.
:People get very uncomfortable with silence,
:but if you plan on listening to the Lord, you better shut your mouth.
:Period. It sounds
:like the fruit of the Spirit. We have
:an interesting saying: "Is my name
:safe in your mouth?"
:It sounds like
:the fruit of the Spirit. Not just what we see, but
:now I should hear someone say, Oh, well,
:that doesn't sound like Pastor Barbie to me. I've never known her to
:slap somebody in the face. But that's what you say happened? Oh,
:well, I've never known her to slap anybody.
:Not— I'm sorry, what? She slapped who? Girl!
:Sorry.
:Sorry, I apologize. It
:sounds like the fruit of the Spirit. Active
:listening feels like— now before I show you any of these,
:I'm using the word feel. I want you to pay attention
:to what active listening feels like.
:It feels purposeful.
:It feels like I was created to
:depend on this God-breathing
:stars being,
:and I'm not here for nothing,
:that I'm on earth with a purpose,
:and I don't have to do it by myself.
:Because I wasn't created to do it by myself,
:but I can do all things through Christ who strengthens
:me. It feels
:purposeful. It
:feels important
:that it's not about me.
:But it's about Him and the glory that He
:gets. And He gave me an
:opportunity to say
:yes and to be used
:in any way He chooses, because
:He created me. I didn't create
:Wanda. He did.
:So it feels important.
:It feels like I'm heard.
:My brother said on his way home,
:he said, I want you to get him a suit because
:they need to know that I hear them.
:God hears you.
:He created you. He
:hears you.
:But what a glorious feeling to know that
:God heard my cry,
:that he hears me when I Call him,
:that he sees me.
:And even though I say, Lord, that hurt, that hurt,
:he said that and that hurt.
:And if I'm listening, I can hear him say,
:Wanda, give me your heart, for I'm the
:healer of the brokenhearted. Heart. For
:I'm close to you, Wanda, because I'm close
:to the brokenhearted. So
:it feels like
:I'm seen.
:It feels like I'm loved.
:It feels like I'm loved.
:That I'm cared for.
:Guys, God speaks all the time.
:Where is our hearing?
:Please understand, I'm not saying
:that life is the way I think it should be, and that's probably part
:of the problem.
:Because he has a purpose.
:I get to choose to be obedient,
:and there is satisfaction and pleasure
:in obedience. Stand to
:your feet.
:When we abide in him, when we remain in him,
:we can ask anything
:that aligns with his will,
:and he'll give it. He's not quiet.
:Open up our ears, Lord. I know we're about to have worship
:and we're gonna close in prayer, but I personally
:repeat the prayer from the beginning. Open up our
:eyes to see you. Open up our
:ears to hear you. And
:God, soften this desired
:heart to be independent to be dependent, to settle
:with the fact that you created us to be dependent upon
:you. In Jesus' name.
:So in response to that word, if you will just gather together
:with 2 or 3 around you, uh, right now, go and find 2 or
:3 around you. Move. That's a moving word.
:2 or 3 around you and lock hands with them. And
:this is what we're going to do. We're just going to take a few moments
:here with the Holy Spirit,
:and we're just going to ask the Lord to help us to surrender
:our will to his and that he would give us
:ears to hear when he is speaking to
:us, that our voice would become quiet and his would become
:much louder. So let's just take a few moments and pray.
:Lord, we surrender our will to you.
:Our voice, we surrender it. We silence ourselves and we ask,
:Lord, that your voice would be louder than
:all other voices and we would listen.
