God Talks with Rev. Goodwin featuring Bishop Yvette Flunder

hello everyone I want to welcome you to the inaugural God talks with Reverend Goodwin we have an amazing and dynamic guest tonight with bishop event Flender why did I want to start this series with Bishop Flender for many of us she has been a mentor for many of us she's adopted us to welcome us into a theology of radical inclusion Bishop Thunder is a pastor she is a preacher she is a teacher most importantly she's the presiding prelate of the Fellowship of affirming ministries and for I feel like all of her life she has been dedicated to making more room at the table for each and every one of us and for folks who haven't even discovered the wonderment that is Bishop Thunder I hope that tonight and many other nights will be an opportunity for them to be welcomed into who she is we're gonna begin tonight with a quick clip from Bishop under the there one reason I want to share this is that this clip is from I think about 2013 and yet seven years ago the prophetic musings of our Bishop is still relevant to our world today so take a minute and enjoy this quick clip political environment who do you choose well let me tell you just fun minute can I take just a minute in it I choose a candidate by how they tend to the road not just for how they promised to care for the citizenry after a calamity has occurred because if you lay down a dangerous road in your pants don't tell me that now you're going to care about me and my safety I want to know where's your track records because the people who traveled on the road that you just got through laying down say that that road has been extremely dangerous to them into their survival somebody said what kind of role do you want to see I said I wanna see a road that leads to equal access to education for black youth and immigrant youth in those who can't get along from their parents leads to affordable health care for all of our frail elderly and coerced families and for people with pre-existing conditions and sisters and brothers son Bishop under prophetic words I can't I feel like I was watching something that literally you just recorded a week ago because it's so relevant to our world today and I think that's just a sign of the prophetic gift that is within you so thank you so much for sharing your time if you know anything about Bishop Thunder you probably know she is Facebook liveing zooming any other streaming service almost every night of the week and I think it's a it's really a work of her heart as she's sharing I think a message of relevance of message of inclusive inclusion and welcome to each and every one of us so Bishop I love you and thank you so much for spending some time on God talks with Reverend Goodwin it's an idea Thank You Bishop we're gonna jump right in with a question I we showed a clip I've told people a little bit about many of the ways in which you are known in this world and I actually could have spent the entire hour talking about all of your keynotes and the ways in which we've attempted to honor some of the gifts in you well my question is a person who is close maybe one of your closest friends how might they describe who Bishop Abed Flender is well first let me say I deeply appreciate the opportunity to share with you and our kindred all over who are listening and watching us this evening in this interesting and peculiar season of Kovach 19 and preparing for an election cycle imagine both of those realities at the same time but I think that the way I would likely be described most is as a spiritual entrepreneur I come from a family of church planters and folks who originated ministry me in places in some cases where there was a dearth of a presence of ministry and so I see myself and I believe I am seen as an entrepreneur someone who who begins my grandmother used to say that breaks ground and create something or believes that something can be established it may not have a precedent may not have a clear and distinct and succinct precedent thank you for saying that and I'm going to deviate from the next question I had to talk a little bit about that most of the time entrepreneurial attitudes and the church are similar people these diametrically opposed concepts and you just brought them together spiritual entrepreneurship what happened in you that you were able to bring these two concepts together seamlessly and in many respects they are a hallmark of your ministry well I think it's best to say that I began my walk thinking that it was justice or Jesus people who were deeply engaged in justice work were concerned about the the way of life and the presence of peace and justice and such in the present time and I was very strongly connected to eschatological realities at that time thinking thinking about trying to get to heaven honey just on my way to heaven that was really what it was about so it was for me justice or Jesus and then I grew from justice or Jesus to justice and Jesus and I began to see the connection between the work and ministry of Jesus the ways in which he was also arrested and and executed by a combination of religion and Empire so I saw justice and Jesus working together concomitant ly in interesting and powerful ways as much I could say about that but as I'm continuing to look closely I am seeing what I call justice for Jesus which is it and another wave of awareness for me because there's so much we missed I believe of the life of Jesus because we have so spiritual eyes his humanity that we cannot see his humanity as divine which means we also don't see ourselves often as divine and so just as for Jesus for me is to lift up what is essentially something that God said to Abraham when he called him friend and jesus said to the disciples you are my friends essentially the connection between humanity and divinity for me now has very little distance if any there's divinity in my humanity and there is humanity in my divinity God comes down God lifts me up and we have an opportunity to look one another in the eye I believe that that is the intent of the heart of God for God's creation I like that it makes me wonder then how is that theological proposition right this just isn't this how does that inform what is your personal vision and mission and then share a little bit with us about what is mission there's personal vision and mission for your life I am I'm intrigued by words that are attributed to Jesus first of all Jesus did not write anything that we know of but there are words that are attributed to Jesus when Jesus says not only you are my friends but jesus said essentially paraphrase I'm going away and I've done great things but greater things will you do I am completely intrigued by that and what in the world does that mean given what we have ascribed to both the deity and the works of Jesus so I think that my growth in my faith has now informed my vision and mission and it took me a little while to get beyond religion to relationship and to understand that the two are not the same but religion is very much connected to cultural understandings of God and we do things religiously that we don't even know their origin anymore we're not even really sure why we do them but we're comfortable because it's the way we've always done it I've heard that question answered that way many times honey this is the way we've always done and there's a comfortability yes we have so many different kinds of religions within the same religions we have different kinds of people different races different sounds different social strata and that's primarily because we are more culture really than anything else when we meet together as religion and and I don't say that it's just a fact but religion and relationship to the divine an ear that is to the heart of God what is God saying in this time what ought we be doing in this time what are we trying to protect that was from another time that actually needs to be jettisoned in this time if we are if our ears to the heart of God we would understand that those two things are not the same and so what I seek am I going forward is the courage to keep what we should keep and release into our pain that's what we should release that's what I'm seeking for I want to know what is the now word of God for the gatherings of believers what does it look like I will say to you in our photograph here we have a picture of a church building I think I see it there and some cues it's beautiful but perhaps it's time to take the pews up and turn it into something else perhaps it's time to move away from theater-style Church and into something else that allows us to be more communal perhaps we need to find faith and hope in other kinds of realities in other settings perhaps the sacrament if it can be a little bitty team kind of juice in a cracker perhaps it can be a coffee and a bagel you know who knows but that there is something else that we can move to if our faith is informed essentially by vision and mission for this time and we move beyond religion to relationship so I imagine that I'm a person watching this and maybe I'm watching it because I'm curious but I'm also a little bit defensive and maybe I'm work maybe it isn't even defense as much as it's uninformed curiosity and you talked about a context of justice and Jesus what would you say to someone watching and hearing some of the profound things you're saying but they have never seen justice with Jesus because how Jesus has been presented or the package in which that's been offered has been the exact opposite it's been far more justice how what's an invitation to enter in and be able to walk alongside justice and Jesus there's a very very first of all it's a very powerful statement and I think that the thing I would most say that I preached a sermon that was that was called go get your Jesus someone has stolen your Jesus go and get your Jesus and I think that we have to first of all understand in the context of today's world let's look around and what people are saying that they are doing in the name of Jesus that somehow the Jesus icing on the cake can in some ways justify injustice if it's sort of those those incredible paradoxes like that the times of chattel slavery and just after that the wickedness of Jim Crow and realities that someone could have a full on Southern Baptist perhaps or Methodist service and then after that service Lynch a black man for entertainment and eat chicken and watermelon at the same time how is that conceivably possible unless you have turned your Jesus into being complicit with all of those acts there's something that you had done to your Jesus to put your Jesus as icing on your already existing hatred cake yes and I think that what we have to do is go back and we have to have justice for Jesus it is time for us to remove Jesus from the things that justify our hatred where do we get that and where did we get the license not only from what we believe Jesus said but even from what anybody is saying he said during the time of his earthly experience how can we save Jesus not how does Jesus save but how can we say Jesus and I would say that beloved who are trying to understand people have stolen Jesus this Palestinian Jew this brown man has been turned into something very different than who he was and understand that he was killed he was murdered by that combination of Empire and Church working together he was murdered just like Martin Luther King was murdered he was murdered there's no question about it and that combination of religion and Empire is trying to murder a lot of things and a lot of people again it is going on now anyone who will not allow injustice to be empowered by religion has a target on your back but I can tell you as a person who has had this experience for the better part of my life what is the song that says tis so sweet to trust in Jesus and just to take him at Kings word I believe in it with all my heart and that is what truly occupies my heart and my mind and my thoughts and I encourage other people to have your thoughts and your minds occupied with an understanding of how God through God's prophets and people bring peace to the earth it is our job it is our task not to just get to heaven but to bring heaven that's what I love thy kingdom come Thy will be done on we're not gone yet on earth as it is in heaven the realm of God on earth is the responsibility of the church I want you don't remember anything else that I said tonight bringing the realm of God to earth is the responsibility of religion on earth so holding that bishops I'm thinking about you began this conversation by sharing you sort of grew up with an eschatological understand thank you know you know there's not much love one way again you're at a place now where you're saying no actually we established the kingdom of God now yes tell me some things that season the journey so that you can move from the eschatological place to bring heaven now what are some stories you have in your own life that help season that path well probably the thing that I am the most appreciative for God permitting in my life was for me to be others to be exiled because I suspected if I had not been exiled in truth Reverend Goodwin this has been a good one if I had not been exiled I would be sitting under a really big hat on the front row somewhere I would never have thought that I would be able to plant churches I would never have thought that I would have spent time with standing before the Supreme Court or standing on the steps of the Supreme Court have been in council with presidents I would never have thought that I could ever have been an open and honest same-gender loving woman not because I wasn't surrounded by saying gentle loving people in the church that reared me the difference was I chose to tell the and it created an exile for me I chose to tell the truth that I believe that though I am a woman I have a full charge of ministry not a semi charge of ministry not a truncated charge of ministry I believe that then and I believe it now and it was those realities that exiled me but I never would have known what was possible for me had I not been exiled and now when I turned back I think about Moses the story of Moses he would have stayed of course he would have stayed he was a justice person but he was justice on the down-low you know he he felt it was wrong for the Egyptians to acute abuse the Hebrew slaves but he wanted to look both ways before he took what he thought was a justice move but he ventually he got found out and as he was being found out caused him to be exiled and in his exile he led a number of people to their freedom that is the essence of the story well I feel the same way I thank God for my exile because I didn't know there was a world out here like this this this is the culture of church you just don't know often beyond what it is that you have known most of your life and there is no true impetus to know when you feel comfortable in the place where you are thanks be to God and then when I got out here I found out that I needed a bit more theological education and in three degrees after that I understood that first of all I had I had learned a lot in my own self learning but I needed a context a way to connect the dots in my theological mind and I thank God for theological education particularly to those who think that it's beyond you and above you I'm trying to tell you honey sometimes I say just look at some of the people who graduated you'll be just fine you are brilliant enough to be a person of color a gay person or a woman and you survived in these times you can get through theological education trust me raising children on $2.50 you can get through theological education right well I found out that there after I connected the dots that in the midst all of it there is God I see myself in the mind of God before I was formed in my mother's womb precursor to my being I was sent from eternity into time on assignment and I didn't want to miss my son and then the more my assignment became clear to me the more was clear to me that the God that called me is the God that would enable me and what burst forth in my imagination the things that I needed to know I asked God help me unlearn Alleluia I wanted to unlearn what I need to unlearn unpack what I need to unpack and then learn and take on what I needed to take on so that I can be of assistance I can be a help in the realm of God to bring the realm of God to the earth that's that's the heart of it so I have an only image of a very angry and sensitive godson very angry and very sensitive and I stay scared of God all the time until God began to reveal godself to me yes and I can I can remember the time in my life where I was just sort of crawled up in God's lap figuratively without a whole lot of expectations I just felt that I could and lay my head on God's God's breast and and listen for God's heart and and and not be afraid and not be afraid of the people that described another god I'm grateful for that but I found those things in its eyes so that would be the greatest possible thing that could have happened to me I'm a castaway hallelujah and I was so glad about it hallelujah because I got out here and found this a ton of castaways you know there's a whole lot of us and there are a lot of us that need to reframe our thinking about our relationship with God Bishop if you if you look at your life one of the things that I um invite people to think about is the path that you're on do you see fruit it be fruit then I think it is a witness that you are walking within your call and your life has so much fruit now and as you decided to be in that exile place but I want to go back to bischoff under as a little girl growing up in the church in Christ with a famine steeped in leadership and hadith in leadership but I would imagine that they had some visions about who might be I might press that I think it was probably far more than just sitting on the front view of a hat but they had a number of things that you would be some folks who are watching this they are currently in a church dynamic where they are rooted and grounded and they have Emily who's planted on them a series of things that you will be if only you stay with that image of God of the angry sensitive God can you about what in you allowed you to not abandon but walk away from someone else's narrative about who you ought to be based on family mission and history - room for who God was destined for you to be mm-hmm what helped you say you know I can walk away from those visions to see the vision that God has mm-hmm such a powerful powerful statement and it has again to do with the concept of exile because exile does require that you walk alone for a time do you know that before Jesus began his ministry in earnest the text says he went to the wilderness be tempted by Satan mmm yes and the text says that all of the things that would essentially be offered to you if you'd be a sellout were offered to him fame power money and I think the say can the voice of gain without godliness can I put it that way okay I had the power to give it to him - it would have been a ridiculous exercise in futility if the voice was not able to give it to him I told you I'm seeking justice for Jesus you know it's important humanitarian energies and but he said no get thee behind me get behind me I am NOT going to sell out even though I may have to walk a bitter path by myself he came out of the wilderness and went from there to the synagogue his home synagogue and read from the scroll of Isaiah one action happened right after the other and the scroll of Isaiah said and the Spirit of the Lord is upon me you know the rest debris the tidings to the poor right so essentially he had to be able to stand and to walk alone I can tell you that exile is a holy place that's where you meet God that's also where you understand that there's a choice that has to be made in that place and at that time let me say it another way I have had a dream that has reoccurred not almost every time in my life when I have had incredible choices to make that meant I had to leave some people and some things and move on to something else and when I'm really feeling in covenant it's very painful for me to have to make those decisions but and in this dream what happens as I come to the edge of a cliff and I can hear a voice that beckons to me and I know it to be the voice of God and it says jump and I look off in the clip and I can see this chasm that is deep such that there are clouds at the very bottom it's that kind of long way down I can't even see the floor and I remember often in my struggling that I speak back to what I know is God and I say I'm not doing that I'm gonna shoot a guy and there's gonna hurt really really bad before I die and I will be a large grease spot at the bottom of the Sun I'm just not going to do that I remember I in my sleep in I mean real disagreement I am NOT gonna do this and then I asked God I started making deals with God I say things like I tell you what God what I'll do is I will build something magnificent for you right on the edge of this cliff yes and we will be able to look out of the back windows and see the Clift and and imagine what it might be like I'm gonna build something so fantastic right here right here though on the edge right here I'm gonna build you something on the edge and the voice always comes back and says jump and in my sleep you'd be amazed at all the different things I offer God while I'm in my sleep trying not to jump and eventually in the dream I give up I surrender and I say okay obviously I'm going to die this is what I need show me how I'm gonna survive it and that seems to be always my last question how will I survive this nothing ever comes except jump and eventually in the dream I jump and before anything happens there's a freefall that's what I will say to our friends that are listening now there is a fall somewhere between where they were and where you are going that's what you learn God in that freefall where God preserves your life even though it looks like it's going to be impossible for you to survive and in that freefall I remember thinking my goodness I'm falling a mighty long time when is the ground and somehow other each time I dream it something catches me and delivers me to the other side of this chasm gently and clearly and when I get to the other side I can see things that I could not see from the side that I jumped from and I remember often asking God if you had showed me how wonderful this was going to be I would have jumped a long time ago and that's the rest of it to you you my beloved some of it you're not gonna see until you do you won't know all of it until you take that faith step and allow yourself to fall fully into the hands of the God that made you and called you and best in you to be who it needs that you are called to be and to do what it is you were called to do it won't get the details until you jump that is what I have learned and I've jumped a lot and I'm out here as a woman as the same gender loving woman as a black woman in places where I was told I could not be for any of the reasons that I just lift it up but I can tell you that the jump was clearly worth bishop what I appreciate about you is not only do you jump but I think you have a track record of inviting a whole bunch of other folks to jump we shoot so you know as a group my question for you is I want to focus on a little bit of the tenderness of the jump for grown folks again they're listening they might even be at the place that you've been and they they they're at that edge and they have found this courage that you found and they're they're about to jump but they've only heard of the other side like what's your job baby it's gonna be good everything's gonna be but people don't often talk about well sometimes that exile hurts yeah it's painful it's there's a grieving part can you tell us how did you push through if you've fully pushed through the grieving because after you're in the exo after you jump and you're walking towards what God is what God will reveal how did you deal with that how did you do with the grief the pain and maybe the struggle as you're waiting for the Lord to carry you on over to the next thing probably the closest thing that I would say there's many many different kinds of grief and bereavement and the sense of the word and for me it would probably be my family my I have a highborn kojic family Church of God in Christ family my grandfather Walter Bishop Mason we're talking about you know you know right out of the the experience and I was I was I spent time at Saints junior college the Church of God in Christ school that was built on the land owned by the Church of them Christ right down the street from the jigna church had is his first sight and and I had some generations of bishops and church mothers and district missionaries and district superintendents and my uncle my most recent past uncle who passed away not long ago which Wilbur Hamilton was the general secretary of the Church of God in Christ and on a general board my family my mother all my folks were very well known in kanji and so in being part of sort of a kojic family almost a kojic royal family and to become essentially the the odd person out for several reasons meant to lose the culture but not just the culture to be absent from my family because part of the rules is that if you leave in some ways you have to come back correctly it would have meant some admission that I had missed God thinking that I should be ordained as a woman or that I had missed God thinking that my life could please God and might be in a relationship with a woman and in that he's not my prayer partner we're solutions we do pray together but she's not my magic she she's I couldn't pretend do you see what I'm saying that I my love for her is authentic and genuine and for 35 years and and during that time the season of my life I realized that I could not pretend I could not diminish my relationship with her by pretending I didn't learn to be same-gender loving outside of the church I learned it in the church hmm I learned my human sexuality came all the way up to bear essentially in the church everything I knew about human sexuality I learned in the church I just did poorly because we lied so much about it either overtly or covertly it was just the reality of it you know so I stayed like many of my friends and colleagues did if I had followed the rules in that way so for me to come back is one of the thanks said to me once when in sort of when I was very young it's sort of understood who I was becoming she said now baby what you need to do is find your little husband I said what she said you need to find you a little husband and then just get married and did you can just be whoever you need and I thought what an interesting thing and have someone tell me at a very young age find me a little husband that diminishes my little husband and me you see and and so there were ways that it could have been done but it didn't work for me and so to lose all of that for the sake of integrity and I need somebody to hear that to lose your church family in order to maintain your integrity to lose your blood family in order to maintain the integrity of your call that's an incredible price but it was a price that I had to pay if I was going to be Who I am now and do what I'm called to do so yes it was incredibly painful and I was without my mother for a period of time and I was praying one day and I asked God maybe for five years we were at odds and I asked God I said I said I want my mother back I miss my mother we're born on the same day 22 years apart and I passed over many a birthday without celebrating with my mother I want my mother back and while I was praying I was weeping before God God spoke I know it was gone one word shopping I said shut then I thought I come home with on Monday and I said mama is me she said yeah she said I know it's you that's the way she's dancing I said so I'm coming to get you yes ma'am I'm coming to get you where are we going I said we're going shopping she said what kind of shopping I said we're going off if we're going to Norseman's wreck and we're going to that what's that other one last call I saw that's all we going so she pause for a minute but just for a minute she said what time you come I said I'll be there I wouldn't got my money and that began Monday's than me and my mother shot together and we had a absolute ball me and my mother we talked about everything but Church in religion we just talked and then we had another Monday and then we had another money finally my mother started asking me some questions she began by saying but I just don't understand any better I just don't understand that's the world mama my understanding of that is such-and-such and so-and-so and she and one day when we were talking we were really talking she said shut up Yvette I said okay what was that about she said because if what you were saying is true I think I had believed all of my life that I did not have to believe things that I did that I did not have to do she said you do understand that that makes me feel like a fool so which I said mama I think you put your finger on why change is so hard when you have done it for so long just the doing of it makes it right yeah whether it is really right for you or not and if you've never heard me say it wasn't long after that and my seriously super say sho'nuff kojic mama came to my front door ringing my doorbell ding ding ding ding ding ding ding ding I know cuz mom and I opened the door and there was mama never seen in a pair of pants but there was mama in this JLo pantsuit with a cap on that had sequins in it and loosen tennis shoes with a little jewelry did it Bob something I opened a door I said mama she said yes I said well how you doing she said well I just came by to tell you I'm free got in my car and drove off and left me standing it looking at it I guess if you are if you have to feel exile in order to be and to do and to become who it is that you are called being become if you are authentically in that place love will win over town it will win have to forgive the people not for their sake but for yours who have offended you some of them living some of them did but the ones that are living sometimes it's good to just send them a note and tell them I forgive you entirely and the ones that I did sometimes a ritual is good if you can't get to the gravesite or somewhere like that write them a note send them a write him a note and and and and have a ceremony over it something that you do that ends the control of those realities in your life so that you can pick up now and move on if you have to essentially experience exile then how about benefit from exile go on and jump you're halfway jumping so go ahead on and take the leap and go on into the hands of God it takes courage to do the kind of work that Scott pecks notion of a road less traveled really involves everyone wants to take the beaten path but some of us are called by God to take the road list that's how we get from one place to the next as it relates to faith otherwise we would all be in Jerusalem talk to me yes but somebody took the courage to move to another place to another place to another place to another place in another way and God is calling a lot of Trailblazers out there who think that you are in exile because you are being punished by God but no God is honing your skills because you're gonna have to be Moses one day and you will have to have the courage to move people to the place that God has called them to be I hope that's helpful you asked me a short question oh no I'm trying to maintain myself at my feet holding that bishop what are the privileges I had as many of the folks who are watching this had an opportunity to see you and your mother and worship together yeah it's an opportunity to see your mother pray over us and win and for us and my question is some folks are gonna again watch this and they're either thinking it's all or nothing I you have to throw away everything that I had to accept all of all this new or I'm gonna have to rob from this one too but somehow you often describe yourself as about the meth acosta how how have you found the ability to use your foundation but to breathe in this ecology that allows you to have the clarity of mind and purpose that is theologically grounded but run across the room if you need to have talked to is owned the road together as opposed to throwing it away in sort of only moving in one direction it's sort of connected to the baby in the bath water and being able to discern what is the baby and what is the bathwater there are some things that are just absolutely cultural and not necessary they are not wicked in many cases they're just not necessary and I can say that I say that cautiously and carefully and even necessary may sound like a harsh word because it may be necessary for some but I can say that the importance of knowing the difference in the baby in the bath water can help you to even understand the good in someone who does things that you have core you're able to find it and I had to find a way and the strength to know what it is I love about the Church of my origin the way that I was taught my theological education friends tell me sometimes stop telling people you were Pentecostal because they'll have pejorative assumptions of you you know it's like stop telling stop telling the Pentecostals that I belong to the United Church of Christ Church price and the theological education institutions that I'm a Pentecostal because I am all of them and some it is some baby and some bathwater in both of those experiences and I have been able for my own self and then hopefully been able to model that before those that I serve that you got to be able to know the baby from the bathwater Charles Jones who was contemporary to Bishop Mason as you may know is in many ways the father the holiness movement the Jesus only movement for those of you that may not know the baptism in Jesus name being different from the baptism in the name of the Father Son and Holy Ghost essentially was a cure or a huge division between one group of holiness folks and another group of holiness folks all of which have kind of fallen to the part of Pentecostals but well the truth is Charles Jones was a was a songwriter and the singer Charles Harrison mason was in many ways very much connected to his indigenous African roots and folks don't like me to say that but in in most of the churches where we were turn to go in Christ people there was a picture of Bishop Mason and a table of fruit and vegetables and roots and that's an indigenous African reality to be able to read vegetables and read roots and the folks didn't like saying that he was a route reader but he was and and he saw it as a holy thing that he could bring over into his being spirit filled and and and from the Azusa Street movement Charles Jones took his wherewithal to write music and he wrote the song I will make the darkness light who they were into this spirit baptism and then they got separated around X two and four and acts 2:38 which is amazing to me and go off in separate directions such that one group thought the other group wasn't say my mind it's amazing to me but a baby in the bath water I think our challenge now is to determine what is the baby and what is the bathwater don't just throw the whole tub out because you'll throw out the baby but don't leave the baby forever in dirty bathwater that's not good either gotta be able to differentiate what to keep and what is customary and no longer of any use why do we have to be divided yes and I want to go I'm gonna dig just a little deeper and say that I am aware that I have more stuff that I need to get that in mind I am I am an evil I have an African tradition that shows up if you turn the volume down on us on a religious ceremony for the for people who are Yerba or people who are wudood a Santeria you turn the volume down and get an old Pentecostal service on in another place and turn the volume down and watch and see if it's not the same dance if it's not the same moves if it's not the same possession of spirit when we say when you're under the power come on you know you and I know they're real we've been on the floor together we understand these things what does this mean when we release our sells into the hands of the Spirit of God with reckless abandon do whatever you want to do with me just let me come up better than I went down that bad sense of it we got that we don't know that Jesus danced the two-step but we do so we've got that from our indigenous African heritage which was vilified and demonized now I want to go back and I welcome the Celtic folks to go back I welcome the people who with Asian history to go back and get back what was colonized out of you and demonized and vilified and find out where was the baby and where was the bathwater and I'll finally tell you this will get me in trouble with a few of my friends but when I was being consecrated bishop one of my members took me to see her godmother this was one of my Yerba Christian members of my church I had some some muslims christians who identify with Jesus and Islam and some lots of different realities that's another day but anyway she and I went to see her godmother long story short godmother said after she read the cowrie shells and and some other things she said to me she said now she said you're about to be consecrated she said people are going to talk about you really really bad she said so I want you to go to the butcher and get a cow's tongue and bring it back back she was going to have do a ceremony over it cut it up to stop the folks from talking about me and diminish them but gossip did Michael I thank you very much and I took care of her left her a gift and when we left my member said well let's head on to the meat market and get the cows tongue and I said we don't have to do that and so she said oh yes she said God never said that you needed to have a counselor and I said God mother was correct people are gonna talk about me really really really bad she's right I think she's spot-on she said well what about the cows tongue and I held her hand I said now I said let's pray I said now god I want you to stop the mouths of the gains and every mouth that opens to curse me let it bless me amen and she said to me well what was it I said that's what you called portable cow stuff do you understand some things that we will do differently but we don't have to disrespect the road that brought us to this place we don't have to throw out the baby with the bathwater we have a tradition we have histories we have grandmother tales and mother tales and grandfather tales and and and father tales and we have realities and things that are good we should keep we should they're ours and we should keep them but there are some other things that have to be a bit more portable she didn't anticipate that I would be all over the world and I can't take a cow's time with me all over the world but I can take a portable one yes which is to understand that I can seek the favor of the divine to stop the mouths of those who can curse me to create difficulty and what it is that I am called to do what a blessing what what a synergy that we're coming together we're going backward to get what was stolen from us then we're going forward in an application of what really really really has value that's our prophetic role in this time in my opinion that that's the Flender ism but it is what I believe I am called and many like me who have survived the exile are called Bishop that is powerful I think you you fit us over again you know I try to say maybe I have some creative rights to everything that said over God talk stuff you hear me preaching someone there's no it's an homage to you I want it as our entire entry close because I said you have so many other interviews and different things I have a couple of last questions that I want to offer to you is as I said so many people this is a season in their own experience where they are searching for meaning they're trying to make sense out of the world around us and because of as you begin this conversation talking about Cove in 19 a lot of folks are watching social media they're engaging churches are saying more people tuning in some of their offerings have increased because well are finding something of value for a person who might be watching this who's a seeker who's searching for some form of meaning what life wisdom might you offer that person Bishop I would think that probably the most valuable thing that I could say and in some ways the beauty of this fasting from the rat race that we are in right now the I would encourage you to first of all be reacquainted with you sometimes we move so fast we are running often away from ourselves because there are things about ourselves that trouble us and disturb us so we have two lives we have the life that we have alone and then we have another life that we have in the company of people imagine yourself virtually naked and it's just you I think it is is during this time that you need to be in agreement with what God says about you and you are the apple of God's eye that you are fearfully and wonderfully made I'd say fierce in every way wonderfully made my friend Danny Bell Hall sang a song said your designers original one a time created by a master with one purpose in mind to be a showcase of God's glory for the whole world to see and an example of God's beauty as God through you and what I would say to you is get acquainted with and fall in love with yourself during these days that you are alone because you cannot love anyone truly unless and until you begin to love yourself and then what I would marry to that is the importance of being in communion with your understanding of the divine you may have to create a place in your home where you light a candle and we together sitting a refuge and throughout teeth and we're consecrating oil not because the oil it still has power but because we use it hold together prayer around it because all of the community's prayer go into that moment and then when we want to spend time and where we get some of that oil and anoint ourselves to bring our sisters and brothers and thoughts for our sisters and brothers into our time of Prayer and consecration I think it's time to get to know God again and just talk talk like you're talking to your friend talk like you're talking to someone who loves you and is concerned about listen for God's heart beat again seek to be in God's presence in the real and intimate way go down in the basement of your life and unlock all the cabinets pull out all the drawers and all the places where you have hid your true and authentic self as though you could from God don't bring God anything that's fake and phony because God already knows everything that there is to know about you and I and loves us just the same I would encourage you and then finally this I would listen for the voice of God to tell us where is the Covenant elationship that you with me what do you want to do with me and when I say with me I don't mean God doing it and you receive what I mean is in concert in communion with God because there are some things that God will do this is the deal about covenant and then God stops and God waits for you to do your part and then God will do and then God stops and God waits for you to do your part that's the way covenant or relationship works and my prayer is that we will get in covenant or relationship with God while we have these days while we have these days if you like me you probably we have cleaned out some closets going down and rearrange some furniture got rid of some old stuff but do the same thing in your spirit forgive everybody as a blanket cleansing of your own spirit even if you have every reason in the world to forgive them whether or not to give them forgive them anyway again not for their benefit do it for your benefit move beyond it and remind yourself that there are people that you have harmed also if you know who they are send them a note send them an email and watch that thing that comes up and says yeah but they deserve it you know the problem talking about yeah they did more push back on that one and on your part and make this time of exile from your irregular life be fruitful and help it is my prayer that God will use this time eat right take care of yourself so even if you are in some way exposed to this virus your immune system will fight for you and will fight off there are more people that lived and died but the people who died are often dealing with pre-existing realities push back with your own body you know how to right if you don't strain your stuff online about it to take care of your immune system treat your temple like it does really belong to God I think there's something very important about this time the world is about to have a reset and just like the atmosphere is clearing because no not so many cars are driving just like the animals are getting courage and strength to some ways come back to their habitats just like our nation's world are putting their bending their swords into plowshares because we are going to need each other in order to fight against this virus we have to work together in order to make it happen the same thing needs to happen for us in our relationship in our connection with the divine I hope that's helpful just know that I love you I appreciate so much being involved in this conversation rel Goodwin is my son forever I shared him with the grandmother and Aunty and all the rest of those that are connected with him means so much to me and I am so abundantly maternal istic and proud of what it is that God is doing the world in your life and in your ministry god bless all of you let's heal together Jane Bishop under you have blessed our socks off as I think I promised and it came to fruition you might see at the bottom of the screen a ticker that's telling you bishop funder supports T fam and you too can support C fam cash out see fam annual and I ask you all to do that because it's one thing to be able to hear the words of wisdom but it's another thing for us to be able to sew into the work that God has called the people that were encounter with mr. Flender I want to end our time by offering a blessing to you and you know it was a lot of Oh offering a blessing to the bishop what I received earlier today that I want to offer to you when I was prayerfully holding this space and knew that you would be pouring out I listened to what God might offer and just these words of affirmation and reminder to you Bishop Thunder you were created that the impossible might be possible that the improbable might be probable and that that which is unimaginable in this day in this hour might become tangible in the lives of God's people God reminds you that there are things that the Spirit has planted in you that you've wondered when might be the season God that these things will be birthed you've seen the witness of the Spirit thus far but God promises now is the hour the sphere reminded me earlier when you said there will be a right now word that the right now word my sister is you you are the right now word you are the Rhema word for your people and as we encounter you as we know you as we experience your voice we might have the possibility of seeing ourselves more beautifully more distinctly and more holistically than we might have were you not born into this world you are what Howard Thurman describes as the sound of the genuine and may you know that God is using your sound of the genuine to remind each and every one of us of the sound of the genuine in us be blessed my bishop stay blessed and stay true to the truth telling woman of God you are a man thanks a lot vision I look forward to seeing more unimaginable things happen with you they buzz with us I love you son taken um we are so grateful tearing out because Bishop Thunder is a powerhouse unto herself please make sure to make a donation to t fam annual and allow yourself to continue to be blessed by the ministry that the Fellowship of affirming ministries is doing I want to encourage you to check us out next week we're going to be talking with Senator Pat Spearman who is a Senator in the state of Nevada and she's going to be sharing her journey so remind people tune into God talks with Reverend Goodwin every Monday at 7 p.m. Central Standard Time be blessed God loves you and I do too

Channel: Rev. Darrell Goodwin

Views: 931

Rating: 5 out of 5

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Id: FpviuBS5Le0

Length: 68min 30sec (4110 seconds)

Published: Tue May 05 2020