Jackie Hill Perry: Find True Comfort in God and Lean on Him | FULL EPISODE | Better Together on TBN

temptation is it intensified when God is refining us and so you know whether it's suffering or hardship or relationships all the things you want something to make you feel comfortable you want something to make you feel secure and I think we have a choice and I think maturity and wisdom is a part of this but there's this tension of okay do I go to my typical Idols to help me feel safe or do I lean into what God is trying to teach me and allow him to be my crutch about purity and I think about pursuing Purity specifically I think I grew up thinking Purity was one thing and then God opened my eyes to what it really meant and the one thing well there's many things he's asked me to remove or to see differently to be more like him one of them is a sense of entitlement that was a result of doing the right thing right and following the rules right I developed a sense of well since I did it right then how I want it should happen no yeah so it was a sense of and I didn't it wasn't arrogant it wasn't an arrogant a way of approaching it but it was more like I'm following what you said to do I've done all the rules so naturally this plan that I have is good yeah so get on board God yeah and let's let's do this and so when things started happening that weren't in my plan I did not know what to do with that and it was just like a thing after thing was happening I was like you know the career choice was different then I get you know you get married and Lord knows all the things just like all your plays like now I have to think about someone else and so I think for me when it pursuing Purity has really been a way of looking at the things that um are my motives pure yeah are my reasons for doing certain things fewer and for a long time it was like I was doing the right thing because I was hoping to get the result that I wanted so that entitlement piece it's an ugly word to say but really that's how I felt like God owed me what I wanted because I followed the rules what about you guys what is God shown you in the past things to get rid of in order to pursue Purity one area that I've really seen what you say play out and the Counseling Practice specifically working with married couples and um you know sometimes when it comes to Purity I think a lot of us tend to think of sexual sin that's kind of Christian culture has conditioned us to think that Purity is this one very narrow focused thing and so I'll see couples who come into my office and you know we waited until marriage and we've got issues and my one line that I always say is just because you wait doesn't make it great because that's not the promise right the promise is not what it will do for us right when we're pure the promise is what it is doing within us in Us and how God is Shifting things and changing things and growing our character and our discipline and our self-control we're becoming better people from the inside out but it's not because of what we will get for it it's because of what's happening within us and I think applying saying that not just to the context of marriage yeah but in the context of all of these different areas where we're pursuing Purity am I pursuing it because I want something or am I pursuing it because it's really the desire of my heart to be more like Jesus and to see him more clearly and just kind of wrestling with that yeah you know every single day when we're making decisions and living our life like what's my intentions here attention my motivation yeah I think when I first became a Christian which was I was 19. a lot of the things I cut off to pursue Purity were really I call them they were really out loud since you know so addiction to marijuana drunkenness lesbianism porn like all the like you know yeah stuff right right but I think as I've been in Christ now a little over 10 years the the things I have to cut off are much more subtle yes and hidden and so you know it's it could be something like God is like you know I don't know your ambition is a coping mechanism right for your fear of feeling inadequate and insufficient so it's like you out here like grinding grinding grinding thinking like oh no I gotta provide for my family when it's really fear yeah right and so I think now it's become way more complicated yeah actually yeah it is you're right it's like the fine tuning is harder than the big big stuff yeah because that's that deep rooted stuff that you've been living in for a long time [Music] the perfectionist and knee is like yes perfect but I think I think it's different because pursue pursuing Purity means pursuing godliness and being like him and being like the woman that he is called need to be which is not perfect but it is Holy and so knowing that he is the only Holy One he is the only one that is perfect and pure but I have an opportunity in every moment in every situation to be like him I think that's what that's what the pursuit is that's what the call is that's what the desire is so it's not Perfection but it's it's godliness in all situations Purity I think can Define itself as The Who and the what you are and the character that you have especially in private those deep things of the heart yesterday I finally just text somebody and said I'm just having such a hard time loving people today you know and I got in the car and I just said you know I just I have this thing that I just really talk out loud and open to the Lord and I said you know how I feel better than anybody you know exactly what's going on in my heart you know and whatever is there I need you to replace that yeah whatever take my hate take my my bitterness I need you to replace it right you know and and so knowing that God knows our heart more than we do he knows what we struggle with he knows what's going on you know and the more we have the knowledge of him is when Grace is Multiplied to us and his mercy and is so sufficient for us and that he says that everything that pertains to life and godliness comes through the knowledge of who he is so that communication of just opening up going God you see every want and desire good and bad and just giving it to him and asking I have to give you this and I need you to change me from the inside out and take take that out of my heart what I love about what you you're saying is how you know pursuing purity is very much a prayer and petition yes is a part of that you know because we have to ask God and say one I need help then we we need God God show me yourself then we need to even affirm Faith like nah Like Our Father Who Art in Heaven like you're Sovereign and Transcendence right over all these things that may tip me to be unpure or whatever the case may be and so yeah I think prayer is such an important thing because it's not just Bible reading yeah it's not just communities it's not just repentance I will answer you it's legit like I have to seek the face also prayer takes us back to relationship because the actions that don't involve conversation and communion and intimacy those can become legalistic um okay I'm not doing this I'm not doing that okay I'm not cussing I'm not drinking I'm not you've got all your things but your heart can still be far from God you pray and if you're really communing God in that prayer all of a sudden you're turned back to a relationship I love that you connected peace with Purity because peace comes in I can I'm just learning this I spent so many decades Walking with God but not not trusting him his love for me enough that I would let him hold me yeah and so I tend to wriggle out of his arms to try to be a good girl to try to I'm just going to just find I know you had to lower the bar for me to get in the Kingdom so let me just let me just perform it it's fear base total fear base I get it but I feel like at 58 the last couple of years have been learning to just linger in his Embrace there is a piece that it's not that I'm so pure I still have my mind goes in a hundred different directions that are not all God honoring but when I'm when I'm with him there's a purity that is contagious there's a Holiness that's contagious but it's in his presence and there's a peace that I'm not I'm not a tease and call it taking off your Spanx with God I'm not trying to hold my stomach he knows I had an unkind thought he knows I confess it to him and I go lead me in the way of righteousness you know cleanse me with the stuff and can I just linger here a little longer because when I'm with you I actually become christophormic I'm shaped more like you but I've got to linger in your presence to have purity for me prayer is not just about talking to God you know when you have a relationship with someone you do talk but you also listen and I think sometimes we don't do a very good job of listening to his spirit so for me prayer has been a time to sit and be still and allow God to speak to me sometimes I even ask him open-ended questions like what do you think I should do about this or how do you feel about that God and I just sit and allow him the opportunity to speak into my life so for me prayer has been a really powerful time of listening so back to the people yeah God is completely using right to refine me and to take me into his presence into a sense of Peace into a knowing of God and so those people are such a gift to me and so I really love them because I love that God is doing it so if I heard it and God allowed it to be said to me or done to me God allowed it then there's something in it for me that's good that's good right there's some purification and I just got loud and ref fine I know God used that yeah he has to if you call on him he'll he'll answer you and he'll show you things in a powerful way he promises us that I think my kids do that absolutely because you put everything into making sure that they have what they need what they don't even know that they need that they need and homeschooling was not for my kids it was for me yeah because of what I saw in myself reflected through them was like oh wow you thought you were patient you thought you built on the bike and I was like homeschooling was more about me and I don't think I would be the mindset the direction without those years of struggle of not feeling like I had it together of people looking at me like I don't understand what you're saying and it was those people I think people sometimes help to refine us and to purify and to show the light of what actually is going on in our hearts and our motives and who we are and what we really believe and how we should be treated and I think those out those other people can do that for us as well but it takes courage I mean when I hear you and you share about people and how hard they can be you know Jackie noticed that the first thing is a call to prayer and petition like Lord I need you but the second thing that you did was you turned it inward you weren't like fix those people Lord fix them they need to become pure you need to refine them they are not holy right your first reaction was Lord fix me help me yeah make me pure and I think it's very easy for us to identify impurity in the world around us yeah come on I can speak for myself as a counselor I'm like let me fix that I see that and and you can ask my husband like I can easily determine what needs to be shifted and what's impure and what is not going on that's working here but to have the courage to turn that Insight Inward and say Lord what's going on in me like why am I struggling in this relationship because I can't control you I can't control right your issues your impurity I can only work on me and when I work on me it influences everything around me but it takes courage to sit there and and to really believe and and confess and acknowledge that something in me needs purify education something in me needs healing I just figured that one day we're all going to stand before God yeah and we're standing before God by ourselves yeah and there is nobody else to blame there's nobody else to point at there's nobody else except what I did I think that if we knew what God wanted to do in our lives that we would so lean in to the fire that we would lean into those times where he's saying come come through it come have faith step out let me give me incentive to bless your life give me something to work with and I think those Steps of Faith and that movement towards God I just think it makes him so happy and if we knew what it was going to do on the inside of us that the pure in heart that the closer we get to God we are going to see God in so many powerful ways my my stepfather came to Christ eight weeks before he died it's never too late you will miss out on on Hope and joy and peace if you if you come to Christ later in life or if you begin pursuing intimacy with Jesus later but no it's never too late Our God's Redeemer plus he promises to restore unto us years that the locusts have eaten so he can even restore some of the time you missed so no it's never too late connect with us on social media like comment and share your favorite moments from today join the conversation with women all over the world getting better together a lady just said a function that my husband and I were at he was shooting it and I was just sitting quietly in the living room of this home in Beverly Hills and a woman walked in and kind of looked around and I knew who she was she was married to a very famous person and and she came over to me and I stood up from the couch and I said hi you know hi I'm Lori you know and I she grabbed my hand hard and she looked at me and she said are you one of those tbinners oh no and I didn't work at TBN at the time and I said that's part of my family she said what are you doing here oh well and I just said well I said the governor's here whatever I said you know and about that time somebody came walked into the room she spun on her heels and walked out and I was just what in the world man you know and it just whoa no one had ever just done that so blatant and boldly to me and and I was telling our pastors the next day this woman who just came and he just kind of sat there and he goes it's amazing what the Lord will allow to get you over yourself wow yeah yeah you can't say amens I guess did I hear that correct correctly but ever since that day everything that happens I go okay I need to look here is there something you know you know I think God uses anything he can to get us bait our passion to bait our passion to walk in faith and sometimes he uses people and you know I've there's a great book called the necessity of an enemy and um it's it's fabulous and to know that that Jesus had to have a Judas to ultimately do what he was what he came for he came to die for us so Judas had to betray him so enemies are necessary in our life to build a fire inside of us to absolutely go full on pedal to the metal in what God's called us to do so just use it as that I think one interesting thing that I've noticed Within Myself and you know just doing Ministry is how temptation is it intensified when God is refining us and so you know where there's suffering or hardship or relationships all the things you want something to make you feel comfortable you want something to make you feel secure and I think we have a choice and I think maturity and wisdom is a part of this but there's this tension of okay do I go to my typical Idols to help me feel safe or do I lean into what God is trying to teach me and allow him to be my crutch right and I that's really really really hard to do but I think until we develop the discipline of trusting God instead of looking to Idols to soften the suffering we won't be as pure as we could be you know because it's not like just because you're suffering you're automatically made holy you're made Holy by leaning into and trusting God in light of what he's revealing about himself in the suffering right you know and let's just get practical I mean some of the Idols are things that aren't that dangerous on the outside I mean we're not necessarily evil in and of themselves exactly it's not just porn and alcohol and drugs and gambling that could be Ministry it could be Ministry it could be the shopping app like spending money that's not in my budget it could be toxic relationships you know it could be binge watching Netflix because I don't feel like coping and dealing and this stuff that God is bringing to the surface I don't want to deal with it so I'm just gonna numb and watch TV till 3am I'm gonna be on my phone a lot more often instead of being present and tuning into the holy spirit because I don't want to hear it right and and so I think sometimes really identifying what those crutches are it helps us take that step towards healing because then when we remove them we actually have to face it we have to face ourselves I think one way to trust God more than trusting our Idols is to interrogate the need that compelled you toward constructing the idol in the first place for example in Exodus when Israel builds the golden calf what they say is they want a god a calf that will go before them meaning they wanted a God that would guide them they wanted to guide that would or a God that would protect them and those are really morally acceptable needs they're acknowledging their vulnerability and their weaknesses yet they had a God who had already shown up and a pillar of cloud by day and a fire by night so he was already revealing himself as a God who was able to meet their needs in the way that they were trusting the idol to meet it for them and so that's really what we do is we say what am I expecting of this Idol what is it that I want from it let me go to the scriptures and see how God has that need that that able to supply it in himself and that's where we are able to exchange our trust in the name of repentance and trust God to be who he says that he is do you know how difficult it is to be alone with yourself for just a few minutes just a few minutes without distraction just you and the Lord I love that Jesus was so deliberate about withdrawing to lonely places like he knew the limitations of his human body like God has no limitations but his human body had limitations and he needed to withdraw and get away and be with God and allow the Lord to pour into him and I just it challenges me like if I really want to pursue Purity and Holiness and become a better person become more like Jesus am I even allowing God to speak yeah absolutely am I giving him time like what does that look like in my day-to-day life I'd love to hear from you guys practically yeah like what are some ways that you have found to pursue Holiness practically like what does that look like day in Day Out I love that you brought up rest um quietness um I remember it being kind of an epiphany to me when I realized God instituted rest before the fall um you see rest before the end of Genesis 2. so we're we're still in this edinic situation yeah and he creates rest models dress and I thought oh it's not an accommodation for human weakness it's part of his plan for us all along and I am a horrible rester because I've always been a doer I justify Myself by doing and so I so identify with the Israelite kind of preoccupation with we've got to do everything right and then God will be pleased because that has been the kind of my heresy that I've believed uh somewhere in my heart so much of my life and so gosh I guess it's been almost 15 years ago now I deliberately moved out into the country because if I have distractions the distractions will become Idols or or I medicate by running hard and being with people and so I thought I need to actually be deliberate about removing myself and being in a place that's quiet because that's not my my natural inclination and I have now moved even further out into the country and we have this little tiny Farm out five acres on a hill but I will feel my spirit settle and it's when I'm quiet I think we forget Jesus ministry took place at three miles an hour because he walked everywhere he went there was time for reflection but it but that's a discipline for me it is not natural for me but when I'm quiet sin will bubble to the surface fear will bubble the surface all those things and I'll go oh that actually was motivating me [Music] I think our need for rest is a reminder of our human limitations and our need for God our need for his power and his filling and his strength I think a lot of times we go to so many other things in this world to fill us up we go go go go go go go until we can't go anymore I think rest is an act of dependency on Jesus it reminds us that we're human and we've got limitations and we need his strength so even in the process of resting we're relying on him we're trusting him we're showing him that we need him and we want him in our life and so think about what that looks like for you are you going and going and going in your own strength or are you stopping to be filled by the only one who can truly fill you up we've had some some grief in our family recently and a death that was has been hard for all of us and then another loved one has been diagnosed with a very serious stage for cancer and we and I've found myself going Lord I don't want to medicate my sadness you know I want to sit in the sorrow of this is not our home we're aliens and strangers here and I want to remember what the psalmist says that when we see you face to face it'll be enough but until then it's not and not to sorry I don't mean to be such Debbie Downer but I think for me Purity is slowing down enough to let what is not right actually come to the surface and to sit there long enough that I'm not shoving it down like whack-a-mole or medicating it right that I okay Lord I'm just going to sit in your presence and I'm going to listen more that I talk which is a miracle for me I love that if we repress it he can't refine it like it's got to come up in order to to be skimmed off the surface you know I think one thing that's helped me become more pure that people don't write in their sanctification dissertations is therapy yeah um therapy has helped me to become not more independent but dependent but also training me on how to be independent of my circumstances meaning like showing me you know these are the sins that you acquired because of sins against you so these are the ways that you respond to fear or feeling out of control or you know feeling abandonment or rejection and I have to take those you know my therapist can only do so much like she she helps me to process and bring it up and then I got to go to the Lord right and be like okay hear this this is I've been walking on in this way for 30 some years now I need tools right I need resources and more than that I need power and I need courage right it is terrifying yeah so lay aside the things that are so natural and normal to you it is so much easier to default to what's familiar over what's healthy even if it's harmful yourself and your relationships my my counselor because I amen amen amen my counselor said one of the hardest things about change is that your all of your relationships are based on a certain dance step and let's just say you've been doing the foxtrot even if it's sinful everybody knows that Rhythm when you switch to the walls to become more pure you step on everybody's toes which also caused them to bang into each other and so sometimes people will go please just go back to because it was working that way and you're like well it was working but it but it wasn't God honoring but it was working some people like you unhealed the more I listen to the Lord in a prophet says lean not on your own understanding but trust in the Lord the more I trust in the Lord he is always faithful when I feel like I can't find secure footing when I stand in the promises of God all of a sudden I'm not wobbly anymore for me it has been experienced the more I trust in God the more I lean into the Lord the more I realize why why would I listen to something that's fleeting or to someone who usually has a bias in their opinion why wouldn't I go to the author of Life himself to God who loves me unconditionally so I think the more you trust the Lord the more you'll find him to be trustworthy and then it's like the gurus just get deeper and deeper then you go oh my goodness I'm not going to listen to anybody else first I'll listen to their opinion later but I'm running I'm running to my Creator redeemer first because he loves me and he's for me that I've definitely started doing more is breathing it's crazy because you we've all been alive we've been alive right so we've been breathing but I realize my breath has been so short and shallow yeah and from here to here to there to here and moving and sometimes God's like I just want you just to breathe like for real and just take it to your point of rest and just take a moment and so it's that idea of breathing and stopping and pausing before the next thing and it's hard to do I wish it was my default like I always wish like doing what God Said is my default but doing what is natural and easy and comfortable is my default and so in order for me not to do that I have to say stop pause it doesn't change my outcome it doesn't change what I have to do but it changes my process of going into it and so for me that has been this this whole refining part of like I feel like you pray to God and God says yes and somebody says no I feel like I've been hearing a lot of no's I was hearing a lot of no I'm like I want a yes but it wasn't I was like No just pause yeah it's not going to change what you have to do right how you go through it is what I'm concerned that's the refining piece right so that way it becomes more of my default the next time it's never perfect but it's different the next time because I feel like it's like juggling balls and they're all look glass yeah some of them if I drop they will shatter right they're that important but other ones they'll just make a big sound and they'll just roll away and it's like God I need to be able to know how to manage like what are those Idols what are those things that should shatter shouldn't shatter should fall like I don't know and so you have to show them to me and so the breath has allowed me to do that better I love that you said breath um I almost lost mine a year and a half ago I was hospitalized with coven and so I ended up doing a whole lot of thinking about breath afterwards after almost losing my um physically and I had known this before but it hadn't resonated as deeply as me and you just wrapped words around it in a holy spirit's name in the New Testament is pneuma uh haganum Holy Spirit and it's not coincidence that God named him breath that's where we get the word breath from and so our God I think sometimes we make him this ethereal he's mysterious but he's so kind he makes things practical yeah so he says you want to keep in step with my spirit breathe you know it's not that's not just personality driven that is God giving us so many Clues to go okay take a deep breath yes breathe in my spirit yes exhale anxiety I didn't make you for anxiety and all even in that exchange renew your mind so you'll go oh that's a glass ball I don't need to drop that one I just think sometimes we make it so much harder than he's made he's like I'm giving you a way to walk right and because you're my children and I love you I'm actually going to give you some Clues and capacity to walk in a way that keeps you close to me you know there's a lot of times when we don't pause before we do something or say something we end up regretting it I do that all the time if I'm just like knee-jerk reaction to something and I think man I could have done that better and so I think when we pause in our lives when things are either going really really well or if we're in the middle of trial when we pause we give God an opportunity to come into the situation right so what I do is I inhale God exhale peace inhale God okay God what do you want me to do in the situation how should I see the situation how should I respond and the peace comes from the exhale so it doesn't change my situation doesn't change what I have to do but the way in which I move changes because I've invited God into it and so the encouragement is that God will speak to us in the moment if we take time to listen what I really am Joy about the answers that were just gave that we gave is they don't they're not they don't seem spiritual uh so like I'm anticipating objections people people watching give me like they ain't say fasting or yeah yeah you know like dying to the Flesh and all these right but I think what y'all are tapping into is the fact that God wants us to be whole humans yeah like we are both Body and Soul right and so like to breathe to have therapy to rest all of that helps and informs our spirituality that's because we're an embodied Union and so I think just let's let's do all the things right and it is body-minded Spirit again he's a trinitarian God he doesn't segment us and and I lived I lived out of my head for far too long and ignored parts of me that I thought were that's good we're we're at just so much shame and now I'm like no actually breathing is not that's not something from Eastern mysticism right something he authored right well and every breath is from God that's right and so he can take it whenever he wants to you know but he gives it to us and he gives that moment and when you realize where your breath comes from yeah then God is in it it is in it God Is In This Moment God is with me I'm still alive I'm still breathing thank God you know and I do get a chance let every breath we're Progressive beings like everything has a domino effect yes and so like even for example I remember one time I was going to Trader Joe's and I am a very efficient person and so I don't like wasting my time to the point of sinful I'm with you Jeff so if I feel like you're wasting my time then I'm like let's go like you you making me mad like like anywho that's just me the sinfulness is I'm being impatient right but I also am functioning out of this anxiety like I have all these things to do and so one time I was at Trader Joe's and I was like uh riding with the card and I was rushing like just moving so fast and I felt like the Lord was like just walk like what are you rushing for right and I realized like oh man like part of me slowing down with the card it might seem stupid and and my new to you but it's God training me how to not function in anxiety so that when I meet with and are in relationship with people I can calm myself down and love them however they present themselves Explore More of the stories and inspiring content you love from Better Together on our YouTube channel Better Together TV subscribe today and never miss a new upload I love that Purity he's made it practical you know when you were talking about breathing you were talking about walking we're going to Israel in a few months and I love Israel because you see the practicality of how he made relationship with people he's a he's a mysterious Transcendent God but he makes himself Noble because he loves us I love that the southern steps you know their approach to Temple to commune with God Jesus walked him they're not even like the steps here in the studio you know you've you've walked him some of you have worked him I'm gonna drag Jackie with us it's so cool to go they had to stop they couldn't hurry to Temple because you had to stop or you'd trip because the steps are and even they're different widths different heights intentionality and God told them to make them that way because he didn't want him to run through with a card yeah he wanted him to go slow enough it's that slowing down to go commune with me this is not not ritual this is relationship and really that's what we're all saying from different experiences is he has made knowing him he's he allows me to know him he's such a kind God I think perhaps that's why you know our spiritual life is called a walk yeah that's it see I can't say it that fast that's so what this world tells us to do like we are just go go go run run but I love that The Closer you get to the Lord that you can hear him pushing your cart fast yeah yeah he just says just slow down a minute what'd you do I need you to breathe a minute yeah you're aware right you're aware you hear his voice and all of a sudden he shows you something about himself you don't have to do that yeah right calm down right relax right I've got you right I've got this moment I'm In This Moment and I love that and that's what can happen to everybody that's available for everyone to fill the presence to hear his voice and to get a glimpse of something new from God because he's always speaking he's always with us he's always there in the moment with us you know and the harder it looks the easier it gets and the more you do it the better you get at it practically speaking there's a lot of things we could do to slow down and make God a priority but I think first and foremost it's a hard issue you know we have to want to slow down to actually slow down and so one thing might be just sitting with God and saying God I need your help to see that I need you like I believe but help my unbelief and from that place of solitude from that place of petition from that place of helplessness and dependence then I think God can develop a heart in us that wants to slow down because we love God enough to do so and then we can figure out the wisdom and the practical ways to do it according to our schedules and our life and all stuff I think it would be good to contextualize it because I was just sitting here thinking it's easy to sit on a stage when they've given us yummy drinks and we've had makeup and I'm wearing false eyelashes to talk about breathing and resting but I thought you know there have been moments that I've thought you bunch of yahoos I'm killing myself here's a single mom I travel 150 days a year and I'm the one who brings them in let's contextualize it for the person who's is engaged in this conversation going that is not the reality of my life I'm in a hair on fire kind of season and I have to do this because for whatever reason um we're moving uh my my husband or my wife is deployed I am a single parent um let's contextualize it that we're not saying you we have calendars where all of us get to lay on the couch and eat bon bons in the busiest seasons of my life God still provide moments of rest but but it wasn't three hours that I was able to sit on the porch and lean into his presence would that unintentionally we stepped on somebody's bruise by them going I don't have hours to breathe that's why I hope that it was just a breath yes right so the whole idea is that and I said it didn't change it doesn't change what you have to do here's what I think is the key yeah is it a season or is it the pace of your life if it it's a season when we all go through hard traumatic season when I have two babies you know 20 months apart and it just felt like life was crazy yeah it's a season yeah but if my life is in constant busy constant chaos constant disarray I can't I don't have any time then something is wrong with my schedule with my boundaries that's what's going on what do I what needs to drop and what can't one thing if it's a short season it's another thing when it becomes a lifestyle where we're going so fast we can't tune in to what God is doing and again I think that goes back to your thought life what are you thinking about how whatever's on your mind to stopping the rat race there's such a rat race I think in people's mind that we get to being so busy or you've filled it up with so much stuff that you can't even think normal and I think we need really perceptive and wise friends because often you're so rattled you can't think straight right but you need somebody that is and they see you objectively and they like Isis yeah right it's too much well that's the importance of the community and being around other women so there's people sometimes you don't know what you don't know because you're just not old enough I mean that's why it talks about gray hair in the Bible in the Bible there's something about living that gives you pers a different perspective than when you're in it it's like when I'm with my kids and they're going crazy like oh one day you'll miss this I'm like I am not missing this right now and I can't think about 15 years from you right that there's a perspective that there's wisdom there so when we have those people that can speak and see like you know I'm not everyone no one was getting anyone's business this but there's some times where you are maybe called right to get in someone's business and say listen there may be some things you should look at or to think about and just being on the other side of that right that's why I say God doesn't waste anything he's always any of the stuff that we've done the mistakes that we've made the good stuff the bad stuff yeah because we're supposed to use it hopefully for the kingdom and for the community and the body and so that's why the authentic authenticity of what we experience is so important because we don't go through things without the idea that it is for someone else I love that all almost all I think it's like 98 of the imperatives that's just a fancy word that means when God tells us to do something in the Bible almost all of them are said in the context of community and we weren't made to to do Christianity Alone um I think that's even why you see Jesus he did his itinerant Earthly Ministry he did that in the context of community he had 12 men that he did life with three women according to Luke 8 who who did Ministry with him so we're there for each other's betterment um I love the story of the friends carrying their their buddy to Jesus when he couldn't walk himself they picked up a corner of his mat and They Carried him to the roof and they cut a hole in this roof it went like a regular roof it was mud and straw they cut a hole Jesus is teaching below you can just imagine the mud and the straw raining on the head of the Messiah and they lower their body to Jesus because the house was so crowded that he couldn't get in the house and Jesus says to the paralytic he says that that you're healed and he says it's because of the faith of your friends there have been so many times in my life when I felt like I couldn't carry the weight of my own life but because I'm in relationship with people who love Jesus and want me to be reconciled with Jesus they have carried up the corner of my mat and they they've taken me to Jesus I need Community he gave us communities so that we could actually so that we could know him more clearly I think when we see Jesus Through the lens of people who know him it helps clarify the vision and so I think that to your point that's why we have to talk and that's why the person listening is hopefully not thinking I'm just going to breathe and my my life will be easy no that's not what we're saying that's not what we say when you come to Christ your life doesn't become easy you haven't you are no longer alone you have a power that you didn't have before but life is still going to happen because we still live here how we frame this life or this purification or sanctification process is one that's it's not always it doesn't always feel good right do y'all feel that way has your sanctification feel good it felt good but it's your friend it feels terrible sometimes it's not comfy right and so we if we frame it that it looks that way but you got to hear people's stories like I'm on the other side of that yeah right and so I'm here to tell you the other side different perspective a different perspective to give you hope yes to give you peace to know that God is in it you're not alone I wish I could I tell people I said I wish I could stop it but this is for you and there's something to have the eyes talk about the have the glasses to see it yeah and the people on the list too you know therapy slowing down breathing and we need good life-giving people to help point us in the right direction this is a rabbit Trail but when you said you don't want anybody you won't don't want to be in anybody's business I think and that's exactly what we need we need we need to move it in our business um I think that's a key to Purity yes that's good how have you learned to accept the things God is pulling out of your life how have you learned or grown to accept that the thing that he's pulled out the idol that he's shown you how have you grown to accept that that was a good thing um time I see through the glass stem Lane but as I get closer to Jesus and I look back and I go every single thing he's done for me has been for my good and even the things that I was kicking and screaming when he pulled it out I didn't think I could survive if you pulled that out of my life I look back now and go he was for me and I couldn't even see it yes yeah I think we can all just yes worship for a minute with that that's beautiful yes that's that's the one thing we wish we did we had you know we don't want we don't want that no and a lot of times we're talking about purity and we're talking about fire fire is kind of the main thing that purifies our life and the fire is our friend the fire um let's just take Shadrach Meshach in the bed and you go when they got in the fire it was a non-negotiable if we die we die but we will not bow right and so when they got in the fire what happened Jesus was in the fire with them and it dropped away every bondage all the sin all the whatever you're dealing with it it takes away all the bondages and they come out not even smelling like smoke you know and I think looking back and seeing the faithfulness of God we'll see you through when you think about the process of refining I mean it's really bringing up all of the unhealthy things to the surface when we're refining something like gold all of the things that are not gold come to the surface in the Heat and in the fire so that they can be skimmed away and so many seasons in our life God is doing the same thing with us maybe you're in a season of pressure a season of fire a season of difficulty what is it that God is trying to bring to the surface what is it that he's trying to reveal so that he can begin to heal [Music] I think we've talked about the people who may have been listening to this conversation and how they may have received it so let's pray for those who are listening Lord Jesus we thank you we thank you for the fire yeah the fire that purifies us Lord to be more like you and so I pray Lord for the people listening and for the people around this circle Lord that we not run away from the fire but we run towards it if it means looking more like the people that you have called us to be or thank you for eyes to see for a calmness to hear for a breath that reminds us that you are a big God that you are faithful that you are sovereign that you are trustworthy Lord so we put all of that all of that in Who You Are and Lord we are grateful that we have the ability to know that when we trust you it doesn't change the outcome Lord but it transforms our heart to want to know more and be more and live more like the people that you have called us to be so Lord thank you thank you thank you and your son's precious name amen amen [Music]

Channel: Better Together on TBN

Views: 54,692

Keywords: jackie hill perry, jackie hill perry testimony, jackie hill perry beyonce, jackie hill perry enneagram, jackie hill perry sermon, jackie hill perry passion 2023, jackie hill perry and preston perry, jackie hill perry glory conference, jackie hill perry spoken word, jackie hill perry spiritual warfare, jackie hill perry podcast, women in ministry, lisa harper, better together, better together tv, better together tv full episodes, laurie crouch, tbn, BTTVTBN, B2T8, B2E3T8, T8E3R7, L5C2

Id: Rp3eOG3CMxY

Length: 49min 35sec (2975 seconds)

Published: Fri Jun 02 2023