14. God Is Speaking… But Are You Listening? (Part 2)

This is part two of a two part episode. If God is speaking, are we actually making room to hear Him?

We talk about the power of silence, creating space to be with God, and why constant noise can keep us distracted from what He is trying to say. We also get into how God speaks through hardship, how dependence on Him is often built in the middle of struggle, and why some of the hardest seasons in life can shape us the most.

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Finding Silence With God

Devin 0:10

And like you were saying, yes, silence. Silence. Find yourself a quiet place. For me, uh, one of the changes that I made coming into this year, and it wasn't a New Year's resolution because I hate those, but um, it was just a change that I wanted to make. There were two but major ones that I really wanted to make. The first of which was I told my wife that for the first time in three years, she and I were gonna take a trip, just me and her, because a vacation with kids is not a vacation.

Jon 0:37

Yeah, not really. It's chaos.

Devin 0:39

Not with small kids. Okay, it's chaos. You just moved the location. Okay. But I said that I wanted to do that because I truly do believe that uh a healthy marriage is the best thing that we can give our children. Um, but then the second thing that I said that I wanted to do was I wanted to make sure I just lost my total train of thought here.

Jon 1:02

You'd have forgot the other thing. Yeah. While you're thinking about that, I'll say it could be the second best thing you give your children. First thing being God.

Devin 1:11

Yeah, okay. Well, that's fair. Um oh, the second thing that I thought that I told the Lord that uh I wanted to do was because I work for myself and I work from home, I'm I don't have to get up in the mornings by a certain time. I have been blessed with two sleepers for children, so that would gladly stay in the bed until 9 a.m. if I let them. And I know I would too, but to be disciplined, per one of our previous episodes, to be disciplined, I challenged myself to get up at 6 30 in the morning from now on. Like to just start, whether I have a busy day that day or not. Um, my daughter and all of her uh infinite wisdom of a three-year-old decided to wake me up at 5 30 this morning. So, you know, I mean, it's just it's sometimes it's like that. But in doing that, what that has allowed me to do is to have silence between me and the Lord. Like I can just sit either on my back patio or on my couch or whatever with my Bible. And it's just me and God. There's nobody else, there's no dogs, there's no three-year-old going da-da-da-da-da-da. There's no there, there's my wife is still asleep. That's the importance of a quote unquote prayer closet. Yeah, and that and that's really what I what I use it for. Because here's the thing: you're we're fooling ourselves if we think that this is not a tactic. A tactic of the enemy is that he loves to make us overly busy with things that don't matter for the kingdom. He loves to bombard us with constant noise and distractions. Think about how many that's why most apps on my phone, I don't have the notifications turned on. I don't either. Because I don't need my phone.

Jon 2:52

I turned notifications off unless it's like, well, I mean, phone calls and text messages, obviously. But unless it's something like that I need to know immediately, like I don't have it on. Like my bank app. I got notifications on for that. But for the most part, social media, no. No, I don't want those stupid little bubbles popping up because then you want to click it. But there's constant noise, constant noise. You're bombarded by it. I don't think we were designed to deal with this much anxiety.

Devin 3:25

We were no, absolutely, and I've said this before it reduces anxiety. We were not designed for this much of a uh technological situation that we have thousands of years ago.

Jon 3:35

I feel like people probably it probably wasn't as difficult to find peace and quiet. Yeah. I mean, how how far did Adam have to go to find quiet? 20 feet. Twenty feet. There's nobody else on the planet. Yeah, exactly. Regardless, babe, hush. Regardless, now we have to create that silence.

Devin 4:02

Well, Jesus modeled that. I mean, think about it this way. What what did Jesus do several times? It says he went away to pray. Yeah, that's like the tenth time we've mentioned that for a reason. He went away. That's one of my favorite things. Right before he gave uh one of the sermons, he I mean he gave it from a boat. Yeah. Like he got away. What if you got away? There are many, many, many people. I know I know our pastors take uh what's called a spiritual retreat every year, and there's no phones allowed. Uh it's like two days, and you have to leave your phone at home.

Jon 4:36

Yeah, apparently their living accommodations this past year wasn't the best. I didn't hear about this. I did. It was great. Anyway, um apparently it was a little tight from what I heard.

Devin 4:48

They got a little snuggly. But anyways, so sometimes uh I know for me, like my prayer after a certain point doesn't even involve saying anything. It's just me. It's me and the no the the white noise. It's me and the Lord.

Jon 5:05

What I it's one thing I like to do, and I do this. Uh I do this quite a bit. I'll get in my car and I don't really care to listen to music, and for whatever reason I don't want to listen to a podcast, which is what I normally do. I'll just pray. And my commute to work's usually, well, with the construction you referred to earlier, between here and Birmingham, like Birmingham actual, is somewhere between 30 minutes and an hour, generally. But I'll pray. And when I run out of words, after several minutes or whatever, I just sit and listen.

Devin 5:48

I mean, obviously I'm paying attention on the time, but sometimes we can't hear the Lord because we don't shut up long enough to let him speak.

Jon 5:56

Right. And again, God's not just there's not this booming voice coming out of the sky speaking to me. But I allow I allow God to work on me. I listen, I sit in the silence and just be there with the presence of God with me. And that it is such a powerful thing. You have to you have to make a practice of that. And once you do, once you get that that meditation down, whatever that might look like for you, maybe you need to sit there with your with your your fingers touching and your legs crossed. I don't know. I don't do that, but if that works for you, knock yourself out. If you need to actually go in your closet and close the door, do it. Whatever you gotta do. Because it is the most imp one of the most important things that you can do. God cares about what we do, but he cares about us more or the why we do it. He wants us, he wants our heart, not just not just actions. You have to find a time every day, even if it's not in the mornings. Preferably you do it first thing in the mornings. I always don't do that because half the time, downfall of mine, I'm up till like midnight, one o'clock working on something. Yeah, you're on you're a night owl. I am.

Devin 7:18

I am, which is not a great thing, but I if you have to do it at night on your lunch break, it does not matter before your day starts, probably preferable, but silence is golden, man, because I mean, from the minute my my kids get up and and my wife is up and the dogs are needing whatever, like that's the thing, man. It's constant noise, it's constant distraction, keeping you from the enemy. Oh, I don't have time to sit down and and listen in silence. I I can I can't afford to do that. I would argue you can't afford not to.

Jon 7:56

Absolutely, you can't. You absolutely cannot afford not to.

Devin 7:59

Not to just sit back, have the time between you and the Lord. Where you and and that's the thing about being uncommon. That's just it. It's everybody else has this mentality of I've got to get up, go make stuff happen, and Superman to change the world, and let me provide all this money for my wife and my kids, or for my family, or for whatever situation it is that you're dealing with. The reality is you never take time to sit there between you and God and say, God, what do you have to say about the situation?

Jon 8:28

Let me put it this way: does it matter more that that customer has to wait 30 minutes for you to call him back at seven o'clock in the morning? Because that happens for some people, or does it matter more that you get to heaven and you hear the words, well done, my good and faithful servant? Yeah. Like which one of those is really more important? That's right. Sally? That's good. Or that? Like that's not even a question. That's good. Yeah.

Devin 8:54

And then I think as we continue along this journey for hearing the Lord, as we continue through learning the different ways that He speaks, that we can learn that we can literally hear and listen.

Hearing God Through Hardships

Devin 9:14

We've been through silence, we've been through opening your Bible, we've been through uh how God uses other people, and we've each shared our stories. Um, but then I think the next way really that we begin to hear the Lord and to see him is that he speaks through hardships. Hardships are gonna happen in life. The Bible literally tells you it's going to it's going to be bad at times.

Jon 9:42

Yeah, and it's uh and like you said earlier, um I think your your situation there was a hardship, would you say? Oh yeah. And what the same the same for me, it it applies here as well. I don't know. This one for me in particular, that was for you, that was years ago. For me, this is still happening, and it's going to be happening for a while. There's and there's really nothing I can do about it. I don't know yet what God is teaching me or how he's gonna use it. I I I don't know. Because you can't see the other side of it, right? And I'm not sure. But if you could, if you could, you get to be God in that situation. Yeah, that yes, you're right. And like I said, I'm not meant to know.

Devin 10:30

That's right.

Jon 10:30

And it's it's okay that I don't, because I know something is gonna come out on the other side of it. There's a bug in my face right now. Get out of here. Stop it. Anyway, I know I know something good is gonna come out on the other side of it. Is this hardship a stepping stone to get me to where God wants me to be? I I don't know. I don't know. I know I've learned some things already. Sure. Like things that you would not have learned had God not taken you down this path. It has taught me, like I I've God has shown me previously in my life how to really lean on Him.

Devin 11:04

Yeah.

Jon 11:05

This particular thing, it's it's heavy, it's real heavy, and it has it's there's a whole new level to leaning on God. There's leaning on God, and then there's just like, all right, you got it, big guy. I'm gonna sit right here because I can't do anything. I've got nothing left in the tank.

Devin 11:19

Yeah.

Jon 11:20

And it's it is such a powerful thing to learn.

Devin 11:25

And because until I think until God takes you down those paths, they're paths that you would have never chosen for yourself. There's paths that look, Jesus, Jesus had the same feeling, right? Jesus had the exact same thing. Think about it whenever he was in the garden. And he's literally sweating blood. And he's saying, Lord, if it is possible, let this cup pass from me. Jesus didn't want to do it. But he wanted the will of the Father further. And so in everything, and in everything that we go through in life, I think that that is what we have to ask ourselves. Is God, am I getting out of the way enough? Am I listening to you? John 16, 33 says, I have said these things to you. This is Jesus talking. He said, I have said these things to you that in me you will have peace. But in the world, you're gonna have tribulation. You're gonna have hardships. But take heart, I have overcome the world.

Jon 12:31

Right. You're fighting a battle that's already been won. Yeah. Like whatever battle you're fighting, it's already been won. Like the outcome is it it's already decided. You're not you're not fighting to get what you want, you're fighting to give yourself to God.

Devin 12:51

Yeah. And and I think for you, you would have chosen not to obviously ever nobody likes to go through hardship, so you would have been like, you know, I I really don't want to do this. But here's the thing: I I truly believe, and I saw this in an Instagram video not too long ago. Sometimes God is going to take us down a path that we would never go down on our own. Because without it, we would not have picked up the things that we did, picked up the the life's lessons, the life's tools, trusted Him. Your relationship with God on the other side of all this will be a hundred times stronger than had you not gone through it.

Jon 13:29

Right. And sometimes that path might be God saying, All right, this is gonna suck, but you gotta do this. Or it might be an attack of the enemy, or it might be a combination of both. Right? The enemy's like, no, stop it. Like, we can't we can't have all this, we can't have more people learning about Jesus. But then God takes that and uses it. But God. But God. But God. Exactly.

Devin 13:54

And and see, I think that that's I think that that's for for a lot of us in the situations and in the hardships of life that we go through. God says, sometimes I have to, I have to send people your way. I have to give I have to I have to send enemies your way. Because how can you have a seat? God says to that, you know, I have what was it in the in the video that he said, uh he prepares a table in the presence of my enemies. Can't prepare a table if there's nobody there.

Jon 14:29

Right.

Devin 14:30

Right. So so so sometimes bad things do happen. They happen to the the question should not be God, why is this happening to me? The question should be, God, what do you want me to learn?

Jon 14:43

But don't just say bad things happen to good people and just like, yep, bad things happen. There's more to it. What do you what can you learn from it? How can you grow? Whatever the whatever the case may be. There's a there's a deeper meaning for it. And maybe So Philippians 4 13 says we can do all things through Christ who strengthens us. The key word that I want to focus on there is strength.

Strength Grows Through Suffering

Jon 15:15

Um how do you you've you've recently um started working out more, right? Correct. Where does the strength come from? Lifting. Is it pleasant?

Devin 15:32

Uh no, it sucks.

Jon 15:33

Yeah, so I mean some people love it, but it's not the point. Strength comes through the suffering. You have to you're sore. You came in here one day and you said, gosh, my abs are really sore. Or like my legs hurt. It's it's a good thing though. Today it's not like you're killing me. Right, but you're gonna you're gonna get stronger. Yeah. Okay. If you want to grow spiritually or emotionally, if you pray and ask God for strength, how's he gonna? He's not just gonna like snap his fingers and you have strength. No, you're gonna go through something to learn how to be stronger. I have to tear that muscle down in order for it to be built back up stronger.

Devin 16:17

That's the reason your muscles are sore. And that's right. And hardships in life, I think, go along the exact same road. Sometimes relationships and bad things have to be torn down to nothing so that whenever they're built up stronger. And I think that applies to what you're going through, that's applied to what I've gone through, that applies in many, many areas. I think I just struck a nerve with somebody.

Jon 16:39

It's gonna apply to something that's gonna happen in the future that you don't know about. Because without because it if you were to face that thing right now, it would kill you. Maybe literally. But if you go through enough before that, like I can I've I've dealt with if you go through enough pain beforehand, you're able to withstand it.

Devin 16:59

That's what you're saying. Yeah. The thing that I'm that I'm reminded of is um when Kevin Hart had his really, really bad car accident several years ago. I'm unfamiliar, but go ahead. Okay. He had this heart, his car literally careened down a uh uh a ravine, and the doctors were like, You absolutely should have died. There's no way you're your body should have been able to recover from that. But one of the doctors added, but because of the muscle that you had packed in on your like on your body, your body was able to rebuild and reheal itself faster and stronger because of literally the muscle that he had built. Because he was healthy, right? But in other, in other words, this sometimes things, relationships, people, events in your life, hardships will create a storm that has to bring you and everything around you down to nothing. In other words, that whenever you're built back up, you're stronger. Because you would have never gained that strength had you not been through the crap that you've been through. So when you talk about strength, we have to first realize that involves it being destroyed.

Jon 18:11

Right.

Devin 18:12

I'm going to destroy my arms tomorrow whenever I do my workout. It's going to hurt to wash my hair Tuesday. Okay. But the point is, I have to destroy it down to nothing in order for it to be built and rebuilt stronger. And I think that that's also the thing whenever it comes to just a side note caveat here is trust. A wise person once told me this the beautiful thing about trust is that it can be rebuilt. And honestly, when it is, typically it comes back stronger.

Jon 18:45

Yeah. And one thing people like to say in relation to hardships, it's a little bit taken out of context, so I'll put a caveat to it, is that God won't let us put us through anything that we can't handle. I'll say God won't put us through anything that we can't handle without Him. Sorry. Did I say that right? Yeah. Without Him. Sometimes God puts us through like I just said a minute ago. Sometimes the in recent history, I've just been like, I got nothing. I have absolutely nothing left. God help me.

Devin 19:25

Yeah. And I've watched you in those moments pull from the depths deeper than I ever saw.

Jon 19:31

That's the thing. I haven't pulled anything.

Devin 19:33

Right.

Jon 19:34

God did it.

Devin 19:34

Yeah.

Jon 19:35

But I would not be sitting in this chair right now.

Devin 19:38

Yeah. If not for God. Right. But the thing about it is that in those moments when your tanks were empty, it was he who filled

God Fills You When Empty

Devin 19:46

you up.

Jon 19:46

Let me give an example of that. This today's Sunday. We're recording this on Sunday. This past Sunday. Yeah, a week ago. A week ago. We had a men's night.

Devin 19:56

And uh a record-setting men's night. Yeah, it was amazing. It was absolutely 130 men gathered in Alabaster, Alabama to worship the one true king. God, it was amazing. Continue.

Jon 20:10

And I I'll just throw this in there. I would really love if Jamie Weyman could sing Lion for every single Men's night every day. Every crush. He does it so good. It's so good. It's so good. Anyway. I asked you to do something that night. Yeah.

unknown 20:26

Yeah.

Jon 20:27

So Devin was kind of more of the table in charge of some of it. And so what we do, just for a little bit of context, is we don't just sit in the auditorium. We set up a bunch of round tables in there, and we have a lead at each table. So after whoever's speaking, preaching preaches gets finished, we have a list of questions and we sit there and have a conversation. And then so part of this past this past one was starting. We talked about just starting the conversation. Starting the conversation. So and and we had our list of questions there. But before that, we're standing before it all started. Me, you, and the rest of the table leads were standing in a circle and we prayed. And my prayer was exactly what I was talking about a minute ago. That day, I was I I was running on E. Like it was at the end of the day. I'd had a long day, and I was just absolutely drained. You'd had a long week. I've had a long year, but beside the point, at the end of that day, at whatever time it was, I just didn't have anything. And I was like, that's not fair to the people at this table that need something. So I prayed and I was like, God, help me if you want me to do this. I need you to I need something here. Like I need something. And here's what happened. I let uh I was taking some pictures, but I let um I let some people go through and get food. And there was a lot of people. But I let the line kind of die down. I went and set my camera on a table next to where the the table that I was gonna sit at. I went and fixed myself a plate and I came back. I did not feel in the least bit drained. I did not feel any of it. It was gone. It was gone.

Devin 22:26

Yeah.

Jon 22:28

Afterwards, I was dead. I was drained.

Devin 22:30

You were back to being drained again.

Jon 22:32

Yeah. We've been talking for a little bit. You should pause pee break. We'll be right back. All right. Sorry about that. It was a bit of an emergency. Um, it was a weird spot to stop there, but anyway. At that point, I had nothing, nothing in the tank. And now I I know some people would say, well, you probably had it, and you just you you dug you dug a little deeper. Like, no, I'm telling you, I was I was toast. And then afterwards, I felt even lower. Like I went home and I went to sleep. Yeah. Like I did not do anything else that night because I couldn't. I physically had nothing left in the tank. And there is zero way that would have happened without God.

Devin 23:12

Yeah. And I'll be honest with you, at one point I was uh contempl I'd contemplated severely uh being over the table leads. Obviously, that's my responsibility. And knowing that you had had a very long week, I contemplated heavily. Uh saying, like, hey, bud, this night's for you. Don't you don't have to serve, you don't have to give anything like that. And I just thought the Lord tell me in my spirit, I've got him. And he did. Yeah. And I did. And I remember hearing that and I just said, okay. And it turned into, man, just what was an incredible, incredible evening of men encountering the Lord like never before. But when we talk about strength and we talk about God not putting us through situations that we can't handle it. But people love to say, uh, you know, God will never give you more than you can bear. And and caveat without him. Without him. And I would say this he will give you things that are beyond what you can bear because you need him. It creates an utter dependence upon the Father. Yeah. We need God in our lives, not the other way around. Yeah, God definitely doesn't need us. You know what I'm saying? But a lot of people, a lot of men out there love to operate like like pastors. I've seen pastors do this where, well, I've got to do this because the Lord needs me to buy. The Lord don't need you for squat, buddy. You need to be submissive. You need to go to God and say, God, what do you what do you need? Like, like what can I do to bring you honor and glory? And the fact of the matter is, is we will go through things that are beyond what we can bear because it creates our utter dependence and need upon him. If if you could handle it all, you wouldn't need God.

Jon 25:09

You don't need God. And we do. And sometimes we have to learn that. Sometimes we have to learn exactly how much we really need him.

Devin 25:17

Yeah. You want to pull up 1 Corinthians 10 13? We've actually got it right here. Yeah. No temptation has ever taken you that is common to man. God is faithful. He will not let you be tempted beyond your ability. That's that's crucial. He won't let you be tempted beyond your ability, in other words, beyond what you can bear. But with the temptation, he will provide a way to escape that you would be able to endure it. He will provide it. God will the people that say that they're half right. The people that say God won't give you anything beyond what you can bear. They're half right. They took half the scripture, the other half is without him. With him, he provides a way for us to be able to manage it. That's the difference.

Jon 26:09

Yeah, I mean, this verse really is specifically talking about temptation. Right. But we're talking about the things of life. Right. But even with temptation, pornography addiction. Sure. Can you with just well, you can, some people have, can you with just willpower overcome that? If you have, if you truly have an addiction, like can you can you just overcome that? Can you just be like, nope, not gonna do it anymore? Probably not. That's like somebody that's been smoking for 50 years and being like, all right, I'm done. It happens. Don't get me wrong. But you need help. You you do. Like, like we talked about earlier, find some other people. Whatever, whatever it is, God's going to provide it. God will provide it. It's sometimes that is just leaning on him, depending on the situation. It's sometimes it's through other people, sometimes it could be it could be through anything, but God will provide a way out for you.

Devin 27:12

Yeah.

Jon 27:13

That you will not have without him. It won't exist.

Devin 27:18

That's right. And when we talk about overcoming it, sure you can endure it because we can do all things through Christ who gives us strength. But how did that happen? It happened, you were strengthened through your hardships. The key here is that we can endure it, but not without him. You're not going to be able to crawl through the mess that is life. People don't become, I heard it put this way, people don't become the best version of themselves by themselves. You have to have that help.

Jon 27:54

We can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.

Devin 27:58

And whenever we go through the strength, that's when we get stronger. When we tear it down to nothing, that's when we get stronger. Yeah.

Following The Holy Spirit’s Nudge

Devin 28:07

Then to put a bow on it, I think that you have to allow the Holy the Holy Spirit to speak. Yeah. Yeah. You have to trust. There is that third aspect of the Trinity: Father, Son, Holy Spirit. You have to allow the Holy Spirit to speak.

Jon 28:24

What does that look like?

Devin 28:25

That's a poll that typically you can't explain in a certain direction when it's backed by Scripture. There are certain people who have said who have done many, many things and say, Well, God told me to do that. I told you the story earlier of the girl that broke up with me because the Lord told her to. God didn't tell you to do that. Um, there's nowhere in scripture about that. Okay. Um, but but the the reality is when we go through that, it's a pull that you can't explain. Hey, look, I don't know why I'm in, but I cannot you like I remember one day, I want to say it was maybe two, three weeks after we had started this, but the Lord just put you on my heart that day. And I remember just calling you and be like, hey, buddy, you good? I just want to check on you. You good? Because for whatever reason, John Pierce just stayed in my head that day.

Jon 29:14

What did I say when you said, Are you good?

Devin 29:16

Yeah, man, I'm good. And then it was over the course of the next 10 or 15 minutes you began to explain to me why you were indeed not good. That's usually how that works. Right. Because the reality is this we are by nature wired to be able to say, No, I'm fine. Oh, how are you? I'm good. Yeah. Sometimes I would love for somebody to just ask me that and be like, you know what? My freaking sucks right now, and here's why. And then watch the shock and all on their face. Because everybody is conditioned to go, oh no, I'm good. Fine. How are you? I'm fine too.

Jon 29:52

Nobody's fine. Most of the time, people when people ask you that, it's just a passing salutation.

Devin 29:59

It's a passive salutation. Very good, very well put. But I think I think that for a lot of us, you have to have somebody in your life. And I've talked about this before on this podcast. You have to have somebody in your life that whenever they ask you how you are, you can go, you know what? I'm not good today.

Jon 30:18

Yeah, know who those people are. Because if the random dude says, Hey, how's it going? And you're just like, it's going terrible. It's probably never gonna speak to you.

Devin 30:29

That's probably not the Holy Spirit there, but you have to allow him to speak. So another way is is it's it's that person, like I said, that you just can't get off your mind.

Jon 30:38

And here's how you and here's well, before we get to that, a poll in a certain direction, this podcast. Never before when did we start talking about it? October.

Devin 30:53

No, it was uh I think it was August. It was one of the men's nights that we had in August. Is it August? It was either August or September. Did we wait that long to actually start this? Yeah, because we took time to pray about what this would look like. I could have sworn the word in this. Yeah, you're probably right. We wanted the word in this.

Jon 31:09

Yeah, you're right. Anyway, I feel like a failure for delaying obedience. Anyway, um I had never in my life thought like we talked about if you haven't listened to the first episode, we talked a little bit about this, then I've never in my life thought that I would be in a position to do something like this, but I could not get it off my mind. Like it just would not go away.

Devin 31:35

And what you didn't know was that night that you came to me was that the Lord had already put it on my mind again.

Jon 31:40

I had no idea, had no clue. And I'll still never forget. Like the the those words came out of my mouth without my permission.

Devin 31:49

Right. I'll still never forget though telling you that, and you like jumped in my arms like a three-year-old girl. Like I did not jump. I did not jump. You picked me up. You gave you gave me a big, big hug, but uh, as the story recollects in my mind, you jumped in my arms and I caught you. But um Good Lord.

Jon 32:08

No, that did not for the record, for the record, that did not happen.

Devin 32:12

Oh, I love making you uncomfortable. It's so much fun.

Jon 32:15

I'm not uncomfortable. Look, I was in the Navy and I once watched a gay guy lose a game of gay chicken. Just I'm just saying, I'm not uncomfortable. Do you know what gay chicken is? I don't, and I don't think I want to know. It's disturbing. Okay. Probably not podcast worthy. No, that's fine. It's where it's where two. Here we go. Oh, here we go. He's gonna tell it anymore. Gay chicken is where two dudes, normally straight dudes, like start fussing with each other, and the first one. To say, all right, that's enough, loses. The straight dude, I thought was straight, and a gay dude were doing this. And the gay dude was like, All right, I'm out. I was like, I'm just standing there in line for lunch, and I'm just like, what is happening right now? I'm out. Can we change conversations? Anyway, yeah, sorry. Um maybe it's a something that you can't get off your mind, or a person that you can't get off your mind. Yeah, that same night, last Sunday, we we sat and we had a decent conversation. You know, some people don't really like to say much, others are a little talkative. Yeah, but there was one person in particular after after we were done, we were singing our our song right before we left. And this guy's standing, uh, as the tables were set, he was actually behind me, kind of to my left. And I could not get off my mind that I need to pray with that guy. I don't know why. But I went, I did, and we we I haven't heard from him yet. I hope I do, but we exchanged phone numbers, and I I know that guy needed he needed that, and it wasn't me. It definitely wasn't me because I'm standing there like I need to pray with him. What am I supposed to say? Like, how how does he need to be prayed for? I did, I had no clue. But I walked over there and I said, Can I pray with you? And he said, Yeah, and words came out of my mouth. I don't know what I said, but there was there was a pull, and I that was the Holy Spirit saying, Go pray with that guy.

Devin 34:31

And you saw that day in that moment the Lord began to speak to you. He pulled from empty tanks. Yeah, I wasn't there. And we weren't safe, and he filled you that night to be able to speak life into somebody, and we never know typically, whenever we go through the depths of of life, you never know when God's gonna use somebody to speak to you or use you to speak to somebody. And how humbling of a thought that the God of the universe chose you, chose you to speak life into that person, right? That person had no idea what you were going through.

Jon 35:11

And I have no idea what he's going through. That's right. I really you never know. You never know. Be nice to people. Side note, be nice to people. You never know, you never know how their how their life's going right now. Yeah, the guy that just cut you off in traffic, his seven-year-old could have died yesterday. Like, just stop.

Devin 35:30

What if you want to talk about being uncommon? That's how you be uncommon. Because kindness is uncommon today.

Jon 35:36

It sure is.

Devin 35:37

I guess that sucks.

Jon 35:38

Especially on like on social media.

unknown 35:41

Oh yeah.

Devin 35:41

It's disgusting. It's literally in my uh or was in my profile at one point. Anybody can be big and bad behind the keyboard.

Jon 35:49

So sometimes that person that you can't get off your mind isn't standing next to you, like it was for me last Sunday.

Devin 35:55

Yeah.

Jon 35:56

Sometimes kind of puts someone on your mind, reach out to them, send them a text. Some people don't like phone calls. Call them if that's you. Like reach out to them. If you see them, stop, have a conversation with them. Like somebody that I referred to earlier just stopped, had a conversation with me, and it turned out to be the best conversation I had that week. It it was you just you never know.

Devin 36:20

I remember calling you one day and like telling you were going through something kind of rough that day. You had had a rough day that day. And I remember calling you and just like encouraging you for a little bit. And whenever I got done, I don't even remember what I told you. Um it would appear to have a lot of rough days, but it would. You're going through the storms, man. Um, but I remember whenever I got done, John, John's response was, You should have been a motivational speaker. And I was just like, Yeah, no, no, I mean maybe, but um There's a story behind that too.

Jon 36:52

You told me that day. Some job you passed up. I don't know.

Devin 36:57

Oh, yeah, no, somebody asking me to to do that and motivationally speak and stuff like that, and I was like, No, because I didn't want to be gone from my family that long.

Jon 37:08

Um and and I think uh to wrap up, we have to allow the Holy Spirit to guide us and teach us, whether it be through those hardships, whether it be through any anything. We just have to allow it, allow it to happen.

Are You Listening And Choosing God

Devin 37:29

Allow for the Lord to speak into your life. The question is is going to be, are you listening? Yeah. So if you're struggling to hear the Lord, are you listening? Yeah. I remember going through a season not too long ago where I I actually told Brittany, the words actually came out of my mouth that I was struggling to see the Lord's blessings in my life. And since then, like God's just began to to show me to open my eyes for that. And it's because I literally just prayed and just said, Lord, show me your blessings.

Jon 38:00

That's where give me your eyes. Give me your eyes. That's where gratitude comes in. Yeah. I think it's make gratitude lists are a real thing. Like, make one. Yeah, it's truly, truly eye-opening. Um I had a thought, I don't know what it was.

Devin 38:17

Anyway. I I just think uh to end this, I think for a lot of us, ask yourself, am I listening?

Jon 38:31

Oh yes. Uh along with that, you don't have to listen. We do have free will. We have to choose every single day to listen. We have to choose God. Okay. Yeah, I was wondering where you're going with that.

Devin 38:49

You're right.

Jon 38:49

You do you we do choose the Lord. Right. Um but but that's that's kind of what we meant here by allow it to happen. Like you you have to want it to. Because if if you have no interest, then well, there's all there's th there's do you want the Lord to listening?

Devin 39:08

But do you want to allow the Lord to speak into your life? If so, these were just some of our ways that we've discovered over the years of going through the same things that you are. Yeah, if you got something to add, please do so. Please drop it in the comments. We would love to hear from you. I think for a lot of us, we all go through the stuff of life. You want to be uncommon? You're listening to this podcast for a reason. You want to be uncommon? Allow the Lord to speak into your life. Pay attention to the areas and the direction that He's going. Pay attention to be in tune, and you have to posture your heart in the right way to be in tune to know the will of the Father. Final thoughts?

Jon 39:58

Um, yeah, there's just one. Don't be selfish. And what I mean by that is when you said posture your heart, it made me think of that. Posture your heart towards the Lord, posture towards other people, posture towards growing the kingdom. Don't be able to do that. Because it's natural for us to selfishness is natural, sure. It's very natural because we have a sinful nature. Do not you cannot be selfish. Like if God wants to teach you something, you have to, you have to one seek whatever it is that God's trying to teach you. And then you have to be willing to accept it. You have to be willing to accept that you're wrong. You have to be willing to accept that something you believe to your core that you've thought for your whole life could be wrong. You have to you you cannot be selfish. And like you said a minute ago, like we're not we're these are our experiences. Yeah. And I've seen in my own life selfishness that really, really I don't want to put it. It really really hurt well, it can hurt relationships. It can it can it can do a lot of damage. If you want if you want your life to be the worst thing possi, if you want your life to be as bad as possible, be selfish.

Devin 41:24

Yeah, that's a good one. Right.

Jon 41:26

You want to put us out? Yeah.

Prayer And Final Charge

Jon 41:29

Heavenly Father, thank you. Thank you so much for the words that you've given us today. May it touch someone's life. May someone get something from this. Uh there's no doubt that you have uh guided us here today and sp give given us the words to speak. God, we're not we don't know everything, and we're trying to learn and all grow together. Lord, please allow that to happen. Speak speak into the lives of the people listening to this. Lord, I pray that you speak into the lives of people that aren't listening to this. Thank you so much for everything that you do in Jesus' name. Amen. Thanks for listening. Remember to like, share, and subscribe. If you know someone who would enjoy this, please pass it along. You can follow us on Instagram at uncommon.man or reach out at theuncommonman.com. Keep pursuing excellence, and above all, pursue fast.