Season 1 Episode 2

Hi, I'm Alex. And I'm Brenda. Welcome to Conversational Counseling or Counseling and Discipleship Meet. We are really just saying that every single thing we've learned, everything we've learned is useful in your family, with your friends, at your work, with your neighbors. And at your church, we can't think of anything better than handing our tools off to other people and seeing this multiplied.

I mean, that's what kingdom work is.

Well, Brenda, today we're gonna talk about another one of our three things. Mm-hmm. And, um, I have been thinking a lot about, um, Marvel Comics as I think about this topic, because there've been so many great Marvel movies and, uh, hid that have come out lately and comic movies and comic. In general is a new orientation for me because before I married my husband, I didn't read a comic book, but now I've been introduced into the world of, to not the world, the universe of the Marvel comics and learned all about the superheroes in the, in that universe.

But, um, that is not exactly the universe we're gonna talk about today. That's right. We're gonna talk about the superpowers that God has given to every single Christian. Mm-hmm. And, um, they're very simple and yet very, very powerful and profound. Mm-hmm. And they're the word of God. The Holy Spirit and spiritual friendships or other spirit-filled believers that are going to do life with us.

And, um, I get so excited talking about this because we really have resources for life and godliness for dealing with suffering and sin in our, in our lives that are otherworldly Mm. That are out of this world. Mm-hmm. That when we become Christians. All the resources of heaven and all the resources of that God has placed on Earth are at our disposal.

Um, so that we can know who God is and we can live a life that's pleasing to him. And um, you know, if I look at any and all other counseling systems, um, you know, they're, they're, they have some good stuff. I'm not saying they don't, there's some good stuff out there, but we have the best resources and they are our super.

I think it's good for us to remember that we have these superpowers because we can become so oriented to what our enemies are. And so, um, the scripture talks about our enemies being the world, the flesh, and the devil. It can be really easy to orient to that because that is what it we are faced with.

Every day. We're faced with the influence of the world, the fallenness of our own flesh, and then the warfare that we experience. Satan himself. So it's good for us to remember that we're not in a war, um, unequipped or we don't come to battle unequipped. That's right. And the other thing to remember is we, if we're Christians, we have, we all have these resources.

Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Um, this is not like just, you know, for the higher level echelon of pastors or evangelists in the church. This is for the child in the church. Mm-hmm. Um, for the young believer. For the old believer alike, like we are equipped now, we may not be as skilled and we may not understand our dependence and reliance.

And maybe, you know, if we're young, maybe we haven't seen the victories and we haven't, um, had the opportunity to sort of, uh, yeah, use really act. This, these weapon tree, if you will, or these superpowers, and see how they really do battle against our enemies, but we have them. Yeah. And, um, and we can learn more about them and we can be sharpened by them and we can be better equipped, um, through them.

And the way I, I sort of like to look at these weapons is a little bit like a, um, a three-legged stool. Mm-hmm. Because you really, if you think about a three-legged stool, if you take one away, The stool's gonna, it's gonna lean over. It's gonna lean. And so, you know, if you take any of these away, not understanding or, or being regularly, um, committed to knowing God's word and knowing God through his word.

If we don't have regular dependence on the Holy Spirit through, uh, reliance on him through prayer, and, um, if we don't engage ourselves with other Christians, then we really are handicapping ourselves. Mm-hmm. In, in a severe way. We're not going, I mean, Jesus is the foundation, but we're gonna be on that foundation and we're gonna lean or be lopsided if we don't have all three of those superpowers, um, strengthening all three of those throughout our lives and in our lives.

Mm-hmm. And so another way some people talk about these superpowers is talking about the means of grace. That may be a, a another expression that other people have heard about those that, um, that we. Have access to grace more readily through them. And one of the ways I like to think about it is I think this illustration comes from Matt Chandler at the Village Church and he talks about, um, that what we do when we, when we avail ourselves of these, these three things is we place ourselves in the shower and then we wait for the Holy Spirit to turn the water on.

And it's the Holy Spirit who does the work of transforming us, but we can cooperate with him by using these tools. That's right. And I think we, we come back to this idea that these are for us first, and then they're where we take other people and lead other people. Um, and so in our own lives, we have to really be committed if we really wanna experience the fullness of what it means to know God, what it means to be transformed into his image, what it means to be useful in his kingdom, and to glorify him.

Um, these have to be the resource, our go-to resources. Mm-hmm. You know? And so maybe we could, um, split these up a little bit and just talk individually, why are these so important? Why is the word of God so important to our individual growth? And as we minister to other people, and then do the, the same for the other three.

Mm-hmm. So let's talk about that. The word of God being central. Uh, to our knowing God, to our Christian growth, to being comforted, to being changed, and then being able to lead other people as well. Yeah, it's, it's so easy to just go to where I am right now, so that's where I'm gonna start. Yeah. First of all, we've already mentioned that one thing we, we don't wanna do for our own hearts or someone else's is just have this philosophy with God's word of just take two verses and call me in the morning, like plucking things out of their context.

Out of the, the whole story of scripture and applying it as if God has only that to say about that one subject. So for me, that has meant really orienting myself to the big picture of God's word. Mm-hmm. To the big story, the grand or the meta narrative. And that's been helpful to me because it reminds me, One that my current struggle is not all there is.

Like I can look up and see that God is doing something far bigger than just what's happening right here. It also helps me because it reminds me that all of God's word is at at my fingertips and can be applied. Or used in, um, my sanctification process in the process of changing my own life or other people's lives.

And so the way that's played out for me is just really expecting that God uses his word, whether I'm in an Old Testament narrative or Proverbs, which can seem so confusing, or I'm in a new Testa. Him an epistle that there, there are things for me to, to learn and understand and, and most importantly, to me, there are ways for me to know Jesus and to know who God is more deeply, um, throughout his word, that God's word is given to us to reveal himself to us.

Yeah, it's not my self-help book, right? So that's why I don't wanna just flip to the back, look up anxiety and just read those verses, but that as I grow in my understanding of who he is, even in narrative passages, that um, I am more able to, um, gaze on his beauty and that that's what transforms me. Yeah.

And I think one of the things that keeps most of us from thinking we can help other people is we don't think we know enough about the Bible. Mm-hmm. Right? Like, so how much Bible do I have to know Right. To be able to help my neighbor? And I think again, the more we, the more we look to the scriptures, um, as where we are going to meet Jesus and to learn about who he is and what he does, has done for us and what he requires of us.

Um, then we are over time going to be more equipped to help different people at different times. But, you know, the faith, the faith really is so simple and so many, you know, so many of the questions that we have while complex in some ways can be pretty simple. Mm-hmm. If we can. Um, really just bring it down to the level of what does it look like to love God and love my neighbor.

Mm-hmm. And what does God say about his love for me? Mm-hmm. And then how am I gonna respond by loving God and loving my neighbor? And the book that tells us God's love for us, and the book that tells us how we're gonna love God and love our neighbor is the Bible. Mm-hmm. The Holy Word of God. Mm-hmm. Um, we have to believe that the Bible was.

Yeah, authoritative. We're definitely living, and I think this has been true from the beginning, but we see it very much in our faces now that we live in a day and age where truth is hard to come by. Right. And relative. Mm-hmm. And so, you know, that's one of the beautiful things when we're sitting with people, is that we can have the confidence that what we are telling them is absolutely a hundred percent true if it comes from the scripture.

Mm. And that really, there's no problem. We can look at Jesus' life and he addressed everything and there's, and the, so the scriptures are sufficient. Mm-hmm. They really do address the, the kinds of problems with anxieties and depressions and fear and people pleasing and envy and jealousy. You know, these are the kind of issues, you know, idolatry, um, suffering.

Mm-hmm. Suffering because of, uh, bad marriage, suffering because of a prodigal child suffering because my body is breaking down. I mean, these are the real practical issues that the word of God speaks to with richness. Mm-hmm. With fullness, with promise. Mm-hmm. Um, that we are not really gonna find in the world, Alex.

Mm. Yeah, so most recently for me that's been studying the be attitudes and just seeing in these really simple statements, um, just again, orientation. We see this orientation in the be attitudes that we see in the 10 Commandments, like a godward orientation and our hearts before him, and then, and then horizontal or people orientation of then how we posture towards other people and just seeing the beauty and complexity of what Jesus.

Teaching, but more than that and more than just a prescription for who I need to be seeing that as Jesus is teaching that he is that Yeah. For us. Yeah. Like he's not saying, here's this goal now bootstrap it up and, and basically you're not gonna ever be able to do it. He's saying like, you are gonna be blessed as you.

Um, experience the fact that I am this, I am meek, I am mournful, I am hungering for righteousness. Like this is who I am on your behalf. So the attitudes have become really precious to me in the last few weeks. Yeah, that's good. Well, I'm also thinking, you know, when it comes to the word of God and, um, whether we're looking at our own lives or helping someone else, that we have to be really careful that we understand the difference between, you know, precepts and principles and commands.

Because one of the things we don't wanna do, mm-hmm. Is I guess we don't want to, um, What's the word I'm looking for? We don't want to, you know, tell somebody to give somebody something that the Bible doesn't say. Right? Yeah. Read into the scripture. Yes. Mm-hmm. Or, you know, saying that you have to go this way because this is a command of scripture, when really these are maybe some principles because, and there, there are things that we are gonna face that are very, very black and white, right?

But there's a lot of things that we're gonna face that are going to require some wisdom calls. It's going to require looking at the, the life of Christ. It's gonna require looking at the biblical principles. Mm-hmm. And we're gonna have to have that to be able to, to have some wisdom in making decisions.

And so I just, I, I think we have to be really careful not to say more than what the scripture says, but then also not to be afraid to say less than what the scripture says. Because in our own lives we know that the scriptures are what is going to bring the comfort and change. And so the conviction may need to be there or, um, you know, just that ability to meet us in deep sorrowing.

But I think particularly when we're talking about sin issues, maybe I'm thinking more so that. I, I just want us to be careful that we don't say more or say less than the scripture say. Yeah. So someone said, we where the scriptures remain silent. We remain silent. Yes. And I think that's a really good admonition when we're talking about walking alongside other people, because so often what someone wants when they come in our office or they sit at our kitchen table is, what do I do?

Yeah, X. And it can be so tempting in that moment to think that we're gonna put on our cape and we're gonna be the superhero and we're gonna tell them what to do and we're gonna give a advice. And I'm not saying that advice is always wrong, but I think we jump really, really quickly to advice. Before we ask questions, before we dig a little bit deeper, before we realize that often what someone is presenting to us is not the whole issue.

Yeah. And um, and we've put a bandaid on what is actually a gaping wound. And then we tend to misapply scripture, I think then too, because we've either given a, a scriptural bandaid that's insufficient because we don't understand the problem or we've, we've taken the way that we've applied the scripture to our own hearts and said that other people need to do that too.

Yeah. Yeah. I think that's good. And I think just knowing where there's a command of scripture and. To be able to recognize that these might just be some ways that I, that you could do this. Mm-hmm. Or I would recommend it as well, or I've seen this done or I've done this. We just wanna make those distinctions.

So, yeah. And a lot of times what I find myself doing more and more is I, I feel like I grow in this area of advice is easy and it's fast and it makes us feel better because we feel like, Oh, I helped, you know, but, um, is to ask more questions, dig more deeper and, and get a better sense of what the issue that a person is really struggling with.

And then begin to just ask them, what do you know about what God's word says? Like, draw out of them. Yeah. Instead of me going and, because you know, a lot of times if we're dealing with people who are already believers, they have some sense of some scriptural principles and then begin. Them. Well, how do you wanna apply that scripture?

Occasionally I'll give them a scripture and say, okay, does that help frame what you're struggling with and how might you apply that? But it keeps me from doing that application for them that leaves that space for the Holy Spirit to lead them from principle into direct application. And so you and I call that something like we, we call that interchange a trial log.

And I love that idea because what we're saying, and this is gonna lead into the Holy Spirit, I think, um, we are not just giving, we're not just having a two-way conversation when we're talking to someone else. That's right. The Holy Spirit, the person of the Holy Spirit is involved in the conversation and, um, And that the person of the Holy Spirit is guiding, directing our thoughts, our words.

Mm-hmm. And, um, and is also, and this is what I can sometimes forget, guiding and directing the person that I'm sitting with. That's right. And especially, we need to remember guiding it to the degree that we do know God's word. Mm-hmm. You know, these superpowers work together because the Holy Spirit, like the Bible's holy and we've got the Holy Spirit is holy set apart.

The Bible set apart. You know, God's spirit is a set apart spirit and the people of God are set apart to God. Mm-hmm. And so in this holiness, in this set, apartness, God is using his word through his spirit to remind us to eliminate, to challenge, to convict all of these things. And um, Yeah, I think the trial log is really important too, because it also reminds us that we are not the wonderful counselor in the room.

Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. I like to say a lot of times when I meet with women for the first time, I am no wonderful counselor. Right. But we know him. We know him. And um, and in that moment, you know, the Holy Spirit is the wonderful counselor in the room, and as we are pointing people to. God's word, who God is and what He's done and what he requires.

Then the Holy Spirit's job, right, is to illuminate that for the person in front of us and then to move them in the direction that he wants them to go. Because I think when you were talking about the word of God and being sort of quick to give advice, Which I will definitely say that is a tendency of mine because a lot of times, you know, when you've, when you've helped people for a long time, you can start thinking like, oh yeah, yeah, I know where this is going.

I know what the help they need. Right? Yeah. Um, but not just like the bandaid of the scripture verse, but can also be like the bandaid of you're, you're going to counsel a lot out of your own experience. Mm-hmm. So, you know, whatever band-Aid, the other band-aid you're pulling from is like, okay, here's the Bible verse and then here's how I apply that.

Right. Um, and so I think what the Holy Spirit does is he, he knows exactly what that person needs. We don't know exactly. He knows all the history. And that's another thing I think is we meet with people where I, I think people also feel very inadequate. Um, you know, if, if the word part is sort of the, the inadequacy of knowledge, I think the spirit part is the inadequacy of ability.

Mm-hmm. Or discernment. Right. Or knowing the person, not knowing the word, but knowing the person. And the truth of the matter is, is that, I mean, somebody. You sit down and talk with somebody, they've lived a long life. Mm-hmm. And they've had a lot of experiences and you, there's no way that you're gonna be able, I mean, they don't, they can't even remember at all.

Much less have time to tell you at all. So you really are gonna be very dependent on the Holy Spirit's work. And that's why prayer is such an important part of, you know, our own life in demonstrating humility and dependence. Mm-hmm. And then praying with and for, and I don't think we can underestimate somebody shows up.

They're hurting and we may not have any words to give them, right? But we grab their hand and we bow our heads and we go to the wonderful counselor who can bring comfort and we pray and we weep, and we, we stay in that place with that person to bring them before the living God and, and, And acknowledgement and awareness.

Yeah. That God is near, that. God is there. Yeah. And that's so beautiful cuz it takes so much of the pressure off of like, I have to have all this ability and I have to have all this knowledge about God's word and all this knowledge about people. Um, and it's like, no, you just have to have a knowledge of God's word and a growing knowledge and a dependence.

Mm-hmm. Yourself on the Holy Spirit. Yeah. I find I don't do that often enough. I find myself praying while I'm talking to someone. In my own spirit, I'm praying, but I don't stop and pray. And I have a friend who, she's just so good. I mean, we will be having a conversation about something that's hard and she doesn't even say, let's pray.

Let's stop and pray about this. She we're literally saying, oh, I know. I'm not sure what we're gonna go Jesus right now. We, I mean, it is not, there's not even a, a pause, like she just starts to pray in the conversation. But I really love that it has really taught me so much about the fact that that, again, the Holy Spirit is in this conversation.

Yeah. And he's right here and we can talk to him just like he's right here. And it's like, it's just this acknowledgement right in that moment. And it's not formal, it's just relationship. It's just real, just. So funny because I wonder if all of us could think about anybody in our lives who have just prayed that spontaneously.

I think about the girl who first discipled me all the time, and he drove me nuts. Back then I was a baby crystal. I was like, why are we talking to God all the time like this? Like, like, what's this about? You know? Like I just wanna talk to you and you gimme the answers. Um, and then my friend, uh, Peggy, uh, who's head of the women's Renew here, she is just such a prayer warrior too, and the same thing.

You'll just be talking to her and all of a sudden she's got her head down and she's saying a prayer, and you're like, yeah. Oh wait, I missed something. Okay. Yeah. Okay. Um, but I will say some of the sweetest times I've had, whether it's been with my children or my husband or somebody in the, the formal counseling setting is just stopping and even getting on our knees.

Oh, mm-hmm. Even getting on our face. Mm-hmm. And just pouring out our hearts. Like you leave that sort of counseling environment and you have had an encounter with God. Mm-hmm. That is unbelievable. But you didn't come in prepped with your scripture and with your homework and all that, you know, just. The Holy Spirit just met you in that moment and you just surrendered and depended.

And acknowledged. Mm-hmm. And God just shows up and do some, and, you know, gives some comfort or some breakthrough so often and change. Yeah. You know, that is just so precious and not anything that could be explained by man. Yeah. Because these, like I said, these are supernatural, these are superpowers. And so we don't always understand how the super, you know, the superpowers work.

Yeah. Because they're supernatural. That's really convicting me. I really am realizing how much more I need to bring prayer into these conversations because the, the thing I struggle with the most probably, again, is the personal responsibility. And so I feel so responsible to help the person I'm sitting with.

And, uh, here again, is where the Holy Spirit really comforts me is because I remember that this is not my, Yeah. It is his job to apply God's word to us, like it is his G job to illuminate Christ and to make this and his joy. Yes. And make the scriptures understandable. So I do talk to a lot of people when they're, when they're wrestling with something or the right and wrong of something or the which way, and I, I just remind them like, um, we don't have to do this ruthless, um, painful self-examination.

All the time, like the Holy Spirit is not gonna play cat and mouse with us. Like he's not trying to hide from us, right? He's trying to show us, and if he is showing us, he's going to get our attention. We don't have to worry. So we have to ask him. We have to humbly be ready to receive what he's showing us, but we don't have to worry.

Yeah. That we are not, we are missing it because we're not spending enough time on my side. If I, if I'm in a helping relationship that I haven't said, or the right things are done, the right things because it's the spirit's job. But even on the other side, for someone listening, we don't have to, I don't have to worry when I'm, I'm needing help that he's hiding from me.

And if I just, you know, white knuckle it harder, then I'm gonna find him. It's his joy. Yeah. To show us who Christ is, that's, Well, I wanna leave some time to talk about the third superpower. Mm-hmm. And that is spirit. Spirit-filled friendships, other spirit-filled believers. Mm-hmm. And I know this is, um, one of the main reasons that we have our ministry and we're have this podcast because we do believe in the one anothering, uh, that Christ has commanded his church to participate in.

And it's not just service to one another, although service is beautiful. And I think when we minister to people, we minister to the whole. Physical needs are going to become a parent. Mm-hmm. Shared a story at lunch about a meeting, a physical need of a young mom in the last week, and how she just saw God in such big ways.

Mm-hmm. And she's really searching. So we know that God works that way, but we also know that, you know, it's through the spirit and through the word that God uses relationships mightily. Mm-hmm. So what are some ways, Alex, you see. That playing out. Well first did a little commentary because I really think as Americans, I'm just being, becoming more and more convinced that we're so individualistic.

We really are. You know, think we can do it on our own. We, um, We're just not used to asking for help or thinking communally. And I think we, we bring that right into the church. And even though we have all these teachings about the body and the communion of saints and the family of God, we, we ha we are very Americanized.

And then, The second is just how many articles, I'm sure you're reading 'em too, just about the isolation and the loneliness that's occurred over the last three years. During this pandemic. Mm-hmm. And, well, two years. Two years. Mm-hmm. Going into our third, but I read an article just this past week about the loss of.

Not just deep friendships, cuz some of us have maintained those, but that kind of mid-level or, and social interaction friendships. And so we really are fighting against our own cultural makeup. We're fighting against circumstantial, um, things in our lives right now. And then probably our own bent of. I don't want people to know me in my brokenness.

I do not want to open that up. I want people to think that I have it all together, or at least, um, I can figure it out pretty quickly. So we are fighting against that to enter into relationships where we really are allowing people to know us. Um, so, but I do see more and more that without other people, we are not gonna make it very, very far in the Christian life.

No, and we probably all could think about someone, we won't mention any names, but maybe somebody we know who's elderly or got, or getting older, that they have lived a very unexamined life. Mm-hmm. They've lived a life in isolation. They've not been open with their sin and their suffering struggles, and so we can just see that that's, they're, a lot of times they're not really beautiful.

Right. Right. There's not a, a beauty to their life. There's not a flourishing, their lives are not life-giving because that sort of life becomes very self-focused and very selfish. Very quickly. Mm-hmm. And, um, you know, the beauty of relationship is also, um, what, what makes it really hard. Right? Right. And that is, you know, vulnerability.

Mm-hmm. We have to have some people in our lives that we are willing to be vulnerable with, and that's going to take having some people that we trust. Mm-hmm. And, and in the same way that if we. Feel fully known and fully loved and fully accepted by the Lord, we can run to him. Mm-hmm. And, um, you know, much more quickly, in any situation in our life, we need some people in our lives that we also feel that safe with.

Mm-hmm. Yeah. And, um, I had a conversation recently with a, a friend of mine and it was a really hard conversation. The subject matter was really difficult. But I, I said at the end, because it ended really well to God be the glory, and I just said, you know, I don't think we could have had this conversation if we didn't have the relationship.

Mm-hmm. That there was so much hard about the conversation that we had to know that we trusted the others' heart for the Lord. And for one another. Mm-hmm. And in that context, we could say some really hard things to each other. Mm-hmm. And walk away and still say, I love you and I'm so thankful that you're in my life, and let's keep doing life together.

Mm-hmm. You know, and those relationships take time and they take a lot of. Failure to be honest, right? Like we have to be willing to fail in front of each other and with each other and learn how to forgive and trust one another to really be able to grow in, um, in that depth of vulnerability and honesty.

Yeah, I do think it's interesting because of the Holy Spirit, I will say that. You know, I think we would both say throughout our lives that the Holy Spirit does something very supernatural in allowing two people who do not know each other very well to go deep. Mm-hmm. Very quickly. Yeah. Yeah. There is a depth that can be plummeted.

So there are some friendships that I just look at and I think, wow, that's just amazing because they're deep friends and I'm able to go deep with them. They can go deep with me, but there are also people that I'm. And, um, immediately we share some life experiences that are really heavy. Mm-hmm. Some parts of our story that.

I can't believe I shared that with you. Right. We're a part of a current struggle. Mm-hmm. And I think that can only happen because when, when you have the Holy Spirit, if you have security there, if you have security with your walk with the Lord, then you can be more vulnerable and real with someone else.

Or if you know that somebody else has that security with the Lord, then you feel safe with them. Mm-hmm. And so I do see that, you know, and I guess what I'm trying to say is I don't think that we have to know people for 20 years before we can start speaking into their lives. Mm-hmm. I think the minute we are open, that's true.

Mm-hmm. You know, the minute that we have a rapport and the minute you're asking me for help, that's probably the bigger thing, is the minute you're saying, Hey Brenda, I got this problem I'm wrestling with. You know? And that we both understand that the authority of how to handle this problem is gonna come from God's word and who God.

And what we believe to be true about him and the gospel, and we both believe that we are dependent on the Holy Spirit and we both believe that we will walk with one another. That you're not gonna gossip about me, you're not gonna take this information, you're not gonna leave me. Then there's sort of an infused.

Um, safety net there. Mm-hmm. A security. Mm-hmm. A trustworthiness that is built, I mean, really supernaturally, right? Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. And I'm, aren't you amazed at the things people will tell you in one or two settings? Oh yeah. Yes. Yeah, that's very true. And the other thing I was thinking about when you were talking was that, um, what I love right now in neuroscience is that.

Our neuroscience is actually proving what the Bible tells us about this, that like there's healing and, um, and even hope given through relationships. And so one, uh, psychiatrist who we love is Kurt Thompson, and he's a psychiatrist who studies the effects of relationship on the brain. Mm-hmm. Mind blowing to me.

But he, he marries these two things so beautifully and he talks about that when we are in relationship where there is real vulnerability and openness, we have what he calls right brain to right brain experiences. So we're not just sharing truth with one another, although that's happening. But when we are.

Empathizing and we're really feeling the way the other person feels. Our right brains, our feeling centers, our, you know, creativity brains are, are, um, experiencing one another, such that we experience healing of difficult traumatic events. Um, uh, difficult emotional experiences, and I just think that's so beautiful because it's like Ephesians three come to life.

Like, you know, y'all are going to experience the breadth and the depth and the height of God's love when y'all mm-hmm. Are together, like all of us together. And so I love that, um, science is catching up with God's word. I always love when that happens and, um, and that we really see like, it's not just that we feel better, but our.

Our brains are healing. Yeah. Physically healing. And so we are doing something way beyond just the words that we're speaking when we're in each other's presence. We're something much deeper is happening. Something spiritual and physiological. Yeah. And I think that's why we could even say that. Um, that's why.

Any counseling almost will be helpful. Mm-hmm. If you go see a counselor, a professional, and you know somebody's willing to listen to you, to empathize with you, to enter into your story and it feels like a safe and secure place, then there is a lot that will happen there. But I think. The point of what we're trying to say is that you don't necessarily need a professional to do that.

Right. And in many, many instances, you don't need a professional. In fact, you need somebody who will walk past the six week, the eight week, the three months, the six months that will continue on with you mm-hmm. Throughout the journey and be there. Mm-hmm. And so spiritual friendships are not just about imparting knowledge.

Paula tell us they're about imparting our life. Mm-hmm. And that's what Jesus came, he came as truth and life. Mm-hmm. He is. But he is life. And so what we wanna do when we, when we look at these superpowers, we're saying these are the powers from out of this world that God has given us. Um, so that we can, um, minister.

To, well, first of all, that God can minister to us in a powerful way, and then that we are resourced and equipped to minister to other people in a powerful way. Yeah, and maybe just to wrap up, one of the things I wanna say about that is that we tend to say we, we, we've, we've even talked about this today, almost like us, with that one other person, but one thing I see is that when we.

Um, bring in a group of believers. Mm-hmm. Like those superpowers get multiplied. Yeah. And so I know you do this and I do this in our counseling, and I think it's appropriate even in discipleship relationships that we bring in other believers. Yes. When we're discipling someone, it's the biggest lie that the enemy would love for us to believe that we need to do it on our own.

Yep. And that we need to be the expert in everything. Yeah. But we've just seen so much benefit in when someone's in counseling, creating a team around them for encouragement. When we're discipling someone that we say, Hey, why don't you go talk to this person about this? Not long ago I was talking to a girl in her twenties and I was like, you know, I hear a lot of similarities in this.

Why don't you, um, why don't we bring this woman in to talk to you about this specifically? And, and she. Feel like she has a team that surrounds her. Yes. It's not just the way that, uh, God's word is being applied in my heart and life and the way I communicate. Here's now another voice, and another voice and another voice.

And, um, you know, I had to learn that the hard way through parenting. I thought I had to be the voice of all wisdom for my children. And as soon as I began to invite other voices in, I, my children began to hear some of the exact same. But being said in just a little bit different way from a different person, from a different personality and, and we got to see this multiplication effect in their lives.

And so I just wanna remind us as we're approaching discipling others that one to one is a beautiful relationship, but bringing in other believers is really where our, our superpowers are multiplied. Yeah, I love that. And just a, a practical thing that I do is I use texting a lot, group texting. So if I'm meeting with someone, particularly people that are really in the trenches, they're in a really difficult spot and it's just not gonna be like, I'm not gonna be enough.

Mm-hmm. And you know the, of course they've got the word, they've got the spirit, and that's beautiful. But God has given us this whole family. Mm-hmm. And it's always amazing to me as we put, you know, maybe three or four women on a text thread, how much I get so blessed. Yes. I love that. From the other women, what they're saying.

So good. God just used that diminish I, that wasn't for her. That was straight from God's heart to me. You know? And so, yeah, I love that. I think we just need to remember that we are not alone. Mm-hmm. We're not alone in the moment of crises. And then we continue to not be alone when the crises is over. Cuz guess what?

The next crises might just be around the corner. Mm-hmm. And the more we can, you know, have a community of people that we know that we can go to and they love us and we love them. I mean, it's just, there's richness in that. That is, I mean, I, I think for those who don't have it especially, and when they see it, um, Some of us can take it for granted.

Mm-hmm. I guess is what I'm saying. Mm-hmm. If you've got it, you'll take it for granted, but if you don't have it, you long for it. Right. And so for those of us who who understand it have it, we need to be drawing other people in. Mm-hmm. And giving them the joy that being with Jesus and growing in Jesus and learning about Jesus is a community project.

Mm-hmm. Yeah. So Alex, as we end this segment, um, you know, we just really want to reiterate these three simple things, resources, superpowers, that every Christian has at their disposal. Um, and they are the word of God. And the Holy Spirit and other many spirit-filled believers, and these are our superpowers.

These set our ministry apart and we can just be thankful.

Praise Lord, all things so.