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NEW Series: The Gospel of Peace with Holly Fortune, Part Four
50 Plays7 days ago
In this episode, Holly and the sister's unpack the Gospel of Peace further —the full plan of God to restore our purpose and position in Christ.
They dive deep into breaking free from false constructs, embracing the Secret Place (Matthew 6:6), and walking in Holy Spirit-led faith. Jesus isn’t just part of our life—He is our life (Colossians 3:4). When we stop striving and start receiving, we realize: Christ is the sufficiency for every deficiency.
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Transcript
Introduction and Series Overview
00:00:00
Speaker
Hello and welcome to the girl I slept in my makeup podcast by three sisters who live in three different cities are at three different life stages and have three different perspectives.
00:00:10
Speaker
They are excited to learn and grow alongside of you. This is a space full of love and acceptance. No judgment because let's face it. We all sleep in our makeup. Please welcome Lauren, Megan and Kristen.
00:00:25
Speaker
Hey, sisters. Hey. we have Lulu in just phoning in from Colorado on spring break. So thanks for making it. Kristen's here. We have been loving this series on the gospel of peace. I hope you all listening are loving it with us.
00:00:42
Speaker
And this week, I'm really excited to jump into the secret place. Last week, we talked about how we can start to live from a place instead of to a place and how we are in God it with the Holy Spirit. And so Holly, thank you so much again, just for doing this with us. feel like I'm learning so much and new levels of awareness keep, you know, unraveling through this series. So I'm just so grateful that you're doing this with us and we're excited to jump in today.
00:01:10
Speaker
Well,
Understanding the Gospel of Peace
00:01:11
Speaker
as I said last week, thank you for having me back. I'm glad I haven't said anything that's eliminated me from the series. So that's that's a huge win. It's like I say this every week, it truly is an honor to do, like what greater honor is there than to sit around and talk about Christ and eternity and the heavenly realm and really it kind of honors your mom's you know memory as well and just the mission that you ladies have so i really do love doing this with you as well well let's get started where do you want to start today so i'll do a super short recap so those that maybe are jumping in on this episode and haven't listened to the previous ones i should go back and listen
00:01:49
Speaker
God has given me this mission. It's not different than what really all of us have as a mission. He just has me really leaning into it and articulating it a certain way. But it's really highlighting, bringing forward the fullness of the gospel message, the gospel of peace, what that means. And so that's what we've been leaning into. What is this whole, what is the whole message?
00:02:11
Speaker
plan of God so that we can kind of break free honestly from some of our constructs and limitations that we have that keep us, we can feel it. Like as a Christian or someone who believes in Jesus, you can you can feel that we're not yet walking in the things, you know?
00:02:27
Speaker
And so I really feel like my mission is, it as it is right now with the Lord anyways, to really bring forward the full meaning of the gospel of peace. So the way I've learned to articulate it is that that through Christ Jesus, both our purpose and position have been restored. So that's what we've been talking about.
00:02:44
Speaker
Our purpose, the purpose of humanity. This is like the big question that theologians ask and all of this, but the purpose of humanity is for us to know God and make him known.
00:02:56
Speaker
is for us to belong to him, to know him and make him known. And so through Christ Jesus, we're restored to God, to the Father. So our purpose in knowing God and making him known for all eternity is restored. We're liberated from that lost path where we all go our own way we think we know what we're doing we think we're our own god we think we live however we want then just go to heaven one day so the gospel of peace restores our purpose restores our position we've talked a lot about this and we're going to talk about this more today that through christ jesus we're repositioned in the whole story of creation
00:03:35
Speaker
So we're now the new creation in the old creation. and what we got into last week, which was so much fun, is that one day we'll be part of what I call God's big reveal, where he reveals through us who Christ is. And even to creation, there's this big reveal of God on who Christ is and who the sons of God are And all of creation is liberated when that happens.
00:04:02
Speaker
And we started to touch on
Spiritual Journey and Living in Christ
00:04:03
Speaker
that last week. And I feel like super unqualified to teach a whole bunch on that. But it is what the Word of God says. And it's something that I think none of us really fully How could you fully know what that means?
00:04:15
Speaker
But it is what God said. So we're just going to take him at his word and be excited about being all and wonder over it. But one of the big pieces missing for us, I feel like in understanding out there is understanding where we are.
00:04:29
Speaker
You know, we've talked about the red dot in the mall. So if you're in the mall and you don't know how to navigate the mall, here's the red dot. And the kiosk tells you this is where you are. so you know how to navigate everything else.
00:04:40
Speaker
So what I'm really leaning into with you ladies is just this greater understanding of where we are in Christ and He's in heaven and He's in us and we are a new creation in Him. It's very much about a location for us now, not just one day when we go to heaven. This is that religious construct that gets in the way of the full gospel. So we are in Christ. We are in heaven. We're born from heaven now. We're citizens of heaven now. And I think The gospel of peace demands that we begin to learn what does that mean? what does that What does that look like for us today as we do our grocery shopping, as we do our makeup and hair every day? And I do have to admit, i did sleep in my makeup last night. I wanted to.
00:05:26
Speaker
a I woke up this morning. and I was like, Oh, I did sleep in my makeup. Whoops. We've had an effect on you. But you know what? We still are going through this very like human life, you know? And so we can talk about all these cool things and awesome things, but it's so easy to get stuck in this one day, one day that will be the reality. But today I've got a job to do. I've got bills to pay. i have kids to raise. I have kids. So what I hope to do is keep unpacking this in a way where we can begin to walk this out.
00:05:59
Speaker
So what we we kind of left ourselves with is, so then now what? How do you begin to walk this out? What we touched on last week is first and foremost, we need the Holy Spirit.
00:06:12
Speaker
So you absolutely emphatically cannot walk out the Christian, the true Christian life without the Holy Spirit. You can walk out a Christian religion, but you cannot walk out Christ in us without the Holy Spirit and we cannot walk out.
00:06:29
Speaker
the kingdom of heaven without power from on high, without power that comes from heaven, from the Holy Spirit. So that's what we touched on last week. And we encouraged your listeners, just begin to go do it. Just start putting yourself out there and just let the Holy Spirit show you He's there and let the Holy Spirit begin to flow through you. Start
Engagement with the Holy Spirit
00:06:50
Speaker
small and just encourage someone. And that's the reason why we left them with that encouragement so they could see.
00:06:55
Speaker
I was just going to say to give, i feel like it was homework. So we had assignment to go out there. And I wouldn't say I failed because I tried and I was really thinking about it. But I was going to say, I feel like I just have to keep pressing into it because for whatever reason, the past few weeks, I felt like my interactions were...
00:07:16
Speaker
somewhat awkward and i was like i'm in my head how do i encourage and i just wanted to be real about that like how encourage somebody but then i'm in my head gosh wait was that the holy spirit was that me and i did have one moment where i just felt the holy spirit just relax you know, relax. yeah Like, it's okay. Just interact with people.
00:07:36
Speaker
was like, okay, okay. Yeah. I'm like thinking about it too much. So I did go to the grocery store today and I interacted with the people who helped me. And I just felt like God was just, just show them how much you appreciate them. Like you don't, I didn't hear like, oh, give them this word or anything like that.
00:07:52
Speaker
But I made sure each one of my girls thanked each person by their name and was like, thank you so much for what you do. God bless you in your life. And you could tell that they were just like, oh my gosh, thank you. And it was just like that simple of a moment. yeah Why don't I show gratitude for people in this way? So I felt like it was a, it was a good experience for me to just recognize like it's even in small ways that we can really encourage people. It doesn't have to be this whole, like I'm prophesying over somebody moment, which it will, will be one day, you know, but sometimes it's just encouraging, like you said. So I wanted to share that I've been trying.
00:08:29
Speaker
That's really good. I'm glad you said that because a lot of it is just seeing people. Yeah. Just see them, like, but see them for who they are, not for their political affiliation, their their race, their look, their anything. It's just like, if we set your heart to see them, yeah thank you so much for what you do. i bet you're real blessing to your family or do you have kids? If you begin to learn to see people, then you do put yourself in position for the Holy Spirit to begin to flow through you.
00:08:59
Speaker
And exactly what you said, Megan, the Holy Spirit, if we have given ourselves to Christ, I believe we need to pray every day and ask the Holy Spirit to fill us, to kind of take over, to to stir up in us, okay? The Holy Spirit does baptize us into Christ, so we all do have the Holy Spirit at the time of conversion. But there is like a filling, an occupying of our mind and our heart by the Holy Spirit that we need.
00:09:22
Speaker
And I do hear a lot of times people say, you know, it's not me, it's Jesus, it's not me. And like, the real, the truth is, no, it's Christ in you. It's you and Jesus together. It's you and the Holy Spirit together. He doesn't want this just empty, hollow vessel. It's not like he's like...
00:09:39
Speaker
Get out of here, Megan. I'm going to take over your body now. No, he yeah and you together. That's what he wants. He wants your personality. He wants you to do it your way. But seeing people, that's it.
00:09:51
Speaker
see people and i Megan, I think it goes back to what Holly said, the purpose of humanity to know God and make him known. By you seeing people, that's is God because God sees us. So it's kind of full circle. Like I feel like you acknowledging and seeing somebody, that's what God sees in us, you know?
00:10:10
Speaker
yeah Yeah. So Megan, like in the spirit of, so when we left off, like now what? We talked about beginning, we need the Holy Spirit. So that is definitely the next now what is to learn to receive the Holy holy Spirit, just Study scripture about the Holy Spirit, pray and ask the Holy Spirit to be filled.
00:10:27
Speaker
Have someone that you trust to pray over you to be filled with the Holy Spirit. Just go for it with the Holy Spirit and then begin to let the Holy Spirit flow. Don't wait five years till I understand everything. Just start stepping out now, let the Holy Spirit flow. And then we talk about studying the Word.
00:10:42
Speaker
So the Word is alive and living. The Bible is alive and living and you should do it with the Holy Spirit. You know, you can read through the Bible beginning to end and not be really changed a lot.
00:10:52
Speaker
But when you'd study the word of God with the Holy Spirit and step out and what we're going to get into a little bit today, and I think probably the next episode is spend time in the secret place, spend time in intimacy with the Lord, then stuff just starts flowing. Like you don't
The Secret Place and Spiritual Nourishment
00:11:09
Speaker
have to try. You just have to make yourself available and see people and be open your mouth.
00:11:15
Speaker
Just open your mouth and say, hey, how are you? How's your day? And just get the conversation going. So in the spirit of that, have you like when you were stepping out to encourage people, had you all I know I'm going to put you on the spot, like completely put you on the spot here. Had you been spending time like in the word or in the secret place? Either one of those?
00:11:35
Speaker
Not like right before, but yes. So I do practice going to my secret place every morning. I've gotten like in a really good habit of that. But probably when I was walking, it was more like I was walking into places like, oh, yeah, I need to it.
00:11:49
Speaker
I probably was approaching it more of like a to do instead of like, okay, God. And I was talking to the Holy Spirit. I was like, Holy Spirit, help me. Like, if there's somebody in here that you want me to encourage, you know, let me know kind of thing.
00:12:02
Speaker
yeah And I would see someone and feel like, okay, I need to encourage them. But I didn't necessarily hear, like, encourage them with something specific. So... I just felt like, like one lady, i was like, I love your dress. It's beautiful. You know? and she was like, Oh my gosh, thank you. But like, i was like, okay, I just kept walking. yeah So yeah.
00:12:23
Speaker
It had to be right before. Cause that's just not even realistic. Right. yeah right right of what I mean, yeah, I guess you could, as you're walking in somewhere, as say Holy spirit flow through me or, you know, whatever. But the more time we spend in the secret place in prayer and intimacy with the Lord,
00:12:38
Speaker
And in his word, the more that what you're talking about, can it gets easier and easier. but yeah, that I do feel like I've been in the word, but I'm doing, I'm reading the old Testament right now. And I, it is hard for me reading the old Testament. I feel like a little disconnected to some degree. So I'm like, God, Holy spirit, like open the eyes of my heart. Like, what are you trying to teach me here in numbers? Like I'm, it's, I'm, it's a struggle. Yeah.
00:13:06
Speaker
So that's hard. I mean, yes. And and it honestly should be a little bit hard because we're in a new covenant. We are in a yeah new position with the Lord. So it is going to feel a little different. But so what I want to like talk about today and start really peeling the onion on is this idea of the secret place.
00:13:24
Speaker
It's huge. This is so, so important. For us as as ah believers in Christ Jesus that have turned ourselves into God that now are beginning, we believe what we're talking about, but we need to we need to learn to like make it part of who we are.
00:13:39
Speaker
One of the practices that's really lacking in people are in the body of Christ is the secret place. And when Jesus said to the disciples that it's better that I go, you know, they've been walking with him, watching him teach the kingdom.
00:13:55
Speaker
Like we said last week, when they, after he resurrected, when they'd go into a village, they'd share the gospel of the kingdom. They talk all about Jesus, who he is and what he did and what he taught, which was the kingdom.
00:14:07
Speaker
um and who he is as the Lamb of God and all of that. um But he actually said to them, it's not best that I stay here and go with you everywhere. i mean, I'm sure they thought, yeah, it It's better if you're here so you can do all the stuff, right? We can just follow you.
00:14:24
Speaker
But he said, it's better if I go because I'm going to send the Holy Spirit. And he said this also, I'm also going to go prepare a place for you. I'm going to go sit down on the throne. I'm going prepare a place for you.
00:14:36
Speaker
And in my house, there's my father's house. There's many rooms. I do believe that's like ah like a one day fulfillment. But it's also a right now reality that Jesus has prepared. The spirit of Christ has prepared a place for us in the spirit.
00:14:54
Speaker
where we were we're seated with Him in heavenly places, and we now have the same access to God the Father that He has, which we did not have before. We have the same full access to the Father, to this timeless realm.
00:15:11
Speaker
This is where people's minds start going, what? you know To this timeless realm, outside of time, in the heavenly realm, in the spirit of God, one with God, where we can enter into the presence of God anytime, anywhere, and receive everything we need. We can approach his throne forever.
00:15:29
Speaker
truly in the spirit in our time of need is throne of throne of grace and receive whatever we need this I wholeheartedly believe is the secret place ah that Jesus talks about in Matthew 6 if your listeners want to write it down go read Matthew 6 the whole chapter is great but Matthew 6 6 specifically says that when you pray go into your room and shut the door he didn't mean you have to run home every time you want to pray and go in your closet you know He was saying there is a way to go into the presence of God and close yourself into the presence of God and put yourself under the watchful eye of Father God in Christ Jesus and be nurtured by him, be strengthened by him, be delivered by him, be loved by him, be cared for by him.
00:16:17
Speaker
That is the secret place. And when we don't have this practice, we feel honestly kind of malnourished. We feel deficient, you know, in our quote unquote Christianity.
00:16:29
Speaker
So I think it's important that we learn, we we learn how to really lean into the secret place so that we can grow. are you going to say something Lauren? Yeah. Well, in just and as kind of reinforcing what you're saying and encouragement is to remember when you're talking about in John, Jesus came from heaven and has exclusive expert, expert authority on heaven.
00:16:54
Speaker
so that's so comforting because his, eye had literally seen it. So we can, we can trust whatever he says about that because we haven't seen it, but he has. And so that is for me, that feels so comforting.
00:17:09
Speaker
Well, yes, that's, um thank you for, i see, this is why we need each other. i now have a new a new language in my mind. He has expert authority on heaven, not just on who he is, but on heaven. I love that. I'm so glad you said that.
00:17:24
Speaker
So as I said to you a little while ago, Megan, you know because we were planning on diving into the secret place, but I feel like the Holy Spirit, I'm just going to go with it because I feel like the Holy Spirit ah leading by example here, has put on my heart to kind of debunk some deceptive, what I call this sex deceptive ideologies that I believe keep us from really thinking we need to spend time in the secret place or keep us from that desire of the secret place.
00:17:54
Speaker
So I want to kind of go through those today and it's very Christ-focused and it's just things that have come into the church or come into our thinking. I'm not blaming the church for everything. I'm just And it's just come into our ideology about Christianity that I think are not good that we need to kind of tweak so that we realize, oh, I do need to go spend time in the secret place. I do have access, you know, to the Father. So can we go through
Christ as Life and Church Dynamics
00:18:21
Speaker
those today? yeah that with you ladies?
00:18:23
Speaker
Okay. This is definitely going to be a note-taking day. Okay, perfect. For your listeners. This is a note-taking day. All right. Let me, I made notes on this because I knew I'd never remember all of this in the right order.
00:18:38
Speaker
So, number one, i hear this a lot. So, I'm just going to go after some language that I think is not helping us. I hear that Christ is the center of our life or make him number one.
00:18:50
Speaker
Make Jesus, make God number one, right? And I want to debunk that. Christ is not the center of our life. He's not number one in our life. Scripture actually says Christ is our life.
00:19:05
Speaker
He literally is my life. Without him, I have no life. That's what the Bible says. Without him, i do not have eternal life. I do not have real, God-given, eternal, unending life.
00:19:19
Speaker
Because in God's mind, life is not death. Life doesn't include death. lot Life is unending life. So I want to take the language out to put Jesus at the center of everything or make him number one. And I want us to own what the Word of God says, which is Christ is my life.
00:19:39
Speaker
He literally is the life that we now have. So the two verses that we we can, ah i'll I'll read them but they because they're short, but that we can kind of lean on for your listeners is Colossians 3, 4 says, when christ who is your life appears then you also will appear with him in glory in galatians two twenty says i have been crucified with christ it is no longer i who live so i'm not inviting but christ who lives
00:20:10
Speaker
in me and the life What life is that? The life of Christ that I now live, that I now operate in, in this body. i live by faith from the Son of God.
00:20:22
Speaker
We were talked about this last week in Romans 8, where we were talking about when the glory is revealed in us or to us. Remember that, Lauren? This is a very similar situation. Galatians 2.20 in some translation says, i live by faith in the Son of God. And other translations say, I live by faith from the Son of God or of the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me.
00:20:49
Speaker
And it's probably both. It's probably that literally would land us right back in the same place that we now live from the Son of God. We live from Christ. So obviously we live from his faith. This is going to liberate some people who've been trying to have faith, trying to muster up our own faith.
00:21:09
Speaker
I now live from Christ, He is my life, He's not at the center of everything, He's not number one, Job is number two, our kids are number two, Job is number three, that's not the gospel of peace. The gospel of peace is I now live in Christ, my Christ is my life and this is the beauty and the wonder and the awe of the gospel, I live from His faith.
00:21:35
Speaker
from his glory, from his victory, from his inheritance. This is what Galatians 2.20 says. So it's super important, I think, that we don't have this ideology that I'm just going into the secret place or prayer whatever just to keep Jesus as number one.
00:21:54
Speaker
And then I have a whole bunch of other stuff that's number two. Any thoughts? Just pretty profound and mind-blowing. Good. Yeah, I was going to say it's just it's really good, I think, to even though somebody might think, oh it's just a small distinction in language. Like language is so important. And it that is what brings the new understanding. And I do think when you have the practice of the secret place, I think this is so important understand.
00:22:23
Speaker
remember because I think it can become feeling like for me oh this is just what I need to do like I need to go to the secret place because this is what's going to help me or something so to understand that's just actually he I don't even yeah it's like I don't even have the word to put into words because it is beyond our human yeah plenty well I think it goes back to what you shared last time of when we live from a place not to a place yeah yeah which was mind blowing. And so it's just, you know, part of that, but it does, I think just the way that we've been trained or at least me, you know, it's like, it takes me a minute for my brain to stop and kind of be like, okay, really process that.
00:23:06
Speaker
Yes. It's, and I'm glad you're saying that because this is at the center of everything that God has given me to be bold with and many others. I'm sure I'm just trying to do my part, which is we're not trying to still get things from God.
00:23:20
Speaker
So when this whole mindset that i that we go to heaven one day, yeah it all all shifts from there. As soon as I think that I go to heaven one day,
00:23:32
Speaker
And there's all these realities to come, but I'm not living from any of that now. Then I actually keep a separation between me and Christ, and that will manifest itself in my life in every single way.
00:23:45
Speaker
But when I believe what the Bible said, which is so mind-blowing and so extreme, and again, it can almost start to sound like fantasy, but it's not, then it's up to God to begin to grow me in that.
00:23:59
Speaker
Reveal it to me. His word does the work in me, right? And that work is this revelation of Christ that Christ in me, the hope of glory.
00:24:11
Speaker
kind Christ who is life and light and glory and restoration and liberation and peace and joy and heat. By the way, if I need healing, I have the healer living in me.
00:24:26
Speaker
So I'm not trying to convince God to drop something out of heaven. i need the revelation of what's already in me. This is why we have to be so careful with language you said it, Megan.
00:24:38
Speaker
It's so, have to be so careful, not paranoid, but careful that Well, many people say that this soundbite world is not helpful. There's so many soundbites out there. Like I've said before, acronyms bug me because there's always something it that's not correct.
00:24:53
Speaker
We need to just get back to what does the Word of God say? and that's what I'm going to say. That's how I'm going to speak it and What the Word of God says is that Christ is our life.
00:25:04
Speaker
I'm not including him in the center of mine. I'm not inviting him into my kingdom. I'm not making him number one out of five important things. He is my life. And so therefore I live from him, from his faith, from his glory, from his inheritance.
00:25:21
Speaker
Number one. Number two. I'm going to go there. You guys ready? Yes. Okay. This one a humdinger. Okay. This one, I'll probably, another time, going to want to talk about this more. And so i'm just I'm just going to lay it out. And it's a big deal, and it's a big deal right now with what we're going through, I'll just say, in the Western church.
00:25:43
Speaker
But Christ is not the central figure of the church. He is the head of his body. He's not the central figure of a church empowering a pastor or a full-time minister to be the head of a people, he is not competing with other heads.
00:26:04
Speaker
He actually will not tolerate that in the long run. He is the head of his body, it's his church and it's his authority, what you just said, Lauren. he's He's the only one that can, this is a very big topic because it's There's a lot of flaws right now that are in the church broadly around this, but I'll say it this way. There's no hierarchy in Christ.
00:26:27
Speaker
There's no hierarchy in Christ. He's the head and we're all part of the same body. We are not in any way supposed to lord over each other. We're supposed to work together with each other.
00:26:39
Speaker
so whether someone's part of the five-fold office, what the Bible calls the five-fold office, or those that God calls to a particular function in the body for a long period of time, pastor, teacher, apostle, prophet, whatever, those are not to lord over people.
00:26:58
Speaker
So here's the scripture that would be really helpful for for your listeners to jot down. It's 1 Corinthians 3. You really could read 1 through verse 22. I wrote 4 through 22, but you might as well just go ahead and read verse 1 through 22.
00:27:13
Speaker
and Paul directly addresses this. So what's what's happening in the early church, this has been going on a long time, is people were beginning to say, well, I follow Paul.
00:27:24
Speaker
he's He's my pastor. And someone else is like, well, Paulos is my pastor. And someone else will say, well, I listen to this person. Oh, well, I got trained in ministry at this location. Paul is directly addressing this. And so he's talking to the early church saying this idea that some of you are boasting in the fact that you follow him, Paul, or Apollos, or you've been trained, you know, under this ministry, or you've gone to this program, or whatever it is we do today.
00:27:51
Speaker
Paul pretty directly addresses that. And he and he does it by saying this, was it Paul or Apollos that baptized you? Were you baptized into that name?
00:28:02
Speaker
Was it did any of them lay down their life for you? Did they save you and I'm going to use my language, restore your purpose in your position with God. So he's correcting them and saying all of these people that you're exalting, that you're glorifying are mere human beings. And it's Christ who you need to be boasting in. It's Christ who you need to be following.
00:28:23
Speaker
That whole chapter, he's he's really pretty harshly rebuking them and in his loving way, as he always did, to stop making much of men, to stop propping up ministers of the gospel as if they're the one um that have done these things for you. he goes so He even goes on to say, I'm glad that I actually didn't baptize most of you.
00:28:43
Speaker
water Because then you would think you were baptized by me or into my name. So he's really protecting as a, he wrote what, two thirds of the new Testament. ah So and he's really guarding against people beginning to make much of him or to make much of other ministers.
00:29:01
Speaker
And he's saying to them you belong to Christ and Christ belongs to you. And you already have all things in Christ Jesus. And no one can bring the spiritual growth in you, but Christ is,
00:29:12
Speaker
People can plant and people can water, but it's only God, it's only Christ that can do this work in you. So the second point that I feel like we need to talk about more is that Jesus is not a figure of the church empowering spiritual leaders, and they are the head of the church. Christ is the head.
00:29:31
Speaker
He's the authority. He's the head We need to make much of him. We need to be boasting in him. And the last thing I want to say, I was just thinking about this for myself. Like, what's my mindset on this?
00:29:42
Speaker
know, I know this is touchy, but I'm just going to say these things, but i have decided if i have a spiritual leader in my life and they do not appear to be submitted to Christ or preaching the whole gospel and they're not boasting in Christ, they're boasting a lot in men.
00:29:58
Speaker
or ministries, then I cannot fully submit to them. Because if I fully submit to them, I have to come out of full submission to Christ, which I'm not going to So as leaders, and I take this upon myself, which so vital as pastors, as ministers of the gospel, that we constantly are humbling ourselves and boasting in Christ and making much of Christ.
00:30:22
Speaker
And if need be, taking ourselves out of something, if we're starting to get to too exalted, We should not want people to follow us and to come to us for wisdom or to to exalt us. That should give us the fear of the Lord. And I think right now in and the Western church, there's a big issue, big, big issue with that.
00:30:44
Speaker
So my number two point is there is no hierarchy in Christ. and There's one head, Christ Jesus, and we need to guard against false heart hierarchies and false heads.
00:30:56
Speaker
So how do you decipher that with, you know, earlier too, you talked about how Christ doesn't, we're not a vessel, an empty vessel, right? He wants to work with us.
00:31:07
Speaker
So how would you even decipher whether somebody is just working well with God, you know what I'm saying? Versus like exalting themselves. Well, they're number one, they're talking about Christ.
00:31:20
Speaker
They're talking about kingdom and they're talking about Christ and they're, They're talking about the mystery of Christ and they're talking about who Christ is to them. They're talking about the work that the Lord is doing in them.
00:31:32
Speaker
Paul said, follow me as I follow Christ. He did not say, follow me. And you don't know if I'm following Christ.
00:31:45
Speaker
You need to know if we're, if I'm going to fully submit in any way to another human being, I need to know, and I really shouldn't, I need to fully submit to Christ. I need to know they're following Christ. How do I know that if they never talk about Christ, if they're not preaching Christ, if they're not,
00:32:01
Speaker
Boasting scripture says to boast and boast in my weaknesses, boast in the fact that I'm a mere human apart from Christ. Boast and I can be transparent and say, and you probably figured out listening to me on this. One of my biggest weaknesses is I'm a talker. My mind moves fast and and I can just explain things for a long time.
00:32:24
Speaker
And being a talker is fine. God made some of us that way. But it also can be a really high risk area because then I can start saying things that are not representing Christ well, that I can fall into sin or whatever.
00:32:38
Speaker
And I have found that sometimes all in my effort to connect with people or be funny or whatever, you know, I can, I'm not saying bad, bad things, but like I'm not necessarily standing in front of a person representing Christ at that moment.
00:32:53
Speaker
So for me as a teacher, as a leader, i need to be able to admit that and say, don't always follow me. Don't, like I need to point you to Christ because I, I have flaws he does not have. I will say things he would never say, and I'm not giving myself permission but I shouldn't want to create a following except unless they're at the following is leading them directly to Christ.
00:33:17
Speaker
I would want you, Megan,
Rebirth in Christ and Spiritual Dependency
00:33:19
Speaker
because we mentored together. I want you to be obsessed with Christ. I don't want you to think you got to call me for wisdom. yeah i want you to know you can go straight to him. And if, if that's true, then I've done what I was supposed to do, but there's a lot of ministries that want to draw people to them. They want their platform. They want their name in,
00:33:38
Speaker
big letters, they want all of that's going on right now pretty heavily. And unless those people are preaching Christ in the kingdom, then I feel like there there's some things that are off base. I know this is touchy, but I think it's important. no I think it's important. And I think it's important to say too, like, I think any leader, and I think we touched on this, like our first episode, everybody involved in a church are all human.
00:34:03
Speaker
Like we're none of us are Christ. And so i don't ever think that, like, I don't ever want to submit to someone. Like I see you as my mentor. Yeah. right I would never, so and I guess some people do this, but I would never submit to you. You know, like I wouldn't submit to a pastor and like give my life to some, a person. Like I see each person as like, even if they are the best pastor in the world, I'm like, they're still human, you know, like they're still going to mess up and like fall into sin or fall into thinking too highly of themselves or like, including me. Like we all right have to keep coming back to go.
00:34:42
Speaker
Christ and be like, Oh, I don't know. i won The Bible does say that God has put pastors and people in spiritual leadership in places to be guardians kind of of our soul. Right.
00:34:56
Speaker
Yeah. But their, their job is to keep us centered on Christ and the kingdom. So imagine them to be early church, especially with the Jewish community. This was a, this was a big,
00:35:09
Speaker
change from what they knew, the religious system they knew. so spiritual leaders had an authority in the gospel but and in the truth of who Christ is.
00:35:20
Speaker
But what I've seen is this is now going too far out there to where it it's in many other areas of your life. and so and i And I'm fine with that. If I feel like someone does have just some human wisdom for me, great.
00:35:34
Speaker
I'll listen to it. But at the end of the day, I'm submitting to Christ. And the reason I'm saying this is because... If we have, if we don't have this sorted out, you'll think that you can just go to a pastor or go to another person or listen to a teaching and not have to go to the secret place.
00:35:52
Speaker
man It's a big deal. If I, so if I have a human being exalted and ah this is so important to the, again, this merits probably a big, long conversation, but when that leader that you had in that place falls in into sin,
00:36:06
Speaker
which is happening a lot right now, it crushes people yeah because they had them as their head ah who God is and what Christianity is and what church is all about.
00:36:18
Speaker
So there's so many reasons that we need to be careful with that. I'm not promoting dishonoring spiritual leadership. I'm not promoting not having people speak into your life or speak into you with wisdom and challenge thinking. I'm not promoting that.
00:36:34
Speaker
But what I am promoting is we have one head and we are part of the same body and they're supposed to be equal honor in the body of Christ. We're not supposed to be propping up men or women on platforms, honoring, honoring, honoring that, but then not honoring the body of Christ.
00:36:54
Speaker
So there's some things that I believe God is kind of cleaning up right now. There's some really great leaders out there. We have a lot of great leaders in our church, Megan, as you know, But the body's got to kind of grow up here.
00:37:05
Speaker
We need to grow up and realize that Christ is our head. And the more we begin to sit in the secret place and operate by the Holy Spirit. i mean, technically, I heard this pastor say the other day.
00:37:18
Speaker
that technically what scripture teaches is that pastors and teachers, including me right now as a teacher, we are subject to the body of Christ. So if I start teaching something that sounds really wonky, I am subject to anyone calling and saying, hey,
00:37:36
Speaker
Let me show you in the word of God where I think you're off. It's not just supposed to be to a board or elders or whatever. We're supposed to be subject one to another big topic. I know it's a huge topic, but.
00:37:47
Speaker
No, i I think it's a really good topic to get into. And we can obviously get into it more as questions come up. But I think that's really important to remember. Like he is the head, like the way you described that.
00:37:58
Speaker
I know I've heard that in the Bible, but I think I hadn't really thought of it before. that he I like just picturing the bot, like an actual body, like he's the head and then we're all pieces of it. So I really appreciate that. Well, and I, and I think too, just to remind the listeners, what we're talking about are debunking things that we've learned that are preventing us to going straight.
00:38:20
Speaker
to God into this secret place that we're going to talk about. so Yes. Thank you. Yes, for sure. So that's a big one. We'll come back to that. and yeah I think we've touched on this, but Jesus is not my ticket to heaven.
00:38:33
Speaker
He's not standing at the pearly gates as like some sort of bouncer that like lets people in or doesn't let people in He is the heavenly seed of God that I'm born from. I'm born again from his spirit, from heaven.
00:38:50
Speaker
So I'm already a heavenly being now. So we've already, we've touched on it quite a bit, but if we're just taking notes, he's not a ticket to heaven. He is the seed of heaven that I'm born from.
00:39:02
Speaker
key is why that I can say I'm a heavenly being. Now I'm seated with Christ in heavenly places. Number five, and we touched on this a little bit a minute ago. I'm not trying to get anything from God.
00:39:14
Speaker
This is a big one. I am not trying to convince God to be good. Let's say it that way. God is a good God way beyond any definition of good that I could come up with. And so I can't convince him to be good. What I can do and what I should be doing, and I've said this in many other episodes, is learning to receive and live from the goodness that he's already poured out, the finished work of Christ,
00:39:44
Speaker
He's poured himself out in every way. And so now I have Christ in me. I need to learn to receive, believe and receive. I'm going to say it this way.
00:39:56
Speaker
Humbly accept it as a fact. I have peace from God and with God. I have joy. I have everything that I need in Christ Jesus.
00:40:07
Speaker
Here's a good way to say this one. And the Lord just showed this to me recently. So this is like a fresh revelation for me that I need it. to here. So it shows you how I'm still growing. And this, and the Holy Spirit quickened me with this, that Christ is the sufficiency to every single bit of my deficiency.
00:40:28
Speaker
I know he said this to me recently, because I've been on this health kick, I'm taking all these vitamins, like I've always taken vitamins, I've taken way more than I've ever taken. And then I gained like five pounds. I'm like, what in the world?
00:40:39
Speaker
Yeah, i think I think it like caused me to retain water or something. So now I'm like, what did I do? i messed up my hormones or something. But so when you get a little older, you're more deficient in vitamin D, you're more deficient in vitamin B.
00:40:52
Speaker
And people are like, you got to get your minerals. I've got all these deficiencies in this earthly tent because that's part of the fall is one giant deficiency. I'm deficient in peace and joy. When my body's not well, it's because of some sort of deficiency or defectiveness.
00:41:10
Speaker
And Christ is the sufficiency that I need in every way. So for me, when the Holy Spirit said, think of Christ being to you,
00:41:21
Speaker
what all those vitamins and all those things you are taking right now for your body is for your body. It's he brings in what's lacking. He brings in what's missing.
00:41:32
Speaker
He brings in what I need, which is life and peace and joy and freedom and healing and identity and blessing. And he is entirely sufficient. And I'm just going to say this, and I want y'all to speak to this so can feel that this is something we can lean into for just a second.
00:41:47
Speaker
And it does tie to the secret place. This is why we go to the secret place, because he is everything that we need. It's also the same reason, bouncing back, why we would never want someone to step in and in his place.
00:42:00
Speaker
My pastor, I love him very much and he's a blessing to me. He's not my sufficiency. He cannot be to me. who He cannot fill the deficiency of my soul, of of my peace, of my joy. And if I'm looking to a person, ah husband,
00:42:20
Speaker
those of you that are married, a friend, a pastor, to be that stability, that peace, that joy to me and not Christ, I'm going to be majorly disappointed. He is sufficient in every single way.
00:42:33
Speaker
and scripture talks a lot about this and Colossians, who he is. I can go on and on on that. But what do you guys think about that? What's going through your mind? and just think it's it's so such a good reminder. And also I think you can end up putting, like, I think Kristen and I both put our mom in that place.
00:42:50
Speaker
At certain points where she was our bar head, you know, yes losing her was shocking for so many reasons. But I think spiritually, it kind of woke me up. So yeah, I think it's just really good to talk about and remember, because I think it goes in the lines of like idols too. Like we kind of can end up putting different things ahead yeah out of Christ being the head. Yeah.
00:43:16
Speaker
ah Yeah, that's where my mind is kind of thinking and going back to like where, you know, my mind's always going quick. So it's like, what, where am I doing this? You know, where am I putting him at the center? Yeah, I mean, this is why we look to often tangible human beings, because we, because Christ, everything we're talking about is like, drawn from the spirit.
00:43:38
Speaker
It's learning to live from the spirits, what scripture says in Romans and Galatians to the if you live by the spirit, also learn to walk by the spirit, to to live this up, to draw your resource, your peace, your joy, everything through the spirit.
00:43:52
Speaker
And as human beings are like, oh, Okay. do we do that? Well, cause you don't see it. So I'm thinking too, like, because we're such physical beings and I talk a lot about this in my coaching, because when you understand the science behind our minds, it's really hard for us to connect spiritually because of our five senses. We're so focused on those.
00:44:13
Speaker
And I think this is really interesting to think about what our the different things that are holding you specifically back from going to your secret place from going to Christ. Cause I, that's one of the main things that you taught me. And once I understood it, I was like, I craved being in that spiritual place.
00:44:33
Speaker
I will lay there and truly feel like I am in heaven. And it's just this overwhelming feeling. that I have. From there, it's just hard because I don't, when people don't want to go to their secret place, that's something between them and Christ, right? So it's like, what are the reasons that you don't want to go to your secret place?
00:44:53
Speaker
And I think that's something that is really good to think about that's keeping you from going there instead of beating, because I think most people beat themselves up instead, or, oh, why don't, why can't I just go pray? Or, you know, like, why am I holding myself back from being with God instead of just thinking about, well what is it that's holding me back and trying to unravel that first?
00:45:13
Speaker
That's good. And that will take a couple, a couple episodes to unpack because there's things that I've learned, just things that make it feel like a struggle and how I've learned to overcome that. But I think for today, what we're saying is if we believe again, isn refresh our belief, let's say that way, that Christ is not just at the center. He is our life.
00:45:35
Speaker
He is literally my life and I need to know him. So when I stand face to face with him, I'm not just meeting him for the first time in heaven. So to speak, I already know him and he knows me.
00:45:47
Speaker
And scripture obviously speaks about as number one. Number two, he is the head. He is my head, not my pastor who I love and I respect that cra Christ is my head. When I remind myself of that, that will help me get into the secret place.
00:46:01
Speaker
Also two, number three was, I'm not, he's not my ticket to heaven. He's how I'm living from heaven now. He is the expert, the heavenly ex expert. And so I need to get to know him for, I need to go in the secret place for that reason.
00:46:15
Speaker
And then I'm not trying to, this is a big one for me. And I still not trying to get things from God. I need to get in the secret place with him so I can let him be sufficient to me because he already is.
00:46:27
Speaker
I need to become aware of his sufficiency and draw from him everything that I need. And when I have this foundation of my belief system, like I really believe everything I just said, and I keep refreshing that belief, I'll want to go in the secret place.
00:46:43
Speaker
Because I'm not depending on a pastor. I'm not depending on another human being. I understand who Christ is to me. Or, and I think I'm not depending on me. You know, myself is like so many times life just keeps so busy and it's, why am I trying to do this on my own? That's so stupid.
00:46:58
Speaker
you know Yes, yes, yes, yes. I agree 1000%. We all will still do that. Again, that's one of our deficiencies is, you know, Christ said he didn't try to do it. He actually said,
Parables and Spiritual Closeness
00:47:12
Speaker
I can do nothing on my own.
00:47:14
Speaker
He said that. remember reading that once thinking, you're the son of God. What do you mean you can do? he He walked out with the opposite of what you just said, where we feel like we can do everything on our own.
00:47:26
Speaker
That's the carnal nature. But the Spirit of God nature doesn't even want to think that way. Because when you do everything through the power of the Spirit of God, all things are possible.
00:47:37
Speaker
So you more and more want to say, no, I can do nothing on my own. I want to do everything through Christ. And just to relieve everybody, nobody ever arrives at that in our humanity itself.
00:47:48
Speaker
That's why we need Christ. It's a journey. Everything in us will fight against that. But something for me personally that encourages me is reminding myself saying, Lauren, what are you leaving on the table here? you know, by not inviting Christ into, just reminding myself that I am living in him and he isn't me.
00:48:08
Speaker
When i flee from that, then asking myself the question, how much better could it be? You know? and so that encourages me to get right back. You know, i don't want to do this life without him. Yeah, that's good. That's really good. Yeah, what am I so if I'm doing it, like partly in my own ability without him, and maybe including him a little bit, you ask yourself, what if I went entirely to him on this? How much better could it be? How much more? yeah How much more productive?
00:48:37
Speaker
Yeah, that's a lot. That's and it's not always because it looks better in the way we think it will, but it definitely will be more fruitful. It'll be more impactful.
00:48:48
Speaker
He'll do things that we couldn't have done on our own. That's really good. laen Yeah, believing and trusting that. Yeah. So there was this story that keeps popping up from Lauren and you might've seen it on social media, but I think it goes right in line with what we've been talking about, that we live in Christ. And it's just the story of two babies talking in the wound. So it's obviously like a made up, it's a parable you could say. so and Basically, it says, and I'll read it to you. in a mother's womb were two babies the first baby asked the other do you believe in life after delivery
00:49:26
Speaker
the second baby replied why of course there has to be something after delivery maybe we are here to prepare ourselves for what we will be later nonsense said the first there is no life after delivery what would that life be I don't know, but there will be more light than here. Maybe we can walk. We will walk with our legs and eat with our mouths.
00:49:47
Speaker
The doubting baby laughed. That's absurd. Walking is impossible and eat with our mouths. Ridiculous. The umbilical cord supplies nutrition. Life after delivery is to be excluded. The umbilical cord is too short.
00:50:00
Speaker
The second baby held his ground. I think there is something and maybe it's different than it is here. The first baby replied, no one has ever come back from there. "'Delivery is the end of life, "'and in the after delivery, "'it is nothing but darkness and anxiety, "'and it takes us nowhere.' "'Well, I don't know,' said the twin, "'but certainly we will see mother, "'and she will take care of us.' "'Mother?' the first baby goffed.
00:50:22
Speaker
"'You believe in mother? "'Where is she now?' The second baby calmly and patiently tried to explain. She is all around us. It is in her that we live. Without her, there would be there would not be this world.
00:50:34
Speaker
Ha, I don't see her, so it's only logical that she doesn't exist. To which the other replied, sometimes when you're in silence, you can hear her. You can perceive her. I believe there is a reality after delivery, and we are here to prepare ourselves for that reality when it comes.
00:50:50
Speaker
Oh, where did it? Where did that come from again? By Lori Seymour. It's a parable. So she wrote, he asks this question, how are you becoming more conscious? The invitation is here. The gifts are endless.
00:51:03
Speaker
of Being in so in the spirit of the whole conversation is of being in Christ, like being in him. And that he's all around. We're in him. Our we speak source from him. He's all around us. That's really beautiful.
00:51:16
Speaker
but And just to touch on I feel like it kind of goes along. I remember hearing ah similar type parable after mom died about heaven and how somebody described when a baby's in the womb and, you know, physically they're just, you know, maybe an inch or from this outside world that they're about to be delivered into.
00:51:36
Speaker
And what if, what if heaven is right here. you know just the veil out The veil is so thin. and you know We were kind of gifted something ah couple months after mom died, but but somebody was saying that mom was just saying, like hey, tell them you know as close as I was with them on earth that they realize I am just as close, if not closer now.
00:52:00
Speaker
and I think about that a lot because i'm like I think Kevin's just right here. like like we are heaven, you know like what we're saying. That's it. I mean, actually, the Bible says that the veil that's always veiled us from God is our flesh.
00:52:15
Speaker
So it says when when Christ rose from grave, or actually when he taught when he died on the cross and and there was a whole, he he released his spirit and then his soul went into a hell or Hades place and he preached to the spirits there. That's whole other thing. but But the veil was torn from top to bottom. Mm-hmm.
00:52:37
Speaker
from heaven to earth, the veil of our flesh was torn, meaning no longer will human flesh keep God's children that belong to Christ from heaven. It's our flesh that it tries to still get in the way.
00:52:50
Speaker
My journey of learning how I'm one with the Lord and learning about the secret place, my oneness came out of the darkest, most painful time in my life, where I definitely would have tapped out of Christianity altogether.
00:53:05
Speaker
ah thought, if this is Christianity, I don't want anything to do with it. This is not okay. If I didn't have at least enough intimacy with the Lord. But out of that time, what God did is he taught me about my oneness with him. He strengthened me. He healed me. He delivered me.
00:53:20
Speaker
He freed me. He accelerated me. He showed me what the enemy did. He showed me how the enemy, it's a spiritual warfare. It's not flesh and blood. You guys, what he did in me, if you knew this stuff and how effective the secret place is, ah you'd understand what I'm, you know,
00:53:40
Speaker
trying to communicate. So as we get into it next week, I think it's just helpful for people to know kind of where I'm coming from on that. Super powerful to have it ah testimony in that way. And for everybody, everybody is going through something, right?
00:53:54
Speaker
So it's super yeah awesome. Okay, well, I'm excited to go to the next episode and really teach people how to go to their secret place. you helped me tremendously in this way. And it's something I crave when I'm not there. i'm like, gosh, I just need to be with you.
00:54:12
Speaker
and so,
Conclusion and Listener Engagement
00:54:13
Speaker
and being able to access it throughout the day, that's something i do in the chaos of three kids as well as sometimes I'll just sit in the living room with all the chaos around me and close my eyes and just imagine God holding me like I'm with you, you know, you're not alone. yeah So I will say a quick prayer and get excited for the next episode. Listeners, if you have questions, please DM us at girl I slept in my makeup and we can get some questions or maybe Bible verses that we can send you to connect you with everything that Holly's teaching us.
00:54:45
Speaker
Okay. Father God, thank you so much for just your word. And thank you for the reminder that we are yours. I think we tend to connect ourselves more in the physical world Thank you.
00:54:59
Speaker
i pray that anybody listening has that deep revelation and desire to want to know you more to know your heart for them and to ask you all the questions that you want to be in all the details of their life and i just pray as we do this series that you speak through us the holy spirit speaks through us, not only in these episodes, but as we go throughout just our normal day-to-day life, wherever you're leading us, God, we love you so much. Thank you for your grace and your forgiveness.
00:55:29
Speaker
I pray for strength and health for everyone listening in Jesus name. Amen. Amen. Amen. Love you, Holly. Love you ladies. You're welcome.
00:55:41
Speaker
Talk to you soon. See ya. Talk to you soon. Have a good day. Bye. bye Thank you for listening to another week of Girl, I Slept In My Makeup. If you like us, rate, review, and subscribe wherever you listen to podcasts.
00:55:54
Speaker
And if you want to learn more about us or get in touch with us go to our website, girlisleptinmymakeup.com, where you'll also find links to our Instagram and Facebook. Thank you so much for listening. We really appreciate it and make it a great week.
00:56:10
Speaker
God bless.