I heard a pastor years ago said that, you know, you need to go on a mission trip so you can see how bad people are and everything. No, no, no, no. That's not why you go on a mission trip. You don't go on a mission trip to make yourself feel bad and guilty. You go on a mission trip. You go on a mission trip because it puts you in a situation where you don't have control.
Yeah. You are utterly. You know that? You are utterly dependent on God.
you are dependent on God. You have to put yourself out there. You have to be uncomfortable. You have to be tired. You have to not know where you're going. You know, then you are open to go. I can't do this on my own. I have nothing to fall back on. I can't be an american right now.
Right.
And fall back on whatever. I've got to trust whatever God has. And what God has is holy spirit in your life. And you learn to depend on him, and you learn to lean on him, and you learn to hear. Well, hello again, and welcome back to the Trim the Wick podcast. I'm, Dan.
And I'm Becky.
And we are back home.
We are no more on the road gallivanting this week.
Not this week. We are actually back home and, the friendly confines of, as they say. And we wanted to just continue to build on what we've been teaching the last couple weeks on the person of the Holy Spirit.
Right.
And one of the reasons why we're kind of spending so much time on this, and we think it's so important and believe it's so important. We truly believe that without the person of the Holy Spirit active in your life, it's impossible to live the christian life.
Right. well, and Jesus tells us that. Right. Yeah. We see that borne out in scripture. We talked about it kind of at length last week, that you see that the disciples were powerless.
Right.
Absent the infilling of the Holy Spirit. And so if we're going to walk, as Jesus said, in even greater things than he did.
Yes.
Then we need the same power that he had at work in his life, that authority to confront and overcome sin, that the authority to turn away from temptation, the authority to know what is right and then walk in what is right.
Right.
You know, all of those things. We need that.
Yeah. And also to be able to receive the grace that God gives us and to share that. Jesus tells us very much to pray for our enemy, to love our enemy. One of the things we want to talk about is that this week is our week that we normally talk about Kenya.
Right.
And so we wanted to kind of mix a Kenya episode with talking about the person of the Holy Spirit. We wanted to talk about when we've seen Holy Spirit really working when we're on the mission field, and not only just in the things with us and speaking to us and comforting us, which we want to mention those as well, but just some amazing, powerful things that we've seen Holy Spirit do that you just kind of shake your head and go, wow, thanks, God. Thank you for just blessing us.
And thank you for sending Holy Spirit to be with us in this moment, not only to comfort us, but to encourage us and to speak boldly and to.
And to pour out to others.
Right.
Because Holy Spirit in us is not necessarily about us.
Right.
It's. It's about the capacity to walk out what God's called us to do, which involves us touching other people.
Right now, I'm going to say the first time we were on Mount Elgon, going on these back roads up through the mountain, and it was raining and it was muddy and sloppy and stuff like that. One of the things that I know both you and I really leaned in hard is praying as we were driving and praying for comfort. Praying for encouragement and allowing the Holy Spirit just to minister to us as we were really outside of our comfort zone.
Very much so.
And, you know, to the point where it's like, okay, we're, What are we gonna do when the car breaks down? You know, what are we gonna do if we get stuck in the mud? What are we gonna do? You know, you start thinking of these things because you are so far outside of the things that you can control.
Right.
You have to just trust God, and you have to lean on, that God's doing this work, and you also have to embrace the Holy Spirit just blessing you and comforting you.
Well, I think one of the evidences of Holy Spirit's presence in those particular moments is the laughter that we shared. and it really helped to cement the relationship with our hosts because this was outside of their comfort zone, too. They didn't know what to expect from Americans. What were the Americans
expectations going to be? What were the. They knew that we were coming from a place that had paved roads and traffic lights, and we didn't share our roadways with foot traffic and donkey carts. And so there was mutual discomfort going on there of, what
is this gonna be like? The level of not just comfort, but confidence that Holy Spirit gave us that made us okay with all of this uncomfortable circumstance when the car broke down, when we were fording a river where the road should have been, when we were, you know, going into places that we didn't know, every one of those things was met with laughter.
Yeah.
And it was met with, okay, well, how are we gonna attack this team? You know, the car is stuck in the mud. We're gonna get out, we're gonna laugh about it, and we're gonna put our hands to the back of the car and push the thing, you know?
You know, take our shoes off and roll the pants legs up.
Right. I.
And get in the mud and get out.
And that's one of the evidences of holy spirit, is when you have one of the fruits of the spirit is joy, isn't it? So when circumstances could elicit a very different response, when the response is, this is amusing, and this is not an obstacle that can't be overcome, this is just kind of a bonding experience in our trials together, you know?
No, yeah.
I I think that's one of the most beautiful evidences of holy spirit on that trip.
Well, and I remember one, of the photos that we have of us standing in the car or standing next to the car after we got it out of the mud.
Right.
And we're all just cutting up and laughing and just enjoying the moment, even though the moment was really incredibly difficult, but we were just enjoying this moment and going to, you know, God, thank you for these great times that we're getting to have that, you know, most people would go, oh, my gosh, you're in, you know, in the backcountry, and you're out in the middle of nowhere, and you're stuck in the mud, and you got to get down off the mountain because there's a curfew.
And all these things were. The natural is that it should stress you out and that it should, you know, cause you to have, you know, distress. Here we were having a great time, laughing, getting to knowing each other better, letting the Lord just minister to us, letting the Holy Spirit just build us up.
You know, he really allowed the joy of the Lord to be our strength.
Yeah.
And then he built the unity with the brethren up there because it became very clear very quickly that nobody held themselves above one another. Nobody held. There was great unity and great ability to just roll with the circumstances because we understood that we were all called in this moment to be where we were and that clearly holy spirit had it.
Yeah. And it's times like that when you look back, just see what God did. And you just see how holy spirit carries you through things, comforts you through things. When you're going through it, it's work. It's difficult. But you look at it and you're going, thank you, God. Because without the comforter there, you're tempted to fall apart. Yeah, you're tempted to fall apart and fight and argue, but because Holy Spirit was right in the middle of
that. We've had a bunch of those experiences while we were traveling and while we've been in Kenya. One of the other things I wanted to talk about is, I want to talk about is where we've seen when God has imparted on other people and when we've shared a message or we've shared something, somebody. We've spoken a word to somebody where God has given us a word of knowledge or a, prophetic word, seeing how that word.
Seeing how that. That ministers to another person and their reaction and them being able to receive what God is saying, not because we have a great knowledge and a great understanding, but it's because the person of the Holy Spirit is speaking through us to that person, to encourage them, to build them up, to just tell them how much that God loves them, that over exuberance that they get because, you know, they live a hard life. You know, I can remember being with the widows, hearing the stories
that they were sharing with us. They do not live an easy life. They are all together, but there's no men, right? Because all the husbands are gone, and a lot of. Even the older children were gone. So they've got that hardship and stuff, but they are banded together. And when we were able to be there and just minister to them and encourage them and just say some words to them that God was speaking to us, the
excitement. I remember going into the classroom that one time and then so happy because we prayed over that before the classroom was there.
Right? So that was. That was our second trip, so. But the first trip that we had been out there, one of the things, when we. When we first met them and we were having the prayer meeting together, one of the big concerns is there were. There are children, you know, it's widows and orphans. And, that one of the widows had pledged her little allotment of property to build a schoolhouse on.
Yeah, that's right.
And so they were in process of putting that structure up, but they had no teacher, and they had no furnishings for the schoolroom. And so they had asked us to join them in prayer for that. And so we did. And what's beautiful what's really fun is when you really grasp the understanding that when we pray together like that, when holy spirit binds the brothers together and brothers and sisters together to pray for things, when we then separate, it's not
like he just stops working. he continues to work and bring about those things that we have agreed together with. And so when we returned, they were so excited to show us. They were like, you've got to come up. We've got to make time to come up to the widow's community, because we really want you to see what Holy Spirit has done in your absence. And in our absence, he had continued to work things out, continued to provide for them. And we got to walk into this beautiful
school room that was fully built. They had, chalkboard up, they had desks and stools for the students, and they had a teacher, that was serving their community. So that getting to come together, pray together, and that the promise in scripture that when two or three are together and gathered in his name, he is there and he does hear, and that what we ask according to his will, he does accomplish and work out.
It's a beautiful thing to see in tangible practice that what we have agreed in prayer with together, Holy Spirit continues to work out whether we're present or not, he uses whom he chooses to bring it about. that was beautiful.
Yeah. And seeing how just God just does this and how he pours out his spirit and does this, where he builds and encourages and completes what he begins. I remember just being there that second time when we went to the classroom and just, you know, everybody was singing. We were all staying outside singing.
Yeah, we had a party and had.
A great time just celebrating what God had done, how the children were now being ministered to, and how the ladies were also being ministered, because now they were not concerned that their children were just going to work the fields their whole life and not have any education and not have any opportunity for anything better.
I think that's one of the things that we've seen in great measure, when we go, is that when Holy Spirit uses our giftings in the body over there, when we speak words, it is. You see that? It's words of life.
Right?
It's always words of life. You know, I remember the. The one meeting, we were at a school in one of the villages up on the mountain, and, all the young kids had come out early. Teenagers, I would say.
Yeah.
And, a lot of them, again, hard, hard life.
Yeah.
Many of them were orphaned and didn't see a lot of way forward for themselves. You know, it was very, very, much an uncertain time in their lives, and many of them had been subjected to abuse of one kind of another and were recovering from that. And I remember holy spirit just giving so many words when we did one on one counseling, with them of over and over again. The words that the Lord was having us speak was, lift up your head.
Yeah.
lift up your head. Stand straight. Stand bold, because you are seen and you are loved. And pouring that out and watching somebody who has just been that word that gets used in scripture, that sounds very melodramatic. Downtrodden.
Yeah.
you know, it. That sounds. Wow, you've really been under it. Yeah. these were kids that had been downtrodden.
Yeah. And. And it is when you stand before someone or a group of people who have literally been just beaten down.
Yeah.
You just. That emotional attachment, that emotional thing of going, wow, okay, this is what desperation looks like, and this is how it feels.
Right. But to be able to stand before them, see past the pain, see past whatever their coping mechanisms had been, some of which were very unhealthy coping mechanisms. See past the environs, see past the clothing discrepancies, see past all of that and go, no, no, no. The God of heaven that created you, m sees you. Adores you and has a future for you. This is the first time many of those kiddos were hearing words like that spoken into their lives.
but that's only holy spirit that lets us see past that. Right. Because in the flesh.
Yeah. You just see what they're portraying, what you see physically in front of you.
well, and you see, you're kind of taken back. This culturally is very different from what I'm used to, or, you know, just lots of different thoughts that run through your head in the flesh. But because of Holy Spirit, you're able to see them the way God sees them.
Right.
and which is because we've been seen the way God sees us. You know, we've been told who we are in Christ.
Right.
Somebody else has. In the power of the Holy Spirit, somebody else has spoken into our lives and said, oh, no, you're not all of that. This is who God calls you. Right.
And it helps. And this is, I think, one of the ministries that the Holy Spirit has in us is because he does allow us to see us to see ourselves. He does allow us to see ourselves the way God sees us. He does help us to understand that we are valuable people and that we are valued in God's eyes, which then helps us look at others and the way that God looks at us.
Right. And that is an act of the Holy Spirit on the mission field.
Definitely. Because it smells and it's dirty and it's not pleasant sometimes.
Right.
You know, we walked into some areas that were. We had to scrub our feet, our shoes when we got out of them, and we had to wash our hands and anything that we touched because it was typhoid and AIDS and, you know, all these things that were just all over the place. So it's. It's not always a pretty,
Right.
But you let God just minister through you, Holy Spirit work through you and see past that to where you're looking at just another person that really needs God's touch.
So you think that would work in our day to day life like back home in the states and with the difficult, stenchy people that we run into here?
Yeah, well, exactly. And this is where, again, this is why we need Holy Spirit in our everyday day to day. You know, this is not. Holy Spirit's not just for when we go on a plane overseas and he shows up. No, he's, you know, at the grocery store. He's at the Winn Dixie, at the Kroger. You know, he's there. There are people that are standing right across from you that are pushing your groceries past the little laser thing that are hurting.
And we need to see beyond what we're physically seeing and allow Holy Spirit to minister to them through us.
Absolutely.
You know, and again, this is where it is so important that holy spirit needs to be a part of our day to day everything that we do.
Yeah. It's sometimes easier to see him, because I think when we go. When you go to a place. When you're prepared to go to a place where you know you're going to be uncomfortable, you go in understanding that you're 100% reliant on Holy Spirit. And so when he does what he does, when he gives you power, when he gives you joy, when he gives you love, when he gives you peace, when all those fruits become visible as you're walking there, it's easier to recognize it in the moment.
Yeah.
It's easier to recognize your reliance on him in the moment. But the reality is that level of reliance is the amount of reliance we need in our every single day. That's how we need to be going prepared into every day that we wake up.
Yes.
In him, we live and move and have our being exactly every day. Yeah.
Yeah. Well, and this is one of the reasons why I truly believe that every person should go on a mission trip. I, heard a pastor years ago said that, you know, you need to go on a mission trip so you can see how bad people are and everything. No, no, no, no. That's not why you go on a mission trip. You don't go on a mission trip to make yourself feel bad and guilty. You go on a mission trip. You go on a mission trip because it puts you in a situation where you don't have control.
Yeah. You are utterly, you know that? You are utterly dependent on God.
you are dependent on God. You have to put yourself out there. You have to be uncomfortable. You have to be tired. You have to not know where you're going. You know, then you are open to go. I can't do this on my own. I have nothing to fall back on. I can't be an american right now and fall back on whatever. I've got to trust whatever God has. And what God has is holy spirit in your life. And you learn to depend on him, and you learn to lean on him and you learn to hear. Oh, my goodness.
But the ability to hear holy spirit speaking so loud when you're on mission field. And we can have that here.
We should have that here. Because the truth is we are that dependent on the power and authority of Holy Spirit every single day.
Yes.
We are that dependent, whether we recognize it or bow to it or nothing.
Right. And the problem is, is here when we're at home, we have ways of numbing or we have ways of, being able to get around the uncomfortableness and everything so that we don't have to, even though we actually really do have to.
We need it. Yeah. One of the things, one of the most powerful things that I think we've, we've seen Holy Spirit do. And y'all, we're talking about some unusual attributes. People don't talk about Holy Spirit acting this way on the mission field. Understand, we've seen the dramatic healings. We've seen that stuff.
Ah, the demon possession.
Right. We've cast out demons. That has all been part of it, too. But watching how holy spirit takes a group of believers from literally different sides of the world. And draws us together where we're both kind of skeptical of what the communication level is going to be, what the understanding. And sometimes even if we're using the same words, we mean different things. With the same words. And so going into relationship with other believers and going, okay, I don't know how to make unity here.
Right?
I don't know how to do that. So what I'm going to do is I'm going to sit here and we're going to sit at this table, and we're all going to speak, but we're all going to be listening really closely, not only to each other, but to what Holy Spirit's saying.
Right.
and when there's either a disagreement
or even a perceived disagreement. Well, I think you said, or I think you meant instead of flaring up and taking offense, we're going to lean real hard into Holy Spirit, and then we're going to come have a hard conversation so that we can come to unity and understanding that power and authority of holy Spirit to take people that disparate in culture and make them one, y'all, can you imagine if he would let, if we would allow him to do that in our relationships with
believers in our city and in our neighborhood and in the church we attend? And instead we kind of go, well, no, but you're from the same culture, so you should get what I mean. Instead of going, no, no, no. Every one of these people that we run into, that we worship with, that we sit down with, everybody's got a different background.
Yes.
Everybody uses vocabulary a little bit differently. What if we leaned hard into the power of holy spirit to bring unity in the body, not just when we're on the mission field, but when we're at home.
Right.
If we made home our mission field, yeah.
The power of Holy Spirit in our life is, you know, a lot of people think it's just the getting up and preaching or doing these miraculous, these miraculous signs. and all this, it's gonna bring power and authority. And it does. And he does. One of the most important things that Holy Spirit does is he ministers to us and he speaks to us, and he wants to accomplish God's kingdom here, right on, planet earth, and use us to do it.
It's so important that, flows out of our everyday.
It's about our everyday. So, if you haven't caught on yet, we went into a little bit of preaching there, and, but we want to just encourage you to seek out holy spirit every day. We told you in the past that every time you open your, your bible, Holy Spirit is the teacher. He's the one who writes the scriptures on your heart and your mind. So ask him before you open up the word of God and you're going to read it. Holy Spirit, teach me to teach me what I need to read, what I need to
understand from this. Not that I just see the words, but I want to know the meaning and all that and how it applies to me. Yep. And how it applies to everyone else and how I'm supposed to use what I've been taught to minister and to love on everyone else. And then Holy Spirit, help me as I walk out the door to minister to everyone else because it's hard and there's going to be difficult things that are going to come against me today as I go to work or I go to school or whatever I do. Holy
spirit, teach me what I need to know. Help me, guide me.
Let your fruit flow from my life.
Exactly. Well, again, you know, it, it's so much because the, the fruit of the spirit should be displayed everywhere, should be displayed in your home, in your marriage, with your children, at work, while you're driving on the interstate. I four, I'm looking at you, you know, and all these places. The fruit of the spirit should just flow and should be present.
Yeah.
Wow. Well, that went by so fast.
We already, and we didn't even get into the healings and the possessions and the,
Well, you know what? We might need to talk about that next week.
We might need to talk about the signs and wonders side of evidences of the spirit because we do see that too.
That is a huge thing. And I've got some because I'll be honest with you, I was big skeptic.
Yeah.
And about the whole healing and laying on of hands and watching things happen. But let me tell you, holy spirit was patient with me and I want to tell that story. Maybe we'll just do that next week.
Sounds good.
Okay. Well, guys, that's all we got for you this week. If you guys are enjoying this series, let us know. Can write us at Dan Matthew two five seven.com. if you want to know about our day to day, what we're doing all over the place, go to our Instagram. You can catch up there. we post stuff on our instagram all the time. That is rimthewhicglobal. So you can catch up on all the stuff we do there and on our Facebook page and stuff because there's a bunch that we're doing. We will. We really want
to connect with you. All right. So next week we're going to talk about some signs and wonders.
All right, sounds like a, plan.
Okay. Well, thanks for hanging out with us again this week. We love you guys. We'll see you next week.
All right, love you. Bye.