(193) “Contend in Prayer and Watch God Transform a Life!” with John and Linda Thomas

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they had a pen pal program where I got a letter from a nun who was in a convent,

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and she was assigned to me. And I was in that home for six months, and I would get these letters

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from this person I'd never met, and she would tell me how much God loved me.

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Wow!

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She would speak my identity over me. She would tell me things I'd never heard.

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Chloe and Dove.

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Those were so life-changing for me. I literally still have those cards at this point in my life,

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having moved 45 times, or 35 times, or whatever, a lot. And she was contending

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for my salvation and for my life at 15.

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Beautiful.

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God promises in Joel 2.28 to pour out His Spirit on all humanity. Welcome to global outpouring.

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Will we contend for that promised outpouring? Will we equip for that outpouring?

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So that we may engage in that very outpouring. I'm Philip Bus.

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And I'm Sharon Bus. Welcome to the podcast today. We have with us again our dear friends

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and co-workers, John and Linda Thomas, and they're going to continue with their story.

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And this is about seeing the power of God to redeem and set free and launch into outpouring.

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Thanks so much for joining us today. We want to encourage you, if you haven't already done so,

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to go to our website, globaloutpouring.net, and make sure that you have joined our email

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lists so that we can stay in touch with you and we want to hear from you. If you could

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fill out a feedback form or send us an email at feedback at globaloutpouring.org.

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We would love to hear from you. Tell us where you're listening from and tell us what the Lord

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is doing in your life. And maybe you've got a prayer request that we can pray into, or maybe

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you've got an idea that you want to hear us talk about on this podcast. Let us know what the Lord

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is doing in your life. And don't miss our bookstore and don't miss our blogs and the things that we

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have recorded on our YouTube channel and our Facebook page. Join us on all these places and

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get connected with us on Friday nights. We're always recording something special from the Lord

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on our Friday night live worship. So John and Linda, thank you so much for joining us again today.

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We want to continue with your story. It is so good to be here. We are, we are so

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blessed. Yeah. Thank you so much for having us. We love you guys. We love being around you and

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we appreciate the opportunity to share our stories. Oh, it's, it's, it's just wonderful.

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You know, you were sharing with us on our last episode about John, how you started to pray in

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tongues for your household and for God to do whatever it was that he wanted to do and so on.

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Yeah. Um, was, was there some kind of a backstory about that, that like Linda, were you already

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praying something? Was there a book involved? Yes, actually there was. I had started to read

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the power of a praying wife right after John and I got married. It was really important to me

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to make sure that I had a godly marriage and I was honoring my husband and I was protecting his heart

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and using that book, power of a praying wife really brought me closer to the Lord

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and it also taught me how to pray for my husband. Okay. And then John, what happened with you, with

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a book? Yeah, well, Linda told me she was reading that book and praying for me pretty early on.

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And I could see over the years the Lord was changing me and just looking back on it, I know

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that a lot of that came from the contending that Linda was doing for me. And so, you know, I started

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out very, very worldly in our marriage. And even though up to just a few years ago, I was still a

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lukewarm Christian, I could still see the fingerprint of the Lord in my life working, changing me,

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changing the way that I was loving Linda. And I know that really a majority of that came from

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those prayers that she was praying over me. Those prayers are so powerful when you're praying for

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somebody, your spouse, your children, your loved ones, whoever it is, those prayers are so powerful.

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And so I just encourage people don't ever give up praying, keep praying for people because it works.

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Amen. Amen. Was there also a book that you were reading at some point?

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At some point? Yeah. So about power of a praying husband. Yeah, I actually didn't pick that up until

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recently. Oh. And yeah. But you were exhibiting the power of a praying husband when you started

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praying in tongues, even if you hadn't read the book yet. Yeah. It's the principle.

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The principle behind it. Yeah. Like I think Linda had said when we were talking yesterday that

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I asked Dean Braxton, I asked him, how do I get closer to the Lord? And Dean said,

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if I want to get close to the Lord, start praying for your wife. Start praying for your wife.

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And he recommended at that time that I pick up that book, Power of a Praying Husband.

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Wow. But I was still so lukewarm that that answer kind of frustrated me.

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I wanted a much more spiritual answer. But yeah, I realized the importance of praying for

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Linda. And so we have really developed a strong prayer for each other, separate and together.

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And I know that that has been very powerful in our marriage.

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Oh, that's wonderful. Amen. That's wonderful. Well, let's go back and talk with you, Linda,

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about a little bit more about your background and where you came from. And like, were you raised in

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a Christian home or what's your background? I actually was not. I was raised in, unfortunately,

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typical for these days, a broken home, not in a Christian lifestyle. My mom grew up in a broken

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home with a controlling stepdad. And so I ended up growing up in a broken home with a controlling

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stepdad in my younger years. And you know, we- It's sort of like history repeats itself.

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It does. It's interesting to watch that cycle. We ended up moving around a lot, but we ended up

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landing in Las Vegas when I was maybe 10. And you know, my mom, she was just looking back,

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she was seeking love and fulfillment in other people. And she didn't know it was really Jesus

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that she was looking for. We didn't have Jesus. And so, you know, fast forward a little bit and

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praise the Lord, she did find a relationship with Jesus when I was in my later teens.

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But what about you?

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Well, growing up in a broken home, I ended up with a lot of traumatic experiences when I was younger.

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And in response to those experiences, I ended up spending my teen years also searching and

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seeking from love for the world, you know, looking for that father figure I never had,

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for acceptance, for identity, and of course, unfortunately, always looking in the wrong places.

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Oh dear. You're probably glossing over a whole lot of detail by saying that. Not that you need to

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go into detail, but I think everybody gets the picture.

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Yes. If you can imagine it, it probably happened to me. And you know, starting with maybe drug

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rehab at 13. And then-

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And drug rehab at 13. Wow.

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Yeah. That's kind of where running away on and off in and out of different group homes and stuff.

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And basically, just really trying to figure out who I was and find someone to love me. You know,

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my mom loved me the best that she could, but not growing up with a father or a father figure

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that was loving and accepting. I had no idea who I was. I had no sense of my own identity.

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So, I was out there looking for it.

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So, that's why it's so important for people to meet Jesus and to meet our heavenly father

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and get a relationship established with our heavenly father, because

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that gives you your true identity. But that's happened. But tell us the stuff in between.

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Yes. Well, I, from about 15 years old, I did end up in a state-run Catholic girls' home.

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Oh, really?

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Yes.

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Like, is that where you found Jesus?

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I didn't find Jesus. It was a Catholic girls' home. But I did hear about a God who loved me.

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It was kind of in generals. I think because it was state-run,

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there were certain things they weren't really allowed to do. So, there was no salvation message.

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But I didn't hear about a Jesus who died for me so that I could be free.

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But they started to pour identity in me.

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Wow.

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It was really cool to be around these nuns that were praying

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and going to chapel every morning. And I remember they even had, this was so powerful,

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they had a pen pal program where I got a letter from a nun who was in a convent.

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And she was assigned to me. And I was in that home for six months. And I would get these letters

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from this person I'd never met. And she would tell me how much God loved me.

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Wow.

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She would speak my identity over me. She would tell me things I'd never heard.

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Glory to God.

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I mean, those were so life-changing for me. I literally still have those cards

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at this point in my life, having moved 45 times or 35 times or whatever a lot.

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She was contending for my salvation and for my life at 15.

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Beautiful.

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Wow.

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So, don't give up on those broken teenagers that you find out there.

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Praise God. Amen.

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They need your prayers. They need your dedication to praying for them and speaking truth into

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their life, even if it doesn't look like they're hearing you. They are hearing you. Their spirit

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is hearing you and holds on to those things forever.

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Amen. Beautiful. Beautiful. So, what happened then after you got out of that place?

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The benefit of that, it got me off the streets. It got me clean. I still didn't know who I was.

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I still didn't have Jesus. So, then by 16, I was pregnant with my first daughter.

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And here I am, a high school dropout working full-time, pregnant and living on the couch

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of a friend and God intervened dramatically in my life at that point.

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It's a story that sounds so much like every single mom, pregnant young story, but God

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threw a little three-line ad in the back of a magazine that said, open adoption,

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Pleasant Hill, California. And I was in Vegas at the time. And just having somebody come up to me

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and show me that little ad, it opened up a world of open adoption for me that I was able to step

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into because I didn't want to raise a daughter in the life I was living because I knew I had nothing.

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I didn't want to raise her like that. And I did not want to have an abortion. My sister took me to

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a crisis pregnancy center when I told her, my older sister, when I told her I thought I was pregnant.

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And when I walked into that place, I assumed if I was pregnant that I would get an abortion.

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Here I am 16 years old. I'm already dropped out of high school. I don't have a really great

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relationship with my mother. And so no one to turn to. Well, they sat me down and they gave me a free

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test, but they made me watch a 28-minute video on abortion. And back then, you know, in the early

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90s, it was a real video that showed what really happens when you have an abortion. And I walked

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out of that place and I was like, there's no way I cannot do that. I have a baby inside of me.

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I have a baby inside of me. I am pregnant and I can't kill my baby. So I thought, well,

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I didn't know anything about adoption except the stigma that it's bad because everybody who

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I had ever known that was adopted, you know, didn't know their parents and it was very secretive. And

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it was, it seemed to be a bad thing, you know, like you don't love your kid or something like that.

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But it was completely the opposite. Explain what an open adoption is. Because I had never heard of

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it until not so very long ago. It was beautiful. I contacted them and they sent me a hundred letters

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and pictures of families that had already been vetted that were ready to adopt. And I got to

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choose my daughter's parents. And they were lovely. I got to go down the list and if I didn't like them,

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I could pick the next ones and I could, I could interview them all until I felt I had the right

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choice. And of course, God intervening. I had the very first couple I chose were June and Rod.

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And they lived in California and they were lovely. I ended up, this isn't normal, probably,

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but I ended up moving, they moved me to California to live with them while I was pregnant. And I got,

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I got medical care and I got to, to see other girls that were pregnant. And I got to have

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counseling sessions one-on-one with them. Like we had group sessions with these other girls that

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were thinking about adoption. And the choice was mine all the way up to, to birth and right after

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to change my mind with no condemnation. And it was neat because I got to live with them and I got to

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see what a sound marriage and a stable life looked like. It was lovely.

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Pete But were they believers?

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Julie They were not. They didn't know Jesus. And at that point,

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I didn't really know enough to realize that that was missing.

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Pete Yeah, yeah. But you figured it out later.

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Julie I did.

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Pete So, you lived with them until your daughter was born.

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Julie Yes, Alexis.

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Pete How much, how much have you been involved in Alexis's life?

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Julie That's the beautiful part of open adoption is she has always known me. She's always had

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pictures of me. I've gotten pictures and video of her growing up. There's never been a secret about

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it. She's always known she was adopted. As a matter of fact, she, glory to God, June and Rod

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ended up being able to have a second child. So, they have a child. And she, he always would grow

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up saying he was adopted because he wanted to feel special like she was.

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Pete Oh, that's so sweet. So, you got to be a part of her life from the get go. And you could explain

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to her, she could understand that it wasn't that you abandoned her. You loved her enough to give

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her a better opportunity than she would have if you had kept her.

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Julie Yes, yes. And if I hadn't loved June and Rod so much and gotten to actually get to know them,

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you know, honestly, I never would have been able to give them my baby. It was the hardest thing I've

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ever done.

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Pete Yeah, I can't imagine how complicated and difficult that would be because you, you know,

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you carry that baby in your womb. And to bring that child forth and then not be able to, you know,

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nurture and carry in your arms and grow up and grow her up. I understand what you did and why you

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did it and it was the right thing to do. But I know it must have been terribly difficult.

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Julie Yeah, it was the amount of love I had for her that I, you know, I didn't want her to grow up

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without the stability that I knew and the love that I knew she could get from a mother and father

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together.

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Pete So, what has her reaction been now that she's grown? Has she, have you talked together about

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that?

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Julie Absolutely. We talk all the time. She loves me very much. I love her. I'm close with her and

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her mom, June, is wonderful. And it's neat when the three of us can get together. She has since

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accepted Jesus. So, she's in her family of believers too. So, I have her for eternity.

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And I got to be an influence on her in that very specific area that she came back into our lives

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after I was saved and I got to influence her for the Lord.

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Pete Glory to God.

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Julie Praise God. That's tremendous. So, how did you find Jesus?

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Julie Well, he was always there.

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Pete Oh, don't you love that? But you just didn't know.

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Julie Yes, I didn't. I didn't know. But you know, what was a blessing is after, since my mom did

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get saved, after I had Alexis, I came home to Vegas and I had a praying mom this time. So,

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I was able to, even though I went back into the world for a few years and ended up getting

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pregnant again, and I ended up getting married at 20, the Lord helped intervene in those times.

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I got cleaned up and stable before I got pregnant, which is what I had happened with the Catholic

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girls home the first time. And so, having a-

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Julie Wait, wait, wait, wait. When you say cleaned up, you were doing drugs up until that moment

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where you began to get cleaned up before you got pregnant each time.

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Pete Each time.

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Julie Isn't God good to take care of your children that way? To clean the drugs out of your system

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before you got pregnant? I mean, you weren't even trying. God did that.

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Julie He did it. He really did. And I really believe it was because of the prayers of the people

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around me. I really strongly believe that because, you know, to wake up one morning and be,

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and literally, I woke up one day, I can tell you the date, it was March 23rd,

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1994. And I looked at my life and I said, this isn't who I am. And I don't need to be doing drugs.

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And I quit that day.

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Pete Wow. That was a great start. That's great.

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Julie And it was the Holy Spirit, but I didn't know it talking to me. Like, look at your life.

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You know, he literally said you didn't give up a child to live a life like this.

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Julie Wow, wow, wow.

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Pete Wow, wow, yes.

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Julie So, you got pregnant again, and then you married the father.

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Julie I did. And you know, cycles continue because I ended up marrying somebody who was

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very controlling and manipulative. And, you know, after eight years of emotional abuse and infidelity,

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I realized that my daughter Cheyenne now, who I loved and I had kept and was raising,

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she was growing up in the same environment that I had, you know, that I had grown up in.

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And so, again, God intervening, I ended up, you know, just a moment of opening your eyes and I

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ended up leaving my husband at the time. I took Cheyenne and my dog. We fled, literally fled,

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and didn't take a car, didn't take anything with us, and started all over living in a friend's

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basement. And so, I was still living in a very secular way, you know, the kind of like party on

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the weekends kind of lifestyle that most Americans that I know or knew before Christ live that way.

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And, you know, you fast forward a few years and we get a knock on the door when Cheyenne was in

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about third grade and there was a little kid there from her school inviting her to go to church on

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this white bus that was sitting out front. And I was like, wow, okay. So, of course, I called the

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pastor and found out what church it was and I started letting her go. And it took about a year

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on that church bus. You know, it was interesting because they invited me to all the special events,

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Cheyenne. At that point, she was in every play and she sang every special song at Christmas. And

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it was a Mother's Day brunch, I remember very clearly. I sat across, they invited me, so of

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course, I had to come because she'd made me something and it was Mother's Day and she wanted

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to celebrate me. So, I remember coming into the church and feeling a little uncomfortable,

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for sure. But I sat across the warmest, like shiniest woman. Her name was Robin,

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and she just exuded God's love. And I didn't get that out in the world. She was just open

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and she was non-judgmental. And I just instantly, my spirit loved her spirit. It was like, wow,

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this is, she knows Jesus. I was like, and I don't know Jesus. There is a pretty big difference

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between her spirit and my spirit. And so, I just knew she had Jesus in her life. It took about a

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year, but by March of 2005, I ended up with a very traumatic experience with an ex-boyfriend.

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And I found myself sitting in the gym of that church, watching my daughter Cheyenne play upward

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basketball. And just feeling like I was at my rock bottom again, I was at my lowest point. And

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two very sweet older women came up to me and they invited me to go to church the next day,

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to their Sunday morning class for solitary women. And they were lovely. And I know now, looking

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back, they had been praying for me because I had come to basketball games and it was very quiet.

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And you could tell that I was of the world for sure. And so, you know that they were praying for

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me.

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But they were contending for you.

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Contending, yeah.

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They were. They were. And the Lord set that up because they didn't even talk about it,

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I found out later. They both came up at different times and invited me to go to church.

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And they invited me and I was like, yes, I've never felt more solitary than I do now. Jesus,

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I will stop running from you and I will come to church.

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Wow.

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And you know, I went that week and I literally just opened my heart up to Jesus Christ.

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In that moment. Praise God.

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In that moment. And I never looked back. Those people in that church, it was an older fellowship

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in that church. And they loved me. They loved broken Linda, still drinking, smoking, cussing

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of the world. And they just surrounded me and they just loved on me. It was beautiful and very much needed.

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Hallelujah. I just want to make a comment. What you described a few moments ago about Robin

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is what you have become. You have become that woman that is exuding the love of God and exuding

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the joy of the relationship with Jesus. You know, it's like Jesus put her in front of you and said,

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here's the model. Here's what you're going to be. I'm calling you. I'm calling you into this.

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And that's what you've become. It's just, I remember, you know, we had met the first time

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you came here with Dean Braxton and then we went to Grace City Church. He was ministering there.

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I mean, that's where we attend. And it was the first time you had been there because you were

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there because Dean was there and you were kind of sort of the area. Springfield isn't exactly close,

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but close enough that, you know, you can stretch and make it be close if you really, really want to.

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The church alive is worth the drive. Amen. Amen.

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And then when you showed up again months later, I was at the front ministering something. I don't

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remember why I was even, you know, sometimes the Holy Spirit would give me something and I'd come

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up and share it. And I remember looking out into the congregation and there you were glowing.

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Absolutely glowing. You were glowing. You're just beaming. You're beaming the love of God.

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And I thought, I think I know her. Where do I know her from? You know, it took a while for it to come

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back, but when it came, it was like, oh yeah, oh yeah, that's Linda. But you stood out in the crowd

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and I just wanted to encourage you that you have become what you saw. It was like you saw Robin in

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a mirror and that mirror reflection made a difference in your life. And so that's what

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you're doing for other people. And listener, this is what you can do in other people's lives as you

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simply live for Jesus and just walk in that love walk with Jesus. And, you know, you can tell when

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a person is in love, he can tell when somebody's in love. And so listener, you can make a difference

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in people's lives just by smiling, just by beaming the love of God. I'm sorry, I didn't mean to take

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over, but that's beautiful. Where were we in the story? You went to church, you gave your heart to

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Jesus and then what happened? And then I met my Prince Charming three months later, John Thomas.

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And you were just, you had never sung hymns before. You had never been a church goer before.

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And then this was like a Nazarene church or something. It was a Nazarene church. And yeah,

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we still had the hymnals. We did a little contemporary, but it was where I learned how

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to worship the Lord in church. And it was beautiful. Yeah. And then, so you met Prince Charming.

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And John, what was, what was going on for you? Yeah, for me, I had been called back to church

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by the Lord and was still also very much in the world, but knowing the Lord wanted me at church,

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so I was going, I started attending this Nazarene church and met Linda right away. So I think,

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like Linda said, it was very shortly after she had given her life to the Lord, I met her.

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And the thing that was going through my mind was I've been a Christian basically all my life. I've

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loved Jesus since I was a little kid, but here this woman was so in love with Jesus, so on fire for

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Jesus, so different than I had ever been, so different than anything I've ever had.

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It really just kind of threw me for a loop. It's like, yeah, I've called myself a Christian

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a long time, but this lady has what I need. She provoked you to jealousy.

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Yeah, totally did. She totally did. I'm like, how is this? I don't even get this, but yeah,

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I want that because I still, I still had a, you know, a cold heart. I still had a heart heart.

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And so really religious heart, getting to watch Linda just love Jesus purely the way that she does

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really was so inspiring to me and helped me in coming out of that religious attitude.

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Yeah. Wow.

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And then how did the Lord connect you together?

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Well, as in any Nazarene, good Nazarene church, everybody gets together after and goes out to eat.

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And so we had, I had all of these lovely older women that would, you know, in their 60s and

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70s that would just, I'd go out and have lunch with all of them. And so John was standing there

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at one point and we were doing the, would you like to go to lunch? Would you like to go to lunch?

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And he was like, yes. And he's like, but I can't this week. So how about next week?

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And then next week, again, would you like to go to lunch? Yes. Okay. So we look around for

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everybody else that's going and they all deserted us and left us by ourselves.

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It was a God set up for sure. Those girls were still praying.

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I'm thinking, I'm thinking that they were thinking too.

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Yes. They did not stop praying for me. Thank you, Jesus.

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I'm thinking that, that there might've been just a tad of manipulation on their part,

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like matchmakers.

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Yeah, we started to date and it was really interesting because I had never dated anybody

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that knew the Bible or had biblical values. And so, John got to teach me, he got to teach me things

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like you can trust the word of God, the Bible. Like when I'd say, well, how do you know what's

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right? Or how do you know what to do? And it's like, open the Bible. And it's like, oh, the answers

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are in there. You mean I can trust it? And he taught me things like little white lies are not

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okay. Like what do you mean they're not okay? That's how the world lives their life. Well, no,

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that's, well, if I say this and it kind of makes it right and it kind of, he goes, no, no, that's a

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lie. Really? Really? So, things like that. And then especially worship. I just, I remember our first

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date, I asked him, what kind of music do you listen to? And he said, Christian. And I went,

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no, like on the radio. And he said, Christian. And I went, oh, like they have like bands and stuff?

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He's like, yeah, they even have radio stations. I was totally clueless. I was clueless. So, he made

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me a CD and he wrote all his favorite worship songs on the top front, you know. And I got to

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learn to worship the Lord that way too. Wow.

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So, John, what happened when the Lord's, you were thinking about, is this okay for me to marry Linda?

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Right? Yeah. I'd gone on a mission trip with my mom and my brother and some other folks from their

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church to Haiti. And while I was on that trip, I was really praying and asking the Lord, is Linda

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the one you want me to be with? And I didn't get a clear answer while I was on that trip. But when I

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came back and was in church, like the next Sunday, it was pretty quickly after we got back from this

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trip anyways, I every other week would run the PowerPoint for worship. And so, I was in the back

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of the church running the PowerPoint. And also in a Nazarene church, you have very, very little

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freedom of worship. Like very few people would stand up during worship. Very few people would

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raise their hands during worship. So, but Linda just loved Jesus, you know, and she didn't care

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what anybody thought. And that's one of the beautiful things about her. She's just such a

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completely genuine, real person. You know, she doesn't put on a show. She just, whatever is on

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the inside is what comes out on the outside. And what was on the inside of her at that point was

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Jesus. And so, Jesus was coming out and she stood up and was just worshiping Jesus from like the

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front row. I'm in the back looking at her, looking at her worship Jesus. And I heard in my spirit,

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yes, she's the one you can marry her. So, yeah, that was cool. It was absolute confirmation.

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And it's just a neat memory for us that the Lord did it that way. While she stood up, the lone one

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to worship in the Nazarene church, the Lord said, this is your wife.

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Wow. How beautiful. How beautiful. So, how did you break the news to her?

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Yeah. Well, I was in a big hurry to break the news to her, I guess. And because I'd been wanting

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I'd been wanting to know. And since I got a yes from the Lord, it was like, okay, let's,

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let's do this. So, I mean, she heard too, right? Oh, I had a yes way before that. Oh, really?

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Wow. Oh, yes. I was not letting him go. So, he proposed that night. He said, he dropped her one

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knee at the front door and he said, I want to worship the Lord with you forever. Will you marry

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me? Is that beautiful? I said, yes. It was beautiful. And we were married. We got married

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in 2006. And something really cool is that Robin and her husband sang at our wedding.

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Oh, how sweet is that? Yeah. That's like a kiss from the Lord.

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It really was. Yeah. And that was really, it was cool because that was like the start of me learning

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to be like a journey and learning how to partner with Jesus to be a good wife, because I'd never

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had a good marriage and I didn't know how to treat somebody. And it hadn't been modeled for you just

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a whole lot. No, I had nothing really to look at. A little bit from June and Rod in California when

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I was pregnant, a little bit in the people in the church that I saw, but really I had Jesus to turn

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to and the word. So, that's where I started. Wow. Praise God. Learning how to be a good wife.

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Yeah. Proverbs 18 22 in the passion says, when a man finds a wife, he has found a treasure,

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for she is the gift of God to bring him joy and pleasure. Wow. So, I, yeah, I really went on a

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journey realizing that my husband's heart was fragile and it was my job to steward and protect

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it from myself. Like, I needed to protect John from myself, from words, from actions that would be

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harmful, because you can't take those things back. True. You know, a man is strong on the outside,

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but tender on the inside. True, true. And so, Proverbs 31 in the passion verses 11 and 12 say,

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her husband has entrusted his heart to her, for she brings him the rich spoils of victory.

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All throughout her life, she brings him what is good and not evil. Oh, that's beautiful. That is

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beautiful. Wow. We should write that one down, honey. Yeah, I like that. I'm going to go back

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and study that. The passion says that. Yeah, that's beautiful. So, it was really neat because God

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took me on a journey to realize that my words really lined up with either the kingdom of darkness

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or I could partner with the kingdom of light and I could build my husband up and take all my

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complaints and hurt some things. If I took those things to Jesus, instead of spewing whatever my

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flesh wanted to spew out of my mouth, I could work through it with the Holy Spirit and with Jesus and

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say, you know, well, this is how I feel. It's like, very quickly, when you start complaining to Jesus

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about your husband, that shortens the argument very quickly. That's good. That is good. Yes.

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He gets to the core of what do you need and what are you looking for? Because that's really what

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it is, you know? And then he gets to turn it around and show me how to apologize quickly,

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how not to hold on to hurts, how to forgive quickly and how to speak life over my husband.

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And that's actually that Power of a Praying Husband and Power of a Praying Wife book

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has helped me with that a lot. That's tremendous. Wow.

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1 Peter 3, 7 is talking to husbands. Likewise, you husbands dwell with them, talking about their

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wives according to knowledge, giving honor unto the wife as unto the weaker vessel, because we are

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physically weaker. There's all kinds of things that our husbands can do that, you know, he can,

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my husband can tighten something much tighter than I can tighten it and things like that, you know,

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and he can, he can loosen things that are too tight. Can you take the lid off this thing, honey?

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I can do more than that. Well, of course, of course, that's just a simple little,

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some simple little thing. Like there's loads of things that you can do that I can't, and I'm

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grateful. So giving honor to the wife as unto the weaker vessel. In other words, there's probably a

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better translation for this. I wonder what it's like in the Passion. As unto the weaker vessel

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and as being heirs together of the grace of life. Here's the key line here, that your prayers be not

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hindered. In other words, husbands, if you want your prayers to be successful, how you treat your

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wife is going to make a difference. That's a powerful scripture and you don't hear anybody

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talk about that often. It's very true. Yeah. Let me just find that in the Passion. Just a second.

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First Peter three, seven, husbands, you in turn must treat your wives with tenderness,

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viewing them as feminine partners who deserve to be honored for they are coheirs with you

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of the divine grace of life so that nothing will hinder your prayers. Beautiful. Yeah.

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You know, this is, this is such a beautiful story of a couple that the Lord has been working with

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in their lives. And now that you're both spirit filled and you're both praying in tongues and

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you're both keeping your eyes on Jesus, he has brought you so far in, in your walk with him.

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We talked about that in the last episode, some of the things that God is doing through you both

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and the visions that you have for, for things to come. You've been contending in your own lives

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for outpouring. You've been contending for the people around you. Uh, and you've been equipping,

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you've been equipping, you have been adding equipment into your, into your toolbox for,

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serving the Lord and being prepared for whatever he has coming down the pike.

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I'm just, I'm just excited to see where all you're going to go. And I love the fact that we are

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connected for eternity. Amen. You know, wherever, wherever God takes us all in, in the days to come,

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we don't know what that future holds, but we know who holds the future. And we know that we've been

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connected for God's eternal purposes and his purposes for the outpouring here on the earth.

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So we definitely have had an acceleration in the spirit since we, since we both started praying in

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tongues and really getting into our word in a way that we've never gotten into it before.

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It really has opened up our ears to hear the Holy Spirit and the revelations and the directions

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he wants us to go. And it's really cool to see where he's brought us. Amen. So would one or the

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other of you pray for our listeners and maybe pray for marriages and pray for the people that

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are listening and what God has for them in the future? Absolutely. You know, and God really told

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me that it's important to share your testimony because it builds community and unity and unity

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right now in the body. And that's what the Bride of Christ is supposed to be, a unified, beautiful

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body working together. And I think as we share our testimonies with each other, you can see how God

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has moved in my life and where I've come out of and what God's doing in me can give you hope that

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what you're going through, you can come out of and there is a brighter day ahead. You know,

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I think as we each share God's testimony of what he's done in our life, we can really have hope

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and see his glory and his eternal purposes and get more of a heavenly viewpoint on what's going

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on in our life. Absolutely. Dear Lord Jesus, thank you so much for everybody who's going to listen to

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this. Lord God, you are glorious Jesus. The things that you have done for me and for others,

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for everybody, you love us each so individually. The love that you have for me is so different

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than the love you have for Sharon and Philip and John. But it's so perfect and it's everything that

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I ever needed. And I thank you for the people that you put in my life that prayed for me,

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that contended for me, that lifted me up to you, that kept me as a memorial before you, Jesus.

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So, you stood next to me and you waited for my heart to be ready to turn to you and for my

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surrender. You waited for me. It wasn't you waiting. It was me that was waiting to turn to you.

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And I just thank you. I thank you for your generosity. I thank you for your love. I thank

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you for your Holy Spirit gives us wisdom and gives us the gifts of healing and the gifts of just

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loving people well. We just thank you, Jesus. We ask that you would help us to love others well,

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that you would let us pour out your love on those around us and release your glory everywhere we go.

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Yes. Keep us in an eternal mindset, Lord, to know that we are your light and our only job

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is to worship you and love others. Yes. Thank you, Jesus. Amen. Amen.

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If you enjoyed today's podcast, please subscribe, rate and review this podcast on Apple podcasts

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or wherever you listen to podcasts. Your review helps the podcasting platform suggest this podcast

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to other listeners who are also looking for a great move of the Holy Spirit. Check out our website

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at globaloutpouring.org to find out more information, read our blogs, connect with us and donate.

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You can also browse our web store for life-changing anointed books. Until next time,

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this is Sharon Buss and I'm Philip Buss. God bless you with this overwhelming loving presence.