Are We Ready? Unveiling the Seven Churches' Path to Redemption

[00:00:19] Speaker A: Good evening, everyone, and welcome back to Two Witnesses Live. I'm watchful. And tonight we're diving into another powerful discussion as part of this week's theme, Darkness to Light. Our mission here is clear. Prepare, repent, and do the things Jesus has called us to do before his return. Tonight's topic is confession and repentance, specifically in light of what the seven churches need to do before Christ returns. In these times, understanding the call to confess and repent is more important than ever. As we navigate the end times, we will explore powerful messages given to the seven churches in Revelation, what they mean for us today, and how they guide us to be ready for Jesus return. We live in a world that often shuns accountability and ignores the necessity of spiritual readiness. But tonight we'll talk about what true confession looks like, what genuine repentance means, and how these two actions are crucial to shining God's light into our lives and our communities before the return of Christ. This isn't just a religious duty, it's a spiritual awakening. Jesus called each of these churches to turn back to him, to remember their first love, to rekindle their fire, and to prepare their hearts for his coming. And tonight we're going to unpack what that means for us today, how we can heed the call, and how this journey of repentance can transform our lives. So, as always, make sure you like this video, subscribe to the channel, and hit that notification bell to stay connected. Let's walk together from darkness to light, starting with the power of confession and repentance. Let's get into it. Where do you guys want to start? Should we start by defining repentance, maybe getting into some scripture, or do you want to talk about it first? [00:02:27] Speaker B: I think we should start by talking about what confession and repentance means to us. And if I could, I'd just go ahead and start us off there. [00:02:38] Speaker A: Yeah, totally, Please, by all means. [00:02:41] Speaker B: To me, confession and repentance, those are big, kind of to a lot of people, they're big, scary words, but they shouldn't be. We all do it all the time. You know, we. Confession is the recognition that we're not doing things the best way, and it's a recognition and acknowledgement of that. And the repentance is the changed behavior. So we do this all the time. We do it both kind of in the physical world, and we should be doing it in the spiritual world. And I think it's the spiritual world where we're more lacking. But I'll give you an example of that. There's to where I'm parked right now. There is multiple routes. And over time I learned which were the wrong routes and I now admit those are wrong routes. And I repented and now I take the best route. We do those things all the time. Yeah, we, we are looking for a better way. And the better way spiritually is God's way. But we often kind of work into our life these things that are our way. And that's really, I think what we're talking about in the spiritual sense is confessing that we don't have the answers and that God does. [00:04:09] Speaker A: Yeah, I mean, that's a huge part of it is. It's the recognition and the changing. So if you can't recognize error or a problem, how can you fix it? Once you recognize a problem, then you can fix it. That seems to be what repentance is. It's literally fixing a problem. You're not in alignment with what God desires for your life, so you fix it. [00:04:36] Speaker B: Right. Hey, I got a confession I need to do right now. And I'm working on a repentance and everybody probably wants to hear about it. I just changed houses. And at the house that I'm at, I only get three bars on my phone. Here I get five. And last night we had that disruption on the call or on the show. And so I've partially repented, which is now I'm where I get five bars. But I can get a booster and I'm not going to have to be parked in a parking lot facing a drive through at the Dairy Queen. Drive through. So you're going to see my face flashing red and white and all these goofy things. I'm not being raptured and I don't have a plague coming on me, but I am confessing and I am repenting. [00:05:29] Speaker A: Oh, I love it. You're like, you're, you're, you're ominous. You're just like this, this floating face. It almost reminds me like of a music video where you've got like the people in a darkened room and they're like maybe singing along in the background or something. So, so picking off. So this is, this is basically a continuation from our discussion yesterday. And I really, really enjoyed getting into the seven churches there at the end of yesterday's discussion. If you guys haven't watched that video, I highly encourage you to go watch that video after this one and at least catch the last, I don't know, 15, 10 to 15 minutes. Because we were going through the churches and you know who they, who they relate to. What it is that they did good, what it is that they're doing, you know, bad. What it is they need to change. What it is that they need to hear today is really a continuation of that. So, you know, once you hear what it is that you need to change now, it's a matter of action, it's a matter of that repentance. So confession is the acknowledgement, repentance is the change. So along those lines, which of these messages resonates most with you today? Should, should we go through the seven churches? So let me give a summary real quick. So Ephesus, the thing that they're doing good is they're good at their hard work. The, the thing they're not doing so good is they lost their first love. Smyrna endures persecution. They have nothing to repent from, no rebuke. Pergamum stayed true even though they're in the seat of Satan, but they tolerate false teachings. Thyatira, really good at love and service, but they tolerate Jezebel, that false prophetess Sardis, Very few people are pure there. They're pretty much spiritually dead. People in Sardis are just told to wait. Philadelphia faithful with little strength, nothing to reproof, nothing to repent from. And then Laodicea, they're the lukewarm and they're the spiritually poor. So what do you think resonates most today in the. [00:07:44] Speaker B: Were you asking about ourselves or about the. Within the country or. [00:07:49] Speaker A: Yeah, it's an open ended question. I mean, we can look at ourselves or we could even look at, you know, different groups of people. I'm just kind of curious to your thoughts. Just pick. [00:07:57] Speaker B: I really, yesterday I, I connect myself with Smyrna the most. I've had a very difficult life in many different ways. And you know, I keep trudging forward, keep trying to do the right thing. And a lot of the difficulties and challenges have been overcome and I'm hungry to find more because I know life gets better when you conquer them. [00:08:28] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah, I, I kind of see myself in a couple of different categories. My, my knee jerk reaction is, I want to say Smyrna in Philadelphia, right? Because I, I want to think I don't have nothing to repent from, but if I'm being honest with myself, then, you know, considering the other churches, where would I fit if I was in one of the other churches? Oh, we lost Paul. He probably hit the hang up button because he's on his phone. So I try to think, you know, where, you know, looking at my inward self like I'm constantly evaluating, especially since I've kind of broken out of some barriers of cult like churches that I've been involved with before. What are some things that I may have learned that I need to recognize and change. So really the most pertinent churches. So you've got, you've got five churches that have to repent. You know, Ephesus needs to return to their first love. You know, that seems like it's a, it's a passion issue, maybe being less legalistic. Ephesus. Ephesus is an interesting church. Oh, there he is. Ephesus is, is an interesting church because they started the other churches. And then for him to. There he is, he lost again. I don't know what's going on with Paul, guys. He usually settles out here after a few minutes. Probably his phone. Anyway, Ephesus. Ephesus is interesting because they started the other churches. So when it says return to their first love, that's kind of my first inclination is return to what they did to start the other churches. So that drive, that passion to bring people to Yeshua. I consider myself in Smyrna just because the hardship I've endured, you know, having gone through, which I think a lot of people can probably say that they've, they've fit in Smyrna. If you've ever been through a pressure, high pressure situation and trusted God, you probably have some elements of being in Smyrna having those attributes. Pergamum is really kind of where I think, like, where I need to identify and change. So this very recently and, you know, I'd say, I don't know, the last four years, I've been challenging everything I believe to be true. And this is what's led to a lot of, like, the shock statements that I've said in my channel, they get people to, to like, can't believe that I say certain things. Like, one of them is, I don't think we understand being born again the way we think we do. That's one of those shock statements. And the reason is because when I actually went to go study it, it didn't line up with what I thought it meant. So from that perspective, I think of myself having some elements of pergamum because I've had these beliefs for so long that I never validated them, never verified them. And there's a ton of them. There's a ton of them that are like that. And I think that to truly be an empath and to have the mind and life like Christ, you have to be willing to consider that the things you believe could be wrong. Now that doesn't mean you just half heartedly accept somebody else is telling you you're wrong. There's a burden of proof. And you know, that's, that's where that iron, sharpening iron comes in, is where we hold each other accountable. You know, if you're, if you're discussing something in scripture and you know, somebody makes a claim, you know, for instance, you know that is a forgery rather than just calling them a liar. The empathetic thing would be, well, let's go find out if that really is a forgery. Because if it is, then it can potentially change what you believe. So that's kind of how I associate, I think probably to one degree or another. I fit within all of those categories. My ultimate goal is to strive towards being Smyrna in Philadelphia because I think those so perfectly align with loving God and loving your neighbor. [00:12:45] Speaker C: Yeah, honestly, for me, I never focused too much on a church. I haven't actually attended a church in a very, very long time. I've. I got to a point in early 2000 where I decided that I needed to study deeply myself into the original language. And I couldn't find a way to do it back then. It took me a while to discover it. So because of that, I never really attended a church. And as far as like assigning myself to one of them, I haven't really had any of these stand out to me too much other than I've had doors open to me that I never expected. So, I mean, obviously that's Philadelphia, but there's a few others. As far as the first one, Ephesus, I think is what it was. Yeah. Cannot bear them which are evil. You have tried them which say they are apostles and are not and have found them liars, basically. Sticking with the first love and sticking with the first church. You know, I'm looking hardcore for that. And it's mostly because of my wife, which stems back to actually what you guys were talking about yesterday. My wife being hearing impaired, she uses facial expressions a lot. So it helped me to learn to listen. Watching facial expressions and being patient and listening to her. It took a long time to get to that point. I mean, we've been married 34 years and we've only had it real good and easy in the past five or six years. So there was a lot of years. We argued a lot. But yeah, I don't, I didn't never really focused on the seven churches. So this is a little new to me as well. [00:14:41] Speaker A: Yeah. And that's one of the reasons why I'm trying to really hammer this is because I feel very strongly that this is the next thing that we need to do in the end times is these letters to the seven churches are literally Jesus's instructions for what to do before he returns. So just I want to make clarify for anybody who, in case you're not aware what it is that I believe it means when it says churches. And I think the sefer actually makes it more clear because instead of churches, it actually uses the word assemblies, if I'm not mistaken. [00:15:17] Speaker C: Called out assemblies. [00:15:19] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah. Which is more closely. Which is a better way of explaining it, because when we think of churches, we think of like when you actually leave to go to a building where people gather, that's a church building. And that's not strictly what is meant here by churches. It's more implied of assemblies. And I believe the context in which these assembly, these assemblies are addressed because of the image in Revelation 1:20 where it gives the stars in his right hand and he's surrounded by the seven golden candlesticks. Those golden candlesticks represent the assemblies. So to me, and I could be wrong about this, but I think it's pretty, pretty straightforward because he says that the seven golden candlesticks are the seven assemblies. So the fact that they surround the Son of Man, Yeshua, that tells me that these are seven entities, seven assemblies who teach Jesus, right, that maybe they, they all confess Romans 10, 9 and 10, that Jesus is their Lord. So he breaks them into seven categories by addressing, you know, these assemblies and giving them instructions for what they need to do before he returns. Yes, it applied to the physical assemblies during, you know, the early days. But because he still hasn't returned, that tells me that there's still application to us today and that we very likely fit into one or more of those assemblies. So I use it as a, as a pattern or a template. And that's why I was saying that, you know, I would probably put myself in a combination of those because I'm just constantly looking for how I can improve, how I can put on the mind of Christ, how we can be more like Him. [00:17:05] Speaker C: Right. [00:17:07] Speaker B: The, you know, I. Something that you kind of brought up with Orion was, was the churches. And I'm now I'm referring to the buildings where people assemble in and around where, where I've lived. They are, I'm not sure which kind of church of the seven churches, but they're at best, they're lukewarm. I'm not sure that they've got the scripture wrong, but they're really not accessing the heart of it. They're very. It's like they're afraid of bringing up something that might hurt somebody's feelings, you know, and actually cause them to face that, face the fact of what God is calling them, how God is calling them to live. They want to say these soft, flowery things. And the churches are also kind of loaded up with a bunch of feel good things. I saw a video here the other day. I shared it. I think I might have shared it with both you. I know I shared it with Watchful, where a guy had done a study on what is. What are we called to do in a church. And it's. If I remember, he had four things, but it was study the word, fellowship, communion and prayer. And think how far outside the bounds a lot of the churches go. I mean, they've got announcements, they've got a bunch of singing going on. And most of the service is taken up with other than the four things that we're supposed to be doing. Four things we're supposed to be doing are cut down to like 20 minutes out of an hour. And then of that, that's watered down so as to not offend anybody. And that's just the churches I've experienced. I know there's small groups in those that are much more on fire. And I know there are other churches that I have not been to that are much stronger, but to me it's kind of. They're kind of lukewarmish. [00:19:19] Speaker C: I agree. The one that I did attend, I tried to when all my kids were still living with me. They're all moved out now. But we attended what you call a mega church. It's called Cedar Creek in the area here. And they might be good for somebody who's new and wants to get started. But they do a lot of like what you said, singing and talking about life, which can be good and it's positive. But they almost never opened the Bible and read from it, which, wow. And I was the type that I need to hear the word from the book. I need to hear something, you know, otherwise I'm not learning it. I'm just hearing your life experiences and how we should live. Well, I've already lived a long life now, so I don't need that. And it might be good for my wife, but it wasn't good for me and my kids weren't learning anything. So I pulled us out. We attended like two or three times. And I said, no, we're just my wife and I were unbalanced in this. She's basically like a new Christian. And I. I've been digging into prophecy and stuff, so. Yeah, you're right. They're pretty lukewarm. [00:20:28] Speaker B: Yeah. I was an elder in one church, and at the meetings that we had of the elders, it was no better. I always thought that the elders, you know, would be just very solid meetings probably half the time. Well, no, most of the time, 90% maybe. It was all talk about finances, which is not one of the four things. And I, within that discussion of finances, probably half the time was about, like, things like square dancing and different groups renting out the building for different purposes. It really was not. I think we did pray. I don't think we ever had communion in it together as the elders. There was some fellowship. Not much reading of the scripture either. [00:21:33] Speaker C: My friend Jeff, he says good social club, but no meat. [00:21:37] Speaker A: Yeah. I almost wonder if, you know, the. Some assemblies should be learning from other assemblies. So like in that case where. Because it sounds like you're. We're discussing, you know, modern churches, which is kind of my experience as well. Not all churches. I will say that there I have been to some that are absolutely amazing. They tend to be on the smaller side of things. I have been to some larger ones that are good and that they have resources and then they try. But at the end of the day, churches are honestly businesses. So, you know, depending on how they're structured, they're subject to the, you know, pros and cons of businesses. That's why I think smaller churches probably have it better to be able to do it more correctly. But by not. Some churches that, you know, it's all business and logistics and they don't really get into the meat of things. It's like they're lacking Smyrna. It's like they could learn from Smyrna who. Who loves God despite the crushing pressure. Like, you know, that can cover so many different areas. So my first thought is, like, people. Somebody who goes to Afghanistan, Right. You know, stays in Afghanistan in order to preach the gospel. They're literally facing death for doing that. Yeah, but. But also, you know, crushing pressure could also be, you know, asking a question that may call people to question something that they believe very dearly. Like when you're standing alone on something that you believe to be true, the pressure is immense. And oftentimes people who have prophetic ministries are doing that. And, you know, there. Prophets tend to do two things. They establish people and they divide people. And when they're dividing people when they're saying. Speaking truth, when they're saying something that people don't agree with. There's a lot of pressure in that. And I think that more churches today could benefit from doing that to where, you know, somebody who recognizes something is wrong should speak up despite the consequences. [00:23:46] Speaker B: Right. [00:23:46] Speaker C: Almost like bring the fire to tempt it out and basically try people through the fire and get them right for Father. [00:23:55] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah, exactly. [00:23:57] Speaker B: Yeah. I don't think any of us are encouraging people to not go to the church, the buildings, but I think how to approach it we might want to think about. We should be studying on our own time, which everybody here tonight, we're learning. Right. And we're talking about real meat stuff. Confession, repentance. And when we're in those, in the church buildings, I think we need to bring some meat in there. Those are good people and they're trying to find. Find God in their way. They're seeking him. And I think it's a good thing to share it with them, share what we learn. [00:24:40] Speaker A: Yep. 100. How do you guys feel about reading some scripture here? [00:24:46] Speaker C: Well, absolutely, if you want. [00:24:49] Speaker A: Yeah. Do you want to share your screen? [00:24:52] Speaker C: No, I don't need to. It's pretty simple. It's just one verse. [00:24:55] Speaker A: Okay, go for it. [00:24:56] Speaker C: What do you got out to me? And I thought, you know, this is actually kind of perfect for us to maybe even start with, oh, James 5, 16. [00:25:04] Speaker A: Sure. [00:25:05] Speaker C: Confess your faults one to another and pray one for another that you may be healed. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much. [00:25:15] Speaker A: I'm so glad you read that. I. I wanted to. I wanted to know your guys, what you guys think it means to confess things to each other. [00:25:25] Speaker B: You know, because we're. We're told a couple things. One is to confess to God and another is to confess to each other. And those are distinct things to me. We can forgive each other, but it's more of a healing of our relationship with the person. We don't have the power to relieve each other of sins. That's why you confess to God. God's the one with the power to forgive our sins of all unrighteousness. But I think in confessing, I started out saying these are big words that really don't. We are able to do them. A confession to somebody, maybe more formal. I'm doing this and I want you to hold me accountable because I want to change. That could be one thing, another thing could be, you know, I'm sorry I wronged you. And I didn't mean to do that, or, you know, I did it, but I didn't understand, but I'm sorry. And we're healing the relationship. We're really focused on healing each other. [00:26:44] Speaker A: Yep, 100%. Yeah. You pretty much covered the gamut. It's like, you know, there's different scenarios where confessing to one another has benefits. Right. You know, if you've wronged somebody, acknowledging that just so often, labeling, you know, communicating to somebody that you have acknowledged that you wronged them is like the first step to healing for both. For both people. But also even for yourself, you know, confessing to somebody enables them to actually help you. [00:27:19] Speaker C: Well, that's what I was going to say. With confession, it's not so much for other people, it's for yourself. When you confess, you're relieving yourself of a burden that weighs on you. And how other people react, that's secondary. [00:27:39] Speaker B: Absolutely right. [00:27:40] Speaker C: The easiest thing to do, but the hardest thing to start. [00:27:45] Speaker B: Yeah, you're absolutely right. [00:27:49] Speaker A: And it's everything in life. I mean, like, you know, I have a problem, I don't have a problem. But assuming I had a problem smoking, going to somebody and saying, hey, you've kicked the habit before, I have this problem, can you help me? You know, you're confessing of something, you've identified a problem and you're confessing it to somebody so that they can actually assist you. I don't smoke. I've never smoked. That's the first thing that came to mind. But you know what I mean, right? [00:28:17] Speaker B: I bet if we lit you on fire, you'd smoke. [00:28:20] Speaker A: Yeah. I do have a. You guys may not know this, but I do cuss like a sailor. I am full. I am full blooded Scottish and I do cuss like a sailor and it drives my family insane. Well, it's good to know I'm not the only one. I've been working on it. Yeah. [00:28:37] Speaker B: The one of the things I wanted to take us over into just for a moment is the landed narcissism and empaths. Narcissists often, you know, because of this, the God complex, thinking that they're right on everything, it's very difficult for them to recognize that they are wrong and to apologize. Apologizing is not an easy thing for them because they just don't even recognize they need to apologize. And for all narcissists out there, I want to absolutely encourage you to do that because everybody around you is going to love you so much for stepping forward and realizing your involvement in Situations. [00:29:27] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:29:30] Speaker C: Yep. [00:29:35] Speaker A: Trying to. Oh, that's a good one right there. I wanted to read this here before we move past it, because this just lines up with what you were saying about confession. It's short enough that I could read the whole thing. How are we doing on time? Oh, yeah, we totally have time. Do you guys mind if I just read all of First John 1? [00:29:54] Speaker C: Go for it, please. [00:29:55] Speaker A: All right. That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon and our hands have handled concerning the Word of life, the life was manifested, and we have seen and bear witness and declare that to you. That eternal life, which was with the Father and was manifested to us. Okay, that part's really hard. It gets easier to. It gets easier to understand the reason why I'm reading this. That was just the intro, so. But you get the point there. The life was manifested and we have seen and bear witness and declare to you that eternal life, which was with the Father and was manifested to us. That which we have seen and heard, we declare unto you. So this is a testimony that you also may have fellowship with us. And truly, our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son, Jesus Christ. And these things we write to you that your joy may be full. All right, now, this is the meat of this, which really pertains to what we're talking about right now. This is the message which we have heard from him and declared to you that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all. If we say that we have fellowship with him and we walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. But if we walk in the light, as he is light, we have fellowship with one another. And the blood of Jesus Christ, His Son, cleanses us all from all sin. If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves. That's for the narcissists. For those who won't confess, who don't want to acknowledge that, you know, and that's a weakness there. There's. There's no shame in acknowledging your failure. So often people are ashamed of acknowledging their failure. They're afraid to be wrong. That's a huge problem. If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar, and his word is not in us. That's what I Wanted to read on that. [00:32:10] Speaker C: And about the only difference between that and The Sephir is 1, 3. That which we have seen and heard, declare we unto you that ye also may have fellowship with us. And truly our fellowship is with the Father and with his son. Yahusha. Hamashiach. Slightly. That's all. [00:32:28] Speaker A: What was, what was the difference? Did I read? No, it was. It sounded the same. It was just more King Jamesy. [00:32:36] Speaker C: Oh, maybe that. Maybe that's why it threw me off. It looked different. [00:32:40] Speaker A: Yeah. That we. So three is that which we have seen and heard. We declare to you that you may have. That you also may have fellowship with us. [00:32:48] Speaker C: Oh, it did say fellowship. Okay, I missed that part. [00:32:51] Speaker A: I thought it said, truly our fellowship is with the Father and his Son, Jesus Christ. [00:32:54] Speaker C: Yeah, okay. [00:32:56] Speaker A: But, yeah, so the. That's. I used to actually struggle with that. The fear of being wrong, the fear of failure. And I think that for me was the source of, you know, trying to hide things that, you know, I know because we do things that we know aren't right, whether it's eating too much cake or smoking or, you know, something more severe. Drinking too much, cussing too much. I mean, there's a lot of things. [00:33:27] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:33:28] Speaker A: Not loving your neighbor, not loving God, you know, but it's. You. You can't do anything about it until you recognize the problem. So that's part of the confession. And then the repentance is actually doing. It's solving the problem. That's. That's repentance in a nutshell is repentance is solving the problem. So in the case of spiritual matters, it's a matter of doing what the scripture says. It's, you know, living your life like Christ's. You know, if somebody has wronged you, don't repay evil worth evil. Forgive. Find a way. [00:34:00] Speaker B: You know, I want to argue a little bit with you on. On repentance being. Doing it the right way. It's moving in the right direction, you know, and in earnest because you're probably not going to get it right the next time either or the 500th time. But you keep confessing and repenting and you're finding your way. [00:34:24] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:34:24] Speaker C: Doing the works when he shows up. [00:34:27] Speaker B: Yep, yep. [00:34:28] Speaker A: I like that. [00:34:30] Speaker B: The, you know, and it's. Boy, it's just like course adjustments like I'd kind of described on. On driving over here, you know, five different ways. And I've. I finally figured out the right way and, you know, the best way. And that's. That's it. In relationships, that's that's it. In our relationship with God is what kind of course corrections can I make? What do I. What do I do? You know, reading the scripture. Oh, I was going to say this. On confession, one of the hardest things, guys, I think, is find figuring out what the problem is. [00:35:11] Speaker A: Oh, yeah. [00:35:12] Speaker B: You just even realizing it. [00:35:14] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:35:16] Speaker B: Once you realize it, then it starts becoming a lot easier. You still kind of have to admit it, you know, and that can be a tough pill too. But. But it keeps getting better as you move forward. [00:35:33] Speaker A: Yeah. Yeah. Thank you. I appreciate you pushing back because that's 100% true. It's just, you know, just solving the problem once doesn't mean it's solved forever. You know, we all struggle with challenges, with things that are less than the best, with sin. We all struggle with sin. And if you're making progress, if you can continually make progress, and that's where I believe, like confessing it to one another can really help you amplify the progress in the right direction. Because if you have an accountability buddy. You ever had that, heard that word before? An accountability. [00:36:11] Speaker B: I like it. [00:36:11] Speaker A: If you have a buddy that holds you accountable, then they can help you. That's where I think the household, the body of Christ comes together to where if one of us is suffering, another one can help us heal. [00:36:28] Speaker B: Right. [00:36:29] Speaker C: There might be a way for people, because a lot of people think when they are praying and asking for forgiveness or confessing sins, they want to get down on their knees, bow and everything and just confess to, like God. And there's nothing wrong with that. I'm not saying it's wrong at all, but if you make it more personal, call him Father. He is your father, after all. Father, I did this. Help me make a personal talk to him. Don't make it a prayer. Make it a conversation. Just right. And it becomes a lot easier on you to actually confess things that way. [00:37:09] Speaker A: Right. Go ahead, Paul. [00:37:12] Speaker B: He'll help you reveal. He'll reveal to you also what you are doing wrong. But it's good to ask him, reveal to me how I'm sinning so that I know and am able to move forward on repenting. [00:37:29] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah. This is one of the things that is a shock statement that people have that I've, I've caused people concern by making this statement is when, when I looked at public prayer, when you look at what, when the disciples asked Jesus to teach them how to pray, it's not. He doesn't teach them like most people experience prayer today. Right. When you go to a church, there's usually a period of time where, you know, one or three or four people pray. You know, people raise needs. They pray, they do prayer. The group prayer that's actually not taught in the Bible. What he tells you to do is to go into a closet. Don't. Don't stand on a corner with many repetitions and, you know, making a big spectacle out of your prayer. I think churches have actually done a really disservice to people thinking that there's segmented times and places where you should talk to the Father. That's not the case. I have conversations with Father all day long. I am constantly saying, father, what do I do in this situation? Because here's the thing. Prayer is not for him. He already knows what you have need of before you even ask him. Prayer, like confession is for you. It's for you to acknowledge the things that you need. You know, I need, you know, reveal something to me, Father, help me through this situation. I'm suffering. You know, this person needs healing. This person needs help. You know, it's. It's that walk. It's that communication with him that we should be having all day long. It's not limited to a set period of time. I definitely think there's value in prayer one with another. I think that falls more into the category of confession, though. So if somebody has a need, if you want to format it in the way of a prayer that you're used to, great. That's. That's fine. There's nothing wrong with that. It's the heart of the matter. It's just like, you have to realize that it's not magic words that you're saying. You don't get something simply just because you asked. It's usually because you're finally prepared for something that God then gives it to you. It's like you recognize you have a need, and then he gives it to you. [00:39:39] Speaker C: And like you said, he already knows. He's just waiting for you to speak it out loud. He wants to hear your voice. You know, he knows he wants to hear your voice. Make it personal. Talk to him. [00:39:50] Speaker B: Yeah, he wants. He wants to connect with you. He wants to know you, not this. I never knew you. We don't want that happening. We want the. I know you talk to me a lot, say, guys, I have a question here for you. So when you're confessing one to another, right, and we've talked about two things, healing and accountability. But who do you think you should confess to? Because that. That, to me, is an important question we should address yeah. [00:40:23] Speaker A: Well, in light of. If somebody that you've wronged, clearly it would be your brother. Right? So if you're. If you've sinned against your brother, that should be who you should be talking to, confessing, making your confession to. If it's. If it's something that you need help with, that may not just necessarily be any brother. That may be. That may be. That should probably be somebody who can actually help you. So confession just for confession's sake could have limited results. So going back to the smoking or drinking example, if you have a problem smoking or drinking, confessing that to somebody who doesn't have a problem smoking or drinking may not help you. It may be more beneficial to find somebody who has stopped smoking before and confessing to them, hey, I have a problem with smoking. Can you help me? Because that person's better equipped to actually hold you accountable so that you can truly make the change in your life. [00:41:20] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah, that's. [00:41:22] Speaker C: It's along the lines of my significant other, my wife. You're supposed to be one in spirit anyways. So she by far is the first one I would tell, and then after that, whoever pertains to would branch out from there because we are one. So she's sharing the responsibility with me, and I am sharing the responsibility with her. So confessing to her first takes priority to me because to me, I. I love her like I love Father, and I love Father like I love her. To me, by loving her that way, it's loving father. So I see it as me opening to her up to her is opening up to him. [00:42:05] Speaker B: Right. You know, I. To me, I kind of break it into. What's my goal here? Healing. If it's healing, I need to be thinking about who I hurt, who did I cause injury to, what relationships did I hurt, and that's who I need to be confessing to. I may, depending on the person, I may say it one way or a different way, but, you know, adapt the message to the person I'm speaking with. But when I'm confessing for the purpose of accountability, I want somebody. I like what you were saying, watchful on somebody that's been there before and conquered the problem because they can do more for you in seeing that you're doing each little detail correctly, that, you know that they've been there, they've done that. But I would also add that they are somebody that deeply cares about you. They're not somebody that's going to use it as a weapon against you. And this kind of comes back to Another one of those reasons why it's really good to understand and be discerning between the narcissists and the empaths. [00:43:25] Speaker A: I was just going to. How do you think, how do you think this applies to the narcissists? [00:43:29] Speaker B: Yeah, I wouldn't, I wouldn't confess to a narcissist because that is a really good point. [00:43:36] Speaker A: Careful who you confess to because it may be used against you. [00:43:40] Speaker B: Yeah, but to an empath. Absolutely, because they are, they are going to, they're going to do everything they can to help you through it. [00:43:51] Speaker A: So how would you identify if somebody is a narcissist, somebody that you should not confess to? [00:43:57] Speaker B: I, what I've done myself, I've looked through many times the traits and the tactics that they use, and I will find people that really are not narcissistic, but they're using those traits and they really need to confess those and repent from them. But as I see those traits and how often are they, how many traits and how many tactics am I seeing? I start seeing their behavior. The narcissists, to me, true narcissists, are doing them all the time. And I can see the selfishness in them. And when I can see the selfishness in them, I know that that's not, that's love of self, that's not love of me. And so I just, I just don't get deceived by them. But it's from knowing those traits. And there's, there's some big ones like arrogance. That's, that's a real common one. But not all of them are arrogant, you know, so you really do have to do a little deeper dive. [00:45:07] Speaker A: But what about like a religious narcissist, somebody who, once you've gotten out from under, once you've, once you've been under the thumb of religious narcissists, it's really hard to get back underneath the thumb of a religious narcissist. [00:45:21] Speaker B: Absolutely. [00:45:22] Speaker A: For the most part. But religious narcissists are very attractive to people because they portray holiness. They, they, they're masterful at giving the impression that they have the, that they have special abilities that they are, they have special anointings that they have more power than you and people are more likely to confess to them. What do we, what do we say to people like that? How do we, how do you help people recognize the danger, the wolves and sheep's clothing? [00:46:00] Speaker B: The way that I identify the religious narcissist one is they do have catch phrases that they use and they're Phrases that have some scriptural grounding. So it's hard to challenge them based on the words. But I look at who are they bringing honor and glory to? And the religious narcissists are bringing honor and glory to themselves. And Jesus never did that. Never. Jesus always gave the honor and glory to God. And that's, you know, and he always pointed people to God the Father, constantly. And so, you know, when you, when you hear stuff like, oh, the spirit told me, blah, blah, blah, there's some scriptural grounding to that and you've got to kind of listen to what they're saying and why are they saying it. But a lot of times that's kind of to lift themselves up on a higher platform and to say, I'm the special one that's anointed here, not you, and you need to listen to what I tell you to do. I'm the authority, not you. And that's a narcissist right there. [00:47:15] Speaker C: You know, I think there might be one way to help people recognize a narcissist compared to somebody who isn't. If you're not familiar, there's a guy named Henry Grover and I don't know if you've heard of him. Watchful. He was in line with Ron. [00:47:32] Speaker A: Familiar. [00:47:33] Speaker C: I personally believe that he was a modern day prophet. When you listen to his stories and his videos, he's just amazing the way he explains things. He never talks about himself by building himself up, but he explains what he goes through and how he responded. And you can hear father's voice coming through his words. It's amazing to hear him talk. Henry Groover on YouTube if you guys want to look into him. Anybody who's listening that's interested, that would be a surefire way to tell somebody who's truly from God. And you might be able to recognize a narcissist after that. [00:48:13] Speaker B: You know another one you mentioned too, Ryan and Ron Wyatt. [00:48:18] Speaker C: Yes. [00:48:19] Speaker B: He is an absolutely amazing guy by, you know, by most people's standards and very, very intriguing guy. He's discovered so many different things that have enriched all of our lives. The Noah's Ark and the Red Sea crossing and, you know, Sodom and Gomorrah, bunches of these things. [00:48:41] Speaker C: The Ark. [00:48:43] Speaker B: Yeah. And listen to him talk. A narcissist is going to be beating his chest and looking like the size of King Kong, Right? [00:48:52] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:48:53] Speaker B: And Ron, no, he's just a quiet demeanor guy. That's a guy that loves God right there. And if he's not exalting himself, Ron. [00:49:04] Speaker C: Wyatt And Henry Groover actually met each other for the first time. They're both Americans, but they met each other for the first time in Israel. And father prepared Wyatt for meeting Henry Groover. Groover. For somebody who's asking not B, it's V, G R U V E R. Groover. Sorry. I watched the chat. [00:49:25] Speaker A: Yeah. So speaking of chat, we're down to our last 10 minutes and I want to start bringing the audience in more, giving you guys the opportunity to ask any questions. So if you guys have any questions, now would be a good time to put those in the chat and we'll put them. If you guys have any questions, we'll put them on the screen and see if we can't talk about them. But I think you guys both make really valid points. As you can look at examples of people who are good. You can know them by their fruits on know who to confess to. There's definitely, I would say it's definitely wisdom to know who not to confess to. So, like don't. If you're an alcohol, if you struggle with alcohol, don't confess to an. To somebody who still struggles with the same problem because they may end up dragging you. They may not help you repent. So, you know, look for somebody who's able to help you start close, start to those who you trust the most and work out from there. Try to find the best. I know the even. So this is another thing that the Roman Catholic Church has done as a disservice is they lift up their. Their pastors, their. Their fathers as the ones that you confess to. What good does that do? They tell you to tell some Hail Marys and then you still have the drinking problem. [00:50:44] Speaker B: Right. [00:50:48] Speaker A: All right. So Lonnie said, how would you talk to and correct a religious narcissist? Good one. [00:50:59] Speaker B: I give you over. What I understand is overcoming narcissism is extremely difficult. And it largely. It's. It's God and the narcissist that do it together. The narcissist has to come to realize that how they're living, you know, they may think they're the greatest thing ever, but they are not going to be able to affect and make the decision themselves whether they're going to heaven or hell. They need God to help them with that. They need God's grace. And it's that step of humility is really important as well as listening to other people because there's people around us, all of us, all the time, that are trying to help us do better if we listen to them and Then really think about what they say. Maybe they're right and we, you know, and that's. I think it's got to start there. It's got to start with the religious narcissist. If they don't, you know, you need to just leave them and move on. If they don't listen and they won't humble themselves, you need to move on. [00:52:22] Speaker A: Yep. [00:52:22] Speaker C: They are the hardest to talk to because of how hard headed they are and how good that they are at avoiding the main things you want to talk about. You might find a question that they just refuse to answer. If you can talk to them enough and get them to answer that question, it's a stepping stone for Father to humble them. Father has to humble them for anything to work. So that's about all you can do is try to find a question they won't answer and get them to answer it. If they can't, you might have to just step away, you know, shake the sandals off your, Shake the sand off your sandals and move on. [00:52:59] Speaker A: Yep. Yeah, yeah. And don't take on too much. Don't try and don't try and save everybody. If that's not something that you're strong with, that you're in a position of strength to handle. Don't get involved because it's hard. Pride and ego and people who project themselves as the anointed are extremely difficult to. Having been in this position before, it literally took God putting me through tribulation in order to knock me off my pedestal. And a lot of times that's what it takes is don't be afraid to correct somebody. Don't. Don't be afraid to be wrong. You're better, you're better off speaking up and being wrong and just confessing that you made a mistake than not speaking up at all. So don't be afraid to speak up against a religious narcissist. That can be enough pressure to help them change. That can be enough to help them be corrected. But if it's, if there's somebody you're going to get sucked into, if you're going to get, if it's dangerous for you, you know, I'm not going back to get underneath the thumb of people who oppressed me when, you know, I was in different organizations. I don't go back. I do constantly. I do periodically check up to see if they've been humbled and a lot of them have, but. Yeah, but you know, learn to forgive people too. If you've been, if you've been hurt, that's. That's probably something that we should talk. Maybe that would be a good topic for next week, is talking about forgiveness. Because with religious narcissists with sin, there's. There's so much that needs forgiving. Like, especially if somebody who's hurt you or wronged you, it can be very hard to forgive them. If you've messed up, it can be very hard to forgive yourself. People struggle with. With issues their entire lives because they don't understand forgiveness. [00:54:59] Speaker C: Yep. [00:55:00] Speaker B: That would be a great show topic. That was a great question. [00:55:04] Speaker A: Yeah, thanks, Lonnie. Anybody else have any other questions? We got about five more minutes left. [00:55:16] Speaker C: No. [00:55:21] Speaker A: I don't see any questions. Okay. Do you have anything else you wanted to talk about before we go? [00:55:31] Speaker B: I want to make sure that if people who like the show, like, share and subscribe. [00:55:41] Speaker A: Yep. Yeah. We're getting. Because of the changes that we've made to the show, most specifically the time, but also the structure and the content, we're getting in a lot of new people who are. Who are watching the videos, but they're not subscribing. You know, if you like what we're doing, you like the content, please make sure that you hit that subscribe button and hit the notification and even, you know, put into the comments. It helps the show a lot. It helps, it helps the algorithm reach out to other people like you. So you'd be doing us a big service, and hopefully you're doing yourself a service if you like the content because you get to see more of us. [00:56:22] Speaker C: Can I leave off with a scripture? [00:56:24] Speaker B: Yeah, absolutely. [00:56:27] Speaker C: First Corinthians 10:13 is by far my favorite scripture of the entire Bible. There has no temptation taking you but such as as common to man. But Elohim is faithful who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able, but will with the temptation also make a way to escape that you may be able to bear it. I sum that up as There is nothing in this life you cannot handle without Father's help. [00:56:51] Speaker A: Amen. [00:56:52] Speaker C: Right? [00:56:53] Speaker B: Amen. [00:56:54] Speaker A: Yep. Wow. What a great scripture. To end the. End the week with, to go into Sabbath, go into the weekend and the afternoon. Thanks. Appreciate that, Ryan. Well, cool. God bless you guys. This was fantastic. Really appreciate everybody joining us today. Fantastic conversation. Looking forward to next week. That's going to be great. So thank you, everybody. God bless you guys. Shalom. Shalom.