(281) “If the Stuff in the Bible Is Real, We Ought to Be Able to See It!” with Jeff Symons

0:00 And I see this long dinner table and I see Jesus at the end and I see Paul and John sitting next to him. Like I knew the names of all the apostles and I saw how close they were. And I knew that as close as you want to be to Jesus in eternity is determined by how you live on earth. Wow. And that those that had lived in a way that were in close proximity to him, that life continued in eternity. God promises in Joel 2 .28 to pour out His Spirit on all humanity. Welcome to Global Outpouring, where we contend for that promised outpouring, we equip for that outpouring, so that we may engage in that very outpouring. I'm Philip Buss. And I'm Sharon Buss. Welcome to the podcast today. We have with us our friend Jeff Simons once again, and he is going to be sharing some of his experiences, some of his testimony, and some of the things that are really close to his heart. But when he was just getting to know the Lord, he said this, if the stuff in the Bible is real, we ought to be able to see it. And that began his pursuit of God. Thank you so much for joining us today. Before we get

1:30 started with our friend Jeff, we want to encourage you, if you haven't already done so, that you go out to our website globaloutpouring .net and make sure that you're on our email lists. And if you want to give us some feedback, we would love to hear from you. And there's lots of other things that are there available on our website, things that you'll enjoy. And we want to encourage you, when you're being blessed by these podcasts, just share them. Share them with your friends. Share them on your social media. Let other people know about things that you are getting from the Spirit, things that are building you up. Help us to get into the algorithms out there so that others will find us that they're hungry for God and they don't know how to find the things of Jesus that we want to bring and this equipping for the outpouring that we want to bring into their lives. And I also want to remind you that if you haven't got it on your calendar yet, please.

2:25 Put it on your calendar for 2026 that we are going to be in St. Louis for Memorial Day weekend, May 21st through 24th. It's going to be an amazing time in the presence of the Lord. We will be having with us our dear friend and Papa, Bishop Tony Kemp, and Dean Braxton will be with us again. It was really awesome to have him this year. 2025. And we did a couple of Q &A sessions with him and he was able to teach. It was really, really, really good. And we'll also be having Anna Werner and she's got such a tremendous. prophetic gift, see your gift. And I know that she's going to be a real blessing. And Claren McQueen is going to be ministering for us for our Israel night, and I'll be ministering as well. So we just know that it's going to be a time of glory in the presence of the Lord, where we're going to just keep going deeper and deeper into the things of God and building relationships that are going to last for eternity. Well, Jeff Simons, it's such a pleasure to have you with us on our podcast again. We had you at our convention a couple of months ago. Oh, well, I don't know how far ago it's going to be by the time this actually goes out. But we had you at our convention, and it was such a blessing to fellowship with you there and introduce you to our people. And we just want to get to know you better. So we're excited to have you on this episode today. Thank you for having me. So Jeff, I just want to kind

3:59 of introduce this to our listeners that when we first connected with you, I don't even remember how long ago it was, a year ago or more than a year ago. I think it was a few years ago. A few years ago. Well, whenever it was. I just know that God has eternal purposes in connecting Philip and me with you and this ministry, Global Outpouring, with you. And I remember when we first... started talking when you were first launching your podcast, you mentioned that when you were looking for a name for your ministry, one of the names that you were considering was Global Outpouring. So there's obviously some things that God has connecting with us. And as we're getting to know you better, it's like, man, you're just like us. Wow, this is amazing.

4:46 So your heart for the things of God and the depths of God. It's such a blessing, such a blessing to us. So we want to get to know you better. We listened to the episode on your podcast that you did recently with Dean Braxton. You met him at our convention. That was really good. We'll put a link to it in the show notes. So all of our listeners who love... the episodes that we do with Dean Braxton, you will love this episode that Jeff did with Dean. He always reveals new things. Yes. All the time. So one of the things that happened on your episode with Dean was you were comparing notes with him about what he saw compared to what you saw when you had a heavenly experience. Can you tell us a little about that heavenly experience? Sure. So my background was I was raised Methodist. And then I became agnostic when I was a teenager and spent a number of years, probably, you know, from 16 to 20 something as an agnostic, which just meant I lived however I wanted. And, you know, it was just an excuse for. drugs and doing anything i could think of but ultimately and i believe this about people that are doing drugs are looking for something else yeah and you know i hit a low point um after

6:17 i had been a drug addict was addicted to meth for a series of months and had gotten clean but was dealing with a lot of consequences from those time periods and there was a particular low moment Where I'd never felt suicide before or being suicidal. And my wife was having all kinds of health complications. My son was just born. And I felt this darkness come down on me. And the only thing I could think about was suicide. That and I remembered the name of Jesus. Wow. And it was like the only way I could kind of describe it is. two options and you know when one of them felt very distant but i remembered the name of jesus just it felt so far from me and in that moment i just said jesus help and and when i said that all the darkness lifted but the situation was the same and that led to we started attending my parents baptist church I gave my life to the Lord, but I did it in a way, and I wouldn't recommend people do this, but I was being authentic with the Lord. All I had known about Christianity was stories, and none of them were my story, and none of them were things that I had seen personally. So I said, God, I give you my life, but if the stuff in the Bible is real, we ought to be able to see it. at the time i was you know

7:52 i was reading the bible probably for the first time really i had read read it through before but but this time was like it was alive in a different way and my prayer life was coming alive and i noticed the person of the holy spirit in the old testament with the prophets and and coming on the apostles and acts and i actually had this thought of who's the holy spirit i just i had never heard You know, I knew the Catholic thing, the Father, Son, Holy Spirit, because I'd seen the movies. Yeah. That's funny. But I started to notice how the Holy Spirit would change lives and change circumstances. And I said, God, if these stories are real, I want to see it. I want to be there when these things happen. It ought to still be happening. There still ought to be miracles and signs and wonders. Yes. And I prayed that way for about six months. And during that time, I was introduced to Sid Roth. I saw a couple episodes of Sid Roth. And I had bought Steve Thompson's book email, Prophesy. And I saw The Finger of God, Darren Wilson's documentary. And at the time it was on TBN, the clip that I saw was the underground church worshiping. And they were just in tears. And I just couldn't help myself. I just called and I ordered the DVD.

9:19 And then after I ordered it, I kind of had this moment of like, wait a minute, why did I just buy a DVD of Chinese people crying? Like, what did I just buy? And, you know, when it arrived and I watched the whole thing, I watched it through several times. And the interview of the man that was resurrected from Heidi Baker's ministry. And you see the treasure hunts from Bill Johnson and the Bethel students and come to find out that Bill Johnson and Heidi Baker were coming to Dallas in a few months. So I went to that conference. And while I was there, I started having open visions, which was pretty surreal as somebody that had done. hallucinogenic drugs I'm like what is like what is happening right now I couldn't you know I couldn't stop seeing things and I remember Bill Johnson was praying for healing from stage and it looked like a firework just light was just flying off of him and people are getting healed and wow it was uh at that that conference I had a whole bunch of different things happened in that that week One of them was, you know, so I'm having these open visions and, and I had told God I wanted the baptism of the Holy Spirit, but I kind of set some stipulations.

10:40 I was like, well, you know, I don't, I don't know about this whole speaking in tongues thing. I didn't, I wasn't against it. I just didn't understand it. And I was like, prophecy is way cooler. Like that's the one I want. I did have my first prophetic word before I spoke in tongues, but I did speak in tongues. And they, you know, they were doing a fire tunnel at the end of the conference. And I went through the first time and I was like, man, I feel drunk, like, but not in like a bad way. And I went through, I'm like, I was, and it was free. So I'm going through again. So I went through the second time and then. I believe it was Heidi Baker, but I'm not sure because I kept my eyes closed the whole time. I didn't want to be distracted by what was happening around me. I was just trying to focus on God. But I got to the end of the line, and somebody laid hands on me, and I fell to the ground, and I uncontrollably was speaking in tongues. Wow. And I drove home from the conference, and it's funny. I actually had a listener correct me. telling my own testimony. Um, so cause I've been saying it wrong for years. Uh, so I went home and I was, I turned on a worship album and I was sitting on the, I would always say it's the mantle of the fireplace. It's not the mantle.

12:05 It's whatever the The thing is the hearth. There we go. Yeah. I would sit on the hearth for years. I've been saying I sat on the mantle. Yeah. You probably wouldn't sit on the mantle. Your chauffeur might sit on the mantle. Yeah. Right. Right. So I was, I was sitting on it and you know, my eyes were closed, but you know, there was a light just above my head and just worshiping the Lord. And next thing I know, I'm not sitting in my home. I'm not at the fireplace. I'm under this. light that's raining down if you could imagine liquid light drops of light and it was kind of like a shower of joy was the substance but it looked it looked like liquid light beautiful you know so it's it's as these droplets are are hitting me i'm just laughing and laughing and laughing and then then it kind of it occurs to me i am not in my house And I had this like, not a scary moment, but just this pause of, wait, this is heaven. But if this is heaven, where's Jesus? And as soon as I thought, where's Jesus?

13:16 I was in a different place. Wow. And, you know, something that you, Dean and others, I'm sure have shared, that in heaven, you don't travel at the speed of light or sound. It's the speed of thought. Yep. I can't prove that biblically, but I can just say that was my experience. Yeah. So as soon as I think, where's Jesus? I'm now in a different location and I see this long dinner table and I see Jesus at the end and I see Paul and John sitting next to him. Like I knew the names of all the apostles and I saw how close they were. And I knew that as close as you want to be to Jesus in eternity is determined by how you live on earth. Wow. And that those that had lived in a way that were in close proximity to him, that life continued in eternity. Beautiful.

14:12 And more than any desire that I've ever had, if you could just imagine everything you've ever wanted balled up and amplified. The thing that I wanted was I just want to be close to Jesus. That's the thing I want. I just want to be close. I want to sit close to him. But I also knew it wasn't right to just ask for the seat, that you had to qualify to sit close. And I thought, oh, that's the thing I need to ask for. I need to ask for a life that's worth being close to Jesus in that way. And as soon as I thought, oh, that's something I should ask for, I'm now in the throne room. I think I'm in the throne room. I was kneeling.

15:02 I was face down kneeling and not looking around because it was this holy fear of the Lord in the atmosphere. And I think I was on the sea of glass, but again, I'm not sure. And then I asked God for that. And then once I did, you know that feeling when you're in an elevator and you're on the top floor, you press the lower floor, you can kind of feel yourself slowly descending. Like I had that sensation of descending. When I opened my eyes, I wasn't, I was still, I was in my house now, but I was in a different room in my house. And I'm in the kitchen and under the ceiling fan, and I'm just saying the name Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, over and over and over.

15:45 And every time I said his name, I feel this tingling sensation just washing over me head to toe. And for about... Six days. It wasn't exact, but it was up until I prayed a certain prayer. But it was around six days where I could hear the Lord as clearly as I could hear a person. I remember praying for, this happened several times, where I was in Walmart going to pray for somebody. Because now I have this conviction of, oh, we can go pray for people. And I wrote my sister into it. So we went to Walmart just to go find some people to pray for. And as soon as I start talking to them, it's like this light that's just outside of my field of vision just turns on. And you can see this light raining down.

16:29 And people are just crying at me asking, hey, can I pray for you? So I'm thinking like, hey, this prayer thing is easy. All you need to do is just ask them. And the light turns on and the light rains down. And, you know, God will heal them. And, you know, I'm here having very specific direction and words of knowledge from the Lord at the time. And there was times where I was praying all kinds of selfish stuff and he's telling me no. So we saw some miracles. That was where I saw the first miracle was. It was actually in Walmart where. We prayed for a man that was in a wheelchair and he had an oxygen tank and he had the mask on and prayed for him once and nothing happened. I prayed for him again and nothing happened. I'm like, no, you don't understand. Like I can see the light raining down, like the atmosphere. It's God is here. And we prayed the third time. And on the third time, I don't know why it took three times, but the third time he just takes this huge breath and goes. Takes off his mask and he's like, I can breathe. I can breathe. Glory to God. Got out of his little, you know, the little motorized wheelchair and he's walking around and we prayed for his knee and he's like giving glory to God the whole time. I lit up, you know, I thought this whole, like, this is all easy. And that really kickstarted a lot of things for me when it comes to evangelism too. And what a good thing it does in your heart to kind of get your attention off of you and just go show love to somebody else. And we can make an idol out of a lot of things. We can do it out of prayer. We can do

18:00 it out of evangelism. And I definitely did with evangelism for a period where you start putting ministry above family and other relationships and other things. So there was a lot of zeal when I was 25 and I'm now 42. I've had a little time to temper some of the zeal without wisdom. I'm hoping for a little bit more wisdom now. There you go. You've had enough experience that it has purchased some wisdom in your life. So that was my, uh, my intro to the charismatic world of having gone from no miracles to speaking in tongues, heavenly encounter, seeing people healed. And, and then I had a very, uh, tangible demonic encounter also i don't know if you want to talk about that or not well um the spirit realm is real yeah you know both light and dark if you think it's going to be edifying for our listeners i'll just say that when you have a significant experience like that the enemy is not going to just sit idly by and I don't know what I expected, you know, cause I, I, you know, you come go have this whole heavenly encounter and come back and, and I'm thinking like, oh, ministry, my ministry is taking off and I'm going to go be a minister and you know, all the different, different things that are, are connected to some

19:32 of those expectations. And then to have a significant demonic attack, which I would just say, if you have an experience with the Lord, oftentimes The enemy tries to rob you of either the experience or the fruit of the experience. Yeah. Or to make you fearful so that you won't go there again. Right. Right. So anything to either discourage you from the pursuits that you're currently on to cause you to forget what God just did or to make you fearful of the enemy's attack against you or against your family or any of those sorts of things. But God is always bigger. Yeah. Yes. Amen. Well, Jesus talked about that in the parable of the sower. how the birds would come and eat the seed immediately or the weeds would come and choke it or, you know, would land on stony ground or hard ground that wouldn't produce fruit.

20:23 So, you know, the enemy knows what weaknesses we have and what has come down from our family. And he's just always trying to exploit things. But like you said, God is greater. Yes. And our Father is strategizing for... Everything to get us where we need to be in him. Right. Which is so wonderful. He's so faithful. He's so kind. Wow. So you mentioned a few minutes ago about the DVD that you got. And you watched it over and over and over. That gave you a burden for the persecuted church. Right? Is that how you got that burden? Or was there something else as well? I don't really know where it started, to be honest. So I've got Fox's Book of Martyrs behind me. And I remember reading that the first time through. I remember just the impression.

21:22 And I think that in the world, when it comes to a kingdom, some of the best representatives of that kingdom are soldiers. Because those are individuals that are... willing to lay down their lives for the sake of their nation. So they are often of the deepest conviction. Now, it's not exclusive, and I wouldn't say they're better than a normal civilian or anything else. I'm just the willingness to lay everything down for the sake of their kingdom. There's an honor that's in that. And while we would recognize that when it comes to soldiers and a natural nation, how much more should it be true for for us as Christians.

22:09 When the example of our faith, Jesus, the one that we model our lives after that we're supposed to be Christ -like, he laid down his life. And I had a friend who was, do you remember the name Cassie Bernard? Yes. So I lived in Colorado for a few years and had a friend who was close to Cassie Bernard. For the sake of our listeners, tell who Cassie Bernard is. So I guess this was back in 99. Back before we had regular or as many school shootings, we had Columbine. And the Columbine school shooting, in that school shooting, there was one particular individual, Cassie Bernard. And she had recently become a Christian and had professed that she would be willing to die for her faith in her diary. when I forget the names of the gunmen, but when they held her at gunpoint and they said, do you believe in God? And she said, yes. And they shot her.

23:14 Yeah. And so she, she very literally died for her faith. Yes. And, and then, you know, working with somebody that knew her, it made it that much more real because it seems kind of disconnected from the nine to five, I guess, American way of life. Like it seems very foreign to us. At least it did back then. Or maybe this was just my own naivety. But now I'm very impressed by some of the lives of the 21 martyrs from the Eastern Orthodox Coptic Church that were beheaded by ISIS for their faith. Which Jonathan Rumi did an animated documentary. I'm not sure what you would call it. An animated film on it. I recommend people watch it. It's called 21 Martyrs.

24:03 And in it, they got testimony from some of the ISIS individuals that were involved in the execution of the 21 martyrs. And in it, you hear they were having visions of giant angels walking with the 21 martyrs. It was originally 20. There was one man who was being held by ISIS for a different reason, and they were going to let him go. And he said. My faith is the same as theirs. Why would I leave? Wow. You know, so stories like that where it just, it does something in my heart where those are the people that I look up to where, you know, we may never know the names of, you know, some martyrs that have died on mission fields and, and, you know, in horrific conditions. And yet. In heaven, they're champions, they're heroes, they're honored for the way that they have lived and guarded their faith. And even recently, in the past two years, I would say the Lord has really started impressing it on my heart more and more to be praying for the persecuted church. Yes. You know, I'll find myself out jogging and I'm not very lean. I use the word jogging loosely. I make a jogging motion at a walking pace. But while I'm doing that,

25:37 often it's prayer time because it's a way where I can kind of disconnect from, and I'm just processing with the Lord while I'm desperately trying to breathe. But I find myself regularly during those times just praying for the persecuted church. And it's so easy for us to forget that we have brothers and sisters that are in prison. They're in horrific conditions in different nations. And it feels so foreign to us because we're American, because it's not part of our news cycle, because of a lot of different reasons. And yet we're instructed to pray for them. Yes. So those are the lives that I'm most impressed by. I think as missionaries, it's something that we should have that almost as a goal. I feel like it's a goal. I feel like that was a goal that Paul was aiming towards. He was aiming his life towards, this is how it's going to end for me. For me to live as Christ, to die as gain. He was aware of what he was going towards in his end. God showed him the things that he would suffer. Yeah.

26:52 And it wasn't like God was trying to talk him out of a job description. There was something in that that was part of what he was created for. There's something in it where it's part of what we're meant to fulfill, where the message that we carry has to be tested. And if it's never tested, then how much do we really believe the message? Right. Right. Yeah. You know, I was first attracted to this ministry when our founders, Sister Gwen Shaw and at the time, Siggy Oblander and others, Sister Gwen's husband, they were Bible smugglers behind the Iron Curtain. And the first time, I think it was the first time I actually heard Sister Gwen, she was talking about, you know, behind the Iron Curtain was the thing. back there in the 70s, where we didn't even know what was going on in China in those days. There was no news coming out of China.

27:51 But she was bringing stories of, for instance, there was a family that every time the mother would go into labor and go to the hospital, the communist doctors would, I don't know, pierce the eardrums of the children so that they would never hear the gospel. I mean, that's... That's awful. And the story of Vanya, there's a book out there named Vanya, V -A -N -Y -A, where this young man was serving in the Russian army or Soviet army somehow. And the persecution that he was going through as a Christian, they sent him out to stand on guard in the winter in his summer uniform. I mean, they were trying to kill him. All kinds of stories like that. And so, you know, that was part of my upbringing really in the things of God. I was probably 17 when I heard those stories. And it was like, oh, you know, if he's worth living for, he's worth dying for. He's worth everything. And then after I had already. you know, gotten that mindset myself.

29:05 Years later, I would have these conversations with my dad and my dad was a missionary. My parents were missionaries in India. That's why I was born there. So dad would talk about his heroes. Were those missionaries in, where the missionaries were killed by the Ecuador. Thank you. It was like all these other nations were. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Nate Saint and Elliot. Yeah. Jim Elliot. Those men were my dad's heroes. And he talked about this doctor in the Congo, missionary doctor. He sent his family home, but he stayed to be there to take care of the people who were suffering, and he was martyred. And so these people were my dad's heroes. So, you know, I've got kind of that similar mindset about... If Jesus is worth living for, he's worth dying for. And I love what Dean said, and he said it on your podcast, I think, but he said it with us where, you know, Jesus died our death for us. Yeah. So in that moment when they think they're taking your life, God takes your spirit out of you before they can do that. They're just, all they're doing is harming the body, but your spirit's already gone. Right. It's amazing. It's amazing. But God is doing things, you know, we can't live

30:36 our lives in some kind of a fantasy world of, you know, I think sometimes our American way is really more of a fantasy than the reality of living for Jesus and being willing to lay everything down for Jesus. Right. Yeah. I think in a lot of ways. what we have called Christianity is really only part of the story. And there's certain messages that if we're really honest with ourselves, there's messages that we don't preach because it means that people aren't going to say amen. There's message that we won't preach.

31:19 We won't preach certain messages because it means that tithing will go down and giving will go down. generally we've lost the message on suffering. We've stopped the way of the cross even, which the way of the cross is suffering. Exactly. And I think it's because of the messages that we have been unwilling to preach for various reasons that it skews the perception. And it doesn't mean that what we've emphasized is wrong, like prosperity, for example. People will rail against the word prosper or prosperity. Words in the Bible, you know, prospering, being good health, health is your soul prospers. Like that's a lot of prospering right there. But the problem is when you emphasize one truth at the expense of other truth, you know, where, you know, where we say prosperity and everything has to be prosperity.

32:15 So if you're not prospering, then you're not really living a Christian life. You know, we've overemphasized one truth at the expense of another. Paul says he knew what it was to be content, whether he had a lot or whether he had little. Very true. And contentment flies in the face of overemphasizing prosperity. Yeah, and I remember one of our former pastors at the little church in Jasper says, well, Jesus didn't, he borrowed everything. I mean, he borrowed a boat, he borrowed a grave, you know. He did. Well, you know, I thought, okay, you know. That doesn't sound like the prosperity message, you know. Well, Paul said godliness with contentment is great gain.

32:57 Well, what about that scripture? I think it's in Peter. Yeah, it's in Peter. Be content with what you have. Yeah. You never hear that very much. No. Because nobody's, unless where you're really living in Jesus, where you're really content. But if you're not, you want. more of this, more of that, you know, it's just like, if it doesn't, it doesn't tend. Yeah. And I think we don't hear enough sermons on covetousness, you know, that it's the 10th of the big 10, you know, the 10 commandments, it's the 10th. So it's kind of like, it's very important. It's, it's the last word, don't covet. So if you don't covet, you're not going to have problems with the root of all evil, which is the love of money. Loving money, loving stuff, wanting stuff that doesn't belong to you. A lot of these things that are other commandments, like not committing adultery, if you would start with, don't covet your neighbor's wife, you'd never commit adultery. You wouldn't steal all those things. I think you hit the nail on the head. I think that in a lot of ways, in society, it's not uncommon to hear people say things like, well, I just want it, or the heart wants what it wants, or these kind of analogous terms that lose their meaning when they're used

34:29 in that way. But if you break it down, really what people are saying is, I have this desire, therefore you can't tell me I'm wrong. And that's not biblical. No. And there are Christians that will do that too. They'll say, well, God gave me all these desires. And there are desires that God gives you, and there's desires that you cultivate yourself. Yeah, right. It sure sounds like the flesh. We will pray God guard our hearts, but really he said for you to guard it. And that means it's my responsibility. And even in the verse that you mentioned of don't commit adultery, in Sermon on the Mount where Jesus says, if you look at a woman with lust, you've committed adultery in your heart, which means that you're responsible for stewarding your desires. What you allow yourself to desire is a reality that's worthy of judgment.

35:27 And I'm not saying it's on the same plane as... living out that desire. But at the same time, it doesn't mean that you, the way that you stop the issues that we're having in the church today is get to the root of the thing. And the root of the thing isn't the action. It's why aren't we stewarding our hearts and allowing desires to just run amok? And we haven't done a very good job of fully yielding those parts of our heart to the Lord. Yeah, it's like that. I tried to find the exact scripture. Couldn't. The eye is the window of the soul. There's maybe it's another trend. You know, there's something, something somewhere kind of relates to that. Sermon on the Mount, isn't it? Yeah, it sounds like that.

36:13 If your eye be single, I think. If your eye be single, your whole body will be filled with light. And if that light that is in you is darkness, then how great is that darkness? Yeah, that's where that probably comes from. And Steve Green did a song a long time ago. You know, it starts out with the little, Rhyme, you know, be careful little eyes what you see, you know, the father up above is looking down at love. And the song was Guard Your Heart. And one of the lines in that that I've always remembered was feelings that should never have been awakened within tearing the heart in two. I thought that is so powerful because that's. With things that haven't been dealt with, especially adultery and things like that, you know, things you see or, you know, it's just. You just have to, you have to realize that these things are traps. Yeah. It's your eye gate. That's another term that's not worded that way in scripture anywhere. But it is a gate.

37:16 It is a gate. Yeah. Your eye gate. It's a gate to your soul. And you have to learn. that these are traps that if you step on that triggers, not the word, what do you call that part of the trap that makes it snap? The snare, the trap door. The snare, whatever. Yeah. It's a trigger, maybe the word, but when you trip it, when you trip that trigger, you're in trouble and you're trapped, you're trapped. But if we can just get the picture that. We can also set traps of the blood of Jesus over our minds and over our eyes and over our ears and over the things that have to do with our soul so that when one of those stray thoughts comes in, bam, set that trap on it. Just snare it and get it out. Sometimes I've found myself saying, instead of running away from God when you find a wrong thought in your head. Grab a hold of that thing and drag it to his feet and say, look at this thing that came to attack me. I bring it to your feet, Jesus.

38:24 And, you know, you become or I become the one that is like the hunter to get rid of these things that don't belong in my life. I remember our pastor years ago, Pastor Hunt. He was living in a... place kind of really out in the woods. It was real, real out in the woods. And one day he found a snake in his living room and it slithered behind the couch. And he was absolutely determined that he was going to deal with that thing and get it out of his house. And he was telling the story to a friend of his. And this friend said, yeah, that's how we need to be about dealing with sin. That you're not going to let that thing hide behind your couch. You're not going to let it live anywhere in you. You're going to follow it through until it is dealt with. And, you know, the more we get in the habit of dealing with those things, you know, that the thing pops into your head, uh -uh, no, you can't live in me like that. I refuse to give place to that. You know, cause if, if you just hide it, if you hide it under a bushel, if you sweep it under the rug, now I can't see it. Right. But if it's under the rug, it's still there. Yeah. Well, and I think it's become more important and I'm not saying it wasn't important, you know, a couple of generations ago. I just, if you look at the way that the internet has affected our daily

39:55 living and how much access the world has to your thought life. It has increased our necessity for discipline and maintaining our own healthy inner spiritual life. Because if you just let it go, it's not like prior to the invention of television, if you had an undisciplined thought life, you weren't inundated with worldly things. And now we have, if you have an undisciplined thought life and you're on social media, you're going to be bombarded with things. I've done a couple of different episodes on this particularly, but last year a Barna Group study came out and it was on the prevalence of adult content viewing.

40:44 I'm trying to be sensitive to wherever this podcast goes out so you don't get censored. The percentage of pastors. that were viewing adult content. I'm going to botch the number, but it was over 50%. I want to say it was over 60 % that were actively dealing with it. And if that's the percentage number for pastors, how much more for everyone else? It's exceedingly uncommon to find teenage boys that have not seen that type of thing by the time they're 18, 19 years old. So the need for internal censorship to protect our own souls has gone up. And yet we have been inundated by the world in such a way where we constantly feel subject to the environment around us. And the only solution is to discipline your own soul.

41:44 And I love the verse in Psalms where, I think it's Psalms 131. David says, I weaned my soul like a baby within me. That he actually disciplined his own soul in such a way. Weaning is that process of disciplining a child from breastfeeding into a form of independence. And it's a maturing process. And one of the things that I've personally found to be beneficial that is unpopular from a worldview and is kind of uncommon even in Christian practice is Just taking time every day to sit in the Lord's presence in silence without your phone. I get it if you got to have music and stuff like that, but trying to do it without gimmicks, and I'm not saying that worship is a gimmick, but I feel like we often have excuses for bringing the world into the prayer closet. Well, I need it for my notes. I need it for my music. I need it for my this. And if you do, that's fine. I'm not pronouncing a judgment. I'm just saying for me.

42:50 It helps to have time where I'm just, it's the simplicity of quiet with the Lord. I'm not trying to say something and I'm not trying to get an answer for something. And I've found for myself, if it's been a while since I've practiced that, my mind goes all over the place. And it's not because I'm particularly undisciplined in my thought life. You know, I'm on the phone for work and internet and podcasts and all these things. So you train your mind to be constantly requiring stimulus. And that starts to have an effect, you know, your souls, your mind, will and emotions. It starts to have an effect on your internal life. But if we can get our souls to be quiet and still, then we recognize any other voice a lot faster. I can't say that it's the solution for everything, but it shuts down a lot of the different points of access that the busyness of having a connected life seems to cause. Yeah. What is the normal attention span for those that are watching TV? It's like you have so much, then you have a commercial.

43:58 Yeah. And it's getting shorter. With TikTok, I think it's under 15 seconds. Oh, is it that low? Come on. Whoa. I think so. And that depends on what you're viewing. You know, for example, podcast listeners typically listen longer because they're doing it while they're, it's a passive activity. They're listening while they're doing something else. TikTok in particular, you know, it's very short clips. They have reels and, you know, all the different shorts and things like that, which are under 30 seconds. And they're under 30 seconds because. Attention spans are generally under 30 seconds. Wow. That's scary.

44:40 That's scary. You know what you were saying about just being quiet? One of the key scriptures for me, and I even used it in the title of my little devotional book, Isaiah 30, 15 says, For thus says the Lord God, the Holy One of Israel, In returning and rest shall you be saved. In quietness and in confidence shall be your strength. And we usually stop quoting there. But the rest of the verse is, and you would not. That's one of the saddest verses in the Bible to me. That, you know, here's how you can do it. Just be quiet.

45:22 But you wouldn't. And I find I have to reel myself in. Yeah. So that I can stop and take that time. Especially if you wake up later in the morning. Yeah, yeah. You know, that makes it more, like if you're able to get to bed early enough, you get up before the sun gets up. But as soon as time gets later, you know, you're responsible. There's somebody who's looking for this or that or, you know, and it's just, you know, try to go to bed early to get up early. Yes, it's true. Yeah, that's my. That's in our house. That seems to be the, you know, when you're a full -time ministry, there's all these, you know, things when there's a limited amount of time to do things.

46:07 And it's just, you have to really fight sometimes to make time. It's true. It's true. And beyond that, it's cultivating the presence of God, regardless of what you're doing, practicing his presence. That even when you're doing other stuff. That you actively work on remaining aware of him. Yeah, I try to do that while weed eating. Yep. Well, Jeff, this has been really good. Would you pray for our listeners? Nope. I guess you would. Just kidding. Just kidding. Of course.

46:56 Well, Heavenly Father, first I just thank you for Sharon and Phillip, Lord, for their heart for you and how they've been faithful. Lord, how they've been faithful even when no one is looking. And God, I pray that you would bless them and bless their podcast, bless their ministry. Lord, we thank you for divine connection and relationship. And I pray that you would continue to strengthen those. I pray that you would strengthen them in their calling. God, I pray for every listener. Lord, those that have been faithful in hidden places, God, I pray that you would continue to strengthen them. Lord, I thank you for every encounter that you've given me. God, I pray that you would release those types of encounters to your listeners. Lord, to those that are listening right now that are just hungry for you, Father. Lord, you know what they need.

47:49 You know what the encounters they need, the experiences they need. God, I pray that you would move powerfully, stir the hearts of your people. And Father, we lift up the persecuted church. Yes. For those that are suffering in hiddenness and hidden places that are choosing not to surrender because of your name. Yes, Lord. Lord, those that are held in high esteem in heaven, I pray that you would strengthen them. in their inner man. Strengthen them, Lord, even in their bodies, Lord, in the places of difficulty. I pray that your presence would be powerfully overshadowing them. Yes, Father. Father, I pray that you send supernatural help. Send angels to minister to them. God, in the same way as you send angels to Peter to deliver him out of bondage, I pray that similar stories would start happening right now. Yes, Lord. Thank you, Father. Lord, we thank you for our brothers and sisters that are paying a high price for your name. God, I pray that your name would continue to resonate, even in dark places, that the gospel would be proclaimed. Father, I pray that for the church that feels distant and disconnected from those realities, God, I pray that you would refine us in such a way. that our faith would shine like gold. Yes, Lord. We thank you for

49:20 how loving you are, for how kind you are. Yes. For we bless you and worship you. In Jesus' name, amen. Amen. If you enjoyed today's podcast, Please subscribe, rate, and review this podcast on Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen to podcasts. Your review helps the podcasting platform suggest this podcast to other listeners who are also looking for a great move of the Holy Spirit. Check out our website at globaloutpouring .org to find out more information, read our blogs, connect with us, and donate. You can also browse our web store for life -changing anointed books.

50:06 Until next time, this is Sharon Buss. And I'm Philip Buss. God bless you with His overwhelming, loving presence.