“God’s Love Language” with Laura (332)

0:00 Obedience makes even humans feel loved and honored. So if you want more freedom and more difficult assignments, it starts with the small stuff. Sit, stay, lay down. That's so good. Yeah, obedience is God's love language, and you can't do enough for God to make obedience up to Him. God promises in Joel 2 .28 to pour out His Spirit on all humanity. Welcome to Global Outpouring, where we contend for that promise 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 a very dear friend that has been a member of our ministry for, well, she's actually second generation, so she's been with us a long time, and so is her family. So this is Laura, and she is bringing a wonderful message that she brought at our youth retreat, our Generation Awakening youth retreat recently, and it's all about God's love language. And she also has an assistant named Alice. You'll meet Alice shortly. Thanks so much for joining us today. We're really happy that you're with us, and we look forward to spending this little time with you and with Laura and Alice. It's going to be a wonderful time. But before we get started, we want to encourage you,

1:30 if you haven't already done so, to go to our website, globaloutpouring .net. Make sure that you're subscribed to our email list so that we can stay in touch with you. It's very important that we be able to reach out to you and bring you more, because there's always more. to Global Outpouring than just this podcast. So we encourage you to do that and just scoot around our website and see all the good things that we have out there for you. And if you feel led by the Spirit of God to help us with this podcast, we would be very grateful for a donation. There's a donate button on that page also. And just look forward to... getting to know you better, you can send us an email, a feedback email. Our email address is feedback at globaloutpouring .org, or there's also a feedback form on that website, globaloutpouring .net, that you can use to fill it out and let us hear from you. Let us know where you're listening from. It's going to be a blessing to us to get some feedback from you, and we want to help encourage you and help to build you up and equip you for the things that are coming in the Spirit of God as He pours out His Spirit on all flesh. So, Laura, we are delighted to have you with us on this podcast. This is... This is your first time on a podcast, isn't it? Or did we do one? I believe so. Yeah. Okay. So just by way of introduction, you grew up in a Christian home, right? Yes.

2:59 I was homeschooled. You were homeschooled and you came to our conventions starting at what, age 10 or something like that? And that's over 30 years ago, right? Yes. So you've been with us for a long time, and we just love you and your family. And we're just so happy that we've watched you grow. We've watched you develop into an amazing woman of God and an amazing teacher. I've sat in your classes a few times now, and I'm very impressed. with your ability as a teacher. Of course, you come by it honestly. Your mother's a teacher too, so it's in your DNA. And I love what Dean Braxton talks about that in heaven, families have colors and they tend to be from the same kind of stock, like teachers are often in the same family. So I just think this is just another example of what God does in his eternal plans. So Welcome. Thank you. We're just really happy. This is going to be really good because you brought this amazing teaching on obedience at the youth retreat. And you used Alice as a visual aid. Yes, that's a good way to call it.

4:22 So should we introduce Alice? Sure. Alice. Hi, sweetheart. Come on. Mom. She'd already fallen asleep. Oh, I'm sorry. So this is Alice. So tell us a little bit about Alice. So Alice is an eight -month -old Cavapoo, and she wants to get down. So hello, everyone. Let me go back to sleep. Yeah, that's it. She's like, I was getting into a good nap. You guys don't know. So. Yes. So Alice was one of those things where I'd always wanted a little dog. I'd always had big dogs growing up and I was a little intimidated by the yappy and nippy that little dogs can be because they can be a bit of a mess depending on, I mean, a big dogs can too, but I had gotten to a point with dogs that I could walk into a shelter, I could pick one out and I was never wrong about that. And I realized that that was the grace of God, but. But the little dogs, I was intimidated.

5:24 So, but I was like, you know what? I'm just going to do it. We had other young dogs and it's like, might as well, you know, in for a penny, in for a pound. And so Alice came into my life. So my husband and I, four years, had been trying to have children. That was the one thing that I knew from the time that I was very young that I wanted to be a wife and a mother. So we, you know, realized at a certain point it was like. This is not going to happen. So when I had started praying into getting another dog and being like, God, I don't want to go outside of your will because I had once chosen a dog. And I didn't ask, but I also virtually put my fingers in my ears and la la la'd in case God was going to object. So I was in complete disobedience. And then I get this dog and I realize, even though she was the dog of my heart, my absolute love dog, that I needed God to have this dog. I saw enough that I was like. I was so arrogant to think that I could do this without you. Oh, my gosh. How could I have thought such a thing?

6:31 So repented so that when I went to go get another one, I was like, OK, we're not making the same mistake. God, is this something that I should do? You know, should I get another dog? And if I am going to have another dog, then I started praying into what I wanted. So finally. the breeder that we had ended up selecting. Making cavapoos. Tell us what that is. So Alice is a cavapoo, which is a Cavalier King Charles Spaniel mixed with a poodle. And the purpose? Well, personality is one of them. But of course, poodles are very popular right now because they carry the trait that makes them not shed. So they have more hair so that they are. Depending on what their genetics turns out in that mix, they can be way more hypoallergenic and so therefore not shed all over you. And so I admit, I had seen both Cavaliers and Poodles, liked both dogs very much. I wanted a hybrid because I wanted hybrid vigor, which is the health that comes from when you cross the two purebreds together. It's usually much better than if you had a purebred of one or the other. So I wanted a very healthy dog. So I like I'm next up on the list because the breeders generally they have a list of people who are in line for the litters. And he sends me pictures and I'm like thinking, I'm going to pass on this one. This is not going to be it. And but those were the early pictures. And then he sends the next photos and he says, this is Alice. And I was like, oh,

8:02 my gosh. because Alice was the name that my husband and I had chosen for our first child because we thought that we would have a daughter and we had agreed on the name Alice. So I hadn't actually intended to name this dog Alice. It was on the list of possible names, but it was not the top one. But when that happened, it was like, okay, it's Alice. And apparently that's the one that God has chosen for us. And so then he's just had me walk this out by faith ever since. That's amazing. Absolutely amazing. And Alice's brother. Yeah. So the other name that we had picked out for in case there was a boy and we were wrong about that feeling it'd be a girl first was Axel and her brother's name was Axel, which it's not uncommon for litters to have this starting with the same letter. So that's pretty normal. But there's lots of A names.

8:57 It did not have to be Alice and Axel. Could have been wrong. And we had choice in it. But we decided to be like, OK, that looks like God. We're going to go ahead. Yeah, that's beautiful. Yeah, beautiful. So you got Alice. And then what happened? So Alice, because I prayed into this dog and because, you know, God had highlighted so strongly that Alice was mine. It was like, well, you know. I think that maybe she could, you know, help come with me and minister. And so we asked and we were given permission and it really worked out because, I mean, I kind of wanted her to come anyway. But when God had told me what I was to share at the youth retreat for my message, it was like, oh, well, this would be so much better if Alice came along. It's one of those things where it's like, obviously it can be handled without Alice. How much more fun is any sermon at a youth retreat when there's a dog involved?

10:00 I mean, come on, a puppy. I'm an eight -month -old puppy. I mean, I instant hit right there regardless of content. You know, I just stand up with the puppy and everybody cheers. Yeah. And so what did the Lord speak to you about bringing for a message? So I was to talk on God's love language. Oh, yes. So that was one of the things that we had felt when we were praying into the retreat, that this was going to be about God, that he wanted to be known in this retreat, who he is, what his preferences are. And so the biggest thing is, you know, because we talk about the five love languages and, you know, what's more common for us, there is one thing that's not really thought about when it comes to God. because people find it so inconvenient. And that is that God has a love language that he spelled out pretty strongly, and that is obedience. God's love language is obedience. And if obedience isn't first, then nothing else will matter after that. Yeah, because that's how Adam and Eve blew it. They weren't obedient. True, true. And we've been suffering ever since. But if not, someone else would have done it. They just unfortunately have the honor.

11:13 Human nature, right? Right. Well, yeah, we won't go there. Anyway, so bring what you brought to the youth retreat, because I feel like it's such an important message. And I love the fact that you called it God's love language, because we tend to think about obedience with a little bit of rankle. Because, you know, face it, it's a fleshly trait to be rebellious and to not want to obey. But, you know, you've been training your little Alice for, since she was two months old and now she's eight months old. So for six months, you've been working with her to develop obedience. So tell us more. Well, my text for this one, you know, just so that I'm not making claims about God that, you know, are unsubstantiated by the Bible. Right, right. In John 14, 15, it says, if you love me, you will keep my commandments.

12:09 Amen. So it's one of those things where you're tempted after you read that because you're like, well, that just said it all. I will just, you know, I can just leave now. You guys got it, right? This is good. But it's like, okay, yeah, we're going to keep going. and just tease that out because, especially with the enemy, he likes to make us all a little thick. I'll go with that. You know, it's like, it should be so simple after that, but it's like, no, we need more. So, you know, it can be stated quite a few different ways. If you love Jesus, you will obey him. If you keep Jesus's commandments, you will be showing love for him. And then, of course, you have the opposite side, you know, just so we can tease this out properly. So if you don't keep Jesus's commandments, then you don't love Jesus. Or those who don't obey Jesus don't love him. Wow. That puts it very succinctly. Yeah. So after all of that, we only love Jesus to the degree that we're willing to obey him. Yeah. Yes. Ouch, hallelujah.

13:11 And I think most people's minds rebel and they're like, wait a second, that cannot be right. But you need to just consider this. How do you feel if your friend ignores what you say? Yeah. If I told my friend that I don't like pink and yet every gift or thing that that person brings to me for me is pink. I'm not going to feel loved. At first, I might be like, oh, isn't that sweet? They tried. But it keeps coming. And I'm going to be like, I've told this person time and time again, why on earth they must not care much about what I think or how I feel. If you told a person, you know, what your preference was, whether you liked something or didn't like something, and they just. Wouldn't listen. You told them and if they cared about you and your feelings and your preferences, then they would do something, but they just completely ignore you. Well, that is the same way about God. In the word, he has taken time to tell us how he feels about certain things. Yes. And we have a choice right there whether to listen and be like, you know what?

14:25 You've just told us what breaks your heart. You've told us what you find disgusting. We should take note. We should consider and actually change our behavior because we love you and we care about your feelings and what you think about stuff. Yeah. So one of the big ones is in 1 Samuel 15, 22 through 23a. Has the Lord as much delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as in obeying the voice of the Lord? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice and to heed than the fat of rams. For rebellion is as the sin of divination and insubordination is as iniquity and idolatry. So the gift that God wants is your obedience.

15:08 And if you don't obey, not only are you not loving God, but you are guilty of witchcraft or divination. So according to the Bible, the definition of witchcraft is disobedience. I recently had this. Yeah, I recently had this on a trip I went on with the church and disobedience was allowed and that opened up the doorway for witchcraft right then and there. Oh, boy. So it was very eye opening. I looked up a lot of like what was out there for defining witchcraft because, you know, it's like it's almost something that we don't think much about. And like, what on earth is this? And it ultimately ends up being aligning yourself with spirits other than God. Wow. And it is relying on them for power, information, or anything else. That's a great definition.

16:03 Yeah. Then we go with, like most people, they want to be on the fence. And it's like there is no neutral territory. There is no demilitarized zone. It is either you are for God or you are against him. So divination or witchcraft is nothing more or less than going to something other than God, whether that be yourself or another spirit that is not aligned with God. So God has a way of driving these points home for me. I see things and understand the world through pictures. I really can't understand a concept unless there is a picture to go with it. So my husband and I, we decide to allow this young man to come stay with us who's an alcoholic. And, you know, we decide that we're going to be his rehab facility.

16:43 So we're like, OK, so we set out the ground rules. So here's the list of rules. These are the things that need to happen. One of them was no cell phone for 30 days because it's pretty standard for rehab facilities. And then the next one was you need to be up at 7 a .m. I didn't care when the young man went to bed, but 7 a .m. was when they needed to wake up. So they just. It was clearly out there. This is where your day will start. And so the cell phones, though, they double as an alarm clock. So every morning I had to go knock on the door to get up this guy. And, you know, I finally, you know, it's like this awkward I find getting other people up, especially adult people. I think parents find it awkward enough with their kids. How old was he about?

17:31 One is heading to 30, I think. Oh, wow. But I mean, he didn't have an alarm clock, so it was nothing that he could have done. So I was like, I was like, yes, he's getting his cell phone back. We have hit our 30 days. I don't have to wake him up anymore. I can just give him the cell phone. He sets the alarm. Hallelujah. And 7 a .m. on day 31 comes and it goes and he has not appeared. And I am like. What the heck? Bang, bang, bang on the door. He comes out and I'm like, what the heck? Oh, I didn't set my alarm clock. I decided to just wake up naturally. I'm like, that was not at all what was agreed on whatsoever. No. So there were a few exceptions, but. With very few exceptions from then on, before he got a job, which nulled that portion of their contract or the rules, he did not get up at 7 a .m. any of those mornings. And then there were a few times that I would ask him to do something.

18:39 And instead of saying, I can't do that right now, or I won't do it, or, hey, this isn't really working for me. Let me do something else instead. He just wouldn't do it at all. I can't even begin to describe how disrespected I felt. He was in our home, under our roof, eating our food. And my husband may not have felt this way, but I felt it invading my space that I need for other things. Yeah. And he wouldn't do what I asked. And so then the fateful day came that just really drove home the point. I do wonder if God just sits up in heaven and laughs sometimes. Oh, yeah.

19:21 Bible says he does. You know, like, watch this. Well, I meant laugh at me. I mean, I understand he laughs at his enemies, but, you know, I like to think I'm not most of the time. Like, so he's like, okay, I'm sorry this is going to hurt you, dear, but wait for it. It's my birthday. And he gets me a birthday card. And it was an expensive one that folded out. And this young man did not have a lot of money. I cannot begin to describe the things that ran through my head on what I wanted to do with that birthday card. I thought about tearing it up in his face. Maybe, yeah, spitting on it also came to mind. Calmly walking to the drawer, pulling out the lighter, flicking it, and just watching it. Burn. Oh, my flesh was so happy at those thoughts. I could not bear to look at that card. It was disgusting. It is such a disgusting insult to me. And I realized that God has got to feel the same way, or at least something can do the same if we dare to speak for God and his feelings. Oh, my gosh.

20:36 To think that after all of that, that a gift. Somehow is going to make it all right. But somehow you could buy your way out of all of that disrespect. And just why? And I was like, oh, I get it. I get it. Oh, my goodness. So. Obedience is better than sacrifice. I mean, the Bible said it very clearly. We may not have had a picture for it, but now we do. Obedience is better than sacrifice. And you cannot give God enough presence to soothe him or to make up for not obeying. And from experience, I now know. I agree with God. Gifts without obedience is a source of disgust. If we love him, we will obey him. That's good. So good. So if you're like me, then you're why people. I love to know why on everything. Like this whole blind obedience is not fun. And even if it does minister to God's heart, because I know how it is, like even for parents, sometimes when the kid asked why you asked them to do something, you just want them to do it because you asked that the wise and the wise. And you're just like, can you just do it? Because I said so, because I asked you to do it. And it's like. Okay. So God has to feel that way too. He probably has a why for absolutely everything, but sometimes he probably is just like, could you do it just for me? Just

22:08 because I asked you to do it, you know? Yeah. Very much a parent thing. Yes. Yes, it is. I always told our daughter, you can ask why after you obey. There we go. There we go. Obey first, then you can ask why. Yeah. So then this comes with the other picture that God has put into my life. I realized as I was working with one of my dogs, her name is Orly. Orly is prone to shoulder injuries. And Orly... Her world, her entire universe revolves around going and chasing squirrels in the woods. That is what makes her come alive in a way that just doesn't anywhere else. But when she gets injured, she can't go out to the woods because that would not be loving on my part to go and put her in a position where she is going to keep reinjuring that shoulder.

22:59 And I wondered when she. And I realized she will never understand. Dogs are the perfect example of blind obedience because they will never understand why. All they know is that I love them and they love me. When I tell my dog, no, I have a good reason because I love them. I'm not interested in thwarting their will for no reason. Like I, there's a point to all that I asked them to do.

23:42 And none of it is to amuse me or to make me happy at their expense because I love them. I want them to be happy. I want to fulfill them. I want them to have joy, but they're never going to understand the nose and I'm never going to be able to explain it to them. Wow, that's so good. You know, we had a dog like that. They would run one of the fastest dogs, and he was a squirrel hunter. He'd go after squirrels. And he had an injury. He'd fall on the pickup truck. He jumped out while it was moving. He jumped out, and it was an expensive fix. Yeah, it was a broken hip. Broken hip. But he would re -injure himself, and it was the same thing. He would just run hard. Then he would hurt himself. And I thought, why can't that dog understand? You know, just don't do this. But, you know, they don't understand.

24:34 Just like you were saying, they don't understand. I mean, they just run with their whole heart and with reckless abandon. Reckless abandon, yeah. So then, you know, as I continued to meditate on, you know, the picture of a dog and obedience and everything, I thought about the three different states that a dog can be in. There's many, but we'll talk about the three. So the dog can be leashed. fenced, or free. Oh, that's good. So a leash dog never has the opportunity to do anything very good or bad. You know, its freedom is very limited. If you want them to sit, you can make them. If you want them to come, then all you need to do is just reel them in. If you need them to correct them, then you just pull on the leash. And if a leash is the best that a dog can get, it is good. And it's so much better than them staying at home all the time or being in a crate. But how much better is it if they have a fence? I mean, we're really cooking with a fence. Compared to a leash, a fence is so much better and they have way more freedom. If they see a squirrel, they can at least chase it to the edge of the fence. And they have a certain measure of autonomy. But we keep the dogs on the leashes and or in the fences for their protection.

25:48 So what would it take to make the world safe for a dog and dogs safe for the world? Because we know that it goes both ways, that it's dangerous for a dog to be out, but it can also be dangerous for a human if a dog is out and uncontained. Yeah. Yeah. Well, I think it would require obedience that the dog knows its limitations, even if it doesn't have a fence. Okay. So I thought about it and I was like, well, if you don't have something that is going to be restraining them the whole time, then you would need someone that is going to be looking out for them the whole time. Someone that will watch them, in fact. Like a shepherd. Yes, exactly. Someone to shepherd the dog. If we're talking about keeping the dog safe, then someone would need to watch what they're doing, where they're going, observe them, and to be able to call them out of danger. And then if the dog itself is capable of being a danger to others, then again, you would have to look out and watch and give the dog's directions to keep them. I had that with Emma, which was the most special dog I ever had. She had had such a rough upbringing that there There were some dogs that she took exception to. She just was not OK with them being too close to her or too near her on this planet Earth. And but I was able to take her out because I was watching her the entire time and I had taught her to obey me. So when we saw another person, when we saw another dog.

27:14 We came away. We came to a safe distance and we sat and we watched as they went safely by us. And then we continued on our merry way. It's a good dog. Yeah. It's a good owner that trained it. Good owner. Yeah. So you would need, in order to be able to teach your dog, though, to be able to. understand things that dogs and humans are not the same species and we do not speak the same language so there needs to be a time of training in which you teach them your language and how you speak and it's best if it goes both ways and you understand their language as well because then when you're not misunderstanding your dog makes life a lot easier but the most important actually though is that they understand your language and are able to interpret it So there needs to be a time of training. That isn't enough because just because they understand what is being asked of them doesn't mean that they will do it because they have a will of their own. And it is the same with us. Yes, it's the same with us and God. We only think we understand the world and it's dangerous, but we do not.

28:26 God does because he knows everything. God has a way of speaking to us and it is a language that we too must learn. So Alice's training will never end. I will be teaching her her whole life. And in God, our training never ends. Because for God, we're always going to be in school and he's not so much interested in our perfection because that's for eternity. In this life, he wants our growth. So our life on earth is school. And heaven is graduation. Oh, that's good. I like that. Yeah. So after I have spent time teaching my dogs the tones of my voice, because I do not like to shout, and I have found with dogs that is so much more important the tone than the actual words, though the words do matter. So I teach them what I want. There's also understanding my expectations of what they're going to do, wherever they go, and how they're going to behave themselves. And then I also teach them certain commands. And then there needs to be a time of practicing them. So we practice everywhere because just because a dog can sit at home in the kitchen does not mean that when you take it outside that it actually can manage to sit outside. And then can it sit when there's distractions around?

29:40 Every place that you have to go, you have to keep doing the basics because every new environment changes the game. So no matter what the circumstances or the location they are in. They must obey me and I must teach them how to obey me in all of those different places. Yeah. So think about this. If I didn't take the time to teach Alice and I just decided that I was going to unclip the leash and let her go. Let her run. Alice might be happy in that moment. But is that a loving act on my part? Not if she goes into danger. Yeah. It's not loving at all to unclip the leash and to just let them go. Because if they don't know to return, there are some dogs that they will just not stop running. And so then who's going to feed them? Who's going to shelter them?

30:36 And then when they finally stop running and they finally realize that they are alone and that they don't know how to get back and they're scared, how is that loving to them? Yeah. So it's the same with us and God. He is not going to unclip that leash and let us free until we have learned his voice, until he has proven our obedience to us. Because in God's case, like I need to test her because I honestly don't know because I'm not God. I don't know if Alice is going to obey in every single situation. I can only go off of her past events. But God does know in every situation whether we are going to obey him and how we're going to behave. But we don't know. True. He's teaching us what our limitations are. That's so good. Helping us understand our role in all of this. Yeah. We've been to Sight and Sound Theater a number of times. Oh, yeah.

31:33 And they have live animals of all kinds. And one time we went backstage. We got a backstage pass and they took us back. They showed us, you know, told us everything, showed us all the animals. And when they prepare them to be out, You actually perform with the whole play that the animal has to do it 100 times without a mistake. Whenever they do something, you know, and if they can pass 100 times, then they will use the animal in a live play. But if it messes one time up, then they have to start all over again to train it. That was amazing. All different sheep, camels, you know, all kinds of animals, you know, which is how did they get them to do that? Obedience.

32:20 Yeah. Trainers. Trainers. Yeah. Yeah. So it's like a big thing with God is, you know, you can understand what he wants of you. You can understand his tones of voice. You can understand his commands. But then the next thing that has to be built into you is the self -control to be able to obey. Yes. One of the things that's missed a lot of times in today's age. Our training ground for learning to obey God has actually started with learning to obey our parents. Very true. So we only will obey God to the degree that we've learned to obey our parents because it's a self -discipline issue. It's an idea of knowing what you're supposed to do and being able to give up your own will and have that self -discipline to obey because the authority figure said to do it. And so with God, we have to do the same thing. We have to develop the self -control, the self -discipline.

33:12 be able to do what he's asked of us. If we think about this process, we know that I teach Alice to obey me so that she can have more freedom safely. Like that's the ultimate goal of this. You know, I don't want Alice to have a leash -sized or a crate -sized existence. I care about her. I want her to have as much of the world and of enjoyment that she can have safely, being safe for herself and safe for all the other human beings, because some people just are not into dogs and they do not want to be harassed. buy a dog, no matter how cute, you know? So she also like, you know, Alice is a really friendly dog. She wants to go up and, and wag her tail at everybody.

33:54 And she's had to learn at least at home that. She has to be invited. The other people have to want her around. She cannot just go adorably and sweetly wiggle her way up to people because some people are really afraid of dogs. And that would be an unloving act to them to allow Alice to go up to them, even though her heart is pure in the matter. I mean, she just wants to say hello and be sweet. But if they're terrified, doesn't matter how sweet and pure her heart is. And they have no idea. Because you want to make her a therapy dog, right? Well, I do hope for that. Like, it's one of those like, you know, she's her own person. So it's like I want her to have the capability of becoming a therapy dog. But if it's not in her, if that's not something that she's going to ultimately enjoy, I'm not going even if she can pass the test, I'm not going to do it. I need to see that this is actually something that she. takes delight in and she enjoys doing this, loving on other people. And so we'll see as she grows, you know, who she ends up being. Exactly. You know, right now things are looking promising, but we just, I won't know until later. She's just a puppy. Exactly. So like Alice has certain choices in the matter.

35:05 Like if Alice chose to not obey me, if I couldn't trust her to the degree that I currently am able, then Alice would have never made it all the way out to Arkansas and stayed in a hotel and gone through all those hours in the car. She would have had to stay back in Maryland because she hadn't proven herself. You know, she would have had a much smaller existence, but because she had learned to obey to this degree, then she could come with me. This was adorable. So she didn't even she obviously Alice's life is blind. She has no idea what's going on in life. I start packing up the car instead of Alice following me from room to room and doing her own thing. She just sat in the car. The car's open. I'm loading things in. She's not following me anymore.

35:50 She is sitting in that car. She is going. She was determined. You're not going without me. Oh, that's so cute. The other dogs, they're following me around. Alice, no. She has got her station in the car and she is there. She's like, this is happening. And I was like, you were right this time. This is absolutely happening. That's so cute. I teach Alice the word sit, and I make her do it over and over again. First with reward, and I do it with lots of praise, but as time goes on, the reward and the praise, they stop. And she's just expected to do it. And if she can't do a basic sit, then I will never be able to teach her something harder or expect her to listen. If she never learns to obey me, if she never... would listen, then the best that Alice's life could be by her own choice would have been a crate. Because if I can't trust her to not go potty in my house, then her life would have become a crate -sized existence. And it would have been miserable and it would have broken my heart, but she would have been in a cage of her own making. She would have limited her freedom.

37:04 That'll preach. Because it wasn't my will. My will is for her to come with me. My will is for her to go from Maryland to Arkansas and the nations if they let dogs go, you know, and to love on people and to be a blessing. But she can limit my will. And in the same way, God allows us to limit his will as well, because he. wills us to be free. And so we are free to make these choices. And though he might want so much more and so much better for us, we have that choice in the matter of, do we want all that God has for us or not? Or do we want that little tiny cage? And we don't want God to put a shock collar on us, you know, if we go out of, yeah. So obedience always, you know. The term I use, it felt like God hit me over the head with a two -by -four.

38:00 But it was my own choice because of decisions I made. I had to get out there so far that he had to just take one thing after another away until... You know, there's dead and nothing. And I said, well, I've got my last choice. It's like I want to do what I want to do. I want to be a good bowler. I'm going to have a high -performance car, you know, run on the street, all these things. And one by one, it all went away until you're just so miserable, you know. I mean, that's what happened to me, everything. And then boom, my unemployment was cut off, and I had to make a decision. You know, and I understand how easy it is to get homeless. And that's right when, you know, I just said, uncle, you know. Not so many words. And, you know, it's amazing, you know, what the benefit of saying uncle. Yeah.

38:57 And what that means is saying I give up. I give up. I surrender. I don't hear that much anymore. It's like if somebody's twisting your arm around your back. Say uncle. Say uncle. That means I give in. Yeah. Your capitulation. You win. Yes, yes. God wins. Yeah. If we think about these all in God's terms, he's a good father and he wants you to have freedom. But with freedom, there's a risk. And God doesn't want you to only have a crate size existence. He wants everything for you because he loves you and he will only give you what you can handle. So obedience ultimately brings freedom. Yes. Because we belong to a good God, a good father, he will never give us more than what we can handle. True. So I constantly test my dog on the basics under easy circumstances.

39:51 And slowly as they prove themselves, then they get to go out and I test them there. And if they listen there on a leash, you know, wherever I've taken them, then I'll see if they listen in a fence. And the whole time, the dog never understands why. This is so good. We can have the vision. We can see this. We can get this teaching and understand and be like, oh, this is why. But they never do. I mean, how great is their faith, honestly? Just puts us to shame. So God will ask you to do seemingly insignificant things that make no sense to you. So one example, wear a blue shirt today. And it doesn't make any sense.

40:38 And at the end of the day, it still doesn't make any sense. You had no epiphanies. There was nothing that came along that you were just thinking, like, I was supposed to wear the blue shirt. But that's the thing, is you think it was for nothing. And it was not for nothing. Because there's that, will you do it just because I asked? Yeah. Simply because he said so. Because we know as parents, like when your kid just, they don't understand why and it's a struggle for them. And they do it just because you asked, is there anything that blesses your heart more? Right. I mean, it is just the best thing. Like, just because you said so. I mean, because they're in essence looking up at you with those doughy eyes being like, I don't want to do this. I don't like to do this. But just because you asked, I'm going to do it. And we can give God that same blessing of just because he asked us to do it. And at the same time, like, that's an easy thing. He's just asked us to wear a blue shirt. Like, and if you can't do it when there's no negative consequences, then how on earth can he possibly ask you to do anything that might be remotely hard if you can't even handle something so easy? It would be reckless and unloving for him to ask you to do something in a harder or dangerous situation because if you continue with God, he will put you in hard and dangerous situations, but only after he has tested you in the easier, the less dangerous circumstances after he has

42:08 proven your obedience ultimately to you. That's good. puts you in a situation in which you were not ready for because you had proven time and time again that you couldn't handle it, then he would not be a loving father. Because good parents don't do that. When they know their kids can't handle something, they don't just run them out to the deep end and be like, go swim. You got this. Oh my, yeah. Yeah, that's so true. So if I know that my dog isn't going to come in a fence, then it would be reckless of me to think that they're going to come outside of that fence. True. So I want you to come away with a new perspective. The small things that you feel led to do are not nothing. They are the small things that add up to big things. So in Luke 16, 10, Jesus said, he who is faithful in a very little is faithful also in much. And he who is unrighteous in very little thing is also unrighteous in much. So God is testing your obedience and is teaching you to recognize his voice. And when you obey. and there doesn't seem to be any praise or reward, because we all like those little treats, then you know that that is being saved for heaven. God is saving up that reward for you. And you are blessing your father and loving on him. Amen. And then just remember that disobedience feels like a slap in the face. So you remember going back, we remember that alcoholic that we tried to help. Obedience makes even humans feel loved and honored. So if you want more freedom,

43:40 And more difficult assignments, it starts with the small stuff. Sit, stay, lay down. Yeah, obedience is God's love language and you can't do enough for God to make obedience up to him. And God had an entire manual written so that you can know for sure exactly what God requires of you and what he thinks on any given subject for the most part. And if you've realized that as I'm talking, which maybe not for this audience, but some people that you don't care how God feels, you don't care about how he thinks, then. I'm going to just encourage you to start there. Ask God to change your heart, to make you want to obey him, to make you care. So in Philippians 2 .13, it says, For it is God who is at work in you both to will and to work for his good pleasure. So we can't even obey God without his spirit to enable us to do it. That's so true.

44:37 So without God, you can do nothing. That's true. That's true. That's what he said. So I had written this sermon or message that I taught the kids months ago, and I had then recently been through this tremendous amount of warfare and battle that had just laid me out and absolutely devastated me. out in the woods with my dogs getting some puppy therapy because it just blesses me to watch them running around enjoying themselves. And I see Alice down the trail and I hear her yelp, but sometimes she yelps not because there's a problem, but because she's realized that she doesn't know where I am. And that's her, oh my gosh, where is mom? And I need to find her. And then she kind of snaps at the air. And I'm like, okay. And then she comes tearing down the path towards me. And I'm thinking, okay, she just couldn't find me. And then I realize that Alice is in trouble. Alice is being attacked by wasps.

45:38 A nest of wasps. She must have gotten into it. They're attacking her. And so she runs to me. And I immediately go down and I am starting to pull the wasps off of Alice. And eventually I, you know, I'm like feeling like I just can't get them off of her fast enough and I can't get them killed. So I just pick her up and I run. And that was like where the Holy Spirit just talked to me and he's like, if you being sinful will do so much for your dog. Because I didn't want to get stung. I didn't want to be dealing with the wasp. I didn't want, in essence, to put me between the wasps and know that by grabbing her and running that I was going to shield her with my own body. And if that nest was going, then it'd be tearing after me as I protected her. But I did that without hesitation or without thought for the most part. And he was like, and you're wicked human. Like, what would I do? for you. And of course, we have that picture of Jesus on the cross that he inserted himself between us and what we rightfully deserved. And he took the stings and he took that. And, you know, Alice, obviously in her case, she didn't do anything wrong. But one of the things that we deal with is sometimes when we get into the wasp nest, we had been told to leave that wasp nest alone.

46:57 That's true. We had been warned. And so when we go in there and we draw that down on ourselves, then what the next thing we do is we run in shame. And because we feel like we can't go. But it's like if Alice had messed with the wasp nest in disobedience and still run to me, I still, the result would have been the same. I still would have been pulling the wasps off of her. I still would have picked her up and run. We think that when we bring it on ourself, that God's going to stand there and look at us and be like, yeah, honey, you brought this on yourself. I'm not going to do a thing. Humans would say that. You'd be told. But no, he wouldn't do it. And I was just so clear because I wouldn't have even thought for a second that way. It wouldn't have been like. oh my gosh you deserve this it would have still been me pulling the wasps off of her and then think about this okay so she gets into the wasp she's in disobedience and then she runs in shame away from me well i would have run after her she would have gotten hurt worse the damage of them constantly stinging her would have been prolonged and she would have suffered more yeah but I still would have gone after her. I still would have pulled off the wasp. I still would have picked her up and run. And so I was just like, it was so clear. I was like, God will do that for us. So I was like, okay, so we all need

48:28 to be like Alice, whether it be in a mistake or whether it be disobedience. Right. We need to go running to God because he's the only one that is going to be able to help us, to be able to pull those wasps off of us, to be able to insert himself between us and them and save us. That is so good. So I really want to know, did you get stung? I did. Yes. And I actually was grateful because then I knew what she was going through because wasps can sting repeatedly. And even though she is nine pounds and I'm much more than that, and I got one and she got multiple, I still understood to a certain degree what she was going through so that I could watch her more effectively and care for her better. Yeah, that's true. That's so beautiful. Such a good lesson.

49:19 So, so much in that. I really love that. And I love the fact that you called it God's love language. You know, we don't think of it that way. Yeah. No, we don't. And I love how you've brought that out. It's so strong. So strong that if you love me, keep my commandments. Yeah. Yeah, that's beautiful. Yeah. And like we know that just like me, all of my commands to my dogs are ultimately for their well -being and their good because I want them to have the best, fullest, happiest life possible. And it's the same with God's commands. Like we find them very inconvenient at times, but they were all written and made for our ultimate happiness and joy because no good thing does he withhold from those who walk uprightly. He wants good things. He wants the best for us always. And so there's rules. Even though they're thwarting our will and they're keeping us from chasing that squirrel that we think we need to be chasing, that it's because he's protecting us and loving us and not because he's just there to take away all of the fun things.

50:22 Yeah, so many times people get the wrong idea about God, especially if they don't know him. The longer I walk with him, the more amazed I am. at his love and his character. And, you know, just it's continuously growing for me, this admiration and awe and amazement at how much he loves us and how much he cares about every little detail of our lives. And he's just like you said, like your goal for your dogs is to give them the best life that they can possibly have and teaching them obedience. gives them that freedom. What a marvelous illustration of, you know, the natural being a type of the spiritual. So beautiful.

51:14 And I encourage you guys who are dog owners that, you know, if you watch and think about them, dogs can teach you so much more. I mean, the parallels, this is, I just use dogs in this parallel. oh my goodness, do I have so many others that God has shown me through my dogs. And it's just absolutely incredible. Like, you know, just what he can teach you with the thing that you love. So it's like, if your thing's not dogs, then, you know, wherever, whatever thing you're interested in, whatever thing captures your heart and your imagination, I promise you God is in it and he can teach you something about him. That's so beautiful. Beautiful. Would you pray for our listeners and viewers? Sure. Father, I ask that you would work in us both to will and to do of your good pleasure. Amen. Father, give us the heart to want to please you, that we would have a tender enough heart to care about your feelings, to not do things purposely that you have said not to do, to not break your heart with our disobedience, and which ultimately, since you wrote these rules for us, is going to lead to our own hurt. And Father, that you would have to just sit there watching us choose. hurtful things and bring them on ourselves time and time again. That just must be so painful. And so, Father, I just ask that you would help us to be able to have a shift in our eyes and our mindset, open our eyes to be able to see these things, the areas in which we're hurting ourselves and we're hurting you.

52:43 Father, help us to be. your lovers, people who care and protect your heart and not people who are selfish and just want whatever makes them happy or feel good at that time. Father, give us the vision for the long shot, Father, because most of these things, we want the short term, but you have determined that we should look for the long game. And so, Father, I ask that you would help us to see the long game. Father, that you would help us in our self -discipline and in our obedience. Father, that you would help us in our self -control, that we would learn to be able to freely give up these things to you. And Father, that you would help us to do it because we love you, Father, because that's what we ultimately want. I don't want Alice to obey me because she's afraid of me or because she doesn't want me to be angry at her. I want her to do it because she loves me and because she cares about me. And so, Father, I just ask that you would help us to be better lovers of you. In the name of Jesus, amen. Amen. Now I'll see if I can't get Alice. Oh, never mind. Sorry, guys. She is twitching. So she's completely chasing a rabbit. It would be cruel of me to wake her up for that. So just go back to the beginning and you'll get a picture of Alice. Well, thanks so much for joining us. You're welcome. This has really been a blessing. And I know that it's going to be a blessing to our listeners and our viewers. Yes. Amen. Amen. Please subscribe, rate

54:13 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. Until next time. This is Sharon Buss. And I'm Philip Buss. God bless you with His overwhelming, loving presence.