AJ Jones.
 Yes, sir.
 Welcome to Episode 297.
 Thank you.
 Of keeping up with the Joneses.
 Yes.
 Our members supported podcasts.
 It is.
 We're so glad to be back.
 We took the month of April off.
 We did for a good reason.
 For a very good reason.
 And we normally start each episode with a weekly catch up, but given we've been gone for so
 long, let's do a monthly catch up.
 Anything new happened in the Joneses episode?
 You know, there was something I'm trying to remember what it was.
 Yes, we have adopted a baby this month.
 And we are living our life in three hour compartments.
 - Yes.
 - 24 hours a day three hour compartments.
 So if we're a little disheveled,
 a little discombobulated,
 that would be why AJ is teaching a finding father school
 that we record live, except yesterday I forgot to hit record
 on her camera, so that tells you something.
 - You know, and there's moments when I feel like
 I'm seeing vapors, you know, where you're just like,
 what am I doing now?
 - Oh, I'm going over here.
 - But it's all worth it.
 - Yes.
 Oh, she's so cute.
 - She's very cute.
 It started as I was looking at her calendar.
 - Mm.
 - But we flew back home with a 10 day old.
 - We did.
 - Which is funny because you become the most popular person.
 - You really do.
 Everybody wants to talk to you.
 And it's different versions of,
 where you see some people's reactions are like,
 oh, you decided to fly with a 10 day old.
 - Yeah, to that, I'm just saying.
 - Now how interesting.
 just stress testing her immune system.
 (laughs)
 - Yeah, so you're like, oh,
 I actually had the thought of like,
 oh, have I done that ever?
 Have I ever gone?
 That's an interesting choice you're making over there.
 Realizing, I don't know the extenuating--
 - You're wondering if you've ever done that?
 - I'm sure I have.
 I'm sure I have.
 - We're getting closer.
 (laughs)
 - I can't think of like a specific time,
 but I'm just saying, I'm sure I have where I'm like,
 you're unaware of there's extenuating circumstances,
 and you're just assuming that lunatic
 is flying with a 10 day old baby.
 Like who does that without realizing?
 We're going home.
 Like we're not like pleasure cruising
 with a ten day old.
 (laughing)
 - Pleasure cruising.
 That's a phrase.
 It's horrible.
 - We're not that bad.
 - We're not that bad.
 - Wait, wait, what is the genesis of a pleasure cruise?
 - Like a, you know, cruise.
 I think called pleasure cruise.
 (laughing)
 - I'm sure a very specific niche market.
 I don't know. You should have knowledge. I don't know. It just sounds dirty. It sounds horrible.
 I thought that's what like cruises were called. Pleasure cruises?
 I've literally never heard those two words put together.
 Oh yeah, this is gonna be a great episode. Trust us for professionals.
 Okay.
 So no, we were on the pleasure cruise.
 We were flying home.
 Yes.
 And she did barely.
 You just strapped to the front of your chest and the way we went.
 That sounds awful.
 Like I used like gaff tape or something.
 I used a rap thing.
 Yeah, you did.
 Yeah.
 So my friend Tiffany got me a rap thing and it's the first time I've actually used one with a baby.
 So that was exciting.
 Well, that was easy.
 Yeah, she just slept the whole time.
 Yeah, go home.
 I think we've mentioned this already, but so overwhelmed.
 Yeah.
 by the generosity, the support, the kindness,
 - Amazing.
 - The abundance that our community showed us.
 - Yeah, we came into everybody.
 - Like our dining room was full of boxes.
 And all this stuff that we had,
 while we were in Utah kind of made do like,
 oh, I probably need to get this,
 I need to get it, it was like sitting
 in our dining room when we got home.
 So all of a sudden we have enough burp cloths and bottles
 and all the things that we're trying to make
 we can do with two of them while we were there kind of thing.
 So yeah, it was great.
 - But it seems like it's been a steady stream of visitors
 who just show up with like bags of clothes.
 - Yes.
 - Or like, hey, you know, we don't need this anymore.
 And my question always is, are we borrowing this?
 And like, do you need it back?
 - Yes.
 - Or is this, you know, and they're like, no, no, no,
 take it, take it, take it.
 - Yes.
 Well, we have some borrow things.
 - And I kind of want to say to them.
 - We know what they are, yeah.
 - We were in that stage 10 years ago,
 we were like, oh yeah, we're done, no, have it all.
 - Take it all.
 I don't want to go, "Hey, in 10 years time, this could be you."
 But then they've sown.
 They have sown.
 That's what I kept thinking to myself when I was coming out,
 especially once we found out that we'd been chosen,
 was like, "God, we had all this amazing stuff,
 and we gave it all away.
 So I'm going to believe that it's all coming back."
 How's that working out?
 It's working out great.
 My gosh, is it ever?
 I know.
 So, yeah.
 Lots of firsts.
 Babies first pediatrician visit.
 Yes.
 Babies first chiropractic adjustment.
 Yes.
 Babies first social worker visit.
 Yes.
 Our social worker.
 I love her.
 She's so sweet.
 So she was she came over.
 It was a great visit.
 And then of course she got to to cuddle with Sophia joy.
 Babies first under three month wrestling team.
 Yeah.
 Cage fighting.
 Yeah.
 She's really good at that.
 She's pretty good.
 So the big question I've gotten is, have you forgotten what it was like to be with a newborn?
 Have you found yourself that you've forgotten?
 Or is that what you remember?
 - Yeah, that's what I remember.
 And she's doing real well.
 Like again, we're those scheduled baby wise people.
 And she's, and really that works well.
 Like, you know, one of the reasons it worked well
 for us with the littles is like the first three
 is being preemie in NICUs, they put them on three hour
 schedules and, you know, it's essentially baby wise.
 So of course we were at the hospital for five days
 and they had three hour schedules.
 So it's sort of just naturally, you know, was easy to maintain that.
 So she's still great.
 The only problem I've run into is because I've not cognitively mapped out in my head
 ed that the schedule is like 7, 10, 1, 4, 7, 10, 1, 4, and round, round, round.
 I had to make repeating calendar events.
 You did.
 Our calendar looks ridiculous right now.
 Our calendar looks absolutely ridiculous.
 But what would happen is, you know, we might make a meeting or, you know, might agree,
 "Yeah, I can do lunch," and then realize, "Oh, actually, I'm supposed to be feeding
 a baby at that time. So that's why I did it. I feel a little bit more steady now going.
 And that's what we start our day is true shapers going, okay, which feeds do you want
 to take? Like, you know, how is it going to work? Yep. I tell you what though, I'd appreciate
 not having a job as weird as that sounds. Right. At the moment, it's great. Yeah. I
 mean, we get to do it together and it doesn't matter that we're just killer tired of the
 morning because, you know, your body does want to sleep at night. But it took me about
 - But two or three weeks I think my body adapted
 to the shorter amounts of sleep.
 - Yeah, like little chunks of sleep as opposed to a big--
 - Netflix must be freaking out
 because they must be going like,
 "Hey, what's going on in the Jones household?
 "Like their viewership is through the roof."
 - Why is he awake right now?
 (laughs)
 Yeah, so it's been good.
 - Other than baby stuff, anything else has happened.
 - We have a 16 year old.
 - We do.
 Our first born daughter turned 16 this week.
 - That is the wildest thing to me.
 We have a 16 year old and a not quite a month old.
 Yeah.
 Do you ever get, hear me.
 I'm not knocking this.
 Mm, I'm terrified.
 But I'm a little suspicious of it's,
 I'm not suspicious of it's value.
 Let me just say, how many people have you had in your life
 who say, hey, what's your five, your 10,
 your 15 year plan?
 And I'm like,
 Yeah, but I don't know, love God, serve him.
 Do whatever he says to do.
 Right, 'cause it wasn't on my plan
 to have a 16 year old and a newborn.
 No.
 But we do, and it's great.
 Yeah, and it's wonderful.
 Yep. So.
 Tia.
 Had a band concert.
 recital thing. So I think it's her last one of the year question mark. Anyway, it was a big deal.
 - Yeah, it went to that. - And yeah, you went to that. I stayed home with the little nugget.
 Yeah. I didn't want to take a baby, a two-week-old baby, into an auditorium with band instruments.
 It wasn't an auditorium. It's a gym. - You'll take her on the airplane.
 - It's an echo chamber. - Yeah, you won't take her.
 And then we found a tax, so that's about as exciting as life gets.
 But all of that is funny because you have a newborn baby and you think your life stops
 for the newborn baby and it doesn't.
 Life just keeps going.
 You have to do all that sort of stuff.
 I tell you, I am so thankful for the people that have signed up to bring us food.
 Yes, thank you.
 Oh my gosh.
 On one level, I was like, you know, I didn't give birth to this baby.
 Like, so I'm not doing a physical recovery.
 Do I really need that?
 And man, I mean, you're just so tired.
 So I've been so thankful to not have to think about that for a bit.
 So we are overwhelmed with gratitude to our community around the world and here.
 Couldn't have done it without you.
 And it was really beautiful.
 Testament like tonight we're having dinner brought to us by a family and we're
 just chowing down and MG says, why are all these people bringing us food?
 We got to explain to him.
 This is the beauty of community.
 This is what happens.
 Well, he said, why are they bringing us this amazing food?
 So I'm not sure if I should be offended.
 I kept, you know, just roll with it.
 just roll it.
 What do you mean?
 - Yeah, so.
 - Well, it's good to be back.
 That was the other thing we were commenting on.
 Not having the tent poles of our week in place through me.
 So like we would have a routine of when we would record
 a podcast, edit a podcast.
 We'd have a routine of when we'd meet with people,
 some of the tent pole events of our week all gone.
 So you're like, what day is it?
 And where am I and what's going on?
 - Yeah, other than we go to church on Sunday morning
 or at least one of us does, that's pretty much the,
 you know, the only place marker or whatever
 and a couple of meetings during the week.
 - But for that reason, it's good to be back podcasting.
 - It is.
 - Before we get to our main topic,
 we'll talk about a little opportunity
 that we have for all y'all.
 - All y'all.
 - One of the things that I think is fair to say
 that we have loved doing in our career
 is bearing witness to God bring breakthrough people's lives.
 - Oh, for sure.
 That's the best part.
 - Yeah.
 - Yeah.
 - And we've seen that in a couple of different contexts.
 We used to be itinerant ministers.
 So we travel around the world
 and we see God break through it.
 And then being local church pastors,
 whether that's in school or whether that's
 running the school of supernatural life,
 getting to see transformation over change,
 or more recently walking with people
 and through processing change happen.
 - One of the things we've been doing
 since leaving Grey Center is meeting
 with some individuals.
 - Some what?
 - Some what?
 - Listen.
 (laughs)
 Stringing some words together, okay.
 So meeting with some individuals on a weekly basis
 to just help process life and to kind of, you know,
 coach through different seasons and things like that.
 - And it's beautiful because it draws on a lot of the tools
 we've been blessed and have to be given
 to by, you know, mentors and experienced ministers.
 So whether that's teaching one-on-one
 or whether that's just listening and being curious
 or whether that's exploring things
 or seeking the Lord on behalf of people
 or whether it's prayer or deliverance or ministry.
 - All the inner healing training,
 the stage hill training, all that kind of stuff.
 It's fun to have a toolbox or to pull from it
 and see what the Holy Spirit wants to do that day.
 - One of the things we wanna do is we wanna start
 opening up our availability to do that with other people.
 And so we have decided to give up some time of our week
 devoted to walking with people who find themselves
 in a season where they might need some coaching
 or they might need some revelation
 or they might feel stuck and need a different perspective
 or they just might need a listening ear to process,
 to explore, to consider what God might be up to.
 - So a couple of things to clarify.
 Neither one of us are actually licensed therapists
 or counselors, so it's not therapy or counseling
 from that perspective.
 - No, not in a clinical sense.
 We will be offering biblical counsel
 or sound biblical wisdom.
 - Sure.
 - And hopefully it will be therapeutic in nature.
 - Yes.
 - But really we'll just be doing
 what we've always done as pastors,
 which is coming alongside people and offering revelation, insight, prayer.
 Have you considered this?
 And bringing some of the tools that we've developed in the last couple of years of curiosity
 and walking alongside people to help them get unstuck where they might feel stuck.
 Sure.
 Or offer a different perspective where they may feel stuck in their vision.
 Sure.
 Second of all, we have limited availability with a newborn and three other children in
 life in general.
 Yeah, and also we want to really give excellent care.
 Yes.
 So by limiting the number of people that we'll take on to coach, to walk with, it means we're
 not too spread thin, we're not spread too thin.
 Good.
 And we can actually focus and pray for and meet the needs of the people who are seeking
 our help.
 Yes.
 The other thing I wanted to consider, and this would be maybe number three to think about,
 is over the years, we have an international audience, so we've got listeners from all
 of the world.
 Regularly, people would write to us and say, hey, when we hear you talk about your journeys
 with your therapists or the training you get to do or Sage Hill or, you know, all these
 amazing resources, there's literally nothing like that available to me in our country.
 And so our heart is to actually prioritize people who don't live in the Franklin Nashville
 area because in the Franklin/ Nashville area, you've got a ton of resources from the refuge
 center to the aforementioned Sage Hill. So just a number of amazing resources here. And so our
 hearts would be to really prioritize people who don't have access to those sorts of facilities.
 Yeah, and we'd be meeting over Zoom anyway. So it's not like you need to be here.
 And then finally, we're thinking about this as a kind of a medium term solution. So this isn't a
 one off, hey, I need some wisdom.
 Can I schedule some time with you, you know, one off?
 We're really--
 - Right, like booking a coffee.
 - No, we've seen beauty come from process.
 Where you get to walk with an individual through a season.
 So, and having said that, it's not a long-term commitment.
 You know, you can use this as much as you'd like,
 and if you get what you need,
 or it's not a good fit, there's no hard feelings
 you can move on, but our heart is really
 to come alongside you for a season
 that you would determine of what you need the input for.
 If any of this lights a desire in your heart,
 we're like, oh my gosh, this is something I would love.
 I would love to have deliberate focused,
 intentional care from a biblical wisdom perspective,
 then you can find out more information
 about how it all works, how you would reach out to us
 by going to alynandaj.com/coaching.
 And there you'll find all the information, all the details.
 - I think also probably be good to mention.
 I really want to work with women.
 I think you really want to work with men.
 So I'm quite excited to help people work through some stuff
 and just see what God's going to do.
 - Yeah, 'cause we've had the benefit
 of having incredible mentors in our life.
 - We have.
 - When I think about the leaders that we've had
 who've taken time to sew into us,
 and I would put that across a wide spectrum
 of the professional clinical care
 that we've talked about,
 working with counselors and therapists,
 but also informally working with amazing leaders.
 I think of all the leaders that we've had relationship with to be able to pick their
 brain, to be able to, "Hey, what about this and what about that?"
 We've really, really been helped.
 And so we in turn want to reach out and be able to help other people as well.
 So alynandaj.com/coaching if that's of interest to you.
 So our main topic for this week is how to have more faith.
 Yeah, you're not going to get far in the kingdom of God without faith.
 No, it's currency.
 It is absolute currency.
 We're told that we walk by faith, not by sight.
 I don't know if it's just because of the season that we've walked through.
 We touched a little bit on this in the last episode where we're talking about what is faith.
 When Joshua was walking around Walter Jericho, was he in faith or was he in obedience?
 Does it actually matter?
 But there's two big events that are happening in our life concurrently.
 One, we've talked about a lot, which is adoption.
 One, we'll be talking about in coming weeks.
 Yes.
 But both are a massive faith journey.
 - Yes.
 - And when you're in the midst of it.
 - It all seems crazy.
 - It all seems, yeah, you know, it's the type of thing
 of like, is this, is this faith?
 Like do I have faith?
 Or is my worry and objection actually good, coherent thinking?
 - Yes.
 - Or is it lack of faith or is it unbelief?
 And so, you know, we've had lots of conversations
 over the last couple of weeks, couple of months really,
 about faith and what it looks like.
 - Yeah.
 - And we wanna share with you five things
 to help you grow your faith.
 - Good. What's number one?
 - Number one is this huge encouragement.
 The faith comes by hearing.
 - Romans 10, 17.
 - You know, one of the beautiful things is sometimes
 it's as simple as just reading your Bible.
 - Yes.
 - Like that little thing that I learned
 is to try to read your Bible,
 pray for Daniel, grow, grow, grow.
 Did you get that?
 No, you never had the joy.
 - No, no, I grew up straight up Ethan.
 - That's right. - So yeah.
 - Yeah, play with your Ouija board.
 Is that what, did you have one like that?
 - No, no, we didn't have a song about that either.
 - Yeah, we did have a Ouija board though.
 - You did?
 - Yeah.
 - Why am I not surprised?
 - Yeah, mom taught me how to use it.
 - She did.
 - Yeah, she brought it out at a party.
 Nevermind.
 It's all right, we prayed through it all.
 It's all good.
 Hey kids, do you wanna play with this?
 - No!
 - Yeah.
 - It's all over.
 - It's all over.
 - Okay.
 - Oh gosh.
 You're reading the Bible.
 Like it's very hard to read the stories
 of the great patriarchs, right?
 Like it's really hard to read Abraham's life.
 - Yeah.
 and then to find myself complaining about the measures
 of faith that the Lord's asking me to take.
 Because it's funny, 'cause I think, you know,
 as Christians, we wanna be good, godly,
 faith-filled Christians.
 And I realize some of the things I find the Lord asking me
 to have faith for, I think are huge.
 And then I read Abraham's and I'm like,
 "Yeah, not so much."
 - Yeah, nevermind.
 - No, I'm good.
 I remember one time, this is probably 25 years ago.
 Like, it was so far ago that I wasn't convinced
 if God still spoke today.
 I knew that God spoke through the word of God.
 - So far ago.
 - So far long ago.
 - So.
 - Jumble up those words. - So long ago.
 - So long ago.
 - So long ago.
 - Okay.
 - I wasn't sure if God was speaking today.
 - Okay, that long ago.
 Okay.
 - I knew you spoke through the Bible.
 And I know he spoke through a good sermon.
 - Yeah.
 - But I'm hearing about people saying they saw visions
 or they heard God say,
 and honestly it just sounds out there
 and it sounds a little bit flaky.
 But I have enough faith to be curious about it.
 And I wouldn't have called that faith back then.
 It was maybe hunger, maybe curiosity,
 but it was faith like, ah, could this be?
 And I remember praying and asking God,
 God, do you still speak today?
 So in those days, I'm gonna read through the Bible in a year.
 You're gonna read it every day.
 And it comes to Job 33 verse 14.
 And it says this, "For God does speak,
 "now one way, now another, though man may not perceive it."
 Will you talk about faith?
 comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God.
 Like I've literally been praying, God, do you speak?
 And there's that.
 So now that moves from curiosity to I've got my answer.
 I might not know how he speaks, but he does speak.
 Well, that shifted my faith to a different place and got me to where I am today,
 where I hear God speak as often as I choose to listen, which is an amazing claim.
 Sometimes I never thought possible, but being in the word as elementary,
 that sounds is so important for building faith. So I hear you say that. Yep. And I was reading this
 verse and realized this is also a key. This is 1 Timothy 6 verse 20. It says, "Turn away from
 Godless chatter and the opposing ideas of what is falsely called knowledge, which some have professed
 and in so doing have departed from the faith." So there's basically, basically it's talking about
 but stay away from content that is directly
 in opposition to the word of God.
 Like just back away from that stuff.
 Don't get curious.
 - Right.
 - Don't think you're being well balanced.
 - Don't, you know, just get away from it.
 - Yeah, devote yourself to the scriptures,
 not the things that are contra scriptural.
 - Right.
 - 'Cause it's funny, it says there that
 because they do those things, they depart from the faith.
 - Yes.
 - Which is a very opposite thing of what we're talking about,
 which is growing in your faith.
 - Right.
 Stick with the word, don't deviate from the word.
 Good.
 All right.
 What's number two?
 So number two is do it with the faith you have, which actually makes me think of
 another expression that we use sometimes when we say, like when somebody says, Hey,
 I'm afraid, it's like, great.
 Do it afraid.
 You know, like, you know, feel, feel what you feel and then then go do it.
 Yeah.
 And so do it with the faith that you have.
 And we were thinking about that story about the dad that brings his demonized
 son to Jesus. Yeah. And even in that he says, if. Yeah, because
 well, Jesus being transfigured at the point. Yes. Right. So he
 brings a son. This is the story brings us. Yes, yes, yes. And
 the disciples can't cast out of him. And then Jesus like bring
 the boy to me. He starts violently. I don't know.
 Doing something. Yeah, manifesting. And Jesus like, well, how
 long to be doing this? And the dad's like, well, you know, from
 an early age, you know, if there's anything you could do, and
 she's like, if everything's possible to those who believe,
 Right. And that brilliant line, I do believe, help me overcome my unbelief,
 which might be one of my favorite lines in all of scripture.
 It's so good. It's such an honest answer.
 Yes. Of course he believes because he actually brought his son, like that's faith in action.
 Right. He brought his son. We're standing here. So I believe, but also,
 it hasn't gone according to plan. Yeah. But there's other stuff going on.
 I love that. We can relate to that. Oh my gosh. Yes. I mean, this is where we were,
 like a month ago.
 - Oh, like a couple days ago.
 - I believe that you told me to adopt a baby,
 but I still need $50,000.
 - Yeah.
 - Like I do believe.
 - Yeah.
 - Oh, yeah.
 - So yeah, step out with what you have,
 which is a biblical pattern,
 to him who has much more will be given.
 - Yes.
 - But him who doesn't have,
 even what he does have will be taken from him.
 So if you use the little faith that you do have,
 you'll get more of it.
 - Yes.
 - And if you abandon the little faith that you have,
 you'll actually shrink back from faith.
 Yes, that makes a lot of sense.
 Yes, so start with what you have and be amazed with what happens.
 Right, what's number three?
 Well, before I get to number three,
 I was thinking about a verse that's really encouraging me.
 I think it's 1 Timothy 2, 11.
 I think that's what it is,
 where it says, "If we are faithless, he remains faithful."
 And that's our encouragement too,
 that if you just stumble towards what you think the Lord has done,
 like a couple of times in my life,
 If you ask me to swear on a stack of Bibles,
 which I'm not even sure we're allowed to do,
 but if you're at ask me,
 put me on a lie detector,
 like I think God's told me to do this.
 Are you sure?
 I'm not sure.
 I'm not sure.
 But because I have to make a decision,
 I'm gonna go with what I think God's told me to do.
 - Sure, we've done tons of that.
 - And if it is the Lord,
 he's gonna honor me for obeying him.
 And if it's not the Lord,
 he's gonna honor me for trying.
 - Yes.
 - And I think, you know, in those moments
 where your faith bless, we were like,
 I don't know, but this is the best I've got
 and I'm gonna go there.
 Oh man, he will count that,
 'cause we forget that faith the size of a mustard seed
 will move mountains.
 - Yeah.
 - Like John Arnold would talk me this.
 He would say that when he was leading a healing meeting
 and he would call out a word of knowledge
 and he said, if somebody would respond
 to the word of knowledge,
 that's all the faith they needed to get healed.
 And I was like, really John?
 And he was like, yeah, yeah, like faith is rarely the problem.
 Doubt is the bigger problem.
 - Wow. - But faith isn't.
 Like you don't actually need that much faith.
 And I was like, oh my gosh, that's amazing.
 So whatever faith you have.
 - Start with that.
 - And God will multiply it.
 - Yeah, so good.
 - All right, you asked about number three.
 - I did.
 - Number three, surround yourself with giants.
 - It's a good one.
 - Here's why, I'm gonna take a slight detour
 but come back to it.
 Paul said that we prophesy
 according to the measure of faith that we have.
 So I've learned in the prophetic
 that you get to a stage where your circle of faith
 means that innocent inside that circle,
 you can prophesy with ease.
 - Sure.
 - So I know pretty much from practicing from experience
 that when I prophesy, I know the realm
 with which I can stay in and prophesy
 with a high degree of accuracy.
 - Yes.
 - The trouble is if I just stay in that faith, I'll stag me.
 - Yeah, you gotta be with other people
 that are gonna push you and stretch you.
 - Well when I hang out with Gary Morgan.
 - Yeah.
 - You know, he's operating at a different level.
 And that doesn't mean I can automatically go up there,
 but him doing what he does raises the barrier of what's possible.
 - Sure. - And so when you hang around with
 giants of the faith, what's impossible for you
 seems obvious to them. - Yes.
 - Again, I remember, I've told the story before,
 Steve Long, who's a dear friend of ours,
 before I ever knew Steve.
 I thought that maybe God still healed today,
 but you know, I'm not sure, does he,
 doesn't he, I'm on the fence?
 And you know, I'm kind of more concerned with,
 if God does heal today, then why are all these people
 healed you know I was majoring on that rather anyway I go to see him in Glasgow
 I don't know Steve at this point at all and Steve stands up and he introduces
 himself hi my name's Steve I'm from Toronto it's such a pleasure to be here
 I'm gonna teach tonight on healing the sick and I think probably the easiest way
 to do that is why don't we just ask God to heal the sickest person in the room
 and then everybody else should be easy after that and I'm like I'm over here
 growing like I don't know if my mirth adds up can you check it and that's why
 Well, he did, he healed the sixth person in the room
 and then taught, you know,
 you better believe he had our attention.
 - For Steve, that wasn't abnormal for him.
 - No.
 - So I'm over here going, I don't know, does he,
 I can see that both sides, you know?
 - Yeah.
 - My faith is really small.
 - Steve has resolved in his heart, he does.
 - Steve's over here and he's got like a little,
 so you know, if you come to him for healing
 versus come to me at that time for healing,
 two different realms.
 hang around with Steve, John would say this again,
 like the anointing's better caught than top.
 And that's been my experience.
 But when I'm around people, they're not being cocky,
 they're not being arrogant.
 It's just their history with God is like,
 it's a no brainer that's gonna happen.
 Same thing with John and Carol.
 They would show up everywhere and say,
 "Come Holy Spirit and the Holy Spirit would come."
 And I'd be like, "I don't know if you'll show up for me."
 And according to your faith beyond to.
 - Yeah, I think also there's a,
 like there was a flip side to number two,
 there's a flip side to that.
 And that is also, as much as we're saying,
 hey, basically hang around the generals,
 you know, get around those.
 It also would be wise to not hang around
 with the doubting Thomas.
 You know, like I'm just thinking about,
 what's the verse about a fool?
 The, you know, it's a fool who hangs out with fools.
 Do you know what I'm talking about?
 - I think I'm making stuff up.
 - Oh.
 - I do know, there's a ton of improv verbs.
 - Yeah, yeah, yeah, it's some proverbs.
 - But one contemporary version of that is you become,
 you know, the lowest common denominator
 of the people you hang out with.
 - Sure.
 If you are always hanging around people that really aren't people of faith that are, you
 know, and I'm not, I'm not talking about you're an evangelist and you go out and you meet
 with those people, but you still have your community of faith.
 I'm talking about, you know, as you look around you, you're spending probably more time with
 people that diminish your faith than those that build it.
 That's probably something to look at as well.
 I'm aware because this was me.
 I'm aware that our advice of hang around giants might not be practical.
 Like I remember when I lived in Scotland, I didn't know any giants of the faith
 They were all in America, right? So I'm looking at all my prophetic giants, you know Paul Kane John Paul Jackson Rick Joyner
 You know all these people I couldn't hang around with them
 But what I learned to do was read their books
 Yeah, and that that's a pretty good substitute
 Then what happened is they start showing up in my dreams and teaching me and mentoring me
 So I even you know we are in a privileged position that we know many
 Giants of the faith we really do we got personal relationships with lots of them sure and you might be listening going to lots great for you
 Yeah, you can still live these people have written books are done teaching just listen to it
 Yeah, so there's there's lots of access that we have now that you didn't even have 20 years ago
 Where you're trying to buy somebody's a little white tape of Graham Cook saying something right there
 I mean you can get them all over there everything now
 you know, via podcasts and the internet and stuff.
 And so, and that will work, like in terms of building your faith and catching something.
 - Yeah. - Yeah.
 - Well, number four, you look primed and ready.
 - I am primed and ready.
 Number four is to speak to yourself with your prophetic words.
 - Oh, well, I can't. - And I have a verse for you.
 - Go and give me your verse.
 - First Timothy, one, verse 18, it says, "Timothy, my son, I am giving you this command
 and keeping with the prophecies once made about you so that by recalling them, you may fight
 the battle well. Holding on to faith and a good conscience, which some have rejected and so have
 suffered shipwreck with regards to their faith. So that's, there's two things there isn't there.
 There's, hey, fight the fight of faith using your prophecies. This is what's been said about you.
 Grab ahold of those. Repeat those back. We do a lot of that. We do. But there's also, hey, if you let
 go of it, you could shipwreck your faith.
 So there's not like real gray area in there.
 It's sort of like, hey, pick 'em up and use 'em as a weapon.
 And I think a lot of that is just reminding your heart
 so that you can stay in a position of faith, right?
 - Yeah, absolutely.
 - Okay, God, you said, hey, God, you said.
 And so one of the things we do with our prophetic words
 is, well, you usually type 'em out.
 I was gonna say we type 'em out.
 We don't because I am a T-Rex typer.
 I now have an artificial intelligence that transcribes them.
 I no longer type anything.
 So I can't give you any credit whatsoever, but you have been doing it for the last 18 years.
 So I'll give you some credit.
 Yeah, and the AI does it way faster, more accurate than I do.
 That's amazing.
 I know.
 Okay.
 Anyway, we write them out so that we can read them back to the Lord.
 So whether that's in quiet times or whatever, like to be able to go back, read them and go,
 okay, God, I'm still agreeing with you whether I've seen it happen or not.
 But in doing that, you also then don't end up in the shipwreck category.
 Right.
 And real-time report, you know, was talking about like,
 there's two major things going on in our life,
 like one adoption, the second thing we'll talk about
 in coming weeks.
 - Yeah.
 - That requires huge amounts of faith.
 - Enormous faith, yes.
 - And what I've discovered is that both of them
 share something in common, that they're far larger
 than I'm able to accomplish on my own.
 - Yes.
 - And if I get caught up in the practical,
 which I often do, and part of that is my gift.
 Part of my gift is to take big things,
 distill into small things and break it down
 on what are the practicals.
 list and yeah.
 But when I get caught up in the details, I'm like, Lord, practically speaking, there's
 no way for that to happen.
 And then I think and I worry and I, you know, Gary Morgan says, worries a misuse of imagination.
 Yeah, it's so good.
 But when I do that, I can literally feel my faith ebbing away.
 I can feel myself building a case for why God is wrong.
 Yeah.
 But curiously, everything he's been speaking to is about whether it's adoption or this
 other thing.
 We've got stacks of prophetic words.
 Stacks.
 redose prophetic words, it gives an answer to all of those worries, all of those objections,
 all of those quite practical problems.
 Yes. The storm that's building in the background starts to diminish because you're like actually.
 But also what happens is I find excitement brewing in my heart where once I was worried,
 anxiety, "Mmm, Lord, I'm not sure that's going to happen." I'm now over here going,
 "And it's not that I've ignored those. I've just diminished their influence in my life."
 And I'm just like, "Oh, yeah, God, you said this and this and this."
 And that's one of the beautiful things about prophetic ministry.
 Yeah, wonderful.
 You want me to take the song?
 I can see it.
 Yeah, take it off.
 Number five.
 You know why I want you to take it home?
 My baby is going to wake up any second now.
 All right.
 Number five.
 It's the one that nobody likes to talk about.
 Oh, no.
 What is that?
 It's the waiting game.
 Oh, yes.
 Psalm 37 verse seven.
 I have a love-hate relationship with this verse.
 Do I say Sam?
 You do.
 Psalm.
 Thank you.
 Psalm 37:7 be still before the Lord await patiently for him. Do not
 fret when people succeed in their ways when they carry out their wicked schemes.
 Faith is built upon hope and hope is developed in the absence of what we need.
 Yeah, in the waiting.
 Yeah, absolutely in the waiting.
 So the waiting game is a whole game of tension.
 So what comes during the period that you're waiting for is a hope or as a
 frustration. I tell you a real-time story. Yes. A couple of years ago, we got a prophetic
 word. It's one of the bigger prophetic words we've had in our life. And this prophetic word
 had timing attached to it. Now, sidebar, timing is one of the hardest things to get right in
 prophetic ministry. Right. And so what we've learned to do is if, and this is what happened,
 we got this word. And at the time when I got this word, I was like, well, we'll see if
 that happens. Which sounds rational, but it's actually unbelief, dressed up in Sunday
 close. You know, church, church, well, well, along comes this timing and the timing came
 and nothing happened. But what I noticed is that when it didn't come to pass, my heart
 had actually moved to disappointment before it was indifference. And that was a disappointment.
 The disappointment told me somewhere I believed that word, somewhere I hoped that word would
 come true, somewhere I'm kind of disappointed. It didn't. So I latched on to that like,
 "Ah, what about that?"
 And so what we've learned to do is
 decouple timing from your words.
 Because often the timing,
 more often than not, the timing is wrong,
 but the word is still true.
 - But the word is accurate, yeah.
 - So what I realized is,
 okay, actually that word has brought me hope
 as I've been waiting for it.
 And now that it's actually a word I pray back
 to the Lord almost every day, several times a day.
 Like, Lord, you said this.
 - Yes.
 - And I'm now beginning to call it in,
 and as the waiting is happening,
 it's now fueled something in my heart
 for longing for faith.
 And it's curious because when I heard the word,
 he was so ridiculous, he was so unlikely.
 It was somewhat offensive, to be honest.
 - Okay.
 - But now I'm like, oh Lord, this,
 it's not oh Lord, wouldn't that be amazing pie
 in the sky?
 It's like, oh Lord, that just seems totally like you.
 - Yeah, it seems like something you would do.
 - Oh, totally seems like something you do.
 What, I can't wait till this happens.
 - Yes.
 - It would be amazing to estimate.
 - Yeah, for sure.
 - And that comes out of waiting.
 - Yeah, it grows, doesn't it?
 - Yeah.
 - It grows in the waiting, or you can kill it.
 It's time for the glasses again.
 - Come on.
 That makes me think of this.
 Isaiah 40 verse 30, we all know this first.
 It's like one of those ones that gets stitched on pillows,
 large pillows 'cause it's a longer verse.
 Even youth grow tired and weary and young men stumble
 and fall, but those who hope in the Lord
 will renew their strength.
 They will soar on wings like eagles.
 They will run and not grow weary.
 They will walk and not be faint.
 Isn't that amazing?
 - Yeah, why does that remind you of what I was saying?
 Well, you know, we can get tired in the waiting, you know?
 It's actually really common to get tired in the waiting.
 And I think the encouragement, hey, even you do this.
 Like, you know, like everybody gets tired, but if you wait,
 like just sort of to sort of reposition your expectation
 on the Lord and what He says,
 as opposed to what you're seeing right now.
 - Yeah, and there's that beautiful contrast
 that they get tired and weary, but when they wait--
 filled with strength.
 - They're actually filled with strength.
 The thing that they had to stop for
 'cause they didn't have, they suddenly have.
 - Yeah, and usually that's the thing.
 I don't know very many people that are good at waiting.
 We just don't like to wait.
 So I think it is something that it's like a godly thing
 to build.
 And the good thing is God gives us so many opportunities
 to do that.
 - Yeah, it's amazing how you orchestrate it like that one.
 - It's just amazing, who knew?
 - So there's five things to help you grow in your faith.
 Number one, faith comes by hearing, so get in the word.
 Number two, just use the faith that you have
 and God will add more to it.
 Number three, surround yourself with giants.
 Number four, speak to yourself with the prophetic words
 that you have.
 And number five, do not be afraid of the waiting game.
 - Yep, so good.
 - AJ Jones, would you like a listener's question?
 - No.
 (both laughing)
 - Let's try that again.
 AJ Jones, would you like a listener's question?
 - Yes.
 - Tough, I have run out of energy.
 Okay, so I'm trying to keep a good attitude, but I'm just like, that baby is going to be awake any second now.
 It's good to be bad with you.
 It's good to be bad podcasting.
 Yeah.
 Thank you for tuning in.
 Thank you for listening.
 If you would like to show notes, go to alynandaj.com/297.
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