Hearing God (Part 2) Q&A | Ep. 165

What blocks us from hearing God clearly? We examine how our thought life becomes the primary battlefield where the enemy plants "poison pills" of deception wrapped in partial truths. The distinction becomes crystal clear: when God speaks, peace follows—even in urgency—while the enemy's voice brings anxiety and apprehension.

Many believers struggle with divine communication because they've created a buffet-style approach to Scripture, embracing comfortable passages while disregarding challenging ones. This selective obedience severely limits spiritual hearing and stunts growth. Through powerful testimonies and biblical examples, we demonstrate how God speaks most clearly to those with humble, teachable hearts.

The episode offers practical guidance for developing spiritual discernment, highlighting the crucial role of spiritual mentors and community. Like Samuel who needed Eli's guidance to recognize God's voice, we often require mature believers to help navigate our spiritual journey. This requires humility—something our individualistic culture often discourages.

Perhaps most importantly, we reveal the circular relationship between hearing and obeying: God speaks to those willing to act on what they hear, creating a positive cycle that increases spiritual sensitivity over time. God is more interested in developing your character than changing your circumstances, speaking into today's challenges to prepare you for tomorrow's calling.

Chapters

• 0:00 The Vision of Blood Cells
• 9:13 Dialoguing with God
• 18:28 Traps That Block God's Voice
• 24:08 Heart Belief and Obedience
• 30:07 Wisdom: Applying God's Word
• 35:10 Questions and Practical Guidance

Transcript

j - Jesus M. Ruiz: 0:03

The vision received was that of blood cells traveling throughout the body, supplying the much needed oxygen and other nutrients to the differing members of the body to fulfill their purpose. Once the blood cells are spent, they must return back to the heart to be refilled before being sent out again and fulfill their purpose and fulfill their purpose. I asked my wife this is not her idea, this is mine. I asked my wife if she would share anything after my message on her heart, because she had got it. The reason this message came about is because my wife asked me do you have a teaching on hearing God? I'm like no, I didn't think anything of it. Then I found out, like last Tuesday, I'm going to be teaching. And then I sought the Lord and said what do you want me to share this week? What is it that you want to share? And her question came to my mind and it wouldn't leave me. I was like, okay, I don't have a teaching, let's do it.

j - Jesus M. Ruiz: 0:58

So I sat in my car during planning time and just listen, listen, write down, listen, write down. And I was having an exchange with God and she didn't know this. But I got home one day and she was like, oh, I've got to share with you something. I found this blah blah blah. I was like everything that she was telling me I had just studied in the car with the Lord I mean just scriptures, different things cited conclusions. I was like I need you to make what I'm about to share personal and practical. So that's what I asked her to do, and then Bishop is gonna also take the floor and we're gonna hopefully have some sort of exchange. Do you have anything you wanna share?

Patricia Ruiz: 1:52

I just wanted to expound on some of the things that Jay shared and I have to tell you all I was very nervous because I've been praying and asking God to show me what to share out of a complete book that I just read, and what I can tell you is through the book God has been reminding me of what he showed me when he first called me that he wants to talk to us all the time. He's concerned about every small detail of our life and if we will set our mind to seek him in all the small matters and not take things for granted, he will speak to you specific things and sometimes you're not going to know why you're doing things, why you're making phone calls. God is just moving your heart and He will, for me this week, confirm His word over and over again. And what I wanted to expound on that Jay shared is that in the dialogue with the Lord, you have your dialogue with the Lord and he requires a response and the more you respond and the quicker you are to respond. It's obedience the more you will hear.

Patricia Ruiz: 2:59

But there are some traps that come into play. It's our flesh we come into. You know we all come in from different backgrounds. We have different experiences that we've gone through, and our bishop has referred to it as the subconscious, the deep well inside of us, and sometimes to make sense of information we draw into the deep well. I come from a family that's extremely analytical and that's a very common thing in my family. We judge by what we see and what we know from our own experience, and many times we mess up because the well has some corrupt things in it, things that have not been renewed by the Lord.

Patricia Ruiz: 3:40

So another reference that Bishop made earlier is our thoughts. We are told in the scriptures to take every thought captive to the obedience of Christ. He said that to us for a reason the enemy comes in through our thought life. He speaks to us through thoughts and sometimes he sounds really good because he gives us a lot of truth with a little poison pill, just a little one. And so, in this week, one example for me somebody had said something to me that was truth. The words that that person spoke to me were true, but the enemy was going to town with me on those words and God broke through the thought and told me to call and clarify, and I did, and that ended the battle right away.

Patricia Ruiz: 4:29

Many times we sit there and we have battles in our mind unnecessarily. If we would just go to the word, go to the Lord or go to the source that the Lord calls us to go to, we can take our thoughts captive. The other traps that come in is many of us are compromising in different ways in our lives. Everybody knows what theirs is. I'm not here to name any, but God says to be like the Psalm 1 man that we do walk not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor sit in the seat of the sinners. We are to meditate on his word day and night.

Patricia Ruiz: 5:04

My husband made emphasis on meditation. Meditation is thinking about His Word day and night, chewing on His Word day and night, and as we do that, He will continue to give us His thoughts. He says my thoughts are not your thoughts and my ways are not your ways. Yet we are His child and His heart's desire is that we fellowship with him. He wants us to know His thoughts and He wants us to know His ways, but we cannot know those things if we're stuck in our own way. So those are the things that I feel I could add emphasis to and highlight.

Patricia Ruiz: 5:45

I can mention a few of the substitutes that we use Good books, counselors, religious services, information. We're bombarded with information, guys. The information age from email and we have to guard our hearts. We have to guard our hearts because we need to spend more time in what He says. Yes, we need to be alert, but, as my husband said, He will tell you what to do If you hear His voice, if you cultivate your ear to hear Him, He will tell you what to do.

Patricia Ruiz: 6:18

For me and for some others here, emotions sometimes block our hearing. We get emotional in a matter. We cannot discern the voice of God in it. That is a time that we need to seek counsel. We need to seek prayer with others that are not emotionally entangled, and His voice will prevail and He will either confirm or set us free from the thought pattern that' s you know causing the distress, but here should not be distress with God.

Patricia Ruiz: 6:49

God does not come in that way. He comes in, he woos and he calls. The enemy, gives us an urgency. You need to do this now. You feel this apprehension. The Lord is not that way. There have been times when I have felt an urgency, but it hasn't hit me the way it does when the enemy's attacking.

Patricia Ruiz: 7:12

There's peace If God is speaking. There is peace Because he knows every situation from beginning to end. And that's the thing. If you think about it, if you want to know what to do, He knows. He knows the beginning from the end. He's got the big picture and so you know. It would be like going to an all-seeing, all-knowing person. I'd rather do that than sit there and try to figure it out for myself. So for the youth, for the young ones, there has to be an interest in God. You have to cultivate that. It's not going to come real easy. You're in a world that's calling your attention to a lot of things and you've got to decide the song that we sing. One thing I've asked one thing, I seek one thing. And if you talk to him and you're honest and you tell him I don't understand this, I don't know how to do this, he will meet you where you are, amen.

Clarence B. Harris: 8:18

In Romans, chapter 10, verse 10. It says it's with the heart man believed unto righteousness, and with the mouth, confession is made known unto salvation.

Clarence B. Harris: 8:38

The heart. You see, the reason why you need to hear is so you can do. And then a lot of people don't want to hear because of their heart. It's like the atheist saying I don't want to hear nothing about God because then I must realize that someone's greater than I and I'm going to change my paradigm, I'm going to change my world, I'm comfortable with my world. I had a brother tell me not long ago he's not an atheist, he's a believer. And he said I want you to see if you can see any fallacy with this line of reasoning.

Clarence B. Harris: 9:14

I need to separate myself from the body in order to hear God. Is there any logic in that? Is there any logic in a lamb, or even a full-grown adult, we'll say elephant, or a full-grown adult lion, or maybe a full-grown adult zebra, separating themselves from the pack or from the herd, just wandering, meandering about the jungle or the savannah? What do you think will happen to that one person? All by themselves, be devoured, because the saint he walks about as a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour. And bear that in mind, if you can be separated from your source of energy, from your source of protection and the oversight thereof, then you put yourself in a very vulnerable position. You see, you hear God to obey. That's what the hearing is all about. But we've seen that from. If you don't want to obey, why would you want to hear and why would God speak to you? If God or your parents speak to you and you say, like this here, whatever, you've already closed your heart and your mind and you have fixed yourself to listen to the lies of the devil by default, if you're an adult male and you want to lead your family, but you don't want to subject yourself to any other males, then you're one of the fools too. Why should God speak to you If you don't want to be held accountable? Why should he talk to you? You're not in His fold, you're not in His flock, you're not in His body. You separate yourself out of disobedience, and only by obedience can you begin to let the oil flow again. That's how God works. A prophet, apostle, a pastor, teacher no one is exempt and no one person is the body within themselves. So we look at this here.

Clarence B. Harris: 11:22

Why is it so many Christians stumble about hearing God? Well, number one they don't know the Word of God. Number two it's a hard one to allow them to receive all the things of God that pertain to their situation. Notice I said their situation. Notice I said their situation. In other words, it's like a person believing the Bible, or all the sections they want to believe, but systematically disregard the sections that they do not want to believe. In the same manner, do people call themselves Christians to obey that which they prefer, but rather not voyage into the areas that which they themselves may not be in agreement with. There's a sister that called me this past week, a long time friend, over 20 something years. We were supposed to have met a year ago to discuss the idea. She said well, Bishop Harris?

Clarence B. Harris: 12:17

I don't know what every other pastor that I come in contact with. They are anointed and preachers and Holy Ghost filled. And you're the only one and you're the only one, you're the only one telling me that women should not be pastors. She said I don't know about that. I don't know about that. And so she called me again this past week. It's been a year ago since I spoke to you about getting together with her, so it won't appear as though I'm the only one that females believe this also.

Clarence B. Harris: 12:48

You see, whatever it is was your problem when you were youth, whatever defect you had in your family, whatever defect you had among your dad or your mother or whatever. Or you think your parents are all that, when they're not and they're currently on their way to hell, or you refer to their wisdom rather than the wisdom of God, or you lean upon your own understanding but not the word of God. When you do those things, you make yourself very vulnerable. Crying out right now is the word wisdom. The Lord always tells us what is the wise thing to do. Here's a case in point. Under normal circumstances, you're putting the predicament where you're in a financial bind. What type of decision should you make when you're in a financial bind? Probably some whereby we should cut back on some things? Probably maybe. So let some things go. For example, if you have, you know what can be some things in the house that you can cut back upon but not encroach upon your living expenses.

j - Jesus M. Ruiz: 13:52

Cable.

Clarence B. Harris: 13:54

Well, we don't have cable right now. Exactly right. You know what Wisdom crieth out the necessities. All right, you may let wisdom be the principal thing. What is wisdom? Wisdom is the fullness of hearing God take His Word and apply it in the right situation. Why is that? Because God don't tell you everything. He does not tell you everything. He expects you to take all that he taught you before and apply it to your current situation. That will also not only determine your ability to hear God, it also determines your ability to apply the Word of God in everyday situations, which is wisdom, and it measures your maturity. So now we go from hearing God to your maturation process. From hearing God, they say how old are you spiritually? There's a natural age. There are some people who have a natural age of 40, but they function at the age of 14, 15. Very narcissistic, pleasure-seeking, irresponsible, wants to take care of them. There are others who may be 17, 18, who have maybe in the age they carry and conduct themselves with more wisdom and gravity than their contemporaries and they conduct themselves maybe like they're 25 or 30.

Clarence B. Harris: 15:15

We had a very interesting conversation with my daughter, Jasmine, this past week. She said she doesn't know what happened to her generation of peers at school. She says common sense is not common anymore, it's gone. It's just amazing. She's the youngest person, sometimes in the class that she's taking, because some of the students are taking the same class two and three times and she says she don't know. We asked her yesterday at the table what is it? What is the problem with the youth today? What is it? And she said no, it's not just the youth, it's the adults too. She said adults are coming to me, a college student, and I'm saying flip it out, you don't have to come to me. And I said Jazz, what is it that they're lacking? She said number one it's a spiritual problem. She said number two they were never parented. They did not get wisdom from their parents. If they did, they don't apply it, or they just never had parents, fathers and mothers to parent them and instruct them and discipline them. They're not disciplined and they're not knowing. And then she came out with several other reasons as well, but those are the primary two, and that is well. Those are the primary two that she dealt with. There's about five that she gave.

Clarence B. Harris: 16:34

So, hearing God, how do you know? When you hear God, do you know His Word. Have you brought every thought and every imagination to the obedience of Christ, to His Word? Do you know what the Word says about it? Recently it came to my attention that some do not know that you can actually find answers in the Word of God to everyday circumstances and situations. The answers are in the book. Do you know how to find them? Do you know how to use the Word of God? Well, maybe on a Tuesday night. We haven't did this in several years, but maybe we might want to look at how to study the Bible, how to use the Bible and study aids, how to use the Bible and study aids. How to find answers to questions. So you don't have to lean upon what your own understanding. So when you do hear something, you can determine whether or not it is of God or not.

Clarence B. Harris: 17:31

Because I declare, I'm hearing a lot of people today who are hearing God, but based on my knowledge and my experience, I can tell them God didn't tell you that. Then they will say, well, well, well, well, I don't agree with you. That's fine, I'm not going to argue with you. You all know me. I will instruct, I will give you, you know, admonition and then I will allow you to do whatever you want to do, to your own detriment and your own destruction of your own family. I do not pry and get in people's lines, I don't go around asking everything about you, etc. I just let you go. Because unless you want to hear God and do His will, then why should I waste my time telling you? If you're a rebel, a rebel at heart, if you don't believe there is a God, then that's a choice.

Clarence B. Harris: 18:27

The Bible says about that person as well, who said that in his heart the fool. You cannot look at the things in the world today and say that it came here haphazardly and just came out of nowhere. That cannot be so. Why isn't your feet sticking out of your jaw when you walk sideways? It was just randomly put together. Things are not random. Everything God has ordered, including His Word. Order my steps in your Word, o God. So at this point, does anyone have any questions you want to give to Elder Jay? Any questions in clarity? Any understanding? Any questions?

Clarence B. Harris: 19:15

If you don't, then I have some for you. Okay, anyone have any questions?

Clarence B. Harris: 19:24

Yes, ma'am.

Katy Leyva: 19:26

You emphasized that you need a man of God in order to develop your hearing of the Lord, that it's good to go to the man of God to become more sensitive to or exercise hearing the Lord. What would be a practical thing that? I mean, I operate in my life and certainly I seek counsel, but I operate in my life and I don't know that I see that door. When do you need to? I heard the example that you shared of the practical farming.

j - Jesus M. Ruiz: 20:03

Well, when I was in my youth and I was with a particular, youth was like 20, between 20 and 23. Had a pastor in my life. You're an old youth now.

j - Jesus M. Ruiz: 20:15

Yeah.

j - Jesus M. Ruiz: 20:18

You guys know that I was dealing with a lot of issues. I lost my mom, I had a full mortgage, I was going to school full time and there were a lot of things in my life that I needed to make decisions on. Didn't realize I needed to make decisions on them until the Lord started speaking with me and you know, you've heard about the comics, you've heard about different spiritual decisions. I was in a relationship at the time with another girl and a lot of times you get so involved and caught up in the flesh that you don't think clearly, you're not thinking spiritually. And I was able to go to him and he was able to speak into my life Things that needed to direct me in the right direction.

j - Jesus M. Ruiz: 21:10

And when you have decisions that you're not sure of sometimes they're just open decisions like should I buy this house or not?

j - Jesus M. Ruiz: 21:19

Should I buy, you know, major decisions, should I buy this car or not I think it's always good for you to humble yourself and to ask people that you know are in the know, that have experience in those matters. That's a part of you saying teach me, I need help. I don't think that I was the type of person that was ever afraid to. If I had a scripture that came up, I wasn't sure what it meant or what it was talking about go and ask him. I wouldn't just sit there and be like. You know, there are times where sometimes the Lord is taking you through the scriptures and he doesn't highlight a certain verse, yet that's the verse that you had a question on. You just skip it, you go on, you keep going on with the Lord and you just receive whatever he's teaching you at the moment, because a lot of times later on, I'll be like oh, okay, I get that verse that I had a question on, but he was taking you through other things.

j - Jesus M. Ruiz: 22:17

So you know, like I tell my kids, I don't have to teach you the understanding right now. I need you to teach you the steps. If you go through the steps Later on, you'll get the understanding, sometimes I need to teach you some other things first before I get to that harder, more complex question. So I think the idea you have to have is that I'm going to humble myself, I'm going to ask questions, I'm going to ask the man of God, I'm going to go ask the elder and just see if I'm on the right track. And sometimes you may hear the Lord and you're like gosh, I'm not sure if that was him because of what was asked of you, and maybe your flesh goes like, oh, I ain't doing that, and you start making you question that that was actually God. Those are the moments you need to go and say listen, bishop Elder, I think I heard him say this what do you think? And I think that's what it, that's, that's all it is, because that's all Samuel did. Samuel did not know that he was hearing the Lord and he went to Eli and then Eli perceived and said okay, go back and do this. So there's the commands, there's the instruction being given, and I'm sure that there's many more examples. I couldn't obviously fit them all in, but I think I fit enough in to highlight for you that the Old Testament are testimonies, they're not just stories.

j - Jesus M. Ruiz: 23:31

Testimonies are things that you testify in open court, and God's word is a testimony of Himself. This is how I deal with my children. This is how I love them. This is how I protect them. This is how I discipline them. This is how I correct them. This is how I am. And if you take those and apply them and realize this is how God is, then you start making better decisions. You know, Jesus said I love God's law. I meditate on it. Blessed is the man that meditates on his law. And if you start thinking on it more and more often, more and more often, he's going to speak to you through the meditations that you have of Him. Does that answer your question? Yes, go ahead, bishop.

Clarence B. Harris: 24:16

In Hebrews, chapter 5: 13 and 14, it says For everyone that uses milk that's unskilled for the word of God, the word of righteousness for he has made but strong meat belongs to them that are full of it, full age, even to those who, by reason of use, have in their senses exercised to discern both good and evil. That's kind of piggybacking on the question but, how would you take that verse and respond upon it further?

Clarence B. Harris: 24:42

if I was in hearing and applying.

j - Jesus M. Ruiz: 24:43

Paul said I forgot who it was to, but he said to the people of God I wish I could teach you more, but you're still floundering in the milk. I can't teach you physics if you can't do add, subtract, if you can't do multiply, divide. It's a waste of time. I need to get you to get out of this milk arena that you find yourself in. And, like I said, it all goes back to the individual. You have to have a proper idea of what state you're in, because young people usually in the natural, have an overflated idea of their capabilities and their strengths and they think that they can take on the world and ain't nothing going to happen to them.

j - Jesus M. Ruiz: 25:30

We do that spiritually. We come into the kingdom, we get a knowledge of truth. It's like a golden nugget, it's like finding a pearl in the midst of a field and we get super excited about it, super zealous, and we go off and run and, like we've heard before in the things, we go off and run and we haven't been sent, we haven't been trained, we haven't been equipped. And that goes back to the heart of that man. The heart of that man has to be humble, has to understand gosh, we go through it in our life. Our children have to understand there was a stage where I had to be taught. I didn't just grow up to be a wise adult, there was this whole training period in our spiritual lives. We have to come to the to to to the, to accept the fact that if I'm going to grow in the Lord I have to have a training period. I can't just be sent, no matter what I think I may have been like that.

j - Jesus M. Ruiz: 26:24

I don't think I was, but I may have been like that because I went to Christian schools all my life.

j - Jesus M. Ruiz: 26:28

I knew the word.

j - Jesus M. Ruiz: 26:29

I heard it. I mean I could quote scriptures. They made us memorize and when I actually came into covenant I could have had that idea. But now I'm thinking about it. No, I didn't have that idea. I wanted to get into the word again. I wanted to go after it again, again and get more deep into the more deeply into the Word, so that I have greater understanding than just the surface level that I knew. But that was my heart at the time. It wasn't the heart that said, oh God, I know everything. Now let me go. I was still very hesitant. I had to have a friend who wasn't in the covenant sort of push me along to minister to this person the covenant and get with them. So it's a matter of heart, of humility, Althea.

Althea Harris: 27:11

I was going to say. Is it safe to say, to qualify what you just said, that going to the man of God, he also has to be skillful in the word, because there are people who ministers that are just feeding people with milk because that's all they have. They're not solid in the word themselves and very spiritually minded Some congregations where the person may not even be in tune with things of the spirit. So you have to qualify the man of God that you are going to to seek that help. Man of God that you are going to seek that help, because, even though me and I are not perfect, sometimes people are led astray, following a minister that they think is hearing God, but he's not even skillful in doing it.

j - Jesus M. Ruiz: 27:59

If you're a youth like you're describing and you're aware that you cannot trust the man of God, you've already got a lot of spiritual awareness. Usually babies don't have that awareness and so they're going to go to the only man of God that they know. They don't have anyone else to go to. They don't even know that they should actually be somewhere else at the time. What I'm saying is that the scriptures, I think, show us that if you're in that position, there doesn't seem to be another man of God that you could go to.

j - Jesus M. Ruiz: 28:27

If you had the awareness and let's say you didn't have the awareness God, because of your heart and seeking after him in spite of those circumstances, can reach you, can teach you directly and through the man of God that isn't right in his own place. Now, if you're spiritually aware enough and mature enough to know that that man of God is probably off in a lot of areas, then you probably need to move and go somewhere else, because you can't be fed under someone that you know is corrupt. But if you're a babe and you don't know any better, I believe God can override that and still reach you and still bring you to the place. My example was perfect. I had a minister.

j - Jesus M. Ruiz: 29:04

That was good in some areas and foul in some other areas. I got a lot of good things from him. I got a lot of bad things from him, but in spite of all, that got me out of that and I'm standing here today in a whole, much better place spiritually, physically and in all respects, because my God is an in spite of kind of God. I didn't know any better. At the time. I thought this was like whew, I'd never seen anything like this and I was completely impressed and I was awed at what God was doing. But there were other things that I didn't have the maturity to stand against and to come out of until I actually came out of it. So that's what I'm saying. I mean spiritually aware. At that age, you're probably not going to know that you need to go elsewhere. Bishop, do you want to answer or do you want to let Ms. Marta? Ms. Marta, go ahead.

Marta Leyva: 29:50

I can give testimony to that, because I was in Fort Worth in a fellowship that was very strong on outreach and John, because of my existence, had found the same fellowship in Columbia, where he was, and he was a part of that fellowship and I had the feeling, I believed, that God was going to get through to the preacher of this fellowship to bring through him truth, bring him to truth and that thus truth through him. And the Lord picked John up in an elaborate scheme. He took him in a horrible bus to a tiny little clubhouse at night which you don't do to a little church, and got him in the church and called him out in front of everybody and sent him back up here, which went against all quote quote common sense to everybody. Everybody was like that's foolish. You have this, you're going to be a doctor in Canada and how can you give up this and that and the other met the other one.

Marta Leyva: 31:33

But John obeyed the voice of the Lord and he came to Fort Worth and we had less than a penny we didn't even have a half a penny and I went with him. The two of us walked together into TCU and John wound up graduating from TCU by the grace of God, and in the meantime he pulled us out of that church that we were in and headed towards the only church that we could find that preached Jesus' name. And there we began to grow until the standards issue got to be too much. And then we struggled, but we stayed in the Word. We stayed. We even had a beautiful pastor, who has since recently passed. We all want to be with Floyd, who came to our home and preached to whomever would come in our neighborhood.

Clarence B. Harris: 32:39

So, Marta, with the sequence of John coming from school there and transitioning to Fort Worth, what was the center? What was the gist of the message?

Marta Leyva: 32:51

I had wanted to get back here the whole time, but I felt like God wasn't going to ever bring me back here as a furniture to me. Back where? To my name? With his fellowship, oh, with his fellowship.

j - Jesus M. Ruiz: 33:08

So you're describing your situation as that. He's in spite of God.

Marta Leyva: 33:12

In spite of everything, god picked us up and turned our life around and brought us back here. And then he brought kids. I was 15 years of Egypt, completely changed, completely caved, completely turned around. He never looked back, not one time. And I have to sit here and tell you, God means business. He knows what He's doing.

Clarence B. Harris: 33:55

f I could just add that and come to a close later I would say this Marta in the midst of everything else. You all, when you left Miami, you were very interested in state of affairs, somewhat in the state of rebellion Somewhat, and then moving on, moving on to looking at other, somewhat in a state of rebellion Yourself Somewhat.

Clarence B. Harris: 34:09

Well, I'm trying to be mild and then moving on, moving on to looking at other people and their situations.

Clarence B. Harris: 34:16

The Lord had it all worked out that you know, similar to Glenys. There have been years that have passed by and you had access that I had busy y'all in Texas. I had been to other ministries there. You all came down to Houston when I came and spoke, etc. And there was a time that you all wanted to get out of your situation. You wanted to move to Georgia and pray. I'm going to confess to you I was not praying for the Lord to bring you to Georgia, and also Glenys, I was not praying for the Lord to bring you to Georgia either.

Clarence B. Harris: 34:48

Yeah, I forgot that message.

Clarence B. Harris: 34:52

The only thing I was praying is that, where you all were, in, the state that you were in and this is where you got yourselves in the Lord did not bring you anywhere until He dealt with you all. So when you come here, you be teachable and ready to learn. And it's what? Three, four, five, six, seven, eight years, whatever it went by, if not more, Are three, four, five, six seven, eight years.

Marta Leyva: 35:09

Whatever it went by, if not more, Are you in Texas in 15 years.

Clarence B. Harris: 35:12

I've been moving to Toronto since 2003. Yeah, man, yes, ma'am, so in the same way with Glenys. I have all your emails on file. I have all your letters sent from Australia. I kept them on file. They came in handy, by the way, the situation that came up.

Clarence B. Harris: 35:25

But with that there, I wanted to say that because of your situation, you put yourself in that situation for the most part, and I'm not one to jump in and smash people out of the fire. I'm not a bleeding female that if I see my child busting their face I'm going to run down there and put it to hurt themselves. No, after you hurt yourself, when you come to your right sense and right mind and you want help, we'll be on the to do what's necessary to help you out. But you have to come with the right mind and you must come when God says so and you're willing to come with God, because I'm going a certain path, a certain direction and I'm not going to carry people that I've got to fight. It's people on the way. You can fight where you came from and stay there. I hate to be cruel about that, but I'm just quite candid.

Clarence B. Harris: 36:12

But I'm so glad I worked everything out and brought all of you here in this time. I know, even with Jay and Patricia, this is not your first choice, this is your second choice, but Lord worked it out. He said well, Lord, let it be, let it be. It would have been nice. Anybody can help with music better than me, it would be nice. But then I could look at others in the same situation. You know you have to have a mind to serve God. I'm not one to say come, I'm not asking for your money. I'm there, actually, with the time that we're living in, Lord, who are we supposed to be with? Because I don't want people that are not about you hanging around me when I need to go and do your business.

Clarence B. Harris: 36:54

Good.

Patricia Ruiz: 36:56

I just wanted to address Katy's situation, in that God calls us to walk in, we become mature, so that then we can disciple others. So it's not just the man of God but the elders in the church that are to be ministering, men to men, women to women for the most part. And then the other thing I wanted to say um, I'm losing my thought. Um, when you, when we pray about situations, God is more concerned with our character. It goes with with what you said. It went on my notes and I forgot to say this He's more concerned with your character. So he's not going to take you out of the situation all the time or change the who or the what. He's going to change you first. He's going to work in your heart and then you will be, as he said, teachable and he will be able to guide you and lead you where you need to go.

Patricia Ruiz: 37:49

Many times we go to the Lord with a oh, if you would only do this and you would only do that and you would change my circumstances. And one of the illustrations that I ran across which I thought was a little bit funny is if Paul had said you know, while I'm in prison I can't do anything. But if you would get me out of this prison, I could build the kingdom of God. But what did he do? He wrote letters, and that is what is the New Testament. Today, you need to bloom where you're planted. You need to know that he is a today God. He may talk to you about the future, give you a goal, but he is a today God. So let him do whatever he needs with you today so that he can then use you in the future. Amen, amen, amen, amen.

j - Jesus M. Ruiz: 38:34

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