VOICES OF DESTINY 2

Hey guys, welcome. Great to see you all. Hope you've had a wonderful week. And, uh, welcome to the second session on Voices of Destiny. Voices that we need for connection and expansion and formation in our life. If we are going to have a different direction, then we need to host a different conversation. And so glad to join this conversation with you guys and just exciting together again today as we think about the five voices that help us unfurl and untangle the divine destiny in our life.

And so we're gonna pick off, or pick up, where we left off last week. We're gonna start again by looking at two voices today: the voice of the enemy and the voice of the friend. And you'll remember that I said right at the beginning last week, but actually, even though this is five voices of destiny, we look at the voice of the enemy because almost they provide the arc in the story. They're the protagonists. They're the one who continuously surrounds our life, but they are super helpful in us understanding the season that we're in. And you could think of it in two ways today. I know you have your notes there, hope those, uh, are helpful as we journey through this. The other day, perhaps there's two ways you can think about the enemy. One is to think about it as adversity. And while then picture a face on that or put a name to that, just realize that actually adversity functions a little bit like an enemy in our life. And then, of course, you can think of it as an adversary, someone who's actively opposing you and your expansion and has designs upon reduction of your worldview and where you're going in life. And so those two little areas will help us as we think through that, particularly in all of these relationships. We need them all to come into expansion, to come into the fullness, to move from crisis to fullness. And, uh, the voice of the enemy is where we're gonna start today.

So Father, thank you for your grace. Thank you for this gathering. Thank you for what you're forming and doing in our lives today. We pray as we unpack this together. I pray for, uh, that you would enlighten us. I pray that you would awaken us. I pray that you would safeguard this. That you would heighten your revelation in our lives. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen.

Now, the voice of an enemy, in some ways, is pretty easy to discern and detect in our lives. We can see it coming. Often, it is the voice of disruption in our lives. It is a voice, of course, of provocation. And we're going to pick up on that word and, and its meaning a little later, and intimidation. And it's characterized and surrounded by warfare. In fact, often when the Father is teaching us to engage in warfare, the Bible says he trains my hands for war. And one of the ways that he trains our hands for war is he permits an enemy to encroach upon our territory to help us embrace a new mentality. And so you recognize, my goodness, there comes the enemy. It's time for a shift in mentality. It's time for me to think differently, to reposition my mindset, to reposition my moments, and to enter into something fresh and the Father has for us. So the enemy prowls and propels us outwards and forwards into territory that will eventually be ours. And they become, in some ways, a gift. A gift through the back door, for sure, but a gift nonetheless. It doesn't feel like a season of favor. It feels like a seasonal warfare, but it does become a gift to us. And so when an enemy appears on the horizon of our life, it's not that we're being denied access. We're actually being further propelled towards their promise. And if we can embrace that kind of viewpoint and that kind of perspective, it's going to help us navigate that season without becoming disheartened. It'll actually become a season that distinguishes our information. But not so one encourages. If that's where you are today, if you're in that season, you might good as I'm surrounded by loss, by lack, by loneliness, all the echoes of the voice of an enemy. If I am surrounded by struggle and shame and all of those things, I want to encourage you today to do: Don't be afraid of the process, but be really intentional about the people you invite into the process. This process will happen all the way through our lives. It will be cyclical in our lives, or very least seasonal in our lives. And so once you begin to understand this is part of life's process, my only choice in it is to be intentional about the posture that I bring to it and be intentional about the people or the voices that I invite into that process. Then that's what begins to form us and allows for destiny to be formed. And it allows us to schedule conversations that change the season in that way.

So, as I mentioned, an enemy is someone who is a voice of provocation in our lives. And that word, pro-vulcari, in the Latin means "for the voice." For the voice. Literally, "pro" means for, "vucari" is for voice. And so an enemy actually helps us to rediscover our voice, particularly when we've surrounded our souls with comfort, when we like the season that we're in, but that season is less than perhaps we're called to engage. You remember that last week we talked about how David was in the palace? It actually looked like the fulfillment of purpose in his life. He was surrounded by everything that the prophet had seemed to indicate he would possess. And yet, none of it was really his. It was, it was a random that it wasn't within him. And so the voice of the enemy emerges in that moment and begins to provoke, begins to help him again find his voice. It catapults our thinking. It moves and propels us forward. And that provocation, particularly, is helpful. We're moving here into page three of your notes. I'm gonna dance a little around the notes today, but I just wanna, uh, highlight this as we begin. That provocation actually is helpful in abandoning our apathy. If we're putting a cute little tweet phrase on it, you would say it's the wrestle that doesn't allow you to settle. It's the wrestle that doesn't allow you to settle. And you can come out of your confinements and previous covenants when you have an enemy. In fact, you have to. You realize, oh my goodness, I am at war. The way I've been doing life is not going to work in a warfare season. And so that the voice of an enemy just forces us to abandon our apathy. And as I mentioned, it helps us find our voice. But it also goes a little bit deeper than that into helping us define our desires. It helps say, okay, what do I really want here? Am I really where I want to be in life? Is this really what I'm picturing for my future? And we all recognize we're going to have some moments in life that don't go the way that we wish. And we're going to have some people in life that rub us up the wrong way. And because they provoke us, they allows them to refine our focus, to, to just zero in and, okay, what are the desires of my heart? And to find out, in some ways, exactly what God has put within us. In fact, we get this, and we do this all intuitively, don't we? We say something like, "Now we'll find out what they're made of." Now, in times of adversity, we, we're saying, "Hey, there's something in them. Let's see what's in them. Let's see what comes out of them." In that moment, the voice of an enemy helps us redefine our reality. Then, because they disrupt our normal rhythms and routines, uh, it's just a complete, uh, COVID is a wonderful example on that, an unfortunate example in it, but it completes that. Of course, today is September 11th, and 19 years ago, the voice of an enemy literally reset the course of a nation and indeed the nations of the earth. And so you can see the clear disruption in that. You can also see how that upset established rhythms and routines and the way that we thought everything, from how we are processed in airports to how we think about other nations and engage them. Because when an enemy emerges, your days look different. And that's okay. That's as it should be. But it also takes us beyond that place and it helps us awaken our inner warrior. The provocation of an enemy awakens our inner warrior. And again, we went to see, oh my goodness, this is the Father training my hands for war. The only way for him to do that is to train me in my family. Last week, forgive me for exposing you to my viewing patterns, but we watched Mulan. The new, or the old new Disney repackaged, reformatted, reconstituted Disney movie. And we watched that, and it's a fascinating story of someone's hands being trained for war and how they begin to awaken their inner warrior within that. And when the voice of an enemy comes, we move out of contentment into our life so that we can come into alignment, so that there can be fulfillment. We move out of contentment into alignment so they can be fulfillment. We realize always our future, because we're believers, our future is always filled with favor, but it is also always surrounded by warfare. And that's why this isn't one of the five voices. It's just a surrounder of it, because it's always there. It's always surrounding us. The shadow of the enemy can come in any season. So it awakens our inner warrior and it moves us to the margins of our life. It moves us right to the edge of our capacity. We have that there in the notes and of our resources. Uh, we sometimes wonder, am I going to get through this? It moves us through capacity, mentally, relationally, financially, all sorts of ways that that it feels like a voice of depletion in our life. And of course, it is. That's what it's designed to be and to do. But it introduces disruptions so that our old boundaries become the viewing point for new territories. And that's more than a cute little phrase. It's the awareness that actually the, this area that has been given to me, I've been in this, and this has been the whole sum of my life. And it's time for me to have a different perspective on it. Contentions forces to look at and to seek for new connections. Realize, yep, the alliances that you make in wartime are a little bit different because of that. And as we said last week, the disappointment of Saul's kingdom produced the movement in David towards his own kingdom. So they move us to the margin. And of course, within that, they infer, invite us into fresh possibilities, or even fresh impossibilities, things that we may not even have considered before. And I want to be really clear, because it sounds like you're like, man, this is the voice everybody wants. We, this is not a voice we invite into life. We don't have to invite it. It comes crashing into our lives. But there's all sorts of things that the Father has hidden in that moment. And one of those is that it invites us into possibilities. Because when you see an enemy, it's actually their appearance is the starting pistol for your emergence. It's like, oh my goodness, now we begin. Now we begin. This is, this is it.

There's this, uh, rather unusual text in the story of God's people being liberated from an enemy. And it's written and recorded in the book of Exodus. And it, that says this: It says that God did not lead his people by a certain route, even though that route was shorter, because he was concerned that if they faced battle, they would be discouraged. Even though the next verse says, even though they went out fully trained for war. So they had everything they needed for warfare, but God didn't lead them into warfare because his concern was their mentality wasn't ready, wasn't fortified for the warfare they would face. So therefore, the heart that I take from that is this: that when God does permit seasons of warfare in our life, what he's really saying is, your mentality is now ready for what I have for you. Let the journey begin. It's time for you to move forward. You know, you have everything you need now. Your mentality is ready in that. And so the final thing that, uh, or one of the final things that an enemy sports does is it thrusts a different future upon us. And our illusions are gone. And that, and our imagination begins to be awakened for what else God might offer us. All of that to say, we cannot, we will not become who we were created to be unless we have something, an adversity, or someone, an adversary, to overcome. And so we recognize that that actually, it says, I overcome that, I become everything that God has for us. And so that voice, every other voice moves us forward, but the voice of the enemy is designed to confine. It is not the voice of a friend. It intensifies our warfare. It magnifies our failure. And it compromises our character. And we'll do that all day long if we'll allow to do that. But it also heralds a different season for us. It is, in some ways, the season of our rejection. And if you think back personally today of months in your life where you have been surrounded by the voice of an enemy, you know that could be actually an internal voice. That could be the voice of self-rejection. Uh, that could be the narrative in your own heart or head. But think of it externally, and the voice of rejection in that. The voice of an enemy is often the voice of rejection. It is the, that is the kind of series of rejections that become the forerunner to what the enemy's after in this season, which is your reduction. That is the big goal. The enemy is want to reduce you in every way: your capacity, your mentality, your territory, your destiny, all of that stuff. That is the goal. The thief comes to steal, kill, and destroy. But the primary season that it heralds for is, is the season of redirection. Or my friend Andrea calls the season of repositioning. Repositioning. And learning that actually this is the moment that awakens me, that God is now shifting me into a new season. And that season is a season where I reposition my life. I begin to think differently. And once we know that, we can actually extract the ingredients and the nutrients out of that voice in that season. So when you begin to see COVID, for example, as not a season of reduction, which is the enemy's intention behind it, but actually an invitation to reposition, then you look at the establishments of your rhythm and routines with a different kind of lens in that. You're saying, yep, this is now, I'm in a season of repositioning. And the conversation in that, you have right there in your notes, that's where we're taking it from today. Saul's anger flared up at Jonathan, and, uh, he's speaking specifically to Jonathan because he can see Jonathan's alliance with David. And this, he says, "You son of a perverse and rebellious woman." Hear the anger in the voice. Hear the distortion, the perversion in the voice. "Don't I know that you've studied with David, the son of Jesse, to your own shame and the shame of the mother who bore you?" Listen to the voice of shame, the accusation in that. "As long as David, the son of Jesse, lives, neither you nor your kingdom will be established. I send someone to bring him to me, for he must die." And this is the intention of the enemy's voice over his. Jonathan contends, "Why should he be put to death? What has he done?" But Saul hurled his spear at him to kill him. Then Jonathan knew that his father intended to kill David. And then verse there, T4, in that, Jonathan got up from the table himself in fierce anger. On that second day of the feast, he did not eat because he was grieved at his father's shame-filled treatment of David. And this is the conversation that highlights the voice of the enemy in the passage that we're looking at.

If you're just joining us today, if you missed the last one on this, saying that we're building all of these voices and conversations around the story updated in the voices that he encounters in this moment. But the voice of an enemy, it doesn't only herald the season of repositioning. It actually produces resilience in us. And resilience is something we mentioned this together last time. This is something that is almost distinctive to the voice of the enemy. Friends will call us on our brilliance. Kings will speak to our difference. But it's an enemy that produces resilience. And as they cause us to dig deeper in our life, and as that resilience comes through the warfare that we are experiencing, once we understand that we're in warfare, we begin to realize that someone once, I think rather perceptively, said that warfare is always the sign that your enemy has decided you have a future. Warfare is the sign that your enemy has decided you have a future. If they didn't think you had a future, they wouldn't engage in warfare. So again, when you arm yourself with that mentality, that warfare is the same, the enemy has decided you have a future, you're like, oh my goodness, this is a season where I can reposition towards that. It's the sign, actually, that the enemy is utterly convinced that you're carrying enough favor to enter a different future. And you hear that in Saul's words to Jonathan there, right? You can see that, you can hear him saying, "As long as he lives, your kingdom will not be established. He will receive the kingdom." What he's saying there is, I perceive this person's future. And if we don't engage in open warfare against that future and the favor on their life, it will be established. And so every time that warfare emerges, it's actually a confirming sign of favor. But it produces resilience in us as we go. And all of that, what we're saying is that the fullness of our anointing, the fullness of what the Father has for us in life, will not be fully unlocked with that an adversary or with that, um, adversity. We need someone who will provoke us. One of the things that the enemy does is they allow us to birth our destiny. It just, it becomes like the gateway moment for destiny formation. That's what it becomes. Through David's life, we're going to touch a little later on Jonathan's phrase to David where he says, "The Lord is sending you." But again, that's what we're digging deep for. In moments when we come under the voice of the enemy, what is the Lord doing in this? Is it the Lord sending me, even though it's an enemy driving me? David must have felt and thought, "The enemy is driving me from my inheritance." But actually, Jonathan comes and says, "Actually, it's the Lord who's sending you." In this moment, he is redirecting, he's repositioning, he's compelling you, he's moving you out, he's moving you on, he's moving you forward, he's moving you beyond where you've been. And, um, we see that, don't we? Somebody loses a job that they loved, or that was life-giving to them, or maybe they, they didn't love it, and maybe it wasn't life-giving, but maybe it was what they needed for survival. But a couple of years later, they found, they found a new job, and they realized that life was opened up in a whole new way. And they recognized in that moment, actually, it was a gift to be sent. They're so glad that closed. The story of Brian, the, uh, guy who applied during the recession in 2008, applied for a job at Facebook. And he had the skills. He was just a little bit older, and they weren't interested in employing someone at his age and stage of life. And him going on Twitter and tweeting, you know, "I applied for a job at Facebook today. I didn't get the job." And basically trying to stay positive in the midst of that. And then out of that, Brian decides to develop his own company. Has he's good at technology, he does what he does best, develops this little app called WhatsApp. And three years later, Facebook buys WhatsApp from him for like billions of dollars. Now, that's an extreme example, but it is a helpful example to remember that actually that voice of rejection can be a voice that repositions us, that actually opens up our favor. So I love what Graham Cook says in this: "Everything the enemy does only makes you bigger." So his voice is to intimidate you, but it actually only increases us. So I want to just rip this one more time before we move on. I want to write this in a different, slightly different Bible story. I'm not going to do that frequently on this course together, but I do want to do it today, which is where Jacob is wrestling with God. You remember the story? It comes pretty early in the Bible, but he's wrestling with God at a time in his life when he is about to confront his enemy. And he's about to confront his enemy after years of running from his enemy. And the enemy in Jacob's life, strangely, is his own family. It's his brother Esau. And he lives in fear of Esau. And as you read the story, you begin to see that fear building in him again and again. And how he approaches Esau in that, he lies down and he sleeps, and then he's in, and he engages in warfare. And he's actually wrestling with God. And then when he comes to Esau, and he sees him, he says him this: He says, "Your face is like the face of God to me." It's like, "Oh, I've wrestled with you all night, my friend. I have, I have just been in the place." And in that moment of wrestling with God, what God does with Jacob is he gives him a new nature. He begins to form a new identity in him. He's going to take him into destiny that's beyond him. But it is that wrestling with his enemy that allows that to happen. So that's the first person. It's the first voice we all have in our life. We usually don't want it in our lives. I mentioned last week, pretty much everyone can look at a point where they would say, "If it wasn't for this, then, you know, I wouldn't be the person that I am today." The doctor gives you the diabetes diagnosis, and it resets your rhythms, and it resets your routines, and suddenly you're eating differently, and you're thinking differently, and health becomes a value in your life. Maybe you always wanted to change it, but you lacked the urgency until the enemy appeared. And you're like, "Oh boy, now I need to change this." This creates a season and a sense of urgency in your life. It's the gift of an enemy or a crisis that can begin a new process in our life. It just does that with a degree of urgency. And what would it take to become the kind of person? Here's the question: What would it take to become the kind of person who could go through the destiny formation process, who could persevere in the pain, and could endure suffering without diminishing? What would it take to become that kind of person? Well, handled well, we come out of that conversation with an enemy, or of that voice with an enemy, with a greater capacity than we ever imagined. We don't get resentful, we get resilient in that. We discover, actually, that our poverty was the formation of the value of generosity in our life. That our exclusion actually was what taught us to have compassion and to move to the margins. That our rejection was actually fresh permission to explore. It clarified our thinking. It helped us redefine our reach. And it changed us from the inside out. It is the voice of an enemy that says, "You are no longer safe in the harbor. The enemy ships have found you in that harbor. You cannot remain there any longer. You cannot dwell there anymore." And it becomes fuel for our future.

So I want to open up. Guys, we've got a little bit of time here before we move on to the friend. I can see many of you just furiously taking notes there. I know there's a lot of content, and I know it's a lot of content, and it's, uh, from a different perspective as well. I can't give you everything that I say, otherwise you would be able to do the course yourself next week, and that wouldn't be very prudent or smart of me. But I do realize it is a lot of content. So I want to create some space within this for some questions that might be coming up. And this is me doing a little bit of filler to give you a moment to think of, "Gosh, what question would be most helpful for me in this moment?" And so take a few seconds here, and if you have a question, there, just fire it in the chat box and keep it relevant to what we've looked at there together. And we'll do that. And if there aren't any questions, we won't belabor it. We'll just move on to the friend and the voice of a friend and, and begin exploring that together. So if you have a question, go ahead and fire that up. And if not, we'll jump in at the voice of a friend. Yeah, I think, I think that's a brilliant question. How do we discern and decide between the voice of the enemy, the Lord is the land that contributes to the future without and cross-use it? Um, I, I think, I think it's, it's shifting our perspective a little bit, Hannah, in recognizing that actually the enemy will always come against us. That's just who he is. He can't help himself in that. Whether it's a crisis or process or or whatever. And recognizing within that that everything that the enemy does only makes us bigger. So actually the Lord is at work in this. For the enemy, using the, the Joseph narrative, what he meant for evil, the Lord is working for good. So rather than seeing that as a discernment thing, just determining your heart that you're going to extract every nutrient and ingredient. You can give thanks in the middle of that. "God, I thank you. You're training my hands for war right now. I thank you. This is producing resilience in me. I thank you. The valley of trouble will become a door of hope. I thank you that you're forming my destiny through this process. I thank you that this is a catapult. That the enemy is pushing me back because you're going to propel me forward." And none of that might be your emotions in that moment. None of that might even be your situation. But actually, when that, that becomes your expression in the midst of warfare, it actually opens doors for your future. So it's less about, you know, which one is really the enemy and which one is the Lord? Because for David, there's no doubt that actually this was the enemy. This was Saul driving him up. But as we'll see in a moment, when Jonathan comes to him like, "The Lord is sending you." Jonathan knew more than anyone else. He had seen Saul throw the spear. He knew that this was the enemy. But the Lord was, uh, sending him in that. How, Lisa, how would one of the other particular voices? Yeah, we're going to cover that together, Lisa. But again, that's a brilliant question. And we're going to see in a moment how the voice of a friend is almost the first voice that we need in that. The voice of reassurance, the voice that we're okay, particularly in troubled times. Uh, you know, the song, so many people have made a lot of art and a lot of resource around creating, um, awareness of who we need in times of trouble, right? Like "Bridge Over Troubled Water" springs to mind. "You'll Never Walk Alone." We could, we could list the songs. "He Ain't Heavy, He's My Brother." All these songs are basically saying, you're going through a moment of trial and struggle and all of that stuff. The, the voice that you're really looking for there in times of that is the voice of a friend. But I'm foreshadowing what's coming. What defines an enemy from a friendship gone sour? Yeah, that's, that's really, um, challenging to figure that through and to work that. You know, sometimes we're gonna look at this right at the end today, but sometimes the voice of a friend actually becomes, sadly, tragically, becomes the voice of the enemy in our life. It actually limits, as it prevents us moving in our purpose. And, uh, this is, this is actually what's happened here with David and Saul. They were friends. They were connected. And then jealousy enters, and suspicion enters, or pride enters, or anger enters. And the voice that was the mentor for David, the voice that was moving David forward, the voice that was connected in his life, has actually turned against them. We see this a little earlier, um, and again, I won't do this too often, but with the story of Jacob, where he says, the Bible says Jacob perceived that Laban's attitude had changed towards him. It's like, that which God had used to resource him has now become resentful of him. And so there, there just, there are certain characteristics that you can see in that: the tone, the attitude, the engagement, the lack of supplying your destiny, the limitations that they now put, the control, all sorts of things in that. We've covered some of those. A little later, Andrea, just so loved having you on this. So helpful. The voice of it. Yes, yes, it really is. And, uh, Andrea is just brilliant. It's speaking into that area of building resilience in our lives.

So let's, let's push on then into the voice of a friend. Because our goal for none of us on this, uh, course together, none of us, our goal is antagonized relationships. You didn't come on this so you could discern the voice of the enemy, right? You're like, "I think I can pretty much figure that one." I pretty much can see where life's against me, where people are working against me. What we really want to figure out is, okay, what is the voice of a friend? What season does it herald in our life? How do we engage with it? When should we engage with it? What does that look like? And we need the voice of a friend in the season of reset, in particular. And, and we discover that as David journeys, he connects with Jonathan. As I just mentioned, in response to the question, in times of transition, in times of turbulence, in trial, in times of new terrain, unfamiliar territory, we need the voice of the friend. They offer tours and for us a pathway of acceptance and reassurance. They're basically saying, "It's okay. You belong here. You're treasured here." And, uh, the, the friends, the voice of a friend, when we're descending, we recognize these are people who want you for who you are, not for what you have. And in my own life, actually, there's times where, um, the truth is, if you're doing something well, particularly some people begin to gravitate around your life. And, and that's okay, that's normal, and that's healthy. But it's actually usually in times of crisis that you find out who your friends are. And so crisis is the best time to discover who's still with you when you have nothing. Who's still with you when it looks like you'll gain nothing. Who's still with you when it looks like you could lose everything? Those become, for me, uh, I learned this, uh, way too late, but those are actually really helpful to distinguish. Actually, that was a friend, and that was a colleague, and that was an associate. And you just begin to, without in any way, uh, being resentful, not, it just becomes a little good, helpful identity marker. You can see that Jonathan sticks with David, even actually, it's one of the marks of a friendship. They choose friendship with you even when it costs them equity elsewhere. Like, "Oh my goodness, me connecting with you is going to cost me with them." And Jonathan does that, doesn't he? He's like, "Yeah, my dad just threw a spear at me. Family lunches are not what they used to be. Meal times in our house have changed thanks to my friendship with you, David." Right? It's like, it costs you. Then that's the voice of a friend. And the force of a friend is someone who will constantly, it will cost them to engage in relationship with you, cost them equity. There are people, of course, who are going to explore this for covenant and not convenience. And so that's, you recognize that in crisis, people, the people who come to you in crisis who are friends and not rescuers, but are friends, those people are saying, "I'm, I'm covenant with you. This is not convenient. I'm covenant with you." Often, and we're going to unpack this a little bit, but we'll unpack it more as we go through into weeks four and five. They'll have similar, similar, not exactly the same, but similar wiring, similar winding, and similar wrestles. Some, sometimes they want to go here. Well, let me, let me just do it for like, however many seconds. Sometimes people will come around your life who have the same wrestle as you, but they're not your friend. In other words, they want to wage war against what you're against. But that doesn't make someone your friend. When your agenda changes, that relationship will change also. They're against what you're against. They may not even be for what you're for, but they are against what you're against. And they're, they're just a warrior in friend's clothing. And that's okay. You need people like that in your life. But understand the difference between that and a friend. Sometimes like, "Oh, they're the best person. I love them. They were there for me in that moment." And they were. But that was because they were against what you were against, not necessarily because they're for you or for what you're for. And it's just helpful to recognize that friends, often, not always, but often will have similar wiring, similar wounding, and similar wrestles. And that's, that's just a little helpful thing. We said last week, then opening this up, that our friends meet us in our loss. They weep with us. They help us grieve our loss. The voice of a friend holds our hearts in trauma. And actually, we're going beyond just the friends that we have in this moment. We're saying, actually, what is the voice that I need to speak into this? And the voice that we need in times of turbulence is the voice that will hold us in our pain, that will sit with us in our pain, that won't try to explain it, it won't bring a solution to it, it'll just be with us in the midst of that. An enemy wrestles with us, and friends weep with us. They share our weeping, but they also share their world. They open their world to us. They help us and teach us to give and receive love freely and fearlessly. That is the purpose of the voice of a friend. That's the divine purpose in the voice of a friend, to help us give and receive love fearlessly. We open in, don't know what I'm doing today with Disney movies, but we opened, uh, the drawbridge of our heart, like entangled. We climb out of the tower because we feel the voice of a friend call us. That takes us out of where we've hidden our heart, and we begin to connect and open ourselves to the world. We can be ourselves and share with that. And the voice of a friend gives us that shared space together. And, uh, as we work with our friends, then they connect with our heart and they help us release our heart. I think of the story of the father with his daughter who came home a little bit late. She was a young kid, like eight years old, and she was at a nearby friend's house. And she just arrived home a little bit late. And the parents were beginning to worry. And when the, the friend got, when the little girl got home, her dad said to her, "Why are you so late?" And she said, "Oh, Susie's doll broke." She did you stay to help her put it back together? And she said, "No, I stayed to help her cry." I stayed to help her cry. Right? And it's, it's that awareness of, hey, that's what friends do. They weep with us in our loss. They're there in that moment. Of course, warriors stay to help you put it back together, like, let us, let's do this thing, let's solve this. And yeah, we'll go there. If you put them in the heart, soul, mind, and strength category, this, as we said last week, this is the heart category. While the voice of an enemy brings open warfare to our life, the voice of the friend brings us and creates for us a place of play-filled pleasure. We just enjoy connecting with them and hanging with them. Actually, David will say later, he makes this thing, he says, "My boundaries or my destiny has fallen for me in pleasant places." It's like, "I'm just really pleased with how this is all turned out." This fills me with pleasure. And one of the things that friends do, the good friends, that the voice of a friend does, is this: it reminds us that no amount of favor can make up for a lack of pleasure in our life. But actually, we can have all sorts of success, but if we don't have inbuilt pleasure, we lose something. And the voice of a friend will come and say, "Hey, watch that. No amount of increased exposure will compensate for a lack of pleasure." Friends, the voice of a friend reminds us of that. I know that you're getting more followers or whatever it is in your workplace that you're growing and expanding and all of that. But you don't seem happy. You don't seem like, when was the last time you let your hair down? When was the last time you engaged in pleasure? That no significant adventure can make up for a lack of pleasure. And again, I'm using those little ones there to highlight what's coming in some of the other sections. You know, for a king, the king is not really interested in your pleasure. The king, the voice of the king, they want to help you move forward. And your exposure. The voice of the warrior is not interested in your pleasure. In fact, they sometimes perversely take great delight in pain for a cause. Like, "Yes, we have a martyr for the cause." But the friend, the friend will always, the voice of the friend will always bring you back to your pleasure. And what they're doing there is they're kind of reminding you a little bit of Romans 12, that the will of God is good, perfect, and pleasing. You're saying, "Hey, this ought to be pleasing to you. There ought to be pleasure in this." And as they speak their delight in us, as friend, the voice of a friend speaks their delight in us. And you might be engaged in this course, you're like, "I don't even know where to begin in this. You're talking as though these realities were already formed in my life." And actually, when I look around my life post-COVID, I've had to relocate. I'm in a brand new context and with people I don't know. Or my job has just changed, and all the work colleagues that I have are just really different in that. And I don't know how to begin forming this. What we're saying here is, hey, this may not be in your life. You may not have friends in your life who call you into play-filled pleasure. But that's the highlight for you. That's what you're looking for when you're looking for that voice in a season of struggle and trial. You need a voice that speaks reassurance. And you need a voice that awakens you to pleasure. You know, one of the words that defines warfare is weariness, isn't it? That actually, that's one of the things that defines warfare. It's one of the enemy's goals in warfare, that you would get weary. Yeah, the old adage, "You don't quit when you're tired, you quit when the grill is tired." Right? It's like, when you're fighting, and that, and weariness is the goal. But the word weariness actually means the sense of pleasure is exhausted. That your sense of pleasure is exhausting. That's why when your sense of pleasure is exhausted, it's not time to fight more and fight harder and all that. Just had to go find the voice of a friend, somebody who reminds you of what your pleasure is, what you enjoy in life, because you've forgotten, perhaps maybe what that is. The prophet speaks to her assignment. The warrior speaks to her establishment. The king speaks to her enlargement. The priest speaks to her entrustment. But the friend speaks to our enjoyment. They speak to our enjoyment. They help us discover what we love. They help us discover why we love it, and how we love it. And they also, in all of that, help us understand that we are loved. That is the voice of a friend. You are loved. You are beloved. Live this life knowing that you're loved. That's what that voice brings to us. And of course, that we are beloved, not based on what we do, but arising out of who we are. Our friends give us permission. The voice of a friend gives us permission to be who we are. And so often, when people are rebuilding their life, they feel like who they are is not enough. They don't have that sense of worth, because the, the enemy, what is sought to do is to shatter them, to shatter their self-image, to shatter all of that. And so the voice of the friend comes and begins rebuilding that, just with the reminder that actually, you're enough. And partly, they do that by reminding us that our connection matters more than our contribution. So we can see that then in the conversation that we're going to come to. In all of that, what the friend does is they shatter the isolation in our lives. They shatter the isolation. If enemies shatter our illusions that we're safe here, that we'll always be safe here, that nothing can touch us. And you see that again with COVID, right? Globalization and suddenly shattered in a moment. That actually we can't prevent things happening in our life. The enemy, the appearance of the enemy, shatters that illusion. The appearance of the voice of the friend shatters our isolation. It says, "You can't, you can't live alone and afraid. You, you've got to live differently." That the awakeness are worth, and they deepen our connection. And so they highlight for us then the season of reset. The one that we're coming through. And the big component in it is the season of refreshing. That's what they bring to. So Paul writes, he says, "God comforted me by the coming of Titus." It's like, "Titus refreshed my heart." He's saying that friendship, that was a refreshing moment for me. And then the accent, and I should have clarified this, guys. You see this each week or each time we gather when we do the notes, but the first part is me almost saying, "You enter the season." So the first word, they're reset. They should be three different colors on your notes. And but the word reset, they're saying, "That's how you know you're beginning to enter this season. You're not yet in it." Refreshing is what the season does. And release is the sign that you're exiting this season. See that? Yep. That's how you begin to understand how that season operates.

But let's get to the conversation. Jonathan said to David, "Go in peace, because we have sworn both of us in the name of the Lord." And so he's saying there, "Sorry, strong for me. Come. May the Lord call David's enemies to count." And Jonathan and David reaffirm himself out of love for him, because he loved him as he loved himself. As soon as the boy had gone, David arose from the place towards the south, fell on his face to the ground, and bowed down three times. They kissed one another, and they wept together, but David more so. And Jonathan said to him, "You must go, because the Lord has sent you away." And so in this moment, Jonathan confirms who David is. And that's what friends do. They confirm who we are. They remind us, "This is who you are." In David's darkest moment, as we said last week, Jonathan confirms that in his life. He declares David's destiny when all David can see is his enemy. That's what the voice of a friend does. You have a destiny in this. I know right now it feels like this, but you've a destiny. It's the voice of a friend. And friends always promote who we are. They always champion who we are. They don't just connect with us. They champion. The voice of friend will champion who we are. They'll champion our well-being without controlling our decision. You say that again? I don't think that's in the notes, but they'll champion our well-being without controlling our decision in that. And so when God is moving us and forming us and shaping us, he will introduce us to the voice of a friend who will help us move towards our purpose, simply by bringing that reassurance, when particularly when we're in unfamiliar territory, when we find ourselves beginning again. And if the enemy will.

Speak to your problems, and they will speak provocation. The voice of the friend will speak peace over your life, that literally well-being. You're going to speak into that now. Who wouldn't want to be around that? Everybody, we want to be around that. Someone who comforts you, consoles you, champions you without necessarily correcting you, and doesn't confine you. That's what all of us long for in life.

And, uh, but, but sadly, sometimes the friend who forecasts your future never enters your future. Sometimes the friends who forecast your future never enter your future. That's true of Jonathan in this example, but, um, we see it elsewhere. And so part of that is recognizing, actually, the voice of a friend, and certainly the voice of friendships in our life. And that's partly why, again, just a quick reminder, and why I created this course. Because as I looked around, I could see that people were overemphasizing the gift of friendship in their life and were putting burdens on their friends and wanting their friend to speak with all the voices in that, or were thinking that friendship stayed with them their whole life long. And as I looked at the scriptures, that's rare. It can't happen, but actually, some friendships are seasonal. That when God moves us forward, He often calls us to leave behind relationships. And I would watch people who would geographically relocate but not relationally relocate. And one of the reasons that God calls Abraham to leave his father and mother and all of that stuff is He's saying, there's something in that relationship that is limiting your purpose and your future. And for you to come into what I have, you'll never see it on your own. So for you to come into what I have for you, I need to reset some relationships in your life because the lid on your destiny is your current connections, and you can't see it. And so the voice comes and says, "Hey, time to reset." If not, and often, actually, we didn't touch this at all last week, but often that is what the perfecting voice is doing. The prophet will extract the individual. So she will, and she'll bring them in, and she'll, she'll bring them into a room on their own. Why? Because she's separating them from the influential voices that they trust in their life. And so I don't want to overemphasize that. I just want to say, "Hey, be aware of that." That some friendships God never intended to be long haul. And we live in an age where we can always connect with our friends for the rest of our lives, but actually, it's not always the purpose that God has for us in that. Some friendships are designed to be seasonal, and we need new connections and new conversations for a new formation. I forget who it was that said that, actually, your life is the sum total of your five most influential voices, or the people you spend your time with. But actually, who it is, and unless they change, you'll end up stuck. Unless that's moving forward, you're going to end up stopping. That we need, we need friends who are with us, uh, when we suffer. But we have to know when to engage the voice of a friend and when to disengage. And that's the last part of what we want to do today. We'll spend a little bit of time in that. I didn't want to spend too long on friendships, guys. I think intuitively, and even relationally and experientially, uh, most of us understand that pretty well. This part is a little bit more challenging, a little bit harder to detect or to see. Uh, there are times when, first, let me say this, what we're looking for in the voice of a friend is a life-giving voice. And what we're looking for in friendships are life-giving friendships, as opposed to life-limiting or life-controlling. So we were putting in those things, that's what we're looking for. Often, when God moves us on in relationship, as He does here with David, He moves him on effectively from his best friend, Jonathan. I'm not, I think I'm right in saying this, I don't think David ever sees Jonathan again after this moment. But often, when God will do that, uh, He'll do that because there's a, something that they're sabotaging that you just can't see. There's a way that they're presenting you to others or perceiving you that doesn't promote God's purpose in your life. Think of again, maybe I will do this. I keep saying I won't do this all the time, can't help but just have Bible in me. But think of Joseph with his brothers again. God removing him from them because there's a way that they present him or perceive him that reduces divine purpose in his life. Now, that doesn't always mean dropping friendships. That's not what I'm advocating. But it does mean widening friendships, and it does mean wisdom to what our friends are contributing in our life. Some people love us the way we are, and that's why it needs to be the voice of a friend. And that's why I've categorized it that way, rather than just your friends, because your friends may not operate with the voice of a friend. This is the question that Vicky had earlier. Uh, some of your friends loved you, but they don't love you when you start to change. Like, "Oh, I like the old you. I like the non-going-to-gym you. I like the non-losing-weight you. I like the, whatever it is, I like the non-religious you. I like the non-married you." Whatever it is, they're like, "I, I don't like this new you. You're, you're forgetting your roots. You're forgetting where you come from. You're, you're losing who you are." You know, all of that stuff. Uh, so they don't necessarily like it when you change. Not everyone who connects with your heart carries your heart. Not everyone who connects with your heart carries your heart. And truth, in my own life, in this, many of the moments that were destiny-forming in my life were not immediately understood by the people who were closest to me in life. I think back to my conversion, in that moment of encountering Christ. It wasn't understood by the people I was closest to in life. I, I think back to my decision to go to Bible college. So many moments in my life that weren't, our decision to move to Northern Ireland, that when, and then later to come to the U.S. That weren't understood by the people closest to us. Because, uh, sometimes the voices around their life, sometimes the friends, not the voice of a friend, sometimes the friends in our life, they want to shield us from danger, and accidentally, unintentionally, they shield us from divine adventure. It's not their heart to do that. They're not being mean. They're just trying to protect us. You know, certainly because they don't want us to suffer. That's where they met us. They're like, "We, we're the people who you come to when you're suffering. We don't want you to suffer." But because they are wanting to limit suffering, they unintentionally, accidentally limit exposure. Like, "Yeah, I won't do that." They believe in you and your dreams, but when they look at you, they don't always see the means of that being possible. Like, "Yeah, what a dream, but, yeah, good luck with that." It's just the different things. And so what we need there is friends who will send us. Just as Jonathan does, he releases. He doesn't limit. He doesn't control David. He releases. And the voice of a friend, that's how you know it's the voice of a friend, rather than when your friends has become your enemy. Because a friend who has become your enemy will not release you. And even though they may look like a friend, anyone who will not release you into what God has for you has just, if you're a believer, has just become the voice of the enemy. They haven't become an enemy, but they are the voice of the enemy in that moment if they won't allow you to move forward in what God is calling you to do. How do we know that? You remember Jesus said it to Peter, didn't He? That strange statement, "Get behind me, Satan." Like, Jesus, this is Peter. He said, "Yeah, but you just became the voice of the enemy in my life in that moment. Get behind me. You don't have in mind the things of God. You don't have my destiny information." So the shadow side of the voice of a friend. And spend too long with the kindness of a friend, and you end up in the shadow side of friendship: comfort, complacency, indifference, lack of ambition, settledness, lack of provocation, all the things, lack of exposure, lack of adventure, lack of honor. Familiarity breeds contempt. We could go through all manner of things that become the shadow side in that. We see it in marriages, don't you? Where the couple have lived together for so long, they take one another for granted. It's the shadow side of that. And what's designed for connection actually begins to fuel competition, jealousy, suspicion, envy, all of those things. This is when it's turned sour. In, um, as someone highlighted earlier, it's gone south. What God intended to fuel our future actually becomes a frustration and even a castration of our future. It's just cutting it off before it gets started. And what was designed to connect with our brilliance actually begins to fuel our indifference. Like, "Oh my goodness." It's the shadow side in that. And instead of refreshing us, depletion occurs. And we've seen this, haven't we? Uh, well, I think you've lived a decent length of time, you'll have seen this. You'll know those moments where, actually, you stop enjoying that friendship quite as much. You stop enjoying that connection quite as much. You're not looking forward to it quite as much. It used to be you saw them and your heart was cheered, and now it's less refreshing, and it's a little depletion. It's gone from "you complete me" in the marriage to "you deplete me." It's like a whole, it's a whole other lens that's come upon that. And, uh, it keeps you living within yourself instead of living beyond yourself. And so, since it's tied to your presence, the voice of the friend is tied to your presence rather than your purpose, there's, uh, often a subtle counseling term here, but a subtle codependency that creeps in, or control. It creeps in. And that's when you know, "I'm no longer hearing the voice of a friend." This might be someone who I consider a friend, but they are not the voice of a friend to me right now. They are advancing the agenda of the enemy in my life through the conversations they're hosting with me. This is not a friend me anymore, and I need to go find the voice of a friend. So that's the, that's the little tricky part in this, guys. That when I'm talking about friendships in this, I'm hoping that the voice of a friend is content there. But I'm so aware, actually, that sometimes the friendships that we have may not actually include the voice of a friend at all. We have to awaken to that and say, "I have to go beyond these people to find the voice of a friend who will not limit what it is that God has put upon my life." In that, again, as we said last week, our friendships are the context of our story, but they don't always lead to fulfilled destiny. Now, when we overemphasize pleasure and preference and connection, we never come to a place of surrender. Friends enjoy pleasure so much. Like, "Why would we ever give this up? I love it." Like, "Yeah, it's, but there's other seasons in life. There's other voices in life." And sometimes you have to surrender that to move forward. Enough. And so that is it. I think, uh, we're about there. In, uh, I want to read you just this little story. It's an old one. I'm sure many of you have heard. A little bird was flying south for the winter. It was so cold, the bird froze and fell to the ground in a large field. While it was lying there, a cow came by and dropped some dung on it. As the frozen bird lay there in the pile of cow dung, they began to realize how warm it was. The dung was actually thawing him out. He lay there all warm and happy, and soon began to sing for joy. A passing cat heard the bird sing and came to investigate. Following the sound, the cat discovered the bird under the pile of cow dung and promptly dug him out and ate him. The moral of the story is that not everyone who poops on you is an enemy, and not everyone who licks you is a friend. Not anyone, not everyone who dumps on you is an enemy, and not everyone who licks you is a friend. We need to learn how to discern those voices. So next week, we're going to do some breakout sessions together. We're going to add that to what we do when we look at the voice of a priest, and really dig into the fullness of this. But we have a little time this morning. I think that these sessions are an hour and fifteen, hour and twenty. So we've left a good bit of time there just for questions that might arise. If you have additional questions in that, and if not, I will, I will happily continue to talk. So have a little think for the next 60 seconds on that, and go ahead, again, just pop them in the live chat. It's a good little story that one, isn't it? I can't remember. I think I first heard it from Paul Scanlon, uh, but I don't know who the original source is. In that, go ahead if you have any questions on that, go ahead and fire those in. So, yeah, thanks, Sam. Um, question again is, is on that voice, the enemy that the Lord has allowed to refine us? How we don't allow that to reduce us? How we know what to accept and what to reject, uh, without knowing specifically, uh, the situation or the context in that? Um, the awareness, just of the voice that you need in the season of turbulence and trial and transition. Just being aware, "My goodness, I need to look for the voice of a friend right now." That will help you move out of that reduction. Remember, we said the voice of the friend shatters isolation in our life. So that's what the enemy wants to do. When you think of something like COVID, for example, and you look at that, and you recognize, actually, the enemy's agenda, he, uh, separates us to isolate us. That's why he separates us. But the Father separates us to educate us. Right? He's, there's a set of partners about what God does in our life. So both the enemy and God set us apart. But the enemy separates us to create isolation in our life, and God separates us for formation in our life. And part of the thing that makes sure that that formation doesn't become isolation is leaning into the voice of a friend. So that'll help, Sam, as you're processing that moment, realizing, "Okay, if I am completely isolated," take this moment again where we can't connect with one another in the fullness that we would like, but where that becomes isolated in our thoughts or even in our engagements and, and, um, exclusive in that, that's where that begins to become something that's reducing. And you'll feel the weight of that. You feel the tension of that. You might even feel the trauma of that emotionally. You might feel it mentally, and you might feel it relationally. Uh, I, I think the, the idea, and that's a great question. I love the question, this, and thank you for forcing me to clarify further. You know, I think the idea that we accept and reject is maybe, uh, is maybe could be repositioned or rethought in the awareness that, actually, think about the analogy I always use in this is favor through the front door or favor through the back door. That God is going to bless my life today, no question. The only question is whether the Amazon parcel will be at the front door or the back door. Now, front door blessings are obvious. We get them, we see them, they're immediate in our life. Life is going well. It's like, "Yes, this is, it's up and to the right." Back door comes in times of real difficulty, in times of heartache and suffering and challenge and all that. I'll give you an example. Uh, it's a bad example, but it's a recent one that's the one that springs to mind. Yesterday was my birthday, but yesterday was the anniversary of my mother's funeral, which I took on my birthday. And so I have two meals set before me yesterday. I, I think about, "Gosh, I lost my mom last year. This is the, it's like the hardest day of my life was also the day of my birth." And that's a challenge. Is that what door do you open? Do you open the front door of favor where you're like, "Yeah, it's not a front door favor kind of day." It's, but it's not completely a back door day. And it's just that tension of actually, I'm gonna, I'm gonna dig in. This is gonna be a favor day, no matter what. I realize that's slightly unique and probably a poor example, but it is the most recent one that I can think of in my own experience of actually, there are days you just reach for favor through the back door. Like, "Oh my goodness, I know God has hidden something here." Or, uh, changing the analogy in a story that I, I once said happened in Academy Northern Ireland. It did not. But, and of the, of the two of the two sons that the father and mother, one Christmas, one son, no matter what they did, he was ever positive. And the other, no matter what they got him, he was always negative. And so the sons, they decided to teach them a lesson that Christmas. And for, um, for the son who was always positive, they got him, yeah, horse manure. They put it in his room. It's the boy goes in on Christmas day, and he's, he's digging through manure. He comes out a little bit later, and he's got the biggest smile on his face. He's like, he's so excited. They're like, "This hasn't worked. Why hasn't it worked?" He's like, "Where is it? Where is it?" And they're like, "Where's what?" He said, "Well, with all that horse manure there, there has to be a horse in here somewhere, right? Where's my horse?" And it's that kind of awareness in what the enemy is piling on in your life, you're like, "God, I know there's a horse here somewhere. I know you've hidden it somewhere." And it's working. That I, I'm not wanting to plug things on these networks at all, Sam. That's not the goal at all. But I would encourage you to pick up what I've written and worked on in "Reversing Adversity." Talk about how you can begin to take what the enemy brings into your life and work with that. I think you might, given that you asked that question a couple of times today, I think that might be helpful for you. Oh, guys, you were busy. What voice do we need when faced with adversity from an enemy and feel afraid? Yeah, I love that question, Hannah. Obviously, the voice of the Father Himself, in that, speaks to Gideon in that moment. But often, the voice of the Father comes through the voice of the friend. So if you think, like we said last week, these are not chronological and they're not linear, but actually, uh, often we'll see this pattern in the scripture of when there's adversity, there'll be comfort in the voice of a friend. And so I would think that the voice that you need in times of adversity, the voice that you begin to look for in exiting that season, and these seasons are just like the seasons we have, or if you live in California, don't have, but in the UK, they're like the seasons that we have, you know, you'll have a day, I forget where it is, where in autumn, you might get a blazing hot Indian summer. You might get an amazing September day that feels like you're still in summer, but you're not. You're in autumn. Then you might get a day where it feels like winter, but you're not. You're in autumn. And so in each of these, and there'll be a voice that predominates, but you'll also have the old voice that is exiting. Does that make sense? You're like, "Yep, that's not where we are." We also have the foreshadowing of the season that you're entering into. And so in this one, Hannah, the voice that you need when you're going through this, you need the foreshadowing of the voice of a friend that will provide consolation when you're afraid, that will speak courage to your heart, that will champion that in you, that won't control you, but will console you in that. I hope that's helpful. Lisa, I've experienced church planting that everyone wants to be your voice and friend. How people really do not want to let you go. Guess might be an annoying question about how do you, uh, or have you released or wriggled free of all those imposed friend voices that can become tiring? Uh, Lisa, thank you. Thank you, firstly, for church planting. Way to go. Love that. And thanks for the question in that. Um, yes, yeah, I think people, uh, I would want to be helpful. Not, Lisa, I did something pretty early. I don't recommend this at all. In fact, I'm advising you not to do this. But when I came to our community or church, Brewitt, it doubled almost overnight, and I didn't know anyone who was there previously. And everybody wanted us to connect with them. A kind of, "Give me space" person. So I actually made an announcement from the front that you said, "I did not want to be your friend." I just put it out there and just said, "Hey, you'll have lots of friends in life, but you get one pastor. So you don't need me to be your friend. You need me to be your pastor." It's the same thing I say to my kids, or did say to my kids when they were younger. "I don't want to be your friend. You can have lots of friends in life. You get one dad. It's my privilege, joy, and role to be your dad. I hope you enjoy being with me, but that's not my purpose in that." And I, I don't recommend you do that, Lisa. But just to give you an example of my catastrophic wisdom and failure in that moment, it was actually surprisingly, remarkably helpful in closing the door on that. But what you can do, rather than taking that kind of hard, uh, approach to, is, uh, recognize actually, with some people, they aren't going to let you go. And and help them. There's something about where they are in their journey that feels the need to either advise you or control you or direct you in that way. And help unpack what season they're in, that what's the trauma that's causing them to cling to you? Now, I'm outside of my field in that, um, but you're right, those voices will deplete you. Those voices will become tiring, especially if they're not life-giving. In that, Willie, how do you practically deal with a friend whose voice has become that of the enemy? Uh, I don't recommend, you know what I said earlier, a moment ago, that sounds like, "Wow, why would you ever do that?" And then you remember the Jesus approach with Peter. And I don't recommend that you do that one, Willie. But that gives you scope on just how far you can go. Like, you're like, "Yeah, that's how far you could go." You can go right up to the Jesus line in this of, "Get behind me. You're no longer that." Um, practically, you know, it's, it's challenging because you love these people. You're connected to them. I remember us moving here, and I remember some of our friends, they just could not cope with that. It devastated their inner world in lots of ways, created claps in, in some of them. And, uh, it was just the inability to process the loss of friendship in their life at that point. And they didn't realize it, but they were operating with the voice of the enemy. It wasn't their intention. Wasn't their design. It's just anyone who's against what God is doing for me in my life is that what's an enemy. So in dealing with that, I think, um, practically, just help process with the person, except when they're being malicious in it, then you have to be confrontational in it. But when the heart is that they love you, they're just afraid of losing you, they're afraid of losing the relationship, and all of that. I think just sit them down, saying, "Look at this. I love that you care this much, but then talk about maybe even take them to this passage, take them to the Jonathan passage, and say, you know what, this covenant here, in this connection here, but what there's not here is control. There's a moment where we have to be willing to move on in our relationship and move on into what God has for each of us, even though that looks different." I think that might be helpful, Willie. Enough. Uh, and we find a missing voice, uh, in this, Katie Joy, to have you in the call. Can certain books be good fillers? Absolutely, absolutely. And often that is the case. Is that when you, like I have a go-to book, "Streams in the Desert." The minute COVID hit, I'm like, "Okay, I am now reading 'Streams'." And there's, like, there's certain books that I go to in times of adversity. There are certain groups that I go to. The season of surrender that I've just been journeying through, that actually we've been journeying together, Katie, in a community. Is, there's certain people who speak to that better than others in that. And they're, they're usually not modern writers for me. They're usually classical writers. I want Em Bands, I want A.W. Tozer, I want Andrew Murray. I want those people who call me to surrender. Oddly, though, those guys typically aren't good when it comes to the voice of the king. They were so good on surrender that they're not big on exposure and holy ambitions. There's a whole other group of authors that I engage in when I want to hear the voice of a king. So, absolutely. If you don't have those personally, Angela, or, um, for me, on the voice of a friend, Henry Nouwen, just outstanding. "The Inner Voice of Love." You're like, "Oh my goodness, put my world back together." Anything by Henry Nouwen is outstanding. But yeah, absolutely. Books, friends, and child. Good, just good to have you again, my friend. When, when you've been primarily playing the role of friend, but feel that there's a need to play a different role, how do you make that transition? Yeah, you just recognize within that that you're, you're going to have, uh, I, I know that you guys are pastors. You're going to have, uh, within that, you as a, as a leader, you're going to play different roles in someone's life. They're going to want you to operate in one primarily, but as a leader, it's your task, really, or, yeah, I think I would say it strongly, is that it's your task to speak God's words over people and into people, and to speak who it is that God is revealing Himself to them as in that season. And some seasons, the Father is showing up as the friend. Sometimes He's showing up as the priest, the king, etc. And so, uh, I wouldn't feel any awkwardness around that, Chad. I would just lean in with the voice that you need to lean in with. Sometimes it might be helpful to use the language of a heart and just say, "I'm going to take off the friend heart now. I want to speak to you with this heart on." That can be helpful for people. You're just saying, "Yeah, I want you to be aware of removing the conversation here, and I want to speak to you from a different perspective because this is what I think you need." But that's a brilliant, uh, question. Craig, great to have you on that. Went for the situation where close friends become an enemy makes you a very careful way in developing friendships. How do we avoid isolating ourselves because of past hurts? Well, hey, I'm going to refer you to Andrea here. And Andrea is on the call. Andrea, is there anything that you would want to say there at all? Non-professionally, not advising in a professional capacity, but anything you'd want to say? Yeah, I mean, I think in order for us not to become bitter, um, we have to watch and guard our own heart. And then as we move on from the pain that that person has caused you, I think the person realizes you've gone beyond. And so there's a posture that takes us beyond the pain. There's a prayer that takes us beyond the pain. There is a holy calling and ambition that takes us beyond that pain. And so when your friends have become your enemy, that's, that's the time to pray the prayers that will just take you beyond. Forgiveness is a big one. And then to be open-hearted and whole-hearted so that that person won't spoil your whole-heartedness with other people. So you turn a fresh page, and every new friendship is a fresh challenge, but a fresh adventure. But I sense you're going beyond that that stuck you, and lots of new friends and lots of new lovers await you. Yeah. Oh, love that. And that voice, that wisdom in that voice, love it. Love it. And yeah, nothing to add to that. Can you speak about how God Himself becomes, or John, sorry, I missed that. John, I hope you're doing well. I miss you. We need friends who will send us. How can we become those kind of friends? I think just recognizing when the season has changed for someone and recognizing when God is moving them forward and onward and outward, John. It's really helpful. I'm becoming the kind of people who propel that and cheer it. I recognize that every time someone enters a new season, they begin at ground zero again. They begin again with insecurity raging in their heart. This is new terrain, new territory for them. Just for you to champion them and and and release them fully, as Andrea said, wholeheartedly releasing them in that is huge for people. And if you can see the season before they see it, particularly those of you who are leaders, if you can see when the season is changing for them before they see it, and help inhabit that a little bit, a different topic, different day, but it is the task of leaders to inhabit the future and get it ready for the people before they arrive there. That's what leaders do. That's the whole purpose of leadership. We go before the people. We get the environment ready so that by the time they realize that environment has now come upon them, it's shaped for them. It's ready for them. And so that's part of what you're doing there. You're just going ahead of the season and saying, "Okay, um, living in that." But, uh, great question, John. Can you speak about how God Himself becomes the voice of destiny in our lives? Lisa, we will cover that at another point. But, but absolutely, that's just about recognizing the nature and character of God. That God is a friend. That God is our High Priest. That God is our King. He is the Warrior. That the Lord is the living Word. And so, and He presents Himself in different stages in that. Mike, love you, man. Have you experienced the reduction or increase of the voice of a friend as your sphere of influence has changed over time? Uh, I think a little honestly. And not, Mike, because I think, I think there's a dynamic to the voice of a friend that where there's an identification with your journey. So that connection happens around initially that we talked earlier about the shared wiring, the shared winding, and the shared wrestles. And so there's just an awareness that certain people, what I look for in a friend is very different in that. And, uh, I guess everybody believes they have a high bar in that. I have a high bar in that in terms of who I will let be that voice into my life. I'm very protective of that gate. And then, and as I journey, there's a uniqueness to my world, just as there is to each person on this call and their world. So certain responsibilities that I have, certain things. I'm not saying that the voice of a friend has to understand everything in your world. There has to be a resonance and a connection with what's going on in your world. And so for me, that has changed a little bit as I've, uh, journeyed in that, Mike. And, uh, I'd love to hear your thoughts on it. Tony, great to see you on this. As a reverse true as well, where you've been a good, wise friend, spoken life, but your friend decides to make a different, unwise decision. Do you know it's time to move on to a different purpose? Do you try to maintain that friendship? Uh, those are great questions, Tony. Some of those we're going to cover next week on the voice of the priest, in the honest conversation, and the awkward conversation, in the conversation of realignment and correction in that. What do you do when someone is drilling a hole in the, the boat in that regard? Uh, I want to be really clear, guys. When, when we're talking about friends to become an enemy, we're not saying the person literally becomes your enemy. We're just saying their voice has changed in your life. So we're not positioning ourselves antagonistically against that person. And it's not a perception of them. It's not even a posture towards them. It's just awareness that their voice is no longer the voice of a friend to us. That even though they're, they think they're being kind, they might actually feel like they're being protected. If not, do you try to maintain that friendship? Uh, yes, but you might redefine it, Tony. You might, uh, reframe the boundaries of it and the purpose of it. Hannah, thank you so much again. Uh, when we come to the other voices, such as king, prophet, warrior, I would love to hear about books for those voices too, please. Yeah, um, I've created this course. I'm actually not aware of, not seeing this in a uniqueness factor. I'm not aware of anything out there that touches on this at all. It's partly why it's a little bit different in that. I wish I had more books that I could recommend that would say, "Here's some books that will open this." And it's not something that I've heard others teach on, but I'm not teaching to you. It's, it's just, I don't know how to explain that other than I was reading this text one day, and some things began to make sense in my life, and I began just to meditate on them, and then reflect back in my own journey experiences, and then now I realize, "Oh my goodness, this is triggers for seasons. This is like, um, not saying I have it, but this is like divine wisdom for a season." If I can learn to see this, it'll actually show me. It's like a traffic light. It'll show me what's coming and how I can prepare my heart in advance. And more books that had that kind of tone. Sorry, the problem of Zoom, Anna, and technology and that. Yes, absolutely. We'll highlight some of the books that have been helpful in each of those. Well, that seems like a great place to leave it today, guys. Just want to pray together. And, uh, I don't know, how would you feel if I called on some of you occasionally to pray? Would that be okay? That'd be all right. I mean, you'd be okay for that. Uh, my friend Craig, looking good there, mate, in the thing. Would you be okay if you're on YouTube and just prayed us out today, mate? Yeah, sure. Father, globally, thank you so much that You bring enemies into our lives to enlarge us, and You bring friends into our lives to encourage us. And Lord God, I pray that we would, in these days, have discernment. That we would have wisdom. And or that we would be friends who just embrace those around us and encourage and call all that You have placed in them out of them, and love them for who they are. And Lord God, that we would have discernment for when those voices of an enemy might take us on a detour here or distract us from our destiny. So, Lord, we just, we pray Your favor over every person on this call. We thank You so much for what has been imparted today. I pray that it would not just be information, but that would be transformational revelation, and that You would move us on in all that You have called us into. So go with us this weekend, and whatever we do, in Jesus' name, amen. Amen. Thank you so much, Craig. And guys, I believe we're together again on Monday, is that right? Cannot wait. Digging into the voice of a priest. We'll get those notes to you. We might even get those notes today, so you can have a better time over the weekend for those of you so inclined to engage. Thanks so much again, guys. Have a great weekend. God bless you.