Gifts of the Spirit

Welcome to God First, a program committed to encouraging you to put God first while viewing life through the window of the Bible. Now, in honor of the one and only true God, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, please join us for today's episode. As always, it is a joy and honor and a privilege to join you each week, and I want to thank you for tuning in.

I'm really excited today. I have a special guest that is joining me. I met her a few weeks ago when I was speaking at an event alongside my wife, and I love her enthusiasm for the Lord, and she shared a ministry with me, and I just felt the connection of the Holy Spirit right away. Her name is Leah Carson, and her ministry is Lens of Faith Ministries. So I went to her website, and I listened to her first message.

There it was talking about the gifts of the Spirit, and that really caught my attention, and I listened to it, and I was just blown away by the things that she was sharing. And so I reached out to her and asked her if she would come on to our show to talk about this very important topic that I think unfortunately is neglected a lot in the church and among Christians. So Leah, I want to thank you for taking time out of your schedule to come on and speak with us today. So it's my pleasure, Brian. It's great to be on. All right, so you are the host of the Lens of Faith blog and podcast.

You are also an award-winning wedding photographer and owner of Leah Marie Photography and Stationery. So share with us a little bit more about your ministry. When did it get started and the mission and purpose of what you do at Lens of Faith?

Well, it started about 2016. I remember God telling me to start blogging, and he told me it was going to be the beginning of my ministry, and I just said, like, no, you know, who's going to read another blog out there? And God said, do it. I'm going to speak through you. And just out of obedience, I mean, of course, I was very nervous, you know, because I knew God wanted me to be very vulnerable and share about my own maybe struggles in life and testimony.

So that's always kind of more of a challenge and just sharing maybe a topic that you like to talk about, like, you know, how to diet and things like that, you know. And so he told me to start, and the Holy Spirit was going to speak through me. And so that's how I started. And he gave me the name.

You know, as a photographer, I work with lenses, and I look through lenses for a living, right? And also my journey, which would be a whole other show right now, but my journey and my testimony right now is just a really kind of crazy faith story that I'm living right now. And so God just gave me I didn't hear the name from anyone else. He just really dropped that in my spirit. It was original to me lens of faith. And it just, I just knew it was from the Holy Spirit.

And I just started blogging. And, and I'm telling you, Brian, you know, sometimes he changes my messages. He, you know, tells me to be vulnerable and certain things share certain things. It's not always easy, but I'm just I try to stay obedient and allow the Holy Spirit to speak through me and just say whatever it is that he needs to say through me.

And so I try not to make it anything my own opinion or coming from my own, you know, flesh or anything like that. And I just allow the Holy Spirit to really just use me as his mouthpiece. And so I've done that as a blog consistently every week for about four years. And then right before the pandemic happened, a few months before that, I was speaking at a women of faith and business conference about how to, you know, be a woman of God in business and things like that. And I had two women separately come up to me and say, do you have a podcast? I mean, we would listen to your podcast. And once again, I laughed and I said, you're going to listen to another podcast out there.

Isn't that funny? And then, and I was traveling at the time because it was during the holidays. And so I was traveling to see my family. And so that was in the time, but God just kind of deposited that into me. And a couple months later, he just started, you know, the Holy Spirit just started working this idea of starting my podcast.

And right before in February of 2020, he told me it's time now, it's time to really start it. And I knew nothing about, you know, starting a podcast, anything like that. But, you know, God just gave me the right people connected with me, the right tools, you know, and I learned, kind of learned hands on how to podcast and I just took it from there. And so same thing, you know, the Holy Spirit just tells me what he wants me to say, the topic, you know, he edits my podcast, he speaks through me, it's just completely Holy Spirit run. And I'm just his mouthpiece. And so that's kind of where I'm at today. It's been about a year and a half now that I've been podcasting.

Wow. Well, you're doing an awesome job. Obviously, the Holy Spirit is working through you. And I love the fact that you are, you repeatedly state how you rely on the Holy Spirit. And that's just so wonderful because unfortunately, there are a lot of people who profess to be Christians and I think they don't really look to the Holy Spirit.

They don't really lean to him. And so I wanted to have you on to again, talk about this topic, the gifts of the Spirit. So to get us started, can you share with us where do we find the gifts of the Spirit in the Bible and what are they? And then we'll unpack them in greater detail as we go forward.

Okay. There is a difference too between like spiritual gifts versus I think the gifts of the Spirit, if that makes sense. You know, there's gifts like, you know, patience and, you know, encouragement, teaching, things like that. Those are like spiritual gifts, right? And then there's the gifts of the Spirit, I would say are the nine gifts that I know of. The word of knowledge, a word of wisdom, gift of prophecy, the gift of faith, the gift of healing, the working of miracles, the discerning of spirits, different kinds of tongues, speaking in tongues, and the interpretation of tongues.

And so I would say that those are more very Holy Spirit kind of internal gifts right there. And you're right, it's not something that is really talked about a lot. In fact, you know, no judgment, but there's a lot of Christians out there that, you know, love Jesus, and they don't, you know, manifest any of these gifts. And they don't, some people don't think it's necessary today. Some people don't believe in it. Some people were just raised not to believe in it. Maybe some people have maybe had some negative experiences from it, you know, there's many different reasons and people come from different religious backgrounds. For me personally, I was raised witnessing, you know, the gift of the Spirit and I was raised in a more charismatic environment.

So it's not something that's foreign to me. But I have friends that, you know, don't speak in tongues or they have never had a prophecy in their life, you know, and I want them to understand it. I want them to walk in that because it's so powerful, it really sets up your faith game, you know.

But, you know, you kind of have to be sensitive with these topics because it is something that it's not a deal breaker. I would say either you're going to go to heaven or not, you know, like if you don't speak in tongues, it's not like, you know, your salvation is on the line, right? But I do believe that you will walk in more authority and more power, more understanding, greater heavenly perspective. And it actually does draw you closer to your relationship with God having, you know, these as part of your life, these gifts as part of your life. So there is a lot of scripture that speaks on it. Of course, you know, the Book of Acts is all about, you know, when the Holy Spirit came down and tongues of fire where, you know, people thought that they were drunk, but they weren't, you know, so that was like introduced. And then we have 1 Corinthians 12, 8 through 10, where it talks about what prophecy is, you know, to one is given through the spirit a message of wisdom, and this talks about the different gifts, but the message of wisdom to another message of knowledge by means of the same spirit, to another faith by the same spirit, to another gift of healing by that one spirit, to another miraculous powers, to another prophecy, to another distinguishing between spirits, to another speaking in different kinds of tongues, and to still another the interpretation of tongues.

So that's kind of where it's broken down in the Bible. And, you know, as you know, very well-known verse is in 1 Corinthians 14 where, you know, follow the way of love and eagerly desire the gifts of the spirit, you know, especially prophecy. And so that's, you know, the gifts of the spirit are definitely spoken of and encouraged to eagerly desire them, you know. It's not something that you should just ignore and say, oh, I'm just not going to tap into that, you know. I really believe that once you have the empowerment of the Holy Spirit and you walk in the gifts of the spirit, a lot of things change in your life for a positive, you know.

And there's a lot of people who live in a lot of bondage, you know, mental and different things, you know, emotional. And if they just started walking in these gifts, they'd be set free from a lot of things. I know for me personally that has happened. So they're definitely powerful tools that God has given us and wants to manifest through us, not to only edify us, but to edify and encourage others.

Absolutely. And I'm sure you have have sensed this or heard this from people. It seems as though there are people out there that when you talk about the spirit, the Holy Spirit, they seem to think is spooky or is something weird. If you rely on the Holy Spirit and you expect the world to have that response. But but even within the church, there are people who attend church and they seem to if there's an outpouring or an outbreak of the Holy Spirit, they seem to think something is not right or is weird or something. But, you know, we are to rely on the Holy Spirit. As you said, there's power in the spirit. And you mentioned with the gift. So when we become born again believers, I would say we are we are given certain gifts. But but you do believe that it's OK to even ask for specific gifts of the spirit.

Yes. And I think some people, the reason why they think it's maybe spooky is because it's something they're unfamiliar with or maybe they were in an environment where it was maybe abused. Right. But I think it's interesting that people would think the gift of the Holy Spirit is spooky. But here we just had Halloween when everyone embraces the demonic and everyone embraces the spooky things of the darkness.

Right. But then when it comes to the Holy Spirit, oh, we want to back off of that. But we'll dress up as demons and goblins and, you know, tap into the occult a little bit.

And that's not spooky. We'll watch movies that are like that and enjoy those. Right. So I think it comes back to that just a spiritual, you know, obviously the enemy wants to lie to people because he doesn't want people to be free. So, of course, he's going to plant lies in their mind. Right. It's a battlefield of the mind. So because there's a lot of other things that people embrace that I would consider spooky that they call normal.

Right. And it's in the Bible. So if there's someone that reads the Bible, believes in the Bible, then you're going to read Acts and you're going to read Corinthians. And you're going to see for yourself that, you know, God really works powerfully using the gift of the Spirit, you know, and he, you know, encourages the eagerly desire those gifts and not to ignore them.

And I can share even personal stories of when, you know, even for me, where I kind of just let it sit on the shelf for a long time and I didn't really make it part of my daily routine to, you know, praying the Spirit and and things like that. And now that I do, it just has really empowered me and given me peace and authority and confidence that I didn't have before. Yeah. Yeah.

That's awesome. And especially, I mean, you just that was a grand slam. That point you made about people that embrace all of these things that are of the dark kingdom when it comes to Halloween. But then they look at the Holy Spirit, the gifts, they view that as odd or strange that that you are so right. The holy or the devil, I should say, has really just he's deceived so many people into going along with doctrines of demons and shunning what we should be embracing.

We just the Holy Spirit. And one of the things that I I know a lot of people that they view as strange is the speaking in tongues. And like you said, one thing that has happened is there are people who have abused the gifts of the Spirit.

As you said, there are people who put on a show when it's not really the moving, but they're they're doing it all for an act. But when it comes to the gift of speaking in tongues, based on the scripture, how is that something that should be properly expressed? OK, speaking in tongues, of course, it is an odd thing because we're actually speaking in a heavenly language and we're speaking the language that we don't know. We don't know the language. Right.

And on my last podcast episode, when I talk about poverty, I shared this story. But I remember when I first got the gift of the Spirit and I started to speak in tongues, it's something that, you know, to be honest, you kind of have to just start. Forcing something out of your mouth at first, and then the Holy Spirit takes over. Right. So, of course, it's not going to be a natural thing. It's not going to sound right. It's going to sound weird, you know, but you just kind of it's something that you kind of just start doing. And then, you know, the Holy Spirit is kind of taking over and he actually starts to even advance your language.

Right. But I remember when I first got the gift and I really didn't like how it sounded and I would be in a church environment and I would hear these beautiful languages. You know, people speaking in tongues and it just sounded so eloquent, sounded so nice. The mind just seemed like two words and it was just repetitive. It just didn't sound, I didn't really like it, you know. And so because of that, I didn't really practice it. You know, I kind of put that on the shelf.

And this happened, you know, when I was younger, but I was on my way to a conference with a group of women and we were standing in line for this conference. And she was telling me, one of the women was telling me on the way up to this conference, God told me that I'm supposed to tell someone who doesn't think they have the gift of tongues that they do because there's tribes and even the pygmies in Africa that speak where it sounds like, you know, chickens clucking. Right. And it's a language. Right.

So there's there's what they have is powerful weather. It doesn't matter what it sounds like to them, you know. And I really for some reason didn't think that was me, but I was just like, oh, that's nice for that person. And then when we were in line for this conference, I started sharing that story that I just felt like I maybe didn't have it because I wasn't extended or it didn't sound the way I thought it should sound. And she stopped me in my tracks and she said, you're the person that God wants me to speak to. You don't think you have the gift of tongues, but you do.

And you need to start speaking in it because it's powerful. And at that moment, even though, you know, it sounded weird, it didn't sound right, you know, I wasn't comfortable with it at first. I started taking more seriously and I just started praying in the spirit. And, you know, now it comes naturally for me because I do it often.

But, you know, and also my my prayer language has actually kind of flourished in advance. If that makes sense, where it sounds even like there's more to it now, you know, and the more that you do it, like, you know, starts out maybe five minutes one way than 10 minutes. It sounds different.

15 minutes. It sounds different. You know, you start to extend. And I'm telling you, Brian, there's been times I just start weeping and I'm not even speaking the language I know. You know, I'm not even praying. I'm not even praying in English at all. And I'll just start weeping because I feel the power of the Holy Spirit. So it's really undeniable. I mean, like, why would I be weeping if I'm just making random noise?

You know, like, it's definitely there's there's power in that. And I really believe that chains are broken when you speak in tongues because the enemy doesn't know what you're saying. And so he can't plot.

He can't try to bring any assignments against you because he doesn't know what you're saying. Right. And I'm not telling people to live in fear if you're praying in English.

I'm not saying that. But, you know, there's something about praying in the spirit where he doesn't know what you're saying. And it's really a direct link in connection to you and God, you know, with and only he knows what you're saying. And so I believe that, you know, God's interceding for us. The Holy Spirit intercedes for us through speaking in tongues. And I know and I know a lot of people that can testify to this, too, that when it comes to God using you to speak to the lost or minister to people in the world. If you pray in tongues before you do that, a lot of times you'll have insight and perspective and knowledge for people that you would not normally have if you just, you know, prayed in English, you know.

So I do believe that it's definitely not something that you should just ignore. Like, you know, you know, you don't need it because I really do believe that now that I actually have made it a habit to speak in tongues, I can't see myself going back. And I recently actually did something I'd never did before. I had a friend invite me to a monthly. They call it a Holy Spirit boot camp. And I didn't know what that was. I was like, oh, no, what's it going to be? And she said, you know, we just pray in the Spirit for four hours straight with no breaks.

And I was like, whoa. And I honestly, because I never did anything like that, you know, I just thought I probably am not going to do four hours. But I want to go because I want to do something I've never done before.

You know, I'm believing God for some breakthroughs in my life personally. And I was like, maybe I need to do something I've never done before, you know. And so, but I prepared by packing my bag with the journal, with some headphones to listen to some music, maybe some worship music and, you know, a book. Because I just thought, you know, I'll pray in the Spirit for a little, but I probably can't make four hours. Right.

So here's some other things I can do. And I'm telling you, Brian, no joke. For four hours, I didn't even touch that bag. The Holy Spirit just took over and I literally was praying in the Spirit for four hours straight. No break. I went to the bathroom once. But, you know, like I literally had no break. I didn't go there to socialize. You know, I didn't go there for any other reason. I literally, you know, was on my face to pray in the Spirit and then kind of just walking around the church making circles, you know.

But I actually did it for four hours. And I'm telling you, I felt that something broke and something behind the scenes, something happened behind the scenes, something I maybe don't know what it is yet. But I do feel like things got shifted in my own personal life by doing that. And another thing I can say is I just felt like a kind of a fog come off of me. Like, you know how we have a fog, whether we know it or not, it's kind of subconscious, just from the world, just all the stuff happening in the world, things that we take in daily, you know. Even, you know, being, spending time with God, we just kind of have that, you know, all these things that we see and we hear, right. And I just felt like complete peace, like it was a clear canvas, like I just felt complete peace.

Like I just, I just was out of the fog, you know, just kind of took me out of the fog. So I think it's just really powerful. And I understand how some people can maybe have some experiences where maybe was abused and so they, you know, they're not open to trying it. But I just encourage those people to lay that at God's feet and just start to ask. And personally, you know, Lord, just reveal yourself to me. You know, give me the gift of speaking in tongues.

Give me, maybe, you know, help me to believe in prophecy, you know, speak to me, you know, words of wisdom, words of knowledge, things like that. Because, you know, people are not perfect, but God is. And so we just need to trust that, you know, he's going to restore those broken areas because there's always going to be counterfeit no matter where we go in any area. And so that goes back to having discernment, which is something I talk about often. And so you just have to have discernment and can't write it off when things, you know, when people are imperfect, you know, or they miss the mark. You can't really write it off. It doesn't mean that the gifts of the Spirit are not valid any longer. You know, it's like that saying goes, you don't throw the baby out with the bathwater because there's some counterfeit out there.

No, don't don't get rid of it because you get rid of the counterfeit. But what is true is what we embrace. And as you were talking about the four hours of speaking in tongues, and I'm sure it probably didn't even last, it didn't even feel like it was four hours, right? No, it didn't. Yeah. I was at a service once and it wasn't the entire time of speaking in tongues, but it was a very uplifting praise and worship and praying. And there were speaking in tongues.

The service actually lasted eight hours, Leah. And oh, wow, I didn't even realize it. And I looked at the clock and I was blown away. It's like, are you serious?

We were really in service that long, my wife and I. But when the Spirit is moving like that, you know, you're just you're engaged and you're enjoying that time. And so it's just so powerful. But we're going to take a short break. If you are just now joining us, I'm speaking with Leah Carson of Lens of Faith, speaking on the gifts of the Spirit. Very, very powerful message.

So please come back, folks, and join us on the other side. After this short announcement, you are tuned into the God First program. You are listening to God First. If you believe in what we stand for at God First Bible Fellowship, would you consider partnering with us? Our God First Partners program is based on Matthew 633. But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness and all these things shall be added on to you. For a recurring donation of $6.33 per month, you can help us share the message of placing God's commands first when viewing the issues of our culture. Please visit our website, GodFirst.org or write to us at God First Bible Fellowship. P.O.

Box 266, Ninetdale, North Carolina, 27545 for more information. Now, let's return to the conclusion of today's program. Welcome back to the program. My name is Brian Thomas, and I am being joined today by Leah Carson, who is the founder of Lens of Faith Ministries, and she has a wonderful blog and podcast. And she's talking with us today on the gifts of the Spirit. So I encourage you folks, go back and listen to this again. You can hear it at our podcast on our website, GodFirst.org.

That's G.O.D., the number one S.T.O.R.G. So, Leah, let's pick up with talking about the word of knowledge when you gave the message on your podcast about the gifts of the Spirit. You told a story that helps us really relate to the word of knowledge. So can you share that with us as far as the story concerning your sister?

Yes. My sister, I went to go visit my family for the holidays. And my sister, who actually, you know, she's a Christian, but I won't say that she actually walks in the gifts of the Spirit. So for God to do this, even with her, you know, just shows you that he'll show up in different in different people.

You don't have to always be someone that even has a gift of the Spirit. But she she lost her car keys and we were all supposed to go somewhere. She was she packed her kids in the in the car and she was in the car. But before she got in the car, she was frantically just carrying up the house. She was looking everywhere for her car keys. She couldn't find them anywhere. She was kind of freaking out a little bit, you know, and I was still in the house ready to come out to the car. And she said that she was sitting in the car and she just thought like she felt like God was telling her, you know, to check a roller skate that was in the kid's closet. And let me tell you, that would be the most, you know, least likely place that some car keys would be.

You know, like, you know, if you had to choose anywhere that your car keys would be, it would not be there. Right. Exactly. But she just it was kind of a powerful download. She got that. She just she called me in the house, you know, from her phone real quick. And she said, I just really feel like God's telling me to check in, you know, check this roller skate in the closet for the car keys. And I immediately thought, that's ridiculous. You know, there's no way there's going to be some car keys. And she has a really big house, you know, for it to be there would be really odd. And but I just went and did it.

And I checked and sure enough, the car keys were in a roller skate in the closet. And I was just like, wow, God, you're you're showing up in her life, you know, by even doing this, you know, showing up in his power to show her like I'm real. You know, and I speak and I and I give knowledge, you know, and because it wasn't like she was playing in the spirit and hoping that God would do it. You know, she was just freaking out and God really showed up. And it was a testimony to his power. And I remember telling her, wow, that that was the Holy Spirit that gave me that word of knowledge, that download. And she was just like amazed that, you know, and then we just continued, you know, who went on with our day.

But it was just an amazing example of a word of knowledge. And I think the Holy Spirit really speaks to us and with words of knowledge, you know, kind of moment by moment in our days as believers. You know, where we just kind of know, oh, I think I'm supposed to make a right here.

You know, I think I'm supposed to make a left here. I think I'm supposed to call someone maybe that you haven't even talked to in a long time. And you feel like they're on your heart and you're supposed to call them or, you know, you're supposed to pray for someone or you're supposed to make an appointment somewhere. You know, there's so many ways that God gives us words of knowledge and it's really powerful because it helps us with our day to day life. Yeah.

Yeah. That's that's so powerful. And I can tell you, Leah, the number of examples that I can give in which I've experienced this type of thing.

Very recently, like within the last two months, I've had this happen multiple times in which with this radio program, I've had some some technical difficulties with my equipment and there were moments when I was getting frustrated. And I'm thinking, why is this not working? And the Holy Spirit would speak to me and say, Brian, why are you trying to do it in your own power?

Why are you trying to do it in your own strength? And I step back and I wait for his leading. And I kid you not, Leah, every single time this has happened multiple times over the last two months, every single time after I step back and I let the Holy Spirit lead, he would give me what I needed to do in order to make it work.

And I just I would sit back and just smile and I would have to, you know, say, Holy Spirit, forgive me for not turning to you sooner. But thank you for reminding me that he is there for us to rely on. And it's such a great feeling that we can go through life and we don't have to worry about making the wrong decisions, because if we are really committed and submitted to the Holy Spirit, he's he's driving this for us. And that's what he wants to do.

It's not like a friend, which, you know, you have friends and they love you. But sometimes it can be an inconvenience for them to really help you with something. The Holy Spirit is never inconvenience.

He wants to do it. And he's there waiting in is just such a freeing type of a feeling when, you know, the Holy Spirit is there to guide you. And I speak at churches and I speak at conferences and I am definitely one that believes in preparation. I study before giving a message and I have my notes, my manuscript, but I always leave room for the Holy Spirit. And it's something that I've learned over time more and more. And there have been moments in which I'm up speaking something that I didn't even plan to say the Holy Spirit would just drop it right in there. And I've even had occasions in which the message was recorded and I went back and listened to it afterwards.

And I would hear something that I said and I would say, I don't even remember saying that. But, you know, it's the Holy Spirit. And so it is such such a comfort knowing that we can rely on him. So that that's just so awesome. Let's not talk about all of that.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. It is. It's just such a freeing feeling when you know the Holy Spirit is with you. So so now let's talk about the gift of prophecy.

So tell us what is it? And then why did the apostle Paul say that he desired that people prophesy even more than speaking in tongues? So I will tell you, prophecy is probably one of my favorite gifts just because of how God has used prophecy in my life personally. And it's a long story, but I have over 50 prophecies from complete strangers coast to coast on basically the same topic in my life regarding my future. So I'm someone that definitely loves prophecy and God has really used prophecy to kind of speak to me.

And I know that there is a difference because it is important to, you know, test the spirits and things like that. And there is a difference between someone, you know, I don't want to call them a false prophet because sometimes their intentions are good, you know, whatever. But they speak out of their own imagination or anything like that. But in my case with these specific prophecies, I feel confirmation in my spirit and and you need to always confirm by taking it to God and asking God for yourself. But prophecy is when God downloads from heaven a word to encourage you, to edify you, to confirm something he's already told you, to give you clarity, direction, you know, perspective. And so prophecy is meant to edify and encourage and adore us. And it's when, you know, there's a difference between maybe speaking a prophetic word, which any of us can do. I've done it and I don't call myself a prophet, you know, but there's been times where God used me to speak into someone's life, something I would not know.

And there's a difference between that and having the office of a prophet, which is what someone does full time and they're known as a prophet and that's what they do. But the gift of prophecy is very powerful because it gives you foreknowledge of what's to come in your life and it's very comforting and it's encouraging. I don't believe it's really meant to really make you feel like shame or guilt or anything like that, you know, about anything. It's actually meant to encourage you. And even prophetic words that I've gotten that are kind of corrective, like, you know, God telling me, you know, I'm always speaking but you're too busy, you know, there's been times that, you know, that's been told.

It's still encouraging, right? It's still encouraging because it's encouraging me that God really wants to spend time with me and I need to stop being so busy, right? And so, but it's meant to encourage you, it's meant to give you a glimpse of your future, a glimpse of what God has planned for you. And all throughout the Bible, God has used prophets and prophecy to tell them what's to come and to encourage and to edify. And if we believe that God is the same yesterday, today and forever, then we know that prophecy is meant for today as well.

You know, He didn't just stop speaking through people in a certain time in history and now it's dead, you know. Prophecy can be very powerful. And so I do encourage people when they do get a prophetic word that they do make sure that they get confirmation from God for themselves and they'll just run with everything that somebody says. But I know from walking with God for a long time that when I do get a prophecy, I know it's from God because I get, honestly, I get physically, I get head to toe chills in my body. It's like it confirms in my spirit that it's true. And it also lines up with what God has already told me.

It also doesn't contradict any other word that I've brought in my past. It's not like kind of out of left field, you know, it really lines up with what I'm already getting. And it also comes back to having that gift of discernment that will help you too when it comes to prophecy, when someone does speak into your life. Just the gift of discernment will really help. It helps in a lot of areas in your life. And that's just one of the areas of prophecy.

Yeah, yeah. And it is good. I love the fact that you said to test it because there are some out there who will be given something that may not be from God. But you can test it. It's OK to test the words of a prophecy to make sure that it is something that's coming from God. And I love the fact that you tied in discernment. And Leah, we are in a time in which the gift of discerning.

Wow. I mean, I look in my lifetime and when I look at what is happening in the world today, I definitely think a spirit of division has descended upon the world. I see so much division now. And there are so many deceiving spirits out there, doctrines of demons. And it just has your head spinning. And sometimes it makes you start to question yourself.

He's like, am I going crazy? Because this makes no logical sense. What seems that some people are are seeing and the things that they're saying and they really seem to believe that what they are saying and believing is really truth. So so we're going to wrap things up with with this gift, this gift of discerning of spirits. How how greatly is it needed today and just how do we go about exercising that gift?

I think it's really greatly needed for so many. Tell me, like you said, we're in crazy times, you know, where the world is calling, you know, evil good and good evil. I mean, there's things that are being done today that I don't ever remember being done in my lifetime. You know, just Satan is becoming more and more bold, you know, with his agenda. And it's really scary to see that the world is embracing evil like it's no big deal, you know, and messing with the occult, messing with principalities of darkness. You know, it's really scary.

And if we just go with whatever, you know, mainstream media or social media or people or, you know, the world, Hollywood, whatever, we just go with what the world is feeding us. We're going to not be prepared and we're going to be blindsided when things happen to us, you know, and it's really important that the church has discernment because I really don't know how the church is going to make it. And unless they have discernment, because the world, you know, it's just becoming more and more comfortable with the things of darkness, you know, and it used to shock me when I would see something.

And now, unfortunately, things are becoming, you know, you kind of get numb by it, you know, it's just kind of, oh, that again, another this, another that, you know, and the shock value is not there as much anymore, you know. But there's different, as far as discerning of spirits, there's different spirits that we should discern, you know, there's demonic spirits, there's God's angels, and there's human spirits, you know, and so that's kind of a whole lesson in itself. But there's different things that we do need to discern, you know, with demonic spirits are still being allowed to roam in the air and interact with us at some degree in this life, so we really need this gift in full operation today just to handle this one type of bad evil spirit, you know, knowing like that is not a God, that's not evil. Because there can be people that claim to be good people, even pastors or, you know, ministry preachers, things like that, or teachers that are not of God, and if we don't have discernment, we just go with whatever is kind of thrown at us, then we're going to be deceived, you know, and so we just really have to be discerning in that. For me personally, God is just really, I desired it, and I asked for God to give me discernment, and he sort of really did give me discernment to, you know, where it helps me in every aspect of my life, like knowing when to go somewhere, knowing when to make a right or a left, knowing when to connect with someone, knowing when to not connect with someone, you know, knowing when to go to an event, knowing when to not go to an event. Just all these different things help protect your life, give you supernatural protection, and also peace that, you know, instead of being caught in the wrong places, the wrong time, or the wrong people, and then regretting your decision, if you have discernment, then you can prevent things from happening before they happen. You don't have to go through, you know, the consequences of it, of your actions, you know, so discernment is really important, you know, if you're single, who you date, who you marry, you need discernment, you know.

I mean, I just had two friends of mine break off an engagement because they realized, you know, this is not the right person for me, I mean, marriage is no joke, you know, you don't want to just marry someone for any other reason, you know, you really need God's discernment, he's the one that God has for you, you know. Should you take a job, should you take this job just because it sounds good, it might, you know, look good on paper, it might not be the job that God wants you to take, maybe he wants you to take a job that doesn't look as good on paper, right? And just walking in discernment, you know, when to do something, when to go somewhere, who to connect with, it's all a form of protection, it's all a form of protection.

Yeah, that's awesome. And it's again, it's just such a freeing feeling to know that the Holy Spirit is there to guide you so that you don't walk into these areas. And as you were talking, you know, so many things were going through my mind, examples, and you're right, even when it comes to just our day to day decisions, rely on the Holy Spirit, that discernment to make the choice because it may seem like a very simple decision at that time, but whether you go to the left or to the right, it could have tremendous repercussions on the direction of your life if you do not go in the direction that God wants you to go in.

And so that is so important. And one thing I just want to share, and I'm not going to harp on this because people that follow my ministry and those, I have been very vocal about this over the years and I'm simmering down on it now. But when I look at over the last two years with with the Black Lives Matter and when that thing became so popular, Leah, I step back and that's something that I tend to do when I see the way the world embraces something and run with it.

I step back and I say, OK, what is this all about? And it didn't take long for me to find out that, well, the movement is rooted in necromancy. I mean, they're out there calling. Yeah.

Yeah. Marxism. I mean, all of these things that are anti God, anti Christianity, summoning spirits of the dead, so much wickedness. And the thing, Leah, is I see churches that are embracing it. They're putting hashtag BLM on their social media sites and they're bringing in these rallies into the church and encouraging people to participate. And I had a friend of mine who is a Christian. He and his wife, they were were a part of a church that we were attending and they went to one of these rallies. And so he told me afterwards, he said they had to leave early because his wife started feeling so much anxiety.

She was having a having an anxiety attack to the point that she had to return to the car. Well, he found out later on that that what this movement is doing, they're out there summoning spirits of the dead when they're saying the say her name, say his name. They think they're calling on these deceased individuals that they say they're out there rallying for. But what is happening is these familiar spirits are imitating these people. And so these demons come. And when you are a believer in Christ, you're going to feel something when demonic spirits surround you. And so that's just one of the things that I could go on and on, but I won't harp on it.

But it is so important that we need discernment. Yes. Go ahead. Yeah.

I'm telling you, Brian, I 100 percent agree. Something about me, I've always been a freedom fighter, you know, someone that was an advocate for justice. You know, I would fight for the right thing, you know. So when Black Lives Matter came out, you know. Yeah. Everything in me is like, no, I want to stand up for what's right. You know, things like that. And when there was downtown, they were having, you know, the protest and everything was going down when it was really, you know, hot and just started, you know, and it was just kind of chaotic. I felt because of that discernment, because I'm someone naturally that would be probably in the front row of the fight, you know, and I would be the loudest one.

I'd probably be on the news, honestly, you know. But I felt like, you know, God was telling me like clear as day. He's like, no, you're not going down there.

You're not supposed to go down there. And it doesn't matter. I mean, black lives do matter to God. Of course, you know, of course, black lives matter. But and I didn't really understand and I didn't know the deep meaning behind it.

I just thought, yes, black lives matter, you know. And just like you, I didn't know at first. And then I found out, wow, there's the root of this is actually satanic.

It's actually, you know, it's not about unity, you know. Things started coming to the light and the surface. A lot of things started coming in, you know, being revealed about what it really was. And I realize now I'm so glad that I didn't, you know, in my own passion, go down there and try to stand up for this thinking I was going to stand up for justice because who knows what could have happened to me?

You know, who knows what could have happened to me? And that was discernment because I think naturally I would have done it, you know, but I felt discernment to not be involved in that. And and there's other things that are happening in this world, too, where I feel discernment that I feel like I'm not supposed to do those things.

It doesn't matter how much they push it. They're trying to get us to do it. You know, I'm going to go with what the Holy Spirit is prompting me to do. And he's going to be the indicator of my decisions, not the world. Amen. Amen. Well, what a great note to end on. I could talk with you for hours and hours on this. I don't want to wear you out, but it has been such a blessing to have you come and talk with us. And I've enjoyed it. I hope you will definitely come back and be on the program again.

Of course. And how can the listeners, if they want to find out more about you, follow your ministry, how can they do so? You can sign up for my blog and podcast usually once or twice a month. And it's Leah Marie Carson dot com. And you can subscribe or follow my my podcast.

One's a face on iTunes, Spotify and Google. You can find lens of faith on there and just follow to receive any updates on podcasts that come out. And so it's usually biweekly that I post a podcast and do it every week. But, you know, the editing process and everything else, I do have another job. It's not the only thing I do, but so I actually do it every other week now. But I encourage you to sign up and I look forward to walking this faith journey with you.

All right. Well, again, Leah, thank you so much for for joining us again. It is a blessing. You are just doing awesome, awesome work. And the Holy Spirit is leading you.

So just continue to follow the leading of the Holy Spirit. You are definitely a very bright light in this dark world that we're living in today. So thank you so much. Thank you so much, Brian. Thank you for having me. It's been an honor. Oh, absolutely.

Absolutely. It's definitely been my pleasure. So thank you, Leah.

And to our listeners, thank you for tuning in. It is always a joy again to join you each week. Please come back again and join us next time as we continue to encourage you to put God first while viewing life through the window of the Bible. Until then, remember to pray for the peace of Jerusalem. Bless God's great nation of Israel. Until the only wise God be glory through Jesus Christ forever. Amen. Thank you for tuning in to the God first program. Please come back and join us next week as we continue to encourage you to put God first while viewing life through the window of the Bible. Until next time, remember to pray for the peace of Jerusalem. Bless God's great nation of Israel and seek first the kingdom of God.