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Explore the profound journey of living in God’s presence as we prepare for the year 2025. Reflecting on the example of Moses, we emphasize the significance of prioritizing our relationship with God above all else, even before considering new year’s resolutions concerning health, career, and relationships. Drawing from Psalm 15, we uncover the essential conditions to abide in God’s presence and experience His divine guidance, provision, and protection. This spiritual focus sets the foundation for flourishing in every aspect of life, offering a transformative perspective as we move into a new year.

Discover the importance of strengthening your spirit by seeking God’s presence, which is crucial for enhancing mental and spiritual well-being. We tackle the challenges of overcoming negative thoughts and the impact of prolonged difficulties on our spirit. By engaging in spiritual practices like fasting, we aim to weaken the flesh and amplify the spirit’s voice, making it easier to receive God’s guidance. By focusing on spiritual growth, other aspects of life become more manageable, paving the way for a life of hope, clarity, and resilience amidst chaos.

We also emphasize the power of words and the importance of fostering forgiveness and love in our interactions. By exploring the dangers of slander and gossip, we highlight the necessity of respectful discourse and effective communication in nurturing strong relationships. Drawing from biblical principles, we offer practical steps for improving communication and avoiding grudges, urging listeners to focus on self-improvement and spiritual alignment. This episode encourages us to cover our lives and relationships with love and encouragement, ultimately nurturing more meaningful connections with those around us.

Where to dive in:

(0:00:10) – Living in God’s Presence

Prioritizing living in God’s presence brings guidance, provision, and protection; requires honesty, cleanliness, and obedience.

(0:14:19) – Strengthening Your Spirit in God’s Presence

Prioritizing spiritual growth strengthens mental and spiritual health, leading to resilience and clarity in life.

(0:28:40) – Avoiding Slander and Offense

Slander can harm and respectful discourse is important. Being a good neighbor and responsible citizen leads to happiness and prosperity.

(0:40:50) – Guard Your Tongue

Our words have power to uplift or harm, so we must avoid gossip and use them wisely, aligning with God’s teachings.

(0:50:54) – Choosing Forgiveness and Love

Forgiveness, understanding, and effective communication are essential for strong relationships, guided by love, patience, and spiritual teachings.

(0:56:03) – Cover With Love and Encouragement

Avoid slander, love and encourage others, walk uprightly, spend time with God, and visit my website for engagement.

About your host: Jaime Luce’s testimony has daunting personal mountains and treacherous financial valleys. She was trapped in day-to-day stress and couldn’t see a way forward. But how she started is not how she finished! And she wants you to know God has a plan for your life too, no matter how tough it seems. Today, Jaime has been married to the love of her life for almost three decades, owns two companies, and has become an author and podcaster. God’s way is always the blessed way!

Free chapter of Jaime’s new book: You Don’t Need Money, You Just Need God: https://jaimeluce.com/book/

Connect:

– Website: https://jaimeluce.com

– Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/jaime.luces.page

– Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jaime_luce/

– LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jaime-luce-00395691/

Full Transcript

This transcript is auto-generated and not perfect. We hope it blesses you.

0:00:10 – Jaime Luce
Welcome to the Jamie Luce podcast. God bless you. Thanks for tuning in today. Today is part two of being able to live in the presence of God in 2025. And last week we talked about how it is so vitally important to before we think about all the wonderful things that we can do with a new year, like getting our health in gear and eating right, you know, exercising, working hard for that job change or promotion or project or vision for that, whatever that is, moving forward your relationships, whether that’s schooling and ministry, whatever you think the plan for 2025 holds, we have to keep first things first. If you want those things to flourish, we have to do what Jesus spoke of in Matthew when he said seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and then all these things will be added to you. And if we aren’t careful, the start of a new year is, you know, just culturally. If you’re in the United States, it’s this gear up and we’re going to make all the resolutions and do all the things, and usually the majority of those things don’t end up being things we accomplish. We might get a list together and we might have those things as plans and ideas for the future or things that we start for a few weeks but then we fizzle out and we don’t finish them. And my challenge to us, and first let me say, if you didn’t hear last week, you really need to go back and listen to last week’s episode. I’m going to give you a recap but to give you the fullness of what’s there, everything I’m going to say today has been springboarded off of that. It really is the foundation and we are going to be in again Psalm 15. Today.

I spoke to you about how Moses understood that, to you about how Moses understood that God’s presence was number one, number one, and he did everything he did in order to facilitate and carve out what needed to be done so that he could be in the presence of God. That came with going up to the mountaintop. That came with sacrifice. That came with fastings of 40 days and 40 nights with no food and no water. That came with being the one who could go into the tent of meeting and be, if I could use this term holy and, to use the term that we’re talking about in the scripture, to be either upright or to be blameless, to be able to walk into that tabernacle with that ability of honesty and cleanliness and obedience before God, that he was able to come in and the cloud of God’s presence would descend and he would speak to him face to face. If we’re looking for instruction from God for this year, if we need direction in our life, if we need to know what to do, how to do it, when to do it, why to do it and all the ins and outs of that, if we need divine connections and we need divine timing and we need divine provision, all of that comes from being in the presence of God. So, no matter what I need, no matter if I need health in my body, no matter if I need help on my job, no matter if I need to be mentally healthy and all the things that we could do to start off a new year, what I need most, what I need first in order for all of those things to succeed, is to be transformed enough to be honest enough with my relationship with the Lord to know do I need to cultivate that first, so that I can live in the presence of God?

Hi, my name is Jamie Luce. I wanted to share with you some information about a brand new book entitled you Don’t Need Money, you Just Need God. It’s a playbook for miraculous provision and I want to share it with you because it solves the problem we are all facing right now. The economy is going crazy, gas prices are soaring, there’s wars and rumors of wars. We’ve got everything hitting us all at once, with interest rates rising. You need to know what to do, and so many times we think we need the money, but you don’t need money. I’m telling you, the answer is you need God, and that’s exactly what we want to teach you through this book. We’ll give you practical ways to know what to do and how to do it, so that you get answers now. You can find my book on Amazon. You can also go to jamielucecom. You can also find this book at youdontneedmoneyyoujustneedgodcom. This book is available today. This book is available today.

We spoke about how verse 2, and we’ll go back and I’ll read this entire passage again, but how? Last week we spoke about verses 1 and 2, and how vitally important it is to understand what God is saying through David when he says in order to be that one who can live this journey of life in God’s house, in the tent of meeting, where I’m always in his presence, face to face, abiding there in my house, as well as having those spiritual miraculous encounters where I encounter his glory and his goodness, is given to me that if I have that and want that, there are things that are predicated in order for me to be able to do that. And he gives us this laid out beautifully in Psalm 15. So let me read it to you. We’ll go back over just for a moment verse two and then we’ll move on from there. Oh Lord, who shall sojourn in your tent? In other, who shall dwell on your holy hill?

And we talked about how this was the hill that Moses had ascended so that he could receive from God’s own mouth and hand the commandments of how to live. And these were not commandments that were troublesome, burdensome. These were commandments that enabled them to be able to remain in his presence, to remain under his favor, to remain in a place of seeing his miraculous protection and defense and provision over their lives. Protection and defense and provision over their lives. These were commandments were given so that we could remain close instead of, without knowing it, be driven away or to wander off and wander away. These were necessary, these were supernatural moments. These moments on the mountaintop, this is where the supernatural became manifest in the voice of God and in the hand of God, to actually write the tablets in front of Moses, to actually protect Moses and walk past him and show him his glory by showing him all of his goodness.

That we can’t define good by our definition, by the world’s definition, by cultural’s definition, by the definition your family raised you with. The definition of good comes from the one who establishes what is good and what isn’t good, and that’s God and God alone. And so we talked about that last week, but let’s go on. And so we talked about that last week, but let’s go on. He who walks blamelessly and does what is right and speaks truth in his heart, who does not slander with his tongue or does no evil to his neighbor, nor takes up a reproach against his friend, in whose eyes a vile person is despised, but who honors those who fear the Lord, who swears to his own hurt and does not change, who does not put out his money at interest and does not take a bribe against the innocent, he who does these things shall never be moved.

I don’t know about you, but I want not only to be able to dwell in God’s presence, whether in the tent or on the mountaintop, where I live and where I experience God’s presence, whether that’s in my home, in the sanctuary among the saints, wherever that is. I want to be able to do this, and we have written out for us five different things here that show us if we can learn to live this life. If we can learn to do these five things, then we’re guaranteed to be able to be those who not only dwell in the tent and dwell on the mountaintop and have the experience of the closeness of God and the direction of God, the protection of God, everything that comes with his, his presence, the healing of God, the, the, the um, the understanding. There’s so much to be found in the presence of God. But not only do we get to have that if we’ll put these things in practice, but we will never be moved, we won’t be shaken, no matter what’s happening around us.

I don’t want to repeat last week, but you do need to go back and listen to that and understand what it takes, because we get thrown off by words we don’t understand. The scripture uses the word like sojourn and uses the term blamelessly. These terms can cause us to immediately turn it off and think this doesn’t apply to me. I can’t be blameless. I don’t know what this word means. It’s not relevant to me. That’s nice that David said that, but not ever taking it and turning the word inward and making it a mirror in front of our lives that reflects to us what’s in us and also tells us the reflection of God, what he’s saying. And in verse two we talked about what that really means to be blameless and to do what’s right. We explained that in depth. You really you don’t want to miss that. Please go back and hear that and what it means to be honest and to speak truth from your own heart, not only to God but to others.

Today I want to move us on and I want to go into verse three. We’ll see how far we get today. We may be able to get through them all. If not, we’ll just do a part three. But verse three says who does not slander with his tongue? There’s a lot here and I don’t want to rush through this.

I’m hoping that, with the honesty of your heart, of wanting to be in God’s presence, living a life that is not only pleasing to God, but that to talk about what we talked about last week that your life’s song, the sound that comes out from your life, that is heard by everyone around you and experienced by everyone around you, is such a wholesome, integral, full of um, full of not just the um, the wholeness of God, but the completeness, I guess, was what I’m looking for. It’s upright complete, unscathed, intact. You know, right now we are being barbed, bombarded sorry, we’re being bombarded on every side and have been for since 2020, really and we have watched the skyrocket of mental health issues and the plummet of people who feel safe, secure, confident, and it is. We have gone through such a strange and warping, imperfect time, full of blemishes, but the scripture calls us back to a place that, no matter what’s happening down the mountain, no matter what’s happening at the foot of the mountain, we can still be experiencing God, his goodness, his presence, his provision and all that he has on the mountaintop in his presence. So, if you’re in his presence, you are in the safest place possible.

Your frame of mind, your mental health, will never be better than it is when you are in the direct presence of God. If you’re dealing with thoughts, and whether it’s suicidal ideations, whether it’s hopelessness, whether it’s feelings of wanting to give up or quit, whatever it is that you’re working so hard for that you’ve been waiting so long for. We aren’t supposed to be those who wait without hope. We wait because we have hope. We know something is happening even when we can’t see it. That’s faith. We walk by faith and not by sight.

And when we’re bombarded and things last longer than we expected them to last, they begin to take such a toll that there comes a point that if we have allowed the circumstance and the troubles and just everything from the outside, the sound that the world is projecting, if we allow that sound to be stronger than the sound that we are producing, then we’re going to have a difficulty hearing from the voice of God. It takes getting into his direct presence that my ears are open, that I am able to hear what he has to say to me directly, and you need to hear what he has to say to you directly to give you that direction. You need to fight those crazy thoughts that bombard you, the emotions that attack you. You know we are our own.

Our flesh sometimes is our own worst enemy and we don’t know usually how to fight us. We don’t know how, so many times, to take authority over what’s going on in our own spirits and we allow our flesh to be the strong one, not our spirit, we get completely out of balance. If we are not spirit first, flesh second. Your spirit has to be stronger. That’s why I spoke a little bit last week about fasting and why I usually dedicate a certain.

The times change and how I do it can change, but there’s always at the beginning of a year to say, lord, I don’t know how to get through this year, I’m not sure what’s coming. You do, and because of that I have to make sure I can hear well. Well, in order to hear, well, spiritually hear. Well, I want to tell my flesh you’re going to shrink and become smaller. So I fast, so that my flesh is made weaker, so that I can claim the scripture that says in my weakness you are made strong. I make my flesh weak. I crucify my flesh with Christ so that his spirit can grow and be what’s strong in that place, so I’m able to hear, able to make the right decisions, able to do. Some of you need that encouragement, even if you’ve never fasted before.

Fasting is not not watching TV. That’s giving things up, but that’s not fasting. That may be a sacrifice for you, but that’s not fasting. Fasting is actually food. That may be a sacrifice for you, but that’s not fasting. Fasting is actually food.

And our fathers in the faith, all the way up through the apostles, they all regularly fasted, many of them two days a week. It was a regular. The scripture in the New Testament says when you fast. So there is an expectation that we all will be having times of fasting. And while Jesus was with his disciples they didn’t fast because they had his presence with them and we have to get into his presence. So in order to get into his presence, sometimes it takes some work. Sometimes you know if you’re willing to put in the work at the gym and you’re willing to make the food adjustments and you’re willing to do whatever you need to do to get up earlier and do the things that you need to do.

Folks, why would we not be more inclined and have more strength and focus to getting closer to the Lord first, getting that first, strengthening your spirit man first. When you strengthen your spiritual man first, it’s much easier to make the flesh obey Much easier. You have weakened the flesh. So if you’re struggling to make the health habits change and start the exercising, start eating right, whatever all of that includes for you, I suggest that first you start with the Lord. Get that strengthened, get that muscle really working, and when you do, the flesh is much weaker and much easier to control. It’s much easier to do when you walk a life. It’s much easier to do when you walk a life, when you sojourn in your tent, in the Lord’s tent, in his presence, when you dwell in his presence, when you live. That If you get that first just like the scripture I mentioned earlier in Matthew, then all of these things will be added to you. Seek him first, do that first. It is the guarantee, it’s the key that unlocks the door.

If you’re looking for a key today to helping yourself with everything else you need help with, start with God’s presence, start with him first, and when we get that it unlocks for us in the spirit. It will unlock those mountaintop experiences. It will. It will unlock the answers. It will unlock God writing for you the directions you need done and things that you need to address and how that needs to happen and what exactly you need to say. Things will come out of your spirit that you never even knew were there, but it’s because everything else was so loud you couldn’t hear.

It’s not that you’re not saved, it’s not that you don’t love the Lord, it’s not that you don’t ask him, that you don’t pray and ask him, but it’s difficult to hear. It’s difficult to hear, and we have to get in the right place to attune our ears so, in his presence, away from every other other noise, that we’re able to hear him. And by doing this, all of these things become a part of producing a life that is immovable, that is unshaken by whatever’s happening around us. So let’s take that mindset and look again at verse three. This is someone, if you are this kind of person, who seeks the Lord, seeks his presence, is willing to make the adjustments with him. First, to be honest about where your fault lines are we talked about that last week so that you can shore those up, so that you don’t have fault lines, that you have integrity in your foundation, that it’s not broken with cracks and places of weakness. If we are that kind of person, we are someone, then, who does not slander with his tongue.

Now, our culture right now is one of the most slanderous that I’ve ever heard. Now, maybe it was this way in past times, but in my lifetime this is the most I have ever seen. The slander is unreal and it’s not even. You can be just a regular person and use what is now common in our culture, which is social media, and you could literally post a comment having no consequence, just a thought, just something you’re putting out there. You could pose a question. I asked a question on social media recently and you’d be shocked how many people were offended, pretty much, and calling me names and stupid for asking the question and shaming me for not first going and Googling the answer. And what’s funny is I did Google the answer and I came back to clarify and I still got these remarks. And it was interesting to me that asking a question is now considered stupid when we live in a culture that doesn’t really teach our children anything.

We’re not teaching them. We tell them to feel everything and we don’t teach them anything. We don’t tell them to control and learn how to deal with their emotions, we just tell them to feel them. Well, yes, you need to feel them, but you need to know what to do with them or they will run and ruin everything. Your feelings aren’t always right, they’re just feelings. Feelings are not facts, they’re just feelings. So we have to be able to think critically and have instruction in our life, and without being criticized for the growing process. While we are in process Now, as Christians, we are definitely all in process.

Verse one says who sojourn? You’re taking a journey, okay, and you feel almost like a stranger on your journey? Well, that means you’re going to have a lot of questions and when you come to Christ, that doesn’t mean all of a sudden you magically know everything you need to know. You still have a lot of questions and you will eventually in life come up with new circumstances and new questions. And to slander one another and to accuse one another and to belittle one another and to not want to instead be the encouragers, to be those who say you know, I don’t know, or this is what I think. Maybe let’s go get some counsel. Let’s go to the book of Proverbs and get a bunch of wisdom. Let’s go find out what God has to say. Have you prayed about that? We can be those with if we’re not careful. We just tend to go with the flow when it comes to culture and, culturally speaking, we live in a very slanderous culture where we don’t just not like what somebody says, but we attack them, we attack their character, we attack and ridicule and it has caused great damage to people, to their confidence, to their.

You know it’s interesting if you’re raising children or if you’re in school and you’re teaching students and when you’re wanting to actually teach something. You want people to feel encouraged and able to learn. You want to foster a good learning environment. Everyone that you could speak to, who has anything, is anything worth their salt, will tell you that you want to make sure and encourage someone. Even if you have to bring bad news, at least do the sandwich idea, where you bring first a compliment or something that is encouraging before you address the thing that’s negative, but then you finish with another positive. It just, it’s like a little sugar helps the medicine go down.

You’re trying to make palatable something that might taste bitter. It might be good for you. There are many herbs that I don’t like because they’re bitter herbs, but boy are they good for you. Do they do wonderful things in the body? They are healing to the body, or there might be I mean, take the passover, for instance. When, when the, when jews do the passover, when they celebrate the passover, there is a plate of bitters, everything on its bitter and they are instructed to eat those bitter things. There are times when it’s good for us are instructed to eat those bitter things. There are times when it’s good for us to have to eat things that don’t taste good, that maybe don’t swallow well, things that we have to learn to be able to be grown up and take our medicine, so to speak, so that we are wise.

Proverbs talks about when you’re someone who is wise. If you correct someone who’s wise, they become wiser still, but if you correct a fool, basically the folly ends up being yours too, because they don’t listen and it just don’t cast your pearl before swine. There are people who want to learn and be teachable and there are people who don’t. So here’s a challenge for us today If someone says something that you don’t like, that is critical about you and none of us likes to hear anything critical, me included. No one likes to hear criticism.

But if we will stop for just a moment and I’m not talking about ugly criticism, I am not talking about slander, I’m talking about truly constructive truth If someone has something that is true about me or the way about me, that I need to know because it’s harmful in some way or it’s not producing the thing I’m hoping it’s going to produce. If that person loves me, they’re going to tell me the truth about me and if I truly am wise, I will want to hear that, acknowledge it, confess it to the Lord and say I need help here. Why am I doing this? Why do I do this? What is it in me? What thing is it? What lie am I believing? What fear am I having that it’s causing me to do this or behave in this way or not react right or not want to accept truth when it is corrective? I should want to know that. Now, if I think every true thing is slander, I have an issue.

But there is such a thing as slander and we are to keep our mouths from slander that you don’t get ugly when you correct somebody. You aren’t ugly and belittling and tearing them down and telling them everything that’s wrong with them and how everything’s their fault and everything is because of them, that they’re responsible for everything and, um, to say things that are. It’s slander when you tell somebody something they can do nothing about. If I say to somebody you’re ugly Now, they may or may not be ugly, but they certainly can’t change who they are. You can’t.

To slander someone’s personality is harmful. That is not beneficial. Now, if I have a weakness about my personality, is it wise for me to work on that? Yes, is it wise for me to know? You know what? I’m kind of weak here. I tend to do this and it would be so much better for me if I did that. Okay, lord, show me ways that I can implement in my life to become stronger in that. But to slander would be to say to somebody you’re weak, you’re always weak, you’ll never be anything but weak. You know those kinds of comments, that to be little people for simply saying something that we don’t like, something that tastes bitter to my palate.

There used to be a time when people could express differences of opinion and they were still respected as having differences of opinion, and respected because they understand that person has a different frame of reference, comes with a different set of life experience and background and education, and they have differences of opinion. You have people who are great I mean so so great at being apologists, for explaining how we have the word of God, knowing all of the prophecies and what came to pass in the prophecies, knowing the validity of scripture and how that’s archaeologically proven, the dates and times and things in history that have proven out facts and all of those things. They’re just fantastic and and they know it. And with all of that you can have someone on the other end, debate them, who is a complete atheist, who is scientifically educated, you know, with phenomenal degrees, you know more degrees than you’ve got on a thermometer and you’ve got on. Both sides have that same depth of education in their field and they can have two complete opposite opinions.

It should be that, no matter who we are speaking to, especially when it’s the brethren, those in the household of faith, those deserve honor and we should respect. Now, it doesn’t mean I’m going to agree with you. It doesn’t mean I’m going to change my tune. It doesn’t mean that I’m not going to boldly profess. It doesn’t mean I’m not going to debate but I’m not going to slly profess. It doesn’t mean I’m not going to debate but I’m not going to slander.

There is a difference and we need to be those who do not slander. So to be this person who walks according to God’s ways, who lives in God’s presence. I just want to read this to you again Part of what we went over last week was that this person who walks blameless is living what is complete, entirely in accord with the truth and fact that they are wholesome, unimpaired, innocent, having integrity of God’s ways. So when I spend time in his presence, I am spending time doing things and trying to mirror doing things God’s way God’s way, not man’s way, not culture’s way. I’m doing it man’s way and I do not slander with my tongue. I do not do evil. Let me read it the way it’s written who does not slander with his tongue and does no evil to his neighbor? We know that the opposite of doing evil to our neighbor is to do what the parable that Jesus talked about, and be the good Samaritan. I’m to be the one who cares about my neighbor.

Jesus was answering the question who is my neighbor? Does it mean the person next door? Sure, but it’s the person whom I come in contact with. I am that. That is my neighbor, the people who are in the world I live in, who I encounter. That is my neighbor. Who does no evil to his neighbor. So not only am I not going to slander them with my tongue, but I’m not going to do things that are harmful to the people around me. You know, this is really, um, I know I’m taking this and I’m kind of, uh, the?

The scripture is not talking about politics. Okay, I’m just going to use that because right now we’re dealing with a political change, with the change of a president, um, and, and, and political upheaval on both sides. So I’m going to use this for that purpose. But if I do no evil to my neighbor, that is as simple sometimes as if I understand the truth, because we’re talking about facts and truth, if I understand the truth about something based off of facts having to do with policies in place, um, how people represent, um, the, the, the needs of the people that they govern.

What I’m looking for is to then use my good judgment to help my neighbor by being someone who is a good citizen. So, when it’s time to vote, I actually go vote, I do my due diligence, I seek out information that shows me how do these people vote and then, when it’s policies being put in place, if I can affect those by propositions or whatever they are, whatever measures, petitions, whatever that I do my duty as a good neighbor to make sure that I am being responsible. So that you know, the Bible says that when you have a righteous King, that the people live happy, they are, they rejoice, they have a they, they live in happiness and fullness and blessing because they have a good King. It’s important for us to have good rulers over us so that we ourselves are then governed well and that we rejoice in that. We get to live in the benefit of that, and that’s the whole purpose.

So doing no evil to your neighbor is is deeper, wider, and I’m just giving you the one aspect. When I say, um, uh, politics, because it could be, you could know that a neighbor is sick and you could bring them some soup, you, you could you know it’s giving to the poor, it’s every kind of possible thing, it’s being kind to people, opening a door. All of those things are being good. So I’m just trying to broaden for us the understanding of what it is to not do evil to our neighbor. I don’t want to do anything that’s going to cause them harm. I want to make sure that to not to cause them harm. I want to make sure that to not do the evil, that I’m actually doing good. If I’m doing good to my neighbor, it will cancel out and prevent me from doing evil to them if my concentration is on doing them good.

Okay, so we take that same mindset with not slandering. If I choose to focus and use my mouth, the power of my words, to speak life to people, to encourage people to be kind to people, to have patience with people, some of us need a real attitude check and we are very impatient people and we’re very quick to quip and say sharp things. Just because we’re quick, that you might have a gift for thinking quickly, but you need to use it for being quick to bring encouragement to a situation, to correct a situation when necessary, to stand in and say the right thing versus the slanderous thing and the wrong thing. I’m not going to do them evil, even with my mouth. I’m going to make sure that I am good to them.

And then, lastly, nor takes up a reproach against a friend. I want to read you several scriptures regarding this issue Proverbs, which, if you want any wisdom, go to Proverbs. I mean the Bible’s full, of course, but Proverbs has so many great verses. But I want us to see we have nurtured not only a culture of slander, but we have nurtured a culture of offense. So it works in cyclical means. So I slander. The person who is slandered takes up an offense. So in my offense I do evil and I slander, and it is a. It’s a cycle and some of us need to break cycles. This year we need to spend time in the presence of God so we can break the cycle of what happens with our mouth, with our thoughts, with the offenses that we take up.

It says don’t take up a reproach against a friend, don’t try to get even I could have wrote down scriptures about not taking vengeance A reproach. Okay, when you think about the word reproach, I should have looked this up for you and I didn’t, so that’s my fault. But reproach is a good term to think on, because if something is a reproach to you, it means it makes you look bad. It’s a dark spot that is on on a name or a character, a blemish, and everything we talked about last week, of course, was that we would be blameless and have no blemishes and and be um intact, without fault, um, impeccable, all of those things. So a reproach is that it is a black mark. Okay, so we don’t want to take up an offense. We don’t want to take up an offense. We don’t want to let a black spot be put on us that is reproduced with our mouth. Nor do we want to put one on our friend, on those around us. We don’t want, with our tongue, to be putting that reproach on them. Bring a reproach to their name because we’ve slandered them. This was the whole game plan. This was the whole strategy to come against President Trump before his election, to bring a reproach so strong against his name that he would be unelectable.

A reproach, so if God is saying, through King David, that you can be someone who lives in my presence, who lives in my presence and sees the supernatural on your behalf, to be someone like that, you are, not somebody who tries to bring a reproach Just that thought would probably change a bunch of our little. I don’t even know what we call them now, because Twitter is now X and they were tweets on Twitter. I don’t know what you call them, but whatever you post, the things that we post on social media, is it bringing a reproach? Are we slandering? Now, like I said, there’s a difference between putting out truth to explain facts, to cause people to question and think critically about a situation. That’s not slander. That’s truth and facts.

But if I’m slandering, I need to stop it. I need to stop it. I need to understand that the consequence of being somebody who is slanderous is someone who cannot live in the presence of God. I won’t be a great carrier of the presence of God. Now I can repent and I can come back into his presence and he will receive me. But I have to if I’m going to live a life with his blessing, his protection, his provision, his, his presence, his voice, constant, telling me, encouraging me, instruct, instructing me. If I want that, then I’m going to make some different choices. I’m going to use my mouth for God’s glory. I’m not going to use my mouth to aid and abet Satan and his, his design and plan to bring a reproach and pain and harm to my neighbor. I want to be careful who I partner my mouth with. That’s a big thought. Okay, let’s read some scripture here. Let’s look at first Proverbs 16, 28.

A perverse person stirs up conflict and a gossip separates close friends. There’s so much to be said about gossip and I didn’t do a dive on all the scriptures on gossip. And that’s an easy thing to do. Simply Google, ask Siri or whoever you have on your phone, give me all the scriptures on gossip and you’ll you could just read right through them. It’s very simple. It’s very simple, but this wisdom in Proverbs is because it tells you what it does. It separates friends, it degrades and breaks up relationship. We have to be careful what we say, who we say it to and why. And gossip is not made. Not gossip, quote unquote by saying hey, I want you to pray with me about this for this person, just so you could tell somebody what it is. If you’re somebody, you can just know that whatever you reap, you reap what you sow. So if I’m somebody who speaks constantly about people, I’m going to end up realizing that I am surrounded and in a circle of people who do this, and they’re doing it about me too. You have to be careful with your tongue. Gossip is a very destructive tool. The tongue is so destructive, let’s let’s keep reading, because there’s more scriptures on that, and it’s before we go on, though.

A perverse person stirs up conflict. So I can know something. What? What does perverse mean? It’s not straight, it is not the way it is supposed to be, it has been twisted, it has been manipulated wrongly. It is perverse. A perverse person stirs up conflict. That means that if you want to divide people, if you want to bring division if you’re somebody who likes to stir up and start arguments and conflict. There is something perverse going on there and there is some partnership with the enemy there, and there is some correction, some serious correction that’s needed. So we need to be so careful. That are the words coming from my mouth. Wholesome words are perverse, and perverse doesn’t just mean sexually perverse.

Perverse is something that is wrong. It is not. This is not right. This is against what it should be. So we have to get clarity. We and this is one of those things.

This is something that this whole teaching is not meant for you to think about somebody you know who needs this. This is about us being honest before God, about us, about a new year If you’re going to make a resolution, it needs to be about your spiritual growth, the truth about where you are with the Lord. Do you even want to be in his presence? Do you even value that? I sure hope you do. Nothing else will make. It won’t make a difference. If we don’t get this right, nothing else makes a difference. Nothing else will change, nothing else will help. Okay, let’s go to Proverbs 17.9. This is really beautiful.

He who covers a transgression seeks love, but he who repeats a matter separates intimate friends. Listen to that contrast. He who covers a transgression so instead of slandering and gossiping and saying things that are hurtful, someone who chooses and seeks to cover up Somebody’s transgression, who doesn’t want to make it known, that is someone who seeks love. But he who repeats a matter separates intimate friends. You might hear something in confidence and you know both parties and you go tell that person. This person told me this about you. You’ve just separated their friendship and you’ll probably separate your relationship with both of those people because they realize that you didn’t keep a secret what was meant to be kept secret. It does nothing to help a relationship. Covering transgressions, not telling people what somebody did, praying for them yourself, and covering that that’s seeking love. It’s nobody else’s business. It’s nobody else’s business.

Let’s look at Proverbs 18, 21. Death and life are in the power of the tongue, and those who love it will eat its fruits. I’ve I have quoted the scripture so many times. If you don’t want to eat it, then don’t say it. If you don’t want to eat what you’re dishing out, don’t say it it. It’s that simple. Those who love it will eat its fruit. Death and life are in the power of the tongue In the power of the tongue, be so careful, be choosy, be picky, be really intentional and diligent about what you say and what comes out of your mouth. Okay, here’s a few verses on not being offended, and we’ll end with this today and then we’ll go to the next one tomorrow or next week.

Proverbs 19, 11 says good sense makes one slow to anger. And what’s he speaking about? And we’re using this in the context of being offended, taking a reproach, giving a reproach. Okay, good sense makes one slow to anger. So if you’re somebody who doesn’t quickly fly off the handle, somebody who’s slow to get angry, you don’t just receive what’s being said. You don’t just because I hope you know that, folks you don’t have to just receive what somebody says. Somebody can say something to you that’s hurtful. They can use ugly words, they can use labels against you. Just because they say them doesn’t mean you have to receive them. You don’t have to take them in and acknowledge them as truth. You could assess what they say. Take what they’ve said and hold it right there and assess it, look at it, assess it. Is there any truth in this or is this a lie? Is this simply meant to cause harm or is this meant to build me up? It’s a great tool to use when hearing any kind of criticism, to assess. You don’t just receive, you assess and, if it’s true, be grateful. You know I do need that. I didn’t realize I do that. That’s hurting me, that’s harmful. You know that could be the case or it could be. That’s not true at all and you know it. So you just simply don’t receive it because it’s not true. I mean, we tell that to our children. You know they’ll say so-and-so said this about me. I’ll say, well, is it true? No, well then don’t worry about it. It’s not true. Don’t receive it, don’t take it so. Good sense makes one slow to anger. And it is his glory to overlook an offense. To overlook an offense, it’s his glory. This is what God sees, folks. When you overlook an offense, it is glory that comes over you. It is his glory to overlook an offense. Just overlook it. They didn’t mean it.

There’s so many times when I’ve had things said to me and I think they’re having a hard day today. I don’t know what they’re dealing with. There’s obviously something going on. There’s a fear there, there’s an old wound there, there’s something there. I didn’t do that so I don’t have to receive that. It’s better. I can overlook that offense and I can still love my brother or sister. I can say they’re human. I can. I can remember times I’ve done that.

I wish I wouldn’t have said that to so-and-so. I wish I wouldn’t have done it that way. If I could do it over, I would Okay. If you understand that and you want that same grace and wish that for yourself, you can do that for others. You can know. You know what. We’ll give them another shot, they yourself. You can do that for others. You can know. You know what we’ll give them another shot.

They probably didn’t mean to. You could even simply say I don’t know if we’re getting off to the best start here. Would you like to start over? If I offended you, I apologize. I didn’t mean that. I’m for you. I’m not against you. I’m for our relationship. I’m for us. There are ways to deal with that. There are ways to bring about a better communication.

It is his glory to overlook an offense. Let’s look at 1 Corinthians, 13, 5. Love is not rude. It is not self-seeking. If I’m saying whatever I’m saying just because I am doing it so that I can feel better about myself or prop myself up or promote myself. That’s pride, that’s self-seeking. It is not easily angered. Love is not easily angered. It keeps no record of wrongs. So it’s impossible for me to put on or reproach somebody if I think they’ve done no wrong. Right, if I keep no record of wrong, I’m not going to try to put a reproach on them. And if I am someone who tries to not do wrong or doesn’t receive an offense, then I am keeping myself from having record of wrong. We need to really work on this. That’s love in action. Keeps no records of wrong. That is forgiveness.

I’ve heard it said. I don’t know who first coined it. I’ve heard many say it. Tons of marriage counselors say this. But to stay married is simple. You just have two people who are really good at forgiving. You just have to be good at forgiving and you can stay together.

Okay, let’s look at James 1, 19. Know this, my beloved brothers let every person be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger. That’s just good, solid advice. Always, always, and Ecclesiastes 7, 21 and 22, do not take to heart all the words that the people say, lest you hear your servant cursing you, for often your heart knows that you yourself have cursed others. This is what I was talking about, where we overlook an offense and we keep no record of wrong because we know I’ve done it too.

Don’t be seeking to know everything that you shouldn’t need to know. Don’t don’t be someone who is um quick to hear what people are saying about you through somebody else. In fact, if someone says, hey, I heard so-and-so said something about you, it might be wise for you to say you know what, I’d rather not know, I’d rather not know. I’d like to keep them clean in my eyes so that I, that I am not a dark spot, doesn’t show up in my heart that I don’t then carry an offense. It’s better that I don’t know, I would rather not know, and I think some of us need to make that a practice. It doesn’t matter what others are saying. We aren’t.

We are supposed to be comparing one another to each other. We’re supposed to be comparing ourselves to the word of God, because that is where we find who Jesus is. We aren’t supposed to be trying to bring a reproach on one another. We’re to be those who cover those offenses. If I want to live this year blessed in God’s presence, blessed with his direction, with hearing him speak to me and I know his voice and I follow it to have his provision over my life to walk and live and abide in his presence. I need to make these things my list to do this year, these five things.

So this today’s the end of number two. We’ve still got three more to go. Um, stick with me. I this, this, I promise you this will be life-changing for this year. And again I want to remind you if you didn’t hear last week, go back. It’s worth it. You need to hear it. It’s, it’s going to encourage you, strengthen you, put some seeds in you, some faith seeds, some aha moment in you. You’ll want to go back and listen to that. But thank you so much for taking the time to spend with me today.

Let’s be people who don’t slander, let’s cover people this week. Let’s make it, especially those we live with, oh my goodness, especially those we live with. Love them, bless them, encourage them, not slander them with our tongue. Let’s walk uprightly before the Lord. Let’s walk uprightly before the Lord. Let’s get in his presence and see what God will do. Thanks so much for tuning in today. It’ll be my pleasure to be with you next week so that you can get the next part, part three. You can visit me on my website, jaimeluce.com. If you have any questions about the ministry, want to contact us, send in a prayer request or praise report. I’d love to hear from you. That’s J-A-I-M-E-L-U-C-E. We’ll see you next time. Bye-bye.