Speaker 1: 0:01

Hi and welcome to our podcast Revelation Within On the Go. I'm Heidi Wiles-Maepperson, one of your hosts and the owner and lead coach of the RevelationWithinorg ministry.

Speaker 2: 0:15

And I'm Christina Motley, your other host, also a Revelation Within coach and Heidi's partner in all things Revelation Within, and we're so happy to invite you to join us for this episode of Revelation Within.

Speaker 1: 0:33

On the go Hi Well welcome. I'm glad y'all are here with us. We are so glad you're here. We are shifting in our community to a new theme and we thought that maybe we would do a series of podcasts and kind of parallel that, though it'll be a couple weeks behind. Yes, our theme in the, in the community, and it'll be attending the temple, it's a sacred invitation to honor our bodies, not as projects to fix, not that, no, not that Good.

Speaker 1: 1:14

I'm relieved, yeah, but as dwelling places for God's presence, because that's what we were made for. We were made to house the Holy Spirit of God, the Shekinah glory of God, and we spend so much time treating our bodies like projects and maybe not so many of those who are listening to our podcast as maybe previously, I don't know but we want to make that shift and stay shifted to as those who are aware that these bodies are good. Yes, so today's session is going to be called. What are you thirsty for?

Speaker 2: 1:54

I love it. I love it. Another fantastic theme, another one Awesome. Okay. So, whether you're listening from a peaceful morning walk, or in the chaos of a busy kitchen or a busy workday, or wherever it is that you are, we believe that God meets you right there and together we'll gently explore this question of thirst, not just physical thirst, but soul thirst, because you know, sometimes what looks like craving is actually a deeper longing. In fact, I would say most of the time actually.

Speaker 1: 2:35

Yeah, and cravings are definitely something that we all deal with. In fact, we have a course that we created some time back on overcoming cravings and because it is so common a challenge, but because this is such a vital issue, this thirsting, this longing that we have, we're going to go ahead and start off with a little bit of a prayer, Okay great. Jesus, you see the thirst beneath the surface. You do you understand the ache underneath the craving?

Speaker 2: 3:07

Yes, Thank you.

Speaker 1: 3:08

God for meeting us, not in our polished answers or prayers, but in our honest longings. Yes, let this time that we have together, so to speak, virtually anyway, be like a watering Lord. Let your living water reach the dry places in our hearts, just flow in and through us to every nook and cranny, crack and crevice. Holy Spirit, just saturate us in Jesus name, amen.

Speaker 2: 3:40

Amen, beautiful, beautiful. And I think I like the idea of using the word thirst because when we're thirsting like it's really urgent. You know, a lot of us try to drink enough water all day long, but if we've really been busy, if we've really been active and we haven't been drinking water, there's a real thirst that comes up and it's like I need that right now. I have a serious need for that. So I like using the word thirst for this theme. Yeah, so we live in a world that teaches us to fear our cravings Isn't that so true? To run away from them or to fix them, to try to control them, to shame them, Shame them yeah, yes, right, but in this space we are going to flip that script Right on.

Speaker 2: 4:32

We're going to flip it, let's do it, let's do it.

Speaker 1: 4:37

So, and here, when we take on this perspective, we start with compassionate curiosity.

Speaker 2: 4:43

Yes.

Speaker 1: 4:44

We find these are two attributes of Jesus that we see displayed all the time in the Gospels. We ask things like what if my thirst isn't the problem? What if it's the invitation? Let's start off in Isaiah, isaiah 55, verses 1 to three, and God says this I love this. Come, all you who are thirsty, come to the waters, listen, listen to me and eat what is good. Give ear and come to me, listen that you may live.

Speaker 2: 5:24

So good. And again, you know, just listening to what you just shared, Heidi, God doesn't say go fix yourself, Like go get it together before you come to me. I got way too many things to do over here. You know. He doesn't say that. He says come, come and receive what your soul truly needs. Come right now, Come the minute you're thirsty, Come. So here's another beautiful scripture, so many of us know this one from Psalm 42, one and two as the deer pants for streams of water, so my soul pants for you, oh God.

Speaker 1: 6:12

That's beautiful. You know, I lived on a street called Deer Ravine Trail. Yes and there was a reason it was called Deer Ravine Trail, but deer were everywhere and all across our four acres were deer trails, from where they had made their way down to the ravine where there was a little bit of water trickling through.

Speaker 1: 6:35

You could tell that they were frequently going that way. And I like to think of this verse this way, because if I am frequently panting for streams of living water, panting for a God himself, I'm going to wear a path in the ground, so to speak, that shows that I am running that direction a lot. It's going to be a righteousness.

Speaker 1: 7:01

Really, it's going to be a path of purity, if you will, I love that. So we're going to take a moment to do a little bit of a word study, not much, but just a tiny bit. So the hebrew word thirst sama. I'm not sure I'm pronouncing this correctly in the hebrew. Of course I don't know hebrew.

Speaker 2: 7:20

I don't know hebrew from greek no, I'm kidding, it's all Greek to me. Yeah, exactly.

Speaker 1: 7:28

And this word that's translated, thirst in Psalm 42, is a deep, desperate longing. It's rooted in need, but even a need to the extent of exhaustion.

Speaker 2: 7:42

Yes, yeah, and we've experienced that, haven't we? We've all experienced that kind of thirst. It's not just a physical thirst, it's kind of like an ache in your soul, yeah, an ache in your soul, a longing that says God, where are you? I need you. I have a need for you in this very moment. Where are you? Wow?

Speaker 1: 8:11

Well, we as always we like to kind of make it practical for those that I don't know I benefit from. Give me something practical that I can touch or do, or hear, or smell, or feel or taste. So, if you want to, you can do this now or come back to this later. But, placing one hand over your heart and the other one on your belly, take a slow breath and, as you do, ask quietly Jesus, what am I really thirsty for today?

Speaker 2: 8:44

quietly, Jesus, what am I really?

Speaker 1: 8:45

thirsty for today? Hmm, do that right now. I'm going to do it quietly to myself, jesus. What am I really thirsty for today? Hmm, and of course you don't have to answer right now, but just notice if anything does surface, if anything comes up. Is there something that you know you could attend to a little bit?

Speaker 2: 9:08

Yes.

Speaker 1: 9:10

John, chapter 4, verses 13 and 14, jesus is speaking, of course. Whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, it will become a spring of water welling up to eternal life.

Speaker 2: 9:27

Wow, well, and what we know about springs? We have a lot of springs here in Colorado Springs and in the area. They just keep bringing more water. They don't ever, ever stop, they don't even pause. They just keep bringing more and more water. So Jesus isn't just offering hydration, he's offering himself. He is the living water, he is the source that never dries up. I mean, that's the truth of it, that's who he really is.

Speaker 2: 10:03

So, heidi, you asked me to share about a time when I thought I was craving comfort food, and boy, it really felt that way. But what I was really needing was comfort itself. So I don't have to look farther than yesterday. Craving comfort food is something that I've been doing since I was 13, 14 years old. It's easy for me to come up with examples. I have been in that pattern for many, many years, decades, but now I know what to do about it, I know what it is and I can renew my mind. But yesterday it came up.

Speaker 2: 10:39

I was out and about in my little VW Bug, enjoying driving it around. I've been home a lot in the last three weeks because I haven't been feeling well, and so it felt great to be out and about. I was running a couple of errands. One of the errands was very, very important to a dear friend of mine and I could not get it done and I was so excited about doing this for someone. I was actually picking up a high school diploma and I was excited and I had been told to come back the next day. I had already gone the day before and I was just imagining delivering this diploma to this sweet, precious friend of mine and they didn't have it and it didn't work out and they said don't even come back tomorrow, we'll call you, don't call us, basically. And I wasn't able to get it and it was disappointing. I felt disappointed.

Speaker 2: 11:35

The first thing that came into my mind was I'm going to go get myself something to eat. I was getting hungry, I was, but really what I was craving was comfort, because I was disappointed. And here I was going on this fantastic celebratory errand and it fell apart and I didn't have a good answer to tell her, my friend, anything. I thought I'm going to go okay. So this is what happened. So over the years I have had favorite go-tos around our city, around Colorado Springs. You know we all kind of do that. It's like, oh, at this place, I like this and at this place, I like that. Well, recently I've had to go gluten free because of my health and I thought I don't have any more go-tos. Oh no, why would I ever go to God Exactly? And so I'm thinking I get it, I get it. I was just like that.

Speaker 1: 12:37

I'm thinking okay.

Speaker 2: 12:39

And there's like places to eat. Everywhere I'm driving there's so many, like there's so many, and I'm like, no, not there, nothing there. Well, I don't think I could get anything there. Well, what am I doing? What am I doing? What am I doing? And I was making myself crazy because I had a craving for a comfort food that I no longer wanted to eat because it was going to make me feel physically uncomfortable.

Speaker 1: 13:06

All comfort foods have gluten or dairy or bone, all of them, right.

Speaker 2: 13:11

What in the world? What's that about? I know, and I'm also dairy-free right now, anyway. So I realized what was happening. In the midst of all of this, I realized I'm frustrated. I want comfort food. No, I don't. What I really needed was comfort itself, not in food, but in presence. I needed to talk to God about my disappointment. I needed to go to him. I needed to process those feelings, even if it took a minute or two, and then I could go home and eat something that would make my body feel good and let go of these go-tos that used to be so important to me. It was kind of a big aha moment for me.

Speaker 1: 13:59

Yeah, I bet I know what you're talking about too. I've had some of those recently where it's almost like the thoughts are habitual and in the past the behaviors that went with the thoughts were habitual.

Speaker 2: 14:12

Right, yes.

Speaker 1: 14:13

Now the behaviors are empty. Yes, and you're like wait a minute. What happened to that? It was such fun.

Speaker 2: 14:20

It was so good, and then maybe you do stop and get the comfort food and it doesn't even taste very good. No, it's not satisfying because we have tasted the real thing so much more often.

Speaker 1: 14:33

Yeah, that's so true. That is so true. I love that.

Speaker 2: 14:36

I'm so grateful for that Such a huge change.

Speaker 1: 14:39

Psalm 107, verse 9, says for he satisfies the thirsty and fills the hungry with good things.

Speaker 2: 14:48

Well, there it is. It's right there in the Bible, I love it. This is who God is. God is the one who satisfies, not just with what we want, but with what we need. God knows. I don't need to go and run out there and get some kind of food that used to be my go-to. I mean, none of that even matters. In my disappointment, in my frustration, I need him. I need him.

Speaker 1: 15:20

He is the comfort that I need and he says he is everywhere in scripture.

Speaker 2: 15:26

All over the place.

Speaker 1: 15:27

Yeah, I'm thinking the God of all comfort. I mean, that's what he calls himself, right I?

Speaker 2: 15:32

mean. That's pretty clear and we know that it's true because we have gone to him so many times. Jeremiah 2.13,. They have forsaken me the spring of living water, water, and dug their own cisterns. How many years did I dig my own cisterns? I did that for decades, for so long, and we just come up empty. It's not what we need, it's not even what we want, really, right, right.

Speaker 1: 16:01

And I don't know I am assuming there's not a person listening want really Right, Right, and I don't know I am assuming there's not a person listening who can't identify with that. We've probably all done this. We've tried to fill ourselves with almosts, with good enoughs, whether it's productivity or food or approval. Those are all broken cisterns. They don't hold water. They don't hold what we need. They leak, yeah, they leak yeah. Jesus says let me be your spring. You're never ending flow of water.

Speaker 2: 16:33

Yes, another beautiful scripture, revelation 21,. Six to the thirsty, I will give water without cost. Without cost, so we don't have to earn this living water, we just have to be willing to come. It's already there, it's offered to us, it's plentiful, it will never run out. We just have to be willing to come, to be willing to come.

Speaker 1: 17:02

That's beautiful. I live in California where during the summer, we get golden hills. That's what we have, and it's golden because it's a thirst.

Speaker 1: 17:17

The ground is thirsty and it's not getting enough water, and so I know a lot of people live in states where summer brings green and winter brings brown but, here, where I live, we get that brown I like calling it golden because it is so beautiful and what happens is in the fall, when the rains begin to fall, just a little bit at a time maybe, and then, over the course of November, december and definitely January, the torrential downpours come. It's so interesting to see how the color of the landscape transforms. It goes from being that golden color which is you know, it indicates there's a lack of water, to a little bit of green, mixed in, to a lot more green, mixed in to lush, verdant growth. It is so amazing and I really feel like this is kind of what happens. When we let God meet us in our thirst. When we let God meet us in our thirst, he will cause the landscape of our lives to change.

Speaker 1: 18:23

He really will it may happen slowly, but over time there's a huge shift that takes place.

Speaker 2: 18:30

So when I first went to go visit Heidi, I looked at these hills and I just they took my breath away. They were, they're gorgeous to me. I've not lived somewhere where there are hills like that. I've lived in Southern California, where it's quite different, and it looked like velvet to me. And when the wind blew, you know, there was just this kind of waving of all of this golden grass, and so I love that because it reminds me that it's beautiful, even if I'm in progress, even if I'm feeling dry, even if things aren't all put together. You know, even if I'm in progress, even if I'm feeling dry, even if things aren't all put together, you know, even if I'm going for water in the wrong places, it's still beautiful. And then, like you said, heidi, that rain comes, and I've also been there when it's very, very green and that has its own beauty. But even when it's dry, there is there oh yeah yeah, I mean I just I love that there's.

Speaker 1: 19:25

There's beauty and life, even when it's depleted of a lot of the water but, um, it's so awesome to see how it changes and shifts yes, I want to let god meet me in my thirst, and I don't want to circumvent that or bypass it by going to something else.

Speaker 2: 19:45

Right.

Speaker 1: 19:46

A cistern that doesn't hold water. Right, and when I think about that getting water from a cistern that doesn't hold water I have lived recently not that long ago in a place where there are quarries rock quarries that are are dug out for, you know, having granite People love to have granite in their front yards and little pebbles and whatnot, or limestone or whatever it might be, and these quarries are these ginormous holes over time that fill up with water because of the rain, but it doesn't have a proper inlet and outlet, of course, like a lake would, and so I picture these broken cisterns that are spoken of in the scripture kind of like that, like who would want to drink from that.

Speaker 1: 20:31

I wouldn't want to drink from that, but anyway. So we have a journaling prompt for you, if you'd like. It gives you kind of an opportunity to reflect on some of this. And here you go. It's where do I feel dry right now?

Speaker 1: 20:46

Or you might even turn it around and ask God Lord, where am I dry right now? Am I, like those golden hills, still beautiful? In my own way, maybe, but you have something else in mind for me. What might living water look like in that place where I am dry right now? You can always come back to this later. So again, just where do I feel dry right now? What might living water look like in that place?

Speaker 2: 21:15

Here's another idea for you. It's a breath prayer and again, breath. Prayers are just breathing with God's truth while you're saying God's truth. So here's a simple one that goes along with what we've been talking about today. We're going to inhale and say you see my thirst, and then we're going to exhale and say, and you meet me there. So we'll go ahead and try that, take a nice deep breath. So we'll go ahead and try that, take a nice deep breath and say you see my thirst, exhale, exhale, and you meet me there.

Speaker 1: 22:14

That's a good one, like that one. Isaiah 44, verse three, says I will pour water on the thirsty land. I feel like that's a great promise for us, isn't it? Yeah, wherever we thirst, whatever the answer might be to that journaling question, where am I dry right now, lord he?

Speaker 2: 22:39

says I'm going to pour water on that thirsty land. Heidi, when you read that verse you were just grinning ear to ear. I love it. I love it. It's so hopeful, it's so good, and I love that it says I will not like you know, maybe I will, or I'll come around when I got enough for you. It's I will, it's a sure thing. So I have a little blessing for you May your thirst not lead to shame but to sacred conversation. May your longings become invitations, may you be filled not just with what you want but with what you truly need, and may your temple be tended with gentleness and Jesus by your side.

Speaker 1: 23:24

Oh, thank you. That's beautiful Well listener. Thank you for being with us. Next week we will probably continue with this theme a little bit of tending the temple, yeah, and so, yeah, be ready for that, yay.

Speaker 2: 23:43

Yay, that sounds so, so good. So until then, we're going to encourage you to drink deeply, tend gently and just remember that your body is not a project, it's a temple, and Jesus is already there.

Speaker 1: 23:58

He is oh amen, he's your living water.

Speaker 2: 24:01

Amen and amen. Doesn't that sound amazing? Oh, amen, amen and amen. Doesn't that sound amazing? We are so glad that you've been with us today and we would love to invite you to join us for our next episode of Revelation Within.

Speaker 1: 24:17

On the go. We'll see you then. Bye for now.