Minister of Truth: Stepping Boldly Into Your Calling – The You Are My Witnesses Podcast
Want to hear the latest episodes? Follow You Are My Witnesses on any of the following directories:
Previous Episode Recap
A couple of weeks ago, I initiated a conversation about the importance of intentionality in staying connected to Jesus. That episode delved into the transformative power of prayer, the necessity of overcoming spiritual apathy, and provided practical strategies for deepening our relationship with God. Through biblical insights and personal testimony, we unpacked what it truly means to create a sacred space for Jesus in our hearts and to live from a place of genuine intimacy with Christ.
If you remain in Me and My words remain in you [that is, if we are vitally united and My message lives in your heart], ask whatever you wish and it will be done for you. My Father is glorified and honored by this, when you bear much fruit, and prove yourselves to be My [true] disciples.
John 15:7-8 (AMP)
On our mission to step into the unknown, we must learn to run on prayer. “Becoming His witness” isn’t a do-it-yourself ministry, but an outpouring of our inner life with God. If you have tried the do-it-for-God structure and come out running on fumes, there is a better way! Jesus lives inside of you, and He is inviting you to work with Him not for Him. Can you catch the difference? It’s subtle, but important to recognize the contrast.
When we protect our prayer life and live as one who has constant access to the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, embrace our true identity in Christ, and shine His light in the world. The invitation for us is to pray earnestly, speak the truth in love, renew our mind, and seize every opportunity to share the hope of Jesus.
Current Episode
In today’s episode, we are going to dive into some of the more challenging and bitter parts of life— the things that often linger in our hearts and minds. These are thing we need to address to move forward in our walking with God and our journey of witnessing. I’ll be sharing my personal experience with you, where I encountered Jesus in a profound way. He led me to address some painful memories and offered healing where I never thought possible.
We will also take a look at what the Bible says about bitterness, and how those stories reveal the gospel of Jesus Christ. Lastly, I want to invite you to go deeper with God today, trusting Him to turn all the bitter things in your life into something sweet.
Developing Process of Witnesses
Our Hearts— a Container with a Lid
- A container with a lid on top represents our hearts when they are closed off to God, refusing to be filled and nothing is pouring out.
- What is within will eventually go bad— it has a shelf life.
- Spiritual bacteria can form and harm the rest of our soul.
- We are unaware of our condition most of the time (until God reveals it to us).
- This stage of our development is an appointed time!
- You didn’t miss it. You are exactly where God wants you to be. Praise the Lord!
- Prayer and submission give us the steps forward in this stage of our development.
- Types of Lids:
- Pride— Thinking we are in charge and that we know best.
- Selfish Motives— Produced by an unhealthy love of self and they are the why behind every evil thing.
- Bitterness— When we don’t release bitter things to God
Bitterness
- Identify your emotions about the word bitterness.
- What do you think of when you hear the word bitterness?
- Are you pushing that word away? If so, why?
- Reality Check: this world is not kind, and we have/are being harmed
- Distractions keep us from dealing with what has happened.
- Lie: If we don’t think about it, it won’t harm us anymore. We need to just forget about it because that’s the Christian thing to do. (This doesn’t work!)
- Every person is a song being composed by God.
- There are sad notes, angry notes, and happy notes
- During a sad or angry part of our song, we must bring that melody to Him to find resolution, otherwise it will pervert the rest of our song.
- Grief: a counterculture move!
- The Western Church avoids grief (Grief isn’t just appropriate when we loose a loved one, it is when there is a disappointment or a unresolved matter in our life).
- Becoming God’s Witness requires us to cooperate with the practice of grief.
- We must accept the higher reality of God’s Truth!
Going Deeper Exercise— Resolution with God
- Go to a quiet place with a pen and paper.
- Pray Psalm 139:23-25 before listening to the music. Ask the Holy Spirit to reveal any bitterness in your heart.
- Listen to this song (You Restore Everything (Live) – Rick Pino & Abbie Gamboa).
- As you are listening, write down all that you are feeling (honesty is key. No filter here!).
- Bring it all to Jesus. Cry if you need to. Get angry. Lay all of your emotions before Him (Below is a resource from my Bible Study on the book of Job that I am making available to you).
Jesus as Our Example
- Jesus is the image of God the Father.
- Jesus had emotions and used them (He lived out every note of the human song!).
- We see this in the Prayer of Gethsemane (Matthew 26:38)
- He was overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death.
- The High Priestly Prayer (John 17:20-25)
- Jesus is our Witness of the Father!
- We have never seen the Father in His fullness, but Jesus has!
- If we know Jesus, we know the Father and the Spirit because they are one.
- Our purpose is two-fold:
- To be one with God
- To be one with others
Vision: A Locked Room
I shared a vision I had of Jesus on the beach, inviting me into the water. When I dove under, I saw Him smiling in a colorful underwater world.
Jesus led me into a hidden cave, saying it represented my heart. I said yes to exploring that with Him. The cave was huge, full of many rooms and hallways. There was so much we could explore, but Jesus led me to a door that was shut. I realized He was waiting for me to give Him the key, so I pulled a key out of my pocket.
He slowly turned the key, and as the door opened, the smell and taste of saline dripped down my throat and my stomach tightened.
Jesus told me that I was feeling the atmosphere of the room and that put me at ease. The room was dark and musty, the last place you would expect to feel like a hospital. There were these holographic images all over the room, set up like a gallery. Each image was a video that would play as soon as you got close enough. To my dismay, I recognized each scene as a collection of bitter moments in my life.
As I drew closer to the images, my heart began to ache, and as I looked down I saw a gaping wound from my heart that was pouring out blood.
While the fluid drained from my chest, I held my hands to catch it, looking to Jesus for help. His eyes were overflowing with compassion, and Jesus reached into His sleeve and pulled out a jar of honey. He lathered my chest with the honey and said, “Janell, I make all bitter things sweet.” As the honey touched my heart, I could feel and see the wound healing. Then, I grabbed the holographic image and give it to Jesus, releasing every debt to Him.
To my surprise, Jesus took out the honey again and poured it over the image, as He did a golden frame encased the image and the memory went from grayscale to colored.
Bitterness in the Bible
- Bitter waters of Marah:
- This is a story is found in Exodus 15, where the Israelites, after escaping Egypt, came across a water source in the desert called “Marah” which had incredibly bitter water, making it undrinkable; the name “Marah” itself means “bitter” in Hebrew. So the people grumbled against Moses, saying, “What are we to drink?” He cried out to the Lord; and the Lord showed him a piece of wood; he threw it into the water, and the water became sweet. This is also where God makes a covenant of healing with the Israelites and proclaims He is Yahweh Rapha, the God who heals them.
- Do you believe that God’s new covenant includes healing?
- This is a story is found in Exodus 15, where the Israelites, after escaping Egypt, came across a water source in the desert called “Marah” which had incredibly bitter water, making it undrinkable; the name “Marah” itself means “bitter” in Hebrew. So the people grumbled against Moses, saying, “What are we to drink?” He cried out to the Lord; and the Lord showed him a piece of wood; he threw it into the water, and the water became sweet. This is also where God makes a covenant of healing with the Israelites and proclaims He is Yahweh Rapha, the God who heals them.
- Bitter gourds:
- During a famine (2 Kings 4), Elisha is teaching a school of prophets. Everyone gets hungry and so he sends a servant to find some wild gourds and adds them to a stew. The men ate the stew and began to cry out that there was death in the pot. Elisha instructs them to bring flour to him and then he threw it into the pot, and it became safe to eat. The poison was neutralized. Everyone ate their fill.
- The second story comes from the book by Jonah. After the people of Nineveh repented and God forgave them, Jonah had a tantrum. He sat under a castor oil plant. That plant shrived up after being eaten by a worm, and it made Jonah angry. God used that situation to ask Jonah this question, “Is it wrong for me to show mercy to your enemies?”
- Do we have a problem with God having mercy on our enemies?
- Bitter identity:
- When Naomi calls herself mara. Ruth 1:19-21 says, “When they arrived in Bethlehem, the whole town was stirred because of them, and the women exclaimed, “Can this be Naomi?” “Don’t call me Naomi,” she told them. “Call me Mara, because the Almighty has made my life very bitter. I went away full, but the Lord has brought me back empty. Why call me Naomi? The Lord has afflicted me; the Almighty has brought misfortune upon me.”
- Do you feel like Naomi?
- We must accept and expect mystery as being part of our relationship with God.
- We can reach for God, or we can reach for understanding.
- We can’t usually have both.
- When Naomi calls herself mara. Ruth 1:19-21 says, “When they arrived in Bethlehem, the whole town was stirred because of them, and the women exclaimed, “Can this be Naomi?” “Don’t call me Naomi,” she told them. “Call me Mara, because the Almighty has made my life very bitter. I went away full, but the Lord has brought me back empty. Why call me Naomi? The Lord has afflicted me; the Almighty has brought misfortune upon me.”
- Jesus given gall:
- When Jesus was on the cross, they offered him wine to drink, mixed with gall, but when he tasted it, he would not drink it (Matthew 27:34). In the Bible, “the word gall most often refers to a bitter-tasting substance made of a plant such as wormwood or myrrh. Wine mixed with bitter herbs or myrrh created a potion that dulled the sense of pain” (source). Jesus was refusing what might have dulled the pain he was experiencing.
- Are you reaching for some kind of sedative to dull the pain (physical, emotional, or spiritual)?
- When Jesus was on the cross, they offered him wine to drink, mixed with gall, but when he tasted it, he would not drink it (Matthew 27:34). In the Bible, “the word gall most often refers to a bitter-tasting substance made of a plant such as wormwood or myrrh. Wine mixed with bitter herbs or myrrh created a potion that dulled the sense of pain” (source). Jesus was refusing what might have dulled the pain he was experiencing.
He Restores Everything!
Challenge:
- Refuse anything in your life that would dull the pain. There is to be no more coping, for you are more than a conqueror in Christ.
- Bring the pain to Jesus.
- Find resolution (of your relationship with God).
Jesus is inviting you closer. To go deeper with Him, He needs your eyes and your heart. Will you fix your gaze on Him and open your heart to His presence today? 💛 #StayConnected #DeepenYourFaith #TurningBitterIntoSweet #HoneyAnointing
May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.
Romans 15:13 (NIV)
Do you want to become a better steward of time?
Every month of the Hebrew year has a blessing and purpose. When we know the time, we are in, we will know what to do in faith and in prayer. Understanding the times and seasons through the lens of God’s timeline will enrich your relationship with Jesus, keep your heart aligned with His Kingdom, and help you grasp a greater understanding of His Word. It’s never too late to jump in!
I want to personally invite you to join my monthly newsletter and receive insights about the Hebrew month ahead. This will help you as you learn to steward the time God has given you.
Resources
If you want to grow in this area of prayer, below are some resources that will help you build your connection with Jesus.
Available on Google Play/App Store:
- Practicing connection with God
- Releasing everything to Jesus
- Restoring your union with Christ
- Inviting God to fill you
Available on Google Play/App Store:
With the Lectio 365 app you pray the Bible by meditating on the scriptures and asking God to speak through them. This is a sustainable and life-giving model of spiritual formation and prayer for ordinary people.
The National Day of Prayer (05/01/25)
The National Day of Prayer stands as a call to us to humbly come before God, seeking His guidance for our leaders and His grace upon us as a people. This non-profit organization seeks to:
- Foster unity within the Christian Church
- Protect American’s Constitutional Freedoms to gather, worship, pray and speak freely
- Publicize and preserve America’s Christian heritage
- Encourage and emphasize prayer, regardless of current issues and positions
- Respect and show the love of Jesus to all people
- Glorify the Lord in word and deed
Join a prayer community, and go to the NDP website find out more information.
Dutch Sheets is a messenger of hope for America, boldly proclaiming that she will experience a Third Great Awakening and turn back to her God-given destiny. He labors to equip the church in governmental intercession, challenging believers to passionate prayer for worldwide revival. You can download the app on your phone or watch his daily broadcast on YouTube.
Subscribe below to get updates on new episodes.
*Music by LiteSaturation
Janell Kremer 
Leave a comment