Kyle is back and has some questions for Wayne about the process of emotional maturity and finding healing from those emotions that fire from the unhealthy side of our brains. What is the arc of emotional freedom and how do we deal with your failures during that process? This conversation also includes dealing with anger and frustration, disruptions in our established rhythms, the tyranny of the urgent, and how we can lean into tenderness to find the unforced rhythms of his grace. Podcast...

In the mid-1100s, Bernard of Clairvaux, a mystic and monk in France, considered how we experience the love of God. He published a devotional called the Love of God, in which he identified four degrees, or progressions: (1) loving ourselves for our own sake, (2) loving God for our own sake, (3) loving God for his own sake, and (4) loving ourselves for God’s sake. In a fascinating conversation, Wayne and Sara ponder these progressions in their individual relationships with God and in their...

During Wayne and Sara's recent stay in Austin, he sat down to catch-up with a good friend, an occasional guest on The God Journey, and author, Tracey Levinson. They discuss an email she sent to Wayne in the trial he faced two years ago and get into a conversation about having an unrelenting passion for what's true because of God's unrelenting love toward us. To see what's true about ourselves and about God is the doorway into a life of freedom. Podcast Notes: * Sorry, there is no video...

At the start of their transcontinental trip to Virginia and back, Wayne and Sara pause in Austin, TX, to catch-up on Sara's journey and the continuing work of freedom Jesus is doing from her early childhood trauma. Recently, Sara's counselor affirmed the rare passion she demonstrates to discover the truth about herself and it has served her well in the process. Sara talks about the tools that have been built in her life to give her the courage to stay in that pursuit. Podcast Notes: * No...

If you aren't playing with God, you're probably not doing as much for him as you think. In this last podcast before Kyle takes a brief hiatus and Wayne and Sara head out for a trans-national trip, they revisit some of the important themes that have been on the podcast so far in 2024. Through listener emails, recounted conversations, and their own personal journeys, they talk about the destructiveness of dishonesty, active listening, praying for the bride, why religion love our imposter...

"Not my will, but yours be done."  We are familiar with the words and it's easy to tack them on to the end of our prayers as a token to submission. However, the power of these words come not as a tagline but when we let God melt our hearts enough in the whatever situation we find ourselves to choose his past, rather than making it about ourselves. Kyle and Wayne explore the journey of wholeheartedness that wanders through the ugly places where God makes his wonder known in life-transforming...

"Truth has been weaponized by the enemy to shift the focus from Jesus. The ‘truth’ as many believers see it has been removed from Him who is truth; it’s a talk about Him and His truth rather than with Him in love." Those words in an email from a listener's own journey came at a propitious time in Wayne's life, and processing it with Kyle takes them further into what it means to gaze with God at the events of the world. It has led Wayne to pray for the Bride of Christ and talk to her like he...

"What are you most afraid of in your life right now, and who taught you that fear?" That is a key question to unmasking your false identity and help you discover who God has created you to be on the earth.  Wayne introduced Kyle to a podcast where Jamie Winship, the author of a book called, Living Fearless, was the guest. The podcast rocked Kyle's world and spilled out into two of his classrooms where he helped students process their personal identity and in his words, "Jesus showed up"—in a...

"What is the strange calculus of greed that causes it to catch up with even the most cautious, best-intentioned person?" This is one of four provocative questions one reviewer said are asked by the Academy-award nominated movie, Killers of the Flower Moon. The others are: Why does guilt drive some people to remorse, and others over the edge?  What is the power of a lie, that it can blind a person to a truth staring him in the face? How is it that what seems to be a blessing often turns out to...

So much of religious thinking preys on our fears of God or others thinking of us as selfish. That fear, however, keeps many from the self-care necessary to heal from trauma or resist the efforts of controlling people in our lives. Why is is so easy for us to cave to the pressure of religious obligations or the fear of what others might think instead of listening when our hearts and bodies are alerting us that we are moving beyond the grace God's current process transformation allows? Wayne...

This episode begins with a follow-up question from a listener about love and control, particularly as it affects parenting children. After which, Kyle had some questions for Wayne about his recent series of blogs on the Last Lesson My Father Taught Me, which deals with the unraveling of a deeply-valued relationship to lies, misinformation, and false accusations. Can you maintain a relationship based by ignoring persistent anger and accusations? What happens inside unmerited affection that can...

"When people can't control you they try to control how people view you." That comment sends Wayne and Kyle on an exploration of the relationship between love and control and wonder about the possibility that love just might be the opposite of control. Is that why God doesn't force humanity to please him? Have you ever been punished by a control freak in your family, place of work, or religious group? Trying to control others forces you to punish them when they won't cooperate, or pretend to...

"When the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on the earth?” It's a disturbing aside Jesus makes at the end of a parable about perseverance and prayer.  What do we make of it? Was this a real concern for Jesus, as in the days of Noah when there was only one man left on the planet who could find grace in God's eyes? Why wouldn't he already know? Was it just a rhetorical statement to provoke his disciples to learn the power of faith or is there a real risk that humanity will continue to to try...

This is part two of the podcast Kyle and Wayne started last week as they process the discoveries Wayne shared in the original Agreeing with God podcast at the first of the year. In this conversation they explore spiritual warfare and how we might be involved in it. A dream also invites them to explore what happens when we try to protect Jesus with our humanity instead of letting him protect us with his victory on the cross. Finally, they answer a listener's question as to whether or not they...

Kyle finally has a chance to jump and help Wayne process what he shared in the previous two podcasts as Kyle was dealing with a scary family medical emergency at home. He wants to know more about the process of prayer this group has undergone, especially since we began without a predetermined goal or outcome. How were the emotions going through the process and how did they keep the momentum going for so long?  They also talk about Wayne's perspective on the possibility that we are approaching...

Following up on last week's podcast, and with Kyle still unable to join, Wayne invites Bob Prater to join him in processing the journey he began to tell last week. Bob has been part of the prayer group Wayne talked about last week, so this exapands that conversation with a different perspective. They talk about the corrupting influence of gaining power, how God can turn suffering into a gift of transformation, and what it means to fellowship in the sufferings of Christ. They also talk about...

"Will you stand with God against the delusion that's in the world?" Wayne was asked that question three years ago by some friends in Ireland, and exploring what that means has been a three-year journey about prayer, love, delusion, and how God's purpose unfolds in the world. He has often shared that the last three years have been the most transformative of his life. You've heard bits and pieces of that here, but now he is ready to tell the full story. As The God Journey begins its twentieth...

Is our obedience to God strategic or specific? Does it come from following a plan God reveals to us or from simply following him each day and recognizing the opportunities and options he brings to us? The answer to that has had a profound impact on both their lives this year, so after talking some about that, they take a quick lap around the themes and topics that have most shaped them from these conversations over 2023. They talk about anticipation or expectation, God viewing sin as trauma,...

That wisdom Jesus just gave you, did he intend that to be a lens to judge others with or a mirror to reveal what he is doing in you? Kyle and Wayne examine a number of questions that can help people be more responsive to the work of Jesus around them. Why does God seem to hem us in with circumstances that offer us little choice at times and at others only gentle nudges? What questions do you run from, or what conversation are you trying to avoid? Do you humanize the people you're at odds with...

“It is very difficult for the good in people to put in place a system that can tamp down the ugly in humanity.” This observation strikes to the heart of Wayne's journey. Having spent twenty years of "ministry" trying to find that structure, he has spent the last thirty years commending that task to Jesus and learning to love others as freely as he's been loved. That begins a conversation with Kyle that leads them back to the Charismatic Revival Fury they covered last week. What can go wrong...

A significant number of people involved in the January 6, 2021, insurrection at the U.S. Capitol were spurred on by a group, claiming to be apostles and prophets equipped to take dominion over America's mountain of governance. Furthermore, they thought that God would miraculously restore President Trump to power that day and in doing so launch the Third Great Awakening, a long-hoped-for revival of Charismatic Christians, according to researcher Dr. Matthew D. Taylor.. Kyle and Wayne take a...

"Real faith doesn't rest on what God can do, but what God is doing." When our aspirations turn into expectations of God or ourselves, a life of frustration awaits. By losing sight of the process of God's work in us, we will either blame God or ourselves when we don't see the fruit we hope for. In this episode, Wayne and Kyle revisit their conversation about anticipation and capacity with some of our listeners, keeping in mind that increasing our capacity is not ours to do but what God is...

Are like-minded people the best ingredients for fellowship and community? They are if you want to stay stuck in the status quo. Growth, however, means we still consider where we may be getting it wrong and what other roads God might invite us to go down. After discussing not haunting people with ghosts of their past and finding a faithful confidant to process your journey, Kyle and Wayne discuss the idea that you are best positioned to grow and face tragic moments of your life if you have a...

"My Christian upbringing left me ill-prepared for sexual intimacy in marriage by filling it with shame and creating unrealistic expectations." Kyle was a panelist for his university's "Sex in the Dark," a confidential opportunity for students to ask questions about sex. With that lament, Kyle invites Wayne into the conversation and whether or not he had the same experience. At a time when the world despises monogamy as a complicating factor in sexual expression, they celebrate what learning...

The way of Jesus in a world of chaos is not as easy as some would have you believe. Wayne and Kyle discuss the difficult road we face when Jesus invites us to challenge the darkness that deceives us from within, to respond with love when others give us vengeance, or to live with integrity when all around us abandon it for personal expedience. There's a reason why more people aspire to wholeness than are willing to follow Jesus to get there. They also revisit two themes of recent podcasts that...