Under the Shadow

He is our refuge and our strength. We need to understand that no matter the situation, He is always there to bring comfort. 

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Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:16

Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for tuning in to today's podcast. We are glad that you're here. If you could do us a favor before we get into today's topic, hit that like button, uh, share, follow us on social media. We are on all platforms, including TikTok. Leave a comment down below. Tell us what you think. We're glad you're here. Gabe, how you been, man? I know it's been um a couple weeks. Uh the weather's good. Well, well, yeah, it it was a couple days. There was a heat wave that went by. But um, the weather's good, and you know, there's a lot of uh vacationing, and you know, and spending uh the majority of your day outside. So what's been what's been going on, man? It's been a lot of fun.

SPEAKER_00 0:58

Like I said, it's been uh vacations here, yeah, a lot of birthdays coming up, planning for that. Um again, just staying involved. So it's just and it's been like kind of back to back to back because I know you were away with your wife for a little bit, and then I went away with my family. So we just recently got back. Um, and it it's it was good. It's it's good to discharge, it's good to get away, it's good to just you know get a new environment sometimes and and and see new places at the end of the day. So it was cool. My kids had a lot of fun, obviously, a lot of beach days, a lot of pool days, a lot of being like you said, trying to trying to get them outside, even though they want to bring all their you know switches and iPads.

SPEAKER_01 1:44

You were going outside.

SPEAKER_00 1:45

Look, I was like, you got time limits 20-30 minutes on it, we're going outside. We're going to the pool. You know, as soon as they opened up, we would open it up, go to the beach. We went uh boardwalks, a lot of stuff. So it's been a lot of fun, and and my kids love it. You know, I've I've learned to also uh be married to my wife. Love you. Um it, I I've appreciated the beach a lot more. Yeah, so now it's like as a father, it's like I want to get all the the beach tools, you know what I'm saying? Yeah, all the essentials you need. And then I go over there and I look at the prices, I'm like, I don't need that right now. But it'll be cool, but it'll be cool. But it'll be cool. Now I don't know. My wife's like, should we should we do it right now?

SPEAKER_01 2:25

I'm not gonna lie to you. I did that the other day. I said I sent my wife a picture and I'm like, can can we get this? And she's like, why?

SPEAKER_00 2:30

And then it's really good. It'll be cool, but it's not necessary right now. But eventually, like I said, it's just been again, it's been a lot of fun. Um, so it's just cool, you know, yeah, get a couple days off of work. So kind of cheap. I can I can agree with you. You know, it's been a little bit more.

SPEAKER_01 2:45

I I can agree with you uh on that. It was uh it was good having a couple days.

SPEAKER_00 2:50

Did you have good weather though? You had good weather?

SPEAKER_01 2:52

Yeah, it was good weather. However, I I will say this uh for the viewers, I we went to Puerto Rico, my wife and I for we're celebrating our anniversary. Nine years. Nine years, man.

SPEAKER_00 3:03

More than ten, baby.

SPEAKER_01 3:04

Oh my god, it's been it went by very fast. But we we we went to Puerto Rico and um um we you know got tickets to go and um we stayed at uh uh a buddy of hours. He has a uh piece of land, plot of land, property, he has it nice and tamed. Um because I would tell a lot of people like we're staying in a in a like a like a prepped RV. And people hear RV and it's like what? It's like no, it's prepped, like it's it's good. But we it was on the west side of the island. So if you're familiar with the island of Puerto Rico, San Juan is like up here, and we were staying where we go. So we had two options three-hour drive or a 40-minute plane ride in a plane that I will never get on again. That sounds good. Yeah, it was it was it was an advent. I'll say this, it was an adventure. There were six people on the plane, including the pilot. I'll just leave it like that. Um it it it was it was uh uh take take the three-hour ride next time. No, I took the three hours to come back. Not because I didn't want to, but the plane, they delayed the plane. Long story short. We had a great time, a lot of beach days, a lot of great food, a lot of great people. But I learned one thing, Gabe. Okay. Here in the United States, um uh our culture is a little bit different. What do I mean by that? When you go to work, when you um are driving, when you're going to get food, everything is go, go, go, go. Fast food. You get your food real quick, even at a restaurant. You might wait 15 minutes, you have your meal in front of you when you're driving. Um, I hope everyone stays on the right side and you're on the left lane, you're zooming at work, you're up and down. It was completely different over there. No one's in a rush over there. Everyone was, and again, we come from this culture. When we go over there, we don't understand it. It might get you upset, but you learn patience. You learn to take a breather. It's been 40 minutes, babe, and my food's still not here. You learn patience. No one's in a rush. It's all worth it. When you get the food, it's all worth it. But I tried to incorporate that uh, you know, on my return back here. It didn't work because everything is go, go, go, go, go. But I I learned something new. It's not new, but you know, you see the different um culture, then everything's just mellow. Um, I didn't wear sneakers not once. You're just in chancletas, sandals all the time, and everything's just mellow. And but there's a sense of, and we call it homesick. You know, you can be out for a week with beach, and you can be sleeping in a nice, comfortable bed, but there's always something in the back of your mind. Dude, when we got in our beds, it was it was there's something about being um away from like your home, your actual home. And I I I was in in my head a lot of times during our our our beach outings, I would just sit there and contemplate what if our Heavenly Father was like that, that he was just here, and you would go all the way across the you know the world, and it would be like he's not there. But I would sit there in the beach and I'm I'm looking at the water, sand, the people having fun, and I'm just like, he's here with me too. I don't have to go all the way back to experience his love, his joy, his happiness. I can experience it here too. And as you know, and the the beautiful thing about where we were staying at is that the sun sets on the west side of Puerto Rico. So we would see the sunsets and just the most incredible sunsets, and to sit there and be like, and people don't believe that there a creator exists. The ultimate um um it was a masterpiece, like seeing a uh a painting where you don't know how to describe it, the the level of beauty that you're seeing, and you're like, wow, and you don't have to say nothing, you just sit in it. And there's something beautiful about that that you can be somewhere else and still experience Yahweh's love. And I know that sometimes in in life people can be like, man, but I I feel like the Heavenly Father is just so far away from me. I feel like he doesn't hear me. And boy, are you wrong. Boy, are we wrong? And to think that he is with us, right? You know, Yeshua said it beautifully at the end of um uh the the book of Matthew, he says, for lo I am always with you. From now until the end of the end of the age, if I believe it's it says in the scripture. And I actually have a wristband that you know on on occasions I'll I'll wear that quotes that says, and lo, I'm with you always. And it's it's a constant reminder that he's always with us. Even though for us we might feel like, man, I don't, I don't, I don't, you know, I don't, I don't, I might not feel him. Like regardless of what our eyes see uh of of of what we hear, it's like no, he's present. He is present, and there's something uh uh again, I uh to not to go back to my experience, but I don't have to say nothing. I would just sit there and and feel his presence and say, wow, Yahweh, thank you. Thank you.

SPEAKER_00 8:44

There's something beautiful in that, like you said, it's just to know that no matter where we go in life, he's there. No matter, you know, I I could speak out of experience. I'm pretty sure I've I've spoken about it in in earlier podcasts. No matter how quick we try to run away, how far we try to run away, he is there. He was always there. Right to those who seek him, to those who look for him, to those who want him. And it's it's comforting knowing that even when we walk through troubled times, even though we we're walking with problems, even though we're dealing with a lot of things, that we have the confidence to know that someone's walking with us, that someone's always there, even though in our uncertainty, even though um our confusion, so a lot of times, not even sometimes, a lot of times, that we have someone that we can always rely on, you know. And I know you may be listening or watching and going, I've never experienced that, right? You know, people have let me down, people have stabbed me in the back, people have turned their backs on me, you know, and that's what we want to tell you is that even in the midst of all that, even in the midst of you feeling unloved, even in the midst of you feeling alone, even in the midst of you feeling like you have no one to turn to, you know, you see it all around us if you want to see it, right? We go through our lives sometimes not understanding the blessings that we have, not understanding the protection that we already have, because we're seeing what we want to see, and this is just normal to us. It's the norm, right? Is we wake up, we go to work, come back, we do this, we do that, right? Instead of, like you said, even on your getaway, even on your vacation, to sometimes sit there and go, There's beauty, there's creation wherever you look, right? Even sometimes, you know, my wife does it sometimes, like you you know, and you just feel someone just staring at you when you're in the house, and she's just like looking at you, and I'm like, hey, what's going on? She's like, No, I just wanted to look at you, you know. And sometimes I catch myself doing the same thing, and even in that, it's going like you see the beauty, I see the beauty in the love that I have for my wife. I see the beauty when my kids are playing in front of me, you know, and I just look at them and and the men that they're becoming, and and you see it like you know, I have a couple birthdays coming up, and you start to go and like, where are my babies? Like, where I remember when I held in my arms, and now they're growing and they're talking and they're playing and they're being self-sufficient. And sometimes you sit back and go and you know, even though it's sad sometimes, yeah, because I want them to be my babies, but it's like the beauty of of me as a as a father now hopefully helping them become the men that they're gonna become. So if you want to see beauty, you will see beauty, if you want to see negativity, you will see negativity. You know, your mind is that strong, you know. Whatever you put your mind to, you can accomplish. But the difference and what we're trying to for you guys to understand that you're not alone in it, you're never alone in it. Even though we feel sometimes we're alone, because there were many times in my life where I felt alone, there was many times in my life where I felt misunderstood, there was many times in my life where I felt like where are you? Right? And in one way or another, in every single moment that I had those questions, he answered me.

SPEAKER_01 12:19

And and I was just thinking that while while you were saying that, is that you know, we see his the the beauty of his creation everywhere, right? And and maybe to some people they'll they'll associate church with, oh, I feel his presence at church. It's easy to feel his presence at his church at in church, you know, and you would think, you know, now that I'm like way over here from church, I can do certain things or certain it's like no, he's still there with you, he's still there with you. And there's there's been plenty of times, they could be on my commute to work where I'm just with one-on-one with the Heavenly Father, and I'll see a billboard and be like, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 13:02

Oh, so many times. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 13:04

And he has a sense of humor. But to say that he is always with us, uh, and and me and Gabe were speaking, we tend to have a little dialogue um before the camera rolls. Um, and we were speaking um about uh Psalms 91. And uh in Psalms 91, and this is this is something that I encourage you guys if if if um you're in in your mind, this is this should be something that you should highlight in your Bible. It's it's a um it's a it's a it's a chapter in the in the scriptures that from time to time I like to read and remind myself. Okay, and this, you know, for the ri you know, for the people that know, we hear this all the time in scripture, and that's Psalms 91. And I just want to read that first two verses that says, He who dwells in the secret place of the most high shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty. I will say of the Elohim, he is my refuge and my fortress, my Elohim and him I will trust. And I was hearing a a pastor preach about that, and he brought up um the the word shadow, right? And as me and Gabe were were speaking, I I I I asked Gabe the same question that the pastor asked the church. He said, What is a shadow? I said, Gabe, what what is a shadow? I'm like, there's an object, there's a light source, and it's casting that, it's blocking that light, and it's creating an image, um, to so to say, on whatever surface, the ground, the wall, whatever it may be, that's a shadow. That's the simplest answer I can give. And when it says being under the shadow of his wings, being abiding under the shadow, it goes to say that whatever is causing that shout shadow must be near to you. And when the pastor said that, like, if I had a hat on, my hat would have gone flying. And I started to think, like, wow, if we abide under that shadow, that that means he near to us. That he is my ref refuge and strength. I started to think during this heat wave, I'm thinking, why do people go under the trees under the shadow? Right? Because it's they're being protected from the sun, right, is a place of comfort. And I started to think all these things, and the gears in my mind just keep going and going and going. And I'm like, wow, but in its true essence, if you read that and just look at that word shadow, if we abide, we're abiding under that shadow, it means that he is near to us. And I wanted to share that with you guys. Because I I'm I I I tell Gabe all the time, you know, online or we hear different preachers. When I hear things like that, the first thing I want to do is just share it. Because it impact it impacted me. And now when I read it, I think about it in such a different way that regardless of where we go, we can be anywhere in this world that we abide under that shadow. That we can say, I put my trust in him, right? Because you could see the shadow and not know where it's coming from. But you know, right, if you're facing the shadow, you know whatever's causing that shadow is behind you. You don't have to see what's physically behind you. You can tell by its shadow. It's I can keep going. I can keep going on and on.

SPEAKER_00 16:38

And it's crazy because if you get into scripture, it even talks about uh Peter's shadow. And Peter's shadow, the scripture says that it would heal the the sick, right? Um, there's a song that's a side. Yeah, that's I didn't I didn't even think about that. And that's the power of it. It's it's it's a symbol, right? It's the symbol, and people go, well, how can his shadow because it's not it is the Bible doesn't say Peter laid hands on people, right? It says by his shadow, people will be healed. And again, like you said, when that shadow is there, who's close by? Yeah, right. So it's just an analogy going, no, it wasn't the shadow that healed, it was the power of our creator that was in Peter, right? Through him is what healed, and and that's the same thing. That's that's the beautiful thing, even when you read that verse 91, which we've read so many times, yeah, you know, growing up, and again, this is the beautiful thing about getting into his word. It's is you see it every single time we read it, it's something new, it's something different, it's something fresh. Maybe you're getting it, you're going at it at a different angle now. Like you said, now you're not gonna read it the same again, right? And it's something beautiful because again, it just shows us time and time again that when we get close to him, everything that we need, he will give to us, right? It's simple, something like that. It's like if we're under his shadow, if we're under his protection, if we're under his anointing, if we're under his power and authority, what now through him, now we become the vessels. The same thing when a light source on an object now comes what the shadow. We become the source, what for others to now know and see his love, see his power, see his authority through us. And that's the beautiful thing is like, you know, as as unworthy as we feel sometimes, he still chooses to use us at specific moments in our life to impact someone else. You know, sometimes you may go, and I I know as many times I've I feel like I got it bad. I feel like my life is unfair, why it's going on. And then you sit there and go, you know, I am beyond blessed compared to other lives or other walks of life right now that are going through way worse, right? Other walks of life who don't have food on the table, other walks of life who don't have a home, don't have shelter, don't have clothes to put on their back, uh, other other people that don't have a family that have been uh thrown aside, that have been rejected. And sometimes again, we think we got it bad, and then we look at what's around us, and that again just shows us how much she loves us. And this is not to say because I get it, there you someone could be listening, watching, going, Gabe, you're talking real nice things, man. You're talking real beautiful things, right? And you may go, I've never experienced that, and that's the beautiful thing. It's it doesn't matter where you came from, it doesn't matter what you've gone through to this point in life. What matters is that when he calls out to you, and the first time you're able to hear his voice, and you feel that heart pumping, and you fear it beating, and you feel something, a tingly sensation you've never felt before. It's now what matters is what happens next. Sometimes we focus on everything that's happened to this point, but no, you know, he is here to make and renew a fresh vow with you, right? He the Bible says, even in baptism, when we go in, what happens? Our old self, what it dies, it goes away. We are new in him, and that's the wonderful thing. When he when you choose to walk with him, when you choose to draw near to him, everything that even in Psalms 91, if you read the rest of the chapter, if you read the the the story of Peter and his shadow, that's the blessings that come along with it. That no, you don't gotta go and and lay hands on people, no, you don't gotta do this. You know, sometimes we get nervous, okay. But I don't know how to speak, I can't do that. You know what I'm saying? Open your mouth. No, it's by your testimony, it's by the way you walk. Like I said, through your shadow, through what you show is how you will bless. And that's the beautiful thing. And what we do is it's it doesn't matter if if you have a college education, if you know all these fancy terminologies. No, Moses had a stuttering problem, and what we was given, yeah, we still use them. He used them. He said, No, no, no, go use Aaron, go use your brother, right? We could throw excuses all we want. I'm not qualified, I can't do this, I can't do that. No, no, no, be who you are in him, and with that, people will see, right? Through that, your shadow will be cast to those, like you said, that sometimes we've talked about it, that sometimes feel like they're in darkness, that sometimes feel like they that light can't reach them, right? But through your shadow, now it can reach, and now what? And now one day their light can now what shine on someone else, and that's what we ultimately want in life.

SPEAKER_01 21:56

And and and while you were saying that, I was I was thinking about. And and you can probably agree to this. How many times you've heard testimonies of pastors, evangelists, they go up and they they tell their stories. Oh, when I was growing up, I was in drugs. I was in and they and they say their testimonies on how Yahweh liberated them from the death. Like I had a gun pointed to me, and I saw when he pulled it, and the gun didn't go off. And you might think that that's luck. Oh, I lucked out. No, he was always with you. He was always with you. And now here's the thing. You might be sitting there and be like, I don't feel like he's he's he's um he's near me. You know why? Because there's a door in between, and every so often he'll come knocking. Hey, and you can open the door and close the door, open the door and close the door, but it's only until you say, Come in. Yeah, it's only up until, and that's what we want to drive to you today. If you're in that moment where you feel alone, you're feeling alone, call out to him. Accept him as your savior, Yeshua as your savior. And I'm telling you, once you're under that shadow, when the when the demons come creeping up and they see the shadow on the floor, they go, no, no, no, no, no, no. He gotta be around here somewhere. They know, they know get into the word, and you know what the beauty about the word is that every time you open it, there's something different. But I want there's a disclaimer. I'm I want a quick disclaimer before we close. Quick disclaimer. When you open that word, don't go looking. Oh wow! Oh wow, sometimes when you open the word, it's gonna be like a mirror. And now think about it. When you go to the gym, you're working out, you go into the mirror, you start flexing, oh, but the mirror is not for that. The mirror is not for you. The mirror is not for me, it's not so that I look. The mirror is not telling you how good you look, the mirror is telling you what muscle you gotta work on, and that's the same way how the Bible is. When you open the Bible, the Bible's gonna be a mirror, and it's not oh, to make me look good, the Bible's gonna tell you, hey, you gotta work on this. The Bible will tell you, hey, you gotta draw closer to him. We need to be real with ourselves. Because he is calling you and he's waiting and he's knocking at your door. And you can open that door, but it's only until you invite him into your life. And I encourage you that if you have it, if you're watching this video, if this somehow made it to your feet, this video ends. You know what? Don't even don't even wait for the video to end. I want you to close your eyes, lift up your hands, and call upon his name. Just call upon his name because he's been calling you for a while, and you know that. He's been calling you. Make the move, invite him into your life today, and your life will never be the same. God will bless you guys. We love you. Uh, we hope that um this video was of encouragement. Um, we also encourage you to share this video with a family, a friend, coworker. We're trying to spread the gospel. That's all we're trying to do, and you can help us by just simply hitting that share button, hit that like button, leave a comment down below, follow us on social media. All we're on all platforms, including TikTok. Okay, we love you. And again, my name is Zeke. And I'm Gabe. And we're just two dudes from church.