Keeping Spiritual Focus in Difficult Times
Welcome to the Holy Spirit Untethered. My name's Amber Beals, and it is my job and my mission to allow the Holy Spirit to speak through me, to help demystify who He is, what his role is, and to deeply encourage you to seek a relationship with him. Alright. Let's get started. Hey, guys.
Amber:Welcome back to the Holy Spirit Untethered Pod podcast. My name is Amber, and I am so excited that you are here tuning in today to this podcast. Now I know I know I wasn't here last week. I did not record last week, and it wasn't because I didn't want to. It was just that life happened.
Amber:Right? Life happens sometimes and I just wasn't able to get to my recording. And I wanna share a little bit about what's going on in my life because, well, I think it's relevant. I think it's relevant for how I speak on this podcast, how the Holy Spirit is working in me in this current season in my life. And so the only way that you can really understand and relate is if I share it.
Amber:So on not last Wednesday, but the Wednesday before, so I believe that was February 26. That was a Wednesday. My stepfather passed away from a heart attack. Now I wasn't super close to my stepfather. He was married to my mother for, I wanna say, a little over ten years, but I only lived with him and my mom for about five years.
Amber:And in those five years, I got to know him and I was closer definitely during that time, but I was, like, in middle school. So it was, like, from fourth grade up until high school, right before I entered high school. So it wasn't a very long period of time, but I I mean, I did know him and I did love him. And we had a complicated relationship in that I did hold some bitterness towards him as I got older. And it's very complicated, the relationship with my mom, him, my brother.
Amber:Like, it's it's just complicated and I'm not gonna go into it. But, all to say, our relationship was complicated. But in the last few years, like, I had learned to forgive him. You know, the holy spirit revealed to me that I needed to forgive him, and and we rebuilt that relationship. It wasn't close, but I feel like we were on good grounds with each other.
Amber:So yeah. So that happened a couple weeks ago. And so I had to help my brother who was technically the next of kin. That is his biological father. I had to help him do all the things.
Amber:My mom, of course, helped too. It was kind of like a blur of, like, a couple of days. We had to get all his stuff stuff out of the house in, like, two days, and he had a lot of stuff. He rented a room, but it was just kind of almost like a hoarder situation where it was just stuffed full of things. And a lot of it was not valuable stuff.
Amber:It was just his stuff. You know? And it was just a lot. And he also had a dog, and she is a beagle, five years old. Her name is Dallas.
Amber:She is the sweetest little thing, and she loves everybody. Like, as soon as you meet her, you just fall in love with her. Just fall in love with her because she was just so cute. And nobody could take her except for Eric and I. Like, it didn't really make sense for anyone else to take her except for us.
Amber:And so we were like, okay. We'll take her until we can find a home, you know, for her. And so I took that dog, helped do all the things to get all his stuff out of that room. He had a camper, like, a brand new camper that he never used. And so we had to, like, figure out how to hitch it to a truck and get it to Ramona where I have some family.
Amber:They were able to put it on their property, like, just until John, my brother, could sell the camper. But, you know, none of us camp. We don't know how hitches work. And so luckily, I had a friend that I called. Shout out to Charlie.
Amber:He has, like, I think, two or three campers, and he's like a pro when it comes to, you know, moving a camper and putting the hitch on and all the things, and it was such a blessing. I called him on a Friday night. He was he was in line to go get food, and he wore down his food. And he actually drove the camper for us, which I was not expecting. I was just hoping for some advice on how to connect it to the truck.
Amber:Anyway, long story short, I'm very blessed to have the friends that I do. So love you, Charlie. Thank you so much. And it was just a whirlwind of, like, those few days just trying to get all that stuff together, all the logistics and everything. And then I got COVID.
Amber:So it was like, we did all the things. And then, like, Monday night, I was feeling a little off, but I thought maybe, okay. Well, you know, I had a crazy last few days. Maybe I'm just, you know, tired and worn out from it. But, no, I had COVID.
Amber:So hence why I did not record last week. I had the deal with the death of my stepfather, and then then I got COVID, and it was just it was just a thing. Trust me. You wouldn't wanna hear me talk because I was just so congested. I'm still a little congested.
Amber:I'm much better now, but being pregnant and being sick, I don't recommend it because you can't take anything. You just kinda have to rough it. My doctor was like, you can take Tylenol. That's all you can take. And I was like, fantastic.
Amber:But you know what? God bless Tylenol because I had so many headaches. So it was the only thing that really, really bothered me was those headaches. And so I was able to take Tylenol, and it it was good. But just with all of that that what happened and trying to find Dallas, the dog, a home, which I found a home for her, by the way.
Amber:Shout out to Liz, my friend at church. We you know, Eric and I were going back and forth on whether or not we wanted to take her because she was so sweet. She is a very, very sweet dog. Like, I cannot deny how sweet she is in comparison to my dog. Like, I love my dog.
Amber:Don't get me wrong. I love my dog thrice, but she is not friendly. She's not friendly to anybody except me. And there's a part of me that, like, I love that because I'm like, well, she's my dog. And, like, that I'm the only one that she likes.
Amber:But there is a little bit of a hurdle when it comes to that because other people wanna pet your dog. Or when people come over, she's, like, crawling and just a different dynamic. But with Dallas, like, everybody loved her and she loved everybody. If you had hands, she loved you because she wanted you to pet her and she's so sweet. And so Eric and I were going back and forth.
Amber:We're like, well, you know, she is really sweet. And of course, Eric being around Thrice who only likes me, he immediately bonded to Dallas because he's like, wow, a dog that like likes me. And, you know, I was like, okay. Well, maybe we're gonna keep this dog. But it was just just the timing wasn't there.
Amber:It never seemed right to me for us to keep her. Even with as sweet as she was, I just never had a good feeling about keeping her. And, you know, I expressed that to Eric and he he honored that and he was like, you know what? It's I wanna honor you and maybe this isn't the right time. We're about to have a child.
Amber:And, you know, a lot of things are changing our lives and, you know, another dog is probably not a good thing to throw into the mix with everything. And so we took her to church in the park on Sunday, made an announcement to the church saying, like, hey. We need to find a new home for Dallas. If you or if you know somebody that would love to take her, you know, please come up to us after the service. And my friend, Liz, she was like, Dallas has a home.
Amber:I just prayed about it last night that, Lord, I want you to give me a dog. Like, I want a dog, but I want you to give me this dog. And, well, Dallas was the answer to prayer. So I'm really, really, really happy that I listened to that feeling of, like, it just doesn't seem right because you know what? This dog wasn't for me.
Amber:This dog was for Liz. And so, they're doing really well, and I'm really happy for them. I'm not gonna lie. I was really, really sad last night, and I don't know if it's the pregnancy hormones or what, but I was, like, so sad last night. I cried, like, five times because I was like, I miss Dallas.
Amber:Even though it was, like, me that didn't wanna keep her, like, there was still, like, a part of me I'm like, well, she was so sweet. You know? Whatever. I think it's just the pregnancy hormones, but it's fine. She has a good home.
Amber:And so now we're here. Right? We're kinda through that big hump of just what happened with the whole grieving process, the logistical process of the death in the family, being sick, trying to wrap up, you know, finding a home for a dog, all the things. And I found myself in the last two weeks that I wanted to be distracted. And that's gonna be the the, topic for today is wanting to be distracted from the realities of what's happening in your life and I how the Holy Spirit can help you navigate those things.
Amber:So let's go ahead and pray. I know that was a long intro, but let's go ahead and pray. If it's safe for you to do so, go ahead and close your eyes and pray with me. All right. Dear heavenly father, I just thank you so much for this opportunity to come on this podcast, Lord.
Amber:I thank you for every single person that is listening to this podcast, whether it's right when it came out or years down the line, Lord. I just pray a special blessing over the person that's listening over this podcast, Lord. Holy Spirit, I pray that you would speak through me today. I pray that you would be in this conversation with me in the microphone. Holy Spirit, I just pray you would speak through me that my words would fall away and your words would come through, Lord.
Amber:And I pray and just a blessing over this message, Lord. I pray you would prepare our hearts for this message. We thank you for that. In Jesus' name. Amen.
Amber:So distractions. I know I have to give myself a little bit of grace because, you know, I was sick. I was grieving. I was doing well dealing with all the things. But the thing that I should have done is I should have run to the Lord with it, and I'm still working on that.
Amber:I am still working with the Holy Spirit. He's still convicting me on that because that is not the first thing that I run to, and it should be. And I wanna ask you, when something like a trial or something unexpected happens in your life, what's the first thing that you do? For me, I distract myself. And the number one culprit for my distractions is social media, is scrolling on my phone, doom scrolling.
Amber:I know I'm not the only one. I'm on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, whatever it is, whatever your drug of choice is. I'm just scrolling on there and I'm just looking for a distraction for the next hit, the next dopamine hit of like, oh, this is funny. Oh, this is great. You know, whatever.
Amber:Like, that is what I want to do. I want to distract myself from whatever is going on in my life at that moment because I don't wanna deal. And I know I can't be the only one that goes through that, that doesn't wanna face the realities of what I'm going through. I don't wanna process the grief. I don't wanna think about how terrible I feel because I'm sick, and I can't breathe out of my nose.
Amber:Like, I just want a distraction. And so I go to my phone. That that's my distraction is just flipping through things and just wanting to think of anything else, somebody else's problem, not my problem. And the Holy Spirit made me think today because I was like, Lord, I I feel terrible because, like, I haven't been in the word the last two weeks. I haven't really, you know, prayed much.
Amber:I haven't done much of anything to connect with my creator this the last, like, week and a half, two weeks. And I'm just being completely open and honest with you guys because, like, I just my head space, I wasn't there. I maybe opened my Bible twice in the last two weeks, and that's very unusual for me. And normally, every morning I have a routine. I get up, I read, I pray, I I do my thing, I do my gratitude journal.
Amber:You know, I do all the things, and I haven't been doing that because of just all the things that are going on and just, like, just not being in the right mindset. And one scripture that the Holy Spirit really brought to mind was Colossians three two. And it says, set your mind on things above, not on things on the earth. Set your mind on things above. And that's really my challenge, you know, for this season of I need to realign myself and my mind to be on the things of the Lord, to be on the heavenly things and not on earthly things, not on social media, not on distractions, not on anybody else's problems, but my own.
Amber:I mean, let's face it. A lot of the times, I'd rather help a friend with their drama than deal with my own drama because I'm done with my drama or my situation or my problems, whatever it is. Like, I I'm tired of it, and I need a distraction. And the Holy Spirit wants to encourage me and you, though that may be a coping mechanism that you have fallen back on in the past, that is not for you today. That's not how the Holy Spirit wants you to deal with challenges, deal with the storm, deal with the with the trials.
Amber:That's not how he wants you to deal with it. That's how you used to do it. That's not what you do now. And that is really hard. It's a hard pill to swallow because sometimes we just like our coping mechanisms.
Amber:Like, they're comfortable. Right? It's what we know. And so that's how I deal with my issues is I just don't deal with them or I deal with them later. Like, that's future Amber's problem, not current Amber's.
Amber:Like, sorry. I'm I'm I'm checking out right now. And the Holy Spirit doesn't want us to do that because every moment is precious. You never know when your last moment is. I mean, I think of my stepfather.
Amber:He was 55. He was young. He was super young, and he's not around anymore. And I can tell you right now, he wasn't planning on that. Like, he wasn't planning on not being here.
Amber:Like, he bought that trailer because he was gonna live in that trailer, and he never stepped foot in it. He bought it, and he was getting ready to start moving and all the things. Never once stepped foot inside that camper, which is so sad. It's such a reality check check really because it's like, okay, we make all these plans. We have all these things, but it's only if the Lord wills it.
Amber:It's only if, you know, if the Lord has that in the cards for you. Is that his plan? Is that according to his will, his plan for your life? I don't know. And in our life group right now, we're going through James.
Amber:We're almost done with it, but it it talks about that. It says only if the Lord wills. Like, that you you make all these plans, but really it's only if the Lord wills it. And, yeah, do not boast about tomorrow. So this is James chapter four verse 15.
Amber:No. Verse well, I'll just start in verse 13. Come now, you who say, 'Today or tomorrow, we will go to such and such a city, spend a year there, buy and sell and make a profit. Whereas you do not know what will happen tomorrow. For what is your life?
Amber:It is even a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away. Instead, you ought to say, if the Lord wills, we shall live and do this or that. But now you boast in your arrogance. All such boasting is evil. So it says, instead, you ought to say, if the Lord wills, we shall live and do this or that because we don't know.
Amber:Right? James is so right. We don't know what the Lord's will is for our lives, how long we have on this earth. And he says that this life is just a vapor, and it's true because our souls, our being, we are eternal. Like, we don't die.
Amber:We weren't designed to die. Our bodies, our mortal bodies die, but our souls don't. And so this life that we have in comparison to eternity is just a vapor. It's just a blink of an eye. Yeah.
Amber:It feels like a long time right now because it's just this is all we know. But as soon as we pass away and we're either with the Lord or we're not, like, we continue to live. And we decide whether we live with the Lord or we don't after we die on this earth. So it's so important that we don't waste time, that we don't distract. The enemy uses distractions.
Amber:The enemy that is a tool of the enemy. He tries to distract you from your purpose, for God's will from your life. He tries to make you focus on the pleasures of this world. And the Lord says, set your eyes on things above, not on the things of the earth. So I wanna ask you, what are what are you setting your eyes on right now?
Amber:Are they on the things above, or are they on the things of this earth? And I'm not I'm not condemning you. Like, I I'm preaching to myself right now because that is my number one coping mechanism that I go to is to distract myself because I don't wanna deal. But that's not the way that the Holy Spirit wants you to navigate your life. That's not how he wants you to live your life.
Amber:He is here as your helper. So let him do that, Amber. Let him help you. Let him work in your life. Let him transform you and allow you to respond to the things in your life, the circumstances in your life in a godly way, in the way that Jesus would and not in the way that Amber one point o would've.
Amber:You had a software upgrade. This is Amber two point o. And Amber two point o doesn't do that. Right? And so maybe there's a few bugs in it.
Amber:And so now you need to work those out because you need to start operating with the software that you got upgraded to. Right? And that is my wake up call for for this year, for this season. Because like I said a couple weeks ago in my last episode, I I mentioned that this is a year of change. It's very, very true.
Amber:I have had nothing but change in the last we're in March right now, and, like, I've had so many life changes, and it's kinda crazy in the last just couple months. But with all that change, you know, change isn't comfortable. It's not the most comfortable thing to go through. Like, there's a reason why people just like to stay in their situation even if it's a hard situation because it's just changes so much harder. At least the circumstance that you're in, you're used to it.
Amber:You're comfortable there. Yeah. It may suck, but you know what to expect. With change, you don't always know what to expect. And so a lot of the times we avoid it.
Amber:Even though we may secretly desire it, we avoid it because it's uncomfortable. And I know that the Lord has given me that word before, like, get comfortable with being uncomfortable because life is gonna be uncomfortable, especially when Jesus is walking with you, especially when the Holy Spirit is helping you to become more like Jesus and transforming you. Yeah. It's gonna be not nice sometimes because he's gonna be stretching you. He's gonna be taking things away.
Amber:He's gonna be adding certain things, and he's gonna be molding you into the person he originally designed you to be. But as you went through life, you picked up things that don't serve you, that do not belong to you, and yet you hold on to them because that's what you know. So it's just it's tough. It's tough. And with change comes an uncomfortable scenario.
Amber:It comes with lots of uncomfortable scenarios, and so we just have to learn how to navigate that. But the good news is we don't have to navigate that alone. Right? Well, that's what the Holy Spirit's here for. He's helping you.
Amber:He's helping me figure out what my new normal is gonna be like. I'm about to have a kid. Like, come June, my life is gonna look way different than it does now. And Eric and I have talked about this several times of, like, you know, it's really peaceful now. It's quiet in our house, you know, whatever.
Amber:And I'll and I tell Eric, I'm like, it's enjoy now because it's about to change forever. It's about to change. And that's not a bad thing. It's just gonna be different. Right?
Amber:It's just gonna be different. It's going to be full joy because now we have a little one that we that is both Eric and I that is a blessing from the Lord, and we get to raise this tiny little human. And it's a little scary because I know this this this this life, this soul is dependent on me, and that's a little scary. But I know that the Lord's coming to help me, that I'm not alone. I have Eric.
Amber:I have the holy spirit. I have, you know, I basically have a whole village, my whole church. You know, I I love my church. Man, if you guys don't have a community, like, you need to prioritize that in your life. The Lord wanted us to be a body of Christ, not to be an island.
Amber:And let me tell you, like, I've done life without community and I've done life with it. And man, do I I prefer the latter. I love my church. I love my church. I love that I can call someone on a Friday night, ask for help, and they will drop everything and help me because they love me because they are my true friends.
Amber:They're my church family, and they wanna be there for me. And I would do the same thing for somebody else. Like, I'll get texts from people like, hey. Can you pray for this? Yes.
Amber:Of course. I'll pray for you. Like, you're not alone. And that like, obviously, you're not alone. You have the Lord.
Amber:But there's something different about being able to rely on the body of Christ, to be able to rely on a brother and sister in the faith who shares the same values and that truly loves you and doesn't expect anything in return. Like, they just love you, and they wanna be there for you, and they wanna support you. And they're gonna celebrate with you, and they're gonna weep with you. It doesn't matter what season you're in. It is incredibly like, I can't I can't live without it.
Amber:Now that I have it in my life, I can't I can't do life any other way. And so I wanna highly encourage you. If you don't have that community in your life, like, seek it out. Find a church that has it. I guarantee you there's gonna be something around you.
Amber:And if there's not, create it. Create a group of like minded individuals that love Christ and want to support you and you wanna support them. Like, it starts with just a few people and then it can grow from there. And it's just incredible to be able to have that kind of community and support and love that's behind everything that I do and, that I can do the same for for somebody else. I can't praise it enough.
Amber:I just can't. And, again, highly suggest that you you pursue something like that. And, you know, not only can this community help support you in those areas, but they can also help identify maybe some cracks in your life that you can't see because you're blindsided and because you can't see the forest through the trees. You need somebody to to see and look into your life and tell you with love. Like, hey.
Amber:I think this might be an issue in your life. What do you think? Let's talk about that. Let's let's pray about it. Let's seek the the wisdom of the lord about it, and that's really important too.
Amber:You know? And I need to maybe have somebody that I have more of that close relationship with, like, kind of like a mentor or, like, sister in Christ, you know, type of relationship because maybe then I would have identified, you know, me and my coping mechanism of being distracted. Maybe I would have identified that sooner. But, that's just me reflecting on that. But I you know, there there are seasons, and I've been through these seasons of my life where I have a mentor, and they can identify those things.
Amber:And I highly suggest having a mentor. If you've never had a spiritual mentor, pray about it. Ask the Lord who that person might be in your life and then pursue it because it it really is incredible to help your spiritual growth. Because, you know, spiritual growth is intentional. You have to be intentional about it, and you have to pursue that kind of growth.
Amber:It doesn't just come by existing. You have to seek for the things above. You have to seek the Lord. You have to seek his face. Like, a lot of the scriptures, it's action items.
Amber:Right? He tells you to seek him and to pursue him and to have your heart posture be pointed towards him, and that takes intentionality. And it takes it takes effort on your part. It's not just simply existing. Right?
Amber:So it does take some effort. But so I wanna encourage you guys to kinda reflect a little bit and see where you're at in terms of, like, when these things happen, when trials happen, when just the unexpected happens or change happens. Like, how do you deal? And do you seek the Lord? Is that is that your your first response?
Amber:If it is, you know, man, that's awesome. That's great. I'm so glad that you you are in that place in your life where that does become your first response. I'm getting there. You know?
Amber:And I I'm and I'm trying to listen to the Holy Spirit's voice and allow him to course correct me in the gentle way that he does to make sure that that becomes my first response because that is what he wants me to do. And it's the that's the healthy thing to do. Right? If I just immediately responded by running to the Lord, running to my father, my life would look different. Right?
Amber:It would look better than it does now. We're always learning. Right? We are always growing. We are always learning.
Amber:We're not gonna be perfect until we're in heaven with Jesus. Like, we are always gonna be a work in progress until we meet him, until we face him face to face. And I look forward to that day. It'll be good. It'll be really good.
Amber:So I wanna encourage you guys again, seek the things above. Seek heavenly things. Seek the Lord's face, and don't focus on the things of the earth. I'm gonna be trying to work on that this week. I encourage you to do the same.
Amber:I'm gonna get back into my routine. Today, I got back into it. So today's day one. Tomorrow, I'll be back at it again, and it and it's gonna be awesome. And I hope that you guys take on that challenge as well.
Amber:And, you know, let me know how it's going. You know, go go to my my email. I'd love to hear from you guys. And if you have any episode suggestions, that would be awesome too. You know?
Amber:I'm I'm just here sitting in my chair, you know, thinking about what it is I should talk about this week. And, of course, the holy spirit speaks to me, and he brings topics to mind. But I would love to hear from you guys. So if you have any suggestions or any questions or whatever, you know, reach out, please. I I would love to hear from you.
Amber:And, also, if you can, if this helps you out, this podcast, if you learned anything, if you've been enjoying it, please share this with a friend. Leave a rating. Leave a review. It it is what helps grow this podcast so that it can reach more and more people. And it's been really, really exciting to to see the numbers grow.
Amber:And, you know, I'm not really pushing it much on social media. As much as I'm on social media, you think I'd push my podcast, but I I should do it more often. But, yeah, if you guys wanna help me out, that would be awesome. Because I I I do this because the Holy Spirit asked me to and not because, you know, it boosts my ego or anything. Trust me.
Amber:It took me a long time to actually say yes to do this podcast, and it's a commitment. It is a commitment to record every week and and, you know, have the holy spirit speak to me and find guests for this podcast. And, you know, it it's it took some intentionality to get here. So we're episode 36, so we're doing good. So thank you guys for listening.
Amber:Thank you for for tuning in. I'm really excited for next week. I am gonna have a guest. Hopefully, I'll have him on. His name is Ed.
Amber:He's very, very he's just an awesome person in my church. And he actually asked me to be on the podcast. So I'm really excited to have him on, and he's gonna share a little bit of his own experiences, especially some recent experiences. So you definitely don't wanna miss that one. Hopefully, we'll have that one next week.
Amber:But, anyway, I hope you guys have a blessed week. I pray a blessing over you and your family, and I'll see you guys next week.
