Inspiration Station: Assume The Position

Ever wondered how your roles in relationships could spur your personal and spiritual growth? Join us on the All Purpose Pod as we dissect the intricate dynamics of positioning in relationships and life. We'll guide you through reflections on your current life positions, urging you to balance personal success with the cultivation and multiplication of God's work.

This episode goes deeper, challenging you to introspect about your heart posture and alignment with divine purpose. We touch on the significance of genuine love, sacrificial friendship, and authentic relationships rooted in God's love, drawing wisdom from Proverbs, Galatians, John, and Romans. 

Finally, we confront hidden emotional barriers that can impede relationship success. Discover the metaphor of the "trash bag mentality" and learn why it's imperative to address unresolved emotional baggage. Reflect on whether you are effectively cultivating and duplicating God's work, and be inspired to strengthen your personal connections and spiritual journey.

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Chapters

• 0:33 Positioning in Relationships and Life
• 8:44 Positional Relationships and Self-Cultivation
• 17:52 Confronting Hidden Issues for Relationship Success
• 23:57 Cultivating Love in Relationships

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:33

I Welcome back to the All Purpose Pod for an all-purpose life. Wherever you are and however you're listening Today, call me Mr U, the podcast. Thank you again for making us a part of your week. Definitely appreciate you guys joining us again. We're excited In case you guys are listening for the first time. First off, thank you for listening.

Speaker 1: 0:51

And if you are subscribing to the show, if you're watching us via YouTube, which you can from time to time, youtubecom at they Call Me Mr U, you can subscribe to our podcast. There you can see many of our live episodes, our live interview shows, a lot of our live teachings as well. You can find them on YouTube at TheyCallMeMrU. Subscribe there, please, and please like and share some of the videos there. It'll really help out with the algorithm of YouTube and kind of help with the promotion of the show. And if you're just listening, of course you can do that audio only at Apple Podcasts, which is preferred. Just listening, of course we'll do that audio only at Apple Podcasts, which is preferred. It's the only place, along with Stitcher, where you can subscribe to our podcast directly. Just hit follow and you can download several of the shows from the past four seasons. We'd love to hear your thoughts on all of our content and how the show has been a blessing to you. Of course, if you're listening outside Apple Podcasts, spotify, amazon Music, iheartradio, pandora Whoever you enjoy your podcast listening you can find they Call Me Mr U the podcast. So we thank you again for making us a part of your week and we're excited about what's coming next. We are really excited also about just something that's been going on. It's been coming through the inspirational episodes like this one. Something that's been going on. It's been coming through the inspirational episodes like this one. I got a feeling this one's going to be a doozy. I think you'll enjoy some of the things, because anytime that I share something on these episodes, just know that I've already begun to deal with it already. It already rocked me long before it's going to rock you. It's knocked my socks off long before it knocks your socks off. So just understand that going in, if you're new to our show, you get that. Listen to our first few seasons and you'll see how intense we can get about what we're talking about, because it matters.

Speaker 1: 2:38

One of the things that I talk about with a great passion is relationships. Now I got a bit of a history, so that is kind of par for the course on why relationships mean as much to me as they do, why I value them and why I'm very, very careful about how I treat people I'm in relationships with. Now does that mean I walk in perfection? It does not mean that whatsoever. I fail at that. If perfection is the goal, I fail at that one every single day of the week, 365 days a year. But if my goal is to create loving, strong, fulfilling relationships and try to do that by example, that's my goal. That's what I shoot for Now, one of the things that I think is important in all of this stuff, because I know a lot of folks who value relationships as well.

Speaker 1: 3:28

This is not foreign to them, but they prioritize it over everything else. I can't say that that's a good thing, and what I mean by that is that their social circles are more important than their spiritual development. I'll just say that and we'll just leave it right there. Their spiritual development I'll just say that and we'll just leave it right there. That's what I'm saying in that regard. But what I realized and I have some examples of this in scripture that we can go through, and we will walk through those really quickly. Hopefully this episode won't be very, very long.

Speaker 1: 4:00

But what I realized is that position is very, very important in relationships. I try to flesh that out for those in the back try to make it a little bit clearer. But positions are very important in relationships. What does position mean? Position is defined as a place where someone or something is located or has been put A particular way, in which someone or something is placed or arranged. I want to repeat that again. I want you to get that in your spirit before we talk about relationships and how positions and relationships kind of coincide or are intertwined together. Position is defined as a place where someone or something is located or has been put A particular way, in which someone or something is placed or arranged. Now I want to harken back to the Garden of Eden. I think this is a very salient point. I want to take us back there for a minute because I want to show you something that I think is going to help us out with the whole idea of positioning.

Speaker 1: 5:00

Let's see if we can try to tackle this directly here. So in the book of Genesis and this is very important here what happened here? Is that? Okay, let's look at Genesis, chapter 2. I'm going to read verse 7 and 8. I want you to catch something here. Verse 7, and the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and man became a living soul. Verse 8. And the Lord God planted a garden eastward in Eden, and there he put the man whom he had formed. Understand what happened there. He created the situation and put the man in it. Okay, that's positioning. It's defining the place where someone or something is located or has been put, a particular way in which someone or something is placed or arranged.

Speaker 1: 5:54

Adam was put in a garden that God created. That was his position. Yes, he tended to the garden. He was to develop it, grow it, of course, duplicate, the same way a farmer does out here where we live. But he was put in that situation to duplicate it. He was put in a situation to foster it, to cultivate the garden, which is his specific role to cultivate it. At this point he was alone. No help me was created for him yet, but at this point he was alone. No help me was created for him yet, but at this point he was in charge or put in the position to cultivate and grow the garden that he was placed in. Now I can go a lot of places with that one, but this is getting too good. Already I might get excited, but I got to say it again because it's hidden. He had to work and cultivate where he was placed.

Speaker 1: 6:47

Now we can start by asking ourselves a question I've been asking for several months now in some teachings and some opportunities to share and even in my own private spaces Are we in the right place? Are we where we have been placed by God? Did God place us in the place that we are? I know a lot of folks that have asked that question too. Very quick, shotgun answers coming back toward me oh yeah, I know I'm called to this. I'm supposed to be here. I'm supposed to be on this job. I'm supposed to be over here in this city. This is where I belong. I know I'm supposed to be here. No thought, no pondering, no meditation, just automatically. Have we done what we're supposed to be doing? Are we in an area that we've been placed by God or did we place ourselves in an area? I know a lot of folks that move on their own, don't even ask God about anything. They just move into a place and they wonder why they're facing the challenges they're facing. I ask you this question again Are we in the right place? Are you in the right place? Are you where God placed you?

Speaker 1: 7:48

Adam was placed in a specific place for a specific reason To cultivate the garden, to duplicate it and also to begin to not multiply only, but to cultivate it and duplicate it so that that experience that he had, god wanted everyone to have. That would be the whole point of creation To have that garden experience duplicated. We talked about it on one of our podcast episodes. I think it's in season two. I think the title was All About the Garden. Forgive me if I got it mixed up. There's been many episodes between here and there, but the whole point was that in the episode was that I was saying that God wanted that garden experience to be duplicated. He wanted that to be something that everyone that was created would be able to experience. That was the whole point of why he wanted to cultivate it and grow and that's why he had Adam placed there after he formed him in that area.

Speaker 1: 8:44

Are you cultivating and duplicating the area where you are? Are you the only one that's in charge? Are you the only one that gets to do all of the cool stuff? Or are you duplicating yourself and other people so that they can do what you're doing, so you can begin to continue to cultivate, multiply and do what you're doing in other places and other regions and on other levels, or are you comfortable staying where you are? My question to you again, my friend, is are you in the right place? Is there an area or level of success to be attained or a goal that you're overlooking because you won't move out of the place that you're in?

Speaker 1: 9:19

There's a very telling passage in the book of Genesis. I want to read it to you real quick. The Lord God called out to Adam. This is after the sin was committed of touching the fruit that God said don't touch. The Lord God called out to Adam after he and his mate had eaten from the Eve, had eaten from the forbidden tree, excuse me in the center of the garden. His question was simply where are you Now? Of course we understand that God, the God of the universe, is not blind, nor is he deaf, nor is he deaf, nor is he incapable of understanding. He is understanding in knowledge and wisdom. So he was asking a positional question, not where Adam was naturally, because he can see where Adam was naturally. He was asking a positional question when are you? Why did you move from the place that I put you? Why did you move out of position? Now, common sense has got to prevail here. Now Understand that we know. The all-knowing, all-seeing, ever-present God knows where Adam was hiding in the bushes, buck naked. He was calling out to his first man, the man that he formed, asking him about his position. Why did you move? Where did you get out of position? Why did you shift out of the position that you were in? You were confident, bold, walking in authority, and now you're hiding in the bushes trying to use leaves to hide behind, to cover up with.

Speaker 1: 11:23

God was asking Adam about his position, not his location, not his physical location, but his position. Are you in the right place? Are you in the right location? Are you in the right position? I wonder about that because it's something that I feel as though we don't talk about it enough, and I think we need to.

Speaker 1: 11:48

But relationships play a part in this. I'm going to get to that really quickly here. In order to have fruitful, beneficial, fulfilling relationships, we need to be in a specific position. I have relationships and friendships with people who were not in the right place in their life and it impacted me. It impacted my ability to be friends with them and have a long, lasting relationship because of the choices they made, because of the position that they were in. It impacted our environment when we got together. It impacted what happened around, the factors that happened around us that may have stolen our opportunity to have peace, have stolen our opportunity to have peace or to be able to rest or to have joy or to walk in love. We've seen that, because of the position that one or the other person was actually in, they were in the wrong place and it impacted the relationship.

Speaker 1: 12:45

Don't be deceived. You can't have a fruitful, beneficial relationship with anybody. I don't care if it's a spouse, I don't care if it's a friend, I don't care if it's a spouse, I don't care if it's a friend, I don't care if it's a brother and sister in Christ. It is not going to be well if you're not in the right position. If you're not in the right position, I don't mean what church you go to, I don't mean what job you work at, but to be in the right place positionally. Are you where God has placed you. Are you where God placed? You? Check these passages out right quick. I want you to see this. Proverbs 27 and 17. It talks about a friend sharpening another friend Like iron sharpens iron. We're able to be an encouragement to each other because we're in the right place, we understand our station in life, we understand what our purpose is and we're able to function better in relationship.

Speaker 1: 13:40

Galatians 5 and 13 talks about how people should use their freedom to serve one another in love. If you're in the wrong position and your heart's in the wrong place, you have the wrong heart posture. You can't serve anybody in a way that's long lasting and effective. John 13 and 34 talks about how people should love each other the same way that Jesus loved them. Now, jesus died on the cross, a horrible, excruciating death for his friends. Do you love somebody like that? That's not in your family. Do you love somebody like that that's not in your family, because Jesus loved people who were not in his family and gave his life for them. Just something to think about. John 15 and 13 again talks about the greatest love ever Is one who lays down their life for their friends. If you're in a relationship In order for you to have the ability To lay down your life and have that kind of level of sacrificial love, you have to be in the right position, in the right place, in the right mindset. My question to you is this what haven't you addressed? Romans 12 and 9 talks about how people should really love each other and not just pretend to love each other. I would be remiss if I said that I didn't see that.

Speaker 1: 14:53

In local ministry, in the church, I've seen people pretend to love each other. It's sad, it's discouraging, it doesn't make a lot of sense, it's really anti, everything that the scripture and the Bible is all about. I've seen people who came into our ministry with things about their lifestyle that most of us would never really do or ascribe to. But we showed love to these people when they came in, because the whole ministry is forged in and originates in love. We wouldn't have a ministry if it wasn't for love. If it wasn't for Jesus' love for us to give his life the way that he did, we wouldn't even have the ability to do this. He laid down his life for us, like in John 15 and 13.

Speaker 1: 15:47

Will you lay your life down for your friends? Will you lay your life down for somebody who's not your friend? These are the kind of things we need to talk about. But are you in the right place? Are you in the right position? Are you where God has placed you? If you are, are you cultivating and multiplying In the area where you've been placed? That's part two of a very tough question. Are you in the right place where God called you to be, where he's put you, not where you put yourself or where he's put you, not where you put yourself, or not where your family put you or where your friends put you because he thought it'd be a good idea for you to work in this area, but where God puts you, are you in the place where God has put you? If you are, are you cultivating? Are you sitting on your hands? Are you cultivating? Are you growing where he's giving you to grow? These are important questions. I think you should ask yourself that during the time of meditation and thought. It's really important, but what haven't you addressed?

Speaker 1: 16:42

What I'm realizing about this kind of idea of position and relationship is that relationships take work In order to have the kind of relationship that we say we want from people that we try to find on social media. Much to our dismay, we can't find it Duh. I wonder why. Relationships take work. They take effort, and I know a lot of folks. It's not the point to anybody that I'm friends with, it's not really the point. I know a lot of people up and down the East Coast, even across the country. I've made a lot of relationships in life and I thank God for them.

Speaker 1: 17:13

I know a lot of folks who feel as though that they should be doing the receiving and you should be doing the giving. They have been through so much in their life their words. I guess that they feel like it's time for them to get blessed, it's time for them to be taken care of. So they want to put their feet up in the realm of relationships and have other people tend to them. Give them spiritual pedicures, if you will Do it for them, while they sit back and enjoy, because they gave all those years. It didn't work out. Now it's time for them to receive. Yes, those people are actually around us.

Speaker 1: 17:52

You might know somebody like that. It's not a good thing. It's really not a good thing. But what haven't you addressed? Relationships take work. What haven't you addressed in your life? What's hiding in the back of your closet? What's hiding in that drawer in your nightstand? What have you refused to take out and deal with, whether it be a letter, whether it be an item or object, whether it be something that reminds you of a hidden sin or an area where you have refused to forgive somebody? What are you hiding? What are you unwilling right now to address? What's hiding in the back of that closet or in that nightstand drawer? Are you willing to take it out and face it?

Speaker 1: 18:48

We talk about relationships all the time, but we wonder why things don't go right and we really are quick to blame other people for it. We point fingers real quick it's their fault, it just happened. If she didn't say that, if he didn't do that, it would have been fine, it would have been good the way it's been going. But because he said that, because she did that, that's why we're here. No accountability, no self-reflection. It was just about the other person. And relationships like that never work, no matter how much you put into them, because the whole point is that there has to be some kind of reciprocation, but it needs to be self-evaluation on both sides of the relationship circle, or the relationship dynamic, if you will.

Speaker 1: 19:33

Adam had one side and the Lord had the other side. It was a one-on-one relationship. Before Eve showed up it was one-on-one. Even when Eve showed up, it was still one on one. It was about Adam. God didn't say where's Eve. He said Adam, where are you? Where did you get out of position? Why did you go backwards when you were moving forward so well? You were confident and walking in authority. You were so bold and courageous. Now you're hiding in the bushes as if I can't see you.

Speaker 1: 20:04

Relationships take work, all the areas that you may be hiding. I don't care if it's a theoretical hiding or if you're actually hiding things in your life that you don't want to deal with. Putting stuff in closets, putting stuff in attics or in basements Because you don't want to deal with it. That impacts every relationship you intend to have, believe it or not. You can lie about it to yourself if you want to, but ask me how I know this. If you don't deal with that situation, it's always a trigger and it pops up at the most inopportune time and it can radically change your family dynamic, your friendly relationships, your spiritual partnerships. It can affect everything in your life If you don't deal with that thing that you've been hiding in the back of that closet or in that nightstand drawer or wherever in your attic or your basement or wherever in your life you're hiding the thing that you don't want to deal with. Are you willing to take it out and deal with it? Thing that you don't want to deal with? Are you willing to take it out and deal with it? That's the kind of work that makes relationships really really thrive and really really grow. I really hope that you make the call to assess whether you're in the right place, where you're supposed to be, if you're doing what you're supposed to be doing. Make it part of your daily evaluation to check out if you're overlooking this particular area. Ask the Lord and when he speaks, move on what he says. Be quick to obey.

Speaker 1: 21:32

My whole life and I mean that generally speaking, the majority of my life anyways, at least the past almost 30 years I spent that with what I call a trash bag mentality. What does that mean? It doesn't mean that I walk around with a trash bag all the time. That's not what I mean. That's a cartoon. But what it means is that whenever I had a situation where I found something in my life or something was highlighted for me in my life that needed to be removed. I needed to rid myself of said thing. I put that bad boy in a trash bag, no questions asked. I'm not taking no time to ponder it, I'm not waiting six weeks to think it over, I'm putting it in the trash bag immediately. My wife laughs about it so much. But I'm just. I'm emphatic about that kind of stuff like that.

Speaker 1: 22:21

When I first met her and I realized it kind of happened around the same time that I received Jesus Christ as Lord In May of 1996. What I did was I got a big trash, all the trash bags I can find, all that I owned. I put everything in there that reminded me of my old life. I don't care if it was clothes that I bought, clothes that somebody bought me. I don't care if it was furniture I had in my time when I wasn't inclined to serve the Lord. I put everything I could you can't put a couch in a trash bag but I sure tried. But I put everything I could in that trash bag to get rid of it because I wanted to make sure that I moved out of my life, got out of my atmosphere, out of my environment, so I can be able to live and function and be who I was destined to be, to walk in a purpose I was destined to walk in. So I had a trash bag mentality. I still kind of do it. I'm not as radical, but in some ways I still kind of employ those same methods.

Speaker 1: 23:18

If I see something that pops up, it's in the back of my closet theoretically, in my nightstand drawer theoretically, any area of my life, in the attic or the basement theoretically and it had to go, I'm getting rid of it quick. How quickly will you do that? Because, at the end of the day, god wants a relationship with you the same way that he wanted it with Adam. He loves you. The same John 15 and 13,. I'll say it again, it bears repeating, but it's definitely facts and evidence in this regard. The greatest love is when they lay down their life for their friends, and the Lord gave his only begotten son for you. That's how much he loves you.

Speaker 1: 23:57

Do you love the people in your life, people that you work with, people that you serve with? Do you love them enough to even pray for them diligently? Can you pray for the person who's been getting on your nerve for an hour. Can you offer that Because you want to see them helped, or see them healed, or see relationships with you thrive? Are you willing to do that? Relationships take work. I hope that was a blessing to you. I hope it ministered to you. Relationships do take work. Check out those passages of scripture and ask yourself are you in the right place? Are you where God planted you and where he puts you? Are you in the right place? Are you where God planted you and where he puts you? And are you cultivating and duplicating in the place where you've been put? Have a great day. Thank you for listening to our show. Like, share and subscribe. Have a great day. We're out of here.