Soul Food
Soul Food
Who Are The Chosen?
What if your greatest disqualification is your greatest qualification in God's eyes? This soul-stirring episode challenges everything we've been taught about who deserves to be used by God.
Bishops Joshua and David Higginbotham reveal how God consistently chooses. The episode takes a profound turn when we meet Erica. If you've ever felt too damaged, too broken, or too far gone for God to use, this message is for you.
Ready to discover how your greatest weakness might become your greatest strength? Listen now and share this message with someone who needs to know their purpose.
Now streaming on all major podcast platforms, edifying your mind, body and soul. We welcome you to listen now to Soul Food with your main host, bishop Joshua. Here we are always ready to share a word of faith. Unpack powerful testimonies and divinely inspired music to enhance your faith. Walk, feed your faith wherever you go, quench your spiritual hunger, give the food that lasts forever. Here on the soul food podcast.
Speaker 3:One more episode of Naked Truth. Nothing to hide, but all to reveal. Together with me, bishop david higginbotham, and we are going to show today. Uh, bishop david, who god chooses? Yes, sometimes a person says I cannot go to church because of my past, because what I have done, but before god there is no distinct. Actually, god always chooses people like that, those who are broken, those who are neglected by the society. Nobody wants. These are the ones, the lost sheep of israel, that God wants Absolutely.
Speaker 4:All through the Bible, the great men and women of God were people who the world had rejected. For example, king David. Everyone's heard of King David, this great king, this great warrior, but his father didn't believe in him. When the prophet came to anoint one of Jesse's sons as king, his father didn't even. He called all the brothers but he didn't call David because his own father didn't believe in him. And there are many, many examples of people. Rahab was a prostitute. There were people who were poor, who were miserable, who were sick. There were people who were poor, who were miserable, who were sick, and God called them when they were weak and broken, and God remade them.
Speaker 3:Jephthah was the son of a prostitute. So was Gideon, the least and the last one in his family. His family was the weakest, the poorest one, but they were the ones that God called, and they became heroes. So we have good news you are the one.
Speaker 4:Yes, you are the. If your life is messed up, if you feel that you're nobody, you're the perfect candidate for God to use. Because if you think that you're something, it's going to be hard for God to use, because if you think that you're something, it's it's going to be hard for God to use you. But if you're convinced that that by yourself you can't make it and you need the power of God, so then God can work in you yes, definitely he can.
Speaker 3:He can work, work in you and transform your life. It is good that you come like that, because when he transforms your life, everybody will see that it's none but God Right. The scripture says God has chosen the foolish things of the world to put to shame the wise. As you said, if you come and think that you are wise, you always will be put to shame. The wise, as you said, if you come and think that you are wise, you always will be put to shame. And god has chosen the weak things of the world to put to shame the things which are might. So if a person thinks that he is the wiser one, that he's the strongest one, that he's the might one, this person will never come to God, and God does not have space to use this person.
Speaker 4:Because God's wisdom is different than the world's wisdom. God's power is different than the world's power. God does things differently, and so what the world considers good and wise and strong for example, bishop Joshua sometimes you can see a man who's been lifting weights. You know he has muscles, he's tan, he looks strong, but he has addictions. He's addicted to pornography. He has other addictions. He's addicted to pornography. He has other addictions. He can't be faithful to his wife. He's sleeping with all kinds of women. So in the kingdom of God, that man is not strong, even though he has muscles.
Speaker 3:He's weak and before his friends, his relatives, family members, he's strong, he's muscle. Relatives, family members, he's strong, he's muscle. But behind closed doors, when he's alone by himself, he cries, just a crying baby. Yes.
Speaker 4:He's depressed. He doesn't know how to overcome the problems in life.
Speaker 3:So God came for you, for people like you. In a few, we are going to speak to Erica. Erica, she's here with us and Erica had these problems in life. She was in a broken home, she grew up with this terrible life and she suffered a lot. Can I connect with her? Hello Erica? How are you? Hi, I'm blessed, blessed. So am I right to say that you came from dysfunctional, broken home family?
Speaker 3:Yes, to put it lightly so in a few we are going to hear from you your story, to understand more from you. Because of depression, many are killing themselves. When we hear that somebody committed suicide, somebody killed himself, we hear from the family. He was always depressed. He was always by himself, not talking to nobody. He was always depressed. He was always by himself, not talking to nobody.
Speaker 4:He was always in a dark room yes, you know when, uh, the signs were already there. When someone ends up killing themselves, for many months, weeks, years, they have been already suffering, they've been, they've been depressed. They've been already suffering, they've been depressed, they've had thoughts of suicide many, many times. They feel alone, they feel like there is no hope for their future, and so when a person ends up killing themselves, that has been a spiritual disease for a long time.
Speaker 3:Yeah, and there is always a voice. Whenever you hear that somebody commits suicide, killed himself, there was always a voice telling that person there is no more way out. Life is not worth living. Kill yourself. Yes, this voice is day and night. If you are listening to a voice like that, stop it. If you hear a voice telling you you are good for nothing, kill yourself. This is the end. Stop it and then you are going to come to us and we are going to help you Understand now what is behind depression.
Speaker 7:Pay very close attention. Ten signs to identify depression. You have no goals for life. You feel numb. Life has no color nor meaning due to the numbness you have inside. Change in appetite and energy level, change in concentration. You can't focus on anything you do Anxiety, you worry and fear about everyday situations. Excessive anger and mood swings, suicidal thoughts and attempts, sleepless nights, sad sadness and loss of interest. You are constantly feeling lonely in severe sadness. Can you relate?
Speaker 3:and we know that the pressure is also a silent disease. Silent disease, sometimes a person doesn't know he has it, but it escalates, increases. A person starts feeling sad and starts separating, isolating himself. It is depression. It is just pure depression. If a person does not do anything now, it will get worse and worse day by day.
Speaker 4:If a person does not do anything now, it will get worse and worse day by day. Many times we even hear people talk about how they didn't know that they were depressed. They were sad. They thought everyone was sad. They thought it was normal to feel this way. They grew up and everyone in their family was this way. So some people have depression. They don't even know that they're depressed. They think it's normal. And so if you think that something is normal, you're not going to fight against it, and that's the problem. Depression is something that we have to reject. We have to fight against.
Speaker 3:And when a person does not fight against it, what he does Taking pills go to the doctor and then the doctor diagnoses him or her with depression.
Speaker 4:And says you have to take these pills for the rest of your life.
Speaker 3:For the rest of your life. Just as somebody says I am diabetic, I have diabetes. Now people go around and say I have depression. Okay, any other disease in the body the doctors can help us with, but the disease of the soul that is called depression. Only the word of God, the power of God. You know, bishop.
Speaker 4:Joshua, if we could draw the picture, the face of an evil spirit or Satan, it would be depression, correct, it would be the face of depression, because depression is exactly everything that evil spirits want.
Speaker 3:Right, Let me speak to Erica right now. Erica, tell us how did your suffering begin?
Speaker 6:I was six and my stepfather started to touch me in places he shouldn't and he would threaten me. But I finally told my mother I didn't get the help that I needed. He would tell her that I was disobedient, I was a bad child and I was lying on him because he punished me. She would believe him and it went on for years and it caused me to have behavior issues, trust issues. I was very depressed. I didn't realize. I had low self-esteem until I got older and I, you know, I reflected back on my life. It affected every area of my life, and even as an adult.
Speaker 3:So you grew up with this inside of you, you suffered this abuse, you were taught. And, bishop David, I think that for a child, what hurts more is when an adult does not believe.
Speaker 4:Because your parents, your mother, your father is there to protect you, to help you, to take care of you. And when you talk about something like this to your mother and she doesn't believe you and she just says you're a bad child and you're making it up a young child isn't going to make something like this up normally, and so it just makes the wound much bigger, it makes the pain much greater, because not only are you being abused now, you're being rejected by your mother and not protected.
Speaker 3:Yes, in her case, she was even punished for something that she did not do. As you said, she was supposed to be protected by the mother, but she was punished. Now, Erica, growing up with this trauma inside of your brain, your mind, your heart, what happened to you? How did it affect your school, your love life? Did you ever try to escape or go into the streets, the war?
Speaker 6:Well, it happened for eight years. So during eight years I went through a lot of changes. I don't even feel like I had a childhood. I remember going to the store with my mom and she would buy groceries and I would always carry the bags with the canned goods because I wanted to be strong enough to defend myself, since I had nobody to defend me. I fought a lot. They used to call me pop off, because anything would set me off. I didn't know how to control my emotions and I did really good in school good in school and I began to live a life that was, um, depending on other people's validation, because I never felt validated, I never felt good enough. So at school and at work I've always been an overachiever, but in my love life it's always been pretty bad bad.
Speaker 3:Sorry to cut you off. So what could we expect out of her life? She was abused in all the relationships. Also, she had this abuse.
Speaker 4:Anger. Because she became very angry, she became a very explosive person. She did well in school Because you know, when you have problems, you don't have problems in every area. She did well in school because, you know, when you have problems, you don't have problems in every area. She did well in school but she was known as a fighter, a person that couldn't control her temper, and, of course, like you said, you know all she knew was problems in that area of her life, and so her love life is going to be full of confusion.
Speaker 3:We are going to watch now, eric. I'll be back talking to you, but let me watch now. Let me show to everybody what abuses are all about. If you suffer abused or you have been an abuser, you have to understand that it is not from God at all. God is a father. He's not a monster, he does not abuse anybody. And if you are the abuser, the evil spirit has taken advantage of you, using you to abuse somebody, and perhaps because you too were abused, Don't stop listening. Soul Food has more to feed you.
Speaker 7:You are listening to Soul Food with Bishop Joshua. We'll be right back.
Speaker 2:Faith turning into a show Of Sundays and sermons and words getting caught in the flow. Oh, but we've got real pain and real fears, thirsting for the dry end Of our real tears, and it's not satisfying anymore. Ain't it true that the veil was torn? I don't need no stained glass To be washed in His blood. I don't need no perfect, put together, pretty words To be enough. No, I want Jesus and His real love, something that I crave Deep inside of my bones, so you can leave your religion at home.
Speaker 2:Spent my life trying to keep all the rules. Now I know it's about what he's already done, not about what I think that I've gotta do. I don't need no stained glass To be washed in his blood. I don't need no perfect, put together, pretty words To be enough. No, cause I want Jesus and his real love, something that I crave Deep inside of my bones, so you can leave your religion at home. I want real, real love. Yeah, cause I got real pain and real fears, thirst and full of trying of real tears. It's not satisfying anymore, ain't it true that the veil was torn? I don't need no stained glass To be washed in his blood. I don't need no perfect, put together pretty words to be enough. No, I want Jesus and his real love, something that I crave deep inside of my bones. So, and a grave deep inside of my bones so you can leave your religion at home, cause I want real, real love. I want real, real love. I want real, real love. Yeah.
Speaker 7:Parents should care for their children, giving them love, care, food, shelter and a good education, but when children are abused in ways such as being violently beaten, verbally abused, neglected by their guardians, deprived of medical assistance or raped by a family member, it becomes too much to bear. The majority of these children become runaways and seek a family in gangs, the streets and drugs. The rate of suicide among these children and teens are two to three times higher than average.
Speaker 3:So, erica, when you see videos like these children be abused, women be abused, it's about your past, your past life were like that right.
Speaker 6:Yes, yes, I have to admit that it wasn't just a physical abuse. It tainted my character. I dealt with a lot of emotional abuse and the emotional and the mental abuse was so much more damaging than the physical abuse. I learned that the physical abuse, the scars that go away a few days, but the scars to my heart, the scars to my spirit, they stay for a long time.
Speaker 3:Yeah, that's a point that everybody should understand. The scars in the heart, in the spirit, stood there for a long time. Tell me now, Erica, how did you overcome it? Because I hear from old ladies, elderly, that they never forget, they never forgave, and they grow old. Some people take it to the tomb. How did you overcome it?
Speaker 6:It wasn't easy. I had hate in my heart. I was a very hateful individual and I knew that God didn't want me to feel that way. Although I was hurting, I knew that it was something better for me, and in order for me to get it, I had to overcome this. I didn't have the tools to overcome. I didn't even know what to do to overcome. So I would read my Bible. That's all I had for a long time, and the more I would read the Word of God, the more the Word of God became real in my heart. It spoke against the voices that were already in my head, yeah.
Speaker 3:I'm laughing here because it's so powerful Medications, advices, friends, nobody could heal your soul, your heart. But you just said it all the word of God, this word here, this word, was able to change you inside and this is the word that we are reading. This is the word that we are reading. Let me show here jack verse 27 here on this bible. This is the word that we are reading. Let me show here jack verse 27 here on this bible. This is the word that we are reading when it says read them, but god has chosen the foolish things of the world.
Speaker 6:Go ahead, erica but god has chosen the foolish things of the world to put to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to put to shame the things which so this is the word that you are talking about, that healed your soul.
Speaker 3:This is the word that came to you because I'm sorry. You were the foolish things, you were the weak thing, you were the despised one, but God chose you.
Speaker 6:Yes, and it's so funny because the men that I'll date I made the mistake so many times to tell them about my pain and my past, thinking that they could help me, but they would normally use it against me. So I learned to make sure that I give my hurt and my pain to someone who can heal me, to someone who loves me and will protect me, and I never found it in a man or a woman, a doctor. It came from God. Before I even made it to the church, I was reading the word of God and the word of God was filling me up and reminding me that I was chosen by God and I was sealed and he had purpose for my life. Before I even got here, word it reassured me that, no matter what I was going through right now, if it did not reflect what God said about me, then I haven't reached what God had for me. So I kept fighting for it.
Speaker 6:I messed up so many times because I dealt with sexual abuse. I began to abuse my body sexually. I would sleep with people that were not in love with me. I wasn't in love with them. It was just a way to express my pain.
Speaker 3:I would smoke and drink. You were a kind of person that you were all over the place searching, pursuing happiness in people, in things that you did not have from home, from your childhood, which made your things even worse.
Speaker 6:Yes.
Speaker 3:Okay, so what has God done for you, erica? The whole America, everybody wants to know the transformation, the change. What is it?
Speaker 6:Well, god is here in my, my heart. He gave me peace, and I never understood. I never understood the passage, the scripture, that says that the Lord would give us peace. That surpasses all understanding. In the midst of my hurt, in the midst of my pain, in the midst of my pain, I didn't have a way out. I would go from one abusive relationship to the next abusive relationship, but I would continue to read the word, and the word of God gave me peace in those circumstances, knowing that, no matter what I'm going through right now, if God's word has not revealed itself to me, then I haven't seen the best that God has for me. So I didn't give up. I kept fighting, and the more I fought, the stronger I became. And I didn't fight with my body. When I was young, I learned how to fight with my hands. Then the Lord sent me to school so I could learn how to fight with my mind. And as I continued on the journey, he sent me to church. You mean?
Speaker 3:I'm sorry. You learned to fight with your head. Yes, you said you learned to fight with your head. Yes, with my hands, hands. Okay, now in the church, you learn to fight the good fight of faith using the brain, not the heart.
Speaker 6:Yes, yes, and that gives you peace when you know you don't have to fight. God fights for you, and he fixed the relationship with me and my mom. I hated her because I couldn't understand why she would let this happen to me, but when I realized that she had been raped every summer when she was a girl, it allowed me to have compassion for her.
Speaker 3:Right.
Speaker 6:Because I saw her as a hurt woman, like I was, and I began to pray for her.
Speaker 3:Erica hold on. Hold on for a second. I want to talk to you and you feel like a grain of sand. You are so small, your problem is a giant. You feel like a grain of sand. You feel like you are no one among the crowd, you do not feel in, you feel like a lost sheep, black sheep. I'm going to pray for you. Erica is going to tell us what God did in her life. As for you, over there, prepare one glass of water and I am going to pray for you. So, erica, tell me, how is your life now?
Speaker 6:I'm happy. I know right now I'm not sure about what tomorrow holds, and I'm okay with that because I know that the Lord holds my life in his hands. I know I serve a good God and he's taken all the grudges out of my heart. I even forgave the person that hurt me. I forgave the people who hurt me and I made sure that I hold no grudges in my heart because it caused me to have heart issues. My heart would hurt, my body was tired, my brain would hurt. I would recycle that garbage. What happened to me? I decided to get it out. I didn't want it inside of me anymore, so I gave my life to Christ and through that I have love and joy in my heart. My mom is my best friend. She loves me and I love her, and my father wasn't there for me, but he didn't have a father for him, so he couldn't be what he didn't't have. But he loves me the best way. So going through this it helped me not to pass judgment on people, because you don't know what caused them to react and move the way they do.
Speaker 6:I've learned to pray for people, pray at all times, pray for myself and pray for my enemies, and I used to pray Lord, cut the head out of the snake, get them God. And he said no, that's not how you pray. You pray in love, you pray with love and you love your neighbor like you love yourself. Because the world judges me, or they used to. Sometimes they look at me and they see my arms. They may say, god, she looks different. Or they may look at my face and say, man, she looks like God has really blessed her life, like she hasn't had any problems.
Speaker 3:This is the shine of the Holy Spirit. The shine, the splendor of the Holy Spirit. Erica, thank you for joining us. Tell me, do you know the address of the church you attend today in Dallas?
Speaker 6:Yes, it's 325 West Sainer Avenue, Dallas, Texas 75 224, and it's behind the Beckley Recreation Center on Sainer.
Speaker 3:Thank you very much for joining us and for your story. Congratulations for your story, congratulations for your faith.
Speaker 6:All the best thank you, bishop, thank you for everything that the church is doing, and I want to just iterate. This church. It accepted me as I am. I came in a church broken in pieces and I've been in this church for 10 years. Sometimes I would would stray, but the bishops, the pastors, they never gave up on me. They called me. They didn't wag their fingers. They called me in love and concern and that's what continued to draw me to God and it continued to give me the edification that I needed, to know that God was with me. So thank you for this church Right.
Speaker 3:Thank you very much. God bless you, erica. Bye-bye, amen. We are going to pray right now. I have my glass of water here. I want you to prepare yours. This is now the moment of prayer. Let us now, together, talk to God.
Speaker 7:It's now the moment of prayer.
Speaker 2:Let us talk to God here I am in this moment of so despised without love. Need to talk with my Lord. Come quickly and help me. So much pain inside my soul.
Speaker 3:You have so much pain inside of your soul, just like Erica had. I have two things here my water, if you have yours, and I have the Bible. I am going to invite you in a few to come closer to your TV and you are going to place your hand upon this word. See what it says. But God has chosen the foolish things of the world to put shame. See what it says. So he chose Erica. He's calling you. Place your hand right now upon this word. The word is here. Place your hand right now upon this word. The word is here.
Speaker 4:Place your hand right now.
Speaker 3:Oh, my Lord and my Father, there are many people out there just like Erica were. She was unwanted. She was molested, abused. Satan treated her like a trash, nothing but you, my lord. You gave hope, you transformed her life. You changed her life a spirit of god, and I am asking you right now, in this very moment, come my Lord, my Savior, to transform her life, to change his life. As they place their hands upon the Bible, my Bible, lord, place your hand upon them to change, to transform, to give hope, and this post will be the next story here on the naked truth. My Lord Jesus, I ask you that you may bless this cup of water that dispersa, drink and receive peace, as you have worked in Erica's life, work and transform their lives as well. In the name of the Father, the Son, the Holy Spirit, amen, praise God, amen, the water is blessed With all your faith.
Speaker 2:Drink right now, your water as this fall is a rain of sand. I'm the one in the crowd. I need to find a way out.
Speaker 3:You have found the way out. You are looking for it. Praise God, you have found the way out 7075 southwest freeway, just between belaya and the hillcroft. This is where the universal church is in houston, texas. You can come as you are. God has chosen you also in. We have a church in det, illinois, nevada, louisiana, south Carolina, florida, new York, new Jersey, philadelphia. We are all over. Reach out and find help, the help that you want, just as Erica found help. May the God of the Bible bless all of you. We are now in many platforms. Share the news and help others to know more about Naked Truth. May the God of the Bible bless all of you. You may have a good one.
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