You Are Not Alone With Debbie & Greg Gold
As a mother and son team, Debbie and Greg come together to talk about the realities and struggles we all face in today’s world. They cover a wide array of topics from mental health to current events to teaching on topics that will help you do life. As Christians, they know there is one thing that brings peace, hope, and encouragement to anything life throws our way, and that is a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. You don't know what you don't know, so come along on the ride. Your life and heart will be changed forever!
You Are Not Alone With Debbie & Greg Gold
The Fruit of Spirit: A Christian's Path to Transformation
What transforms ordinary believers into extraordinary reflections of God's character? The answer lies in cultivating the fruit of the Spirit—divine characteristics that develop naturally as we walk with Christ.
Join Debbie and Greg Gold as they launch a three-part series exploring these spiritual fruits that reflect God's character working through us. In this first installment, they dive deep into the first three fruits: love, joy, and peace. Beyond mere positive emotions, these spiritual qualities empower believers to transcend natural limitations—loving those who are difficult to love, maintaining joy during hardship, and experiencing peace amidst uncertainty.
Debbie shares a powerful personal testimony about how deepening her relationship with Jesus has transformed her spirit in ways that others notice. This isn't about religious performance but authentic heart change that comes through consistent spiritual practices. Greg adds valuable insights about trusting God while actively pursuing opportunities, demonstrating how peace and action work hand-in-hand.
Whether you're new to faith or looking to deepen your spiritual walk, this episode provides practical wisdom for growing these divine characteristics in your daily life. The hosts offer encouraging takeaways and a Bible reading recommendation that will help you understand how walking in the Spirit prevents fulfilling the desires of the flesh.
Ready to experience supernatural transformation? Listen now and discover how the fruit of the Spirit can radically change your response to life's challenges. Remember, this journey isn't meant to be walked alone—Jesus is always with you, and through this podcast community, you are not alone either.
Hello, this is Debbie and Greg Gold, and welcome to the you Are Not Alone podcast, where we cover topics that will help you navigate life, and, as Christians, we know that we can't do it alone. We need Jesus. We encourage you to join us on the journey that will help you begin or deepen your walk with Christ, no matter where you are.
Speaker 2:Hello everyone, welcome back to season two, episode seven of the you Are Not Alone podcast, and today we're going to be starting a three-week journey talking about the fruit of the spirit. But first it's going to be time for highlights of the week. So what's yours?
Speaker 1:Oh well, thank you for letting me go first. I kind of had two, but I think you're going to talk about one of mine, so I might chime in on that, but I want to. I'm excited to say that we got our family vacation booked for the summer over July 4th, and it's going to be like I don't know 12 days or something. So, and I'm super excited to um go back during that time, cause it's the 4th of July and we'll get to spend time going to the fireworks and seeing a parade that that I used to do when I was a kid. All every year we would do it.
Speaker 2:It was family too. I'm excited yeah totally.
Speaker 1:We'll get to see all the family and and then um and then I also. We also booked an Airbnb or Vrbo at Green Lake, which is just a beautiful. It's almost like a little resort area, much like where we live, and kind of quiet and it's a real small town but quiet during off-season but during the summer it's supposed to be really busy and people come up from Illinois that have family homes there, people come vacation there. There's a huge lake and it's actually called Green Lake, so really deep, like 200-some feet deep. It's good for water sports.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it sounds fun.
Speaker 1:Yeah, lots of hiking trails and bike trails and just a lot of outdoor activity going on.
Speaker 2:It's going to be fun.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I've been checking out places to eat and things like that. So, yeah, I'm super excited about it.
Speaker 2:I am too, and just getting away.
Speaker 1:I don't know the last time we went away for that long of a time.
Speaker 2:It could have been. Yeah, it's a pretty decent vacation too. It's like 10 days so.
Speaker 1:I think it's like 11 or 12.
Speaker 2:There you go yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:So it's going to be a going to be a good trip.
Speaker 1:Nice and relaxing and a much needed break, for sure.
Speaker 2:Exactly, yeah, so uh, and then mine, I guess. So last Friday it was a really long day at work, um, doing a bunch of orders and stuff. And uh, you got into it. You got invited to a pool party with one of your friends and she let you know. She was like make sure, gregson knows that he's invited. And so you gave me a text or like, okay, um, do you want to go to this party? And I'm like sure and sure, like well, I'll be here after work when you get off, and I'll be like all right, well, I'll come then. And so I go and I see a bunch of people and I see a pool table. I'm like, oh sweet, there's this little kid rider, he's playing pool, he's trying to, he's five, he's five little kid. And so we just start playing pool together. You play him first and then, um, I started playing with him, trying to teach him directions and stuff, and then we teamed up.
Speaker 2:It was me and you versus him and, uh, his grandpa, I guess that wasn't his grandpa. It was um some people that were visiting from out of town that used to live here and yeah, good to see them, for sure yeah, but got to connect a lot with people and got chatted it up a lot for sure.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so Ryder is pretty amazing. He's like you know, he likes to move the cue ball around. He's moving balls so he can get at the cue ball. He's you know, he's a short little five-year-old so he can't really have.
Speaker 2:Some shots are just too hard, because he's not tall enough to even approach them right.
Speaker 1:And so, anyway, we're, we kind of um, told him that you know, ryder, you can't do that, we don't do, that's not how we play. And so we were trying to teach him the real way to play and um and uh, anyway, he got to a point where he was following the rules a little bit better.
Speaker 2:He was not moving balls around quite so much. He fell in love with that game, for sure he did I said you and I are going on tour buddy.
Speaker 1:But then I know I beat him that one game and I said, okay, you owe me a dollar. And so he went up to. I saw him walk up to his dad who was out by the pool, and he hands up a dollar. He comes back and gives me the dollar, but that's how I I learned when I was. We lived in the tavern and and uh the art, the guy that taught me how to play it was always for a dollar, even back then, so I should have maybe said a five dollar bill right there. And then you made that amazing shot, which was I jumped the ball.
Speaker 2:Yeah, hit it in the corner you had no shot really whatsoever.
Speaker 1:So you had the cue ball sitting there and there was the opponent's ball in front of that and then your ball was beyond that and I said, why don't you try to just jump it? What do you got to lose? You had nothing else to shoot at. Jumped it smashed it in the corner.
Speaker 2:Yeah, best pool shot of my life so far.
Speaker 1:So that was amazing.
Speaker 2:Oh, I loved it. I loved it. I loved it. That was great, yeah, all right.
Speaker 2:Well, let's talk about what is the fruit of the spirit. It's where divine characteristics form in people who walk in the spirit. These characteristics reflect God's character, and the spirit lives in you. If we walk in the spirit, we are less likely to fulfill the lust of the flesh. And the spirit is God's personal preference. Its purpose is to transform your heart. When we look at each of the nine fruit of the spirits individually over the next three weeks, you will learn how you can be transformed.
Speaker 2:The fruit of the spirit are love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. So the fruit of the spirit is talked about in Galatians 5, 13 through 26, which says you, my brothers and sisters, were called to be free, but do not use your freedom to indulge in the flesh. Rather serve one another humbly in love, for the entire law is fulfilled in keeping this one command Love your neighbor as yourself. If you bite and devour each other, watch out or you'll be destroyed by each other. So I say walk by the spirit and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh, for the flesh desires what is contrary to the spirit and the spirit what is contrary to the flesh? They are in conflict with each other, so that you do not. You are not to do whatever you want, but if you were led by the spirit, you were not under the law.
Speaker 2:The acts of the fleshlesh are imperious Sexual immorality, impurity, adultery and witchcraft, hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, decisions, factions and envy, drunkenness, orgies and the like. I warn you, as I did before before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of god. But the fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. So I went over a little bit there, but I just wanted to get that last part in so kind of talks about what the fruit of the spirit is really.
Speaker 1:So yeah, um are you. Can I interject?
Speaker 2:Yeah, go for it.
Speaker 1:So just a couple of things. That um it says, if those who live, um, well, when we talk about the flesh, that means we're, we're living our life by, according to our mind, our will. You know what we want to do. That's when we so, when we say the, we're living by the flesh.
Speaker 1:That's what that means just for people that may not know that. And then also, I just was having a thought about those who live like that all those things that you listed will not inherit the kingdom of God. It doesn't mean that we're not going to make mistakes and do those things sometimes, but it means that if we continually live like that and we choose not to have the Holy Spirit in us and the fruit of the spirit in there in us, then then we don't inherit the kingdom of God.
Speaker 2:So so I just wanted to remind our listeners that the Bible is our God on how we're trying to live our lives. Have you ever found yourself walking around like in a dark room trying to find your way? Then you turn on. The light changes your experience. That happens to me.
Speaker 1:I'm sorry. It happens to me at night, like I'm trying to go to the bathroom or get out of bed to go get a cup, another, you know, a glass of water or whatever, and it's like I'm kind of feeling around if I don't turn the light on.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so life can feel like that. It's like we all feel moments of darkness, pain, uncertainty and discouragement, and it feels like we're fumbling around in the dark unsure of what to do next. Spending time in God's word will bring light into your darkness. We encourage you to do it every single day, and if reading the Bible is new to you, I want to point to you in the book of Mark in the New Testament as a place to begin.
Speaker 1:So yes, very good as a place to begin. So, yes, very good. Um, also, in besides Mark, you can also, uh, look at Psalms and Proverbs. Those are also good places to start. Just start wrapping your head around what's going on in the Bible. They're a little easier to read and understand. Those books are so um.
Speaker 1:Okay, so today we're going to talk about the first three um fruits, and the first one is love.
Speaker 1:So this doesn't really refer to, uh, you know, this natural love that we have for, like, our spouse or family or friends. This is about loving people who are not easy to love, and I think we all have an image of some of what that might look like. And so you know, when we're treated badly, you want to do the evil for evil, right, you want to get back, you want to do the same to them, but you know this is wrong and you know it's not the right thing to do. And um, what else do I want to say about that? You might tell yourself that it was wrong and shameful. Right, what they did to you, and of course it was, but do not repeat the behavior, no matter how tempting that is, and I know it can be very tempting. So we don't um matter how tempting that is, and I know it can be very tempting, so we don't um, we don't want to be revengeful or pay um an insult back to another person, because it's not the right thing to do in God's eyes. Right Instead of being. Instead, we, we are expected by God to bless them and to pray for them, and I have been, um, I have been practicing that for a number of years now and, um, it really puts me in a better place, and I'm really reminded of that episode we did, Um, it was episode five, I believe.
Speaker 1:Choices lead, feelings follow, Um, and I call it that, but it could be actually titled something different on the podcast, but anyways, it would be episode five. If you want to go back and give it, give it a listen, Um, so what it says is so if I choose to let my feelings take over that situation, I'm going to make some poor choices, right? I'm going to make some poor choices, right? Um, I'm going to get even with them, or I'm going to hurt them back or whatever, and so, but if I let my choices lead, my feelings will follow. So if I I say you know what, I'm just going to pray for them and bless them.
Speaker 1:Maybe they didn't know what they were doing. What are my feelings going to be? Then my feelings are going to be I'm happy, Um, I'm going to let that go. I don't have to ponder it anymore. I can move on with my life and what I have going on in my world and focus on that. So that is the fruit of love and the second one is the fruit of joy. Did you have any comments on that one, Greg? On the love.
Speaker 2:Not really. I mean, you explained it pretty well.
Speaker 1:All righty. Feel free to jump in any time.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:So the fruit of joy. So this is not the joy that comes from you know, our experiences or a set of circumstances like buying your first home, graduating high school or college, getting that first truck, greg. That's not the joy we're talking about here. It's a joy that we remain in when circumstances seem really terrible or gloom and doom, and this is a joy that doesn't come from earthly things. So just remember that. It's not the joy that comes from earthly things. It's the joy that comes from having a godly foundation. So if you're going through a circumstance that seems doom and gloom or really terrible, just remember to have joy or stay in joy, because you know this too will pass according to God's will.
Speaker 1:Recently, this was such a special text that I received from my, my girlfriend, michelle. She said I love your heart and your spirit so much and I have to say it really is that is because of my relationship with Jesus and um, I continue to work on that every day and I do that by spending time in the Bible every day, prayer time, going to church, greg, with you, getting in small groups, serving at the church or, you know, anywhere really and you know, anything else I can do to make an impact on my faith. So I'm constantly, you know, thinking about it and I do make that time every morning to spend time with God and the Bible.
Speaker 2:You do.
Speaker 1:And it really makes a difference. It changes, it really just deepens your faith. And, to put it another way, I guess I think joy comes from—it doesn't come from what one has. Rather, it comes from what you are in Christ. How deep is your relationship with Christ? And if you don't have a relationship with Christ, I just want to encourage you or maybe you don't know what that means I'd like to encourage you to go to our website and download your digital copy, copy of my six week Bible study called crossing over Cause. It's a study that will get you started on a journey to having a personal relationship with Christ and it will change who you are. I never used to be, you know, happy and you know I don't know Spiritual or you know how.
Speaker 1:you know Michelle said I just love your heart and spirit so much, you know it's noticeable and we talked about that in one of the small groups I was in recently. It's like, you know, I feel happy and people notice it. They say you're always so happy, you know, so it does make a difference. So go download your digital copy of Crossing Over at. We'll tell you the website. If you don't already know it, we'll tell you at the end. So that is the fruit of joy. And then there is finally the fruit of peace for this episode. And this is not peace that comes from an absence of fighting and struggles. Right, this is a peace with God. It's a peace with people. It's a peace during times of difficulty. It's this higher peace, sort of, than just what comes when everything is good and going our way. That's easy. But this is a different peace. It's just a constant peace and calm that we have inside of us, so like.
Speaker 1:it's a tranquility in the heart that comes from knowing and trusting that our times are in the hands of God that our times are in the hands of God and that has been something that I've been able to do so much better since we had the Freedom Conference and we did that 12-week study prior to the conference. I can just put my I just give it to God. I have so much going on that I could just be depressed over, and I was for a while, I think there were days I didn't want to do anything but watch TV or read a book, not even read a book, just watch TV and sleep. But I feel like, since that conference, just being able to let all of that go, trusting that God's got this in his timing. Everything is going to work out perfectly as he's planned and I don't know if you have anything you want to add to that about some maybe struggles you have right now.
Speaker 2:I mean, yeah, you know the future is uncertain for me and I'm trying to find a career path, but yeah, giving it all over to God helps for sure. Freedom Conference was truly amazing like you said but yeah, trusting in the Lord and giving it all over to God, knowing that he has a plan and that everything was going to work out.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and I think also to add to that it doesn't mean that we just sit around and wait. We have to try things right.
Speaker 1:Like we're really. This podcast is is really growing. It's getting amazing. We're looking at ways, um, to monetize and make money off of this, which we've. We haven't done, but it's. It's all coming together really beautifully, but it's not because I just, you know, sit around and watch TV. I'm on the internet, I'm looking, I'm trying things. I'm I'm, you know, just checking everything out that I can. That will help us, and I know you're doing the same thing. So don't forget that we have to still put our, do our part right.
Speaker 2:Exactly yeah. So well, let's talk about some takeaways, shall we?
Speaker 1:Yeah, let's do it. I got this takeaway thing from that book that you're reading from Dana Perino what's it called? It's her latest.
Speaker 2:I wish I knew, or I wish someone had told me yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:So at the end of each, chapter that's a great book, by the way. It tells you know she interviews a lot of her colleagues and so you know, what would you tell someone you know, or what do you think about I don't know putting together a resume? Or what were you thinking when you were 18 years old and did you know what you really wanted to do back then? And she asks all these people, all these questions. You get so many different answers and it just makes you feel like you are not alone.
Speaker 2:And it's okay where I'm at.
Speaker 1:But I'm going to get where I need to be one day, so, but anyways, she does takeaways at the end of every chapter, so I'm sorry, go ahead. No, you explained it perfectly.
Speaker 2:So um we're. We are to love people who are hard to love and to bless them and pray for them. I know it's not easy, but you know it's the right thing to do.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:And you don't want to live in hatred and just unforgiveness.
Speaker 1:Right.
Speaker 2:Yes, number two this is not the joy that comes from earthly things, you know, cars, money, finance, whatever it may be. It's really not about that. It's a joy that comes from having a strong spiritual foundation, which is a relationship with the most high. And then, third, peace is a tranquility in the heart that comes because we trust God, always through the good and the bad. So you have to.
Speaker 1:Yeah, also I just want to emphasize in takeaway number two you said joy comes from having that strong spiritual foundation and really you can't have that unless you start that walk with having a relationship with Jesus and and really trying to work on putting yourself in situations that are going to help grow your faith.
Speaker 2:So yeah, and then I'd say we have a call to action, which is go back and read Galatians, verse five, 13 through 26. Then relisten to this episode, take notes on the points that sing to you.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so yeah, and so next week we're going to talk about, um, fruits four, five and six, and, uh, I'm also going to do a little summary, not a sum five and six, and I'm also going to do a little summary not a summary, maybe a summary or kind of break down what all this means. You know, living by the law, that was, living by the law of Moses way back, and now we're living in the spirit because Jesus came to us. So I really want to dig into that and explain this scripture that we're focusing on a little bit more for our listeners, so they can wrap their head around it a little and get a better understanding of it. Um, so that'll be for next, next time, and I guess that will be our show for today.
Speaker 2:I think so.
Speaker 1:Okay.
Speaker 2:If you haven't already done, please visit our website at Debbie and Greg goldcom. Please subscribe. Listen to us on podcast, on apple podcast I heart um whatever we're out there forever.
Speaker 1:Yeah, we're out there though and then, um, tell her, tell your friends about us we have a lot of especially. Tell them about how maybe some of the words that we're speaking in this podcast or previous podcasts have resonated with you or changed you in some way. That's really just incredible. Or write us some reviews. That would be helpful for us as well.
Speaker 2:Yeah, we love reviews. Give us five stars, Give us a good rating. We'll see you here back next week. Thank you, God for this episode. Remember, Jesus is always with you.
Speaker 1:And you are not alone, all right.