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Speaker 1: Life Audio.

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Speaker 2: Hey, Bethany, thanks for joining me.

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Speaker 1: Hi, thanks for having me.

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Speaker 2: Bethany Worley, worship leader for Bethel Music, whose voice can

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Speaker 2: be heard on songs with tens of millions of streams,

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Speaker 2: songs that I've enjoyed all Hell, King Jesus and Living Hope,

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Speaker 2: or two of the most popular ones. Bethany, you have

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Speaker 2: a new single, he Is Here, and an upcoming album

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Speaker 2: that releases July the tenth. This is your debut solo album.

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Speaker 2: I'm excited about that for you. Bethany. You've led worship

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Speaker 2: and friends up in front of thousands of people with

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Speaker 2: Bethel Music, but this is your first solo album. Why

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Speaker 2: was this the right season to kind of release a

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Speaker 2: solo album and tell your own story in a more

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Speaker 2: personal way.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean it has been a journey for sure.

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Speaker 1: I have been signed with Bethel Music since twenty eighteen.

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Speaker 1: I kind of grew up in the Bethel environment. I

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Speaker 1: moved there when I was seventeen and have been there

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Speaker 1: ever since.

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Speaker 3: Yeah.

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Speaker 1: I am almost thirty four, so I've been in the

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Speaker 1: Bethel environment for a long time. Kind of grew up.

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Speaker 1: That's where I learned how to quote lead worship. That's

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Speaker 1: where I learned how to do a lot of the

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Speaker 1: worship leading things that I do. But I think with

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Speaker 1: this album in particular, why now, why not a couple

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Speaker 1: of years ago? Why not, you know, in a few years. Honestly,

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Speaker 1: I think it's just the Lord's timing. You know. I've

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Speaker 1: been working on this project for a few years now,

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Speaker 1: and a handful of the songs that are on this

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Speaker 1: project were written three plus years ago, or were even

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Speaker 1: started earlier or later than that, And I think, honestly,

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Speaker 1: it comes down to just the Lord's timing. I was

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Speaker 1: talking with someone about this the other day, because you're like,

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Speaker 1: I'm so excited, like it's finally happening. You know, They're like,

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Speaker 1: why now rather than you know, when you wrote these

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Speaker 1: songs three years ago? And to be frank, I don't

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Speaker 1: have the answers. I don't know why it didn't happen

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Speaker 1: three years ago. But honestly, I think it's just the

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Speaker 1: Lord being kind and being gracious. I think three years ago,

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Speaker 1: if this album would have released right away, I don't know.

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Speaker 1: I don't know if it would have spoken to me

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Speaker 1: in the way that it has now. And we can

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Speaker 1: get into all of like that detail and whatnot. But honestly,

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Speaker 1: I think my answer would be, it's just the Lord's

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Speaker 1: timing that it's happening now in this moment.

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Speaker 2: You have said, Bethany, that these songs were born out

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Speaker 2: of paying, out of Greece, out of ultimately redemption. What

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Speaker 2: did you learn about God's character during those seasons of

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Speaker 2: your life? And for those who don't even know what

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Speaker 2: we're talking about, what kind of trials did you face

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Speaker 2: during these years?

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Speaker 1: Yeah, so three years ago my family walks through some

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Speaker 1: pretty pretty tough loss. My niece passed when she was

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Speaker 1: eighteen months old, not expected. She wasn't sick, she didn't

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Speaker 1: have any medical issues or anything. It was just she

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Speaker 1: laid down for a nap and didn't wake up. And

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Speaker 1: it was really really traumatic. It was really it was

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Speaker 1: a really difficult time for my sister. For I'm one

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Speaker 1: of seven kids, so all of us, seven kids, all

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Speaker 1: of the grandkids, my parents, my family is really close

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Speaker 1: and so we all kind of just walked through this

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Speaker 1: really intense I say intense, I think maybe more so

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Speaker 1: like intense emotionally obviously, you know, losing a child. I

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Speaker 1: wouldn't wish that upon anybody, and people that have walked

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Speaker 1: through that know that exact feeling. But a lot of

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Speaker 1: these songs were written from a place of and when

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Speaker 1: I say earlier that, you know, I've been working on

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Speaker 1: this album for a few years. My niece passed in

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Speaker 1: February of twenty twenty three, and I had a writing camp.

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Speaker 1: The beginning of this project was literally three or four

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Speaker 1: weeks later, and so I just was like, how am

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Speaker 1: I supposed to go to Nashville and go into these

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Speaker 1: writing rooms with all these people? And I think that

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Speaker 1: I've got like a vision of you know, like this

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Speaker 1: is what I want to go after, and you know,

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Speaker 1: these are the kind of songs that I want to write,

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Speaker 1: and you know, your whole world kind of just crumbles,

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Speaker 1: and your whole world just like completely shifts. Not my

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Speaker 1: perspective on Jesus, but having a new It's like when

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Speaker 1: the Angels talk about like when when we see a

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Speaker 1: new side of his face, all we can say is

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Speaker 1: like wow, Like when when we see a new facet

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Speaker 1: of his glory, all we can think about is like

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Speaker 1: we have no words. And so for me, in that season,

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Speaker 1: when I was going to Nashville and writing songs for

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Speaker 1: this project, I just remember thinking like what am I

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Speaker 1: supposed to write about? Like I just experienced something that

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Speaker 1: was so I almost didn't come. I almost didn't come

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Speaker 1: to Nashville to do this writing camp for my project

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Speaker 1: because I was like, this is not that. This feels

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Speaker 1: like it's not the right time to be doing this.

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Speaker 1: And I was talking to my sister and the one

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Speaker 1: that had lost their little girl, and they were living

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Speaker 1: with us at the time, and I was like, are

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Speaker 1: you okay if I go, and like, I'm not going

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Speaker 1: to be We're not going to be at the house.

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Speaker 1: You know, my husband Chris and our little boyfriend will

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Speaker 1: be here. Are you okay if I leap to go

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Speaker 1: and do this, I'll be gone for three days. And

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Speaker 1: She's like, oh my gosh, yeah, let go. And so

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Speaker 1: came and wrote some of these songs. And when I

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Speaker 1: tell you that, I've never felt the presence of Jesus

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Speaker 1: in a writing room like I mean, we were praying

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Speaker 1: and prophesying, we were sending Like the things that the

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Speaker 1: Lord was doing in those writing rooms wasn't to write songs.

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Speaker 1: It was ministering to me. It was ministering to my spirit.

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Speaker 1: It was ministering to just my person who I am

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Speaker 1: and I honestly, I've never experienced a Lord in such

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Speaker 1: a deep and profound way and being so close, feeling

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Speaker 1: so close to Heaven. Literally, one of the songs on

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Speaker 1: my albums is called so Close, and it's about I

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Speaker 1: wrote it for my sister, I wrote it for my

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Speaker 1: brother in law and just for my family. I literally

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Speaker 1: listened to the mastered version of it yesterday and sent

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Speaker 1: it to my sister and she listened to it for

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Speaker 1: the first time and we both just started like weeping

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Speaker 1: because I remember in the writing room when I walked in, Sorry,

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Speaker 1: I'm probably gonna cry. I literally had brought to Jesus.

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Speaker 3: I'm like, this is I remember walking into the writing

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Speaker 3: room that I said, I don't want to write a

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Speaker 3: song that's about sadness, that's about grief, and that's about

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Speaker 3: lost because God is way too good and I've seen

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Speaker 3: way too much of his goodness to think that he's

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Speaker 3: not good.

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Speaker 1: Like I've walked through things before, I've walked through disappointments,

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Speaker 1: and I've seen the hand of God in my life

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Speaker 1: and his faithfulness over you know, things that happened in

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Speaker 1: the past, and so to think that he's not going

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Speaker 1: to be faithful now walking through this, I just can't

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Speaker 1: write a like a woe is Me song or a

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Speaker 1: song that is like gonna process through all of this

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Speaker 1: grief and this trauma. And so this song is so close.

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Speaker 1: It literally talks about I know that he's still good.

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Speaker 1: I know that he's still kind. I know that he

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Speaker 1: can bring dead things back to life. I know that,

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Speaker 1: you know. And so I just remember that week when

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Speaker 1: I was here writing it was I wanted it to

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Speaker 1: be hope filled. I didn't want to be I didn't

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Speaker 1: want to sit in the sadness and sit in the grief. Yes,

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Speaker 1: there is a time and a place for that, and

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Speaker 1: I you know, there's ebbs and flows to it, but

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Speaker 1: a lot of these songs were written from that place

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Speaker 1: of I have walked through this. I have history with

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Speaker 1: experiencing these things. And it's not just losing my knees.

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Speaker 1: You know, There's there's been ups and downs of you know, music,

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Speaker 1: things in life and having my own kids and walking

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Speaker 1: through my own like really scary things with my children

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Speaker 1: and you know, childbirth and all these things. But I

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Speaker 1: think the biggest thing for me was I wanted to

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Speaker 1: write an album that was hope filled, that reminded people

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Speaker 1: of the testimonies that the Lord has brought them through

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Speaker 1: to get them from point A to point B. So

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Speaker 1: that was a really long answer. Sorry, Oh, I.

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Speaker 2: Think I think what you said is significant because I'm

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Speaker 2: assuming you want this to minister to people who might

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Speaker 2: be in similar situations and or any kind of grief,

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Speaker 2: kind of grief. Yeah. Yeah, give us a preview of

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Speaker 2: the album though it releases to you out of the

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Speaker 2: tenth and that you already previewed one of the songs.

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Speaker 2: Other songs on it, I'm assuming are He is here

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Speaker 2: and that's how I know. Would you say that those

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Speaker 2: trials are kind of found in most of these songs

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Speaker 2: that lessons from lessons from that time in your.

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Speaker 4: Life, lessons from that time of my life.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, I would say a handful of those songs are

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Speaker 1: from that, just walking through and learning about the faithfulness

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Speaker 1: of the Lord. But there are other songs in there.

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Speaker 1: There's a song that's like I'm a worship leader in

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Speaker 1: my like deep in my soul, like I love the

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Speaker 1: local church. I am not just a singer, a songwriter, performer,

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Speaker 1: but like my heart is for the church to sing

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Speaker 1: songs that bring bring hope, that bring joy that speak

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Speaker 1: the truth about who Jesus. And so there's a song

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Speaker 1: on this album called all Authority and just talking through

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Speaker 1: you know, like God is the one who sent the

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Speaker 1: fire at night for the Israels, He's the one who

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Speaker 1: brought the cloud, you know, the cloud by day, the

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Speaker 1: fire by night, and it just talks about the authority

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Speaker 1: of who Jesus is. And in the bridge it talks about,

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Speaker 1: like all of these fears and all of these worries

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Speaker 1: that I have had in my life, they bow to

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Speaker 1: the King of kings, they bow to who Jesus is.

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Speaker 1: And so there's there's a handful of songs that are

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Speaker 1: roughly from that time in my life, you know, a

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Speaker 1: couple of years ago, and walking through loss and pain

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Speaker 1: but also seeing the other side of it. And somebody

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Speaker 1: asked me the other day, they were like, you know,

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Speaker 1: how do you go back to leading worship after you've

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Speaker 1: experienced something like that? And I had just told him,

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Speaker 1: I'm like, I've never been more on fire to lead

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Speaker 1: people into worship and lead people to the Father because

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Speaker 1: I've experienced this, because I have history, you know, walk

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Speaker 1: through stuff like this, It's lid a fire inside of me.

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Speaker 1: I can't wait to I'm leading worship on Sunday with

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Speaker 1: John Wilds the Word singing our new song. He is

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Speaker 1: here at church on Sunday here in Nashville, and I'm

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Speaker 1: like stoked beyond my mind because in like, there's faith

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Speaker 1: in these songs. Like I don't want to just sing

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Speaker 1: another song. And obviously, like I'm not dissing any other

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Speaker 1: worship songs that are out there, but they're special to

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Speaker 1: me because I have history with these songs. They're not

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Speaker 1: just written because they need I need songs for an album.

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Speaker 1: They're written from a place of history with the Lord.

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Speaker 2: I'm sorry, Bethany, I don't even know the name of

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Speaker 2: the album. I don't have it written here. What is

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Speaker 2: the name of the album?

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Speaker 1: Name of the album is called Reason That I Sing.

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Speaker 2: Reason That I Sing, Just so everybody knows. I was

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Speaker 2: gonna ask you why you enjoy leading worship and music

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Speaker 2: so much and kind of how how did you develop

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Speaker 2: that passion for leading people for the thrill of God?

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Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean I grew up in the church, born

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Speaker 1: and raised in Florida, went to the same my parents

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Speaker 1: went to the same church for twenty five years before

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Speaker 1: we moved to California. But I mean I grew up

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Speaker 1: in the church. Church was all that I knew. I

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Speaker 1: didn't I was at homeschooled growing up the church and

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Speaker 1: like youth group, like that was that was where I

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Speaker 1: wanted to be. I mean, I probably was at church

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Speaker 1: four to six times a week. My dad wasn't taken

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Speaker 1: on staff, and my mom was a Sunday school teacher.

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Speaker 1: I worked on the janitorial staff at church. Like I

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Speaker 1: just love I love the local church. Some people would

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Speaker 1: be like, you're absolutely crazy, Like I go to church

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Speaker 1: on Sunday and I go home or I go to

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Speaker 1: lodge afterwards. But I just truly loved the church, and

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Speaker 1: I like the Lord tells us to love the church

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Speaker 1: as well. And so my journey with worship leading, I mean,

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Speaker 1: it all really started from my childhood and my dad

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Speaker 1: was on worship team growing up. My dad is an

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Speaker 1: incredible singer. All of my siblings play something or sing something.

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Speaker 1: My little sister, you know, the one who lost their

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Speaker 1: little girl, Juni, she's a phenomenal worship leader. Her husband

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Speaker 1: plays drums. Like so, my family's just always been in worship,

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Speaker 1: and so it's always it's just kind of ingrained in

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Speaker 1: my soul. But I think I really learned and found

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Speaker 1: like a deep calling from the Lord to be a

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Speaker 1: worship leader and to lead people into worship. At Bethel

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Speaker 1: when I was in ministry school in twenty ten, twenty eleven,

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Speaker 1: in twenty twelve, it was all student led worship teams,

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Speaker 1: and that's really where I felt like I was called

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Speaker 1: to lead worship. And I really do believe that there

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Speaker 1: is a calling on people's lives to lead worship. It's

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Speaker 1: not just a gimmicky thing that you do on a

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Speaker 1: Sunday morning. You know, you you come into a Sunday

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Speaker 1: morning set, and it's not it's an overflow of what

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Speaker 1: you've done with the Lord throughout the last week. It's

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Speaker 1: it's not to show up and worship for yourself, if

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Speaker 1: that makes sense. My quote job as a worship leader

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Speaker 1: is to be as to be as invisible as possible,

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Speaker 1: because it's not about me. It's not about the songs

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Speaker 1: that I'm singing. It's simply connecting the congregation to Heaven,

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Speaker 1: connecting the congregation to hear what the Lord is saying

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Speaker 1: in that moment, and so I'm just a facilitator. That's

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Speaker 1: really what I believe as a worship leader. And yeah,

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Speaker 1: there's joy, and there's fun that happens on stage, and

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Speaker 1: there's you know, jumping and dancing and all the things.

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Speaker 1: Then there's excitement in it. But I think that that's

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Speaker 1: just just a part of it as well, like somebody

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Speaker 1: in the room might be terrified to lift their hands

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Speaker 1: and worship. I've literally I have a testimony of someone

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Speaker 1: at one of the churches that I used to lead

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Speaker 1: worship at. And I'm sure you've heard a worship leader say,

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Speaker 1: you know, everyone lift your hands or like sing out

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Speaker 1: your own song kind of deal. And I how I

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Speaker 1: encourage people. I say, come on, we're just going to

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Speaker 1: lift our hands. So we're going to lift up the

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Speaker 1: name of Jesus and we're going to sing this song

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Speaker 1: out together. And I think it was like all hail

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Speaker 1: King Jesus, and so gathered like corporately gathering the room,

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Speaker 1: you know, to lift up the name of Jesus. And

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Speaker 1: I said, if you would just lift your hands. It

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Speaker 1: wasn't like a it wasn't a question. It wasn't like

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Speaker 1: if you feel comfortable. It was like, we're just gonna

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Speaker 1: lift our hands and sing this. And this person in

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Speaker 1: the room was like, I have never done that before.

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Speaker 1: I have never like I've been going to church my

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Speaker 1: whole life, but I've never been asked to raise my

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Speaker 1: hands in church, which shocked me. But because the Bible

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Speaker 1: literally says, you know, like lift your hands like clap

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Speaker 1: for joy, sing out, you know, sing songs of joy,

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Speaker 1: and and so getting this, having this conversation afterwards, I

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Speaker 1: was just like, man, I hope I didn't make you

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Speaker 1: feel uncomfortable. And they were like, I've never felt so

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Speaker 1: much freedom in my whole life, like watching the whole

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Speaker 1: room do it. And I felt like I was the

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Speaker 1: one who was left out by not you know, responding

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Speaker 1: and feeling that freedom in that moment and feeling close

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Speaker 1: to Heaven. And so I've been in a lot of

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Speaker 1: different types of rooms, and but yeah, I I love

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Speaker 1: leading worship and I've really a lot of it kind

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Speaker 1: of stems back from learning what it is to be

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Speaker 1: a worship leader and not just a singer on stage.

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Speaker 1: What at my time at Bethel in Ministry School, I.

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Speaker 2: Love your definition the goal of the worship leader is

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Speaker 2: to be invisible on stage. That's so powerful and that's

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Speaker 2: so true, and I think that's probably not probably I

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Speaker 2: think that's how God wants it as well. Yeah, briefly, Bethany,

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Speaker 2: do you do you since a movement of God right

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Speaker 2: now in our nation? A lot of Christian leaders do.

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Speaker 2: What do you sing where you live?

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Speaker 1: Yeah? I mean, you know, we live in Nashville and

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Speaker 1: my husband plays piano, as you can see, with piano

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Speaker 1: and write songs, and you know we do. We travel

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Speaker 1: a lot together. And I think from my own personal

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Speaker 1: walk with the Lord and my own personal like my

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Speaker 1: close knit community, I really feel like the Lord is

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Speaker 1: doing something new and I feel like there's like a

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Speaker 1: freshness in who he is. It's almost it's like I

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Speaker 1: say this with with no like hidden like motives or

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Speaker 1: anything along those lines. But it's almost like when when

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Speaker 1: you're a kid and you know your parents are parenting you,

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Speaker 1: and there comes a day where your parents are asking

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Speaker 1: you for advice and your parents are asking you, you know,

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Speaker 1: like what do you think about this? Like you know,

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Speaker 1: obviously like I'm and I'm not saying this is not

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Speaker 1: me saying like the older generation is out of touch,

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Speaker 1: but it's almost like man, like I'm learning who I

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Speaker 1: am as an adult within the context of Heaven within

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Speaker 1: you know, I'm learning about who Jesus is and my

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Speaker 1: mind is being blown and I'm experiencing things, and so

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Speaker 1: it's like I have to tell people what God is doing.

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Speaker 1: And I think that, you know, some of the younger generation,

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Speaker 1: they've it's almost like they've figured it out first, and

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Speaker 1: so it's kind of just like bubbling from like underneath.

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Speaker 1: And I feel like it's like, oh, man, if I

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Speaker 1: don't catch on to what the Lord is doing in

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Speaker 1: some of this younger generation, like I see you worship

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Speaker 1: is like the things that are like Asbury and like

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Speaker 1: all of these movements that have happened in the last

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Speaker 1: couple of years. Like I'm getting chillish just thinking about it,

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Speaker 1: Like you can see that something's like bubbling underneath the surface,

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Speaker 1: and there's something inside me that goes. I don't want

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Speaker 1: to be left behind, Like I want to ride whatever

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Speaker 1: the Lord is doing right now. And so, yes, I

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Speaker 1: do believe that the Lord is is on the move

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Speaker 1: and he is doing something. Do I know exactly what

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Speaker 1: it is?

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Speaker 2: No?

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Speaker 1: Do I care if I know exactly what it is.

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Speaker 1: I don't want to know, Like I just want to

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Speaker 1: let go and let God do what he wants to do,

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Speaker 1: and just be a part of what he's doing.

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Speaker 5: If you like today's episode, please subscribe and leave a

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Speaker 5: five star review.

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Speaker 2: That's how we help more people just like you find

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Speaker 2: the show.

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Speaker 5: A big thanks to the team at life Audio for

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Speaker 5: their partnership with us on the podcast. If you go

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Speaker 5: to lifeaudio dot com, you will find dozens of other

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