A Heart To Heart

Imagine hitting the milestone of turning 50 and realizing it’s not just a number, but a profound moment of reflection and gratitude. Join me, B.R. Maul, as I open my heart about reaching this half-century mark and how it has led me to ponder deeply about my life’s journey and my passion for teaching God’s Word. This episode delves into the essence of spiritual gifts, not just as talents, but as divine tools given to each of us to edify the body of Christ. I recount my own path in discovering my spiritual gift of teaching and emphasize that everyone has a unique role in God’s grand design.

Have you ever wondered how spiritual gifts intertwine with pastoral callings? I explore this critical connection, drawing from my transition from teaching English to becoming a pastor, guided by Ephesians 4:11 and the example of Jesus reinstating Peter. We dive into how spiritual gifts differ from mere talents and the dangers of prioritizing worldly pursuits over divine purpose. Through personal testimonies, I reveal the transformative power of surrendering one’s whole life to God and how doing so can lead to divine provision and fulfillment. Be inspired to build your treasures in heaven and trust in God’s purpose for your life.

Chapters

• 0:29 Turning 50
• 9:49 Discovering Spiritual Gifts and Pastoral Calling
• 19:49 The Importance of Spiritual Gifts

Transcript

B.R.Maul: 0:29

Hello and good day. I am BR Maul and you are listening to Living God's Way in an Ungodly World. Thank you so much for joining me. Today I'm doing something a little different. We're taking just one short break from teaching directly from God's Word, but today I am going to have a little heart-to-heart with you.

B.R.Maul: 0:54

Usually, I keep my episodes evergreen, meaning I tend to not identify dates, or even seasons for that matter, because when teaching God's word, what I have learned over the years is that it's timeless. So what we learn in God's word today, it was the same yesterday and it will continue to be the same tomorrow and for eternity. So the year, the month, whatever it may be, doesn't matter, does not apply. Today, however, does apply. So I'm going to break one of those rules in podcasting, especially when teaching God's Word, because, well, tomorrow is my 50th birthday. Now, by the time this podcast is released, I will be 50. Well, you may be thinking so what? And well, I don't blame you, but for this heart to heart, there's a reason for that, because, well, for me, this is a milestone in life.

B.R.Maul: 2:00

For some, maybe, turning 50 was no big deal. For some, maybe turning 50 was no big deal. Or, for those of you who are not even close to 50, you're thinking well, that's hundreds of years from now, what difference does that make? But 50 is one of those birthdays where it does seem to be a milestone. To be more exact, a half a century stone. I have no problem turning 50. In fact, I look forward to it. I'll be able to at least say that the Lord has had me on his green earth for a half a century. So, assuming he doesn't take me home in the coming hours, I will be able to say that. So I'm pretty excited. That's fun. But with milestones, they're milestones for a reason. They tend to make us think. In life, major events, marriages, high school graduations, college graduations, funerals there's things that go on in life that kind of put a pin in the timeline of a person's lifetime. And so for me, turning 50, that's one of those times.

B.R.Maul: 3:10

Well, I want to take this opportunity to have a heart-to-heart and share with you more in-depth why I do what I do, with this podcast in particular, but just teaching God's Word. And the reason I do this is because I discovered it's a spiritual gift, a spiritual gift the Lord has given to me because, like all spiritual gifts, well, that's just it. They are given. We don't earn them. We don't choose our spiritual gifts, just like, in theory, we don't choose a gift that somebody gives us, and spiritual gifts are meant to help edify the body of Christ. Well, why is that important? Because we're seeing a breakdown of that today.

B.R.Maul: 3:57

I'm speaking directly to my brothers and sisters in the faith, and if you are someone who is searching out for Jesus, well, this still applies in the sense of to know that once you are born again, you enter into a family, the family of God, also referred to as a kingdom. The kingdom of God also referred to as the body of Christ, jesus, of course, being the head of the body, jesus being king of the kingdom. Like any healthy family, like any healthy kingdom or like any healthy body, every person, or every part of the body, depending on the analogy that we're going to look at plays a vital role. We're going to look at plays a vital role and, growing up beloved, I used to truly believe that a pastor, for example, was someone who was maybe a bar or two above everyone else when it comes to spirituality, their relationship with God. They're just a little more closer. They had some superpower that let them do what they do, and with that they actually kind of did and do.

B.R.Maul: 5:08

I'll talk more about that, but the point being is I figured that as a Christian, my responsibility was to go to church every Sunday, and I didn't succeed with that, that's for sure. Plenty of Sundays that I made excuses why I couldn't go. But I truly felt that as long as I was a good person, I tried to be nice, of course, even that I didn't succeed on a regular basis, didn't break the Ten Commandments and, of course, failed at that as well. Jesus makes that clear Break one, you break them all. And I didn't know what my spiritual gift was. In fact, when I read about spiritual gifts my understanding, which was pretty little at the time I was under the impression that, again, that was for those the Lord chose specifically for a particular task, and so that made that person a little more important, kind of like the prophets in the Old Testament. Not everybody ran around being a prophet, right. So I looked at that thinking well, far and few in between are going to do God's work.

B.R.Maul: 6:18

Of course, all of this is not accurate doctrine at all, and it wasn't until later on in life when I was convicted, and my story is podcast number one my coming to the Lord. I believe I was born again at a very young age five, maybe, six. I say maybe, but you'll have to listen to that yourself. But it wasn't until I was close to 30 that I rededicated my life. I turned away from my sins, my lifestyle. I turned away from them, turned to God and repented and asked for forgiveness from my heart and wanted him to either just take me home to heaven just take my life, let it be done or show me heaven. Just take my life, let it be done, or show me. Show me what my life is supposed to look like, because my story is I didn't have the kind of life where I could look and say that is what a very healthy Christian looks like and, more importantly, I couldn't say this is what a man who loves Jesus, this is what it looks like.

B.R.Maul: 7:25

I'm not talking physical looks. I hope you understand that. I'm talking about life's choices, the lifestyle that a man of God would make. Now, my mother a woman who has always loved Jesus, since I've been around anyway, she was an example of a Christian, but there was a lot of odds against her and that's part of my story. So there were a lot of times that I just didn't pay attention and as a boy, I wanted to know how I was to behave and act like when I became a man. How am I supposed to behave? What are my responsibilities in life? And, like the younger generation, going to look to those who are before us and we're going to mimic what we see. And if we don't have any direct guidance, we're going to pick what we want and then mimic what we see.

B.R.Maul: 8:18

So when it comes to spiritual gifts, beloved, they are indeed handed from God. They are supernatural in every way, shape and form. And I discovered that, oh, years ago. I can easily look back and as far as about maybe nine or ten years ago, it was already on my heart. I was thirsty to do something, and that was after roughly 10, 11 years of reading God's word. That is how the Holy Spirit convicted me. The Holy Spirit made it very clear as I was searching who God was through the voices of other men or the writings of other men. And after years of doing that, being convicted and God saying Bruce, stop, stop reading other people's written works, stop listening to other people. First read my word, read what I said to you in my holy Bible and once I have you built up, once I have you strong enough, once I have you strong enough, well then you can step into those waters of learning and growing and conversing with other people who are following God, other people who have written works about the Bible. This was very clear to me and that is why my thirst, my wanting to know more about God's word became more abundant, and to the point where I could not ignore it.

B.R.Maul: 9:49

And to this day, I truly believe that is one of the signs of our Lord preparing somebody to be a pastor, a teacher, which, according to Paul, I believe are one of the same. We'll look at some scripture here in just a moment about that but teachers really desire to know their topic, and not only that, but they desire to be able to teach others that topic. So it is quite similar, then, for a pastor, someone who is going to teach God's word. The same thing. It's an ongoing desire and I love it. And when I am teaching it and when I am studying God's word, I feel at home, I feel this is who God has made me to be and I love it and thank you, lord Jesus. While I'm thinking about it, once again just to thank you publicly, lord, for my spiritual gift. So a few things to say about this as I think back in my life and think of how things are going now.

B.R.Maul: 10:53

In Ephesians 4, verse 11, paul is talking to the church in Ephesus, and he himself that's God gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists and some pastors and teachers. Those are four areas that Paul was talking about, that he kind of set in certain categories and studying that the word, and between pastors and teachers. That's the Greek ke, spelled k-a-i but pronounced ke, and it basically binds whatever two words is around it, so pastors and teachers are actually one of the same. I feel. The reason Paul did that, though, is because there's two different elements to this. One of those elements is, of course, the teaching, so we'll look at that first, and that teaching is something that little known to myself. I love how our God works Because I enjoy writing.

B.R.Maul: 11:51

Years ago, I decided, well, let's see, I'll go to college and what I'll do is I'll teach writing. I ended up going into secondary English education so I could teach high school or college level English writing, composition, that type of thing, and so that's what I did Got a Bachelor of Science in teaching secondary English education and did some teaching for a short time, quickly learned. I did not like it. As much as I love storytelling, I really enjoy writing, but hearing students complain about it was heartbreaking and I didn't enjoy it. But see, I look back and I see how the Lord still used that and now it's as clear as crystal why? Because now I've been teaching as a pastor.

B.R.Maul: 12:39

What about this word pastor? Now I think about when Jesus, when he was reinstating Peter because Peter had denied him three times before the rooster crowed, if you recall, and our Savior, as loving as he is, reinstated Peter. He kind of had Peter. Well, I was going to say make up for, but that's not the right word, that's not what our Savior does. But to complete, let's say this transaction three different times, he asked Do you love me? And Peter said yes, lord, and Jesus responded feed my sheep. So he was calling Peter to be a shepherd.

B.R.Maul: 13:20

Now, is a shepherd a teacher? Well, in some way, kind of, but really no, and that's why I think Paul put these two together in this category, because to be a teacher of God's word, one must be a pastor as well, a shepherd, in other words, that's just another name for a shepherd. That's because a shepherd has a lot of love. A shepherd truly cares for the sheep that he's watching out for, and that's what Jesus wants in his pastors to love his children, not the pastor's children. For me, that would be my brothers and sisters, and so in my podcast, living God's Way in an Ungodly World, when I am speaking to other sheep because I myself am a sheep I refer to you as my brothers and sisters.

B.R.Maul: 14:11

So, pastoring, there's that really truly loving and caring for and feeding. Well, the feeding of his sheep is his word. We have to consume his word, and I like that analogy of feeding because, well, we don't go a day without eating, not unless we absolutely have to or, in position of Christianity, if we are taking that time to fast and pray, well, sure then we might go that day without eating. But in general, come on, we know that a person's not going to go without eating. We need to eat every day and we need to eat multiple times a day, and that is true for God's Word, and I have realized that in the journey that God has taken me through over this last 20 years, now that I'm going to be 50, I can look back and know, without a doubt, all that he has done to prepare me to pastor and to teach his word, to feed to my brothers and sisters the word of God, because without that well, we're no different than the goats. We may be born again. So that part is huge. Our destiny is different, but otherwise our behavior. There's no way of knowing who's the sheep and who are the goats, the goats being, of course, unbelievers.

B.R.Maul: 15:35

I love the fact that I am now able to see my spiritual gift, know the rewards of doing it. Now, beloved, if you don't know your spiritual gift, the best way to find out is to be around other Christians, other born-again believers. And in doing that, alongside of walking with the Lord, you must read his word, because that is how we walk, that is how the Holy Spirit sanctifies us and changes us, turns us from a worldly person into a godly soul, is through reading his word. With reading his word comes doing good works. We can't deny that because, as a born-again believer thirsting for God's word, we are consuming God's word and in the process of consuming God's word, our soul naturally wants to love our Lord and do whatever we can, which he says if you love me well, follow my commandments. And so we walk in his path. He leads us down the path of righteousness.

B.R.Maul: 16:44

We tell others because we want to tell others about our Lord and Savior, but even in the process of our everyday living, we do everything unto the Lord as Christians. So whether you are a mom or a dad, a husband or a wife, a brother or a sister, you're a friend, you're a co-worker, you're a manager or you're the boss, you're the company owner, whatever position that you are in, you do that unto the Lord. Why? Because you love him. And when you come together with other brothers and sisters, you're worshiping the Lord. You are lifting each other up in prayer. You are talking about God's word. He will reveal his spiritual gift to you. God's word, he will reveal his spiritual gift to you. Now my prayer for you, beloved, is that you are among born-again believers who are aware of this, that you and them can look out for one another and help identify their spiritual gift.

B.R.Maul: 17:44

I know of someone who her spiritual gift is one of serving. She can make anyone feel welcomed and at home comfortable. She gets great joy out of serving other people. She loves preparing food for people, and that's just one example Me, when I am teaching someone God's Word, I love doing it. It brings me great joy and it brings me even greater joy when I see others who are learning God's Word, and they learn it and then they're living it. It's just amazing. It is absolutely amazing. I really can't put words to it and, as somebody who does enjoy writing, well, that's tough for me not to come up with a word.

B.R.Maul: 18:29

Let me go back to what I said earlier about this whole thing of learning spiritual gifts, coming together as born-again believers. Well, it just isn't, overall, growing, at least from my perspective. I don't doubt that God's church is growing. There's some pretty amazing things going on, but in my part of the world it breaks my heart because the majority, the large majority of people, christians or not, their primary goal and focus in life is entertainment and comfort. I know so many people and even our society as a whole confirms this that that's the goal to find the perfect job, or at least a comfortable job that pays really well, and let's face it. Let's take a look at what kind of work people love to do, set aside from those who truly are doing what they love to do. But many are doing what they're doing because of either it allows them time to have fun or to have comfort, and or it allows a great deal of money to put aside for retirement so someday they can just have fun and have comfort.

B.R.Maul: 19:49

Now this saddens me because, well, where do spiritual gifts fit into that? They don't. God does not give spiritual gifts to his children who are not going to use them, and, of course, unbelievers don't get spiritual gifts. Talents but that's a whole different something. Talents can be learned. We can choose a talent. Some people are born with a natural tendency to do certain things, so their talents become easier to them.

B.R.Maul: 20:18

But I guess I'll stay away from that rabbit hole. But the body of Christ is suffering and there are some churches that seem to have a relatively healthy body. A church body is one way we put it, but another way then would be the body of Christ. But my fear is that often what happens is that church is moving along doing the work of God and the enemy starts to play into the hands of those who are taking their eyes off of God or the weaker ones who are in the body, who are not sticking to God's word, and oftentimes, sadly, a lot of those churches break up, they fall apart.

B.R.Maul: 21:01

Well, in this heart-to-heart it can kind of sound like it's just a bummer, but no, in this heart-to-heart with you, this is what I want to share. I truly see the capability of the family of God, the body of Christ, to flourish, but it's going to take great effort. This isn't something that is easy. Beloved To all my brothers and sisters, if you are born again, build your treasures up in heaven. Don't worry about the treasures here that rust will get to, that moths will get to, that thieves can steal. God has already promised his children that if you seek God and his righteousness, then everything else comes naturally because he provides for us. And that's where a lot of effort comes in, because we as his children must be willing to say okay, I'm not going to do this work over here, this job, this career, whatever it might be, for the sake of money. We turn to our Lord and say Lord, whatever, whenever, however, what is it you want? Show me and then be willing to take the next step, to just keep moving forward. I can speak into the truth of how he takes care of his kids.

B.R.Maul: 22:23

Years ago, before I had turned away from my sin, I was still steeped in my sin. Money was my God. I was born again. I don't doubt at all that I was heaven-bound, but as somebody who didn't have any guidance of what it is to be a Christian man, I thought it was all about making money, as much money as possible, because I even saw it in the churches that I attended when I was a little boy. The church I attended, that was the image I got from our society, because those who were claiming to be Christians, professing to be Christians, followers of Jesus, they lived many of them, at least the ones I knew little to no different than the heathen, than the pagan, than the unbeliever. So naturally, I'm going to pursue money, because that is what seemed to be important and it was miserable.

B.R.Maul: 23:16

I can tell you right now that making money is not my spiritual gift. It is some the gift of giving people who are blessed with that, people who can just no matter what they touch turns into money and they just want to keep giving to better the kingdom of God. Well, that's great, but that is not one of my gifts. And besides, he being God did not reveal my spiritual gift to me while I was living a pagan life, simple as that. But when I finally gave in 20 years ago, when I said enough is enough, lord, and I turned away from my sins, turned away from the life that I had known and said I'm done, take my life or use my life, and I'm thankful that he decided to use my life and he wiped away my debts in ways I never would have expected. It's crazy, it is absolutely amazing, and one of the things that he showed me is I can't be in debt.

B.R.Maul: 24:18

So, as brothers and sisters in the faith, that's one of the things I want to share with you in this heart to heart Is if you start now, start today, and just tell our Heavenly Father that you're done, you're done with trying to control your life, you're done making the decisions, you're done being slave to a company that is taking up the majority of your time because you're putting your trust in what they will offer for retirement, do you realize that, as Christians, when we do that what they will offer for retirement Do you realize that, as Christians, when we do that, we are not obeying our Heavenly Father and we're definitely not trusting in our Heavenly Father? We can't do this, beloved. We cannot live the life of the heathen, of the unbeliever, giving our time away to a company, to a profession, whatever it might be, and then whatever's left over, we'll see what we can give our Heavenly Father. This has nothing to do with salvation. You're born again, you're sealed, you're good to go, all right. Only you can know for sure if you are born again.

B.R.Maul: 25:22

I have a lot of teaching in my podcast about that, about apostasy and backsliding. Now, in my case, by the way, for someone like myself who was born again at a very young age but lived growing up as the heathen, it wasn't because I was backsliding, because I had never known what it was like to walk with the Lord. I never had the courage, I was never taught that that was something that was real. I mean, to me, believing in Jesus was something that, yeah, sure, I mean we are to believe in him for the sake of our salvation and then, yes, thank you for all the good stuff that happens, but that's it. So I didn't backslide, I didn't even make the progress forward to be able to slide backward. And maybe that's you In my heart.

B.R.Maul: 26:11

In this ministry, the Lord has placed on me to speak to my brothers and sisters, who are indeed born again at a young age, or you were born again at an older age but have had no guidance whatsoever on what it looks like to live as a Christian. Now I'm working to improve my ministry so you can reach out to me easier. On my website there's a place a BR mall that you can go to contact form, and you can reach out to me there. On all of the directories where my podcast is, there's a little link there that says text us a message. You can do that. It's a one-way direction.

B.R.Maul: 26:52

I mentioned this at the beginning of the podcast, but that's a good way to ask me a question or share me what the Lord is doing in your life. Now I can't respond to those. That's more of a way for those who are listening to go ahead and respond If you want me to respond, of a way for those who are listening to go ahead and respond. If you want me to respond, well, then just leave your email in there and then expect an email from me soon after that, and once we are emailing one another, well then we can correspond and I am here for you. I am here to answer any question that I can. If I can't, well, I'll tell you I can't, and knowing myself that I can. If I can't, well, I'll tell you I can't, and knowing myself, since, as a teacher of God's word, I'm also a student of God's word. If there's something I can't answer, but there, very well, is a particular answer, well then I will seek it out from others who know more than I do because they've been teaching longer than I have. And boy do I appreciate the Lord using someone like me to be able to reach out to those that he loves, his children.

B.R.Maul: 27:52

And so this isn't be our mall. This isn't Bruce saying, hey, you need to do this. Know that this comes from God's word that we cannot worship God and money and truly check yourself, beloved, because money is one of the biggest idols in this world and we want to put our security in our retirement, but that's not where our security is. Build the treasures up in heaven, because in eternity we'll be able to enjoy those. I don't know what those treasures in heaven look like, but if they're in heaven, they're heavenly treasures. Well then, that's big To me, that's really big. Well, that's about it for today.

B.R.Maul: 28:37

Thank you so much for this heart-to-heart. It really allows me to express what's on my heart and my mind. But to do that I sometimes have to break away from teaching, from the scripture. My goal is that you will hear more testimonies I have another one that will be released soon and of course I will continue teaching God's word book by book, chapter by chapter and verse by verse. I have so much more that I'd love to share with you.

B.R.Maul: 29:06

Beloved things I'd like to say, but I guess I'll leave it for another heart-to-heart. But for now I encourage you to do a heart-to-heart with your Heavenly Father and seek from Him what His will is for you, for your life, that Jesus, by the way, has purchased. So when I say your life, I say that loosely, because we have died to ourself and we are the belonging of Jesus Christ. He owns me. I am slave to my Lord and Savior and I am happy with that because I feel alive, being his slave, then slave to money, then slave to relationships, then slave to entertainment or comfort or whatever it might be that in the past was dictating my life, that made me miserable, where all anxieties come from, all depression comes from disappointments, emptiness.

B.R.Maul: 30:03

But when we step into the work that God has given us and he gives you a gift, that spiritual gift, to do, and he will. What he gives you in your heart, oh, beloved, it is amazing, it is spectacular, and I want that for you. I want you to discover your spiritual gift and bless other believers with your spiritual gift and, at the same time, be blessed by their spiritual gifts. It's so important. Remember, then, to read that word open your Bible every day. Just like you are going to feed your mouth and your belly, you open that Bible and feed your soul. Pray to your Heavenly Father daily. Any relationship that you cherish, that is important in your life, beloved, you do not neglect that relationship and I'm telling you, do not neglect the most important relationship, and that is from the one who made you, who knows you better than you know yourself or anyone else on this earth knows you, including your mom.

B.R.Maul: 31:12

Come together with your brothers and sisters. If you don't have a group, well then, try to find one. Get a hold of me, perhaps, if you don't know how to go about. If I can help you find a group, I'll do what I can. And if you have a Bible-believing, teaching and preaching church, get to it. Be a part of that body when you get there, if you haven't been there before. Go there for numerous times and each time pray to the Lord. Lord, do you want me to be here and he'll show you? Trust in him, not just for your salvation, beloved. Trust him in everything, in everything, and until next time. God bless, thank you.