The Silence Was Strategic: Why God Pulled You Aside

Welcome to the Remnant Leadership Podcast. I should say, welcome back to the Remnant Leadership Podcast. I'm your host, Larry Ragland. I am the pastor of solid Rock Church in Birmingham, Alabama. I also lead a television and online program called The Big Picture that some of you may be familiar with. We have a podcast, we have a YouTube channel, we're on Faith TV and some other television programs as well. But that's not why you're here. You're here because you're a leader. And you saw the title Remnant Leadership Podcast, and we've not done, um, you have to excuse my grammar. If you finding me for the first time, I don't have the best grammar in the world. You can probably tell that I am from the South. But yes, we are back. We are back. The Remnant Leadership podcast is back. And y'all, it's been a long time coming. We've actually coming back from a pretty long hiatus. A lot of things was going on in my life building a house, uh, starting a network, uh, at our church. And then Covid hit and so many other things have happened. But here we are, and that's all behind us now. We are now relaunching the Remnant Leadership podcast. So thank you so much for joining us. And so, you know, I want to talk to you about a season of silence, a season of pause. And that's it's a perfect first comeback, uh, leadership podcast because that's what we're doing. But I also believe that some of you may be in a place of pause and in a place, uh, much like I've been several times as well. You know, I call them maybe a season of silence, a season of wilderness, a season of pause. But. But we're returning in our podcast with a renewed fire and a renewed excitement and a renewed understanding of the assignment that is on our lives. That's on my life and on Sandy and I and the big picture and the solid Rock church and and the assignment that's on your life. You're here because you are a leader and you want to be a more effective leader. So let me just talk about a little bit about what we're going to be doing here on this podcast and what it's going to mean, and why it's going to be important for you to help us get this in front of the people that needs this. Okay. We are I want to make it very clearly very clear on this podcast that we are unashamed believers in what the Bible talks about. It doesn't say these words five fold ministry gifts, but the five fold ministry gifts are there. They are the apostle, prophet, evangelist, pastor, and teacher. Now, I know some of you are going to check out immediately when you hear that because you don't believe in apostles and prophets, and you do believe in pastors, and you do believe in evangelists and teachers. Although truthfully, those that believe in pastors really don't even understand what an evangelist is. So at some point here on this podcast and my other podcast that I have the Big Picture podcasts as well as solid rock podcasts. We will certainly cover those subjects in teaching it, but in this particular podcast, we're going to focus on leadership. Now, the coming weekly broadcast that will be here on this podcast will not be like this podcast tonight, that today or whenever you're listening to this, uh, because this is, I guess you call it The Comeback podcast. So we're going to talk a little bit about we're going to be a little bit of retrospective in our talk. We're going to go backwards. We're going to vision cast forward. And I believe it's going to set the stage for you understanding why this is an important podcast for you to be a part of, and why I felt so compelled in the craziness of my life. To be honest with you, I'm busier now than I. Without a doubt, without a doubt, busier now than I've ever been in my life. And, uh, it would have been so easy just to sort of just let this one die. But I can't let it die, because that's, I mean, part of who I am, a huge part of who I am is what this is about. And that's raising up leaders and equipping leaders. Okay, so if you if you are, you have an understanding of the five fold ministry gifts and operating in the office of apostle, prophet, pastor, evangelist or teacher. And I say the word office, but I'm really not really comfortable with that word. But there is a mantle that comes with those fivefold gifts. And we're going to talk a lot about that here. And that's a part of being a part of the remnant. Uh, but beyond that, even if you are not, if you don't see yourself in one of those five gifts of Jesus apostle, prophet, pastor, evangelist or teacher, um, you know, you are still a leader. That's why you're here. So you're a leader who refuses to compromise. And I believe that most of you are just you're tired of the same old, same old. You're looking for a community of like minded, remnant minded people. And that's what you found here. Okay, so like I said, don't don't judge this podcast by this particular podcast because we're not going to really go as deep on this one as we're going to go on some others. And I do encourage you, if you're just now finding our podcast, to go back and listen to the other episodes, because I think we had like 32, 33 episodes before I had to go into this strategic pause. So let's talk about that strategic pause. Let's let's just say that, first of all, not every pause, not every stumble, not every time of quiet silence. The heavens are brass is necessarily a punishment sometimes. God. I have seen this with my own experience, has put soldiers, his soldiers, and even his generals, even those that we would call generals. Uh, in hiding. He has to put us in hiding sometimes. Sometimes he has to forcibly stop us from what we believe are progress. That we believe is major progress. When God is saying, hold, hold up, hold up, hold up. You were having great progress, but now you've got outside of my will. So I've got to put a strategic pause on you. Now, when you're when you're in a strategic season of pause. That doesn't mean that you've been disqualified by God. That doesn't mean that he's through with you. Uh, it really just means that he's preparing you for the next phase and to emerge in with a new fire to be what God has called you to be. Now, of course, I'm not going to do a deep teaching on this. Of course, if you're in a place of restoration because of, uh, you know, you fell into sin, you did some things you shouldn't be doing. You need to you need to not think that this is just a time that's just trying to get you ready for your big comeback. No, you need you need to be healed. You need to be delivered. You need to be set free from whatever happened. I'm not talking about that kind of pause. I'm talking about a a pause in the midst of great momentum that seems like it came out of nowhere and not as a result of sin. Not as a result of you doing anything, quite frankly, that would you would think that would cause that pause to happen. I call it a divine reset. And I believe some of you are in a divine reset, maybe a stripping down a reforging of who God has called you to be. I believe many of you listening to this podcast right now, you've been where I've been, uh, you've. There's been times that you felt that you missed it. There's been times you felt like your moment that that God was getting ready to elevate you and do something great in your life. You missed it. Other times, you felt like you sort of like the guy that's always riding the bench. You know, you just you just feel like somebody just put me in, coach, I'm ready to play. But for whatever reason, you stay on the bench and you're you're just you're not getting to be in the game. And, um, sometimes you feel like you've just been hidden. You've been hidden by God. Well, sometimes you've hit, you've you've hidden yourself, but sometimes you have been hidden strategically by God. I mean, do you want some biblical examples? I mean, look at Moses, look at Elijah, look at Paul. All of them had wilderness experiences. All of them had times where they had to go through things that didn't seem like, you know, God's man would have to go through. In fact, I would just go as far as to say is I don't really put a whole lot of trust in any kind of leader who has never gone through a wilderness experience. I mean, I'll be honest with you. I thank God that you're if you're one of them people that's got the most perfect life and you've never had a hard day in your life, and you've been saved since you was five years old, and. And you know, nothing bad's ever happened to you. Well, I say, praise God, man. You are a walking, living, breathing miracle. But the truth is, when I'm really wanting somebody to speak into my life, especially in a when I'm in a desperate need because of what I'm going through, they don't have to go through what I'm going through. But at the same time, I want to hear from somebody that's been through something and came out of it. Okay. So I feel like some of you are there. Okay. I feel like some of you have got to a place where you just sort of feel stagnant. You feel like you're in a strategic pause. Uh, no. No, you don't feel that way. You feel like that you are in a punishment. Pause. You feel like that you're in a something you've done, uh, that that you can't seem to change. But I want you to know that it is a strategic pause. God has you in a strategic pause. The fact that you came back to this podcast, the fact that you are listening to this podcast right now of just some random dude down in Birmingham, Alabama, sitting in his office talking into a microphone out of his spirit, just talking about leadership and talking about the ups and downs of what we have to deal with. The fact that you've stayed to this point where almost ten minutes into this podcast now tells me that you are hungry to be a part of the remnant. So now this podcast, as I said, took a break. But but we didn't take a break from ministry. We just took a break from this podcast. And even in our strategic pause from this podcast, God still had other things that he was doing. And even your even though you're in a wilderness and even though you're in a pause, let me tell you what you really are in. You are in the fire, but you're about to come out of the fire. And I got good news for you. It ain't gonna sound like good news, but you're about to come right out of the fire and right onto the anvil. Uh, because you're about to be forged. Boy, that don't sound exciting, does it? I mean, that's just. Ooh, man. Wow. Yeah. So I come out of the fire, and now I'm just going to get beaten black and blue by the hammer of God. Well, that's what you want. You want God to hammer you and forge you out of this. What? What good is it? What good is it? Leader. To go through what you've gone through and not come out changed on the other side? I mean, it was wasted. It's a wasted opportunity. When you're going through what you're going through, you need to be allowing God to speak to you in this moment. Okay? Many of you feel disqualified. You're tired, you're wore out, you're exhausted. But that exhaustion and that tiredness is not necessarily tied to work and overwork. It's it's certainly contributing, but it's also tied to the fact that the enemy is trying to wear the saints out in this moment. The closer we get to the days of Noah, which I think we're they're slap dab in the middle of it. But the closer we get to the return of Jesus Christ, the enemy knows. If you don't know, the enemy knows. So his his attempt is to wear you out, leader? Because if you are wore out and you do not have strength, and you do not have stamina, and your mind is not clear, you cannot be effective in this last day. And quite frankly, you if you're not careful and you don't find help, which I'm like I said, the fact that you're here tells me that you're on the right path. Even if you're still in the wilderness, you're coming out of it. You're coming out of it stronger because you didn't. You don't have to be listening to a Christian leadership podcast right now, a ministry that's going to stretch you. This podcast is not going to patty cake with you. We're going to stretch you. We're going to pull you. We're going to address very difficult things. We're going to say very difficult things and attack unpopular topics when it comes to ministry. So you're going to be uncomfortable. And the fact that you know that and you've stayed here, that tells me that that's why the enemy is attacking you because you are Are dangerous to the enemy. Okay. You have been carrying more of a load than most people around. You even know that you've been carrying. You've been carrying more of a load than you even knew you were carrying. You know, you're not just a preacher. You're not just a teacher. You're not just a shepherd, but you're God's called you. Many of you that are that are not in the quote unquote, five fold ministry, that's that's seen with the eyes performing that you may have an anointing on you, but you may not be in the so called office, but you know, you you are a watchman. God has called you to be a watchman, and that's why he wants to. There's two military offices that the enemy wants to loves to take out it first and is really, in my opinion, is probably the most important people are are are soldiers, if you will, that the enemy wants to take out. Number one is the general. He wants to take out the general because the general has the the battle plan. And you know else who wants to take out? Who wants to take out the watchers, the watchmen, the spies, the the ones that are on watch. Those that are going out ahead of the soldiers and coming back in, warning what's coming. That's why you're in such a under such attack. The remnant is made up of watchmen, mighty men, watchmen, watchmen that are trained to be able to identify the enemy. And that's where we're at. Okay, so you're dangerous to the enemy. You're very dangerous to the enemy. No matter who you are, no matter what your education level is, will you? You may have already disqualified yourself. Yeah, I just I like to hear good preaching. That's the only good teaching. That's really the only reason I'm on this podcast. No that's not. No, it's not, because if you can't see it, that's that's what there again I'm going to go ahead and go there right now. I believe in the I believe in the New Testament ascension gift called the Apostolic. I do. Do I believe that I operate under the same apostolic leadership as the original disciples? Are you crazy? No. I love what Jeremiah Johnson says. He calls them post Ascension gifts. Post Ascension gifts. You need to go watch that on my Big Picture podcast. Big picture YouTube show where he talks about the five fold ministry gifts. He says, look, we we we've we've twisted it. We're not we're not trying. People are out there trying to self appoint themselves to be somebody like Peter and and and James and John. Here's the reality. There are such things as apostolic. Apostolic means to send, means to equip. It means to send. It means to plant. So there's there is a true apostolic post Ascension Apostle. It's different than the pre ascension apostle, but it's still apostolic. And one of the gifts of the apostolic is what this remnant podcast is. This is an apostolic podcast, meaning that it's crazy, but even digitally, just so you know, you got your your AirPods in or your whatever you're using listening to it on whatever device you're listening to it. Guess what's happening? The apostolic gift and anointing is on this microphone. It's on this file that you're listening to. It's on the internet that's bringing it to you, and it is going to pull some things out of you. One of the things that people say at our church all the time, and I say this humbly, but they say this, you know, Pastor Larry, one of the greatest gifts that God uses you is to see things in people that they can't see in themselves. Well, that's the apostolic. And I'm just telling you right now, the fact that you are listening to this halfway through this podcast now and have not checked out. And really, quite frankly, I don't have a whole lot of notes. I'm just talking out of my spirit right now. In the coming weeks, I'll have notes because I'm going to do some detailed teaching. Right now I feel like I just need to come back on here after several years hiatus and just speak out of my heart. Just speak into you and tell you that it's not always going to be this way. And to tell you my commitment to you, okay? My commitment to you is to come here on this podcast, on our Big Picture podcast, on our solid Rock church sermon podcast, YouTube channel, Christian television, whatever God can, will anoint and use us to be a part of that can get to you digitally or in person. I'm going to give every fiber of my being to make sure you, as a leader, is equipped for the work of the ministry. You have come to the Kingdom for such a time as this. The fivefold ministry is not to make you famous. It's not to make you better than anybody else. It is simply to equip the saints for the work of the ministry. Equip the saints for the work of ministry. So what are what are some of my commitments that are going to happen on this podcast as we relaunch it? The Remnant Leadership podcast? Well, we're going to be raw. We're going to be authentic. You're going to get spirit led, Holy Ghost anointed teaching to remnant leaders and and equipping five fold ministry gifts. Because watch this five fold ministry gifts have to still equip the five fold ministry gifts. So do you understand? I'm gonna say that again. So it's like the apostolic has to be equipped by the apostolic. The prophetic has to be equipped by the prophetic. Now, that doesn't mean that the prophetic cannot equip the evangelistic and evangelistic cannot equip the teacher. Of course they can. But you need whatever anointing and vein that you are flowing in. You need voices that are like voices and like minds speaking into your life. And that's what you're going to get on this podcast. Okay. We're going to equip you so that why not? So that you can follow me so that you can follow this podcast? No. My goal is going to be to equip you so that you can then go equip in that gift to those that God has given you influence with. Because leadership is influence. Nothing more, nothing less. Okay. Got it. All right. So we're going to bring to you prophetic insight into what God is doing in the church today. And what I believe God is going to be doing in the church in the near future. I don't claim to to have a blueprint, but I do say to you that I do operate in the prophetic. And more than anything, I love the Word of God. And we're going to look at what the word says, and we're going to look at where we're at. And that's going to tell us where we're going. It's going to tell us where the church is going. You know, the Bible tells us clearly he doesn't do anything that he doesn't tell his prophets first. Okay. And by the way, he's already put it in the book as well. Many things are in the book that all you got to do is just read and read. Read the Word of God and you'll be able to understand what's going on around you. We're also going to do deep dives into leadership challenges, which you really can't talk about on Sunday morning. I mean, I'm a pastor. I've been pastoring the same church for 30 years. I've been in pastoral ministry for 35 plus years. I've only been married for 36 years. So you do the math. Me and my wife have been in pastoral ministry our whole marriage. We raised two daughters all the way through. Now they're grown adults and have their own families. But the reality is this there are things that I still and I can talk about just about anything in my church. My church shot me down. They know who I am, but there's still things I can't talk about on Sunday morning. Why? Because the subjects that need to be addressed are not applicable to the common attender. To the church. The layperson is what's called the technical term. You need to talk about these subjects to leadership. Some things can only be stood understood in leadership. Leadership to leadership. Okay. That's what you're going to get here. Now we're going to talk about some tools that can that we can have some some resources that we can have. I'm going to I'm going to point you to some people and some podcasts along the way, some some documents to get your hands on, um, to help you, some books to read, some people to follow because it's not all about me. We're going I'm going to do the best I can to not just teach you something, but then just say, hey, look for further in-depth study of this for further commitment to this. I want to encourage you to go here, and there will be times that I will have guests on the Remnant Leadership Podcast. Uh, that will give us wisdom on leadership. So it's not just going to be my voice. I will have I will interview, uh, voices that speak directly to leadership. Now, you understand that if you find them on this podcast, you're going to find it's going to be totally different than the big picture. It's going to be totally different than the church channel. Church channel is basically my sermons that I preach, the solid Rock podcast. The big picture is, for the most part, um, a replay of the audio of our YouTube channel. It might expand as well down the line, but this podcast is going to be unique because this is the only one that's audio only. The other are video and audio. This one's audio only. This is I don't have to worry about getting in some kind of studio and turning all the lights on. No, I can sit down here by myself like I'm doing right now. Pray and just speak out of my heart to leadership. And we're going to do that. We're going to speak to the remnant because the remnant is rising, but also apostasy is rising, deception is arising, chaos is arising, and the five fold ministry has got to be prepared to address it. It's not going to be a podcast of fluff. It's going to be raw. It's going to be kingdom teaching. I'm going to speak as a kingdom voice in this moment. I'm very confident who I am in God. I'm not full of myself by no means. Those that know me, I know that I'm certainly not full of myself, but I'm at a phase in my life that I know who I am in God, and I know what my assignment is, and my assignment is apostolic. My assignment is fivefold. My assignment is to equip leaders. I love to lead leaders. I love to pastor pastors. And that's what this podcast is going to be. Now typically my goal is always going to be to have a 30 minute program or less. There may be a 35, something like that, maybe a 25. But my goal is always going to be around 30 minutes. So I want to. So once a week, if you'll give me half an hour plus or -ten minutes, uh, I'm going to speak a principle in your life as a leader that you can chew on for the rest of the week that, that, that will stretch you. And and I hope that it does. That's what I'm saying. I hope that it does. So if this if this is exciting to you now, this podcast was was not real exciting because I'm just sort of, I don't know, just getting in here and just talking out of my spirit. No. No agenda, no script. But, uh, I hope that it has caused some kind of excitement about what this podcast is going to mean. I'm excited to bring it back. Uh, I've just being transparent with you so much going on in my life. I looked at it and I thought, you know, that's a commitment that I. That's another another day of commitment that I have to make. Time that I have to make to do this. When I'm writing a book, I'm traveling, preaching, pastoring my church every time the doors are open. Uh, as well as multiple podcasts throughout the week and YouTube videos, television programs. So I'm not tooting my own horn, but I'm very, very busy. But the Holy Spirit said, wait a minute, wait a minute. What are you talking about? Are you too busy for the mandate that's on that I put on your life? What is the most important thing to you? What's the most important thing to you? It's being obedient to God. And God would not let me put it down. So I looked at the podcast. I was embarrassed. I was like, wow, it's been a long time since I did a podcast episode on this particular podcast. But then you know what blew my mind? I went to my analytics, and through the whole time I'm talking about it's been it's been two and a half years. I can't even believe I'm saying that. It's been almost two and a half years since. Since this I pretty close. It's either 2 or 2 and a half years from this podcast to the last one that was posted, but yet the analytics was telling me that every single week for those two years, people were listening to this podcast and man, I just was, I just broke. I was just like, God, I can't let this die. Because for people to know, they can look at the date and see this, this is what looks like effectively a dead podcast. There's still principles in those episodes that have been changing people's lives and giving us reviews. And all this, I had no idea. So I said, Lord God, I. I'm sorry. I repent. I'm going to reignite this because this is this is who I am. This is the real me. This is what gives me joy. So that's why I'm excited. Now, if this stirred anything in you. Don't keep it to yourself. I'm asking you to subscribe right now on Apple Podcast, Spotify, or wherever you're listening right now. Go ahead and click the subscribe button. Now listen, this is huge for me. What I'm about to ask you to do. You made it this far. Do not check out now, please. I'm talking. Less than three minutes will be done. But you got to hear this. I need to ask you to do something very simple. But it's very powerful. Even if you don't listen on Apple Podcasts. If you listen on something else. Apple Podcasts is the is the mainstream podcast out there platform out there. And it and it is it is. Everybody's got an iPhone's got it on their on their built in. That's what they listen to. So go to Apple Podcasts and leave us a five star rating if this is a blessing to you. If you want to help us look, this is how we get in front of other leaders that are desperate for this kind of community, but have no idea that's even out there, that they need to hear this kind of stuff that we're going to cover. So if you go to Apple Podcasts, Spotify as well, I'm sure that they can do it as well. Wherever you're listening, but especially even if you're listening on Spotify or somewhere else, go to Apple Podcast, give us a five star rating and listen, listen, listen, use and make sure you do a a short written review, a five star rating and a written review. All that together will take you just a few minutes, but those reviews help a podcast reach more leaders, more people than anything out there that you can do to help us doesn't cost you any money. I'm not asking for partners at that to do that. And all this. This is just you saying, you know, there's value here, and I want to help. I want to help build this because I know there's people all over the the world, leaders who are on the edge, pastors who are barely hanging on, remnant voices that need to know that they are not alone. And this is not just about an algorithm. This is not just trying to beat an algorithm. This is about impact. This is about ignition of raising up the remnant. Okay, so share this podcast. I want to pray for you. I want to pray for you right now. Later. But before I do, I want to ask you to share this with a fellow leader. Someone that you knows in leadership. Connect them with our Community Remnant Leadership podcast. If you want to further connect with everything we're doing, just go to access more teaching, access all of our podcasts or YouTube channels or book and everything. Let me pray for you. Father, in the name of Jesus right now, I pray for every tired leader, every wore out, frustrated leader under the sound of my voice. I'm asking you, God, right now. Touch them, anoint them, open their eyes in this moment to see the hope that is coming. The hope that is here. God, you. You trusted them, Lord, let them see. I pray for every listener right now. Let them see that in all the great names and generals of the past, They're all gone. They chose God. You chose us. You chose us. There's no plan B, we're it. We are plan A, and there is no plan B. And God, why would you choose us? Because you saw greatness in us. You saw the potential in us to change the world. We are the remnant. We are the Noah generation. Lord, revive the remnant. Awaken the soldiers. Awaken the mighty men. Wake up the generals. Give them clarity. Give them boldness, and let the fire of the Holy Ghost ignite that gift in them again, for the gifts and callings of God are without repentance. And we speak this in the mighty name of Jesus Christ. Amen. Ladies and gentlemen, welcome back to the Remnant Leadership Podcast. We are just getting started. See you next week. God bless.