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When life gets hard, does what we think we believe hold us up, or does it crumble under the weight of doubt? I'm your host, Dr. Lee Warren- I'm a brain surgeon, author, and a person who's seen some stuff and wondered where God is in all this mess. This is The Spiritual Brain Surgery podcast, where we'll take a hard look at what we believe, why we believe it, and the neuroscience behind how our minds and our brains can smash together with faith to help us become healthier, feel better, and be happier so we can find the hope to withstand anything life throws at us. You've got questions, and we're going to do the hard work to find the answers, but you can't change your life until you change your mind, and it's gonna take some spiritual-brain surgery to get it done. So let's get after it.
Good morning, my friend. I hope you're doing well. It's going to be a great.
Day around here, and I'm praying that you're going to have a great day too.
Hey, we've been getting a lot of emails and a lot of stuff on the prayer wall.
There's some people out there who are dealing with situations that just feel impossible.
They feel like there's no way out, and I thought of that as I woke up this morning,
one particular situation that we've been praying about, out.
And I just want to remind you that the Bible is full of examples of how God,
our God, can do impossible things.
He makes the impossible possible.
And a few months ago, we did an episode about that where I gave you all kinds
of scriptures to just go back and remind yourself of the history of how God
continually shows us that he can actually do the impossible.
So I'm going to play that for you. If you're one of those people that's struggling
with something that seems impossible right now, then this is for you.
It's been on my heart to bring it back to you this morning.
I just want to give it to you before I go to the OR this morning so you have
something to listen to and get that stuff in your head.
And if you're not in the middle of one of those things, use this list to prepare
you for the next time that you are facing something impossible.
Because the fact is, our God routinely does impossible things and makes them possible.
And that means it's never hopeless for you, whatever you're facing.
Right, friend? so I'm going to play the episode right after that we're going
to do Lincoln Brewster's song God of the Impossible we'll leave you with that
today we'll be back with something for you tomorrow and just hope you're going
to have an amazing day we're praying for you we love you hey friend it's never impossible.
When life gets hard, does what we think we believe hold us up,
or does it crumble under the weight of doubt? I'm your host, Dr. Lee Warren.
I'm a brain surgeon, author, and a person who's seen some stuff and wondered
where God is in all this mess.
This is the Spiritual Brain Surgery Podcast, where we'll take a hard look at
what we believe, why we believe it, and the neuroscience behind how our minds
and our brains can smash together with faith to help us become healthier,
feel better, and be happier so we can find the hope to withstand anything life throws at us.
You've got questions, and we're going to do the hard work to find the answers.
But you can't change your life until you change your mind, and it's going to
take some spiritual brain surgery to get it done. So let's get after it.
When you feel discouraged, when you feel like things aren't going right, when you feel like,
everything's out of control, sometimes you can believe that this particular
time or moment or event or situation that you found yourself in is impossible
for God. Maybe it's too far. Maybe you're too far.
Maybe this one thing is finally too much for him.
And maybe you get to a place where you're really discouraged or you don't actually
actively believe that he can solve the problem or that he's interested in solving the problem.
And I kind of that morning had been thinking about some of those type of things
because Lisa and I have been through some discouragement in our own life.
And I kept remembering these different places in scripture where God did impossible things.
But because he did them, that means they are possible, right?
So if you don't think it's possible, for example, for an axe head to float,
but God makes one float in the scripture for the prophet when he needs it,
then that is a possible thing, actually.
So therefore, if your disease is impossible to cure...
God says, pray for it. That means it is possible for him to cure it.
It's within his possibility.
If you think this particular situation, this moment, this financial situation,
this marriage issue, this pornography addiction, this inability to get your
finances in order or this bill that you didn't expect.
If those things are impossible, maybe they're not.
Maybe you just need to understand and think a little bit differently about who
your God actually is and how he is actually sovereign over everything.
Everything all the events of your life he's sovereign over physics
he's sovereign over medicine he's sovereign over weather and i just want to
give you today is this a short little podcast i mean i don't know five or ten
minutes probably i tend to ramble maybe 15 minutes and i'm not scripted but
i did write down all these scriptures and that popped into my head the stories
from the bible that i remembered that were impossible things that god made possible.
And i just went and found them so i'm going to give you kind of a list we're
not going to expound on any of them greatly.
I'm just gonna give you a list of several times in scripture when God did impossible
things, which means they are possible.
And therefore you could be able to apply the idea in your own life that the
impossible situation you're in is actually possible for God to solve.
But in order to do that kind of thing, just as an aside, if you wanna take the
power of scripture, you've got to take the scripture.
In other words, if you wanna have scripture inside you to arm you and remind
you and inspire you and strengthen you against the storms of life and against
the battles that you'll fight, you need to spend some time reading it.
So I would say as a form of self brain surgery, I would say read your Bible,
read your Bible, read your Bible, read your Bible.
It's the only book that you will ever read that comes back to you when you need
it and teaches you more than you thought it taught you the first time you read it.
You'll never find another book that's living and active like that.
And that's why the Bible calls it the sword of the spirit. It's a weapon you
can use to get through your life.
And I'm going to give you some examples in scripture today that you can use. Write them down.
Memorize them. I'll put them in the show notes. Of times when God did impossible things.
Which makes them possible because they have been done.
And so therefore, God can do impossible things in your life too when you need it.
But if you want to get that kind of impossible, possible thing,
you have to start today. Okay, you ready for this list?
Here we go. This is a list of scripture of times when God made impossible things actually possible.
Now, I want to remind you of a book that I read. I've mentioned it to you several times before.
Chris Voss was an FBI hostage negotiator, and he wrote a book called Never Split the Difference.
And one of the lines that has stuck with me from that book was when the pressure's
on, you don't rise to the occasion, you fall to your highest level of preparation.
So in other words, you don't tend to become some superhero when you're under
pressure. You tend to revert back to your training and preparation.
And so one of the things, since you know you're gonna have battles and hard
times and massive things come along in your life, one of the ways you could
get ahead of the game would be to prepare yourself,
prepare your heart, prepare your mind with some ideas and some decisions about
who your God is and who you are and how you're going to handle things when they
pop up before you get into the trouble, right?
So in other words, adding some of these scriptures into your heart now,
even if you're not in the middle of some impossible thing, would actually help
you when you do deal with the impossible thing. Does that make sense?
So that's what I want to encourage you with today. Like we're going to learn
some things in scripture when God said, hey, you think that's impossible?
It's not impossible for me. Let me just run through a list of impossible, possible things.
So God three times in the Old Testament talks about he'll whistle.
One is he shows us his sovereignty over the things that he's created.
When he needs flies to come and create a plague for him, he whistles and the
flies in Egypt come to him.
That's in Zechariah 10.8. When he needs bees to come and do something,
pollinate something or solve a problem or scare somebody off,
he whistles in Isaiah 5.26 and the bees come, right?
In Isaiah 7.18, he whistles for people.
When he needs his people to come and do something, he whistles and they come.
So Zechariah 10.8, Isaiah 5.26, and Isaiah 7.18 are all different times.
When you think God's not paying attention, you think everything's out of control,
and all of a sudden, he just whistles.
It's not even a big deal to him. He's like, come on, and everybody comes and
runs and does what he needs.
Bees, flies, people, nations, kings answer God when he needs them.
So nobody, no situation, no nation, no animal, no insect is out of his control.
And it might seem impossible, but God can call them with just a little whistle.
And sometimes it might need to be louder than that. In Hosea 11.10,
he says, I will roar like a lion and my people will come.
So if you think that people are out of God's control, that the nation's too
far gone, that some political party is too far gone, when God's ready for them,
he will roar like a lion and they will come, Hosea 11.10.
And sometimes you think God's not paying attention, like he has forgotten you,
he's not interested in you.
Well, Isaiah 30.18 says that the Lord longs to be gracious to you.
He rises to show you compassion. So you might think that it's impossible for
the God of the universe to actually care about an individual small person in
Nebraska or in Uganda or wherever you are today.
But the fact is the God of the universe who made you says he longs to have an
opportunity to get up out of his chair, off of his throne, and come and take
care of you when you need it. So that's Isaiah 30, 18. It's not impossible.
God notices you and he cares about you. In fact, 2 Chronicles 16,
9 says the eyes of the Lord roam to and fro across the earth to search out those
whose hearts are completely his and strongly support them.
So that means when you feel like you need some support and your spouse or your
friends or your employer or your parents or your siblings have abandoned you
and you feel all alone. Well, guess what?
God says he is ready to he's actually actively looking to strongly support you in those times.
So all you need to do is call out for him. and he will help you.
In fact, it's not even so important that you call out to him because he already
knows you're gonna be in the situation.
He's already planning on how he's gonna help you when you do call because in
Isaiah 46, 10, he says, I see the end from the beginning.
God's not surprised at the situation in which you found yourself, friend.
He's not surprised by the California recall or wildfires or pandemics or any of those things.
God knows the end from the beginning. and he says further in Isaiah 46 I finish
what I start it's going to end like I say it will end God basically calls his
shots it's not impossible the situation you're in because God's already said
how it's going to end God's already got the end in mind from the beginning of it.
Sometimes you lose something or something happens and it feels completely impossible
for it to be handled, right?
Your car gets stolen. Something happens.
You get a diagnosis. It's impossible. And it's just not possible for you to
survive it or recover from it. It's not going to work out.
Well, there's a story in 2 Kings 6, 1 through 7 where the prophet is chopping
wood and the axe head falls off and falls in a river.
And he says, oh, no, I borrowed that from somebody else. I'm going to be in trouble.
And boom, God makes it float to the surface. So against physics,
right? Metal does not float, right? Well, it does if God says so too.
God controls physics, electrons, protons, gravity, water, buoyancy.
God controls everything. So he can certainly weigh in on the situation you're
in right now. It's not impossible.
2 Kings 2, 23 through 25 shows us an example of how God's sovereign again over wildlife.
There's a story of Elisha the prophet and a bunch of, he's walking down the
road and a bunch of teenagers come and they're mocking him.
And it's not a silly little story like you might hear it in Sunday school sometimes.
They come out and they say, go up you bald head, go up you bald head.
And God or the prophet Elisha curses them, which doesn't mean he cusses them out.
It means he calls for God to remove his hand of protection from them.
It's the opposite of a blessing. It's a curse.
It's to say, God, these people are dishonoring you by dishonoring your prophet.
Now note in the story in 2 Kings 2, 23 through 25, Elisha does not ask God to punish these people.
He just curses them and says that what you're doing is dishonoring God.
And what happens is the people are the boys that the young men,
it says, are basically saying, you need to get out of here and go on and disappear
and die like Elijah did go up.
Meaning that, but like a sin to the heavens, like Elijah didn't leave us alone.
They wanted to be left alone in their sin, left alone in their lives.
It didn't want God to be bothering them with a prophet.
And so they were dishonoring him. And God sent two she bears and says female
bears, all of a sudden showed up and mauled these boys.
It didn't say he killed them, but it says the she bears tore up these 42 young
men. So God is in control of even wildlife.
So you say, well, there's a situation I'm in and it's just too much.
It's too much. Nothing can help me. Well, God can just nudge a bear.
God can call for a fly. God can send bees.
God can call for a bird of prey. God can send for a nation. God can do anything.
It's not too big for him. If you feel like there's an obstacle in front of you
that you cannot possibly get over, well, guess what? He'll knock down walls.
Joshua 6, he knocked down the walls of the city of Jericho in three different
times. In fact, four different times in Scripture.
Let's see. Genesis 1, 6, Exodus 14, Joshua 4, 10, 2 Kings 2,
and 2 Kings 2, 13 and 14. So five times in scripture, we're told God parts waters.
The first one's in Genesis where he creates land by parting the oceans.
So you think that this situation in front of you is too big.
God can say, hey, ocean, move over there.
Ocean, move over there. Let me have some dry land. Boom, it happens.
There's two different times when he parts the waters for the people of Israel
escaping Egypt. Exodus 14, he parts the Red Sea.
Joshua 14, he parts Jordan to let them into the promised land.
And over in 2 Kings, he helps both Elijah and Elisha cross the Jordan on dry ground.
Two different times he splits the Jordan in half. So, any obstacle in front
of you is obligated to obey the word of the Lord.
So, there's no obstacle, mountain, river, disease, financial situation,
relationship issue that's too big for God.
In fact, not even time is too big for him.
Joshua 10, 12 through 14 tells the story of how God held the sun still to give
the Israelites more time to win the battle.
He can make a day longer than it is. He's in charge of time.
He's in charge of planetary and heavenly bodies movements.
He's in charge of tides, movement of the sun, rising and the falling of oceans
and currents and weather patterns. And all those things are under his control.
So the little situation that you're in, it feels impossible for you. It's not.
In fact, even if you feel like there's nobody possibly left on the earth that
can help you, like Ezekiel felt in chapter 37 of the book of Ezekiel,
God can say, okay, well, maybe you are alone.
I'll raise up all those dry bones out in that valley and turn them back into
living people who will help you solve the situation.
God's even sovereign over dead things. He's sovereign over dried up old bones.
He's certainly able to help you in the situation you're in. And if he can't
do it with people, he can send angels.
Daniel 10 tells the story of how Daniel is alone and the angel shows up and
said, hey, I've been listening to your prayer from the start.
I had to go deal with this other situation. I've been hearing you the whole time and here I am.
God sends angels sometimes, times, the ministering spirits, the New Testament calls them.
So even if you feel all alone, even if there's not an army of dry bones for
God to raise up, he can send you an angel or some help.
If you feel like this financial situation is impossible, Matthew 17,
24 through 27 tells a story of how they needed to pay their taxes.
And Jesus just pulled a fish out of the ocean and the coin he needed to pay
the taxes was in the mouth of the fish. I'm not telling you to go fishing when
you need to pay your bills.
I'm just telling you that God can provide a way to take care of you.
He also used a fish, remember, in Jonah chapter 1 and 2 to swallow the prophet.
So sometimes he uses his creation to teach us lessons or remind us of things
or transport us from one place to another or help us in some way or correct us in some way.
And sometimes he uses his creation in a miraculous way to feed us and take care
of us and give us nutrition.
Exodus 16 tells the story of how he sent manna and quail to the people when
they were hungry in the desert. And in Exodus 17, when they were thirsty,
he sent water from a rock.
So when it seems impossible and you're going to starve to death,
you're so thirsty for something in your life to solve a problem for you or comfort
you in some way, God can produce it.
Even if there's nothing there that seems like it could be produced from.
When you're in a desert, all there is is a rock.
God can bring life, water, and food from any situation for you.
Of course, metaphorically and real.
He does he fed 5 000 people with with
uh five loaves and two fishes right
in mark chapter six that story is in all four of
the gospels how god fed a whole crowd of people from a little bitty amount of
food god makes wine when the party is running out of wine in john chapter two
he gives a widow oil that will never run out in first king 17 7 through 16 god
will provide okay no matter No matter how big the situation is,
no matter how desperate it seems to be,
no matter how lonely you are, no matter how empty you are, no matter how hungry
or thirsty you are or how afraid or injured you are, God can make a way.
He raises the dead, Luke 7, Luke 8, John 11, all over the New Testament,
different times when he's sovereign, even over death.
He's sovereign over weather. Matthew 8, he calms the storm with a word.
In Matthew 14, he walks on the water. So you might think, well,
that's all well and good, but I'm a long way from God.
It's so far away, I might as well be across the ocean.
He feels that far from me. Well, he'll walk across that ocean, friend.
He'll get up and out of his chair and he'll walk across the ocean to help you if you just ask him to.
There is no disease or disability that's too big for him. John chapter 5,
he just tells the man, hey, you've been paralyzed for 38 years. Get on up.
Get up. Pick up your mat and get out of here. And the man does.
He is sovereign over disease.
Disease even put an ear back together on malchus after
peter chopped the guy's ear off in luke chapter 22 jesus healed
the ear i'm praying that he will heal heal my ears because i'm
still having hearing issues after that shotgun injury a year ago and it's bothering
me because i can't hear music the way i used to it it's not pleasant for me
to play the guitar anymore because my left ear rattles and it breaks my heart
because that's how i worship i'm a person who likes to play music to to God and worship with him.
And right now it's hard for me because when I play, it hurts,
kind of hurts my ear. It hurts my spirit.
God healed ears in Luke chapter 22. I'm just praying he'll do that for me too.
There's even a funny story when he says, my food, in John chapter 4,
my food is the work my father gave me.
So Jesus is so interested in helping you and solving the problems that you have,
creating solutions to the problems that you're dealing with in your life and
finding a way to help you get to know him and be saved and be forgiven and spend eternity with you.
He's so interested and invested in that that he calls it his food.
It's like he eats his homework, right? Right. God said, go down there and take
care of this problem for, you know, for Dave, for Brian, for Lola,
for Teresa, for Lisa, for Will.
Go down there and take care of this. And he's so invested in it that that's
enough for him. He's filled and satisfied with that work like it's his food.
And if all that's not enough, friend, if all those things don't show you that
what's impossible is actually possible, Jesus says, OK, I'm also willing to die for you.
Paul says in Romans he's willing to die to lay down his life while you're still
a sinner he's willing to die and he has the power not to stay dead first Corinthians
15 and Colossians 2 he's sovereign even over death even over his own death and
at the end of all that and John 17 says,
he's praying for you so Jesus this powerful possible person who makes the pot
makes makes impossible things possible,
who is spending all this time working out your salvation and solving the problems
of your life and being there for you to give you energy and power when you need
it and dealing with all the spiritual battles you're going to face and the real-life
physical flesh and bone battles.
He's there for you. And to top it all off, John 17 says, He's praying for you.
He actually intercedes before the Father for you.
So friend when it feels impossible I just want to encourage you today it is
not impossible this God that can do all these things,
is ready to help you so quit worrying about stuff and start praying about it
start preparing because you're not going to rise to the occasion you're going
to fall to your preparation,
and that's what you need to do it's not impossible God makes it possible and
all you have to do is start today.
Music.
Hey, thanks for listening. The Dr. Lee Warren Podcast is brought to you by my
brand new book, Hope is the First Dose. It's a treatment plan for recovering
from trauma, tragedy, and other massive things.
It's available everywhere books are sold, and I narrated the audiobooks.
Hey, the theme music for the show is Get Up by my friend Tommy Walker,
available for free at TommyWalkerMinistries.org.
They are supplying worship resources for worshipers all over the world to worship
the Most High God. And if you're interested in learning more,
check out TommyWalkerMinistries.org.
If you need prayer, go to the prayer wall at WLeeWarrenMD.com slash prayer,
WLeeWarrenMD.com slash prayer.
And go to my website and sign up for the newsletter, Self-Brain Surgery,
every Sunday since 2014, helping people in all 50 states and 60-plus countries
around the world. I'm Dr.
Lee Warren, and I'll talk to you soon. Remember, friend, you can't change your
life until you change your mind. And the good news is you can start today.
Music.