The Middle Day // S05E03

It’s easy to forget that God has it planned out, that when we see the mess He sees the beautiful result, the beautiful end. But before that there is the middle day, what is it and why is the middle day the key to your purposeful end.

QUESTIONS WE TOUCH ON IN THIS EPISODE:

• Where was Jesus for the three days between death and resurrection?
• Stories of impatience in the Bible.
• How to battle the unbelief of impatience.
• How to overcome impatience in your faith.
• Why is waiting important?

VERSES FROM THE MIDDLE DAY:

Luke 9, Luke 8:43, Romans 10:17, Psalm 37.

QUOTES FROM THE MIDDLE DAY:

“That middle ground, when you’re in there, like you said, the questioning, the doubting, the hamster wheel, all of that stuff can happen. Your own flesh, doubt the enemy cashing in on this moment. I feel like the enemy loves the waiting period because you’re at a very vulnerable place because your patience is dwindling by the second, you know, for most people, your faith is being tested.”

Michelle Watson The Pantry Podcast, The Middle Day

“God produces our faith in the Bible. It’s because we’re humbly sitting before him and allowing him to show us the work. So today I just encourage everybody. Let God show you the work. If you’re going through something, let him show you. You will see glory.”

Shea Watson, The Pantry Podcast, Oh Happy Day!

ANNOTATED TRANSCRIPT:

Shea: Hey, I’m Shea

Michelle: I’m Michelle. This is the pantry podcast, season five on naturally flourished. We’re picking up where season four, left off looking at God’s unusual, amazing, and miraculous methods of elevating relocating, and redeeming us into his purpose in the ways the world just doesn’t understand.

Shea: Thanks to the spark collective, the warcry network and the Christian podcasters association for helping the pantry reach over 35 countries. Visit the pantry podcast.com for extras, show notes and faith-based tees that support the show and sign up for our monthly newsletter for sneak peeks into upcoming episodes and guests, and some of Shea’s amazingly delicious recipes. And now on with the episode

Shea: I love it. I love just sitting in this chair. Actually. I love just sitting in this chair, looking at you. Oh, squeeze, squeeze, squeeze. Anyways. Now, uh, tonight we’re going to be talking about something that’s really cool. And it’s cool because in life we go through hard times. It’s so relatable, right? Like super relatable.

Michelle: Yeah. And this has been in your heart for seasons. Like I think it was, we were in the middle of season one when you were like, I want to do an episode on this, write it down. And it kept getting pushed till the perfect time is right now. Yeah.

Shea: God works in an imperfect time. I think that that even that right there, God works in perfect time is, you know, there’s some things that we’re going to talk about tonight. You know, timing plays a role. Timing makes it all work the way that God needs it to work. What we’re going to talk about tonight. If Jesus didn’t have what’s this title of the show the middle day, would he have made it to Shoal? I don’t know. And done what he needed to do to get the key.

Michelle: Yeah. And even on top of that, would they have done what they needed to walk through? And by they, I mean like the disciples that we hear about would they have had enough time to walk out what they needed to walk out so that they could have the realizations they would have because of what they’d done. Yeah. I just turned into Paul for a second, but I’m just saying like butterfly effect times a thousand, but based in the Bible. Yeah.

Shea: Thinking about what they’ve just witnessed, you know, they just witnessed the most heinous crucifixion. Yeah. But they’ve also witnessed some pretty powerful things. I think that like when the world goes dark like that, imagine if all of a sudden you’re standing outside, the sun is shining and the world goes dark. I mean, this going to have some impacts on your psyche, number two, you’re watching a good friend of your, so we’re talking about the disciples. We’re talking about the followers of Jesus were talking to other ones who were spinning on and rejecting them. And even that is just horrendous. It’s like it’s but here is Jesus being crucified. But see, we gotta understand something. He was being crucified for a purpose. He was being crucified for the blood. Now not everyone understood that. So they’re watching this man, their friend, the one, they love their King, their savior, the Messiah, you know, they’ll know all these terms yet, but that’s really who they’re looking at up on that cross watching him die.

Shea:And it’s like, he’s already told him, he’s promised, he’s already told him what’s going to happen. But you know, as we see throughout the scripture, you know, people listen and then forget. And we can really associate that with that. As people I read the scripture all the time, and sometimes I forget, and I have to remind myself, but on that middle day, can you imagine their thoughts, their feelings, what was going on inside of them? The turmoil, the questions, how many times have we sat in our mental stew and just been like this question, that question, this question, that question about one thing, you know, it’s like, but you hit it from like what ifs, you know, the, what is, and, and I think sometimes on those days I got to reel myself back in and be like, don’t worry about tomorrow. You got enough to worry about today. Thank

Shea: You, Lord. But on this middle day, I don’t know that they thought he was coming back. If they did it, doesn’t show it in scripture. It really shows it like there’s weeping and crying. And I mean, the disciples aren’t there, there was only one disabled that stayed, you know, John, John, I love it. Let’s just call him love. But, here they are in this middle day. Yeah. And then, you know, just out of custom, they come cause Sabbath, you know, well, Saturday, Sunday, the timing y’all I try to, I’m gonna be real. I try to break this all down with the timing. And there’s like nine different theologies on the actual timing of this.

Shea: But like the middle day, but three days, we know that we know that specifically three days. And so we’re looking at a day of crusifiction. We’re looking at a middle day and we’re looking at a resurrection. Amen. And so they show up, you know, and he’s gone or he’s there and he’s the angel and the angel saying, yeah, no, it’s fine. It’s fine. So now they’re in this fine sea. So they go through turmoil. They go through, I have nothing. Is he here? Is he gone? Is he talking to me? Is he going to come back? What’s going on to he’s here. And I think we go through that all the time.

Michelle: Yeah. The middle day, I’m thankful for their sakes, but it was a single day. Granted. It was a little more than 24 hours, you know, because it happened. It’s not like at dead midnight is when this all happened. And then, you know, the clock goes so a little over a day, but what it must feel like the first I know when, something really bad has happened and I wake up the next day and the pit of your stomach just falls out because you had a reprieve when you slept. And sometimes people have like nightmares to reflect what happened. But for those who don’t right, you wake up and there’s a moment of peace. And then the stomach drop, and then you’re living reliving, struggling. And what’s amazing is that in Luke 9, Jesus says it very plainly, he will be killed. And after three days he will be raised from death.

Michelle: He says it real plain. And yet they did not know what to do. They were beside themselves. And I think that oftentimes when you take this story and we look at what we can glean from it and transfer into similar situations, we have the waiting period, any waiting period between the time you pray and the time a solution is delivered by God, right? That, that middle ground, when you’re in there, like you said, the questioning, the doubting, the hamster wheel, all of that stuff can happen. Your own flesh, doubt the enemy cashing in on this moment. I feel like the enemy loves the waiting period because you’re at a very vulnerable place because your patience is dwindling by the second, you know, for most people, your faith is being tested. So you’re in a very vulnerable place. Energy is being spent in some way as we can come in, but we often forget the end game.

Michelle: And it’s important here. When we look back at Luke nine and then four to what, how his resurrection came about and how long that took remembering that God has already told us one what matters and two, how it ends. And if we cling to those, then we know it’s going to be okay. But it’s very easy for us to get caught up in the current feelings of pain in ourselves and others, the current suffering, I would say the long-term short-term future in the sense of maybe you see your country walking into communism and you’re petrified, but that’s still, even if that might last decades, it’s still temporary on an eternal level. So you’re walking towards a short, a longterm short term. That’s terrifying, but you know, God said, it’s going to be okay. God said, you’re still going to be able to share the message until your time has come, where you leave this world. And yet we get distracted. And so that’s what we have to remember is how does it end? What is he said to us so that we can sustain ourselves with the truth in the waiting period.

Shea: I also think that like that waiting period, the middle day was Sabbath. And so right there, right? God came into law now, we’re, you know, I understand Christ and understand, you know, all of that, but this rest, Christ also say, come to me, all of you who are heavy burden and Laden, and I will give you rest. It was perfectly aligned to Sabbath day of rest, a day of reflection a day to come back and really have a focus on God, on the things above, right? No work, no, nothing, but that was the day that was the middle day. But that was the day that Jesus was fighting for us in a whole different realm. And it’s like, it’s like, but in this rest, right. He gave them the perfect opportunity. And, you know, I would say that probably because of that day, you know, he was pulled down off the cross.

Shea:You know, that later that day, the rich man came and said, Hey, look, I think it was a Pharisee. I can’t, I can’t remember off the top of my head, but comes and he’s. And he’s like, no, you know, the Sabbath is tomorrow and we need to get him put into a burial place. And so they put him in a burial place and you know, the whole guard thing and the whole covering up and make sure that Jesus can’t cause watch this, the Pharisees knew they said how they remembered look, even they remember. And they’re like, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. They said like in three days, this dude is coming back out. We don’t want no one being able to, you know, play this, play this game with us and take the body. Right. So we need to guard this thing. Right. I can totally see that in life. You know, it’s like, we’re not letting nobody come in here.

Michelle: I commit, right. I commit them for thinking that well, roundly about the situation. Right,

Shea: Right, right. Oh my gosh. And so, but you know, his people were crushed, man. I mean, we’re crushed. We go through things in life that crush us. We go through these things, but look, come to me all ye who are heavy Laden and burdened, and I will give you rest. I will give you rest. They had a day arrest that middle day should have been rest. That middle day should have been like, okay, look tomorrow, he coming back. Right. Get it ready. We’re about to get this, this gospel, this preaching, this teaching this message. It’s about the light off. And you know, they all right. And they all ran and went back to life. And you know, what’s funny.

Shea: That is, he comes back and they see him. And Thomas ain’t ordered, we found doubting. Thomas finally shows up. Finally, you guys, ready put your fingers in my hands. I’m good. I’m good. But everybody gets realized, but then what does Peter do? You know, he takes them and they go fishing again. But then Jesus, again, meets them right where they were at. And I think that like, if we’re in a middle day and I’m going to tell you something middle days, aren’t just always one day. No, they last, they last one of a great example of this middle day would be the woman who was bleeding and Luke eight, right? I think it’s Luke 8:43 and 48, 12 years. 12 years. Because of, because of the law, right? She couldn’t be around. People cast out because she was unclean 12 years probably feeling lost alone.

Shea: Also, I wouldn’t even know 12 years of not having contact. That’s that’s tough. But look, she takes a chance. You know, it’s like, she couldn’t go to the temple. She couldn’t do all this, but she hears about Jesus. She hears about Jesus. She comes out. She touches his hand, right? Instantly, bam bleeding stops. See her middle day ended her middle day ended. She never, she kept faith. She kept faith. When she heard truth, she’s like, this must be my King. This, all this healing, this must be a belief, a trust of faith to come into a crowd of people. So thick. Then when, you know, Jesus said, Hey, someone touched me. And Peter is like, yeah, of course everybody tells me you. I mean all that stuff. And he’s like, no, Peter, that’s not what I’m saying. What I’m saying is I perceive that virtue has gone out of me.

Shea: And that word virtue is a huge word because it’s not just someone touching him. But in the Greek, it actually means that he had, there was a miraculous outpouring. It was, it was a power, a supernaturally, spiritual power going out of him, a healing power. He knew what it was. It was a healing power going out of him. And he’s like, who touched me? You know, he’s looking for it. Well, she feels that she’s called out. And she came out from hiding, right? She’s like, it’s me. It’s me. She bows down before him. Right. And Jesus looks at her and he’s like, don’t worry. Daughter, be of good comfort by faith have made thee whole go in peace. Our faith can make us go whole and be in peace.

Michelle: It’s so amazing that for 12 years she was isolated because the law said that she would taint others, contaminate others, infect others with the sin. And God always had planned a better way than that. Oh, a more accessible way. This was before he died. So it was before we have what we have now. Holy spirit, salvation sanctification, glorification in the way that we know it. Now it was, it was different then. But when she had an opportunity to be delivered, she didn’t say, well, I kind of like it out here. And I’m in a mess with nobody not having to wake up early, not having to go to Sangha and not have an offering. You know, I just like, yeah, I’m bleeding and everything. But like I only have to deal with people on another one. No, she ran. She through all fear of infecting people, tainting people with sin because she knew she was going to Christ who could heal anyone.

Michelle: She accidentally infected on her way to him. She ran to him to save herself and be delivered into no less complicated of an existence, but one that allowed her access to him in the body as well as just in her daily life. And we need to realize in these dark times, looking back at Luke nine, it’s amazing. How much about the middle day is expressed in just that little section of Luke 9 that’s 22 through 24, right? So he says, you know, he’ll be raised from the dental and third day in verse 23, he said to the crowd, if any of you wants to be my follower, you must give up your own way, take up your cross daily and follow me. If you try to hang on to your life, you will lose it. But if you give up your life for my sake, you will save it so often on the middle day.

Michelle: We’re so scared by the circumstances we’re predicting that are coming, that we see coming. We forget to add in that God does miracles. That God has a way above our way that God knows all. And we only see part. We forget all that. Often we get distracted for whatever reason. And we start trying to preserve our life. Not our eternal life. We start trying to preserve our life here. Well, I don’t want to die. Well, I don’t want to get fired or I don’t want, I don’t. I don’t, I don’t temporal things. And in fear, out of this huge sense of caution, we start making choices without consulting him. We start buffering. We start putting up walls that would connect us further to him. And we start putting up walls that keep us safe. Keep this human temporal flesh life conserved. But when you walk in faith, you might not always make sense.

Michelle: It might be uncomfortable. It might be scary. It might involve a lot of patients and a lot of smiling when you don’t feel it. Right? But when you say this life ain’t worth anything compared to the eternal. When you do that and you give up your life for God’s sake and say, I’m going to trust that this is the middle day. You start to get excited. You start to have hope your life is too dark. That means lights coming. Right? If you get to that area, you will save your life, your eternal life, and you will be storing up treasures in heaven. You will be bringing glory to God. But the key there is you have to not panic and grab that real physical life preserver. You have to reach for the eternal life preserver. That is Christ in that middle day.

Shea: I like that. You’re touching on faith. No, sorry. I misquoted. She’s pouring the faith down our throats. No, sir. Don’t get distracted shit. Don’t get distracted. Serve a faith. Faith is the assurance of things hoped for the conviction of things. Not seen. We went through a period lately in our own family’s life. Um, and I have to, I have to bring my mom into this a little bit, just for a thought. And it was, think about this, but my stepdad one day he was okay, one day he just couldn’t communicate his. It was just phenomenal. Ended up having a tumor on his frontal lobe. And my mom is in Texas. You know, I’m a here on the East coast. You want to go help, but you know, like with COVID and a lot of things that are, that are going on, it was like, what do you do?

Shea: What do you do is probably better just to sit for a minute, find out what’s really going on. And they start treating him and all these things. But in all of this, you know, my mom at first was crazy. He was like this and you know, insurance and how to pay for it. And how am I going to take care of him and I mean, the list got so overwhelming. So overwhelming that one day I’m sitting there talking on the phone with her and she goes, I can’t do anything. I have to step back and I have to let God.

Shea: And from that point, right, it was just this continual trust, trust, trust, trust, you know, we’d say that we trust us. Right? And then it piles on real fast. You’re like, but then we recover. See that middle day. What’s cool is they didn’t just abandoned. What did the women do? On the third day, they came back, see they observed Sabbath. They observed. And then they came back to care for the man that they love their team. And to their be surprised he had resurrected. He was back, back, full power, back, back to prove to the world, look, you need my blood. You need my blood. You need my salvation. You needed my sacrifice. You were not going to make it without it. You’re not going to make it without me. You’re not going to make it. If you don’t understand, I can cleanse everything I can make. Right. Everything. It might feel wrong, but he can make it right. It might feel impossible, but he loves the impossible. He loves it because through him, all things are possible. Ooh, come on, come on. I’m preaching to me. I’m preaching to the choir. I’m preaching to anyone that’s out there listening right now, whatever you’re going through, whatever you’re experiencing, whatever you’re struggling in, whatever you’re fighting. Shield of faith. Shield of faith. Stop them darts.

Michelle: You know, this season is unnaturally flourished. Why is the middle day in this season? Well, if you, if you, if you need a little more of like a, of a framework, right of Y let me, let me put it this way. He will sustain you in hard times, even when you’re fearful or hungry or on the run, no matter what he will provide, but to flourish on naturally in ways the world cannot understand, understand the end game, the believer will prosper greatly. It says, you know, rejoice in, in even the bad times, right? Rigid like B take courage and all on all this crisis. Yeah. That’s unnatural. But when you actually do it, you flourish in those times. I know so many people that are believers in Christ that during this time that we’re living in this crazy time, not so 50 reasons why it’s crazy and they’re flourishing in their ministries, in their businesses, in their relationships, in their, and most importantly in their relationship with Christ because they remember what matters and other things have been stripped away.

Michelle: And they’re not allowing mathematics, chemistry, biology, psychology, astrology. They’re not allowing any of that to tell them what God can and cannot do. They’re not sitting here saying, well, let me trust in X. They’re saying, let me trust in God. Let me not trust in this vote. In this serum, in this mineral, in this house, in this person, they’re saying, let me trust in Jesus Christ. They’re not getting intimidated to the point of being debilitated by their circumstances. They’re not looking at where this country or their country or that country is going. They’re not looking at where the economy’s going. They’re not looking out the asteroid that might come every, every week. There’s like a new asteroid

Michelle: Over here. None of that is them saying, Oh, that’s enough. That’s enough reason to sit down a freak out. No they’re saying I’m going to flourish. Despite it, because as long as I’m here, God has a plan. So the meteor can comment. If he wants me to preach the gospel to the people who are left, when the meteor’s done, I’ll be alive. If, if he wants me to go to these people, he I’m gonna get to those people. And we, and that’s how you flourish. You have to know none of the, none of these, the rationale has nothing on what God can do. How many stories do we have to read? Like the world has told us we need to be logical, but they don’t understand what logical is. Because if you use the Bible as your proof, as your logical proofs, then you redefine what sounds logical in this world. So don’t let the world teach you logic. Let the Bible teach you logic. And you will walk in a whole different way and things you never thought possible. Never thought were free. You will be for you. And we’ll be.

Shea: Hm. Yeah. I like that. I think one of my greatest disappointments in this whole pandemic, I don’t care what you do, but do for the Lord. I don’t care what you do, but like I tell you what to do. Hey man, I don’t, I don’t care. I mean, I don’t care the sides. I don’t care. The left, the right, the up, the down the all around. I care about God. I care about God eternal. I care about what God places into a person’s heart. And then living by that, sticking by that, not beating everyone else up telling them that they’re wrong because God has laid that on their heart. Now, granted, if someone has a message from God and it comes out and says, the Holy spirit told me, of course, everybody probably thinks they’re crazy. But because that’s a whole nother, that’s a whole nother podcast, but at least they’re saying it’s coming from from God. So I don’t care what you do because at the end of this, here’s a plan and purpose of your life. Yeah. Do you trust that plan and purpose? Do you trust that his way is greater than your own way? And you know, I, this isn’t something we should or need to, let me, let me read this verse again. I actually want to read it out Romans 10:17 this time. Cause I like it a little bit more just because it’s easier.

Shea: So faith comes from hearing, not faith. So faith should come from hearing or you should hear faith. You need to hear know faith comes from hearing and hearing comes from the word of God, right? Do the math y’all need to and should, those are like, they give me room to play. They gave me, well, you should, you know, should I, should I not shit, no need to. Let me, let me digest that for a minute. No, the Bible speaks it more raw than men. I think men, we, we soften the blow because man, when I read it, sometimes I am like convicted. Like nothing like no tomorrow is like that hurt. I want to hurt because I want to be with God. I want the peelings to all this ugly in me. I want all of this doubt in me. I want all of this questioning in me. And when I say question, I’m not saying, well, you don’t question God know what I’m saying? Like the bad kind of questioning I want it gone. And I just want to be in the clarity and the environment. I want to be in the clarity of my father. That’s what I want to be.

Michelle: I recommend everyone reads Psalm 37 because it’s all about waiting. But here’s two verses out of there that just them alone, seven and 34 be still before the Lord and wait patiently for him. Fret, not yourself. Over the one who prospers in his way over the man who carries out evil devices, wait for the Lord and keep his way. And he will exalt you to inherit the land. You will look on when the wicked are cut off.

Shea: I can’t believe you just read the last part of that. And people usually stop at the fluffy stuff. I know it was so beautiful versus though, wait,

Michelle: It talks about the middle day and reminds you what the end day is.

Shea: Yes. Y’all eternal life eternal life. That’s the end day. That is when I will have no more suffering. No more pain, no more worry. No more depression, no more PTSD, no more anger, rage, whatever sets off inside of us. That’s a constant work, loneliness sadness. I’m just throwing them out there. I mean, we have, there’s so many emotions, so much raw that we experienced, but that final day, and look, we’re in the middle, right? If we’re in the middle of the way, Michelle kind of, you know, put the analogy like that, learn to rest in the trust. All in that verse. I love it.

Michelle: This day, night for us. Y’all you guys get cut off, but we keep going. So, you know, relationship goals over here.

Shea: Yeah. You know, just remember that we’re not any different really than you are. Um, we just want to be in the word and y’all should be in the word because it’s the word that’s gonna speak to us. It’s the word that’s going to lift us up because we got to remember is coming from an infallible God, that God produces our faith in the Bible. It’s because we’re humbly sitting before him and allowing him to show us the work. So today I just encourage everybody. Let God show you the work. If you’re going through something, let him show you. You will see glory. Amen.

Michelle: Amen. As always, it’s been an awesome episode and we want to hear from you. We love reading the amazing comments that y’all give us about what this podcast is doing. So go to the pantrypodcast.com and send us a message. Let us know. We would love to connect with you. So until next time, bye. This episodes after the zoom.

KEYWORDS: END RESULT, PATIENCE, FAITH, SEEING, BELIEVING, SACRIFICE, LOVE, LISTEN, PODCASTS FOR WOMEN, PODCASTS FOR FAITH, PODCASTS FOR CHRISTIANS, CHRISTIAN PODCASTS TO FOLLOW.