Jeff Foote, one of the Pastors from season 1 episode 20, looks back on his journey as someone who was formerly open but skeptical about the work of the Spirit and how his Pray Through It session   has not only freed him to better lead as a Pastor and teach his people about the Spirit's role today, but also has reawakened his musical creativity.

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[00:00:00] Jeff Foote: I'm a pastor's kid. I've known the scripture. I'm a Timothy award winner in Awana. I've grown up with it all. I have good little boy syndrome sometimes, but similar to you, I was studying the scriptures and realizing there are things here, both implicit and explicit  that say I should be experiencing more of a conversational relationship with the Holy Spirit.  When it comes to the theology of the Holy Spirit in the tradition I come from, the phrase is open, but cautious. I've never been open, but cautious about Christology. Was Jesus fully God fully, man, I don't know I'm going to be open, but cautious. Like, no, you, you discern what the scripture teaches and then you live there. And I was on this journey of saying, you know, I'm a word centered guy, authority of scripture alone, Sola scriptura. But if it teaches a theology of the Spirit that I'm not living, then I have bad theology. .

[00:01:23] Don Love: If you have been following us since last season, you'll remember the testimony from Jeff foot. One of the pastors that we pray through things with three years ago, here's a clip of his testimony from last season to jog your memory.

[00:01:38] Jeff Foote: I'm not a cessationist but I am skeptical. I've been a pastor over 20 years. I've been in a lot of counseling sessions. I've been trained in biblical counseling. This was the best counseling I've ever had. And he never asked me any counseling questions. This weird family story came back to me. And I thought this is weird. I didn't want it to be like throwing in. Tell me about your mom telling you about your dad. Like daddy wounds because I don't have those. I was raised in a very godly home. But it kind of threw this story out and immediately he said, okay, Jesus help them understand this story, why is this significant? Why did it come to mind now? And I'm like, well, I'm thinking to myself, he came to my now because I had to say something. But in that exact moment, it was like a tidal wave, like a tsunami from the bottom of my soul. I finally had words for what my soul had been struggling with for 43 years. And I couldn't even get that next sentence out without just coming completely unglued. Because I knew that's the sentence. That was the phrase. So for me, again, I was suspicious, but open. I played along and then the Spirit gave my soul language. And that was my experience. And so. I immediately, I got to figure out how to do this and it was just a phenomenal thing. So, that's my story.

[00:03:06] Don Love: After Jeff and I prayed through things together, Jeff was open with his congregation about his struggles. He recounted how this prayer session helped and shaped the way that he ministered. And since then he has taken intentional steps to prepare his congregation, to be expectant in prayer. He used the term expectant prayer to describe the back and forth conversation with God, rather than listening prayer, because in his area, the term listening, prayer carried a connotation that was not at all what we mean when we talk about listening and inner healing, prayer, and even when, as far as to design and teach a course on the Holy Spirit, to help them better understand what the Bible has to say about the role of the Holy Spirit today. And so now as Jen and I come out three years later, his church had an unquenchable thirst to learn and grow and conversational prayer with the Lord. And now let's get to the interview.

[00:03:56] Jeff, if you'll tell everyone a little bit about how we met and how our re...