Episode #45: Taking Communion/Eucharist at Home, God Created Sex – Not Man & Breaking Free From Dependency on Churches with Branch Isole, Author & Poet

INTRODUCTION:

 

Branch Isole (www.Manaopublishing.com) is back! This man has become a resident guest here and we love having him on our show! Today we are talking about spiritual independence, breaking free from dependency on churches and I even show you how to take Communion/Eucharist at home!!!

 

He, like me, is a former drug dealer, he’s been to jail, he’s been homeless, and like myself he understands his mission is to do all he can to help others now that he’s been given a second chance. Branch is a poet, a storyteller and the author of 22 books! Branch was born in Osaka, Japan (my favorite country) and has the traveled the world extensively! Branch graduated from Texas State Univ. B.S.Ed., did post graduate work at the University of Houston, M.Ed Adm., and holds an Oxford M.A. Theology degree from Trinity Bible College and Seminary. Branch shares how strength of choice can change consequences and this man is known worldwide for his contemporary short story prose that reveals emotions and issues often experienced, but not always voiced. 

 

Author of twenty-two books Branch Isole shares “how and why” strength of choice can change consequences. He’s known worldwide for contemporary short stories revealing issues and emotions often experienced, but not always voiced.

 

Storytelling is either about ‘what has been’ or ‘what can be.’ The story of “what can be” encourages us to embrace the duality of what is and more importantly, what is possible. Podcast program audiences tune-in to learn if your guest can help fulfill their aspirations and ambitions. My efforts are to help you produce a show with takeaways that benefit your listeners. The topics I share impart elements for personal, career and/or spiritual self-reflection. I believe we will give your audience a show they’ll receive, use, and thank you for.

I share edifying and entertaining self-development topics offering information and takeaway steps listeners can use after hearing our episode. These topical conversation starters provide audiences with identifiable grounding and growth elements for contemporary life issues.

Spiritual Christianity:
Life 101: Albatross or Millstone?
The ‘Bucket List’ Item Many Ignore
Third Act Specs; Rose Colored or 20-20?

Relationships:
7 Steps of Relationship Repair
Change Your Response, Improve Your Relationships

Work-Life Balance: 
12 Key Lessons

Religion:
Bible Prophecy: Warnings or Promises?

These ‘today topic’ discussion starters are designed for seekers, searchers, the fallen away and disillusioned. Those who question, wonder or are ready to explore self-reflectively their lives and relationships.  You’re invited to book one today!

Previous engagements and upcoming shows- https://www.manaopublishing.com/bookings.html

 

 

INCLUDED IN THIS EPISODE (But not limited to):

 

·      God Created Sex, Not Man

·      What Is The Meaning/Purpose Of Communion/Eucharist?

·      How To Take Communion/Eucharist At Home

·      The Power Of Communion/Eucharist

·      Why Do We Go To Church?

·      Where Did Churches Come From?

·      Why Churches ARE NOT NECESSARY

·      Building Faith On A Firm Foundation 

·      What Is The Blood Of Jesus?

·      Why Do You Believe What You Believe?
 

 

CONNECT WITH BRANCH:

 

Website & Other Books: https://www.manaopublishing.com/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/podcastguestbranchisole

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/branch-isole-851433201/

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCzN66BkAUAemYX76Smnn0GA

 

CONNECT WITH DE’VANNON:

 

Website: https://www.SexDrugsAndJesus.com

YouTube: https://bit.ly/3daTqCM

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SexDrugsAndJesus/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sexdrugsandjesuspodcast/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/TabooTopix

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/devannon

Email: DeVannon@SexDrugsAndJesus.com

 

DE’VANNON’S RECOMMENDATIONS:

 

·      Pray Away Documentary (NETFLIX)

https://www.netflix.com/title/81040370

TRAILER: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tk_CqGVfxEs

 

·      Upwork: https://www.upwork.com

 

·      FreeUp: https://freeup.net

 

·      Disabled American Veterans (DAV): https://www.dav.org

 

·      American Legion: https://www.legion.org

 

 

INTERESTED IN PODCASTING OR BEING A GUEST?:

 

·      PodMatch is awesome! This application streamlines the process of finding guests for your show and also helps you find shows to be a guest on. The PodMatch Community is a part of this and that is where you can ask questions and get help from an entire network of people so that you save both money and time on your podcasting journey.

https://podmatch.com/signup/devannon

 

TRANSCRIPT:

 

[00:00:00]

You’re listening to the sex drugs and Jesus podcast, where we discuss whatever the fuck we want to! And yes, we can put sex and drugs and Jesus all in the same bed and still be all right at the end of the day. My name is De’Vannon and I’ll be interviewing guests from every corner of this world as we dig into topics that are too risqué for the morning show, as we strive to help you understand what’s really going on in your life.

There is nothing off the table and we’ve got a lot to talk about. So let’s dive right into this episode.

De’Vannon: Hello. Hello. Hello everyone. And welcome back to the sex drugs and Jesus podcast. One more week. I am so thrilled to have you with me again, and I love you all so very much. And I am grateful for you. Exciting news and my memoir, which I’ve been working on for like 10 years. It’s finally out. You can check it out@sexjugsandjesus.com.

Please support it, please like it. Please share it. Please love it. So today I’m talking with branching, Solei branch is now a resident [00:01:00] guests on the podcast. You’ve seen him. You love him, you know who he is and he’ll be back again today. We’re going to be talking about. Communion the Eucharist, whatever you want to call it with Easter right around the corner.

I wanted to give you some head knowledge about this and show you how to do it yourself at home. And besides this, we’ll be talking about spiritual independence, breaking free from independency on churches and how to just grow in the Lord on your own. Take a listen.

Branch ECLA. Thank you so fucking much for coming back on the sex drugs and Jesus podcasts for the umpteenth time. How are you? 

Branch: Doing well, my brother doing well. How are you today?

De’Vannon: Oh,

I’m fan fucking tastic. You you know, we’re definitely winning for the person who’s made the most appearances on this show and I don’t see any signs of that changing. You’re like our first standing resident guests. 

Branch: well, thank you. I appreciate them. It’s [00:02:00] always a joy being with You 

De’Vannon: Yeah, 

you, 

Branch: get to talk freely and openly and, and hopefully that that’s helpful to listen.

De’Vannon: yeah. You’re the only person who has a heart for Christ who can. Who’s not offended by my, what some would call vulgarity and who will respond to me every time I called wanting to have a conversation about Jesus. So, you know, it’s meant to be. 

Branch: Well, it’s, you know, it’s, it’s interesting. I was on a podcast yesterday and we were talking about one of my books that’s sexually oriented, you know the stories that are all around sexual interaction and all sex, but for play and, you know, intimacy and in the conversation somebody said something about, well, how can you write about Christian subjects and then turn right around and write, you know, what we consider erotica [00:03:00] and.

My simple answer is, you know, sex is part of life. It’s part of who we are as a species and as part of our behavior. So, you know, if you have a problem with it, I can understand that, but you know, God made sex part of our, our relationships in our life. So it’s part of who we are and what we do. So I don’t see the transition as being a problem, but, you know, everybody has their opinions and I feel the same way about, you know cussing as they say, or swearing I have yet to meet.

So I have people who, you know, are offended by some of the language that they hear and they, they may use. And my point is, you know, at some point in your life, I’m sure you’ve said that. So You have to get over it or get through it. And it, you know, it’s part of life. It’s who we are and [00:04:00] what we do. So what can I say?

De’Vannon: I concur God created sex. It wasn’t our idea. And you know, but if someone wants to try to, to, to play that game with it, then, you know, there’s plenty of biblical references to people who, 

Branch: No. 

De’Vannon: you know, look at king David, he reigned an earth. He said to rain again, you know, you know, you know, at the end of the world and 

Branch: Yeah. 

De’Vannon: like that, he had plenty of pissy, kinds of wives and concubines and shit.

So he was highly sexual, but this is a man who God said was a man after who is a man after his own. And so end of story done, you can totally have, have a strong sexual life and be super close to God. don’t have to, it’s not one or the other. So. 

Branch: I guess it’s a matter of, you know, what people consider sin and I’ll often share with people, you know, in God’s eyes, a sin is a sin. [00:05:00] There’s no difference in degrees of, you know immortality inaction, all a sin. And as believers in Christ, and this is a hard concept for a lot of people to their head around.

are forgiven of our sins present and future, even though we may sin again. And, you know, in the human sense, we may sin again in the future, as followers and believers in Jesus, we are forgiving those actions. Now, does that mean we should sin Figure it’s okay. Because we’ve been forgiven as Paul says, of course not.

You know, the whole reason we have a relationship with Christ is so that we are tempted to sin in our lives you know, we, we think twice about it and we call on his spirit to guide [00:06:00] us, you know, in our next action. So it’s all a matter of belief and trust in him that he has paid for our sins, but we are not sitting in the future simply because he is paid for our sins.

You know, we, we are who we are and if our heart like David’s was is with God, then we have that communion with God and that communication with God through Christ and he guides our steps. So.

De’Vannon: It’s really just that simple and I’ll quote my favorite line from the movie trip with Jayda 

Branch: No. 

De’Vannon: and all them fabulous, divas. My favorite quote from there says, you really can have it all. And So.

it is humans that have complicated. There’s a life, not the Lord. And so before we get on the the topic of today, a branch [00:07:00] is a website isn’t manna, oh, publishing that And that will go in the show showy notes. He has like about a thousand books, he’s written poetry and everything like that. He had run his own publishing house and everything like that. And 

Branch: Um, 

De’Vannon: a podcast guests Xtrordinair. He’s like a porn star with that shit. He’s always up on somebody’s podcast.

And I absolutely it. I met him through pod match.com, which is a phenomenal website. God bless Alexan Felipo for sending that gift to the world through him. a beautiful thing. When I, when I see it being done just right, like way he’s doing it, that is his purpose, at least one of his major purposes.

And I think nobody would disagree with me on that. And so stuff about pod match will also be in the show we notes. Now, speaking of the complications humans gave to things today, branch and I are going to be focusing on communion. Easter is upon us, and I felt inspired to [00:08:00] enlighten the world communion, some call it the Eucharist.

had all of these different names for the same things, it’s the little cracker. Usually people eat in some great juice or some wine. I got my setback here. I got me some fucking Cabernet and mine Cabernet Sauvignon, baby, and my unbelieving bread. The Lord drank his wine and his first miracle was turning water into real wine.

I’m not about to have great juice, what I’m doing something to commemorate the creator of the entire universe. So we’re going to have the real thing. And so. I wanted to do this show because I want to show, I want to show people how to do communion because you can totally do this at home. You don’t have to go traipsing to somebody’s church to do anything that connects you to Jesus Christ.

You do not have to have a church and you don’t have to have a preacher. So I want to talk first about why people go to church, [00:09:00] why people get into it in the scripture that I’ve found with Hebrews 10 and 25. This is the scripture. They always told me growing up. And it says to foresight, not the gathering together of yourselves.

And, and they use this scripture to say, you see there, here it is. And Hebrews, you got to always come to church. And if you don’t, you’re forsaking the gathering together of people and you’re breaking the rules and you’re sending, if you don’t come to church. So what are your thoughts on that branch? Like historically, like what was going on, do you think.

That you know, culturally during that time, that would make them write such a thing. 

Branch: Well, of course, you know, AF after the death of Christ, when the first Christians which, who were actually Jews got together to celebrate what he had taught them and what they had learned they met in what we would call a home church or home environment. You know, they met in small [00:10:00] groups they share what they knew and what they had to learn and what they had experienced when Jesus walked among them.

And out of that, No this communion or Eucharist right of passage almost your emotion and your commitment to Christ. So, you know, the church out of those small gatherings of in that first century. And by the second and third century, know, Christianity had spread throughout the Roman empire and the gatherings became bigger and a little more formal leadership could play.

So once you get that kind of a structure, you know, you need a bigger place. And then I started building churches and it became a religion as an outgrowth of [00:11:00] that sharing knowledge of Jesus Christ our lives, in our daily lives. Just like every other religion, grew from a seedling of a master of scripture they grow into behemoths where faith part and the closeness to master often gets diluted with the politics of the church.

That’s who we are as people that’s that’s our human nature is to try and gain control of it, know, so that we’re in control. And that we, once we have control, we have the power to reel over other people in that case, you know, in a church situation over the congregation. So, but you know, you don’t have to go to church or show up in a building to have that relationship with Christ, just the abuse, know, have [00:12:00] just pointed out it’s it’s a person.

Spiritual relationship.

De’Vannon: It’s personal before it is anything else. And like what I did before, when I had made mistakes about. My understanding of God when I got kicked out of Lakewood church and I let that caused a division in between me and God. You see, I was putting the preachers and the pastors and the worship leaders in the church a pedestal and making an idol out of them.

And I didn’t realize that I was, how do I know that? Because when I got kicked out, I got angry at God and I stopped talking. I stopped going to all the churches and I stopped praying and I stopped doing everything because I had conflated and put God on the same level as Joel Olsteen and Victoria O’Steen and and all the worship leaders in the church itself.

And the service I was doing for the church, should have happened is, as soon as I saw that they didn’t want gay people serving with the [00:13:00] children. I should have just left the whole church to begin with for them being specifically exclusionary towards a certain group of people. But but since I didn’t do that, if they were going to kick me out, for some reason, I should have just said, fuck them, but not fuck God.

I shouldn’t, I should. Just went to a church that accepted gay people and kept my relationship with God. But I let, what, how people treated me tear my whole religious construct down. So it was torn down. It was able to be torn down because it was built on a weak foundation to begin with in terms of my understanding of it.

So I’m doing much of what I do to prevent people from knowingly falling into that same trap giving these preachers in these churches too much damn credit. You know, you don’t, they just don’t, they don’t deserve to have all that. And they’re not all that. And they’re going to be wrong about shit and they already are.

And so when the scandals come out and we have our Jerry Falwell’s fucking the pool boys and fucking everybody, who’s not as white, know, there’s no need for us to [00:14:00] be shocked. You know, this is, these preachers are people they do in everything. Everybody else is doing. And we don’t know what the hell they’re not doing when that, around us, that the image they present at church is just one side of them.

doesn’t matter who they are. They still got their own habits and things like that. So it’s time for us to get to know God for ourself, because when shit gets worse than this earth, we can’t be needing to go run to a preacher to get a prayer through. We can’t wait till we get to church, define God. We can’t go find a priest to confess, to, to get forgiveness when Christ has already handled that job, you know, I’m trying to bring people face to face with God.

Like he wants to be, he said, as near as the air, we breathe, as near I’m near, but you got to go through somebody to get to me, you know, that’s not what he said. So. 

Branch: Well, we live in a fist. We live in a physical world and we grow up in a physical world and that’s all we [00:15:00] know, you know one of the big concepts that are hard to understand is worshiping and having a relationship with something on seem, right. And that’s what faith is all about is having that relationship with the unseen supremacy of God.

And we are a world. By its very nature tries to separate us from God and put him so far away from us that it’s necessary for us to go through some ecumenical person, a priest, a pastor Pope in order to reestablish that relationship with God. And because that’s the nature we grow up in, that’s what we believe to be the only truth.

He said it best a moment ago when you send your understanding. When we [00:16:00] understand that God, as our creator is within us and with us all the time, if we choose to acknowledge his presence, then we know that we can have that personal relationship with or without. A church setting or a gathering of fellowship believers.

 There’s certainly nothing wrong with being a believer and attending church, as long as know, you’re grounded spiritually in that relationship with God through Christ Christ is our ecclesiastic mediator. He’s the one that we go through get to God, necessarily the priest or the pastor or the Pope.

So 

De’Vannon: Right. 

Branch: right on my 

De’Vannon: So what’s your thing, your, what you hallelujah on a Friday morning. So what’d your thing is what I would agree with. [00:17:00] So people gotta, gotta, gotta start in this physical realm somewhere. Cause that’s what we see. And then as they mature, then they can get to a point of what I’m talking about. 

Branch: Yeah, exactly. Jesus said, you know, we’re babies, we get. And as we mature into adults than we can handle the meat. the exposure is the milk, the relationship and the growth, you know, with Christ is the meat.

De’Vannon: Right. And so what for me, what maturity in God looks like is going to church. If I feel drawn to not, because I feel like I have to in my personal time with him alone, I feel like I learned more than I can from any preacher. So. 

Branch: Yeah, sure, 

De’Vannon: That’s what it looks like. 

Branch: Yeah. That well, that’s what communion truly all about is that that talking with God, you know, in our minds with our mouth, that [00:18:00] connection that we have every day it doesn’t have to be one hour on a Sunday or Saturday or Wednesday night. It can be every time think of him, spirit, God, the father and God, the son, or any one of the three, they are responding every time we’re making that connection.

the further you go down the spiritual path and the more they are part of your thought process, the more you’ll see his spiritual power working in your life.

De’Vannon: Yup. Cause what you want. If so like when, when we die, we don’t want to be in a position where we’re standing at God and it’s, and we feel like we’re talking to a stranger, we gotta be facilitating that relationship now. So when we actually see his face as though we’ve had a long distance relationship with someone who we’re finally getting to meet, or we’re totally familiar with, so this means I need you to push a social media [00:19:00] way and spend a little bit more time, you know, with God praying fast, want to reading your Bible and doing the things that you can looking at different scriptures, different ways to look at it online, different commentaries, you know, different things than me get serious because this walk with God is kind of like we’re dating him.

When we date people, we get to know them. We experienced them in different environments, different settings and things like that. So I want people to really get intimate with God, you know? And you were at your best with that when there’s no one around and it’s just you and him, period. And so, so we’re talking about communion.

Why am I talking about communion? This communion is a beautiful thing. We first see this act of communion in the gospels, Matthew, mark, John, all of them, when Jesus is getting ready to get crucified, he calls all of his disciples together and he has you know, communion and he tells [00:20:00] them them the wine, the unleavened bread represents his body, is about to be broken.

in the blood represents his blood is about to be shared. I believe in communion when I was young and I was a nosy ass kid, poking my nose in places where I believe that should be going So no matter who said where it shouldn’t be going, damn it, I needed to know shit. And so the preachers in those days would go around the older people who didn’t go to church bring the communion to them and communion consist of great Jews actual fermented wine.

Like I said, I got my Cabernet my wine, my communion cutting back here and then unleavened bread, because that was an Israelite thing. Especially during like Passover and stuff like that. They didn’t fool with the leaving and that’s a whole other topic there, but you know, it’s a peer purification thing.

So the bread didn’t have any leaves. [00:21:00] So the preacher comes, administer his, now this, now we’re at her house. We’re not in church. And he asked me and I followed him into my grandmother’s house and he asked me if I want to commute. And I was like, sure. And I must’ve been like five or six, just, just a nosy, fucking kid running around.

And so I took the brand, gobbled it on down. And then when I took that great juice from the cup or whatever, I drank it. And then immediately, immediately I I felt like I guess you could best describe it as kind of like an electric chill move through my body from like the waist not the top of my body, just the waist down.

And it was so much so that I like my legs buckled and they gave out and I like leaned up against my grandmother’s bed, which, you know, granny’s bed. It’s like a thousand 

Branch: Okay. 

De’Vannon: tall, so it can certainly support any body. For a few days after that, it’s like, my body was clicking that [00:22:00] I was moving faster than I’d ever moved before.

Just like in a regular walking straight, I had a new burst of energy in life. This is sort of thing that happens when like God or an angel, you come in contact with one of them. You get, you get in live. And, and I don’t know what it did. I didn’t know that I needed to touch, but I know when I drank that grape juice out of that cup, that, that preacher had prayed over.

Something happened to me. And so I know the power is real. And I want to bring this power to everybody. And I’m not saying every time you drink the cup, you’re going to catch the holy ghost. So you’re going to feel tingly, but see, sometimes we don’t feel anything at all and God is moving a whole, whole lot.

So we don’t judge. Whether or not, God is doing anything about what we can necessarily see and feel. That’s what faith is all about. Believing whether or Not we can’t see it. So, oh, no brunch here. Have you ever had, had, or witnessed any sort of personal experiences happening current around.

Branch: Not that I can recall that [00:23:00] was that kind of a awakening, what you described two things. Number one, when we have a relationship with Christ, we have relationship with God, the father, through his spirit in Christ, as Christ is in us, you will find your connection to the Trinity is heightened and you will notice his presence in your life.

Sometimes it’s physical, sometimes it’s audit honorable or audio, and sometimes it’s just a sense you have He’s there guiding your steps. The great thing about his presence is if you recognize it, you will discover later on. At some point could be quick time, or it could be or weeks later, his presence will show up in your life where you will definitely recognize something happened.

 It’s just the way it works and it, you know, it’s hard for [00:24:00] non-believers or those who are struggling with that relationship to grasp. It’s, like I said, the other day in a show, the further you go down that path with Christ, the more you’ll see him working in your life. And once you start seeing it and recognizing it, you’ll see it more and more often, and it will become almost second nature.

So that every time in your daily life, you think about the Trinity father, son, and or spirit, there’ll be a recognition for you that they are recognizing that connection with them. It’s just, it’s all a spirit thing. And I think you and I talked about, you know, the principalities of light and dark and spirit and the world before, and that’s what happens, the greater, your spiritual growth.

Takes place with Christ. The more often you see him working and being in your life, and it just becomes second nature and you [00:25:00] automatically turn to him at every juncture when you’re or under stress. he responds. And it’s just, it’s the nature of, you know, his unconditional love and his compassion for each of us as believers in him as the son of God.

De’Vannon: Yeah. So just give it time. This is a, a thing of patience. You can’t run out and become a spiritually mature overnight. You can’t rush any relationship. It takes time.

Branch: Yep.

De’Vannon: So, so the Eucharist deals with the body and the blood of Jesus. Now I’ve heard some people say before that the, the concept of the blood of Jesus just sounds disgusting to them. They’re like, who wants to be covered in blood? That just sounds like a horror movie

because you know, people in churches you’ll hear them say, you know, I plead the blood of [00:26:00]Jesus or I’m covered in the blood of the lamb, you know, or something like that. You care to explain to us what does it mean to plead the blood of Jesus already to be covered in the blood of the lamb? How does that transfer translate from Jesus’s physical blood spilling to the spiritual ways meant today? 

Branch: Wow. There’s about three different things in what you just said. First of all, it’s symbolism, right? The bread is a symbol of his body. The wine is a symbol of his blood, as you said, the body was broken and the blood was shed to be covered in the blood of Christ is to take on righteousness, you know, as the, as the sacrifice for our sins.

And then when we die, we will be refined by his spiritual power. That was, you know, [00:27:00]when he, when he shed his blood for us, he became the living son of God for us. So, you know, the it’s just like the that people were, you know, around their neck or somewhere on their body as a symbol of their, Christian identity.

It’s a symbol and people who, you know, sort of get caught up in the drinking of the blood and that kind of concept just are missing the whole point. Then, you just, can’t, some people just refuse to walk to understand have clarity. And they’re not at that place yet. That’s all that they’re not ready, you know, to make that leap of faith and understand who Christ was, why he came the first time and why he’s coming back again.

So it’s all symbolism. You have to [00:28:00] look past the, the actual wine and see what it represents.

De’Vannon: Right. So then if I say I plead the blood of Jesus, our Lord covered me with your blood. What I’m saying is God, I, I understand the sacrifice for me. And I believe that that power is still alive. That day. I’d like to cash in on that. You know, I’m not, I’m not, I’m not saying dump a bucket of blood on me. I just, I would like to cash in on the work that you did spiritually speaking. 

Branch: Yep.

De’Vannon: So. So here we have Jesus before he was about to be betrayed. We know Jude Judas Iscariot was the ultimate criminal informant in history of, oh Jesus, wasn’t a criminal. I had an informant who snitched me out to the cops before SWAT came and kicked my door in. So I can understand, you know, Jesus feeling betrayed, you know, it’s bad when you got somebody who’s been running with you close to you, who also don’t like you, who platen against you, which is what [00:29:00] Judas was about.

So that’s where the term, when people say, oh, he’s a Judas. It’s something like that. You know, we’re talking about the ultimate snitch. And so Jesus turned to him and he said that what you do do quickly gone and sell me out for the 30 pieces of silver is already arranged to go cause those secure the bag.

So we can get on with this crucifixion thing and then branch and I will be talking about the crucifix. Next week. And now we’re going to go into detail about what this whole authority crowns and why, what does a man carrying a cross and dying on the cross have to do with me today? You know, we’re going to talk about the crucifixion next week.

And so here we are, Jesus. He’s already washed his disciples feet and they’re sitting down to have this, what we call the last supper. When you hear somebody say the last supper is this, the last time Jesus is having communion or commuting hanging out with his disciples before he’s to go to, to get crucified.

So this is where the [00:30:00] concept comes from now. First Corinthians chapter 11 is where the apostle Paul kind of lays it out. And he starts started saying for, I have received of the Lord. So it seems to me like maybe this came to him in a vision or something like that, where he learned about the act of communion from God, from Jesus himself.

And this was a scripture that they always preach. Every time we had communion and Sunday in the Pentecostal church, every time we did it, they always did it first Corinthians 11. So anything you’d like to say at this point, Bernie. 

Branch: No, go ahead. Go 

De’Vannon: Okay. 

Branch: And it can help. It can also be found in Luke 22 you know, with actual disciples at the supper, but 

De’Vannon: Okay. 

Branch: same coach, same scripture.

De’Vannon: Right. And so and so basically they, they, they just, there’s a lot of information and there’s a lot of things that are said [00:31:00] that don’t really directly have to do with the bread and the wine, but are still important all the same. So I’m just going to focus on the bread and the wine, because that’s what we’re here for today.

And so. The body represents the physical sacrifice. He said, take eat. This is my body, which is broken for you. This do in remembrance of me. Then it says after the same manner, also he took the cup thing. This is my blood drink it, you know, as often as you do this and remember me, so the way he’s phrasing this, as often as you do, it means that something that can be done again and again and again, and this wasn’t a one-time thing that he shared with his disciples.

said this do in remembrance of me. So Jesus wants us to a physical way to remember his sacrifices. You know, when we do things. Physically, it reinforces it in our conscious and our subconscious minds our spirit. And it makes us sacrifice a reality [00:32:00] today in the present, even though it was done many years ago.

So he wants us to sit down and celebrate it. I kind of get the feeling of how we do our birthdays or an anniversary or something like that. know, we want to always commemorate it and find a way to keep it alive and fresh. And so that to me kind of like the breakdown of how communion came about to be gave the first example, and then we picked it up from there. 

Branch: Well, a lot of people, you know, anyone who prays before a meal and, and thanks the Lord for what they’re about to receive. That’s the same outward expression of what he was talking about. You know, at that last supper, he was trying to describe to the disciples. These are people, these are men who had been with him, you know, up to three years.

And an ed walked with him and learned from him every day and still many of them [00:33:00]misunderstood what was happening. And so he tries to describe the suffering. He’s about to go through on the cross and why he’s going to do it, you know, for his day in four hours. And so what he’s asking them to do is every time.

You know, you’re sitting down to eat or drink in a supper situation, just like we do at supper or dinner. He’s giving us that opportunity to reconnect with him through what we’re taking in, what we’re consuming in our body. If we’re remembering him by prayer, before we do that, then we’re recognizing that reestablishment of our spiritual consumption of him with us today.

And so it’s, it’s that transfer of the physical to the spiritual, both in his day and for us. And so we, you [00:34:00] can do it. The van and said, you can do it at home whenever, but you can do it every time you sit down for a meal, you can remember, you know, the Lord by what you’re taking in. And you’re, re-establishing that spiritual reconnection and taking him back in.

So go ahead, my brother.

De’Vannon: And I’ve heard it. That’s a very good breakdown. My man, I’ve heard it said. You know what, when you drink that, that grape diesel, that wine, you know, you’re drinking actual physical healing yourself. You know, your faith can take you as far as you’re willing to go with it. And so, you know, I’ve heard, it said, you know, you know, when you eat, you eat, eat the bread of represents his body.

Then you’re taking that life into yourself. You know? So that concept, there are bins around the act of community and attractive heal, physical infirmities. I’m not going to take that away and say that it’s impossible, especially not after that touch that I got one [00:35:00] that day when I was a kid, you know, you know, this is, this is, this is a, this is a powerful tool that God has really given us.

And so, I mean, it says as often as you do it, if you want to do communion week, every day, you know, that’s in between you and God. I ever, you know, it’s a one other way. We have the field close to him. But my point in doing this today, as we approach Easter, is to let you know. You did not have to wait until you go to church to experience this communion with God.

And so at this point, I am going to show you how I do it. And I’m just gonna reach back here and get this little piece of unleavened bread. It took me a while to track this down on the internet, as you know, it’s, there’s really yeasty, you know, in this country. But I finally found me some on leaving bread or maybe I went to whole foods.

I think I went to whole foods and actually able to get this. And so you can read the [00:36:00] scripture and the Corinthians or a different one if you want to not. So when I do it, I try not to be so super formal about stuff because I don’t want to lose the meaning in ritual and in formality, know, I like it to be real.

Like I’m just having a conversation with my boyfriend. I don’t have. That I use to talk to him you know, I just don’t, I just flow. And then, and that’s the same way I try to be with God, because it’s real because God judges the hearts and the rains, he does not judge the outward actions like that. He’s looking into the real reasons why you’re doing what you’re doing.

So it’s not really, which no man is qualified to do so. And so it was really about the heart of the matter. So whenever I’m ready to feel a little bit close to the Lord, I will me some unleavened bread like this sucker right here. And maybe I’ll say a prayer like Lord, I’m about to take this communion with you.

I appreciate the sacrifice that you gave for all of [00:37:00] us all those years ago. That sacrifice is still just as alive today as you are. And I know that as I take this communion, that. Lining up and sinking into and tapping into and becoming one with eternity and within you with you and with all that you are, all that has been is, and what will be actually to take me with you on, into your strength and on into your grace.

And as I take it as a bread, and as I drink this wine, want to thank you for what you’ve done. I want to thank you for what you are doing. I appreciate what you’re going to do, heal me and cleanse me and making me right and make me whole by your standards that nobody else is in Jesus name. Now, some people like to break the bread and do it.

doesn’t matter to me because it’s going to be broken once you start crunching on it. whatever suits your fancy, oh

 My cup, you can get [00:38:00] communion sets off the internet. Really expensive. And you had like a whole, a lot of them and they had like a short expiration date. And so you could get you like some Welch’s grape juice honey, or a bottle of wine, like this Cabernet I have right here. And you’ll be in a better position.

You just drink it. And that’s all there is to it. And now I believe the Lord heard that it’s a simple thing. I’m a little bit goes a long way with Christ. Like I said, he judges the hearts and the rains, the motives behind things, just because we sat down and take the time to do something special before. And with God, he can’t help, but honor that because we take time to do so much everything else that brings us pleasure in life.

And I’m not saying that there’s anything wrong with that, but how much do we travel? Fuck [00:39:00]drink alcohol, go out, have fun party, go to museums, social media for God’s sakes. You know, we play our video games. How much time do we spend doing all the fuck we want to do? But if we were to take a snapshot of our time spent in a week or a month, how much time do we actually personally spend with God versus all the other stuff that he’s empowered us to go out and do you know, I really want to put him first, you know, with balance, you know, I don’t overdo it.

I don’t underdo it, but if I’m going to be having all of my amenities and things in life for damn sure. Well, I’m going to sit down and take the time to get close to the one who’s who’s enabling me to do it all, but got to say about it.

Branch: Well, you have to think of communion as you just described communicating with God. anytime that we express that either, [00:40:00] know, the way you just did with the bread and wine in prayer or in petition or in our behavior, how we respond, what it got say. And Matthew Love God first and most and love your neighbor as yourself.

when we respond to the event, And the people in our lives with compassion and understanding and love, you know, we are communicating, we are communion communing with God because we are responding the way Christ responded. When he walked this earth in the way God would have us respond our daily life.

So it’s about communion. It’s about communicating. about having that relationship where God’s spirit active within us. It’s part of us. So it’s us to have that communion in that communication the, where we [00:41:00] can then in our actions express that we emulate we do what Jesus would have done in the same situation.

in that emulation of Jesus thought word, indeed, we further. Children of God and everything we do then an act of obedience because that’s what we wish to do. We wish to emulate or use Christ as our example. There’s, there’s lots of ways to have that communion physically, mentally, psychologically, emotionally, but you’ve got to have that living spirit within you.

So you’ve got that connection.

De’Vannon: And what do you think about in Corinthians that says that not the the body and blood of the Lord and worthiness. For, if you do. So you [00:42:00] bring condemnation on yourself and for this many, for this reason, many are weak and sickly among you and many sleep. So in the church, when I was growing up, they, they wouldn’t use that part of the scripture to basically be like, if you come up here and take this communion, unworthily without repeating for your Sans first, then you could get sick or die or some sort of condemnation would come upon you.

I wonder. Do you agree with that sentiment?

Branch: Not at all, not really. It, it reflects to me, you know, that power that the priest or the pastor is trying to use over the people in the pews. You know, one of the things about with God is the power is the spiritual power. Again, I can’t say this enough when you’ve got the spirit of God living within you.

The one thing that you will recognize in your life is [00:43:00] And once you start living with truth in your life, see the fallacy and the fakeness and the false who of the world that you know, and this is not to condemn priesthood, but again, man has manipulated religion, no matter what religion, has been Islam, you know, Christianity, Judaism, Buddhism, the original master had from God and had writings, which glorified God our nature.

once those masters passed away, then people in the church. Oh, where the sin God, you know, took control. And if you are not in that same spiritual place with the [00:44:00] master, then it’s very easy to get sucked into the politics and the hypocrisy of religion. no matter what religion it is and the deeper and the more power that the church or the religion gathers in garners, the more it tries to impose on its membership.

The fact that, you know, God is up here and we’re down here. And the way you get to God is through us. Just like we’re trying to express today. The way you get to God is through Christ. So it’s, you know, it’s power and manipulation of, of men over other men or, you know, clergy over the congregation, they can say, and.

Trick people into believing just about anything, because they have convinced people that they are God’s representative here on [00:45:00] earth to that group. You know, you have to break free of that. Again, there’s nothing wrong with going to church, going to synagogue, as long as when you’re there, you’re being fed the word and your heart, you know, you you’ll know in your heart, whether it’s bullshit that they’re trying to put out and control you with or whether it’s really what God would have you do and respond to.

De’Vannon: Mikey often say the church has an agenda. 

Branch: Yeah, definitely. You know, their agenda is to get more money out of you. You know, w why any church needs to collect funds? Is beyond me. If, if, if their congregation is being fed the truth and being fed a relationship with God through their master or Christ [00:46:00] or Eamomm Muhammad, whoever may be, there’s no reason that they, that the congregation won’t voluntarily tide.

No, you don’t have to brown beat them into collecting money, but here again, religions are a human entity with an agenda and that agenda has to be funded. So you know, the Catholic church is one of the richest entities in the world, and yet they still collect tides and dues.

De’Vannon: Oh God, the Catholic. 

Branch: Yeah. Well,

De’Vannon: I’ve been watching on HBO plus the young Pope with Jude law’s sexy ass as the young Popin have to say that series, it’s quite titillating, it’s quite titillating. And I actually want, there was a friend of mine whose family was [00:47:00] greatly damaged by the Catholic church. And I really, really want to have her on my show to talk about it, because I’m just how to say this about the Catalytics, you know, do what you do.

And I head judged nobody, but personally there’s no way that I would kiss the Pope’s ring. I’m not about to are doing it, the doctrines and stuff that they do and the whole confessional and everything. I just don’t understand. We’re all the rules and stuff came from that they follow it’s almost like they have their own Bible or something.

I’m like who the hell came up with this shit in. And that way the people wait and hang the, on the on every word, the Pope says, you know, they can’t decide for themselves if this is right or wrong until he says it. And then you have the one Pope who may rule one way on something. And an another Pope rule was a different.

 Something, but then they’re both supposed to be the ultimate voice of God. Okay. Well, then there’s some human error in here. Some fucking where cause otherwise one poke shouldn’t have a different [00:48:00] opinion than the next. So there it’s supposed to be like the holiest guy or whatever the fuck he’s supposed to be.

I don’t like that. The actress of the Catholic church, the big robe, it’s the big ass hat that dude wears all, all the extra shit. I’m all like what happened to just Jesus? Like what is all of this? And so, so many of my friends are ex Catholics, man. And they, ain’t never seven foot in the church. Again, they don’t give a fuck.

They are done whatever the hell happened to them. And that in that Catholic religion has scarred them and they are over it. They’re over all with it. They’re not having any of it. Although once they, you know, she’s, she’s cool with God, but just fuck the Catholic church forever. So then, you know, some of them haven’t lost it all, but I don’t know people like, they ha they, they have like a PTSD when they leave the Catholic church.

Some sort of some right in there, you didn’t have that many people saying the same thing. Like they just felt abused. Be it the poor Ulta boy, actually getting fucked [00:49:00] by the, by the priest or like she’s like mental abuse. Like that much hurt shouldn’t come from a church and I don’t care how much money they have.

Branch: Well, we live in a world where, know, everyone has. Suffered some form of reviews. You just have to realize that that’s way of nature and that’s human nature. And it’s been going on since the beginning of mankind, you know, no one grows up totally absent of a dysfunctional family. our very nature, we are dysfunctional and the groups that we joined being they religious or social or civic they all have dysfunction within them, by our human nature.

We are aggressive and selfish. And you exhibit had those kinds of desires of, [00:50:00] you know, what’s in it for me, or it’s all about me when we live our lives that way. We are going to cause harm to other people. And, you know, that’s what happens when you have societies that are absent of spiritual grounding.

And when you have people who, who have been sort of sucked into the world’s ways, believing that, know, this is the only way you can live. And that reason, that’s the way I’m going to live. You know, they are absent of spiritual grounding. They’re unaware that, you know, what is happening is not healthy.

not healthy mentally. It’s not healthy physically. So it’s not just the church situation or the church community has issues. Every community has issues and every group has issues. It’s a [00:51:00]matter of how they play out. And of course, know, because religions rely on this power from God as God’s representatives to those particular groups, they can use that power to cause a lot of damage and a lot of harm, but that’s not just indicative of religions.

That’s the world we live in. That’s why spiritual grounding is so important.

De’Vannon: Hmm. So I would say everybody, when we’re dealing with churches and preachers and priests or whatever, all of them is to look at them through a filter, you know, like they could be right. They could be wrong. They might be a righteous person. They might not be a righteous person. What they say could be accurate, what they say could be inaccurate.

You got to try, try, the tree for the fruit. It bears try these spirits. Jesus said there would be many spirits. And basically he’s saying don’t believe [00:52:00] everybody, you know, feel it out, research, do your own homework. So we got to stop approaching preachers and churches. Like they’re automatically right there.

Like they’re automatically correct. You. We gotta deal with them. Like we would anybody else like, okay, let me see what you say and make sense, know, like that as opposed to, okay, they’re right. I’m wrong. So I’m just going to twist my thinking too, to be in line with whatever comes out of their mouth. That’s not going to work. 

Branch: Well here again, the key is spirits of grounding. If you have the spirit of God living in new food belief in Jesus Christ, you will see fallacy the truth they speak of. You’ll recognize. This is the problem with, you know, people who are injured. Who don’t have spiritual grounding. They believe what they’re being told.

 like we have today, many people believe what they’re being told by [00:53:00] politicians 

De’Vannon: Yeah. 

Branch: corporations. And, you know, they’re filled with lies because they have an agenda of self enrichment. when you don’t know what the truth looks. You can believe anything. And with today’s technology, know, they can make anything look true to your eye.

 You can’t tell what’s real and what’s not real anymore because technology so far advanced. And so you have to have, you have to have the truth living within you so you can recognize the truth or the false hoods that are being presented to you by the world and by the people in the world and the events in the world.

do you get that spiritual How do you get God’s spirit living within you? So you can see the truth. You go to Matthew seven, ask, you, see you knock Jesus [00:54:00] Christ to come into your life. And what he tells us in John 14 and 26 is when you ask me, I will send my spirit to be with you, to live with you and to guide you.

And that’s all you have to do. And once you’ve done that, his spirit, the spirit of God, as creator will come, you, his holy spirit will come through Jesus Christ and live within you. And from that moment on, you will begin to see and recognize the truth at church at synagogue, at temple in your life, in your relationships in your world.

And you’ll recognize the truth and you’ll know what’s true and what’s not true. And then you have the choice to live by either that truth or the faults of the world. And that’s how easy it is to change your life.

De’Vannon: And truth is something we must discover for ourselves. Like I say, I don’t argue with [00:55:00] people on social media over like politics and stuff like that. I did for like a hot second when I first became political back when all the Trumpy foolishness was happening. And then I quickly realized like, okay, nobody’s changing here.

And then I 

Branch: Exactly. 

De’Vannon: I also realized everything everyone was saying was a third party account. So they’re either listening to Fox news MSNBC. And I told them, I think the last thing I posted in regard to politics was this, like none of us have verified any of this information for ourselves.

You’re choosing to believe a media outlet, but you weren’t there. You didn’t go get the report. You weren’t on the ground. You didn’t have boots on the ground. This is not your information. is somebody else’s information. So why sit here and argue with you about what Joe Scarborough toe, what I heard Joe Scarborough say, you’re trying to tell me what Tucker Carlson said.

bitch, neither one of us [00:56:00] went there to go and actually get the shit. And neither did Joe Scarborough or Tucker Carlson. So, and I saw this manifested with somebody who was new to Christianity. When I first met him, he was like agnostic or some shit. He just didn’t believe in anything, somewhere along the way he got converted and he decided to become Christian.

And so I asked him where his, what his stance was. LGBTQ issues as I tend to do with people who I might be seeing from time to time, because I don’t fuck with people who have a problem with my with my sexuality. I refuse to do it because I’m not going to let myself be abused that way again. So he gave me the textbook answer of well, you know, it’s not me who has a problem with it.

I’m just telling you what the Bible says. And then I told him before I dismissed him and I never talked to him again. Not because we were different, but because when people have these adverse [00:57:00]thinkings about my community, I don’t know if they’re going to do something to hurt me one day. And so that’s why I don’t want people like that close to me.

Not because we disagree, but because the way they disagree can be violent at times towards me. And so so I tell them, well, that Bible, that you’re reading is an American is from the middle east. And it was not a written in English. You know, it was written in ancient languages, which I can already tell you haven’t bothered to read, because first of all, you just started walking with Christ like yesterday and you ain’t in.

So I encouraged him to, as he’s going through the Bible to remind himself of the fact that this is someone else’s account and you are not an expert on what somebody else said, you can’t be because you didn’t say it. I mean, you didn’t, you didn’t research. It is not your fucking shit. And then S and then I encouraged and I told them that.

So what you’re doing is trying to tell me my life is wrong based on someone else’s interpretation of someone else’s look. And I refuse to accept that from him. He could not argue [00:58:00] with this logic because it’s because it’s simply the truth. And so I caution people to why they believe what they believe.

You know, if you believe this about this group of people, or you believe whatever’s right or wrong, Y you believe. Something about politics. Why is it truly, because you’ve done the hard work to determine the fact you do your own fact finding and fact checking. Are you just listening to what someone else said or just reading what someone else wrote the right convincing words and the right tones of voice.

Many people can be manipulated. So, or, you know, then media outlets will use your emotions to manipulate us we’ll preachers. So we’ve gotta be careful about why we believe what we believe. And most people, I challenge brands about why they believe what they believe cannot respond to me because the reason they believe it is because someone else said it.

So. [00:59:00]

Branch: Well, we generally believe what we grow up with, you know, and what we, as children are taught and a doc tornado. What, what our family believes is our first fundamental belief, because that’s all we know. And so each one of us grows up believing what we’ve been told and what we’ve been exposed to. And, you know, for a great number of people that’s, as far as it goes, they have no desire or no inclination to step outside of that box and have a broader view of the world.

You know, this is why I always encourage people, take the blinders off and see the world for what it is good, bad, and ugly. And there’s a lot of people, you know, who, especially in our country who refuse to get out of that box [01:00:00] and they dig their heels in as to their. And in their hearts and minds for them, you know, that is truth.

And we live in a world where there’s lots of agencies and corporations who are willing to help you continue in those beliefs. That’s why we have the world. We have it’s not the world that we will experience after this world for believing Christians, but it’s the world that we live in now. And that’s why it’s so important to recognize truth from fallacy and fiction and fabrications.

 I can’t express that enough. You know, the way you get to that place is to have the spirit of Christ living and growing within you. Then you will see the truth and you’ll have the option and the choice in the decision. As to how you’re going to live your life, you know, with the truth and with [01:01:00]Christ in your life, guiding your steps or battling the world with the world’s waves,

De’Vannon: You shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free. 

Branch: man.

De’Vannon: So also want me to say so for anybody who might get hung up on, and we were talking about how tell people use the scripture to say, if you take communion, will be judged and condemned if it’s really bothering you, or if you want to, just to be sure you have a clear conscious, all you merely need to do is just ask the Lord to forgive you of all your sins right before you take it.

 we should be asking for forgiveness of our sins everyday in way. But but you can just be like, Lord, forgive me, my sins, anything I may have done wrong. You’ve seen it all. I confess it. I’m not going to hide anything. I’m not running from you. Please forgive me. And I accept that forgiveness in the name of Jesus.

And in that moment you’re done, everything’s clear so that you can go ahead and take your communion just in case those scriptures put any [01:02:00] kind of fear or trepidation in you. And so Well, for the, you know, for your listeners who are listening to this and have wonder, or now are a little bit better versed in what community is, they can start to do it. If they choose to and know the reasons that it took place and what it represents and how it can connect them to the Lord, how they can commune with the Lord.

Branch: So I think it’s been good, you know, for people who’ve wonder, didn’t know, now they understand a little bit better and they can make it part of their lives if they so choose to. But at least they’ll know a little bit more than they might’ve before. So good job.

De’Vannon: And so it. That’s all I’m going to say. I wanted to do for us. This is a quick video. We’ve been talking for an hour, but we usually go for like two hours. So this is probably like our [01:03:00]short is starting the interview to date. So with that, you can go ahead and have our closing word. Did anything you’d like to say, go ahead and say it, man.

Branch: I want to thank all the listeners and keep tuning in to demand. The podcast, you know, podcasting is a great opportunity for people to learn a lot of different information from a lot of different people. It’s sort of the last bastion of free speech and because it is free, there’s podcasts out there on virtually any interest area or any subject matter that you might want or need in your life.

 We’re glad you’re here with Davanon and myself. We talk about, you know, Jesus Christ and spiritual growth, and we’d love for you to come back as often as you want.

De’Vannon: Hallelujah tabernacle And praise.

Branch: And man.[01:04:00]

De’Vannon: Thank you all so much for taking time to listen to the sex drugs and Jesus podcast. It really means everything to me. Look, if you love the show, you can find more information and resources at sex, drugs, and jesus.com or wherever you listen to your podcast. Feel free to reach out to me directly at DeVannon@SexDrugsAndJesus.com and on Twitter and Facebook as well.

My name is De’Vannon and it’s been wonderful being your host today and just remember that everything is going to be all right.

 

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