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Between Heaven & Earth

Between Heaven & Earth

By: Encounter Culture Mission Collaborative
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 If you want more from the Christian life, this podcast is for you. We’ll guide you as a follower of Jesus to bring Heaven and Earth together in your family, neighborhood, and community. In each episode, we’ll explore what the Spirit of God is doing in and around us, empower you to thrive in the collision of kingdoms and join Jesus in His great project of restoration until His glorious return.Copyright 2025 All rights reserved. Christianity Ministry & Evangelism Spirituality
Episodes
  • Episode 14: Part 2: Manifestations of the Spirit: Being you, Being Weird, and Loving Well

    Episode 14: Part 2: Manifestations of the Spirit: Being you, Being Weird, and Loving Well
    Jun 23 2025
    Summary The podcast episode from Between Heaven and Earth, hosted by Justin and Amy Howard, explores the intersection of spiritual manifestations, ministry, and the Holy Spirit’s work in daily life and church communities. The conversation dives into understanding physical manifestations of spiritual power, distinguishing between immature and disobedient ministry expressions, and processing personal wounds from “weird” or harmful ministry experiences. The hosts emphasize love as the core motive of Christian ministry, cautioning against rigid “formulaic” approaches and encouraging discernment rooted in grace and compassion. They share stories illustrating how God’s power can work through imperfect people, highlighting the importance of recognizing God’s love beyond human flaws. The discussion encourages believers to cultivate a hunger for more of the Spirit’s work, to embrace risky obedience out of love, and to develop mature leadership that fosters safe spaces for growth without enabling chaos. They advocate for healthy liturgical structures that facilitate encounters with the Holy Spirit without demanding emotional extremes, stressing the importance of both order and openness to spontaneous Spirit-led moments. The episode concludes by urging listeners who have been hurt to engage in forgiveness and healing, nurture personal discernment, and lean on community and professional help where necessary. Ultimately, it calls Christians to courageously live as a vibrant, Spirit-led community that embodies the love and power of God in everyday life. Highlights 🌟 Love is the ultimate aim of ministry, shaping how spiritual gifts and obedience manifest.🔥 Physical manifestations of the Spirit’s power, including healing, should be expected and embraced in whole-person experiences.💔 Forgiveness and healing are crucial for those hurt by immature or harmful ministry practices.🤔 Distinguishing between immaturity and disobedience in ministry fosters grace and accountability.🌿 Cultivating a hunger for the Holy Spirit’s presence is essential for spiritual growth and revival.🕊️ Healthy liturgy balances order and openness, creating space for Spirit encounters without chaos.🤝 Community, prayer, and professional support can help believers process wounds and deepen their relationship with God. Key Insights 💖 Love as the Fulfillment of the Law and Ministry’s Foundation: The hosts repeatedly underscore that loving God and loving others are the fulfillment of God’s law—the central “main thing” in ministry. This means ministry must be shaped not by formulas or performance but by genuine love, embodied in patience, humility, and grace. Misguided approaches driven by pride, fear, or control hinder the true flow of the Spirit and harm relationships. Love becomes the litmus test that validates spiritual experiences and leadership effectiveness. 🌬️ Physical and Emotional Manifestations Reflect a Whole-Person Encounter With God: Justin and Amy assert that Christian experience is holistic, involving body, mind, and spirit. Manifestations such as healing or emotional renewal are biblically grounded and meant to be normal, not aberrations limited to fringe groups. Embracing these expressions leads believers into wholeness and a tangible experience of God’s kingdom among us. 🩹 Navigating Hurt from Abusive or Disruptive Ministry: A significant part of the discussion deals with addressing pain caused by ministry that was immature, sinful, or manipulative. The hosts advocate intentional forgiveness as a release, alongside a season of healing often requiring community and professional help. This approach recognizes the reality of trauma and encourages a pathway toward restoration rather than bitterness or judgment. ⚖️ Differentiating Immaturity From Disobedience Is Crucial for Spiritual Maturity: Not all “weird” behaviors or unexpected manifestations reflect disobedience. Some reflect immaturity—a normal phase in growth requiring patient correction. Labeling immature expressions as disobedience can stifle growth and alienate people. Properly assessing situations with compassion, asking probing questions, and guiding with grace can transform environments into places where people feel safe to “fail forward.” 🔥 Risky Obedience Out of Love Spurs Spiritual Breakthroughs: The podcast shares a story highlighting God’s power working through someone immature and flawed, emphasizing that God’s healing is motivated by His love for broken people, not human perfection or credentials. Risky obedience—acting in faith with a loving heart even if it feels unconventional—is contrasted with unloving actions driven by formulaic or manipulative motives. 🎶 Liturgy as a Vessel for Encountering God, Balancing Order With Openness: The hosts challenge the notion that Spirit-led worship must always be spontaneous or emotionally intense. They argue for thoughtful...
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    46 mins
  • Episode 13: Part 1: Manifestations of the Spirit: Being you, Being Weird, and Loving Well

    Episode 13: Part 1: Manifestations of the Spirit: Being you, Being Weird, and Loving Well
    Jun 16 2025
    Summary The podcast episode from Between Heaven and Earth, hosted by Justin and Amy Howard, delves into the often misunderstood and sometimes “weird” manifestations of the Holy Spirit in ministry and worship settings. They explore how such expressions—ranging from emotional worship experiences to prophetic acts and deliverance ministry—can sometimes appear odd or unsettling to observers yet hold significant spiritual meaning. The hosts emphasize the core purpose of any Spirit-led ministry: to help people truly know and feel God’s love, rather than to draw attention to individuals or create theatrical displays. They stress the importance of balancing openness to the Holy Spirit’s movement with mature discernment to avoid exploitation, manipulation, or immaturity in ministry expressions. The conversation is candid about the challenges leaders and congregations face when unconventional manifestations occur, including emotional intensity, physical reactions such as shaking or falling, and prophetic acts that may initially unsettle the community. Amy and Justin wrestle with how cultural expectations, fear of judgment, insecurity, and pressure can lead ministry participants to act artificially or “weird.” Throughout, they highlight scriptural foundations and emphasize that true prophetic and Holy Spirit ministry must ultimately produce the fruit of the Spirit—love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness, and self-control—and bring glory to Jesus rather than focusing on human performance. They also address how physical manifestations—though sometimes uncomfortable or misunderstood—may accompany genuine encounters with God, citing biblical examples and personal stories. The hosts conclude by encouraging listeners to love well, exercise wisdom, and embrace authenticity in their spiritual journeys without succumbing to anxiety or the compulsion to control others’ experiences. Highlights 🙏 Exploring Holy Spirit manifestations that can appear unconventional or “weird” without losing spiritual authenticity.❤️ The primary goal of Spirit-led ministry is to foster genuine love and connection to God, not spectacle or control.🔍 Discernment is key: manifestations must be weighed against biblical fruit and focus on Jesus, not individual attention.☯️ Balancing emotional worship with maturity to avoid manipulation or unnecessary theatricality.🎭 Pressure, fear, and insecurity often drive people to perform or replicate strange behaviors in ministry settings.✨ Scriptural prophetic acts can be unusual or jarring but must ultimately edify and build up the church in love.🛡️ Caring leadership involves loving both the individual experiencing God in a unique way and the corporate community simultaneously. Key Insights 🔥 Manifestations of the Spirit are diverse and can be misunderstood: The podcast acknowledges that manifestations such as shaking, laughing, falling, or prophetic acts can seem strange to outsiders or even insiders but often represent genuine encounters with God’s presence and power. However, this diversity requires careful discernment to avoid mistaking human immaturity or emotional manipulation for divine activity. This insight reminds ministry leaders to cultivate an environment where authenticity and spiritual fruitfulness override the desire for control or spectacle. 🤝 Love is the ultimate litmus test for ministry practices: The hosts underscore that the hallmark of any authentic Holy Spirit activity is love—both for God and neighbor. Manifestations that cause division, offense, or self-glorification fail this test. Love involves patience, gentleness, kindness, and self-control, even amid intense emotional or spiritual experiences. This emphasis on love challenges ministries to prioritize relational integrity and community health over dramatic displays. ⚖️ Cultural and personal factors contribute to “weirdness” in ministry: Anxiety, fear of judgment, immaturity, and pressure within congregations or leadership groups often motivate exaggerated or performative behavior. For example, young or insecure individuals may mimic behaviors they have seen without fully understanding their spiritual significance, and leaders may pressure others to “look spiritual” on stage. Recognizing these dynamics is vital to fostering a spiritually mature and supportive atmosphere that honors the Spirit without fostering competition or manipulation. 📖 Biblical prophetic acts often defy social norms and include discomfort: The podcast references prophets like Ezekiel, Hosea, and Isaiah, who enacted jarring, unconventional acts commanded by God, sometimes involving suffering or public embarrassment. This contextualizes seemingly strange modern manifestations within a biblical framework, reminding listeners that God can use unusual methods to communicate and redeem, though genuine prophecy ultimately points to Jesus and ...
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    49 mins
  • Episode 12: Part 2: How to Suffer Well: Honesty and Friendship with Jesus

    Episode 12: Part 2: How to Suffer Well: Honesty and Friendship with Jesus
    Jun 9 2025
    Summary In this episode of Between Heaven and Earth, hosts Justin and Amy Howard explore the complex nature of suffering caused by other people’s sin and how followers of Jesus can engage with it biblically and practically. The discussion distinguishes between forgiveness, healing, and reconciliation—three distinct responses to suffering that often get conflated. Forgiveness is a personal choice to release retribution, healing is a divine work of restoration, and reconciliation requires mutual effort and repentance. They delve into common unhealthy ways people respond to suffering caused by others, such as codependency, where one absorbs harm wrongly, leading to emotional and physical consequences. Instead, they advocate for an “upcycling” approach of handing suffering over to Jesus and partnering with Him in healing, which requires setting healthy boundaries, acknowledging anger, and reframing pain in a Christian spiritual context. The hosts affirm the validity and importance of anger as a divine signal that propels one to action but warn against unresolved resentment and rage, which are harmful and unchristian. Through personal testimony, they illustrate how setting boundaries guided by God’s love can transform difficult relationships. They also introduce the concept of “love covering a multitude of sins” (1 Peter 4:8), emphasizing that love does not ignore sin but chooses relationship and costly engagement nonetheless, modeled on Christ’s sacrificial love. The discussion extends to the mysterious and redemptive nature of “unitive suffering,” where believers share in Christ’s sufferings, deepening intimacy with Him and others. Finally, they offer practical pastoral wisdom: suffering is often mysterious, healing is incremental, humility is crucial when intervening in others’ pain, and prayer should be honest, raw, and persistent—marked by a shameless audacity to bring our suffering to God. The episode encourages listeners to embrace suffering as part of spiritual growth while maintaining hope and trust in divine healing and restoration. Highlights 💡 Forgiveness, healing, and reconciliation are distinct but interconnected responses to suffering caused by others’ sin.🔥 Anger is a healthy, God-given signal that calls for action and boundary-setting.🤝 Codependent responses to suffering are harmful; healthy boundaries and handing pain to Jesus are crucial.❤️ “Love covers a multitude of sins” means choosing relationship despite cost, following Christ’s example.🌿 Unitive suffering deepens intimacy with Christ by participating in His sufferings.⏳ Healing often takes time and involves gradual restoration rather than instant relief.🙏 Honest, persistent prayer with shameless audacity is essential in engaging suffering and receiving God’s guidance. Key Insights 😔 Differentiating Forgiveness, Healing, and Reconciliation: Forgiveness is a voluntary release of personal vengeance; healing is God’s work restoring brokenness; reconciliation requires mutual repentance and rebuilding trust. This clarity prevents common misunderstandings in pastoral care and personal relationships, emphasizing that forgiveness does not necessitate instant reconciliation nor does healing always follow immediately.🛑 The Danger of Codependency: Absorbing others’ sin and pain as one’s own, often justified as “being holy” or a “good victim,” leads to emotional overload, physical symptoms, and eventual relational explosion. Recognizing codependency allows believers to break cycles of dysfunction by learning to set boundaries and hand over pain to Jesus rather than internalizing it.😠 Biblical Role of Anger as a Propellant for Action: Anger in Scripture reflects God’s righteousness and motivates necessary action for justice and boundary-setting. Healthy anger is not sinful but is a bodily and spiritual signal that “something is not good.” When properly stewarded, anger leads to constructive responses that defend one’s integrity and relational health. Conversely, unresolved anger breeds resentment (bitterness and desire for revenge) and rage (dehumanizing aggression), both destructive and unbiblical.💔 Love Covering a Multitude of Sins in Real Relationships: This biblical principle, often misunderstood as ignoring sin, actually reflects costly relational engagement despite ongoing brokenness. It mirrors Christ’s sacrificial love toward imperfect people, meaning Christians are invited to sustain relationships in grace even when it hurts, thereby participating in God’s redemptive work of restoration.🔄 The Mystery and Participation in Unitive Suffering: Believers are called not only to endure suffering but to participate with Christ in His sufferings, deepening intimacy with Him and transforming suffering into spiritual union. This concept, rooted in Pauline theology and early church teaching, reframes suffering as a sacred fellowship rather ...
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    57 mins
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