All Things Skin, Wellness & Faith
All Things Skin, Wellness & Faith
BREADCRUMBS OF FAITH DEVOTIONAL 29: Seeking God First: Navigating a World Dependent on Artificial Intelligence
Faith and discernment take center stage as we examine our growing dependence on artificial intelligence over seeking God's wisdom first. The Holy Spirit provides perfect, accurate guidance in God's timing – if we're willing to look beyond the instant gratification of technological answers.
• Matthew 6:33 instructs us to "seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness"
• Technology like GPS, Siri, and Chat GPT can be useful tools but shouldn't replace spiritual discernment
• Our "microwave mentality" wants instant answers while God works in perfect timing
• Pray about everything – from lost headphones to major life decisions
• The Holy Spirit is our helper and spirit of revelation, waiting to guide us
• We must be grounded in Scripture to distinguish true doctrine from false teachings
• Begin deepening your relationship with God by bringing all decisions to Him in prayer
• God's answers may not be immediate but are always 100% accurate
In today's world full of AI influence and quick technological fixes, I encourage you to lean on the Lord, not Chat GPT or AI. He is faithful to guide you when you seek Him first.
hey, there you're tuned into another episode of all things skin wellness and faith, a podcast where you'll learn simple ways to implement skin care and wellness techniques from a holistic approach. On this podcast, we'll explore practical ways to address skin health and overall holistic spiritual well-being, while deepening your faith. I'm your host, natasha Diaz, a licensed holistic esthetician, day spa owner and a faithful believer and follower of Christ, and it's time to get ready to get encouraged and empowered as we dive into all things skin wellness and faith.
Speaker 2:Hello and welcome back to this week's episode of All Things Skin, wellness and Faith, this week's breadcrumb of faith, where we come along or I come along to just give you a bit of encouragement for your week, a word of knowledge, I guess is what you could really call it Just a little word to give you some food for thought, some spirit food for thought, that is to, yeah, just basically just have you guys with some prayer points for the week, something to think about, to ponder on. I want to ask for your forgiveness in advance. I am recording outside, or I should say in my car today, so there may be a little background noise, a little background interference, but it's all good. As long as you guys can hear me clearly and you get the basic point of what it is I'm delivering to you today as a message, I think we will be all good. So enough with that disclaimer.
Speaker 2:Today I just want to jump in on a topic that was actually brought to my mind not to my mind brought to my attention by the Holy Spirit, and I actually had a different podcast planned for this week for the Bright Crumb. I had actually was supposed to be last week, and then I was just going back and forth, you know, with the Holy Spirit. I'm like, okay, what do we do with this podcast? We do the weekly Bright Crumb and then, twice a month, bi-weekly, do the weekly breadcrumb and then, twice a month, bi-weekly, we do the full episode, which is wellness and faith. But I was just asking, you know, kind of preying on which is the direction we should go, and I'm still kind of, you know, deciding or waiting to hear back, I should say, from the Holy Spirit as to where we're doing bi-weekly on the full episode, or we're doing once a month on the full episode and then just doing the breadcrumb every week. But either way, you can expect to receive a breadcrumb of faith every single week. And while I'm still pondering on, you know, once a week, once a month for the full episode, or twice a month, I will let you guys know more about that.
Speaker 2:So, anyways, today what I wanted to speak to you about is a subject that is kind of hot on the scenes today, kind of trending, and it is AI, artificial intelligence. I was just looking over a post today that I saw and I was just how do I put this? I was just a little bit taken back. What I've been noticing and even noticing this with my 15 yearyear-old noticing this in general conversations is that there is a heavy-duty reliance on AI for information. Now I know, on over the years, as the World Wide Web or the Internet, you can say has come out out, that we have had such a use for the internet and it's been bittersweet, it's been good and bad. It's been a good tool and resource, and I heard another sister or a pastor in my church say the same thing. We have all this technology and it is used for the good, but it can also be used for the bad, and I kind of feel the same way about Google and the internet and all of that.
Speaker 2:But I don't know. I do and have used AI for a few things, but one thing I find myself being mindful of is not to overuse it. A couple of reasons. We just don't want to become dependent on using something that can actually hinder us or cripple us. And when I say that, while it is a good tool to use to prompt ideas, to get ideas for certain projects and things, I don't feel that it's something that we should just become dependent on. I don't feel that it's something that we should just become dependent on. I don't feel that it's something that should necessarily be our absolute first and foremost go-to, and I pretty much I don't think it should be. A crutch is what I'm starting to notice. I feel like every time I ask a question to someone, the first thing I hear is go on, chat, chat, gpt, and I'm like this is getting just a little bit out of hand. One thing I noticed, even with what is it? I'm sorry, I got a brain cramp. Sorry for all the ums, but basically what I was going to say was GPS, for example GPS. While I do use that myself, I find myself every so often just trying to back off from the GPS. Gps is a form of artificial intelligence, I mean, while it's very helpful, I feel it's something that can make our brains a little bit lazy.
Speaker 2:We have no idea how to read a map. Even back in the days I don't know if any of you remember, but when we had MapQuest, you still had to you know map it out a little bit. You still had to read the directions. Some of the things still became a little bit more etched in your mind. Now I feel like with GPS, all you do is plug it in. I even found myself being a habitual offender of this. You could go the same short distance, or even if it's a longer distance, every day for like a month and still not be aware of how to get there, because you're just used to listening to this little device. You're just used to listening to this little device tell you where to go and how to get there, and it makes your mind a little bit dull. Even before we had MapQuest and we had all these things in the old days, you had to take out a map, you had to know how to read a legend, you had to know your directionals north, south, east, you had to know. You know your directionals north, south, east, west, southwest, and you know if a situation ever went down. You were able to kind of figure out things on your own. You had a sense of direction as to where north and south and east was.
Speaker 2:Nowadays, that has been totally wiped out and eradicated, since we have a little device or our phones, I should say, another piece of technology that is bittersweet but that has made us lazy, but we just depend on, and so this is the same thing I'm noticing with the newest piece of technology that has come out, which is AI, aka chat GPT. And so what I noticed today is that there was a question and I don't want to make a big deal about the question, because it's not necessarily what I'm talking about. It's not about the question, it's just more so about the use of AI and artificial intelligence, and I'll tie this all together spiritually and biblically in a minute. But I just saw a post and someone was asking a question and I responded to the question as far as you know what I felt, you know my answer would be. And then another person responded and they responded with a AI, a chat GPT response. An AI, a chat GPT response. And immediately I wanted to say, like the Holy Spirit and scripture, just like hit my belly.
Speaker 2:Because what I saw is that the first thing that was done was to, rather than to go one, either figure out the problem on your own, with your own mind and your own logic, or to figure, you know, figuring it out based on what your own knowledge is. We didn't do that. The first thing we did was we referenced and went to, you know, artificial intelligence for answer, and that was like our Google, that was like our go-to. Now I have bittersweet feelings towards artificial intelligence and chat, gpt. And you know there are some of you that might call me a conspiracy theorist or whatever you may have, but what I'm starting to see is a takeover, slowly but surely, slowly being introduced by artificial intelligence. We have Siri, we have Amazon Alexa.
Speaker 2:You go to the grocery store, you have the self-checkout to the grocery store. You have the self-checkout. You go inside other grocery stores BJ's, stop and Shop those are our local stores. I mean, bj's is national but Stop and Shop is not, it's a local grocery store. You have the little robots that are just riding around the store and we are taking more jobs, more things away from the humans or the human nature and we are putting it more on this artificial intelligence.
Speaker 2:And to me it's like I don't want to use the term and say it's a little bit of scary, because, first and foremost, the Bible says that God has not given us the spirit of fear in Timothy, but second Timothy, but he's given us a spirit of sound mind. So if you have, you know, god the father, god the son and God the Holy spirit. You're going to rely on him for everything and for every situation. But I can say the least that it is a little bit weird how slowly these things are being introduced, and slowly. We're just being conditioned as a whole human race that it's normal to be dependent on devices and technology, and so what I want to focus on today is what the Holy Spirit spoke to me today, when I immediately saw this response and saw this post, is what happened to seeking first the kingdom of God, and that's going to be our reference scripture for today.
Speaker 2:It is basically a scripture that I'm sure many of us believers are very, very familiar with, but it's something that for me, is like a staple and it's very important Matthew 6.33, we all know it as in its shortest form seek first the kingdom of God. What I want to reference today is Matthew 6.33, but in a different version, an amplified version, and I'll read that to you guys today. It is but seek, but first and foremost, importantly, aim, strive and strive after his kingdom and his righteousness, his way of doing and being right, the attitude and the character of God, and all these things will be given to you also, will be given to you also. So, as we all know or maybe we don't all know, but that is written in red in certain versions of the Bible and what that means is basically that it's Jesus speaking, so this is coming directly from our Lord and Savior to seek him. So I know that we are all in different areas of our walk and some of you this may be a no brainer, but we are all at different levels that listen to this podcast, and we are all at different levels. Who you know just are in our walk spiritually. And so, while this may be a no brainer for some, there may be some that are not aware and then it may be somewhat of a refresher to others or a different way of thinking about it.
Speaker 2:And for me, spiritually, where I am in my walk, how I position myself in my spiritual walk, how I position myself in my lifestyle, is to be totally dependent and relying on the Holy Spirit. So I am at the point where I'm pretty much and I'm not perfect and I'm not deeming myself as perfect, but I just want to encourage others, if you're not already in this direction, to begin to look forward to being in that direction is to basically pray about everything, and this is another scripture Pray. The Bible says pray about everything, pray without ceasing. These scriptures all tied together. We want to seek first his kingdom. So for me, the whole thing was filter everything through God first, all of your decisions, the bigger ones, the smaller ones, all of your questions, whether you deem them stupid or whatever it is, you need to know. This is what Matthew 6.33 is saying To seek first his kingdom. Get your wisdom from God, our father, who is all knowing, not through artificial intelligence, not through chat, gpt, not through AI, not through Google, but through God.
Speaker 2:In today's world, it's very easy to have a microwave style expectation of everything, and I went through this the other day with my 11 year old. These are little things that I practice, you know, in my lifestyle. She couldn't find her headphones and she was all distraught and she was all basically out of character and I said baby girl, I said why don't you just pray over it? The Holy Spirit is good, he is a spirit of revelation, he will show you all that you need to know. And she kind of she looked at me in distress, but it's like I could immediately see that the look on her face was but I need them now.
Speaker 2:God is not going to answer me now. The Holy Spirit is not going to answer me now, and I think that's what it is is that we don't want to wait on the Lord. We even sometimes, you know, I'll say something to my husband and I'll just be like. You know, it may be something as simple as I can't find my keys or, you know, I don't know what to do about. You know, whatever the situation is Right now, he's in the process of buying tires for his car.
Speaker 2:Whatever the situation is Right now, he's in the process of buying tires for his car, and the first thing that I've conditioned my mind to is to seek first the kingdom, ask the Holy Spirit. So I'll try to basically direct everyone in my family, every client, everyone I'm in contact with, to seek the Lord in all your decisions, large or small. It's so important. When you become conditioned to this lifestyle of seeking him first, you will be so amazed at how things in your life are transformed. You will begin to see answers, things that you would normally get frustrated over, just iron themselves out, because the Holy Spirit, he's there to help us. The Bible says that the Holy Spirit is our helper, he is our spirit of revelation. He's there to help us in every single way possible. There's nothing too small, nothing stupid. He's just like. I think I explained this to someone the other day that he's kind of just like tapping his foot. He's watching us as we're getting sitting there and getting frustrated, pondering on all these decisions that life throws at us.
Speaker 2:We don't know what to do. We're researching like crazy. We may be all over Google trying to figure out, even with health and wellness, trying to figure out how do we manage this? What vitamin, what herb do we use for that? I want to tell you right now, 80 to, I want to say 90% of the time when I'm dealing with clients. I know my stuff as far as health and wellness, but none of us knows it all, not even myself, even with skincare.
Speaker 2:The majority of my knowledge I don't want to say majority, all of my knowledge comes from the Lord, essentially because he's the source. And even if I've gone to school, if I studied, he's the source and even if I've gone to school or I studied, he's the source. All these other things are resources, but there are times that you know I can't remember everything. I don't have time to go. I don't want to say time, but I don't, you know. Yeah, I guess I could say time. I don't have the time to research through all my medical journal reports and all my school books, you know if there's a particular diagnosis or a particular medical condition or herb that I'm not familiar with.
Speaker 2:So, whether, getting frustrated and, you know, exhausting myself with X amount of hours of research, I will literally just go into prayer, into my secret place, and I will say Holy Spirit, what is it that you have to say about this? What is it that you say about this client's situation? What is the best way for me to go for this route as far as what herbs she should use? What is the best route to go with this client's particular skin situation, because she's exhausted? This and the different things have taken place. But ultimately, what I'm trying to get to is every single thing, from losing my keys to even I myself lost my headphones.
Speaker 2:And, no, we don't always get an answer right away. This is the initial thing that I wanted to. You know, touch on, or one of the keys I want to touch on. No, you may not get that instant chat, gpt answer where you could just type in something really quick and come out with this. Really, you know, great, well-rounded, you know answer really quickly, but you will get answer number one and God's perfect timing. Oh, god is perfect, his timing is perfect. So the answer that you get may not come in your timing, but it'll come in God's timing and God's timing is just absolutely perfect. The other thing is you can rest assured that the answer that you get is going to be 100% accurate, which, for me, that's a no brainer, that's a total no brainer.
Speaker 2:As to which way we should go, I think that you know it should be quality versus. You know the time that it takes to get the answer, and it's like on chat, gpt. You know there may be some accuracy to it, it may be absolutely right, but nothing is more right or more accurate than the word that comes from the father, god, lord, jesus, our Holy Spirit himself. So, more or less, what I want you guys to reflect on today is just one as always to begin to deepen your relationship with the Lord, begin to deepen your reliance on him.
Speaker 2:In today's world, I feel like we're really, we are taught, we're taught to you know, be independent. You have, you know all these songs, you know independent woman and all these things that you know the way the world guides us to be independent and to you know, lean on ourselves, but the Bible, which is our ultimate rule book for life, which is our ultimate guidance for life, says clearly apart from me, you can do nothing. So let me encourage you guys to begin to just, you know, pray about everything. Like I said, pray without ceasing from the smallest tiny little thing. And it's so funny because I actually heard a pastor years ago say make a comment that you know oh, god doesn't want you asking about. You know, all these little decisions. He wants you to make some decisions on his own.
Speaker 2:And I'm not trying to knock a pastor. I think what he meant about that is, in some things you're not going to hear God like right away, because in some things you have already studied the scripture and so you already have a basis or grounding for what the word says and which way you should go. And sometimes, yes, you should just apply the scripture to that situation and move in the direction that the scripture leads. But I also believe at the same time that we should go right back to Matt 633. And if you're unsure, ask for confirmation. God is good for that, he'll definitely confirm. So if you believe you have an answer and you're not sure, and you just don't want to operate in the wrong way, ask him to confirm it. And on the other side of that, you may be in a season of testing and they may be a time where you ask him to confirm it and he doesn't confirm it. But then this is why you have to be grounded in your word. This is why you have to have that intimate relationship with our father, that intimate relationship with the Holy Spirit, because, based on the situations you've had in the past, you should be able to navigate through those situations. And should you trip up and make a tiny mistake, guess what? We all make mistakes. The Bible says we all fall short of the glory. This is why we have him and we have his grace. The Bible says my grace is sufficient, he will give you grace, but you have to seek him, him, first. So that is the message that I just want to stress to you guys today. Again, you can look into that whole chapter and I encourage you.
Speaker 2:Matthew, every book of the Bible is good, but Matthew is. You know, it's a part of the gospels, it's a lot of you know Jesus speaking and Jesus teachings. It's just really a good portion of the Bible, to start with if you're a new believer and it's a really good part to just really have etched into your spirit. The Bible says, and I think it's Hosea 2.4, I believe If it's not Hosea 2.4, I think it's Hosea 4.6. But it says my people perish for lack of knowledge. So in today's world where we have AI and fluencing everything, I actually saw that you could go and have chat, gpt write up a sermon for you. So you need to be very careful as well on who you listen to. But that's a whole nother. I digress, that's a whole nother area that we can talk on another. Excuse me, on another day, but I just want to encourage you to really be seeking the Lord. Especially the day and age that we are in, false doctrine is rising up and it's looking more and more like it's real when it's not.
Speaker 2:And the only way you're going to know the true from the false is to one, be in your word. Two, be praying without ceasing. Three, be praying for wisdom and discernment. So, guys, these breadcrumbs are getting longer and longer. I apologize, but I always ask the Holy Spirit to take over. Whatever you want me to say to your people is what I will say. It's so funny. I'll tell you really quickly before I hop off of here. But my daughter said to me your breadcrumbs are no longer breadcrumbs, they're starting to be full slices of bread, and I thought that was really cute that she said that it's. You know, whatever the Lord says. Whatever he wants me to deliver you guys is delivered to you guys. Is what I'm obedient to do, all right? Well, I'm going to wrap this up for there. I thank you so much for tuning in and, again, lean on the Lord, not chat, gpt, not AI. All right, I love you guys. I'll see you guys on the next episode. Bye for now and God bless.