Episodes

Episode 195: What It Takes to Endure When a Mavericks & Misfits listener reached out via email and confessed her desire to quit everything in her life, Jeff felt like he was supposed to honor her request to dedicate an episode to the topic of enduring rather than quitting. In this episode, Jeff shares a handful of commitments, disciplines, and values that every believer should embrace in order to continue in the things which God has asked of them. Encouragingly, there is also permission and guid...

Episode 194: Knowing What Season You Are In As we mature in the faith, we gain the ability to discern the type of season we are in as we follow Jesus. Not every season is the same, therefore there are differing challenges, opportunities, and expectations which God releases in each season. In this episode Jeff Lyle unpacks six common seasons in the life of a believer and addresses how we can go deeper with the Lord in each of them. If we fail to discern the season, we will find it difficult to kn...

Episode 193: Confronting the Religious Spirit Jesus wasn’t always polite. He did not always speak with gentle tones. He was not committed to making conversations easy on people. Jesus said the hard things…and sometimes He said the hard things in a hard manner. This episode of Mavericks & Misfits takes us through six separate and intense statements that Jesus made against the religious leaders of His day. Rarely do we stop and recognize how offensive these statements would have been to the Pharis...

Episode 192: Ambition: Good or Bad? If God were to ever promote you above and beyond your character, it would end up crushing you. In a generation wherein believers of all ages are clamoring for recognition and success in the Kingdom, we are in an hour which desperately needs a reset. Your life and ministry cannot be about your calling, your gift, your anointing, or your influence. Superstar Christianity is flawed and fragile, yet it seems to be presented as the measurable goal for so many Chris...

Episode 191: To Fight Or Not To Fight Sometimes the Bible instructs us to stand down and refuse to lift a hand against an enemy. At other times, we see clearly in Scripture that God expects us to proactively defeat and drive out our enemies. When it comes to conflicts between Christians, how are we to know which is the right approach to warfare? This episode of Mavericks & misfits draws from Jeff Lyle’s personal and recent experiences of heavy conflict with other believers. Using Scripture, we f...

Episode 190: How to Forgive One of the most difficult things to live out as a follower of Christ is His command to live with a heart free of bitterness and unforgiveness. We have all been done wrongly by someone. Words, actions, and attitudes sometimes come our way from others with no other intention but to hurt us. We feel their stings. Then, Jesus comes to us and calls us to forgive them for everything they have said and done. Furthermore, He commands us to do this same thing with everyone for...

Episode 189: What About Fasting? Jeff Lyle’s first encounter with fasting as a Christian came in the form of a weekly legalistic demand. For the first 18 months of his Christian life, he would fast for a legal 24 hours, sometimes setting his alarm at 12:01 AM to get up and eat after fasting the previous 24 hours. Because of this, Jeff abandoned the practice of fasting for the next three years, believing it to be Old Testament law that bore no fruit. When Holy Spirit brought New Testament revelat...

For many Christians, there exists an ignorance of what to do when they have failed God in something they thought, said, or did. They know that Jesus paid for their sins, but what do they do when they have intentionally sinned in some way that they cannot excuse? We answer, “They must repent.” True, but what does repentance look like for a believer? If one asks God for forgiveness but does not change his/her ways, then is that true repentance? What about those who despair deeply when they fail Go...

Episode 187: Validating Who You Are & What You Do Most people are trying to get ahead. We need to get ahead at work. We would like to get ahead at home and stop drowning in nonstop duties and projects that can seem suffocating. Parents want their kids to get ahead of other kids so thye can eventually get ahead in life. In the Church, many people want fruitful ministries that impact large amounts of people. They want their calling to be validated. They expect to be used and elevated. What does Je...

Episode 186: When It’s Too Heavy In this episode of Mavericks & Misfits, listeners invited to consider and confess their internal weariness. Today’s episode reveals the sometimes overlooked issue of spiritual fatigue and overwhelming weariness that can find Christians. Jesus offers all a simple remedy of how to reignite rest and appropriate self-care. Jeff Lyle discusses Jesus' promise of peace and the metaphor of His yoke, inviting listeners to a partnership that lightens life's burdens. This e...

Episode 185: Accusation: Satan’s Stranglehold Are you feeling the weight of an invisible battle? Have you checked that voice in your head/heart/spirit to make sure it is the right voice to which you should be listening? Today’s episode of Mavericks & Misfits plunges into the heart of spiritual warfare and offers helpful equipping for defeating a primary tool of the enemy called Accusation. This podcast reveals the three primary modes of accusation that Hell uses to undercut you, and you will dis...

Episode 184: Individual Stats Are Killing Championships In this M&M episode, we confront the hard truths about disillusionment in the Church, spurred by the sins, flaws and missteps of its leaders. We must determine to hold to the importance of perseverance and commitment, likening the Christian journey to the arduous races, fights, and wars that soldiers and athletes endure for victory. Emphasizing Jesus' steadfast dedication to His church, despite its imperfections, we examine the counterprodu...

Episode 183: Is It Of God Or Not? The Great Commission and the advance of the Kingdom through the Church are the two activities being facilitated by God which will continue until Jesus comes. Within those two activities (which are really just two aspects of the same movement) there are scores of historical movements that God initiates for a season and then allows them to fade into history. How do we know today if something that looks like a move of God actually is a move of God? What are we to d...

Episode 182: Noise in the Soul Scripture speaks of the “noise of the enemy.” Many believers are unaware that a primary tactic of Satan and his demons is to consistently disorient the believer with the noise of warfare. The good news is that each believer is fully authorized and empowered to diagnose this type of noise, and to silence it. Sadly, most believers do not take it seriously enough, and the end result is that the enemy’s noise from the outside begins to become internal noise that brings...

Episode 181: God’s Brief Moment Offer Too many voices seem inclined to hijack God’s communication to declare to us, “THIS IS WHAT GOD IS SAYING RIGHT NOW!” The truth is that God is actually saying many things to His people, and that there is not a singular Word that he is presently releasing that stands as the lone Word of the hour. We need a touch of wisdom from Heaven to discern the many things which the Lord is speaking to His Church in this hour. There is an ancient statement in the Book of ...

Episode 180: What May Reignite Your Flame Scripture warns us in two areas concerning our relationship with Holy Spirit: 1. Do not grieve Him 2. Do not quench Him Far too few Christians grasp how easy it is for us to commit both of these violations. Today’s podcast helps us analyze if we have quenched the flame of the Spirit in our lives by continually grieving Him with a certain violation of His nature and will for us. The good news is that, once this activity is exposed, we can quic...

Episode 179: Red Clay Warfare For close to six decades, the American Church has presented an exterior of polish. It has looked really inviting to step into the American Brand of God’s Kingdom. Wealth, health, triumphalism, prosperity, power, luxury and beauty…we have been told that these things are what make up the Kingdom. The negative impact of this lopsided messaging is clearly seen today. While God is committed to blessing and prospering each Christian as He wisely chooses, there are some ot...

Episode 178: What If It’s This? NOTE: Please use discretion if you regularly listen to Mavericks & Misfits with your young children as this episode holds candid discussion of sexual issues. Now more than ever, American Christians must take a difficult look in the mirror to become sobered about sexual sin among Christians. The slow drift that has been occurring for decades is no longer a drift. It is a full force torrent that is capsizing individuals, families, churches, and major movements with...

Episode 177: Hypocrites In The Church You do not need an anointing of spiritual discernment to know that the Church has hypocrites within it. You do, however, need an anointing of biblical discernment to understand the difference between true hypocrites and true Christians who fail to always live up to the righteous standard that God offers us. If a Christian failing or sinning is ALWAYS evidence of hypocrisy, then you yourself would be a hypocrite. Fortunately, the bible clarifies for us the di...

Episode 176: Blowing Up Christmas For Everyone Who would have ever thought that the season on the calendar wherein the world considers the birth of Jesus Christ would have ever ended up being a rope with which Christians play a spiteful game of tug-of-war? If nothing else, Christmastime proves yet again that Christians have learned to fight each other over anything. While each is free to decide for themselves whether or not the modern modes of observing Christmas make sense to them or not, we do...

Episode 175: What God Is Offering You There is a standing offer from Heaven to which not enough people say YES. If God offered to make us all millionaires, nearly everyone would say YES. If God offered to make us all beautiful and healthy, we would rush to sign up. Yet, God has permanently offered to make any child of His incredibly wise…and too many shrug, sigh, and walk away. This is the generation that needs to value wisdom more than gold, beauty, or health. There are a couple of verses in Ps...

Episode 174: The Spirit of Offense at the End of the Age When Jesus talked about the signs that will precede the Second coming and the end of the age, we are most familiar with the global wars He foretold, the earthquakes, and the famines. Many are unaware that He also spoke of people being deceived into offense, hatred, and falling away. In fact, Jesus taught that so many people will be offended that they will betray their Christian family along with their blood family. Today’s podcast seeks to...

Episode 173:Why We Need A Five-Fold Comeback Pastors cannot move a flock into breakthrough. Prophets cannot do it all. Evangelists are insufficient to finish the task. Apostles begin much, but usually aren’t equipped to finish the task alone. Teachers can tell us what, but rarely how or why or where. Do these statements offend you? They shouldn’t. God never intended the Kingdom mission to rest on one leader or even one type of leader. In these last days, we are seeing a clear resurgence of five-...

Episode 172: When Do I Walk Away? There is only one Savior…and it is not you. Many Christians are surprised – even shocked! – to learn that the Bible communicates clearly that there are times to sever ties with certain types of people in our lives. While we live with the awareness that we are forbidden to live with bitterness and resentment toward others, the Scriptures are equally clear that we are permitted (and at times we are even commanded) to draw boundaries that result in people no longer...