Day 46 (2011)
➡ 6:00 - When we last met we were talking about touching and loving people. We will continue that today. We were kind of leading up to this point in the school. We talked about identity, becoming love, healing and there are some other things we are going to touch before we wrap up the school - a day on the baptism of the Holy Spirit and the difference between when you get born again and a river flowing out of you - two different experiences. Wanted to talk at some point on intercession. There is a healthy kind of intercession and a real unhealthy intercession - where people are carrying the burden in the Lord in a way where they are burdened and crushed. Two days of just questions and answers.
8:20 - Give the kingdom - Luke 10 - The “commissions” talk about getting outside of yourself and giving someone something that is in you. Giving something away called the kingdom.
Healing is a Part of Redemption
➡ 8:45 - The emphasis of this school is not healing even though healing is part of the finished work but the emphasis is on purpose and getting in the right heart and a call to our Christian life. It’s not just receiving something from God but becoming something because of Him.
9:40 - We need to understand why we are alive - our purpose - My heart has shifted in the last few years. I want everybody healed. But what feels like has risen above that just a little is the mandate of why we are alive. It’s one thing to be healed and another to have strong God given purpose in your life. And having a good reason for being healed instead of just having a good day.
10:10 - Preaching on why we are saved and becoming love is the mandate on my heart - When I travel, rarely do I end up talking about healing during the weekends when I am at the churches. But a whole bunch of people get healed and it all kind of makes sense in the end. There are churches that ask for understanding in that area (healing) and I’ll teach and that is cool. But really preaching on why we are saved and becoming love is the mandate on my heart. And what it is doing is really indescribable - the transformation in churches - the pastors - the feedback.
11:00 - Healing is part of the new covenant - But healing is all part of the covenant. We’ve been talking about the bread / body and the blood / cup. The blood was shed to forgive the act of sin. The body paid a price to remove the effects of those sins. So healing is hugely a part of the will of God.
11:25 - Settle in your heart the will of God to heal - It is so important that you personally settle in your heart forever the will of God to heal. Or you are just going to try to find it along the way - and tap into it. You won’t have the confidence of what you are going after. You will just be hoping it happens.
12:00 - We’ve built a lot of camps and separated ourselves over that one issue - the will of God to heal - because people have not settled on this.
12:10 - It’s so important to look at the life of Jesus as the will of God revealed and come to a place where you settle that no matter what my experience, no matter where or where I haven’t grown yet, it’s pretty clear to me from God’s standpoint what He desires.
12:25 - Man has privilege AND responsibility - We manifest Him - And a lot of us think well if He desires, why doesn’t He just do it? It’s because He gave the earth to the children of men and we are the body of Christ. And He hands us the baton of the new covenant church - told us to lay hands on the sick - told us to forgive lest they be not forgiven. That means we manifest His love and mercy and peace. So if our hearts get hard, how is the world going to know a loving God? If we get religious, how are they going to know Spirit led living? How is the world going to see Him, unless they see Him through us? We don’t realize the honor of this thing. And we, if we are not careful, just turn it into some mysterious God in the clouds somewhere that is sovereignty working the order of the day - and I hope my card is favored today. But the Christian life is not like that.
13:10 - We are in fellowship with God. We have communion with Him through Holy Spirit. We are to live by the Spirit. We are to know the truth so the truth makes us free. And we are to walk in Him.
13:30 - We tend to shelve our responsibility - Somehow we have gotten away from that truth - to whatever will be, will be and it is God at an administrative desk calling the shots - when He has handed us the kingdom.
14:00 - Humble yourself and be taught to grow in healing - It’s real important to check in on Matt. 17 - the epileptic boy that wasn’t healed when the disciples prayed and what Jesus had to say about that. Was it the will of God to heal the boy? Yes. But was he healed when the disciples prayed? No - oops. So we ought to look there and humble ourselves and hear what Jesus had to say and give ourselves to those truths. And realize that there are things that go on in our minds. Of course we want to see everyone healed. There is a place where we manifest the truth - we represent the kingdom - God actually flows through us with the answer. So we probably ought to be in agreement with the answer.
15:00 - We are ambassadors of the heart of God - We probably ought to be an ambassador. When you are an ambassador, you represent fully that which you represent. You go on behalf of that thing completely. When you are an American ambassador, you take the authority of America, you are treated as America - you represent the heart of the nation.
16:10 - Spiritual umbilical cord that is never severed. We are not meant to live apart from Him.
Available to All
17:00 - 2 Corinthians 5:14 - For the love of Christ constraineth us; because we thus judge, that if one died for all, then were all dead: -
The love of Christ compels us - He died for all - That is the fuel tank we talked on Monday. Why does the love of Christ compel us? What is so compelling? Because we judge something here - a corporate concept - I want you all to have this same eye - this same perspective. I want you to see that the love of Christ is judging something here - that if One died for all, then all died. So we’re not just waiting for men to repent so that we can love them, when Christ died on the cross, we all died there with Him. The price was paid, all men died. You still have to repent and come into a place where you receive mercy but the mercy of God is towards all men. It says in 1 John 2:2, He didn’t just die for your sins but also for the sins of the whole world. So the whole world is waiting, without realizing it - God has the whole world in waiting to be lavished with love and that the price was already paid. It’s to be stepped into.
18:30 - Healing is available for unbelievers - That is a good reason to believe that unbelievers can be healed - because there is mercy over their sins. He died for their sins. Jesus came and healed and not one person was born again, they were all under the law of sin and death and sin conscious and there was no blood shed yet. And yet Jesus healed every one. Why? Because mercy triumphed over judgement.
19:00 - Some people say that unbelievers and non-followers can’t be healed. He came to His own and they received Him not in the gospels. They were full of unbelief. They ultimately crucified Him. Some said that He healed by the power of the devil. There may have been some that received healing but yelled Barabus because He healed thousands as the Bible reads. The books that were in the world would not have contained the one by one writings of what Jesus did in three years.
20:10 - If there were that many testimonies and only a few got recorded, they must be pretty important.
20:25 - Jesus healed all - that's the will of God revealed - Those people - no matter where their hearts were - confused, unbelieving, sinful - were they all healed? Yes. That is a big deal. Why don’t we talk about that. That’s the will of God revealed because that was Jesus with zero insecurity, zero fear of man, zero identity crisis, zero self-consciousness.
20:45 - Follow the example of Jesus - Don't waiver but be established in what you believe - And we are called to live all of those ways because we are called to die. So Holy Spirit is teaching us how to live that way. We shouldn’t get discouraged running this race. We should keep going to reach the goal (healing flowing freely - fully manifesting God). But if we keep changing our belief system every time we bump into something that doesn’t move right away, we could be grabbing for straws and never get established in the faith. And all we will do is toss around thoughts for the rest of our Christian life. Instead of saying look this is the way it has to be through Jesus. I’m not looking anywhere else. I’m going to get there because grace will take me there. I’m done changing my mind.
21:45 - Instability makes your belief of little avail - Be established - I’m done living like the sea, tossed by the wind. The Bible says, you can ask but then if you doubt in your heart, you are unstable. So what you are actually saying to the spirit world is, I really don’t know whether I am coming or going but I have a heart for God. That’s not a real healthy position. Wind will come from all angles and toss you everywhere.
22:05 - You’ll say, well I thought I believed, until Bobby died. And you will let those situations be strong enough to bring change to us and we will never be established. We don’t even have an answer to some of those situations.
22:30 - The mountain that won’t move should work humility, teachableness in us not frustration - Who has ever been in a situation where you were sure that you were believing. And yet it still didn’t happen. We can’t let our sureness - our emotion of being sure rise above God’s word and the life of Jesus already revealed. At some point we have to humble ourselves under the mighty hand of God. And say, no matter how sure I seemed to be, there is a place for this to happen.
22:55 - What would happen for Jesus? - I always go back to this - Healed every time - If Jesus would have taken them by the hand it’s settled. Everybody across the board would answer the same way. Every Christian, even those who don’t believe in healing would say they would have been healed. Because there are no encounters in the Bible where they were not healed. They were healed every time.
23:30 - Jesus lives in us - We are the body of Christ - It’s a good way to see it because where does Jesus live? In us. And who are we? The body of Christ. And as I did, so will you. Why is this so difficult? The things I do, you will do also, if you believe. We have so many other things coming at us from all angles trying to keep our belief system from ever getting locked in - unchangeable, immovable, unshakable - because the book is already written. I’m not trying to write a book. It’s already written.
25:10 - See people for how God sees them - worth the blood - We’ve got to be Christ like enough to see past weaknesses, failures, faults and flaws and know that there is something more to a person than what they are conveying, and that blood was already shed for that person. If you can get that drilled in you, it’s not hard to reach out beyond you because everybody was worthy to God - to be paid for.
25:30 - Everyone is of equal value - Everybody carries the same weight and value. There is no high place or low place, everybody has the value, everyone is equal - there is no hot shot, no low life in the kingdom. Everyone has equal value. There is no partiality with Him. So He doesn’t want to save one more than the other. He wants them both in His house.
26:25 - Partiality is of the flesh - We get sentimental and have stronger feelings towards some than others. It’s totally flesh and I don’t want that in my life. I’ve asked God to strip me of that vulnerability. We are biased. We show favor based on how we feel about them. And somebody else does way less and doesn’t even get an ounce of the favor the other person got. “Well, they are my best friend. Or I like them more.” If we have the ability to live that way, we are not going to see the value of everyone when we are out on the street because we don’t even have a relationship with them. But God has known them from the beginning. I don’t need to have relationship with someone to love them. I need Jesus in my life to love them because the love of Christ is compelling me because I judge (see) something.
27:40 - We often judge by what is seen - Remember the waitress I told you about who couldn’t even try to smile? In the old way of thinking we would be wondering why she is even waitressing - holding a rap sheet against her. “Get a grip honey. Get another job. You aren’t cut out for this. I don’t care what is going on in your life. You can’t be bringing your stuff into the restaurant waiting on tables.” That’s how people think.
28:05 - Christians can think that way and slide a tract under the cup instead of blessing her. You need to get saved girl. But they don’t understand that she has so much pain in her body that she can hardly work. She just found out she has liver disease. And who knows what else is going on. Instead of just having mercy and compassion and figuring there has to be a reason she is so forlorn, we just judge the fact that she is forlorn. And I promise you that Jesus never, ever does that.
28:20 - Get first impression tendencies out of you through prayer - So if I ever have the tendency of that in my life it would put the fear of God in me. I would get alone when you are not looking and would say, “Jesus I can’t have that in my heart. You never see a person that way. I don’t want to ever see a person that way. Thank you for changing my eyes, imparting truth and causing me to love like you love.” That is how you change, through prayer. When you see this stuff in your life you don't get bummed out and confess it to a friend as if that is who you are. You go, “Woah, that is so not the heart of God in me. That is so not the way you are that it can’t be the way I am.” And you run to prayer and you declare that stuff and you thank God for grace that is changing you - so you don’t get presumptuous and live by first impressions.
29:15 - Everyone is valuable - Everybody is worth the blood. Jesus was hanging on the cross just as much for the Pharisees as He was for everybody else. He was hanging on that cross as much for them as He was for His own disciples and for His mother Mary and Mary Magdalene. He was hanging there just as much for every other man. Don’t forget that. It’s important to know that or you’ll play favorites in life.
30:00 - It's ok to have best friends - understand that other people have just as much value - What about Peter, James and John? - He always had them alone. That was leadership, impartation. It doesn’t mean they were more special to Jesus that He loved them more than any other man. That’s where we get into trouble - where hurt and offense and cliques happen. It’s not wrong to have a best friend. Just understand that the person who is not serving Jesus has as much value to Jesus as your best friend.
30:55 - Value of children - Everybody else's child is just as important as your child. We covet our children.
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31:25 - v.15 - And that he died for all, that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto him which died for them, and rose again. -
Why would He die for all? - purpose - He’s revealing the intention of God. He died so that we could live, but not just live. That’s not the whole story. That those who live should no longer live for themselves but for Him who died for them and rose again.
32:33 - Some people contest healing to protect their theology and experience - There was a season where I was teaching on healing a lot - examples on the Neck Ministries website. I was seeing enough fruit to know that I was on track. The people who were contesting what I was preaching never saw anybody healed in their life. That’s why they were contesting, because they were defending their experience and keeping themselves in a place where their theology writes healing off.
33:40 - Randy Clark once said in a conference, The people who believe what I am preaching to you right now see a whole lot more healings and miracles than the people who contest against it. And he said, I don’t believe that is an accident. It’s because we are on the right track.
34:00 - Settle on the will of God to heal and that we are growing up into Him in all things - If you don’t settle on the will of God to heal, you get reduced to pointing out and exploiting everything that doesn’t happen and lose the ability to rejoice in what is happening. In other words, when healing does happen, it’s - God just willed that - God intended that - but… and the but becomes stronger than the yay for God. And you have this big collection of things that haven’t happened. Be careful not to let your heart slide into there. That is why it is important to settle on the will of God to heal and we are growing up into Him in all things.
34:40 - Just settle. It’s not hard to do when you look at the word. Every promise is yes and amen through Christ. We have the green light to go. He told us freely you have receive. Received what? The kingdom. And in the kingdom there is healing. We’ve proved that - scripture after scripture. So let’s just grow up into it. Let’s not stay babes. Let’s grow and mature.
See People as He Sees Them
35:30 - v.16 - Wherefore henceforth know we no man after the flesh: yea, though we have known Christ after the flesh, yet now henceforth know we him no more. -
Regard no one according to the flesh - First impressions -Book by it's cover - I love this. From now on because of this one truth… I regard no one according to the flesh. I’ll weigh no man outwardly. I’ll judge no book by it’s cover. I’ll see every man for his potential, his destiny. Once you see this one truth it should cause us to never look at someone from a worldly point of view. Why? Because anything else would be presumptuous and proud. You are willing for God to see you sanctified and separate from your sins but you are not willing to see the rest of the world that way. We’re trying to believe that God sees us this way but we don’t want to put on His glasses. He looks through righteousness, mercy, love and truth. He doesn’t just want us to know that He sees us this way. He wants us to see that way (like He sees). That’s what brings hope. That’s what brings life. That’s what brings change.
37:30 - Trust Holy Spirit to convict - His love brings amazing conviction - We can go out into the world and tell everyone how messed up they are. Some actually know it but don’t know how to change. Some know they are messing up but don’t know the answer.
37:45 - When God heals somebody on the street who knows their life is a mess, you ought to see how that humbles them and how that has an effect on their heart. It doesn’t enable them to stay sinners and say, “Oh well God will love me anyway.” It brings amazing conviction.
38:00 - Todd at the gym in NY - talking to owner - curse words - Todd got a word for her. The next day she wants to talk. No curse words. The gospel is more than - You are bad and you shouldn’t be and you need to change. Holy Spirit was not grieved at her language.
Unhealthy Intercession
40:20 - Unhealthy Intercession - God is not incapacitating you - to where you are not functional in the body - Holy Spirit is not crying in a corner all day. He’s a whole lot bigger than that. “But I am just carrying the grief of the Lord.” No, it’s your own soul grieving. God isn’t wrecking you all day like that. “Oh, I am interceding…” - We will talk about that before the school is over… I have opened the door. God is a God of hope. He speaks life. He is not wrecking you to where you can’t function. Stuff might come on you for a season and you might intercede and catch a heartcry of God and proclaim life and truth, but it’s not so you get incapacitated, curl up in a corner and can’t function or see the church clear.
41:00 - Unhealthy intercession can produce an attitude of superiority - All of the sudden, everyone else is “religious” and you are in your sanctified corner and everybody else is missing it. Now you can’t even sit in church because everybody else is so off track. I have an in with God. Then that belief system gets into your soul. It becomes the filter you see through. Now instead of hearing for the voice of God, you are hearing through critical ears and you are hearing what could have been said better, what could have been said right, what shouldn’t have been said at all instead of “What is God saying?”
41:50 - Intercession - More later - We’ve only scratched the surface on that one. We will spend more time on intercession later.
See People as He Sees Them (cont.)
42:20 - v.16 - Communing that verse - See them through Your eyes - Father this is an amazing truth. It's what set me free. It's what caused me to see that my life was worthy - the fact that One died. Well if You made me worthy through that One dying, You made every man worthy. Every man is waiting for Your love. Every man is waiting for the ministry of Your Spirit - for the outpouring of mercy and for hope. And God, from now on, I'm going to regard no man... from now on I am going to see them through You. And thank You that grace through the cross is allowing me to see all men...
42:50 - Change happens through communion as grace meets faith - That’s faith towards God and grace towards you. You are saved by grace through faith. The salvation of the Lord is found there. Not going to heaven but the saving of your soul - the redeeming of your vision - the lining up of your heart. It’s through communion and relationship. He’s calling you to the heart of God. And the only way to receive the heart of God is to want it and be willing to die to everything that is not the heart of God and in a place of prayer, embrace it.
43:40 - That’s how this becomes your reality. Or in works - legalism you are just trying to see people a certain way and you can’t help but to see what’s wrong. And then you feel condemned and ask for prayer. “Pray for my eyes. I need spiritual vision.” It happens by grace when you pray - when you get alone.
44:05 - Seeing others as You see them - God I don't live by the flesh, I am a Spirit-led man. And I see that from now on I have no other way out. I no other option. You set this thing so clear - so cut and dry. This is a narrow door - it's the only way I can see. And Father, I agree with it. I don't want to see men's flaws and weaknesses. I don't want to have a reason to draw away and pull back from people. I thank You for love being built and established in my heart. And I thank You that I see what You see... That is how I pray when you are not around. When I say “from now on,” I cut off everything, in prayer, that would give me permission to be less. No reasons to not become this.
45:35 - v.16 - Men regarded Jesus according to the flesh and couldn't appreciate who He really was - When Jesus was here men judged Him according to the flesh. When they judged Him according to the flesh could they ever see who He really was? But now He has risen from the dead and the cat is out of the bag. He’s the Lord and Savior - the name above every name. So we are not going to see Him through the flesh and limit who He is now.
46:05 - When He was here men were weighing Him according to the flesh. Could they appreciate and see who He really was even though He was manifesting the Spirit? No, they were still judging Him according to the flesh. Now we know Him that way no longer.
New Creation - The Old Has Passed Away
46:30 - v.17 - Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new. - Therefore - He shares something really powerful and then ties us right to it. He is just sharing the heart and intent of God - the finished work of Christ - and then bam - Therefore if anyone… Who? Anyone - we are all in.
47:00 - He IS a new creation right now - lacking in nothing. It was the Father’s good pleasure to give us the kingdom, except we are growing up in understanding and truth. But everything is here. He is giving us the kingdom. He’s not becoming a new creation. He IS a new creation.
47:30 - Old things HAVE already passed away - Old things aren’t kind of slipping out of your life. Old things HAVE passed away. Man, if we could just grab that. Everything before you came to Christ was the fall of man and it was a strategy to deceive my heart, blind my heart, get me to feel more sorry for myself, lose my identity so that when the good news came I couldn’t see anything good about it. Or at best it was just a security blanket or a rescue thing. No, the gospel is the truth about my life. The gospel is not just the truth about God and Christ, it’s the truth about me. So it supersedes anything up to this point.
48:45 - New creation - new perspective, purpose, motivation - God has changed your view of life completely. He has totally 180ed your purpose, your motivation. He has defined why you are alive. And in the process He has crushed everything that was before Him because everything that was before Him was under a lie. It was people living less than who they really are so how could they treat you in accordance with the truth. And we are still taking all of that to heart and living in the pain of all of that and trying to get to God through all of that. (We are still taking the pain of fallen man, living in fallen ways to heart - letting it determine what we see to be true and trying to find our way to God through all of that mess.)
49:15 - Old things HAVE already passed away - Dan's experience - It doesn’t say that old things are passing away. They already have. This revelation was in me from the beginning because I died to my life. I saw my own heart. I didn’t make my salvation about you making things right - and regrets - and wishing people would say that they are sorry. Because even if they say they are sorry, they still did what they did and it still has a bite. And you wonder if they are really sorry and if they could do it again. We are trying to get people to make up for what cannot be made up for. So let the truth come in and set it all straight - put it all in right perspective so these things push away. So old things aren’t passing away. “Well I am getting through stuff brother.” It has passed away already.
50:25 - So it became easy for me to see myself apart from all of the bad stuff that happened to me because I realized through the gospel that none of that is the truth about me. All of that bad stuff was trying to sculpt me and etch me and the truth was God is my potter. That stuff was trying to tell me who I am and who I am not. But the cross and Christ tell me who I am and who I’m not.
51:00 - Old hurts - What does that matter now that Jesus has come? - I would love for you to get confident enough to say to people, “So what does it matter what I have been through now that I see what He has been through with the cost. Why am I raising my past experiences above His finished work when the truth is in Him?” Embrace that. That’s what puts life into your heart. You are not trying to get somewhere. You already are there.
51:40 - Be slow to speak, slow to anger and quick to listen - Do you see how our minds are. We are always thinking ten miles ahead of our hearts. We ought to listen to our heart and let our heart catch up and pass our head. The Bible says, ...slow to speak, slow to anger, quick to listen. So many times we are the complete opposite. We get riled up in feelings, we let her fly and don’t have any ears in the process. Most of our lives we have been real quick to speak, full of fury and your hearing ability is not even in the room. And you are not teachable at that moment because of what you already know. But what you already know is keeping you bound. And if you would calm down, close your mouth and open your ears, God just might speak to you through His Son and bring freedom.
Live by Faith - Not by Feelings
53:25 - Don't live by your feelings - Live by faith in truth - I never can find in the Bible any scripture that tells you to live by how you feel. I can’t find any strength of scripture that gives emotions and sentiment any kind of power. He doesn’t accommodate feelings. He doesn’t want you to accommodate them. He doesn’t boast in them. He doesn’t elevate them. He tells you to live by faith - to live by truth.
53:45 - We became sensually driven through the fall -The reason we have to live by faith is because we became sensually drive because of the fall. We became sensual human beings instead of spirit human beings, through the fall of man. Every one of us, before Christ, lived by how we felt. “How are you doing today? Oh, man, I don’t feel too good.”
54:20 - When someone says they love you, your feelings are trying to figure out every way they are not telling the truth.
54:30 - Faith separates you from living by feelings - So where does the Bible tell you to live by your feelings - to give them any weight or power. In fact faith teaches you to never live by how you feel. And then you really can be free. Because you always have the truth to hang onto. Then truth can be the one who etches you and molds you and sculpts you. If you continue in the word, you will know the truth and the truth will make you free.
55:00 - Feelings are not Lord over you - “Yeah but I don’t FEEL like He loves me.” Get alone and accept it - thank Him - read every scripture that says He does and then hold His word high above your feelings. What, are your feelings lord over you? I don’t think so.
55:20 - Put feelings from past hurts in right perspective - Feelings are a result of the fall if they are not in agreement with God. “But I don’t FEEL like all things are passed away. I remember my old things all the time.” That’s ok. Nobody said you have to forget them. When you remember them just start to put them in right perspective. Thank God you are free now. Thank God that day is over. That you didn’t just survive, you overcame. Christ is in you. You are not the product of child abuse. You are the product of your Father touching you right. And He has put strength and ability in your life to even look back to this situation and see it for what it is and have a heart of mercy that people would change. How can they hurt you now? How can they touch you now?
56:15 - Avoid comparing horror stories - they become excuses for not believing - The worst thing we can do is to rehash and compare our stories and try to make yours more intense than mine or mine more than yours. Now you are boasting in your story which isn’t your story at all. “Yeah I hear what you are saying brother, but it was a whole lot worse for me growing up.” So what are you saying? What are your proving? They become human, intellectual excuses to not believe and not that you are intending them to be. In the light of the word, the word diffuses all of that mentality.
57:00 - I’ve watched people compare their stories and one will say, “Yeah but you never went through this. Yeah but did this ever happen to you?” It’s like they are wearing their horror story like a badge. It’s them. No, I didn’t actually go through that but I could probably find something that I’ve been through that you haven’t. What are we doing? What does all that look like through the cross? - through truth? What does it matter? What are you validating? Something that is destroying you?
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57:45 - v.17 - behold - indicates the power of God, the working of God.
58:10 - Conversations about translating on trips.
59:00 - Something happened between the old and the new. It’s not a mystical thing. It comes through faith - through seeing what the cross is saying about you. He is crying out, “This is the truth about you.” Why can’t we let the most amazing thing God did right, trump everything that has ever been wrong? And then live from there?
59:50 - Get established in what you believe - these truths - all things are new - so the kingdom is in you. So it is you growing in these truths but it is already in you. So we are coming to the knowledge of that truth as we continue in it. The more we shift our beliefs and change our beliefs along the way, the more we will be assured that we will never be established, rooted and grounded. The Bible says, let your heart be established, in the book of Timothy, because the coming of the Lord is near. What it means is, He is coming soon. You better get established in what you believe.
100:35 - v.18 - And all things are of God, who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation; - All things - 2 Peter 1:3 - defines all things - pertaining to life and godliness - All things are from God. He wants all these good things for you. Reconciled - if you want to be reconciled, you are.
101:30 - If it is not simple, it’s not the gospel. You are in the way. You are thinking too hard. Because a child can get this thing. God is my friend. God is my Father. God wants to be my Dad. God will always love me. God is always there. We ought to be that basic and simple.
103:10 - You were reconciled not reconciling - so it is not a process. Some people tell me that I should honor the process in people. Some of us are only in process because we are only allowing ourselves to see process. God doesn’t even talk process. Why are we defending process all the time? “Are you sure you are not elevating your experience above other people’s process?” As if everybody would have to be like me. “Be careful not to make everybody think that they need to be like Dan.” I don’t even think that way. But that pastor had that concern. I’m just excited about a gospel that saved my life. And when I look in the Bible, the language I am talking, I got it from Him. He is not talking process. But we call it being sensitive to people. I wonder if we aren’t accommodating unbelief. “Well you’ve got to meet people where they are at.” No, you’ve got to meet people where God sees them. You could be so sensitive that it could take three years to say what you need to say.
105:10 - People say, I just want to bring honor to Jesus. Then receive what He says and say thank you.
105:25 - Communing - thanks for reconciling me
105:55 - Living by faith frees you from living by feelings - Don’t cheat yourself and say you can’t believe that (that I am reconcilED). God is saying you have to - not compulsion - but the idea that the just live by faith. In other words, you have to believe if you are ever going to live free from your feelings. It’s the answer He has given us. And it keeps us from falling prey to our feelings and emotions which led us astray our whole lives.
106:45 - A marital hurt magnified over time - an example of living from feelings - You can be in a good marriage and all of the sudden one of the spouses sees something that they let their heart get a little hurt about with their spouse. And they start believing it but they never talk about it. The other spouse is clueless. And what the first spouse is believing isn’t real but it looked that way - it sounded that way. So they are assuming that and taking it into their heart. Six months later and it is amazing how that one little wrong belief becomes a filter on your eye (your perspective). And now that belief gets so magnified over the six months that you are sure that they are every bit what you think. And they don’t even know what is going on the whole time. That’s why there is so much confusion in relationships. And eventually it blows up and we have “irreconcilable differences.” It’s wrong believing.
108:25 - Satan’s strategy is to keep you living from feelings - Do you think that satan is aware or behind any of these strategies and tactics? Do you think he would like them in your Christian life concerning spiritual things?
108:50 - Love believes the best - Do you see that God has every reason to be in that position (wrong believing) towards us but can’t be because of love? He can have all those things and be right, not just presumptuous, and still He is not like that. Why? Because He is love. Love believes the best. It takes no account of a suffered wrong. Because love does not seek it’s own - it’s not living for itself - it’s living for the image of God.
109:50 - v.18 - We have a ministry of reconciliation - We are Christians for such a strong purpose - not just a Christian to receive blessing from the Lord - not just to be healed - not to just go to heaven - to have a better day. You all have a ministry - the ministry of reconciliation - bringing people back to God. Showing people that God wants them reconciled.
110:25 - God’s way of reconciling - Love (and healing is an expression of that love) - You are not going to do that by trying to change what is wrong in their life. They’ll change for love. Why do we think we will do it (bring people into reconciliation) a different way than God did it?
110:50 - Jesus was always healing - How many did He heal on the streets? Everybody that ever asked Him - without exception. Did He ever one time indicate anything else? If He did then you would never be able to believe. Did He give you one other expression than yes and amen during His whole life and ministry? Did He ever say to someone, “I would love to heal you. I can see you are in a lot of pain. But God is working sovereignly in you through this to build some things that are lacking in your life. So you need to bear with it and hold on. I’d love to, it’s just not God’s will to do it or God’s timing.”
111:35 - Syrophoenician woman - healing is the children's bread - It’s not good to give the children’s bread to the dogs. There was a timing factor seemingly in that. Because He hadn’t died yet and He was going first to the children of Israel. And she said, “Yes, Lord, but even the little dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their master’s table.” So she honored the Jewish nation and heritage, she honored Him as Lord but she was really saying, “I understand that Lord, but I believe that you love my daughter. I believe you are the Christ and you love the whole world.” That really excited Jesus.
114:00 - Jesus marveled - Jesus “marveled” twice in the Bible. Once, when His own church had no faith - His own people didn’t believe and somebody outside of the church believed. I don’t want to be on the wrong side of His marveling.
115:00 - Your job description - do good and suffer for it - Now He is going to explain your ministry of reconciliation. There are a couple of places God explains your calling in ministry. Everybody is searching for their ministry and calling and it is pretty clear in the Bible. One is you are called to do good and suffer for it. We don’t like those kinds of callings. It will transform your world when you suffer for doing good and don’t let yourself change. But here is the ministry you have been given. It’s called the ministry of reconciliation. Here is your job description:
The Heart of God to Reconcile
115:40 - v.19 - To wit, that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them; and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation. - Not imputing - So He didn’t come to give them what they deserve. He came that they might be saved. So He wasn’t coming to point out their sin and judge them for their sin. He was coming to save them from their sin. Jesus came in a heart of mercy.
116:15 - How everyone could be healed - They were not seen for their sin - This verse reveals why everybody was healed. Why was everybody healed? Because they weren’t seen for their sins. They were seen for God’s love.
116:30 - The paralytic - He was not seen for his sin - Remember the paralytic. Take heart son, your sins are forgiven. And what was there immediate rebuttal in their mind. “Who is this man to forgive sin. It’s God that forgives sin. Who does He think He is? What a heretic / blasphemer. I’m going to kill Him.” Jesus, knowing their thoughts says, “Why do you think like you think?”
116:45 - Forgive sins - The Bible tells YOU to forgive sins. Isn’t that amazing? The Bible tells you that if you forgive the sins of any, they shall be forgiven. That means if you walk in mercy, there is a grace - a manifestation of God that comes on the situation that reveals forgiveness and mercy. If you see people for their sins are you going to minister the love of God?
117:30 - Seeing men for who they were created to be - Not accommodating sin - He defines how He reconciles the world to Himself. That doesn’t mean we are being flagrant and ignoring sin and sinfulness, we are just not letting it identify man. We are seeing men for calling, for purpose. We are not judging according to the flesh. It doesn’t mean that we are accommodating sin as if it is not a problem. But sin is not our target. God’s love towards them is our target. The heart of God for reconciliation - that’s our motivation. You’ll find that once you move in that - healing - encouraging - blessing - no strings generosity - will engage you in a capacity with people where the things that aren’t of God or the things that need to be refined come up in conversation. You’d be amazed how people will bring them up.
118:40 - Sow God’s goodness - “Isn’t that amazing? You weren’t thinking of God at all today were you? But He loves you. He is always thinking about you. His mercy is what saved my life. I never realized He was so incredible. I just thought He was a man with a big stick and a bad expression on His face. He was longing to love you like this today.” You sow that into people. Now they have to deal with that. They are either going to run from that or be changed by that. But that is the working of Holy Spirit.
119:20 - Getting men saved v. My goal - sincere love and an encounter with God - sow - water - reap - My goal is never to get men to pray a prayer to go to heaven or what we call to get men saved. My goal is to love them as purely and sincerely as possible and give them an encounter with God. And in some of those cases I find myself reaping where I have not sown. I may have just watered and reaped. And in some cases I might be sowing into their life for the very first time. I might be watering something that you sowed. But somewhere along the way the blade is going to shoot up and then the grain and then there is going to be a harvest.
120:10 - Getting men saved - Missing the value of people - I am going to miss the value of the people if all I am trying to do is get everyone saved. I’ve seen evangelistic people have a hard heart towards certain people. Where they feel like they have to go out and contest people. Don’t cast away people with rough edges. Your heart should go, “Oh you just don’t know.”
121:30 - The heart of God is to reconcile - Why did God touch the heart of the gym owner that Todd spoke to? Because His heart is to reconcile the world not imputing their trespasses.
122:30 - I like Todd because the rougher they are, the more he is looking and listening. He zeroes in on that type of person. In the mall. Words for a lady. Guy watching. The guy was trying to do this to her and nothing is working. Well let’s do Jesus. Guy was in reiki. Todd loves on the guy.
125:20 - You don’t need to stay away from Him. His stuff won’t get on you. Jesus wants to love on him through you.
125:35 - John 3:16+ - God loves people.
126:30 - v.20 - Now then we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us: we pray you in Christ's stead, be ye reconciled to God. - Ambassadors - completely representing this heart and this love on behalf of God. So we are not just Christians that go to church and serve in a ministry in that church. He is telling us that this is our ministry. We are to walk this way and live this way.
127:00 - v.21 - For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him. -
Your calling - You are fully equipped to go and do that right now. It’s not a process. Do you see your calling? Do you see your ministry? It’s through love - not imputing people’s sins.
➡ 127:35 - After the break - Loving people and encountering people and take some questions.
128:30 - Healing in WVa. Lady with 7 breaks in her foot. Next day she wore high heels to lunch. She was supposed to wear boot for 11 weeks and have months of rehab. God healed her and she can walk totally normal.
129:10 - BREAK
Healing is Part of Redemption (cont.)
129:40 - We have the ministry of reconciliation - We have a ministry of reconciliation. It’s more than attending church services. It involves expressing that reconciliation. It sounds like it’s interactive with people.
131:00 - Healing is redemptive / reconciling - So we know in Matthew 9 - We know that Jesus preached the kingdom and healed every sickness and disease Matt. 9:35, Matt 4:23 and right on the heels of that He calls His twelve and gives them power to cast out unclean spirits and heal all kinds of disease - Matt. 10:1. In Mark 3:14, He called to Himself the twelve to be with Him and that from that place of communion and fellowship He would send them out to heal. When Jesus sends out, the first thing on the list is: to heal. Some say that it is not always about healing. But you need to talk to Jesus about that. The only reason I am saying it is because I find Him saying it all the time. Why? Because it is so redemptive.
132:20 - Redemption - brought back to original value - healing is part of that - If the fall of man brought this stuff onto the earth and redemption is like the big Holy Ghost supernatural mop that just sweeps the earth. Then healing has to be a part of this word redemption - brought back to original value. It’s one of the great expressions of redemption - when sickness is removed. Jesus came and healed all kinds of people. And it’s what He came out of the wilderness doing right away.
132:50 - In Luke 4:18 He said the Spirit of the Lord is upon me to do what? To set men free. To preach good news - but the good news is to go free.
133:15 - Thank you for the privilege of healing - Father, I thank You that the Spirit of the Lord is upon me. I am a tree of righteousness - the planting of the Lord - through my life You're glorified. Father, thank You that my hands are anointed. That, Father, when I lay hands on the the sick, sickness must flee because I'm a believer and it's one of the signs of a believer. I'm going to lay hands on the sick and the sickness is going to flee...
Get Established in Relationship in the Secret Place
133:40 - Approach after affirming and establishing in the secret place - spontaneous, natural response - It’s important to get alone and affirm these truths. They come alive in your life. You’d be amazed when you go out and see somebody in a restaurant, and you’ve been praying that way, you don’t have the struggle you would have if you just sat under the teaching that you ought to go pray for them. If you just sit under the teaching, you still have to fight through everything that is not affirmed and established in you. You’ve got to press through yourself and your flesh and just do it. But if you spend time in prayer and you are proclaiming, affirming and building yourself up in these truths, it becomes more of a spontaneous natural response even though you may have a little hesitancy. You have a greater capacity to approach people because of what you have affirmed and established in the secret place.
134:45 - Knowledge must become revelation through time with Him - It’s just like this school. You can be receiving a whole lot of knowledge in this school but until you apply that to your own life and relationship to God and begin to affirm these things as true (when you are alone in prayer) in your own life, when are they ever going to become your revelation? If you don’t do that you could end up very discouraged - that you got all of this information and it still isn’t working. But that is deception because you haven’t been to Him. (You haven’t spent time alone with Him affirming these truths and giving Holy Spirit time to make them real in your life.)
135:20 - Become what is revealed through intimacy - Knowledge in itself is not the answer. It’s knowing Him. It’s revelation that comes from God. A lot of times we will try to learn what the Bible says and then do it. No, we learn what the Bible says and become it in our intimacy with God so that we are empowered to do it. We listen to sermons and try to apply those teachings to our everyday life. And it is in the flesh a lot of times - it’s just me trying to do what I should do. There’s a paradox there.
136:00 - Gifts of the Spirit - I was really excited about relationship with God when I first got saved and realizing the blessing of it because when I started hearing teachings on things I realized I was already moving in a lot of this stuff (healing, etc.). And I had already had these kinds of experiences but I just didn’t have a name for it. But the church had names for it - different gifts. Then I realized that I did not come in under a teaching and then try to do this teaching. In relationship, I have already been walking in a lot of this stuff. And it was just fun.
136:35 - So when they explained a word of knowledge I thought, that’s why I had that impression about a man that needed a miracle. That was called a word of knowledge. That’s right here in the Corinthians. Isn’t it sweet that relationship took me there. That’s grace. I couldn’t teach what I was walking in but I had a lot of testimonies. I was in fellowship with God and life was in Him.
137:25 - Holy Spirit leads - There were experiences I had in prayer that began to get taught about. And I found that Holy Spirit was willing and able to lead me in all truth.
137:40 - Holy Spirit teaches - I need to sit under teaching but I rely on Holy Spirit. Even if a man is teaching, I want Holy Spirit to teach me through that teaching. The Bible says call no man your teacher - Matt. 23:8. But there is a gift of teaching. What does that mean? That means - no man teaches in and of himself. He is not his own resource. If anyone is teaching it means that the Teacher Christ is pouring out. So there is one source of truth. His name is Jesus. And if any man is teaching, it has to be through Him. If it’s not, the teaching is very limited.
Sending the Seventy
138:30 - Luke 10 - v.1 - After these things the Lord appointed other seventy also, and sent them two and two before his face into every city and place, whither he himself would come. -
Recap of Luke 9 - This was right after the transfiguration. This is my beloved Son. Hear Him. Everything that Moses and Elijah spoke pointed to this day. This day is here. Now hear Him. They bowed down but when they rose up they only saw Jesus. Only see Jesus. Then a boy is healed. Jesus predicts His death. Dispute over greatest disciple. He put a little child in their midst. He who is the least among you will be the greatest. Sounds like we should just lay down our life in love and stop trying to win a trophy from men.
Two by Two? - Just Minister as You Go
144:10 - Ministering when alone - Recap of Luke 9 (cont.) - Man casting out demons in your name. Do not forbid him. If he is not against us, he is on our side. He is all alone preaching the gospel. Don’t have to be two by two. We are not teaching outreach. We are teaching an as you go lifestyle. It’s good to have accountability to go two by two.
145:15 - This fascinates me. Jesus hasn’t even died yet. It doesn’t say he is TRYING to cast out demons. He IS casting them out. The disciples didn’t indicate that it was a counterfeit thing. The guy was moving in authority. Who is this guy? And he is all by himself. Jesus very simply says, let this guy alone. If he is not against us, he must be for us.
146:25 - You can be by yourself at the mall, and you can love on someone and pray for someone because you want to in Christ. Some would say, “Who has given you authority to do this? You shouldn’t do this. You are coming outside of covering. You are going to get pummelled. Jesus only sent them out two by two.” Well, He didn’t correct this man and he was by himself.
146:55 - Ministering when alone - woman at the well - Jesus was all alone at the well with a woman. There is a time to use wisdom. You don’t just hang out with women alone. But Jesus was at the well alone with a woman and evidently it was important enough to God that He made sure it was recorded in your Bible. And this wasn’t just any woman. She had been divorced 5 times and was living with a man. When the disciple returned they thought that it was strange that He was talking with a woman. But no one dare question Him.
148:35 - Ministering in a psychiatric hospital rubber room - suicidal - Jesus let me in there. Were you finished? Just stay until you are done.
150:35 - Finding the woman - I’ve never shown an ordination card and I have been into many prisons. A prostitute carded me. Backslidden prostitute. Went to find her - crack house. Lady came to window of truck - soliciting. Don’t you know who you are? Are you a pastor? I need to see ID. Gets into truck and takes Dan to the woman.
155:10 - We are so busy catering to the weakness of man that we can’t even live in the power of the Spirit. I’m not in the fear of man. I am in the fear of God.
155:30 - Finding the woman (cont.) - working to get drugs. Doing this for my babies. Pray for you. Not used to people valuing them.
159:00 - If I think about that situation (alone with a woman) ahead of time, love is so chained and bound.
159:10 - Finding the woman (cont.) - She got out. Phone number for help.
159:40 - It’s about caring for people in their darkest places.
159:50 - Finding the woman (cont.) - rest of the story. Woman couldn’t believe I was there. I’m not leaving. The handler didn’t even seem to see Dan. Get in the car. Why are you out here? I’m lonely. Come with me. I’m not ready. She didn’t come with me. The last time I saw her she was unconscious in a hospital bed dying of aids. The day before that she was semi-awake, grabbed her daughter’s hand and whispered my name. I want to see him. Please bring him. She died a few hours after I saw her.
202:30 - Love unconditionally - I could be like, God, why? With that story you have all the more reason to love people because of where sin is taking people - blindness, darkness. That story should motivate us to love unconditionally. Or we can be trapped in our own little world caring about our own little stuff and not understand our ministry - reconciling the world.
203:30 - Participant’s story - running from pain through drugs.
205:20 - Counseling - Keep exposing the lies that are behind the behavior.
205:35 - Finding the woman (cont.) - conversation in truck - Every day that you are out here just increases the resume of pain in your life. It’s a lie. It’s never your answer. We love you. Please come home. She got out of truck. I was not depressed. I have faith and understand sowing. I can’t explain the heart of God in me at that moment. Years went by. I don’t about the last few years of her life.
* * *
206:35 - Never give up on faith - Here is the key. When do you stop living by faith? When do you give up on hope?
206:50 - Participant’s story (cont.).
207:30 - That person she [participant’s old life] described, that wasn’t even her - that pain driven person - confused - it wasn’t even her. So it’s nothing to be ashamed of.
207:50 - Shame is saying it is still who I am. Shame is actually a confession that it is me.
208:00 - Guilt is saying, I’m not forgiven. I’m still guilty.
208:10 - Guilt, condemnation and shame - three major tools of the devil. Guilt - I’m not forgiven. Condemnation - My life is worthy to be judged. You don’t want that. You want there to be mercy. Shame - It’s still me. So you hide in the dark and keep in front of you what you did, identifying you, instead of what He did setting you free and realizing the only reason you did this was because of whatever reason - pain - blindness - you let something take you there and it’s not even you. And all of the sudden the light comes and, “Woah, what was I thinking - this isn’t even me.”
208:50 - So now she [participant] has a triumphant message to share with others and say hey, there is a greater destiny for you. There is a deeper truth about your life than what you are being driven by - this isn’t you at all.
209:10 - I got into that story of the prostitute because of talking about Jesus with the woman at the well.
209:30 - Back to recap of Luke 9 - Jesus forbids sectarianism. Man casting out demons in His name. Jesus said not to forbid him.
210:20 - OT mindset - Bring fire down on Samaritans? - Samaritans would not receive Him because his face was set to Jerusalem. Should we command fire to come down and consume them like Elijah did? Do you see where they are getting their thinking from? OT - law of sin and death - reaping what you sowed - no mercy - life without the blood - life without a Savior - life without hope. They were getting their thinking from the OT. But Jesus is the new and living way. He is here now. Remember? Hear Him.
211:20 - Jesus rebuked them. You don’t know what manner of spirit you are. That’s a heavy response. They are walking with Jesus - called out by Jesus - watching Jesus and don’t know what spirit they are. Some stuff we don’t get right away. They have been with Jesus for a while. The Son of Man did not come to destroy men’s lives but to what? But to save them.
212:10 - Defining God as the thief - God brings the calamity? - No - And we still define Him as a thief sometimes. “Well, God is doing this - setting me straight.” Some people preach that God gets our attention through bringing calamity. “If you are in a body cast, look up...God is trying to get your attention.” God is not putting you in a body cast to get your attention. And He doesn’t break your leg because you took a wrong turn. He ministers truth and wisdom to your life.
212:40 - No, God does not abuse His kids - If you broke your kids leg because he disobeyed and went to the park, you would go to jail and rightly so. And they would take your kids. And we think God is doing that to us. How did we get so weird in our thinking?
Attachments & Sacrifice
213:15 - Continuing Chapter 9 Recap - v.57 - I will follow you wherever you go. Foxes have holes, birds have nests - Son of man has nowhere to lay His head. Are you sure you know what you are saying?
213:40 - The sentiment of physical loss - don’t die with them - To another He said, “Follow me.” Let me first bury my father. Let the dead bury their own dead. But you go and preach the kingdom of God. I think He means, don’t let the sentiment of the passing of people bind your life as if you died with them. Physical loss is one thing but don’t die with them and live as if you are dead because they died. You might be surprised how people two years later are still upset because they never got over their dad dying - 10 yrs later, still can’t talk about it without tears. There is a place to find truth in what Jesus is saying. There is a place to embrace thankfulness and a bigger picture than their death.
215:00 - v.61 - Let me say goodbye - Sentimental attachments - We have the zeal to run forward BUT… and Jesus is cutting those strings. It doesn’t mean you don’t love the people at your house. But He is trying to get you to live out of the strength of your spirit instead of the weakness of your flesh. No one having put his hand to the plow, looking back is fit for the kingdom.
215:45 - Strength and sacrifice are required - It’s a war - There are a lot of other parables about going into war, counting the cost. There is no peace with the enemy. You can’t call truce in the middle of a war. There’s no mercy. The devil is not going to say…
216:00 - Stand and fight - The story of Jabesh-Gilead - a stronger army coming. If we fight we will all die. All adversity is coming from hell. The Amorites told them they would make a peace treaty, we will just gouge out the right eye of every one of your men. It will be a reproach to you but at least we will let you live. There is a message there. That’s the devil’s idea of a plea bargain. You are not in a plea bargain with the devil. Sometimes it’s not wrong to fight at the cost of your life when it has to do with reproach. Saul got wind of it and they came in and crushed the Amorites. Those men would have gouged out eyes if deliverance didn’t show up. There is no mercy in a plea bargain like that. You are better off going out there with your sword and if they kill you fine. But if you go out there you just might win. It just makes you subservient - vulnerability - bound by your enemy.
Sending the Seventy (cont.)
218:15 - Luke 10 - v.1 - Sending 70 more - After these things the Lord appointed other seventy also, and sent them two and two before his face into every city and place, whither he himself would come. - Context is important. Chapter 9 is leading up to something. “After He had said these things…” It’s progressive. He is leading up to something. Now it’s time to send out 70 more.
219:00 - v.2 - Therefore said he unto them, The harvest truly is great, but the labourers are few: pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that he would send forth labourers into his harvest. -
Raising up workers - So Jesus is sharing a principle here that He is addressing and doing something about. In Matt. 10 He sends out 12. In Luke 10 He is adding 70 more. And He is saying, You know what, the harvest is plentiful but the laborers are few let’s pray to the Lord of the harvest. He is not going to tell you that if it wasn’t the will of God to increase and multiply. So what He is saying is, we need the Lord to raise up people who understand that it is their calling to go out among people and give the kingdom. It is so simple.
219:45 - We’ve turned it into getting people to pray a prayer and go to the local church. We have reduced the great commission to talking to our neighbor and inviting them to church. And we feel like our job is to get them to church. No, it’s to pray for people - to give them the kingdom - give them an encounter with God.
220:30 - v.3-6 - Go your ways: behold, I send you forth as lambs among wolves. Carry neither purse, nor scrip, nor shoes: and salute no man by the way. And into whatsoever house ye enter, first say, Peace be to this house. And if the son of peace be there, your peace shall rest upon it: if not, it shall turn to you again. -
Bring peace where you go - In other words, you are proclaiming peace. Blessed are the peacemakers. When you go into a house you are making peace the way. If somebody doesn’t want peace, if they want to walk in obstinance, your peace will come back to you. If there is someone there who has a heart to receive peace and make peace… The Bible says, as much as it depends on you, be at peace with all men. Even if people refuse to let something rest, you make sure that you are in peace.
221:25 - In relationships, if an unbeliever just goes on his way and busts out of your marriage, you are not held in such a matter - when someone makes that kind of decision. But the Bible says you are called to peace. You aren’t called to vengeance. “I’ll never forget the way they hurt me.” That’s common language today.
222:00 - Become love - Instead of being hurt, hurt for them - How do I find peace when my spouse just left me high and dry. Because you hurt for them - you cry for them - they are searching - they don’t know who they are. You weep for them. And you thank God that you are not alone. You thank God that He does provide. You thank God that truth has not changed. God, bless them - not curse them. It’s called becoming love.
222:45 - v.7 - And in the same house remain, eating and drinking such things as they give: for the labourer is worthy of his hire. Go not from house to house. - Travel stories - People are always trying to find your favorite meal and have something you really like. They are going out of their way to bless you - rolling out the red carpet. Jesus told me to take nothing with me but to be happy with whatever they feed me. We ought to just let that happen. Here is the wife wondering if the food is good enough, is the house clean enough? One lady cleaned for 3 days. She is cleaning for the wrong guy. I don’t notice that stuff. Love is not doing that stuff. I’m low maintenance. Sleeping on the couch is fine.
Healing - Where, Who, How
226:55 - v.8-9 - And into whatsoever city ye enter, and they receive you, eat such things as are set before you: And heal the sick that are therein, and say unto them, The kingdom of God is come nigh unto you. -
Heal THE sick - If it was not God’s will to heal the sick, he could not possibly make that comment. It already settles it. The phrase itself is enough. That’s all I personally would need.
227:25 - YOU heal - Who is He telling to do the healing? The disciples. And you can’t heal a flea. “Well, Lord, I can’t heal. What do you mean me heal?” Do you you see why your identity needs to be secure and your conscience clear? Because He expects you to go and heal. Who is healing? It’s Jesus in you - the kingdom in you.
228:00 - Hindrance to healing - It's His will to heal but It’s just a problem with me - So if your identity has glitches in it you are not all that confident that He is going to flow through you. You could actually believe it is the will of God to heal but that He has difficulty healing through you. That’s what identity crisis will do. That’s why we don’t lay our hands on the sick a lot of times.
228:20 - Healing is meant to continue and expand - Say to them, The kingdom of God has come near you. This is His heart for us to continue. How could that possibly be for that season only? That is not just the order for the day. He’s asking the Lord of the harvest that this thing would take place in greater measure. What I am doing right now, you pray that He release this on a broader scale.
229:00 - Where? Anywhere - Whatever city you are in. Heal the sick there. Be humble, be thankful and be blessed and reveal the character and nature of God.
229:50 - We have a green light from the Lord. So if you see someone who is sick, do you have scriptural, spiritual release to pray for them if you choose to? Absolutely.
230:15 - What if they don’t get healed? - One of the biggest reasons people don’t pray for the sick, is because they are afraid that God won’t move - that God won’t show up. That’s even bigger than the fear of what people will think about them. The number one hold back in people praying for the sick is, “What if they don’t get healed?” If you are wondering that and letting that be the motive for your hesitancy, when are you ever going to get past that? When are you ever going to go into your bedroom and pray long enough to come out as a phone booth Superman Christian.
231:05 - Faith will be required every step of the way. Your mind will play tricks. Your emotions are going to try to speak to you. You’re not going to go pray long enough in your bedroom that you are going to come out with a cape marked SC - Super Christian. Look out world here I come. You are going to find that every time you approach people it is faith working through love.
231:30 - Grow in confidence - Sometimes you feel more confident than others. Sometimes you see more than you see other times. Sometimes I say to people, “Let’s pray, that’s coming out of you.” And I say it with confidence - real aggressive and strong and bam it just happens. But I don’t find myself doing that every time. I’m not trying to figure that out. I’m just going with the flow. And I am growing with Him.
It's Not A Method - Love People
231:50 - It’s not a method, flow with your heart - Love people, make contact, sow seed - If I start turning that into a technique, I am going to be saying that because that is MY desire and it’s not going to happen. It’s not a technique or a textbook thing. These are things you just grow in. I go with my heart, not my head. I flow with my heart. Here is the deal. It’s about loving people. It’s about making contact. It’s about sowing seed.
232:20 - Hesitancies to pray for others - We have all of these hesitancies. I don’t want to misrepresent the gospel. If they are not healed they are going to be even more let down. I don’t want to make the kingdom look bad. I hear people say all of that stuff.
232:30 - Loving people - faith works through that love - Those people, going through their day shopping, they don’t have a hope. They are not even thinking about being healed probably. And they sure aren’t expecting you to come up and pray for them. You are opening a door that wasn’t even there before. You are showing them something they weren’t even considering. You are showing them a love that is unconditional. You are showing them a love that is sincere for their sake. You are sending a message to them that ought to be sent to every human being. That is the motivation - love. And through that love, faith works.
Stay in Faith Regardless
233:00 - Stay in faith, even when you don’t get immediate healing - When I pray for the sick, I’m not intimidated and wondering, “What if they don’t get healed?” That’s not a cop out. I don’t even preach on this stuff a lot because people would try to turn it into a Christian language and cliche instead of a faith from the heart. When I lay hands on the sick I am believing that they will recover. I’m not moved any more… I used to… Because I just want everybody healed. But I can’t tell you how many people I have seen healed, in a short period of time when it looked like maybe nothing happened. But if I can cross this hurdle and not let it shake me and make me unplug, I’m going to stay plugged in and God is going to keep moving. And it teaches me how to even live by faith.
234:00 - Prayed for all of these people with plantar fasciitis - I had never seen it not bow in a service - Out in a store it wasn’t bowing - That was sweet. Thanks for trying. Man a few days later - still doesn’t change - war going on in my mind - I always bring it back to God loving them. Weeks later I bump into the lady - glad to see him - the next morning it was healed. Later I bumped into the man with the same testimony. That was Jesus speaking to me.
237:45 - Stay in faith - I could put my mind through hell. “I’m not in faith. I don’t have enough of Jesus. I’ve lost my anointing.” No, they are mind games and in that mind game you risk turning faith into a point in time or a hit/miss, win/lose. All of the sudden faith is a gamble. Either we win or we didn’t. Here is how Holy Spirit has defined faith to me concerning healing - the positioning of your heart to receive what He accomplished. So when I pray for her, even though I want her jumping around dancing, when she doesn’t do that, the truth has not changed. What we do is change the truth to accommodate our miffed minds and we never get locked in (established in truth).
239:30 - So stay sincere and believe for that healing right now. As they were leaving I probably said things that I’m not sure that I was even believing. “Well listen. God bless you. I’m glad that we prayed because God changes things and unless we release faith nothing happens and the Bible says if you lay hands on the sick they will recover.” And they are like, “OK, thank you.” I’m telling them that because I am believing that I should tell them that but I’m not sure that I am even believing that at that time. It becomes rhetorical. It becomes Christianese. You have to be sure that when you tell somebody that, you totally believe that.
240:20 - How do you handle it when you are not seeing a change in your own body? Never reduce it to when because then you are putting it into a time-frame that is already established. Now is the time. I don’t reduce it to when. The application of faith is through love - through relationship. So if I have something in my life that hasn’t changed, but I have settled the will of God and I am still seeing people healed, I am not waiting for that day and I am not even locking myself into some time, I am just going to be in relationship with God. And I encourage everybody to do this always. Right in the middle of a pain… or a symptom that is recurring...
241:20 - Father, I so thank you for Your amazing love for me and Your grace upon my life. God, I’m absolutely convinced that You love me and You are the strength of my life or Jesus would have never died… - And you walk in that place. There is a place for us to continue growing and to pray, believe and receive all things.
241:55 - So I don’t encourage people to just get in a position where they are just waiting OR where they have established their faith and now I can’t be prayed for any more. You can be prayed for just make sure that you are guarding your heart that it’s an in faith and you don’t get reduced to just desperation. Because that is the biggest challenge when it’s over a long period of time. Your mind becomes a detriment. “Well, I’ve been prayed for 100 times. If it didn’t happen by now…” That’s why we shift gears and change. But isn’t it amazing when you open the Bible and everything is still the same. So what do we have to truly lock into? What is the only consistent thing in this situation? The word. So that is how we handle that. We invoke relationship, continuing to believe.
242:45 - Treat it as if it is the first time you prayed - Some people say, “Whenever you do it Lord, I am ready.” But I encourage people to be even more matter of fact about it. Treat every day as if it’s the first time you have prayed about it.
242:50 - Father, I thank you that You infuse me with strength today. Pains, you get out of my body. Body, you be filled with the life of God right now. Father, thank you for the finished work of Christ. And you begin to speak life. Proclaim it and receive it. Now is the time. Now is the day of salvation.
Step Up & Speak to the Mountain
243:25 - Prayer is not passive - It’s never a “whenever God.” It’s never casual. It’s us seizing things. It’s us speaking to the mountain.
243:35 - Why doesn’t it happen is not even a fair question. It could be different in ten different situations. Knowing the truth and camping there is where freedom comes from. Trying to figure out the reasons for “failure” is probably not as useful. Then we put each other in boxes. We’ll write books, “How I got Healed.” And everybody will try to follow what you did to get what you got. And that might not have anything to do with your soul, your life and where you are at. But we do all have the common denominator. His name is Jesus.
244:35 - Those kinds of questions aren’t hot potatoes to me. They open up a big door of truth. And they are important to ask because the questions are out there in the world - they are common.
246:35 - Closing prayer