Day 3
God's Heart for Us - One with Him
0:10 - Jesus - The Truth God wants us to follow - Jesus is amazing because He is the revelation of the Father. We wouldn’t know the Father if we didn’t have Jesus’ life to look at. You know the Father through Jesus. Remember how Jesus spoke to Pilate? - Pilate therefore said unto him, Art thou a king then? Jesus answered, Thou sayest that I am a king. To this end was I born, and for this cause came I into the world, that I should bear witness unto the truth. Every one that is of the truth heareth my voice. - John 18:37 Then Pilate said something amazing, “What is truth?” Well, Jesus. His life is the truth about who we are created to be. Everything you see in His life is ours by grace - by the availability of God. God wants us to walk in everything we see in Jesus’ life or Jesus would have never said, “Follow me.”
1:15 - Understand what's available to help you step into following Him - You’ve got to grab these foundational truths from the beginning so that you grow into them. If you don't accept them from the beginning, you won’t know that they are there and available. You’ll never walk into the grace and favor that allows you to become these things if you don’t SEE that it is true.
1:30 - Jesus is our Model - Total union and communion with God - So Jesus’ life is a life modeled with no sin barrier. He’s right with God. He’s intimate with God. He always does the things that please the Father - John 8:29. He only does what He sees the Father doing (John 5:19) and says what He hears the Father say - John 12:49. And yet He says, “Follow me.” So He modeled a life with no sin barrier - total union - total communion with God.
1:45 - See yourself how His heart sees you - One with Him - Sounds like John 15:7 - If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you. - How often do we fail to abide in Him with a consciousness that we are equipped, that we are right with Him, that He loves us, that we have every right to be found in Him? We find ourselves still trying to qualify, still measuring short, still saying less about ourselves than what He believes and knows. It’s detrimental to your Christian life and walk, if you weigh yourself short of the blood, short of being worth the blood, short of the Father’s heart towards you. It’s not about you trying to measure up. The gospel measures you up. The gospel brings you right back on track and puts you right back in the place you were created to be. The crucifixion and resurrection bring you right back to square one. You have to understand that or you are going to get caught in works - weigh yourself short, your words are going to reveal that you don't see that.
3:00 - What you really believe is what is going to become real to you - Believe His heart towards you - I don’t know if we understand the gospel is as simple as what you believe is what you experience. What you really believe is what you experience in the gospel. Just talking these truths… They are so real to me on the inside… That’s why you see passion in me. “Man, you are so passionate.” It’s because everything that I am talking about has become so real because I believe it. I believe I am worth the blood. I believe it’s the Father’s good pleasure to give me the kingdom. I believe I was created by Him on purpose and that He loves me.
3:50 - I'm not a random accident - He created me with purpose for a destiny - I'm not just happenstance. I'm not here just because my mom and dad came together. I’m here because God saw me before the foundation of the world. He just used the tool of mom and dad coming together. But He saw my day. There is a time to be born.
4:15 - How many of us grew up thinking we were an accident - “I am a nobody.” Are you kidding? You are here. You’re a person. If you are a person, you’re destiny is the image of God. If you’re a person, God created you before the foundation of the world. If you are human being, you are not the same as animals and trees. You are a person. That means something.
4:45 - Because you see your own value, you see the value of others - If you really begin to get that into your heart you begin to see the value of everybody. When you struggle for that for yourself then you will never see that through your own eyes towards others. It’s so important to establish who you are and why. And it’s all about Him. It’s all because of Him.
5:10 - No “yeah buts” - We need to embrace how He sees us - Sometimes we are our own worst enemy. The gospel is speaking all of this truth, and we’ve got these little “yeah buts” going on in our heads. And we are identifying ourselves through the lives we have lived or the things that were implied. But you’ve got to get back to square one - it’s the truth. Jesus said, “I am the truth” - John 14:6. So He is not just preaching truth, He is the truth. His life lived is the truth about your calling and your life lived. You have the same access to the Father.
6:00 - His heart for us is to be one with Him - Give yourself to that truth - Some people don’t believe that. Some people have the mentality, “Well, that was Jesus.” No, Father I pray that they are one as we are one. I in them and you in me - John 17:21. Hello? It sounds like we are one. Do you hear how simple that is if we just give ourselves to it? And don’t let anything else be truth? We let other things be truth in our minds and hearts. He’s THE truth. He’s not A truth. He’s THE truth. He’s not an avenue to the Father. He’s the way to the Father.
7:30 - Through communion establish your heart in who you are to the Father - This is not just knowledge. Don’t get frustrated. Enjoy the growing process. Start somewhere. Thank God that He loves you - that His face shines towards you. Wake up every day and thank God that you are a child of His. A lot of Christians don’t do that. They wake up and pray about the trouble of the day and favor in that day. But they don’t establish who they are in the sight of the Father.
8:00 - I don’t have to do that all of the time. It’s a consciousness. I used to do that all of the time. It’s a consciousness.
8:20 - A continual conscious awareness of Him in me - Talking with Todd about intimacy with the Father. Zoe’s nose. Manifestation of heat - The Father affirming what I was saying - marking those words in his heart. Todd said - I don’t believe that I always have to break away and be secluded. I believe I can walk in a conscious awareness of who He is in me and that He is right there.
Access to the Father
10:20 - Continual access to the Father - Live there - Some of us put our trust in someone else praying for us. But we have open, unveiled opportunity to commune with the Father, always. You can come boldly into the throne room of grace in any time of need - Heb. 4:16. Well, when don’t you need mercy and grace? When don’t you need the presence of God? When don’t you need the favor of God? So you live there.
10:40 - We have boldness because of our High Priest Jesus - Camp there - How do you have boldness to go there? Because you see something. I am preaching out of Hebrews 4:14-16. You see that you have a high priest, Jesus, the Son of God, who has passed through the heavens. Jesus is the high priest who is representing on behalf of man - all men to the Father. He has passed through the heavens and sits in the holy tabernacle, the holy temple of God, not made with hands and He is sitting there to bear witness of you to the Father. He is doing that as I speak. That can’t just be a principle to you. It becomes your reality. And you camp there as long as you need to.
11:25 - Jesus, you are in heaven right now. You are sitting with the Father and I am there with you seated in heavenly places. You bring my face to the Father. I have total access because your blood paves the way. Your body, there, opens the door for me to be in the family and to be one. And everything that is available to you is available to me through you from the Father. YOU have to know that in your heart. How do you know that? You camp there. Don’t be in a hurry.
Look to Jesus for Truth
12:05 - Enjoy where you are. Grow to where you are not - We are notorious for deciding where we are not. Enjoy where you are and grow to where you are not. Don’t just fix on where you’re not. “Boy, I’m just not getting it.” That’s what we do. Then we get frustrated. Enjoy where you are. There is something that you ARE getting. Thank God that your heart is alive - for the way that He is raising you up as a child. Start giving Him permission to father you and Holy Spirit to lead you. Enjoy where you are. Don’t focus on where you are not. Enjoy where you are and keep hungering for more. It’s not about troubleshooting. It’s about continuing in the answer. Meditate on good things and be anxious for nothing but in prayer and supplication with thanksgiving... - Phil. 4:6.
13:35 - Jesus shows us who we are called to be - So Jesus’ life is revealing who we are called to be. Everything in His life on the earth is available to us - everything. Or He wouldn’t have said, “Follow me.” The things I do, you will do if you believe - John 14:12. You find a limitation for me in that.
14:00 - He came as a man - Don’t say, “Well that was Jesus.” That was Jesus as a man - not God - anointed by God. If He came as God, He wouldn’t need to be anointed. If He came as God, Holy Spirit would not have come upon Him in river Jordan. If He came as God, He couldn’t have been tempted at all points because you can't tempt God. He came as a man anointed by God. How Jesus of Nazareth - the man - was anointed by God with the Holy Spirit and power. Why? Because He emptied Himself - laid down His glory - made Himself of no reputation - came in the likeness of sinful flesh and God breathed on that. If He came as God you couldn’t follow Him. He came as a man empowered by all that God is but it was without measure. God didn’t hold back. [Notetaker’s note]
15:00 - God is not holding back - He gives you the kingdom - Remember how the kings in Biblical times would get moved and give up to half of their kingdom to someone. God’s not like that. He says, Fear not little flock, it’s the Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom - Luke 12:32. He didn’t give you a piece of the pie. He gave you the whole pie.
15 :35 - Wife making pies. When she makes them he knows they are all for Him.
16:15 - It’s the Father’s good pleasure to give you the whole pie. He didn’t give you up to half the kingdom.
16:25 - Jesus is the truth about who the Father is and who we are - You’ve got to think this way through the life of Jesus. He’s the living epistle of love - the expression of the Father but He is also the expression of us and our lives to live. So in other words, I can’t see Jesus without seeing the Father. And on the same hand, I can’t see Jesus without seeing the destiny of my own life. When I see Him clear, I find me there. I won’t find Him apart from me, if I understand.
17:00 - We have looked to other sources for truth - We have let so many other things determine our encouragement, our motivation, our emotional life. We’ve let so many other factors determine our lives. I used to. I don’t any more. I am consumed by what I am telling you. I think it. I sleep it. I wake up in it. It has become my reality. That’s why I tease people - I am always going to be this way or worse - meaning more expressive because you will just know Him more. We are growing into Him. It’s our birthright.
17:45 - It's not about futile, lifeless theology - It's about what's alive in your heart - I am no good for debates any more. I won’t sit at a table with someone who has no experience or just theology. Because it is not about doctrine. It’s about reality. It’s about your reality. It’s about what’s alive in your heart. When someone who is technical tries to talk you into something - I’m no good for that. You’re trying to talk me out of what I already know then. You can get rigid with certain theological, doctrinal things - there are principles that are true. But don’t narrow them. No, I can have joy unspeakable. I can have peace that surpasses anyone’s understanding. It doesn’t say, “Yeah, unless of course…” It comes with the package of knowing Him. It’s not something that He spills on you like Santa Claus. It comes with knowing Him. Eternal life and all that is encompassed in eternal life comes through knowing Him. And how do you get to know Him unless you begin to get personal and intimate.
➡ 19:35 - Summary statement - Don’t limit and separate your life from the life of Jesus on the earth. What you see in His life is yours.
God Allowed It
19:50 - Without Jesus we wouldn't know love - God allowed it - In fact, would we really know love if Jesus never came in the flesh? There’s no way. We still struggle with love even though Jesus came in the flesh because we are still trapped saying stuff like this, “Well, I don’t know why God allowed that. I don’t know why God did that.” We still have this brainwashed mentality that everything is God ordained. It’s a very confusing and dangerous mentality.
20:20 - Questions at Chinese church in LA - God allowed it - They could hear the truth and see the power of God. But they had real difficulty - same questions over and over. “But if they aren’t healed, God is choosing not to heal. If they were sick, God allowed it.”
22:00 - God orchestrates all? - We picture God at a great big desk of administration. “Ok, cancer for Sallie, ok, I’ll let that go. She can get cancer. I’ll work it to my good. No, not that car accident. But this one is ok...” It sounds foolish doesn't it?
22:35 - Permission from God not needed - Better yet we picture satan walking into heaven with his list for 8 billion people to ask God for permission for bad things to happen to people. “Good morning Lord. I know that there’s nothing in between us as far as You in me and me in You. But I must come for my daily visit for approval for all of the things that I would like to do.” God doesn’t subcontract the devil. Satan doesn’t have to get permission from God to test your life or tempt your life. And there are some people that think that’s true - that he does need permission from God.
23:15 -Wrong theology from the book of Job - Some people get that out of the story of Job - the most misunderstood book in the Bible. In fact, all of those middle chapters of Job, are an expression of the emotions with wrong theology. Because Job believed God took everything away. And God didn’t take everything away. So when you believe that you have to shake yourself and respond a certain way to hold your integrity and believe He is still God even though you believe He did all of that stuff. Because they don’t understand in the Old Testament (OT) satan. They don’t have a revelation of the war we are in. They don’t understand the law of sin and death. They don’t understand, you make your bed you sleep in it under the law. They don’t under that in the OT. All they know is everything that happens is God. And that mentality has passed on down to today - in a new covenant, NT church that should understand the war that we’re in. And those middle 30 some chapters are nothing more than the expression of the emotions and of friends that don't understand.
24:45 - Because God, at the end, said it all. You stand and answer me as a man. Where were you?... The first time I read that I shook.
25:25 - Songs often reinforce the idea that everything that happens is God - Pastor Don W’s comments on even our songs reinforcing the message that everything that happens is God. “You give and take away.”
25:40 - I sing, “Father you gave your Son and took away my sin. You gave innocence and took away my sin.” I start substituting the gospel when we are singing that song. But that song is written through the book of Job, as if God gave to Job and the pulled the rug out from under him to see how he would respond.
26:30 - Sovereignty - People say, “Then where is sovereignty?” Sovereignty is in the book of Job as well. He said you’re not going to kill Job. There are times when God just puts his hand down in front of your life and says no. There have been things in witchcraft that I have been through that I won’t go through again. If that would try to come on me, God would just bust it, because I have already been through that fire and my faith has been tested and found more valuable than gold. And He is not going to let you just be hit and hit and hit by things you have passed through. I think your faith gets stamped approved through everything that you endure. Having theology is one thing but when you pass through the fire, it’s approved. And he is not going to just push you where you have been approved. I believe sovereignty just protects you there.
We're in a War
27:45 - Did Jesus come to reveal the devil? Is that why the people of Job’s day didn’t understand because the devil had not been revealed yet?
Jesus revealed the war we are in - If you look in the OT. There is no revelation of Satan except his part and his role is revealed in the OT to us now that it is written. They didn’t have a revelation. They just thought, if you died, God killed you. Jesus came. He is the light. The mystery is revealed. He makes clear the law of sin and death. He reveals the mercy and goodness of God. He reveals the war that we are in. You are not wrestling against flesh and blood. You reap what you sow. So there is a place to repent and come through the door.
28:45 - Get the knowledge, stop the destruction - You are destroyed for the lack of knowledge - Hosea 4:6. It doesn’t say it’s because of the sovereign choice of God. That means if we get the knowledge, we can stop destruction. So there is not a ball rolled up in the throne room that says, “Destroyed - there’s nothing you can do about it.” It’s not like God is saying, “That’s the way it’s going to happen and there’s not anything that you can do to change it. A lot of people have that mentality.
29:20 - He and His authority resides within us - But the Bible says that the earth He did give to the children of men - Ps. 115:16. So when Jesus came He said, “Behold I give you authority to tread upon serpents and scorpions and over all the power of the enemy” - Luke 10:19. What’s He doing right there? He’s making us one. He is showing that all that He is is in us. And that He is delegating everything that you see in His life to us as the new covenant, NT church. Find a limitation in that.
30:10 - Importance of a revelation of the war we are in - If you don’t have a right revelation of God and the enemy, you won’t walk in that authority. And you will have a beef with God. And faith says to the mountain... We’re singing all these songs about how good He is and you are suffering great loss and you are trying by faith to believe He is good because you can’t see that He is good because, “Why did He let that happen?” That’s a dangerous belief system on the earth - the ”God allowed it” theology.
30:40 - All things under our feet - However not seeing it all yet - “God allowed it” is an extremely dangerous theology. We are in a war. All things are placed under our feet. - Hebrews 2:5-9 - We subdue the works of His hands. In saying all things are placed under him - meaning us - there is nothing that isn’t placed under him. However, we don’t yet see all things under him. We are not seeing everything bow. We are not seeing all the answers to our prayer.
31:05 - Keep your eyes on Jesus - Look to Him for truth - The next three words are amazing - but we see Jesus. What’s it saying? Don’t run your mind - don’t create doctrine - don’t come up with reasons to make yourself feel better about what you feel bad about. Keep your eyes on Jesus because He is who you are growing towards. He’s who you are following. We don’t see everything moving but keep focused on Jesus. Because He is the way.
31:30 - We don’t do that. We come up with analogies(?). “Well, we prayed and prayed brother. I even had it on the internet. There must have been millions of people praying. If they died and the whole world was praying, God couldn’t have wanted to heal them.”
Prayer of Faith
31:40 - Prayers from need - not faith - In our language we reveal that we don’t even understand, which makes all of our prayers motivated by need. It’s not faith working through love. It’s not even faith. It’s just prayer because there is trouble. Just because we pray doesn’t mean that it’s faith. People pray because they are desperate, they’re in trouble, they’ve got crisis and diagnosis, they are watching their loved ones suffer. Who’s not going to pray? People that say there’s no God give it a shot when they are in crisis.
32:33 - One in faith is enough - Just because you have the whole world praying doesn’t mean that there is faith. Sometimes it is human sentiment at best. Internet postings. “It’s got to work out because everybody is praying.” The Bible doesn’t say that the whole world has to pray. One in Christ is a majority. If two agree touching anything that they know is the will of God… Now that is where we struggle (knowing the will of God). If we know it’s the will of God it will be done.
33:20 - Submit your experience to God’s word - If that’s not our reality, we have a right to grow into that. If that hasn’t been our experience, does that change the validity of God’s word. Or do we stay humble and submit our experience beneath the integrity of God’s word? You can’t challenge God’s word with your experience. That’s a mistake - to judge God’s word through your experience. You judge God’s word through Jesus’ life.
34:00 - Importance of clear understanding - Eye is the lamp - It’s important to get glitches out of your belief system early. The eye is the lamp of the body - Mt. 6:22. If your eye is single your whole body is flooded with light. Why aren’t our bodies flooded with light most of the time? Because our eyes aren’t single. We have a big wide, multi-optional view. It’s real narrow. He’s the Lord. He paid the price to win. It’s always yes and amen. We have everything it takes. He’s given us the world. Go subdue. Anything less is just me lacking a revelation. So stay in fasting, stay seeking God and let’s grow in revelation because we can conquer more because it is already won. It is finished.
35:20 - It is finished. For your personal life, take that to heart. There are no loose ends. The debt is paid in full. That means there is no debt. So you ought to come to God like that. Come to God like there is no debt. You are not even trying to make up for anything. You are just coming home. There is no debt. Many Christians don’t start off that way. They are still trying to make up for for a debt that is already paid.
Faith
36:00 - Could you define “faith”?
Faith is the substance of what you hope for. We all have a level of hope in our lives. When we pray, we are hoping it works. Or at least, “It doesn’t hurt to pray. Let’s at least pray.” No, it’s about standing in a place of authority and speaking and decreeing. Faith is the substance… Substance means the realization - the tangibility.
37:00 - Christ is the substance behind my faith - Colossians 2:17 - The realization, the tangibility of my life is Christ. He’s the one who gives me so much confidence. If He hadn’t lived the life that He lived and said the things that He said, I wouldn’t have the convictions I have. But He did.
37:25 - Faith arises out of being settled on God’s heart and God’s will for a situation - If you don’t settle on who God is and His position in situations (His will for a situation), how will you ever have the realization of what you are hoping for? When will your hope ever go deeper than hope without settling the will of God in the matter? If you don’t know who God is and His position for any given situation, then you are reduced to mere hope.
37:50 - Faith arises from knowing God through the life of Jesus and through communion - Hope is powerful. It’s the anchor of your soul. You want it to get sky high. But faith is the realization of the hope that is in your heart. It’s the evidence - where does that evidence come from? - from knowing the person of God through the life of Jesus. If it wasn’t that it would be presumption. It would just be wishful thinking. It could even be selfish thinking. You just want it so bad that you are presuming that you are going to get it. And you are disappointed if you don’t. No, it’s the evidence of what we have not yet seen.
38:30 - How can you have an evidence of something you haven’t yet seen? Because of what you have seen through faith - through your heart - through the life of Jesus - what you have seen through the secret place of knowing Him. And all of the sudden you are settled on the heart of God for a matter. And that’s where the place of authority and power flows.
Faith & Disappointment
38:55 - Being settled causes me not to be disappointed but drawn to know Him more - If I am clear in that place (God’s heart and will for a situation), even if it seems like I lost, I can’t be hurt or offended - only moved to know Him more because I have settled on this thing. If I haven’t settled, it’s why I am so disheartened - so set back - so slapped in the face - discouraged - disappointed. Because I haven’t settled on who He is in the equation, now I am subject to a whole lot of emotions, beliefs, feelings and lose time just trying to get through the failure of it all.
39:40 - But because this perspective is so locked in even if my own spouse would pass away, it’s no reflection on God whatsoever - none. If I don’t know that, I am already crippled in growing in Him and knowing Him. And I have got all of this stuff going through my head and it’s the way that seems right but if you look at it, it produces no life in people. It just freezes you.
40:15 - Even if I lost a child… It should stir me to go deeper. If I pull the plug (on faith) I’ve really lost. You unplug through wrong believing.
41:10 - Limiting who God is and settling for the same results through wrong believing.
To Know God's Heart & Will - Look to Jesus
41:30 - Knowing God’s heart and will through the life of Jesus - “We’ll understand it someday.” No, we are to understand now because the light has come. Jesus’ life is the revelation of the will of God. Don’t let anything else define God or you will be deceived. If you let anything but the life of Jesus define God, you’ll be deceived. If your belief system isn’t in agreement with the life of Jesus lived, change your belief system. Why? Because He came and the word was made flesh and dwelt among us - John 1:14. He came to His own and His own didn’t see Him, receive Him or believe in Him - John 1:11. Why? Because they were so twisted from the fall - that when truth came it looked nothing like what they thought of as truth - to the radical point that they finally put Him on a cross and felt justified in doing so.
42:45 - God didn’t just preach a sermon to us and give us a book to follow. He is more than an owners manual, He, in power, gave us a life to follow. He made this book a life named Jesus and dwelt among us. And Jesus said, “Follow me.”
43:05 - If your belief about God is not equal with the life of Jesus lived and what that reveals, then please don’t believe it in your heart. You will subvert your ability to have intimacy with God. You will suffer loss, get confused and just bite your lip and in sheer integrity push through the Christian life. But it will take an edge off your heart. You won’t even be able to sing from the heart, some of the things we sing, because you are carrying that pain.
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43:40 - Coveting God’s gifts - Life is a gift. It’s a blessing that God created us in His image - what an honor. A spouse, children etc. are all a gift and blessing. We have to be careful that we don’t covet those things at the expense of who He is when He is the giver of all good things. For an example God gives a mother the grace to have a child - something bad happens to that child - and the mother cuts God off because of her love for the child - intimate, face to face with the child. Her love for the child becomes way greater than her love for God because she doesn’t know Him. Unless you love less, all of these things - children, wife and your own life - you’ll never be able to be my disciple. Luke 14:26 Because life will take the feet out from under you. You’ll never be able to be my disciple because circumstances will waylay you and paralyze you. And your mind will become a detriment unless you love less all these things.
44:50 - Some of this stuff is important at the beginning of these 13 weeks to nail down at the beginning. I believe this. I’m pursuing this. I can’t see anything else in the word.
45:30 - We are blame shifters - If God thought like we thought He would be frustrated with us, wondering why He gave us the kingdom. And we are blaming Him. We are blame shifters. Did you eat from the tree Adam? It was the woman you gave me. If you wouldn’t have given me the woman, I probably wouldn’t have eaten from the tree. Don’t look at me. You are the one who gave me the woman. We are blame shifters - it’s got to be somebody’s fault.
46:20 - Don’t even blame it on the devil. He has no ability or right to just run me over like a freight train. Don’t be unaware of his devices. - 2 Corinthians 2:11 And give him no place. - Ephesians 4:27 Jesus said, the ruler of this world is coming and has nothing in me. - John 14:30 Don’t you believe that he can just run you over.
47:00 - Fear is done - When you understand that, fear is done. You know that God is your rear guard. You are done fearing for the rest of your life. You know who you are in this equation, you put him in his place and fear is done. A lot of people don’t understand this and accept fear as the normal human response to life. And Jesus said do not fear. Perfect love casts out fear. When we see this thing clear, we’ll become the living product of that truth. And you are not trying not to be afraid, you’re just not afraid because of what you see through believing.
48:00 - In all your getting get understanding - Jesus is the truth - Most of our lives we are trying to apply this stuff. Instead of becoming it through understanding. Proverbs says, in all your getting get understanding. - Proverbs 4:7 We are destroyed for what we don't understand. We always quote Hosea 4:6a - My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge: - but do you know what Hosea 4:6b says? - because thou hast rejected knowledge, I will also reject thee, that thou shalt be no priest to me: seeing thou hast forgotten the law of thy God, I will also forget thy children. - Jesus stood up and said, I am the way, I am the truth, I am the life, nobody comes to the Father but by me - John 14:6. We take that and reduce it to, “Well, that was Jesus and we’re just people and one day we’ll go to heaven because of Him.” and we miss what He is saying. I am the truth. My life lived is revealing truth. Follow me. We’ve turned it into grace over our food, an Easter story, a Christmas story, human sentiment and He is the tada of God Almighty - God in the flesh - Christ in us - the hope of glory - Col. 1:27.
49:35 - Glory means any manifest attribute of God. So Christ in me is the hope of manifesting God. He’s in me and you. Why do I know that? Because He said He is. If He is not in you, you are still trying to work out your salvation in the flesh.
50:00 - Working out your salvation - Philippians 2:12 - just means to continue in the faith. Continue in the faith by knowing He is almighty God and reverencing Him through the yieldedness and obedience of your life.
50:10 - The good fight of faith - You are not even called to fight the devil. The good fight of faith (1 Tim 6:12) is not your war with the devil, it’s you staying in right identity.
50:30 - The faith - Why is it singular? - one faith - because the intention of Jesus is to reproduce Himself after His own kind. We are the body of Christ. So everything you see given to His life is given to our lives. That’s why He said, “As the Father sent me, I send you - John 20:21. Follow me. The things I do you will do, if you believe - John 14:12.”
God Allowed It - Paul's Thorn
51:00 - We put the gospel on trial with our experiences of life - We combat the clear truth with the circumstances of our lives - the heart breaks - the unanswered stuff. We’ve been so perplexed by life this way (horizontal direction? - people - circumstances) and we take all of that and challenge the gospel with it instead of taking the clear gospel that is lived through and expressed through Jesus’ life and challenge all of this stuff with the gospel. We get it backwards. And human intellect processes and keeps challenging the gospel with life.
51:35 - All of those questions at that church in LA were questions that were challenging the gospel I was preaching with (the experiences of) life. Putting the gospel on trial. Taking their hurts, their failures, their lost loved ones - “Well, we prayed and prayed for Jane and she died. Are you telling me that God didn’t just allow that?” If God allowed that you might as well scrap faith, scrap believing and scrap hope and let’s all just live like robots and whatever will be will be. There’s nothing we can do about it.
52:15 - Absurdity of God changing His promises - Think about what we are saying. God didn’t give you a promise and then sovereignly, against His own word - which is His integrity, change the promise.
52:30 - Thorn in the flesh was not sickness - That’s why you know that Paul’s thorn in the flesh couldn’t have been sickness. People are very hesitant to say what the thorn is - “No one can know. It’s useless to even discuss it.” The word tells you why it couldn’t have been sickness. Because the word says, You will suffer persecution for my name sake - Acts 9:16. And the word says, I forgive all of your sins and heal all of your diseases. Psalms 103:3 So that fact that Paul was asking and God said no... - 2 Corinthians 12:8 - Paul is asking God to take away something that God had promised he would experience. If the thorn was sickness then effectively God was saying, “I know what I promised, but in this case I have chosen not to heal for my sovereign reasons. I'm God. You’re not. And you need to understand that.” If you fathered your children like that, you would teach them to never take you at your word.
53:40 - Letting experience define your gospel - false teaching - Satan loves when we believe this stuff. And I believe he is the root of this kind of doctrine because it’s the thief - false teaching. It doesn't mean it came out of evil intention, it comes out of deception. Sometimes we are deceived. Sometimes a pastor loses a loved one or goes through a surgery and begins to preach through that scenario. Their message changes from then on. Everything he preaches is from his experience and he has gotten off the pure gospel. And his next sermon is “Why God chooses not to heal.” They are letting their experience define the gospel instead of letting the gospel keep on pounding against our experience.
54:50 - Thorn (continued) - If you said one thing and did another, wouldn’t you be teaching your child not to take you at your word? The identity of your faithfulness and the identity of your will of doing what you say you will do has been lost. The devil loves when we preach God that way. Because now we don’t know what to believe. We can’t trust Him. And if we can’t trust Him, we sure can't receive His love. How can He faithfully love me? Maybe He will just change His mind on me. This mindset is detrimental to your believing. And I believe satan is the author of that kind of thinking. False teaching - the thief - It comes to steal, kill and destroy.
55:50 - God allowed it - testimonial videos - This kind of misbelieving is huge in the church now. Videos - testimonies of how God sovereignly ordained sickness and death - and how gracious God is in letting their wife die and how He is building in them something. What are they based on? What is the “truth” behind those videos? Their experience. And their biggest mistake is saying that their experience is the truth instead of Jesus’ life. One little twist like that results in wrong belief - messes up the foundation and then what is built on that foundation is crooked.
Questioning
57:00 - Asking God negative toned questions - It’s alright to ask God questions. But I have closed off all negative toned questions. You have to be very careful of the motive of your questions. A lot of times, down in your heart you already have an answer and it’s more of a challenge than a question. If your questions are giving you problems - you have felt sure in your heart and then it doesn’t happen and you mind says, “But I knew. But I believed. But why?” If you focus and dwell on those questions you will shatter your ability to trust God. And that situation will begin to dictate you and make you worry. Here’s what I do, Father, you know my heart. You know how my soul responded. I was shocked to see that it was broken. But I know that your presence flows when I pray. I thank you for your love for that young lady. And I thank you for the work of your Spirit. And I thank you for the restoration. And you don’t move. You all the more lock in.
59:50 - Kidney stone procedure - I was sure the stone was gone - but there it was on the xray - mind spins - but stands firm - God did something. Don’t question because of a seeming non-response.
1:06:45 - Questions to challenge the gospel - Why was the stone even there? Those questions sound rational but if you really listen they are always in the face of the gospel - challenging who God is and what God said and what God’s doing. And faith doesn’t do that. Faith is not like that. And satan wants to keep us in derision and the way that seems right to man. I can’t answer all of that stuff. I don’t know. But I’m not going to move.
* * *
1:07:05 - Kidney stone (continued). Stone moves upstream - that’s enough for me. Keep these pain pills with you all the time. Nurses assistant is impacted.
1:10:40 - Faith is childlike - You don’t have to be saved for thirty years to walk in faith. Faith is childlike.
1:11:00 - Direction for preaching - communing - Did you see me stall there? I’m asking if I have grace to share this. That’s called communion with Holy Spirit. In other words, I could share it and everybody would appreciate the punchline of the story but the reason you saw me hesitate - I was just asking in my heart, “Is this ok? Can we go here? And He is like, “Yeah, go there.” I had the freedom to go there. Now if He did not want me to… who has ever seen me stop and go to another scripture? That’s called communion with God. That’s fellowshipping with God. You’re not going to be presumptuous. You are checking in. You’re making sure that you are not just excited and zealous. There is a lot of stuff that we could preach this morning and it would be helpful and insightful. But who knows that there is something that God wants to say every time we gather. Be totally yielded. You have no need to preach or speak or accomplish points or say things that you want.
Motives
1:12:05 - You want to do His will. And you will walk in His will. That’s how simple that is. John 7:17 - If any man will do his will, he shall know of the doctrine, whether it be of God, or whether I speak of myself. - If any man’s will is to do His will… Hear the motive?
1:12:20 - Purity of motives - One of the first things that Holy Spirit taught me when I got born again was that John 7:17 verse. If I will to do His will… motives. He taught me a teaching on motives that I can’t rise above my motives. That the "why" behind my life will determine my life. In other words, what makes you tick? Why do you even pray? Why do you do the things you do? Why do you go to church? Why do you even open your Bible and read it? The “why” behind your life determines your life.
1:13:00 - Hold your heart accountable. Find the "why" behind what you do. Wrong motives can be exposed.
1:13:20 - Wrong motives - Serving with the wrong motive - so that people will appreciate you. You can pray for the sick for all the wrong reasons. You can pursue ministry for all the wrong reasons.
1:13:50 - Search me God. Keep me from wrong motives - But God loves me. And if I am pursuing Him to know Him and I am in a place - search me Lord - not in an introspective way like I’m always messed up. But… Lord, you know all things in my heart. If you see me off track or if, in any way... even if I am not aware of it, God make me aware of it because you love me. That was a prayer of mine for years. Holy Spirit, you are my best friend. You are my absolute best friend. You are the Spirit of truth. And if you see me walking outside of truth or see me stepping off the beaten path of truth kick me in the butt if you have to because I know you love me. Shake me. Do what you must but don’t let me be deceived and don’t let me be misguided and please don’t let me misguide someone else. I pray and talk like that to God. It’s not in an insecurity, expecting to fail. I’m trusting Him to Father me. And it is actually keeping my heart before Him. And it is actually keeping my heart before Him - where I have no need to win anything from men - to be approved or affirmed by men. I don’t have the need to get up and preach.
1:14:55 - The call to pastor - That’s something cool about my life. I never asked to pastor and I never asked to travel. In fact I told them no when they asked me to pastor. I’m just a warehouse worker in love with Jesus.
1:15:30 - Wrong motive for ministry - affirmation - Some of us are pushing to get into ministry. Your life is ministry. I don’t see a lot of good coming out of it when people are pushing. They feel like they haven’t arrived until they get into full-time ministry. They feel discontent - like they can’t work or do a job. They get their affirmation from the position. Don’t ever let that happen to you. Don’t push your way into it for affirmation
1:15:45 - Leaving paid pastor position to get back into the workforce. Still pastored. Worked in warehouse. To get around people who didn’t know Jesus. Never wanted to be a pastor. The one thing I vowed I would never do - itinerant ministry. Itinerant minister hangs up.
1:20:30 - BREAK
Become the Word
1:20:45 - Become the word - Remember this simple thought - It’s hear and do the word. In other words, I don’t know the word until I have become the word.
1:20:55 - Knowledge can be detrimental - Knowledge can puff you up. Knowledge can also be detrimental in this way. You can sit under so much teaching, but until you apply that in a personal way to God and accept it into your own heart as true for you, that knowledge will come around and bite you because you’ll know - you’ll have the “amen” to everything - You’ll be able to say, “Yeah, yeah, I know.” You’d be amazed what that does to people when they have all of that knowledge - when they have heard the word - It’s almost like, “Been there, did that, done that” but it’s not your reality. And you almost feel like there is one little thing that I am missing yet. You’ll be running around for prayer or waiting for the big bomb to drop - waiting for the magic moment when the lights come on…
1:21:30 - Receiving truth and becoming that truth - No, it’s walking out truth. It’s taking the truth that he loves you and beginning to apply that in your life. It’s accepting that (truth) every day. It’s knowing that the Bible is true - the life of Jesus - and really personally applying that to your life.
Trials
1:22:00 - Hear and do - Matthew 7 - The only difference between the wise man and the foolish man is one heard and did and the other just heard. But the same trial came to both people. And this is the stuff that we fail to see because we tend to get so faith driven that if the trial comes, we feel like we have messed up just because the trial has come. That is deception.
1:22:15 - Trials will come - don’t get stumbled - Many are the afflictions of the righteous but the Lord delivers them out of them all. Don’t get stumbled because of the affliction because then you will never fight a good fight of faith. You are already stumbled.
1:22:30 - Trials - satan challenges what you say you believe - Some teach faith in a way such that if anything is going wrong you are missing it. There are times when satan gets in your face, just because he is who he is, and challenges what you say you believe. There are times in my life where I have preached things from the pulpit and in not much time I was having the privilege of of walking them out. Why is it a privilege? Because I don’t love my own life unto death.
1:23:00 - Stay out of negative mindset - you’re just asking for more - Be very careful you aren’t expressing yourself this way, “Oh just what I needed - another headache - more trouble. Why does everything have to go wrong for me.” You are asking for more. You are telling satan that you are doing a great job at messing me up. Just keep hitting me because I am about finished. We don’t realize what we are doing with our tongues.
1:23:20 - Shadrach, Meshach, Abednego - Not coveting their lives - I am dead to myself remember? So if I am going through a trial, what’s the big deal? Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego weren’t all bent out of shape because of the fire. “Why has it got to be us God? Why are you picking on us? Where is Daniel? How is Daniel getting out of this? Why are you allowing this God?”
1:24:00 - Could you imagine if they had a “God allowed it” theology? They are already stumbled in their stand. There is no way they are going to fight the good fight of faith because they are wondering and questioning why they have to go through this. No, it was just a king who was full of himself and wanted every man to acknowledge him.
1:24:25 - Why is it such a big challenge to be thrown into the fire? Because every man was in love with his own life. And the king met 3 men that weren’t. In an OT covenant. They actually said, what is your fire to us. The fire wasn’t even the issue. It’s not about us dying in the fire. It’s about who God is. We make a big deal out of the fire at the COST of who God is. Instead of making a big deal out of who God is and pass through the fire. Your perspective is so important.
1:25:10 - Satan believes every man is in love with his own life. He said to God, the only reason Job reveres you is because you bless him. What is satan actually saying to God? “People don’t love you. They need you. Everybody is like me. They are all selfish down in their heart. They are all self-centered and self-seeking. And it’s ‘I love you, do you love me?’” That’s what satan is implying about every human being. He believes that about you.
1:25:55 - And he is out to show that you love your own life - Out of the heart, the mouth speaks - Luke 6:45. You can tell how someone thinks. That’s where every trial comes from - just to expose and accuse that you love your own life and you are only seeking God for your benefit. If things don't go your way, you’ll turn from God as quick as you would turn to God. You’ll judge God because of your life. That’s what satan believes about every single person and he works really hard to accomplish that. So don’t make him right on your behalf.
1:26:30 - Responding in trial - What is your fire to us? They even said, “Even if He doesn’t save us, you need to know that He is still God.” They didn’t even make deliverance the contingent issue. They’ve just settled in their hearts that He is God. That would be a good place to be.
The Power of Belief
Faith Arises through Knowing Him
1:27:10 - How do you actually make yourself love God? If you were not raised with it, if you don’t recognize it…
➡ This is where I was headed at the beginning of class today. But we will probably kick off there tomorrow. We will dive in a little today and nail it tomorrow. But there is something I want to share about the power of believing.
1:28:20 - Be careful how you hear a testimony - I’ve probably only shared this (story - kidney stone pills) twice publically because of how people hear it. We follow those who through faith and patience inherit the promises - Heb. 6:12. So what we follow is not the act they did. It’s not that I write a book and put it in the bookstore - “How I was Healed of Cancer” - and then you follow everything I did along the way. If it’s not coming out of your revelation then it’s just works. It’s just you following a man and what He did. And if you do that and you are not in faith to do that and don’t have a revelation to do that and things start pressing you, you are going to be like this isn’t working for me. And it proves that we have made our relationship with God very methodical. No, we are called to have a relationship with God. We are to live out of our knowing Him.
1:29:30 - A testimony is not a formula to be applied to get a result - Our faith journeys are unique - So the steps I take in my specific trial, even though you are in the same trial, might actually look different and pan out differently even though the results can be totally the same or the will of God can be the same. The way that you get to point B and I get to point B isn’t the same except for these principles that we are sharing - The knowing of God - knowing God’s will - standing firm. But the actual way that I get there might be different from the way that you get there. So for you to hear a testimony… because some people say, “Now how did you…”
1:30:10 - Seeking a formula - 3 ladies asking about prayer technique. It’s not a method or pattern. They thought if they did what I did they would see the results I was seeing in my heart.
1:31:55 - Believing despite not seeing all things in subjection - Situations that seem troubling - Lord you are in this thing. You woke me. You gave me an impression. I prayed. It’s impossible for God to do nothing. Nothing is impossible for God. If I pray, there is a release of the kingdom. If I am believing in faith, you are doing something. I might not see it. I might not understand it but I thank you for who you are and what you are doing.
1:32:25 - Live from your heart - You have to understand that out of your heart you believe, not your head. We live out of our head so much. And satan’s attempt is to get into your head and get it so muddied up that it filters down into the heart and steals our heart, takes the edge off our heart, dulls our heart, numbs our heart, hardens our heart. You don’t live out of your head, you live out of your heart.
1:33:45 - Live from revelation not formulas - We try to teach people what they need to do instead of let what they do be based on what they believe and see He has already done. Everything I do is based on the revelation of what He has already accomplished and my level of understanding will determine what I should do. John G. Lake comments on going to a doctor - Die if you must but don’t compromise the gospel by going to a doctor. You can’t force convictions on others. Personal convictions. There is a way that I see that causes me to live a certain way.
1:35:30 - Tick story. I’m under the blood.
1:36:20 - Not projecting personal convictions onto others.
1:36:45 - Torn knee - Running up and down steps with a torn knee. Pride. Repentance means healing. If you forgive me, you heal me. Confused. Going to the doctor.
1:44:15 - Battery crushing son’s finger.
1:44:25 - Faith arises from knowing Him - You live out of revelation. I am not trying to apply faith. I’m not trying to have faith. Faith is the spontaneous result of knowing Him. Faith comes out of knowing Him. Faith works through love. Once I grow in this love and I understand love and enter into love, faith is there. I'm not even trying to have faith - it’s in the love. So when I know the nature of God and His love, I am not trying to have faith in God to heal my boy. I’m just understanding that He is greater than what just happened. I didn’t even pray for my boy’s finger. I just thanked God for His goodness and love.
1:45:05 - Granddaughter falling down steps. Arm messed up.
1:45:15 - Zoe’s nose.
1:45:30 - Faith is seeing the heart of God and the will of God for a situation - Jesus sees the heart of God and the will of God for the situation. You can’t practice for these situations. It’s a becoming thing. It’s something you have to refuse to be frustrated in.
1:46:45 - Enjoy the growing process - don’t be frustrated - That’s one of our biggest enemies right there. Please stop getting frustrated with the process of growing. Because if I get frustrated, I have reduced the gospel to a method for my sake. When I don’t get frustrated, I prove that I am growing in love and I have already established who He is in this situation. This is motivation stuff.
1:47:25 - Torn knee (continued) - Doctor visits. Holy Spirit comes and sews. I’m not against medical science, I just don't think that way. Emergency surgery and 5 months rehab.
1:51:40 - Men minimizing miracles - I don’t preach this stuff much because I don’t want to open doors for weird stuff. He could have healed my knee when I ran up the stairs. Everybody already knew I was hurt. But men think, “Well he must have just bruised his knee. Where was God. I thought he was protecting you.” All of those thoughts that lessen a work of God.
1:52:40 - I'm not against medical science, I just don’t think that way.
1:53:10 - I had to go through the medical evaluation to be handed a report that says, severe tear, emergency surgery required, 5 months rehab. And now people want me to find balance and think they are going to talk me into something less than that miraculous healing? That’s my journey.
1:53:15 - I try not to projecting my perspective on others - The key is that I don’t pressure you to do that and say that if you do anything less, you are wrong - unspiritual. That’s the prize. I am going after that and that is my privilege and I am chasing that. Does that make you less of a Christian if you don’t have that same perspective? And you are cool going in and letting that Christian doctor fix your knee and being in faith that your knee will work like it has always worked and created to work? I honestly don't see that as a problem in my heart towards you.
1:53:55 - But I will reject a lesser perspective - What I see as a problem is when you make that THE way and that’s your testimony. “God used the surgery… He gave us doctors…” and you are not even looking for the supernatural.
1:54:10 - Faith despite not seeing all things in subjection - If that healing did not happen on my knee and I had to go in and get the surgery and 5 months of rehab, if I am not a humble man and if I am not fixed on who God is, that whole journey for me is going to exasperate me, frustrate me and produce something not good in me. Why did I have to go through this? Now it’s all about me again. And I labor through the whole process instead of waking up rejoicing, not loving my own life and thanking God for the redemption of my knee. God, I appreciate these therapists. I thank you for all of their knowledge. And man, when they bend that back it so hurts today but thanks that it stretches God. That’s faith. No matter what your situation, be in faith.
1:54:55 - We let the definition of what we are in determine faith. Faith should determine that.
1:55:05 - Torn knee (continued) - Doctor visits. How are you walking? I serve a living God, His name is Jesus. Your knee is healed.
1:56:05 - Medical mentality - The doctor mentions arthritis in future. You are programmed dude. Wait, this is supernatural. I am healed, remember? Now medical science, natural wisdom is putting me back into a category of experience - to begin to expect (arthritis) and not think anything of it when it comes. I am not programmed that way. When that little tick is hanging on me, I am not programmed to think, “Oh my God! That’s an infected tick. I’ve got Lyme disease.” Let me tell you why I don’t have Lyme disease. That has to get bigger than why I do.
1:57:25 - Disclaimer - Get the test - Now would I ever judge you for getting a test? No. I tell people, if you have an ounce of fear, if you are trying to apply the gospel, if it is something that you are hoping works, just go and get the treatments and rejoice and thank God that you are protected in the midst of it all. Or you are going to judge yourself as less spiritual.
➡ 1:57:50 - This is something about believing - the power of believing. I want to show you how natural knowledge works and how spiritual knowledge works.
1:58:05 - Kidney stone story (continued) - little bottle of pills - God, you did something today that moved that stone upstream. You obviously gave me a covenant promise. You’re for me. You love me. You saved me Sunday night. I can’t even describe the freedom in me. Lord, I believe that you love me so much that I believe that they will never run that wire in me. You are going to pass this stone through my body - no pain - no blood - it’s just coming out because you are who you are. Thanks. I put the pills away in faith.
1:59:00 - Faith - arises from what what I see - I was in faith to do that. I saw that. When I prayed that, it wasn’t a method prayer, hoping it worked. It was my reality.
1:59:10 - Actions don’t prove faith, they should flow from what you already see - Here is what people try to do. They put the pills away to prove what they say they believe. That will never build faith. Faith comes out of knowing Him. And then it makes it works again. “Yeah but is it unbelief if I take the pills?” We are trying to do the act without the grown revelation through knowing Him. That’s why there have been so many bad stories in the body of Christ about people that didn’t take their medicines and died. They are trying to test the gospel through the ride (experience) instead of knowing and becoming the gospel. There is a big difference.
2:00:10 - Be careful of your motive. The Bible says that if it is faith the mountain moves - Mt. 17:20.
2:00:25 - Kidney stone story (continued) - I am going to live like a man without a stone. Trip to Montana. Throws the pills in the car. It’s the power of belief. It’s not that I sinned. It’s the power of how you perceive things. You live out of your heart. Rational thinking - it’s a long trip 2200 miles 19 days, what if that thing would hit me half way across the country? It wouldn’t hurt to take them along. First rest stop - blood in urine. Felt like adultery.
2:04:45 - Wavering perspective - I had wavered. For seven weeks I had lived like a man without a stone. I had established it first and then I lived that way. My faith was not the act of putting away the pills. My faith was establishing my heart before the Lord of why I’m ok and in that revelation the pills got put away in the cabinet. There is a difference between the two.
2:05:15 - So my mind had shifted because of the natural knowledge - the kids, the long journey - and all of the natural wisdom involved - I changed my mind. And all of the sudden I put the identity of a stone back on my life. And at the first rest stop, I am passing blood.
2:05:30 - Kidney stone story (continued) - I was balling. I sinned. What did you do? I settled that this was God and this was me and now I questioned all of that. Wife prays. I threw the pills away. I'm not telling you to do this. I am telling you that I did this because it was my revelation.
2:07:55 - Restoring perspective to where grace is - I realized my wavering perspective… It wasn’t the pills. The pills have nothing to do with it. It’s my perspective. I needed to get my perspective back to the place where grace was. I’m not telling you, throw your pills away and you will be healed - that’s crazy. Throw your pills away and you might die. You might take your pills and stay in faith and find your body totally healed. And your doctor might say you don’t need these any more. It doesn’t have anything to do with the pills. It has to do with faith along the way.
2:08:45 - If you make it about whether or not you took your pills (on the trip), you are making it about works when He already did the work. The work is finished. It has nothing to do with what you are doing with those pills. It has to do with what you are doing here (??with your heart? With your eyes - perspective? With your mind? Not letting it have dominion).
2:09:25 - Kidney stone story (continued) - There was no getting those pills out of the trash. I knew that but I was expecting (relying on) grace. The rest of the vacation went great. Got home and passed/sprayed the stone. No pain, no sensation, no blood. Got the stone. Jagged stone. Father-in-law driving to hospital. Impossible to pass naturally.
2:14:45 - Continuing in His love for me is the issue - If I get caught up in the pills / no pills, I am sidetracked. I am caught up in His love for me. I am caught up in the price that He paid and how that looks and pans out may be different for you and me. Pills / no pills is not the issue. Continuing in a love that never fails was the issue to me. That’s why I did what I did.
2:15:45 - Second guessing / wavering
2:16:20 - Even when you go to the doctor, keep on growing.
2:16:30 - Decision to go to the doctor.
2:16:45 - Thanking doctor for helping wife with seizure. I wasn’t against the doctor. I honored him.
2:18:05 - Enjoy the process of growing up into Him.
2:18:15 - Comparing to others - Don’t compare yourself to other Christians. It’s not wise. You might just barely understand that He loves you. That makes you no less valuable than someone who knows that they are loved. It means that we are on this same journey and let this same mind be in us all. It takes us to the same place. It’s not about where you are and where I’m not. It’s about where we are going. If we are all going to the same place we will all end up there. So rejoice that you are on that road.
2:19:05 - Closing prayer.