Ps. 91 - Hearing With Faith

Because of our trust in God and the way Psalm 91 portrays Him.

Psalm 91 wasn't written by David, it was written by Moses.

So it's a psalm by Moses.

But before we go into that psalm, one of the things we have to do to grasp the psalm the

way it is, is to hear with faith.

To hear with faith.

If you don't hear with faith, then many things in the Bible, many things that God says won't

become a reality.

We have to hear with faith.

And so I want to talk about what does it look to hear with faith.

We had talked about this in 2017.

We felt it was time to just visit it again.

How is it that Moses can say, even in the Old Testament, without having the Spirit indwell

him like the Spirit of God indwells us?

How is it that Moses, in Psalm 91, he's just brimming with doubt-free, confident expectation

in God?

Everything in that psalm is so absolutely sure that this is who God is, this is how

He'll behave.

Every declaration, He makes it so confident, so doubt-free.

Part of it was based on his experience, but part of it was because he had this ability

to both see God and to hear Him, but hear Him with faith.

And I want to talk about that.

Normal hearing is just the physical receiving of sounds.

That's what most of us think of when we think of hearing.

When we think of hearing, we think of physically receiving, physical receiving of sounds.

So that's what's happening right now.

I'm speaking and you can hear me.

And so often, when we hear the Word of God or when we read the Word of God, that's how

we take it in.

We just hear the physical sound.

But there's a difference.

God says, can you hear with faith instead of just hearing?

And the scriptures that go over it again and again, Galatians 3 talks about it, Hebrews

4 talks about it, and we look at those scriptures.

Can you not just hear?

Can you hear with faith?

At any moment, if we hear with faith, God's Word comes alive immediately in a way that

is transforming immediately.

And so hearing with our ears is just hearing physical sound.

So hearing with faith would be receiving or accepting a report from God, about God,

of God, immediately.

First in your spirit, then in your soul, which is your emotions and mind, and then doing

something about it with your body.

This is why if you read the King James Version of Hebrews 11, 2, it talks about faith as

a substance of things unseen.

Then it says, the patriarchs of old or the heroes of the Old Testament obtained this

faith by receiving a good report.

And they would hear a report about God and instantly they were able to hear it and receive

it.

It wasn't just hearing with physical ears.

They would hear it and they would instantly receive it.

How does Abraham go to a burning bush and instantly receive all that God is saying?

Yes, he hesitates, but his path was already set.

How does Mary receive it?

Zechariah couldn't, Mary did.

The difference between Mary and Zechariah, even though the words were the same, both

ask how can this be?

But one receives it, one hears with faith, the other does not hear with faith.

One who hears with faith births Christ.

One who does not hear with faith goes dumb.

That's the other thing.

As we hear the word, if we do not receive it with faith and make a practice of not hearing

with faith, over a period of time our hearts get dull.

Sclerosis happens.

The thickening of the heart happens.

Faith therefore is an essential part of how I hear.

How I hear the word, how I read the word, how I hear the Spirit of God speak to me.

All three.

Any questions on that?

And we first, we can only receive the things of God in our spirit.

We are spirit people.

We are spirit people.

We receive things in our spirit.

God dwells in our spirit.

We may not have cultivated the practice of receiving in our spirit, but that's something

that we all have to continuously press towards.

When I read the word, can I know things not by the mind?

It's one of the curses of Western civilization.

One of the curses of Western civilization, of enlightenment, of postmodernism.

That we want to process everything and understand it with our minds.

It's a curse.

It's the same curse that befell Adam when he decided to eat of the tree of the knowledge

of good and evil.

Immediately reason, speculation and doubt entered.

And so when God says something in the word, you receive it inside.

Who here processed salvation?

Anybody here came to the amazing conclusion that salvation, hmm, it works mentally.

It does not work mentally.

A dead man does not rise.

But somewhere inside you suddenly knew that our shucks, this is true.

And since then, we've tried to process it.

Christ's life is the processing of what we believe.

The emotions will come and go.

And then the body acts.

So it's hearing has to be the hearing of faith.

We'll try to make it a little, I mean, at the end of the day, the gospel is the gospel,

for instance.

Why does it say in Romans 10 that faith comes by hearing and hearing of the word?

Why does it say that?

Because at the end of the day, the gospel or the good news is a report about the life,

death, resurrection of Christ.

And when one hears this report, when one hears this report, depending on how they hear, by

faith, they get saved.

And the crazy thing is everyone is given the faith to believe.

But not everyone hears with faith.

Crazy, eh?

There's not a human on earth who has not been provided by God the faith to be saved, not

one human.

Every human being on earth has been provided the faith that is required for salvation.

Every human being.

But not every human being hears the report of Jesus Christ with faith.

Now move after being saved.

After being saved is the same.

Every one of us has been given the measure of faith to live out life like Christ.

But not everyone hears the word or reads the word or hears the Holy Spirit with the faith

that is required to walk.

Any questions?

Can you rephrase it?

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

So if you take Hebrews 4 verse 2 for instance, it says that the same promises that we receive

Hebrews 4:2

now are the promises that were given to the Israelites in the Old Testament in the desert.

And then it says, but they did not enter into rest because even though the promises were

given, even though they heard the promises, and who did they hear it from?

They heard it on Mount Sinai with the presence, the power and the glory of God settling on

the mountain, visible.

But it says they did not enter into rest.

They could not receive those promises because they did not hear it with faith.

As in they did not have, they did not exert the ability to trust God even though He was

visible and even though He had provided it.

It's something we just don't do.

Everyone has the faith required to believe the promises of God which are yes and amen

in Christ.

But have you noticed how we don't?

Why don't we?

Part of the reason we don't is perhaps we haven't cultivated it, perhaps we haven't

made a practice of immediately knowing in our spirit the things of God and stepping

out.

And so they couldn't, and so they didn't enter into the rest that they could have entered

into.

And so this idea of hearing with faith is important.

Sometimes all it takes is one simple word or one sentence or one paragraph in a book

or in even a teaching like this that can instantly affect our hearts to a point where it changes

everything we believe.

Everything we believe.

We receive it here, we process it here.

Our emotions work accordingly and our feet start moving.

But I must hear with faith.

Come out of your clan, out of your family, out of your nation, out of your people.

He heard it and then he steps out.

Hebrews 11, 8, not knowing where he was supposed to go, he steps out.

Why?

Because he knew in his spirit that this is God, a God he had never met, a God his father

didn't believe in.

Abraham's father, Terah, did not believe in it.

But Abraham knew, even in the Old Testament, without the Spirit of God dwelling in him,

he knew this is God.

And so he steps out.

Because he heard it with faith.

And whenever you hear things with faith, it puts you right with God.

Galatians 3, 7, whenever someone hears with faith, it is credited to him as righteousness.

What is righteousness?

Being put right with God.

Whenever you hear it with faith, be it a small thing or be it a large thing, you immediately

get put right with God.

And there's no better place than being put right with God.

And two walk together except they be agreed.

It's credited to you.

Go ahead.

But is it not, is it a choice we make to hear with faith?

Yes.

So how do we make that choice then?

What's what determines that?

Yeah.

Let me give you an example from normal life.

You can hear your husband with a loving heart or you can hear him with a neutral heart or

you can hear him with an irritated heart.

These are choices we make every day.

And then it doesn't matter what your husband says.

If you have a heart that hears with love, it is able to take the words, be they bitter,

sweet or neutral, and you respond differently.

It's the same way with God.

It's the same way with God.

When God speaks, if my heart is in a place where my past experience has taught me that

he is faithful, where the word, because it's gorged with the Holy Spirit, comes alive for

me and because I want to know him and grow in him, suddenly my heart is in a receptive

place to say, yes, even if this costs me, I will.

These are choices we make every day.

And we'll get opportunities every day.

Don't look at the opportunities of yesterday that you have missed out on and think, our

shucks, all is lost.

No, tomorrow you'll get 20 to 30 opportunities.

The day after, 30 to 40.

The day after that, 18 to 19.

Doesn't matter.

There'll be enough opportunities to practice this.

Because he has one purpose and that purpose is very simple.

Can I make you like Christ?

I ain't going to relent on that.

So opportunities will be plenty.

Hearing with faith.

The same applies to, you know, in Revelation 19 it says that the spirit of prophecy is

the testimony of Jesus.

What it means there is, even when God says something prophetically to you, you can either

hear it with faith that this is Christ speaking and even though it's so outlandish, I receive

it or you can go with the attitude that, I'm not saying don't wait, definitely wait, but

you can either go with the attitude of this is God speaking and I receive it or let me

see.

And what then happens is when you know it is God and you receive it, instantly it begins

to work in you.

Instantly it begins to work in you.

When I didn't know anything about Jesus, hardly two weeks into my being born again, a man

called Mike Hyman from Tulsa, Oklahoma came to Bahrain and he called me out and he laid

hands on me and he said, young man, I was young then, young man, he said, I stir up

within you the gift of faith and didn't know anything about it but this one thing I knew

that when he said it there was something that resonated immediately.

That was the first time I had even heard about the prophetic but as soon as I knew then it

was okay Jacob, from now on know that you can exert the gift of faith.

Don't know how but you knew it.

When you receive something that is off God immediately, something happens, eh?

The question is how do we decipher that it is off God sometimes when it's not within

your parameter of how things should be.

But that's a different teaching.

I can't hear you.

Yeah, it is a practice.

The reason you can hear your husband's voice and know that it's your husband is just because

it's practice and we keep increasing in it.

There's never going to be a day when we stop and if we do not know the word we will not

be able to recognize the shepherd's voice.

Without knowing the word that the shepherd has written you cannot hear the shepherd's

voice.

One is completely dependent on the other.

One can't live without the other.

To not know the word and to expect God to speak will happen so that God will encourage

you but it will not be part of my life.

Let me say that again.

To not know the word of God and expect God to speak will not happen.

God will do it to encourage you.

Every so often he'll give you a word that you give to somebody or you receive a word

and it's accurate and you feel good about it but don't we get too encouraged by that

because if the foundation of the word of God is not constantly growing layer by layer by

layer it is not possible for us to hear the voice of God and it's not necessarily an

audible voice it's just an invisible voice.

One is dependent on the other.

The word of God gives us an understanding of the character and the nature of God.

The more you understand the character and the nature of someone the more we will be

able to hear him if he speaks into our spirits or into our hearts.

The more I know the character and nature of someone the more I understand how they

communicate.

I know how Derek communicates.

I may not know how Nellie communicates but as I get to know the character and nature

of someone how they are becomes more evident and so as I learn the word of God what am

I diving into?

I'm diving into the nature and the character of God.

Okay so the nature of God is kind, the nature of God is loving, the nature of God is pure,

the nature of God is gentle, the nature of God is holy.

Now if I begin to know the nature and the character of God there's some commonality

between him and me.

It's like do you speak Tamil?

I speak Tamil.

Does Emily speak Tamil?

No.

If I speak to Emily in Tamil it means nothing to her but between you and I we have a common

language.

As I dive into the word and know his nature I change.

We are not reading the word so that we know the nature of God, big deal.

Any scholar can do that but because the word is alive as I read his nature I change.

Now there's a common language.

God is able to communicate with like after his kind.

That which is not after his kind may still hear God but it won't be a conversation.

The reason you and I have a common language is because we grew up in the same part of

the world.

Should I use the other mic?

Okay.

What happened Joey?

Check yeah.

So like understands like.

It's the same manner.

The more we get to become like Christ the easier it is to hear him and how do we get

to become like Christ?

We read the word and we pursue him.

So you read that he is kind you begin to pursue being kind.

You read the word that he is holy you begin to pursue that he is holy so you will be holy

too.

My God when two people walk like that you think there'll be a problem hearing?

God won't even have to speak you'll know.

It's like those couples who get old and they don't even talk but they know each other.

And then there are couples who are old and they're sitting six inches from each other

and you can feel Siberia between them.

One is Hawaii one is Siberia.

That's how this works.

So hearing with faith is critical to quickly progressing in God.

Quickly progressing God.

If you go to Hebrews sorry you can't let me put it this way you can't receive you can't

you can't receive with faith if you don't hear with faith.

How does it work?

One attentive hearing.

That's the first bit.

Attentive hearing.

Am I deeply in friendship with in love with in fellowship with in partnership with the

one who is speaking.

Am I ears attentive to him.

Exodus 33 verse 11.

Exodus 33:11

After Moses would leave the tent Joshua would still hang out at the tent because he had

seen the glory of God and he deeply longed for it.

Can I have a little more volume in the mic?

So attentive hearing that's that's the first part.

Attentive hearing.

Attentive hearing is not not occasional hearing.

Attentive hearing is not hearing when I need stuff.

Attentive hearing is not hearing when I need stuff.

Attentive hearing is not hearing when I need stuff.

Attentive hearing is not because I want to know the future or want to receive a word.

Attentive hearing is just doting on someone that you deeply adore care for want to partner

with want to learn from attentive hearing that itself is a practice that must be cultivated.

And it is only cultivated in the context of relationship because otherwise why would you

cultivate it?

Attentive hearing.

From there on we move to hearing what hearing what the spirit is saying about Jesus in and

through the word.

In and through the word.

You know in the movie Benher not the new Benher the old Benher in the movie Benher during

the chariot race there's a car that suddenly appears like a red car.

It was one of those mistakes made during the shooting of the movie where during the

chariot race there's this for a second there's a there's a front of a red car that appears.

And so if you rented that movie tomorrow or you don't rent movies anymore sorry if you

Netflix sorry my bad if you Netflix the movie tomorrow you would look for that car you would

sift through it you would search it you would go over the race again and again to find that

car and most likely you won't because I still don't know whether the car is there or not

I've looked for it but you would sift through it.

The second point is along those lines first is attentive hearing second is hearing what

the spirit is saying in and through the word as you read the word are you looking for what

the spirit of God is trying to show you about Jesus or about the passage you're reading

are you looking for it or are you reading it are you looking for the car when you read

today were you looking for what he's saying were you looking for what he'll highlight

were you looking for things you had marked four years ago that just happened to be a

reading again today were you looking at how does this situation match with my present

situation were you looking for it what were you looking for because he's always illuminating

Christ through the word and what Christ wants to do through the word in your life.

The sad fact is we look for Greek and Hebrew context and authorship and geographical location

and deep spiritual meaning but we sometimes in the process forget the simple things the

simple things the spirit of God wants us to look at.

Third thing.

Hearing what the spirit is saying hearing what the spirit is saying.

Jesus wants you to do wants to do through you.

Hearing what the spirit is saying Jesus wants to do through you because Jesus is alive and

because he's alive every day and in you and because he's continuously doing things across

the earth with you do you hear every day to find out Jesus what's the agenda today.

What's next Papa.

How do I go about things today is that an active question in our lives on a daily basis.

Tomorrow you'll have four or five difficult situations and seven or eight situations where

you have to deal with difficulties in other people's lives.

All of our lives are like this it's not some pastoral counseling thing or a clinical counseling

thing all of us will have two or three different things that we have to deal with and then

four or five things to deal with in other people's lives.

What does Jesus want to do can we cultivate the hearing of faith like that and then the

cultivating of the hearing of faith is if I hear it can I then chance it knowing that

I could get it wrong too because getting it wrong unfortunately is part of the human

experience.

No child walks without falling.

The easiest way to avoid walking like this is not to do anything that is risky faith.

Just don't do anything.

But otherwise can I can I do this hearing what the spirit is saying Jesus wants to do

through you.

I mean yeah.

No I'm saying that we should the best way to not have any problems in this area is to

just not risk anything.

Just the great thing about not exerting faith is you can always have predictable outcomes.

It's a wonderful way to live don't you think.

Just manage life.

Don't do anything risky.

All outcomes are predictable.

No adventure.

No risk.

Nothing lost nothing gained.

Give back to the master the coin he gave you saying you're a hard master didn't want to

risk this coin transact.

Here take your coin back and then you find out that you're thrown out into the darkness

where there's a gnashing of teeth and you wonder what you did you return what he gave

you.

We are supposed to transact.

Faith is a medium that is used to transact to take Lou two loaves and five fish and multiply

it to feed five thousand.

That is the god life.

And if that ain't the life you're pursuing then it's just Christianity.

Sacasim was a tool that Jesus used to.

He did in his parables my god they drip with sarcasm.

Last one is.

Letting the spirit.

Oi.

Letting the spirit stir up.

I had this really interesting conversation I was dropping on between Yaya and Pavan.

So.

So Yaya and Pavan.

So Yaya goes and says Pavan are you joining the army.

So Pavan says yes I'm thinking of it.

So are you going to die.

So Pavan says no I've decided to join the reserves it will be safe.

So it was quite a I'm sitting there laughing thinking my god man nobody says it like kids.

Letting the spirit stir up and shape and direct.

And direct.

The response.

Of your heart.

Mind and feet.

This is another way.

These are all ways to hear with faith.

This is another way.

Can you let the spirit stir up and shape and direct the response of your heart mind and feet to different things.

Sometimes it's people's cruelty.

Sometimes it's someone mocking you.

Sometimes it's someone treating you badly.

Sometimes it's not like that it's more adventurous.

It is generosity where you are suddenly sensing that I need to give.

Sometimes it's canceling something or changing your schedule.

Sometimes it's stopping by at a McDonald's when you know you have to get to a certain place in time.

These are things where the spirit stirs up and shapes and directs the response of your heart and mind.

This was regular in Jesus's life.

He's going to Jairus's daughter because she's dead and on the way he's touched by a woman with the issue of blood.

Now he has to stop.

He is going to heal Lazarus and he stopped.

And now Lazarus dies.

So this is another way.

These four ways if we can practice every day.

Always remember guys.

Let's assume you live another 20 years, 30 years, 40 years.

Let's take 20 years for all of us just for the fun of it.

Let's assume that all of us live for another 20 years.

Can you imagine what we will be like two years from now, four years from now, 16 years from now?

Amazing.

Hearing with faith.

Never be discouraged at where you are at today because tomorrow I'll get so many opportunities.

So many.

And God is a God who can make things happen very fast.

Acceleration.

It wasn't Tesla that discovered it.

Oh man, those Tesla guys, they just love jetting off from a red signal.

And then I wish they were going on a long distance right then I can show them what happens.

Suddenly the battery runs dry and I keep cruising.

Feel free to buy a Tesla.

I just have my own problems.

Galatians chapter 3 verse 5.

Galatians 3:5

It's in the context of receiving Christ, but look at what it actually says.

Galatians 3 verse 5, reading from the NIV.

Galatians 3:5

So again, I ask you, does God give you his Spirit and work miracles among you by the works of the law or by you believing what you heard?

Hebrews 4.2.

Hebrews 4.2.

For we also have had the good news proclaimed to us just as they did, but the message they heard was of no value to them because they did not share the faith of those who obeyed.

They did not mix faith when they heard the promises of God.

So here's the statement that really should affect us.

For the Holy Spirit to move in me.

For the Holy Spirit to move in me.

Or for me to move with the Spirit.

I must hear with faith.

It is true that the Holy Spirit lives in me and I live in the Spirit of God.

This is true.

For the Holy Spirit to move in me or for me to move with the Spirit, I must hear with faith.

Any questions on that?

It goes back to these four things.

Can I do these things?

Can I be attentively hearing?

First, can I be attentively hearing?

Can I while I'm preaching right now, attentively hear?

During worship, it was attentive hearing that had me say what I said about Prasanthi Yetu's daughter.

Attentive hearing.

Because we are engaged in the Father.

Why should a baby in the womb suddenly come up?

But attentive hearing will bring to your mind what God has on his mind.

Attentive hearing.

The second one is hearing what the Spirit is saying about Jesus through the Word.

So I don't remember what I read this morning.

It was from Psalm 70 and a few other things I read.

While I'm reading that, my question is, what do you want me to see, oh God?

Besides the context of Psalm 70, besides the context of Galatians 5 that I read today,

besides how it affects my life, Galatians 5 talks about, hey, these are the sins of the flesh,

these are the fruit of the Spirit.

And as I'm reading through them, on one hand the Word examines you.

There are so many things happening at the same time, guys.

As you're reading Galatians 5, for example, the Word examines you.

Because the Word becomes a litmus.

Jacob, how are you doing in purity?

How are you doing in terms of idolatry?

How are you doing in terms of your thought life?

The Word examines you.

And then the Word also encourages you.

Ah, so the fruit of the Spirit is working in this area.

The fruit of the Spirit is not working in this area.

It's encouraging you.

So that's happening anyways.

And then the question is, Father, as I read through these passages,

the Spirit of God, what are you saying to me about Jesus?

Highlight it.

This is an answer to Sedef's question.

Third, can I hear what the Spirit of God is saying during the day?

What Jesus wants me to do?

The old-timers here have heard the story, but many haven't.

I was in Bangalore in India.

I woke up one morning and felt the Lord saying,

I want you to go to South Asian Bible College,

and I want you to meet a guy there.

This is at five in the morning,

which God knows is not my favorite time of the day.

And so I say, okay, I will.

I said, but who am I looking for?

And the Lord shows me this face quickly,

has a beard and this scruffy beard and stuff like that.

And so I go back to sleep, and then I look, Google,

and see how far South Asian Bible College is,

and it is really far.

But now the question is, will I or won't I?

Because now you receive it, you hear it with faith,

you know God is saying it.

And so I decide, okay, I'll go ask this guy called Santosh

if he can drive me.

We drive, we go all the way and get to the college,

and it's their day of fasting,

so nobody's where they're supposed to be.

I thought, go to the cafeteria,

and that's where students hang out.

There's nobody in the cafeteria,

because it's a day of fasting.

And so I'm thinking, where else do you find students?

They're all in their room spring,

I can't enter their rooms.

How do you find a guy with a beard?

So I decide, library, that's where students go.

I go to the library, and just lots of girls,

there are no guys and none of the girls had beards.

So I think to myself, okay, now what do I do?

How do I find this guy with a beard?

And it had come to a point where having scoured the entire area

for well over 20, 25 minutes,

I decided this ain't working, so I'll go home.

Maybe I heard wrong, which is a possibility.

And so as I'm heading back to the car park to head home,

I see this chapel, and that chapel is well known

for very reputed worship leaders all across India and in the US now.

Many good worship leaders have come out from that chapel.

So I decide, let me just go into the chapel,

just to look at this place from which I've seen so many worship leaders come out.

I go into the chapel, and there's this guy sitting there.

And he's been fasting for two days,

because God said to him two days ago

that I am going to change your life.

I'm going to show you what you're about.

I'm going to change your life.

Chapel was over. There was nobody else there.

He's been sitting there for two and a half hours just reading his Bible.

And I go up to him, and he's the same guy that I had seen in the morning.

And I go up to him and I say to him, listen, you don't know me,

but I've been looking for you.

Here's my name and number.

If you trust that what I'm saying is of God, call me,

because it's someone else's campus.

I can't go force my way or tell him he has to make a free choice.

I gave him my number and I leave.

Nothing happens. The next day I'm in Chad's church,

and I'm preaching in Chad's church.

And as I'm preaching, I'm relating this very story while I'm preaching.

And it so happens at that very moment on his phone,

he gets a message saying,

I want you to watch the New Life Assemblies of God service.

It's streaming right now, and he turns it on.

He turns it on at the exact moment that I am relating this story.

How does God do all this, man?

And he's listening to his story being told live.

Guess what happens? He calls me.

And then I give him the word that God had for him.

Later on he came to Shillong with us and so on.

How did all this happen?

Through receiving with faith what you heard.

This is something we need to do.

As we do this, this will develop.

You can't have this without this.

You have to hear the Spirit illuminate the Word.

If you do that well, the Spirit of God will now begin to speak

straight into your heart and into your spirit.

It's natural for him. He's your father.

He doesn't converse through a book.

When you want something from your dad, does he go and say,

check the manual?

Yes, checking the manual is important,

because that's where the fundamentals are.

But after that, it's conversations, too.

It's not one or the other. It's both, right?

But there's an order in which it happens.

I want to show you two pictures.

What's your name, Brandon?

The first picture is from June 24th.

It's when my mom had a stroke.

She's got three tubes running through her.

She can hardly connect. I'm trying to speak to her.

It's not helping.

She's in a daze of sorts. This was June 22nd or 23rd.

Again, these are just examples.

My question to God was, okay, so, Father, she's lived a good life.

She's 84. Tell me what I need to do so that I do what your will is

and not what I would want or what the family wants.

What do you want in this?

Because that's this idea of hearing by faith.

Hear what the Spirit is saying.

What if we went that route instead of first desiring and demanding

what our desires are?

Get his perspective. Then you can bargain with him.

Abraham did.

And God sometimes relents, sometimes says,

stop it, Moses, I'm letting you go into the promised land.

Just pack up your argument and climb up Mount Nebo.

So, this was, and so my question to God was simple.

What do you want to do?

And his, just three words.

It was, we dream forwards.

Tell your mother, we dream forward.

And so I went and kept, we dream forward.

Yeah, we dream forward.

And so I keep telling her, what do you want?

God is saying we dream forward.

What are your dreams?

And she had one dream.

She wanted to attend her granddaughter's wedding.

And it was impossibly, with tubes running through her,

with no control over her bowels, with no ability to function normally.

It is impossible.

I went three times.

The second time I went, I thought to myself,

man, I'll have to come back a third time.

I'm thinking to myself, how do I tell her this may not be possible?

But God kept saying, we dream forward.

You read scriptures and you encourage your heart when your heart is discouraged.

And then the next picture, that's from last week.

I don't know how God did it, man.

I know there were guys here who were praying.

There were guys in other places that were praying.

But from, took 45 days.

Doctors suggested it's a bad idea for her to fly when she's had a stroke

and she's on blood thinners for 10 hours from India to London.

We dream forward.

That was the only word.

So does this mean now that every time something like this happens to her, we dream forward?

No.

She's lived well.

The Lord wants to take her home two weeks from now, so be it.

But for that situation, what was his perspective?

We go situation to situation, looking at God's perspective, hearing with faith.

Either we discover what he wants in the word or we discover what he wants when he speaks to us.

But we go step by step by step.

Any questions?

Yes.

Yeah, constantly unlearning.

I think a time comes in your life where you're only unlearning.

You're learning less.

You're unlearning more.

No, I'm not joking.

You have to unlearn so much.

Because we grow up in a cauldron that says reasoning, speculation, think it through, weigh the odds, pros and cons.

This will be the easiest way.

Take this route.

Don't be dumb.

Be smart.

Use your common sense.

These are words.

The other famous one, you do your best, God will do the rest.

Don't know where that one came from.

When God shuts one door, he opens another door.

All these things.

So we're in this, we're on this conveyor belt built on nothing in the word, but built on human ways of thinking.

And so to unlearn all that is painful, man.

I'm sure Moses had to unlearn a lot.

He came from Egypt's best, highly educated.

I'm sure Daniel had to unlearn a lot.

But these guys, I don't know how they did it.

I mean, when Nebuchadnezzar took the boys into Babylon, his intent was, can I indoctrinate you to a point where you forget that you're Israeli and that you become Babylonian?

I'll even change your name.

And they changed their names.

But these four boys, Shadrach, Meshech, Abednego, which by the way are the Babylonian names that we refer to them as?

They are the names of Ahaziah, Michelle and Hananiel.

We don't even know their real names because we've been taught Shadrach, Meshech, Abednego.

And so a lot of unlearning.

But praise God, unlearning is replaced by the learning of God.

If we can hear with faith, Psalm 91 will spring alive, spring alive.

I mean, something as simple as no evil shall befall your tent.

If I could actually embrace and absorb that to a point, I mean, I know one or two people in this church who walked COVID so bravely, so bravely that I felt ashamed.

It wasn't bravado.

They were in circumstances where it was easier to catch COVID than any of us.

But my God, they walked well.

What was it that gave them that courage that I didn't have?

And then there are other times I have courage, but in certain places, no.

This is a preamble to Psalm 91, as in can we have this so that we can have that?

Because the result should be fearless people.

Fearless people who walk into, I mean, here's a progression.

Hide in the cleft of the rock.

That's the first one.

When we begin, we hide in the cleft of the rock.

Whenever we are afraid, we hide in the cleft of the rock.

The second one is, I don't remember the second one.

The third one is run towards Goliath.

First one is hide in the cleft of the rock.

The second one I think is sleep in the boat.

Yeah, sleep in the boat.

Three phases of courage.

Hide in the cleft of the rock.

When an enemy comes next against you, oh God, you're my refuge, you're my rock, you're my stronghold.

Hide in the cleft of the rock.

He'll keep you there safe.

Second, sleep in the boat.

Where now you've gotten accustomed enough to Jesus to know that he can take care of you in a storm.

So you sleep in the boat.

You're not too hassled by the fact that there's a storm.

And the third one is really nuts.

Run towards Goliath.

These are the three phases of courage.

Run towards Goliath.

You're not running away.

You're not hiding in the cleft.

You're not sleeping.

You're running towards danger.

Okay.

Any questions, guys?

What time is it?

Okay.

Let's stop.

God's adventures and sometimes even what God wants to reveal to you

are sealed till you open it by obedience through, sorry, with the Spirit.

You open it by obedience through, sorry, with what you hear in the Word

and through his dreamer in faith.

God's adventures and revelations are often sealed till you open it by obedience.

You open the seal by obedience by hearing with faith what he's saying.

And then suddenly it springs open.

Small steps, eh?

He doesn't want you to take any major steps.

Small steps.

Can you just tell your mom, we dream forwards?

I must have repeated it 200 or 300 times to her.

We dream forwards.

We've said this before.

It's wonderful when you get to a place where obedience precedes understanding,

where you obey before you understand.

And often, users as a measure, eh?

I find that I fail often in this.

The first things I think about when I think about the things I think about

and often, users as a measure, eh?

I find that I fail often in this.

The first things I think, say, and do, the first things, the first things I think,

say, and do when adversity happens, when adversity happens,

tells you everything about my true spiritual condition that day or that week or that year.

Just keep that in mind.

The first thing I say or do when adversity happens tells you everything about my true spiritual condition on that day, that week, or that year.

And so many times when things go wrong, I'm so surprised at my reaction.

I'm so surprised at what I say and do.

Sure, you can say, praise the Lord.

But beyond that, what I say or do tells you everything about my true spiritual condition.

And I want you to be the first ones close to me know whether this guy has the faith to walk or whether he needs help,

because it will tell you how you think, how you react, what your first response is, often tells you where things are at.

To hear with faith, cultivate a violence, cultivate a violence against the fear of man,

fear of foolishness, fear of the unknown, fear of insecurity,

because faith will pit you against all four.

These four will rise up the moment you exert faith.

Every time you or anybody in the Bible did anything that was faith-worthy, they had to come against these four things.

The fear of man, as in what will people say, what will my parents say, what will friends say, what will they think of me,

the fear of foolishness, as in appearing unsophisticated, unreasonable, illogical.

The fear of foolishness. That's the fear of foolishness.

The fear of the unknown, as in I'm stepping into something where I've got no idea what's going to happen.

Shendam's pickup line, Keeru's levinate, not knowing where he was going, he steps out.

And then, the last one, the fear of insecurity, because it will remove the stability of the security around you.

And there's no way to deal with them unless it's violently. It's not gradual.

it'll come back every time. It's like the kind of weed that if you ever tried dealing

with weeds gradually. I mean, it's not like I know anything about weeds, but I know that

if you deal with weeds gradually, they just keep weeding, whatever they do. Yeah. Any

questions on this? Come to me, sing oceans and we'll end. Any questions on this, guys?

Cultivate a violence, huh? The beautiful thing about, again, going back to the story with my

mom, was my brother-in-law is a doctor, my sister is a dentist. They know enough about the medical

field to know that what Jacob is saying is absolutely ridiculous. But the beautiful thing

was these two guys who think a certain way, chose the route of faith. For me, it's a little easy.

I don't know what actually is happening inside my mom's body, but they do. And for them to say,

no, we shall go this way was just nuts. But every day, others would send them cuttings. Be careful,

you bring your mom to UK. She's not a resident. If she falls ill, it'll cost you 50,000 pounds a day

because there's no insurance to cover pre-existing medical conditions and so on. So there'll be this

barrage of bad news that comes your way. And in the midst of it, can you cultivate a violence

against the fear of man? Cultivate a violence against appearing foolish, illogical, unsophisticated,

unreasonable, the fear of the unknown. What if, what if, what if, what if, and the fear of

insecurity? Oh shucks, what are we stepping into? Violence.

You call me out upon the waters, the great unknown, where feet may foil.

And there I find you in the mystery, in oceans deep, my fate will stand. You call me out.

You call me out upon the waters, the great unknown, where feet may fail.

And there I find you in the mystery, in oceans deep, my fate will stand.

And I will call upon your name

and keep my eyes above the waves. When oceans rise, my soul will rest in your embrace.

For I am yours and you are mine.

Oh

Your grace abounds. Your grace abounds in deepest waters. Your sovereign hand will be my guide.

Where my fail and fear surrounds me, you've never failed and you won't start now.

And I will call upon your name

and keep my eyes above the waves. When oceans rise, my soul will rest in your embrace.

For I am yours and you are mine.

Spirit lead me. Spirit lead me where my trust is without borders. Let me walk upon the waters

wherever you would call me. Take me deeper than my feet could ever wander and my fate will be made

stronger in the presence of my savior. Spirit lead me where my trust is without borders and my fate

would form the waters wherever you would call me. Take me deeper than my feet could ever wander

and my fate will be made stronger in the presence of my savior. Spirit lead me where my trust is

without borders. Let me walk upon the waters wherever you would call me.

Take me deeper than my feet could ever wander and my fate will be made stronger in the presence of my savior.

Savior I will call.

And I will call upon your name

and keep my eyes above the waves. When oceans rise, my soul will rest in your embrace.

For I am yours and you are mine.

You know when you look at this verse, you can't sing this unless you know the word.

I will call upon your name. Keep my eyes above the waves. When oceans rise.

This you can't do if you don't know the word. The spirit of God will show you Jesus Christ in the word

so that you can sing this. But if you go to the verse before this,

it says, no the verse, the next one,

next one. Yeah, look at this. Spirit lead me where my trust is without borders. Let me walk upon

the waters wherever you would call me. You wouldn't know where he's calling you unless you

heard the spirit speak. And now it's not necessarily through the word because the word doesn't have

words like Wallis, Surrey, Timbuktu and Madrid. This is where God suddenly speaks you differently

or McDonald's. It's both. On one hand we need the word to know this is God. We can walk on water.

On the other hand wherever you would call me with the spirit speaking to you. It's both. It's not one

or the other. The song does say it well. Yeah. So maybe look at Psalm 91 and hear it with faith.

When you read it, hear it with faith. Hearing is not audible. When you read it also you hear with

faith. It's a report written by Moses. Just think of this. We think hearing it always has to be loud.

Moses is writing a psalm. It is his report on God. And as you read it, you are hearing what Moses is

saying. At one point Moses says I will say he is my refuge and he is my rock in whom I will trust.

It's his report we are reading. Sometimes as we read we hear.

Yeah. God bless you and keep you, make you men and women of great faith.

If you need prayers, I want to pray with you. Otherwise happy faith day.