That you are my disciples

How do we arrive at this place where disciples can be defined like this?

Because your master was like that.

When your master walked the earth, when Jesus walked the earth, there were two things that

were distinct to him.

One was that he was a divine son.

The other one was that he was a divine servant.

So when it comes to disciples that he has now raised and left with the Holy Spirit,

then it's the same principle that holds.

How do you define disciples?

Disciples are ones that exhibit in their lives, or practice in their lives, or make evident

in their lives two things with increasing intensity.

First one is divine ownership.

Sorry, divine sonship.

It always comes first.

Before ownership comes sonship.

It can't be the other way around.

So the first thing is divine sonship.

The second thing is divine ownership.

And the question is, can people see that in my life or your life?

That's one of the ways disciples are recognized.

Divine sonship we see right off the bat.

God giving you that privilege in Romans 8.15 where it says, the spirit of adoption that

has been given to you cries out, Abba, Father.

So the moment you're born again, you have what it takes to exhibit divine sonship.

When it comes to divine ownership, what you're basically immediately saying is that, or what

God is saying or what you should be saying is, you are not your own.

You are not your own.

So that's what divine ownership looks like.

And so to say that I'm a disciple requires that I also say that I'm not my own.

That's the easy part.

I'm not my own.

I know we've talked about this progression before, but it's so worth remembering that

it works like this.

I am not my own.

Because Romans 6 talks about it, that you were bought at a price, you're not your own.

I'm not my own is the first statement.

The second statement is, I belong to Christ.

And the third statement, and hopefully in about two weeks we'll talk about the third

statement, the third statement is, I belong to you.

This is then we'll tie in with love.

This is the greatest command I give you, love one another.

But it is not possible to love one another with this kind of disciple-like approach if

these three statements can't be worked on.

And it's a lifelong progression.

I wish I could say, any of us have arrived here, but it's not true.

It goes on and it gets better and better.

If I have a desire to exhibit in my life divine sonship and divine ownership.

Any questions?

No discipleship course can get you here.

There is no discipleship course that is designed to bring you here.

This is a matter of like everything else, practice.

So let's just look at that again.

A new way of defining disciples based on how the master was is divine sonship and divine

ownership in that order because that's how Jesus was.

Divine sonship we know immediately as soon as we are born again it says in Romans 8.15

we have the spirit of adoption that cries out, Abba Father.

Divine ownership says you are not your own because you are owned by somebody else.

To get to that place of divine ownership there are a few things that I have to keep in mind.

The first one is I am not my own and you can see that in 1 Corinthians 6.

It talks about that.

It says in 1 Corinthians 6 verse 19, 20 it says you are not your own, you were bought

1 Corinthians 6:19

at a price.

You are not your own, you were bought at a price.

As in you were paid for, you belong to someone else.

So the first thing I have to do before I can even get to whose are you is I am not my own.

And the next statement is if I am not my own, who am I?

I belong to Christ.

And that part is also easy.

The third part which is where Christianity differs from every other religion is I belong

to you.

And the first you is you and then the first you is whoever he would have me serve.

Any questions?

This is the demand of discipleship and one of the things you will notice throughout the

scriptures especially in the gospels is Jesus never shied away, diluted, minced words about

discipleship.

This is one of those areas where there was very little grade, it was always clear cut.

To the point that there are so many statements that end with either you cannot be my disciple

or if you are my disciple.

And so this is not an Acts 29 requirement.

It is not a preaching requirement.

It is not a message requirement.

These are the requirements of the one who died for you and to whom you belong.

Any questions?

No?

Okay.

In which case, here is the next thing.

Disciples are trained administrators, trained stewards and let's define stewards as servants

who administrate, servants who administrate on behalf of a master or in this case the

master.

Disciples are trained stewards acting on his behalf.

Disciples are trained stewards acting on his behalf.

That's a steward.

The steward is a servant who administrates things on behalf of the master.

Disciples are trained stewards.

So disciples are not let's have some disciples because we have a master.

Disciples are raised by a master so that they can be trained to be stewards on his behalf

to administrate or to discharge the things he wants to.

So worship in itself for the sake of being a disciple is no end, no goal.

So to say that Jesus wants disciples is to say that Jesus wants trained stewards.

Stewards administrate things on his behalf.

They are servants.

But stewards are stewards that must be trained.

Each word is measured and carries weight.

Any questions?

If you're not trained you can't act on a master's behalf in any situation.

Doesn't matter whether you're secular or Christian.

If I register to be a disciple I'm basically registering also to be a trained steward.

And stewardship, some of the things we have to be aware when you're a steward is recognize

that you do not have control over your property, relationships or yourself.

Jesus said that again and again.

What he basically was saying is it's a commitment.

It's a commitment of one's self and possessions to the service of Christ.

Any questions on that? Any arguments against that?

I know it's hard things for us but we're not looking at whether it's hard or not.

We're looking to see whether we have an argument against it or not.

If you're a steward, be it anywhere in the world, what is placed in your charge is not yours to hold on to.

It's not your property.

Your relationships are assigned or dictated by the master.

Your property is what you have been given by him to take care of, to increase, to trade in.

You don't even have rights in a sense to yourself which Jesus brings up again and again and again in many different ways.

This unfortunately makes us sad instead of making us happy.

That's understandable. We can start there and work our way.

Any questions on that?

It's sad because our natural minds always think of, okay, what do I have to give up?

What's going to be taken away from me?

That's just our usual experience of how things work on earth and the negativity that we carry unfortunately.

If you begin to think of disciples in terms of divine sonship and divine ownership, your sadness may be replaced by joy.

Divine sonship, divine ownership.

As a son, I lack nothing.

As a servant, I own nothing.

The day anybody hits that sweet spot is the day you become the happiest people on earth and the freest people on earth.

And because there aren't enough people who practice this, there aren't enough models.

What if Sue who is older than 55 and Sen who is lesser than 20 and Derek who is lesser than 32?

What if each of these people started practicing this?

What if someone who's single like Evan and someone who's married like Dawn and someone who is dedicated to singlehood like me?

What if we all started practicing this?

Now there are models that we have.

But because we are scared of this, the immediate connotation is, oh my God, this is going to be more demands.

These are not demands being placed by man.

These are demands placed by the son of man on us.

And he very clearly without any dilution calls you to this.

And the strange thing is in John 15 when he talks about it,

he ends it in verse 11 with this line.

He says, I'm saying this all to you so that your joy may be full.

At the end of this, if I were to actually buy into this, it ends with so that your joy may be complete.

So every time you begin to think of, oh shucks, this is going to place a huge demand on me,

think along the other lines of there is nothing that the sons of Adam were meant to be except divinely owned and divinely sonned.

Divinely fathered and divinely owned is the reason man was created.

It is going back to the very essence of us being human.

I may not convince you, Jesus will.

So stewardship is recognizing you do not have right of control over your property, your relationship or yourself.

That's frightening, eh? And it's frightening because we live in a time where our rights are the most important thing in the world.

Yet everything about Christianity is a laying down of one's rights for the benefit of someone else.

At cost, at cost of being exploited, disadvantaged, being poorer.

But do you want any other form of Christianity other than this?

Yes, you can come up with arguments saying, but what about if I am exploited again and again?

Those arguments are super old.

Nobody in this room has gotten to a place where we're being exploited like the guys in the book of Acts or Corinthians or the Philippines or the Colossians.

Our problems are pretty minor.

That argument cannot knock this off.

The other thing with discipleship and stewardship is that you have to give account.

The moment someone is a disciple, the moment someone is a disciple or someone is a steward, you have to give account.

The Bible has many parables where you have to give account.

So discipleship or stewardship is not possible without giving account.

You have to give account for a few things.

Here are some of the things the Bible talks about.

You have to give account of how you administer or use time, money or wealth, the inheritance given you,

which includes things you've been called to, your abilities, the knowledge you have gained over the years through listening, learning, relationships

that you presently have and that you will be invited into, responsibilities that you have been given.

And authority that you are supposed to exert.

These are usually the things that you have to give an account for.

And if I'm not able to give an account for it, then my stewardship and my... it doesn't expand.

It stays as is.

That's okay here on earth when things stay as is.

But there is also giving an account in 2 Corinthians 5 before him.

Who can be terrifying on that day of account?

Let me just show you.

2 Corinthians 5.

2 Corinthians 5.

So we try our best to please him, verse 9.

So we try our best to please him.

We want to please him whether we are at home in our bodies or away from them.

We must all stand in front of Christ to be judged.

Each one of us will be judged for the good things and the bad things we do while we are in our bodies.

And each of us will receive what we are supposed to receive.

We know what it means to have respect for the Lord.

So try to help other people understand it.

What we are is plain to God.

I hope it is plain to your way of living.

That's from the NIRV.

The NIRV is almost the same.

Except it says, since then we know what it is to fear the Lord, we try to persuade others.

So there is a giving of account.

But here on earth, if you cannot give account for these things, then all that happens,

and it's really not all that happens, it's a terrible thing to happen,

is that stewardship that is not able to give account for what you have been given

will cause you to remain in the circle that was initially drawn.

It does not expand.

Because stewards are rewarded on a simple thing, faithfulness.

Not excellence, not the number of people that you are able to reach,

not the number of souls you've saved, not the amount of preaching you've done,

all the brilliance of your preaching.

It's based on just one thing, faithfulness.

Go ahead.

What do you say should not be considered excellence?

Like, isn't excellence something that we should just not desire?

Yeah.

I think excellence should be desired,

but sometimes we measure excellence by comparing it to someone else,

and therein it becomes faulty.

So let's say I sing and Emily sings.

Emily has a better voice.

I assume Emily's singing is excellent and mine is really good.

So now what happens is if you are going to measure me by the excellence of Emily's voice,

then I'm falling short.

But if you measure me by the faithfulness I have to the voice,

to the desire to worship God, I might come out better than Emily.

What if she's only depending on her voice to make it sound good and has zero anointing?

I mean, she thought she was getting the good end of the stick.

I just reversed it.

So now what happens is excellence becomes a measure.

And so we must aspire for excellence,

but faithfulness is more important than excellence,

which is why there will be times where people don't do half as good a job as you,

and yet they are rewarded more because they are faithful to what God gave them.

And sometimes it's frustrating.

You look at them and you think, my God, this is the guy they put on stage,

but the guy is faithful to what he's been given, even though you can be better.

Shiloh is perhaps more faithful than Sheldon today.

Who knows?

It's all good because anyway it's Phoebe Benefits.

The other thing about stewardship or discipleship is you are trained.

We said they are trained stewards.

You are trained in households led by the Spirit.

You're trained in households led by the Spirit, and then you are assigned or sent to serve.

So it doesn't matter whether it's Acts 13,

where Barnabas and Paul are raised and trained in the household of Antioch,

and then assigned and sent.

It doesn't matter whether it's Jesus and his disciples, where he assigns and sends them.

Training happens in the context of the households of the Spirit.

Training does not happen in isolation,

because one thing about this kind of training is it is stewardship that administrates things on behalf of the master

who sends you to serve others, and it is in the context of a household that you learn.

And if you don't, then you're not faithful.

And you will have to give account. I will have to give account.

It's inescapable. Any questions?

Acts 8, 14, you see it again. Acts 9, 10, Acts 13, 2.

They are trained in households of the Spirit and then assigned and sent to serve.

Households of the Spirit, not Acts 29.

Households of the Spirit, but it has to be in the context of a people.

Acts 8, 14, Acts 9, 10, Acts 13, 2.

Like I said, faithful stewards or faithful disciples are rewarded.

What is the reward? The reward is increased dominion, as in greater area of influence,

increased responsibility, and the cool thing is with either of this comes an increase in stewardship.

Brandon, can you fix this? Increased dominion, increased responsibility, increased authority.

So let's look at Jesus' criteria for disciples. Jesus' criteria for disciples.

The first one is in John 8, 31. I'll just give you the four different things we'll be looking at in the future.

The first one is Mark 8, 34. Mark 8, 34. Thanks. Mark 8, 34.

And one that is very similar to that is Luke 14, 33.

And so it says that whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves, take up their cross, and follow me.

So that's one. Next one. John 8, 31 and 32, where it says,

if you abide or if you hold on to my teaching, you're really my disciples.

The first one is deny oneself. The second one is I hold on to my teaching, as in abide in it, as in keep it.

Then you're my disciples. You really are my disciples.

Next one is John 13, 35. John 13, 35.

And that talks about this is how everyone will recognize that you're my disciples when they see the love you have for each other.

And then the last one is John 15, 8. John 15, 8 says, when you bear a lot of fruit, they will, it shows you're my disciples.

When you bear fruit, when you bear a lot of fruit, it'll show you as a disciple.

These are Jesus' own sayings. These, in his opinion, was what would prove discipleship.

First one is Mark 8, 34. If you deny yourself, and we'll briefly touch on that because we've talked about that in the past a lot.

So the only thing we'll do today is John 15, 8, and then the rest we'll take another time.

So Mark 8, 34, Luke 14, 33 says, Then he called the crowd to him along with his disciples, and he said to them,

Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me.

So let's turn to Mark 8, 34 and Luke, Mark 8, 34.

Mark 8, 34.

Look at the context though, guys. Look at the preceding verse and why he says this.

So in verse 33, when Jesus turned and looked at his disciples, he rebuked Peter.

Get behind me Satan, he said. You do not have in mind the things of God but the things of men.

So what happened in verse 32, it says, He spoke plainly about this and Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him.

But when Jesus turned and looked at his disciples, he rebuked Peter.

Get behind me Satan, he said. You do not have in mind the things of God but the things of men.

Then immediately after that he called the crowd to him along with his disciples and then he said to them,

If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.

So what's the context? The context is he is just telling people that he needs to deny himself.

That he needs to lay things down. That he has to now lay things down for the sake of others.

What does Peter do? Peter immediately comes and says, Stop talking like that.

That's sometimes what we do. When God places a demand on people, we go and tell them,

No, no, that's an extreme. One has to look out for oneself. We come up with stuff like this.

Jesus, in front of the disciples, he looks at his disciples and then he looks at Peter,

you be Peter for now, and he rebukes him saying, Get behind me Satan.

And then he doesn't stop at that. This is where you find Jesus so demanding when it comes to discipleship.

He doesn't stop at that. After having done that, he calls the crowd to himself.

He's not even calling just his disciples. He calls the crowd to himself and he calls his disciples.

And now he says that if you want to be a disciple of mine, you will have to deny yourself and take up the cross and follow me.

How can anyone, whoever is standing here right now, could be you, could be me.

How can anyone dilute this, lessen this, or even entertain any other truth than this?

Yeah, we are going to talk about that.

To take up the cross, at least in his context, was to lay down life.

So when we are not laying down our lives, what does it look like?

Because we don't have to go and give up our lives for anybody, at least in Canada.

What does it look like? What do we have to lay down?

So here are some of the things that we have to lay down. Then we move on to John 15, 8.

Some of the things I have to lay down.

One, offense. To lay down offense.

As in, when people come against you, when people say things about you, when people are being hurtful, harmful to you, to lay down offense.

What is laying down offense really?

Laying down offense is giving up the right you have to ask God to avenge you sometimes,

or give back how you've been treated, or demand that your rights be given back to you,

or speak out about the need to be vindicated.

To lay down offense is actually as personal as it gets to laying down your rights.

Because everything in you rises up saying, but I am right.

How do you...

I can't hear you.

How do you balance out the David cry that you see things, cultures spreading along the board?

Beautiful. Fight for everyone else's rights.

Never cease to fight for someone else's right.

And David's cry to avenge himself on people's wives and children?

Let it be David's rights in the Old Testament, because someone paid the price for it.

So we can't go, vindicate me, oh God, and may his children go hungry, and may his wife be taken captive.

We can't go down that route. That was an Old Testament pattern. Eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth.

And so, Jesus' eye was taken and his tooth was taken kind of a thing. He paid that price.

But when it comes to rights, yeah, stand up for the justice of others.

But it says in Peter, when it comes to you, if people exploit you, be like-minded like him who was led like a sheep to the shearers.

Is this now a blanket statement that applies to all situations? No.

But it is a blanket statement that you first apply and then apply other statements.

Every time someone slaps you on one cheek, do you turn the other cheek? No. You start with that principle and then decide what to do.

So it's not that that's the only way to react. There are times when Paul would stand up and say, why did Paul do that?

Why did Paul do that? When Paul was being flogged or was being, they were taking him to flog him, what did he do?

He said, I'm a Roman citizen. How dare you flog me?

So there were times when he stood up and he spoke. Other times, he apologized when he called one of the high priests a whitewashed tomb.

He said, I'm sorry, I didn't know you were a high priest. I shouldn't be calling you that.

Other times, he'd get beaten black and blue and they'd leave him for dead and he would get up and walk away.

But the starting point for us that makes us different from every other person on the face of the earth because we belong to a different master is fight for the rights of others.

So offense is really personal. We don't realize how much of laying down of one's life and rights is involved in not taking offense.

Some other things you can lay down. Independence and self-assertion.

Three. Self-preservation. Jesus would constantly speak against this. His statement was Jacob, every time you try to save your life, you will lose it.

Self-preservation.

Four. The timing of when you will do things.

And obedience. There's another hard thing to lay down. Carry your cross is to not have the freedom to decide when you will.

It is not obedience when you decide the time. It is disobedience.

This is what Jesus is saying in Luke chapter 9 where he says, let me bury my father and then I'll come.

Luke 9 · chapter mention

He wanted to delay his following till the dad had died, the inheritance is settled, money has been distributed, land has been distributed, now I'll follow you.

It is not up to you. Delayed timing is basically disobedience.

Let me rephrase it. Not delayed timing. Choosing your time to follow Christ is disobedience.

These are some of the things we will require to lay down. Next one is security, which he spoke about so often.

Peter said, but we have laid down everything. Jesus said, yeah, I know. Security is what looks like wealth.

Anything that gives you security here on earth.

Societal obligations and the fear of man. Societal obligations and the fear of man.

And then the last one, you may be able to add to this, relationships that compete.

Relationships that compete, which include father, mother, sister, brother, son, daughter.

And then Luke, wife, husband.

This is the demand of discipleship. This is what you're asked to by Christ himself. Any questions? Any disagreements?

Societal obligations and fear of man, where culture demands that I behave a certain way, where it is natural in certain cultures to not leave home until you're a certain age, or get married a certain way, or not get married a certain way.

There's so many cultural, social norms that become so highly pressured that it's almost impossible to forego them because it means stigma.

Yeah.

Fear of man, relationships that compete, be it father, mother, sister, brother, son, daughter, wife or husband.

Thank God all these words are spoken by Jesus, eh?

Please remember the good news part of this, and the good news part of it is really divine sonship, divine ownership, and your joy will be complete.

Yeah, yeah. So it says honor your father and mother. If you don't take care of your family and give your money for ministry, you're worse than an infidel, and so on. So there are many of those statements that are made.

And so you don't throw out one and keep the other. You decide what it is to lay your life down, and that is a settled thing.

One of the things God always says is hate one, otherwise you will not love the other. When he talks about hate and love, what he's saying is relative to everything, there should be no competition.

There should be no struggle. When it comes to cultural obligations, no struggle. Fear of man, no struggle. Father, mother, brother, sister, son, daughter, wife, husband, no struggle.

Once that is established, now you have the amazing freedom to do exactly what he's asked you to do. But it never competes again. If there was any man who took care of his parents and his siblings, it was Jesus.

But yet there was absolutely no struggle when he was 12 and when he was 30. Very clearly he told them where they stand when it comes to his father.

But was he any less loving or any less caring? If he was, he wouldn't rise up from the dead because he would have sinned.

Always remember that. That anything that Jesus said or anything that Jesus did that did not actually correlate or align with what his father expected of him would have caused Jesus to remain dead.

He would not have risen from the dead. Because one sin and the weight of the sin is death.

What an amazing life, 100% human.

We'll do John 15, 8 next time. But I just want to switch to Ezekiel 37, 1.

Almost like, shut your notes down for this. And if you want to start a fresh page, start a fresh page. We'll do John 15, 8 next week and thereon.

Guys, the reason I'm talking about Ezekiel 37, 1 is because I believe some here will experience this even tonight.

And it says in Ezekiel 37, 1. Just go there.

This has very, almost nothing to do with what we just talked about. So look at it as something that may be remer for some of us.

It could be for all of us. It definitely will be for some of us. Ezekiel 37, 1.

When something like this happens, God is not saying I want it for this person, this person, this person. He wants it for everybody.

Because he's not partial when it comes to what he wants to unleash.

But like he says, many are called but fewer chosen. And that doesn't have anything to do with his choosing. It has to do with my receptivity and response.

So may this be something that I catch and you catch. I want to catch it as desperately as you.

Ezekiel 37, 1.

I will make breath enter you and you will come to life. I will attach tendons to you and make flesh come upon you and cover you with skin.

I will put breath in you and you will come to life. Then you will know that I am the Lord.

So I prophesied and as I was commanded and as I was prophesying there was a noise, a rattling sound and the bones come together bone to bone.

And tendons and flesh appeared on them and skin covered them but there was no breath in them.

Then he said to me, prophesy to the breath, prophesy son of man and say to it, this is what the sovereign Lord says, come from the four winds of breath and breathe into these slain that they may live.

So I prophesied as he commanded me and breath entered them and they came to life and stood upon their feet, a vast army.

The first thing guys is the hand of the Lord. It says the hand of Yahweh. The hand of Yahweh. Ezekiel 37, 1.

The hand of Yahweh. The hand of Yahweh.

Whenever it's spoken of like that it speaks of an overwhelming force with which you are seized by God.

Expect it to happen to some of you eh?

Just by the sheer presence of the power of God here, just by the sheer presence of God.

Expect his hand to be heavy on your head and you don't even know why, you don't even know what you're being called towards.

The hand of Yahweh will sit heavy on your head and it's an overwhelming force with which you are seized by God.

That's one of the things that will begin to happen for some of us.

The second thing is God always sees us lives that he can help himself to.

God sees us lives that he can help himself to at will.

God always sees us lives that he can help himself to at will.

And so in your heart begin to say, Oh God, I serve at your pleasure.

There is no other reason for my existence but to serve at your pleasure.

You can have me at will. Seize what you want.

I don't even know what this may mean, Oh God, but whatever.

This is why I live.

Let the hand of God be heavy upon you, an overwhelming force that wants to seize you at will and make him yours to do whatever he wants.

What does it matter?

The next thing he'll do is he'll lead you back and forth. He will lead you back and forth.

He will lead you back and forth.

He will lead you back and forth in a valley.

You'll see a massive collection of things that haven't happened.

Massive collection of bones.

Of problems you have.

Of shortcoming.

Of sin.

Of defects.

Of habits.

Of lack.

Of unfinished promises.

Of things that disqualify you.

This is where he starts. He takes you up and down the valley.

All you see is massive valley of valley full of massive glistening bones, but these bones are dry.

And he'll show you and he'll say, You've got to have a look at this because if you don't look at this, you don't realize what I'm going to do.

He's okay having you go to and fro in a valley.

The fact that these bones were lying out in the open meant that whoever was in that valley and whenever this war had happened, they hadn't even buried these bodies.

And it's unthinkable not to bury bodies in the Middle East.

It's the worst thing that you can do. That's why even with Israel, all the bodies that have been collected in the kibbutz is why.

So that they can all be given a decent burial. To be left was sacrilegious. It was like a curse.

And he shows you your condition. And he's okay with you going to and fro looking at your condition.

You hear dry bones. Dry bones, hopelessly dead.

Hopelessly dead.

And one of the things he wants to show you is he wants to show you, even now, the end from the beginning.

Try and see it. Try and see the end from the beginning.

Sometimes he does it just by injecting hope.

Don't focus on just your defects or just your physical condition. This is bigger than that.

Mostly for the sake of kingdom, others. Yes, but he'll take you through the valley so you can see your own defects.

But see the end from the beginning.

Think of all the glorious things that have been said about you by him through the word from others.

Dry, hopeless, maybe.

See the end from the beginning. See what this place will be. Remember what Iris wrote. See yourself.

He'll start it today. Let it be born in your heart.

Think that sometimes your parents said, even though they were not believers, they began to speak on behalf of God and said things about you.

And it'll seem like a contradiction what you hear him saying and what you are today.

Or where you are today. Maybe a contradiction, but that's where he loves beginning.

Rattle through it, eh? Rattle through the contradiction.

And if you pay attention, he'll ask you a question.

Can you see this happening?

He asks Ezekiel that. Ezekiel, can these bones live? Can you see this happening?

And he won't settle for an answer like, oh God, you know. He won't settle for that.

He'll keep asking, can you see this happening?

Can you see it happening for your son, for your daughter, for your family, for the church?

Can you see it happening for yourself? For your marriage?

Can you see it happening?

And any disingenuous reply like, only you know God, your will be done, will not cut a day.

He'll keep asking you that. Why? Because that's how he begins to build hope in you.

And then a strange thing begins to happen. He'll say, can you prophesy or speak on my behalf?

Call the dry bones to attention on my behalf.

Horrible words spoken into the invisible will eventually burst forth in sight and sound.

Horrible words spoken into the invisible will burst into sight and sound.

Can you, right now, wherever you're sitting, speak in English or speak in tongues or speak in any language?

Can you let the heavy hand of God, to the extent that you're able to without faking it, without dramatizing it,

can you begin to speak whatever God is going to show you, even if it's a slight glimmer, a small thing?

Maybe all you want is just, oh God, give me hope again. Oh God, help me to be consistent. Oh God, let me rise up again.

Oh God, unleash me. Oh God, help me get over the things I'm struggling with. Whatever it be.

I'm going to turn off my mic. This is between him and you, eh? And speak what he commands you to.

Speak audible words into the invisible. Begin to speak it. First for yourself. Yourself first.

There are no words that grow from you.

Father, a prayer that I pray for everybody here is let us not be able to escape the heavy hand of God on our lives this week.

When I turn to the left, when I turn to the right, let me hear a voice that says, walk in these, the ancient paths.

Let my heart be filled with hope. Let my heart be filled with impossibilities.

Seize us, oh God, so that you may have at your will our lives. Seize us, oh God, for a time such as this, for a time such as this,

with all, with the entire valley of bones that we bring to you.

Can this happen in your life, Jacob? Yes, it can.

Can it happen in your life, Acts 29? Yes, it can.

Can it happen in every life seated here? Yes, it can.

Can the power of the Spirit break upon a people? Yes, he can.

Can the power of the Spirit flow through a people like in the days of the old? Yes.

Can a people be ready? Yes.

Can a people desire this? Yes. Are you the people? Yes.

We are that people. I know the people here. These are the people, Father.

Every one of them, without exception.

Ready, willing.

In the Spirit of God, let your hand be heavy upon this church.

We desire divine ownership. We desire divine sonship.

You are worthy, oh God, you are worthy.

Let this be the day when the valley of bones became a vast army.

Let this be the day when promises made to us personally and corporately begin to happen one by one, rapidly, rapidly, oh God.

As Ezekiel began to speak, he was surprised at how rapidly bone came to bone.

The rattling was heard. Let it begin. Oh God, let there be a rattle. Let there be a rattle.

Let there be a rattling of bones.

See your people, Father. Our faces are turned towards you.

We seek you. We seek your faith. We seek your pleasure. We seek your desire. We seek your will.

There's no other reason for us to be here.

Hear our cry.

Light up the night with our lives, oh God. Make us torches, blazing torches.

Don't escape you, oh God. Let your hand be heavy upon your people.

Let this week be inescapable.

This will have to be a sovereign act of you, Holy Spirit.

We can't manufacture this. We can only surrender to it.

We surrender to it at this moment. Only you can sustain it.

I'd like to stop for now, Father. Stop is the wrong word.

This service will close about. But we have asked that your hands be heavy upon my life, upon our lives.

This is something you want to do.

Father, I'd like to, or not I'd like to, I think you would like to end with that song about dry bones rattling.

So you want to end with that song.

What song is that?

No. Rattle. Can someone sing that?

Guys, God will be faithful. I believe he is the one who initiated this. I pray that he completes it.

There's nothing you and I can do by flesh or by our own means to sustain this.

But at the end of this week, may you be in a place you've never been before.

Then we'll see what else he wants to do next week with the rest of both disciples and Ezekiel.

Who knows the song Rattle? You know the song? You can sing.

Sheldon, can you play?

Sorry.

Okay.

Okay.

And so Father, we just want to like come before you.

Father, may this be the song of our hearts that we sing to you, this new song that we sing to you for what you have invited us into in this season.

This is a new season for a church father.

And so Father, we just want to like come before you.

Father, may this be the song of our hearts that we sing to you, this new song that we sing to you for what you have invited us into in this season.

This is a new season for a church father.

And you want us to come before you. You want us to like, you're inviting us father.

You desire this for us, but more importantly, you're inviting each and every single person here to come before you as individuals, but corporately as a body to receive what you have for us, Father.

What you have for us in this newness.

And so Father, hear the choir of our hearts.

Hear the words of our mouth.

Saturday was silent.

Surely it was through.

Since when has impossible ever stopped you?

Friday's disappointment is Sunday's empty too.

Since when has impossible ever stopped you?

This is the sound of dry bones rattling.

This is the praise make a dead man walk again.

Open the grave, I'm coming out.

I'm gonna live, gonna live again.

This is the sound of dry bones rattling.

Pentecostal fire stirring something new.

You're not gonna run out of miracles anytime soon.

Resurrection power runs in my veins too.

I believe there's another miracle here in this room.

This is the sound of dry bones rattling.

This is the praise make a dead man walk again.

Open the grave, I'm coming out.

I'm gonna live, gonna live again.

This is the sound of dry bones rattling.

My God is able to save and deliver and heal

and restore anything that he wants to.

Just ask the man who was thrown on the bones of Elisha

if there's anything that he can't do.

Just ask the stone that was rolled at the tomb in the garden

what happens when God says to move.

I feel him moving it now. I feel him doing it now.

I feel him doing it now. Do it now. Do it now.

This is the sound of dry bones rattling.

This is the praise make a dead man walk again.

Open the grave, I'm coming out.

I'm gonna live, gonna live again.

Open the grave, I'm coming out.

I'm gonna live, gonna live again.

Open the grave, we're coming out.

We're gonna live, gonna live again.

This is the sound of dry bones rattling.

Thank you Abba. Only you can bring dead things back to life.

Anything we place in your hand Abba comes back to life.

So I bring this church. I bring each and every single one of us.

We put ourselves in your hands and we will come back to life again.

Jesus I speak your name over this church.

This church belongs to you. We all belong to you.

And we will all come back alive again.

All the dead parts, all the parts that were buried, all the parts that people have spoken over us

will never rise again. They will come up anew, come up afresh because Jesus you are here.

This is your house. This is your house Father.

And we are the people of your house. We are your children.

And we will rise again because you rose again.

Amen!

Amen!