Attrition 3 – Part 2

children about five weeks ago.

So different people will take turns,

but there's a part two that Jillian's going to share now.

And then we'll continue after.

So you want to come up to the end and grab a mic?

Hello?

Oh yes, it's working.

Am I good?

Okay.

So when we talked about this five weeks ago,

we were talking about what are expectations

that we have of our kids.

And then, so this week we just want to talk about,

okay, we talked about how we're shifting our expectations

of our kids, but we want to talk about two points of

what are expectations of parents or the adults

within this room and how we treat the kids.

And so first, are we raising them to honor

and respect those around them?

Am I aware of how I talk and speak with others

when I have children around who are listening?

We must stop excusing ourselves

with their perceived lack of understanding.

And where is this coming from?

Christ does not ask anything of us

that he himself won't walk in.

What must I change in my speech and my conduct

in order that the children may imitate me

as I imitate Christ?

And so really our question is, hey, what do we as adults

need to change so that the kids can imitate us

and in how they imitate us, they're actually learning

from infancy how to reflect Christ.

Two, what does discipline and instruction look like?

If we're called and commanded to train up our children

in the way they should go, this requires discipline,

boundaries, and expectation.

In Hebrews 12, 11 it says, for the moment,

all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant,

but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness

to those who have been trained by it.

Do our children know what is expected of them,

both in public and in the private of our homes,

and the consequences that we will follow through on?

Can we sit down with our kids and clearly talk it through?

Can we raise them up to reflect Christ,

to speak kindly, to filter their words correctly,

to treat each other with respect and love,

to guard their eyes and ears, to know within them

what is of God and what is of the world?

In Deuteronomy 11, 19 it says, you shall teach them

to your children, talk of them when you are sitting

in your house and when you are walking by the way

and when you lie down and when you rise.

So back to what we said a couple weeks ago.

Can we be more stubborn than our children

and follow through on our discipline and correction?

Why? Because our kids are worth it.

And it is our Father in Heavens,

it is how our Father in Heaven interacts with us.

Can we get down to their level?

We must be face-to-face parents and adults

in order to raise up our children to meet a face-to-face God

who is both a God of extravagant love and gracious consequence.

Can we get down to their level?

We must be face-to-face adults in order to raise up our children

to meet a face-to-face God who is both a God of extravagant love

and gracious consequence.

What do we expect of our kids?

We expect that they respect all adults

and the environment and circumstances within the room.

That they participate and are taught to engage in worship.

That they have brilliant little minds that grasp far more

than we give them credit for.

Where do we see this?

We see this in the stories of Joash and Samuel in the Bible.

They had high expectations placed on them

and they grew into wonderful, godly adults.

We can no longer have a double standard for our kids.

Where we expect them to learn to read and write

and all things kids do.

But when it comes to behaving and understanding,

we think this is too much for them.

We set boundaries that will create safe environments.

We create it for adults.

It's time we create it for our kids

so they can learn and discover in safety.

Can we be more stubborn than you?

It doesn't matter how much they push or pull

or try and sneak around.

Will I be more stubborn than them?

Will I follow through?

Will I not change on them?

Will they realize that they can count on me?

Because I love them enough to stick it out

through the tough, through the pain,

through the tantrum, through the tears.

Awesome. Thank you.

I'm hoping to finish this today.

So, if not, it'll be at Trition 5 next week.

It's all based on Acts,

Acts 2:22

chapter 2, verse 22,

where it said that Jesus was a man accredited by God.

And how did God accredite Jesus?

And how did God make him a man?

And how did God make him a man?

And how did God make him a man?

And how did God make him a man?

And how did God make him a man?

And how did God make him a man?

And how did God accredite Jesus?

By having signs and miracles and wonders

performed through him.

Brandon, do you have those pictures?

Or is it too late for that?

Okay. Next time.

And so, for deeds of power, deeds of wonder,

deeds that are signs, faith is required.

And the faith is best practiced every day in your life

so that it can be practiced through your life.

So, guys, here's what we're saying.

Faith is best practiced every day in your life.

And if that becomes how your life is,

then it is easy for signs, deeds of power, wonders, miracles

to happen through you.

And it is a way that God accredits you in Jesus.

We see this in Luke chapter 9.

Luke 9 · chapter mention

In Luke chapter 9, there's a man who has a son

Luke 9 · chapter mention

who gets thrown into the fire, thrown into the water.

The devil's trying to kill him in Luke chapter 9.

Luke 9 · chapter mention

And they bring him to Jesus as disciples.

And one of the things that happens is this man's saying,

Jesus, I brought him to your disciples,

and they couldn't do nothing.

It was almost like, so what have you taught them?

And so one of the ways that God accredits us in Christ

is by saying, hey, can I bring someone who has need

for a powerful intervention of God,

an act or a deed of power, can I bring them to you?

And if I brought them to you,

will you be able to do something about it?

And to live like that, I have to rise to a place

where faith is best practiced every day in my life.

Faith is best practiced every day in my life.

That's what we've been trying to figure out,

so that in season and out of season, you can be called upon.

It doesn't matter whether you're waking up and sleepy,

whether you're having a bad day or a good day,

whether you didn't have things work out for you,

it doesn't matter.

That in season and out of season, I can turn to Emmanuel

and I say, I have this need.

Can you do a sign or a wonder?

Can you approach your God and ask him to work on my behalf?

That's what people did in the Gospels.

That's what people did in the book of Acts.

They brought them, laid them out on the street,

hoping that something would happen

as the disciples of Jesus walked by.

And if you call your church Acts 29, it's your fault.

Questions?

I mean, this is a basic hypothesis,

so is there any argument against this?

This is a false statement to begin with.

Okay?

It's impossible to have faith practice every day in your life

if a life of faith is not your preference.

This is an important statement because most of us

don't think that the life of faith is the life that we choose

as our preference.

Most of us live a life of faith

because we are necessitated to live a life of faith.

It is not our preference.

As long as something is not your preference,

you cannot practice it every day.

Yes?

As...

So it seems like, like, say, you gave the example

of the Father in Christ that there was a struggle with the disciples.

With faith, is there some, like,

is there sometimes when you're supposed to, like,

struggle in that, like, to persevere?

Because I see some churches, like,

they seem to believe more that you need to, like,

strive to see things happen.

Yeah.

So we will talk about it in detail a little later,

but to answer your question, there's persevere.

There is struggle.

And so persevere is when you need patience to see results

or an outcome.

Struggle is sometimes not with faith,

but it's with why it is not working.

That's where the struggle should be.

Because everything about faith should be restful

because it is done by the presence of God in a place

that you trust.

It's not your work, right?

So it should be restful.

So perseverance is patience where I wait for an outcome to happen.

That is understandable because there are times where it says

with patience one obtains results.

It says so in Hebrews.

But struggle is not the struggle with faith.

Struggle is why isn't it working?

That is where the struggle is.

And that is a good struggle.

It's the same struggle that a mechanic has with a car,

that a computer genius has with coding and software

that Tooney had today with playing a simple song like Happy Birthday.

There's a struggle.

He couldn't find the chord.

So that's how you differentiate it, and we'll talk about it some more.

And so when churches say one must struggle through with faith,

faith is always supposed to be restful.

It's not supposed to be...

If you hear someone saying, I'm hanging on, then there's a problem.

I shared this story long ago, but it's so worth sharing

where a man was at an airfield where they're having an air show

and they have this huge blimp tied down.

People are looking at the blimp and suddenly because of the upward buoyancy,

the pegs start coming off and this blimp begins to rise.

One of those Goodyear blimp kind of things.

True story, eh?

And so as it begins to rise, marines come and try and hold it down.

But the upward buoyancy is so tremendous that it starts rising,

and as it starts rising, guys are holding on to it,

and the hands are beginning to chaff.

Some begin to fall, and they let go.

Others now are at a height where if they let go, they will break bones.

There are three or four left, and it keeps rising,

and they can't hold on anymore.

The hands are beginning to chaff, and they let go.

Two or three of them die.

And then there's one guy left, and it goes to 60 feet, 80 feet, 200 feet,

and the guy is still there.

People are taking their kids away because they know the inevitable is going to happen.

At some point, this guy has to let go.

And then after a while, it begins to lose altitude.

It comes and settles at the far end of a field,

and they go, and the guy just steps out gingerly and starts walking towards them,

and there's not a scratch on him.

The hands are not chaffed, and they ask him how he did it,

and he said it was very simple.

At some point, I realized if I wrap the rope around me, I'll be okay.

So instead of holding on to something and clinging on to it for dear life,

he takes the rope and begins to wrap it around him.

So he wasn't holding on to the rope.

The rope was holding him up.

When I first heard the story, the guy explained that that's how faith is supposed to be.

I'm supposed to take what God has said, the trustworthiness of God,

and wrap it around me so that I'm not holding on for dear life,

that it is holding me.

Then I can start singing.

As long as I'm holding on, faith is a struggle, and it's a miserable struggle.

You're dealing with the invisible, and sight is all around you.

I must be able to take either a promise of God or the word of God

and wrap it around me so that it holds me up.

Otherwise, it's going to be very difficult.

I remember once going through a disease that killed my dad,

and I had all the right symptoms, and I'm thinking to myself,

gosh, man, how am I going to get out of this?

There was fear.

I remember taking a huge card paper and writing two simple phrases on it.

One was, faith is anchored in the invisible.

Unbelief is anchored in the visible.

I stuck it on the window that I always would go and look out of.

Every morning I would get up, and I would go to that window,

and I'd see these two phrases.

Faith is anchored in the invisible.

Unbelief is anchored in the visible.

It would keep reminding me, Jacob, do not look at what is happening to you.

It will freak you out.

Look at that which God has spoken.

He speaks life.

He speaks things into existence.

He calls things that are not as if they already are.

I must wrap it around me.

It's my only safety.

Otherwise, it's always going to be a struggle.

And so we talk about what else can be struggle,

but persevering is something different,

where it does say in Hebrews that patience and faith have to plow in tandem.

Patience and faith have to plow in tandem, and we'll talk about that.

So if faith is not your preferred method of living,

then it cannot be a daily practice.

I want to say to you that faith is not my preferred method of living.

I don't mind living by faith.

I kind of enjoy it, but it's still not my preferred method.

I'd like everything without faith.

And occasionally when I need to, I have enough faith to use it.

But Jesus didn't live like that.

Jesus' preferred method of living was I live by faith.

What does it mean by living by faith?

All it means is I live by what God tells me to,

and I behave and obey and practice that.

I don't live any other way.

I don't live any other way for my provision, for my marriage,

for my peace, for my comfort, for my healing.

I don't live any other way.

The preferred method of living is I live by what he says, and that's what I do.

It's an extreme form of living,

but those that begin to live like that do mighty exploits,

and their God is recognized.

Those that don't live like that, you have a godly existence here on earth,

and you go to heaven, and you always have to sell heaven,

because you can't sell your god.

Faith allows you to present God.

A lack of faith allows you to present heaven.

You can always tell them about going to heaven and getting born again,

but my god, man, start living by faith, and they will see your god.

That's a huge difference.

Every time anybody in this room has lived by faith, people have seen your god.

They applaud you, but they do recognize your god.

All good?

Living by faith out there?

Any questions?

Okay.

So, last time we said that some of the disciplines we can cultivate to begin to live like this

is one, refuse to be defeated by time.

Refuse to be defeated by time.

Time is a weapon used powerfully by the enemy,

where he makes wait time become worry time.

Wait time becomes worry time.

Wait time becomes worry time, because initially it's fine,

but at some point as I wait, doubt and fear creep in, and wait time becomes worry time.

This is when I have to go to Numbers 23, verse 19, which says,

Numbers 23:19

God does not lie.

He's not man.

What he says won't he do it? God does not lie.

Which also means then that I must examine the promise that I am holding on to.

Examine the promise that I am wrapping around me, not holding onto.

Examine the promise I am wrapping or wearing.

And this can either be a promise that was given to you from the word,

from knowing the nature of God, from a prophetic word, and so on.

What is a promise?

This is when you need to examine it.

Examine the promise, because wait time will turn to worry time

if you don't examine the promise.

Abraham would keep going and looking at the promise, and he was fully persuaded.

I mean, if there is a guy who had to wait and watch his body rot

and believe that he could produce a son, then Abraham is a classic case.

My body is rotting, decaying. I'm becoming more and more important.

And yet I must look at the promise.

I must begin to look at the promise and gain strength from it.

That's how you do it.

And some of the promises are not prophetic.

Some of the promises are not something you heard God say.

They're in the word.

Those are the absolute things you can stand on.

At least when you hear things you can say, maybe I heard wrong.

But what about stuff in the word?

You can't even write it.

I've never seen someone drink chips.

But there's a first time with you, Sheldon.

So know this that, and this is, there are some, see, God is not,

you cannot predict what God will do, but you can predict his nature.

You cannot predict what God will do, but you can predict his nature.

As in, he's pretty predictable because he's faithful.

When someone is faithful, they're predictable.

It's just that you don't know which route they'll take.

But if they say they're going to turn up, they'll turn up because they're super faithful.

So there are certain things that you can know about God that will always happen.

So in your impossibilities, in your impossibilities,

and you can look at the Bible, Old Testament or New Testament,

and you'll find that whenever there are impossibilities, there's always assurance.

There's always assurance.

One of the things God is really good at, and if you can internalize this,

that in every impossibility, in every difficult situation,

if you are a believer, that your God is a God who reassures.

It is unmistakable. It is predictable.

You can take it to the bank because he's faithful in this.

In the Old Testament and the New Testament, he is always reassuring.

Not once, not twice. He'll reassure as many times as required.

Not based on how you think reassurance should work, but based on how he thinks.

He'll keep coming through prophets and say to Israel,

Israel, don't worry, I know it's been 300 years.

I know it's been 400 years, but on the 400th year, I'll take you here, or I'll take you there.

Gideon, don't worry. I know you're the smallest of your tribe.

Paul, don't worry. I know I said to you when you first became a believer

and your eyes were open that you would go to the Gentiles.

I'll take you there.

And yes, you will face opposition, but I want you to know that in every city there'll be people.

And yes, in every city there'll be people, and you think you can't make it further,

I'm saying to you, you will go to Rome.

Again and again and again. He used to reassure his own son.

Go ahead, James.

In that case, it was to a nation. It was not to a person.

Yeah, it was to the nation of Israel in the Old Testament.

But that was to a nation so that they could keep remembering that, listen, I will deliver you.

But when it came to people, yeah, it was within their lifespan

where he would say, it's going to happen, it's going to happen.

With Abraham, he would show them the stars sometimes, sometimes the sun.

And he'd say, listen, I will come through.

So your God has this nature of being reassuring.

It's just that we don't think so.

What we look for is not reassurance. We look for confirmations.

We've got to stop this thing of confirmation.

Confirmation is when you want another sign, another sign, another sign.

That'll help you continue.

It's very Old Testament-y.

It's very Old Testament-y.

It's very not Spirit of God people.

The last time fleets was used in the Bible to figure things out

was when they had to choose a disciple to replace Judas.

They drew lots.

And then the Spirit of God comes.

And the moment the Spirit of God comes, that system ends.

I'm not saying that God will not use signs.

But let him use signs.

But you don't go looking for it.

Because when you look for it, you're looking at every license plate, every billboard,

every person's open Bible, every verse that comes up on your iPhone.

And you're hoping there'll be something there that'll reassure you

that this girl is for me, or this car is for me, or this house is for me,

or this visa is for me.

It doesn't work like that.

And when it doesn't work the first time, then you do best of three.

And it still doesn't work.

I've done best of sevens and still didn't work.

She just walked away.

So...

So, this is when I was very young.

So, look for reassurances.

God reassures. It's His nature.

So in your impossibility, in your impossibility,

a promise will be given.

A promise is usually given.

It's almost always given.

And why does He give the promise?

Because He wants to give guaranteed outcomes.

He wants to give guaranteed outcomes.

He wants to give guaranteed outcomes.

That's why assurance comes into play.

And if I can then examine the promise,

only then can I even begin the process of rejoicing in it.

We said last time, last Sunday,

that try to find joy before doubt finds you.

Or try to find people a joy before doubt finds you.

Because once doubt finds you, it's very difficult.

But if you can find joy before doubt or fear,

then joy and doubt, joy and fear are incompatible.

So, promises are guaranteed outcomes.

And so begin the process of rejoicing in it.

Because that's what Abraham does in Romans 4.

We read that yesterday.

And as you begin to rejoice in it,

you usually receive favor or more reassurances.

You see fist-sized clouds.

Like Elijah did.

These are things that God provides.

It's not you who have to go looking for stuff.

The other thing I must do when I know I have a promise from God is,

don't be tempted.

Don't be tempted to figure out how the promise will be realized.

Don't be tempted to figure out how it will be realized.

Because usually when we try to figure it out and don't know how,

we begin to manipulate circumstances.

Don't try to figure it out.

When you manipulate circumstances, you get Ishmael.

Don't try to figure it out.

Go with the initial promise and if anything, ask God,

do you want to develop this further?

Because I really want to stick with this.

Don't be tempted to figure it out.

Figure out how it will be realized.

At the end of the day, his trustworthiness is my shield.

His trustworthiness is my shield.

That's where you go to when you start feeling resentful,

when you start feeling nothing is working,

when you start feeling time is beginning to take its toll.

His trustworthiness is my shield.

It's my defense against these things.

His trustworthiness.

Trustworthiness is a word we understand.

Faithfulness, not so much.

Trustworthiness, yes.

Know that when God gives you a promise,

when God gives you a promise,

here's what is actually happening.

I hope you remember this.

I hope I remember this.

When God gives you a promise,

what he's doing is he is announcing his presence

into your situation.

He's announcing his presence into your situation.

He's saying,

Oi, just so you know, I've descended into the furnace.

I'm the fourth man.

That's what he's doing.

Every time he gives you a promise,

you're going to be the fourth man.

You're going to be the fourth man.

You're going to be the fourth man.

You're going to be the fourth man.

You're going to be the fourth man.

Every time he gives you a promise,

be it something from the word,

be it from his nature,

be it from a prophetic word,

be it through him speaking to you,

and you know without a shadow of a doubt that this is God.

Now what happens is you step in,

you know that in giving you a promise,

he's announcing his presence into your situation.

And when his presence enters your situation,

it's only a matter of time.

The furnace, it doesn't matter how hot the furnace is.

Thousands and thousands and thousands of people have proved this

over the last many, many, many, many years.

You need to prove it too in your own furnace.

Others might die coming even close to your situation,

but not you,

because someone else has entered the furnace.

And so living by faith in your situation,

living by faith in your situation,

is to be preoccupied by presence in that situation.

Living by faith in a situation is to be preoccupied with the presence of God in that situation.

This is my situation.

If I take my eyes away from him who is with me in this,

I will begin to flounder.

So I'm going to be preoccupied with presence in this situation.

When I wake up in the morning,

and it's the first thing that hits my mind,

I'm going to be preoccupied with the presence of God in that situation.

I'm going to be preoccupied with the presence of God in that situation.

When I wake up in the morning,

and it's the first thing that hits my mind,

I will shift my eyes from what I'm seeing and behold him.

And how long will I do this?

I will do it as long as it takes till I'm out of this.

I give you praise because you deserve it.

I give you praise for what you've done.

I give you praise when the battle rages.

I give you praise till it works out right.

This is the hard part.

Consistency is our greatest enemy, right?

We can do it today, but what about Wednesday?

This is where if you have one person,

be it your spouse or your dog,

the other animal doesn't usually help in this.

If it's your spouse or your dog, usually you can do this.

Someone needs to egg you on in this.

Just one other person if you have.

It's like running. Who likes running? Nobody.

Okay. There are exceptions.

There are some weird people.

Sorry, there are no...

You must feel so welcome in this church, right guys, every so often?

One last thing before we move on.

Provision will be contested, guys.

Provision will be contested.

Because usually, vision is shackled

when provision is lacking.

And so one of the ways the enemy often stops things from happening

is by trying to restrict provision.

Provision will be contested,

and that is why God loves giving promises.

God loves giving promises.

Because these promises...

Whenever God gives a promise, the consequence of the promise is provision.

The consequence of a promise is provision.

The consequence of a promise is a provision.

The consequence of a promise is a provision.

He wants you to trust what he is going to do

so that you know that he will supply what is required for you to do it.

Sometimes you're looking for a promise that says, I'll give you money.

When God is saying, hey Mark, I want you to go and build a hospital in Kiev.

And so Mark is now thinking of going to Kiev in the middle of a war

to build a hospital and he doesn't know how.

And then provision begins to happen.

The promise is what...

Provision is a consequence of a promise.

I know a guy who tells a story of going to an African country

where he has to buy a piece of land and start an orphanage.

And so he lands in that country.

There's only one problem.

He doesn't have the money to buy the land.

The land is there, but he goes to the registrar's office

and he gets the title deed and the registrar says,

come back tomorrow and pay the money and the land is yours.

And it took him hardly 10 minutes to walk to the registrar's office

to get the title deed.

And now he's waiting, there's no money and it's time now, noon,

he has to give him the money and he's dragging his feet.

And God is saying to him, it took you just 10 minutes to get there today.

Today it's 25 minutes and you're still walking super slow.

And he says, I don't know what to do.

I don't have the money.

This is going to look really foolish.

Finally, about 25 minutes he gets there.

And there's this Dutch guy waiting there, guy from...

Netherlands and he's pacing up and down, businessman.

And he looks at him and he says, I was going to leave.

I've been waiting here forever.

And then he takes out a check and gives it to him and walks away.

He says, I couldn't sleep last night.

I'm supposed to stand here and give this to a man who looks like you.

And that's all I know.

I've got a flight to catch.

And he gives it, he's very brusque, very rude and walks away.

And he's the guy who then makes a statement that I love,

that provision will be contested.

But a promise when given, provision is a consequence.

And provision doesn't mean money.

Provision means how does Mark get to Kiev in the middle of a war?

How's he going to get there?

Who does he have as a contact?

How's he going to fly there?

There are no flights there.

There are no flights.

There are no flights.

There are no flights.

There are no flights.

How does he get there?

Where's the money going to come from to build a hospital?

How does he get permission?

Step by step by step by step.

Strangely enough, much of the work that we have done in some very strange

countries has come because of this.

Indonesia is a classic example.

Seven years of fully funded work.

And we've been doing this for a long time.

We've been doing this for a long time.

We've been doing this for a long time.

Seven years of fully funded work.

Where you take it step by step.

When there's a promise, there's a provision.

Start working in Indonesia.

Start in certain parts of the world.

You just go.

And you meet a man, and the man says, come and pray for my business.

We went from here.

There were four people that went from here.

And you don't want to go and pray for his business.

Because everybody wants you to pray for their business, and you don't go.

And then God says, I need you to go.

And you go.

God says, tell him that he's an adulterer.

That if he doesn't repent of his adultery, I won't be able to help him.

So you tell him he's an adulterer.

You expect to be booted out of his office.

Instead he repents.

And God turns his fortunes around.

Makes him a multimillionaire.

Nine months later he calls.

He's built a stadium.

And he wants to do meetings in the stadium.

Thousands of people come.

Charms are burned.

Witches come on stage and they fall because they cannot approach.

The whole thing is recorded on TV.

The island watches the power of God.

The man says, anything you want, you can have here.

Please let me know.

Seven years.

He builds a Bible school on a hill.

Why does he build a Bible school on a hill?

Because he decides to buy a hill.

He buys a hill and a valley.

And then he lets us use it for seven years.

With a promise comes the consequence.

And what is the consequence provision?

Places, timing, raw material.

And when you work this out through and in your life,

people begin to see your God.

And anybody who sees your God is affected by your God.

Next we go on to what Mark brought up in terms of,

what about perseverance?

Guys, faith and patience have to plow together.

Hebrews 10.35.

Hebrews 10.35.

Hebrews 10.35.

I think.

Yeah.

Do not throw away your confident trust in the Lord.

Remember the great reward it brings you.

Patient endurance is what you need now.

So that you will continue to do God's will.

Then you will receive all that he has promised.

Sometimes it's not enough to have this.

This has to be coupled with this.

Not always, but you need to be aware that they work together.

Because this carries immediacy.

This carries eventuality.

And these two have to sometimes work together.

How can immediacy and eventuality work together?

How do you combine these?

Here, anything you ask God, anything you ask God in his will,

anything you ask God in his will,

you must learn how to receive it in your spirit immediately.

So my question to you is, do you know how to do this?

When you ask God for something that's in his will,

1 John 5, 14 to 16 says that.

You ask any... let's read it so that I don't paraphrase it.

1 John 5, 14 and 15.

And we are confident... let me read it from the NIV.

This is the confidence you have in approaching God.

That if you ask anything according to his will, he hears you.

And if you know that he hears you, whatever you ask,

you know that you have what you asked of him.

That's nuts.

So where do you receive this?

If he says you already have what you asked for.

I must learn as a spirit man, anything I ask, I must in my spirit know

that it is impossible to ask something off the will of God

that I do not receive immediately based on the word of God.

We don't think like this.

We are waiting for the feelings to kick in.

We are waiting for our minds to comprehend.

But there is a place beyond that that I am supposed to live from

where Christ lives, which is my spirit.

And in my spirit, I must receive what I have asked for in the will of God immediately.

As in I know in my knower that this is something God has said I can, will, must have

because it is his perfect will for me.

And once you lock that in, now you are in a position to combat what you can see, cannot see,

can think, cannot think, can feel, cannot feel.

That is the eventuality of things.

But the immediacy is always here with healing, with provision, with adventure, with risk, with promises,

with anything that you're attempting.

Have you learned how to receive it in the spirit first?

And if you haven't, then you will only be able to receive it in your mind,

which is a blooming mind field, and in your emotions, which is like roads in India.

We end up shaking our heads because that's how the roads are, man.

There's no other reason.

South India, yeah.

No, no, no. I lived in Bihar, not India.

Sorry, that's a terrible state.

Stop making such racist comments. Stop it.

Okay, moving on.

Guys, learn how to receive things in your spirit.

Any questions?

If it's not practical, ask questions, because it's biblical, even if it's not practical.

Things that are biblical can be made practical.

Okay.

How do you examine the promise?

You examine the promise by going and digging it out, because sometimes we forget what God has said.

Then we go and examine what the scriptures say about it.

Then we write it down and break it into little pieces.

Then we try to figure out what is God trying to say to me in this?

What's he assuring me of?

Then you phrase it in your own language, because sometimes you're trying to say,

I don't know what you're saying, but I'm trying to say,

I don't know what you're saying, but I'm trying to say,

You phrase it in your own language, because sometimes NIV just doesn't work for you,

and messes it up even more.

So you write it in your own language.

And now after writing it in your own language, you learn it.

You learn it by heart, so that at any moment someone can wake you up,

and out comes what God has said.

And now you begin to speak it.

As you begin to speak it, you hear it.

As you begin to hear it, if it is God, and if it is life, and if it is a word,

your spirit leaps, and your heart becomes encouraged.

And this is how you examine.

Because your spirit is where Christ dwells, where the spirit of God dwells.

And it is just so...

It is like a magnet for the word of God and the life of God.

It is impossible for your spirit not to receive it.

It is just that we do not have the practice of receiving anything of God in our spirit.

I'll give you a simple example.

This may happen to all of us at some point, and I hope it doesn't happen too often.

You come in here for worship, and you don't feel like it.

The mind is not in the right place.

The emotions are dull.

Haven't slept because my baby kept me awake for seven hours.

At least that is what Derek says.

And then that is where you are operating from, and then something else happens.

You suddenly realize that you are a spirit man.

And it doesn't matter how your body feels.

It doesn't matter how your mind feels.

It doesn't matter how your emotions feel.

Something begins to rise up.

It doesn't matter that you are jet lagged.

It doesn't matter that you haven't slept.

There is something in a Christian called the spirit of God that dwells in the spirit of man, a renewed spirit.

This is not some spit and polish spirit, a brand new spirit saturated with the Holy Spirit that I have that is indefeatable.

You must realize the kind of life you actually have inside of you.

It is the same life that Christ possesses right now, which is his private resurrected life.

His private resurrected life is the same life I have.

That life instantly recognizes, yearns for, attaches itself to, becomes one with anything that is of God, especially the word.

But because that is not how I receive things, it's my mind and emotions that have to fight with it.

So it's not that the emotions or the thinking is bad.

So I must receive things of God first in my spirit, then I must begin to think about it.

And then my emotions should come up.

But what happens is we always approach things first with emotions and thoughts, not with our spirit.

That becomes a problem.

How it works is spirit, soul, body.

So spirit, thinking and emotions, and then the body responds.

Rationally, because how irrational are some of the things God is asking us?

Go raise the dead? How? Go heal her neck? How?

Because his power doesn't operate in rational, logical constraints.

And so I'll have to receive it in my spirit, then think about it, and work out my emotions, and then cause my body to do what it needs to do.

It's just that we are such soulish creatures ever since Adam fell.

And we don't know how to react to things without first going soul.

This is why it's a practice every day.

So it's like you don't worship and praise him because of how I'm feeling right now?

Because of who he is. Once we recognize that, the spirit immediately feeds into that.

Like there are many times parents would come here, say hey, I'm feeling good.

And then they're like, oh my, I don't know how the students said hey, I'm feeling good.

So I'm not feeling it, but you are our spirit, our might God, and that's just like that.

Here I'm dancing, I have like crazy, horrible headache, like five minutes before I die.

It is amazing what can happen when the spirit man begins to lead your life because the Holy Spirit dwells there.

That's how immediacy and eventuality works, which is why Jesus said, whatever you ask in my will, know that.

He said this in Mark 11, 23, behave as if you already have what you asked for while you wait for it.

Beautifully. Behave as if you already have what you asked for while you wait for it.

What's the caveat? If it is in my will, would.

My will, would.

And if you're waiting for something guys, divine waiting is like when you see a relay race,

be the Canadian four into a hundred or the Caribbean four into a hundred,

the guy who's waiting to get the baton from the guy below isn't like, yo man, run, run.

No, no, he's like straining. Every muscle in him is tense.

He just wants to go, but he's got to get that before you go. That is divine waiting.

Divine waiting is not some caesarasura.

It is so tense. It's so straining to break out. That's divine waiting.

So if you tell me I'm waiting for the Lord and I don't see the straining, then you're not waiting.

You're just resigned.

Yeah. Great question.

The difference between straining and resting is straining is full of anticipation.

It is not a straining as in a striving. It is anticipation.

I'm going to get it now. I want to get it. I have to run. It is that sense.

It's like Ahima is saying to Joab, please, can I run with this news and tell David?

It was not his job, but he was. It's an anticipation. It's that sense.

Next one. If you want to practice this on a regular basis, soak your life in the Word and people of the Word.

In the Word and people of the Word.

In the Word and people of the Word. Choose your tribe carefully.

Choose your tribe and your teachers carefully. Choose your tribe and your teachers carefully.

Choose your tribe and your teachers carefully.

Academia and denominational ways of approaching faith can absolutely shut the door on you.

Jesus said to the Pharisees, you have the key of knowledge.

You cannot use it and you don't let others enter in either.

Choose your tribe and your teachers carefully.

If you belong to a tribe or a church that does not believe in faith, I assure you, you're not going nowhere.

If you don't have teachers in your life that walk in faith, you will not be able to enter into faith.

It's impossible.

Academia and denominational hangups can absolutely block you from walking in faith.

Because someone always has a key that they are supposed to use to open a door for you.

And if they don't enter in themselves and they do not give you the key, you ain't entering in.

One of the things that sometimes happens to me, and maybe it doesn't happen to you, is I sometimes think I don't doubt.

But what I do is I sometimes avoid the responsibility of believing.

And I want to say to you, avoiding the responsibility of believing is the same as doubt.

This is critical because many of us do this.

It is not that we actively doubt or that we encourage doubt.

Instead we shift to something else.

We actively avoid the possibility, sorry, we actively avoid the responsibility of believing.

As in, it's okay, whatever God wants.

Tomorrow.

Right now it's too much work.

Let life happen.

This is handleable.

You never can switch faith on in a crisis.

You only operate at the level that you've been operating in.

Tomorrow, that you've been operating for the last 12 months.

One of the sad things is people who want a lot of ministry, a lot of activity,

but do not want to take on the responsibility of working faith out.

An opportunity will be provided for you, but faith will not be provided for you.

20 years from now you'll be doing the same ministry, only doing it better, but you will do nothing else.

This is a problem amongst us.

I see this happening in my life and I slap myself saying, stop being lazy.

Avoiding the responsibility of believing.

Any questions on that one?

I hope it really smacks you.

Cool.

There's a quote by, yeah, you don't need to understand everything when it comes to faith.

You obey everything, you don't need to understand everything.

Kerkgaard, Soren Kerkgaard, a theologian, had this brilliant line,

life is always lived forward but understood backward.

Life is lived forward and understood backward.

Life is lived forward, understood backward.

Do not try to figure out how this is going to work, what's the eventual outcome.

Life is lived forward.

You keep taking one step forward in obedience and it's always understood backwards.

Then when you look, you realize, oh, shucks.

Look at your own life, man.

Look at any exploit of faith in your life.

What do you see?

That you had the courage, the illogical courage to keep moving forward, keep moving forward.

You did not understand what was happening but you kept moving forward.

And now when you look back, you can tell stories.

Why are you telling stories?

The only reason you are telling stories is having moved forward, you can look backward and understand it.

But when you were in it, you didn't know squat.

This is the brilliance of God and faith.

It is the only way to know God.

Faith is the only way to know God because faith is an action word.

As in, you may say, but isn't the word the way to know God?

The word that is not practiced is not going to be learned.

And the only way one practices the word is by working the word out in faith and you begin to know your God.

Last point.

Guys, apply this not just to faith but in every area of your life.

Revive the fire in your life.

Desire it, desire it, desire it, desire it.

Oh God, this life that I live at T.W.U. is so blah.

This life of me being a teacher at R.C.S. is so blah.

This life of me running August Music is so blah.

This life of me going pam pam pam is so blah.

This life of me pastoring Acts 29 is so blah.

There is more to it than this.

There is so much more.

One of the ways we get to that place is asking God, please Lord, revive that fire in me again.

Revive something that just burns every morning you get up and you're thirsting for,

you're not thirsting for give me another adventure, you're not thirsting for give me some mighty exploit.

But it is this, it is that I will never settle at a cap.

That you cannot put a ceiling on me, you cannot put a cap on me.

And my circumstances cannot be limitations.

It cannot. I must always hunger, dream, thirst, look.

Ask yourself this question, do you have a horizon?

Do you have a horizon where heaven meets earth that was crafted by God?

That you're always reaching out to and cannot get to but you're constantly reaching out.

What is it in your life, Dilna? What is it in your life, Nick? What is it in your life, Emmanuel?

What is it in your life, Jacob?

If I have a horizon, I have a heading that I can arrange on my instrument panel so the plane begins to fly that way.

What is that horizon?

Four spots, great, have four spots lined up.

You can choose which one you want, God will be waiting there for you.

But a man who does not have a horizon is a man at the mercy of his circumstances,

a man who does not have a horizon that God has crafted is a man at the mercy of his circumstances.

How do you revive the fire in your life?

1 Kings 18 begins to show you brilliantly.

First, you revive the fire in your life by rebuilding the altar.

That's what Elijah does first.

He looks at the altar in verse 30 and he says it's in disrepair.

What does he do? He begins to rebuild it.

What does it mean to rebuild the altar of your life?

Hey, very easy.

How do you rebuild the altar?

Examine your life.

Remove things that are made of bricks because God doesn't build with bricks.

God only builds with stone.

Each builds with bricks.

Remove the things that are Egyptian.

Remove the things that are of the world that are still so prevalent.

What do you do after that?

Arrange the stones well again.

Find out the ones that don't fit.

What is it? Is it doubt? Is it fear? Is it anger?

Is it severe negativity in your thinking whenever things go wrong?

Is it resentment? Is it pride?

Is it wanting to do things alone?

What is it?

Remove that brick. Rearrange the stones.

How do you revive the fire in your life? Rebuild the altar.

Then what? Prep the sacrifice.

That's what Elijah does next.

He prepares the sacrifice.

What does that look like?

Very simple.

Keep aiming at greater purity.

Not that you'll be faultless, but you have this desire for blazing purity.

Decide that you will not depend on the weak arm of flesh.

Jeremiah 17, 5-8,

Cursed is the man who depends on the weak arm of flesh.

He shall be like a shrub that dries up in the desert.

But blessed is the man who depends on the hand of God,

for he shall be like a tree planted by the waters.

It doesn't matter what season he's in, he keeps being fruitful.

That's how you prepare a sacrifice.

It's you saying, I will not live by any other means,

but by the means of God, because it is to him who I belong.

Authorized by him, resourced by him, sustained by him.

And you proclaim, eh?

Part of sacrifice is proclamation.

Part of readying the sacrifice is proclamation.

In 2 Corinthians 4.13, 2 Corinthians 4.13,

you must read it from different versions.

Here's what it says,

The reason I speak is because I have read in the Psalms, says Paul,

that whoever believes speaks.

I believe, therefore I will speak.

The fruit of my lips is a sacrifice.

We don't realize how important it is to revive a fire

by proclaiming.

2 Corinthians 4.13 says it,

Because I have believed, therefore I will speak.

Not after it has happened, but while it is happening.

No man who spoke after the victory finds his way into Hebrews 11.

Anybody who is in Hebrews 11 is there,

because before something happened, they began to declare the intent of God.

So that God could be true and faithful.

For I look to and fro to see someone on whose behalf I can be faithful.

But how will people know that God is faithful on your behalf

if you haven't told them what God is going to do?

But once you tell them what God is going to do,

now he will show himself faithful on your behalf.

He will prove.

You do this, the fire falls.

When the fire falls, things ignite.

When things ignite, people see.

Set this hall on fire and see what happens to Burnaby.

Also see what happens to Karen and Mike.

We will end on that note.

Next week we return back to our summer palace.

Thank you for being so adaptable and flexible.

It's great.

Before we go for the potluck...

No, I'm okay.

Before we go for the potluck, guys, I don't know how difficult it is to organize these things.

All I know is I don't want to organize it because it looks really difficult.

And so I just want to acknowledge Hamari who for some strange reason...

who for some strange reason does this happily.

I do not understand that.

Oh, we are talking about you. Nothing.

And so thank you.

And yeah.

I'm going to ask Lenny to come up and pray for the food.

And then we can eat.