Shoulders

Okay guys, like I felt a few days ago, God saying, can you begin to go to bits and pieces

from the Song of Songs and teach from that?

And I don't think he was thinking of Valentine's Day, but it just so happens that it kind of

coincides, but at least I didn't have it in mind.

So this isn't one of those pastoral Valentine's Day messages, got no such intention or desire.

If you want a title for this teaching, it is Between His Shoulders, Between His Shoulders,

that's the title for this teaching.

And so guys, one of the things I've realized is before the world gets caught up in this

revival, I need a revival.

Before the world gets caught up in revival, I, Jacob, need a revival.

The thing with revival is that revival destroys orphanhood, revival destroys legalism, revival

destroys everything that is transactional.

I need a revival.

I've been pleading for one, I've been for hours asking God, Father, revive me first.

I need a revival before this thing can sweep the earth.

I need one.

Because a revival destroys orphanhood, it destroys orphanhood.

Every part of me that still responds like an orphan in situations, every part of me

that is not childlike, every part of me that is not so easily dependent on the parent has

to go.

Every part of me that even reeks of legalism.

Legalism is when I feel that if I don't do these things, this might happen.

And if I do these things, there's a chance that it will work out well.

It's this place we are caught in where it seems with God that if you don't get it right,

it could affect us adversely.

And if we get it right, perhaps God will do something for us.

There are different variations of it.

It's almost like the COVID variant.

There are different variants of it, but that sense is always present in all our lives to

some extent.

And it's a form of legalism.

Revival dismantles or destroys orphanhood, destroys legalism, and it destroys everything

transactional.

There'll be nothing transactional left.

I've been praying with somebody over the last seven days.

And one of the things I found very refreshing about their prayer is that their prayer was

so relational.

It wasn't heavy.

It was childlike.

And the person's older than me.

But there was a childlikeness that I used to have.

When I first became a believer, one of the things that people found attractive about

my life was that, Jacob, you have such childlikeness in your faith and your approach to God.

And I was listening to this person pray and I suddenly realized that, man, I've gotten

so heavy with my prayers.

I want everything to return to relationality in my life and in your life.

Maybe you're in a better place than me, but we still have miles we can travel, eh?

What does a revival revive?

If this is what it destroys, a revival revives.

A revival revives relationship.

A revival revives relationship, as in relationship with the Father.

A revival revives joy.

And a revival revives subjective, as in, it's not some kind of objective abstract thing,

subjective experiential, subjective experiential dwelling in the Father's love.

In the Father's love.

In the Father's love.

And I want this for myself and I want this for you desperately.

Yeah?

A revival revives relationship.

Everything becomes relational again.

Nothing is transactional.

Nothing is, and we'll talk about this tomorrow, but basically the idea of things being transactional

is how come if I did this for you, you didn't do this for me?

There's an expectation in transactions.

There's an expectation in transactions.

I don't want that expectation anymore, guys.

I want to have an expectation of the nature of God, but I don't want to be transactional.

One of the questions I've been asking and I ask you right now is that it ain't enough

that God is love.

The question that has to be asked is, are you drowning in it?

It ain't enough that God is love.

The question that needs to be asked is, Jacob, are you drowning in it or are you wading through

it ankle or knee deep?

An ankle or knee deep at this stage in my life and in this season of revival isn't enough.

I beg you, both here and at home, pay attention.

Because if God wants us to listen to his cry from the song of songs, then perhaps it's

because he wants to do a massive surgical change in my life and yours.

It ain't enough that God is love.

The question one has to ask is, are you drowning in his love?

Are you drowning in his love?

Or are you wading through it or ankle deep in it?

Let's just pray for that.

Hey, Father, since you are behind these teachings, you have intent.

And if you have intent, then you have both the process and the solution and the end.

And so I definitely submit to your intent, to your process, and to the end.

I submit myself, I have control over that, Father.

But I also bring everybody else at Acts 29, anyone else who's listening, how we want

this in our lives.

It is not enough that you are love.

It must be that I'm drowning in it.

I'm just surrounded by it.

I find myself just submerged in it.

I don't want to wade in your love.

I don't want to be ankle deep or knee deep in your love.

I want to be so surrounded by it that everything about me is relational.

Everything about me is so exhilaratingly joyful.

Everything about me is so experientially embedded in your love, oh God, that I'm so sure of you.

That circumstances don't affect my certainty of who you are.

I want this for all of us, Father.

I don't want to take away from anything else that you provide.

I don't want to exchange anything for anything.

I don't want to say, oh, God's love is enough.

I don't want anything else out of what he's done for me.

No, no, no, no, no, that's lowering who you are.

But I want to be so consumed and I want us to be so consumed with the love of the Father

and so dwelling in the depths of the love of the Father that everything else

is just so naturally flowing over us.

Father, I seek this for us.

Guys, it's my daily destiny or my portion to have the love of God poured out on me by the Holy Spirit.

It's my daily destiny or my portion.

Like, just like manna was given to the believers,

so it is my daily destiny and my portion to have the love of God poured out on me by the Holy Spirit.

Romans chapter 5, verse 2, says,

Romans 5:2

Romans chapter 5, verse 5 talks about that.

Romans 5:5

Romans 5, 5 says that the Holy Spirit pours his love into my heart.

And so this is a daily portion or a destiny that I must reach out for.

I must reach out for.

Like, very often since things, I couldn't earn it, I don't deserve it,

still you give yourself away.

And this is a daily thing with God.

I just want us to, I just want to encourage us to,

before anything else, seek his affection, his intimacy and his love every morning.

It's a destiny appointed to us, it's a portion appointed to us.

It is poured out on us by the Holy Spirit every morning.

But if it isn't sought, if it isn't run after, then even though it is there,

it is not, we don't, we don't, we don't take it, we don't eat it, we don't get it.

In the Song of Songs, there's this great shepherd king

who falls in love with a common peasant woman.

And she's uncomfortable under his gaze.

She feels unworthy.

In Song of Songs, Chapter 1, Verse 6, she even protests saying,

Song of Solomon 1:6

don't gaze at me because I'm so dark.

I worked with my brothers in the fields.

My complexion is not right, my hands are rough, my face is dark.

And the shepherd king responds in a very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very,

very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very,

very, very, very 클�езь.

And the shepherd king responds in Chapter 1, Verse 15, and she's just called herself dark,

and he says to her, my fair one, you are beautiful.

And he just swings her around, eh?

That's the first encounter.

Oh my God man, if you actually sense the words where he calls you, be you guy or girl, he calls you beautiful.

You find yourself unworthy under his gaze for different reasons.

In her case it was that I'm just a peasant woman, I worked with my brothers, I've lived a rough life, I'm dark, don't look at me.

And his immediate response and he's sincere when he says, but you are my fair one and you are beautiful.

He calls you beautiful.

It is important that I hear what he says to me in the morning.

Hear his voice and you will hear his heart.

Hear his voice and you will hear his heart.

Please hear his voice over these next few days.

It is impossible to be revived without hearing the word of the voice of God.

His voice carries his word. No revival happens without his voice being heard.

It's always his voice that revives. What revived the bones in the valley?

What changes graves into a garden? The voice.

It's hard to practice.

But the reason you need to practice it every morning is because his compassion is in you every morning.

Let his words frame your day. Let his words frame your day.

Get a head start on the rest of the world. Get a head start on the rest of the world.

It's hard to practice. It's not easy. But if the main thing is not the main thing, then other things crowd the main thing out.

And then you're playing catch-up throughout the day.

Hear his voice and you'll hear his heart. And you'll let his words frame your day.

What are we talking about? We are talking about being drawn by the Father into the depths of his love.

So that you walk regardless of the kind of day you're having with the certainty of his goodness and his fatherhood.

That's what we are talking about.

We are talking about him saying things that change the complexion of your day.

Ugly becomes beautiful.

He's done this throughout history. In Genesis 3, you hear him crying out one of the most painful words I think.

One of the most painful words God has uttered is, Adam, where are you?

Adam, Adam, where are you? He's walking through the garden.

Sin has just entered. Mankind is ruined.

Restoration now has to be put into place. Adam, Adam, where are you?

You hear him saying just one word in another garden where they had buried him.

All he says is Mary and it changes this woman's thoughts.

She had come there and she doesn't even realize that it is Jesus.

You see him a little later on the beach and it's words that restore Peter.

Boys, do you have any fish? That is the beginning of the restoration of Peter.

To the voice on the island of Patmos where John was alone and then he hears a loud voice behind him with a trumpet call.

And he begins to write down the revelation of who Christ is.

To changing the name of Rachel's second born son.

She named him Benoni as in one who brings misfortune or one who brings pain.

As she's dying, she names him Benoni and then God changes it to Benjamin, which is son of my strength or son who brings fortune.

If I don't hear the voice of his love in the morning, I'll have to go with my theology, my strengths, my abilities, my faith.

I'll have a whole lot of good things to go on. But my God, I need to hear the voice of my father in the morning.

And I'm talking about God wanting to do this with love.

For whatever reason, he thinks that the people at Acts 29, that Jacob needs to be revived.

Revived into relationship, into joy that he hasn't known, into a subjective experiential dwelling in the Father's love.

Where he is never transactional, where there's nothing legalistic in his life, where there is no orphanhood.

Orphans can only beget orphans.

If I don't change, you don't get anything better either.

In Deuteronomy 33, 12, talking about Benjamin, Deuteronomy 33, 12, here's what it says,

About Benjamin he said, Let the beloved of the Lord rest secure in him, for he shields him all day long.

And the one the Lord loves rests between his shoulders.

That's kind of what I want to conclude with.

Deuteronomy 33, 12, about Benjamin he said, Let the beloved of the Lord rest secure in him, for he shields him all day long.

And the one the Lord loves rests between his shoulders.

The one the Lord loves rests between his shoulders.

You know the Father can't disconnect me from his love, because he disconnected Jesus to connect me in.

And he will not spite that sacrifice.

The Father cannot disconnect me from his love.

I can disconnect myself from the Father's love, but the Father cannot disconnect me from his love.

Because he actually disconnected Jesus and connected me in and he will not spite that sacrifice.

It's I who can disconnect, but he won't.

So the question I want to ask you is, and I ask myself this and the answer is not always,

are you consciously resting between his shoulders.

Are you consciously resting between his shoulders as the one that the Lord loves?

I want to show you the 3 pictures.

And the intent of showing you these three pictures is to give you an idea what it is to rest between his shoulders

pardon the first one is

With me sitting with this girl hold in my lap. Can I see it on the screen?

Okay

That's resting between your shoulders a

There are many different ways that God has his rest between shoulders between our shoulders between his shoulders

There are many different ways God has us rest between his shoulders

There is this resting between his shoulders that needs to happen. Is this your permanent position?

Is this your permanent position?

Resting between God's shoulders like this brings you to a place where there's safety. There's absolute safety

There's nothing that can perturb you

Doesn't matter that

Pure later hasn't turned up. It doesn't matter that DHL hasn't delivered

It doesn't matter that your calls are not getting through doesn't matter that virtual chat sucks

This is the absolute safety that God has for you

It doesn't matter that your calls are not getting through doesn't matter that virtual chat sucks

This is nothing that can get you to a place where you feel that anything can disturb or

Dismantle your rest and your safety

It's this place where you're weaned from your troubles

Are you weaned from your troubles? You are you are satisfied there. You are hilariously satisfied. You're hilariously satisfied

It's not even a it's not even a mild satisfaction a mild satisfaction is horrible in God a

mild satisfaction is lukewarmness

Hilariously satisfied I

Just happen to find this picture on my phone and I thought man this so sums it up to rest between his shoulders

So

As a first question these pictures just convey what resting between his shoulders look like when I see these pictures

I think to myself but Jacob this is not how you live

Situations draw me out from between his shoulders. I start flailing I lose my rest. I'm not hilariously satisfied

I begin to question I have doubts things become transactional. I don't want that

Do you

And then if we go down this route and don't change we spawn another generation

That is the same or worse because every generation gets more potent in terms of both good and evil

If you're talking about a revival then I say oh god revive me first change me completely I don't want half changes

So

This first picture is one of safety a to be loved by God is to be

To dwell subjectively

Experiencially in the depth of the father's love is to be safe is to be weaned is to be hilariously

Satisfied is to be rest at rest

Nothing perturbing you putting your head on the pillow and going off to sleep at the helm of the boat in the middle of the

Storm is what we're talking about

This is how one knows if one is being subjectively

Experiencially

Embedded in the depth of the father's love. We're not even talking about how we love him

We're just talking about being being rooted in the father's love

This is how Jesus lived

This is childlikeness

Let's look at another picture

Let's look at another picture the two that come together

This was another picture where

It's this idea of resting on resting between God's shoulders and here the intent is

Reaching higher where resting on God's shoulders allows me as to reach further it

my

My aspirations change

My aspirations change I

No longer operate from within my abilities I

Reach further reach higher. I'm a man. I'm enabled and I'm learning to dream in the father's house

I'm learning to dream in my in the father's house

The one who is loved rests between his shoulders

I'm constantly reaching for beyond my grasp when I am resting between my father's shoulders

I am like Joseph who has no problems dreaming dreams that are far beyond me because my father's house is a

Type of house that allows a son to dream

It is a place where I'm enabled

When you read Deuteronomy chapter 32 verse 11, it'll give you an idea

Deuteronomy 32:11

Deuteronomy 32 11 Deuteronomy 32 11

Reading from the message

It's a sense of he was like an eagle God was like an eagle hovering over its nest over shadowing

It's young then spreading his wings lifting them up into the air

Teaching them to fly God lifted him onto the hilltops so he could feast on the crops in the fields

It's that sense a way where you have someone see

Resting between your shoulders and you have this ability to reach further

This is what happens when I'm embedded in the father's love

No longer am I conscious no longer am I conscious of my inadequacies even though I have them

Do you see why we need this because when I look at myself and I when I look at you

I do not see this in us

But I do see this in me and in you in the coming days because of the work of the father

Where childlikeness attempts from between the father's shoulders

Dreams that the father puts in your head

Enablement that comes because you are seated on his shoulders

Reaching past what you are ever going to be able

Because you know your father has the tools for it

And the third picture

And the third picture is

Where you are actually seated between your father's shoulders

And it gives you a completely different perspective a

It gives you a perspective that you would never have from ground level never have from ground level

And strangely enough that

There's this playfulness about it

Playfulness about it

When one of the things that happens to Christianity when it gets intense is that it loses its playfulness

I had a friend who would always warn me

They would say to me Jacob you're getting too intense

Every

Ocean has a shore if you do not know how to be shallow with God

And if all that comes out of you is intensity then you will be no good among publicans prostitutes

fishermen and tax collectors

There must be a shallowness and a playfulness

In my relationship with God that comes surely out of this fact that I know how much you love me

And I know how hard you work to make me look good

I'm just gonna rest between your shoulders

It gives me a bird's-eye perspective of everything you are doing at a place much higher than others that I would never get from ground level

So please oh God can I come back between your shoulders on your neck holding on to your hair?

there's a scene in one of the

episodes of Chronicles of Narnia where

Lucy and her sister

Go to Aslan who has just risen from the dead and there's the

White witch and the battle going on and at one point Aslan walks

Forward a bit and then he lowers himself down and he says climb on my back

Lucy opened her mouth in shock and quickly obeyed his order along with Susan

We have far to go and a little time to get there and you may want to cover your ears says Aslan

They did as he released a roar that bounced off every Nick and corner of the world and then hanging on to his mane

They dash off into battle

They dash off into battle on Aslan's back as he roars and everything

Shudders as he rose they win the battle not because of any other reason but because they are holding on

To Aslan's mane and having the right of their life

Absolutely certain of the king

I pray God that these images help us

Understand both the perspective and the playfulness and the riding the wind on Aslan's coattails

I hope we get it. That was my reason for showing you these pictures because sometimes

Nobody can explain it the way God wants it explained

Galatians 4 verse 6 & 7 is what we sang

Galatians 4:6

Galatians 4 6 B & 7 A as in starting half way down 6 and half way into 7

It says God sent the spirit of his son into our lives crying out Papa father

God sent the spirit of his son into our lives crying out Papa father

Doesn't that privilege of intimate conversation with God make it plain that you are not a slave

But a child the song that we just sang

Guys we got to recover this eh, we got to recover this

Deeply rooted deeply embedded in the father's love

Not something abstract very subjective very experiential dwelling in his love

With these three pictures in mind, I know as grown-ups we sometimes find it hard to think

Like these little children, but the idea is to convey what you can aspire for

The father from today on I learned how to be safe in you unafraid

My rest not disturbed. I learned how to be weaned from trouble safe between your shoulders

I learned how to be hilariously satisfied because you are like that

And if I am not then it is not because you are not it is because I haven't learned how to

The father I'm gonna reach higher

Your shoulders are a home where I can learn to dream and I must learn to dream the dreams that you give me

I must be enabled

I must have Deuteronomy 32 verse 11 and 12 happened to me where you teach me how to fly Oh God

Deuteronomy 32:11

I abandoned myself to you so that you can show me from a perch how things are below me

Zest light space life

These are things that come out of living in the father's love

I like how one of the psalms starts that way it says in the message zest life space light

What a far cry from most of our Christians lives

zest light space life

Qualities that God possesses that our father possesses

We have the privilege of stepping into

That's the kind of life you're looking at

To have perspective that only we can have from

Resting between his shoulders that you'll never have from ground level to have that perspective 24 7 so that even when you're sleeping

Psalm 16 goes into effect and he counseled you during the night seasons

Him positioning you

So that you see what you need to see and then saying as he lowers himself

Come climb on my back

We have to go far and little time to get there and you may want to cover your ears

They did as he released a rose from his chest

He said I'm going to go to the top of the mountain and I'm going to go to the top of the mountain

I'm going to go to the top of the mountain and I'm going to go to the top of the mountain

They did as he released a road that bounced off every Nick and corner of the world as they grabbed on to his mane

And the ass land started bounding towards battle

Do you know what it is to fight perched on

God's neck between his shoulders. Do you know what those battles look like you watch

Moses did it he understood this for a second. He was a meekest man on earth

There's something about meekness that mixes with childlikeness

And God's word to him was the same thing that ass land says to Lucy stand still and see the salvation of God

What do you call him

Abba papa daddy in Malayalam aperture

Father, what do you call him?

Take time right now way just to repeat again and again those words to him me

Just repeat those words to him let the fatherhood of God just cover you like an umbrella like a canopy

Like a shadow like a cloud like a cloud. There's lower my mic so that it's not totally off, but that it's low enough

It's not vain repetition just calling out to him in words that you often use

To attract his attention remember guys I said this before when we were doing the revival meeting I

Don't need to draw God's presence as a son

Father is attracted towards his son his presence is here. I'll never be disconnected

Just however you call him just call him just call him. That's all I'm asking that you do just call him

Father just lower my mic guys actually lower it a lot so that it's hardly a whisper that can be heard on

livestream, but it's not love

Father

I

I

Was my father

I

We don't like TV anymore, it's not like we can't use words

We use words we say other father

You taught us how we call you

I

I

Take away my often who don't God take away my often there be nothing left of an orphan in my life for God

Take away my orphanhood

Take away anything that's transactional or God that questions you that suspects you

And there be no doubt

I

Father take away anything that is legalistic and afraid

Because perfect love casts out fear. There's no torment

There's no torment in your love for me. I want to be rid of all torment all doubt all suspicion all fear

I don't want it anymore. I

Don't want to live a life of rewards enough

Judgment I don't want to I want to be rid of it. I want to be free of it

If I'm not free of it, I won't be able to show others what it is to have a father like you

Father revival requires that a God be presented to people without distortion

I'd say father father every thing that you are

Let it be so in our lives of God. Let it be so in our lives of our father

father

father

We may have had difficult fathers in our lives, but copies do not take away the

purity of the original so I say father

father father father father father

father father father

Father father

father

Father

Father

Father father

Father

Father, thank you for hearing my cry

Thank you for giving me an instinctive cry an instinctive intimacy that was given to me the day

I was born again

I got the same instinctive intimacy that Jesus had with you since

The beginning of time and even before that I have given that I will not be robbed of it

I will not be robbed of that. I will not settle for orphanhood

Abba father Abba father

I need revival first. I need revival first. I need revival first

Abba father Abba father Abba father

Abba father

Abba father thank you that you hear me

I know that I'm being heard right now

Abba father

I'm being heard

I'm grateful for you

I'm grateful for you

I'm grateful for you oh God

I'm grateful for you Abba father

Abba father I'm grateful for you

Abba father

Abba father

I'm grateful for you

Do whatever needs to be done in our lives

So that all that must be dismantled and destroyed will be destroyed

And all that needs to be put in will be put in

So that we can be something that

Reflect you without distortion

Many times

Many times I've let you down

But you're never far away

Father you want us to come back

You're saying to the prodigal come back

You're saying to the older brother come back

You're saying to those that haven't sensed that you love them because of circumstances that aren't working out

Come back

You're saying to us who have come into a place of distance through either sin or disappointment come back

You're saying to the orphan come back

You're saying to those that don't know you even through the song know me come back

Many times I've let you down

But you're never far away

All I had to do

Was turn my face to you

And I knew where love and mercy lay

And your forgiveness

Fills my being

Like a river deep and wide

A stream of

Living water

Flows from deep inside

No, I may not understand you

But one thing I know

You are all my heart's desire

You will never let me go

Your love for me

Is a mystery

And I don't understand

How you can

Keep on loving me

Exactly as I am

I may not always understand you

But one thing I know

You are all my heart's desire

You will never let me go

Your precious

Always dear to me

And I am feeling sure

That you will never

Ever let me down

I know that I'm secure

One more time

Your precious

Always dear to me

And I am feeling sure

That you will never

Ever let me down

I know that I'm secure

I may not understand you

But one thing I know

You are all my heart's desire

You will never let me go

Your precious

You are all my heart's desire

I will never let you go

You are all my heart's desire

Father, you'll never let me go