Wilderness Forty – Sonship

Okay, so we've been following the Holy Spirit into the wilderness, drawing aside, creating

time, doing things so that over the 40 days or the six weeks that we've set aside, we

will have a revelation of God unlike the past.

We will have the ability to be empowered to return to a post-COVID landscape where we

as people will no longer be rendered non-essential services, but people will begin to say, take

me with you because God is in your midst.

Ten men will tug on the sleeve of one believer and say, take me with you because I heard

God is in your midst.

And that's the process we've been going through for the last four weeks.

This week we talk about sonship because we must return from the wilderness steeped in

the culture of sonship.

We must return from the wilderness steeped in the culture of sonship.

Steeped in the culture of sonship.

We're not talking about just being sons, the culture of sonship.

There is a collective way of behaving, there's a collective way of thinking, there's a collective

way of speaking, there's a collective response that people should see when they are in our

midst and they should say, ah, so this is what sonship looks like.

And in the wilderness, remember that the devil did try to sabotage sonship.

The devil tried to sabotage sonship in the wilderness.

Twice in the three temptations, Satan makes a statement to Jesus that if you are the son

of God, Luke chapter four, verse three, if you are the son of God, turn stones into bread.

Luke chapter four, verse nine, if you are the son of God, jump off this high place and

the angels will keep you safe.

So every time you go into the wilderness, you're supposed to come back with a greater

understanding of what sonship looks like.

And if that is the case, then know that sonship is sabotaged or challenged in the wilderness.

Israel did not understand sonship in the wilderness.

Israel came out of the wilderness as orphans.

They spent 40 years in the wilderness and they came out as orphans.

Jesus spent a day for every year and came out more a son than could have been ever made

visible before that.

So when did sonship begin?

When did sonship begin?

Go to Ephesians one, verse four and five.

Ephesians one, four and five.

Tell Jillian that I'll give her my notes.

Ephesians one, four and five.

If you read it from the passion version, Ephesians one, four and five, it says there, long before

he laid down earth's foundations, he had us in mind, had settled on us as the focus of

his love, to be made whole and holy by his love.

Long, long ago, he decided to adopt us into his family through Jesus Christ.

What pleasure he took in planning this.

He wanted us to enter into the celebration of his lavish gift-giving by the hand of his

beloved son.

So when did sonship start?

Sonship started before the earth was founded.

Sonship started before the earth was founded.

It began before the earth was founded and a day is coming when like Adam, and by the

way if you look at Luke 3.37, it says Adam was the son of God.

Luke 3.37 says Adam was the son of God.

So a day is coming when like Adam, we will once again experience the full status of sonship,

the full status of sonship.

Go to Romans 8, Romans 8 verse 23.

Romans 8:23

Again if I read from the passion version, Romans 8 verse 23.

Romans 8:23

Here's what it says.

Romans 8 verse 23.

Romans 8:23

It says, and it's not just creation.

We who have already experienced the first fruits of the spirit also inwardly grown as

we passionately long to experience our full status as God's sons and daughters, including

our physical bodies being transformed.

Meaning we are already experiencing what it is to be sons and daughters.

The time is coming when we'll experience the full status of it which includes new bodies.

But press towards this.

Do not postpone things into the future where you do not then have to work at it here on

earth.

I want to experience the fullness of that when I am in heaven.

But my God, I want God to say Jacob you've covered so much ground, there's not much left

to show you in heaven.

Because you learned how to live it here.

So here's a statement I made on Wednesday night when I was with a few people.

If heaven is where the father is, then sonship pulls heaven down.

If heaven is where the father is, if heaven is where the father is, if heaven is where

the father is, then sonship pulls heaven down.

People try to pull heaven down in all kinds of ways.

You can do it through worship like we did just now.

You can do it through prayer.

You can do it through warfare.

One of the ways you pull heaven down, as in the presence of the father in a place, is

pulled down through sheer sonship.

This is why we see even in Eden, in Genesis 1, or Genesis 3 verse 8, what do we read?

Genesis 3:8

That in the cool of the evening, Adam and Eve heard the sound of God walking in the

garden.

It started there.

One of the cool things about Genesis is that in Genesis 1-12, you see the pattern for the

earth.

You see the pattern for the earth.

You see everything in Genesis 1-12 now being repeated in history.

Till the end of the times, Genesis 1-12 is your model for what continually happens.

One of the things that would happen every evening was that God would come down because

he wanted to meet with his son.

Beautifully, you can pull heaven down sheerly through sonship.

The more you walk in an awareness of how to be the son, the more you know, recognize,

are aware of the presence of the father.

When that happens, around you, you now create an environment where if people enter, they

hear the sound of God.

They hear the sound of God through your life.

They hear the sound of God through your life.

Just imagine that.

What does that sound like?

They hear the sound of God through your life when they come with a sickness and your mere

shadow or an apron that falls off you heals them.

They hear the sound of God because they come with hearts that are hurt, decaying, and they

leave with life and hope.

They hear the sound of God because they come with confusion.

They come with doubts.

They come with fear and they come with questions.

And they leave having fears undone and answers to their problems.

They hear the sound of God because when you pray, you're not praying from earth to heaven.

You're praying from heaven to earth and you release to them the will of God.

Sunship pulls heaven down.

Just like in Genesis 3, 8, God looked forward to, longed to spend time with Adam.

So he longs to do now and you can hear the sound of God in the garden when you walk as

a son.

Hey guys, one of the things you have to do, and I say this to Nick and to others here,

you cannot fathom everything I'm saying right now.

If you try to fathom it, you will miss out on the rest of the teaching.

You cannot even make notes at the speed I'm saying things because again, you'll miss out

on the teaching.

Make notes of the main points.

Don't make notes of the entire thing.

Don't try to fathom what is being said now because if you do, you'll miss out on the

rest of it.

Go home and fathom it.

Go home and wrap your head around it like, yeah.

If you try it here, you're going to get lost in Eden while we are somewhere in the middle

of second Kings.

Yeah, just want us to know that.

And the third thing I want to say is intensely focusing your spirit and your mind on a teaching

for one hour is absolutely normal at Acts 29.

Absolutely normal.

It's not a big deal.

And the last thing I want to say is sleep well Saturday night so that you don't come

and sleep here during the sermon.

Really, I mean it.

These are moments that we have once a week, two hours where God gives his best.

Not Jacob gives his best.

God gives his best because that's the only way he knows how to function.

I must be ready for it.

Yeah, that's just on the side.

Not that anyone was sleeping.

I'm just telling you in advance.

It's called a preemptive strike.

Yeah.

So guys, sonship is real-time intimacy and one-on-othering with God.

Sonship if you...one of the ways to define it, I mean it is such a broad thing, but one

of the ways to define it is sonship is real-time intimacy, meaning it's not some prayer-time

intimacy.

It's not as I lay my head to sleep, ta-ta-ta-ta-ta-ta-ta-teep.

It's not that kind of intimacy.

It is real-time, as in every moment, every hour, every breath that I take.

It is that kind of intimacy and it's one-on-othering.

It is God one-on-othering with you and it's you one-on-othering with God.

In your language with God, you should get mixed up.

While he is...while you are saying to him, God, you are so kind, you suddenly hear an

echo saying, but Jacob, you are so kind and you wonder whether you heard right because

God just told you that you are kind.

And then you ask him, why do you say that?

He reminds you that you were kind to someone at work or that you did something so beautiful

during worship that nobody else noticed, but you just wiped his nail-scarred feet with

your hair and he just enjoyed that moment.

It's real-time intimacy and it's one-on-othering where conversations get confused.

When is it that you've ever had a conversation with someone you love where there are no interruptions?

Only people who don't know each other well wait till the other person finishes and say

stuff like, excuse me, I'm sorry I interrupted.

When does it ever happen between people you love?

Have you ever watched Derek and Don and Jeevan talk?

They don't hear a word about what the other one is saying because they're continuously

interrupting each other.

Real-time intimacy and one-on-othering with God.

That's part of what sonship may tangibly be explained as though it's just such a shallow

definition of it.

Adam gave up sonship.

Adam gave up sonship.

The thing is, if you give up sonship, you can only get one other thing.

When you give up sonship, the only thing you acquire is orphanhood.

There is no other middle ground.

Adam gave up sonship and he acquired orphanhood.

So there's nothing like, oh, if I give up sonship, maybe I can be a foster child or

if I give up sonship, I can be someone who has a guardian over them.

No.

If you give up sonship, there's only one place to go to, orphanhood.

And sonship is an active place to stand.

One of the things I really liked and I haven't heard it before was what Emily said when she

said waiting on God.

Strength will rise as we wait upon the Lord.

Every time we sing that song, it's almost like if we sing enough, perhaps he will do

something and we won't have to wait on him.

No.

He's an active God.

He's always acting.

Waiting is this anticipated neck-craned kind of waiting.

It's not a resigned waiting.

My neck is craned as I stand at the airport waiting for my wife to come back because I

haven't seen her for two days.

That's how much I love her.

So that's the kind of anticipation we are talking about.

So when Adam gave up sonship, he acquired the status of an orphan.

You must understand that if sonship is not active, then it becomes stagnant and stagnant

sonship always leads to orphanhood.

There is nothing called stagnant sonship.

The enemy scheme from the beginning was to separate a son from his father.

The enemy scheme right from the beginning was to separate a son from his father and

the strategy hasn't changed.

This world cultures orphanhood.

This world is an orphan.

This world is a petri dish or whatever that thing where you cultivate organisms.

Yeah.

This world thrives at it and the strategy is the same.

Can I separate a son from his father?

And he's been doing that forever and he's doing it again.

I can't tell you how critical this is to our understanding.

All fear, all doubt, all suspicion that I have of God is spawned by a diseased and misshapen

view of the father.

Every time I'm afraid, every time I'm suspicious of God's intent, every time I'm confused,

every time I have doubt, every time I'm suddenly unsure of what's happening, every time my

prayers take on a desperation that comes out of fear, doubt, confusion, suspicion, it is

simply because I have a diseased or a misshapen view of the father.

And even though it's a great idea to go to the word to get promises to stand on, I would

suggest you go to the word to get an accurate picture of your father before you go to the

word for promises.

For what good is a promise that comes from a misshapen diseased view of the father?

Heidi, am I speaking slow enough?

Okay.

Let me know if I go super fast.

I brought pretty mild coffee today.

Any questions, guys?

So what should the culture of sonship look like?

As we return from the wilderness, what should the culture of sonship look like?

That's what we'll talk about.

What should the culture of sonship look like?

First, root your lineage, root your lineage and your heritage in the father.

Root your lineage and your heritage in the father.

As in, make the family that you come from, the parents that you belong to, the clan that

you have been birthed into, make that secondary.

Make that secondary.

That is where sonship starts.

If you want to cultivate the culture of sonship, you have to root yourself up out of the culture

that you have been raised in.

And I mean that in terms of both denomination country, creed, clan.

It is almost a Genesis 12 repeat of Abraham leaving everything because he heard, I love

your voice.

You have been my father.

You've been my friend.

It is uprooting to be transplanted.

And if we don't start there, there's no further progress.

Psalm 80 verse 15 and verse 17.

Psalms 80:15

I am the root your right hand has planted.

I am the sun you're raising up for yourself.

I am the root.

You know, long ago, and I think I've said this before, I had a dream and it was during

a time when I needed God's assurance.

And in this dream, I see I'm at a beach and as I'm walking at the beach, I am able to

above that someone's written Psalm 80 verse 15 on it.

Psalms 80:15

And I wake up and I quickly go to look at it.

And this is a scripture that I saw many years ago.

And every time I feel like I'm falling away, every time I feel like I'm being drawn into

sin, every time I want to do something wrong, I remember who I am because my lineage inherited

has changed.

I am the root or the stock that his right hand has planted.

I am the sun that he's raising up for himself.

I cannot belong to any other.

I don't want to belong to any other.

Psalm 80 verse 15 and 17 talk about this.

Psalms 80:15

You must find yourself rooted in a new family where your parents do not dictate what happens

next.

They dictate it, but they are always secondary to what the father says.

And it always proves itself in times of crisis.

And if you don't get this right early, you will not get it right in a crisis.

Jesus turned around in Matthew 12 49 and he said, who are my mother?

Who is my mother and who are my brothers?

And these are these that obey, these that believe are my mothers and my brothers.

There is something to being rooted in the lineage and the heritage of the father.

Any questions on that one?

You have a new family.

If you don't really think so, then we are making the truth a lie.

Any questions?

Many of the things that are hereditary will disappear when you find yourself rooted in

the family of Christ.

You will not need deliverance because you get a new set of roots.

Okay, second one.

This is what is expected as we come out of a 40 day wilderness and we begin to walk in

the valleys of the world.

This is what is expected of us.

You are committed to the father's business.

You are committed to the father's business.

It's in Luke 2 49 where Jesus uses those words.

You're committed to the father's business.

Most other versions say father's house.

KJV and NKJV still say business.

You are committed to the father's business.

What is the father's business?

The father's business may be summarized as MD leading to MC, which is make disciples

multiply churches.

Make disciples multiply churches.

That is the father's business.

You're committed to this.

You're committed to this.

That everything else is always heading towards this one end.

Making disciples and multiplying churches.

It's not that you're giving up anything to do this.

It is that you are using everything to do this.

You use your vocation.

You use your money.

You use your job.

You use your life.

You use your family.

You use your possessions.

You use your wealth.

You use everything.

Every status in life you use towards one common end.

Make disciples multiply churches.

This is the father's business.

Because the father can only hand his job to a son.

The father could only reveal himself through the son.

The father continues to reveal himself only through the body of the son.

Any questions?

You are not exempt from Christmas gifts and birthday gifts just because you move.

What I meant is that I would still love to continue giving them Christmas and birthday

gifts.

Third one.

You surrender the right.

This is a big one guys.

You surrender the right to self-determination.

To self-determination.

You surrender the right to self-determination.

This is so critical in the whole culture of sonship.

And it is what the church has not learned.

The church has learned the culture of servanthood.

The church refuses to learn the culture of sonship.

A servant can change master.

A son cannot change his father.

A son can only become an orphan.

Your servanthood is far more appealing in a church than sonship.

And you surrender the right to self-determination if you are a son.

If you go to Matthew 16, verse 24.

Matthew 16:24

Matthew 16, 24.

I'll read from the message.

Then Jesus went to work on his disciples.

Hey, Jillian, thanks for doing this man.

I'll give you my notes at the end of the service.

Not that it'll help at all, but I'll give it to you anyways.

Then Jesus went to work on his disciples.

Anyone who intends to come with me has to let me lead.

You are not in the driver's seat.

I am.

Don't run from suffering.

Embrace it.

Follow me and I'll show you how.

Just listen to those words again.

Then Jesus went to work on his disciples.

Anyone who intends to come with me has to let me lead.

That's the surrendering of the right of self-determination.

You are not in the driver's seat.

I am.

Don't run from suffering.

Embrace it.

Follow me and I'll show you how.

This is critical to our existence, guys.

We cannot be any other kind of church because there is no other kind of church.

You surrender the right to self-determination.

It's when you want what your will does not want.

It is when you want what your will does not want because you love someone way too much.

It happens in a marriage continuously.

Spouses want what they do not want.

Spouses want what their wills don't want because they love their partner way too much to not change.

Luke 14.33

Luke 14.33

It says that, simply put, if you are not willing to take what is dearest to you by the plans

of people and kiss it goodbye, you can't be my disciple.

Listen to these words.

Sometimes other versions just expand what Jesus was actually saying.

Listen to this.

Simply put, if you are not willing to take what is dearest to you, we hear it differently.

We hear it as, if you don't give me whatever I want that is dearest to you.

That's not what Jesus is saying.

Jesus is not here to take away what is dearest to you because remember who gave it to you?

Him.

But having given it to you, it is the Abraham Isaac thingy.

Now that you have Isaac and I have promised you an heir, are you willing to lay it down?

Count your blessings, renounce them one by one and you get to a place where you are free.

Simply put, if you are not willing to take what is dearest to you by the plans of people

and kiss it goodbye, you cannot be my disciple.

I love Jesus' straightforwardness.

He doesn't give me any wiggle room.

That's the beauty of this.

No wiggle room.

The post-COVID landscape must meet a people like this.

Fourth, you seek pathways of wisdom.

You seek pathways of wisdom.

You seek pathways of wisdom and you process life through the word.

You process life through the word.

As a son, you refuse to stay immature.

In Galatians 4 it says, till a son comes of age, he is just like a servant in the house

and is under the care of guardians.

But once he comes of age, he becomes the master of the house.

The same principle applies here.

Sonship, the culture of sonship, seeks out pathways of wisdom and processes life through

the word so that you can come into a place of maturity.

One of the reasons we fall into diverse temptations is because we do not process our thinking

through the word and we do not seek into the word for pathways of wisdom and we still want

God to use us.

We still want God to keep us from falling.

We still want to have intimate times with God.

Go to the one place where his intimacy is made plain and it is the word.

How can a man keep his way pure?

By cherishing your word.

I mean daily bread and my Atmosphere is highest and all those things are really a great help.

But they are not staple diet.

They are like french fries.

Who goes buys just fries?

You always get a burger with it.

No?

I think so.

John 17 verse 8, if I were to read it from the passion translation.

John 17:8

John 17 verse 8 and verse 14.

John 17:8

John 17 verse 8.

John 17:8

Hey, you had a burger in that, right?

May?

It was not just fries.

Okay, just checking.

Otherwise we would have to put you on probation.

John 17 verse 8 and the very words you gave to me to speak I have passed on to them.

John 17:8

They have received your words and carried them in their hearts.

They are convinced that I have come from your presence and they have fully believed that

you sent me to represent you.

Verse 14, I have given them your message and that is why the unbelieving world hates them

for their allegiance is no longer to the world because I am not of the world.

What changes, what shifts our allegiance from the world to him?

His word.

What shifts our allegiance from the world to him?

His word.

You cannot shift allegiances without letting his word renew your mind.

How is that possible?

Part of the culture of sonship is to seek pathways of wisdom and the process your thinking

through the word so that your allegiance is so starkly evident to the watching world

that they hate you or they join you.

The great thing about Christians is that people can be neutral about them and that is what

makes them a non-essential service.

Next one.

This is a beautiful one and this is a constant, not struggle for me but a constant endeavor

for me.

You don't seek dignity, authority, security, purpose, provision, companionship or freedom

outside of God.

You don't seek this.

The culture of sonship is constantly learning how to live off what was guaranteed in Eden

and has never been rescinded.

In Eden God said, let us make man in our image, let us put him in a garden where he is safe,

let us give him dominion or authority over that which we have created so he can be a

steward, let us put him to work and give him purpose and part of his purpose was to subdue

and go forth and multiply, let us provide for him so that he does not have to work for

his living but he shall have provision before he works, let us give him companionship not

just in terms of intimacy with God but let us create Eve so that he has someone that

finds himself absolutely compatible with and let us give him the freedom of choosing as

he pleases and not having his moral will taken captive.

All these things were given to man in the garden of Eden and they have never been rescinded.

They are always supposed to be sought from just one and throughout history human beings

have sought all these things outside of God and when you do you get a distorted, perverted,

diluted, adulterated version of this and it never satisfies and it leads to more sin.

A culture of sonship will always go and seek these things from the father because he gives

these willingly and it was the first thing he gave man, hallelujah.

And to constantly go down this road, father I am not going to take my dignity, get my

dignity from the applause or the angst of men.

I am not going to seek my security outside of you.

My security first comes from you.

Any questions?

Jesus knew this.

In John 15 5 he puts it this way when he walked the earth.

He says I am the sprouting wine and you are my branches.

As you live in union with me as your source fruitfulness will stream from within you.

But when you live separate from me you are powerless.

So when you live separate, when you seek this outside of God you really are handing over

your power to somebody else.

You are handing over power to an institution.

You are handing over power to a degree.

You are handing over your power to a bank account.

You are handing your power over to the number of nostrils that you control.

You are handing over power to things that are so temporal when these temporal things

were already provided by the permanent one.

What a shame eh?

Do you understand why this is critical to sonship?

Because what good is it if as sons we run to other fathers for this?

Yeah, you explained it well.

God takes on such an ascendancy in these areas that sure if you guys right now say things

that honor me I won't say no no no don't say anything.

I'll just lap it up like a dog enjoying your compliments and your comments.

But having enjoyed it thoroughly I'll still know where my dignity came from.

I will lock my door at night and I will lock my car.

But I know that both my home and my car are intact not because I locked the door but because

God takes care.

Questions?

Okay.

Next one.

You comprehend the father's nature?

You comprehend the father's nature?

You comprehend the father's nature?

You comprehend the father's nature?

And represent his words and works and represent his words and works.

A son loves knowing the nature of his father.

A son loves knowing the nature of his father.

A son loves knowing the nature of his father.

Yeah.

Doesn't matter what kind of a father you have it is strange how sons want to know their

fathers.

What breaks my heart sometimes is when I hear about sons and daughters who wanted to know

what their fathers were like and were met again and again with being let down or with

being harmed or with facing their anger.

But there's something innate in us that wants to know the nature of the father.

And if it has gone it is because Satan has been successful in separating a son from his

father and has kept you an orphan for so long now that it doesn't matter.

Recover it because the father is never more than a cry away.

A son loves knowing the nature of his father.

I mean I knew my dad quite well but there were certain things that I would do with him

because I knew that if I went out with him in those times those were the best storytelling

times of my life.

Certain things he would begin to tell stories and if I was able to go out with him during

those times I'd hear stories.

Otherwise I'd only hear advice.

I learned more from his stories than his advice.

And why do sons want to learn from their father, learn the nature of their father so that

when they grow up I mean there's that really sad thing that happens to them.

I just want to be like you dad, I just want to be like you.

Every child has that.

Only in this case, go ahead.

Yeah so which is about 70 to 80 percent of the world has had fathers who could never

represent their heavenly father to their children and that is because they were raised in the

same place.

They were raised in the same place.

They were raised in the same place.

They were raised in the same place.

So they were raised in the same place.

That's why we have so many parents who at least try to be like their parents.

has had fathers who could never represent the Heavenly Father to their children.

And that is when you take people through a process where you help them understand that

just because the copy was distorted, the original is not.

Just because the copy was distorted does not mean that the original is defective.

And sometimes it takes time to help people trust a God again when your father was not

like that.

When your father was absent, untrustable, abusive or abdicated as responsibility, at

that time you have to take longer to help a person understand that, hey, this was what

happened to the copy but the original is still absolutely holy and beautiful.

And 80% of the world suffers from that.

You comprehend the father's nature.

Matthew 11, 27, Jesus says that, listen, I'm willing to go over it line by line with you.

Everything that I do comes from a father-son intimacy.

It's very unique.

But guess what?

I'm not keeping it to myself.

I'm willing to go over it line by line with you.

This thrills my heart.

One of my desires on earth is I want to leave this earth as one who knew you at moments

as intimately as your own son Christ did.

And so work towards it.

So if I lived to 72, 82, 92, work towards it till the last day of my life because I

want to know him and walk with him here on earth just as Christ did.

I may not be able to do it for three and a half years in a stretch, but I can do it for

three and a half hours, three and a half days, three and a half weeks.

Now we're talking.

I'd hate to find out every good thing only in heaven.

That'd be such a waste of a life on earth.

And represent his words and works.

Represent his words and works.

Talk like him.

Do like him.

Represent his words and works.

John 14, verse 10 and 11.

John 14:10

Believe me for the words I speak, but if you do not believe me for the words I speak, believe

me for the words I do.

Words and works.

Sonship, representing the father accurately, representing the father accurately.

Doesn't happen overnight, but press into it.

Press into it, press into it, press into it, representing the father accurately.

Jesus was pressing into it for 30 years.

And then when he was made public, he showed them.

But there was a process of learning.

He grew in wisdom and stature and favor with God and man.

There was a time of learning.

Press into it.

Next one.

As you get to know his nature, you will change.

As you get to know his nature, you will change.

Why is it essential to keep comprehending the nature of the father?

Because if you don't, then you don't change.

May I say to you that one of the reasons some of us may not have changed as much as we want.

One of the reasons some of us don't see continuous change happening in our lives is because we

are not continuously comprehending the nature of the father.

Change is more rapid as the comprehension of the father is more rapid.

The knowledge of the father is one of the few things on earth that does not puff up.

It doesn't cause you to be puffed up.

Knowledge puffs up.

But the knowledge of the father, it's an apostolic prayer that Paul prays in Ephesians 1.

That you may know Jacob, the length and the breadth and the height and the width of his

love and his power towards you.

The knowledge of the father only changes your persona.

And I've gone over this with some of you.

And when your persona changes, the anointing changes.

Isn't that beautiful?

Those that have been in this church for 14 or 15 years have seen my persona change.

And with the change of my persona, you've seen a radical difference in the anointing

upon my life.

And all I've been by anointing is the way the Spirit of God comes upon and expresses

himself through a person changes.

I've seen the same in you.

Those that I've known for one year, two years, 15 years, I've seen how your persona changes

as you get to know God better.

And as you get to know God better, the anointing that comes and flows through you, as in the

Holy Spirit begins to fit upon you so well because your shape has changed.

God always provides you clothes, not for you to wear today, but for you to wear tomorrow.

It's like buying clothes for a baby.

You never buy them clothes that they can fit today.

You buy them clothes that can fit tomorrow.

Because the parents will take care of what fits them today.

Because you're trusting that the child is going to grow into it.

God always buys you clothes that can fit you tomorrow, hoping that by seeing him, your

neck grows fatter, your body builds up so that you can fit into the anointing that the

Holy Spirit has for you.

And when that happens, the way you deal with obstacles is unique.

The way you deal with obstacles is very unique.

It's very different from how you used to.

In Luke 8 24, we see how Jesus dealt with the wind and the waves.

Very different.

In Acts 28 verse 5, you see how Paul dealt with a snake that had bitten him and was hanging

Acts 28:5

onto his hand.

How do you deal with a snake like that?

Snake.

Sonship is never stagnant, guys.

And please, I've said this before and I say it again, you cannot grow at the pace that

you determine.

You can, but you're really not supposed to.

Phoebe doesn't turn to Sheldon and Jane and says, you know what, this growth thing is

really getting to me.

It's happening too fast.

So can we just slow the process down?

I'm going to start crawling again for a little while.

Yeah.

She doesn't do that.

It's once she grows up that she decides that.

And she won't.

But you cannot grow at your own pace.

That was just for effect.

It was nothing else.

And it didn't have the desired effect.

That's why I have to apologize for it.

You cannot grow at your own pace.

You cannot grow at your own pace.

There's a pace that is set for you.

And it's different for different people, eh?

Any questions?

Ah, the next one.

Man, all of these are so rich.

Next one is, when you, the culture of the, the culture of sonship has generational promises

burst on your retina, on your spiritual retina.

Generational promises from the father begin to burst on your spiritual retina.

Because one of the things God does when you begin to walk in the culture of the sonship,

of sonship, is he says, okay, Jacob, let me show you more.

I haven't told you about this particular piece of land I have.

It's about 40 acres.

I didn't tell you.

But now let me tell you about it.

Hey, Jacob, I'm going to show you a little bit of the culture of the sonship.

I'm going to show you a little bit of the culture of the sonship.

It's about 40 acres.

I didn't tell you.

But now let me tell you about it.

Hey, Jacob, let me tell you about this oil well that I had.

Hey, Jacob, let me tell you about this other brother that you have.

Hey, Jacob, let me, it's, hey, Jacob, let me tell you this promise that I've kept for

you hidden.

Hey, Jacob, let me tell you about this treasure chest that I have for you now.

It is this constant bursting of generational promises onto your retina.

I'm very deliberately using the word generational promise because it is not for you.

It is meant for someone else through you.

It is meant for someone else through you because this father is raising sons not so that he

can have a household of strong sons, so that he can have a household of strong sons that

empty themselves out like their elder brother.

Psalm 48 verse 12 to 14.

Psalms 48:12–14

Go around Zion.

Circle around Zion.

Look at her bulwarks.

Look at her fortresses.

Look at her citadels.

Measure them.

Why?

So that you can tell the next generation about the goodness of God.

Why do you think we are building what we are building?

I'm telling you with every shred of honesty I have that Acts 29 is only being built this

way so that others may benefit.

What you benefit is a side product.

You are no longer the object of Acts 29.

There's enough material stored in you over the last two years which is sufficient for

most Christians for a lifetime.

You don't need more.

You just need to be punctured so that you can leak like crazy.

We are being built up so that it can be a generational promise that can be delivered

to someone else.

Efficiency was five talks about the same thing.

You can read it later.

Here's another one.

As you go down this road, you'll find that the Father begins to endorse you privately,

publicly and through others.

That's something that happens in the culture of sonship.

The pace is different for each person.

How does that work?

God knows the backgrounds we come from, the struggles we've had, the setbacks we've suffered,

the mindsets that we presently occupy.

I should not expect off you the same way that God dealt with me is not the way that he deals

with you.

I was talking to a couple who are twins and they were telling me how both twins, though

different, and they have to be dealt with differently.

Every parent knows that they cannot impose upon their children if you have more than

one child.

My sister tells me that you cannot expect to impose upon all three children what she

did with her.

Oldest one.

It doesn't work.

The dreams have to be different.

The way you approach them has to be different.

The way you teach them has to be different.

The way you discipline them has to be different.

The way you cuddle them after discipline has to be different.

Everything has to be different because of our unique slow flakiness.

You're endorsed by the father privately, publicly, and by others.

One of the things about this culture of sonship is the father is very involved in this.

It is not really our work.

It is the father and us.

It's never the son's working to create this.

It's the father working with the son to create this.

One of the things the father loves doing is telling us, hey, great job, man.

Hey, well done.

Hey, I saw that.

Nobody else noticed it.

I saw what you did.

And come and give you these private public paths and sometimes through others.

You see this in Jesus' life.

When he was a child and he probably didn't realize it, Simeon comes along and he carries

Jesus and he says, God, now that I've seen him, now that I've seen the salvation of

Israel, I can die.

His parents heard it.

He didn't.

Publicly, there were at least two times where God spoke and people heard, this is my beloved

son in whom I'm well pleased.

Listen to him.

Sometimes through others and sometimes through strange others.

One of the strange others was the soldier who was standing at the cross who turns to

him and says, this after the earthquake and the darkness, he said, this is truly the son

of God.

You see this in Paul's life, where first it's Jesus having a private conversation with

Paul while he's lying down, knocked off his horse and he says, I am Jesus.

Go into the city and I'll tell you what to happen.

Meanwhile, in the city is Ananias in Acts chapter 9 and he's saying to Ananias, go

Acts 9 · chapter mention

tell him that I have set him aside to send him to the Gentiles and to the kings of the

earth so that he can tell them what needs to happen.

Man, you should thrill at this because I'm telling you, it is such a normal, regular

thing.

Every good father on earth has learned his habits from a father in heaven who's a million

times better.

I cannot tell you the number of times God endorses and validates my life because I

would not be able to do some of the things that I'm doing if he did not do it because

sometimes faith needs to be validated, man.

And the more you begin to receive it, the more you will give it.

Someone had to bring the flags today to be waved.

It is not the flags that caused God to enter the place, but the flags had some kind of

role to play in the kind of worship we have today.

But someone had to bring them and someone must be acknowledged for that.

God acknowledges us sometimes directly, other times through people.

Someone had to lead worship the way she did.

Someone had to play the piano the way he did.

And God acknowledges them.

Grace always flows through kindness.

Remove kindness from your life and grace will not flow through your life.

Grace always flows through kindness.

Remove kindness from your life or make it an occasional pathway in your life and grace

cannot flow.

Ephesians 2, 7, I have seated you in heavenly places so that you may receive the grace of

God shown through you, through the kindness of Christ.

I'll finish in seven minutes.

You usher in the Father's, as culture of sonship, you usher in the Father's government.

You usher in the Father's government and his peace.

And in the process you subdue the enemy.

We are part of our responsibility as sons.

Psalm 127, I think, opens with the line that,

Blessed is the man whose quiver is full of sons, for he can stand against the enemy at the gates.

Blessed is God if he has found in this church a quiver full of sons.

Because now he knows that the enemy that he has subdued can be imposed upon by his children in this church.

Sorry?

Yeah.

In here or what I said?

Oh, you usher in the Father's government and his peace and you subdue the enemy.

You subdue the enemy.

Isaiah 9, 7, Unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given, and the government shall be upon his shoulders.

Isaiah 22, verse 22, And I call forth now Eliakim the son of Hilkiah,

Isaiah 22:22

And I give him a robe, I give him a belt, I give him the keys of David,

So that whatsoever he opens shall remain open, whatsoever he shuts shall remain shut.

I give him authority, I place on him authority.

So there is, the culture of sonship learns how to cause God's rule to enter situations here on earth

in individuals, in cities, in nations.

It is absolutely doable, I have seen it.

So you begin to steward creation.

Because your father is a king.

Just think of yourself as sons.

Don't go, if my father is a king, I'm the next king.

Look at what's happening with Prince Charles.

He's been waiting forever.

So why not just go with, my father is a king and I'm his son, or I'm his daughter.

That's much easier.

You usher in the father's peace, eh?

His peace is this combination of it is well and rest.

It enters into situations.

He gets up in the middle of the boat, looks at the storm and says, it is well, be still.

And the whole thing becomes still.

There's a rest and it is well natured to its peace.

And we are supposed to be ones that usher it in.

This is the culture of sons.

Jesus did this.

Other than the one occasion where he took a whip and drove out people.

Even there it was driving out things to bring peace.

It was driving out things to say it is now well.

It is driving out things to say now rest.

No longer shall this sacred place be trodden by the profane.

It was again and it is well peace that he brought in even through his using of the whip.

Go home and go over it.

This may take 15 weeks to get.

But my God, you can go over it again and again.

Here's another one.

You don't shrink from discipline.

You don't shrink from discipline.

You don't shrink from discipline.

You don't shrink from discipline.

Because you know it accelerates your fruitfulness.

It accelerates your fruitfulness.

It accelerates your fruitfulness.

You don't shrink from discipline because it accelerates your fruitfulness.

If you go to Hebrews 12, I'm reading from the passion version, Hebrews 12 verse 5 to 8,

Hebrews 12:5–8

And have you forgotten his encouraging words spoken to you as his children?

He said, My child, don't underestimate the value of discipline and training of the Lord God,

Or get depressed when he has to correct you.

For the Lord's training of your life is the evidence of his faithful love,

And when he draws you to himself, it proves you are his delightful child.

Fully embrace God's correction as part of your training,

For he is doing what any loving father does for his children.

For whoever has heard of a child who never had to be corrected.

Verse 11, Now all discipline seems to be more pain than pleasure at the time,

Yet later it will produce a transformation of character,

Bringing a harvest of righteousness and peace to those who yield to it.

One of the easiest ways is to avoid people who are willing to correct you.

Avoid them and you can avoid discipline.

Because sometimes when discipline comes, we blame the devil.

Sometimes it's good to have people who tell you what's happening to you right now is the discipline of God,

Or correction needs to be put.

Don't take a week off or two weeks off and then come after everything is done

for training. Training without correction ain't training.

I once got a gym membership. It's the only thing I've won in Vancouver.

In one of these lucky draws that I put my business card in.

Of all the things that I could win, I won a gym membership for seven days.

I mean, how bad is that?

But I decided I'd go, I'd go.

And they're showing me all these machines and what it can do to parts of my body that they said had muscles.

I decided that this wasn't a good idea because I knew that I would not go through the correction or the pain of training.

I could go for a week. Many of us are Christians like that.

We try for a week and then we take two weeks off and have a siesta or a fiesta.

And we come back and try again for a week.

There is no word called trying in Christendom.

It's always training.

And training will involve correction.

The best way to avoid it is to avoid people who may bring that into your life.

Last point.

Last two points.

You yearn for the maturity of oneness with your other, with other sons.

You yearn for the maturity of oneness with other sons.

Meaning, it is important to you to be one with other sons and daughters.

It is important to you to have oneness with other sons and daughters.

And it's not on a Sunday basis.

It's important to you.

It was important to Jesus.

John chapter 17.

John 17 · chapter mention

Father, they have seen how you and I are one.

Now could you help them be one too?

It is important.

There is a maturity in a church that is shown through its oneness.

I think you've done well in that.

You've done well in that.

One of the things I was doing while we were worshipping,

while I was walking up and down and crying was,

you know, today's worship reminded me of the mist that was over Eden.

It watered the garden.

There was this mistiness to the worship.

And I've longed for days like this.

And I was just crying saying, Father, thank you for being able to do it amongst us as a people.

It wasn't something that I was yearning for individually.

But to see a people in worship like that, blesses my heart.

It does something to my heart.

Desire oneness in the things that we do.

Because what good is individual Christianity that flourishes?

It is so not kingdom.

At least not New Testament kingdom.

Ephesians 4, verse 15, that we may all grow up into the maturity and the oneness and the fullness of the stature of Christ.

Ephesians 4:15

Who wants to grow individually?

Who here wants a long nose or a long ear or a long hand, longer than the rest?

Any takers?

I'm not surprised.

Pawan, you want one?

Oh, I thought you were saying...

No, okay.

Okay, a long beard, okay.

Last point.

Last point.

Guys, when it comes to sonship, ask, receive, cultivate, contend for your inheritance.

When it comes to sonship, ask, receive, cultivate, contend for your inheritance.

Jesus did this and he says to us, God says to Jesus, ask of me and I'll give you your inheritance.

And now Jesus is saying to us, ask of me and I'll give you your inheritance as a church, as individuals, ask of me.

And if you ask, you can receive.

If you receive, you have to cultivate.

If you cultivate, there will be opposition.

When there is opposition, contend.

Ask, receive, cultivate, contend your inheritance and do it in allotted timeframes.

Try to finish what I give you in a certain time frame.

The only thing that you don't have to finish in time is your teaching, Jacob.

Everything else has to be within allotted timeframes.

Ephesians 2.10.

You are my workmanship created for good works in Christ.

Prepared when?

Before the foundations of the earth.

Allotted timeframes for things that God wants to release to you.

One of the coolest stories, and I'll end with it, is Joshua 14 verse 12 where Caleb after 40 years says, I was given this land.

Joshua 14:12

I was given this land 40 years ago and I still want it.

I'm asking for it.

I know there are anach in the hills.

I also know that I'm 84.

But this was promised to me.

It was taken away from me because of a number of people who protested against it.

But now that I am here, give me this land because I want to fulfill what was allotted to me 40 years ago.

I want my inheritance.

I will take it.

I will take care of those giants.

And he did.