Waters Made Bitter

Guys, last week we talked about water being made sweet. The title of last week's teaching

was water is made sweet and the title of this week's teaching is water is made bitter. Water

is made bitter. And so last week we said, or we asked this question and we answered

is it possible to trust God if you actually believe that he permits or allows or is behind

bad things that happen to us? How is it possible to trust a father who allows, permits, or stands

behind the bad things that happen to us? How can you trust someone like that? And if you weren't

here last week then you would have to go listen to it so that it would help us understand that

you as a dad or mom by nature aren't like that. Why do you expect God from whom you got your nature

as a parent, at least the good parts? Why do you think this God who you were created by and who

gave you the ability to parent, why do you think that that God would be different? If anything,

he would be a million times better, not worse. That's just logic. But logic aside, we were looking

at scriptures that show that every good and perfect gift comes from this father who is the

father of light and the father of life. So you can go listen to the message from last week to

know that we do not serve a God who permits, allows, and these are semantics, but my God,

we get so stuck up with those words and how can I trust you if I can't be sure whether you will be

good to me or not? And by good to me I don't mean a lack of discipline or pampering or giving me

what I want, but good to me as in in your essence I can expect nothing else but goodness from you.

So that is waters made sweet and today we talked about waters made bitter. There's a word in

Revelation chapter 8 verse 11 for waters made bitter and it's a word wormwood. It was a star

Revelation 8:11

that falls out of the sky and poisons or makes bitter the waters of the earth. And so Revelation

Revelation 8:11

8 verse 11 in a sense is the opposite of Exodus 15 verse 25. In Exodus 15 verse 25 we said that

Exodus 15:25 Exodus 15:25

Moses took a branch of a tree and threw it into the waters of Marah, which means bitterness,

and when he threw in the piece of wood into the waters of Marah that the waters turned sweet.

Here it's this thing called wormwood which people have different interpretations for because after

all it's the book of Revelation, but when it falls into the waters the waters turn bitter. And so I

want to talk about okay if God is the one who makes the water sweet then what are we dealing

with when we talk about waters being made bitter? And so that's what the rest of this day will be

about. God wants to say something to you. He wants to say that He is going to come to you. You don't

have to go after Him. Sometimes parents are like that. In some cases children have to go running to

the parents. Other times parents go running after children. You do that with your children too. And

God is saying to you within the next one week I will come running to you and when I come running

because I made you I know exactly how you think exactly what you feel and I'll show you what is

to happen over the next little while and it'll clear your mind. You won't be afraid. You'll make

clear decisions. You don't have to do anything that God will come running to you. This is marvelous.

It's like the dad coming running to the son and there's the son running to the dad. So expect it.

And not over the next two years. Over the next one week God will make things so evident that

He's around you that you'll come running to echo and say you know something happened something

happened. It'll blow your mind. So I'm happy for you and I'll explain more of it later. So guys so

who brings about this bitterness? I don't want to talk about the origin of Satan and stuff like that.

You can go read about it but I want to make you aware of where all this comes from and how vicious

it is. To begin with we are up against we are up against real forces of evil. You must understand

where bitten how the waters are being made bitter. We are up against evil forces encountered on a

daily basis actually on an hourly basis. But here's the problem they are unseen and they occupy

the invisible realm which then makes it difficult for people who are rational like us to even think

of associating the waters being made bitter with the arch enemy that we have. And I just want to

expose him like crazy today. He's hostile to our well-being. He is hostile to our well-being.

To your well-being and he is hostile to the gospel. Hostile as in sworn enemy who will do

anything to destroy. I want this church I want us to become so aware today of who we are fighting

against that you will not go and make God the scapegoat first. God's shoulders can handle

scapegoating. But we got to at least grapple with the fact that right now there is someone called

the Prince of the power of the air that holds sway over the sons of disobedience that at present is

listening to what I'm saying. That knows the patterns of your past and the patterns of your

father and your grandfather and your great-grandfather. That is hostile in intent against you against your

family, against your children, against your marriage, against your body, against your mind,

against the feelings that you have, against your walking with God. That this enemy has a demonic

hold that is into millions and their only job is can I bring harm and be hostile to the well-being

of Jacob, of Rachel, of Rachel's twins, of Matt, of Annette, of Danny, of Karen, of Ouk. This is all he does.

You got to be aware of this. We don't talk about this. It's strange how the church starts being

apologetic about the supernatural because after all it's in the unseen realm right? So when we

talk about it it sounds weird. You know eagles never, I mean I saw this on Facebook a million

times, you probably did too. Eagles never fight snakes in the ground. They fight them in the air.

Eagles never swoop on a snake and then try to mangle its head while it's on the ground. It knows

better. Eagles swoop down, pick up snakes and then mangle them in the air where a snake has no traction.

Flailing widely in the air it has absolutely no ability to do anything but just hang there as the

talons rip into it. While on the ground you try fighting that serpent and it has the ability to

wriggle away. It has the ability to turn to thrash to get the eagle but not in the air.

These are forces that are attempting to subdue or reclaim the people of Christ back into his

dominion. These are forces that are trying to subdue or reclaim every believer back into the

dominion that they were delivered out of. You think it's not possible? Let's take a look at

Ananias and Sapphira. Let's take a look at Judas. Let's take a look at Peter. We can at least say

of Peter and Judas that these were men who walked with Jesus Christ but were not filled with the

Holy Spirit because Christ hadn't ascended yet. So we can leave them out but take Ananias, take

Sapphira, take Alexander the Coppersmith, take Demas, take Janus and no they were from the Old

Testament. What I'm trying to say is this that this is a valid legitimate continuous attempt

and you think it's not being directed against you and there's not once in a bloom and it's a 24-7

weekly daily thing and yet the good news we'll get to later. These forces take captive by deceptive

philosophies and traditions of men. Colossians 2.8, these forces take you and me captive by

deceptive philosophies and the traditions of men. Please don't think you don't have it. You have

them. Deceptive philosophy. How do I know? I've spoken to you and you might say well Jacob you

have it too. Absolutely. But my God I've spoken to you. I know the deceptive philosophies that

you are under, the traditions of men that you suffer under and you will not budge from it.

Till the Holy Spirit himself has to turn up and convict you. How do you think that happens?

Please when I say you and you think but Jacob you too. Don't even bother. I know that about

myself. I'm pointing my finger at you man. You can point it at me later. I want us to,

what's the aim? I was talking to God about this message and I was saying Father please make us

aware of an enemy that is real because we don't pay him enough attention because we've been told

too many times. Just focus on God not the enemy. Deceptive philosophies and traditions take us

captive. Colossians 2.8. This is the same Satan. This is Satan who leads us astray with trickery

that is more subtle than the greatest craftiness of men. You take the most crafty man on earth

and he's nowhere near the trickery that comes from the subtlety of this serpent. He's been

using it since the beginning. When everything was pure, when everything was pristine he was able to

deceive. What then when you are already in a fallen environment? Therefore I have to be even

more careful not to be taken by philosophies and deceptions and subtleties and craftiness. That is

all around me and that my God I've been indoctrinated with either through my own stubbornness or through

what has been passed down to me. One of the things he likes best is if there is no resistance or

fight put up. This is the adversary. Satan, the very word means adversary. This is the adversary

who Jesus called a thief and then Jesus Christ the Son of the Living God, the Prince of Peace,

the King of the universe, these are his words. Take them at face value. He said he is a thief

and he has been stealing and killing and destroying ever since he existed. He is a thief. This is your

adversary. This is your opponent. He steals, kills and destroys. He steals, kills and destroys your

family. He steals, kills and destroys your marriage. He steals, kills and destroys your

children. He steals, kills and destroys within and without the church. This is he's a thief. He was

called a thief. You see where waters are being made bitter, my heart rages against him because

of what he is getting away with and because of the fact that he's getting away with. We come up

with theologies that are so absurd that distort the nature of God when God isn't like that which

is again deceptive philosophies and the traditions of men. They say God was created for man when he

could not understand something. He created God as a crutch so that God he could be there. I would

like to say when when man does not understand the supernatural or the demonic or the satanic,

they then create theologies, Christians I'm talking about, create theologies to somehow explain what

is happening. One has to absolutely be sure of what is the nature of God. All I have to do is look

at the worst father here and I don't know who the worst father is. Look at the, worst father is the

wrong word. I just need to look at any father here and I will find that their children's opinion of

their dad, regardless of how the dad has been here on earth, is usually far more assured than

Christians understanding of God. My dad was a decent dad but he was like so many miles away

from perfection. It's crazy but I as I was growing up was more sure of him than I was sure of God

because with God it was never know this thing called sovereignty, ugly word, don't know what

he's gonna do. What a distortion, how can you trust someone like that? One of the things this evil

enemy does is he brings experiences into our lives that makes it so difficult for us to trust God,

to expect anything of God. It riddles us with doubt and fear. He uses experiences especially

experiences when we are children that are so imprinted in our minds that it becomes so hard

to trust a God who can do this kind of evil or as we say allow this kind of evil. Allowing,

permitting, doing is all the same man, it's just the same word used differently to make us feel

better. Either he does this or he doesn't. I've said this before guys but you've got to examine

the nature of God, you got to read the word through the nature of God, not read the nature

of God through the word. You got to read the word through the nature of God, not read the nature of

God through the word. How do you read the word through the nature of God? By looking at the only

one who is a visible image of the invisible God, the Christ. Look at him in the Gospels and see the

kind of Christ he is and it will show you who God really is. Now having understood the nature of God

through the only visible manifestation of the invisible glorious good God, now begin to read

the word and the word will be dissected correctly. Any other way of dissecting the word through Greek,

Hebrew, theology, Jacob's doctrine or any other doctrine will be faulty because it will still

defy the nature of God because you will put your own lens on it. But look through Jesus Christ,

very different and then hold on to it regardless of your experience. This adversary for men's strife,

he's a thief who steals, kills, destroys. John chapter 10 verse 10. This adversary or this enemy

John 10:10

is a deceiver, the father of lies, Jesus said. He's the father of lies. He's the father of lies

who disguises himself as an angel of light. He is a deceiver who seduces, who deceives, who ensnares,

who seduces, deceives, ensnares. Whatever your stance be at present, whatever your way of thinking

be, always go and examine, oh God, this stance that I hold right now, do I need to re-examine it?

Do I need to go bounce it off somebody? Because I realize the enemy is a deceiver and I do not

want to be held captive by a philosophy or a tradition of man or a deception. I can't afford

it because every stronghold is always built on a lie. Every stronghold that exists in the mind of

man is built on a lie. You think you don't have strongholds? You think I don't have strongholds?

Every stronghold is built on a lie. Remember that story about strongholds of the cardboard boxes and

a snake? No? Strongholds are built, imagine your mind being a vacant room and then repeated patterns

happen where a thought is brought in, another thought is brought in. Every time the thought is brought in,

imagine a big cardboard box being brought and put in the room. Soon the room is full of cardboard

boxes. When the room is empty, it's very hard for Satan to take advantage. But once the room is full

of cardboard boxes brought in, every time you repeat a thought pattern, now a serpent can hide.

Strongholds become places where demons hide. That is why it sometimes becomes impossible. It does not

matter what you do, people do not change. Why? Because you've got to clear the boxes. Deliverance

is great, the serpent will go out but he'll come back because the boxes haven't been cleared. I was

trying to Val and Steve a couple of days ago. Guys, it is one thing to be set free and it is another

thing to rework our thinking and come back to a place of wholeness. And so you can come to me and

I can command in the name of Jesus Christ for you to be set free and demons will flee. But when the

serpent comes back, he has to find the room empty of cardboard boxes and furnished. For that you

need sometimes prolonged speaking, hearing, counseling. And if you need that in this church,

because of things that have happened to you in the past, then one of the persons you can use as a

resource is Val. If you don't know who she is, she'll just lift up her hand gently. That was very

gentle Val. Thanks Steve. And she does that on a regular basis and she won't come and tell me what

you're telling her, even under torture. So you're safe. But sometimes things need to be reworked in

our heads. Setting free is one thing, getting a new habit is another thing. And going to people

like her can be slightly expensive and the church will help. When Heidi is not here, you can pledge

away any amount of money from this church. And she's not here right now, right? Yeah, so if you need

help, just let me know. This is a God who blinds the minds of unbelievers and I would suggest to

you, dulls the mind of believers. This is a God who blinds the mind of unbelievers. 2 Corinthians

4, 4. The God of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers to himself and to the light of God

and the light of the gospel. And I would suggest to you that the same emmo works in and amongst

believers where there's a blindness or a dullness that comes in. It's a prayer of mine, eh, as I grow

older, oh God, I have seen people who are as old as me. They get pretty set in their ways and stop

growing. Oh God, please destroy the dullness of my mind. And please help me apologize when I really

do things wrong to people. This is the enemy. This is the same devil. Listen, listen to this. This is

the same devil who tried to destroy Moses and Jesus. Destroy as in take out, as in kill, as in

end their physical lives. You think that he won't try that with you. The good news about all this is

what we need to do so that we are protected. And thank God Jesus has furnished that. But you've got

to be highly aware of a realm around you that is really demonic, really satanic, really evil, really

out to do harm. I go so far as to say that behind everything that happens in my life, there are

spiritual realities. Be it good or be it bad, be it my own fault or be it not, be it the goodness of God or the

badness of Jacob. Spiritual realities exist behind everything I do. They either prompt one side or

prompt the other side. My words do, my actions do. That's just my doing. But that aside, there are

spiritual realities around my life at all times. Did you see the shift if you were here when we began

the songs? That was a spiritual reality. Singing about the Holy Spirit, this place was deader than

a doorknob. And then at some point things begin to change. Who does it? Not Jane. It's the work of God.

I'll give you time to ask questions in two seconds. Not two seconds. This is the same enemy who tried

to destroy Moses and Jesus. Hand you. Hand will try to do it in the past, will try to do it in the future.

This is the devil who Jesus said was a murderer. He was there when Cain took a boulder and smashed

his brother's head in. He was there when there was weeping in Rama. When Pharaoh sent out, sorry,

when Herod sent out soldiers to kill every child below the age of two. He was there when Moses would

send midwives to choke babies to death. He was there when Nero began to light Rome up with Christian

tortures, Christian bodies on flames. He was there. He's been a murderer. This is an evil being,

more powerful than humans, who once used to dwell in the presence of God, was cast out, is brutal and

evil. He was there at all these places. He's a murderer. He inspires rage, provokes, not inspires,

rage should never be inspired. Wrong two words. Any questions? I'm not done, but I just thought I'll

ask. Any questions? You must understand who makes the waters bitter, guys. There is one who makes the

waters sweet, and then there is one who's diametrically opposed to him, and they share no

commonality. We never associate the devil with godliness, but we sure associate God with

devilishness. Only we word it differently, but we attribute to him things that are not common to his

nature. Just because I complimented you when I met you that your questions are helpful doesn't

mean you have to ask questions every time, but go ahead now that you've lifted your hand. Okay.

Yes, it was that he's making an attempt to do it. Yeah. Anyone else? Oh, that was easy. Go ahead, Poon.

In about 14 minutes, 23 seconds. Okay. 14 minutes, 84 seconds, which is 15 minutes, 24 seconds. This

is the same devil who uses the penalty of sin, of fear and of death as weapons. He uses the penalty

of sin. Hey, you've experienced it. How many times have we felt guilt? Condemnation. Isn't it

sometimes for some of us on a daily basis, unable to approach this God. He uses the penalty of sin.

He's been using it forever. He used it first, and a man and his wife ran and hid behind bushes. The

penalty of sin he uses, the penalty of fear, then he uses fear and he uses death as a means of

frightening people. This is why Paul had to dedicate an entire chapter saying, oh death,

where is your sting? Christians, come on. Don't be afraid of dying. It is the last enemy that will

be conquered, but even that wicked enemy will be put under the foot of Christ or already has. It's

only a matter of time. Don't look forward to dying, but we of all people must be least afraid of death.

This is the same devil, the Satan who ravages with sickness, with affliction, with torment,

with addictions, with bondage, with pain, sickness, affliction, torment, sickness, affliction,

torment. He brings it. Bondage, addictions, he brings it. Sickness, affliction, torment. God has

no part in it. Matthew 8, 14 to 16, Isaiah 53 verse 5. He took on our pains, our afflictions,

Isaiah 53:5

our torments, our maladies, our diseases. He took it on how by having his back stripped open,

there is no commonality between God, afflictions, torment. No, no, no, don't read it through the

nature of Christ. This was an advantage that the Old Testament did not have. We have it. No Moses,

no David could ever read God through the eyes of Christ. This is why the Old Testament is

considered a shadow. There are principles that can be pulled out from them and Paul does a masterful

job in 2nd Corinthians 10 where he says this happened to Israel, this happened to Israel,

this happened to Israel and these things that happened to Israel were supposed to be a moral

or a parable or a story that tells us this is not how we should behave. This is the same enemy who

I like I said a little while ago uses evil experiences that happened to us when we are growing

up especially when we are children to create doubt and fear and an inability to trust and expect

anything good from God. I hate it when when evil happens to children. I hate it because I know now

that for the rest of their lives people will have to work to take away the doubt and the inability

to expect anything good from the goodness person in the universe. I hate it. This is why it's

critical that we as parents be brilliant parents. What is a brilliant parent? A parent that strives

to somehow reflect as father and mother the nature of the father. That is a brilliant parent. A

brilliant parent is not one who takes you to private school who gives you toys all that is

good may your parents be brilliant enough to do that too but my God after all that if the father's

nature is not portrayed, if your toy is taken away every time you misbehave, if love is withdrawn

then the child loses out on. Aren't we the product of not being able to trust God freely

because of not having any relationships in our lives when we were growing up that actually

portrayed the fullness of who God is as a father. Aren't we the product of pastors who I've done it

to people so that's why I'm saying it with great confidence who brought shame and condemnation and

all kinds of things on us and never showed us how beautiful the father is. There's always time to

fix this eh, that's the beauty of it. These are the forces that took physical form and came down

amongst the daughters of men and bred giants and Nephilim in Genesis chapter 6. These are the same

Genesis 6 · chapter mention

forces these evil forces that later on turned humans into brute beasts in Sodom and Gomorrah.

This is why Paul refers to them as spiritual hosts of depravity and wickedness and the world

isn't there yet we are heading there but we aren't there yet. Please understand that they are as active

as they were in Sodom and Gomorrah as they are today as active turning humans into turning humans

into people that are worse than beasts. Animals sometimes have greater morality. How do you take

a Shiloh or a Phoebe and turn them into beings that are less than animals? How do you do that?

This is who we are up against. Genesis 6 they were locked up because they left their boundaries

and came down and took daughters of men. We won't go into that today but the point is this you're

dealing with a wicked, you're dealing with something really wicked and it's on a daily

basis. Guys we're gonna turn and become so familiar with the ways of God if we are not

to set ourselves at a place of great freedom but to set others also into a place of great freedom.

These are satanic, this is the satanic order of principalities of powers of world rulers of the

dark domain of spiritual forces of evil in the heavenlies Ephesians 6 10. It's like an arrangement,

it's like a hierarchy, it's like an order of world rulers, rulers of darkness, spiritual hosts of

depravity and wickedness, powers, principalities, princes. They actually exist, they hold nations

under their sway, they hold people who haven't found Christ under their sway, Ephesians 2. They

demand worship. These are forces behind idolatry, behind divination, behind witchcraft, behind

sorcery, behind child sacrifice, behind cultic prostitution from Asherah to Baal to Molech to

Artemis to Jezebel. The only difference is it takes on sophisticated forms now. These things

existed then, they still exist now. Now you call it palmistry, you call it new ageism, you call it

seances, you call it all kinds of other names that sound very sophisticated and as long as a couple of

people from Hollywood can espouse it, my god it becomes normal. And yet it's the same thing,

idolatry, divination, sorcery, occult, child sacrifices, takes on a new form now, cultic

prostitution. Everything is basically the same. There is nothing creative that the devil can do.

He can only dress it up in yoga pants and lululemon. That's all it can do. This is Satan, a wicked

religious spirit using sin and the law to accuse, shame and condemn. This is a religious spirit.

If nothing else works, this enemy of ours has the ability to make us religious. You know what

religion is? Religion banishes love. It banishes love. It takes away love as a reason for doing

things with God. It banishes love. You take away that and you got religion. This is he who perverts

order and then exploits the fracture of order or rebellion and then he begins to devour the arrogant,

the ignorant and the innocent. This is the same enemy who first perverts order. He provokes you

to rebel and once you rebel, now that there is rebellion, he does exactly what happened to him.

He drives you out of safe places like he was driven out of safe places. He first perverts order and

after perverting order takes advantage of the rebellion that one indulges in and he devours the

arrogant, the innocent and the ignorant with equal pleasure. Any questions? If this is getting

overwhelming, good because we are not aware of this ever. I want to be, you know that song says,

let us be more aware of his presence. It is absolutely true but there is another world

that we have to be aware of that we are constantly battling against. Every decision I make has to be

therefore a decision that is soaked in the nature of God and is directed by God and if I don't know

how to make it today, I have to learn so that I know it's a little better tomorrow.

This is the same Satan who knows that his time is short and he goes after the bride with great

rage. Revelation chapter 12-17, when the serpent, when the dragon saw that the woman was taken away

Revelation 12 · chapter mention

to a place of safety, he was enraged and he began to go after the children of the woman. He knows

his time is short. We are fortunate in Canada not to have those things happen to us. Go to other

places man and you will see how he is ravaging the bride with a rage that is insatiable. This

is the serpent, the same serpent who possesses and provokes men and women to hate, to murder,

to maim, to ravage, to mutilate the dignity of others that are made in the image of God.

Same serpent who both possesses and provokes people. While Christians cannot be possessed,

they can only be oppressed or some parts of their personality can be brought under subjection. There

are millions and millions and millions of people that can be possessed, that can be controlled,

that can be used to maim, mutilate, strip away, ravage the dignity of others that look like them,

are made like them in the image of God. This has been going on for centuries. It will stop man,

it will stop. Every knee will bow, every tongue will confess. There will be a day of reckoning,

there will be punishment. You can see why hell had to be created. It was not created for humans.

It was created for this arch enemy of God. It was reserved for his torment. It was not meant for

man. It was not meant for man. This is the same Satan who shoots fiery arrows every day,

that sometimes pierces instead of flame, body, mind and soul. Ephesians 6. And this is the nature

of the enemy after he was disarmed by Christ on the cross, which is strange. We are talking about

an enemy who is so active after being disarmed on the cross by Christ, Colossians 2.15. So if he is

disarmed then I have to learn ways to make sure that this does not continue in my life or in your

life or in the lives that are placed in my charge. This is a disarmed, defeated enemy who's being

paraded as a prisoner of Christ in his triumphant procession, Colossians 2. So after having said

all this, the fact still remains that he's defeated and disarmed. So there is a way for us,

normal human beings in Christ to overcome him. Any questions? Any difference of opinion?

The Bible calls these evil days and it called this time evil days. 2000 years ago Paul said,

and in the evil days stand, and the idea of evil day is when evil is experienced with exceptional

power and the temptation to yield is strong and the climate of opinions around you is hostile to

the ways of Christ, you know you are in evil days. And Paul is standing in Rome, not in Rome,

Paul is standing at a time when Caesar was Lord and he's saying, listen you need to understand

that in the evil day you need to stand. And what does he mean by evil day? Days of exceptional

evil power, days of temptation that is very strong and you usually have a tendency to yield

and days when the opinions of people around you are hostile to the ways of Christ.

And if that is the case 2000 years ago, I'd suggest that it's not any better now.

And so here's the thing guys, it's not a worldly war. So you cannot resist these forces with your

natural strength nor can you resist it with resolve or through some great social work that

will set the oppressed free. Because my god you can only do that physically man but how do you

battle an enemy that is spiritual and invisible? So one must employ weapons that are otherworldly

or not from this world and that is where we Christians begin to end up doing these few things.

One, we begin to apologize for our understanding of Satan. We begin to apologize for our understanding

of Satan. You know Satan is real but we should not blame everything on the devil. You know we are

mostly responsible and Christ is anyway victor. He's like the line of Judah and this is the line

whose teeth has been pulled out. So we don't need to worry. Really?

He walks around like a roaring lion, see who he may devour. We apologize for our otherworldly weapons.

We don't pray strong prayers in church because we think we'll sound too super spiritual. We will not

attack the spiritual realities behind things because we don't want to sound like there is an

active war happening with Satan. We hesitate. We do not allocate or attribute spiritual reasons

for things. We try to fight them with our factual knowledgeable mind. Sure there is a virus called

coronavirus but how do you handle Psalm 91? Psalm 91 is words, words spoken by God. Psalm 91 3 to 7

is words spoken by God. How do you speak words from a book and they become real for you? How ridiculous

is that? How do you say that no arrow that flies by the day and no pestilence that flies by the

night will touch you? No plague will come near you. How do you say that and actually believe it and walk

like you're walking in a park? How do you do that? It's a spiritual reality

but because we do not have the ability to step into that because of different reasons and we're

not going to the reasons now we just make everything. You know yeah that's true. Psalm 91 is true but

you know we have to be reasonable and wise too.

Be reasonable and wise but may it always be secondary to the word of God.

God doesn't frown at common sense but I mean one of the coolest passages which reveals so much

about God is he says to Azza, I got no problems with you going to a physician. I just have a

problem that you went to him first before you came to me.

What a cool revelation that I've put things here on earth like common sense, like doctors. I've put

things here on earth so you can use them but my God I got no problems with you going there because

I was the one who made these things happen but before you go there can you please come to me so

that I know that I'm your first resort?

Someone once asked Jeevan and me when we were sitting at Himalaya restaurant. This pastor

asked Jeevan and I. Jeevan and I is right right? Yeah. Jeevan and me? Gosh I got it right the first

time. This pastor asked a couple of us. He asked a couple of us why is it that you see more miracles

in India than you see in Canada and I came up with a very sound theological explanation

that and then Jeevan said because when someone is sick in a village in India or when someone

doesn't have money in India and is a believer they can't go to a doctor nor can they go to a

loan shark or a bank so they go to God and I thought what a brilliant answer I mean it just

made small of my answer but what a brilliant answer you see more of God turn up when there

is nobody else to go to but God and yet God has placed things in our path so that we can still

use them. His thing is who's your first resort? The first thing is apologize the second thing we do

is we go middle of the ground middle of the road where we choose this happy middle because we've

been taught from right from when we were kids everything should be held in balance not true

what about Christ is balancing man everything is so ridiculously radical

what is not extreme about him where is the balance in laying down your life

where is the balance in you becoming the temple of the Holy Spirit where is the balance in your

sins all being forgiven because someone died where is the balance in pouring out your life

where is the balance in raising your children so that they can pour out their lives

where is the balance in raising your children so that they can pour out their lives

there is no balance here this is a radical master who wants radical people that follow him

we can't do this middle of the ground thing where yes Jesus has said this but there's we middle

things man and the enemy just enjoys it saying as long as they don't go the other way if they are

middle they are fine because they do not know revelations two verse 22 or 23 which says

be the hot or be cold they don't know it lukewarmness

third we are dismissive

we are dismissive of how real the satanic realm is we are dismissive of it

we are dismissive of it why perhaps because we haven't experienced it why because we don't want

to think about it why because it might need dealing with why because it might require actual

change or why because we don't want we're not interested in it we're going to heaven

anyways who wants a better deal than going to heaven i do

and these are not things i want for myself i want it for others man

and so we can't be dismissive this has

we'll get there we can't be dismissive this is real i so desire this every one sitting here to come

awake to this reality and then we begin to gallop towards this end together there is not a single

thing that is happening in your life that is broken that is messed up that does not have a

spiritual reality behind it it doesn't matter whether you were the one who caused it or you

were not the one who caused it the fact is there is still a spiritual reality behind it

when you look for someone to blame the buck always stops at the other end with the devil

even though you may have caused whatever to happen or someone else caused it someone else

you trusted caused it maybe i caused it but at the end of the day there is a spiritual reality

that must be fixed before the physical can be fixed

the fourth thing we do is we are unschooled we are unschooled as in we do not go to school about

these things we do not go to school about these things we do not

one of the coolest not one of the coolest a really cool verse in the bible that i really love is oh

god train my fingers for battle and my hands for war it was normal for people to fight judges chapter

to fight judges chapter three verse 10

no not verse 10 judges chapter three verse i know i've read this to you before but it was a year

ago just go there you will see the kind of god you serve he ain't no namby pamby god

i love this about him man

judges chapter three verse one these are the nations the lord left to test all those israelites

who had not experienced any of the wars in canaan he did this only to teach warfare to the

descendants of the israelites who had had not had any previous battle experience they were left to

test the Israelites to see whether they would obey the lord's command which he had given to

their forefathers what's he saying hey jacob it's great that you you know that you know that the

that you're following me but i definitely want you to learn how to fight and if you don't fight

you only have two choices someone else will have to do the fighting for you and carry you and they

can carry you for a long while but at some point every dad says to his child son you're 14 now

you're too heavy to carry you think sheldon will be doing that when phoebe turns eight

she says yes

and the last one is we become theorists theorists

theorists are one who know everything about everything but have absolutely no um uh have

never been tested in real battle yeah theorists are ones who have never had the practice

the everything is in here but never had the practice you know

over the last little while when i've gone on trips to certain places with certain people either from

here or from elsewhere almost always there has been a backlash against some of the ones i've

taken i was trying to chat about it some days ago and he said jacob unfortunately there is no other

way to train people except to actually take them into battle my dad used to say this he didn't

have much of an education he was an engineer but there were other engineers who were brilliant who

were half his age who had gotten amazing degrees and my dad didn't have much of a degree and my

dad would come home and say man the guy knows how to talk but he doesn't know how to put things

together it's a whole different ball game when you have to actually do stuff and the only way

to do it is to throw people not into the deep end but the less deep end

any questions before we go on

any questions before we go on

I want you to be so aware of this so aware of this not so that you walk afraid but so that you

realize that our shucks man are going to change the way i see the world

even the prophetic when it is spoken is actually checking out the spirit realm behind a person so

that you give the person what is required for walking

the prophetic is to see the plot the the attempts of the enemy before they even happen and reveal

them the prophetic is to be able to say to a person this is who god has made you why so that

should there be an attempt to dismantle you you already know what god has said about you

you don't know why i now you understand why i go over what has been spoken over me

again and again and again every week because there is going to be an attempt to change the way i

think based on my circumstances based on my past based on my present experiences there'll be this

loud noise saying you ain't that you ain't that you ain't that you ain't that and then there is

this whisper that says but jacob this is what i said about you and it begins to just shift me

we won't i'll i'll read out how we can resist him and there are brilliant ways

we won't talk about it today because it's impossible so we'll have to take each of them

next week and see how far we go with it but before i list those things down

here is a question that often comes up sure jacob i'll i'm willing to agree with you that god is not

someone who permits evil god is not someone who allows evil but that may be so but here is a

question i have then if god has the power why does he not stop the evil as a good father would

that's the other question that comes up sure god does not do evil he does not permit it he does not

allow it but since he has the power why does he not stop it it's a question i hear frequently

among other things and so we'll just put down a few points on that and then how we resist

this horrible enemy that we have we'll deal with next week water's made bitter god is a god that

makes water sweet when we deal with why is it that god has if god has a power why does he not stop

if god has a power why does he not stop evil as a good father when we deal with that the passage

that we look at is james chapter one one to thirteen you know people think james is like

solomon he just strung a few proverbs together put them in five chapters and he sounds so disjointed

but the guy is actually pretty smart man it is not a disjointed book and so when you read james

chapter one to thirteen you see him examining so many different things that answers the simple

question that we have asked we won't be doing it today but i'm just giving you a taste of what

might happen in the future future so when we look at um yeah just a private joke inside my head

sorry i didn't realize that you guys were watching so

so we will look at james chapter one verse one to thirteen and grapple with some of these things

to answer the question if god since god has the power why does not he not stop evil being a good

father so the first one is like danny was saying it is um the the

the

not the mankind's free will mankind's mankind's free will so we'll have to look at that the second

thing we look at from james chapter one verse one to thirteen there are many other places you can

look at but i've never seen it come together in one place like this the second time is

life and death

uh life and death

seed time and harvest seed time and harvest laws

as in there are certain laws that have been established in the universe that go to work

whether you're christian muslim buddhist doesn't matter it doesn't matter if a christian muslim

or buddhist throws up this thing it always comes on it's not because i'm a christian that the pen

came down gravity works all over there are certain rules and laws that god has established that are

universal so that is another thing that factors in when we talk about um because i've heard

i remember a woman coming and saying why didn't god prevent me from getting pregnant when i slept

with my boyfriend and my thing was it's an egg and a sperm thing it isn't god isn't actively

trying to prevent or make there are some biological rules that are that exist you can't you can't go

sleep with a boyfriend you're not married to and never were planning to marry to and now blame god

for having a child because there are certain laws that he's set in place that do go into effect

these are universal laws that applies right across so we'll deal with that another

not another time when we deal with it the third one the

the testing of external trials

and internal temptations in a fallen world and internal temptations

in a fallen world

as in these exist because of the fallenness of the world there are external trials there

are internal temptations and so how does that factor in for

the practice of joyful

perseverance all of this is in james chapter 1 verse 1 to 13 the practice of joyful perseverance

James 1:1–13

that produces godly character which is god's chief end by the way god's chief end is not so that

character which is god's chief end by the way god's chief end is not so that not that you come

to church on a sunday and have a spiritual experience and listen to spiritual teaching

and go home happy he's so not interested in that his ultimate intent is to produce christ-like

character and in the processes of life there is this thing called the practice of joyful

perseverance please understand perseverance is not endurance perseverance is endurance that has an

assured outcome because you trust that your champion goes to work for you endurance is when

you endure something perseverance is endurance with an assured outcome with an outcome where you

have it is endurance where you have a certainty that your champion is going to bat for you

that's the difference between endurance and perseverance must not mix both one is separate

from the other

james talks about this

and then the last one for now there might be more is this whole idea of the wisdom of god

the wisdom of god

the wisdom of god who is a giver

of every good and perfect gift

you know if you look at it for a second as a father or a mother you will realize that you do this for

your children and if your children turned around and said how could you do this you would say

but this is exactly what we need to do so that you may become an adult you know that there is a time

know that there is a time when your child has free will and there is nothing you can do about it

you can train up a child in the way he or she should go and there's absolutely nothing you

can do about it when they exert free will blessed are you if your child is still under 12

then there are certain laws that are universal

there are certain laws that are universal there is nothing a parent can do to change that

there's nothing a parent can do to change that

we don't we we don't have a problem with those rules i mean someone was telling me recently

that but the boy is growing up and like these are problems i never had the boy is growing up the

bones are growing longer i don't know when my bones grew they took forever and so the boy is

falling when he's playing football and getting hurt but the parents aren't saying okay you got

to quit football or you got to stop growing because both are universal laws when you play

soccer and when you're growing you may be a little disjointed for a while

parents don't have a problem with that the third one the testing of external trials and

internal temptations in a fallen world my god you can protect your child but you think your child

can live its life without being hurt in a fallen world you're there to comfort but can you ever

prevent it you have the power to there's an easy way keep them at home don't send them to school

bubble wrap them

yeah four the practice of joyful perseverance to produce godly character

i begged my dad saying please don't send me to this particular school they got this thing called

hazing those for the first three months the seniors are going to beat up on me please let me stay in

this fancy hotel and i'll just go quickly and come out quickly and he said nope

then i begged my dad please i'm 27 keep supplying me money to like get a decent job

and he did and then at 28 he cut me off

i couldn't believe it

i know i learned later

and then there is the wisdom of god where even though i mess up i can always go back and ask

for wisdom and the wisdom is there that's the strange thing with parents hey you do everything

that you can do to protect your child and your child's life and your child's life and your child's

everything they tell you not to do and then after that you go back to them and you ask for them

them for help and they're suckers for it and they'll help you where did you think you got this nature

from we'll examine this in the light of james chapter 1 1 to 13 be highly aware of the enemy

James 1 · chapter mention

that you're up against i'm going to just read out how we'll combat it i'm not going to go over it

one know that when the enemy is active there is the intervening goodness of god that mitigates

that scatters that stops the enemy in his tracks even when you are stubborn and rebellious two

wear this amazing thing called the armor of god it is crazy i was driving here i was thinking okay

father helmet of salvation breastplate of righteousness belt of truth shoes that are

shot with the gospel of peace the sword of the spirit shield of faith divine weapons of defense

and attack with divine power to demolish strongholds and destroy words i'm just reading through it next

invisible spiritual resources released through words and actions

four five or six or whatever number forewarned of the devil's schemes so that i'm forearmed

forewarned of the devil's schemes so that i'm forearmed five weaponized through the processing

and the wielding of the word weaponized through the processing and wielding of the word psalm 91

you know what you can live happily ever after just sitting in psalm 91 if your entire bible

got raptured except psalm 91 that would be enough like all the other books disappeared

except psalm 91 you'd still manage well he who dwells in the

it's a brilliant psalm learn it by heart next one these forces constitute no threat when i'm united

to christ and is finished works by the exertion of faith do not underestimate the power of this

thing called faith it quenches fiery arrows quenches fiery arrows next the unrestrained

flow of holy wisdom the unrestrained flow of holy wisdom that god gives without grudging

and then the last one being completely and increasingly dependent and obedient to the

holy spirit and his directions this is how paul lived this is how jesus lived this is how some of

the heroes that you appreciate live this is how i want to live any questions we'll talk about that

next week any questions all righty so we're going to sing god is fighting for us that

ryan can you pull that out

then you want to come or you're happy with your baby you're happy with your baby okay

all righty so we'll ask jacob to sing it sheldon thank you

and then i'm going to ask samar to come she's got a short five minute story to share which

i thought she must share so i'll call her up

yes why you want less

okay yes