Alive and Present

Is it too cold in here?

No, you can't be trusted. You're a cold-blooded guy.

Oh, wow.

I meant that in a nice, logical way.

All righty. Ryan, you're done?

Ha, didn't even see you.

Guys, Ryan, do you have that image where it says,

year of the Holy Spirit?

If you do, pull it up whenever you want.

No hurry.

Guys, we said that if there is anything that we need to think of this year as,

that it is the year of the Spirit.

Year of the Holy Spirit.

I love that. It's the year of the Holy Spirit.

And so we'll go down that road and look at some things about the Holy Spirit today.

So if you looked at the Old Testament, in the Old Testament,

the ultimate display of power was when God dismantled and decapitated the Holy Spirit.

He dismantled and decapitated the powers of Egypt.

That was the ultimate display of power.

If you look at the Psalms, if you look at Moses' writings,

if you look at any Old Testament story,

if you look at prophecies of Isaiah and Jeremiah,

the one thing that keeps coming up again and again is,

do you remember how Yahweh dismantled and destroyed the armies of Egypt

and brought out a slave nation that was given up as dead,

and then he brought them back into a people and brought them forth.

This is something that is always repeated in the Old Testament.

That was the standard of God's power.

And then suddenly in the New Testament it changes.

In the New Testament, the ultimate display of power is this.

Just imagine this.

In the New Testament, the ultimate display of power is when a man

dismantles the powers of hell and death.

Then he dies and without assistance he is raised.

Think of this.

Most raisings of the dead happen because somebody goes there,

something happens, something is spoken, something is done,

and they come back to life.

Every story in the Bible is like that.

It doesn't matter whether it's Elijah, whether it's Peter,

whether it's Paul, whether it's Jesus.

Someone had to go and do something before someone came back to life,

except in one story, the story of the man called Jesus of Nazareth.

And his odds are worse because he's taking on the sins of the entire world.

So he's not just handling his own sins and he had none,

but he's taking on the sins of an entire world.

He's taking on the sins of eight billion people who exist now,

the billions that have existed before,

and the billions that will exist from here on.

He takes them all on and he's lying dead in a tomb,

and then this man without assistance comes back to life.

And I'm calling him man because one of the things we really,

the reason we don't grasp the enormity of what happened with Jesus on Resurrection Sunday

is because we always think, but he was God.

If you could somehow remove from your mind and heart, but he was God,

you will begin to fathom the enormity of what has happened in his life and in our lives.

You've got to stop thinking that he rose from the dead because he was God.

There was nothing God-ish about him as he lay dead there and when he rose again.

He did not rise from the dead because he was God.

He rose from the dead because there was no sin in him.

And any man who has no sin will rise from the dead.

And the only reason you will rise from the dead is because your sins have been taken care of

and there are no sins in you anymore.

Because the wages of sin is death.

If you do not sin, you cannot pay someone in the currency of death.

Here is a man who is lying dead, taken on the sins of the world,

has dismantled death and hell through his death, and now he's lying there.

He's Jesus of Nazareth, dead.

And then without assistance, he comes back to life.

Or so we think. We think that without assistance, he comes back to life.

And then he walks around the earth for 40 days and then a strange thing happens.

He ascends. He ascends. He leaves the earth. He ascends.

No one's done that before.

They had to send chariots of fire and the horses of Israel to have Elijah ascend.

There was Enoch. He ascended too, but this was a different kind of ascension.

Here is a man who was dead who's come back to life. Without assistance, you think.

He comes out of the grave, opens a tomb, comes out, walks around for 40 days, talks with people,

and then one day he ascends.

And where does he ascend to? He ascends to this place,

which is the ultimate place in the universe, and it is called the right hand of the...

to the right hand of the Father.

There is no place higher than that.

There is no place that is first before that.

That is where everything originated.

Everything that exists originated from this place called the right hand of the Father.

And he ascends and he's seated there with him.

We think he did that without assistance, but then when you go to Ephesians 1, 19,

it says that the one who caused him to rise up from the grave was this person called the Holy Spirit.

It actually says that, eh? That the same power of God...

Read Ephesians 1, 17 or 18.

Ah, that's the hymn book.

Ephesians 1.

Ephesians 1.

And you thought Jesus didn't have help that day? He was helpless there, man.

The one thing that he did so that the Spirit of God could raise him up was that he did not sin,

so he didn't need to be paid the wages of sin with his death.

But then see what happens.

This sounds so odd when you put it this way.

You almost feel like you're taking away the divinity of Christ, but you're not.

You're proving that he is Son of Man and Son of God, that he has the same limitations that we had.

And look what it says in verse 17.

I keep asking...verse 18.

I pray also that the eyes of your heart...and I really pray this as we go through this,

because this is so hard to sometimes comprehend.

So I pray that the eyes of your heart and my heart may be enlightened.

In order that you may know the ridiculous...and ridiculous is my word...

ridiculous hope to which he has called you.

And then you go to verse 19 and it says,

look at the incomparable power that is available to you and I.

This is the power that was at work in Christ when he was raised from the dead

and seated at the right hand in the heavenly realms.

So here's the thing, guys.

This person called the Holy Spirit is the one who has the ability to raise a man who is dead,

who has taken upon himself the sins of the entire world.

He raises him up.

He raises him up and he walks around for 40 days.

And then the Holy Spirit does something else.

He causes Jesus to ascend.

Once Jesus ascends, the Holy Spirit now has the power to bring him to that place that he once occupied,

the right hand of the Father.

Surprisingly, if you read the Old Testament and read Isaiah,

you realize that in the desert and the wilderness, it was again the Holy Spirit.

It was the Holy Spirit who would appear as a pillar of fire and a pillar of cloud,

the Shekinah of God.

It was the Holy Spirit who had the ability to take off the chariot wheels of the Egyptians.

It was the Holy Spirit who, according to Isaiah, sets up a standard against the enemy.

It was the Holy Spirit that had the ability to make the waters stand on one side

while the Israelites crossed safely.

And it is the same Spirit now that raises you from your deadness.

And that ain't all that he does.

He raises you from your deadness and while you are still alive,

he seats you at the right hand of Christ, who is at the right hand of the Father.

You are at once present before him forever.

Don't try to understand it.

Try to comprehend it.

If you try to understand it, you won't.

So let me read it and then I can stop for questions.

The same mighty power of God is in work in us today.

He who worked in Christ, who raised him from the dead,

who seated him in the heavenlies at the right hand of the Father,

is the same one who raised Jacob out of deadness

and has seated Jacob right now with Christ at the right hand of the Father.

Ephesians 2, verse 1 to 6.

Ephesians 2:1–6

Ephesians 2, verse 1.

Ephesians 2:1

As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins.

Verse 6.

And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus.

Who does this?

It's the sheer work of the Spirit of God.

Any questions before we go on?

Philippians 3, verse 2.

Philippians 3:2

I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing his suffering.

Because we can't imagine his death without some other thing, resurrection from the dead.

Again guys, this whole idea of the same Spirit that was available to Jesus and raised Jesus Christ from the dead

is the same Spirit that raises me from my deadness

and actually seats me with Christ next to the Father.

Some truths if we don't grasp will prevent the Holy Spirit from being able to do all that he wants to do in my life in 2020,

which we are calling the year of the Holy Spirit.

Any questions?

This is what I want to explore today. Any questions?

Any questions?

Here's the first truth we need to get accustomed to.

I am raised from the deadness of my life by the Holy Spirit, just as Christ was raised from the deadness of his life.

That's one part.

The second part is by an amazing series of events that I cannot understand,

I need to realize that the Holy Spirit at present in Christ has me at the right hand of God

and I am ever present before the Father in the throne room of heaven.

This is my actual location. It just so happens that I have a tent here on earth that I also occupy.

Can you try and not forget that you are forever present before the Father in the throne room of God?

It does away with this whole idea of God is not understanding me, God is not watching me.

Isaiah, why do you say, Jacob, God says to Isaiah, God says in Isaiah,

why do you say, oh Jacob, that I have forgotten you, that I do not remember you,

that I do not understand what is happening in your life?

We'll stop all that when we know that we are forever present.

Every circumstance from the past, from today, from tomorrow is already present before him because I am present before him.

Where am I present? Not at a distance.

I'm present at the right hand of the Father where Christ is seated.

Who brings me there continuously? Who keeps me there continuously?

The Spirit of God. When do I not see it? When I'm not aware of this truth.

Any questions?

Sorry to say that again.

Yeah. If I don't begin to grasp these truths about the Holy Spirit,

it's highly unlikely that I can experience to the fullness the year of the Holy Spirit that God has ordained for this church.

One of the things I need to realize is that I have been raised out of my deadness.

I've been raised out of my deadness.

I was helpless. Jesus was helpless. Freaky to even say that.

And then what happens? Then the Holy Spirit comes. Who? The Spirit of God.

To do what? To raise Jesus out from his deadness.

And what does he do for me? He breaks open the tomb of death that I was locked in.

And he raises me out of my deadness. What happens then?

I get to walk the earth for a little while, just as Jesus did walk the earth.

And then what happens? He causes me immediately to now break free from my deadness.

And then what happens? He causes me immediately to now begin to be seated with Christ in heavenly places at the right hand of the Father.

What does that mean? It means that I'm forever present before God.

That is a more real place than the earth. These things will disappear. That will not.

These things are temporary. That is not. These things have a beginning and end. That thing does not.

Where is it? It is at the place of absolute power, absolute bliss, absolute knowledge, absolute goodness.

Where is this? At the right hand of the Father.

Can I begin to think along these lines that I am forever present before the Father?

That the only way I leave his presence is if Jesus leaves his presence.

It's a way of thinking, guys. I was telling the young adults that...

And I've said it here before, but it's worth remembering at the beginning of the year,

that when you begin to, what you think is what you move towards, establish, inhabit, renew, speak, think like.

What you think, how you process certain things in the Bible, what you think is what you will move towards.

It's very natural. This is not some great scriptural principle. It is just a physical fact of life.

What you think is what you move towards. What you think is what you begin to reframe or establish for yourself.

What you think is what you begin to inhabit because you're establishing ground.

What you think is what begins to renew your way of life, renew how you think, renew your habits, renew your behavior.

What you think then becomes what you begin to speak. What you think is what you become like.

And the truths of God, though they can't be understood, can be comprehended.

And once you begin to think down these lines, the Spirit of God illuminates it.

Paul himself had to pray this for himself and he's now praying it for the church.

He says, I pray God that the eyes of your heart are enlightened. Why?

Because he doesn't say the eyes of your mind be enlightened. He says the eyes of your heart be enlightened.

That somehow you will catch the fact that this is the truth even though it may not be something that you can fully understand.

Any questions?

This is why I pray that this church by the end of this year will begin to do things from heaven to earth instead of from earth to heaven.

That our worship will not be from earth to heaven. Our worship will be from heaven to the nations.

I love that song which says, from the mountains to the valleys, here our praises fill the earth.

From the heavens to the nations. Never made sense. Thought the guy got it wrong. Makes sense.

Once you decide that your actual place of residence is not this temporary tent,

because you actually reside from a place where your father is and where your master is and where the Spirit of God has located you.

This is why Jesus makes this scary comment in John chapter 3.

John 3 · chapter mention

It says in John chapter 3 verse 13 or thereabouts, he says that this is he who came down to the earth and is in heaven.

John 3:13

That's what it says. Because certain versions of the Bible couldn't deal with it, they changed it and they now put it in italics because how do you explain that?

This is Christ who is here on earth and is in heaven.

Go ahead, Pawan.

We got 11 months to discover it. But I'll start now.

No, really. I'm hoping we can bring a bit of that around this year.

Any questions, guys?

So I'd suggest that in 2020, as it says in 1 Corinthians 2.10, that you begin to search the mind of the Spirit.

The great thing about searching the mind of the Spirit is the Spirit searches the mind of God.

1 Corinthians 2.10 says the Spirit searches the mind of God.

So let's start searching the mind of the Spirit. Hey, Holy Spirit, how does this work?

Because one of the things that the Holy Spirit is, the Holy Spirit is God's irrevocable gift of presence.

The Holy Spirit is God's irrevocable gift of presence.

The Holy Spirit is God's irrevocable gift of presence.

The Holy Spirit is God's irrevocable gift of His personal, I love this, His personal presence.

Isn't that cool?

Feel free to say yes, it's cool.

Yeah.

The Holy Spirit is God's irrevocable gift. So we don't need to sing that song that David sang.

Cast me not away from your presence of God. Take not your Holy Spirit from me.

Don't need to sing that anymore.

The rest of the song is okay. God's irrevocable gift of His personal, the Holy Spirit is God's,

just my, sometimes these words slip out of your mouth so easily you don't think of it.

You know, one of the luxuries a church must have is time.

Our services don't have time.

I pray God that one day we have the luxury of time. Not so that my preaching can get longer,

because I already preach long.

But I'm saying just to sometimes have time for people to share, time for us to chew bread and drink wine.

Time for us to think about a few things, man, write down why we like Him.

We always short of time, eh?

The Holy Spirit is God's irrevocable gift of His personal presence to me.

Just mind blowing, man.

So Ephesians 1.13 says that Jacob, the day you were born again, it was almost like this high value package that was being sent.

As soon as you were born again, you were signed for, you were sealed, and you were delivered before the presence of God.

By who? By the Holy Spirit. Ephesians 1.13 says it.

You were signed, sealed, and delivered by the Spirit of God.

Know the mark of God is on you. Walk the earth like someone who has been marked.

In the book of Revelation, it talks about how God puts a mark on believers.

We are thinking about 666 and 777.

There's something much better that has been happening on the earth.

It is this ability of God when we are born again to mark us.

To mark us. Mark us for what? Mark us for Himself, set apart for Himself.

You know the devil recognizes it. The ones that don't recognize it are the ones that are marked.

I hate that. I hate that Satan recognizes it.

But I hate the fact that he has us hoodwinked into not recognizing it about ourselves.

That I have been signed for by the Holy Spirit.

Who is this Holy Spirit? The same Spirit that raised Christ from the dead.

The same Spirit who raised me from my deadness.

The same Spirit that caused Him to ascend.

The same Spirit that seated Him at the right hand of the Father.

The same Spirit has signed for me.

I mean if you have a really important cargo to send, you have to sign for it, man.

And nobody else can pick it up. Your mother can't do it either.

And then you have it sealed and you have it delivered.

It's okay Josh. Before the presence of God. Don't worry about it today.

And so...

Oh okay. Don't worry about it. Anyways. Maybe I was wrong.

So, signed, sealed and delivered.

Think along these lines, man.

Any questions? Please occasionally talk back.

You want to say something?

Very cool. Thank you. That was very good talking back.

No really. I appreciate it, Don.

Yeah.

Hey. Here's the thing. This might help contrast it.

Apart from the Spirit...

We are mere flesh.

Please don't forget that.

Apart from the Spirit, we are mere flesh.

Apart from the Spirit, you are mere flesh.

What has made the difference when you raised up your hand and received Christ?

Is you suddenly went from being born of the flesh to being born of the Spirit.

Flesh gives birth to flesh.

You look at that child that's crying.

You look at it. Mere flesh.

That ain't the real person. The real person is inside.

Apart from the Spirit, we are mere flesh.

You know what that means?

The more I recognize how to walk with the Spirit,

the more the things that are birthed out of my life will be Spirit.

Apart from the Spirit, I am mere flesh.

Can do nothing.

I guess what I'm trying to establish here is

if this is the year of the Holy Spirit,

then we need to grapple with the fact that apart from him being mere flesh,

we'll have a very fleshly...

We'll have a very sanctified flesh year.

As in people walk... people who are walking in the flesh and do godly things.

As opposed to people who are godly and do things in the flesh.

Apart from the Spirit, we are mere flesh.

Romans 8, 7 talks about that, eh?

Romans 8, 7 talks about it.

And here's the problem.

Apart from the Spirit, you are mere flesh,

which means when I separate myself from the Spirit who dwells in me,

I become hostile to God because all the things of the flesh are hostile to God.

Let me explain what hostile to God means.

Hostile to God means when the truth comes through scripture,

you will resist it because your mind is hostile to the truth of God.

It starts there.

Hostility towards God starts in the mind, guys.

Hey, whenever truth is spoken,

even if you sat under a teacher who said that gifts do not exist,

let's assume you sat under whatever MacArthur

who believes that none of the gifts exist.

When you hear the truth, something will still happen in your spirit, man.

You will know that, ah shucks,

the Holy Spirit is someone who kicks like a baby in the womb

when the Word of God comes forth.

It's beautiful what the Spirit of God inside me does.

The moment word is spoken and the word is true inside me,

I'll feel the kick of a mule because men don't know what a kick of a baby is.

And you will know inside you, ah shucks,

there's something about that is right even though I have learned for the last 40 years

that none of the gifts exist.

And then your mind can do one or two things.

It can be hostile or it can open itself and walk in the way of the Spirit.

If there was no Holy Spirit, there would be no Sinship.

If there was no Holy Spirit, there would not be a body of Christ.

If there was no Holy Spirit, there would be no power.

If there was no Holy Spirit, there would be no freedom.

If there was no Holy Spirit, there would be no transformation.

If there was no Holy Spirit,�를 you would not know the Mind of God.

We would still be stock in Isaiah saying

Your ways are higher than my ways, your thoughts are higher than my thoughts.

Do you know how many New Testament believers are stuck in that scripture?

Your ways are higher.

What are three, four favorite lines used by Christians?

When God shuts one door, He opens another door.

Second line, his ways are mysterious.

Third line, his thoughts are higher than my thoughts, his ways are higher than my ways.

Fourth line, if it is your will or God do it, if it's not your will, don't do it.

These are very good in the Old Testament because it did not have the mind of God.

The first one is when God shuts one door, He opens another door.

The second one is his ways are mysterious.

The third one is his thoughts are higher than my thoughts, his ways are higher than my ways.

The fourth one is let your will be done.

If you will it, let it happen.

If you don't will it, let it not happen.

You should try this with your spouse after 30 years.

If after 30 years of living with your spouse you still don't know her favorite color,

you still don't know what she wants, and some husbands are looking guilty right now,

then it becomes a problem when you get her purple for her birthday because she was into gold.

The point is it was good in the Old Testament and it is a truth that was true for the Old

Testament but here is what it says in the New Testament.

You have the mind of Christ.

How do you have the mind of Christ?

Because you get to have his Holy Spirit.

First Corinthians 2, 10, who knows you best?

Your spirit knows you best.

Who knows God best?

God's spirit knows God best.

It is this spirit that I have given you so that you may know my ways, you may know how

I think, you may know how I feel, you may know my will.

Who has the mind of Christ?

We have the mind of Christ.

Through whom?

Through the spirit.

We can't remain in Isaiah.

We got to keep moving to this place where he says, oh God, your ways are higher than

my ways, your thoughts are higher than my thoughts, but I thank you for the spirit of

God with whom I walk and he begins to reveal to me your ways, your thoughts that I might

bring to pass your will here on earth.

That's how this works.

Here's another thing that is hard to come to grips with, but it's true.

Roman chapter 8, verse 9, you are no longer in the realm of the flesh.

You're in the realm of the spirit.

I wish we could spend the entire year on this scripture, but then you would get a little

bored after a while.

You are no longer in the realm of the flesh.

You are in the realm of the spirit.

Hey, Jacob, yeah, father, I want to tell you something.

What about?

You're no longer in the realm of the flesh.

Stop, stop relating to me through your five senses, through your reasoning.

You're no longer in the realm of the flesh.

You're in the realm of the spirit.

Can you try recapture some of the things Adam and I used to do?

We used to relate spirit to spirit.

You've got a spirit that is so alive, Jacob, that I use it as my lamp to illuminate your

way as it says in Proverbs 20, 27 or Proverbs 27, 20.

That's me.

It's not a conversation with God.

But the point is, the Bible actually says so.

God uses your spirit as a lamp to illuminate your path.

You're no longer in the realm of the flesh.

You're in the realm of the spirit.

One has to begin to think like this.

Why?

Because as one begins to think like it, he moves towards it, he establishes it, he inhabits

it, he renews his mind, he begins to speak about it, and he begins to think like it.

You are not in the realm of the flesh, but in the realm of the spirit, if indeed the

spirit of God lives in you.

So stop relating to God through your five senses, through reason, through information.

Hey, Gideon, be careful, man.

Some of the places you're going to, you will be inundated with academic information that

will spin your head as if you were a puppet, guard against it.

Not everything that is happening where you're going, because I can't name the place because

this is being recorded, is healthy for you.

Get what you can, but do not lose who you are.

We don't need theologians.

We need prophet theologians, ones who are solid in the word, and ones who are absolutely

inspired by the spirit.

And some of these places have the ability to make you just theologians, and the earth

suffers under their rod.

I pray God that doesn't happen.

And if it begins to happen, we'll kidnap you.

On that note, moving forward.

So guys, stop relating to God.

Stop relating to God with your five senses, with your reasoning, and with information.

John 3.6 puts it this way, hey Jacob, flesh gives birth to flesh, so don't always approach

God from your perspective of flesh.

Approach him spirit to spirit.

Train yourself to do this, Jacob, and then this flesh will react.

It's not that I got anything against your body, your flesh, your thinking.

I gave it to you.

But my God, they have been groomed in a fallen world.

What you have that is brand new, that I relate to absolutely.

And where I dwell is your spirit.

Can you begin to relate to me spirit to spirit?

Can you begin to trust that I can teach you this?

Can you begin to understand that I'll go over it with you line by line so that you become

someone who connects with me that way?

And then your mind will kick in, then your body will kick in, then your emotions will kick in.

Can we get that order straight, Jacob?

The Holy Spirit lives and breathes in me just like he did in Jesus.

The Holy Spirit lives and breathes in me just like he did in Jesus.

Please, this is another thing that we've got to understand.

Jesus could not do any miracles by himself.

He could not heal anybody.

He could not deliver anybody.

He could not pray for the sick and the sick would not get healed.

He could not.

He did everything by the power of the spirit.

If we don't come to grip with that fact, we'll think Jesus was something he was not.

Every time he healed, he healed by the power of the Spirit of God.

Every time he cast out a demon, he cast out the demon by the Spirit of God.

Every time he did a miracle, he did it by the Spirit of God.

The Spirit of God was alive in him, breathed in him, lived in him.

And the Spirit of God breathes in me and lives in me the same way.

Any questions? Any arguments?

Yeah. How does a mother connect to her baby?

The baby can't speak.

It can, but it speaks in a language nobody understands.

The mother speaks back, but the baby can't understand.

How is it that a baby connects with its mother and the mother connects with the baby?

How?

It is this bond that is born out of nine months of birth.

It is this bond that is born out of nine months of birth.

It is this bond that is born out of nine months of being in her womb

and then having her as the first contact, suckling at her breast, growing up in her arms.

It is just something that happens because of a relationship that the mother has with the baby.

The thing that happens when you get born again is what God relates to.

He who is present before God is your spirit with his spirit.

If we allow that to begin to flower, if that relationship is fanned, is allowed to grow,

you'll be surprised at how quickly you begin to hear the one you love.

Hey, at the end of the day, I love husbands and wives who can relate to each other without talking.

It's one of my favorite things to watch when you see this relatively older couple

who still like each other quite a lot.

And no, no, I meant that in the nicest way.

I wasn't even being sarcastic.

Huh, what a skeptical crowd I have today.

It's this ability that people who love each other have to be able to relate without words.

I just love that.

Newlyweds think they have it till they get married.

Oh, sorry.

Newlyweds think they have it, but you'll be surprised at how it takes time.

Guys, I said this at the young adults camp.

Intimacy requires one huge thing.

Time.

Intimacy requires time.

Do you have you found someone who is intimate with God?

The reason he or she's intimate with God is only because he or she spends time with God.

There is just zero shortcuts to this place.

It's not your gifting, it's not your high or low.

It's not your gifting, it's not your high ability to connect with God.

Or a prophecy, preach, nothing.

It is, do you spend time?

And so what will be robbed?

I remember telling Dano this four or five years ago.

Dano, when you have overcome the giant called Mammon,

the next giant that will appear to you will be Kronos.

I remember saying it to him four or five years ago.

Mammon comes first.

If you can overpower him, you think, ah, I finally made it.

But the next thing you have to fight after money is time.

These are robbers.

They come and try to rob you of your destiny.

Mammon robs you of your destiny.

Kronos robs you of your destiny.

Hubris or pride robs you of your destiny.

Pathos or emotion robs you of your destiny.

And the fifth one, come back on the 19th, I forgot.

But there are five.

I'm at Aswell because if you don't ask, Nick will.

So first it's Mammon.

Mammon tries to unseat you by making you its slave.

Instead of you being able to command it, it begins to command you.

So that is a huge fight.

That is perhaps the hardest one to win.

But once you win that, immediately Goliath's other brother turns up and that's Kronos.

The ability to manage time before time begins to tell you how to run your life.

Martha Mary is not about someone who's cooking and someone who's not.

That's what most women's group messages are about.

Martha and Mary is about someone who begins to choose to make time her servant

and use that time for a certain thing that is more important than feeding Jesus.

So Kronos is the second thing.

Third one is Hubris.

Once you conquer Mammon and Kronos.

You know how Kronos is represented in Greek mythology.

It is a globe being surrounded by a serpent that is squeezing the globe.

That's how Kronos is represented in mythology.

So once Kronos is beaten, then along comes Hubris.

Hubris is pride.

Now pride is something you need to handle.

I don't know sometimes whether pride comes first or Mammon comes first.

But either way these are poisonous beasts that can derail you.

And then after Hubris when you've won over that and you think you're doing well,

along comes pathos of passion which unseated David and just tainted his reign for the rest of his life.

And I'm not talking about being seduced or falling into lust.

Passion can be anything that is aggravated or exaggerated and derails you or takes you away

from him who is your focus.

You can get so passionate about ministry that you can lose out on Christ.

You can get so passionate about your business you can lose out on Christ.

And the fifth one.

Moving on.

Let me conclude because I could go on for a while but let me conclude.

I don't see any resistance saying no Jacob go on go on.

I don't know which conclusion to pick I've got three.

Okay.

Don't we'll have to yeah we'll have to begin to build a bigger room for probation.

Okay.

Guys so here's a conclusion that we can go down.

Let the Holy Spirit.

Let the Holy Spirit establish himself.

Let me ask you this before I go there give me just call out if you dare.

Call out a principle in your life that you really live by.

And I'm not talking about Jesus Christ as Lord those things I know.

Give me another principle you live by a principle that you don't like compromising on.

Just shout it out.

Honesty.

First things first.

Keeping commitments.

Keeping your word.

Respect.

Cool.

So these are principles that you've established and you try very hard to live by them.

Yeah so let the Holy Spirit.

Let the Holy Spirit establish himself.

As the ruling principle in your life.

Let the Holy Spirit establish himself as a ruling principle of your life.

Let the Holy Spirit establish himself as a ruling principle of your life.

Let the Holy Spirit establish himself as a ruling principle of your life.

We'll just talk about one or two things and on how to start it and then we leave it at that.

Let the Holy Spirit establish himself as a ruling principle of your life.

Remember some of the things we've said that.

Roman chapter eight verse seven apart from the spirit we are mere flesh apart from the spirit we are mere flesh.

Do you want to be mere flesh after being born again?

Do you want to be mere flesh with Christ living in you?

This is just such a colossal waste of being born again.

I mean yes you go to heaven but what a waste on earth.

After being born again to live in the flesh.

Really?

You should have gotten born again two seconds before you died then.

But you can't time that that's the scary part.

So you get born again before.

And you live in the flesh.

So what if we stop that?

What if we decided that apart from the Holy Spirit I'm mere flesh.

So even as I preach now guys I've got to be aware of this.

Even as I preach now I'm preaching the word of God.

I'm preaching a decent sermon.

I've prepared this but even as I preach it I can't go into a place where I'm responding or preaching or slipping into this place where it's Jacob.

It should first be Spirit of God through Jacob.

We can get here where you're highly aware of what the Spirit of God wants before you're aware of what the church wants or what Jacob wants.

Can you imagine when you get a pastor like that?

Can you imagine a pastor like that while he's doing things?

While the worship leader is worshiping?

While the pastor is preaching?

While he's counseling?

While he's doing whatever pastors do?

He's highly aware first of the Spirit of God before he's aware of the ones he's ministering to.

Before he's aware of the time.

You'll have a problem with that.

Before he's aware of the time.

Before he's aware of what he wants to do.

Before he's aware of his notes.

Before he's aware of his oratorial skills.

Before he's aware of his giftings.

He's aware of the Spirit of God because he's so deeply ingrained in this place called the realm of the Spirit.

Now forget the pastor.

Put yourself in there.

In your place.

In Dano's business.

In Rhonda's nursing.

In Mark's construction.

In Don's engineering.

In Jeevan who sits at home and plays on the computer.

In all these things.

What if you became highly aware because you live in the realm of the Spirit and because you actually are beginning to think that you're located at the right hand of the Father ever present before him at the center of all action.

Turn to Colossians 3 and read it from the message.

Colossians 3 from the message.

Can someone read it out loud?

Colossians 3, 1 and 2.

I love the way it says it in the message.

It is the center of all action.

God doesn't have a curtain anymore in heaven that prevents you from entry.

He just wants to see passion and interest.

Can someone read it?

Hey, you're losing the oomph if you don't read right now.

Yeah.

And then it goes on to say in non-message versions that you are hidden in Christ.

And where is Christ at the right hand of the Father?

Guys, please begin to go down that road of this is how I think.

This is what I now begin to move towards.

This is what I begin to establish and reframe my world as.

This is how I begin to.

This is where my life.

This is the place my life inhabits.

This is how I renew my mind.

This is how I begin to speak.

And this is how I now begin to become like.

And so if you want to let the spirit establish himself as a ruling principle in your life,

it requires a daily relinquishing of command.

It requires a daily relinquishing relinquish.

What a word.

Of command.

I think some words were created by people who lost interest in it halfway through.

Relinquish is such a word.

I think he wanted to go somewhere else and then finished with quish.

See, require has a sound to it.

Relinquish doesn't have the same feel.

Anyways, it requires a daily relinquishing of command.

It requires a daily relinquishing of command.

It requires a daily relinquishing of command.

Anyways, it requires a daily relinquishing of command.

Till it becomes habit or instinctive.

Till it becomes a habit.

Or it becomes even better instinctive or reflexive.

Do you want to establish the Holy Spirit as a ruling principle in your life?

Because you just refuse to be mere flesh.

It's a waste of being born again.

I just don't want to be born again and live in the flesh.

Apart from the Holy Spirit, I am mere flesh.

If I operate out of mere flesh, my mind will be hostile to God.

If my mind is hostile to God, I will not be able to participate in the deeds, actions, ways of God.

I'll still go to heaven.

Therefore then, I desire, O God, that I walk in the realm of the Spirit,

where I have already been located if the Spirit of God lives in me.

Romans chapter 8 verse 9.

Romans 8:9

I'm not interpreting it at all.

I'm just quoting scripture.

And therefore now, O God, I want to establish you, O Holy Spirit,

who is alive and is breathing in me right now.

As you were alive and breathing in Jesus Christ,

so you are alive and breathing in Jacob John.

That's brilliant, Holy Spirit.

And so I will come every day, Spirit of God, and relinquish the command that I have over my life

and hand it over to you.

Not because you will take my will captive,

but because you love working with me and I become your partner.

To do what?

To glorify and reveal Christ so that what happens,

so that the Father is revealed on the earth,

so that what happens,

so that the culture of the Father is restored as it was in the Garden of Eden.

And so I'll relinquish your God command.

Till it becomes a habit, Holy Spirit, till it becomes a habit.

And from habit, I'll go to this place called instinct.

Instinct.

And they will say of us,

they are spirit people.

Not a small s, they are spirit people.

Big s.

They are spirit doctors.

They are spirit businessmen.

They are spirit nurses.

They are spirit prayers.

They are spirit jobless ones.

They are spirit jobful ones.

This for us is the year of the Holy Spirit.

I had never come up with that.

I mean, trust me, pastors come up with stuff like fire, river, and stuff like that.

But the year of the Holy Spirit, and you know what that means?

That means he wants to do this.

My God, man, if he wants to do this,

we'll have to try really hard to stop him, and I'm not going to.

And once you begin to go down this route, guys,

you'll find that he permeates your character.

You're permeating his character.

You're permeated by the character of the spirit.

You're permeated by the character.

Guys, do you know that this happens in every marriage?

Where your wife, from a guy's perspective,

your wife becomes a ruling principle in your life.

No, no, no.

I don't mean that she becomes a ruler,

because I'm not trying to change things that are biblical.

The husband is the head of the wife.

So I'm not changing that.

But trust me, every man has no problem.

A loving husband has no problem with that.

When the wife becomes a ruling principle in his life.

It's not a jab at wives here,

but she becomes a ruling principle in your life.

I went for Dano's graduation.

Yeah, yeah, he's still studying.

So I went for Dano's graduation,

and one of the things he kept doing was turning to,

when they gave him his certificate,

before he called me up to stand with him for a photograph,

he called his wife.

I wasn't offended.

Then he began to talk about how she had been through it patiently,

how she had taken care of things.

Your spouse becomes a ruling principle in your life.

And when your spouse becomes a ruling principle in your life,

it begins to affect your character.

It begins to be visibly expressed through you.

It begins to animate you.

Most men here will say that your wife is the one who animates you.

Your wife is the one.

Yeah, I can see Mr. Kamal fully agree.

Your wife animates you.

Your wife permeates you.

Your wife begins to be someone who allows you to express yourself

better than you've ever expressed yourself.

This is so common in a good marriage,

or even a half good marriage.

It is very natural with God.

His character begins to permeate you.

The Spirit of God's character begins to permeate you.

Scary thing is once his character permeates you,

it's very natural for you to express it.

You begin to express his nature.

When you're expressing the Spirit's nature,

who do you think you're expressing?

God.

Then he animates you.

All your actions, your activity, your decisions, you're moving.

In him, we live and move and have a being begins to happen.

What a glorious place to live, eh?

What has God done?

He's given us such a marvelous proposition here on earth.

What are we entering into?

What will this look like, man, if it looks this good now?

Look forward to 2020.

I'm secretly planning for a decade, not a year.

But you didn't hear that from me.

And as this happens, there's the last statement I want to make.

You increasingly find that the desires produced by the Spirit

are stronger than the desires of the flesh.

You are not just a person, you are a person.

You are a person.

You are a person.

You are a person.

You are a person.

There is a

persistent

desire.

The last word is flesh.

Why because every morning you're starting off with this relinquishing of command and

saying I refuse to live by mere flesh.

I'm born again apart from the spirit and mere flesh.

Won't live there.

I'm in the realm of the spirit.

The same spirit who raised Christ from the dead now lives in me.

He is alive and he breathes in me.

I have a new place where I live out of.

I live from heaven to earth, not earth to heaven.

As impractical as it sounds.

And when you read your notes tomorrow it will make no sense.

But when it makes no sense, spend some time so it makes sense.

And then I find that the desires of the spirit of God are stronger than the desires of the

flesh.

This is what Paul meant when he said you will walk in the spirit.

This is what Paul meant when he said you will walk in the spirit.

He says since you have been birthed by the spirit, walk in the spirit.

This is what walking in the spirit looks like.

Because you've been walking with your spouse for so long, you have changed.

You have changed.

Even the way you walk has changed.

You either are walking faster or walking slower.

Or you are walking so high because you want to be yoked with her.

Any questions?

This is what walking in the spirit is.

And so this should be a natural thing for us because we are led by the spirit and we

walk in the spirit.

The Bible says so.

Any questions?

No?

Go down this route, guys.

Please.

And there's something called a mocking spirit that you need to be aware of.

And a mocking spirit always strikes at the beginning of anything.

Hear me, hear me Subhanshika, hear me Daniel, hear me Phoebe if you're awake.

What I'm trying to say is you better hear me if they can't.

A mocking spirit always strikes at the beginning of anything.

A mocking spirit comes and says, look, these are the different whispers of the mocking spirit.

The first one, look at you.

There is no way you can get out of the present situation you are in.

Look back at 2019.

You are worse off now than you were in January 2019.

That's the first thing the mocking spirit says.

So what it does is it mocks your hope that you can actually make it.

The second thing the mocking spirit says is you have all these grandiose plans, but now you may have to

Don't worry Subhanshika, I'll repeat it for you again.

Yeah, just stand there.

See, as soon as you went there he stopped. Now you can come in and try it again.

Yeah, stand somewhere there Subhanshika.

It's like those alarms that go off. You've got to stand somewhere before you press it.

Yeah. So the second thing the mocking spirit does is the mocking spirit looks at what you're going to start

and shows you the enormity of it and says you don't have the resources to accomplish it.

Don't even try it. It's going to fail.

The third thing the mocking spirit does is it causes something to happen right off the bat, right at the beginning that crushes your hope.

It is like I just started and this happened.

What's the point of going further?

If God couldn't help me now, what hope do I have in the future?

It is such a common occurrence.

The Bible is full of it.

Moses, can we take him out right from when he's born so that Israel is never delivered?

Jesus, can we take him out right in the beginning so that the world is never delivered?

Israel, every time they would grow crops, the Midianites would come and just before they could harvest the crops would be taken.

David, the day he was anointed he becomes a refugee.

Joseph, the day he begins to express his dream he's thrown into prison.

And if you can stand through that period when the mocking spirit, and I really call it a mocking spirit because, and then worse, here's another way the mocking spirit works.

The mocking spirit sends people that are close to you or acquaintances of yours, and they are going to come and say, hey, I'm going to go to Israel.

And they start scoffing at what you are about to do.

And their scoffing begins to hollow out or slightly chip away at what you're about to start.

At the beginning of the year, for the first couple of months, be aware of this old trick of the day.

How do you combat it? By one, being aware of it. Two, not backing off when it happens and remembering what God has already exposed.

And then beginning to magnify God as in, in the very thing that people are saying, hey, I'm going to go to Israel.

And then you're going to be able to do that.

And then you're going to be able to do that.

And then you're going to be able to do that.

And then beginning to magnify God as in, in the very thing that people are saying you don't have, you begin to say you have because he has.

I'm just going to ask that we end with the goodness of God.

The goodness of God.

Yeah?

Let's just sing that song.

The goodness of God.

And as you do, go to this line and say, oh God, I relinquish command.

You are a good, faithful God.

You can take care of me.

You can take care of me.

Yeah?

And then after that, we'll partake of the cup.

And then you can hang on for my trip.

And then if you need prayer, people will pray with you.

And then you can hang on for at least another 40 minutes because I've finished way before time.

But don't worry, I'll make up for it on the 19th.