Trails of Thought - Week 3

Hey, Go Church family. I'm so glad to be back. My name is Gilbert and I'm here with Pastor

Matt Haribo.

Hey everyone.

And I'm also here with Lara.

Hi everyone.

Welcome back.

Isn't Lara a blessing?

Yes.

I'm glad to have Lara here.

I am very thankful. And I'm very thankful for this series. I'm really enjoying this

study. If you can't tell. The Trails of Faith was such a great week and this one is going

to be even better.

Absolutely. I'm really excited about this and I'm actually really excited about those

who do this work.

Yeah.

And not just hear it because they'll get results.

That's right.

And I'm going to get results and I'm going to see more. You know, I'm going to remember

this word and I'm going to keep reflecting on this word, meditate on this word so that

when things come up, I'm going to assess am I on the trail of fear or am I on a trail

of faith? Let's get back on that trail of faith so that we can start seeing success

after success.

And I know this sounds maybe different to what we may have heard about the Bible, but

it all starts in the mind. Right? This is literally what our main scripture says. So

let me read our main scriptures. Romans chapter 8 verses 5 and 6. For those who live according

Romans 8:5

to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according

to the spirit, the things of the spirit. For to be carnally minded is death, but to be

spiritually minded is life and peace.

You notice that there is, you know, verse 6, it refers to two paths that we can take.

And it says to be carnally minded or to be spiritually minded. So the first step on that

path is the mind. The first step on that path is literally what you do with your mind and

where your mind is going. And the end of that path is either death or the end of that path

is either life and peace and everything else in the middle. It's either the substance of

death or the substance of life and peace. So what do you want to experience in your

life? It starts with your mind and it finishes with life or death. It's that crucial. It's

that important when it comes to the success of your walk with the Lord. And the, I will,

let me read again the purpose. I think that's really important because everything we do

is with purpose. So every subject that we cover, every series that we think of, it's

not just to fill time. You know, we're not doing these podcasts to fill time. We're doing

this because we want to see results in your lives. This is why we're here. The measure

of success of leaders is how well everyone's doing in the church. It's not how well the

message goes or how many likes you get on social media. It's how well the church is

doing, how well the spiritual family is moving in the direction that the Lord has them move.

So thinking about purpose is important because it gets our minds on the results of what we're

trying to achieve here. So let me read the purpose. The Bible teaches that we are a three

part being, spirit, soul, and body, and that these parts are all designed to work together.

We want everyone in the Go Church family to learn to allow our spirit to direct our thoughts

and to govern our lives and actions according to the law of love. So basically what is this

saying? We're saying that we are a three part being and all of the parts need to work together,

right? Because our faith or what we believe may start in our hearts, but it moves into

our minds and then based on the thoughts that we have, we take actions in our lives and

we move in that direction. And the goal is to move in the right direction, right? So

the first two weeks we talked about the trail of fear, which is governed by the fleshly

or carnal mind. And in week two, we talked about the trail of faith, which is the equal

and opposite version of that, which is governed by the spiritual mind. Now this week we're

going to talk about some practical approaches to what do you do if I'm on this path and

I need to fast track back onto this path. And we call this week the love solution. We'll

talk about why we call the love solution. But I will say a couple of things. Number

one is let's say I'm in a state of fear. I realized that I'm on this trail of fear. I've

taken decisions up to this point in my life, not based on what God said, not based on what

I know is truth, but based on what seems right to me because of urgency in my life, because

of pressure in my life, because of needs in my life. So now I'm on this path and I've

realized this is wrong and now I need to get back on track. What do I do? Well, the first

thing I will say is that fear always focuses and fixates on the outcome. So if I'm in fear,

if I'm on this path of fear, I'm realizing that I'm so focused on something happening,

I'm so focused on the result happening, I'm so focused on what I'm seeing, what I'm not

seeing, but the opposite happens with faith. Faith is when I fixate or focus on the one

who's producing the outcome. So fear fixates on the outcome, but faith fixates on God who

gives me the right outcome. And basically what I'm saying here is that I need to refocus

my soul. I need to refocus my attention. And fear is resolved by a change of perspective,

not a change of outcome. What do I mean by that? In week one, we talked about the storm

and Jesus and the disciples in the boat crossing the sea of Galilee to get to the other side.

Halfway through they encounter a big storm. All the disciples are gripped with fear. I

understand. I'm not saying I agree, but I get what happened there and I get also why

that's in the Bible, right? That's for us to discuss right now. And while Jesus was

fixated on what God said, God said to get to the other side, they were fixating on we're

all going to die because I see a storm right now. They were fixating on the negative outcome

of the situation. Jesus never fixated on whether there was or there wasn't a storm. He was

fixated on what God said. And he was fixated on the fact that God's getting us to the other

side. But here's what's really interesting is that even after the storm was done. So

if, let me actually go back in here so I don't paraphrase too badly, but even after the storm

was done, it says he arose, he rebuked the wind and said to the sea, peace be still.

And immediately in that moment, basically the wind ceased and there was a great calm.

And then he turns and he said to them, why are you so fearful? How is it that you have

no faith? So the seas now calm, the storms over a miracle happened. They saw the great

power of the word of God in action and verse 41, and they feared exceedingly and said to

one another. So they're still in fear even though the element went away. So what they're

doing is fixating on the outcome, fixating on what could happen, fixating on this. And

the fact is that the reason that they say they're afraid is actually not there anymore.

That's, this is so crucial because I would encourage you just to rewind this and listen

again to what Gilbert just said. It is critical to understand and the element that had seemingly

caused the fear, at least that's what we think. We think, well, it's a huge storm. That's

why they're all afraid. But now the storm's gone and they're still afraid. So there's

something else, right? And that's this point that you made there is fear is resolved by

a change of perspective, not a change of outcome. And as I was thinking about this, getting

ready for this to record today, I was thinking, you know, how many times I've seen people

praying in fear. They'll have a situation that they want to see change and they'll,

at least they think they're praying in faith, but they're really in fear. And it's something

like this, they'll squeeze their eyes shut real tight and they get their, oh Lord. And

they're serious. They're very sincere. They want a change in outcome. This outcome has

to change. This outcome has to change. I'm going to the doctor tomorrow and the doctor

needs to tell me everything's okay. I need a good report from the doctor. Why? What about

the good report that's in Isaiah 53? What about the good report that's in Matthew chapter

eight verse 17? What about the good report that's in first Peter two 24? What is it about

this doctor's report tomorrow that needs to, needs to, to change so that you believe what

the Bible says? This fixating on an outcome change is fear. Fixating, focusing our mind

on the one who produces the outcome. That is how we get on the right trail. That's really,

really good. That's right. So if you look at a Hebrews chapter 12 verse one and two,

Hebrews 12 · chapter mention

it's a, let me read it. Looking. Therefore we also, since we are surrounded by so great

a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight and the sin, which so easily ensnares

us and let us run with endurance. The race that is set before us looking onto Jesus,

the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured

the cross, despising the shame and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.

So if you look at Jesus as an example here, he looked past the circumstance. He looked

past the cross. He looked past all the pain. He looked past even the separation between

him and his father, which, which is in of itself the most terrifying thing that we could

ever experience in our lives. And I don't think we understand it to the measure that

he experienced it. The thought of that much trust in God that every single person who's

gone to hell has never come out and he's going to get me out of this because I'm seen as

righteous. He has that much power to raise me up. He had that level of confidence, not

in this situation, but he had that level of confidence in his father. So he looked at

his father. He looked at the outcome or I don't want to say the outcome because this

confusing language, but he looked at the perspective of at the end of this, there is going to be

a harvest of believers. There's going to be all of these Christians who are saved. There's

going to be all of these people who come to the knowledge of God and who come back into

relationship with God. And this he accomplished not by looking at the cross and looking at

the difficulty and looking at, Oh, if I could just get through the cross, Oh, if I could

just get through the scourging, Oh, if I could just get through this, he, he had a joy that

was set before him. And so he endured the circumstances because he had a joy set before

him and he was fixated and focused on that. That is the trail of faith. The trail of faith

is not fixating on the fear, fixating on the outcome. So the disciples on the boat, you

know, we talked about this, do you not care that we're, we're perishing? Like it's, it's

a matter of fact that they're perishing. That's it. Like they categorize this, this situation

as a dire situation and they had fear and then things change and then they're still

in fear. You realize that there's something wrong. Like this is beyond, this is beyond

the circumstances. This is in their minds. And now to get out of this is stop looking

at, you know, stop looking around you. Look at Jesus, look at the author and finisher

of your faith. Look at the one who gave you the reason to be faithful in him or the reason

to have faith in him because he is faithful. The reason to have confidence in him because

he's faithful. So there, there is that element where we need to have a refocus of our soul

because when we say soul, we mean, we mean our mind, but also our will and our emotions.

So we need to refocus our mind and our emotions and our will to look at the author and finisher

of your faith, to look at the person who is going to get you through this no matter what.

I'm reminded of this story. This pastor shared this and they had built a building, really

nice auditorium, but the auditorium had had no natural light source and he had left his

keys on like the seat near the front of the auditorium. So he had been talking to someone,

everyone was gone, all the lights were off and they thought, oh, I gotta get my keys.

So he goes back in the auditorium and it's completely dark. Now he's the pastor of the

church and he also like built the church. I mean, they, you know, he didn't build it

himself, but I mean, he's like, he designed it or was part involved in the design of the

building. He knows what's in there. He also knows there's no one in there, but he, he

said as soon as he walked in, suddenly fear just wrapped around him. Like it was completely

dark ink black and he got on this old trail, this old familiar trail of fear because as

a child he had loved watching scary movies and he'd, he'd watched these scary movies

and then they lived in this old house and the door to his bedroom had this kind of like

creaking sound when, when it shut. And just as he closed, as just as the, the auditorium

door closed, it kind of made that same sound. Heard that sound. It triggered this emotional

response. Suddenly it's pitch black and he's nine, 10 years old back in his bedroom, afraid

of all these movies that he hasn't seen in years and years and years. Fear just gripped

him. You know why? He has suddenly slipped back in this old trail. Now he's standing

in a room, a big room by himself and just, there's no lights, but fear is all around

him. And his like first reaction, he said his first reaction was to turn around, grab

the door and open it, get, get out of there. But he stopped and he thought, no, no, I,

I'm not going to, I'm not going to give this any place. So he just carefully walks, because

he knows right where this aisle is, walks, can't see anything, walks down till he, about

where he thinks is the first, first row of chairs. He finds his keys and gets back, picks

his keys up all in the dark and all that fear still feels like it's right there. But he

is refusing to act like he's 10 years old, to refuse to act like he's still on that trail.

He's going to act like this room is perfectly fine. Nothing's going to jump out from the

shadows and get me. And he walks to the, he walks up another aisle, walks up to the back

where he knows all the lights are. And he turned the lights on. Turn the lights on.

Sure enough, everything is perfectly normal, just the way he'd left it. Nothing. Everything's

fine. And he's looking, he's like, no fear. Shut the lights off and walks out. Fear is

resolved by changing your perspective. Being confident both in who you are and who the

Lord is and what he thinks about you.

Yeah. Praise God. So I want to, I want to go a little further in this refocus our soul

element and why we call it the love solution. You know, I'm going to read a passage of scripture,

which I love. We can say love about scripture, right?

So 1st John chapter four, verse 16 through to 18, I'm going to read this. And we have

known and believed the love that God has for us. God is love and he who abides in love,

abides in God and God in him. Love has been perfected among us in this, that we may have

boldness in the day of judgment, because as he is, so are we in this world. Praise God.

There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear because fear involves torment,

but he who fears has not been made perfect in love. There's a lot in this passage. And

you know, I think this passage alone, you can go in three different directions, but

I want to focus on the love solution. So talking about how the love of God helps us refocus,

get off this trail of fear and come back to a trail of faith. And I just want to pick

out two points and I just want to focus on these two points. Number one, God is love.

So it also says in verse 16 that he who abides in love, abides in God and God in him. So

love is who God is, but if we are in the place of love or in the hands of love, then we know

that we are with God and God is with us. And so this, this revelation is so powerful that

the person who is love is also the most powerful person anywhere ever. Right. And he is for

you and with his love, he surrounds you and he protects you and he keeps you safe. I really

like that. There's a passage in Zephaniah, there's a verse in Zephaniah in chapter three

and verse 17 and I, I love it. And I think it just brings out the point in the NLT translation,

which I'm going to read for the Lord, your God is living among you. He is a mighty savior.

He will take delight with you, delight in you with gladness with his love. He will calm

all your fears. He will rejoice over you with joyful songs. So with his love, he calms all

your fears because when you see the love of God and you see that God is love and God is

in me and love is in me, there's no room. There's simply no room for fear because I

know that he is greater than the thing I'm afraid of to begin with. Point number two

is that perfect love casts out fear. So God is love. So if perfect love casts out fear,

then perfect God, God perfected in me casts out fear. So what does perfected mean? It

means to be complete, to be, it's, it's seen in different passages of scripture where this

completion is to be transformed and changed into perfection or like a desired outcome.

And I can see it this way that God perfected in my spirit, in my mind, in my body casts

out all fear. So you see that in second Timothy chapter one, verse seven, that Paul tells

Timothy that God did not give us a spirit of fear, but of power and love and of a sound

mind. The word sound mind, I really like it when I realized what it was in Greek is sozo

from a hope. So saved mind, a redeemed mind, you know, a restored mind saved means so many

things, but it's a saved, redeemed, restored mind. So we have a restored new mind, which

is perfected by God. So if I have God's mind, how would God think about this situation?

This is literally what he put in me. So the perfect love that he has is him perfecting

my mind to the point where I like the way Mark Hankin says this. He says that I want

to, you know, the Holy spirit is going to make you lose your mind so that you can get

the mind of Christ. So I lose my own mind, my way of thinking, my fear thoughts, my fear

patterns, and I allow the God mind, which is perfected in me to cast out all fear. And

so there's so much there that we can look at and understand that, you know, when God

gets access to my mind, when God's word gets access to my mind, it pushes out all fear,

it pushes out all room. You know, when Paul was telling Timothy this, Timothy was afraid

because there was a great persecution happening and Christians were being burnt alive. They

were being fed to wild animals. There was unfair, unjust, cruel persecution, you know,

and he was literally one of the most visible Christians at that point in time. He was literally

the pastor of the biggest church in the Mediterranean. And what was Ephesus? Was it the second or

third biggest city at some point? Yeah, it was, right? It was a big city and the Roman

Empire. And so he would have been prime target number one for persecution. So he would have

been very tempted to leave his post and just run away and hide and abandon all the Christians

who needed him. He was pastoring them. He was shepherding thousands of people. And what

Paul tells him is God did not give you a spirit of fear, but of power and love and of a saved

mind. So now with your saved mind, with your God renewed mind, look at what you need to

do, you know? And this is the love solution. Yeah, it really is. That's so good. You know,

and notice there, Paul didn't say, I'm going to pray that the Lord will give you something

you don't have. That's good. He said, listen, Timothy, you already have this. Yeah. And

you need to start thinking like this. You need to get off the trail of fear. Stop imagining

yourself at the bottom of the amphitheater running from lions or stop imagining that

the older people in Ephesus are going to say to you young Timothy, we're not going to listen

to you. You're just a young guy. We don't have to listen to you. No. He said, you start

acting like the word is true. Think like, think with your redeemed mind about what God

has already put on the inside of you. So powerful. Yeah. And so in doing this, I want to move

to the practical application and how we can think about what we need to do. And let's

go back to what we read last week, which is what the Lord commanded Joshua. And actually,

rather than reading that scripture, I'm going to read Psalm chapter one verses two and three.

So it says, but his delight is in the law of the Lord. And in his law, he meditates

day and night. He shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water that bring forth its

fruit and its season, whose leaf also shall not wither and whatever he does shall prosper.

So if we want success, I mean, prosperity in this context means success, whatever that

may look like. I mean, it can be, it's not, you know, limited to financial prosperity.

This is success in every area of your life that God ordained for your life, whether it

is ministry or work or family or, or any kind of relationship, whether it's about, you know,

being in the right place at the right time, any kind of success, it starts in meditating

in the word of God. So we said this towards the beginning, but what you look at will influence

what you think. And in this world, unfortunately, we are all, we have, we have so much access

to stuff that tells us how to think. Social media tells us how to think. Our schools tell

us how to think. Our parents tell us how to think. Our friends tell us how to think, you

know, any kind of peer pressure tells us how to think. And the fact is God also tells you

how to think. Now, what are you going to allow your mind to marinate? Because there is a

balance you need to marinate in something that will influence you more than the other

thing next to you.

Let's make that practical. If you, if you sit with your, you know, in a, in a day, let's

say you're awake for 16, 18 hours and in 16 or 18 hours of being awake, four of those

hours throughout the day are spent looking at things on social media, videos on social

media, making fun of politicians, talking about how bad the situation is, talking about

how, you know, the, this politician isn't doing this or this policy is not going to

change or this government official has stolen this much money. Do you know the result of

that will be this? That's, that's what you're taking in. So then that's what will come out.

That's what you'll think about when you lay down that that thought will come back, that

image will come back, that video will come back, especially if it's funny. Humor is such

a powerful tool and you think, oh, well, you know, it's just a funny joke, just making

a joke about, you know, this politician or that politician. Fun people, you know, it's,

I should say it's funny. And so people laugh. But what we're really doing is we're, we're

adopting a line of thinking and that line of thinking may or may not be in agreement

with what God's word or let's say it another way, it may or probably not will perfect the

love of God in us that casts out fear. And one of the greatest ways to become successful

in the things of God and to see your faith made sight is to cut out things that introduce

fear into your life, cut out things that introduce doubt into your life. Just cut it off. Yeah.

It's it is not helping you. I remember I was I used to really like political satire. I

just thought it was funny. It was, you know, kind of my sense of humor, at least I thought

it was at the time. And I was laughing about something once. And just on the inside, I

don't mean I heard an audible voice, but I know the Lord spoke to me and he said, I don't

think that's funny at all. If you want to talk about like the feeling of being covered

in cold water, sometimes like, well, and I thought, well, I kind of do think this is

funny. He doesn't think this is funny. I need to change. I need to change my perspective.

The right conclusion. And so I just deleted that. I won't, you know, I won't let myself

watch, listen to or laugh at things like that now because he doesn't like it. And, you know,

I'm not so you're renewing your mind. I'm renewing my mind. I'm changing what I what

I let come in and I'm directing what I let my mind think about.

So I want to, I want to give three practice points and three points that we can consistently

monitor. So if we want to talk about renewing our mind and meditating the word of God, this

is what we can do. So maybe you're like, what is, what is meditating the word? Like, what

are you talking about? Let's, let's, let's say it this way. We are finding a way to apply

our minds, you know, sorry, activate our minds with the word of God as often as possible.

Let's talk about doing three things. Number one, we should actively review and diagnose

wrong thoughts. Okay. So second Corinthians chapter 10 verses four and five say that the

2 Corinthians 10 · chapter mention

weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty and God for pulling down strongholds,

casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of

God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ. So like Pastor

Matt said, if there's something that seems harmless and seems funny, and then just directly

contradicts what God's trying to do, that's a thought that lifts itself up against the

knowledge of Christ. And that is something we need to cast down. I like that it's the

word cast. It's not a gentle thing. It's literally like tear it down, you know, tear down these

thoughts.

Isaiah 29 17 says, it will not be very long until Lebanon shall be considered a fruitful

field. So if you're going to say, yes, I believe that that's what the Bible says about this

nation, then I can't, I can't spend six or eight hours laughing at jokes about how politicians

are stealing everyone's money and they're taking the country for a ride and it's never

going to get anywhere. That's the one of the one thing is true or the other. And one is

the scene realm, which is temporary and subject to change. One is unseen. And I'm going to

choose to focus on what is not yet seen.

That's right. I mean, this is the reason why I chose to register myself as a taxpayer in

Lebanon. I am a tax resident in Lebanon. I don't even make my money in Lebanon. My job

is abroad, but I choose to do that because I put my money where my mouth is and I believe

that this nation is changing. God called me to be here for his purpose, for that promise.

And I will do what I believe Lebanon should be. I will see it in that light. So that takes

me to number two. So we said we should actively review and diagnose wrong thoughts. Number

two, we should actively think the right thoughts. So Paul says in Philippians chapter four,

verse eight, that whatever is pure, whatever is noble, whatever is of good report, whatever

is worthy of praise, think on these things and keep thinking on these things. And this

is what we need to do. So get our minds off the wrong things. Well, obviously you empty

the cupboard, fill it with good stuff. This is the point. Just actively think the right

thoughts.

Point number three, this might sound trivial to you, but it is not trivial. This is a spiritual

action that you take, which is, we need to talk to ourselves and we need to talk to ourselves

until we line up with the word of God. So you see Psalm 42, the Psalmist is saying,

why are you cast down on my soul? Come on, lift up, come on, have hope in God. Why are

you cast down? He's literally talking to his own soul. I can talk to my mind and say, why

are you depressed? Oh, mine. Why are you anxious? Oh, mine, lift up, come on. This is the hope

that God has for you. Come up, come up. And, and so I encourage you, I absolutely encourage

you these three things, do them actively review and diagnose wrong thoughts and tear them

down actively. Think the right thoughts, which is, which are in line with the word of God

or are directly the word of God. So Isaiah 29, 17, it is not yet a very little while

until Lebanon is esteemed the fruitful field. That fruitful field is esteemed the forest.

Put that in your mouth, put that in your, in your mind. If ever you feel like someone

cuts you off on the street and you feel like just trashing them and all the roads in Lebanon,

stop and remember, this is what I want to fill my mind with. Am I going to fill my mind

in my mouth with this or my mind in my mouth with this? And if you happen to get off track,

start talking to yourself, get yourself in front of a mirror. I do this. I don't know.

This works for me. And this worked for the Psalmist in Psalm 42. So I'm going to do that.

And why are you cast down on my soul? You couldn't see it, but Laura raised her hand

too. I do it too. It's awesome, right? Yes. How does that make you feel? Like what happens

when you do it? Um, transforms me, shifts the focus back to Him. Yeah. Back on God.

Yeah. Refocus. Back on what He says about me. Yeah. Instantly. It changes. Focus instantly

when you start saying His words. So that's the love solution, right? You go back to refocus

the soul, right? We get off like the circumstance and the thing and the thing. We get our minds

back on God. This is who is the promise giver, you know? And that's, that's so important.

I want to, I want to take it one step further and I want to introduce you to a prayer in

Ephesians chapter three. Now, um, if you don't know what to pray, guess what? There are tons

of prayers in scripture that we can just pick up and pray for ourselves on a daily basis.

And what's amazing about, about Ephesians three is that, uh, Paul is literally praying

for the church in Ephesus and the church at Go Church and the church across Lebanon to

have a greater revelation of the love of God. So the, you know, let me read this out. Let

me read this prayer out. So Ephesians chapter three, verse 16. So he's saying that I pray

that he would grant you according to the riches of his glory to be strengthened with might

through his spirit in the inner man. The Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith, that

you being rooted and grounded in love may be able to comprehend with all the saints.

What is the width and length and depth and height to know the love of Christ, which passes

knowledge that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. Glory to God. I love

that prayer. I've personally taken this up to pray this in my life on a daily basis for

me and my house. And what I see in this prayer is the fact that there is a revelation of

the love of God. So once I'm strengthened in my spirit, I see who God really is. When

I see who God really is, then I can be filled with all the fullness of God. So the revelation

of the love of God directly impacts what I'm going to see in my life. And if I take hold

of that, I will see more in my life. So I want to, I want to take us for a minute from

defensive to offensive. Okay. What I mean by that is we've been talking about, I'm on

the trail of fear. How can I get off this trail of fear and just come back to the right

place? This is defensive. This is me being in the wrong place. Just trying to survive.

Let's talk offensive. I'm on the trail of faith and I want to enhance this walk on the

trail of faith. So if you notice what, what Paul is saying, he's saying that, you know,

that they, Christ may dwell in your heart and that you being rooted and grounded in

love may be able to comprehend with all the saints in unity altogether. What is the, the

width and length and depth and height of that love to know the love of Christ, which surpasses

all knowledge so that I may be filled with all the fullness of God. He doesn't stop there.

So in verse 20, he says this, he says, now to him who is able to do exceeding. I know

that Laura likes that word able now to him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above

all that we ask or think, think mind think according to the power that works in us to

him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus to all generations forever and ever. Amen.

Now the thing about this is that in order to get to a greater manifestation, to be able

to see the he who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above what we ask or think. So

for me to get to that higher thought, I need to have a revelation of the love of God. So

he's able to do more than I can even think right now. So I need to unlock my thinker

to be able to receive more from him and do more in him. So the knowledge of his love

improves our thought life. So because I have more revelation of his love, I can think the

way he thinks. And I'm convinced that, you know, that that passage in Isaiah chapter

Isaiah 55 · chapter mention

55, where he talks about the Lord saying, you know, my thoughts are not your thoughts

and my ways are not your ways, but my ways, my thoughts are higher than your thoughts

and my ways are higher than your ways. He's not telling you I'm different to you. He's

telling you come up, come up. Yes. He's telling you come up. Like what he's telling you is

I'm thinking here and you're thinking down here. Exactly. I'm asking you to come up because

I am able to do exceedingly abundantly what above what you are asking or thinking right

now. So pray this prayer so that you can think higher, so that you can do more and you can

receive more. That's so good. This is offensive. This is an offensive mentality on the trail

of faith. So now I'm on this trail of faith and I'm saying, Lord, I want to see faster.

I want to see more. What do I do? Pray Ephesians chapter three, verses 16 through to 19, because

when you get that revelation, he's going to fill you with the fullness of himself and

you're going to be able to think higher. Now I want to just share this little illustration.

That's so good. I know we're over time, but I want to share this little illustration,

which I shared this story on previous podcasts, but last year in summer I was in the Netherlands

with my wife, Ciela, and her mom, and we're driving around this really pretty area. We're

going for a walk in the woods and I'm seeing these nice houses in the forest and they're

quite pretty and they have land around them. Just look at them. This is nice. Honestly,

in my heart, it just came up and again, it's not like an audible voice. It's not something

wasn't a vision, but it was in my heart and I felt the Lord say to me, you can have one

of those. You know that. Honestly, talk about his thoughts are higher than my thoughts.

I wasn't in that mode at all. I wasn't thinking that. I wasn't even thinking that's for me.

I was in a mentality of plan my finances to the end of the year, plan my finances for

the next two years. I was in a low thought plane. I was not on a higher thought plane,

but I realized that, you know, he said you can have one of those. It didn't mean like

today you're going to buy that house, right? What it meant is think higher, think higher.

You can go further. Now I can stop there and never go further. I can reach that point where

I never see that promise. He said I can have it, but I could put myself in a position where

I never go down the trail of faith. I never go further in that trail of faith and I never

see more. But the point is he's trying to take me down the trail of faith to go further.

And in order to do that, I need to think higher. So to be spiritually minded is life and peace.

Now I'm not suggesting the epitome of spiritual mindedness is a house. What I am saying is

that when God says something, you put your mind to that and he will take you to that,

to the greater manifestation of life and peace in your life. And this is what I'm encouraging

us all to do. Let's think higher. So we need to think higher in order to see more. And

so I'm going to hold on to that. And he says you can have one of those. It seems way beyond

my capacity or my Lara ability today, but that thought is there. I'm convinced that

I can have that because I'm convinced that he gave that to me. And I'm changing that

language from I can have that to I have that, you know, and I'm starting to think higher

and I'm starting to go further. And I find myself personally in a place where I'm unsatisfied,

not because I'm in the wrong place, but because I want to go further. And this is what you

pray for to go further. This is what you do to go further to be spiritually minded is

life and peace. So you need to keep being spiritually minded to walk further and go

higher where he's called you to go. So with, I mean, with that, we're already over time.

What we're going to talk about this week is Paul, and we're going to look at the example

of Paul, specifically the subject notes are going to be about Philippians chapter one.

Paul wrote the letter of Philippians when he was in a Roman prison in a miserable condition.

Like if you look around, it's miserable. You know, it's ugly. There's this constant, I

don't know, I don't even know how to describe it. I'm sure Pastor Matt being a history buff

would describe it way better. But, you know, there was obviously all the conditions that

he was in were horrible, horrible, horrible. But then there was also that constant in the

back of his mind. They might, you know, pick you up and just throw you to a lion right

now, or they might, you know, light you on fire right now.

He was imprisoned in Rome at the time or around the time when Nero was burning Christians

to light his garden at night. Paul was in the prison in Rome, which had like a dual

purpose or maybe it wasn't a dual purpose, but it was a sewer. So for the city, which

is terrible, right? The conditions are, it's not just Paul is in prison. Yeah. Paul is

in prison in Rome when Nero is in the palace. And if you, you know, any student of history,

Nero is a crazy, crazy sociopath. But yeah, the prison that he writes Philippians from

is crazy bad conditions. Like he would have been waist deep in sewage, perhaps as much

as waist deep. That's... And how many times does he write rejoice in that letter? Exactly.

Read Philippians one, thinking the number of times you're like... I'm waiting for the

but. He was in bad conditions, but... But he wrote Philippians one and said, rejoice.

And again, I say, rejoice. And it's, you know, it's one thing to rejoice on a big Sunday

when we're all together and, you know, but it's what you have built on the inside of

you, how much of the love solution you have taken in, how much of this Ephesians chapter

three prayer you have prayed and got to where you think higher matters because at some point

you might find yourself in this condition. And Nero released him. Praise God. Yeah. Because

Paul said he chose, right? He said, and even in Philippians one that, you know, I don't

know what I'll choose to depart and be with Christ, which is far better or to remain here

and to come back to you to finish the work that we started. And that's what happened.

So the substance of things hoped for was manifested, right? It was there. That was it. The substance,

the faith that he had down, you know, going down that trail of faith, he saw it manifest.

That's amazing. So, you know, this is something we're going to talk about in groups, leaders,

you're going to do a great job giving that context and opening up to talk about Paul

because Philippians one is not the only place where we see this amazing character and this

amazing renewed mind in operation and action. But we see it across scripture in the book

of Acts and, and in many other of the epistles. So I also encourage every single person to

come to the grow group and share, share a story or share something, share some light

that you've seen about Paul and how his renewed mind acted in those situations. And with that

we're out of time and we're closing up for this month. It's been an amazing series.

It is. I'm, I'm sad that we are, we're finishing this out. There's so much more. Yeah. Really

in this and but yeah, in your groups, share your testimonies and share about how much

you loved having Laura with us all these, all these weeks.

I love being here. Thank you. And we're thankful to you taking time to listen to these, these,

these podcasts have been longer because you know, we wanted to get through some of these

subjects and Laura talks so much. So Gilbert, do you have a scripture? I do. I just really

want to share the scripture and the truth, new Testament. It's Colossians chapter three

verses one and two. I've wanted to share this in the last four weeks. I didn't get a chance

and in closing, I do want to share this. I think it's appropriate right here, right now.

This is Paul speaking to the Colossian church and he says that you have been raised with

Christ to share in his risen life. So I'm going to pause here. I'm going to read this

again. You have been raised with Christ to share in his risen life. So the will of God

for your life, according to this is life and peace. You know, going back to Romans eight

at six, the will of God for your life is sharing in his risen life. So the life of God and

the peace of God, that's his will. So let's keep reading and look at these instructions.

So set your hearts on heavenly things for that is where Christ is now seated at God's

right hand. Verse two, you need to have heavenly thinking and not be restricted by mere worldly

thoughts. So I'm going to leave that there. And like we said for the third time, we're

out of time. We're closing. So, but if no one's told you, we love you. We are praying

for you and we will, we'll be back next month with a new series. God bless you. We love

you. Thank you for listening to this message. We want everyone to experience the unconditional

love of God, grow in his love and go with his love to the rest of their world. We invite

you to connect with us at one of our groups for our next gathering. And if no one told

you yet today, we love you and believe God's very best for you.