Dan Mohler
5:20 - Intro comments
6:15 - Be patient with repetition - The gospel is always fresh - Be patient. Don’t think that this gospel is repetitive. You can receive His love for the next 30 years and it will always be fresh. Forgiveness is always exciting. Him loving you is always amazing.
6:30 - Knowledge alone doesn’t bring change - Knowing Him brings change - Don’t just try to get knowledge about God. We want our hearts to come alive and we want to become more like Him. Your life can’t change by the grace of God without knowing Him - having fellowship and relationship with Him. Otherwise you are just going to be learning principles and trying to change by applying principles. You’ll always feel like you are failing and you will only do as good as your own effort and ingenuity can take you but it won’t be the same as grace changing you.
7:00 - We’re not just seeking a benefit for ourselves - We want to become what He paid for - Christian motive - Not to get something from Him but to become like Him - To know Him - John 17:3… To know Him is eternal life. It has nothing to do with a positional prayer to take you to heaven. Jesus isn’t the way to heaven. He’s the way back to the Father. Let’s not make it impersonal - all about going to heaven some day. That’s why you guys are in the Kingdom School - you want to live in the kingdom - you want to manifest the kingdom - you want to walk in the light as He is in the light. We didn’t pray a prayer just to get a benefit. We surrendered our lives to become what He paid for. There’s a big difference. There’s a big difference between you releasing your faith to get something from God and you becoming something by His grace.
7:50 - Gather together to become more like Him - It’s like your motive in gathering for a church service. We could have a guest speaker and sit back to see what God might do or we can glean from the guest speaker and become more like Him. And God still does things. But our goal is to become more like Him.
➡ 8:00 - Righteousness through Christ - The gospel that changes you - So I’m going to talk about righteousness. It’s very, very important. Remember how I was talking about never, ever being condemned? I think that was at the beginning of the last session (session 11)? I felt real emotional in the second week too (session 5) when I was talking about how the gospel is designed to change us - change the way that we think - change the way that we live - change the “why” behind our lives - our perspective - our motives. And the way that happens...
➡ 8:30 - Go to 2 Peter 1 - I want you to see a couple of scriptures. The way that change happens is through you continuing to believe how God sees you through what God accomplished through His Son. Don’t get bored. We’re going to talk about some things that might sound familiar but they are life changing.
8:50 - Repetition of the message is beneficial for you - Not tedious - [Not tedious to write the same things. Philippians 3:1, Hebrews 2:1, 2 Peter 1:12-13 - Extended discussion]
2 Peter 1:1 - Everything Follows from Believing
that You've Been Made Righteous
12:00 - I want you to see something about righteousness…
12:05 - v.1 - He paid a price to make us right - Believe and hold to that - Simon Peter, a servant and an apostle of Jesus Christ, to them that have obtained like precious faith with us through the righteousness of God and our Saviour Jesus Christ: - Look where the faith came from - what initiated the faith… Do you know how it says that faith works through love - Gal. 5:6? Here is what he is saying, "This faith that we have obtained - it comes by that fact that God paid a price to see us right through His Son - that He is so interested in restoring us - living in us and living through us that He paid the price to make us right." He didn’t say to us, “Get it right.” He made us right.
13:00 - Step into the righteousness that He paid for - He made us right. And when we realize that and walk in that and step into that and go, “Wow, He is for us, not against us. He loves me. He’s not mad at me.”... Remember how I said that you are the only one that can keep you from Him - Don’t believe that anything can keep you from intimacy and getting close to Him.
13:25 - Everything flows out of intimacy with Him - Gifts flow out of knowing Him - We go to a kingdom school and we want to do spiritual things and walk in spiritual gifts BUT KNOWING HIM IS WHERE ALL OF THAT FLOWS FROM.
13:35 - Love flows out of knowing Him - The excellent way is love - But covet earnestly the best gifts: and yet shew I unto you a more excellent way. - 1 Cor. 12:31. And the Bible says that I can’t love unless I know Him - 1 John 4:7. 1 John 4 teaches that if you love it’s because you know Him (1 John 4:7). If you don’t love it’s because you don’t know Him (1 John 4:8). That’s pretty narrow. It says that the only reason you love is because you know Him. And the only reason that you don’t love is because you don’t know Him. Now, you can know all about Him… It doesn’t say that you're not a pastor or worship leader or go on a mission trip now and then. It says that if you don’t love, you don’t know Him.
14:00 - Don’t let anything else take the place of knowing Him - You can go to church your whole life and know a lot of scriptures and know all about God and you can learn the language of knowing God but that doesn’t mean that you know Him. You can have a Christian screensaver, a Christian ringtone, Christian t-shirt, bumper sticker and have Christian music playing and not know Him. You can let those things take the place of knowing Him.
14:30 - Become love - Spiritual gifts will follow - Paul talks about earnestly desiring the best gifts at the end of chapter 12 and as soon as he says that he says, “And yet I show you a more excellent way.” - But covet earnestly the best gifts: and yet shew I unto you a more excellent way. - 1 Cor. 12:31. The best gift is the one that is needed in the moment - to get whatever needs to be done in that moment done. And he talks about prophecy being a big deal because it brings God right onto the scene. But after he said desire the best gifts, what does he say? Still I show you a more excellent way. He’s saying, “Go ahead and desire the gifts but there’s an excellent way for that to happen.” And then he spends a whole chapter talking about becoming love.
15:20 - If we miss love we miss the whole point of who He is and why He came - He talks about moving in gifts but not having love and it’s a zero. In 1 Cor. 13:1-3 he says that you can have all knowledge of all mysteries… He didn’t say, “A lot of insight.” ...and all faith to move mountains… What’s he saying? All knowledge of all mysteries and all faith to move all mountains is a spiritual icon to us. That’s the closest thing to Jesus we’ve ever seen. Somebody like that is the keynote speaker at every world conference and everybody is thronging to get hands laid on by Him and get impartation. But the Bible says that if He doesn’t have love, he’s got nothing and missed the whole point. That impresses me - that God would use the highest example of gifting and then say that if it’s not through love, you’ve got nothing.
16:55 - If it’s not because of love then it’s for yourself in some way - He takes another step and says that you can give all of your goods to the poor - all not some… It’s a commandment to remember the poor. So God is using a commandment of the Lord. He says you can fulfill a commandment of the Lord and give all of your goods to the poor and your body to be burned but if you don’t have love, it profits you nothing. Now, the poor will still get your goods, but it profits you nothing. Why? Because if it’s not for love you did it for yourself in some way.
17:30 - Move in gifts from His heart of love - Not to gain for yourself - If you are moving in those giftings and it’s not because of love, in some way it’s going to draw attention to yourself - draw esteem for yourself. It’s going to make you proud. It’s going to take the place of knowing Him. It’s going to become your identity. There is something unhealthy about moving in what God makes available without becoming like Him and doing it from His heart called love. That’s what I am trying to say.
17:50 - Everything flows out of love - It’s not just about moving in gifts - So our goal is not to just do the stuff - move in spiritual gifts. Our goal is to become like Him. It’s the excellent way. Everything flows out of love. Some of those descriptions in 1 Cor. 13:1-3 might make it sound like we have arrived. But don’t miss love. He wants love to take you there. He wants everything to flow out of who He is.
18:35 - Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven - More about the heart of God than the power - You know how we say, “Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven?" - Mt. 6:10. And there is a lot of teaching about that verse. We’ll say, “No cancer in heaven - no cancer on the earth.” And it gives us inspiration to pray and believe for healing. So we usually hear that line in connection to sickness and disease. But watch this - no animosity, no frustration, no disappointment, no arguing, no pride, no jealousy… None of that stuff is in heaven. Maybe “your will be done on earth as it is in heaven” has more to do with the heart of God than the power of God. Because all of the power of God flows through who He is - the heart of God. And that is healthy for you and me. Because without who He is, we’ve got nothing.
19:30 - Moving in a gift without becoming love is unhealthy - [Discussion of men used mightily of God in miracles] and then 10 years later they are not even serving the Lord or walking with the Lord. They get into trouble - die as alcoholics etc. Why does this happen? They had a gift but they didn’t have relationship and they didn’t become love. So they rode their gift and their gift was their identity and when their gift wasn’t flowing they had no identity.
20:20 - Many leaders flowing in gifts did not finish well - Their identity was their gift - A lot of well known leaders did not finish well. Why? Because everybody made a fuss about their gift and they found their identity through their gift and they didn’t run well to the end.
20:35 - Be established in love - Then you will finish well - The excellent way - Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth… Who I (God) am in them… Who I am through them… Walk in the light as He is in the light… You have fellowship with one another… Why? You’ll never live in secret. You’ll live with an unveiled face. You’ll be out in the light as He is in the light because you’re conscience is undefiled and you’re crystal clear. Why? Because you are following Him. He that saith he abideth in him ought himself also so to walk, even as he walked. - 1 John 2:6. He said, “Follow me.” The things I do, you’ll do, if you believe - John 14:12. As the Father sent me, I send you - John 20:21. Hear how one He makes us with Him?
21:15 - Paul’s language connects us to the Lord - We’re meant to be one with Him - Paul says that He was given the name above every name - that every tongue - every knee on earth and under the earth shall bow - and as soon as he gets done exalting Jesus and giving Him the name above everything, he says, “You therefore…” - Phil. 2:9-12. He ties us right together. I love that.
21:40 - Paul said, “The death He died, He died to sin, once for all but the life He lives, He lives unto God. You likewise…” - Rom. 6:10-11. As soon as he tells about Jesus, BOOM, he connects us. He does this all the time. And we ought to be like, “Yes, He so loves us.”
22:00 - Mt. 28 says that “All authority in heaven and earth has been given to Me. Now go in my name…” - Mt. 28:18-19. As soon as He announces the authority, He passes it. He didn’t draw attention to Himself. He didn’t say, “Check me out. I thumped the devil good.” [Passing authority - Illustration of knighting believers and sending out in His name]
23:10 - Understanding how He sees you is crucial to faith - You're righteous - You’ve got to understand that the way God made us through Jesus, sees us through Jesus and establishes us through Jesus to stand right in His sight is the number one motivating force of your faith and the foundation of your life - that you are right in the sight of God. I can’t emphasize that enough. Simon Peter, a servant and an apostle of Jesus Christ, to them that have obtained like precious faith with us through the righteousness of God and our Saviour Jesus Christ: - 2 Peter 1:1. Where was it obtained? Through the righteousness of God.
23:40 - Righteousness defined - Work of righteousness defined - Why is that a big and important deal? Because righteousness… There are two meanings to righteousness in your Bible. Most of the time - the ability, given by God, to stand right in His sight - to be right and accepted without any guilt or condemnation or shame. There is another use of righteousness - It’s tied to works of righteousness - Any expression of His nature and heart.
24:15 - Righteousness was His idea and agenda - So we are trees of righteousness, the planting of the Lord - Is. 61:3. So whose idea is our lives in Christ? It’s not our idea or agenda. This is something that we are putting on that was given by Him.
24:30 - He provided righteousness - He paid the price - This is what He saw from the beginning. And when man fell and lived something else, the Lamb that was slain before the foundation of the world came in due time. He became what we were - fulfilled what man failed in and got the lie off of us so that we could live in truth again. It’s just so powerful.
24:50 - Stand firm in righteousness - Don't take off that robe - So it’s imperative, if we are going to live in the kingdom and walk in the kingdom that you never let anything take away the righteous identity that He established. And you always continue to see yourself the way that He sees you. And always start where He finished.
25:00 - Start where He finished - He made you righteous - You have to live from the place where He finished and left you. Like when He finished and raised from the dead, you’re justified, you’re just as if you never sinned, you’re forgiven, you’re righteous and washed white as snow. You’re holy, blameless and above reproach - Col. 1:22. You’re accepted in the beloved - Eph. 1:6. He’s for you, not against you - Rom. 8:31. He’ll never leave you or forsake you - Deut. 31:6. He’s as close as the mention of His name - and you don’t have to yell.
25:45 - "Live by the Spirit" defined - To live by truth - If you stay this Christ-conscious, you’ll be heavenly minded. You’ll be Spirit minded. You’ll think like He thinks. You’ll get into situations and you will live by the Spirit. And that’s not a spooky thing. To live by the Spirit is to live by truth - to live according to truth. His word is spirit and life. Holy Spirit is the Spirit of Truth. Jesus is the way, the truth… So to live by the Spirit is to live by the truth. Holy Spirit won’t speak of His own accord or authority, He’ll only speak that which He hears. He’ll always speak in agreement and in alignment with God’s word and God’s will. So to live by the Spirit is to live according to the truth. It’s that simple.
26:40 - You are right in His sight - So from God’s position you can’t be anything but right in His sight. He has no other verdict towards you. Mercy triumphs over judgement. He doesn’t have judgement. He has mercy. A lot of preachers say, “Well, there is a judgement side of God.” They speak too quickly. They don’t really understand what the gospel is saying.
27:00 - If I stumble - Run to Him not from Him - God doesn’t wait for me to slip and judge me. His truth and His goodness continually keeps my life in line so that if I slip I run right to Him. I am aware of the slip because there is light in me. And it exposes darkness. I see what’s going on. I’m not deceived. I realize that man, that is so not who I am called to be.
27:35 - No need to be sin-conscious - You don’t have to be sin conscious. You don’t have to mess up all of the time. It’s hard to talk about because we follow our own experience instead of following Jesus. We say, “Yeah, but brother…” and when you do that you are letting your history - your experience shape your belief. When you accept your experience as normal, it will never change.
28:10 - He wants to lift you out of sin - So be careful with this false humility thing, “Well, nobody is perfect. We always going to sin.” That’s false humility. You don’t boast in your ability to fail in order to exalt God. He seats you in heavenly places. He tells you to come up hither.
28:30 - We're not doomed to always sin - If you really believe that “We’re always going to sin” then what do you do with this: if you live by the Spirit you won’t fulfill the lusts of the flesh - Gal. 5:16. Or what about this - if you become love and walk in love, love doesn’t seek its own - 1 Cor. 13:5. So the foundation for sin is destroyed in selfless living. He who has died has been freed from sin - Rom. 6:7. You can hardly preach this without being called a heretic and it’s all through the Bible.
29:00 - We are following Jesus - Not what experience tells us is normal - We relate to our own experience in life and we fail to follow Jesus. We need to follow Jesus. I didn’t wake up to fail today.
29:10 - I don't think about sin - I enjoy being a son - Somebody said to me, “My friend doesn’t like to listen to you because you don’t believe that you sin.” I said, “I’ve never said that. I just don’t think about sin. I’m not conscious of it. And I’m not trying not to sin.” I’m enjoying being an son - wearing righteousness that empowers me to live free from sin without thinking about it. Because if you make the tree good, the fruit is good.
29:35 - If I stumble - I run to Him - So if I do bump into human weakness - if I stumble - I am quickly aware of it because I am walking in the light as He is in the light. I see it immediately. And what do I do? Run and hide and put on fig leaves? No, you run right to God because you have relationship - an unveiled, opened faced, righteous relationship. So you run right to God and say, Oh my goodness Lord, thank you for the truth that is working in me. You are so setting me apart and sanctifying my life. That is so not who you are in me. And I realize that that is just the way that seems right. I just renounce that and I put that away and I say, God, thank You for washing me, loving me and making me wiser and sharper. That is not who I am and who I’ll be. God, You are so much greater in my life. And all of the sudden, through an expression of weakness you actually have intimacy and you’re a little closer to God. That sure beats crying for 3 days and throwing your righteousness away.
30:30 - False humility - Making much of your capacity to sin does not exalt God - We have a hard time talking about this in the church because we think that it’s humble to confess our ability to sin. No, that’s deceived. The Bible says to reckon yourself dead to sin - Rom. 6:11. The Bible says that He bore your sin and my sin in His body on on a tree - 1 Pet. 2:24. Where is your sin and my sin? In His body on that tree. So that we having died to sin… See, you are not supposed to give it power. We’re not supposed to try to fight a battle that He already won. Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world - John 1:29. What did He do? He took it away. So I guess now we ought to be sons - clean, free, holy, blameless, above reproach - everything the Bible says. We probably ought to be believers.
31:35 - You are free from sin - See yourself the way that He sees you - Three times in Romans 6 it says that you are free from sin - Rom. 6:7, 18, 22. Chapter 6 starts off: What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound? God forbid. How shall we, that are dead to sin, live any longer therein? - Rom. 6:1-2. I didn’t find a way to sin and get away with it - called the blood. I’ve found a way to live free from sin through righteousness. You wake up and make the tree good. You don’t wake up and try to do better. You don’t wake up and read a book - “How to Live the Christian Life.” That’s a good way to get into works and let knowledge puff you up.
Theological Debates
32:15 - Information about Jesus? - Are you sure that you are saved? - Coming through the airport on Sunday, it was so tragic. Didn’t know what was going on. In a hurry. Passed a lady - “Information about Jesus, sir?” I stopped. She handed me a brochure - titled: “All about Jesus” Told them about the weekend. I was excited. She looked depressed and somber. She said, “So what were you preaching?” It was so tragic. Conversation. “Are you sure that you’re saved?” “Yes!” He was on a tangent of theology. “Do you believe that you can lose your salvation?” “I believe a man could totally walk away from the Lord. I don’t know why he would though. There is enough scripture to support that.” “Oh, so you don’t believe in salvation. So, you’re not saved.” And he was mad at me - like he was mean. “I thought what you were doing was a good thing. But what you are doing is tragic. You are getting off on this theological thing and you are so misrepresenting His heart and His nature. I’m sorry, I’ve got to go.” He said, “No, you need to get saved sir. You are not saved.” I just about lost it.
35:00 - People get on a knowledge tangent - And misrepresent God - People get on a knowledge tangent and miss the heart of God by a million miles. There is nothing coming out of them that is even slightly attractive. People were actually going way out of the way around them.
35:30 - [Exteneded story] - Found out I wasn’t really saved?!?
36:00 - Debates - Caught up in theology but missing your everyday purpose - Isn’t it amazing that you can get so stuck on a theological point and miss the whole heart of the gospel and miss everyday purpose (what you were put on the earth to do in the first place). [Disagreements on end times theology] You can spend your whole life trying to prove your theological point and miss walking in love every day. In the end nobody is going to be saying, “I told you so.” You can get so caught up in a theology that you miss every day purpose. [Father/Son/Holy Spirit or just One debate] [Disagreements surrounding baptism]
37:00 - Disagreement over baptism - You’re not saved! - Guy handing out tracts in the park. Were you baptized? Father, Son and the Holy Spirit or the name of Jesus? Baptized self. He said then, “You’re not saved.” I didn’t debate with him over doctrine but I challenged him a little. I’m a changed man and you are telling me I am not saved because of a theological technicality? Because of not believing what you believe? And now you are right and I am wrong? That’s self-righteousness and deception. He got mad and walked away.
39:10 - Tracts in MT - Are you sure that you’re saved? - With family in MT and there were some people handing out tracts. Usually the people out on the streets are the people who are driven by a theological truth like that. That’s why we are teaching you to be natural and walk in love. Just touch as you go - Holy Ghost drive bys. Just sow seed and water. I had just been saved for about 2 years when I was out in MT. I was excited to share my story with the people handing out tracts. “Are you sure that you’re saved?” “Yeah!” “How do you know?” “I just know. I have fellowship with God. He lives inside of me.” And I was trying to explain. They said, “I think you need to take this and really read it carefully and make sure that you’re saved.” So all of my encounters with Christians out on the streets handing out tracts are telling me that I am not saved…
40:20 - Don't get caught in debates and miss becoming love - Don’t get caught up in these theological things. Get caught up in your life and your heart being changed. You don’t want to get caught up in the debate and miss becoming love. The word comes out of me like a machine gun if I want it to.
40:45 - The Mormons - I had Mormons in my house trembling. Crawled over the railing. Followed them down the street. [Extended story] Senior elders. Home group meeting. They don’t come into the neighborhood any more. They didn’t know what to do with me. I’m not a theological debater. I had love for them. I wept when I talked with them. I didn’t argue at all. I poured out my heart.
43:00 - Debates? - It's not about being right - It's about being like Him - So these people handing out tracts, if you are not careful you will get trapped in a theological debate. That’s not kingdom at all. It’s never about being right. It’s about being like Him.
See Yourself the Way that God Sees You - Righteous Through Christ
43:15 - Right vs. righteousness - Righteousness positions you to be right even though you were wrong. [Extended discussion - Abraham and Hagar - Stand before me and be righteous]
45:00 - People struggle to see themselves as God sees them - Instead they trust how they feel - The reason that I camp on this stuff is because of the number of people that I talk to who struggle in seeing and believing and staying in how He sees them. “Yeah, but I feel bad…” “Yeah, but I don’t feel worthy…” If you feel bad, that’s a good place to start. You care. You’re not wanton. But staying feeling bad is probably a zero - just crying and losing sleep.
45:55 - Godly sorrow is supposed to lead you to repentance - 2 Cor. 7:10. Godly sorrow is leading you to change your mind.
➡ 46:15 - Everything flows from believing how God sees you: Righteous through Christ - God wants this stuff established in you. He wants you to wake up and to never blink at your right standing with God. Stand in it and acknowledge it because that’s where you are empowered and that’s where you’ll flow. That’s where everything flows from. Your conscience is clear there. You’ll hear His voice clearly there. You’ll get to know Him there. Everything we say that we are longing for is found through understanding righteousness - that He made you right in His sight - period. And it is a big deal. It’s not a religious term.
46:50 - Our faith is founded on righteousness through Christ - That’s where our faith came from. Did you see that? ...to them that have obtained like precious faith with us through the righteousness of God and our Saviour Jesus Christ: - 2 Pet. 1:1.
➡ The rest of the chapter is amazing and I am tempted to read it but it doesn’t really have to do with what I am talking about. OK, let’s read them...
2 Peter 1:2-4 - Transformation to His Likeness
47:15 - v.2-3 - All things pertaining to life and godliness - Everything we need to look like Him - Grace and peace be multiplied unto you through the knowledge of God, and of Jesus our Lord, According as his divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of him that hath called us to glory and virtue: - So when he says all things he is not talking about full vats and barns. He’s given you all things pertaining to life and godliness. He’s given you everything necessary to live in Him - to live godly.
47:50 - v.4 - Exceedingly great and precious promises - Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust. - He’s not talking about provision - getting your needs met.
48:15 - That by these promises you might - So these promises pertain to transformation - new wineskins - new wine - new way of thinking, new way of living, new identity, new perspective. These promises are the things that He supplies through grace to conform us to His Son.
48:40 - Partakers of the divine nature - God is assuring us that He will give us everything that He is and put it inside of us if we are willing to live by faith through the righteous judgement of God (- through accepting the way that God sees us - through seeing ourselves and others the way that God sees us).
48:55 - Escape the corruption that’s in the world through lust - And you are going to escape the corruption that’s all around you in the world through lust. The word “lust” has nothing to do with pornography. “Lust” has to do with self-centered, unsatisfiable desire. It’s the craving of flesh. It’s just all about me. Ye lust, and have not: ye kill, and desire to have, and cannot obtain: ye fight and war, yet ye have not, because ye ask not. Ye ask, and receive not, because ye ask amiss, that ye may consume it upon your lusts. - James 4:2-3. The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want. - Ps. 23:1. If any man would come after me let him first deny himself - Mt. 16:24. That’s to get you out of that lie (the lie of living for self).
49:25 - Biggest problem on the planet: Men living for themselves - What’s the peril of the world? Every man living for himself. The destruction of the world isn’t the working of the devil. It’s every man living for himself and that gives the devil a lot to work with. Jesus said that the ruler of this world cometh and has nothing in me - John 14:30. So what would happen if we walked in Him and lived in Him and lived like He lived? And what would happen if as He is, so would we be in this world - 1 John 4:7? And what would happen if we abode in Him and walked even as He walked? What if you were selfless? What if you were pure in heart - to see God?
50:00 - Staying in faith - Continuing to see us like He sees us is our challenge - So the ruler of this world cometh and has nothing in us - John 14:30. So the devil is not our problem. Sin can’t be our problem because it is destroyed and defeated. So, I guess faith and trust in Him might be our biggest challenge - and maintaining (believing) a righteous identity through the finished work of Christ and saying, “Yay! (Accepting what is already done).” So the just shall live by faith - Rom. 1:17.
50:20 - Live by faith - Not by what you feel - It has nothing to do with feelings. It has nothing to do with senses. “Yeah, but brother I just feel far from Him.” Stop. What are you saying? What are you doing to yourself? How can I help you when you get like that? “I just feel far from Him.” But you’re not. “Yeah, but I am in the room alone and it doesn’t feel like He’s there.” He is. He said so. “Yeah, but it doesn’t seem real.” Stop looking for sensation. The whole reason that you are gifted to live by faith is to get you out of sensuality (depending on how you feel or how it seems). You can’t live in both sensuality and faith.
51:00 - Living by senses vs. living by the Spirit - What happened - When Adam was living in God, he’s living by the Spirit. He’s living by the reality of who God is. When he gets separated from God he becomes subject to the flesh and his whole life is lived sensual. (He lives by how he feels or how it seems to him.) Now we are reborn and refathered. And now we live by the Spirit again. We’re not living sensual.
51:20 - Ministering to feelings - It’s not a ministry issue, it’s a truth issue - Look how much we cater to each other in prayer and ministry - look how we handle it - when we minister to impressions, feelings, flashbacks, memories. We spend countless hours ministering to each other concerning emotions, feeling, sensations, etc. instead of building in truth and nailing down faith. Most things aren’t even prayer issues. Most things are truth issues. There is truth lacking and that’s why we keep believing wrong things.
51:50 - Begin to exercise faith - Even when it doesn't feel real - Sometimes we have the answer and we still put our faith in what we feel. They cry and you give them the answer and they say, “Yeah, but I just don’t feel loved.” You are being your own worst enemy. The just shall live by faith. So if you are not applying faith to being made worthy through the blood, how can anybody help you with counsel? You can become co-dependent or interdependent on the one trying to help you and the highest grace you can receive is that someone seems to care for you or pays you attention or calls you back.
52:25 - Recap of 2 Peter 1:1-4 - The just live by faith. ...to them that have obtained like precious faith with us through the righteousness of God and our Saviour Jesus Christ: - 2 Pet. 1:1. Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust. - 2 Pet. 1:4. All things pertaining to life and godliness - That means everything that is needed to become like Him is going to flow through His grace. And we are going to escape from living the way that we used to live. That’s what was corrupting us - just thinking for me - living for me - making it all about me.
52:45 - Living & thinking all for you is not normal - You have a new life and a new way of living - “I can’t believe they said that.” “I can’t believe they did that.” “That really hurt.” “How do you expect me to feel?” “I can't get over that.” “Well, it takes time.” All of that language is wrapped into thinking for yourself. And life taught you that that was true - that was normal. But Jesus said that you have one teacher - Don’t let anyone be your teacher - You have one teacher and He is the Christ. Jesus didn’t teach us that stuff. We learned that in another life (before being born again). We died. We were born again. We have a new life.
53:15 - New wine / New wineskins - New Life / New thinking - If you are going to become a new wineskin, you better pour new wine into it - Mt. 9:17. You can’t take a new confession and attach it to an old way of thinking and say that you are pursuing the kingdom. No, you are crushing yourself. You can’t let the way that seems right be your wisdom. You can’t say all of those things that we say, to justify staying the same.
54:00 - [People’s facial reactions to Dan’s preaching]
Romans 8:29-32 - Transformed to His Likeness
55:00 - He paid a price for you to look just like Jesus - Rom. 8:29-31 says that you are predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son - For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren. The next verse says: Moreover whom he did predestinate, them he also called: and whom he called, them he also justified: and whom he justified, them he also glorified. - How does He glorify you? By filling you with the same Spirit that raised Christ from the dead. What shall we then say to these things? If God be for us, who can be against us? - He’s not talking about getting you through trouble. He’s not talking about fighting your battle. He’s talking about - even though you weren’t living looking anything like His Son, He came and paid a price to empower you to look just like Jesus.
55:40 - Who can stop what God is doing? - You can fail to believe - If I have been living my life in willfulness and darkness and deception and serving the devil and the lusts of the life and the world, and He comes along and says, “You’re more than that boy. I’ll pay the price to get the lie off of you. And I am going to fill you with truth because I love you.” - who can be against us? The only one that can be against you is you, failing to receive this good news and you failing to believe the righteousness of God through Christ.
56:10 - "If God be for us" - What does it mean? - It has to do with looking like Jesus - We always think battles and fights and crush the devil and rear-guard… But He is not talking about that at all. He has predestined you to be conformed to His image. Because that is your predestination, He took the time to call you, to justify you and glorify you and get you back to square one so that He can fulfill the beginning (what He created you for in the beginning - who He made you to be - what He made you to do).
56:40 - Who can stop what God is doing? - Nobody - What shall we say to that? Nobody is going to stop that because it’s God. So who can keep Him from loving me? Who can change the way that He sees me? Who can take away the power of the blood and the blood speaking better things? If God for us, who can be against?
56:55 - "If God be for us" - What does it mean? - Has to do with transformation - We always think personal battles and struggles and God is just intervening - the Mighty Warrior. We like that stuff. But we miss the powerful point of these verses. It’s saying that God has changed who we are through His Son.
57:15 - v.32 - "All things" necessary to be like Him - He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things? - All things - everything necessary to be like Him. He’s not talking about full vats and barns. He’s not talking about provision, pay raise and promotion. He’s talking about everything necessary to be conformed to the image of His image.
2 Peter 1:2-4 - Transformed to His Likeness (cont.)
57:50 - It’s not about what you can get from God - It’s about being transformed to His likeness - That’s what He is talking about in 2 Peter 1. “Great and precious promises” - not to fill your vats and barns. I hope your vats and barns are filled. Great. If they are filled, great, but be like Him. What good does it do to seek God to meet all of our needs and not become like Him? Now we have a self-serving God who took care of all of ourselves and now we are going to live our life full instead of shining. That’s not the goal. The goal isn’t provision. The goal is transformation.
58:30 - Partake of His divine nature - Be transformed to His likeness - So we are going to escape the corruption of the world through lusts. Why? To partake of His divine nature through the promises. He’s for me, not against me. He’s going to give me everything that is necessary. He’s predestined me to be conformed to the image of His Son. And the thing that’s going to seal me in that truth by faith is God’s righteous judgement - believing the way that He sees me.
2 Peter 1:5-12 - Be Established - Don't Forget
58:45 - 2 Pet. 1 - v.5-7 - And beside this, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue; and to virtue knowledge; And to knowledge temperance; and to temperance patience; and to patience godliness; And to godliness brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness charity. - “Add” to your faith because it starts with faith. Virtue - a high moral excellence. That’s just you becoming sincere and all about Him. Charity - love.
59:10 - v.8 - For if these things be in you, and abound, they make you that ye shall neither be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. - If these things are yours - if they are growing and developing in your life… you’ll not be barren or unfruitful in the knowledge of Jesus Christ.
59:30 - v.9 - Don't forget that you are free from sin - Some forget - But he that lacketh these things is blind, and cannot see afar off, and hath forgotten that he was purged from his old sins. - Do you see why I camp on this stuff? So that we don’t have sincere hearts, go to Kingdom Living School, give all of our time and effort to pray, pray, pray and read, read, read and listen to CDs and the whole time not realize maybe that you are absolutely free and clean and that you don’t have to work at anything. He made you right. The reason that you would lack “these things” is that you haven’t been overcome and overwhelmed and overtaken by the fact that you were forgiven of everything.
1:00:30 - Receive and then become - Wicked servant - Why does a man have trouble forgiving? Because he has never been touched by the beauty of forgiveness - (it’s not that he’s never been forgiven but that forgiveness has not impacted his heart). He’s never been overtaken by the fact that he stands completely clean in the sight of God. And if he has been touched by that forgiveness, then he is Mt. 18. He is an evil and wicked servant who has been forgiven of everything that he’s ever done and he won’t forgive his brother. And the Lord said that he’s going to be bound and cast into outer darkness. You want to be forgiven of everything that you’ve ever done and then you don’t want to become that same thing that set you free to others? That’s the whole point.
1:01:20 - v.9-10 - Be diligent - Give yourself to these truths - If you do you'll never fall - But he that lacketh these things is blind, and cannot see afar off, and hath forgotten that he was purged from his old sins. Wherefore the rather, brethren, give diligence to make your calling and election sure: for if ye do these things, ye shall never fall: - Therefore - in light of this - because this is true. Be more diligent - See why I talk about this all of the time? Watch this promise. For if you do these things - that means give yourself to these truths. If you do these things, you will never fall. That’s Bible - that’s not my notes. That’s not heresy. That’s amazing. It would be an amazing thing to get our eyes off of our own track record and start following Jesus with sincere, childlike faith and actually believe that this kind of life is possible by the Spirit of God.
➡ 1:02:30 - I’m going to show you a scripture that ties righteousness together and then we’ll see where we need to go. There are a couple of other things I may want to talk to you about tonight.
1:02:45 - v.11 - For so an entrance shall be ministered unto you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. - This sounds like good news. That’s why Peter goes on to say…
1:02:50 - v.12 - This is why I keep reminding you - Wherefore I will not be negligent to put you always in remembrance of these things, though ye know them, and be established in the present truth. - I’m going to make sure that you never get moved away, deceived, take life personal or get your heart hurt. I’m going to keep this in front of you.
1:03:05 - That you would never be unfruitful - Look at the promise. Look at the outcome. Never barren or unfruitful… Aren’t we called to be fruitful? So if you live this way, you’ll never be unfruitful and you’ll never stumble. That sounds like no low season, no lost time, running well, no “Pray for me brother I’m in a wilderness place.” “Well, it’s been tough. I’m hanging in there. Keep me in prayer.”
Live by Faith Not by Feelings
1:03:35 - How you are doing doesn’t have to depend on how the circumstances of life are going - We say stuff like that in the church. When we get asked how we are doing… I’m not asking you to super-spiritual, “I’m blessed coming in, going out…” But when people ask us how we are doing, 9 times out of 10 we share the two or three biggest challenges in our lives. Which means that we are assessing how we are doing by how the circumstances of life are going instead of who He is in us and through us. What if our answer was sincerely, “You know man, it’s amazing. I’ve had several challenges this week that I didn’t even see coming. But God is so establishing me in a thing. I’m realizing I’m called to shine and in the midst of some things that maybe would have moved me a year ago, I’m realizing that, wow, I am not even trying to get over anything. My expression (the expression of my life) was healthy and impactful. Some people got a lot out of my life this past week in the midst of these couple of challenges. I wouldn’t have asked for these things to happen but when they happened I realized how much that I’ve grown. And Jesus shined through my life.” That’s a much better response than, “Man, it’s been tough. Keep me in prayer.”
1:04:55 - If you don’t stay firm in how God sees you, the circumstances of life will teach you - If you don’t have this understanding that it’s not all about you, that He’s in you to shine through you to a broken world, then life is always going to speak louder than truth. And truth makes you free so that would be a bummer. Or without realizing it you are going to let things matter more that don’t matter most.
➡ 1:05:15 - Our faith hinges on righteousness before God - So we covered that whole chapter when I was just going to show you that we all have faith from the same well - righteousness. Faith comes from righteousness and faith works through love.
1:05:25 - How faith works - Faith works through love - Faith doesn’t work because you have a need. Faith doesn’t work because you are concerned. Faith works because you have love and you see His love through His word. I’m a firm believer that faith is the spontaneous result of knowing God. When you know God, faith is the spontaneous result. When you know His nature, His heart and His love towards you, faith is automatic. You are not trying to have faith. If you are trying to have faith, you don’t have it.
1:05:55 - Look at Romans 5 real quick… [later]
1:06:00 - Be filled with the joy of your salvation - Live from there - This stuff is huge to me. I want you guys so filled with the joy of your salvation. People call me happy Dan. What else should I be with what I believe? If what I believe is true, I should be OK. Because I am not talking about how things are going circumstantially. I’m not talking about the decisions that people in my life are making. I am talking about who I am in the moment through Him. That’s where you’ve got to live from.
1:06:25 - Trying to apply Him to your life doesn't work - See life through His perspective - If not you’re always going to be trying to apply Him to your life instead of Him becoming your life. You’re always going to run God through the eye of the needle of your life. You’ll try to bring Him into your life to help you get through instead of bringing your life through the eye of the needle of God and take a good look at it through the position you stand in Him. It’s a totally different scenario. Because you don’t have the same options - to be hurt, offended, discouraged, bewildered, anxious. It all goes away when you understand that you are called to shine. And no matter what’s going on, His life in you is flowing and nothing changes about why you are here and why He is in you - nothing ever changes. That’s what faith says.
1:07:20 - Stand firm in how He sees you - So we just learned that the "like precious faith" that we all have came from the righteous judgement of God - how God sees us through the cross. So it’s really important for you to wake up every day and go to bed every night and understand that you are right in the sight of God and keep the veil off of your face. Be an unveiled bride.
Experiences can be Fun but Live by Faith
1:07:45 - Dancing with Jesus - You ought to act that out when you go home tonight. [Further explanation]... Crying at the church I was at on Sunday - Because of a song that was so intimate to me - Dance with Me Lover of My Soul. [Dancing in the house with Jesus] Why aren’t we dancing?
1:09:15 - Growing up on the edge of the projects. My best friends were black. Best friend was black - Charlie. I was the only white guy in the whole area. You would think some of that soul would have gotten on me. It didn’t. I can’t dance. I can jump a little but I got no rhythm. [Singing in the shower].
1:10:20 - Holy Spirit said, “So why aren’t we dancing?” I don’t know about you but I want relationship. I want intimacy. And in that season that’s all I was pursuing. He was taking me into a higher level of being with Him. I was singing Dance with Me, Lover of My Soul and He said, “I'm here dude. I am waiting. You keep singing Dance with Me, I’m here. Why aren’t we dancing?” I was jittery. Felt all funny. [Dancing with Jesus] [Hearing that song at the church I was in] [Intimacy]
1:12:45 - Manifestations - They are fun but faith doesn’t need them - Right after that I started preaching intimacy a lot. When I preach on righteousness this happens… I don’t talk about this because I don’t want you going after manifestations. I want you going after truth. I go after truth a lot. If I know something then it’s healthy to experience what I know. If I look to experience so that I know it, I’ve gotten it backwards. And then I only know it if I experience it. That’s what sensuality lives for. Faith doesn’t live there. Faith says He loves me whether I have ever felt His love, whether I have ever had a goosebump, had a warm fuzzy feeling - I don’t need it. Faith says, “I don’t need it.” You say, “No, I want that.” No, faith says, “You love me. Christ was crucified - period. Thanks for loving me.” And you get alone with Him, God… And in that place of knowing guess what starts happening… the manifestation of the very thing that you are believing.
1:13:30 - Manifestations - For years when I would preach on righteousness and when I do the Lord slips up behind me… People say, “You get so passionate.” You don’t understand what happens to me. He’s with me. He’s in me. I can be in my truck and just say, "Lord Jesus" - and He is right there. That happens all the time. That kind of thing makes me like this. It’s like you don’t know how to calm down. You don’t know how to have a so-so day. You have a sozo (Greek for - “save”) day.
1:14:25 - Driving in the truck - Catching eye in the mirror. “I see you.” I would say that and He would just fill my truck. And it started by childlike faith. Believing that He’s in me.
1:14:50 - Manifestations - Preaching on righteousness - That’s why I get funny when I preach. He comes up behind me and I feel - I feel the presence of His arms wrap around me. And I feel his head lay on my back. He just cuddles me. And you wonder why I’m not OK. You don’t get used to that. That’s the Lord.
1:15:20 - Manifestations - Teaching my kids about Mary anointing His feet - About how humble she was. How never to be a Pharisee. We were talking and praying - CD in. It was intimate. I put my hands on the floor to pray and when I put my hands down, I could feel feet and toes. I couldn’t see them but I could feel them. What do you do with that? I started bawling. Slobbering. Watered His feet with my tears. Dried His feet with my hair. That’s how real He will be. But I don’t need that to know that He is.
1:16:55 - Believe first - Heb. 11:6b - for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him. - First believe. Not second. Not get an experience and then believe. First believe that He is. Believe what? That He’s awesome and loves you. That He is a righteous judge, a redeemer, that He will never change His mind.
1:17:20 - Living from the position of “Yay!” - Do you understand that we’re in - we’ve made it - we already won? We’re not trying to win, we already won. Look, I’m never going to die. I’m forgiven. God will never judge me for where I’ve been. He’ll judge me for what I’ve become. I’m alive forever and He will never change His mind. He’s in me and He’s not leaving. I’ve already won. I’m living from a position of “Yay!”
1:18:00 - Identity is established in truth - Not in how life is going - And if you are not careful you’re going to let life be more real than the life in you. That’s not kingdom. And this is a kingdom school. But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you. - Mt. 6:33. So let your identity rest in knowing Him not in things going better. It has nothing to do with how things are going. It doesn’t have to do with other people. It has first to do with Him and who He is in you and who you’ve become in Him. And then you see everything through that truth - period.
1:18:40 - God's not going to change His mind about you - You already won - A million years from now He is not going to call out my name, call me to the front and change His mind. I’m in. I’ve already made it. I’ve already won. I could die tonight and I’ve already won. So don’t cry hard and say, “God, why?” Just say, “Man, I am living for a bigger thing than right now. We’ve already won. Thank God for the blood or that would be loss.”
1:19:40 - Salvation is much more than just an escape from this world - I don’t believe that I am going anywhere real quick. I’m having fun. Life’s not a grind. I’m not like, “Come Lord.” He’s here. If I say, “Come Lord,” He will say, “I’m here.” Some of us want Him to come so that we can escape. And then you are saying, “To heaven with me and to hell with everybody else. I just want to get out of here.” That’s not cool either because the reason that He didn’t come already is because people are not ready. So don’t you be ready for the wrong reason. Don’t be ready because you can’t take it anymore. “Look guys, I am just ready to go.” Don’t do that to yourself. You are going to suffer as long as you live with that mentality.
➡ 1:20:45 - Let’s look at the end of Romans 5 real quick… and then there are just a couple of things that I wanted to talk about.
1:20:50 - Objection from Romans 7 - We’re always going to sin - That was Paul’s experience - If you will read Romans 5, 6, 7 and 8 in a row, nobody will be able to trick you with Romans 7 again. I don’t even know how people preach Romans 7 the way that they do. Chapters 6 and 8 so define chapter 7. And people preach Romans 7 without 6 and 8. They make it about us always sinning and they say that that was Paul’s experience. No, that’s life apart from Christ (ch. 7). It says that in the beginning of Ch. 7. But that’s a whole other school…
Romans 5 - Righteousness, Faith & Grace
1:21:50 - Rom. 5 - v.19 - For as by one man's disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous. - You have to receive the righteousness. You have to live by faith. You have to start where He finished if you are going to run well.
1:22:05 - v.20 - The law showed us our need - We fell short - Moreover the law entered, that the offence might abound. But where sin abounded, grace did much more abound: - So the law revealed the need for a Savior. The law showed me that I needed help. The law exposed my life apart from the nature of God. It showed me that I lived apart from His nature and needed a Savior. So the law had a good use - to show me my need for Him. For all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God - Rom. 3:23.
1:22:35 - Purpose - What was man made for? - And what are we made for? The glory of God. What does the Psalmist say? What is man that thou art mindful of him? For he is His crowning creation and glory - Ps. 8:4-5. Who is this guy, man that you would give him dominion over the works of your hands? That you would visit him? What’s up with this guy called man? That’s the Psalmist’s questions.
1:23:10 - Man was made for the image of God - Genesis tells us why. God made man in His image. And love never fails. And He sees us for what He intended and created us to be. He paid the price to restore that truth.
1:23:35 - Reading your Bible - Take your time
1:24:10 - v.21 - Grace defined - That as sin hath reigned unto death, even so might grace reign through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord. - What is “grace”? Grace is God’s willingness to use His power, His ability on your behalf to make you into what you could never be on your own. Grace is God’s working power, His working ability, His etching tool, His workmanship, His craftsmanship. It’s the Potter putting the pressure onto the clay and molding it into what He sees - the vision of the Potter - the masterpiece - that perfect finished thing. He takes off the tarp and tada. That’s what grace accomplishes. The grace of God is God’s working power and ability.
1:25:20 - The difference between grace and mercy - Grace and mercy are two totally different things. Grace changes you. Mercy gives you a chance when you deserve none. Grace empowers you, once you have received mercy, to become what He intends.
1:25:40 - Grace meets faith - Grace works through faith - Grace is going to reign through what? Grace reigns through righteousness to eternal life. If you and I don’t lock into the righteous judgement of God (the way that He sees us) and remain in right standing in our understanding and in our faith and accept and live unveiled, grace won’t work effectually and faith is shipwrecked because it works from the same righteousness. (Grace won't work effectively because you are not living in faith - you're life is not expressing faith.)
1:26:00 - No faith - No grace - You’ll judge yourself and live in self-condemnation - So you are saved by grace through faith and the both come from the same testimony: “I’ve been made right with God.” So if you don’t see yourself right in the sight of God, you won’t live by a steady, strong faith and you won’t receive the empowerment of God to be changed in your living. So the up and down cycle of your life will lead you to judge your life. You’ll judge your actions. And you will live self-condemned.
1:26:30 - Even good people get trapped in this lack of grace due to a lack of steady, strong faith - That happens to people all of the time. Good people who care about that. And they cry themselves to sleep. People give up. People question in their hearts if they are even saved. What does grace reign through? What did we obtain “like and precious faith” through? Righteousness. Righteousness is a big deal.
Insights on Righteousness from Genesis 3 - The Fall
1:26:55 - God calls to Adam - In the garden of Eden - “Adam, where are you?” This is in Genesis chapter 3 where man was tempted and fell, God came and spoke over the Eve, the serpent and Adam. At the end of speaking over them about the consequences of sin, what’s He do? He removes their fig leaves and clothes them with animal skins.
1:27:35 - Adam and Eve lost their innocence - “Adam, where are you?” God knows where Adam is. Adam is naked and all of the sudden Adam realizes that he is naked. He didn’t know that before. He loses his innocence. He sees through the flesh. All of the sudden Eve is naked.
1:27:55 - The pressure of physical appearance - After the fall - Before that, it wasn’t like the world makes it out to be. It wasn’t about the curves and the body and the “Woah, girl. God did a great job with you. He must have taken a good rib from Adam.” It wasn’t like that at all. They were naked and didn’t even know what that was.
1:28:15 - That pressure arises because we live from feelings - People are so under the pressure of “looks” - good looks. Because we live sensual (we live by how we feel) we are attracted to looks, not the quality of who the people are. Look to the inward person not what appears on the outside - the adorning. Most of us just sell out to the adorning. [inaudible]
1:28:45 - We need to be restored to childlike innocence - They are naked and they don’t have a clue. That impresses me. I’m not trying to start some movement that, since we redeemed and back before the fall, we should all be able to go naked. We would stumble too many folks.
1:29:00 - We’ve lost innocence along the way. That’s what has happened. That’s why we are to become like children. It’s a restoration of innocence. It doesn’t even take little children long before they become self-conscious. That’s why Jesus said little children. We’re not talking about childishness. We’re talking about innocence.
1:29:20 - After the fall Adam and Eve became very conscious of their sin - “Adam where are you?” “I’m over here.” “What are you doing?” “I heard you coming and I was afraid. And I knew that I was naked and I hid myself.” It’s a sad scene because it shows you what sin-consciousness does. Sin-consciousness makes you very aware of what you did wrong. And you live out of the place of what you did wrong and yet at the same time you try to cover and hide what you did wrong to no avail. Because it affects you. Sin-consciousness affects the way that you see. It affects your ability to be with God. It makes you live in secret and hiding. If you look at everything that sin did to Adam, it’s tragic.
1:30:00 - Effects of the fall - Adam became self-protecting, self-justifying, all about himself - The worst thing was when God asked Adam a yes or no question, “How did you know that you were naked, did you eat from the tree?” Sin - the fallen nature - didn’t allow him to just say, “Yes, I ate from the tree. I should have never done that.” Instead Adam said, “It was the woman that you gave to me.” Fallen man was now separate from God and became self-centered, self-protecting, self-defending, self-justifying - all about himself. A minute ago Eve was flesh of his flesh, bone of his bone - she’s wo-man - of the man - not from a separate lump of clay but of the man - one.
1:30:50 - Adam didn’t take responsibility - But tried to put the blame back on God - “Did you eat from the tree?” “It was the woman that you gave me Lord. She’s the one who gave it to me to eat.” Sounds like a legitimate answer but he couldn’t just say, “Yes, Lord. Eve was eating and she told me what she had heard and I shouldn’t have listened but man, I did. I just followed along. I ate from the tree.” No, when Adam said that it was the woman that you gave me, what’s he saying ultimately? He’s not taking responsibility. He’s saying, “If you didn’t give me the woman, I might not have eaten from the tree. So You are going to have to work this out. Because, like, you are the One who gave me the woman. And she gave me the thing to eat.” It was a yes or no question.
1:31:30 - Have any of you experienced this type of scenario in your lives? We did something wrong but we can’t say the straight truth about it. We talk around it. We give the long explanation. We blameshift the responsibility.
1:31:45 - Breaking an heirloom lamp - When young - Heirloom lamp was broken by Dan as they were playing in the house. Dan lies and his brother gets the whooping for it.
1:33:15 - We sacrifice others to save ourselves - Jesus laid down His life to save others - That’s called the fall of man - every man for himself. “You get your butt whipped. Not me.” Love lays down it’s life. Jesus came and modeled what we were created for. He does the exact opposite of what fallen man would have done. Jesus died even though He did nothing wrong. I made my brother get whipped and I was wrong.
1:33:30 - We talked about it years later. He still remembers that, but he has forgiven me. He’s a man of God. “Man, you got me whipped over that.” I said, “Man, I was a professional liar.”
1:33:50 - Every man for himself - I was just saving my hide. You save yourself. You love your own life. I was not getting beat! He’s up there - CRACK - “Ouuuuw” - and I was like, “Wow, that could be my butt.” That’s terrible isn’t it?
1:34:10 - Looking out for # 1 - Self-protecting - “Dan, did you break the lamp?” “Nooo, my brother…” That’s what I did. Isn't that what Adam did? “Did you eat from the tree?” “No, You work it out. She was your idea.”
1:34:30 - We try to hide our sin - To little avail - So what does Adam do? He’s naked and ashamed and they are wearing fig leaves which is a sign of covering their own nakedness - covering their own sin. It’s an analogy. But it’s not a good covering.
1:34:55 - Sin requires the shedding of blood - Sin costs life - So why did God make animal skins and cover them with animal skins? Well, we know that there is no remission of sin without the shedding of blood - Heb. 9:22. So if he gave them two animal skins for covering, two little animals had to give up their lives for Adam and Eve. So already somebody had to die because of sin. Sin costs life. That’s why there is no remission of sin without the shedding of blood. Sin costs life - brings death.
1:35:20 - Blood covenant revealed - New clothes speak to righteousness - So we know that two little animals had to die - whatever kind of skins they were. The animals had to shed their blood. So we see blood covenant there. We see that God shed the blood of animals to pardon Adam and Eve and dress them in His skins. But it’s also the revelation of righteousness. Because we are clothed in robes of righteousness and garments of salvation. So this is only Genesis 3 and righteousness is already revealed. Every day that they wake up and God leaves them in the fig leaves, what are they conscious of? The day that they missed God and blew it.
1:35:55 - Eve was deceived - Adam committed treason - Adam committed treason. He didn’t have to eat the tree. He had authority but he followed Eve. God explained later, “because you heeded the voice of the woman.” [Adam and Eve joke - We used to live there but your mother ate us out of house and home.] The joke is that it was the woman’s fault. But it wasn’t the woman’s fault. Man heeded the voice of the woman.
1:36:35 - Sin-consciousness makes us want to run and hide - So he ran and hid when God came. God would come in the cool of the day and walk with Adam. He heard the sound of the Lord coming and what did he do? Ran and hid. Do you see what sin-consciousness does to people? It takes you from Him and not to Him. That’s why you can’t afford not to live in righteousness - (seeing yourself how God sees you).
1:37:10 - Fig leaves were a reminder of sin - sin-consciousness - So God comes and takes off the fig leaves. We’ve established that. So if they wake up in the morning and they are wearing fig leaves, what’s their conscious thought? They see each other in the fig leaves - their nakedness - sin - the day they missed God and blew it - “You gave me the fruit.” “Well, you didn’t have to eat it” - and now they are arguing.
1:37:35 - Animal skins - A sign of righteousness - God covering man - But if God takes off the fig leaves and covers them with animal skins and tells them that some day that the seed of the woman will someday crush the head of the seed of the serpent... God gives a promise. If they wake up in animal skins, what are they conscious of? Hope, a future, deliverance - redemption. So what are those animal skins? Are they just the blood covenant? They are the sign of righteousness - God covering man through the blood. He’s pointing to the day we would wear righteousness.
Symbols and Contact Points of Faith
1:38:20 - God points to coming righteousness - Abraham / Isaac / sacrifice - You see Jesus all through the OT - Abraham / Isaac / sacrifice. He is carrying wood on his back walking up a mountain. You see Jesus with a wooden cross heading up a mountain. You see God stopping Abraham. And He says that because you were willing to give your son, now I am going to give my Son. And a ram was in the bush.
1:38:45 - God points to coming righteousness - Noah and the flood - Noah and the flood. The earth was unrighteous. Men are continually wicked in their hearts. The flood comes and what happens? God baptizes the earth in water and when the earth comes out of the water there is no unrighteousness. He baptized the earth in water.
1:39:00 - The flood points to water baptism - Peter had a revelation of this. He said - Which sometime were disobedient, when once the longsuffering of God waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was a preparing, wherein few, that is, eight souls were saved by water. The like figure whereunto even baptism doth also now save us (not the putting away of the filth of the flesh, but the answer of a good conscience toward God,) by the resurrection of Jesus Christ: - 1 Peter 3:20-21. Eight righteous souls were saved through water. He called the flood a water baptism. What happened? All unrighteousness was destroyed. The trouble was that all those people died. God said that He would never destroy the earth this way again. And what did He do? He put a rainbow in the sky as a sign of covenant.
1:39:20 - The flood that washed the earth clean points to the baptism that washes men clean - What was God pointing to? The day that men would get baptized in water and it would be unto life, not death. That the unrighteousness would die but they would live. In v.21 Peter says that you have an anti-type (symbol) now that saves you - water baptism. “But brother, I thought I was saved through the blood.” You are. Believe and be baptized - Mark 16:16 - Acts 2:38. Don’t separate them. I’m not getting legalistic and saying, “If you didn’t get water baptized, you didn’t get saved.” I’m not going to hand out tracts and get a sad face (a reference to earlier stories of people handing out tracts). Jesus said to believe and be baptized - Mark 16:16. It’s a dual thing.
1:40:20 - Water baptism is a contact point of faith - A picture of dying to live - Water baptism is a contact point of faith for what you are believing. You are dying to live. You’re dying to all unrighteousness. You are dying in the likeness of His death. And you are coming up in newness of life.
1:40:30 - Why is baptism still a question - Jesus said, Believe and be baptized - So why wouldn’t you get baptized? People say, “Well, do I have to get water baptized to be saved?” Why do we ask legalistic questions when we say we are not legalistic? Why is that a question? Jesus said, “Believe and be baptized.” Why is that a question? Get baptized if you are a believer. Why? Because you want all unrighteousness to die. You want a contact point of faith that my old life is dead that I’m raising in newness of life. It’s for us.
1:41:10 - Anointing with oil - A contact point of faith that Holy Spirit is upon you - Why is there an anointing of oil - James 5:14? There is no power in the bottle. That upsets some people but the truth is that there is no power in the bottle. You can put all the spices and labels you want on the bottle but the bottle is not powerful. It’s your faith in the Holy Spirit moving through the blood. It’s a contact point of faith. You anoint with oil because you are representing that Holy Spirit is upon you.
1:42:00 - The bread and the cup - A contact point of faith - A remembrance of what Jesus did for us - The bread and the cup is also a contact point of faith. As often as you do it, do it in remembrance of me - 1 Cor. 11:24. So what is this? A remembrance. A contact point of faith. These things are all contact points of faith.
1:42:30 - A good consciousness is imperative - We have this anti-type which now saves us - water baptism - not the cleansing of our flesh but the answer of a good conscience towards God - 1 Peter 3:21. Do you see what’s imperative? How many people live their lives and don’t have a good conscience towards God? The Bible says that if you don’t have a good conscience - you’ll shipwreck your faith for the lack of a clear conscience - 1 Tim. 1:19. Now the end of the commandment is charity out of a pure heart, and of a good conscience, and of faith unfeigned: - 1 Tim. 1:5.
Romans 5 - Righteousness, Grace & Faith (cont.)
1:43:10 - Rom. 5 - v.21 (cont.) - Grace through faith that is founded in righteousness - That as sin hath reigned unto death, even so might grace reign through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord. - So I am saved by grace through faith and they flow through righteousness. So as I release faith in the truth, grace comes to make that truth my reality without me biting my lip to change. So I am what I am by the grace of God - 1 Cor. 15:10. And all glory goes to God.
1:43:45 - I can’t take credit - It’s all from God - So there is no super-Christian on the earth, just believers. There are not going to be “Best Christian of the Year” awards. No man has anything unless it’s been given to him - John 3:27. There is no place for boasting in men. Whatever a man has, he has received.
1:44:35 - Healthy honoring of God’s workers - Let their faith be reproduced in you - If we glean anything from the man that has received, let’s glean the power of faith because faith is what’s receiving it. And let’s give honor for faith and let’s reproduce it. And let’s stop making much of men. Because no man has anything unless God has given it and he has received it. So if we honor a man for anything let’s honor him for his faith and let it be reproduce in our lives.
1:45:00 - When you hold someone in honor what you hold in honor gets multiplied in you - So if you honor a righteous man as a righteous man, you’ll receive a righteous man’s reward - Mt. 10:41. So if you see a righteous man and honor a righteous man - if you see the beauty and blessing and power of righteousness, guess what you are going to do if you hold him in honor, receive that same thing into your life - righteousness is going to be multiplied in you and you are going to become that same thing.
Fasting
➡ 1:45:30 - I know that I’ve been camping in a lot of the same stuff. I hope you have gotten something out of it. Last session we talked about healing a little bit and that seemed helpful. But I want to talk about something that is not a super popular topic. It’s misunderstood. There’s controversy over it. I want to talk about fasting for just a little bit.
1:45:55 - Fasting isn’t works. You’re not doing anything extra to get favor from God. You have favor from God. You don’t fast to get accepted by God. You are accepted by God.
1:46:10 - It’s not a matter of “If you fast…” but “When you fast…” - Jesus said, “When you fast…” - Mt. 6:16. He didn’t say, “If you fast…” He didn’t say, “If you decide to fast…” He said, “When you fast…” And then He talked to his followers about fasting.
1:46:20 - Objections to fasting: Not for today - We're feasting not fasting - Many people say that fasting is not really for this day. They say, “We’re not fasting. We’re feasting.” It’s really important to understand the power and simplicity of fasting.
1:46:35 - The purpose behind fasting - Suppress the voice of the flesh - Lift up the spirit - The purpose of fasting is to suppress the carnal nature and make sure that the flesh is always subdued so that you live in the power and awareness of the Spirit. That’s all fasting is. Fasting keeps your flesh from raging.
1:46:50 - The voice of the flesh - People don’t realize how alive their flesh is and how pampered they are by their flesh. “Well, I’m tired. I’ve been standing too long. I’m uncomfortable. It’s too hot.” Fasting will even take that out of your life. We get moody because of inconvenience and being uncomfortable. We live in a society where we stay at the perfect temperature… Fasting will get you out of that (need to cater to the flesh).
1:47:15 - Live by the voice of the spirit - Not the voice of the flesh - You don’t want to be weak in your flesh. You don’t want your flesh to tell you how you are doing. You want the truth to tell you how you are doing. You want your spirit man to tell you how you are doing.
1:47:45 - The fast of Daniel - Not the kind of fast that Jesus is talking about - The Daniel fast isn’t really a fast. You are just not eating the delicacies of the king. It’s really just a healthy diet. We call it a fast but because of Daniel’s heritage and background and conscience Daniel didn’t give himself to the succulent delicacies of the king. He abstained - that’s why we call it a fast. Why did he abstain? Because he didn’t want to live there. I don’t want to grow soft. I’ll just eat vegetables, etc. My countenance will be fine. You’ll see. And his countenance was amazing. Now we call it the Daniel fast. I’m not against doing that. You can do that kind of fast.
1:48:20 - True Bible fasting is abstaining from food but not water - It’s just drinking water. The Bible says the Jesus fasted for 40 days. It doesn’t say that He thirsted but that He was hungry. So you drink water. Water is a healthy part of a fast. Water flushes. It cleanses. You need to drink water when you fast but you abstain from food.
1:48:40 - Time frames - Don’t let your fast just be about reaching a point in time - You don’t have to look at a time frame when you fast. That gets people into trouble. You say, “Well, Jesus did 40 days. Moses did 40 days. Elijah did 40 days. And if you don’t fast for forty days, who are you? You’ve got to do 40 days." And then people are just trying to reach a point in time. That gets into works and it’s not cool.
1:49:00 - You can fast for long periods and not receive lasting benefit - Motive is important - I know people that felt compelled to fast 40 days but there is really no benefit in their lives. I know people who fasted for 40 day and are hardly serving the Lord right now - meaning living Jesus. Don’t miss the point and get into works.
1:49:20 - Don't miss the point of fasting - Understand why you are fasting - If you are fasting and you walk into a room where someone is cooking something delicious and you go, “Oh, my goodness. Smell that. And I am fasting today. Bummer.” Just go eat. Because you are missing the whole point of fasting.
1:49:30 - It's not about making yourself suffer - It's about suppressing the cry of the flesh - You are not suffering yourself. You are teaching yourself. I can make you a meal while I am fasting. I can serve you a meal and sit down with you while you eat because I understand what I am doing. I’m not suffering my body. I’m suppressing the carnal cry of the flesh. It’s totally subdued. It’s saying, “Yes sir” to my spirit and soul.
1:50:00 - It's about listening to the voice of the spirit - It makes you very Spirit conscious. It opens your eyes to hear. And you have no sensuality or cry of the flesh that gets in the way - static that gets in the way. Mainly it’s just living soft in the flesh. I don’t think we realize how pampered we live in the flesh. We live pretty cushy and comfortable. We don’t like to get out of our comfort zone. That’s why you have the comforter. You probably ought to get out of your comfort zone so that He has a job.
1:50:40 - What to expect - 2 to 3 days - Habit hunger - You’re body is going, “Dude what are you doing? I thought we were buds. Why don’t you feed me?”
1:51:00 - Prayer AND fasting - It’s prayer and fasting. You are not just abstaining from food. Father I just thank you for life in the Spirit. Hunger pang - “Feed me. Feed me.” Drink a glass of water. It will suppress that hunger pang. People feel hunger in the first 2 or 3 days of a fast. But if you really get locked in you won’t get hit by a lot of hunger pangs - if you really understand what you are doing.
1:51:25 - Entering into a fast - Getting locked in - When I enter into fasts Holy Spirit directs me to put off human stuff - Father, I thank you that I’m not an impatient man. You have built temperance in me. God, I thank you that I am not an angry, stressed out, frustrated man. I just lay those things aside and I just give you everything that I would ever be in the flesh so life in the Spirit can reign in me. <Kneeling> God, I submit myself to you - I yield myself to you as I enter into this fast. I’m a man of the Spirit. <Prostrate> God, I give myself to you and I honor you. Be honored through my life. And God, I just thank you that I can hear your voice and walk in your love - your nature. Your nature is very relevant to me. Thank you God, that through this fast these things will increase even more - I’ll hear you more and know you more and people will see you more through me. And as I am praying that, I am putting on life in the Spirit and rising up. And now I am locked in and ready to go. I could cook you a steak and it won’t bother me because I see what I am doing. And my flesh is subdued in that place.
1:52:10 - I am getting lined up - So I walk into a place alone with Him - Father, I thank you that I am a spirit - that I have a soul and that my soul is in agreement with everything that my spirit man is wanting to say and do. And my flesh says, “Yes sir!” My flesh is not a distraction. It’s not weak because I am a man of prayer. And I thank you God, that I walk as one before you - spirit, soul and body - blameless until you come.
1:52:30 - Flesh is not a detriment - He manifests Himself through my flesh - So I don’t see my flesh as a detriment. I don’t see it as an evil tag along. My flesh is actually what houses Him and harbors Him and manifests Him. He flows through my flesh. Why do you have a body? To manifest what’s inside. Isn’t that why God put flesh on a man? To express and manifest what’s inside. You know them by their fruit - Mt. 7:16. You clean the inside of the cup and the outside will be clean as well - Mt. 23:26.
1:53:10 - I'm not a puppet but a son - So it’s not like a puppet show. I’m not God’s puppet. I’m His son. And why do I have flesh? So that it can house the Spirit and manifest what’s inside.
1:53:25 - What to expect - Fasting is just a wonderful tool. Three days in - for the the average person, your hunger will go away after about three days. When you get to 4, 5, 6 days into fasting, you are really not hungry. Your body shuts down and says, “Hey, I get the point. For some reason we are not eating.” And your body goes into shutdown mode. Metabolism goes way down. Your body starts house cleaning, resting. Your digestive organs get a little vacation. It’s just a good healthy deal.
1:54:00 - Understand that you are suppressing the carnal nature - Raising your awareness of the spirit - And after 6,7,8 days it would actually take effort to break the fast, when you go into it right and have the right perspective. If you are just trying not to eat to earn something, you are going to struggle like crazy. But if you understand that you are suppressing the carnal nature to make yourself more aware in the spirit and live by the Spirit, it’s a fun journey. Fasting is a fun journey.
1:54:35 - Breaking a fast - Discipline required because you trigger hunger - When you are coming off a two week fast don’t go eat a pizza. Don’t go to a steakhouse. More discipline is required for coming off of a fast than for actually doing the fast. When you start to break the fast you trigger hunger. And your body says, “Oooh, we’re eating again!” So after a long fast start with diluted juice.
1:55:00 - Good books on fasting - I always read Atomic Power with God Through Prayer and Fasting by Franklin Hall from the 1950’s. It has all of the health aspects to it.
1:55:10 - Breaking a fast - Discipline required - So more discipline is required in coming off of a fast than in actually doing the fast because once you trigger hunger, your body says, “Yeah, feed me!” So don’t just gorge yourself.
1:55:25 - Don’t subvert the reason for your fast in the way that you come off of a fast - I know people who fast for 7 days and then go eat a big meal as if it is some kind of reward or something. And you just subvert the whole purpose of why you fasted for 7 days. Really, after you fast you should not go back to any unhealthy eating patterns because the whole purpose is to find temperance in your life and live in a healthy spiritual balance.
1:55:45 - It’s not about gaining power - It’s about subduing the flesh and putting your spirit man in charge - A fast doesn’t give you extra power to pray. That’s what people think. It makes you more conscious and aware of the spirit. Now that could create more power and flow in your life but the whole goal is to get your flesh subdued and your spirit man ruling.
1:56:00 - HCSKL 2011 fasting teaching - I’m just nutshelling this. I don’t have a lot of time. In the 2011 HCSKL school there is a session where I talked on fasting (Day 32 - towards the end and Day 33). I think I used the whole three hours and used scripture and everything. But now, I’m just nutshelling it.
1:56:10 - Break a fast gradually - teach yourself self-control - When you come off of a fast you want to break it gradually. Dilute a little juice and drink it. Soft fruits the next day - just a little bit. And a little more later in that day. Probably if you fast 8, 9, 10 days, you ought to take a good 5 or 6 days to come back to eating meals. And even then you want to teach yourself temperance - self-control.
1:56:45 - We eat healthy - I don’t have a lot of knowledge about nutrition and I am not a health food guy, even though I think I eat pretty healthy. We grow a lot of the stuff that we eat in our garden. We eat a lot of the stuff that I get - fish, etc. There are a lot of meals on our table where nothing came from a grocery store. So I think I eat pretty good that way.
1:57:00 - Live by the rule of temperance - Self-control - So am I against eating potato chips? No. I just ate some of those Chesapeake Crab chips. They are good. But I won’t eat the whole bag. I just ate a little hand full. And there will be another handful the next time that I eat them. So I don’t eat chips that often. And when I eat them my conscience is fine. But I don’t eat them all the time. And I don’t eat the whole bag. Do you see what I mean? I live by the rule of temperance - self-control.
1:57:20 - Other benefits of fasting - Helps with not complaining - And fasting keeps me in that place. I’ve learned that fasting keeps me from being a complainer. I can be uncomfortable…
1:57:40 - Sandwiched on an airplane - I was on an airplane in between 2 ladies and together we needed 5 seats but we only had 3. I was pressed on both sides - I mean pressed - and I was OK. I was just a Dan sandwich. They were the buns and I was the meat. It kept me warm the whole flight.
1:58:25 - Seating assignments on flights - I purposely don't pick what I am entitled to - I do personal things outside of fasting. I’m not telling you to do them. It’s stuff that I do. I have status with every airline that I fly. I fly a lot. But I don’t ever pick my seats. I just take whatever they put me in. I check in but I never pick my seat. So I end up in the middle sometimes. Sometimes I’m only 2 seats from the pooper. It’s OK. I don’t want to ever get to a place where I can’t sit in the middle or I can’t sit by the pooper because somebody has to sit there. And I just don’t want to live that way.
1:58:55 - I don’t want to be a complainer - Avoid worldly strong preferences - I don’t want to have such a strong preference that I can’t be Ok if I don’t get my way. So a seat is a seat to me. I’m thankful to be on the plane. Somebody has to sit in the middle. Why can’t it ever be you. I’m not telling you that you have to do that. It works for me. It keeps me humble and it keeps me from ever being a complainer.
1:59:20 - Live in such a way that you are prepared NOT to complain when you don’t get the best - I don’t know how to be a complainer any more. I can be uncomfortable for a long time and say nothing and actually be OK being uncomfortable. Think about getting into a situation like that and you need to be ready and in the power of the Spirit. What if you get into a tough situation… what if crisis hits? What if you get into a situation where you need that kind of temperance. We need to build up to be ready in season and out of season and always have fruit on the tree and have it never wither. Abide and remain in the Almighty. Fasting accomplishes all of that.
1:59:55 - Fasting with regard to addictive / compulsive behaviors - If you have addictive / compulsive behaviors, a good 3-5 day fast, if you do it the right way, with the right heart, and stick to it and pray and ask for grace and resist that thing and say, Father I thank you for life in the Spirit. I am not a person of the flesh. I’m a person of the spirit. Holy Spirit, I thank you for grace right now on my life. And you just start resisting that compulsion… 3 to 5 days of just heavy prayer and fasting will crush most compulsions and little behaviors and addictions. It will.
2:00:30 - Don’t be afraid to fail in fasting. You can’t fail on a fast. If you break the fast just start again sometime. Ramp back up some time. It’s not about failing. It’s about becoming. It’s never about failing.
2:00:45 - If you are so revved up about fasting that you can fail, then you are getting caught up into legalistic stuff and works anyway. It’s probably not cool to fast in the first place because you’ve got the wrong idea. It’s a grace - a privilege - a tool. Prayer and fasting.
2:01:00 - Epileptic boy - Unbelief comes out through prayer and fasting - What did Jesus say when the disciples asked Him why they couldn’t heal the boy or cast out the demon in Mt. 17:19? Jesus said that it was because of your unbelief. And that translates, “It’s because of what you fail to see. But truly I tell you this: if you see what I see, you’ll do what I do and nothing shall be impossible for you. However, this kind will not come out but by prayer and fasting.” What kind? This kind of unbelief. This kind of failing to see. Where you are praying for the sick and you get self-conscious. Where you are praying and your mind gets in the way. Where you are praying and you are looking at the situation and you are not seeing the change and your mind is going on tilt while the words are coming out of your mouth that you are calling faith.
2:01:45 - When they said, “Why couldn’t we heal the boy?” He said, “Because of your unbelief.” They are not talking about epilepsy any more. They are talking about unbelief - perverse generation - twisted minded - corrupted thinking people. You are failing to see who you are now that I am here. Yes, if you have faith the size of a mustard seed you will say to the mountain, “Move!” and it will move. So it has nothing to do with the person in trouble. It has to do with believer representing the kingdom. He said, “However, this kind of thinking - this kind of unbelief - this kind of self-conscious behavior will not come out - your life will never be free from it except through prayer and fasting."
2:02:25 - Prayer and fasting suppresses self-consciousness - So prayer and fasting suppresses the carnal man. It suppresses the awareness of self (self-consciousness). Fasting is a big deal. It’s important and don’t let anybody talk you out of it. It’s scriptural and it’s powerful. It will make you strong in the Spirit. It will make you mature and temperate with regard to the flesh. You won’t be soft in the flesh.
2:02:55 - Pastors going to Haiti - Live free from complaining - They thought they would be spiritual giants there. Driving in unairconditioned truck on bumpy road to the unairconditioned church. We should have dressed different. [They were unhappy about the conditions.] Complaining. Miserable. But the people of the church were worshiping away - sweat pouring off of them. And all the people had was love for Jesus. The pastors said they just hit their faces and said, “God forgive us. We are so spoiled it’s ridiculous.” I don’t want to be that way - complaining. If it’s hot, it’s hot. Jesus is still the same.
2:04:15 - Remembering meetings in Fritztown, PA - Hot. Meeting in fire hall. People stuffed in.
2:04:45 - Live free from complaining - It’s great when people learn not to complain and more than that don't see the reason to complain. I think that’s a more mature place.
2:05:10 - Fasting summary - Suppress the voice of the flesh - Live from the spirit - Soul & flesh in alignment - It’s not about works - or failing - or suffering yourself so that now you smell all of these good foods and bummer that you can't eat them because you are on a fast. It’s not about that. I tell people to just go ahead and eat the thing - regroup and start over later. It’s about desiring to build in the spirit - suppress the carnal man and push down the flesh to where your spirit is in control and your soul is in alignment and your flesh is following along like a helpmate. Spirit, soul and body blameless until He comes. That’s a good place to live.
2:05:50 - Closing prayer - Father, we just thank you. We love You. We appreciate You. Father I ask that you pour grace upon these people and their faithfulness to come. I know it’s not works and You don’t owe them anything and they are not earning anything but it’s obvious that there is hunger here. And you give grace to the humility and hunger of people’s hearts. I am thanking you for grace that empowers them - that You would take all of these sessions together and add the truth and the glory and the wisdom and the fruit of it all and let it manifest in our lives. I’m asking that it would be impossible to sit in these sessions and not see a valid increase and beautiful things in our lives. And that others would see something. That people would approach these people and say, “Man, what is this? How come…?” And “I’ve noticed…” God without us trying to be evangelistic, let people be touched, influence and even comment. I’m asking for that encouragement. I’m asking that there would be no way that we could be in these sessions and not see effective transformation in our lives. So Lord thank you. No faces veiled - harmony between You and us - harmony in our homes - harmony in relationships. God I thank you for grace and peace and I thank you most for love. God bless these folks and I thank you for it in Jesus’ holy name. Amen.