Continue with the topic we were talking about last week where we said that the power of
God is present so why isn't it surging?
If the power of God is present then it is present because the Holy Spirit lives in us
and Acts 1-8 said when the Holy Spirit comes upon you, you will have the power you require.
So the power is present, why is it not surging?
So that's what we started on last week and let's look at some other ways whereby we can
have the power of God that's present in us surge.
So if you go to Exodus 33-20, Exodus 33-20, Exodus 33-20, I thought it was 20, Exodus
33-13, nope, ah, 17, Exodus 33-17, Exodus 33-17, yeah, so here's what it says, it says
and the Lord said to Moses, I will do the very thing you have asked.
So sometimes when we think that we've asked God for something, we don't see it happen,
you suddenly feel powerless because you talk about how God is a God of power, you talk
about how Jesus can do this and that and yet when it comes to you actually stepping forward
and doing something, the power seems to be absent, nothing seems to happen.
What you said Jesus can do doesn't seem to materialize and then you have to come up with
why and sometimes the reasons are terrible, sometimes the reasons are honest but in Exodus
33-17, God says to Moses, I will do the very thing, I will do the very thing you have asked
for, you have asked for and why is it that he'll do the very thing that Moses has asked
for?
So there are three reasons, one, I am pleased with you, I am pleased with you, another version
says I know you well, second one is I know you by name, I know you by name or in other
words, you are special to me.
And so it seems like the very thing that Moses asked God did but he gives a reason as to
why he did what Moses asked and his reason is Moses, you are special to me, I know you
by name, I am pleased with you, I know you well, I know you well, you are special to
me, I know you by name, that seems to be the reason that God gives but see in the Old Testament
perhaps that was true but isn't this true for us, isn't this true for us, isn't all
this true for us in Christ?
That I am pleased with you Jacob, I know you well, I know you by name, you are special
to me, isn't that true?
If that is the case then why is it that I am still not able to see what Moses saw when
every time he would ask God for something, it would happen, power seemed to flow without
a problem.
I think this part, I am pleased with you, I know you well, I know you by name, you are
special to me, is actually the case for each of us.
I don't know if you actually believe that but it is true.
Betty, it's so hard to believe this eh?
I find it difficult where you actually believe that I am pleased with you, I know you well,
I know you by name, you are special to me and so perhaps one of the first things that
to happen is for me to realize those four statements with a, childlike simplicity,
b without analysis or power, power is not enough, power is not enough, power is not
enough.
C, a surrender of self preservation and control.
These two things, self preservation and control are love resistors eh, they are love resistors
And they resist love regardless of whether it's your spouse,
whether it's God, or whether it's the church.
Whenever there's a reluctance to surrender,
self-preservation, independence, and control,
love is always resisted.
It doesn't matter how much someone loves you.
If I am self-preserving, if I like independence,
and if I like being in control,
it doesn't matter how much someone loves me,
I will not be able to receive that love.
Not possible.
Just impossible too.
And we're talking about God being resisted
when I am self-preserving, when I wanna be independent,
because sometimes God's love can be so overwhelming,
you wanna keep Him at a distance
because you want to have your own way too.
And so you distance Himself.
I remember when I was young and I wanted to sin,
I would take the Bible and put it in another room
so that I wouldn't feel guilty.
Crazy, eh?
Just wanted to keep the Bible out of sight.
Because every time I'd look at the Bible,
I'd think about, oops, this will be a problem with sinning.
Let's put it away.
So it's amazing how much these three play into
childlike simplicity.
That's another thing, eh?
Without having childlike simplicity,
it's almost impossible for us to receive love.
And so these four things are actually true.
I know it's hard for us to believe it.
I know we've been over it over and over again.
I am pleased with you.
I know you by name.
You are special to me.
And I know you well.
Our statements that are usually like sawdust in our mouth,
we can say to others, but it doesn't mean much to us.
Can I hear an amen or is this only my struggle?
Yeah, and if you didn't say amen, great.
I'm glad that you are where you are.
And bless you, may you increase.
But this is something that I do not embed myself in
on a daily 24 seven basis.
One of the reasons power does not surge
is because I do not occupy the space.
And we'll talk about why.
Any questions on this?
Any comments?
Anything you wanna share from your side?
No?
Is this true for you?
It is?
Don't speak so loudly.
I can't hear all of you at one time, yeah?
It is important for me to live here
so that he can do everything that I have asked for.
Because without living here, without living there,
I can't ask for things confidently.
I can't ask for things that are his desire.
And I can't ask for things that will take time.
Whenever things take time, whenever answers take time,
we think God doesn't love us.
So let me go over that again.
I'm pleased with you, Jacob.
I know you well.
I know you by name.
You are special to me.
There are occasions when I believe that,
but very often that is not the place
that I'm embedded in 24 seven.
Because I'm not, I then begin to struggle with the fact
that things don't happen to my life.
One, because I can't ask for things confidently
because I'm not sure that he loves me enough to deliver.
I can't ask for things confidently
because I'm not sure that his desire and my desire match.
I can't ask for things confidently
because when it takes time,
I begin to doubt whether he has my intent
and desires at heart.
And so I struggle with it.
It affects my faith.
It affects endurance.
It affects love.
It affects everything.
How do I change this?
I change this to childlike simplicity.
I stop trying to analyze and I do not need proof.
And I need to surrender self preservation,
control and independence.
Even with your spouse, if there is self preservation,
if there is independence, there is control,
it doesn't matter how loving your spouse is,
you will not be able to receive his or her love.
Any questions?
Self preservation is basically me not allowing you
into some areas, because if I do,
either I will be exposed or you may see something
I'm ashamed of or I don't want you to get in there
because there'll be nothing left.
I'll be naked before you.
And so I protect myself.
Any questions, any comments?
Okay, go ahead.
The C part.
Yeah, a surrender of self preservation,
independence and control.
One of the things with children,
and this is why the first part is so important,
to have childlike simplicity.
The reason children are able to receive love so easily
is because they preserve nothing.
They're completely helpless.
Self preservation is helplessness.
A lack of self, meaning when you negate self preservation,
you're actually saying you're helpless.
Children don't control anything.
They do not even have the capacity to control something,
so they're at an advantage.
We as grownups think we control something.
It's an illusion.
You control nothing.
There is nothing you control.
Tell me one thing you control.
Tell me one thing in your life you control.
One thing, your breath, you don't control that.
You don't control anything.
You don't control which way you will be going home today.
You don't control what time you will reach.
You don't control when I will finish this sermon.
You don't control squat.
It's a complete illusion, but kids don't know that.
We think we know it.
And thirdly, independence,
where there's nothing that kids want to do on their own.
If anything, you hate the fact
that they're so dependent on you.
Most parents will deny it, but the truth is they hate it.
Do something yourself.
Go change your pampers by yourself.
They won't.
So at the end of the day,
it is impossible to receive the fullness of the love of God
without these three things being active.
And once you do,
or even if occasionally you get into the space,
it is splendid what can happen.
Splendid.
And we'll talk about that.
Guys, everybody here is capable of moving here, right?
Moving this way.
Everybody.
Nothing here is hard.
It's hard to practice it so that it becomes constant,
but nothing here is hard.
Finn, Mark's son, was saying that since January,
he's been reading the Bible constantly.
And he says, Jacob,
it is the hardest thing to do,
to read things consistently.
And he said, from January till today,
I've been reading two chapters every day,
and it's fascinating how much I've finished.
He's only doing two chapters.
But you and I know how hard that is.
This is not hard to get to.
It's just hard to stay.
So here are some statements that perhaps will help.
If Jesus was speaking to you,
he would say, as he said in John 13,
I love you the way my father loves me.
That would be the statement he would make
to anybody and everybody in this room.
I love you, Jesus would say,
just the way the father loves me.
It's the same way that I love you.
And so, make yourself
intimately at home
in my love.
Important words, home intimately.
Love.
Let's just wait there and then go on to the next statement.
I love you the way my father loves you.
The same way the father loves him,
and the father loves him perfectly.
The father loves him always.
The father has loved him since time didn't exist.
There's only been love for Jesus.
There are three things that Jesus thrives in.
Affection, intimacy, and
affection, intimacy, and love.
There's affection between the father and the son.
There's intimacy between the father and the son.
And they love each other.
And he's saying, listen, I love you the same way
my father has loved me from everlasting to everlasting.
You don't get anything less than that, Jacob.
You get the same quality of love
that I have constantly received from my father.
It's hard to comprehend, which is why he says,
make yourself intimately at home in my love.
The word intimately is important
because his love carries in it emotions,
affection, it carries in it thinking and feeling.
To be able to pursue God is impossible
if the word intimate is not in there.
It's not possible.
So the question you need to ask yourself is,
one, am I in that kind of a relationship
where I have an intimate relationship with the father
or the son or the Holy Spirit?
Where there are tears, where there's laughing,
where there's grief, where there's hurt,
where there's feeling let down.
Are these feelings part of your intimate relationship?
He doesn't let you down, but you can feel let down.
Is intimacy part of the relationship?
And if it is not a part of the relationship,
then I want us to know that as humans,
we are absolutely capable of it
because that's how God made us.
To say that, no, that's not how I am,
that I do not express myself is an absolute lie.
Let me tell you how horrible a lie it is.
It is a lie from the pit of hell.
Why?
Because God made humans that way.
He made us that way.
Adam had an intimate relationship with God
when he would come down to the garden and walk together.
He had an intimate relationship.
Humans are made that way.
It's just natural for us.
And as believers, it's even more natural.
It's just that we haven't tried it.
And if we tried it, it happens occasionally
and we don't try it again.
Intimate at home in my love.
I love the way it says it, at home.
It's a place where you dwell.
It's a place where your clothes are all over the place
if that's how you live.
Our clothes are all stacked properly if you're Sheldon.
But the point is this.
The first time I met Sheldon,
and I had a prophetic word for him,
and here was part of the prophetic word for Sheldon.
Sheldon, if I came and opened your drawer,
all your vests and socks and everything
would be neatly arranged.
And he's looking at me like,
when did you look into my drawer?
But that's how he is.
I hope you're still like that.
Good.
So, moving on from Sheldon's wardrobe,
making yourself intimately at home in my love.
To be at home.
Home is a place where you dwell the most.
And so can you do the same while you're here in church,
while you're at work,
where this becomes a nest for you.
These things are not abstracts.
These things are not pictures.
These things are real.
They can be practiced.
You do that when you fall in love.
It doesn't matter whether you're at work,
you'll be thinking of her.
When you're cooking,
or you're putting a few spices,
I just thought of you and I thought you were spicy,
so I put some extra spices.
That's a terrible line.
But the point is this.
Yeah, that line didn't work at all.
Guys, don't use that line.
It's disastrous, eh?
Especially the last row there.
And the sound guys, except Matt.
At the end of the day,
we are able to be at home anywhere when we are in love.
We are able to be at home anywhere when we are in love.
And the attempt today is,
I can got tetas to do this on a regular basis,
starting perhaps today.
Let's look at another statement.
The hardest thing for you,
make this your core identity.
Make this your core identity.
Because I do love you as my own.
And John realized this.
Where do we know and see him doing this?
In John 13, verse 23, it says,
at some point, John just was sitting next to Jesus,
and he asked him,
John just was sitting next to Jesus,
and he actually just leans back
and rests his head on Jesus' chest.
I don't know what the other disciples thought, eh?
Which also shows us that not all the disciples
could enter into that kind of a relationship.
Not because Jesus was withholding it,
but because one had the ability to and took advantage of it.
Anyone here who takes advantage of this
and moves into this will run ahead of all of us.
Anyone here, it doesn't matter how old you are,
how young you are, how much you know the Bible,
how much you don't know the Bible.
At the end of the day, anyone who enters here
will run ahead of us.
Just like John ran ahead, even at the tomb,
he runs ahead.
He doesn't enter because he defers to Peter,
because he knows that Jesus had Peter in mind,
and he defers to Peter,
but you will run ahead if you go there.
You had 12 of them,
and one of them has the ability to lean back.
Treat him like he was his bosom buddy,
which is why then you see him writing the way he does
in 1 John, 2 John, and 3 John.
The sad thing is we don't even long for it.
We don't even know what it is.
The sad thing is we don't even long for it
because we have never seen it nor tasted it.
And we don't taste it with our own spouses
and our own families.
So how can we even see a real model?
Well then, you get up and show us.
Stop using the excuse, and I'm not saying you do,
but if for a moment you're thinking,
but I didn't receive love,
or I have been loveless all my life,
well then get up, Christ is enough,
and show us, break the cycle,
break the blooming cycle,
and show us what it is to live like this.
Yep.
Off living like this, yeah.
So let me skip about 14 lines to answer Dilna's question.
Okay, so there are three ways we can try and do this.
The first way is to have an open-handed
or open-hearted ability to receive
the overwhelming love of the Father.
What does that look like?
Because that's a great line, but what does it look like?
To begin with, have hands like this,
or have some kind of a sign where you're walking to work
and counting bottles and suddenly, sorry.
Sorry, the light just came in.
So, see this is the problem if you ask questions.
So you have this open-handed sense where,
it doesn't matter whether you're walking down the street
at work, you suddenly remember that you have
an open-hearted, open-handed ability to receive God's love.
What does that look like?
That looks like sometimes him noticing
how you're struggling and you've climbed up
your own sycamore tree and he looks at you and says,
come down, I know you're feeling lousy.
I know you are ostracized.
I know you're not doing well with me,
but I wanna come to your house for tea.
Or it looks like him looking at someone
who's just engaged in lust or porn or something
and he looks at you and he says, listen,
look into my eyes and know that you're forgiven
and don't sin anymore.
Or it looks like walking with you suddenly
when you have nothing to do with God
and he's walking with you and your heart begins to burn
because it's just like the two guys who were walking
down the road to M.A.S.
Or it's a whisper.
It's just a whisper that says, Jacob,
you are special to me.
Or it's a really loud voice where a car goes past you
and it has the initials JJ777
and you know that those two numbers can't combine
because JJ is Jacob's name and 777 is God's favorite number.
Or it's John leaning back where you're praying
and you're singing a song and suddenly you know
the strange embrace of God because God is the only one
who can turn up invisible into a space and embrace you
and you know he's there.
You know, there's no person here who is alive
who will not know it if God turns up.
Whether you respond to it or not is different
but knowing it, you will spot it.
Or sometimes, this open-handed, open-hearted living
on a daily basis is beautiful.
It's beautiful.
You receive from him.
I mean, listen to some of the scriptures.
Sometimes it's words that God says.
Listen to some of these scriptures.
Go to Hosea 11.
I'll only take verse one and four.
I'll read from the message.
Hosea 11, verse one and four.
Because he's actually rebuking them
but you can still see what he's trying to say to them.
Hosea 11, verses one to four.
When Israel was only a child, I loved him
and I called out my son.
I called him out of Egypt.
Put your name there.
When Dilnah was only a child, I loved him.
I called out, said, my son, and I called him out of Egypt.
And look at verse four.
He never admitted that I was the one pulling the wagon
but I lifted him up like a baby to my cheek
that I bent down to feed him.
You see these parents doing that to their little children,
lifting up, putting them to their cheek.
An open-handed, open-hearted approach
where constantly you remind yourself.
And this is how I walk.
And the only reason I'm saying a gesture
because sometimes gestures are able to
launch us into something.
We can say hello to a person without stretching out our hands
but there's something to a gesture that brings it alive.
Go to Isaiah 43.
Isaiah 43.
He's been doing this for very long.
It's just we sometimes forget.
Isaiah 43, verse three and four.
Because I am God, your personal God,
the holy of Israel, your savior,
I paid a huge price for you,
all of Egypt with rich kush and sabre thrown in.
Listen to the next line.
That's how much you mean to me.
I love you.
I'd sell off the whole world to get you back.
Trade creation just for you.
So don't be afraid, I'm with you.
Open-handed, open-hearted approach.
2 Corinthians 6.
Let's go to Psalm 139.
Psalm 139.
That's a brilliant Psalm that just talks about that.
Psalm 139.
Starting at verse three.
You know when I leave, when I get back,
I'm never out of your sight.
You know everything I'm going to say
before I even start the first sentence.
I look behind me and you're there,
then up ahead and you're there too.
You're reassuring presence coming and going.
This is too much, too wonderful.
I can't take it all in.
Is there any place I can go to avoid your spirit
to be out of your sight?
If I climb to the sky, you're there.
If I go up to the sky, you're there.
If I climb to the sky, you're there.
If I go underground, you're there.
I flew on morning's wings to the far western horizon.
You'd find me in a minute.
You're already there waiting.
Then I said to myself, oh, he even sees me in the dark.
At night I'm immersed in the light.
It's a fact.
Darkness isn't dark to you.
Night and day, darkness and light,
they're all the same to you.
Oh yes, you shaped me first inside and then out.
You formed me in my mother's womb.
I thank you, high God.
You are breathtaking body and soul.
I'm marvelously made.
I worship in adoration.
What a creation.
You know me inside and out.
You know every bone in my body.
You know exactly how I was made bit by bit,
how I was sculpted from nothing into something.
Like an open book, you watch me grow from conception to birth.
All the stages of my life spread out before you.
The days of my life prepared before I even lived one day.
Your thoughts, oh God, how rare, how beautiful.
God, I'll never comprehend them.
Open-handed, open-hearted.
It's just a gesture, but it'll make you alive
during the day where you suddenly realize,
oh my God, he loves me.
And different ways he'll convey that to you.
Never worry about conveying.
Always be concerned with the childlike simplicity
that allows you to recognize your child.
You can't just say, oh, I love you.
It allows you to recognize and savor
the love of this father and of the son and of the spirit.
The triune God, you cannot fall through the cracks.
That's how he is.
And you'll get very, very strong.
Very strong.
Once this happens,
it's tremendous strength.
So, Jesus, is that like rewriting
of what you said in Scripture?
Is it in your eyes or is it in your spirit?
Not necessarily.
I mean, think of this, guys.
I know Scripture is super important,
but what did they do before the 16th century?
Were they not amazing saints?
One, they're brilliant Christians
who never got a chance to be a Christian.
Christians who never got to read a page of the Bible
because it wasn't printed?
It was oral tradition only?
Yes, now that we have the Scriptures,
we have a distinct advantage
and we get to know the nature of God individually
without even it being necessarily taught
because we can read it.
But there was a time when it was not available
and yet there were amazing saints
who penned poems and wrote books
about how much God loves.
He is not outside.
He fills everything.
And so he's able to touch your heart
like he did David's.
David didn't have scriptures to go with.
He only had the Torah, which was so stringent.
And then he writes Psalms.
And how does he write it?
The boy begins to do what we are saying.
He would sit in a field
and he would have open hands and an open heart and a harp.
And he would begin to write.
And as he wrote, it would be back and forth.
It becomes so...
It's like a baby in the amniotic fluid.
It wraps you.
It's all around you.
And you don't know how to breathe without it.
And then living outside of it becomes an anomaly.
For us, living outside seems normal.
Living in love seems like, huh, love?
Strange thing.
Tastes good though.
No, it's the other way around.
It is possible. It can be worked.
It just needs practice.
And it doesn't need long practice, guys.
It doesn't need long practice.
I'm telling you, the amount of progress you can make in one week...
One week you try this
and you will be surprised at how much progress you make.
And you become fearless.
Why? Why fearless?
Because perfect love casts out all fear and torment ends.
You become fearless.
Ezekiel 16.
Go to Ezekiel 16.
Why am I showing you these scriptures
so that you know that this is normal?
I'm showing you Old Testament scriptures.
Leave alone New Testament.
Starting at verse 6.
This is how he saw you when you were first...
before you became a believer.
This is not about when you were a child.
This is not about when you were a child,
but before you became a believer.
I promised you, my love,
entered the covenant of marriage with you.
I, God the Master, gave my word.
You became mine.
I gave you a good bath, washing off all that old blood,
anointed you with aromatic oils.
I dressed you in a colorful gown,
put leather sandals on your feet.
I gave you linen blouses, a fashionable wardrobe,
of expensive clothing.
I adorned you with jewelry.
I placed bracelets on your wrists,
fitted you with a necklace,
emerald rings, sapphire earrings, diamond tiara.
You were provided with everything precious and beautiful,
with exquisite clothes, elegant food,
garnished with honey and oil.
You were absolutely stunning.
You were a queen.
You became world famous.
A legendary beauty brought to perfection by my adornments,
decree of God the Master.
This love is extravagant, embarrassing,
and sometimes overwhelming,
because this is not,
I love you, but I will not provide for you.
What kind of love is that?
This love provides.
And doesn't provide just basic amenities for living.
This love provides plenty.
But I want the provision to prove that he loves me.
But he's saying,
but I love you, the provision is a byproduct.
You will be surprised at how real it is.
When you put the love in the person,
you put the horse before the cart and not the cart before the horse.
It doesn't matter what situation you're going through,
when this becomes where you live,
everything begins to fall into place.
This is who he is.
He's a father and he is love.
These are two essentials of who God is.
Sit in his presence.
So sometimes when I walk around like this,
it doesn't matter which country, which place, which situation,
my literal pleading is,
just wash over me with your love.
Wash over me.
Let it be like a huge wave that comes in,
like a surfer I'll walk towards, wash over me.
I don't want control, oh God.
Wash over me with your love so that I'm absolutely control-less.
And then take me anywhere you want.
You can then ask me,
do you love me more than these?
And my resounding answer will be yes.
Open-handed, open-hearted.
Suddenly you will not even need other people's love,
but it will be a bonus.
What are we doing here on earth?
Craving to be loved.
Oh, this person doesn't love me, this person loves me,
any, many, many more.
You don't love me, you love me more.
It just goes on and on, constantly craving for,
I'm not loved, I am not loved.
I'm not loved, I am loved.
And what happens then when this happens is you have everything
and then the love that you receive from Adam or from Eve
is something that brings great companionship into your life.
And you begin to enjoy it as a brilliant bonus.
It wasn't, ah, Adam, you look like you're not loved.
Let me provide you with someone who will love you.
No, it was, he saw that man was alone.
Not that man was not loved.
It was not good for man to be alone.
Pardon?
More than that, companionship is more than a physical need.
My God, man, Eve must have been a brilliant woman.
She must have been a brilliant woman.
Why? Because, I mean, these were first of creation, right?
I'm not, like, it was more than physical need.
It was more than physical need.
I'm not saying you're doing that.
We can't reduce Eve to a physical need.
It was much more than that.
It was intellectual, it was moral, it was physical, it was emotional.
But it was because he was alone, not because he was not loved.
He knew love like nobody knew love.
Because it was spirit to spirit, God and him,
walking together, walking together, walking together,
because spirit to spirit, God and him, walking together,
like Enoch did.
Therefore, if you're alone,
yeah, ask God, I don't want to be alone, get me married.
But if you're not alone, voila.
Sorry, that was again, erase, erase.
If you and I can do this, guys, it will break and possess,
break, possess and mold your heart every day.
Tomorrow try it, eh?
Tomorrow try it.
While you're doing things,
use whatever gesture you want to hand out.
Just give him, give him, give him 20 seconds.
He doesn't need 20 seconds, you need it.
He doesn't need 20 seconds to say, oh, you want me to love me,
love you, just give me 20 seconds, I've got to think of a creative way.
No, he's created 17 million insects.
He's creative enough.
17 million species of insects.
Who does that but God?
17 million species of insects.
Who does that but God?
And so you need 20 seconds or maybe two minutes to recognize this love
and let it wash over you.
And in the beginning it will be,
well, I've given you two minutes, nothing's happened.
What are you expecting to happen?
It's not an expectation.
Let him do it however he wants, begin to enjoy it.
Every little while go back into,
Father, I just want to stand here and receive how much you love.
That's the first part.
The second part is engage,
intimately participate in the Holy Spirit's engagement of the Father and the Son.
Intimately participate.
Practice intimate participation.
Practice intimate participation in the Spirit's engagement
with the Father and the Son.
Just as Jesus did.
Imagine the scene, eh?
He's gone into the synagogue.
He's taken the scroll.
He begins to open it.
And he's engaging with the Spirit.
Because what's he reading?
The Spirit of the Lord is upon me.
For he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor.
And he reads the whole thing.
And then he rolls back the scroll, gives it back.
And then he says,
Right now in your presence this scripture is being fulfilled.
The Spirit of, Jesus used to engage with the Spirit.
Jesus used to engage with the Father.
John 12, 27.
People are gathered and there's a voice.
And the voice says,
This is my Son in whom I'm well pleased.
And then some say it's thunder.
Some say it's an angel.
Some know it's a voice of God.
And then Jesus begins to speak and say,
Hey, I just want you to know that that was my Father saying these things about me.
But the only reason I'm even mentioning it to you is because I want you to know what my Father said.
I want to draw you in to what the Father said.
Matthew 11, same thing.
Verse 23 or 24.
He was walking down from Capernaum having been rejected by Capernaum.
And as he's walking, he's talking to the Father.
And I know I've said this before, but it is so beautiful.
As he's walking with the Father, he's saying,
Father, you know, everything that is yours is mine and everything that is mine is yours.
I just thank you that you've hidden great things from the wise.
But you reveal it to these guys who are walking behind me and who are simple.
And then he's talking to his Father and he's talking loud because it could not have been written had no one heard it.
What's he trying to do?
He's saying, Hey, Vibi, hey, Josh, hey, Mike.
Can I bring you along into a conversation that I'm having with the God who created everything,
who happens to be my Father?
I'm drawing you in to engage in that conversation.
And what did he say the Spirit will do?
The Spirit will bring us into all truth.
I will not leave you as orphans.
I have to go.
But you will have the same and better experience that you are having with me presently when the Spirit of God comes.
What's he saying?
Hey, participate with the Spirit and engage.
If you're reading something else, please don't read it and listen.
This is how it works.
Are you struggling with sickness?
Allow the Spirit of God to show you the marks left on his back, man.
We only think of the marks left on his hand that he showed Thomas and we talk a lot about it.
What about the side?
What about the back?
Plowed it open.
You think those marks disappeared and these marks stayed?
Why did he show these marks to Thomas?
Because he wanted to show him, listen, these are the evidence of crucifixion.
He has the ability to take you into places and show you things from the Scripture.
Hattel, melt your heart.
Intimately participate in the Holy Spirit's engagement with the Father and the Son.
There are times when the Spirit of God won't tell you.
You can imagine this Jesus who constantly engages with the Spirit is touched by a woman
and he doesn't know who touched him.
He just knows power has left him.
And he must have been searching the mind of the Spirit because he always knows everything by the Spirit.
But this one time, the Spirit of God isn't telling him.
Isn't that a wonderful mystery too?
Where he's not telling him.
He says, I know someone touched me.
Power has left me.
But who touched me?
Because there are times when the Spirit of God will say, not telling you this one, figure it out.
And now the woman comes and kneels before him.
At the risk of humanizing God, I want you and me to understand that he is an absolute person
which is why he can say, I have made you in my image.
He's an absolute person.
Only he's not a person.
And so you must try and engage with him as you would a person only at a level of Spirit to Spirit.
Not touch.
But he's an absolute person.
We don't have to understand it.
We have to comprehend it.
You can never understand the sunrise.
Never.
I've seen far more.
Actually, I haven't because I don't get up in time.
Some of you have seen many sunrises.
But you still can't understand it.
You can only comprehend it.
I have heard it is very beautiful.
Mark chapter, sorry, in Matthew 11, look at how it says it in the message.
The Father has given me all these things to do and say, it's a unique father-son operation coming out of father and son intimacies and knowledge.
Just think of that, eh?
Can you live from a place where everything you do is a unique father-son operation that comes out of father-son intimacies and knowledge?
And this includes taking care of a child that's crawling all over the place, of a wife that may be throwing up, of a dog, and even a cat,
pooing in the wrong places, or a deadline that is looming and you don't know how you'll finish the work,
or a desire to go to heaven, or a desire to go to hell, or a desire to die a need, or pain in the midst of all that to suddenly go into.
And allow first the love of God to wash over you.
Not even sometimes saying anything.
Just letting that peace begin to fill your heart because you're focused on one who said that he whose mind has stayed on me will know a shalom that is full of love and wholeness.
After you come into that space, then begin to ask the Holy Spirit.
You know, we ask the Spirit of God for things without being in love with God.
That's what sometimes marriages are reduced to.
Asking for things from each other without loving each other.
And the strange thing is spouses will still fulfill their obligation.
But every day the love lessens.
Ah, it must be a terrible thing.
Come guys, we must show the world.
Because do you realize as we're talking about it, we don't really know the depth of it.
We've tasted it. Someone has to show.
And the third part then is, can you practice loving the Father like Jesus loved the Father?
Can you practice loving the Father like Jesus loved the Father?
As in, Father, I want to love you like he loved you.
Why is that a little easy?
Because story after story talks about that.
There's a narrative.
There are movies, there are pictures, there are words written about how he loved the Father.
And so sometimes during worship, if I see my mind strain, my thing is not,
Oh no, no, no, I need to worship the Lord.
My thing is, Father, I would like to worship you as Jesus used to worship you when he would go up the mountains.
So I'm going to open all of my heart because in me only one dwells and his name is Christ.
And his spirit and my spirit has become one.
So let me now give you the same kind of worship that Jesus gave you.
The same kind of worship.
Obedience, the same thing.
Really difficult to obey something.
But you decide, man, he used to obey him because he loved him.
I'm going to show you that I love you and I'm going to obey you just to show you how much I love you
because love and obedience go hand in hand.
One does not exist without the other.
Can you imagine, even as we begin to imagine what this will look like,
can you imagine the strength you will have?
It's crazy strength.
It's unbeatable strength.
Everything in Christ, everything in Christianity is fueled by this one thing.
Any questions?
You know, if we end early today, you should thank Dilna.
Fourteen points he has helped you avoid.
When you joined the church, I had expectations but this was not one of them.
So begin to love and adore the Father like Jesus loved him.
Like Jesus loved him.
Let him ask you, do you love me more than this?
One of the things that will happen then will, this may sound odd but this is true because it's in scripture,
where God will begin to say, will you be my friend so I can share my burden with you
for people, cities, nations and places that I'm burdened for?
Will you be my friend so I can share my burdens with you for cities, for nations, for peoples?
Because I'm burdened for them.
Can I share those burdens with you?
Can you get to a place where I won't need to hide anything from you
just like I would not hide anything from Abraham?
Come on man, surely you want to get there.
Not because you want to know God's secrets but because you like being someone who God is confident in.
Don't you want to be called God's friend like Abraham was?
It's not some great striving. It's not an exploit of faith that gets you there.
I don't know, find some other sign for engaging with the Spirit and then some other sign for,
I don't know how you're going to do it but do some of these things.
Any questions?
Yeah.
Let me give you an example.
The question is,
is it possible to be a friend of God?
It's not possible.
It's not possible to be a friend of God.
I think it's not possible.
The question is,
can you say what you mean when you say without proof or analysis?
Yeah, do you just accept the love without proof?
It is receiving love without the need for God to prove that he loves.
Where you settle that.
It's receiving love without God having to prove that I'll show you that I love you.
He seems to have to do that so much with most of his children, leave alone the world.
With the world it's understandable.
The world requires a sign.
But with his children, why is it that we always require some proof?
And so can I just receive his love without proof?
And if I receive his love without proof, I'll get all the proof I need.
Because things begin to happen.
And receiving love without proof forces you to obey without evidence.
That's another difficult thing.
We are so scared to obey without sufficient proof that our obedience will be rewarded.
And to not have that need but just to obey.
Sometimes even being okay that the promise that was given has not come to pass
because Hebrews 11 is full of people to whom promises were given and they did not come to pass.
And they are recorded as heroes.
He'll take you on drills then.
He'll take you on obedience drills.
Because now he knows he can ask you to do anything he wants.
He'll just take you along with him.
I remember waking up one morning and God saying, hey, can you come on a trip with me?
I just want to take you on a trip to one of my favorite cities.
I'm thinking, okay, any ministry?
Any preaching assignments?
Any churches you want to plant?
Any people you want to prophesy on?
No?
Well then no.
No, but that wasn't what he was asking.
He was asking, can I take you on a trip with me?
Can you come with me as a son goes with his father?
My dad used to take me on trips like this.
I'm not going to take you on a trip with me.
I'm going to take you on a trip with my father.
My dad used to take me on trips like this.
I'd jump on the back of his bike and he would take me to places.
What when the father asks and then you go?
Didn't you do that with your son?
Crazy. We do this with our children.
Did he need evidence?
No.
Let me conclude.
As in let me finish, not conclude.
Finish and conclude are two completely different words when a pastor says it.
Let me conclude means nothing.
Let me finish may mean something.
Let me finish.
Do you recognize that when you can't shake the relentless thoughts,
the cares, the concerns, the fears, the insecurities, the questions,
the frustration that plagues you,
it's because you haven't gone past those shackles far enough into my love.
Focus on being filled with my love and these things will begin to melt away
because my love is powerful enough to drown out all that clamors for your attention.
Let me say that again.
Do you recognize that when you can't shake the relentless thoughts that bombard you or torment you?
These are genuine things that Jesus refers to in the Beatitudes in Matthew chapter 5 and 6
where he says the pagans run after this.
You are just being choked with the same thing.
And so the question is do you recognize that when you can't shake the relentless thoughts,
the cares, the concerns, the fears, the insecurities, the questions,
the frustrations that torment and plague you,
do you realize Jacob it's because you haven't gone past these shackles far enough into my love.
Focus on being filled with my love and these things will begin to melt away.
Sit in my presence.
The more you are persuaded of my love, the easier it is to stay in my presence.
Find time to let me overtake you.
You can choose how much you will release to me.
You can decide how far into my presence you want to go.
There is always more available.
I will never block your way.
So please go home, try it.
Yeah.
Any questions?
No questions?
Come on guys, any questions, anything you want to add?
So the first thing is, Father I just receive your love.
Sometimes I might be able to recognize it in 20 seconds, sometimes it may take a song.
But I just know and receive your love.
It just surrounds me.
There's enough in me and there's enough of the Spirit of God for me to quickly recognize it.
It brings an odd kind of peace into my life.
Second, I'll practice engaging this, I'll practice intimate participation with the Holy Spirit's engagement with you and the Son.
Because the Holy Spirit searches the mind of the Father.
If I join with him, he'll show me glimpses.
He'll show me things about Jesus that are in the Scriptures with his fresh eyes.
I'll join you Holy Spirit.
When I watch the sunrise, I'll remember what was said in Job.
That the morning stars sang as creation was brought into place.
And you were there Holy Spirit, you were there.
You were there.
You remind me of the stripes that still are on the back of Christ, still not gone.
And I will suddenly know that healing is real.
I'll be reading a Scripture just like Jesus opened the scroll and read it.
I'll be reading a Scripture and I'll immediately know that oh shucks, you want to bring this to pass in my life.
That the Father wants to open something for me.
There'll be other times when the Father will say to you, tell him that he's special.
And I'll hear it loud and clear.
And it'll be all that I need, all the manna I need for the next 40 days as I walk through the wilderness.
Because I heard you say from the Father that I am special.
And then the third part is, I'd like to love you back Jesus.
I'd like to love you Father just like Jesus.
I'd like to love you Father just as Jesus loved you.
Just as Jesus loved you.
And challenge me Lord, ask me, do you love me more than these?
And may my answer become more and more evident where it'll be yes I love it more than this.
Yes I love it more than my culture, more than my dignity, more than my job, more than money, more than nationality, more than my plans.
Jesus this is what we ask for.
This week allow us to practice this.
We'll become some of the strongest people on earth.
Torment free, fear free.
So we just receive your love right now.
That's where it all starts because you first loved us.
So with hands, open hands, with open hands.
That reflect an open heart.
We receive your love.
Lift us up like a child, place us next to your cheek.
Allow us to hear, I love you, I called you my son and my daughter.
Shailen can you come up?
I don't know what to sing about.
I don't know what to say.
Matt can you pull up? He knows my name.
I have a father, he calls me his own.
I love you.
I have a father, he calls me his own.
He knows my name.
He knows my every thought.
He sees each tear that falls.
And he hears me when I call.
First verse, let's sing this a bit like.
I have a maker, he formed my heart.
Before even time began, my life was in his hand.
He knows my name.
He knows my every thought.
He sees each tear that falls.
And he hears me when I call.
I have a father, he calls me his own.
He'll never leave me, no matter where I go.
He knows my name.
He knows my every thought.
He sees each tear that falls.
And he hears me when I call.
When he made you, sheer love.
Sheer love. Sheer love.
That's how I was made.
Just such a desire to make me so that he could love me.
Is it any wonder that he knows your name?
He knows my name.
He knows my every thought.
He sees each tear that falls.
And he hears me when I call.
I have a maker, I have a maker.
He formed my heart.
Before even time began, my life was in his hand.
He knows my name.
He knows my every thought.
He sees each tear that falls.
And he hears me when I call.
He hears me when I call.
Go in that strength, go in that strength, go in that strength.
Yeah, and try to practice it.
I guarantee you every week will make you stronger.
Yeah. If you need prayer, there'll be people to pray with you.
Otherwise, I'll see you not next Sunday, but the Sunday after that.
Cool. Bless you guys.