okay so return of presence return of presence guys in the Holy Spirit thanks
man in the Holy Spirit God's presence has returned to me in the Holy Spirit
God's presence has returned to me just Selah on that statement man in the Holy
Spirit God's presence has returned to me we're not talking about some religious
experience it is God's presence has returned to me in the Holy Spirit God's
presence has returned to me no one's excluded if you have received Christ if
you have received Christ hey you look pretty decent with those glasses man you
got that Clark Kent look yeah now I have competition so guys it's God's presence
that has returned a right now sitting here everybody must realize if you're
born again that in the Holy Spirit God the same God who had absolutely no
problems creating that comet God's presence has returned to me and we got
to think of the Holy Spirit in terms of the presence of God we should not
separate we think the Holy Spirit is for tongues is for gifts no man he is the
presence of God in me God's presence is brought to me by the Holy Spirit and
when we talk about the Holy Spirit remember he cares for you with an
unbridled passion he cares for you with unbridled passion think of what unbridled
passion looks like unbridled means a passion that does not limit itself a
passion that is reckless a passion that does not have bitter bridal to hold it
back and the spirit of God since before I was born because like we said last
week someone oh shucks I'm straying away right I got to stay within this okay yeah
so the spirit of God was there before I was formed in my mother's womb Psalm 139
where can I hide from your spirit when I was yet unformed you saw me so even
before I was formed he had an unbridled passion about me and therefore he
fiercely loves me we do not think we've been taught for too long that don't say
anything nice about the Holy Spirit because his job is to come and glorify
the father and son so don't say anything nice about him really Jesus said plenty
nice about him and so does the father but one of the things we need to realize
is that the Holy Spirit has an unbridled passion over me and he's and he loves me
fiercely and because he loves me fiercely he ends up being quite jealous
he loves me fiercely and therefore is jealous jealous jealousy only comes when
someone is fiercely loved I'm fiercely loved and therefore I'm
jealously loved and if I'm jealously loved it also means that I can hurt him
it is only jealous love that hurts eh I mean going over these lines again and
again and again Spirit of God you care for me with an unbridled unbridled
passion you care for me with an unbridled passion a reckless kind of
passion you're passionate over me we don't equate it with the Spirit of God
we are okay saying mighty rushing wind but we don't necessarily equate mighty
passionate wind over me unbridled passion fierce love jealous and this we
are talking about is the Spirit of God that aside so on one hand he has this
attitude towards me but and and you read it in James chapter 4 verse 5 just so we
don't think Jacob's pulling this out of the air in James chapter 4 verse 5 it
actually says do you not know that the Spirit yearns jealously over you the
Spirit of God yearns jealously over you so on one hand that's how he feels about
me but then on the other hand he absolutely adores Jesus he absolutely
adores Jesus and enjoys revealing the ways and the works of the Sun in my life
he absolutely adores Jesus
as in he just thrills at revealing who Jesus is the ways of Jesus the work of
Jesus the Sun he just loves doing it it is his favorite thing to do on earth
never forget that yes the Lord our God the Lord is one but the person of the
Godhead who is presently on earth is the Holy Spirit the Father is in heaven the
Son is seated next to him the Spirit of God is here now anything of Christ that
is revealed to you today in this teaching will be revealed by him the
words may come through my mouth but all revelation comes from him and he adores
the Sun and therefore if you know you always you always adore the one you
always proclaim the one you adore if you if you adore your wife you'll always
talk about her even if when it doesn't fit in the context you'll talk about her
hey that camera is really nice yeah man my wife you should see her photos really
I was talking about the camera so he adores Jesus and therefore for him he's
constantly aching and itching to reveal to me the ways and the works of the Sun
but don't forget he's passionate about you and fiercely loves you so even in
his revelation of Jesus he does that with you have no idea what I can do with
you as you begin to understand love him love the Spirit of God these things we
don't say we almost think it's blasphemous to say love the Holy Spirit
besides that he locates me in the brilliant embrace and the goodness of
the Father he locates me in the brilliant embrace and the goodness of
the Father we read about that in Galatians 4 we read about that in Romans
8 15 where it says it is by the Spirit that I'm able to cry out Abba there's an
intimacy that the Spirit of God instantly brings into a believer's life
that allows the believer who's two hours old to be able to turn to the God of the
universe who is so so holy that they wouldn't take his name and would call
him YWHW and yet as soon as a believer is born again he has something inside
him some innate desire in him to call the God of the universe Abba Father the
Spirit of God has the ability to locate me in the brilliant embrace and the
goodness of the Father something he enjoys doing
he brings into my life every morning and I've asked you to do this now for a few
weeks wake up to the favor of God guys wake up to the favor of God as in not
wake up to the favor of God no wake up to the favor of God as in this is how he
thinks of you when you get up in the morning it's such a cool start to the
day it's the only thing better than coffee really wake up to the favor of
God or in this case he brings into my life the smile of God he brings into my
life the smile of God I'm beginning to habituate myself to get up and the first
thing I locate is that oh God I locate myself in your smile as I start this day
because if I don't locate myself there I'm gonna find it very hard to continue
this day doesn't matter that we may have sins to talk about it doesn't matter
that there might be repentance to go through it doesn't matter that there
might be correction instruction and even discipline but if I do not locate
myself in your smile as I begin this day I will not be able to handle it for the
rest of the day the Spirit of God brings to me the smile of God it brings to me
the permission of God he brings to me the permission of God it is the Holy
Spirit that gives me permission to say hey Jacob this is for you to do I give
you the ability to do this I give you the power to do this I give you the
authority to do this I give you the gifts to do it I give you the skill to
do it I give you the favor to give it do it I give you an invitation to do it I
ask you to step in it is the spirit of God who brings me permission
And once you know you have permission from God,
then you know you can walk in it even if you're not good at it.
Worship leaders who know
that they have been given permission by God to lead worship
are far better than worship leaders who know how to sing.
But because the world prefers singing, we don't realize that there are worship leaders
who have been given permission by God to
lead worship and they don't end up doing it.
Once you're given permission, what happens is that permission is backed up by heaven.
When you only have pedigree, then all you have is your gifts or talents.
When you have permission, you have the pedigree of heaven.
And then the Holy Spirit brings you the freedom of God.
This is why in 2 Corinthians 3, 18 it says,
Where the Spirit of the Lord is there is liberty.
There is freedom.
Freedom to dance before the sun because of the permission and the smile of God.
Imagine a child who has received permission and the smile of his parent
to go play on the seesaw in the swing and the child begins to dance.
You don't find it here, but outside the city you'll find these trees
with a swing attached to it and usually grandpa strings up the swing.
And parents are super frightened of the swing that grandpa strung up
because they always think the swing will break.
And then one day they allow the kid to go towards the swing.
And you see the smile and the permission that the parent gives
and the child goes running.
There are some in Vancouver.
If you want to know where grandpa's swings are in Vancouver,
contact Diana 778-834-4628.
Yeah, whoever is going to get that call.
Can I know the location of grandpa's swing?
Bang!
Here's another thing that we won't explore today, but that the Holy Spirit brings.
We won't talk about it today. Let it go.
He brings into my life the capacity,
He brings into my life the capacity for defenseless, transparent,
defenseless, transparent, unafraid oneness.
We won't talk about it today because one, because we don't have time,
two, because I don't know enough about it.
The Spirit of God has the capacity to bring into my life defenseless,
transparent, unafraid oneness.
This is what we see. First, we need to develop this between us and the Father.
Then we need to develop it between us and the Spirit.
Then we need to develop it between us and the body of Christ.
You read all about this in John 17 and Matthew 11, 28 and there on.
Matthew 11, 24 to 28.
Then there's this wonders that can come with your spouse.
Then there's the wonders that can come in other relationships.
This is one of the specialties of the Holy Spirit because He loves building community like nobody else can.
But to bring us to a place where it's defenseless, transparent, unafraid oneness.
Once we begin that with the Father, we can begin to take it next into other places.
This is what Jesus says in his conversations in John 17.
Father, you and I are one. Can you help them come into that kind of oneness?
Matthew 11, 24 to 28. Father, everything that is mine is yours.
He actually in the message uses the words, Father, this relationship is a unique Father-Son intimacy.
And out of this unique intimacy come things.
We need to get there first where it's transparent, unafraid, defenseless.
We haven't gotten there.
Where you're defenseless, meaning you are ready to be hurt and to hurt.
Where you're transparent, where nothing is hidden back.
There are no buts justifying and unafraid, unafraid of God.
That itself is a hard thing.
Then think of going with the Holy Spirit, with the body of Christ, with your spouse.
Most spouses are afraid of each other, eh?
Thank God no one's looking at each other.
That's the sign that you are.
We won't talk about that today. We'll explore it later.
Hey, the other thing the Holy Spirit does is he publicly advocates and supports God's cause in me.
He publicly advocates God's cause in me.
He's actually called the Advocate. Jesus calls him the Advocate.
In John 14, 16, John 14, 26, John 15 something, he calls the Holy Spirit Advocate.
As in one who publicly supports your cause, one who publicly fights for your cause.
Publicly as in before heaven, before the Father, before the Son, before satanic realms, before people.
He publicly advocates and supports God's cause in me saying,
I know before this boy Tate was born what he was supposed to be.
What do you think the prophetic is?
The prophetic is a revelation of the cause of God that the Spirit of God knows,
that he speaks through people so that you know it.
It's a proclamation of the cause of God that the Spirit of God knows all along.
I was going through some old overheads and I remember Tate on his baptism.
There was this overhead that was put up for Tate saying,
when Tate enters a place, the animals of the forest will begin to dance.
It's from a message version of a scripture that he has the ability to step into a place
and the trees will begin to clap their hands.
The animals of the forest will start to dance.
I remember putting it up on a slide and speaking it over Tate.
What is the Holy Spirit trying to do?
Listen, there is a boy called Tate who is what, seven Tate?
Tate, how old are you?
Oh, shucks.
Okay.
Here is a nine-year-old boy that I had known before he was formed.
I will proclaim, support and advocate for him.
I will be his father.
Because it regresses its head and says,
Jacob ain't agreeing with my advocating for him.
So till he agrees, this cannot move forward
because God will not violate your will.
So if I say, and let's assume what I said over him,
that there is momentum for you uphill,
and he doesn't agree with it,
then you will find that he is slowly beginning to go reverse gear.
Important to agree, guys.
So one of the things the Holy Spirit loves doing is,
he publicly advocates and supports God's cause in me.
After all, he's been my guardian since before I existed.
Guardians were a big deal in the ancient Near East
and in the New Testament, even during the Roman times.
Guardians were a big deal.
They were supposed to be in charge of.
They were supposed to tutor.
They were supposed to raise up.
They were supposed to bring to full stature
and present before the parent.
Here, the one that you gave me to take care of,
here I present him.
Full, complete.
That is who the Holy Spirit is.
But the strange thing is, he was my guardian before I was formed.
Read Psalm 139.
We always miss out that the passage about us being unformed
starts with, where can I hide from your Spirit?
You need to think for a while and realize
what a vested interest he has in me.
He's been waiting for days in my life to come to pass,
if possible, in perfect time without any lag,
because he was there before the days were even written.
He had written them down in his book.
And so he says, today is the 12th of July.
And so this was supposed to happen.
I wonder if Jacob is going to walk in it or not.
But I have such a vested interest in him.
And I will proclaim and advocate the cause of God in his name.
And I will proclaim and advocate the cause of God in his life.
How does he know this?
Because it says that he searches the mind of God.
In 1 Corinthians chapter 2,
it actually says that the Holy Spirit searches the mind of God about me.
Now do you see why that song is so beautiful?
There is a Redeemer, Jesus, God's own Son,
precious Lamb of God, Messiah, Holy One.
Thank you, O my Father, for giving us your Son
and leaving your Spirit till the work on earth is done.
Impossible to do this without him, man.
This is why Jesus was very protective of the Holy Spirit.
You can say something about me, Jacob, and it's okay.
But don't say nothing about the Spirit of God.
He searches the mind of God about me.
That's one part of it.
And then he knows the unutterable groans that come from me.
He sees beyond the confusion, beyond the guilt, beyond the sadness, beyond the inability.
Romans chapter 8, verse 26 and 27 says,
But he hears the unutterable groans within you.
And he is able to take what he searches in the mind of God about me
and he is able to take the unutterable groans in my heart
and he is able to take them both and connect me with the will and the pleasure of the Father
and present me before him.
What a job, man.
I think he loves it because he gets to do everything.
He gets to make the Father real,
He gets to reveal the Son,
He gets to be passionate about me,
He gets to connect all of us.
What a cool Holy Spirit, huh?
Romans 8, verse 26 and 27, what does it say?
Romans 8, verse 26 and 27.
It says,
In the same way the Spirit helps us in our weakness,
we do not know what we ought to pray for,
but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express.
And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit
because the Spirit intercedes for the saints in accordance with God's will.
He has this ability to take my unutterable groans,
things I'm not able to express,
desires that lie deep within my heart that I think are impossible to bring to pass,
a pleasure that I want to bring to the Father that I feel to seem to fail every time.
He takes those deep longings and desires,
which are very natural to a believer,
and then he takes them and he brings the Father's thoughts about me
and combines them together.
The other thing is, guys, he has chosen to be inseparable.
If you go to Romans 6, you'll find that it says,
the Spirit of God and your spirit have become one.
The Spirit of God and your spirit have become one.
That is a frightening reality,
that the Spirit of the Living God, the same God we are talking about who fills the universe,
who thinks this comet is like a little toy in his toy room,
this same God who puts a comet on an orbit of 6,800 years,
is the same God that is now saying,
hey, my spirit will become one with your spirit, Jacob.
Your spirit and my spirit have become one.
We've got to stop looking for God outside.
Remember what we started this teaching with?
We said, God's presence has returned to me.
Yep.
Two minutes, 43 seconds, you'll have the answer.
Don't count.
So he chooses to be inseparable.
And in choosing to be inseparable,
I now have the privilege of participating
or partaking in the divine nature of God and the divine counsel of God, both.
On one hand, because he says, Jacob, I'm not just going to come and hover over you.
You and I have become inseparable.
I now get to partake in the nature of God.
Second Peter 1, 14 to 16 talks about it,
that we have become partakers of his divine nature.
If your spirit comes into me, I become a partaker with you.
Not only do I become a partaker of your divine nature,
I also begin to partake in divine counsels,
not C-O-U-N-S-E-L, C-O-U-N-C-I-L, counsel.
As in, I get to, like Ezekiel, be carried by the spirit
into places to see things of God that other people don't see.
I get to be transported like Philip was from Caesarea to Azotus.
I get to see like the people of the world.
I get to see like Peter, visions of sheets being dropped from heaven.
I get to see like John, sound behind me,
and see the son of man walking amongst the lampstands in Revelation 1.
You get, because of the spirit, to participate in.
I get to like Isaiah, see heaven's open, and his robe fill the temple.
These are things that are now possible.
I get to like Paul, whether it be an experience in the body or out of the body,
hear inexpressible things from heaven.
Sure, we haven't plumbed this yet, and we're not making that our goal,
but I'm saying things have become possible.
So if you and I could learn to dive into the well of the spirit within us,
we could actually have the mind of Christ in every situation, every day.
If you and I can learn to dive into the well of the spirit within us,
and it's the hardest thing to do, it ain't easy, but that's where we're going.
Man, if everything was easy, we'd have gone for some other religion.
Every other religion is easy, man.
All you got to do is do a few things and not do a few things.
This religion, you got to build a relationship, and that takes time.
My hope is that we can all be unfallen Adams in a fallen world.
My hope through this teaching is that we can all be unfallen Adams in a fallen world.
What was it like?
What was Adam's experience of God's presence in Eden?
What was Adam's experience?
We assume we have a very strong belief that we have a strong belief
that we have no context or reference for Adam's experience of God's presence in Eden.
What was it like?
We assume, gosh man, I wish we knew.
And this is kind of going towards answering Diana's question.
We think we don't know what it is like, but then we have the last Adam to look like.
You want to see what the presence of God in a human being is in a fallen world.
Look at Jesus.
Read chunks of the Gospel at one sitting.
Don't read your daily reading.
Your daily reading is good. Don't negate it.
But you don't get the hang of the presence of God in a human being in a fallen world.
And how vast and inexhaustible and possible it is unless you read it in chunks.
And by chunks I mean three or four chapters at a time.
Till Jesus leaves Judea or till Jesus leaves Jerusalem, read a whole chunk.
Go to Luke chapter 7 to Luke chapter 11 and you'll get, oh my God, you read those four chapters?
And you'll think, oh shucks, so this is what presence looks like.
Part of the reason Jesus came and made himself visible to his apostles was that so that he could convey to the rest of us
that the presence of God as it was in Eden can happen to now Adams who have been re-imaged to live in a fallen world and show the world,
this is what the presence of God and this is what the kingdom of God will look like and does look like.
In 2 Peter 1, 16 to 18, Peter talks about that.
He says, we were there, we were there on that mountain when he was transfigured.
We were there when we came down and we saw him cast out a demon.
We're not giving you fables, we actually saw it.
We have an opportunity guys and I'm not preaching at all, I'm just stating a fact.
This is not, oh we have an opportunity. No, it's a very factual, we have an opportunity.
We have an opportunity to show others what God's presence and God's kingdom is like.
Not God's presence out there or God's presence in the church.
No, what does God's presence in my life look like?
What does God's kingdom in our lives look like?
Ephesians 2, 22.
The Holy Spirit is raising up a people who can be the dwelling of God.
So that when folks walk into a group of believers, they say, God is in your midst.
God is in your midst.
Acts 29 desperately should cry out for this and desire it and then exhibit it.
That, oh God, could your presence be evident in my life and could your kingdom be evident in our lives?
And by kingdom I mean his rule and his reign.
What does it look like when God moves into your house, when God moves into your group of people?
What does it look like? How do they behave?
Will someone who walks in know that he's in their midst?
What happens to diseased bodies? What happens to a lack of money?
Diseased bodies he can heal. Lack of money you will supply.
What happens to parenting? What happens to power? What happens to sex?
What does it look like?
Any questions?
If someone comes and lives with me, they must see the presence of God in my life.
They must see what the presence of God will do even to how I keep my house.
Leave alone my life.
You don't have to parade how good you are, but my God, exhibit what God is doing in your life, man.
Trophies of his grace.
And then when we are together as a people, they should see the kingdom.
And the kingdom, one of the best ways to figure out what the kingdom looks like is this question that John's disciples asked Jesus.
Are you the real deal or are we waiting for someone else to come after you?
And he said go tell John that the gospel is being preached to the poor, the sick are being healed, the dead are being raised, lepers are being cleansed, the blind are seeing, the deaf are hearing.
And blessed is he who is not offended by this.
This is part of what the kingdom looks like and we cannot avoid it.
Signs and miracles are part of the kingdom.
And you cannot proclaim a kingdom in which power is absent.
And that is why the gap filler is something that we have to learn.
That today if it doesn't happen, doesn't mean we lower our expectations.
We make it more evident that we so expected, oh God, that you will come through.
This is the work of the spirit, eh?
You think the spirit does not want to do this?
Guys, remember, even if he doesn't do it for you, which he will, he will do it for the sake of Christ because he has come to glorify the sun.
And it is his presence in our midst that allows the kingdom to come here on earth now and to be consummated later.
You think the spirit of God does not want to do this?
You think he requires coaxing?
It's very hard to pray nowadays with, when you begin to understand this.
You can't go to God now and say, please, oh God, please intervene, please heal.
It's like, really, oh God, why would I ever come and say stuff like that to you?
I know your nature.
Which kid goes up to his parents and says, Mark, Mark, please Mark, breakfast Mark, please Mark, need clothes Mark?
Which child does that?
Do you? Just checking.
It's very difficult to pray once you learn these things.
Because you can't beg, you can't coax, you can't blackmail, you can't guilt him anymore.
You've got to go with this understanding of, I know how enthusiastic you are to heal me.
I know how badly you want to display the kingdom.
I know how you long to present Christ through me.
So help me to align and tell me what to do so that you can blaze through.
And then the gap filler blazes through.
Mourning and groaning will flee away because you can't mourn and groan now because you know his desire.
Okay.
It's that time of the day when she starts doing that.
Oi, I know you're in there.
Okay. God's presence has returned to me.
Guard it fiercely then.
God's presence has returned to me.
Well then, guard him fiercely.
Guard his presence fiercely.
Why? Because it's precious.
It's priceless and it's beautiful.
It's the most priceless, precious thing I have in my life right now.
The presence of God himself.
And I must guard it fiercely.
They didn't in the Garden of Eden.
They had his presence in the Garden of Eden.
They had his presence and they did not guard it.
They allowed an evil being from the outside to subdue them.
Instead of them subduing it, they allowed an evil being outside the Garden to come into the Garden and subdue them through a lack of discernment.
I mean they had enough discernment to know that the serpent was crafty, had enough discernment to know that the serpent was crafty,
and that it was evil, but they did not discern it.
She did not discern it, neither did he.
A lack of discernment is sometimes just dullness.
Dullness is easy when you separate yourself from people and walk in isolation.
Self-isolation is only good for COVID, not for the Kingdom.
It dulls you.
Lack of discernment, lack of discernment.
First was lack of discernment, then legalism.
That's another thing that will prevent you from guarding this priceless, precious, beautiful thing called the presence of God.
And you see that with Eve in the Garden.
It's fascinating how God says, you shall not eat of the tree, and she takes it to another level and says, you shall not even touch the tree.
Legalism is always adding to a law that God has said.
Legalism is always adding to a law that God has said so that you will not break the law that he gave.
Adding an extra law to prevent you from breaking the law that he gave.
And then deception. In Genesis chapter 3 verse 4, Satan deceives.
Avoid legalism, use discernment, flee from deception because it robs you of the presence of God.
Discerning before things happen, before the serpent starts talking, yo, crafty one.
And you send the, you don't allow the serpent to talk.
Once you begin to allow him to whisper, he has your attention.
The intent is to discern before things happen.
You don't have to watch a movie and get to a really lousy part before it hits you that this is a lousy part.
No, you know movies right off the bat, man.
God's presence has returned to me. Grow his presence.
As in, if I don't, if I don't cause shoots, fruits, leaves of the presence of God to begin to bud, to begin to flower, nobody will see it, nobody will taste it.
And if no one sees it and no one tastes it, then they don't know what he's like and what he can do.
Grow his presence. Use every opportunity.
You don't know the number of opportunities each of us is given, created by God himself to show him off.
To show him off.
Grow his presence. The presence of God has returned.
The first one is the presence of God has returned. Guard his presence.
The second one is the presence of God has returned to me. Grow his presence. Grow his presence.
Grow his presence.
You know in Ezekiel 36, verse 24 to 28, there's this beautiful scripture that is coming to pass every day upon the earth.
It was written by Ezekiel so many years ago. It comes to pass every day. Ezekiel 36, verse 24 to 28.
First God says, hey listen, I'm cleansing you from your sin.
Then he says, I'm giving you a new heart. I'm taking out the heart of stone and I'm putting in your heart of flesh.
Then he says to you, I'll give you a new spirit.
And then after he says, I'll give you a new spirit, he says, I'll put on you the Holy Spirit.
Four things in those verses man. And he's doing it every day. Ezekiel 36, verse 24 to 28.
He's doing that every day. Grow it. Grow your new heart. Grow your new spirit.
Create room for the Holy Spirit who's upon you.
Wash yourself in the ever flowing, freshly slain blood of Christ.
And then when you go to Ezekiel 36, verse 34 and 35, I love what it says there.
In the message it says, I know God, you have turned the weed patch into the Garden of Eden.
You have turned the weed patch into the Garden of Eden.
Meaning here was a place that was run over by bushes and briars and thorns.
And you have now returned it to being the Garden of Eden and the presence of God is restored.
Guys, you and I carry the presence of God. The weed patch has been turned into the Garden of Eden.
Let people come and eat. They must come and eat. They must come and taste fruit.
So the more you hide yourself, the less the Garden is known.
The more Christian we are, the less Jesus we are.
How did you get translated to that seat from there?
Good one.
Special.
God's presence is, you know, I was sitting with Pawan.
You know how Pawan came out of a life of alcohol and other addictions.
One of the things that's happening with him is he now goes to meet some of his friends from his past.
And his friends are beginning to long for him.
He doesn't even preach to them. One day he calls me at one o'clock at night saying,
I'm sorry I'm calling you this late, but I need to talk to you. I thought he was in trouble.
He said, no, I met this friend of mine and he can I bring him to church?
I said, why? He said, because he just wants God. I said, what happened?
He said, he's just seen the change in my life. I'm not going to go to church.
I'm going to go to church. I'm going to go to church.
He just wants God. I said, what happened?
He said, he's just seen the change in my life and I told him what happened and he wants the same thing.
This is called the weed patch becoming a garden where people taste of the fruit of your life and say,
oh shucks, can I please have some of this?
Some of us have been Christians for too long.
Much was forgiven, but it was so long ago that we've forgotten.
Hey, circulate man. Be out there.
Stop being friendly with these people around you.
They're all Christians.
Don't go to Tuni and Anilai's house anymore.
Sure, you can go there and have a good meal, but don't spend five hours there, Jeevan.
God's presence has returned to me.
Give his presence away.
God's presence has returned to me.
Give his presence away.
Remember the church is the only organization that exists for the benefit of its non-members.
Give his presence away.
It is life to others.
Out of you shall flow rivers of living water.
John 7 38.
God's presence has returned to me.
Jacob, give my presence away.
There's plenty for you.
I won't leave you, but give my presence away.
It is life to others.
I'm a life-giving spirit.
The idea of Pentecost, Jacob, was that you would become witnesses to me to the ends of the earth.
The thing is, guys, if we don't, we exile ourselves into a religion of really very some toil,
because when we resist moving outward, when we resist moving outward and extending the divine presence within the garden to the outside,
subduing what needs to be subdued, then this religion can get really really boring.
Christianity sucks when it doesn't go outward.
It is so not fun.
Never think of Sundays more than it being an activity of the church.
It's a fun activity.
You've got a great preacher, amazing music.
I mean, the sound and the live stream crew is great, but at the end of the day, this is just an activity of the church.
Do not make it more than that, because the real work of ministry is done by the saints and it's done between Monday and Saturday.
God's presence has returned to me.
Just keep in mind that in his being inseparable from you, he has opened himself to grief.
God's presence has returned to me, and in him being inseparable from you, he has opened himself to grief.
You can't break his fierce love for you, but you can wound him.
So I do grieve him when I don't reflect Christ's nature and don't reveal Christ's splendor in situations that present themselves.
I do grieve him because as passionate as he is about you, remember he adores the sun and wants to reveal him.
He's not some touch-me-not little plant that if he gets a little grieved, he just shrinks and says, I'm not here anymore.
No, you cannot break his heart because he's a fierce lover, but you can wound him.
And so I want to be able to remember that so that in every situation, I'll give myself the choice to reveal his nature and his splendor.
One of the things that really vexes him, and this is when we resist the Holy Spirit.
Resisting the Holy Spirit is when you resist the call to holy living.
That vexes him. Vex is a word which means it means more than grief.
Isaiah 63 verse 10 explains it.
God says to Israel, Israel, listen, I brought you along.
I pulled you out of trouble.
I carried you when you were young and when you were old.
But you vexed my Holy Spirit in the wilderness.
That's when there's a resistance to holy living.
Just be mindful of that.
So what's our homework for this week?
How do we practice this, man?
How do we get it going?
Because all this is good and the notes are good and you'll go read it.
And then what happens?
So here's something that I want you to practice this week.
And so the first part is, I mean, C.S. Lewis put it this way.
He said, be amphibious.
As in, he's not saying develop gills and fins and stuff like that.
No, when he said be amphibious, what he was trying to say is that you need to understand that you were made with the capacity,
you were made with the capacity to integrate time and eternity.
That's what C.S. Lewis says.
Be amphibious because you were made with the capacity to integrate time and eternity.
You were made that way.
You were made with the ability to handle time here on Earth and to handle eternity at the same time.
So what happens with us is we usually end up Mary-Mar-Thyn.
We usually end up compartmentalizing.
We usually end up having quiet time and the rest of the day.
We usually think having God and our work is actually skillful multitasking.
And all these are wrong.
This you have to avoid.
This is like kindergarten.
You can start here, but this ain't where you're going to live, man.
You can't marry Martha if you want to learn the ways of the Spirit.
I'll do it, Tate.
I could hear your whisper here.
Stand, stand, stand.
Be amphibious as in learn how to at once live in both time and eternity because you were created with the capacity to do this.
Really? Where does it say so?
To begin with in Ephesians 2 verse 6 it says, what does it say?
That we are seated with Christ in heavenly places.
How can that be when we are actually seated at Pilgrim on 7065, 6075 in Venice?
It is true.
In John 3 13, if you read the New King James Version, it says, and there is only one Jesus Christ who has descended from heaven and who has ascended to heaven and has descended from heaven and who is presently in heaven.
And they're saying it about him while he's talking to Nicodemus.
John 3 13.
We are people who have the ability to at once handle things here on earth and yet be absolutely present with God and before God.
But we have been taught in the church that this is the better way of living.
Oh my God, we've fallen for this kindergarten stuff.
This is fine when someone starts.
If you're still learning how to boil an egg like me, great.
This is a great place to start.
But if you're making egg salad, you've got to go further.
So you can't marry Martha.
Mary Martha is where you sit in the presence of the Lord at his feet.
And then you get her and then start doing all the Martha things.
That's how we've divided our life or we compartmentalize it.
This is my business.
This is my marriage.
This is God.
This is church.
And we compartmentalize it.
Can't do that either.
The third option is quiet time and the rest of the day.
Great practice.
It is important.
Don't shove it.
But you can't divide the day into I'll wake up, I'll have my quiet time.
Now that I've done the quiet time, I'm ready for the day.
Yes, you're ready for the day, but it's still not the same, man.
It's not being amphibious.
And then the last one is multitasking, where we think I have learned the skill,
how to keep God and my work involved.
I just multitask.
God hates being multitasked.
As I'm preaching, I have to be highly aware of him.
I have to know what to leave out, what to put in.
The only thing I don't have to be aware of at the time, oh, shucks, that watch stopped.
I've been looking at that clock for a while.
What time is it?
Guys, today is not my fault. That stopped at 3.41.
I looked at it some time ago and I thought, wow, I got 20 minutes.
Okay, what a blessing.
Maybe there's some hidden message here to keep going.
I hope, Dale, that they warned you that things go for very long here.
If you didn't, consider yourself warned.
But guys, don't go down this road. God hates being multitasked.
So please don't go down this way.
Learn how to have both happening in your life at the same time.
I think I've said it before. It's called the art of double hearing.
You're hearing him and you're hearing the world around you.
You're doing your work and you're absolutely involved with him.
Jesus was this way. You can be this way.
You're built with the capacity to live like this.
This is when you dive into the well of the Holy Spirit within you
and you begin to walk into every situation
and walk out of every situation with the mind of Christ.
It can happen in the middle of pain. It can happen in the middle of a storm.
This is why Jesus had the ability to sleep through things.
When stuff like pain and trouble and pressure comes,
I'm not saying, say, give me more, oh God.
But in those situations, immediately go to this place of,
oh shucks, what a perfect time to practice this.
Let me see if I can sustain it.
Because those things like pain, storm, pressure, immediately bring us to...
and then we have to find to get back to...
In pain, pressure and trouble,
we usually end up going from Martha to quiet time to Mary.
That's free.
This has to be intentionally, guys. It's an intentional practice.
Father, I just pray that this week we'll try this.
The presence of God has returned to me.
I will guard it because it's precious.
It's the most beautiful, priceless thing that I've been ever given.
The presence of God has returned to me.
I will guard it because it's precious.
The presence of God has returned to me.
I will grow it.
I will cause it to show.
I'll let it bear fruit, leaves, shoots, buds.
People must taste that you manage me, own me, run my life well.
I delight myself at your table, oh God.
You do all things well.
Just look at my life.
If I'm eating at your banqueting table, it must show.
The presence of God has returned to me.
I must give it away.
You are a life-giving spirit.
The presence of God has returned to me.
I can't break your love, but I can wound you.
And I don't want to.
I will not resist holy living.
If it's an offering, I can give you Holy Spirit,
so that your temple is absolutely habitable always.
The presence of God has returned to me.
I can live here on earth with your presence, not one or the other,
not one after the other.
And I will intentionally practice this.
We will intentionally practice this.
Thank you, Oba.
Thank you, Jesus, for making it possible for the Spirit of God to dwell in me.
Thank you, Holy Spirit, for making Jesus and the Father so real.
Thank you, Father, that he is your Spirit.
I think you as the Godhead are brilliant.
Amen.
Okay, guys, you can hang around here for five minutes,
then eight minutes outside, and then you can leave because of COVID.
And if you have given your names for painting, collect the names.
And anything else?
The money, if you have the money now, give it to Evan.
He looks trustworthy.