So we move on with this whole topic called Wilderness 40.
Wilderness 40, almost feel like calling it WD 40,
but then we might get into problems with that.
So I'll just stick to Wilderness 40.
And so, oh my God, it's gonna be one of those days,
looks like.
Okay, no more funnies, everything serious from now on.
Okay, so Wilderness 40,
today's topic is abiding in presence, abiding in presence.
So last week, we followed the spirit into the wilderness
to prepare for a post-COVID world.
And the plan is to return in 40 days and 40 nights,
very dependent upon God, clothed with power,
and with an overwhelming revelation of God,
ready for a new phase on the earth come mid-September.
That's what we did last week.
We following the spirit of God,
last week we followed the spirit of God as a people
into the wilderness to prepare for a post-COVID world
and then return in hopeless dependence,
as in helpless dependence, clothed with power,
with an overwhelming revelation of God,
ready for a new phase on earth mid-September.
And one of the things God will do over the next six weeks
is he'll begin to contour what a post-COVID landscape
looks like on earth, as in, hey guys,
this is what the earth will look like
once we begin to come out of post-COVID.
And then he'll also tell us the shape of the church.
How do you position the church in a post-COVID landscape
so that the church can be most effective?
Why is he doing it?
Because he loves people and he loves the earth.
We'll talk about that in the coming weeks.
One of the things I wanna applaud you
for doing over the last one week
is I was very surprised at the intensity
with which you responded to last week's message.
There are people who are going on 40 day, 40 night fasts,
having just one meal a day.
I was quite surprised to hear that.
There are people who aren't watching TV like they used to
and taking time off from TV to spend time aside with God.
There are people who are changing the way they use time
with one intent, that, oh God, if you are inviting us,
then we wanna follow you into the wilderness
because that's where change happens.
If you haven't taken a step like that
and responded with an intensity
that is required of you at a time like this,
then the Spirit of God is inviting you.
We don't ask for such things at Acts 29.
And so Acts 29 is not asking you to.
It's the Spirit of God who's inviting you to.
But you are able to carve out time
so that you can be focused on what God wants to do,
not just in our bits, but really for the sake of the earth,
through us and through many other churches
around the world.
But the strange thing with God is
he always takes a seed and plants it
and then allows that mustard seed to become a tree.
And we're not the only ones he's doing it with.
I'm sure he's doing it at different parts of the earth.
But I'm so grateful that he chooses that for these things
because, I mean, it always fascinates me
that when we started this church,
we decided we'd start with a 500 piece puzzle
and we'd start with a 500 piece puzzle
and as members come, we'll give them a piece of the puzzle
and then one day we'll be 500
and we'll put the puzzle together again.
Over the last 15 years,
we've given out 45 pieces of the puzzle,
so we've got a way to go.
So we're a very small church.
But for whatever reason,
God keeps giving us these assignments
and hopefully by the time Phoebe is a mom,
we will have 500 people.
So there is still hope.
So if you were to look at Luke chapter four, verse one,
you will find that it says the spirit of God
led Jesus into the wilderness.
The spirit of God led Jesus into the wilderness
and the intent of leading him into the wilderness
was so that he would find or locate
the abundance of the spirit.
Yes, it says being tempted by the devil,
but in our case, we are being led into the wilderness
not to be tempted by the devil,
but we are being led into the wilderness
to locate...
Aaron.
A lot of gifts given away in this church, man.
Locate the abundance of the spirit.
We are being led into the wilderness
to locate the abundance of the spirit.
If you want to know what the wilderness looks like,
listen to the message from last week.
We are being led into the wilderness
so that we may locate the abundance of the spirit
and then as it says in Luke 14,
that we may return
in the fullness of the spirit.
Because whatever needs to happen post-COVID on the earth
needs the fullness of the spirit.
It's like a new phase that the earth will be introduced to
because the earth has never seen a stoppage
as it has seen over the last six months.
So we are being led into the wilderness
to locate the abundance of the spirit
and to return clothed in power as it says in Luke 4, 14.
Which means then that if I choose not to follow him into the wilderness,
which is a place that is different from what I used to occupy,
then I will not be able to locate the abundance of the spirit.
This is why I'm saying respond to the invitation.
Find time to sharpen the focus.
The abundance of the spirit
is always found by abandon to the spirit.
The abundance of the spirit is always found by
in your abandon to the spirit.
Abundance of the spirit is by abandon to the spirit.
The thing is, abandon is always directed by our affection.
Abandon is always directed by affection
and affection is measured in time.
Abundance of the spirit is by abandon to the spirit.
Abandon is always directed by my affection.
It is the things that I'm affected by or have an affection towards
that then allows me to abandon myself to it.
Be it a good thing or an evil thing, be it a person or an inanimate thing.
And my affection is always measured in terms of the time I spend.
So to say that I'm affectionate towards my spouse has to be measured
in the time that I spend with my spouse.
Affection is measured in time.
Time for time waiting on time moving towards.
It's not a mindless kind of time where,
okay, so you decide to spend some time with your wife
and you're sitting there on the sofa bored out of your skull
and just listening to her.
That ain't how affection is measured in time.
It is time for time towards something, time waiting on something.
That's how it's measured.
This is why what Mary did was highly applauded by Jesus.
Time spent is a measure of your affection.
Your affection determines your abandon.
Your abandon gets you abundance.
It's just a simple principle.
It just applies here.
It applies to most other things too.
Good and bad.
So what Jesus is inviting us as a people or a church to do is to
come into a place where we can be a part of it.
Come into a place of reset where you get desperate enough to discipline your life.
Where you get desperate enough to discipline your life.
Desperation is always shown in disciplining.
People can say they are desperate.
You know, I'm really desperate for this.
Show it to me in your discipline.
Desperation is always shown in the discipline of life.
Are you desperate to get an Olympic medal?
Well, you'll see the discipline of sport.
Are you desperate to learn more about God?
You will see it in the discipline of reading.
Are you desperate to lose weight?
You will see it in the discipline of exercise.
Are you desperate to keep a clean home?
You will see it in the discipline of cleaning up every day.
So God is calling us to a reset where you get desperate enough to discipline your life in the Father's love.
Where you get desperate enough to discipline your life in the Father's love.
And in the process make the Father's love your home.
John 15 10 talks about it.
John 15 10, Jesus says, I keep my Father's command and I have made myself at home in his love.
And I would suggest to you that you do the same.
Jesus' words in John 15 10.
I remain in my Father's love or I make my home in my Father's love by keeping his commands and I'm asking you to do the same.
So it's a reset where you get desperate enough to discipline your life in the Father's love.
And one of the disciplines that God is calling us to is can you set aside time for me?
Can you set aside time for me by flipping your affections around so that things that you had an affection for are less important now?
That is required of us.
That's when it becomes a discipline.
Otherwise, it's not a discipline.
If we were to do this for the next six weeks, you will find that you will become so conscious of the Spirit of God that his abiding presence will become your home.
His abiding presence will become your home.
And it's very easy.
We'll just talk about two or three simple habits we can cultivate over the next 40 days and it will revolutionize not the church but the earth because of the church being revolutionized.
Why the earth?
Why do you go just straight to the earth?
Why don't you just stick to Vancouver because God looks that way Vancouver, BC, Canada, the earth.
It's very simple for him.
Especially if it's a church that likes going out.
So abiding presence can become your home so much so that when you leave it, you'll start feeling homesick.
So much so that when you realize that our shucks don't have his abiding, a stepped out of his abiding presence, it'll be like a fish out of water.
Wouldn't that be nice?
There are these moments during a day, hours during a day where I can be so connected to the Spirit of God and what he's doing and then there'll be hours when I just completely opt out of it and then I realize,
ah man, didn't even realize that I'd slipped out of costume.
But what if for 40 days you practice this?
It's an amazing habit that lasts your lifetime, man.
Once you go there and you know the presence of God, presence of God then allows worship to just spring forth without effort.
Once worship springs forth without effort, your prayers will come straight out of the will of God.
There are so many cool fallouts or benefits or byproducts from this simple exercise that we can indulge in for the next 40 days where knowing someone's presence
makes you want to adore the person's presence and in adoring the person's presence you begin to become conscious of how the person thinks and you begin to do things out of the person's will.
Abiding in presence leads to adoration of presence.
Adoration of presence leads to an acknowledgement of the will of that person or presence and then it's easy to pray.
It's easy to walk in it.
It all goes back to this one thing again and again and again which Moses discovered long ago, which Adam knew and lost.
Moses rediscovered in, ha God, if your presence doesn't go with us then what does it matter whether we get the promised land?
What does it matter that you send an angel with us?
What does it matter that we inherit what you promised Abraham?
I'm not really worried about the inheritance because my portion is you.
When your portion becomes God inheritance is just something you inherit because you out of your relationship.
People who want to inherit something out of relationship are like the prodigal son.
All like the older brother.
When relationship matters inheritance is normal and it's just a byproduct of the relationship.
You can be an orphan in your father's house, which is so sad.
Any questions?
It's okay.
Any questions?
Okay.
So let's look at two or three habits we can cultivate over the next 40 days that will train us to abide in presence.
Let's look at two or three habits that we can cultivate over the next 40 days so that it will train us to abide in presence.
So the first one is guys daily invite the Spirit of God to rest on you and in asking him to rest on you what you're doing is becoming conscious of him and resting in him.
Daily and everyone here can do this.
Because Phoebe is not in the room right now.
Everyone here can do this.
Where you invite the Spirit.
Where you invite the Spirit to rest on you.
What you're really doing is not because he already lives in you, but in inviting the Spirit to rest on you, you're consciously saying Spirit of God, I want to be found in you today.
I invite you.
I know you're in me, but I don't want to be like Jacob in Genesis 32, Genesis 28 where he said God is in this place and I did not even know it.
I invite you daily Holy Spirit this morning when I woke up.
I invite you Holy Spirit to rest on me and in that I find myself in you.
That's the first thing.
It's a habit.
A habit when it is practiced as a discipline has to be done on a daily basis multiple times not because it is your duty, but because the reward that lies ahead of you is so humongous that it is worth the pain and the discipline of learning.
Invite the Spirit to rest on you.
But after that protect the treasure of the Spirit of God.
Protect the treasure that he is.
Protect the treasure that he is so that he may remain on you so that he may remain on you.
In John 1 32, it says that John the Baptist is saying this in John 1 32.
He says and I saw the Spirit of God descend on him like a dove and it remained on him.
There is this remaining thing that I have to learn over the next 40 days.
The Spirit of God.
Yes, it's one thing to invite you to rest on me and in the process what I'm really doing Spirit of God is I'm finding myself in you.
But having done that I have to carry you as a precious treasure now so that you remain on me so that I'm aware of you.
To remain on me Galatians 5 25 talks about this live by the Spirit and walk and step with him.
Live by the Spirit and follow in his steps.
One of the things that requires is required of me if I want to protect him as if he is the most amazing treasure I carry is to walk in ways that will not grieve him.
It's a walk in ways that will not vex him.
Is it to walk in ways that just thrill his heart?
Because he has become one with my spirit any collision that happens in my life is a collision that is actually impacted on his life.
Because he has become one with my spirit.
This is the most vulnerable thing about the Holy Spirit.
This is the thing that made Jesus say you can blaspheme the father you can blaspheme the son, but do not blaspheme the Holy Spirit.
Because he has become so one with me that there is no separation between Jacob Spirit and the Holy Spirit.
It also then gives me access into the very mind of God the very spirit of the father.
But in the process he is also impacted by the things I do which is why it is required of me that I protect the treasure that is in me.
And he gives me the ability to protect the treasure that is in me.
Him.
Any questions?
He doesn't need protection.
He's not some little dove that flies away when someone whispers an F word or something.
But what we're trying to say is listen do everything in your power so that he may remain on you in full throttle glee.
There's nothing like knowing the pleasure of someone you love.
Parents love the pleasure of a child who has that gurgly chuckly kind of laugh.
You'll do anything to make that child laugh that way.
It's delightful to the ears.
I pray God that we find the pleasure of God over our lives and it matters to you so much that it is very hard to part ways with that.
It becomes important.
Here's another thing you need to do.
Turn your affections to him at night.
Before you go to bed.
Spend time turning your affections towards God.
See most of us in this room right now and many that are hearing we use our evenings to tune down.
It's like alright I've had a hard day, alright I've spent a whole lot of time reading and praying.
It's evening, let's turn on the television, let's turn on a book, let's turn on, you turn on books also now.
Let's turn on, yeah it's true, you turn on books, you turn on television, you turn on your Facebook.
Your way and my way of entering into the night is usually by doing something mindless.
It is fraught with danger for some of us and it is usually packed with nothingness, uselessness for most of us and danger for some of us.
It's caused us so much harm over so many years through things like pornography and through sexual scenes and pictures and
be it on Facebook or be it whatever you watch.
The thing is in Genesis 1, 5 it said and then there was evening and then there was morning and it was the day.
Let's kind of go back to Genesis 1 and think that your day actually begins when you go to sleep.
You'll be surprised at how if you change this simple habit and took the last half hour of your day
not to read yourself to sleep but turn your attention and affection onto the living God.
You will see something transpire in your life that will be so different over the next 40 days that will change your life.
I know a preacher who does this and he's talked about it and when I heard it I marveled at it that this is something he does.
Song of Songs chapter 3 verse 1, it talks about it.
Let me just see, Song of Songs 3, 1.
Song of Songs, where is it?
Song of Songs 3, 1.
All night long on my bed I looked for the one my heart loves.
I looked for him but did not find him.
That was the first time I saw him.
I looked for him but did not find him.
That was her problem. In our case that won't be the problem.
All night long on my bed I looked for the one my heart loves.
Chapter 5 verse 2.
I slept but my heart was awake.
Listen my lover is knocking.
It is all good in Psalm 16 verse 7.
I will praise the Lord who counsels me even at night.
My heart instructs me.
I have set the Lord always before me.
Try this.
I've been trying this and it is crazy how you wake up the next morning.
Because you are not now trying to restart the day.
You already started it before you went to bed.
And you just continue into something new.
Turn your affections towards him at night.
Any questions?
So that's the second thing.
The first one was the Invite the Spirit.
We'll just do three habits.
Maybe next week we'll do one or two more.
But these will be so revolutionary I'm telling you.
It will be impossible for us to be the same.
Hey Aaron, next week we'll do a new habit.
Just on the side.
Last week it was iced tea and a few people told me I was speaking really fast.
So this time when Aaron said iced coffee and so this time when Aaron said iced coffee I said no Aaron I might speak really fast.
But let's try an extra shot.
So this time we'll do one more.
So let's try an extra shot in it and let's see how it works.
I'm speaking at a proper pace right now.
Next week we shall see.
Last week it was like wilderness party.
Last week we followed the spirit into the wilderness to prepare a place for us in the post-COVID world.
And I thought to myself, boy when I listened to it I thought man that was fast.
And I knew you were to blame.
Yeah.
This is a thankless job.
So why do you want to do a job in it?
Because we're doing a test on the whole thing.
It will benefit St. Arbux in the end.
So it's coffee because it's more down-synced than St. Arbux.
No it's for St. Arbux.
Okay that didn't go down well.
That's okay.
Alright so the third one.
Is a very simple principle given in the Bible.
40 days of this.
After 40 days it will become a habit.
It will be so amazing for this church.
I'm looking forward to all of us becoming like this.
Rejoicing and thanksgiving.
1st Thessalonians 5, 16, 17.
What does it say?
Rejoice forever.
Rejoice evermore.
Pray without ceasing.
In everything give thanks.
So this idea over the next 40 days of spending your time waking up and during the day and at different times indulging in this thing called rejoicing and thanksgiving.
Because it is the will of God.
It is heaven's language.
It is the Holy Spirit's master key.
With which he is able to open a door that gives you a way out of the vortex that you are trapped in.
You are drowning in.
It is heaven's language.
There is so much rejoicing in heaven guys.
It's nuts.
It will be very strange for some Christians to enter heaven.
They will think what are you guys doing?
Rejoicing?
Because they lived in churches and never rejoiced.
So it will be pretty hard out there.
Rejoicing and thanksgiving is the will of God to begin with.
It is heaven's language.
And it's the Holy Spirit's master key that brings God into your vortex or helps you get out of your vortex.
This is why in Habakkuk chapter 3 verses 17-19 if you were to read the message version it says I'm doing cartwheels of joy.
The cherry tree has not blossomed.
The cattle have fled.
There is nothing in the stalls.
But I do cartwheels of joy.
And as I do it I do it with joy.
So I'm doing it with joy.
I'm doing it with joy.
And as I do it I become stronger.
I develop the hind feet of a deer.
And I begin to scale the heights.
So you're talking about
So what would this look like practically?
Practically it would look like getting up in the morning
10 minutes earlier
and beginning to thank God first with a song that you know
rejoice before God with a song that you know
in the midst of your pain
in the midst of a storm, in the midst of what you're going through and beginning to rejoice in him
beginning to give thanks to him on a daily basis multiple times as much as you can do because you
most of you are working at home and some of you aren't working and some of you are pastors you
got plenty of time so in the process what happens guys is rejoicing and thanksgiving will enrich
your root it will enrich your root as in the root of your life will be enriched in the middle of a
famine or a drought your root will be supplied by the water of the word because rejoicing and
thanksgiving cannot be done except by seeking out what you know about god and then it expresses
in thanksgiving two it'll express your faith
it'll express your faith because it's in the middle of a storm or a difficult situation that
you're beginning to choose to rejoice and thank god three it will end the battle of your mind
it will end the battle of your mind as in whatever you're struggling with which is hard to believe
which you find dark when darkness clouds his holy face or whatever that line says
i rest on his unchanging grace but if i rest on his unchanging grace i must express it in faith
it must come out of me it makes my roots rich and it begins to now change the thinking of my mind
it ends the battle of my mind and then the fourth one is
it is the essence of effective prayer it is the essence of effective prayer it is the essence of
effective prayer philippians four with thanksgiving make your requests known to god it is the essence
of effective prayer it's sandwiched between rejoice forevermore in everything give thanks
and it is the essence of effective prayer prayer pray unceasingly try this for the next 40 days
let this church become a church that god says oh my god there they go again thanksgiving and rejoicing
thanksgiving and rejoicing opportunities that come up in difficult situations i know what i'll do
i'll give thanks and i will rejoice these are simple things that if practiced over a
period of 40 days will completely change your life
it's the door to his presence guys some hundred verse four says so i will this is the day that
the lord has made i will enter his gates with thanksgiving in my heart it is a door to his
presence it is a door to his presence it is such an easy door to his presence man if we can get
these three things right we learn what it is to dwell in his abiding presence in difficult
situations when thanksgiving and rejoicing kick in what happens is you see the table that he has
prepared for you through the smoke of the battle in the presence of your enemies you see the table
he has prepared for you in the presence of his enemies of your enemies
you know how difficult it must be for an enemy who's coming to battle against you and you just
are sitting down for dinner right before his eyes there he's thumping his chest and all the stuff
and you're spreading out tablecloth and sitting down for dinner why you can only do that because
you're sure of the battle it's as in let's eat a good meal before you die as in before you die
you're having a last supper on the enemy's behalf
any questions
okay can you try this guys
you must try it not can you try this
you end the day and start the day like this you'll have to
you'll have to find help to sin
you'll have to go get someone who can help you sin
so what will change if you do this what will change if you do this guys i'm telling you these
are the things that you can do to help you sin and you can't do anything about it you can't
do anything about it so what will change if you do this what will change if you do this guys i'm
telling you these are mustard seeds but you practice them for 40 days you will find a tree
growing in your house so what will change one you'll find that you're wearing linen garments of
the spirit the whole the priests would have to wear linen garments didn't matter what they were
over it they had to wear linen garments within you will find that our shucks as i begin to follow
these three simple principles that throughout the day i'm wearing linen garments of the spirit of
god linen garments of the spirit you'll find that three strange things are beginning to increase in
your life righteousness peace joy in the holy ghost you're not making an effort but you're living
righteously you're not praying much but there's a strange calm that exudes into you and out of you
and you're not going haha but you're pretty joyful
righteousness peace and joy increasing in me and increasing through me the nature of the world
around you will is always subject to the presence of god flowing through you the nature of the
world around you is always subject to the to the presence of god flowing through you
the nature of the world around you is always subject to the presence of god flowing through
you jesus proved it paul proved it peter proved it
The nature of the world around you is subject to the presence of God flowing through you.
Any questions?
Hey, there are people on live stream, right?
7-0?
It's one of those days, Adon.
Okay.
When Christ used to go around Jerusalem, people would touch him and they would be healed.
He would know healing would flow from him.
Demons would be subject to him and he was absolutely human.
What was happening was sheerly by the presence of God working through him.
Things were affected because of the presence of God in him and through him.
Sometimes he didn't know it, sometimes he'd find out only after someone had been affected.
Other times he was aware of it.
Other times he would make statements like, the power of God is present to heal.
They tried to throw him over a cliff, they could not.
He could do so many things sheerly by the presence of God in him.
And I would suggest to you that he engaged in these very things,
these very habits right from when he was small.
I can walk into a situation that is turbulent or is in turmoil, sometimes it is a nation
that has a certain thing happening with absolute knowledge of what God wants to do and therefore
very confident of how his majesty will govern the situation.
And when I go in, I know the thing will change.
And I might be the only person entering that nation with that mindset at that time.
But I know that either before I leave or in a short time, something will give.
I saw that 25 or 28 years ago where in a meeting, demons began to manifest, people began to
fight.
And the first time it happened, I just sat there not knowing what to do.
The second time it happened, I started singing hallelujah.
The third time it happened, I remember knowing what God wanted me to do and stepping into
the situation and everything going back to normal.
The world around you is subject to the presence of God flowing through you.
And by presence of God, we do have the presence of God.
But now to walk in the awareness of what God in you wants to do through you to the world
around you.
Sorry?
I knew exactly what to say, I knew exactly who to address, I knew exactly how to say
the tone, the posture, everything.
It was not a shouting thing, it was not scolding somebody, it was not intimidating.
The presence of God doesn't use intimidation.
He only uses intimidation against the enemy and he uses intimidation just by standing
up.
He doesn't do anything else.
Since you asked, let me give you another incident which was so cool and many here have
heard it before.
I was in Indonesia in the middle of a forest in a stadium where they were having a meeting
and these witches would keep coming up and there were television crews there from the
nearby city to shoot the whole thing.
These witches would come up and I realized that if I walk towards the witches without
doing anything, I just stand there as they come up the steps that God would take care
of it.
So as they come up I go and stand by the steps and as I would stand by the steps, not say
a word, they would just fall flat on the face.
And the cameras are shooting this.
One by one they would come up and all of them would go flat on their faces.
I tried it with many of you, it never works.
But it did work then.
So sometimes, yeah, I guess that explains it.
I saw it later on, I saw it on the recorded version, it was fascinating.
Because when it's happening you don't realize, when you see it later you go, oh shucks.
Then you try it with someone else and it doesn't work.
So the next thing that happens is guys, if I begin to walk down this road, if these are
the three simple habits we practice, you will find that you will begin to love with mercy
and truth more than you've ever had.
That when you begin to love people there's a certain mercy and truth in your love that
is flowing out of you towards people even when they are being offensive or difficult
just because Romans 5 says that the Holy Spirit pours into our hearts the love of God.
The Holy Spirit pours into our hearts the love of God.
These three simple things can change so much.
It is worth it because we are preparing for a post-COVID world where God is going to do
something strange across the earth.
Hey Ryan.
And when I say I will love with truth and mercy, it is not love without discernment
but it is love that discerns and shows mercy.
The third thing that will change is suddenly God will become my sufficiency.
He will become my resource.
He will become my exceeding great reward and shield and I will have no more concern for
the cares of the world that choke out God life.
Jesus said that the cares of the world choke out the life of God in you.
As you go down this process of thanksgiving, of rejoicing, of asking the Spirit to rest
on you, of locating him and of protecting the treasure of the Spirit of God in you.
As you begin to engage in thankfulness, as you begin to engage in rejoicing, as you turn
your affections to him every night, ending the day or beginning the day actually in a
sense of speaking, with I will look for him.
If that is the way you are going to dive into the night and get up in the morning, you will
find that oddly enough, you go to bed well and you get up and you give him thanks for
the day and you are not concerned with the cares of the world.
Work, earning a living is no longer important because he suddenly takes on the bigness of
being your all sufficiency, of being the one who will be your resource and your exceeding
great reward and shield as it says in Genesis 15.1.
There is nothing like being set free from the tyranny of work and there is nothing like
working because you enjoy what you were made for.
There is a side point but it is important, I just included this because I thought it
will help some of us.
To crave, to covet, to grasp with greed is to pull into your life the desire to be able
to do what you want to do.
Is to pull into your life out of season and out of sequence things God planned to reward
you with which now become what you are now.
Which now battles your affections and resists the kingdom.
This is someone else's quote but when I read this I thought, man I have done this so many
times.
To crave for something where I know that it will come my way, I know that God is interested
in giving it.
To crave for something, to covet it as in want it because someone else has already got
it and I am still waiting for it.
Or to grasp with greed as in the need to gratify a desire immediately is to inadvertently pull
into your life out of sequence and out of time that which God was planning to reward
you with at the right time.
But having pulled it into my life out of sequence and out of time, I now have that very thing
battle my affections and resist the kingdom.
And that's such a shame.
Make sure you avoid that eh.
It can be things, it can be people, it can be spouses, it can be houses, just because
spouses and houses rhyme.
It can be a whole lot of stuff like that.
Yeah.
Pardon?
I know what I am craving.
I know that the difference between desiring and craving is desiring has the patience to
wait, craving has the need to be gratified.
Yeah.
I change the goalposts when I am craving.
I do not move ancient boundary lines when I am desiring.
I know God has said, okay Jacob stay within this, it will come.
Sure Lord.
But then if I am really craving for it, it's like, well God isn't looking, just move the
stone a little because yeah, that's how it looks like.
Where you want something so badly that you are willing to compromise.
Where you want something so badly that you will not ask people who are wise because you
are scared of the answer, so you won't ask them.
You will come up with scriptures like, I consulted the Lord and I do not consult flesh and blood.
Stuff like that you will come up with.
Whenever I want to make a decision that I don't want input in, I will make the decision
and then tell people about it.
Or whenever I want to do it in a godly fashion, I always call people up and hear their wisdom
before I do it.
It's not fun at my age.
That's just on the side.
I just felt that this quote was important enough to present to you.
So moving on.
Here's another really important thing for us as a church that will happen and it is
so important that it happens.
I will begin to speak and my words will become spirit and life and my tongue will be tamed.
If you indulge in thanksgiving and rejoicing, if you ask the Spirit of God to rest on you,
if you begin to learn how to protect the treasure of the Spirit of God in your life,
if you begin to spend the first hour of your day and the last, not hour, as you dive into
the night and as you come out in the morning, if you begin to turn or direct your affections
towards this one you love, I assure you, you will begin to speak and the words you speak
will be spirit and life and you won't say them too often.
You will say them once or twice and you will know that there is something in the words
that I have spoken that are so spirit and life that it is sufficient.
The strange thing is the more we indulge in thanksgiving and rejoicing, the more you will
find that your tongue is tamed.
And the more your tongue is tamed, the closer you are to being a perfect man, a teleos man,
a mature man.
James 3 verse 2.
Like it or not guys, your spirit man is linked to your vocal cords.
Your spirit man is linked to your vocal cords.
Whether you like it or not.
So even though God has made you that way, many of us will still hide in our shyness,
we will hide in our culture, we will hide in our spiritual introversion, we will hide
in our unbelief and we will hide in our laziness and I pray God that it changes.
Your spirit man is connected to your vocal cords.
And so I pray God that as we begin to rejoice and give thanks, as we let the spirit of God
rest upon us, as we begin to protect the treasure of the spirit of God who is in us, as we dive
into the night and come out in the morning with the chief love of our lives, as the one
who takes us in and brings us out, you will begin to see that you are beginning to speak
words of spirit and life more fluently than before, that you really begin to realize that
man, the spirit man is connected to me voicing things and that I will refuse now to hide
behind culture, be denominational, sacred or secular.
I will begin to give away the shyness that I hide under, the spiritual introversion that
kicks in the moment I come into a church.
I will stop this, I will begin to give voice to it.
Sometimes it's sheer laziness.
It's strange how expressing praise is so difficult that it is easier to be lazy.
And sometimes it's unbelief because you know that the words you're saying are actually
sawdust but as you begin to engage in thanksgiving and in rejoicing you will find that it isn't
sawdust anymore.
Be in no hurry to practice it right now eh?
Just start tomorrow.
As I begin to speak you will, we'll do that another time.
Hey guys, sometimes, no?
And I said this last week, I said that the time we are entering into will be a time of
increased angelic activity.
One of the ways you begin to see angelic activity in your vicinity is by speaking words that
are actually spoken in the throne room that you release here on earth through your voice
because the Bible says in Psalm 103 verse 20 that the angels listen to the voice of
his word.
When you actually begin to speak things that you have heard in the throne room because
you have learned what it is to abide in presence, then you won't have to repeat it too often.
With words like that which are critical in the time ahead.
Critical.
This is not about prophecy.
This is about hearing words and speaking them once or twice.
You can begin to impose a military peace upon the waves and go back into rest.
Be still.
Those were words heard in the throne room that Jesus spoke.
He didn't labor.
Be still.
It was enough.
Last point.
And we will expand on this next week.
Guys, I pray that during these next 40 days, and I'll really touch on it strong next week,
that we begin to discover and then begin to be governed by the majesty of God.
That we discover and then are governed by the majesty of God.
Or by majesty.
What do I mean by majesty?
God sovereign strong.
God king.
God nothing can stand against.
God supreme.
God lord.
That in the process of the next 40 days, this is something we'll find because the starting
point for confidence is majesty.
The starting place for confidence is majesty.
That is what allows you to go and do what normal people wouldn't do and wouldn't go
to.
The starting place for confidence is majesty.
That is what will make us a people who go where normal people wouldn't go and do what
normal people wouldn't do.
You look at the Bible and you see this continuous process,
or a procession of people who were able to discover
and then be governed by majesty.
You look at Isaiah and you see Isaiah in chapter six,
beholding the majesty of God,
and his immediate response is, I will go, send me.
You look at Matthew 17 and you see Peter, James, and John
witnessing Jesus' majesty on the Mount of Transfiguration,
and you see them later in second Peter,
in verse one to six, where Peter begins to say,
in second Peter one, verse six, he begins to say,
but we beheld his majesty,
and we have not come up with fables,
and so we will now go forth
because of the majesty that we have seen.
You look at Revelation chapter one, verse 14,
where you see John, he hears a voice and he turns
and he looks, and there is one like the son of man
walking amongst the lamp stands,
and John is on Patmos exiled,
and he begins to write the most amazing book
that begins to show you what the future looks like.
You look at Daniel in Daniel chapter seven, verse 14,
and Daniel begins to see one who is like the son of man
standing next to the ancient of days,
and to him was given all power, all authority,
all sovereignty, and he begins to describe who Jesus is,
and Daniel changes the course and the history of nations,
not just through his writings,
but while he was still there amongst various kings.
You look at Ezekiel in chapter one, verse 26 to 28,
and you see Ezekiel beholding one who was above the dome,
and he had above his waist the physique of burnished bronze
and below the waist of flaming fire,
and there was a rainbow that sprung forth from the dome,
and as he looked and marveled at majesty,
he heard a voice saying,
Ezekiel, here is what I have for you.
At the end of the day, discovering majesty will allow you
to be governed by majesty,
and if this is sovereign king, bow to your feet,
kiss this ring, and then stand up and say,
I serve at your command, I serve at your pleasure.
What is your will or command?
There I will go.
It doesn't matter how foolish it is.
Normal people won't step into the places
that you will go to.
This has been the history of the Old Testament
and the New Testament.
Why should it be any different for a people
who are being led by the spirit into the wilderness,
and it's not the coffee talking right now?
This is what we're being called to.
You look at Abraham in Genesis 15,
where he was in the wilderness,
had a sacrifice laid before God.
It became dark, a heaviness and a dread began to settle.
It was a kind of dread that comes with the dread
of Yahweh coming over a certain place,
and he begins to chase away the vultures
that came to pray on his sacrifice,
and then behold, when he gets up from this dark heaviness,
he sees a torch blazing through cutting,
and that's when God begins to speak to Abraham saying,
hey, listen, look what I have for you.
You look at Moses, and you see him entering
the tent of the meeting, and then he goes to Mount Sinai,
and he sees Yahweh in his splendor in Exodus 33.
Majesty, nobody can touch him.
Power, presence, goodness, glory,
and that man can never be the same again.
The same man who delivered you out of Egypt
now takes you to the promised land.
You're talking about a post-COVID world that needs help?
It is impossible to do without first discovering
the majesty of God, and then being governed
by the majesty of God, because any man who discovers
the majesty of God does not have a choice
but to be governed by the majesty of God.
Therefore, the best thing, if you want to stay where you are,
is refuse to discover the majesty of God.
Don't go there, because if you go there,
and then you turn away after what you've seen,
there's very little place for your tears or your repentance.
Paul, in Acts chapter 26, is recounting his conversion
to King Agrippa, and he says, I saw a blinding world
and I saw a blinding white light,
a blazing white light that knocked me off my horse,
and I got up and I heard a voice.
These are people that were changed by majesty.
You know, when was it?
May something.
We made a statement here, we said that when COVID begins
to end, we should come out better than when we first went in.
I deliberately, definitely plan to,
and I expect the same of you.
We have to come out richer, better, kinder,
more passionate, holier in our walk,
willing to do anything at any cost, nothing else mattering.
And once we touch this thing called majesty,
you will know what it is to walk as king-priests.
And that's what we'll be talking about in the future.
What is it to be governed by majesty?
And then what is it to be walking then as ones
who are both kings and priests?
Because that is what the landscape ahead requires,
and that is the way God is going to position the church.
There's so much that I've already put down
in terms of what God wants to do that I'm not sharing,
and it'll come out in bits and pieces whenever the time is right.
Why am I saying that?
It's not to make you think, oh, Jacob knows a lot.
No, don't know too much.
I just pretend I do.
But here's the thing.
This is not a step in the right direction.
A stab in the dark.
This is not planless.
What I'm doing is intentional.
It is deliberate, and it is being done
from the perspective of the king himself,
not from the perspective of let Acts 29 do well.
No.
There's a blueprint.
There's an intent behind this.
It is just far bigger than we can handle, but so what?
Mustard seeds grow into trees.
Yeah.
Let's pray.
Father, it's such a privilege about that's all I can say.
Father, I just pray that we get desperate enough
to discipline our lives in your love,
that we get desperate enough to try just these three things.
These are three simple things you've given us
that we've known all our lives,
but now you're calling us to practice this
over a period of 40 days.
I pray, Father, for those of us who haven't yet
responded to your invitation,
that we would set aside time.
Father, you're not asking all of us to do the same thing.
One or two may be able to eat a meal a day
for the next 40 days or 40 nights.
Many of us, most of us won't go down that route.
Some of us will give up.
Social media watching, others won't.
Some of us will give up TV, others won't.
But at the end of the day, what you require is,
hey, Jacob, come, draw a sign.
You've never asked us of us.
I'm so glad you did.
Everything is on the table, Abba.
Everything is on the table.
Ask what you want.
Father, I'm not interested in a strong church.
I'm just interested in us as a people
being at your beck and call.
So, Father, we've got four minutes,
but what's her name?