Latest / Millennial Mustard Seed / Reloaded Episode 55. Dr. Laura Sanger - The Fear of the LORD & Defeating Giants

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Reloaded Episode 55. Dr. Laura Sanger - The Fear of the LORD & Defeating Giants · Millennial Mustard Seed

• 0:04
  What's up everybody, Welcome back to the MMS.
• 0:07
  This is Rod Smith, your producer and creator and host.
• 0:12
  And starting off the year a little bit behind, I'm going to
• 0:15
  be doing some best of episodes, right?
• 0:18
  So I just released a re spin that with Dan Duvall on Sheep
• 0:22
  Nations. I'm just going to be playing a
• 0:24
  few episodes over the next few weeks of content for the new
• 0:29
  listeners and for those of you who listened to years ago, this
• 0:32
  is a great reminder. It's a great way to start into
• 0:34
  this new chapter, kind of re spinning these powerhouse
• 0:38
  episodes of just building faith and confidence and deep insights
• 0:42
  into the word, into our faith journey, into our walk.
• 0:46
  It's so important to circle back.
• 0:48
  Some of the best content and conversations were captured
• 0:53
  previously. Some of the best are still yet
• 0:55
  to come. The Lord knows.
• 0:56
  So I really hope that you guys enjoy a few episodes that I'm
• 1:01
  going to re spin replay. We're going to go back in time
• 1:04
  and dive into some of the best of the MMS interviews.
• 1:08
  Let these episodes bless you. If you've already heard these
• 1:11
  episodes years ago, it's re worth listening to again.
• 1:14
  I guarantee you're going to forget some of the gems that are
• 1:16
  here. If you're a brand new listener,
• 1:19
  enjoy these episodes and there's a ton of content.
• 1:23
  Obviously here on the show. We're getting close to that 300
• 1:26
  mark. I have stuff planned right now,
• 1:29
  scheduling interviews, hosting interviews.
• 1:32
  There's a dip in content because of some of the crazy stuff
• 1:35
  happening in the world and in my personal life.
• 1:38
  There was a few deaths that took place in my immediate and
• 1:42
  greater family and friends. Within the last couple months.
• 1:45
  There's been grieving, a bit of a reset and a shift in the way
• 1:48
  that I'm operating and thinking about things, how it's going to
• 1:52
  move forward. Those of you who have been
• 1:55
  faithful supporters, I thank you for that.
• 1:58
  My plan, I'm going to share this with you guys right here on the
• 2:00
  spot. I want to get all advertisements
• 2:03
  off of this podcast all together.
• 2:06
  So while I'm in this little bit of a redirection, rebuilding,
• 2:10
  gearing up for a new style phase, I'm going to ask you guys
• 2:13
  if you have not supported this show, now is the time to bless
• 2:16
  us and support us. I'm going to be removing
• 2:19
  advertisement completely in the near future and taking a step of
• 2:22
  faith and just relying on the body to step up and say, hey, we
• 2:26
  see you, what you're doing is important and we're going to
• 2:28
  partner with you to remove advertisement.
• 2:31
  I, there's a many reasons why I want to remove the
• 2:33
  advertisement. I do not like the fact that
• 2:37
  corporations and you know, entities are able to sell their
• 2:42
  time slot on air and kind of mess up the rhythm of how you
• 2:45
  guys are hearing and feeling stuff in the spirit IT man.
• 2:49
  You know, I don't really like doing that.
• 2:51
  But unfortunately there is a cost for the time, for the
• 2:54
  equipment, for the entire management of doing a project in
• 2:57
  a ministry like this. So I have been running
• 2:59
  advertisement over the years to keep the lights on.
• 3:02
  But I'm like I said, I'm going to take a step of faith hoping
• 3:04
  that you guys will say we're going to back you up Rod, we're
• 3:07
  going to, you know, whatever. We're going to give you 5 bucks
• 3:10
  a month, 10 bucks a month, 20 bucks a month, $50.00 a month if
• 3:13
  you're able to, if you're in that position, and whatever the
• 3:16
  Lord leads you to, either it's a one time donation or a monthly
• 3:19
  support. And those changes will be made
• 3:22
  and reflective soon. So prayer warriors out there,
• 3:26
  keep me in prayer. I'm taking a step of faith, keep
• 3:29
  me alive. Come and support me elbow to
• 3:32
  elbow, bear my burden in this endeavor.
• 3:35
  You guys were coming up on seven years.
• 3:38
  March 20th of this year, 2026 will be the completion of six
• 3:42
  years, the beginning of the 7th year that I've been doing this
• 3:46
  podcast. And for those of my day one
• 3:49
  listeners, you guys obviously know autodidact.
• 3:52
  I am self-taught. I did this the hard way.
• 3:55
  I learned it the hard way. Not that is the best podcast out
• 3:58
  there by any means. That's not the goal.
• 4:00
  I know that I haven't done the best job, but there's a lot of
• 4:04
  room for growth in the future. And I'm very happy that there's
• 4:07
  people that are praying and supporting.
• 4:09
  And I want to see that grow and increase because I believe the
• 4:12
  Lord is going to open some doors and and to do some things
• 4:16
  differently. So I'm responding appropriately.
• 4:19
  Anyway, Doctor Lara Sanger, fear of the Lord re spinning that
• 4:23
  episode. We're going to go back in time a
• 4:25
  couple years and listen to this bombshell slay the the fear of
• 4:30
  the Lord and how resting in the Lord is equivalent to slaying
• 4:35
  giants. I mean, this is a great
• 4:37
  powerhouse conversation. You guys enjoy it.
• 4:39
  Like, share, subscribe, and let's get right into this re
• 4:43
  spin that with Doctor Lara Sanger.
• 5:01
  Welcome back to the show, everybody.
• 5:03
  I have a special guest returning, I believe, Doctor
• 5:08
  Laura. This is your third or fourth
• 5:10
  appearance overall on the podcast, so it's a pleasure to
• 5:13
  have you here with me on this birthday interview.
• 5:16
  Well, I'm always thrilled to join you, especially on your
• 5:20
  birthday. I consider it a privilege, so
• 5:22
  thanks for having me. It's, it's awesome how God has
• 5:26
  just been working things together for the good of those
• 5:29
  who are called according to his will and purpose.
• 5:31
  And we were just talking before this recording a little bit and
• 5:35
  before prayer. And the topic that we're going
• 5:38
  to be discussing today is, is timely and it's important.
• 5:42
  I believe it's totally God inspired.
• 5:46
  And this is going to be one for the records because what God is
• 5:51
  doing today is a little bit different than what he's been
• 5:55
  doing in previous seasons. So we're going to be discussing
• 6:00
  walking in obedience to the Lord, walking in the fear of the
• 6:04
  Lord, and how that can lead to slaying giants.
• 6:09
  Why don't you kind of warm us up and start us off with everything
• 6:15
  that God has put on your heart for this amazing episode?
• 6:19
  Well, yes, just as you say, we're going to talk about the
• 6:22
  fear of the Lord and you know where that leads us and how it
• 6:26
  gives us courage to slay giants. And you know, as we were talking
• 6:30
  before we got on, just I'm so excited about speaking about the
• 6:36
  fear of the Lord. It's one of my most favorite
• 6:39
  topics because it has made such an impact in my own life once I
• 6:44
  learned how to walk in the fear of the Lord and not the fear of
• 6:48
  man. And so I'm so excited to be able
• 6:51
  to share just the things that Lord has placed on my heart to
• 6:55
  speak on this topic. So I thought a good place to
• 6:58
  start is really just trying to understand what does it mean to
• 7:03
  walk in the fear of the Lord? And you know, looking at the
• 7:07
  Hebrew word for fear is a great place to start.
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  And so that's the the Hebrew word is yaray.
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  Now it has this wide range of meanings and Scripture.
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  So, you know, it can refer to that feeling we have of
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  anticipation of danger or pain, but it can also mean awe or
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  reverence, like when we're in wonder or astonishment or
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  amazement. And when I think about the fear
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  of the Lord, you know, it's, it's this gratitude and
• 7:34
  admiration for the mysterious ways of the Lord.
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  And it's kind of like, I don't know if you've ever been to the
• 7:39
  Grand Canyon, but I have. And when you stand on the edge
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  of the Grand Canyon and you gaze at the wonder of it, that's what
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  the fear of the Lord is like. It's it's having that
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  overwhelming sense of God's glory and his magnificence and
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  so much so that, you know, you just want to erupt in worship.
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  And so that's what we're going to dive into today.
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  And, you know, to to think more about this Hebrew word, Yaray.
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  So the Jewish classical sages, they actually defined this word
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  for fear in three different ways.
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  So you can kind of think of them like 3 different levels of fear.
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  The lowest level of fear is really the common understanding
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  of what fear is, and that is fear of unpleasant consequences
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  or punishment. And that's, you know, when we
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  anticipate pain of some kind and that triggers, you know, the
• 8:31
  fight or flight response. Well, this level of fear can
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  also be associated with the fear of man.
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  So being afraid of or worried about what other people might
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  think of you, then the next layer level of fear is when we
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  have fear or anxiety over breaking God's law.
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  And so that fear, it motivates us to do good deeds because we
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  don't want to be punished. But the highest level of fear is
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  a profound reverence for life that comes from rightly seen.
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  And I love that definition because what some of these sages
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  were doing is they were pairing the word fear with seeing.
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  And that's because when we operate in this level of fear,
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  we actually discern the presence of God in all things.
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  You know, we can see his workmanship in everything around
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  us, and that's what it means to walk in the fear of the Lord.
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  Now, in the English language, we really only have two primary
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  definitions for fear. The first one being, you know,
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  that feeling of anxiety and agitation when we're in the
• 9:37
  presence of danger, evil or pain.
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  And that triggers, you know, this, these feelings of
• 9:43
  timidity, of dread, terror, fright, apprehension, and that
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  can be associated again with the fear of man.
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  The other definition is this respectful dread or awe or
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  reverence. And again, that's associated
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  with the fear of the Lord. So those are just some of your
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  basic definitions of fear. And what does it mean to fear
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  the Lord? Now, I thought it would be
• 10:10
  helpful if we actually look at two different kingdoms.
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  So we look at Saul's Kingdom and we look at David's Kingdom to
• 10:17
  contrast the fear of the Lord. Because it's interesting, you
• 10:20
  know, as I've shared on the fear of the Lord with different
• 10:24
  audiences, I find that there's a lot of Christians who just don't
• 10:29
  understand what it means to walk in the fear of the Lord.
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  And it's, you know, confusing. Like, why would we want to fear
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  a loving father? Is he really mean like people,
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  some people say he is, and that's not at all what the fear
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  of the Lord is. So that's why I thought it's,
• 10:45
  it's helpful first to kind of start with some definitions.
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  Absolutely and and that's so important and just a real quick
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  what what my mind was doing is a lot of the times people will
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  relate their earthly relationship with their father
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  or dad here with what God is like in heaven.
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  So when there's trauma in childhood or just bad
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  relationship, a lot of times people feel like God's going to
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  squash them like a bug when they hear about them because they may
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  reflect and say, yeah, I've done all these things wrong and they
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  have a really bad approach to who God really is.
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  So the clarity on what fear is in the Lord is so important.
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  Now, what can you tell us about the difference between Saul's
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  Kingdom versus David's Kingdom? Well, so Saul's Kingdom
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  represents the fear of man. And what's interesting, you
• 11:34
  know, before Saul was appointed king, Israel was a theocracy.
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  So they were governed by judges. But the elders of Israel got to
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  this point where they were no longer satisfied with a
• 11:46
  theocracy and they wanted a king.
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  And we read about this in First Samuel 8 verse 5.
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  It says they said to him being Samuel, you are old and your
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  sons do not walk in your ways. Now appoint a king to lead us
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  such as all the other nations have.
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  So it's interesting here that the elders of Israel, you know,
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  they're trying to justify their desire for a king by blaming,
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  you know, the wickedness of Samuel's sons as far as the
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  reason why they need to move away from being governed by
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  judges. But really that their heart
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  motivation is exposed in verse 20 where it says then we will
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  then we will be like all the other nations with the king to
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  lead us and to go out before us and fight our battles.
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  So here we see, you know, they no longer trusted the Lord to
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  protect them and to give them victory over their enemies.
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  So they were walking under the sphere of man because they
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  wanted to be like all the other nations.
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  You know, how often do we do that?
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  We want to be just like everyone else.
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  Well, so the Israelites, you know, they rejected God as their
• 12:53
  king because fear of man gripped their hearts.
• 12:57
  And this set up, you know, Saul being appointed as Israel's
• 13:02
  first king. Now what's interesting is that
• 13:05
  Saul comes from a very questionable bloodline, I'll
• 13:09
  say. And let me read verse Samuel 9
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  verses one through 2. And it says there is a man of
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  Benjamin, whose name was Kish, the son of Abiel, the son of
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  Zeror, the son of Baccarat, the son of Aphia, A Benjamite, a
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  mighty man of power. And he had a choice and handsome
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  son whose name was Saul. There is not a more handsome
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  person than he among the children of Israel.
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  From his shoulders upward, he was taller than any of the
• 13:39
  people. So there's two things to note
• 13:41
  from this passage. First of all, Saul's father Kish
• 13:45
  was considered a mighty man, which is Gabor in Hebrew, and
• 13:49
  I'll come back to that in a moment.
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  The second thing is that Saul was head and shoulders taller
• 13:55
  than everyone else. So this Hebrew word Gabor, it
• 14:01
  means mighty, strong, valiant, giant, tyrant, chief, impetuous,
• 14:08
  soldier or hunter. And it comes from a Hebrew root
• 14:11
  word, gabar, which means to be strong, to prevail, to show
• 14:16
  oneself mighty, even to act proudly towards God.
• 14:20
  And the first mention of Gabor, you know, as your listeners
• 14:24
  probably know is in Genesis 6. For now, I go into much greater
• 14:28
  detail in my book. I have a whole chapter on the
• 14:31
  Gabor. But essentially, you know, the
• 14:33
  first mention, like I said, is in Genesis 6 for and referencing
• 14:37
  the Nephilim. Now, what's important to keep in
• 14:41
  mind though, is not every time in Scripture that the the word
• 14:44
  Gabor is used. Is it referencing the hybrid
• 14:47
  race of giants? So we have to look at the
• 14:49
  context of Scripture to discern whether or not it is.
• 14:53
  And I think you'll see as I lay out Saul's life and dive deeper
• 14:58
  into these things, we'll see that within Saul's DNA was this
• 15:03
  genetic mutation for the hybrids.
• 15:07
  Now, why on earth would God choose as Israel's first king a
• 15:11
  man with Nephilim jeans? And when we think about it, you
• 15:15
  know, God is almighty. He's all powerful, He's all
• 15:19
  knowing, but he's not all controlling.
• 15:22
  And, you know, in his abounding love for us at the point of
• 15:25
  creation, he gave us free will. And that's because the Father,
• 15:30
  you know, he wasn't interested in a race of automatons.
• 15:33
  He wanted a race of beings that were free to choose whether or
• 15:36
  not we love him and whether we want to follow in his ways.
• 15:40
  Now, we know free will is risky because, you know, it can mean
• 15:45
  that there's disappointment, there's pain, there's rebellion,
• 15:48
  there's abandonment. But for the Father, you know, it
• 15:51
  was a risk worth taking. And then as we see in Saul's
• 15:56
  life, you know, we see that he was inclined towards
• 15:59
  disobedience and pride and even showing favor to his fellow
• 16:03
  Gabor. Now, there's two instances in
• 16:07
  Saul's life where we can clearly see that he walked in the fear
• 16:11
  of man. And the first time is when he
• 16:13
  faced the Philistines for the very his very first battle.
• 16:17
  And I'll read this. This is from First Samuel 13
• 16:20
  verses 5 through 14. It says the Philistines
• 16:25
  assembled to fight Israel with 3000 Chariots, 6000 charioteers
• 16:30
  and soldiers as numerous as the sand on the seashore.
• 16:34
  They went up and camped at Mick Mash, east of Beth Haven.
• 16:37
  When the Israelites saw that their situation was critical and
• 16:40
  that their army was hard pressed, they hid in caves and
• 16:43
  thickets among the rocks and in pits and cisterns.
• 16:47
  Some Hebrews even crossed the Jordan to the land of Gad and
• 16:51
  Gilead. Now I'll come back to that in a
• 16:53
  moment, because that's significant.
• 16:55
  Saul remained at Gilgal, and all the troops with him were quaking
• 16:59
  with fear. He waited seven days, the time
• 17:02
  set by Samuel. But Samuel did not come to
• 17:05
  Gilgal, and Saul's men began to scatter.
• 17:08
  So he said, bring me the burnt offering and the fellowship
• 17:11
  offerings. And Saul offered up the burnt
• 17:13
  offering. Just as he finished making the
• 17:16
  offering, Samuel arrived and Saul went out to greet him.
• 17:20
  What have you done? Asked Samuel.
• 17:22
  Saul replied. When I saw that the men were
• 17:24
  scattering, and that you did not come at the set time, and that
• 17:27
  the Philistines were assembling at Mick Mash, I thought, now the
• 17:31
  Philistines will come down against me at Gilgal, and I will
• 17:34
  have not sought the Lord's favor.
• 17:36
  So I felt compelled to offer the burnt offering.
• 17:40
  You have done a foolish thing, Samuel said.
• 17:43
  You have not kept the command your Lord, the Lord your God,
• 17:46
  gave you. If you had, he would have
• 17:48
  established your Kingdom over Israel for all time.
• 17:52
  But now your Kingdom will not endure.
• 17:56
  The Lord has sought out a man after his own heart and
• 17:59
  appointed him ruler of his people, because you have not
• 18:03
  kept the Lord's command. So in this passage, you know, we
• 18:07
  see that Saul, he was afraid to lose his army because they were
• 18:10
  beginning to scatter while waiting for Samuel.
• 18:14
  So Saul took matters into his own hands.
• 18:17
  He was more concerned what people thought of his leadership
• 18:20
  than in obeying the Lord. And this is an example of how he
• 18:24
  walked in the fear of man. But his troops also, did you
• 18:28
  know, it says that, you know, his troops were quaking in fear
• 18:33
  and then some of them even retreated to the east back,
• 18:36
  crossing back over the Jordan. And I want to take a moment
• 18:40
  actually to consider the significance of this because you
• 18:44
  know, what is it? What is crossing the Jordan
• 18:46
  represent? And in order to understand that,
• 18:49
  if we go back to the first time it's mentioned in Scripture, it
• 18:53
  gives us some understanding. It's in Genesis 13 verses 10
• 18:57
  through 11, it says Lot looked up and saw that the whole plain
• 19:01
  of the Jordan was well watered, like the garden of the Lord,
• 19:04
  like the land of Egypt towards Zohar.
• 19:07
  This was before the Lord destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah.
• 19:10
  So Lot chose for himself the whole plain of the Jordan and
• 19:14
  set out toward the east. OK, so here you have Lot goes to
• 19:19
  the east of the Jordan. Abraham goes to the West of the
• 19:22
  Jordan. Now east of the Jordan is later
• 19:25
  where the half tribes of Manasseh and Ephraim and then
• 19:29
  also Gad would settle in that land.
• 19:33
  Well, Abraham, he's, he goes to the place near Bethel where
• 19:37
  earlier in his life he had heard from the Lord and when he was
• 19:40
  there, this is what the Lord said.
• 19:42
  This is Genesis 13 verses 14 through 17.
• 19:45
  It says, lift up your eyes from where you are and Look North and
• 19:49
  South, east and West. All the land that you see I will
• 19:53
  give to you in your offspring forever.
• 19:56
  I will make your offspring like the dust of the earth, so that
• 19:59
  if anyone could count the dust, then your offspring could be
• 20:02
  counted. Go walk through the length and
• 20:05
  breadth of the land, for I am giving it to you.
• 20:08
  So essentially this was the promised land that Abraham was.
• 20:13
  He was given this promise. And then later, of course, you
• 20:16
  know, when Joshua was leading the Israelites into the Promised
• 20:19
  land, in order to obtain their inheritance, they had to cross
• 20:23
  the Jordan. So crossing the Jordan
• 20:25
  represents possessing our inheritance.
• 20:28
  Now what's interesting is, you know, you think about Lot and he
• 20:32
  represents the flesh and walking in the fear of man.
• 20:35
  Abraham represents the Spirit and walking in the fear of the
• 20:38
  Lord. Well, so when Saul's men were
• 20:42
  filled and gripped with fear of man, it caused them to retreat
• 20:47
  from the land of promise, which was given to Abraham and his
• 20:52
  descendants. And it caused them to cross back
• 20:55
  over the Jordan into the land of the east where Lot was given.
• 21:00
  And that's where kind of that fear of man was established in
• 21:04
  that land. And So what we can gather from
• 21:08
  this is when we operate in the fear of man, we actually step
• 21:12
  outside of that place of promise and we can lose the inheritance
• 21:16
  that God has given us. Now another example of Saul
• 21:21
  walking in the fear of man is when we examine how he treated
• 21:24
  the Gabor. And this gets really
• 21:26
  interesting. So First Samuel 1452 says now
• 21:30
  there was a fierce war with the Philistines all the days of
• 21:34
  Saul. And when Saul saw any strongman
• 21:38
  or any valiant man, which is the word Gabor, he took him for
• 21:42
  himself. So instead of Saul killing the
• 21:45
  Gabor in battle, he actually took them in.
• 21:47
  He collected them, so to speak. And when you look at the Hebrew
• 21:52
  word for that phrase, he took him for himself.
• 21:56
  It's the primitive root word, a cough, and it means to gather,
• 22:00
  receive, collect and assemble. And so we see here that Saul's
• 22:05
  behavior towards the Gabor actually demonstrates this
• 22:09
  fascination that he had with them.
• 22:10
  He actually had an affinity for them and this led to his
• 22:14
  downfall. So God commanded Saul to Haram
• 22:18
  or completely destroy the Amalekites.
• 22:20
  And this is in First Samuel 15 verses 2 through 3.
• 22:24
  It says this is what the Lord Almighty says.
• 22:28
  I will punish the Amalekites for what they did to Israel when
• 22:32
  they waylaid them as they came up from Egypt.
• 22:35
  Now go attack the Amalekites and totally destroy all that belongs
• 22:40
  to them. Do not spare them.
• 22:42
  Put to death men and women, children and infants, cattle and
• 22:47
  sheep, camels and donkeys. Now, I don't know about you, but
• 22:51
  I have always struggled with passages like this.
• 22:54
  You know, I have a gift of mercy.
• 22:56
  And so I feel people's pain, and I'm always drawn to those who
• 23:01
  are in despair or distraught. Well, I hate the fact that the
• 23:06
  children and infants had to die in this circumstance.
• 23:09
  And I'm like, what in the world did they do?
• 23:11
  Why did they have to die? And it wasn't until I understood
• 23:14
  this principle of Haram that it made sense to me.
• 23:19
  So when God, well, first of all, the Hebrew word Haram, it means
• 23:24
  to completely destroy, exterminate, and to devote for
• 23:28
  destruction. And so it's a term that denotes
• 23:31
  Yahweh's absolute disdain for particular acts of sin,
• 23:35
  especially the mixing of species.
• 23:38
  So when the hybrid race is being spread, So when God commanded
• 23:42
  Haram, He was calling for punishment by total annihilation
• 23:47
  because they were spreading the hybrid race.
• 23:51
  Now who are the Amalekites? The Amalekites were these
• 23:54
  vicious plunderers and they were actually Israel's first enemy
• 23:58
  when they left Egypt. So what happened?
• 24:01
  If you remember, you know, the Egyptians handed their wealth to
• 24:04
  the Israelites. Well, that plunder caught the
• 24:07
  eye of the Amalekites and they wanted it for themselves.
• 24:10
  So they developed this strategy of attacking the back of the
• 24:15
  caravan. So those who straggled towards
• 24:18
  the back, that would be, you know, the frail, the weak, the
• 24:21
  sick, the elderly, nursing mothers, children, they were
• 24:25
  easier prey for the Amalekites. And so they would attack and
• 24:29
  kill them. Well, when you look at the the
• 24:32
  bloodline for the Amalekites, and again, I go into this in my
• 24:35
  book, but it's really interesting how these pieces
• 24:39
  connect. So Amalek was the grandson of
• 24:42
  Esau and Esau's son. He had a son named Iliophaz, and
• 24:47
  Iliophaz had a horite concubine named Timna.
• 24:51
  So Timna bore Iliophaz's son and they named him Amalek.
• 24:55
  Now the name itself, Amalek, means bloodthirsty, as in
• 25:00
  someone who devours something and licks up the blood.
• 25:04
  So what we have here is Amalek, you know, with his mother being
• 25:10
  horite. And the Horrids are mentioned in
• 25:14
  Genesis 14 among a list of tribes of giants.
• 25:17
  But it's not thought that they themselves were a tribe of
• 25:19
  giants, but more that they intermingled with the giants.
• 25:22
  So they, you know, they were spreading the hybrid race.
• 25:25
  So it's likely that Amalek had the Nephilim genes within them.
• 25:29
  Now one thing we do know for sure is that Amalek inherited
• 25:33
  the extreme hatred that Esau had toward Jacob.
• 25:37
  So you know the strife between Esau's descendants and Jacob's
• 25:42
  descendants intensified throughout the generations
• 25:46
  causing the Amalekites to be 1 of Israel's worst enemies.
• 25:50
  Now given all that, it's reasonable to conclude the
• 25:54
  reason why the Amalekites were so detestable to the Lord is
• 25:59
  because not only were they merciless in their attack of
• 26:02
  this burgeoning nation of Israel coming out of Egypt, but they
• 26:06
  practised inner breeding. They were spreading the hybrid
• 26:09
  race. And that's why God commanded
• 26:12
  Saul to Haram the Amalekites, but he failed to do that.
• 26:17
  So during Saul's day, Agag was king of the Amalekites.
• 26:23
  And because Saul walked in the fear of man, you know, he gave
• 26:26
  into the whims of his fancy and he preserved King Agag's life.
• 26:30
  And what's interesting is Josephus, you know, one of the
• 26:33
  the famous Jewish historians, he writes this about why Saul did
• 26:38
  that. He says Saul also took Agag, the
• 26:42
  enemy's king, captive, the beauty and tallness of whose
• 26:45
  body he admired so much that he thought him worthy of
• 26:49
  preservation, giving way to human passions.
• 26:53
  He preferred the fine appearance of the enemy to the memory of
• 26:57
  what God had sent him about South.
• 26:59
  Agog was most likely this giant and by Saul preserving someone
• 27:04
  with a defiled genome, what he was doing on that in that
• 27:08
  particular battle of the seed war is he was handing the enemy
• 27:12
  of victory because Saul chose to align with the seed of Satan.
• 27:18
  And then later Saul confesses his fear of man in first Samuel
• 27:21
  1524. He says, then Saul said to
• 27:24
  Samuel, I have sinned. I have violated the Lord's
• 27:27
  command and your instructions. I was afraid of the men, and so
• 27:32
  I gave in to them. Well, this is precisely why Saul
• 27:36
  lost his kingship. You know, not only was he
• 27:39
  stripped of being king, but no descendant of Saul ever became
• 27:44
  king. So he lost the dynastic quality
• 27:47
  of his monarchy. And this just emphasizes when we
• 27:51
  fear man, we lose part of our inheritance.
• 27:56
  That there's so much there. Wow.
• 28:01
  So it what I find interesting is when you were talking about when
• 28:06
  Saul had the fear of the man and then God gives him this
• 28:10
  judgement that he lost the Kingdom.
• 28:13
  He could have had this established Kingdom that could
• 28:17
  have continued on. And then it makes me think of
• 28:19
  his son Jonathan. You know, we see Jonathan and
• 28:22
  and just to look ahead a little bit.
• 28:25
  Jonathan feared the Lord to the point that he's older than
• 28:29
  David, more experienced when David's young boy Jonathan is
• 28:32
  out conquering the enemies, you know him and his shield bearer
• 28:36
  or just wiping them out and relying on God.
• 28:39
  It reminds me of Philippians 46. Be careful for nothing, but in
• 28:44
  everything by prayer and supplication with Thanksgiving.
• 28:47
  Let your requests be made known to God.
• 28:50
  Jonathan says. I forget the verse, but
• 28:51
  something along the lines to a shield bearer.
• 28:54
  If God is with us, we're going to jump out here and kill 20 of
• 28:57
  of these enemies. But but Jonathan hands his
• 29:01
  position as as far as he knew, an inherit an inheritor of the
• 29:07
  Kingdom, being Saul's son to David and humility and and I you
• 29:13
  see the fear of the Lord and Jonathan.
• 29:15
  But everything that Saul did, loving the tallness, this
• 29:21
  stature of you know, this, this wicked bloodline that he was to
• 29:25
  Haram to utterly destroy to wipe him out.
• 29:29
  Clearly this is a very important biblical insight into what it
• 29:37
  looks like to fear man versus fearing the Lord.
• 29:40
  And and I know you have to have some more gems to share on this.
• 29:43
  And this is this is so exciting. It's so exciting.
• 29:47
  Yeah, I I love that you bring up Jonathan because I'm going to
• 29:52
  share in a few minutes about Michael Saul's daughter.
• 29:55
  And you know, Jonathan is an example of overcoming
• 30:00
  generational iniquity because he didn't walk in the fear of man,
• 30:05
  but we'll see that Michael walked in the fear of man just
• 30:09
  like her father did. And so I appreciate that you
• 30:12
  brought up Jonathan because it gives us encouragement that no
• 30:15
  matter what's in our generational line, you know, the
• 30:18
  curses that exist there, that generational iniquity, we can
• 30:22
  cut that off and and so that it no longer flows forward in our
• 30:28
  generations. And that's what Jonathan did.
• 30:32
  And precisely what you're pointing out is because he
• 30:34
  walked in the fear of the Lord. So I want to share about David
• 30:38
  because David's Kingdom is this representation of the fear of
• 30:42
  the Lord. And you know, there's two
• 30:45
  distinct instances where we clearly see that David walked in
• 30:48
  the fear of the Lord. The first one is when he faced
• 30:51
  Goliath. So Goliath, you know, Goliath
• 30:55
  used fear and intimidation to paralyze the armies of Israel.
• 30:58
  For 40 days, you know, he is spewing these insults at Israel.
• 31:04
  And for 40 days, the armies of Saul, you know, go up to the
• 31:08
  battle line and they do absolutely nothing.
• 31:11
  But when David walked onto the scene, he shifted the
• 31:15
  atmosphere. And I love that because that's
• 31:17
  what we can do. We can shift the atmosphere no
• 31:20
  matter where we go. So, you know, David was sent on
• 31:23
  this errand by his father, and he was to bring provisions to
• 31:28
  his brothers because his brothers were part of Saul's
• 31:30
  army. They were the ones on the battle
• 31:32
  line doing absolutely nothing. Well, here's the shepherd boy.
• 31:37
  You know, he was tried and tested on the fields while
• 31:41
  protecting the sheep, and he had spent his days developing this
• 31:45
  intimate relationship with the Lord.
• 31:48
  And because of that, the intimacy that he had, it gave
• 31:52
  him the confidence and the courage to fight the lion and
• 31:55
  the bear when they were attacking the sheep.
• 31:57
  So here David is now on the scene.
• 32:00
  He's hearing these insults that Goliath is spewing and he's
• 32:05
  indignant. He's, he's also perplexed at the
• 32:08
  lack of courage in Saul's fighting men.
• 32:11
  See, David had not given himself over to the fear of man.
• 32:14
  He had developed a relationship with the God of Israel.
• 32:18
  Now, one thing that's interesting too is that
• 32:21
  Goliath's name means splendor, and it comes from a Hebrew root
• 32:26
  word, galah, which means to expose, to uncover, to remove,
• 32:32
  to be disclosed, and to depart. And I think that's interesting
• 32:36
  because it really was a prophetic name that he carried
• 32:40
  because he was exposed. He was uncovered, removed, and
• 32:44
  he was departed from the earth because of David's courage.
• 32:48
  And listen to what David said. This is one of my favorite
• 32:50
  passages. It's in First Samuel 17 verse 45
• 32:54
  through 47. David said to the Philistine,
• 32:58
  You come against me with sword and spear and javelin, but I
• 33:02
  come against you in the name of the Lord Almighty, the God of
• 33:05
  the armies of Israel whom you have defied.
• 33:08
  This day the Lord will deliver you into my hands, and I'll
• 33:11
  strike you down and cut off your head.
• 33:14
  This very day I will give the carcasses of the Philistine army
• 33:17
  to the birds and the wild animals, and the whole world
• 33:21
  will know that there is a God in Israel.
• 33:24
  All those gathered here will know that it is not by sword or
• 33:27
  spirit that the Lord saves, for the battle is the Lord's, and He
• 33:31
  will give all of you into our hands.
• 33:34
  And I love that that is such a declaration of confidence.
• 33:38
  And it's because, you know, the fear of the Lord enabled David
• 33:41
  to see a different reality than everyone else that was vexed by
• 33:46
  the fear of man. So the fear of the Lord allowed
• 33:49
  David to step into his inheritance as a great warrior
• 33:53
  because later, you know, he'd be, he'd be known as slain
• 33:57
  10,000. So David's fear of the Lord
• 34:00
  allowed him to have this fearless attitude towards
• 34:03
  Goliath. You know, here's this 8 foot 8
• 34:05
  inch giant. And David's, you know, a young
• 34:08
  teenager, he doesn't care who he's up against because he knew
• 34:13
  who he was in the Lord. His confidence came from the
• 34:16
  assurance that the Ancient of Days had his back.
• 34:20
  And I absolutely love that. Talk about slaying giants.
• 34:24
  So that's what we can do when we walk in the fear of the Lord.
• 34:27
  It doesn't matter how intimidating the giant is that
• 34:31
  we're facing in our lives. We have the Ancient of Days on
• 34:36
  our back, you know, ready to be there and and to conquer.
• 34:41
  And so another instance of David walking in the fear of the Lord
• 34:46
  is found in his worship. Now David abandoned himself
• 34:51
  before the Lord in worship. And we read this in Second
• 34:54
  Samuel 6, and I'll read verse 14 and then 20 through 23 says
• 35:00
  David, wearing a linen ephod, danced before the Lord with all
• 35:04
  his might. When David returned home to
• 35:07
  bless his household, Michael, daughter of Saul, came out to
• 35:10
  meet him and said how the king of Israel has distinguished
• 35:13
  himself today, disrobing in the sight of the slave girls of his
• 35:17
  servants as any vulgar fellow would.
• 35:21
  David said to Michael, it was before the Lord who chose me
• 35:25
  rather than your father or anyone from his house, when he
• 35:28
  appointed me ruler over the Lord's people.
• 35:30
  Israel, I will celebrate before the Lord.
• 35:33
  I will become even more indignified than this, and I
• 35:37
  will be humiliated in my own eyes.
• 35:39
  But by these slave girls you spoke of, I will be held in an
• 35:43
  honor. And Michael, daughter of Saul,
• 35:46
  had no children to the day of her death.
• 35:49
  So here we see that, you know, Michael is operating in the fear
• 35:52
  of man just like her father did. She was more concerned about
• 35:56
  what other people would think than by obeying the Lord.
• 36:00
  And, you know, this led to the fact that she lost her
• 36:05
  inheritance. You know, she walked in this
• 36:08
  generational iniquity. She didn't break it like
• 36:12
  Jonathan did. So she walked under that fear of
• 36:15
  man, and that caused her to remain barren the rest of her
• 36:19
  days. But here we see David, you know,
• 36:22
  walking in the fear of the Lord. And it allowed him to lavish the
• 36:26
  Lord with this extravagant worship.
• 36:29
  And in return, the Lord enlarged his inheritance beyond what
• 36:33
  David could imagine. And we read this in Second
• 36:36
  Samuel 7 verse 9 and 16. It says, I have been with you
• 36:41
  wherever you have gone, and I've cut off all your enemies from
• 36:45
  before you. Now I will make your name great
• 36:48
  like the names of the greatest men of the earth.
• 36:52
  Your house and your Kingdom will endure forever before me.
• 36:55
  Your throne will be established forever.
• 36:59
  So here we see, you know, these two kingdoms.
• 37:02
  Saul gave into the fear of man, and no one from his bloodline
• 37:07
  ever became king. But David walked in.
• 37:11
  The fear of the Lord and the King of Kings came from his
• 37:14
  bloodline. That is wow.
• 37:20
  So even if Saul had done right and kept the and, and
• 37:26
  established this Kingdom, Jonathan still would have obeyed
• 37:29
  the Lord and it would have came to David like just remembering
• 37:32
  because Oh my gosh. So David, his heart is after
• 37:38
  God. All of this stuff is going on
• 37:41
  and he is emptying himself in worship.
• 37:44
  So, so God had him in mind regardless of what everybody
• 37:51
  else was seeing. And, and I love the fact that
• 37:54
  you, you, you're bringing up where David goes and makes the
• 37:57
  declaration to Goliath. That's me and my son's favorite
• 38:02
  Bible book to read together. And he, he kind of reacts that
• 38:06
  reenacts that scene between David and Goliath.
• 38:09
  Sometimes I think he treats me like I'm Goliath and he runs
• 38:12
  over and hits me and I'm like, Oh no.
• 38:14
  And. It's just so cool.
• 38:16
  And the confidence. David picks up five smooth
• 38:20
  stones when he crosses over the brook.
• 38:23
  The fear of the Lord builds this, this confidence.
• 38:27
  It's there's prophecy. What David says to Goliath
• 38:31
  happens to a tee. So he's prophesying to him,
• 38:33
  saying, listen, this is what is going to happen this day.
• 38:36
  He and Goliath supposedly has four brothers, according to, I
• 38:40
  believe, some extra biblical documentation.
• 38:43
  I forget what the sources are, but I'm pretty sure.
• 38:45
  I think it's it's in the Bible as well.
• 38:47
  Is it in the Bible as well? I should have pinpointed that
• 38:51
  for this discussion, but it's there for the audience, you guys
• 38:56
  that investigate beyond just this conversation.
• 38:58
  There's so many gems that Doctor Laura Sanger's pulling out for
• 39:02
  us in the Word of God. That's just never ending.
• 39:06
  But the confidence that David had.
• 39:09
  Yeah, yeah. Everybody else is scared and and
• 39:12
  like you said, he's a young teenager and the lion and the
• 39:15
  bear, he builds this relationship with God where God
• 39:18
  has protected him against these smaller enemies.
• 39:22
  And the confidence was building up.
• 39:24
  And I just love the story of David because when he worships,
• 39:29
  he empties himself. He is not worried about what
• 39:32
  other people are seeing around him.
• 39:34
  There is power and life in the word of God.
• 39:37
  I'm terribly excited for this, for this conversation.
• 39:40
  Just just right now I've, it's just, I'm filled up.
• 39:46
  I feel full, like I've eaten. I haven't eaten yet today but
• 39:49
  here I am feeling like excited and full of energy and just that
• 39:53
  this is good. Yeah, and I think, you know, one
• 39:57
  of the things for me in my life, I've walked for years and years
• 40:02
  under fear of man. And when the Lord broke me of
• 40:07
  that, and I began understanding what does it mean to walk in the
• 40:10
  fear of the Lord? It, it just, there's nothing
• 40:15
  like it. It, it's like you.
• 40:20
  It's like you come into this realization of how magnificent
• 40:24
  God is. And it doesn't matter what other
• 40:27
  people think of you. We only have an audience of 1,
• 40:31
  you know, when we walk in the fear of the Lord.
• 40:33
  And so one of the things I wanted to do is just lay out
• 40:36
  some characteristics of the fear of man versus the
• 40:40
  characteristics of the fear of the Lord so that each one of us
• 40:43
  can honestly take, you know, a look at where do we fall?
• 40:49
  Are we walking under fear of man or are we walking in the fear of
• 40:52
  the Lord? So characteristics of people who
• 40:55
  walk in the fear of man generally, you know, they try
• 40:59
  and please others. They want to enable others as
• 41:03
  well, and they typically will avoid conflict.
• 41:07
  You know, they give in to an intimidation because typically
• 41:10
  they're timid or they're codependent or insecure.
• 41:14
  And also often times they're influenced by peer pressure.
• 41:18
  You know, they just want to do what everyone else is doing.
• 41:20
  They don't want to stand out. They don't want to be different.
• 41:23
  Sometimes even they can have social phobias.
• 41:27
  You know, being around crowds of people is difficult for them
• 41:30
  because you know, they're fearful of what other people
• 41:33
  might be thinking or saying about them.
• 41:36
  Also, people who walk in the fear of man will act foolishly.
• 41:40
  They'll follow the advice of others rather than walking in
• 41:43
  obedience to the Lord. And typically they want to avoid
• 41:47
  accountability. They don't want to hear, you
• 41:50
  know, difficult things about their personality or what they
• 41:52
  need to change. And most often they're plagued
• 41:56
  by doubt, you know, self doubt, doubt in the goodness of God.
• 42:01
  You know, they, they struggle and walking in faith and doubt
• 42:03
  just takes over now characteristics of the fear of
• 42:07
  the Lord. You know, these are people who
• 42:09
  desire to please God. Just like I was saying, you
• 42:11
  know, we have an audience of 1 and all we're after is pleasing
• 42:15
  the Lord. And it doesn't matter what other
• 42:18
  people think or say about us and relationships.
• 42:21
  We're like iron sharpening iron. So we're not afraid to say the
• 42:25
  difficult thing in love. And we embrace healthy conflict
• 42:29
  because, you know, we're we're confident in who we are in the
• 42:33
  Lord. We're able to face intimidation
• 42:36
  head on. We're bold.
• 42:37
  We're able to set those healthy boundaries because once again,
• 42:40
  we're secure in our identity of who God has made us to be.
• 42:45
  Then biblical truths shape our decisions.
• 42:48
  Not what everyone else is doing, not what peer pressure or the
• 42:53
  world suggests, but biblical truths will shape our decisions.
• 42:57
  And we're OK going against the flow.
• 42:58
  We're OK standing out and being different because we know that
• 43:02
  we're walking in obedience and that allows us to be
• 43:06
  comfortable. You know, no matter what the
• 43:08
  size of the crowd, it doesn't matter.
• 43:10
  It doesn't matter what people think.
• 43:11
  It doesn't matter what we look like.
• 43:13
  It doesn't matter what people are saying about us.
• 43:16
  And oftentimes we walk in wisdom because we're following the
• 43:20
  voice of the Lord and not the voice of others.
• 43:23
  And we welcome accountability because we we recognize that
• 43:27
  when people show us things about ourselves that we ourselves
• 43:30
  can't see, that are, you know, weaknesses or areas of sin, then
• 43:35
  it allows us to deal with it and we become better.
• 43:38
  It's like we move from glory to glory.
• 43:40
  And so people who walk in the fear of the Lord welcome
• 43:43
  accountability, and then we walk by faith and not by sight.
• 43:49
  So those are some of the differences and characteristics.
• 43:51
  And you know, as we think about how God gave David promises of
• 43:56
  this incredible inheritance, you know, when he walked in the fear
• 43:58
  of the Lord, Well, we see through Scripture that the Lord
• 44:02
  gives us promises for those who walk in the fear of the Lord.
• 44:06
  And I've actually, I've put together 22 different promises
• 44:11
  from scripture of those who walk in the fear of the Lord.
• 44:14
  And I can, I can send that to you.
• 44:16
  I don't know if it's possible to include it in your show notes or
• 44:19
  what, but it's so powerful to read these promises and I'll
• 44:24
  just read three of them. So one promise is generational
• 44:29
  blessing, and this comes from Psalm 112 verses one through 2.
• 44:33
  It says praise the Lord. Blessed is the man who fears the
• 44:37
  Lord, who finds great delight in his commands.
• 44:40
  His children will be mighty in the land.
• 44:43
  The generation of the upright will be blessed.
• 44:46
  And then we also have promises of deliverance, which we see
• 44:49
  from Psalm 34, seven. It says the Angel of the Lord
• 44:52
  encamps around those who fear him and he delivers them and
• 44:57
  then we're promised wisdom. Proverbs 910 says the fear of
• 45:01
  the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.
• 45:04
  And so you know, what we see is when we walk in the fear of the
• 45:07
  Lord, when we live our lives in that way, it changes everything
• 45:11
  about our perspective. And I want to read to you a
• 45:14
  quote, it's from John Parsons. He has a a website called Hebrew
• 45:18
  for Christians. And he writes, when we really
• 45:21
  see life as it truly is, we will be filled with wonder and awe
• 45:26
  over the glory of it all. Every Bush will be aflame with
• 45:30
  the presence of God, and the ground we walk upon shall
• 45:33
  suddenly be perceived as holy. Nothing will seem small,
• 45:38
  trivial, or insignificant. In this sense, fear and
• 45:42
  trembling before the Lord is a description of the inner
• 45:45
  awareness of the sanctity of life itself.
• 45:48
  And I love that. And you know those who walk in
• 45:51
  the fear of the Lord, we take seriously His commandments, and
• 45:55
  one of those commandments is to rest.
• 46:00
  Wow, that that is a powerful quote and what a difference
• 46:05
  between fear of man and the fear of the Lord.
• 46:08
  And, and this is something I find interesting about repenting
• 46:12
  to have a change of mind. So there's characteristics I've
• 46:17
  noticed like in, in my younger life that I would, I was
• 46:20
  sequacious, just going with the flow, whatever the culture was.
• 46:23
  I didn't really know where I belonged in life or what I was
• 46:27
  going to do. But you know, a series of
• 46:30
  events, my near death encounter and, and some other things that
• 46:34
  happened in my personal life, It opened my eyes to the point of
• 46:39
  God, I, I've never even inquired of you.
• 46:41
  I don't know who you are. I don't know how you work.
• 46:44
  And, and it came from this place of wanting to seek and
• 46:47
  understand, you know, really, really.
• 46:49
  I was worried about what actually is going to happen when
• 46:51
  I die. And it's funny that you say, you
• 46:54
  know, as we follow God, we don't care what other people think
• 46:57
  because kind of over the next couple years, it was long and
• 47:00
  drawn out, but I just didn't care if I looked foolish or if
• 47:05
  people would say, oh, why are you not doing what you used to
• 47:08
  do? You used to be hip and cool or
• 47:10
  whatever. And now you're, you know,
• 47:13
  carrying around a Bible, reading a Bible, making this stance
• 47:16
  where you're going to dive into these, these strange things
• 47:19
  within Christianity to try to get a deeper understanding.
• 47:22
  And, and for me, having this change of mind and changing my
• 47:27
  mind and learning as I go to take captive my thoughts and
• 47:31
  obedience to Christ. Really I, I personally have seen
• 47:35
  slowly, not not in completion by far.
• 47:38
  I still got a long way to go, but converting some of these
• 47:41
  fear of man things, they've just been dissipating as time goes on
• 47:45
  and I find myself just more infatuated with what God's truth
• 47:49
  is about us. So please do send me those 22
• 47:52
  promise quotes from that that you have listed out there.
• 47:55
  They will be included in the show notes.
• 47:59
  Now this is so important, this place of rest that you're
• 48:02
  talking about because those who are walking with God and, and
• 48:07
  this wrestling match has been taking place with where their
• 48:10
  calling is and identifying, you know, generational iniquities.
• 48:15
  And, and we've covered this in previous episodes.
• 48:18
  So if anybody's listening for the first time, we did breaking
• 48:21
  strongholds iniquities. We did the episode of marriage
• 48:24
  your your first time here. We discussed your book Spiritual
• 48:27
  mapping and the Nephilim agenda. And real quick, I just want to
• 48:32
  throw this out there. Doctor Laura has released the
• 48:36
  roots of the Federal Reserve on audio.
• 48:40
  So it's it's available on Audible.
• 48:42
  And that's actually, I just went through it again recently, which
• 48:45
  is so helpful being that I battle with dyslexia.
• 48:50
  So sitting and reading sometimes is difficult.
• 48:52
  So for anybody out there, go and support, leave her a review on
• 48:56
  Audible or order the physical copy on Amazon or anywhere else
• 49:01
  that's available. But one of one of the really
• 49:06
  cool things is that I'm hearing from listeners and just friends
• 49:10
  and family who have been following this podcast and many
• 49:13
  other great podcasts that are taking a stance.
• 49:16
  They're not going with the culture.
• 49:18
  They're not bowing down to just all of these crooked and
• 49:21
  perverse systems that seem to be bubbling up and over into our
• 49:24
  society. They are taking a stand and they
• 49:27
  are slowing down. So this place of rest is so
• 49:31
  important and timely also because a lot of us feel like I
• 49:36
  just need to spend some time with the Lord.
• 49:39
  I need to just rest in Him. But how do we do that without
• 49:44
  letting our guard down? How do we fight from that place?
• 49:48
  Please help me understand in the audience this is good.
• 49:52
  Yeah. Well, I, you know, I think it's
• 49:54
  so important, like you're saying, to learn how to rest
• 49:58
  because we are in the midst of an intense spiritual battle and
• 50:03
  we can get weary and worn out unless we learn how to rest.
• 50:07
  And, you know, Sabbath is this gift that the Creator gave us.
• 50:12
  It prolongs our life. You know, it gives us sanity and
• 50:14
  wholeness. And even in relationships, you
• 50:17
  know, it, it enriches our relationships and increases our
• 50:21
  fruitfulness. But Sabbath is not what we do
• 50:26
  once all our tasks are completed.
• 50:29
  Rest is what we do in the middle of all our tasks.
• 50:33
  And we rest without excuse. And we rest without guilt
• 50:37
  because God taught us how to rest from the very beginning.
• 50:42
  And this is Genesis 2 verse 2 through 3.
• 50:44
  It says by the 7th day God had finished the work He had been
• 50:48
  doing. So on the 7th day He rested from
• 50:51
  all his work. And God blessed the 7th day and
• 50:54
  made it holy, because on it He rested from all the work of
• 50:58
  creating that He had done. So in that passage when you look
• 51:02
  at the Hebrew word for rest is Shabbat, and that's the root
• 51:05
  word for Sabbath. Well, it means to cease, desist,
• 51:10
  rest, to put an end to, to exterminate, to destroy, and to
• 51:15
  remove. And all of those describe
• 51:17
  voluntary rest. But it also means to cause, to
• 51:22
  cease, to cause, to desist, to cause, to fail, to make one rest
• 51:27
  and be sill and to take away. And that describes involuntary
• 51:32
  rest. And I'm going to come back to
• 51:33
  that in a moment. But when you, when you think
• 51:36
  about this definition of rest, you know, how can the same word
• 51:40
  Forrest mean to destroy and exterminate?
• 51:43
  You know, how does that fit in with Sabbath?
• 51:46
  Well, when we rest, we are actually also worrying.
• 51:50
  We're destroying the works of the enemy.
• 51:52
  We're putting an end to striving stress, exhaustion, worry,
• 51:57
  self-sufficiency and pride. And God established, you know,
• 52:02
  the principle of rest as a commandment.
• 52:05
  And Sabbath is the 4th commandment.
• 52:07
  And this comes from Exodus 20 verse 8 through 11.
• 52:10
  It says remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy, which that
• 52:14
  word for holy means to sanctify, to consecrate, to set it apart
• 52:18
  as sacred. Goes on to say 6 days you shall
• 52:22
  labor and do all your work, but the 7th day is a Sabbath day to
• 52:26
  the Lord your God. On it you shall not do any work,
• 52:30
  neither you nor your son or daughter, nor your male or
• 52:33
  female servant, nor your animals, nor any foreigner
• 52:36
  residing in your towns. For in six days the Lord made
• 52:40
  the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them,
• 52:43
  but he rested on the 7th day. Therefore, the Lord blessed the
• 52:47
  Sabbath day and made it holy. So in this passage, what we see
• 52:51
  is that, you know, this principle of Sabbath is not just
• 52:54
  for the children of God, it's for all of humanity.
• 52:57
  So it's for slave and free, It's for Jew and Gentile, but not
• 53:01
  only that, it's for all of creation.
• 53:04
  Animals need to rest. Land needs to rest.
• 53:09
  Exodus 2310 through 11 says for six years you were to sow your
• 53:13
  fields and harvest the crops, but during the 7th year let the
• 53:18
  land lie unplowed and unused. See, the Lord took very
• 53:23
  seriously his commandment for the land to have rest, and if
• 53:26
  his children neglected it, he would drive them into captivity.
• 53:30
  Leviticus 2633 Three 35 says I will scatter you among the
• 53:35
  nations, and will draw out my sword and pursue you.
• 53:39
  Your land will be laid waste, and your cities will lie in
• 53:42
  ruins. Then the land will enjoy its
• 53:45
  Sabbath years all the time that it lies desolate, and you are in
• 53:48
  the country of your enemies. Then the land will rest and
• 53:52
  enjoy its Sabbath all the time that it lies desolate.
• 53:55
  The land will have the rest it did not have during the Sabbath.
• 53:59
  You lived in it. Well, what's interesting to
• 54:02
  realize is the whole reason Israel was driven into
• 54:07
  Babylonian captivity was because they failed to give the land
• 54:11
  their rest. Second Chronicles 3620 through
• 54:14
  21 says he carried into exile to Babylon the remnant who escaped
• 54:19
  from the sword, and they became servants to him and his
• 54:21
  successors until the Kingdom of Persia came to power.
• 54:25
  The land enjoyed its Sabbath rest all the time of its
• 54:29
  desolation. It rested until the 70 years
• 54:32
  were completed in the fulfillment of the word of the
• 54:34
  Lord spoken by Jeremiah. So here we see, you know the
• 54:39
  Creator. He gives us the instruction
• 54:41
  manual for all of creation, and it says to rest.
• 54:46
  Well. If we don't follow this
• 54:47
  instruction, what happens is creation gradually falls apart.
• 54:52
  See, rest is so vital. That's why he established it as
• 54:56
  a commandment. And I want to read the 10
• 54:57
  commandments because I'll point out something interesting about
• 55:01
  rest here. It says you shall have no other
• 55:03
  gods before me. You shall not make idols, You
• 55:07
  shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain.
• 55:10
  Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy.
• 55:13
  Honor your father and mother. You shall not murder.
• 55:17
  You shall not commit adultery. You shall not steal.
• 55:20
  You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.
• 55:23
  You shall not covet. So in the first 3 commandments,
• 55:27
  what we see is that we're instructed on how to have a
• 55:30
  healthy relationship with God. And then in the last 6
• 55:33
  commandments we see how to have a healthy relationship with
• 55:37
  people. And the fourth commandment is
• 55:39
  that transition commandment. And that shows us how important
• 55:43
  rest is. So when we enter into rest, not
• 55:46
  only are we drawing deeper in relationship with the Lord, but
• 55:51
  it also provides us with the refreshment that we need to love
• 55:55
  others. Wow.
• 55:58
  And, and I'm thinking, as you were speaking, the scripture
• 56:01
  says be holy as I am holy. And there's, like you say, this
• 56:07
  refreshment and this rest is so necessary.
• 56:10
  And unfortunately, the, the way the general consensus is today
• 56:14
  is go, go, go, right. And people will argue, oh, the
• 56:17
  Sabbath is actually Saturday or no, it's Sunday.
• 56:20
  No sun day comes from the sun God worship, right?
• 56:23
  And there's all these confusing things, but the importance in
• 56:27
  the big 10, you just read to us keeping the Sabbath day keep
• 56:31
  it's it's holy, it's separate, it's set apart and it is
• 56:35
  designed for our good. And we know that there's
• 56:39
  consequences for not keeping that according to the verses you
• 56:42
  shared with us and and what God is saying.
• 56:46
  And that's so important. You know, when David is talking
• 56:50
  about in the Psalms, God, you're my strong tower.
• 56:53
  I've run to you in time of need and time of help.
• 56:57
  Well, God is holy. And if he's saying for us to be
• 57:00
  holy, like he is holy, This is just a connection I'm just
• 57:02
  making as I'm thinking I'm listening to you and like
• 57:05
  scriptures are coming to mind, like reiterating what you're
• 57:08
  saying. Just it's beautiful.
• 57:09
  But when we run to God, we need to have the kind of fear of the
• 57:16
  Lord where we're an acknowledgement and obedience to
• 57:20
  what his law is for us as his people.
• 57:23
  We should be holy as He is holy, set apart, not following the way
• 57:27
  that the world is not just going with the flow and accepting
• 57:31
  whatever anybody says. And it's going to look bold.
• 57:33
  Sometimes we're going to be a little loud or aggressive, but
• 57:36
  it's going to come from a place of like, like a holy anger or
• 57:39
  righteousness is. And all of this is so important.
• 57:45
  The only I'm not a big birthday guy.
• 57:48
  Like I don't celebrate too much or make a big deal to my
• 57:50
  birthday. But the only reason I would want
• 57:52
  more in one year is to have a birthday Bible study with you,
• 57:55
  Laura, because this is this is epic.
• 57:57
  This is so good and this is what's accessible to all of us
• 58:02
  if we just come in humility, a broken and contrite spirit.
• 58:06
  God does not reject you. You reminded us David emptied
• 58:09
  himself as he worshipped the Lord.
• 58:12
  We can do this on a daily basis, you guys, a weekly basis, a
• 58:16
  monthly basis. Get plugged in with another
• 58:18
  strong believer for all of you listeners out there and get
• 58:22
  excited about the Word of God. And yeah.
• 58:26
  You know, I think about too, like what we were saying
• 58:28
  earlier, how, you know, when you enter into rest, we actually can
• 58:34
  war from that place. And for me, when I discovered
• 58:39
  that reality, it transformed the spiritual warfare that I'm
• 58:44
  engaged in. And so, you know, like I
• 58:47
  mentioned earlier, when we rest, we're destroying the works of
• 58:51
  the enemy. You know, we're putting to death
• 58:54
  striving and stress and exhaustion and all those things.
• 58:57
  And you know, when we honor the Sabbath, it requires us to trust
• 59:02
  the Lord instead of our own efforts, right, to take care of
• 59:05
  our own needs. And I love Matthew 6-8.
• 59:08
  You know, it talks about how the Lord, it says for your Father
• 59:11
  knows what you need even before you ask him.
• 59:15
  And it's so true. You know, he sees the big
• 59:17
  picture. He knows when we need to rest,
• 59:20
  and he'll lead us into rest. But so often we don't follow him
• 59:24
  because, you know, we want to maintain control over our own
• 59:28
  schedule. But entering into rest means
• 59:31
  that we learn how to daily surrender to Him.
• 59:34
  And I remember years ago I began praying this prayer and I just
• 59:38
  said, Lord order my day. And it's amazing how this daily
• 59:42
  simple surrender has completely changed my perspective.
• 59:47
  So I used to get like really irritated with people when they
• 59:52
  would cancel on me. But now when that happens, it's
• 59:55
  like it doesn't bother me at all because I realized that God is
• 59:59
  reordering my day. And I would much have, I would
• 1:00:02
  much rather have what the Holy Spirit has in mind for my day
• 1:00:05
  than what my calendar says. And there's literally days when
• 1:00:09
  everyone will cancel and you're like, what is going on?
• 1:00:12
  And then I realized, oh, I must need to rest.
• 1:00:16
  The Lord is like completely clearing my schedule.
• 1:00:19
  And I love days like that. And you know.
• 1:00:21
  You know, when we think about Psalm 23, it talks about how the
• 1:00:25
  Lord lets us rest in green meadows and he leads us beside
• 1:00:29
  these peaceful streams and he, he makes sure that he guides us
• 1:00:33
  on these right paths. So in other words, he's inviting
• 1:00:37
  us to follow him into rest. But again, we get to choose how
• 1:00:42
  we enter into rest, whether voluntarily or involuntarily.
• 1:00:46
  Now, voluntarily entering into rest means that we choose to
• 1:00:50
  cease, to stop, to submit our time to the Lord because we
• 1:00:53
  recognize that he's our provider, not the works of our
• 1:00:57
  hands. Involuntarily entering into rest
• 1:01:00
  means that something or someone causes us to cease.
• 1:01:04
  You know, we may work ourselves so hard that we get injured or,
• 1:01:09
  you know, we get sick or worse. Yeah, We trigger a disease in
• 1:01:13
  our body. Sometimes we get laid off from a
• 1:01:16
  job. You know, no matter what the
• 1:01:18
  circumstances are, there's some circumstances that force us to
• 1:01:22
  rest, but we still have a choice.
• 1:01:24
  Are we going to enter into rest or are we going to get ourselves
• 1:01:27
  so worked up emotionally that we're angry or we're worried
• 1:01:31
  about our circumstances? Now for me, in my life I've
• 1:01:35
  experienced both and I'm sure you have as.
• 1:01:38
  Well, and your. Listeners have as well.
• 1:01:40
  Well, I would much rather choose rest than be forced to rest
• 1:01:45
  because most of the time when I involuntarily enter into rest,
• 1:01:50
  you know, it's precipitated by a sickness or by an injury.
• 1:01:54
  And I remember the year between my undergraduate and my Graduate
• 1:01:59
  School studies, I was working full time at the VA Medical
• 1:02:03
  Center in La Jolla, CA, and I was in the Department of
• 1:02:06
  Psychiatry and I was doing research on schizophrenia.
• 1:02:09
  And in addition to that full time job, I also was an
• 1:02:13
  assistant coach for the UC San Diego crew team, the rowing
• 1:02:17
  team, because I was on the crew team as a student.
• 1:02:21
  And then that same year I was involved in Intervarsity
• 1:02:23
  Christian Fellowship on campus and I was dating Tom, you know,
• 1:02:27
  the man I would marry. And so my life was just full to
• 1:02:32
  capacity and I had this really fast-paced life.
• 1:02:36
  Well, I went to this retreat with Intervarsity and during one
• 1:02:41
  of the breaks we were playing ultimate frisbee and I tore the
• 1:02:45
  meniscus in my knee. And it turns out I needed
• 1:02:48
  surgery, but I had such horrible medical insurance that it took
• 1:02:53
  them a month to approve the surgery.
• 1:02:56
  So I was on crutches and a knee immobilizer for an entire month
• 1:03:00
  before I had surgery. And so my fast-paced life came
• 1:03:04
  to a screeching halt, you know, and I, I really was at this slow
• 1:03:09
  crawl. And it seems like as I look back
• 1:03:13
  over my life, it seems like the Lord just keeps bringing me
• 1:03:16
  these lessons of how to learn how to rest.
• 1:03:19
  And, you know, some people it comes easier.
• 1:03:22
  And I would say for me, I feel like I'm getting better at it,
• 1:03:25
  but I always have this internal struggle because one of my
• 1:03:29
  strengths on the strength Finder test is achiever.
• 1:03:32
  And I am never bored. I, I always have like things I'm
• 1:03:37
  researching or projects I'm working on.
• 1:03:40
  And my husband, he teases me. He's like, do you have like this
• 1:03:43
  running list in your head of to do's?
• 1:03:45
  And it's totally true. I do.
• 1:03:48
  And I used to go, go, go, go until I would collapse.
• 1:03:51
  And of course that's not healthy.
• 1:03:53
  And you know, it seems like I was always striving for
• 1:03:57
  something. And I really, I learned how to
• 1:03:59
  strive when I was a teenager, a young teenager.
• 1:04:04
  I was as a child, I was a competitive figure skater from
• 1:04:07
  age of 6 to age 13. And I'm a natural athlete.
• 1:04:12
  And so I've been involved in all sorts of sports and it they just
• 1:04:16
  come easy to me. Well, figure skating I was
• 1:04:19
  really good at. And so I would finish first,
• 1:04:22
  second or third in every competition except for the very
• 1:04:25
  last two competitions. My last competition I remember
• 1:04:30
  so clearly, like I was super well trained.
• 1:04:33
  I could do my performance, Florida State.
• 1:04:37
  But when it came time for the competition, I let my nerves get
• 1:04:41
  the best of me and I fell on one of my jumps in my program.
• 1:04:46
  And I remember skating off the ice because I was super
• 1:04:49
  disappointed in myself. I skated with my head hung low.
• 1:04:53
  Well, that is the number one thing you don't do as a figure
• 1:04:57
  skater because it's the last image that the judges see of you
• 1:05:02
  is you being disappointed in your program.
• 1:05:04
  And so that will remind them, oh, I need to mark her down.
• 1:05:08
  So I skated off the ice with my head down, and my coach yelled
• 1:05:12
  at me in front of hundreds of people.
• 1:05:15
  And then I turned to my parents for support, and they gave me
• 1:05:18
  the silent treatment. And so I learned in that moment,
• 1:05:22
  if I fail, I'm going to be rejected.
• 1:05:26
  And so I made this unconscious pact with myself that I'm never
• 1:05:30
  going to fail. And so I was an incredibly
• 1:05:33
  driven individual. Well, when I made that
• 1:05:36
  unconscious pact, it opened the door to a spirit of fear of
• 1:05:40
  failure. And I was plagued by that until
• 1:05:44
  Graduate School when I got set free and delivered from it.
• 1:05:48
  And I remember when I was telling my mom after I got set
• 1:05:51
  free from that spirit of fear of failure, I was telling her the
• 1:05:53
  story and and she asked for my forgiveness for how they handled
• 1:05:58
  that moment. She never felt good about that.
• 1:06:01
  And so it was this beautiful time of reconciliation and
• 1:06:05
  healing. But because of that, I had
• 1:06:09
  developed this striving mentality, and so the Lord had
• 1:06:14
  to teach me through involuntary rest, the difference between
• 1:06:18
  striving and rest. And again, even when we're
• 1:06:24
  forced with involuntary rest, we still have to choose to rest.
• 1:06:28
  You know, at first when I injured my knee, I was angry.
• 1:06:32
  I, you know, I was frustrated. I couldn't do the things that I
• 1:06:35
  wanted to do. But then finally I let go of
• 1:06:38
  that and I just embraced the situation, embraced the, the
• 1:06:42
  rest. And I remember what happened.
• 1:06:44
  Like things started becoming more beautiful in my
• 1:06:50
  surroundings. So, you know, I, I had this
• 1:06:53
  research job and it required me to go to some of the research
• 1:06:57
  libraries on campus. And UC San Diego is massive.
• 1:07:01
  You know, on a good day, it would take me 40 minutes to get
• 1:07:03
  from one end of campus to another.
• 1:07:05
  So now picture me on crutches with this Neo mobilizer having
• 1:07:09
  to get to these research libraries.
• 1:07:11
  And I had to walk so slow. Like I began noticing flowers
• 1:07:17
  and bushes and trees and like there's a butterfly and oh,
• 1:07:23
  that's a beautiful bird. You know, nature just came alive
• 1:07:29
  to me. And prior to that, I would just
• 1:07:30
  whiz on past it, not even taking in my surroundings.
• 1:07:36
  And so the Lord taught me in that time of my life that when I
• 1:07:40
  rest, when I enter into rest, I see these truths and, and
• 1:07:46
  aspects of hit the beautiful nature of God and what he's
• 1:07:50
  created come to life. And I also realized, you know,
• 1:07:54
  when we walk in the fear of the Lord, it leads us to rest.
• 1:07:58
  And that's what it says in Proverbs 1923.
• 1:08:01
  It says the fear of the Lord leads to life.
• 1:08:04
  Then one rests content, untouched by trouble.
• 1:08:09
  So I believe you know, we position ourselves to see His
• 1:08:12
  wonders when we enter into rest now.
• 1:08:15
  And as I mentioned earlier, you know, choosing to rest breaks
• 1:08:20
  the back of striving. In Matthew 1128 through 30, it
• 1:08:24
  says, come to me, all who are weary and burdened, and I will
• 1:08:28
  give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn
• 1:08:32
  from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will
• 1:08:36
  find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my
• 1:08:40
  burden is light. Well, there's actually there's a
• 1:08:44
  yoke of striving and there's a yoke of rest.
• 1:08:48
  And Jesus offers himself as our place of rest.
• 1:08:52
  And once I recognize that, once I recognize that there's a place
• 1:08:57
  of rest, it's the bosom of Jesus, that's when I realized,
• 1:09:02
  Oh my gosh, I can actually war from a place of rest.
• 1:09:07
  And when the Lord called me to the front lines of the spiritual
• 1:09:10
  battle we're in, you know, a couple of years ago, he told me
• 1:09:13
  this. He said, the enemy can't find
• 1:09:16
  you when you're hidden in my presence.
• 1:09:19
  And when he told me that, I was like, Oh my gosh, that is so
• 1:09:22
  good. And so I'm learning how to live
• 1:09:26
  my life hidden in the presence of the Lord because the enemy
• 1:09:29
  can't find me there. The presence of the Lord is
• 1:09:32
  filled with this glory. You think of the brightest light
• 1:09:35
  ever. It's blinding.
• 1:09:36
  And the enemy can't even see me because I'm hidden in the
• 1:09:41
  presence of the Lord. And then he gave me this vision
• 1:09:44
  last year of me like this baby bird.
• 1:09:47
  And I'm underneath the wings of the Father and I've got my mouth
• 1:09:51
  open and he's feeding me and he's nourishing me.
• 1:09:53
  And I'm just like super excited to to eat all the nourishment
• 1:09:57
  that he has for me. And then when he sends me out on
• 1:10:01
  assignment, I become like that peregrine Falcon and I dive at
• 1:10:06
  at incredible speeds and I hit my mark.
• 1:10:09
  And then I come back to the father underneath his wings like
• 1:10:13
  that baby bird again. And I absolutely love that image
• 1:10:17
  because that shows me that teaches me how to live my life
• 1:10:22
  in rest under the shadow of his wings in the bosom of Jesus.
• 1:10:26
  Now I'm going to share one other thing.
• 1:10:29
  Well, couple other things too. You know, I, one of my favorite
• 1:10:32
  forms of exercise now that I'm getting older is paddle
• 1:10:36
  boarding. I had to let go of a lot of
• 1:10:38
  other of the sports I used to play because they were contact
• 1:10:43
  sports. But paddle boarding I absolutely
• 1:10:46
  love. And we live near a lake and the
• 1:10:49
  Lord has taught me so much on my paddle board.
• 1:10:52
  And one of the things that I want to share is he taught me,
• 1:10:57
  you know, through being out on the lake when it's really windy.
• 1:11:01
  Now, when it's windy, everything is harder, as you can imagine.
• 1:11:05
  You know, it's harder to paddle. It's harder to go anywhere.
• 1:11:08
  It's harder to stay on the board itself.
• 1:11:11
  And to me, that's an image of striving.
• 1:11:16
  You know, when we strive, we make everything more difficult.
• 1:11:19
  And it's hard to accomplish anything because we're wearing
• 1:11:22
  this heavy yoke of striving. And when we're, you know,
• 1:11:26
  struggling to achieve that thing that we've set out to do and,
• 1:11:30
  and we're just, we're not able to achieve it, What happens is
• 1:11:35
  because of that bondage of striving, I used to have this
• 1:11:38
  phrase, what we'll just buckle down and try harder.
• 1:11:41
  Well, that comes out of striving.
• 1:11:43
  And so when you try and do that, that's when stress and fear,
• 1:11:48
  anxiety and irritability creep in.
• 1:11:51
  But when we enter into rest, it's like the moment on the
• 1:11:54
  board when I get to turn around and go with the wind and I it's
• 1:11:58
  this sense of relief and everything is easy.
• 1:12:02
  In fact, I could literally just stand on the board and not
• 1:12:05
  paddle and just steer a little bit and I'll get to where I want
• 1:12:09
  to go because the wind is pushing me.
• 1:12:11
  But then when I decide to paddle with the wind, you know, I
• 1:12:15
  travel farther and faster, but with way less effort.
• 1:12:19
  And to me, that's the yoke of rest.
• 1:12:22
  Now, another thing the Lord taught me when I was out on the
• 1:12:26
  paddle board in the wind. Now again, when it's windy, it's
• 1:12:30
  not peaceful, right? There's these waves and your
• 1:12:33
  board is like slapping up and down against the waves, the
• 1:12:36
  choppiness of the lake. And so I'm out there one day.
• 1:12:39
  And Salt Lake is unique in its weather.
• 1:12:44
  We tease people who come into town and we say, you know, if
• 1:12:48
  you don't like the weather, stick around.
• 1:12:50
  In 5 minutes, it will be different.
• 1:12:52
  And so I don't intentionally go out in the wind, but I'll go out
• 1:12:57
  on the lake and it's fine. It's great.
• 1:12:59
  It's a wonderful day. And then in 5 minutes, like this
• 1:13:03
  heavy wind comes in or worse yet, thunderstorms.
• 1:13:07
  And so it was one of those days I'm like, really, Lord, this
• 1:13:12
  wind gust. So I'm paddling into the wind
• 1:13:16
  and it's it's hard and it's strong and, but all of a sudden
• 1:13:21
  I get lost in the presence of the Lord and it's like my body
• 1:13:26
  is still struggling to paddle into the wind.
• 1:13:28
  But my soul and spirit are with the King of kings.
• 1:13:32
  Like I am just having the time of my life in his presence and I
• 1:13:38
  could care less about my circumstances.
• 1:13:40
  And the Lord spoke to me in that moment and he said, no matter
• 1:13:44
  what the circumstances are, you can always find rest.
• 1:13:49
  And I realized that, you know, it made me think about Jesus
• 1:13:52
  when he was in the boat sleeping.
• 1:13:55
  And there's these wind and waves and the, you know, the disciples
• 1:13:59
  are freaking out because they think they're going to die.
• 1:14:02
  And there's Jesus, he's resting, He's sleeping.
• 1:14:05
  The disciples are freaking and he's resting.
• 1:14:09
  Well, I realized I want to live my life in rest.
• 1:14:13
  I don't want to, I don't want to freak out.
• 1:14:16
  And, you know, back to David, I love David.
• 1:14:19
  My, my youngest son's middle name is David because David's my
• 1:14:22
  favorite king. My other son's middle name is
• 1:14:25
  Josiah because that's my second favorite king.
• 1:14:29
  But so David, you know, he provides us with a good example
• 1:14:34
  of how we find rest in the midst of difficult circumstances.
• 1:14:38
  And for David, what that look like is that was, you know, him
• 1:14:41
  surrendering to the sovereignty of the Lord.
• 1:14:44
  And I love Psalm 62 because it gives us a window into how David
• 1:14:49
  lived this out. And this is verse one through 5.
• 1:14:52
  It says my soul finds rest in God alone.
• 1:14:57
  My salvation comes from Him. He alone is my rock and my
• 1:15:01
  salvation. He is my fortress.
• 1:15:04
  I will never be shaken. How long will you assault a man?
• 1:15:08
  Would all of you throw him down this leaning wall, this
• 1:15:11
  tottering fence? They fully intend to topple him
• 1:15:14
  from his lofty place. They take delight in lies.
• 1:15:16
  With their mouths they bless, but in their hearts they curse.
• 1:15:20
  Find rest O my soul and God alone.
• 1:15:23
  My hope comes from him So here we see in this passage, you know
• 1:15:28
  David is surrounded by his enemies that are bent on his
• 1:15:31
  destruction and so in verse 1 he is declaring my soul finds rest
• 1:15:36
  in God alone. But by verse 5, he is commanding
• 1:15:40
  his soul to find rest in God alone.
• 1:15:43
  And I think about, you know, I can only imagine the thoughts of
• 1:15:47
  fear and despair and worry that crept into David's mind between
• 1:15:51
  verse one and verse 5. And you know, David had to know
• 1:15:57
  God as his rock, his fortress, and his salvation in order to
• 1:16:01
  endure his hard circumstances. So what David was doing here is
• 1:16:06
  he was taking every thought captive and he was telling his
• 1:16:11
  soul line up and only find rest in God alone.
• 1:16:15
  And that's what we have to do. You know, sometimes we have to
• 1:16:19
  just tell our soul find rest in God alone.
• 1:16:22
  We have to remind ourselves, just like you spoke in the
• 1:16:26
  beginning, that God works all things together for good for
• 1:16:29
  those who love him and are called according to his
• 1:16:32
  purposes. And so I just, you know, I want
• 1:16:36
  to encourage people that we anchor our lives in Psalm 4210,
• 1:16:41
  which says be still and know that I'm God.
• 1:16:47
  Psalms 116 Seven Return unto thy rest, O my soul, for the Lord
• 1:16:55
  hath dealt bountifully with thee.
• 1:16:59
  And then I just want to read Exodus 3314 quick.
• 1:17:03
  And he said, My presence shall go with thee, and I will give
• 1:17:06
  thee rest. Hebrews 49.
• 1:17:10
  There remaineth therefore a rest to the people of God.
• 1:17:15
  So for everybody listening, the Psalms 116 If you need to return
• 1:17:20
  unto rest, which I highly recommend, we we know that God's
• 1:17:27
  ways are good, and His ways are higher than our ways.
• 1:17:32
  He, He is so separate and set apart and above and beyond what
• 1:17:35
  we can comprehend. So the world may be trying to
• 1:17:38
  drive us and harness us to the plow and to make us produce and
• 1:17:42
  the pressure may be on, but it makes me think of faith.
• 1:17:47
  If we have faith, how could you express your faith?
• 1:17:53
  The substance of something hoped for, the evidence of the unseen.
• 1:17:56
  If everything is going perfect in life, faith is tested.
• 1:17:59
  When in my opinion, when things aren't going perfect, when we
• 1:18:03
  hear what God is saying, we slow down, we rest and marinate in
• 1:18:09
  His Word, and then we we come outgoing.
• 1:18:11
  OK God, it looks like this on the outside.
• 1:18:14
  People are going to mock me. They may laugh at me, they may
• 1:18:17
  question and try to advise me, but we know that the fear of man
• 1:18:21
  would take the advice of those around them.
• 1:18:25
  But to he who hides the word of God in his heart that he may not
• 1:18:28
  sin against God, To he who is seeking after the Lord with the
• 1:18:32
  might and the strength that is given, That's where we're going
• 1:18:37
  to find rest when we align our hearts as we grow and we learn
• 1:18:42
  to repent and change our minds to, to change the way that we're
• 1:18:47
  viewing and thinking about things, because faith comes from
• 1:18:51
  hearing the word. And there's plenty of scripture
• 1:18:54
  quoted from from Laura on this episode and and gems and Nuggets
• 1:18:58
  as we went through Samuel talking about the difference of
• 1:19:02
  Saul's Kingdom versus David's Kingdom.
• 1:19:04
  Let's follow after the Lord in a closer, a deeper, in a more
• 1:19:08
  secret way than we ever have before by entering into a place
• 1:19:12
  of rest and to the world. That's going to sound crazy.
• 1:19:15
  What do you mean you're you're warring from a place of rest.
• 1:19:18
  What do you mean you're being restored and rest?
• 1:19:21
  They'll say things like the early bird gets the worm and you
• 1:19:24
  need a second job because inflation is so bad right now.
• 1:19:28
  How can you afford anything? But we trust that God will make
• 1:19:33
  a way. Even if the monetary system
• 1:19:36
  falls, God will make a way. It is in the presence of
• 1:19:39
  difficult things that happened that our faith is tested.
• 1:19:43
  Our faith is not for the sunny shiny days where the breeze is
• 1:19:46
  not blowing too strong and the and everything is is overflowing
• 1:19:50
  in goodness. Our faith can be tested on will
• 1:19:54
  we trust God to enter into a place of rest?
• 1:19:57
  Will we allot a time and say, God, you are holy, you're
• 1:20:02
  calling me to be holy. I want to enter into a place of
• 1:20:05
  rest. I want to go against the grain.
• 1:20:08
  I want to make a stand and believe your word and your power
• 1:20:12
  and the revelation, the Rhema. This coming alive to me jumping
• 1:20:16
  off the pages is greater than anything that the world is
• 1:20:20
  waving around out there. So I'm encouraged.
• 1:20:23
  I am. I am so encouraged and.
• 1:20:25
  I love when you were sharing, you know, some of your obstacles
• 1:20:28
  as you were, you know, skating and, and, and doing these things
• 1:20:31
  as you were younger, because it really did remind me again of
• 1:20:34
  God works all things together. He's a good God, he's a good
• 1:20:38
  father. He's patient with us, right.
• 1:20:40
  It's like we're learning these little incremental things and
• 1:20:43
  then we we reflect later in life and like we're looking back and
• 1:20:47
  going like God, you've, you were there for me.
• 1:20:49
  And at this season, at this time in the moment, it, it might not
• 1:20:52
  have felt like it, but the way that he works these big things
• 1:20:57
  and small things together is definitely worth the reflection
• 1:21:01
  in my opinion. And I just, you always bring
• 1:21:05
  this refreshment to the episode. You've really just, you're doing
• 1:21:10
  what God is calling you to do and by sharing your testimony
• 1:21:14
  and helping us to find these Nuggets in the word.
• 1:21:18
  And this is also a gentle warning to the listeners.
• 1:21:21
  We need to have a holy reverence for what God is saying and, and
• 1:21:26
  just having that rest in him because he's the power move.
• 1:21:31
  He is the one who is going to make a way where there seems
• 1:21:33
  like there is no way. And I think that's where we're
• 1:21:37
  at as a society, as a whole, as a country right now.
• 1:21:41
  You know, obviously we know the answer is not in voting the
• 1:21:45
  right person in. We know the answer is going to
• 1:21:47
  be seeking the face of the Lord, turning from the wicked things
• 1:21:51
  that we have committed, changing the way we perceive life, but
• 1:21:56
  being transformed and renewed slowly and surely by the
• 1:22:00
  guidance of his Spirit and his word.
• 1:22:03
  So edification at its best. It's always an honor to be with
• 1:22:09
  you and just I'm in the zone. You got me on Cloud 9 once
• 1:22:14
  again. Every time you come on, I'm
• 1:22:16
  like, OK, so. We'll get it.
• 1:22:20
  I'm hoping it was a good birthday gift for you and it's
• 1:22:23
  always so wonderful to be together.
• 1:22:26
  Absolutely, and I know most people are going to know at this
• 1:22:29
  point, but please plug in where new listeners can find you.
• 1:22:34
  Reiterate the information for those who keep coming back for
• 1:22:37
  more here on The Mustard Seed. Where can people find you?
• 1:22:40
  Anything that you're working on? Anything in the near future,
• 1:22:45
  Anything you'd like to share with us?
• 1:22:46
  Yes, well, thank you. So the best place to reach me is
• 1:22:50
  to start by going onto my website, which is no longer
• 1:22:53
  enslaved.com. And then from there, I have
• 1:22:57
  monthly articles that I write. And if folks are interested in
• 1:23:02
  receiving those, I don't inundate your inbox.
• 1:23:04
  I just do one article a month. People can sign up, it's free to
• 1:23:08
  subscribe, and then you can order my book from my website or
• 1:23:13
  off of Amazon. And as you mentioned, Rod, I do
• 1:23:16
  have it now in Audible. I'm super excited about that
• 1:23:20
  because like yourself, I've had so many people reach out.
• 1:23:23
  I'm grateful that I, I narrated the book and put it in audio
• 1:23:27
  format because either they're too busy to read or, you know,
• 1:23:32
  dyslexic like you said. And so I'm super excited that
• 1:23:36
  it's available now both in Kindle form and paperback and
• 1:23:40
  Audible. And it's currently being
• 1:23:42
  translated into Spanish. It's probably one of the things
• 1:23:46
  I'm most excited about. And I got some.
• 1:23:50
  Folks from some pastors from Florida that I've just sown
• 1:23:55
  seeds into the translation and it's, I think we're on chapter
• 1:24:01
  21 has been translated, then it needs to be proof read and then
• 1:24:05
  sent to my publisher and you know, she'll put it all
• 1:24:07
  together. So it's probably still a few
• 1:24:10
  months out, but I'm so excited for that because it will really
• 1:24:14
  open up these concepts of the Nephilim and the Nephilim agenda
• 1:24:18
  to the Spanish speaking communities.
• 1:24:21
  So I'm super excited about that. And then I'm also on YouTube.
• 1:24:28
  I have a YouTube and Rumble channel called No Longer
• 1:24:30
  Enslaved and I have a seven part series on spiritual mapping and
• 1:24:36
  A10 part series on the impact of the Nephilim agenda today for
• 1:24:41
  those that are interested in digging a little deeper in those
• 1:24:43
  subjects. And then if people want to
• 1:24:46
  follow me, I'm on Instagram under Laura Sanger 444 Hertz and
• 1:24:50
  then also Telegram Laura Sanger 444 Hertz.
• 1:24:54
  So that's what I've got my hands in right now.
• 1:24:59
  And I'm, I'm doing the spiritual mapping project currently in the
• 1:25:04
  Salt Lake Valley, which I'm excited about.
• 1:25:07
  We're going to go do some reconnaissance tomorrow, which
• 1:25:10
  is awesome. But yeah, so that's what I'm
• 1:25:13
  involved in. Yeah, and and I couldn't
• 1:25:17
  recommend your book any. It's just, I'm blown away.
• 1:25:22
  And it is so helpful that you narrated it yourself too.
• 1:25:25
  That's probably not easy. So like it.
• 1:25:28
  Was and it was so hard. But it's so rewarding to just
• 1:25:32
  hear you go through it and not somebody else also.
• 1:25:35
  And it just, it really it's it's been so helpful for me.
• 1:25:40
  I'm at a factory and boots on the ground 40 plus hours a week
• 1:25:45
  in the manufacturing facility. We make some interesting parts
• 1:25:49
  where we're busy right now because some of the things that
• 1:25:52
  we are tailored to are for the military and the aerospace
• 1:25:56
  industry. So it keeps us pretty busy.
• 1:25:59
  Oh thank God. And I am able to put one earbud
• 1:26:04
  in and throughout the day multiple times I've listened to
• 1:26:10
  the Bible in 24 hours by Doctor Chuck Missler.
• 1:26:12
  But and so now having to be able to utilize some of that time to
• 1:26:18
  listen to your book, which is narrated by you inaudible.
• 1:26:21
  It's it's been a game changer. It just really helped me to dive
• 1:26:27
  into a space where I'm at work and I normally wouldn't have
• 1:26:31
  that time to reflect or dig deeper.
• 1:26:33
  I find myself pausing. I'll write, I'll run over to my
• 1:26:36
  desk and write down things on a sticky.
• 1:26:39
  OK, we got to look into that. And just just a glimmer into
• 1:26:45
  something I had text you the other week.
• 1:26:47
  It was just this question about the frequency of gold.
• 1:26:51
  And it's so interesting. I was listening to your
• 1:26:53
  interview with Blurry Creatures at the time, and I was in and
• 1:26:56
  out of of still going through your book on Audible and just
• 1:27:01
  little gems like that. I remember years ago when the
• 1:27:04
  linen thing came up where it was there, you know, why is
• 1:27:06
  everybody who's holy or, you know, a prophet wearing white
• 1:27:10
  linen in the Bible, right? And it's just these little
• 1:27:13
  Nuggets are what keep us on this trail where we're investigating
• 1:27:17
  the word of God is becoming alive to us and keeping us.
• 1:27:20
  I'm just interested on a day-to-day basis.
• 1:27:22
  So it's it's a game changer that you did that on Audible and for
• 1:27:26
  the Spanish community. I'm excited.
• 1:27:30
  Sam Diaz was on, he speaks Spanish.
• 1:27:32
  He lives local to me and Reading, PA, which is
• 1:27:35
  predominantly a Spanish city. We don't get a ton of downloads
• 1:27:39
  from reading, I think because it's they speak fluent Spanish
• 1:27:44
  there and and not as much English, but it's awesome to be
• 1:27:48
  able to represent that to large populations close by.
• 1:27:52
  To me, when that Spanish narration is done, I think that
• 1:27:55
  that's huge. Loving our neighbors as we love
• 1:27:59
  ourselves is going to stretch the boundaries beyond just who
• 1:28:02
  we talked to and meet up with and like who's in our inside
• 1:28:05
  circle is going to be sharing this information and, and really
• 1:28:09
  taking an interest in the people around us, whether they're from
• 1:28:13
  a different culture, they speak a different language or not.
• 1:28:16
  And that's one of the big things that got me excited when I heard
• 1:28:19
  you were developing the the Spanish version of this
• 1:28:22
  inaudible so. Well, it'll be actually, it'll
• 1:28:26
  be in print the Spanish version. Will be in print.
• 1:28:29
  It'll be. In print, Well, that is, that's
• 1:28:32
  a blessing. That's a blessing.
• 1:28:34
  And hopefully someday it'll grow to even more languages.
• 1:28:38
  Yeah, that'd be crazy. Oh jeez, well, another birthday
• 1:28:44
  episode down and thank you for taking the time to just invest
• 1:28:51
  into my life. I know over the years, just you
• 1:28:53
  encouraging me and all of your work and the feedback of how
• 1:28:57
  it's helping other people grow. You know, the Bible says let
• 1:29:01
  somebody else, you know, honor you and and and and praise what
• 1:29:05
  you're doing right, that we don't do that for ourselves.
• 1:29:07
  So it's in, I'm just happy to be in a position where I know you
• 1:29:12
  and like, I get encouragement from you.
• 1:29:14
  We get to have conversations and.
• 1:29:16
  Yeah. Sometimes I'm like, I get to
• 1:29:18
  text Doctor Laura question like, this is crazy, you know, and
• 1:29:21
  it's just a blessing. So thank you for being here.
• 1:29:25
  All the Millennium must have seen podcast.
• 1:29:27
  Any last words before we close out?
• 1:29:30
  Oh, just, you know, to encourage people to tune out all the
• 1:29:36
  voices that are going on in the world and just tune into the
• 1:29:40
  voice of the Lord. Try and trust no one.
• 1:29:57
  Daylight stay bright. You stay light, you stay bright.
• 1:30:05
  Daylight. You daylight.
• 1:30:09
  You daylight you daylight. Stay right is better with you
• 1:30:17
  daylight. You hell like you daylight.
• 1:30:22
  Stay right is better with you. You on the shoe, it's better.
• 1:30:30
  With you. You.
• 1:30:33
  You. If I showed you the scars, would
• 1:30:40
  you turn away? If I lowered the walls, would
• 1:30:43
  you come and stay? If I open my heart, would you
• 1:30:47
  shine your light? If I let this thing stop, pull
• 1:30:50
  me through the night, cancel it and brave come take a ride with
• 1:30:54
  me. Let's take a look at all the
• 1:30:56
  things that life was supposed to be.
• 1:30:58
  Look me in the eyes. I want to see you.
• 1:31:01
  Light shine, beauty and passion. Just like it's the first time.
• 1:31:05
  Oh my baby. I'm a gentleman at heart.
• 1:31:08
  Unless you win the service of my enemy or worker.
• 1:31:12
  Rather dark. I speak light words and happy
• 1:31:14
  moments. Light in my eyes.
• 1:31:16
  Staring back your dark opponents.
• 1:31:19
  Lord help me. Now you stand.
• 1:31:21
  You stand. Stay right.
• 1:31:23
  It's better with you. Hey, you hell ain't you.
• 1:31:30
  Stay right. Stay right is better with you.
• 1:31:35
  You on and you. It's better with you.
• 1:31:43
  You on and you.