Latest / Accidental Bible Scholar / The New Creation in the New Covenant, Part 6
Transcript
- Jeff Ward: Welcome back to the Accidental Bible podcast. We hope you're enjoying it. Thanks for tuning in. We're continuing the new creation under the new covenant, How We Act. We're going to wrap that up with this podcast. So thanks for joining us. We're going to talk about where we're seated, authority, and execution operation. that wrap it up. Randy's going to expand on that and correct any errors I just made. Randy. No, So do we finish? We just finished the episode of we're Holy filled and we talked, you know, just super briefly, obviously about some of the things that the Spirit does as he's living within us. So the one we're going to about I put here seated and blessed in heavenly realm. So This I've been talking about death, burial, resurrection, ascension. This is the ascension part. Okay. So we're talking about seated with Christ in heavenly realms. This is the ascension and this whole section here, even before we actually specifically talk about authority is a picture of authority. Authority is the ability or the power to rule. So that's where we are even as seated. So, and again, we're not going to get into a whole lot of detail on these. can go more, but Why don't you, if you don't mind, read Hebrews 1 verses 13. Okay, Hebrews 1 13. But to which of the angels has he ever said, sit at my right hand until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet? Okay, so this is Jesus Christ being the son, being told by the father to come sit at my right hand while I your enemies your footstool. Just a quick thing, and just a couple things. I think part of enemies being made, Jesus Christ, footstool was me and you. is sent into the feet of Jesus. So we are involved in that in the last 2000 years and forever and much longer we're down here. We're involved in this co-laboring with the authority given to us, which you'll see in a minute. See to the right hand of Father, doing the work of making Christ's enemies his footstool. So let me read a similar verse in Ephesians 1.20. Ephesians 1.20 says, this power talking about this incomparable greatness of his power toward us. This verse 19, who believe as displayed in the exercise of them of his strength. And now he's going to describe the power of this power he exercised in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realm. So there's the second New Testament writer who's telling us that Jesus Christ, when he ascended, he took a throne at the right hand of the father. So that's the position of authority. That's the number two guy. I to say he's even number two, you know, cause there are three in one, but that's the typical where a king where he'd have his number two guy. This is the guy that does his action works, if you will, a position of authority. And then the shocking part is We're going to skip forward. End of chapter one is there. Then chapter two comes. Chapter two verses one through three talk about who we were before Christ. And then after he's saying who we are, were children of wrath is what he says in verse three. And then the but God in two four is your reaction to the cravings of our flesh, the indulging desires. We were by nature children of wrath. And then here comes verse two, chapter two, verse four. And I'm going to read all the way to six. But God. being rich in mercy because of his great love with which he loved us, even though were dead in transgressions and us alive together with Christ by grace you were saved. Verse six, and he raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Jesus. So here we are. He raised us up with him. So we were raised and ascended. Those are two things that we were in Christ as that was being done in Christ. You and I were also doing that. discussed this. I think we discussed this on the Procrast of like a hundred plus times. The mid one hundreds, I think even we were described as being in Christ. So we were in Christ as where's Christ? He's at the right hand of the father where we were in Christ. That's a location that we are also, right? So we are seated with him in Christ. And we've talked about him being in us in previous episodes. So we are seated at the right hand of the Father. It is that location from which we execute God's will under the authority of his Son and our brother. Okay, so when Jesus said, When they ask him in Matthew 6, the disciples said, us to pray. He says, when you pray, say. So he's telling you to speak out loud, say. One of the things he said is, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. That's one of our missions that we've, I think we've already talked about that. And creating, making disciples. can put this in a number of different ways that you want to, but bottom line, he's left us here to execute the authority that is at the right hand of the father. to carry out the will of the Father the earth, right? I want you to picture, I'm gonna try to say this in words that helps you picture it. I said, but when we speak or when we pray, as believers, we're not trying to get God's attention in heaven. We're not down here going, hey, we need help. Can you do this? Can you do that? Will you please do this? Will you please do that? I'm not saying we don't make requests. Sometimes we make requests. Sometimes we speak to the mountains. Sometimes we make requests, sometimes we make requests once, sometimes we're persistent in our requests. But we're not trying to get his attention, we already have his attention, right? We are, I put here, we are speaking from the throne room in Christ. We're speaking from the third heaven, these are Jewish terms here, or Jewish thoughts, from the third heaven into the second and first heaven and into there. So we're literally above everything. that was created only below God, speaking God's will through basically the entire spirit realm and into the physical realm. All of this is done because of Christ's ascension and because we're seated with him and we're in him, that's the new covenant. And then also we're doing that, we're exercising to the Genesis 1 covenant executing dominion over the earth and over creation. So that's the picture. of this with him. So that's from where we pray. That's from where we speak God's word. That's from where we speak God's will. We'll talk about speaking here in just a second and look at some more verses of that. So that's position or the location from which we operate. Any questions or comments or thoughts? You said something a minute ago about pray and you went over it pretty fast. Three ways. Sometimes God tells us to be persistent in prayer, pray continually. Yeah. And then other times he says, say it, ask and it'll be done and go away. Don't worry about it. I don't know if that's not probably a quote. Yeah. And then other times he says, speak to the mountain. So you want to elaborate on those three? Well, there are three different ways that Jesus talks to us about it. You can, as soon as you do one, you're not doing the other two. So you speak to the mountain, you pray once. And he says, they just pray once. Don't do like the pagans was repetition, repetition, repetition, thinking they'll get what they want. You have a father who knows what you need. Right. Okay. And then other times, You know, it's talk, he talks about the, ⁓ the neighbor that needs the three loaves of bread because this man had guest show up at midnight. Or he talks about the, the evil judge that doesn't want to give the widow the woman justice, but he eventually does because she's hounding. Warm out. Yeah. Warm out. there's these ask once a persistent pray and there is not even pray at all. Just speak to the mountain. And this is where, you know, I like the idea of don't tell your God about the mountain. Tell your mountain about your God. is the way I've heard that said. And the thing that you and I have talked about in the past is Jesus teaches all three things, but he never says which one to use when. know, you go, ⁓ my goodness, which one do I use? Well, and that's invitation. The invitation is what I left that out because me and you were going to figure that out together. ⁓ It's invitation to come closer. It's the invitation to come near. It's the invitation to enter into fellowship and abiding and and relationship, and it's that to figure out as we learn. That's part of the growth process. You and I were talking, I think, before we turned everything on earlier today that many of these things that we're talking about are skills that we learn. A baby Christian or a new Christian doesn't have the same skill set and haven't learned the same things. They may have the same truth. They're both new creations. They're both righteous. They're both holy. But one's more experienced at how to how to bring that into the ⁓ realm from the unseen realm ⁓ our righteousness begins our spirit that's one with Christ that we can't see and brings out into the stuff we can't see. yeah, there's a relationship there. I think he left it out on purpose, obviously left out on purpose because he left it out. And he's not to anything unknowingly, he's God, but he's also man, but he's sitting there. And he says, here's the three things. you go look at each one of them, and read them, each one he's talking about, they seem like the only answer. ⁓ this is it, man. Talk to them out. And then you go, ⁓ no. Why are you doing these prayers thinking you're going to do you something? And then you go, hey, this lady got what she wanted from an evil judge just by being persistent. Or the neighbor knocking on the door that needs bread at midnight. He ⁓ just won't away. And so those are. three things and when you read you go, well, that's the prayer. you're like, ⁓ no, that's the prayer. And you go, ⁓ we don't pray at all, but he never connects him and goes here, do this. I think that's part of the Holy Spirit within us and this prayer and without ceasing, that's a different kind of, I it's a different subject a little bit, but of this fellowship that's ongoing for us. And all of that is done from the right hand of the Father. Right. It's and blessed. Okay. Notice seeding too, seeded, just a quick side note. Seated is a position of rest. Hebrews says, make every effort to plan on works. Make every effort to enter into his rest. I I got to work hard or make do effort to get into his rest. Yeah. Make sure you don't miss it. And it may not come naturally. And it may not come naturally. You got to work at it. The Sabbath was a day in the old covenant. The Sabbath is in existence. The Sabbath, every day is the Sabbath in the new covenant. Right. That's why it's okay that we don't worship on the Sabbath. know, Western Christians, you know, worship on the Lord's Day, which is Sunday, you know, the Sabbath is Saturday. So, Anyway, I was gonna say something else that'll come to me in a minute, so it's this seated at the right hand of the Father from which we do all these things that we talk about. And we'll talk about speaking and praying here when we get into the operation of it. Let's talk a little bit about authority if you're ready to move on. Yeah. I know I'm gonna talk a whole lot about authority. Authority is basically the power to rule, the authorization to rule. However you want, you can look at it number of ways. In the Greek, there's very little difference between power and authority as the New Testament talks to each one of them. Some people make a to it, and I think they're right. I'm just not smart enough to fully comprehend the total difference, but they're very similar. But what I had you turn to before we got here was this story of a centurion. So want you to read this real quickly. Jesus is going to be engaged by this centurion who has a sick servant at home. And Jesus says, I'll come and heal. And then there's this conversation between the two about authority. And Jesus will eventually say, I haven't seen any faith like this in all of Israel. But anyway, go and read that story if you don't mind. OK. When he entered Capernaum, a centurion came to him asking for help. Lord, my servant is lying at home paralyzed in terrible anguish. Jesus said to him, I will come and heal him. But the centurion replied, Lord, I am not worthy to have you come under my roof. Instead, just say the word and my servant will be healed. For I too am a man under authority with soldiers under me. I say to this one to go and he goes and to another come and he comes and to my slave do this and he does it. When Jesus heard this, he was amazed and said to those who followed him, I tell you the truth. I have not found such faith in anyone in Israel. I tell you. You want me keep going? Yeah. I tell you many will come from the east and west to share the banquet with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven. But the sons of the kingdom will be thrown out into the outer darkness where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. Then Jesus said to the centurion, go just as you believed it will be done for you. And the servant was healed at that hour. OK. There's several interesting things about that story and about those around it. And I'm tempted to go there, but I won't. So here's the Centurion. comes up and the, the, let me just start with the end and then work our way there. Just quick side note. Authority, many times when you're executing authority, you're executing it in faith. And this man knew about authority and what he knew about authority gave him understanding about Jesus. And he recognized Jesus as a man in authority. Therefore it birthed faith to ask him. to just heal with a word. So I want you to find a little phrase that the centurion speaking and he says, too am a man under authority. Maybe that's all he says. Just read that phrase. For I too am a man under authority. Okay. So he's saying as a centurion, he is a man under authority. He goes, I too, he recognizes that Jesus is a man under authority. If you'll go read, that was, was that Matthew or Luke? Matthew. That was Matthew. So if you go read the other ones, which not going to today, they all say the same thing. Here's my point. and the centurion ⁓ once talked about having authority or being in authority. I hear many people talk about their authority or in authority. These ⁓ understood in a way that many don't. They are under authority. So everybody is under, if you're under authority, then you can execute the authority of the one you're under. So who is the centurion under? Well, ultimately he's Caesar. would be the officer above him, but they would keep tracking that. And that would be in the Roman. would be Caesar. So think of it this way. he talks telling his soldiers to do stuff. So when that centurion tells a soldier to go here and go there and do that, and they do it, they look back at him, they're not. looking at his authority, they're looking at who's standing behind him, whose authority he's under. Well, they see Caesar, if they really understood authority, go, oh, that's ultimately Caesar telling me to do that. Ultimately, that's a lot more powerful than a centurion telling me to do that. If you look at our United States government, United Ville military, I was in the military and I had all different colors of money and different authorizations. So we had to be constant as a commander which authority we're operating under. All those authority went up to, if we were operating in the state of Florida, came up to the governor, but even he was under authority. He was under the authority of what? The Florida state constitution. Same thing in the federal side. We go all the way up to the, all the commanders, secretary of defense and president of United States. go, he's the top. No, there's the constitution. What's above the constitution. God almighty. So everybody is under authority and you get your authority from the one you're under. So, uh, That's, I'd say that for two reasons. The first reason is, the, not the main reason. The first reason is if you were in rebellion, you've just taken yourself outside of, out from under authority and you no longer can exercise authority. Now you may try and the people underneath you may not, may or may not recognize it, but you're only in authority because you're under authority. Soon as you're in rebellion, ongoing sin. then you no longer have authority because you're not under authority because you've removed yourself from the authority of Jesus Christ. And this is more of an active everyday thing. Interesting. So then... The main point I want to make about being under authority, if I'm trying to exercise authority over some situation, we can talk about a lot of different things, whether it's sickness or whether it's or something like that, sometimes it be hard to have the faith to understand I'm in authority because that's kind of focused on me. But if I understand this, concept of real authority that I'm only in authority because I'm under authority. It's easy for me have the faith to see that I'm under the authority of Jesus Christ. ⁓ that is easy to come up with. can now now talk to something that you need to exercise authority over. And so that's probably the key. I think that's the kind of authority or understanding of authority that generates great faith at Jesus' because he understands he's under authority. That's ensuring to understand that Jesus is under authority, what Jesus is under authority. So then he can ask Jesus to say something with great faith. Me, since I'm in Christ and Christ is in me, I am under his authority. And now I can very easily generate the faith or operate in faith, maybe is a better word, to exercise authority over whatever it is in my circumstances that I need to exercise authority over. or ministry, not just my circumstances. Anyways, does that make sense? Okay, that's actually kind all I want to talk about authority. Of course seated and all that, we talked about it and we'll talk about exercise in here in just a second. let's go on to the next one then if you're ready. I put here, know, kind of maybe in military terms, put execution and operation as this next one. And I'm gonna break it down to believing, saying or speaking God's word, praying and doing. So I'm gonna just... We'll spend a little time to look at some of these verses, but look up few verses. But execution operation, we're at war. You're like, whoa, whoa, whoa, I thought, you know, God's not at war with anybody. You know, he's, he's a creator. Yeah. But there are two kingdoms, two earthly kingdoms. One has Satan at the top. The other one that has Jesus at the top as the head of, head of the church and we're his body within that kingdom. ⁓ And are the two that are going against each other. One is a legitimate kingdom that is under the authority of the Father, under the authority of Jesus Christ as the head, and then goes all the way and the church is under the authority of Jesus Christ. The other one is illegitimate in that they exercise power through deception. All authority has been given to Jesus, he says in Matthew 28. So they have no authority. They can only effectively on earth by deceiving a son or daughter of Adam. to use the son or daughter of Adam's authority to bring about Satan's will on earth versus God's will on earth. And that's the mechanism that they use. And it is a defeated kingdom, but it is not a locked up kingdom. And what I mean by that, so Satan is defeated at the cross. There's a number of places that would say that, but we already read Colossians 2, no we didn't read, but Colossians 2, 14, 15, we talked about it recently. So they're already defeated, but they're not locked up. So the judge has already issued the order, but we've got this church age, or everyone will call it, from Christ's crucifixion until he comes back, we got a bunch of kingdom of darkness, evil spirits on the loose. They're fully defeated, but they deceive us so much that they still get things done in the church or outside the church. And certainly you can look around. world governments and see that at a great rate, very many, it's not the son of God in of that section, right? These are all words that probably are not quite right, but there may be words that are right. So my first thing is we're at war and it's our job to enforce Christ's victory on the kingdom of darkness. It has to be enforced. Okay, there's laws the book. They've already been judged. But we're the police officers with the shield, the police badge that goes out and forces the victory that Christ has already won. way is, I just put believe. So let's flip over to, why don't you, if you don't mind, flip over to Hebrews 11.1. Got it. Okay, read that. How faith, now, sorry, now faith is being sure of what we hope for, being convinced of what we do not see. Okay, sure of what we hope for. Hope for is that. Kind of a weak word in English, but it's kind like a wish. Like I wish it's gonna happen, I hope it's gonna happen. But that word hope is a sure, it's a confident expectation of good. It is actually an expectation. faith is the assurance of what I expect. Faith is the assurance of I expect. So what do I need to do? I need to make sure my expectations are correct. What are my expectations? God's word or is my expectations. I marinate my brain in this. I'm renewing my mind in God's Word. That shapes my expectations. It shapes when I think about God's will on earth. is in heaven. This tells me his will, tells me what he wants to do. And then through faith, exercise this of these expectations. For the one who believes, I like that phrase, the one who believes. And if you go and put that in Bible search engine, you'll up with several ones. But one of them, the one who believes, let's just talk about the one who believes. The one who believes will do the miraculous deeds that Jesus did. That's 1 John, I mean, that's John 14, 12. An astounding statement. But who is it for? The one who believes. What about this? Nothing is impossible for the one who believes. That's Mark 9, 23, I believe. They didn't write any of these down, but so it's plus or minus, but I'm confident those are both pretty good. Nothing is impossible for the one who believes. Just those two right there. go, okay, faith, faith has power. Faith does things, right? Nothing is impossible. I can do the deeds of Jesus. Miraculous deeds even is the NET says, miraculous works as other places say, but for who? For the one who believes. That's pretty big shoes to fill, but it's also filled by the power and authority of Jesus Christ working it through. So that's some example, not examples. That's the believing part of it. Okay? We're talking about execution, operation, or how we work in this war. I read this, how we work in this war. I read this book, I believe what it says, and the next thing I want to do after I believe it, I want to say it or speak it, speak God's word. Let's at a couple of examples. You want to take that first one? Sure. Uh, this first one is Eccretans 413. Yep. I'll work up, uh, Eccretans, I mean Ephesians. Yep. I'll go to Mark. Okay. Okay. Ephesians 617. Let get that before I have you redone. Okay. Okay, so we're talking about speaking, saying, speaking God's word. Before we get into this, let me make one quick point. This is powerful. It's so powerful that it is throughout the Bible, and it is exercised by people in the Bible. I did this thing one time, it took me all day, and I only got through two-thirds of it. And I went inclusive, and I looked up everywhere the Bible talks about speaking, saying, lips, tongue, hearing, all these things about God's Word or people speaking things. It was over verses and I got through 4,000 reading very quickly obviously in a day and I came up with a paper that that's a number of pages long of some of the big ones about about speaking. I don't think we can have it here but you know stuff like Jesus says ⁓ that a man is defiled or justified by what comes out of his mouth. Proverbs 18, 21 says that there's power and death in the, the, in the tongue. James slows way and talks, compares it to a spark in a forest creates a sport fire, a forest fire ⁓ or the runner on a big ship that steers the strip. So he's basically saying we live by what comes out of our mouth. Proverbs and Psalms say that what I just said there, we live on what comes out of mouth says that. many, many times. It's more than just don't cuss. It's more than just don't cuss. Yeah, exactly. Don't cuss. Um, although he says we'll give an account for every out of word. So there's that one as well. So, um, and I say all this to say that if words are that powerful, um, doesn't it make sense that it's a target from the other side, from the dark side, and they would target it by cussing. by saying, you suppose this, yeah, gossip, lying, anything we do with our tongue, ⁓ also there's this. false theology, I guess you'd call it, talks about that. You I don't want to say these words because they mean something different to everybody, but I'll say it because it's important with Donnie is name it and claim it. Yeah. The kind of things, you know, if I just say there's a Kaleck in my driveway 10 times, there'll be a Kaleck in my driveway. That's a distortion of this. That's a demonic distortion of this. And it makes sense because if our words are that powerful, Willie Mark. 1128 about speaking to a mountain or speaking to a a bush and Luke 17 and And wouldn't make sense if it's powerful that that would be a huge target, right? Yeah, so that's not what I'm telling but what I'm asking the listeners is to open your eyes for just a second and just listen to the what we're going to say and Because there's another demonic attack and the demonic attack is to take everybody that wants to employ this tool and throw them in the name and claim it, throw them over in the fools and idiots. Yeah, exactly. And you're like, well, that's actually what the kingdom of darkness is going for. That's the deception they've done to shut people down. Right. you ⁓ to go study a book of prayer, they're not even going to talk about speaking to the mountain. Right. Although it's although it's still it's a ⁓ similar tool. to do this. And so I just have four verses here out of my 4,000 that I read and the 6,000 possibly. And I thought of a few more words since then that would have given me more options that I didn't. I got them written down there, but I just like, I couldn't think of all the words as they were showing up. I probably got to seven or eight, probably could have gotten to seven or 8,000 verses that talks about speaking and hearing and listening and all that. I mean, let's just back up for a minute. The gospel is past. from one person another by speaking. is generated by hearing. And already mentioned, you says you're either defiled by or you're justified. That means to be made righteous, right? You're either defiled as in being not in the right position before God or you're made justified by what comes out of your mouth. That's hugely important. Anyway, just going narrow down to four. So when you were ready, read Corinthians 413. St. Corinthians 413. But since we have the same spirit of faith, as that shown in what has been written, I believed. Therefore I spoke. We also believe. Therefore we also speak. Okay, so Paul quotes from an Old Testament, comes in and says, they believe, therefore they spoke. We believe, therefore we speak. So remember the first step in execution was believe. And we talk about Hebrews 11 and a few things like that. The natural next thing is to speak. If you don't say it, you haven't executed your faith. doesn't do you any good to keep your faith to yourself. And way you exercise your faith is by speaking. We believe, therefore we speak. They're tied together. So if you're not speaking, you're not believing, or least you're not believing for an effect that would impact the world. You can't pass on the gospel without believing, just something about speaking, right? We believe the gospel, therefore we speak. Faith is not generated if it doesn't fall on ears out there somewhere. It falls on ears. hear this faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of Christ. Okay, so let's see. Anything on that? No, sir. All right. These are six, 17. This is very recognizable, right? This is the spiritual warfare section at the end of Ephesians talking about the armor of God and the different things here. It says, you know, our struggle is not against flesh and blood. That's verse 12, but against. rulers and powers and against world rulers of this darkness against the spiritual forces of evil in heavens. I should have read that up there, my friend, it said we're at war. That says we're at war. It would be hard to argue that, right? Yep. So. Verse 17 says this, this is at the end of this section of listing the different attributes that we have. It says, and take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. So the sword of Spirit, what do we know that is? We know that's the word of God. So it says, take the of God. If we take out the imagery, from the Roman soldier, that maybe that Paul was certainly familiar with, could have been looking at as he's writing this. And we just said, this says, take up the word of God. Okay. How do we take up the word of God? We can't pick it up. I mean, I guess we, now that it's in a Bible. Yeah. But you know, don't do me a good take this and throw it at you. Right. Right. Right. Take up the word of God. That's to speak it. The word of God there is Rhema, which is this freshly spoken word of God. So you have Logos that 75 % of the time is usually the written word, not always. And then you have, this is the Rhema, the freshly spoken word of God. freshly spoken word of God. It doesn't say God has to speak it. It's the freshly spoken, it says take up the freshly spoken word of God. This is the word of God that we put in our mouth. This is the offensive weapon, the sword. The only, or I say the only, one of the primary prayers mentioned here too, I'd call that offensive weapon, but most of these things are defensive. The word of God, the freshly spoken word of God is what's in our mouth. So we are to speak the word of God. Okay, that's how we execute authority. We believe therefore we speak. We read that in St. Corinthians. I did not look this up, but I think it's John 16, 13. John 16 13 plus or minus, Jesus talked about the Holy Spirit to his disciples and he said, the Holy Spirit will bring back to your mind everything that I've taught you or said to you, right? So how does this work with in Ephesians chapter six? What we have is the logos, the written word of God. We take and pour over that day in and day out. We're storing these words in our spirit. And then what happens at the right time, you'll be given what to say at the right time. But in Jesus word, the Holy Spirit will remind you of what I've said. Guess what? That's where when the Holy Spirit ignites within us something as we're coming up against a situation, he brings forth that written word. And now we turn it into the Rhema or the freshly spoken word. That's the way one of the ways the Holy Spirit interacts with God's word and with our with our mouth. So. Does that make sense? Yep. Okay, that's spiritual warfare. You said you have Mark 1123? Let me go to... I'm not sure I can do two things at once. So let me just go to Joshua 1.8. It's one that everybody's familiar with. You'll remember. Read Mark 9.23. Okay. I tell you the truth. If someone says to this mountain, be lifted up and thrown into the sea and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that what he says will happen, it will be done for him. Believe in your heart. Do not doubt. Whatever you say will be done for you. I know that sounds... like blasphemy to some people, but that's just a direct quote from the Bible. Read it one more time. Mark 11 23. I tell you the truth. If someone says to this mountain be lifted up and thrown into the sea and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that what he says will happen, it will be done for him. Okay. Believe in his heart does not doubt what he says will be done for him. He says the same thing in Luke chapter 17. Doesn't use the mountain uses a think it's a black mulberry bush or something or tree at that point. He says at least three different times in the gospels. I mean, different occasions that the gospel writers are talking about. He says something very similar. Matthew 21, 21, he basically says that whatever you say will be done for you. That's another place, but it's slightly different. He says in Matthew, what is it? 16, 18, I think 18, he says, that he'll give you the keys or has given you the keys of the kingdom. And in chapter 16 and 18 he talks about whatever you bind in heaven will be bound on earth, whatever you've, no, whatever, the other way around. Whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, whatever you loosen on earth will have been loosed in heaven. He mentions that twice in Matthew. So that's two different occasions. And it's one of those, I can't remember, that he says, I'll give you the keys of the kingdom. These keys of the kingdom are executed, exercised. through this part here of believing and speaking. Believe and speaking God's word. yeah, is again, nothing but direct quotes and we can shy away from it because we're afraid of how somebody might abuse it. Everything in God's word can be abused. Sex be abused, food can be abused, what you say can be abused, how you yourself, you can do it right or wrong. Grace certainly can be turned into license or... Paul when they said don't use it for a license, right? So we're not gonna throw grace away because it can be abused. Let's not throw away speaking God's word because it can be abused. And then Joshua 1.8. This wall. This law scroll must never leave your lips. must memorize it day and night so that you can carefully obey all that is written in it. Then you will prosper and be successful. You where we prosper and be successful? Let God's word continuously be on your lips. It says never let them not be on your lips. Let word. It means to meditate. I think the next in there talks about meditating. day and Yeah. You want to meditate is? It means to mutter. ⁓ In Hebrew, the ⁓ that we come across as meditative literally means to mutter, to speak out loud. If you've ever seen pictures, I've never been there, but I'm not sure you have been to the wailing wall in Jerusalem. see the Jews and a lot of them are rocking back and forth and and they're doing something physical. That's meditating. That is the Hebrew version of meditating. It involves physical action. It involves speaking. It's not sitting there quietly. We think of meditating as, you know, laying back and just thinking deep. That's not what meditation in the Hebrew word is. It's what you see at the Waylan Wall. That's a great picture of Jewish or Hebrew meditation. So anyway, so we're gonna believe. God's we're gonna speak God's word. What's the next one? We're gonna pray. I've got, I don't know, I closed it. Go to John, that one right there, John 16, 2324. I go back to 2006. I should not have closed it. All right, John 16, 23 to 24. This is talking about praying now. At that time you will ask me nothing. I tell you this all in truth. Whatever you ask my father in my name, he will give you until now. You have not asked for anything in my name. Ask you receive it so that your joy may be complete. All right. Ask the father anything in Jesus name. Everything I do is in Jesus name, frankly, because I'm his brother who's now walking and talking and doing things on earth. via his authorization. He's authorized me to be here on his behalf and I'm doing the family business like we already talked about, extending our Father's will and making disciples. And so, but he says ask anything. Why? Says that your joy may be complete. Four times in three chapters, 14, 15, 16, four different instances, a total of six verses because he repeats himself twice. Two of those four times, Jesus says something to this effect. Other places, John 14, 13, 14, ask anything in my name and I'll do it. He says that in 13, he says again in 14. And then what is it? I think it's John 15, seven and 15, 16, plus or minus. So four times he said, ask where you're going and I'll do it for you. And what we want to do is put some yow butts at end of that. Just, there's a period, just let it be. Just let it be, walk out in faith, fall in the spirit of God. Making sure His will is getting done on earth as it is in heaven. Making disciples. Preaching the Word. If you can't catch anything from these, is that the new covenant believer? their lives should be characterized by answered prayers. That's God's will. If we're not getting answered prayers, then change what you're praying, as I heard one guy say, or go back to the Lord. Why are these not being answered? There's probably a reason. And the Lord will tell you the reason. His sheep hear his voice, John 10. those important things. So let's see. Ephesians 6, 18, how about that? This is what I just finished reading about the sword of the spirit, which is the word of God in the 18, but every prayer and petition pray at all times in the spirit and to this end, be alert with all perseverance and requests for all the saints were to pray continuously, pray at all times, pray in the spirit, be alert in prayer with, with perseverance and making requests for all the saints. This is another way or the main way, or one of the main ways that we do. God's will, make sure it gets done, is through prayer requests. He wants us to answer our prayers. He wants us to either speak to Him out and persevere in prayer with Him or make our requests known with thanksgiving. With thanksgiving is the expression of faith. I'm thanking Him as I pray instead of waiting until I see the answer. I'm just thanking for the answer ahead of time. That's called faith. That's called hope or expectations, okay? Those are some things that just kind ⁓ us right into faith without even knowing it when we say stuff like, thank you. It's amazing how many times prayer with Thanksgiving is talked about. then over to, actually I have it written out here. If I can figure out this. do. So we've talked about believe, say, pray, and do. Are going to talk about, If we want to pray the will of God, things we know he wants, that we can start with the scriptures, Paul's prayers, et cetera. know that'll probably keep us busy for a while. once he says, that, you're going to talk about that? Are you going talk about it now? We can do a little bit of both. Ephesians 1, Colossians 1, Ephesians 3, you go to... Most any, maybe all letters of Paul, maybe Galatians, that would say, you know, he has prayers that he's prayed for. Yeah. The people that church. What I'm saying and what I think what you're saying there is we know that's God's will. Right. So we can, it's easy to have faith for that because we know it's his will. we can that in faith. Just a quick thing on faith real quick. Faith ⁓ is a is a divinely, I am divinely persuaded. It's being fully persuaded by the divine. cannot pray in faith or act in faith until I know God's will. It is the knowing of God's will that produces the faith that now I pray, speak, and do, and walk in faith. We misunderstand that sometimes. We want to exercise our faith by just throwing up as many requests as we can and just see what comes back down. That's not the picture of faith in the New Covenant. The picture of faith in the New Covenant is God and find out His will. Now that we know His will, now we are the ones that execute that will by praying His will into the earth, into the circumstances. So the step one would be find out His will and then pray His will. That's the way faith is exercised. If you do not know God's will ahead of time, you cannot exercise faith. And that sounds like, dog gone, that's tough. Yeah, but guess what? He wants you to know his will. his children hear his voice. So that's where you go in fellowship, abiding in communion, and you just ask. That's what a lot of prayer is, is asking questions. It's not all requests. It's probably very little requests, but just ask. He will answer. I've told you this, I do this a lot in scripture. I think I might have said it when we were studying scripture. If I have a question in I just ask the Lord, what's that mean? Because sometimes it's hard to figure out. I've never had him not answer that question or about an event in my life that I'm confused about asking. I've never not had him ask. not had him answer that question. I had one that happened between the event and me asking what's going on there and me finding that was five years. Had I forgot about that? ⁓ yeah, I forgot about that in five years and I was doing something completely unrelated five years later and the Lord instantaneously told me what the reason for this event happened and why it didn't go the way I prayed and asked for it to go. And he Anyway, he answers that. So, John 5, 14 and 15, it says this, that if we pray in accordance with God's will that he hears us, and if he hears us, we know what we ask for. We know we have what we ask for. So what's that mean? If we pray God's will, we're going to have it. And I remember years ago I had a Sunday school class and I said, next Sunday we're going tell you how to get 100 % of your prayers answered. And then when I come back, go, a percent of prayers answered if you pray in accordance to God's will. And I go, how many just kind of felt a let down? Oh man. Of course they thought I was going to do a gimmick and they go, I tell them that. go, that's no gimmick. And if you're, if you kind of went, ah, that's kind of a, that feels like a gimmick, kind of a let down. Then you don't understand how good God's will is. God's will is fantastic. It's better than what you can imagine. It's better than what you would plan for yourself if you had the resources and the power to make things happen yourself. It's what, it's better than all that. So we want to know God's will, we still need to pray God's will and for God's will to happen. I got one more thing to cover. Did we cover what you just talked about there? Yeah. Yeah. I mean, those are some examples. I'll tell you one more thing that... that will rub some people wrong, but you know, that's okay. It's okay if you get rubbed wrong. Just let that cause you to think and seek the Lord and figure out if I'm right or if I'm wrong, or if I'm half right, half wrong. We're all kind of probably half right, half wrong. Because we're trying to comprehend infinity, but this all taught me how to so it's blessed for my soul. But I think it's 1 Timothy 2,4 that says God's will that everybody is to be saved. Wow, it's God's will that everybody should be saved. And then 1 John 5, 14, 15, I know I'm going out of way here, but I got a paper written and I've given several people whose children have gone astray and everything. said, and it's the one I just said that if he hears us, if we pray in accordance with the will, hears us, if he hears us, we have what we ask for. I'm like, okay, there's two truths. We put them together into a logical argument. Premise one, Jesus wants everybody saved. Premise two. If we pray what Jesus wants, we're going to get it. So the conclusion of that logical statement is whoever we pray for will be saved. We pray with boldness. Yeah, pray with boldness. know the way to pray believing. Pray believing, yes. Because God said it. Right. know the only way to prove that logical statement wrong is only two ways to prove a logical statement wrong, that the conclusion is inaccurate. Is to one, prove that the formula, the logical formula itself is inaccurate, not valid, or you got to disprove one of the premises. Well, that's a valid formula. You can go look it up and figure out largely if it is or not, but it is. And both the premises are direct quotes from scripture. you prove one of those wrongs? ⁓ but you know, this person doesn't appear to be saved or they died. I know. But I don't know what happens. In five years. Yeah, in five years or in the. nanoseconds that in God's time is plenty of time to have a conversation between unconsciousness and actually death. I don't know. Right. I do know that we're all saved by His grace and His grace alone. I do know that He's called on me to pray His will on earth as it is in heaven. I do know He's told me His will on earth as it in heaven as everybody's saved. He's also told me He's praying in courts on will it will happen. I'm like, okay, I'm still going to do it. What do my eyes see? Well, my eyes might not see confirmation of it. But I walk according to the flesh. Do we not see? Right. According to the Spirit, which is the unseen, which is tons more than I can see. Right. I mean, the diversity of our world, the seen world is crazy. I can't help but think that the diversity in the unseen world is even more crazy. Right. Right. mean, everything that we can see came from what we can't see. Right. And Paul says, therefore, the unseen is much more powerful. The unseen is eternal. The seen is temporal. So yeah, we don't know what's going on. All we do know is that's what God's word says. And I can tie those two verses together. second Peter three, nine is another one I can tie with it. I've done them both and written them out. But anyway, have faith, have faith enough to speak in and pray it. Pray God's word, speak God's word. If you can't go like the word, speak God's word, well then pray God's word out loud. Those verses, those prayers we talked about in Ephesians one, Ephesians three, They don't start with please. ⁓ may this be ⁓ Let this be true. These are. When your prayers start with May and let, that's the prayer of a son or a daughter and not a slave or a servant. So yeah, prayer, obviously we could have a gazillion linked series on that. We could keep writing books on that over and over again. But yeah, that's a great thing to bring up. Any questions? mean, anything else? Questions? No. Because we're going to jump over to James real quick. Sounds good. James is the guy that you know, where the rubber meets the road, you know, it to me. You I believe you and I trust you, but yeah, but just let's verify that. ⁓ Let's what you got, you know. Verse chapter verse 22 says, but be sure you live out the message and do not merely listen to it. And so to deceive yourselves. So in other words, put your money where your mouth is. Verse 25, but the one who peers into the perfect law of liberty, and fixes his attention there and does not become a forgetful lister, but one who lives it out, he will be blessed in what he does." He's saying, live out the message, live out what the word of God says. He says, hear in his word of God and do the word of God. And it calls it the perfect life of liberty. We talked about freedom already. That'd be another discussion that we just don't have time right now, but do God's word. So believe it, speak it, pray it, do it. Matthew 7 24. Can you read that? Sure. Everyone who hears these words of mine and does them is like a wise man who built his house on a rock. All right, so that's Jesus speaking. If you hear his words and you do them, you're a wise man whose house is not going to get washed away when the storm comes. We know the rest of that. There is a guy that doesn't do his words. So a guy that hears Jesus' words does not do them. He's a fool. OK? The other man is a wise man. So that's where I talk about doing. And again, we could... This is... way too short, I know, but this is just, includes that this is one of the many ways that we operate in this that we're in where we have a kingdom of darkness that's coming against the church, against individual believers, trying to keep the gospel from going forth, trying to keep the kingdom from expanding. And it's up to us to enter into that fight fully armed, fully authority, seated at the right hand of the Father. saying and praying his will into the situation. With an offensive weapon. With an offensive weapon so to speak. Kind of to close this out, I'll let you ask any questions. The mature believer is called to expertly daily navigate between each of these assignments, expanding the kingdom of God's dearly loved Son, pushing back the darkness, bringing glory to the Father and joy to the believer. That's what we're to do. And as we mature, we learn these skills and we have other gifts like discernment and wisdom, all that plays into it, which we didn't have time to go into today. Anything else to add or that you want I'd say listen to it twice. Send us an email at contact at accidentalbiblescholar.com. If you have a question. Randy will probably be glad to expound on it a podcast or. Yeah, I think we were talking about taking some questions and maybe doing a podcast. Just answering questions. Yeah. Because I mean, I've been had buddy of ours, John, you know, he's, he's calling me out. That's probably too strong a word, but we're having discussions about some of the words I'm using. I'm like, yeah, yeah, ⁓ word doesn't fit, but I couldn't find one that does fit. And plus I'm just. You know, talking my Arkansas education is you know the best I can as quickly as he apologizes for that. ⁓ And here I am. yeah, there's, I'm sure there's better words and I'm sure if used a better word, there'd be less questions or more clarity and, and, ⁓ that's just the, the nature of speaking and, know, semi public in on the, you know, on the fly here. mean, obviously with notes, but not in a manuscript that I'm reading. And, Yeah, I'm sure there's questions. I'm sure there's great questions. Yeah, I'm sure I've been wrong in some places just because I'm wrong. I've probably been in wrongs of places because I spoke the wrong word, said it a little bit wrong, right? But meant that was right in my intentions. you know, yeah, that'd be a great one to do sometime. That sounds good. Okay. All right. We'll wrap it up. Thanks, Randy