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Transcript

Soul Prosperity · Rick Manis Ministries Podcast

0:01
SPEAKER_00: So outer court ministry has to do with those things.
0:04
SPEAKER_00: That's why there are gifts of healings.
0:07
SPEAKER_00: There's the gifts of gift of faith and different things to help us in those things.
0:11
SPEAKER_00: God cares about those things.
0:25
SPEAKER_00: Those are outer court things.
0:27
SPEAKER_00: You would prosper and be in health even as your soul prospers, which is an inner court thing, soul prosperity.
0:34
SPEAKER_00: And soul prosperity comes with union with the Spirit or walking with the Spirit, obeying the Spirit, knowing the Spirit.
0:41
SPEAKER_00: That's where your soul becomes prosperous.
0:43
SPEAKER_00: And he says, I wish you would prosper and be in health as your soul prospers.
0:49
SPEAKER_00: We also know that in the picture of the tabernacle with the outer court, with outer court ministry, where does the power of outer court ministry or healing or blessing come from?
1:01
SPEAKER_00: It comes from that one who dwells in the inner court.
1:04
SPEAKER_00: It comes from him, the spirit that's in you.
1:07
SPEAKER_00: And so I've got a mouthful to talk about.
1:11
SPEAKER_00: I like dealing with, if you haven't noticed yet, there's a need, there's a deep-seated need in the body for real inner court ministry that causes fullness of life, that causes wholeness, that causes the heaven.
1:28
SPEAKER_00: That's where the heaven on earth happens.
1:30
SPEAKER_00: Outer court ministry, God is happy to do.
1:32
SPEAKER_00: He says, if anybody's sick, let them let's call for prayer.
1:35
SPEAKER_00: Let's pray.
1:35
SPEAKER_00: And the prayer of faith will heal the sick.
1:37
SPEAKER_00: He wants to take care of your outer court.
1:41
SPEAKER_00: But outer court ministry is often very temporary ministry.
1:47
SPEAKER_00: Inner court ministry is eternal ministry.
1:51
SPEAKER_00: So uh whoops, excuse me.
1:53
SPEAKER_00: So when we're talking about inner court, we're talking about soul prosperity.
2:00
SPEAKER_00: And, you know, I I've just uh for at least a couple of years now, I can't get away from this.
2:05
SPEAKER_00: When you when you talk about that, when you're talking about the condition of the human soul, how can you not go back to where the problem began?
2:16
SPEAKER_00: And if the problem began in the place we know it began in Genesis 3, when we took that wrong turn, then we also know that Jesus brought restoration of all things and He He fixed that wrong turn.
2:31
SPEAKER_00: And because there's been a kind of a lack of inner court ministry, a lot of people really aren't aware of that.
2:38
SPEAKER_00: It's amazing that in places I go and travels that this is this is a fresh idea to a lot of people.
2:44
SPEAKER_00: But we took that wrong turn in Genesis chapter 3, and as I've said many times, it it changed everything about our insides.
2:54
SPEAKER_00: It changed our perception, it changed how we saw things, it changed how we dealt with things, how we felt with things.
2:59
SPEAKER_00: It messed everything up, and we know that from that time we've been trying to take care of it.
3:05
SPEAKER_00: And usually we would what we've been trying to do, and we see a picture of it in Genesis 3, is we try to deal with the problems that are going on in the inner court by fixing the outer court.
3:18
SPEAKER_00: And it simply has never worked for all of history.
3:22
SPEAKER_00: And mankind is still hurting, and mankind is still searching, and there are still fights and wars and hate and fear, and just all everything that started in Genesis 3 is still right there, despite all of our efforts, all of our wisdom, all of our knowledge, all of our religions, all of our philosophies, all of our motivational speeches, it's all still there.
3:49
SPEAKER_00: So Jesus is really the answer.
3:52
SPEAKER_00: He is the one that fixed it.
3:54
SPEAKER_00: He brought us to the Father.
3:56
SPEAKER_00: He brought us wholeness through him.
3:59
SPEAKER_00: He brought restoration by restoring our relationship with the Father, bringing us back to a pre-fall of man condition if we know it.
4:09
SPEAKER_00: Jesus said, You'll know the truth.
4:11
SPEAKER_00: It's knowing the truth that makes you free, right?
4:13
SPEAKER_00: And he says, and if and if the Son does make you free, then you'll be free indeed.
4:18
SPEAKER_00: I call that crazy free.
4:19
SPEAKER_00: Crazy free, it looks so different.
4:21
SPEAKER_00: It's so, it's, it's, it's, it's you, you're walking in a world of tribulation, but you're crazy free right in the middle of it.
4:26
SPEAKER_00: You've got no fear even though there's fearful things all around you.
4:30
SPEAKER_00: You have no need of control.
4:32
SPEAKER_00: You have no you have no sorrow even though sorrowful things are happening.
4:36
SPEAKER_00: It doesn't mean you don't get sad about things, because there are certainly things to be sad about, but you don't live with the spirit of sorrow in your life.
4:43
SPEAKER_00: Um so we know that when we took that wrong turn, as I've said many times, we had to, we became, we, we, in, in a sense, we became our own God.
4:54
SPEAKER_00: By that I mean we became our own protection.
4:57
SPEAKER_00: We became our own providers, we became our own defense system.
5:03
SPEAKER_00: And mankind carries these defense systems.
5:06
SPEAKER_00: The first that one of the first things we see, of course, is in Genesis 3 when God says, Who told you you were naked?
5:14
SPEAKER_00: I didn't tell you that.
5:15
SPEAKER_00: I don't do that.
5:16
SPEAKER_00: There's no condemnation in me.
5:17
SPEAKER_00: You've been naked all this time.
5:19
SPEAKER_00: It was never, ever an issue with me.
5:22
SPEAKER_00: You must have eaten of that tree.
5:23
SPEAKER_00: That's the only way you would feel this way.
5:25
SPEAKER_00: That's the only way you would.
5:27
SPEAKER_00: Because you were never like this before.
5:30
SPEAKER_00: And he said, and so what did what did man do?
5:34
SPEAKER_00: And man took it as an accusation, not an explanation.
5:39
SPEAKER_00: God was explaining that in me you don't get that.
5:43
SPEAKER_00: I'm good to you.
5:45
SPEAKER_00: You must have gone that horrible way.
5:47
SPEAKER_00: You must have gone after that knowledge of good and evil.
5:50
SPEAKER_00: And Adam took it as an accusation.
5:52
SPEAKER_00: So what did Adam do?
5:53
SPEAKER_00: Defended right off the bat.
5:54
SPEAKER_00: He goes into defense mode.
5:56
SPEAKER_00: Why?
5:56
SPEAKER_00: Because now Adam is on his own in his perception.
6:00
SPEAKER_00: And he and and God's not his defense anymore.
6:04
SPEAKER_00: God's his antagonist.
6:06
SPEAKER_00: God's his accuser in his mind.
6:09
SPEAKER_00: So Adam goes to defense mode.
6:12
SPEAKER_00: If he doesn't defend him, who else will?
6:14
SPEAKER_00: Because he doesn't feel connected to God anymore.
6:18
SPEAKER_00: He feels like God's an antagonist, an accuser now.
6:21
SPEAKER_00: Instead of his, all this time he's been his protection, his defense, his lover.
6:25
SPEAKER_00: But now that he's on his own, it hears me and there's you, God, instead of me and you.
6:34
SPEAKER_00: And when it's me, when it's when it when it when there's two of you instead of one of you, then somebody has to be right.
6:43
SPEAKER_00: Somebody has to win.
6:44
SPEAKER_00: And Adam is like, wait a minute.
6:46
SPEAKER_00: Not so fast there, God.
6:49
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I did that, but the woman.
6:58
SPEAKER_00: So right off the bat, his defense.
7:01
SPEAKER_00: Put it off me, put it on the woman.
7:02
SPEAKER_00: Not just the woman, but the woman that you gave me.
7:06
SPEAKER_00: So his situation, his marriage is his problem now.
7:12
SPEAKER_00: This God who created him is his problem now.
7:16
SPEAKER_00: This God who put him in this situation.
7:23
SPEAKER_00: And God, if you didn't want me to do this, if you didn't want this to happen to me, then why did you put me in this situation?
7:28
SPEAKER_00: You could have stopped it.
7:32
SPEAKER_00: The woman, you gave me God.
7:34
SPEAKER_00: Then of course, you know the woman does the same thing.
7:36
SPEAKER_00: She's uh no, it was a snake.
7:39
SPEAKER_00: And the snake says, No, it was uh, oh, there's nobody else.
7:42
SPEAKER_00: And you know, it ended with him.
7:45
SPEAKER_00: But they went to defend.
7:46
SPEAKER_00: What happens?
7:47
SPEAKER_00: What do we started taking on all these things that we think are normal.
7:50
SPEAKER_00: We think they're humanity.
7:52
SPEAKER_00: Psychology explains it.
7:54
SPEAKER_00: It's normal, it's what goes on, and here's how we identify it, here's how we deal with it, and here's and and here's all these things.
8:00
SPEAKER_00: And there's never any real cure for it because the only cure is is to get back to how it was before we needed a cure.
8:11
SPEAKER_00: In fact, in the book of Jeremiah, he tell God tells him, He says, Your wound is incurable, there is no healing bomb.
8:18
SPEAKER_00: Nothing you do is going to fix this.
8:21
SPEAKER_00: And uh so we've taken upon all these soul defenses, these social, these, these psychological defenses and barriers.
8:32
SPEAKER_00: One thing, this is what this is what all humans seem like they do.
8:35
SPEAKER_00: In situations like that, we we have a tendency to try to put ourselves in the best light in that fallen condition.
8:43
SPEAKER_00: We'll just it j we'll just tell a story.
8:46
SPEAKER_00: Just tell a story.
8:47
SPEAKER_00: No reason to defend ourselves, but most people somehow they sort of, in the retelling of it, they sort of put themselves in the best light where they look like a little more of a hero than maybe they really were in the situation.
8:58
SPEAKER_00: Or or they they they they feel like they've like they're being oppressed or abused or misused or attacked in some way, and maybe they really are, because humanity can do that.
9:12
SPEAKER_00: So they they they've got to protect themselves.
9:16
SPEAKER_00: They they have what I call, you know, those those resident attorneys.
9:20
SPEAKER_00: You have them on retainer, they're always there anytime you need them.
9:23
SPEAKER_00: And they're good, right?
9:25
SPEAKER_00: They're good.
9:26
SPEAKER_00: You know, the Bible says love keep love keeps no no no record of offenses.
9:31
SPEAKER_00: And people ask me, says, I'm I'm struggling to forgive.
9:35
SPEAKER_00: How do I do that?
9:35
SPEAKER_00: But but these memories keep coming up.
9:38
SPEAKER_00: Why?
9:38
SPEAKER_00: Because you've got an attorney that's got a big thick file.
9:41
SPEAKER_00: Love doesn't keep a record, but but flesh does.
9:45
SPEAKER_00: That self-defense attorney who's good at defending you, whose job is to defend you, he's got a file full of things, and he can always put you in the best light, and he can always show why you're the hero, why why you're in the right, why you, why, why it's everybody else's wrong, why your situation's wrong, why it's not fair, why they're not fair, why life is not fair, and da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da.
10:05
SPEAKER_00: And all those things go on.
10:07
SPEAKER_00: Uh I would say you need to fire those attorneys.
10:10
SPEAKER_00: Life in its situations, in most sit, in most cases, in many people's lives, really is not fair.
10:16
SPEAKER_00: It's a fallen world.
10:18
SPEAKER_00: It's a fallen world that man, that, that, that man twisted with his fall.
10:26
SPEAKER_00: God made it good, man made it bad.
10:29
SPEAKER_00: So, it how can that system be a fair system?
10:32
SPEAKER_00: It's not godly, it's earthly, it's sensual, it's devilish, the Bible says.
10:37
SPEAKER_00: It can't be a fair system, it's not a fair system.
10:40
SPEAKER_00: That's why Jesus said, You're in that world, but you're not of it.
10:42
SPEAKER_00: That world there is tribulation.
10:44
SPEAKER_00: It's not fair, it's not pretty, it's not good.
10:48
SPEAKER_00: But I'm gonna make you so happy, be of good cheer, because I've overcome all that stuff.
10:53
SPEAKER_00: It's gonna be so small to you.
10:55
SPEAKER_00: But when you don't have that union with God, or when you're not aware of it, you feel so alone at times.
11:01
SPEAKER_00: Even Christians, so many times.
11:02
SPEAKER_00: This is why they need so prosperity, because we deal with so many Christians that are born again, they're they're they've been spiritually made alive with God, but they still feel so alone because they don't know the truth.
11:15
SPEAKER_00: And one of the reasons is because they're focused on the externals, and that's what we became focused on the externals.
11:20
SPEAKER_00: And when you focus at the externals, you're gonna look at a fallen world and you're gonna do and you're gonna say, well, if this is what God's about, then it's not fair.
11:27
SPEAKER_00: No, God's not about this world.
11:28
SPEAKER_00: God, God, God, God is all about heaven.
11:31
SPEAKER_00: And God made a good world, but man made a bad world.
11:35
SPEAKER_00: Huh?
11:36
SPEAKER_00: Somebody says, Well, if God can do anything, why doesn't He do it?
11:40
SPEAKER_00: Because you've got a mis a wrong idea about God.
11:43
SPEAKER_00: God has never been into control ever since he created things.
11:45
SPEAKER_00: He's never been in a spirit of control.
11:48
SPEAKER_00: He's always been in love.
11:51
SPEAKER_00: And you know this if you've ever had dealt with loved ones that made bad choices, is you have to love them in their bad choices.
12:00
SPEAKER_00: You don't control them.
12:02
SPEAKER_00: That's not love.
12:04
SPEAKER_00: So God has always let man make bad choices.
12:06
SPEAKER_00: From the very beginning, he let us make that choice.
12:09
SPEAKER_00: Because love does that.
12:11
SPEAKER_00: And he loved us through the whole thing.
12:12
SPEAKER_00: He said, even through the Old Testament, where people think he was so mean, he says, I have loved you with an everlasting love, yet you've not known me.
12:20
SPEAKER_00: He never stopped loving us.
12:22
SPEAKER_00: But we were we felt so alone.
12:26
SPEAKER_00: The knowledge of good and evil, we we had to protect ourselves, we had to defend ourselves, we had to put ourselves in the best light.
12:34
SPEAKER_00: We had to somehow convince ourselves that we were better than somebody else.
12:38
SPEAKER_00: We had to convince ourselves that we were right and somebody else was wrong because that's the best we could do to survive in this fallen situation where we're all alone.
12:49
SPEAKER_00: We have to take care of us.
12:52
SPEAKER_00: Those resident attorneys will lie to us about all those things.
12:57
SPEAKER_00: 2 Thessalonians chapter 2 says that he that believes a lie shall be damned or condemned.
13:05
SPEAKER_00: He that believes a lie.
13:06
SPEAKER_00: It was always interesting to me.
13:08
SPEAKER_00: He didn't say so much about the one that tells the lie, but it's the one that believes a lie.
13:11
SPEAKER_00: It's the believing the lie.
13:13
SPEAKER_00: It's the believing the lie that that that that that that condemns you, that damns you.
13:41
SPEAKER_00: He goes, Whoa, wait a minute.
13:43
SPEAKER_00: He said, Did life do that or did you do that?
13:47
SPEAKER_00: And I said, Well, I I think life, he goes, and he looks at me, and I'll never forget this throughout all eternity.
13:53
SPEAKER_00: He says, Don't you ever start lying to yourself?
13:55
SPEAKER_00: Because if you start believing your own lies, you'll get lost completely.
14:03
SPEAKER_00: And I it hit me, and I said, Yeah, I did it.
14:06
SPEAKER_00: But those the but see, in our effort to protect ourselves, we're willing to believe a lie because we're we gotta be our own salvation, we've got to be our own protection.
14:19
SPEAKER_00: So people lie to themselves.
14:21
SPEAKER_00: We start comparing.
14:23
SPEAKER_00: Well, at least I'm better than that one.
14:26
SPEAKER_00: At least I'm not doing that.
14:30
SPEAKER_00: And because of because of our perception, just like it was in the beginning, our problems, because we've defended us, we've protected us, we're we're doing the best we can.
14:42
SPEAKER_00: We think we're in a best light here.
14:43
SPEAKER_00: We may not be perfect, but at least we're this and at least we're that.
14:47
SPEAKER_00: So therefore, our problems are not internal, they're not, they don't have so much to do with us.
14:52
SPEAKER_00: Our problems are all external.
14:54
SPEAKER_00: Our problems are our search situations, our circumstances, our problems are what other people are doing.
14:59
SPEAKER_00: Our problems is our spouse, our problem is our is that boss, it's that job, it's it's that situation, it's the economy, it's it's it's it's Trump, it's Obama, it's somebody, but it's not me.
15:15
SPEAKER_00: And if we could fix those things, I could finally smile.
15:27
SPEAKER_00: That's of course goes back to the Christmas story of a gift was given to us, the Messiah, Christ Jesus.
15:35
SPEAKER_00: And so many missed him because they were looking for a fixer of their external, because that's what they wanted.
15:42
SPEAKER_00: They didn't know what they needed.
15:43
SPEAKER_00: They didn't think they needed to change themselves, many of them.
15:46
SPEAKER_00: They thought they needed those things around them to change, but Jesus came to change them, not those things.
15:52
SPEAKER_00: If he can get their souls to prosper, then they could have heaven on earth again.
15:58
SPEAKER_00: Are y'all hearing me?
16:00
SPEAKER_00: So that's why people have that.
16:02
SPEAKER_00: This is the sort of the psychology behind behind the spirituality.
16:07
SPEAKER_00: Is that a word?
16:09
SPEAKER_00: This is the the the psychology of it is simply the effect of being lost.
16:17
SPEAKER_00: This is why people do what they do.
16:20
SPEAKER_00: And you're not going to fix it by trying to tinker with the psychology of it.
16:24
SPEAKER_00: It's been tried by better people than you.
16:27
SPEAKER_00: And after thousands and thousands and thousands of years, the same things that happened on day one of the fall, the fear, the shame, the self-defense, all of that, every bit of that is exactly in its is in its same strength to this very day.
16:43
SPEAKER_00: It has never been abated, one bit, in this natural world.
16:47
SPEAKER_00: The only way that anybody has ever overcome it, and I count myself and you as an overcomer in this, because I have seen it happening and I'm overcoming, I'm seeing more of an overcomer in it every single day.
16:58
SPEAKER_00: I have been changed by this relationship, this union, being restored to God.
17:08
SPEAKER_00: And I got the one thing I didn't think I needed.
17:14
SPEAKER_00: I thought I needed everybody else to change.
17:17
SPEAKER_00: I thought I needed my situations to change.
17:19
SPEAKER_00: I thought I needed God to do this, I thought I needed God to do that and the other.
17:24
SPEAKER_00: But what I found out was what I really needed was that relationship.
17:27
SPEAKER_00: I needed to be loved.
17:29
SPEAKER_00: I needed a security because I had been living like all of mankind in a condition of insecurity.
17:37
SPEAKER_00: But when we did what that worship song just said, when I see your face, when I see your amazing grace, when I see that holy place, when when I came home, I was no longer in a condition of insecurity.
17:51
SPEAKER_00: I was now in security.
17:56
SPEAKER_00: In a horrible world where all kinds of bad things can happen when we walk out that door today.
18:02
SPEAKER_00: But feeling so secure.
18:06
SPEAKER_00: Not because bad things don't happen to me, they do.
18:09
SPEAKER_00: But in all of these things, we're more than conquerors through him who loves us.
18:15
SPEAKER_00: Loves us.
18:16
SPEAKER_00: And the security comes because no matter what you're dealing with in this fallen world that we messed up a long time ago, no matter what we see, we're there with God.
18:26
SPEAKER_00: And we're there with love, and we're very secure in that.
18:29
SPEAKER_00: We're there with someone who has our best all the time.
18:34
SPEAKER_00: Are you hearing me?
18:35
SPEAKER_00: See, what we what we needed was to come home.
18:37
SPEAKER_00: We got so carnal by the time from Genesis 3 to Genesis chapter 6, three chapters, we were totally, totally became so oblivious to God that, you know, God says, you know, he says, it it grieved him, the suffering of man.
18:49
SPEAKER_00: And he says, he says, he says, man is but flesh.
18:53
SPEAKER_00: We were so tuned in to nothing but flesh and carnality, like man is, and it's and that's why it's still a job, it seems, to present the liberty and freedom and the reality of this invisible God that you say created you and he did, that you say he loves you, and he does.
19:11
SPEAKER_00: And it's a real this to believe this faith is to know this, to believe this, and this that this real person, omnipotent creator, who is absolute love and is the only source of fullness of life and will fulfill you and is your only source of heaven on earth, is your only source of feeling secure, your only source of feeling that you don't need to defend yourself, your only source of feeling like you're the head and not the tail above and not beneath.
19:43
SPEAKER_00: Even though you might fall on your face over and over again like I do, but somehow this relationship still makes me feel like I'm on top of the mountain.
19:52
SPEAKER_00: This is how real it is.
19:53
SPEAKER_00: My heart goes out, it's it just it cries at times.
19:56
SPEAKER_00: I just, God, that that all men may see, that all men may know the glory of the riches of this wonderful inheritance given to the saints.
20:12
SPEAKER_00: So, this is why people do all they do.
20:15
SPEAKER_00: And and because you have a secular world that doesn't know this relationship, they promote these things because that's the best you can do without knowing what we're talking about.
20:26
SPEAKER_00: If you don't know you're loved, I'm not talking about knowing that you're loved.
20:32
SPEAKER_00: I'm not saying that, okay, Bible says God loves me, Rick said God loves me, so there.
20:42
SPEAKER_00: I'm talking about knowing it more than you know that you love your husband or your wife, knowing it more than you love your children or your grandchildren, knowing, knowing it and feeling it and experiencing it and knowing and experiencing the joy of having that kind of love.
20:58
SPEAKER_00: Every day.
21:00
SPEAKER_00: This happens so, so often, more now than ever, in ever-increasing measure, where I just wake up and it's just like it's just like, oh God, I love you.
21:09
SPEAKER_00: I thought, where did that come from?
21:11
SPEAKER_00: It came from somewhere along the line.
21:13
SPEAKER_00: I really began to believe.
21:15
SPEAKER_00: I really began to experience a fullness of heart-filling of God that I love, that loves me, and through that love has become so much more personal to me, so much more real that you begin to walk around with an awareness all the time, and you never ever feel alone again.
21:35
SPEAKER_00: And because you never feel alone, you don't have to protect you anymore.
21:39
SPEAKER_00: Now, I'm gonna show you why that's important.
21:41
SPEAKER_00: Because sociology and psychology will tell us that there are certain safeguards we have to have, there are certain barriers we have to put up, there are certain things that we have to do, you know, for our for our own soul health.
21:52
SPEAKER_00: And without God, I say yes, that's the best you're gonna be able to do.
21:57
SPEAKER_00: But I'll show you why it's it's Still death and it's still hell.
22:02
SPEAKER_00: Because with these dealing in this life and feeling alone, and I'm talking, of course, of course, people that don't believe definitely have that.
22:14
SPEAKER_00: People that are in the church, many of them are striving to believe.
22:17
SPEAKER_00: I I hear it all the time from people.
22:23
SPEAKER_00: Striving to believe that they're really not alone.
22:27
SPEAKER_00: I hear it in somehow somehow and sometimes in the way Christians pray.
22:31
SPEAKER_00: I can tell that they're feeling alone in the situation.
22:38
SPEAKER_00: But they so we what when I say we, I don't mean just me or you, but I mean as a human, fallen human race.
22:47
SPEAKER_00: What people do is they'll try to put up safeguards because we're alone.
22:56
SPEAKER_00: Gotta protect us.
22:56
SPEAKER_00: We put up safeguards.
22:58
SPEAKER_00: Remember, you do y'all know the gist of the story of Job, what the whole issue really was about the book of Job?
23:05
SPEAKER_00: It tells us right in the very beginning.
23:07
SPEAKER_00: He was a good man.
23:09
SPEAKER_00: Okay?
23:11
SPEAKER_00: According to how it defines him, if you look at his wife, he looks pretty blameless, a righteous man.
23:20
SPEAKER_00: But it says there it says, but he would make sacrifices every day.
23:26
SPEAKER_00: Not because his children were sinning, but just in case.
23:31
SPEAKER_00: It may be, it's I don't know.
23:34
SPEAKER_00: You know, I got this picture of this wealthy man Job, and he's got this trailer behind his house, and his kids are living there, and he's afraid they're throwing wild parties or something.
23:42
SPEAKER_00: I don't know.
23:42
SPEAKER_00: But he, just in case my children have sinned, I'll make sacrifice.
23:47
SPEAKER_00: Now, why did he do that?
23:49
SPEAKER_00: Because he wanted to make sure nothing bad happened.
23:53
SPEAKER_00: He couldn't stand it if something bad happened to his children.
23:57
SPEAKER_00: And he wanted to make sure that if they're if they're blowing it, that God's not going to do something bad and let them, you know, all these things.
24:02
SPEAKER_00: And so so he's making sacrifices to God.
24:05
SPEAKER_00: God, don't let anything bad happen.
24:06
SPEAKER_00: It's all covered.
24:07
SPEAKER_00: I'm making sacrifices for their sin.
24:09
SPEAKER_00: Of course, all these bad things started happening.
24:12
SPEAKER_00: And what did Job say?
24:13
SPEAKER_00: It's very important.
24:14
SPEAKER_00: He said, the thing that I greatly feared.
24:18
SPEAKER_00: What was the thing that he greatly feared?
24:19
SPEAKER_00: That bad stuff would happen.
24:21
SPEAKER_00: The thing that I greatly feared has come upon me.
24:25
SPEAKER_00: And nothing he could do could stop it.
24:27
SPEAKER_00: But he put up these safeguards because he was afraid.
24:32
SPEAKER_00: Why do people feel afraid?
24:34
SPEAKER_00: He was a good man.
24:35
SPEAKER_00: He was living a godly life, apparently, but still in his soul.
24:42
SPEAKER_00: Outwardly he was doing all the right things, but in his soul, he felt alone.
24:46
SPEAKER_00: That's the only way you can be afraid.
24:51
SPEAKER_00: And he wasn't sure that God was with him or for him.
24:57
SPEAKER_00: And so he's safeguarding.
24:58
SPEAKER_00: And you can tell in his speech, when you read the book, and he would just like, God will do whatever he wants.
25:03
SPEAKER_00: Who can stand against God?
25:04
SPEAKER_00: Who can debate with him?
25:05
SPEAKER_00: You know, God, you know, I can do nothing.
25:07
SPEAKER_00: He said, and I don't deserve this, but God can do whatever he wants to do, and I've got no chance.
25:11
SPEAKER_00: And he would just God was an antagonist.
25:19
SPEAKER_00: Not his lover, not his friend, not his father.
25:24
SPEAKER_00: Why was God an antagonist?
25:25
SPEAKER_00: Because Job was a fallen man also.
25:27
SPEAKER_00: He felt alone.
25:29
SPEAKER_00: He felt alone.
25:31
SPEAKER_00: And when you feel alone, you've got to take care of you.
25:33
SPEAKER_00: So he puts up these safeguards.
25:36
SPEAKER_00: Here's a good example that you hear a lot.
25:40
SPEAKER_00: Because I talk so much about love and the freedom it brings and the effect of it.
25:44
SPEAKER_00: I get this so much.
25:45
SPEAKER_00: People talk about well, you have to put up boundaries in your life to protect yourself against abusers or toxic relationships.
26:00
SPEAKER_00: I will say the way that most people live, that's probably the best advice you can give people.
26:08
SPEAKER_00: But if there is a better way, if you want to hear it.
26:12
SPEAKER_00: There is a better way.
26:14
SPEAKER_00: Now the better way is, I mean, you know, there's I'll give you the uh one of the an example.
26:24
SPEAKER_00: I had what I would call a toxic relationship in my life.
26:27
SPEAKER_00: I had somebody who was one of my um on my ministry staff when I was pastoring back in the 90s, and um more or less had an Absalom type of thing where he wanted to run and control me and the ministry and all those things.
26:43
SPEAKER_00: So finally we hit we made a break.
26:44
SPEAKER_00: He he definitely he was older than me, more experienced than me, felt like he could control me, and and finally I, you know, and and and I let him do it for quite a while, but finally had enough, and finally we made the break, and they left the church and and and and and I and I and I still loved them, but I was I was and I would once in a while I'd reach out to try to try to restore the relationship, you know, and and I remember calling him on the phone and and you know, just saying, you know, you know, I just I haven't talked to you in a while.
27:09
SPEAKER_00: I said, You want to call?
27:10
SPEAKER_00: I just want to tell you I love you, and you know, everything's water under the bridge, and da da da.
27:14
SPEAKER_00: And and and and as we're talking, he starts going into his control thing.
27:17
SPEAKER_00: Next thing you know, he's making me feel small and him big, and next thing you know, he's like he's putting me under his foot, and I'm just like, okay, bye.
27:24
SPEAKER_00: And I hung up and I look at my wife and I said, Don't ever, if I ever start to call him, stop me.
27:31
SPEAKER_00: And I was like, I got to put these, I gotta protect myself from that because I felt small.
27:38
SPEAKER_00: And and this oppression that would come from this relationship felt too big.
27:45
SPEAKER_00: It was abusive, it hurt me, it made me feel bad, it made me feel small, it made me, you know, the condition of my soul was in could not handle it.
27:55
SPEAKER_00: My soul's not like that anymore.
27:57
SPEAKER_00: We grow.
27:58
SPEAKER_00: So that's why, you know, the boundary.
28:00
SPEAKER_00: So I put up a boundary for a while.
28:02
SPEAKER_00: It protected me for a while.
28:04
SPEAKER_00: But I'll but if I got time, I'll show you that, and maybe some of you know this, that when you put those walls of protection around you, they become a prison to you.
28:14
SPEAKER_00: They, you know, uh, you know, after a while, you know, I began to grow.
28:18
SPEAKER_00: In fact, I talked to God about it and I said, about this, about this particular relationship.
28:23
SPEAKER_00: And uh, and and and and he began to show me about that.
28:26
SPEAKER_00: He said, He says, You're gonna grow.
28:28
SPEAKER_00: He says, You are going to grow so big inside, in my love, he said.
28:33
SPEAKER_00: And this was many years ago.
28:34
SPEAKER_00: I didn't even understand the love of God, really.
28:36
SPEAKER_00: He said, You're gonna grow so much in my love that people can do things like that and it won't have an effect on your soul.
28:44
SPEAKER_00: And somehow over time I look back and I'm like, you know, by and large, that has pretty much happened.
28:50
SPEAKER_00: In fact, it happened, you know, in just a matter of a, it began to happen in a matter of about a year or so, because I remember running into this guy in front of a convenience store one time, and for the first time, when I saw him, I was happy to see him, and I ran and hugged him, and we hugged each other, and I genuinely felt no oppression at all.
29:08
SPEAKER_00: I didn't feel any of that, okay, I'm hugging a backstabber here, you know, because I used to hear that song in the background all the time, backstabbers or backstabbers.
29:16
SPEAKER_00: But it was gone.
29:19
SPEAKER_00: We grow.
29:21
SPEAKER_00: Now, if you don't know the love of God, the best you can do is protect you.
29:24
SPEAKER_00: Now, I'm not talking about physical people because you know, I there are physical uh marriage relationships.
29:29
SPEAKER_00: Get out of the house, don't let, don't get bruised, don't get hurt, don't get hit ever.
29:33
SPEAKER_00: And sometimes you, and sometimes there are people, I mean, there are people that I've had in life that that that I know in life that they're not trustworthy.
29:41
SPEAKER_00: So it's not like you're gonna you have to go and be around them all the time.
29:44
SPEAKER_00: You know, it's not that.
29:46
SPEAKER_00: But you don't have a sense of protection anymore.
29:51
SPEAKER_00: To where it's like, and you box yourself in.
29:56
SPEAKER_00: Um when you when you know what we're talking about here, it elevates you and makes you so big that the things that once seemed so poisonous to you are not poison anymore.
30:12
SPEAKER_00: All it is is somebody else that's hurt, somebody else that's confused, somebody else that doesn't know either, and they're doing the best they can.
30:23
SPEAKER_00: That's why they're controllers the way they are, that's why they do the things they do, that's why they become overbearing, that's why they do that.
30:29
SPEAKER_00: But when you know the love of God and see how this works, you understand.
30:33
SPEAKER_00: The spirit of understanding is a big facet of the spirit of God, isn't it?
30:38
SPEAKER_00: And the spirit of understanding is really good because it helps you to love the unlovely, and you don't see them as a big, bad giant that's out to crush your life anymore.
30:49
SPEAKER_00: They're another hurt, confused, self-defending person.
30:56
SPEAKER_00: And you're loved by God, and you're approved by God, and you're accepted in the beloved, and you're protected by God, and you're secure in God, and you're cared for by God.
31:08
SPEAKER_00: What can man do to me, the Bible says?
31:10
SPEAKER_00: If God be for us, then who can be toxic to me?
31:16
SPEAKER_00: Huh?
31:17
SPEAKER_00: So now instead of me needing to take care of me because this person's toxic, somehow I became the big blesser where this person who once was poisoned to my life doesn't have that effect anymore, and now I can be a lover.
31:30
SPEAKER_00: Now I can be a blessing.
31:32
SPEAKER_00: Wow.
31:34
SPEAKER_00: Something happens when you know.
31:36
SPEAKER_00: Are you all hearing what I'm saying?
31:37
SPEAKER_00: We know the things we're talking about as you grow in this, the things that were so painful just don't hurt anymore.
31:43
SPEAKER_00: He heals the brokenhearted, he really does.
31:47
SPEAKER_00: This is good news.
31:48
SPEAKER_00: This is what happened.
31:49
SPEAKER_00: This all happens because of the relationship and knowing this relationship.
31:54
SPEAKER_00: Perfect love casts out what?
31:57
SPEAKER_00: So if you're not afraid, how many, how many walls are you going to build around you?
32:01
SPEAKER_00: If you're not afraid, how many people are you gonna try to control?
32:04
SPEAKER_00: How many situations are you gonna try to control?
32:06
SPEAKER_00: I was in the the Word of Faith movement back in the late 70s and through the 80s, and and and and it's a good word about trusting God and believing in the integrity of God's word.
32:15
SPEAKER_00: But there again, what I saw people do was they they were trying to operate in the name of faith, but they were really afraid, many of them.
32:23
SPEAKER_00: They were using using element uh uh principles of faith to try to control their situation.
32:31
SPEAKER_00: Oh, don't let that happen.
32:33
SPEAKER_00: Because in their mind they knew if that ever happened, I couldn't stand it.
32:36
SPEAKER_00: So I'm gonna use my faith to stop it.
32:39
SPEAKER_00: Faith can stand big against anything.
32:41
SPEAKER_00: People would say to me, you know, oh my my the my company's laying off.
32:45
SPEAKER_00: Pray, pray that I don't get laid off.
32:48
SPEAKER_00: And honestly, I don't always know the will of God in that because being laid off might be the best thing that happens to you.
32:54
SPEAKER_00: But but you're in your little mind, you're just like, no, if I get laid off, we'll starve.
32:59
SPEAKER_00: Well, maybe God's bigger than that.
33:02
SPEAKER_00: I've been laid off a couple of times in the younger years.
33:07
SPEAKER_00: Both times it was a great thing.
33:09
SPEAKER_00: One time I wasn't, it didn't look like it was a great thing, but it turned out to be a great thing.
33:13
SPEAKER_00: Another time I knew it was a great thing.
33:15
SPEAKER_00: It was like getting let out of prison.
33:21
SPEAKER_00: But the fear comes in, because who's gonna take care of you?
33:24
SPEAKER_00: You're all gonna starve, get laid off.
33:28
SPEAKER_00: Can't leave that job, gotta have it.
33:33
SPEAKER_00: And you think you're protecting you, you think you're looking out for your best interest, but you're becoming a slave to the fear and to the control.
33:42
SPEAKER_00: All these things are going on.
33:45
SPEAKER_00: All these things are going on, and here we are trying to take care of us.
33:51
SPEAKER_00: And that's why most of our prayers are about outer court things, because we think, God, if you just take care of these things, because the problem's not in here.
34:01
SPEAKER_00: The problem's with that, and with him and her, and that thing, and this job, and that, and the and the economy, and it's the president, and it's the oh, it's the blacks, it's the whites, it's somebody.
34:15
SPEAKER_00: And and and and and then there again, you want to do that because you feel like, well, if I don't blame something or somebody else, then I have to blame me.
34:22
SPEAKER_00: No, you don't have to blame you either.
34:23
SPEAKER_00: Nobody has to be at blame.
34:26
SPEAKER_00: We just needed healing.
34:30
SPEAKER_00: We needed saved.
34:33
SPEAKER_00: We were scared, we were broken, we had gone the wrong way.
34:38
SPEAKER_00: Our minds needed to be renewed.
34:41
SPEAKER_00: We needed to come home.
34:43
SPEAKER_00: We needed to change our mind.
34:45
SPEAKER_00: That's called repent.
34:47
SPEAKER_00: Not being sad and bawling about something bad you did.
34:50
SPEAKER_00: That's not repenting.
34:51
SPEAKER_00: Repenting means we changed our mind, right?
34:56
SPEAKER_00: And the mind change that that happens is God is bigger than I am by myself.
35:04
SPEAKER_00: That God has my best.
35:06
SPEAKER_00: And you start to see in an eternal perspective.
35:08
SPEAKER_00: You know, here's the truth.
35:10
SPEAKER_00: You're you're you're gonna live forever.
35:13
SPEAKER_00: In this body or out of it, you're gonna live forever.
35:20
SPEAKER_00: If you if what I mean by this body, that this body would be changed and you would have your glorified, or else you do it through the grave, one or the other, but you're gonna get it.
35:30
SPEAKER_00: You're gonna live forever.
35:31
SPEAKER_00: You're gonna outlive any little problem.
35:34
SPEAKER_00: How many of you found out that how many of you so far, not counting the ones you're dealing with today, but the ones that you've dealt with before and you and they're over, how many have gotten through 100% of them?
35:45
SPEAKER_00: All of us have.
35:48
SPEAKER_00: And in most cases, and in my in my life, probably every single case, I've gone through so many problems that I knew were going to destroy and crush my life, and I could not survive.
36:02
SPEAKER_00: And when I look back after I come through, they look so tiny to me.
36:06
SPEAKER_00: And I think, why was I acting like that?
36:09
SPEAKER_00: What was I so afraid of?
36:12
SPEAKER_00: Every time I look back at that.
36:15
SPEAKER_00: You know, after David killed a lion and a bear, pretty soon he got the hang of it and he said, You know what?
36:20
SPEAKER_00: I've never faced a giant like this before, but it's all the same thing to God.
36:24
SPEAKER_00: And he's why is he not afraid?
36:26
SPEAKER_00: Because he was just born a brave child.
36:28
SPEAKER_00: He learned God.
36:32
SPEAKER_00: He knew that he wasn't stronger than a lion or a bear and himself.
36:37
SPEAKER_00: But he found out that if he faced one, that somehow he always, God gave him the victory.
36:43
SPEAKER_00: I like the way one writer wrote it one time when it was like, because you know, we get the picture of, oh, here came a lion, and here, David won.
36:50
SPEAKER_00: One writer wrote it this way: that he gets in this fight with this bear, and the bear kind of the bear starts to maul him and all that stuff, and then next thing you know, David's waking up and the bear's dead.
37:02
SPEAKER_00: Maybe it was that way.
37:04
SPEAKER_00: I don't know.
37:07
SPEAKER_00: But he didn't feel afraid anymore because he just believed that God was with him.
37:16
SPEAKER_00: And when when that happens, that's soul prosperity.
37:24
SPEAKER_00: When that happens, that's being free.
37:27
SPEAKER_00: It really takes away all the fear, it takes away the self-defense.
37:35
SPEAKER_00: It takes away you being Job, trying to protect yourself from any bad situation.
37:39
SPEAKER_00: Those kinds of what happens, this is why the fallen the fallen condition of the mind can easily go to the worst-case scenario.
37:49
SPEAKER_00: Because it has to, because it's got to guard everything, it's got to cover every base.
37:55
SPEAKER_00: And it came over into our idea of spirituality because then we somehow we felt like with God we had to cover every base and get every duck in a row and get all the kittens in the box.
38:04
SPEAKER_00: You ever try to get all the kittens in one box?
38:07
SPEAKER_00: That was my life.
38:12
SPEAKER_00: And nothing you do can can can can work.
38:14
SPEAKER_00: Uh, there was a guy, I remember me and uh my former pastor many years ago, we were working on a car and we called a salvage yard that had a part that we needed, so we go we go down there and and and and go to get it, and we say, you know, we called you, you said you had this part, and he's just like, Yeah, but I ain't pulling it for you.
38:29
SPEAKER_00: You're gonna do it yourself.
38:30
SPEAKER_00: People come here and they think that I'm gonna do it all for them.
38:33
SPEAKER_00: We're like, no, we'll do it.
38:34
SPEAKER_00: So we go and get the part.
38:35
SPEAKER_00: Well, there was one particular tool that that was necessary, and we just didn't have it with us.
38:39
SPEAKER_00: So we go to, we ask him if he's got that pool.
38:41
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I got that tool, but I'll tell you, he said, I want you to sign this, and he says, he says, I've had too many people.
38:49
SPEAKER_00: He goes, You might think I'm a grouch, but I've just and John goes, You are.
38:53
SPEAKER_00: He goes, You are, you're the biggest grouch I've ever seen.
38:58
SPEAKER_00: Well, I may be, but I may.
39:00
SPEAKER_00: But what was this guy doing?
39:01
SPEAKER_00: He was trying to protect himself.
39:04
SPEAKER_00: He'd been abused, he'd been hurt by, he'd been, you know, people had done him wrong, and he ain't gonna let that happen anymore.
39:10
SPEAKER_00: And so he's protecting himself, and he's doing such a good job of being secure, he thinks.
39:16
SPEAKER_00: But he's boxed himself into this little thing where I know even his family can't stand him, if that's how he is.
39:22
SPEAKER_00: And he's all alone, but by golly, nobody's gonna steal his tool.
39:28
SPEAKER_00: And he's living in hell, and everything is rah-rah, rah, rah, rah.
39:33
SPEAKER_00: That's hell.
39:34
SPEAKER_00: But nobody's gonna steal his tool.
39:37
SPEAKER_00: He's protecting himself, he is.
39:40
SPEAKER_00: And that's what those protections do.
39:42
SPEAKER_00: They make you sadder and sadder and madder and madder and more afraid and more afraid.
39:48
SPEAKER_00: That's why when psychology says talks about healthy barriers, I say, try to grow out of it.
39:54
SPEAKER_00: Because it just perpetuates what you've already got.
40:01
SPEAKER_00: Finally, and I've shared this before, but with those things, with the story I shared to you about one of my staff members, and and and when you've when you've when you've done in ministry, especially pastoring, and you've got the organization like we've like like like we like we would deal with and all that, it it happens a lot.
40:18
SPEAKER_00: You get you you get hurt, you get betrayed, and things happen.
40:22
SPEAKER_00: And and uh, you know, my children growing up, they would watch this because we we homeschooled them and they were they were in the office with us.
40:28
SPEAKER_00: They were, I mean, we'd have meetings with people and they'd be sitting right there listening to the whole thing, and and as they got a little older, they were just like, Why do you trust anybody?
40:35
SPEAKER_00: So, so many people treat you this way, so many people stab you in the back, so many people betray you.
40:43
SPEAKER_00: Said I don't see how you could trust anybody.
40:49
SPEAKER_00: And we sat him down and said, Christy Brooke said, We could protect ourselves and we could just make sure that nobody hurts us again.
40:58
SPEAKER_00: I said, But we would be horribly sad.
41:03
SPEAKER_00: And I said, So we choose to live open.
41:06
SPEAKER_00: We're gonna keep trusting people until they prove.
41:10
SPEAKER_00: I said, but but we're not gonna close our hearts because if we leave our hearts open, then we can still be loving, we can still be free, we can still be happy.
41:21
SPEAKER_00: There is a risk.
41:22
SPEAKER_00: There is a very big risk by living like that.
41:24
SPEAKER_00: What's the risk?
41:25
SPEAKER_00: Is somebody gonna stab you in the back again?
41:27
SPEAKER_00: I said, will it happen?
41:28
SPEAKER_00: Probably.
41:30
SPEAKER_00: But just like every other time, if somebody stabs me in the back, God will raise me back up because he's with me.
41:37
SPEAKER_00: So you can't do this unless you know he cares, unless you know he loves you, unless you know he's with you.
41:43
SPEAKER_00: And what is what does the name Emmanuel mean?
41:46
SPEAKER_00: God's with us.
41:47
SPEAKER_00: Would y'all stand up?