Latest / The OneCry Podcast / #203 Unveiling Revival: Baptism and the Movement of God

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#203 Unveiling Revival: Baptism and the Movement of God · The OneCry Podcast

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  If you would have taken these stories that we're hearing right now in our nation
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  and dropped them into the New Testament, it would have made perfect sense,
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  like a movement is happening.
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  Welcome to the One Cry Podcast, a nationwide call for spiritual awakening.
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  The goal, accelerating the movement of God through sharing revival truth, stories, and reports.
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  Well, hey, welcome to the One Cry Podcast. Man, I am honored to be with you for a few moments here.
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  I'm Kyle Reno, Bill Eliff, my buddy.
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  Man, he's not with me here today taking a little time off, but we wanted to take some time.
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  One, to say to you, man, thank you for the privilege of meeting you wherever
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  you are with this podcast.
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  Maybe that's on a run or a walk or in a car ride or in a quiet place.
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  Man, the hope of the One Cry podcast is to help just revive your heart personally,
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  but to build your belief in revival and what God's doing in our nation right now,
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  desires to do in whatever nation you're in, to give you fresh faith for it.
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  And so we spend a lot of time focusing around truths, around revival,
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  walking through the scripture and seeing it, but also giving testimony to the
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  things that are happening today. day.
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  And so I don't know how aware you are.
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  I would encourage you to find whatever ways that you can stay on the edge of
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  what God's doing missionally right now in our nation. But here in the U.S.
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  Specifically, man, there are all these testimonies of people that are coming
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  to saving faith in Christ and specifically of a movement that's happening with
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  people obeying in baptism.
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  Man, just recently read the story of one of the largest days of baptisms in
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  the history of our country that happened in Southern California, like thousands.
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  I've heard 6,000, 7,000 people being baptized.
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  I got an article sent to me just a couple days ago of a great church in the
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  Florida region where they've had right at 2,000 people that were baptized,
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  that walked into the ocean under the authority of this local church or churches
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  coming together and just baptizing in the name of the Father,
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  Son, and the Holy Spirit. And so there's something about that.
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  I mean, there's something about the activity of God that God allows us to see
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  through the obedience step in baptism.
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  That's always been true. If you would have taken these stories that we're hearing
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  right now in our nation and dropped them into the New Testament,
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  it would have made perfect sense. Like a movement was happening.
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  So I was spending time. I had vacation last week with my family, five kids.
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  My wife and I remind each other, when you have five kids and you can't see out
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  of your back window, it's not really vacation. It's more like a trip,
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  a memory-making trip. And we had a fantastic time, awesome moments.
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  But I felt like the Lord encouraged me beyond my one-year Bible reading that
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  I do to read the Gospel of Luke, to spend some time in it.
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  And something that came out of that time, I'm processing.
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  And so I'm really going to process this with you for a moment and encourage you to dive in.
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  I saw something in the life of Jesus that reflects in many ways what we're seeing
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  in our country right now.
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  And I'm believing big for it. So if you look at your Bible in Luke chapter three.
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  Really two verses, verse 21, it says, Now, when all the people were baptized,
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  now, you know, forerunner, just give you a little context here.
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  Right before this, John the Baptist has been preparing the way, man.
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  He's making ready people for the coming of the Messiah, the cross, the anointed one.
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  And he's preaching, honestly, a message of repentance that people would turn
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  from their sins and that they would be baptized, man, that they would be something in that turning.
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  A display of their obedience would be seen through being immersed in the water,
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  coming out as a testimony that they're believing as well for the Messiah to come.
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  And so John the Baptist's ministry was marked by these droves,
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  individuals and then crowds of people that were obeying through baptism.
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  So I just stopped for a second to say that there's something about baptism that
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  captures the attention of God.
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  There's something about baptism that gives us a visual, tangible way to display
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  our obedience toward God.
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  There's something super practical in the sense that we would obey enough to walk into the waters,
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  to allow someone to take us and immerse us as a display of faith for them in
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  this moment to the cross that was coming.
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  For us in the new covenant to display that Christ has come and has saved us,
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  that there's something about it where this practical, I believe it's like, I'm a baseball guy.
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  You know, I believe it's one of those moments where God puts it on the tee right
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  after we've come to saving faith and said, hey, I'm going to make it easy to
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  obey in a way that others can even see.
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  That gives you an easy way to testify to what I've done. So you've got this
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  happening in the preparation for Christ coming, and then Christ has come.
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  And I want you to see what it says here.
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  Now, when all the people were being baptized and when Jesus also had been baptized.
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  Now, so people are doing it because it's an obedient step.
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  It's a right step, believing for the Messiah, repentance from sin, turning.
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  Well, Jesus does it not out of necessity because he's sinless.
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  Not after he needed to be washed clean. He did it out of obedience because it
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  was the right thing to do.
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  Because it was the right thing to do. And that Jesus is the perfect fulfillment
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  of all the right things to do.
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  And so I would say, man, I think that the enemy loves to plague people with
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  lies around biblical baptism.
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  And that's why you get different beliefs around it. You have different expressions of it at times.
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  But I think one thing that we need to remember, and when revival comes,
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  that baptism is the next right step.
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  That baptism is just the next right step for those that have met Christ in a personal way.
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  That it's the next right step. And what Jesus himself models for us is that
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  in this moment, even in the establishing of his ministry and what he's about
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  to inaugurate in the kingdom movement, is that Jesus doesn't skip steps either.
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  That the Son of God doesn't skip steps, that He did it perfectly.
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  And here would be my encouragement to pastors and leaders, man,
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  to make believing for people being baptized a mark of a real move of God in
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  your church, in your city.
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  Like to listen, to not make it more than it is, meaning it doesn't save.
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  Just don't make it less than it is. It's spiritually important.
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  And here's what I would say around baptism. And I think that,
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  you know, we get weird either way. We make it salvific almost at times, which it's not.
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  But then other times we make it less spiritual than it truly is.
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  Like there is something, there's some spiritual weight and power.
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  Like God the Father is about to show up in the baptism of his son and speak.
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  Like, so God meets this practical move with a spiritual manifestation of his power, of his voice.
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  Even I'm skipping ahead a little bit, but I would say to us in the movement
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  of God right now, the reason why thousands of people are being baptized,
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  the reason why people are coming to saving faith at baptism services,
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  hearing the testimony of that is because God meets his people in baptism.
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  He just does, always has. And in this moment, Jesus is obeying.
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  He's obeying. So call people. I think a marker of revival is call people to obedience.
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  Call people to do the next right thing, which Jesus modeled for.
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  So here we go. We got Jesus obeying. And when Jesus also was baptized.
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  And then this is the, like, I felt like last week, how have I not read this
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  before? And I know I've read the gospel. I've been reading one year Bible.
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  20-something plus years, and I'm shocked that I've never caught this before.
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  I feel like the Holy Spirit just revealed it, put the light on it last week.
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  And it says, listen now, also having been baptized, speaking of Jesus, and was praying.
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  So the Son of God is obeying through baptism. And listen to me.
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  And he's praying in light of relationship to the Father.
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  And this combination is going to be almost more than the Father can handle.
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  And we'll see how he responds in a moment.
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  So there's something about these steps of obedience, this intimacy and prayer
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  that welcomes the manifest presence of the Father, that welcomes it.
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  And so what I'm saying is in this right next step, this practical,
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  is this spiritual dynamic of praying.
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  And then when all that happens, God sees and moves.
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  And so here's Jesus showing us perfectly, the perfect God, man.
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  I'm going to do the next right thing, and I'm going to do it from a place of
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  relationship will be evidence in the fact that I'm talking to the Father.
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  So in my mind, it's Jesus who's going to let John the Baptist baptize him.
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  John the Baptist is like, I shouldn't do this. I'm not worthy of this.
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  Can't untie your sandals.
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  But Jesus is like, no, bro, stop all that. I want you to baptize me because
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  it's the next right thing to do.
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  And in this moment, as Jesus, he's communing with the Father.
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  That he's praying. I have to think that in some ways he's just saying,
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  Father, I'm doing the next right thing.
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  Father, here's my life. Here's this surrender. Here's I'm taking all the right
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  steps and he's doing it from this relational place with his father.
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  And here's what I just would say to us. If we want real revival,
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  it's always going to call for obeying and praying.
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  If we want real revival, man, it's going to call for people from that relational
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  dynamic to do the next right thing.
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  And so for those of us that want to be used of God in the movement of God,
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  in the moment we're living in right now,
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  then we need to help people do those two things, to connect with God in praying,
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  to connect with God through obeying, like doing whatever.
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  And when those things hit together, hear me now, things happen.
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  And this is what happens in this text. Listen to what it goes on to say.
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  Jesus also having been baptized and was praying, the heavens were opened.
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  Three places we see this in Scripture where the heavens are opened.
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  Giving is one of those places the heavens open up when people respond and release,
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  return to the Lord what's rightly His or generous, opens up to heaven.
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  See that fasting opens up to heaven. But in this moment.
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  Praying and obeying through baptism has so positioned the Son of God that the
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  Father opens up the kingdom of God.
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  He opens up the heavens over where they are right there.
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  Now, I know that sometimes these thoughts get a little too mystical and people
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  misunderstand or say it. But I don't want to say more than the Scripture is
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  saying here, but I want to say everything that the Scripture is saying here.
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  There is such a thing as an open heaven.
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  You say, well, how do you know that? Well, because the Bible says so.
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  There is such a thing as living under an open heaven.
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  What a simple version of that. I think the Celtics used to say this.
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  It's a place where there's just thin air between heaven and right here.
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  That there's just, there's very little disconnect between what's happening in
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  heaven and what's happening here on earth.
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  That there's this collision, that those two worlds are colliding.
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  And in this moment, God the Father is so moved by the obedience and the relational
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  cry of the Son that He opens up the heavens over right there.
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  The air literally changed.
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  So you want me to believe with you for your city?
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  Believe with you in light of what's going on in our country let me tell you
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  what was happening on the beaches of Southern Cal open heaven.
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  See, what was happening on the beach there in Florida recently? Open heaven.
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  Because people were obeying, people were seeking the Lord.
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  God opened up the heavens. Let me tell you, we've had the privilege in our church
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  in the last couple years, not quite three years.
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  We've seen 600 people baptized and have called people to take the next right step.
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  Recently, we just had a baptism Sunday where we had 45 baptized,
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  and we had people come to know Christ that came to see a friend baptized,
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  and you know what God used to awaken them spiritually, the testimony of those
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  that had already come to know Christ,
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  that we defeat the enemy by the blood of the Lamb and the word of our testimony.
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  They heard the testimonies of those things.
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  And one guy said to me, the tangible sense of God's presence was more than he
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  knew how to handle what to do with.
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  And I got to have the privilege of leading this one guy to lunch the Wednesday
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  after he'd come to Sunday, one of those baptism Sundays, because he experienced,
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  this is what I'm saying, open heaven.
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  He experienced the nearness of God in the midst of people obeying and in the
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  midst of people seeking the Lord.
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  And if that's not enough, not only just the open heaven, but the actual voice of God.
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  It says, and the Holy Spirit descended on him in bodily form like a dove and
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  a voice came from heaven.
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  So, man, all these dynamics. And I'm telling you, I'm processing.
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  I got a message coming soon as I spend more time with this passage.
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  You got the Spirit of God resting on the Son of God.
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  You got the Trinity making it, literally, the Trinity making Himself known in
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  this moment, in this moment of obedience and praying.
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  The Spirit of God resting. You know, the ministry of Jesus is soon started.
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  It gets on the other side of the temptation, all those things.
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  The Spirit of God resting like a dove on the Son of God because He's obeyed
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  in this moment. He's praying and seeking.
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  And then you have the voice of
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  the Father that says, You're my beloved Son with whom I am well pleased.
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  I believe you got the Father's blessing right here.
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  That you have the Father blessing the Son in this moment.
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  In this moment where the Son is so positioned Himself for it.
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  Needless to say, a Kyle version of this translation of this passage,
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  it's God the Father saying, that's my boy.
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  That's my boy. Look at him seeking me.
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  Look at him obeying. Look at him doing the next right. I want all y'all to know, that's my boy.
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  And I just want to say to our listeners here today, for some,
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  there are people that are going to listen to this, that you need to take the
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  next right step and to biblically obey and be baptized.
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  And I would just encourage you, don't wait for that. Don't wait for that.
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  If the enemy has hounded you about that, if you've wrestled through that,
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  there's no better time to obey than today.
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  Go talk to your pastor. Go talk to your leader. Go talk to somebody spiritually
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  and say, hey, I need to take this next right step.
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  For those that are like me or others that are watching us believing for revival,
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  We need to believe more for people to obey and be biblically baptized.
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  We need to believe more for people in that atmosphere to be praying like crazy.
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  Believing in big in the midst of the movement of God and people obeying, seeking the Father.
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  Because in it, there's an open heaven.
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  In it, there's, listen to me, the descending work of the Spirit.
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  In it is the voice of the Father.
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  That God has promised that He opens up the heavens.
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  So I would say to your city, to your church, our nation, the nations,
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  you want to be a part of a real move of God?
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  You want to see revival happen?
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  Let's call people to obey.
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  Let's invite people to pray. Let's turn our face toward the heavens and believe
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  as we so position, God opens.
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  Let's receive the work of the Spirit.
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  Let's believe for a feeling of the Spirit.
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  Let's believe for the movement of the Spirit, for the winds of the dove,
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  the wings of the dove to come and rest upon us, to anticipate the voice of the Father.
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  So I want to do something for a moment here.
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  Would y'all just pray with me? I know, listen, you car riding,
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  jogging, keep those eyes open.
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  But why don't we commune with the Lord around what He says in His Word?
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  I want you to pray as the Spirit leads you to pray.
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  You can turn me off now, like literally pause this and pray on your own if you
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  already know what you need to pray about.
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  But if you need some help, I'd love to prompt you through prayer time.
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  So let's do this. Let's enter in, wherever you are, whatever you're doing,
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  let's enter in through blood that's been spilled by Jesus Christ,
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  through a veil that's been torn.
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  Let's enter in to the throne room of grace and mercy right now.
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  Now that we're there, in light of Luke 3, 21-22, why don't we ask the Lord to speak to us?
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  Why don't we ask the Lord to give us faith in light of what we have seen in this text?
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  Why don't we ask the Lord to help us to believe for many hundreds,
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  thousands tens of thousands millions even in the nation God has placed us to
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  obey through biblical baptism.
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  Why don't we ask the Lord to help us to believe that for more people coming
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  to saving faith in Jesus Christ and taking the next right step to be baptized.
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  Hey, I want to encourage you. Ask the Lord to give you.
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  How big does God want you to believe for that? I know for our church,
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  we're believing that by the year 2033 that we'd see 2,000 people baptized.
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  Hey, maybe for you and for your church to believe for 20 in this next year,
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  believe for 200, whatever that is.
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  It ain't about the numbers. It's about the people that would obey and take that step.
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  But ask Him to help you to believe.
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  In the midst of that, ask the Lord to help us to know what it's like to seek
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  His face relationally. It wouldn't just be religion.
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  It wouldn't just be going through the motions. But in this relational dynamic,
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  we'd be praying and say, Lord, here I am.
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  Following you.
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  And then let's take a moment and say, Lord, as we cooperate,
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  we want to learn to live under an open heaven.
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  Pray for that for your city, for your church. Lord, would you help us to be
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  so positioned that the heavens would be opened over your house?
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  Let's pray for the work of the spirit ask the holy spirit would he light on us rest on us,
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  empower us,
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  and then last just thank the father that he sees and responds he's the one that
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  initiated thank you that he sees as we cooperate,
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  that he moves thank him that we can hear his voice.
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  Father, I thank you for today. I thank you for your word. I pray it would help
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  build our faith, one, in light of what's already happening, two,
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  to help us to believe for even more.
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  And so, God, I pray that even from this podcast, we'd hear testimony of how
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  people engaged in faith and belief and saw these things actually happen where you have placed them.
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  So we pray all this in Jesus' name. Amen.
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  Hey, again, thank you so much for giving us. A little time here,
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  I'd encourage you one, regardless of what I've said, take Luke chapter three, 21 and 22, sit with it.
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  Let it sit with you. Let it build your faith to believe, man,
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  pray it in and let's believe God for a big move of God in our nation right now.
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  It's already started. It's already happening.
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  Be like, would you pray like I've prayed me? Lord, just don't pass this by.
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  I don't want to miss what you're doing.
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  Right now we hope that this is an encouragement to you we hope week by week
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  you come back to learn more of these truths is if it has been share it with
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  somebody and it helps spread the word it ain't like listen we ain't making money
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  off these podcasts we're hoping to just position ourselves to be a part of it
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  and encourage as many people as possible.
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  Music.