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This Is Your Life · Rick Manis Ministries Podcast

• 0:14
  SPEAKER_00: I haven't seen one of these in decades.
• 0:20
  SPEAKER_00: Comic books that were shaped like this, and they were Christian religious little comic books.
• 0:27
  SPEAKER_00: And there was one called, some of you are nodding your head.
• 0:30
  SPEAKER_00: There was one called This Is Your Life.
• 0:33
  SPEAKER_00: Anybody remember that?
• 0:34
  SPEAKER_00: Raise your hand if you remember that, huh?
• 0:36
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, quite a few of you.
• 0:38
  SPEAKER_00: Don't you hate that?
• 0:40
  SPEAKER_00: I'm telling you, I I got a hold of one of those before I had come to the Lord.
• 0:45
  SPEAKER_00: And that thing scared me.
• 0:48
  SPEAKER_00: And even after I came to the Lord, it scared me because it was this, because somehow they were showing to us that when you die, that there's your life is going to be like a movie, and everybody's going to see it, and all the horrible things that you've done, even some of them you forgot, they're going to be there.
• 1:06
  SPEAKER_00: And that was the idea that they had of God.
• 1:09
  SPEAKER_00: And I just I hated that whole idea.
• 1:10
  SPEAKER_00: It scared me.
• 1:11
  SPEAKER_00: I would have nightmares about it, actually.
• 1:13
  SPEAKER_00: And uh, and to think that you can't erase the movie.
• 1:18
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, that was like the idea that they that they gave, too.
• 1:21
  SPEAKER_00: And and and I and of course it took a while to find out.
• 1:24
  SPEAKER_00: You know, God is nothing like that, He's not there to expose that life in the eyes of everybody in all eternity, but He is here to reveal your true life.
• 1:36
  SPEAKER_00: And that's what we're going to talk about this morning.
• 1:38
  SPEAKER_00: And so we've titled this, This Is Your Life.
• 1:40
  SPEAKER_00: And it's a two-parter because I'll be speaking next week, too.
• 1:42
  SPEAKER_00: And this first part is called The Source Is With You.
• 1:46
  SPEAKER_00: Sort of a play on the force be with you.
• 1:49
  SPEAKER_00: And uh, you know, and and and really um we don't even say that with us.
• 1:54
  SPEAKER_00: We don't even say the force be with you as much as we say the force is with you, right?
• 1:58
  SPEAKER_00: Because we have the Holy Spirit once and for all.
• 2:00
  SPEAKER_00: He's with us all the time and he never leaves us.
• 2:02
  SPEAKER_00: Uh but we're going to talk about life.
• 2:03
  SPEAKER_00: We're going to talk about the life that we see in the Word of God, and and it's not the it's not the movie of your existence from when you were born and then your body died, but it's another life.
• 2:14
  SPEAKER_00: And this word life is what Jesus talked a whole lot about, and then of course Paul and some of the others mentioned this uh a lot.
• 2:22
  SPEAKER_00: It usually goes with eternal life or everlasting life.
• 2:25
  SPEAKER_00: And um uh this word that Jesus presented to us is a Greek word that we pronounce Zoe, I suppose.
• 2:34
  SPEAKER_00: And it's used in the New Testament 134 times.
• 2:38
  SPEAKER_00: And then there's another word for life that's that comes out of the Greek New Testament, and it's the word bios, which sounds familiar because it's where we get biology or biography.
• 2:49
  SPEAKER_00: Bios, your life.
• 2:51
  SPEAKER_00: And and it has a different meaning.
• 2:53
  SPEAKER_00: And if I were to ask you, most people, if I were to say, tell me about your life, you would start telling me about your bios.
• 3:02
  SPEAKER_00: You would start telling me, well, when this is when I was born, this is where I was raised, this is what I do for a living, this is how I make my living, this is the family, this is where I live.
• 3:11
  SPEAKER_00: Uh those kind of things.
• 3:12
  SPEAKER_00: Those are those those are your bios.
• 3:15
  SPEAKER_00: Those are your what we would call the natural life.
• 3:17
  SPEAKER_00: And that's that that word was used nine times in the New Testament compared to 134 that Jesus kept telling us about.
• 3:25
  SPEAKER_00: And that word zoe is that is that other word that that actually speaks of your vitality.
• 3:31
  SPEAKER_00: It's what makes you animate or animated.
• 3:34
  SPEAKER_00: It's the source, it gives you life.
• 3:35
  SPEAKER_00: It's your eternal life, it's that which is yours, it's who you are.
• 3:41
  SPEAKER_00: After the bios is done, it's who you are eternally, it's a real life.
• 3:47
  SPEAKER_00: And that's the life we're talking about this morning.
• 3:50
  SPEAKER_00: This is your life.
• 3:52
  SPEAKER_00: And we're talking specifically about the source being with you.
• 3:56
  SPEAKER_00: Uh very simply, bios would mean how your soul is interacting with your natural surroundings.
• 4:03
  SPEAKER_00: And uh, well, it's a very important thing while we're while we're on this earth.
• 4:09
  SPEAKER_00: Zoe has to do with the soul's interaction with your spirit or your your your inner man.
• 4:14
  SPEAKER_00: And that's the source of life.
• 4:16
  SPEAKER_00: That's where the joy really comes from.
• 4:18
  SPEAKER_00: That's where the where the love really comes from, right?
• 4:21
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, you know, you're happy when you get new furniture, but it wears off after a little while.
• 4:26
  SPEAKER_00: The novelty of getting something new wears off, and so it's always a temporary thing, but there's an eternal joy, there's an eternal love, eternal, uh, eternal peace, and uh and that kind of happiness.
• 4:37
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, to put it simply, to give us a framework, just remember it this way: that we are not an earthly being trying to have some spiritual experience.
• 4:45
  SPEAKER_00: I think that's a lot of times, that's what we uh a lot of church people think of, that they're always trying to have a spiritual experience.
• 4:51
  SPEAKER_00: They're an earth person, a carnal person, a flesh person, and they're trying to somehow learn this God.
• 4:57
  SPEAKER_00: They're trying to somehow, trying to somehow connect to something spiritual.
• 5:02
  SPEAKER_00: But if we can acknowledge a truth, if we can acknowledge the new creation, if we can acknowledge the child of God that we are and the source of life that that has been given to us, then we're aware that we're actually a spiritual being that's having a physical experience.
• 5:17
  SPEAKER_00: And uh and uh as we acknowledge that, we're talking about awareness this morning.
• 5:24
  SPEAKER_00: We're talking about consciousness, we're talking about acknowledging uh something that we carry that I don't hear acknowledged enough in people and in my dealings with people.
• 5:37
  SPEAKER_00: I hear I hear people saying, pray for me that God will give me that love for for people or something like that.
• 5:44
  SPEAKER_00: And the truth is, like, well, you've got it.
• 5:46
  SPEAKER_00: Romans says it was poured out in our hearts, but because you don't feel like you have it, you don't acknowledge what you really have.
• 5:56
  SPEAKER_00: And so we want to look at this.
• 5:57
  SPEAKER_00: We want this thing to hit us in the face where we just like, wow, this is my true life, and this is who I really am.
• 6:06
  SPEAKER_00: So we're going to talk about the source this morning.
• 6:08
  SPEAKER_00: Jesus said in John chapter 7, verse 38, he said, Whoever believes in me, as the scripture has said, rivers of living water will flow from within them.
• 6:18
  SPEAKER_00: That's the source of life.
• 6:20
  SPEAKER_00: Uh we know that it goes on to say, and this he was talking about the spirit, which had not yet been given at that time, because Jesus was not yet glorified.
• 6:28
  SPEAKER_00: But of course, thousands of years later, here we are, the spirit has been given, we have received that, we have uh we have believed it, and to those who believe on him, as he said, to those who believe on me, how many believe on him?
• 6:42
  SPEAKER_00: Look, here we are, house full of them.
• 6:44
  SPEAKER_00: We believe in him.
• 6:45
  SPEAKER_00: So what's going on here?
• 6:47
  SPEAKER_00: There is a river.
• 6:49
  SPEAKER_00: There is a river that flows from inside of us, and that river is the Spirit of God, and it is the life source that we have.
• 6:56
  SPEAKER_00: It doesn't stop flowing.
• 6:58
  SPEAKER_00: It's a river that flows.
• 6:59
  SPEAKER_00: It never gets dammed up.
• 7:01
  SPEAKER_00: It's a river that's always flowing.
• 7:04
  SPEAKER_00: Someone says, Well, I believe that much, Rick, but how how do I connect with that?
• 7:09
  SPEAKER_00: How do I well?
• 7:12
  SPEAKER_00: And God will help us with this, but but uh for me, it's it's the simple acknowledgement of it.
• 7:19
  SPEAKER_00: If my my brain starts going away to where it's like I'm feeling like I'm just in my BIOS and I'm all alone in this thing, there's a simple remembrance, there's a simple acknowledgement and awareness of reality, because this is the reality.
• 7:33
  SPEAKER_00: And if I can say it, maybe I could, it's more of a reality because it's never going to change.
• 7:41
  SPEAKER_00: It's gonna be there, if you could measure it in time, thousands and millions of years after this BIOS is done.
• 7:48
  SPEAKER_00: It's a reality.
• 7:50
  SPEAKER_00: While the other things come and go, the other things change, we have a river, and this should be good news enough right here, that you have a source.
• 7:58
  SPEAKER_00: You're never without help, you're never without wisdom, you're never without comfort.
• 8:03
  SPEAKER_00: And and and as we grow in this, as we acknowledge it, really, I found is a key that as we are aware of it, mindful of it, we we we we start receiving from that thing.
• 8:13
  SPEAKER_00: And it starts it starts touching your soul and affecting the soul in a way that a lot of times only the BIOS has touched your soul.
• 8:22
  SPEAKER_00: Only your situations have touched your soul.
• 8:25
  SPEAKER_00: If they're going good, your soul is rejoicing.
• 8:28
  SPEAKER_00: If they get things get hard, your soul can get sad, and we live that that life that's contingent upon what our surroundings are, what our BIOS is doing.
• 8:37
  SPEAKER_00: But there's a river, right?
• 8:39
  SPEAKER_00: There's a river that's a source that never will run dry, and this is the everlasting life or eternal life.
• 8:45
  SPEAKER_00: And that word is the word Ineon or something, it's kind of like eon, but it means past, present, and future, perpetual life, unending life.
• 8:55
  SPEAKER_00: It doesn't stop just because I lose my job tomorrow.
• 8:59
  SPEAKER_00: It doesn't stop when something tragic happens.
• 9:03
  SPEAKER_00: There is still a river.
• 9:05
  SPEAKER_00: And I've seen that in my life, and many of you have too.
• 9:08
  SPEAKER_00: That when there's been tragedy, when there's been something very, very hard, what did you do?
• 9:13
  SPEAKER_00: The reason you're still going on, the reason you still love God is because you turned to Him in that time and that source helped you.
• 9:19
  SPEAKER_00: You had a friend, you had a counselor, you had a daddy, you had somebody that was with you to give you that life that you needed.
• 9:29
  SPEAKER_00: So we look at this river, and I want to go that way with it because the river is the source, and it's always in us.
• 9:35
  SPEAKER_00: And when I think of that river, I love the picture that we see in Ezekiel chapter 47.
• 9:41
  SPEAKER_00: And many of you know this is this is that that river where he goes out, uh goes out a thousand cubits and he's ankle deep, then he goes further and he's knee deep, and so on.
• 9:52
  SPEAKER_00: And uh, what's going on before this is that the Lord is giving him a vision, showing him a temple.
• 9:58
  SPEAKER_00: And this temple is a prophetic vision, and it's really talking about the new covenant, what we have in Jesus.
• 10:04
  SPEAKER_00: And and in this temp temple, he says, he says, and he and the and the man, the angel, the guide here, took him from the north side and took him to the east side where the front door is, and he says, And I saw a river flowing out from the threshold of the temple.
• 10:18
  SPEAKER_00: Saw a river, and this is what we're looking at here, the river.
• 10:22
  SPEAKER_00: And he and so he took it, as this river was flowing, he says, he took me out a thousand cubits and it was ankle deep, and he took me out another thousand down the river, and as we went down the river a thousand, he said, he took me across it and it was knee deep, and then we we went another thousand and he took me across the river and it was waist deep, and of course, then the fourth thousand, uh, he said, it was over my head, I couldn't touch bottom, and I had to swim in it.
• 10:45
  SPEAKER_00: And then apparently the angel had to help him out of there because Ezekiel says he brought me back to the bank.
• 10:52
  SPEAKER_00: And this is where we pick it up in verse 6.
• 10:54
  SPEAKER_00: And he and he tell he said to Ezekiel, Son of Man, have you seen this?
• 10:58
  SPEAKER_00: Now get the picture.
• 10:59
  SPEAKER_00: He's wading through the water, it's getting deeper and deeper, and finally it's so deep that he can't touch bottom and he has to swim.
• 11:05
  SPEAKER_00: And then he gets brought to the bank, and the angel says, Have you seen this?
• 11:09
  SPEAKER_00: And he brought me and returned me to the bank of the river, and when I returned there, along the bank of the river, were very many trees on one side and the other.
• 11:16
  SPEAKER_00: And he said to me, I love this.
• 11:18
  SPEAKER_00: This water flows toward the eastern region, goes down into the valley, and enters the sea.
• 11:23
  SPEAKER_00: And when it reaches the sea, its waters are healed, and it shall be that every living thing that moves, wherever the rivers go, will live.
• 11:31
  SPEAKER_00: There'll be a great multitude of fish, because the waters go there, for they will be healed, and everything will live wherever that river goes.
• 11:38
  SPEAKER_00: There is a river.
• 11:39
  SPEAKER_00: Look at yourself.
• 11:40
  SPEAKER_00: There is a river, a source in you.
• 11:42
  SPEAKER_00: And that river is flowing from your spirit, the Holy Spirit in you, Christ in you.
• 11:48
  SPEAKER_00: You're the temple, and God dwells in you.
• 11:51
  SPEAKER_00: He is that river, and he's flowing to your soul.
• 11:55
  SPEAKER_00: He's taking a soul.
• 11:58
  SPEAKER_00: Let me give you my own example.
• 12:01
  SPEAKER_00: And this is a time, sometimes I said the other night, I wish I did have a movie of my life just to show people what this river can do.
• 12:10
  SPEAKER_00: Because I know what it's like to not have a prosperous soul.
• 12:13
  SPEAKER_00: I feel like my soul is so rich now.
• 12:17
  SPEAKER_00: It's got plenty of room to get richer, but I feel like my soul prospers.
• 12:22
  SPEAKER_00: Never had such joy, never had such peace.
• 12:25
  SPEAKER_00: But I also know what it's like to be bankrupt in here.
• 12:28
  SPEAKER_00: To be totally lost, totally in the dark, not having any hope in life.
• 12:32
  SPEAKER_00: Totally feeling like I'm a mistake and totally not worthy of anybody's love.
• 12:37
  SPEAKER_00: And that's that's a dried-up, poor, dark soul.
• 12:44
  SPEAKER_00: And a river came.
• 12:47
  SPEAKER_00: I believed the gospel enough to call on Jesus.
• 12:51
  SPEAKER_00: And just like Jesus said it would happen, a river came inside me, and it started, it started flowing from within, and it started watering this dry soul.
• 13:01
  SPEAKER_00: And this soul that didn't have any hope or have any peace or have, you know, and certainly did not carry joy in it, started to get it from somewhere.
• 13:10
  SPEAKER_00: Somebody bigger than me, somebody greater than me, than all that that was in the world, started watering this soul.
• 13:18
  SPEAKER_00: And Rick started getting joy.
• 13:20
  SPEAKER_00: Rick started having peace of heart and peace of mind.
• 13:25
  SPEAKER_00: Rick started experiencing love from that river that supplied it to this dried-up soul.
• 13:34
  SPEAKER_00: No wonder we love him, right?
• 13:38
  SPEAKER_00: And this is what the this is the picture that we're seeing here because everywhere that this river goes, it does bring life.
• 13:45
  SPEAKER_00: So that's why we say, let it flow.
• 13:48
  SPEAKER_00: Flow to my mind.
• 13:49
  SPEAKER_00: Just acknowledge it.
• 13:51
  SPEAKER_00: Now, the picture we get here, you know, if you if you know the, so that temple was in Jerusalem.
• 13:57
  SPEAKER_00: And if you know anything about Holy Land geography, it says the river flowed eastward down into the valley.
• 14:03
  SPEAKER_00: Do you know what valley it was flowing to?
• 14:05
  SPEAKER_00: If it flows from a temple in Jerusalem, it's the Jordan Valley.
• 14:10
  SPEAKER_00: You look at a map, there's Jerusalem sort of in the center there, and then if you if it flows down into the valley east, it's the Jordan River, or the Jordan Valley.
• 14:19
  SPEAKER_00: And uh very briefly, very simply, that Jordan River uh it symbolizes death, really.
• 14:27
  SPEAKER_00: It's the lowest valley on planet Earth.
• 14:30
  SPEAKER_00: John was baptizing there, Jesus got baptized there.
• 14:34
  SPEAKER_00: We see things in the Bible where where there's that sense of that baptism which symbols a death and, of course, then a resurrection when they come out on the other side.
• 14:42
  SPEAKER_00: In the book of Joshua, chapter 6, or excuse me, Joshua chapter 3, we see when they were going to cross over that Jordan River.
• 14:51
  SPEAKER_00: And uh and uh it was flood time, so there was no way they could cross it.
• 14:55
  SPEAKER_00: They could not cross that river of death, if you will.
• 15:00
  SPEAKER_00: And so you know the story, some of you, they they took the God said, take the priest and bear the ark on your shoulders, and when they step their feet in the water, it says that the waters stopped.
• 15:10
  SPEAKER_00: The waters quit flowing, and it says the water stood all the way back as far as Adam, a town called Adam, near Zarephath.
• 15:21
  SPEAKER_00: Well, you see the symbol there.
• 15:23
  SPEAKER_00: What he did was that death that flowed all the way from Adam down to through mankind's history, when Jesus stepped into the scene, it stopped that flow of death.
• 15:34
  SPEAKER_00: And and that river of death, not only is it that valley, that lowest valley on the earth, the lowest place on earth, but what does that river finally end up in?
• 15:45
  SPEAKER_00: The Dead Sea.
• 15:46
  SPEAKER_00: There's no living thing there.
• 15:48
  SPEAKER_00: And this picture that he's telling Ezekiel, he says, this river that comes from the temple will go into the Jordan River, and it will flow all the way down to the Dead Sea or the Salt Sea.
• 16:00
  SPEAKER_00: And he says, and when it does, every kind of fish is going to be living there.
• 16:04
  SPEAKER_00: Because wherever this water goes, it will bring life.
• 16:07
  SPEAKER_00: I don't care how dry and dead it was, all you need is the river.
• 16:11
  SPEAKER_00: You don't have to be smart, you don't have to be good, you don't have to be uh, you know, live a sinless bios, whatever that would look like.
• 16:21
  SPEAKER_00: You don't have to have great willpower, you need a river.
• 16:24
  SPEAKER_00: That's why Jesus came to give us a river.
• 16:26
  SPEAKER_00: He didn't come and teach us to have good willpower, did he?
• 16:30
  SPEAKER_00: He said, I'm gonna give you a river.
• 16:34
  SPEAKER_00: When he would talk about the law to some of the people, it was just too hard for him.
• 16:38
  SPEAKER_00: It was so hard.
• 16:39
  SPEAKER_00: One time Peter said, Well, who then can be saved?
• 16:41
  SPEAKER_00: And Jesus said, You can't.
• 16:43
  SPEAKER_00: Nobody can.
• 16:45
  SPEAKER_00: It's impossible with man.
• 16:48
  SPEAKER_00: But with God.
• 16:50
  SPEAKER_00: But if I give you the river, the soul, your mind, your emotions, your will, shall come alive and be saved.
• 17:00
  SPEAKER_00: And for me, this is this is probably the main reason.
• 17:05
  SPEAKER_00: I want everybody to know Jesus.
• 17:08
  SPEAKER_00: Not just so they can think like I think and believe the religion that I believe in.
• 17:15
  SPEAKER_00: But we know the river has brought us life, and this is what we want everybody to have.
• 17:20
  SPEAKER_00: Sort of like John said, the fellowship that we have with the Father.
• 17:23
  SPEAKER_00: Now we want with you.
• 17:25
  SPEAKER_00: So you can have that same fellowship, so you can know what our eyes have seen and our hands have handled.
• 17:33
  SPEAKER_00: In Isaiah chapter 58, we have a picture of this watering by the river.
• 17:38
  SPEAKER_00: And he talks about a watered garden.
• 17:40
  SPEAKER_00: He says, The Lord will guide you continually, he will satisfy your soul in drought.
• 17:47
  SPEAKER_00: He does this.
• 17:48
  SPEAKER_00: Are y'all here?
• 17:48
  SPEAKER_00: Are y'all hearing something?
• 17:50
  SPEAKER_00: You don't have to do this.
• 17:52
  SPEAKER_00: It's not up to you to figure out how to get your your thirsty soul to feel better.
• 17:59
  SPEAKER_00: There is a river.
• 18:01
  SPEAKER_00: The source is with you.
• 18:03
  SPEAKER_00: We acknowledge that.
• 18:04
  SPEAKER_00: He says, He will guide you continually, he'll satisfy your soul in drought, he will strengthen your bones, and you shall be like a watered garden and like a spring of water whose waters do not fail.
• 18:19
  SPEAKER_00: If I brought two little potted plants up here, one of them was lush and green and healthy looking, and the other was brown and dried up and withered looking, uh, or the beginning to wither even, your first thought would be what for this plant here?
• 18:33
  SPEAKER_00: It'd be like, it needs water.
• 18:35
  SPEAKER_00: All it needs is water.
• 18:38
  SPEAKER_00: Just needs water.
• 18:39
  SPEAKER_00: Give us some water, give us some water.
• 18:41
  SPEAKER_00: What does the soul need?
• 18:42
  SPEAKER_00: Does the soul need for you to figure out every Greek and Hebrew sentence syllable that's in the Bible and all that?
• 18:49
  SPEAKER_00: Does it need you to break down and know all the types and shadows and all that?
• 18:52
  SPEAKER_00: That's all great, and it's fun.
• 18:53
  SPEAKER_00: They certainly have their place of showing us Jesus.
• 18:56
  SPEAKER_00: But but really all we needed was water, and Jesus provided the water, and he's not going to provide the water, he provided the water.
• 19:03
  SPEAKER_00: It's an acknowledgement.
• 19:04
  SPEAKER_00: The source is with you.
• 19:05
  SPEAKER_00: That you're never alone.
• 19:06
  SPEAKER_00: We always have this source, and there again, acknowledging it has proven to me to be the thing that keeps the soul watered, even when the BIOS can go dry at times, when the life gets hard, the BIOS, the situation, the circumstances.
• 19:23
  SPEAKER_00: It can get hard, it can get tough sometimes.
• 19:26
  SPEAKER_00: Jesus said, in the world, there is some there is tribulation.
• 19:29
  SPEAKER_00: There are hard times in this world.
• 19:31
  SPEAKER_00: He didn't take them away when he left, he didn't take them with him, he left them here.
• 19:35
  SPEAKER_00: He said, But it's okay.
• 19:37
  SPEAKER_00: I don't have to take them away because I've overcome this world, because in me you'll have peace.
• 19:43
  SPEAKER_00: And go ahead and be happy all the time because I have overcome that.
• 19:47
  SPEAKER_00: How do you overcome that?
• 19:48
  SPEAKER_00: By giving us a river, by giving us something that's greater than that which is in the world, right?
• 19:54
  SPEAKER_00: Because the truth is, you're a thousand times bigger on the inside than anything that's on the outside.
• 20:01
  SPEAKER_00: We've got a source, the one who created all things.
• 20:04
  SPEAKER_00: The one that there, no but nothing, no devil, no search circumstance is any match for God.
• 20:11
  SPEAKER_00: I get a little bit, a little bit of a uh inside when I'm around Christians and are talking about this, we got this dark and light wrestling against each other these days and all that.
• 20:21
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm like, there's no match.
• 20:24
  SPEAKER_00: If there ever was a real battle, you know, Jesus did win.
• 20:27
  SPEAKER_00: There again, we got to look at the truth here.
• 20:29
  SPEAKER_00: It's all over.
• 20:30
  SPEAKER_00: And and and and and and there was no there was no match.
• 20:34
  SPEAKER_00: There's not this these equal and opposite things going on between death, uh, death and life, dark and light, God and the devil, and all that.
• 20:41
  SPEAKER_00: If there ever was a fight between God and the devil, it probably lasted about one second.
• 20:44
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, there's not even close.
• 20:48
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe that's why Jesus said he felt like lightning.
• 20:50
  SPEAKER_00: Boom, it's over.
• 20:57
  SPEAKER_00: But greater is he that's in us, right?
• 20:59
  SPEAKER_00: Than he that's in the world.
• 21:01
  SPEAKER_00: In Psalms chapter 1, verse 3, and we can go on and on with it.
• 21:04
  SPEAKER_00: But another one says, in Psalms chapter 1, verse 3, he said, We are like trees, prophetically speaking about how we would be.
• 21:11
  SPEAKER_00: They're like trees planted along the riverbank.
• 21:14
  SPEAKER_00: They bear fruit all each season.
• 21:16
  SPEAKER_00: Their leaves never do wither, and they prosper in all that they do.
• 21:22
  SPEAKER_00: Remember, 3 John verse 2 says, Beloved, I wish above all things that you would prosper and be in hell.
• 21:27
  SPEAKER_00: That's a bios.
• 21:29
  SPEAKER_00: Have success, be in wealth, live well, be healthy, even as your soul prospers.
• 21:37
  SPEAKER_00: Zoe.
• 21:39
  SPEAKER_00: And he says the the the trees that are planted by the river, they're always drinking from the river.
• 21:46
  SPEAKER_00: Never knows that you go out into the countryside and you can always tell where the water is.
• 21:50
  SPEAKER_00: All you gotta do is you see a line of trees out across a field.
• 21:56
  SPEAKER_00: You know there's water there.
• 21:57
  SPEAKER_00: Even if you can't see the water, you know that there's water.
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_00: Running through there.
• 22:02
  SPEAKER_00: Because you see all the trees.
• 22:03
  SPEAKER_00: They all grow well by the water.
• 22:07
  SPEAKER_00: Your soul is like a watered garden.
• 22:09
  SPEAKER_00: Tomorrow it's going to be watered.
• 22:12
  SPEAKER_00: This is why we don't even have to pray for revival and things like that.
• 22:15
  SPEAKER_00: We don't have to pray that God pour out the rain.
• 22:18
  SPEAKER_00: We used to sing in church, but our souls are dry and thirsty.
• 22:21
  SPEAKER_00: Oh Lord, send the rain, send the rain, send the rain.
• 22:24
  SPEAKER_00: Why did we sing that?
• 22:25
  SPEAKER_00: Because we forgot we had a river to drink from.
• 22:29
  SPEAKER_00: We let our souls get dry and thirsty because we weren't acknowledging Him in all of our ways.
• 22:34
  SPEAKER_00: There's a source.
• 22:36
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know the answers for all the problems, and neither do you sometimes.
• 22:41
  SPEAKER_00: But there's always a source of life, right?
• 22:44
  SPEAKER_00: And finally, we go to the end of the book, Revelation chapter 22.
• 22:54
  SPEAKER_00: We see this river.
• 22:59
  SPEAKER_00: John says, He showed me a pure river, a water of life.
• 23:04
  SPEAKER_00: You know when you go out of here today, you're going out with this river.
• 23:08
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe some of you are dealing with some things that can be very troubling.
• 23:16
  SPEAKER_00: But I've got good news, not bad news.
• 23:21
  SPEAKER_00: There is a river.
• 23:24
  SPEAKER_00: And it provides life to your soul.
• 23:27
  SPEAKER_00: It gives direction if it's needed.
• 23:32
  SPEAKER_00: Most of the time for me, it just seems to be comfort.
• 23:35
  SPEAKER_00: That God's with me.
• 23:38
  SPEAKER_00: If I'm aware of that, everything seems to be alright with me.
• 23:42
  SPEAKER_00: Judy and I were talking a couple of nights ago about how she has this thing to where if she has a thought that's that's that's wants to steal from her soul, then she'll say, But God says this, and I'm gonna go with what you say, Father.
• 23:57
  SPEAKER_00: She just makes this choice, I'm gonna go with what you say.
• 24:00
  SPEAKER_00: And I said, Have you ever noticed that whatever he says, whatever that river within us is speaking, it's always better than our minds can think.
• 24:10
  SPEAKER_00: It's always life-giving, it's always uplifting, it's always positive, isn't it?
• 24:17
  SPEAKER_00: I've never I've never acknowledged him in me and turned to hear his witness or experience what he wants me to feel in my soul.
• 24:26
  SPEAKER_00: And it felt like God was saying, you know, you're just out of luck, Rick, on this one.
• 24:31
  SPEAKER_00: You're on your own here.
• 24:33
  SPEAKER_00: You'll never hear that, will you?
• 24:35
  SPEAKER_00: It'll always speak life.
• 24:37
  SPEAKER_00: And it'll water your soul, and somehow, even in a situation that looks dry, it'll bring joy.
• 24:46
  SPEAKER_00: That's unspeakable.
• 24:47
  SPEAKER_00: You can't describe it.
• 24:49
  SPEAKER_00: It'll bring a peace that passes understanding.
• 24:53
  SPEAKER_00: Jesus, how can you sleep in the boat when we're about to die?
• 24:57
  SPEAKER_00: It doesn't make sense that you would have that kind of peace.
• 25:02
  SPEAKER_00: I hear people talking about how this is the most dramatic, traumatic, cataclysmic, confusing, angry time ever to be alive in this world.
• 25:16
  SPEAKER_00: And I see everything going on in the bios around us like you do.
• 25:22
  SPEAKER_00: But sometimes I have stopped and said, God, why do I have such peace?
• 25:28
  SPEAKER_00: Because that's what happens with the river.
• 25:30
  SPEAKER_00: It will always minister peace.
• 25:33
  SPEAKER_00: Why do I have such joy?
• 25:36
  SPEAKER_00: Why do I feel such love for these people that are doing such things?
• 25:42
  SPEAKER_00: Because that's what the river's gonna do.
• 25:44
  SPEAKER_00: Sorry.
• 25:49
  SPEAKER_00: You know, when we're left to our own devices, which we're not, thank God.
• 25:53
  SPEAKER_00: When we're left to our own devices, I saw somebody post a picture of one of those power strips that you plug into the wall.
• 25:59
  SPEAKER_00: It's got like five or six outlets.
• 26:01
  SPEAKER_00: And it's like taking that plug and plugging it into the power strip to get power.
• 26:06
  SPEAKER_00: That's what it's like to be on our own, to be left to our own soul without the interaction of the river of life, the spirit.
• 26:15
  SPEAKER_00: But thanks be to God, the river is there.
• 26:18
  SPEAKER_00: That's why Jesus has sat down at the right hand of the Father, because he did what he came to do.
• 26:24
  SPEAKER_00: He wanted to give us that life, that abundant life, the river, the spirit.
• 26:31
  SPEAKER_00: He showed me this pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding from the throne of God and of the Lamb.
• 26:37
  SPEAKER_00: In the middle of a street, and on each side of the river was a tree of life, which bore twelve fruits.
• 26:42
  SPEAKER_00: Each tree, so it was more than one tree, it was us.
• 26:46
  SPEAKER_00: We're the trees planted by the river.
• 26:51
  SPEAKER_00: Each tree bore twelve fruits, yielding its fruit every month.
• 26:55
  SPEAKER_00: What does that mean?
• 26:56
  SPEAKER_00: It means there are no dry seasons.
• 26:59
  SPEAKER_00: It means every month you're fruitful.
• 27:01
  SPEAKER_00: What is the fruit of the spirit?
• 27:04
  SPEAKER_00: Galatians tells us, right?
• 27:06
  SPEAKER_00: Love, joy, peace, gentleness, not anger, doesn't make you want to go to war.
• 27:15
  SPEAKER_00: Gentleness, goodness, kindness, faith to believe.
• 27:22
  SPEAKER_00: We can believe.
• 27:24
  SPEAKER_00: Self-control.
• 27:26
  SPEAKER_00: Self-control is not willpower.
• 27:27
  SPEAKER_00: We're talking about the self-control that comes from the river that just changes this garden of your soul, makes it blossom, and the self-control becomes an automatic thing.
• 27:37
  SPEAKER_00: Because all that's happening is your soul is full of love, joy, peace, etc.
• 27:42
  SPEAKER_00: You don't have to use hard willpower to do the right thing.
• 27:48
  SPEAKER_00: Because the water, the soul that's being gardened, the garden that's being watered, what's happening is it's becoming more and more our normal.
• 27:56
  SPEAKER_00: It's who we are.
• 27:58
  SPEAKER_00: It's who we are.
• 27:59
  SPEAKER_00: And as we acknowledge this, maybe it won't be so long that creation will have to keep longing to see this unveiling of the sons of God coming into their own.
• 28:09
  SPEAKER_00: Seeing who creation's waiting to see the sons of God for who they are.
• 28:15
  SPEAKER_00: But first, the children of God got to find out who they are before they're going to find out.
• 28:21
  SPEAKER_00: You know, they've seen a lot of our souls, they've seen a lot of our weary souls, they've seen a lot of our hurt souls.
• 28:30
  SPEAKER_00: And a lot of them are saying they don't want to be like us.
• 28:34
  SPEAKER_00: But if they knew who we really were, and as we know and acknowledge, the whole world would want to be like this.
• 28:43
  SPEAKER_00: Because all the earth would be filled with the knowledge of his glory, his goodness, and every soul would be like a watered garden.
• 28:50
  SPEAKER_00: I have the vision.
• 28:52
  SPEAKER_00: I may not see it next week, but God's got a vision.
• 28:58
  SPEAKER_00: As truly as he lives, all the earth shall be filled with the knowledge of his glory.
• 29:03
  SPEAKER_00: Wow, think of that.
• 29:05
  SPEAKER_00: Think of that.
• 29:07
  SPEAKER_00: We're bearing fruit all the time, and the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations.
• 29:14
  SPEAKER_00: Our fruit is for food.
• 29:16
  SPEAKER_00: What's our fruit?
• 29:17
  SPEAKER_00: What do we give to this world around us?
• 29:19
  SPEAKER_00: Because our souls have been watered.
• 29:20
  SPEAKER_00: Ultimately, we shall be the dispensers of the fruit, the love, the joy, the peace.
• 29:27
  SPEAKER_00: We don't even need to pray for peace in the earth because peace is here.
• 29:30
  SPEAKER_00: It's in the earth.
• 29:31
  SPEAKER_00: It got planted by the seed, Jesus.
• 29:35
  SPEAKER_00: Peace is on planet earth.
• 29:37
  SPEAKER_00: It has come.
• 29:40
  SPEAKER_00: And our leaves are for healing.
• 29:43
  SPEAKER_00: What manifest from the branches comes from the trunk, the vine, Jesus.
• 29:49
  SPEAKER_00: And we're bringing healing, not destruction.
• 29:53
  SPEAKER_00: We're bringing healing for the souls.
• 29:56
  SPEAKER_00: And healed souls will change a whole lot more than some of the other devices that we've tried.
• 30:02
  SPEAKER_00: For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal.
• 30:05
  SPEAKER_00: Our true weapons are mighty through God.
• 30:09
  SPEAKER_00: Pull down every wall.
• 30:11
  SPEAKER_00: Father, would you all stand up with me, please?
• 30:14
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you for giving me your time this morning.
• 30:15
  SPEAKER_00: I sure love you guys.
• 30:16
  SPEAKER_00: I hope this was a blessing.
• 30:19
  SPEAKER_00: Isn't it great to be able to speak and hear the good things of God?
• 30:24
  SPEAKER_00: Father, I pray for every one of us here, within the sound of my voice and those watching online.
• 30:32
  SPEAKER_00: That right now, with this acknowledgement of what we're looking at, what we're focused on this morning, that there is a voice that comes from within.
• 30:39
  SPEAKER_00: There is a ministry that happens.
• 30:41
  SPEAKER_00: There is a ministry of your spirit that does what no man can do, what we can't do for ourselves, but your spirit does.
• 30:47
  SPEAKER_00: On you rely, we rely, on you we trust.
• 30:50
  SPEAKER_00: We're staking everything on it.
• 30:53
  SPEAKER_00: And we thank you, Father, as we acknowledge that, that there will be joy in the homes, there will be healing in the bodies and in the hearts.
• 31:01
  SPEAKER_00: We thank you for your goodness in the wonderful name of Jesus, whom we adore.
• 31:06
  SPEAKER_00: Amen.