Latest / Generations Church / The Be.Attitudes of Following Jesus Series - Part 2A: Be With Jesus | Andy Yeoh

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The Be.Attitudes of Following Jesus Series - Part 2A: Be With Jesus | Andy Yeoh · Generations Church

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Hey, you welcome to the Generation's Church podcast. We pray you will be
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blessed by this message Today I made a word of God both encourage and challenge
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you to be all God purpose you to be. Now, let's dive right
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in. Discipleship is a way of life, not a program, not a
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project, not an event. It's a way of life. And this way
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of life takes practice. Let me clarify and qualify what I mean by practice.
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By practice is not just training. I'm not saying, oh, practice
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so that you can become better. It also means tradition. I mean it
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becomes your practice. This is how you live your like, this is your
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way of life. When we use the word practice, we use it in
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a tradition way. This is my tradition. This is my practice. I
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wake up every morning at this time to pray. That's my tradition. Amen.
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And it's not just attempt. Practice not just means just attempt. I'm
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just attempting. It becomes an action that you consistently. Practice is not about
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perfection. We're not asking and expecting all of us to get this right all
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the time, all the rest of our life. No, we are aiming
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for persistence and consistency. Persistence means it's suggests an implies. You will fail,
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sometimes you will slip in, sometimes you will forget sometimes, but you
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quickly get up and what and pursue the same direction again. Persistence and consistency.
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Amen. I'm not sure where that I made. It sounds harder and
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scarier than you should be, but I want to be true to what the
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word says. Yeah, so I'm not trying to make it easy. I'm
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not trying to make it hard. I'm trying to be faithful. So if
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someone tells you, hey, come on, following Jesus is really easy,
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we gotta think deeper than that. Is it really that easy? Because life,
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even without Jesus already extraordinarily complex. Spiritual life can be even more complex.
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Why because spiritual life deals with the depths. It's not just paying bills,
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having fun, buying a car. It deals with the depths of your
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life, next depth of your life. So for someone new to following Jesus,
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and I'm gonna assume because remember we started the series, I said,
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let's all forget what we thought we knew about the yposhit. So technically we
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are all new to this. And for someone new this can all sound very
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overwhelming, and following Jesus may be simple. He's following this guy who is
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a god, but it's definitely not easy. Let's go back to Jesus's invitational
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line. What did he say, Rabbi Jesus said follow me in other words,
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When he said this to the Jewish listeners, it was literally this,
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come walk with me around is real. I'm going to the shop today.
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Come, let's go. Oh, I'm going to Peter's mother in law's house.
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Come when Jesus follow me? In those days, they literally drop their
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nets, left their homes and literally followed behind this man, this Jesus a
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next words, and follow him day and night. And if we are to
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apply this, because today Jesus is not in the flesh, we can't walk
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behind him. When he said follow me, he is saying to everyone who
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would want to do this, come and be with me. He's inviting every
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single part of you today, come and be with me. Come follow me
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in other words, and spend time with me. So let's talk about that
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point number one. What does it mean to be with Jesus. We've heard
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this before, sound so extra b with Jesus means what I come to judge.
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If I'm in my toilet, am I being with Jesus? I feel
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him? His picture is he's looking at me pooh, and I being with
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Jesus? What does it mean? Was much easier for Peter James, John
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Judas Thomas to follow Jesus because it literally, men don't stand there, come
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with me. I'm going there, And they worked with him. It's much
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easier for them. For us, he's like, what does this mean?
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He's not here. So for Peter James, John is not a word picture.
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It was literal for us. For us, it's like, we have
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to ask, what does it mean, Jesus? What does it mean to
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be with you? Because you're not here? There's a theology behind it.
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Can we go a little bit deeper? There's a theology? So John fourteen
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sixteen to seventeen, and I will ask the Father, and he will give
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you another helper. In fact, another way to say is, I will
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give you another one of me. So the Holy Spirit is the spirit of
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Jesus. I will give you because I'm going physically, I will give you
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another me to be with you for a while, with you forever. Even
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the spirit of Truth, whom the world cannot receive it because it neither sees
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him nor knows him. You know him, for he dwells with you and
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will be in you. I hope you know by now. When Jesus says
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something, every single word is intentional. He didn't just say the Holy Spirit
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will be with you. He said the Holy spirital will be in you.
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It's important, and the Holy Spirit comes not just to be with the disciples.
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He just came. Jeez, the Holy Spirit need't just come to us
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today to be with us. He didn't just take a seat like today he
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see this road tomorrow he said, No, He's in us, and we
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will explore that deeper what it means as we go now. To understand this
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a little bit more, we have to go backwards and understand the theology of
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the temple. Why because today when we say the presence of God, we
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get people saying, ah, that's why I can sit at home and watch
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online. Because God's presence is everywhere. Have you met friends at this not
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saying it's better or God, I'm just saying today we understand presence very differently.
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Right, God is everywhere in my heart? Is in your heart?
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Oh? No, yes, yes, it's true. But to understand the
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beauty of that, the significance of that, we have to go backwards.
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Those days. God is not everywhere. He's not in your heart, my
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heart. You know when Jesus said that I will send you another helper John
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fifteen, just before he died, that's three years after the disciples had already
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followed him everywhere. So it's the end of the life message. He could
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only share that three years later. There's a reason before that. The Temple.
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The Temple is where God's presence is. The Temple is like an overlap
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between heaven and earth. If you wanted to meet God, if you live
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in those days you want to meet God, you can't just go into your
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car, shut the car, play some huge song and then clap your hands,
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close the eyes, bower here and then pray. Today we can say
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God will be there in your car, Amen, But those days, no,
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you gotta go to the Temple. It was a physical building, a
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particular location in Jerusalem that at a theological level, is that overlap between heaven
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and earth. That's why Jesus said he he taught a counter temple message,
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and he said, what do you remember? Basically, he said, I
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am the temple joint up. The two was eighteen twenty two. So the
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Jew said to him, what sign do you show us for doing these things?
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Jesus answered them, destroy this temple, and in three days I will
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raise it up. Then the Jew the Jews then say, it has taken
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forty six years to build this temple, and will you raise it up in
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three days? But Jesus was speaking about the temple of his body. In
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other words, I am the temple. I am the overlap between heaven and
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earth. I am the presence of God. I am the image of God.
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God. You want to be with God, you be with me.
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You see me, you see the Father. All these words now makes sense.
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He's speaking to people who used to have to go to this physical place
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to get God's presence. Now he's saying, if you're with me, you're
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with God. I am the temple a man. John one fourteen. The
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Bible says, and the word Jesus became flesh and dwelled among us. The
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temple is now among us, the temple meaning the presence of God, God
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himself. Jesus temple nackled among us, He templed among us, he dwells
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among us. Right now he is the touch point between Earth and Heaven.
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In the New Testament, Paul writes that the church, the Church is the
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temple of the Holy Spirit, as well as our bodies, us who are
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followers believers in Jesus Christ. The Church as the body of Christ, is
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the temple. Individually, we are also the temple first Quarantine six nineteen.
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Do you not know that your body is a temple? The Holy Spirit within
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you? Your body is whom you have from God. You are not your
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own second crinin sixty sixteen? What agreement has the Temple of God with idols?
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For we are the temple of the Living God. As God said,
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I will make my dwelling among them and walk among them, and I will
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be there God, and they shall be my people. The Temple is the
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dwelling place of God. So if the Temple is the dwelling place of God,
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and you are the temple and the Church is a temple, what does
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that make us the dwelling place of God? Now can you understand what Jesus
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means by the Holy Spirit will be with you and in you? Why?
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Because you are the temple. Just setting it up so that we can understand
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at the theological level. What is be with Jesus. This is important.
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This is part two. It's still foundational. Application will come later. So
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I want to speak to you about this expect of interiority. All of us
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Christian human beings who are very good with exterior stuff, going to church,
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reading the Bible, and raising our hands. Not bad things, very good
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things. We must do those things. But because we are so external people,
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we j just people with how they dress, how they smell, how
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they speak, and all of those things. It's a human We sometimes forget
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that there is anious and you can't understand what being with Jesus means if you
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only understand it exteriorly, like for example, if you understand being with just
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exterior then I guess you will end up saying going to church again, I
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would love to see you in church. Then not. But that's not being
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with Jesus in his entirety. You must understand it from the inside out.
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So I can be anywhere in the world. But God, you are closer
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because God comes for you. Amen. God knows you better than you know
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yourself. You think you know which guy is best for you, God knows
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better. God is deeper in us, them is while you're out there singing,
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gambling, womanizing, many minimizing, or whatever thingsing you're doing. The
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reason you can feel guilt sometimes conscience and like the portical sun, while you're
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eating pigs leftovers, you realize because God is deeper in you than you are
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in yourself. This expect of interiority. I'm trying to invite you to go
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in internally. Remember this the typos you have to start there. This expect
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of interiorty is key, a key vecet to life with Jesus. In the
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Psalms, you frequently find this phrase mentioned, and it's called awake my soul.
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Here's what awake my soul tells us. The fundamental reality is this is
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truth. You realize it, you don't realize it. You accept it,
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you reject it, does not matter. The truth is this, God is
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closer to you than you know, and it should that God has come closer
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to us even than our own breath. But what is the problem. The
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problem is our awareness, our tunement. We are not tuned. That frequency
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is always there, but we are not tuned to that frequency. God is
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always there, but we're not tuned to e frequency. Therefore we can't hear
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him. I don't know how much you're old enough to remember radio. The
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waves are always working. Something's going on, but we're we're we have to
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tune to the right frequency to hear it. Thank God, He's closer to
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us than we know. But our awareness, our tument, that's what we
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need to work on today and for the rest of our lives. That that
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that awareness that are tumen to the closeness that God has for us. The
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intimacy is wavering. Some days we feel I can hear I can hear it,
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I can hear it, Ah point nine, I'm tuning in. Some
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days we are what what what? What? What? Some days we feel
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so close to God and all we want is gone. And some days we
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feel like we want nothing to do. Regard there's us, human beings,
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wavering, fluctuating. We should learn like the Psalms, like David who prayed,
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awake my soul, don't be asleep, wake up, Awake my soul.
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Awaken. What it means is help me get in touch with the deepest
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reality that is within me right now. And the deepest reality is God is
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closer to me than I am to myself. That means that at any moment,
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if you're tuning to God right now. You connect. It doesn't mean
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like ah Man sucks. You know, I was so close to God last
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year, and then for six months I was far away. Now I have
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to repay the six months back. Awake my soul. The Hebrew word for
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spirit is the word rua. The Greek word for the word spirit is numa.
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You know what's the beauty They both mean the same thing. These words
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are interchangeable. When the Bible talks about breath, when the Bible talks about
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spirit, it's the same word rua numa. Spirit is breath, Breath is
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spirit. I love the Bible because the Bible uses these concepts. That is
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so beautiful. The Holy Spirit is like breath to you. In other words,
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without the Holy Spirit, you die. With the Holy Spirit you live.
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But that's one picture. Another picture is that's how close God is to
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you. And even then it is even closer, still closer than your own
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breath. God is there all the time. Come on this scipe books.
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God's there. So some signs are oxygen when you breathe oxygen? What are
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the lungs and respiratory system? The lungs and respiratorism allows us to breathe,
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They bring oxygen to our bodies. Nobody's called It's called inspiration. What does
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the Holy Spirit do? The Holy Spirit inspires us. The Word of God
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is inspired. Human beings were inspired to write the words of God. Inspiration
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is scientifically, what is inspiration? Breathing in oxygen that gives you life,
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that gives you being and makes you move. Inspiration what happens when you breathe
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oxygen? The air oxygen goes to your nostrils, goes down your throat,
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go downs a whim pipe, goes into your lungs because that's where the oxygen
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is processed. And then where does it going Your bronchi, Your bronchios all
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that your and it goes all the way to your avyo lea that's where it's
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processed. And from your AVI only your AVI lid sends it to your rate
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bod cells and it goes everywhere. That's why when your heart stops pumping and
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no blood goes to your brain, you are typically just when the Holy Spirit
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comes into you, like oxygen, inspiration, breath, it should go into
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every part of your system. Affects your thinking, you're breathing, you're doing,
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you're pupping pupping. Also, yes, there is there are things in
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your life and you get rid of. You know, not being able to
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bee is a problem. The doctors will tell you, right, we must
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be able to also get rid of what the system don't need. I love
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it. The spirit ruac numa breath. As you brief oxygen, it goes
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into your system and it's to every aspect of your body. That's the picture.
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When Jesus breathe. When Jesus says, I'll send you the Holy Spirit,
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we are to be inspired, not expired. John fifteen one eight.
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You know, on the last night of Jesus's life, he famously shed this.
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This is his last words. He talked about vine and the branches.
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He had this conversation with disciples. And you use the word meno in Greek,
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which is the word a bye. The word meno is translated a bye
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or remain or make your home, make your home. So I'm the vine,
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and my father is a vine dresser. Every branch of media that's not
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bread fruit he takes away, and every branch that does bread fruit he prunes
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that you may bear more fruit. Already you are clean because of the word
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that I have spoken to you a bye in me and I in you.
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As the branch cann bare food by itself unless it abides in the vine,
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neither can you unless you are bodying me. So he's saying, make your
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home in me, and I make my home in you. Remember temple twining,
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place of God. That's all these concepts now line up. Make your
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home in me, and I make my home in you, and then you
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are bad fruit. In the last line there says this is how people know
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you are my matthetists, apprentice, followers, disciples. So Jesus is saying,
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once again, make your home in me, and I make my home
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in you. We're at home with each other, is Jesus's promise. He
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promises, if you make your home in me, I will make my home
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in you. Amen. And then he expounds on it and he says,
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this is how it's going to be done. How I send you the Holy
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Spirit because I'm no longer here physically, so I send you the whole.
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This is how this making home in each other is going to take place,
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the Holy Spirit John fifteen twenty six. But when the helper comes, whom
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I was sent to you from the Father, the spirit of truth, who
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proceeds from the Father, he will bear witness about me. So the deepest
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longing of the human heart is union with God. Remember that that desire is
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within all of us. So ultimately, another way to look at it is
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we are all seeking for a home in God. In other words, we
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are all looking for a home to abide in. Some of us are abiding
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in our girlfriend's heart. Some of us are abiding in our mobile legends,
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characters. Some of us are abiding in our masters, our status. Whatever
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you get, you get a picture. Now, We're all looking for a
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home to abide. But ultimately our home is in God. You know what
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the disciples ask Jesus when they first met him John chapter one. Jesus turned
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and saw them following, and said to them, what are you seeking?
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What are you looking for? Why are you following me? What are you
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seeking? And they said to him, Rabbi, where are you staying?
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You think they meant his house? Where are you staying? Know what that
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is staying? Men? No, Jesus, where are you abiding? Where
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are you remaining? Where is your home? They're asking? Are you where
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you make your home? Can I stay with you, Jesus? Can I
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be with you? This is the beginning, and then three years later,
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Jesus says, abiding me and I and you. What did Jesus say,
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johnt of the woman? They asked him, where are you? Man?
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Knowing? Jesus said, come in uoc and they followed him. Where are
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you staying? They are? They are betraying their own desire? What are
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you seeking? We're seeking for a home. Where are you staying? Master?
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Where are you staying? Can I come with you? Jesus is,
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come be with me? And so at the end of three years, Jesus
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is about to die. Your apprenticeship is done here on earth. So what
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do I tell you? What's my last words? What's our exit interview?
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What I tell you? I tell you a bideing me? And how Jesus
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now says, I will be with you and also within you. How do
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I be within you spirit? I'll send you the spirit. That's how I'll
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be within you. Amen. So at first it was just follow me,
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just just watch me. I'll show you. Now he's in us. Today
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he can be in us. His commitment to us is even outpacing our commitment
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to him. His withness, his togetherness with us, his withness to meet
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our desire is even deeper than we're able to articulate. So point number one,
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what does it mean to be with Jesus? It means this, to
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abide in Jesus and Jesus in us. I know it's very conceptual, but
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you'll get it. It's like oxygen. That is what we cannot compartmentalize God.
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It cannot be like when I have no exams, Jesus can be my
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God. But when I have exams, he's got to take a back seat.
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I got no time for him. It can't be when I got a
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big business deal and a big project to complete. Jesus. No, he
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is in your bloodstream. You can't push him away, but you can ignore
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him. That's what we are doing. He's there. What we ignore that's
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the worst thing we can do. And so when you are not with God,
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you are ignoring God. So what does it mean to be with Jesus
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is to abide in Jesus and Jesus in us. In other words, to
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be in God and God be in us like oxygen, like your blood.
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So let's be practical now, Number two, how to be with Jesus.
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Three things. It's gonna get a bit like psycho a little bit, but
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who made our brains. God, So he's okay to phsycho. Here we
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go. How to be with Jesus. Number one, Direct our consciousness.
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First, psychedelic we're talking about Okay, Okay. When I say consciousness,
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I'm not talking about like some psychology something like that. It's consciousness, your
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your state of being. Okay. Consciousness as in your awareness. You're conscious.
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I'm aware. I'm a guy. I'm aware standing on stage right now.
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I'm aware if I keep walking up, fall down, I'm aware,
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my awareness, my awakeness. I'm not asleep. I'm paying attention. Direct
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our attention. What do I pay attention to? Affection? That's a very
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biblical Christian word, affection. Where's your heart? Where is your heart?
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In other words, when I say direct our consciousness is our being? How
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are we being from day to day? This is point number one of how
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to be with Jesus. Consciousness is the flow is the flow. It's flowing
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right now, okay. But the flow is a flow of thoughts, feelings,
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images, ideas, perception. All that's happening in your consciousness right now.
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Even your body, your sensors, you feel hot, you feel warm,
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All that is your consciousness. Because if you're unconscious, none of that
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is flowing. But you're conscious now that's flowing. That flow through a mindstream
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and a feel of awareness. That's consciousness. How to be with Jesus.
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This consciousness, this attention, awareness, this focus, this being, this
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affection need to be directed. Otherwise you just flow awhere it wants, but
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you have to stop. Don't flow here, don't flow. He'll just go
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this way. When Jesus said in John fifteen, I will make my home
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in you, and you make your home in me. This in verse seven
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and eight. If you are biding me and my words abide in you,
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ask whatever you wish, you'll be done for you. By this. My
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Father is glorified that you bear much fruit and so proved to be my disciples.
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This is how you are my disciples when you direct your consciousness, your
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attention, your affection, your awareness towards me. So if you think about
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words, remember words have meaning. What Jesus was trying to refer to is
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your consciousness, your being When you said abide, if my words abide in
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you, he's talking about, like, where's your mind, where's your attention,
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where's your affection? That's what he's talking about. So the reality is,
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friends, all of us are abiding right now. All of us are
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making a mental home where in something. The question is, is it Jesus
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and the words of Jesus. We're all abiding, We're all abiding. See,
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for most people, their consciousness, their abiding is not in Jesus,
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whereas it it could be in fear. Their whole life is driven by fear.
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I'm afraid to die, so I be healthy. I'm afraid to be
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poor, so I pursue richness. Are afraid no wordy or want me?
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So I better set on a nice profile on coffee bagel. I am whatever.
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Okay, your consciousness, your abiding is in fear or some of us
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anger, everything is. It's all about getting back at this person who hurt
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me so much. We are all abiding right now. Our man, our
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mind has a home somewhere. Some of us materialism, greed, last insecurity.
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That is what many are abiding in. These are the words and thoughts
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and ideas that pass through mindstream. How to get better, how to get
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even, how to get revenge, how to not be there, how to
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These are the thoughts and the feelings, and the desires and the perceptions and
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the images and the ideas that feels, our consciousness, our being, entertainment,
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sexualization, success, fantasies, revenge, anger, heart wounds, trauma,
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beatenness, regret, guilt, shame, fear, insecurities, our consciousness.
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If you're not intentional, it's abiding in all of those things all day
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long. And the power of Jesus' words in John fifteen, his word picture
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of the vine branches is this. He's basically saying, whatever you abide in
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is the person you become. In other words, whatever your consciousness is giving
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its attention to, you become that. Whatever you give your attention to is
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the person you become. So your consciousness, which is your awareness, your
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attention, your affections, it sets the trajectory of your spiritual formation and your
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character. So if you're someone filled with a lot of revenge, that's the
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trajectory that you're moving in that forms you spiritually, mentally everything. So we
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say, oh, that person is really anxious. Oh Kannish is very anxious.
27:27
What do we mean? We mean Kannish His consciousness is habitually abiding,
27:34
grounding in fear producing thoughts. That's why the product is what anxiousness anxiety.
27:44
The mindstream is full of fear. When we say, oh, Josh is
27:47
very angry. He's angry all the time. That means his consciousness, his
27:52
abiding is full of anger and hatred and resentment and bitterness. So everything he
27:57
does becomes how do I get even? But friends, it's not just about
28:04
knowing. It's not it's just consciousness just information. Yeah, it's not just
28:08
a mind thing. It's not knowing or doing, but it's being so In
28:15
other words, abiding in being with Jesus is about learning to do this.
28:21
Aiming our consciousness, aiming our awareness, attention, affection at Jesus all through
28:34
the day, at least we try. That means you're at work and you've
28:41
got a problem aiming your consciousness at Jesus. Is you start to think about
28:48
Jesus in that situation? What would Jesus do in this situation. You're having
28:52
a fight with your spouse and you're aiming your attention, your affection, your
28:57
consciousness at Us. Now, suddenly, what would Jesus do if this was
29:03
his wife and they are fighting? Have you all heard of? Neuroplasticity is
29:07
the brain's ability to change and adapt due to experience. As you experience,
29:14
your brain changes and adapts. It's an umbrella term referring to the brain's ability
29:18
to change, reorganize, or grow neural networks. This can involve functional changes
29:23
due to brain damage, because if your brain damage, your brain had to
29:26
change function or structural changes due to learning. As you learn new things,
29:32
your brain is shaped and adapt a different way. Plasticity refers to the brain's
29:37
malability or ability to change. It does not refer to the brain bring plastic
29:41
neuro refers to the neurons, the nerve cells that are the building blocks of
29:45
the brain and nervo system. Thus, neuroplasticity allows nerve cells to change or
29:52
adjust. That means that, in other words, your brain, your mind,
29:57
your consciousness has the ability and power to change adept form habits. Don't
30:06
not have came up with this Heab's Law the signs of practice have believed that
30:11
neural connections are strengthened through repetition and practice. Some repetition and practice. He
30:19
was one of the pioneers in recognizing this principle of neuropracticity in what was later
30:25
coined Heab's law. That is, neurons that fire together wire together. Basically
30:30
just means practice makes perfect. When a behavior is repeated over and over,
30:37
the pathways in the brain begin to heart wire. So if you do something
30:41
consistently long enough, it becomes hard wired into it. It becomes muscle memory.
30:47
That's why those of you who drive car, you don't go into the
30:49
car every single time like okay, press what now? Okay now left,
30:53
let go where you don't use muscle memory heard wired. Research suggests that it
31:00
takes twenty one to sixty six days twenty one to sixty so something longer,
31:04
something shorter, takes twenty one to sixty six days to form a habit.
31:08
But there's a catch. It's not twenty one days in a year or sixty
31:14
six days in a year. You don't skip. It's twenty one to sixty
31:17
six days consecutively. You don't skip. You keep on doing it every day
31:22
for twenty one two sixty six days. You form a new habit. You
31:29
do that. That's where neuroplasticity, your brain is wired to the point that
31:33
it becomes hart wire, and now you have a new habit. It takes
31:37
effort on your part. You gotta wake up and go to the gym every
31:41
day, prefrobably at the same time, for the next twenty one days without
31:45
fail. For some of you sixty six days and then by after that you're
31:51
doing alarm clock. You just wake up and you go, and when you
31:55
don't go, something youls off. How is it related to being with Jesus
31:57
or a lot? So the basically idea is this, every time you think
32:01
a thought, it's like it's like driving down the road. You you drive
32:07
down down the road one time. What happens? You get a track,
32:09
You drive it down a thousand times. Now you got a rut. And
32:14
when you have a rut, now you cannot drive anywhere else. You end
32:17
up in the rut. You get me, You get a picture. Same,
32:21
it's with your thought. Every time we think a thought, it's easier
32:24
to think that thought again and harder not to think it. Think it again.
32:30
You get what I'm saying. Every time you think a it's easy to
32:32
think a again and harder not to think a that's neuroplasticity. Whether that thought
32:40
is a good thought or a bad thought. The more you think it,
32:45
the harder you'll become later on to not think it. So if I'm stupid,
32:49
I'm stupid. I'm stupid, I'm stupid. You'll get to a point
32:52
where you cannot think you're not your stupid You cannot think you supe anymore.
32:55
And someone tells you you're so smart. No, I'm stupid. I cannot
32:58
do this. I cannot do this. I cannot do this. I can't
33:00
do this over time. It doesn't have to be true. It's just in
33:04
your consciousness right now. Every time you think a thought, it becomes easier
33:07
to think that thought and harder not to think that same thought, whether the
33:12
thought is Jesus or sex. Well, what a contrast. If you think
33:16
about Jesus all the time, it gets harder not to think about him.
33:21
Why Because that's the ruts in your road right now. And so you're about
33:25
to masturbate and you think about Jesus and then you stop, You're about to
33:30
pay a bribe, and then Jesus comes in your white Because it's the rut
33:34
of your mind to do the opposite is why we end up in the mess.
33:37
We end up because our rut is made of something else. This rut
33:43
can be a good thing or a bad thing, depending where the road leads
33:45
to. That's why Paul said, remember, brother Paul pauls in Romans twelve,
33:50
don't be confirmed to this world, but be transformed. What by the
33:54
renewing of your mind? If Paul met Donald had he might have said,
34:00
Biden, neuroplasticity of your mind. Renew your mind through the word renewing our
34:08
minds is aiming our consciousness at Jesus. All throughout the day. We think
34:15
about his word, we think about his person, we think about his beauty,
34:19
goodness. It's called or what abiding means. You want to be a
34:22
disciple, you start with your consciousness. You start driving down this road once,
34:30
twice, three times. Past sounds very difficult sounds. I have to
34:35
be a saint. No. Remember, it's not about perfection. It's about
34:39
persistence and consistency. You won't get right all right? You think I passed
34:44
it. I think Jesus all the time. No, I get angry,
34:47
I get upset, I get disappointed, I get hurt. But I have
34:51
to train my mind. I have to be intentional about this. How do
34:54
I do it? Abiding his words? Read his words? I love How
35:00
this all don't make sense now? So renew our minds means aiming aim Just
35:06
aim not he thinking it yet? Just aim your consciousness at Jesus. What
35:12
is the reward of prayer? So it's Basically, it's it's like praying.
35:15
It's like God, I have this situation. I'm very angry right now.
35:17
What do I do. We think of the reward of prayer as uncert prayer,
35:22
breakthroughs, miracles, blessings, because these are the stories we often celebrate.
35:28
I get firing it to the offering back and I got fifty ring it
35:30
back within five minutes. Wow, Halleviah, Praise a Lord. I pray
35:32
for reason God gave me this. Yet that's that's one reward of prayer.
35:37
It's not the only reworder of prayer does happen. God is a miracle working
35:43
God. But uncert prayers in the form of miracles, blessings and breakthroughs are
35:47
not the only rewards of prayer. God always offers us his presence even when
35:52
he doesn't offer us his power. He may not give you the car you
35:58
want, but he's there. And this is this, This will be forever
36:01
be the mystery that we will never figure out this side of heaven. Why
36:07
God gives some people some things and it doesn't give you something. Why God
36:10
heals some people, he doesn't heal some That's up to God is his sovereignty.
36:15
He's smart, his mother, and you mother than me, he decides.
36:19
But he'll always be a mystery. But God always offers his presence even
36:23
when he doesn't offer his power. So if prayer for you, if you
36:27
only pray to get something back, your prayer is lacking something and you'll always
36:32
feel something's missing. So the longer we follow Jesus, the more comfortable comfortable
36:39
we get living within the mystery of His the wine wisdom. That means we
36:45
become more and more. Okay, if God doesn't answer some prayer the way
36:49
we want him to, because we know that no matter what, his presence
36:52
is with me, even if I don't have his power. Amen. So,
36:59
But speaking of consciousness and prayer, what do people do when there's a
37:01
blank space, when there's nothing to do? Most of us do this,
37:06
right. We're waiting in line, we're on the train, we got nothing
37:12
to do, we've got no focus. We start doing this. We start
37:15
scrolling. Most of us when our mind is idle, because when you're busy
37:22
working doing something, you don't do that, right. But when there's nothing
37:24
to do, when there's a they call it a blank space. We now
37:29
these days, we tend to go to this device and we start scrolling.
37:32
I can't put now this guy's name. You can try, but it's a
37:37
psychologist that said the unaided or the undirected mind tends towards chaos. We will
37:47
go to negative, dark places when our mind is unaided or undirected. That's
37:52
why I ask you to direct your mind. Direct your mind, direct your
37:57
consciousness towards Jesus, because if you don't, is going towards chaos. That's
38:01
it's autopilot. Your brain starts thinking about fear, the bad things that will
38:07
happen, failure, If you don't have something to focus on, your mind
38:12
will go into fear, anger, regret, shame, chaos. So most
38:19
people, depending on your personality, when your mind is idle, is unaided,
38:22
undirected, you will either leap to the past or leap to the future.
38:28
You either worry about a past that you cannot change or a future you
38:30
cannot control. And then you get worried, you get fearful, you get
38:34
anxious, whether you live to the past or the future. What happens is
38:37
it roups you off your present. You're not there, you're not in the
38:39
present, and your mind is always negative. We get so caught up in
38:45
the things we cannot control, and then we allow them to control us,
38:50
and then we end up losing control over what we actually can. We get
38:53
stuck up with things we cannot control, and those need control us. Now
38:57
we cannot. We lose the control that we actually have the present. End
39:00
with this, what do we do? What is abiding with Jesus? What
39:02
is consciously? What you passed away talking about is psychologicals a bible. Bible
39:07
Paul said, renew your minds, direct your mind. Jesus is abiding me.
39:13
Aim your consciousness towards me, think about me in everything. So and
39:21
with these three things are we recognize Let's recognize that there are three points in
39:24
our life where we are abiding. Remember I told you you are already abiding.
39:30
I don't know what it is. So from you is fear, some
39:31
of you is worried, some of you is insecurity. I don't know what,
39:35
But you're abiding. Jesus is saying, get your mind out of there
39:38
and abiding me. And that three main parts is the first thoughts in our
39:45
mind when we wake up, and the last thoughts before we fall asleep.
39:52
And then the third one is the random moment throughout the day when our mind
39:55
is blank and we have that we we stop at a traffic light, and
39:59
there's a moment there. We are early to appointment, and there's a moment
40:01
there we're waiting for our appointment. And as a moment there, we suddenly
40:05
suddenly do our work. We stop halfway, we take the time to breathe,
40:07
and then there's a moment that all those random places, that's where our
40:12
mind starts abinding. It starts lending and making a home somewhere. We were
40:15
busy. We're busy. But the first thoughts. The point is I have
40:22
also learned to become more intentional with what passed through my mind. The first
40:25
thing in the morning. I don't know whether my wife realizes or not,
40:29
but I don't go to my phone anymore. I go through the toilet.
40:32
I poop first. But as I pop, I open up my I think
40:36
my I bet, I bet? What Yes? By open up the Bible
40:42
and I'm not, Hey, I'm not seen now you know it's scene and
40:45
I'm not like, I'm not like immortal. Okay, you think I opened
40:50
a Bible and Richie three chapters are No, I just started learning. I
40:53
read the verse of the day. Let's start with that. Bro At least
41:00
that's the sentence that goes into my head first before anything else. And if
41:09
you don't believe me, God researches for yourself. The first thoughts in your
41:14
head when you wake up and the first thoughts in your mind before you go
41:16
to sleep. The impact they have on your life is huge. Don't underestimate
41:22
it. This is why Jesus wakes up at three in the morning and play
41:30
prays for three hours, three to six am before the sun comes up.
41:34
He prays, Jesus. I don't think he's just I don't think he's being
41:38
holy. He's already holy. Whatever Jesus does that is you get it right.
41:44
He's not trying to be more holy, He's already holy. I really
41:47
think Jesus is just trying to be practical. He told you to follow him,
41:52
so you must show you how it can be done. So he wakes
41:55
up because you know what happens at six am, every is already starting to
42:00
work. Remember Peter came to him. Oh Jesus, ware, you wan
42:06
everybody looking for you. You know what time? There was? Six am.
42:08
He was aligned within for him to counsel, to pray, to do
42:13
coaching six am. No wonder he become a three. If you become six
42:20
where God he's praying halfway, somebody call him, somebody message WhatsApp first time.
42:25
So three o'clock, nobody is awake. Nobody can tell me I pray
42:29
for three hours because I have to fill my conscience with the word of my
42:35
father, because remember he said, I only do what my father told me
42:39
to do. What if the reward of prayer just being with God, abiding
42:45
in God, aiming your mind is now hardwired to think about God. Jesus
42:52
never said, oh, this must pray three hours, pray speaking tongues fifteen
42:57
hours, or that it's good things. It's good things, but it's not
42:59
in the Bible. But I'm not saying these bad things. You can pray
43:04
in times for three hours, go do it. But let's be fit.
43:07
The Bible is just saying, pray, abide all throughout the day, as
43:13
you're driving, as you're pooping, as you're doing homework, as you're studying
43:17
for your exam, as you're writing a proposal. But it has to be
43:22
trained, because right now we are not there. When we abide in Jesus,
43:29
we are being with Jesus. And the more we be with Jesus,
43:31
our consciousness is trained, shaped and consistently it gets aimed at Jesus. Remember
43:44
when you think a thought long enough, it gets easier to think it again
43:49
and harder not to think it again. Maybe we will all get to a
43:52
point as we are disciples, we will get to a point where everything also
43:57
be think of Jesus. Thank you for joining us. We trust you have
44:01
been blessed by the Word of God. If you like what I've experience,
44:05
please subscribe and share it with your friends on social media. Do taggers at
44:08
generations my. For more information, check us out on bit dot lee slash generations My