Latest / Goodlife Church Formation Podcast / Pressure is a Privilege: Fighting for Faith and Freedom, Unleashing the Prophetic Power
Transcript
- Rebeccca: and my phone. Jack O'Brien: Welcome back to another episode of the Good Life Formation podcast. I'm Jack, ⁓ Bex, Pastor Dave with me today. Bex, how are you? Rebeccca: Great, thank you. How are you, Jack? Jack O'Brien: Yeah, I'm good. Well, thank you. Dave, where in the world are you? Dave Connett: I'm in my car at the corner of Stuart and Hunter Street hoping to pull over real soon. I'm between a Jack O'Brien: Did you just try and answer me preemptively, like assuming what I was going to ask? Dave Connett: I knew it. I totally assumed. I assumed what you were going to ask and I was exactly correct. Rebeccca: I love how you ask this every time you act like as if it's like Dave the World Traveler and every time I'm in Newcastle, I'm in my office, I'm in my car. Jack O'Brien: Well, there was a season where he was, ⁓ where he was, it was a lottery. And in fact, it's a lottery for me today. ⁓ I didn't make it home. I didn't make it to my destination. I never leave home, rarely, but today I had to get a windscreen replaced. Didn't make it home in time. So I am observing the population of Bray Park, Waratah. What a cultural experience that is. Rebeccca: Yeah. Dave Connett: I don't know if we should do a deep dive on that topic, Jack. Jack O'Brien: My doors are locked and Christina knows where I am. Dave Connett: That's good. Keep them locked. Accountability. is good. So good. What are we doing this podcast for Jack? What are we actually going to do a deep dive on? Jack O'Brien: Well, we were at the time of recording we're after week two of our latest sermon series the ultimate fighting championship spiritual warfare Fighting and fighting to win. I was a Nat Taylor preached yesterday Morning, and it was unreal Sunday of camp you've camped and wrapped up and and she went for it. So I'm gonna read the scripture. Actually. I've got here in front of me the key scripture that she preached from judges three Dave Connett: Yeah, yeah. Jack O'Brien: These are the nations the Lord left to test all those Israelites who had not experienced any of the wars in Canaan. He did this only to teach warfare to the descendants of the Israelites who had not had previous battle experience. The five rules of the Philistines, all the Canaanites, the Sidians, and the Hivites living in the Lebanon mountains from Mount Baal-Hurmon and Lebo Hamath. They were left to test the Israelites to see whether they would obey the Lord's commands, which he had given their ancestors through Moses. Israelites lived among the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites. They Israel, Israel took their daughters in marriage and gave their own daughters to their sons and served their gods. That was a key passage. ⁓ Bec, how would you summarize the message yesterday? Rebeccca: ⁓ well a brilliant I listening to these verses you just read it just for me I guess as a slightly Bible nerd I I want to read all the different versions of this I want to do a deep dive into who are these people why did God leave those people and not the others? And it's fascinating. But I think the crux of Nass message was so powerful, which is that around the thing of pressure is actually good for us. Dave Connett: Yeah. Rebeccca: You she made the beautiful comparison or picture of a baby chick inside an egg and how it's pushing, pushing, pushing against the shell to get out. if you help it, if you help the chick get out of the egg, it actually doesn't develop the strength that needs to live and it will die because it's too weak. And you go, it makes you see pressure and hard times so differently when you realize God's actually doing it to strengthen us, not because he's mean to us, because he loves us. right? Just shifts your whole thinking in your way of considering the things that are in front of you. ⁓ And for me it also doesn't just show the love of God but also it makes me go okay what is God trying to teach me in this? What do I need to learn? Like it actually shifts your perception of what's actually in front of you, not just your perception of God but your perception of the challenge and what is the purpose in this pain? What is the purpose in this challenge? And who am I going to be on the other side of this? Jack O'Brien: Hmm. Rebeccca: What has God developed inside of me on the other side of this? And I think that's such an inspiring way to look at pressure and hard times. So I was really inspired. I just thought was such a phenomenal message. Jack O'Brien: Dave, what about for you, what was the headline takeaways before we dive in specifics? Dave Connett: Well, learning how to fight is normal. It's the situation that God puts us in is to make us strong. not being helicoptered out of situations because God wants to make champions out of us. We're called to be overcomers and more than conquerors. so, well, there's gonna be stuff to overcome and conquer. And sometimes that's an external enemy, which is Satan. and his hordes of demons and sometimes it's the internal enemy of our proclivity or our temptations of sin. So learning how to fight is the default mode for a Christian. He wants us to know how to stand and fight. I actually, I started to think in regards to parenting ⁓ or mentoring or pastoring when you're actually wanting the best for someone and I've got, ⁓ I got two adult sons and one who thinks he's adult. the whole point is I'm not meant to actually come in a helicopter. meant not to cut. Like they do have to face issues and trials and problems and they're called to win. And what I've got to do is realize that this is actually good for them. I feel like at times, well, sometimes Bex also feels like at times to come in a helicopter and get them out of it. But no, they need to actually face it. They need to win. And if we've given them the right resources and the right values, then that should be the default mode is fighting and winning. so I think, I think we've got to trust God in this area and it's, easy to want to, or it's a bad feeling, a bad situation, helicopter, where's God fix it? Like, no, no, no, learning to fight. And when we teach people and train people, teaching them, you know what you're meant to do, you're actually meant to fight. How's your prayer life? Are you actually declaring the word of God over your situation, over your mind and over your family? So it's not just. we've got to learn to fight. We've actually got to learn to let others fight and fight their battles. And sometimes, ⁓ you know, sometimes not always win because the journey is to learn how to fight long term. So that could be hard when you're working with people that you love. Jack O'Brien: Hmm. Yeah, it's uh, well, you shared the the Volkanovsky quote, but that idea of the pressure is a privilege and it's not that it's a, um, you know, pressure isn't some sort of favor on us, but it's a privilege in that we can grow in faith. We can trust in the Lord. We get better. You know, I often have to remind myself of that axiom of, it's not that things get easier. It's just that we get stronger. Right. And that notion of Dave Connett: Right. Jack O'Brien: of continuing to fight. It's another level, another layer, another step up, another battle. Beck, when you think about that scripture or the different versions or what else does it provoke in you? Where else could Nat have taken it? Rebeccca: ⁓ gosh, well if, if, ⁓ I mean, everyone's going to have their different. way of doing it, right? The way that Dave's, this is, I actually find this fascinating. You know, different giftings, you can look at the same scripture and how you do it is so interesting. I was thinking about this the other week, this is gonna sound like a segue, but I'm gonna come back to my point. Thinking about this the other day, the other week, I preached on the blood and the cross, right? And I was teaching around covenant and the blood path and drawing parallels between the blood path covenant of Abraham and the blood path that Jesus walked up to Calvary. And I preached this whole message. and Dave and I had chatted beforehand and he goes, know, I'll get up at the end and I'll do a little bit of old call in the ministry time at the end. you know, usually at end of a message, would do the old call, I'd do the salvation old call and whatever ministry, but for whatever reason, that's what we decided to do. And I got off the platform and he got up and he just bounced off what I'd said, but he's so pastoral. He just took everything I taught. and just connected it in this really pastoral way. And actually was standing, you know, just off the stage going just in awe, watching him operate in his gifting and doing something that I could never have done. It's just, it's quite remarkable. And I think so, you know, in terms of, you know, you ask them the question, well, what could Nat have done? What way could she have Dave Connett: Sorry, sorry, we gotta pause, we have to pause. Are you saying you were standing in awe? Is that what you were saying of me? Is that what you're just clarifying? Rebeccca: Yeah. Jack O'Brien: was more of the gift that the Lord has bestowed upon you. It was really in awe of the Lord, is what I heard. Rebeccca: I was in awe of the Lord, 100%. I was in awe of how God uses mere mortals like Dave Cotten. Dave Connett: ⁓ sorry, as soon as you said I was in awe of the Lord I was thinking well you shouldn't call me that in public babe I know it's what you say in private but... Rebeccca: Can I get back to my point? ⁓ my God. So, in answer to your question around, you know, which direction could Ned have taken it, there's such a beautiful prophetic gift on her life that I go, you know, I'm slightly prophetic, but in a different way. so, as I'm reading it, my brain is just going down. you know, when my nerd brain goes is I want to know who were the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites and Jebusites. What did they believe? What was their life like? Who did they worship? What was that like? You know, I want to know what was the meaning of these these places where they lived, you know, in the Five Lords of the Philistines and the Sidonians and all that. I just I just love to do that that deep dive at what I found really interesting in what Nat did was reading from the message because when you look at how it's phrased in verse five in the message. So if you look in the NIV, it says the Israelites lived among the Canaanites, Hevites, da da da da, right? And it's kind of almost a sterile, they lived among them. But the message actually you go, ⁓ well, that's what that actually looked like. It says the people of Israel made themselves at home. among the Canaanites, Hittites, et cetera, et cetera. And you go, that gives a whole, like, you're like, yeah, that's what they actually did. They made themselves at home. And that brings a whole big challenge, because I think sometimes we make ourselves way too much at home in the world, right? We are way too much at home in the thinking, the worldview, the lifestyle. Dave Connett: Wow. Jack O'Brien: Ron. Rebeccca: what we tolerate, what we allow, what we celebrate, what we laugh at. We are way too much at home. And that really struck me that, you know, she used that translation because it just has so much power behind it. Jack O'Brien: Right, so, okay, this is interesting. Because when we think about, I wonder if there's people in our congregation that when they hear spiritual warfare, they're like, ah, cool, that's for the intercessors, that's for the Tuesday night crowd, that's for the Estes and the Marys and the Pams and that crowd. Spiritual warfare isn't for me. But what we sit to that point of, right, the verse after that, not only did they live amongst them, it goes on in verse seven, right, the Israelites did evil in the eyes of the Lord. Rebeccca: There. Jack O'Brien: to, and it reminds me, you'll probably know where it is, I don't know the actual reference, but is it in James where it's like, to not do good is to do evil, to not do good is to sin. And we don't have a choice to, like non-participation isn't a choice in spiritual warfare, you're either in or you're losing, right? Rebeccca: Yeah. Yeah. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Yeah, another way that I will put it. Dave Connett: Yeah, it's happening regardless of your position. The devil is coming for you, regardless of whether you know it or defend or attack, whether you're actually in act, warfare, whatever you bind on earth is bound in the heavens and whatever ⁓ you loose on earth is loosed in the heavens. So it's happening. And so we're trying to bring the reality of that to the people. And then I love the tools that we're going through. Two weeks in and I'm loving this. Rebeccca: Another way the Bible puts it, ⁓ I can't remember where, I feel like it's actually through Kings and Chronicles. It talks about kings doing what was right in their own eyes, and that, doing what is right in your own eyes, is equivalent, according to the Bible, as doing what is evil in the eyes of the Lord. Dave Connett: Yeah. Rebeccca: And so I think again, spiritual warfare can actually be as simple as are you doing what is right in your own eyes or are you doing what is right in the eyes of the Lord? And are you willing to submit your desires and your preferences and your way of thinking to what God says? Yeah. Dave Connett: Man, that's a challenge. That is a challenge. I came on this podcast to have a nice chat and to be able to give discipleship tools to good lifers. And here I am getting convicted right now. What are you doing? I wasn't booking in for that, Rebecca. Rebeccca: I've got another one. Jack O'Brien: conviction visits those who require it dives Dave Connett: Well, as long as my heart is open at all times for conviction, I'm happy to continue in my job. I think that's the, ⁓ obviously we all think that as well, but man, I'll tell you what I'm, I'm ready to now look how, how am I just comfortable living with, with the world? ⁓ you got to be in the world, but not off the world and how often are we off the world, but not, ⁓ not in this. Yeah. I mean, we've, we've separated ourselves, but we're still living by the ways and the, ⁓ man. It's just conviction. so I've got to then, I'm to do a self assessment. I'm going to deep dive on my habits and thoughts and words and the way that I react and act. Yeah, this is good. It's good for me. I don't know about anyone else, but I'm enjoying this. Jack O'Brien: So I have a question for you both. To that point, Bex, Nat's preaching is very prophetic and she's got such a gift to speak to individuals as she's preaching. She'll often prophesy over ones and twos. The reality is that the scores of people that are there on a Sunday are not going to get personally prophesied over. So how do the rest of us receive When that's prophesying over someone personally, how can the rest of us receive something from the Spirit of God in those moments that appear on the surface to be one-to-one, to appear to be personal? How do the rest of us receive? Rebeccca: So good. Yeah, I'd say three things. I'd say number one is ⁓ the word of God is the word of God. And so if a prophetic word of encouragement is being brought to someone, it's never going to, if it is a prophetic word from the Holy Spirit, it's never gonna go against the word of God, right? And so anything that's said specifically to someone as a word of prophetic encouragement. Dave Connett: Dry question. Rebeccca: can also, I can learn from that because it's the truth of the word of God. I go, ⁓ yeah, I could apply that to my life, that truth, right? It's encouragement to stand strong in your faith. Yes, that actually encourages me. I wanna stand strong in my faith as well, right? That's number one. Number two, all of preaching should be prophetic, right? So as a past, Jack O'Brien: you What do you mean? Because prophecy sounds like, saith the Lord. What do mean prophetic? Dave Connett: Come on. Come on. This is awesome. Bring it. Rebeccca: As a pastor, when I'm working on my message, I am actively seeking Holy Spirit, what are you saying? I'm in the Word of God, I'm diving into the Word of God, I'm digging in, I'm looking at the Hebrew and the Greek and Holy Spirit, what are you saying to your church? There's a prophetic angle to what pastoring and preaching is, there's a prophetic, and so every message should be... prophetic encouragement, right? Prophecy in the New Testament is for strengthening comfort and edification, right? Edification, keeping you up. And so that's what every message should be doing. ⁓ And then now Dave's got something to say. Jack O'Brien: Can you make those, can you make those alliterate? Is there three E's that you could use for what prophecy is, please, as Pentecostals? Rebeccca: Dave's good at that, I'm not good at that. ⁓ Dave Connett: Yeah, we're to feel a whole lot better if you get onto that. But hey, can I can I say what you're talking about with prophetic and I don't want to stop your train of thought, but I know you're very skilled at coming back to it anyway. ⁓ I'm going to say that when when we look at no, no, no, no. You won't forget. That's one. So what I just what I'm saying is that even when we sit with the whole of the year, what are we actually trying to achieve as a church? We're saying, God, where are the people at? Where is this church at? Jack O'Brien: Come on. Rebeccca: ⁓ that was an insult. Dave Connett: What are you developing us in? What's the call of God for? And so we're hearing God, even in the overall direction, the things that we're tackling, even some of the tough topics. Like these are not done ⁓ casually. These are done understanding God. These are the times that we're in. This is what's required of men and women of faith. God, how do we faithfully shepherd and teach? We want to lead, feed and guard our people. to be remarkable Christians and live a remarkable life and be such a blessing and to change the world with the transform with the truth and the power of Jesus. So it's not just in the preparation for one message. The whole thing is done under the prophetic unction, the direction of God. And so that's when we're looking at the larger picture for church, we're thinking very apostolically, God, what's your agenda? Prophetically, what's your direction and focus? So. It flows into absolutely everything. You want to make it feel like, hey, you're at home, we're giving you a nice teaching, but the behind the scenes is so rich. Rebeccca: ⁓ So true. ⁓ So number one was hang on one sec I have to cough this is really inconvenient. Number one. Jack O'Brien: Well, as you do that, I mean, you could go with like exhort, encourage and edify, right? There's your ease for the Pentecostals. Rebeccca: I was actually going to say that, Exhortant. Yeah, I was thinking that. It doesn't quite work because I think one of them is strengthened and Exhortant, Carriage and Edifier are kind of similar. But anyway, number one was if, in answer to your question about, know, if Parsonat or anyone is giving a one-on-one prophecy on a Sunday. Dave Connett: That was tidy, Jack. Jack O'Brien: I think Pastor Al gets credit for that. Exhaust Rebeccca: Number one is, you know, what can you get out of it? Cause it's the word of God. two is all preaching this prophecy. Number three is, let's be in faith. Like if she's prophesying over someone, what I'm doing is I'm actually praying in tongues and yes and amening to that prophetic word over that person. Because we don't sit on a Sunday as consumers at a shop. Dave Connett: Yes. Rebeccca: We sit as a family around a table, right? And so if someone is exhorting, encouraging, and edifying, know, prophesying over another person, I am so their heart and soul, I am amening, I'm praying in tongues, yes, Lord, yes, Lord, and, you know, ⁓ bringing all of my faith to that prophetic word for that brother or sister in Christ. So that's what I would say. Dave Connett: Present. Rebeccca: Don't be a consumer, don't sit back and watch. Be part of it and then you're part of the prophetic at that point, right? So cool. Jack O'Brien: Hmm. Dave, I'm going to lean on your pastoral giftings here a little, know, past and that was very direct. And it was a little bit of like, come on, pucker up princess, like pressure is a privilege. Life's hard, you know, take a teaspoon of cement for those that are like up against it or feeling like, don't know that I've got the strength. Basically life's hard enough, let alone having to fight. just fighting to keep my head above water. Any, yeah. the pastoral wisdom for those folks. Dave Connett: I have a look to put it into modern terms. I'd put it into a sporting analogy. don't look the best form of defense is offense. So the fight's happening, whether you'd like it or not. Defense is better than no defense, but offense is better than playing defense. If I'm trying, if I'm on this, if I'm actually pressuring my opposition on their try line. ⁓ I've got less to worry about me defending my try line. So that would be the way that I think about it. It's happening anyway. And you can lose the fight by denying its existence ⁓ or just by abdication of responsibility. ⁓ So it be that it's happening anyway. Here's the second thing is that it doesn't just affect you, it affects other people for the positive or for the negative. So is it hard? Yes. ⁓ Is it worth it? ⁓ my gosh, yes. Are the alternatives terrible? You better believe it. So man, I just say strap in for the fight and that scripture in regards to ⁓ whatever you bind on earth will be bound in the heavens, whatever you loose on earth will be loose in the heavens. ⁓ So that is actually a lot about before you go and pray and bind the devil with your prayer, ⁓ which is important. One of the greatest things you can do is give him no room. So I'm binding his ability over my family because we're following God's ways in our family. I'm binding the enemy over my finances because I'm following God's ways over my finances. One of the greatest things to believe, to trust God for the fight over your finances, just tithe to the local church because God resists the devourer. He actually binds the enemy on my behalf. Jack O'Brien: Yes. Dave Connett: And so the favor that I now walk in, I'm just walking in it. I'm not stressing. I've got this amazing amount of peaks. And so sure, it sounds hard. It's actually way better. So I would just say strap in, give it a good shot, actually trust God that his ways are higher and better. And he wants you to walk in favor and protection. So I'd trust him. Jack O'Brien: Hmm. Yeah, I really like that Beck. I'll come to you. But it's like, well, I think that said this yesterday, right? Choose your hard. Fighting is hard. abdicating is harder. Like you get you choose your hard Becks. Rebeccca: Mm. Yeah, the only other thing I'd mention is that there are seasons, right? And there are seasons when you're on the stretcher. Now, if your entire life is you're on the stretcher, you might have to ask the question, am I just do have a victim mentality, right? But there are seasons when you're on the stretcher. Dave Connett: Right. Rebeccca: And there are other seasons when you're carrying your friends on their stretcher. And so if you are going through a huge battle, know, a health battle or something like that, it might be that you actually need your church family to stand around you and fight for you, you know, and carry you on the stretcher and open up the roof and lower you down to the presence of God. You know, I'm referring to that ⁓ story in the Bible where the four friends lower their friend on the stretcher through the roof to where Jesus is so he can heal them. So there's seasons when you might be on the stretcher. Dave Connett: Yeah. Rebeccca: ⁓ I'm also thinking about in one Samuel 30 with David, you know, they have everything. stolen from them by the Amalekite raiders and David strengthens himself in the Lord as the very first thing he does and then he goes, hey God, what do want me to do? And God goes, you go and fight right now, you're going to chase them down, you're going to hunt them back and God says you're going to recover all. But there was a portion of his soldiers that were actually so weary and so exhausted that they actually couldn't keep going. And so David said, okay, you guys sit here by this brook and the brook is called Besor, which means cheerful. or good cheer. And so he goes, you stay here and then they go and fight. And when they came back, they actually shared the spoils with their friends who are by the river. And so there's times and seasons, I would say that most of our life is a fighting time, right? There may be short seasons where you're in recovery, where you're on the stretcher, where you're needing healing, you're needing to sit by the brook for restoration, but the majority of your life still has to be that. understanding that you are in a battle that that's just how it is because we have an enemy who hates us right so Jack O'Brien: Mmm. So good. And to that point of like sitting by the brook, it's not just sitting and waiting, it's drinking from essentially the brook of good cheer in this place. it's actively being restored by the Holy Spirit, you know, just sitting and hoping that things get better. Sitting around watching Netflix ain't gonna strengthen you and restore you. It's pressing into God for the purposes of getting back on the field. You know, I loved Rebeccca: Yeah. I've got one of the things. That's right. That's right. Jack O'Brien: Even Nat's point yesterday of like, heaven forbid, our greatest testimony is that the hole in the roof is patched up. We don't get to the end of our days and go, geez, I'm glad I watched an extra series on Netflix. I would get to the end of it as I'm glad I shared the gospel, I'm glad I stepped down in faith, I'm glad I stood on principles of the word of the God for my children and for my children's children. Sitting back and abdicating is nothing to be proud of. Rebeccca: Yeah. Yeah, exactly. this. Yeah. Yeah. That's why. It's right. Yeah. Because the guys that sat by the brook didn't leave the army. They were still part of the army. They were still in the army. They just needed to rest to then get up and go again. Right. And so I think we've got to be very clear. We're not we're not leaving the fight. We're not leaving the army and sitting on our butt watching Netflix. So, yeah. I think the other scripture that I've been looking at recently Jack O'Brien: Love it. Rebeccca: I love history and I'm reading currently, this will bring up a whole new thing, but I'm reading currently about the Crusades and the fight between Christianity and Islam across the last 1400 years and it's fascinating, fascinating history. And one of the key scriptures ⁓ was from Luke 22, where Jesus says, ⁓ If you don't have a sword, send your cloak and buy one. And the disciples say, hey, here are two swords. And he says, that's enough. And it's really interesting because, you know, we talk about the, we've been talking about this a lot recently, the last few months about ⁓ the ground war and the air war, which we've stolen from Pastor Josh Howerton. You know, talking about the air war is like the spirit, the war and the spirit now. And the ground war is actually just like life, like. culture and in the things that we face day to day. And it's really interesting because if you go back a thousand years ⁓ with these with what was happening then the Christians at the time read this passage in exactly the same way. They thought it was really significant that there were two swords and they went one of those swords is the spirit war and the other sword is the war in the natural that we're actually fighting. And I thought it was really fascinating and the parallels between today. I just find really interesting. And it's interesting that Jesus didn't go, no, no, no, get rid of your sword. He's like, no, no, if you don't have a sword, get a sword. You know, it doesn't work very well with the pacifist Jesus, but ⁓ it actually is in perfect harmony with the rest of the spiritual world. Jack O'Brien: Mmm. Right. Well, even to that point of like Right, I mean to that point of God calling us to war, even the following passage from where Nat preached from, ⁓ Israel cried out to the Lord, he raised up for them a deliverer who went to war and then the land had peace for 40 years. It's like God's answer to the people's cries was to go to war. And that's where peace came from, that's how they fought their way out of slavery and oppression into peace. Rebeccca: Well, they sinned by not going to war, right? Dave Connett: Yeah, look, even if you come to the New Testament, though, then you've got then the pictures of war with Jesus says the kingdom of God, the kingdom of heaven suffers violence and violent people take it by force. And that is not purely a spiritual battle. It's actually understanding what the spiritual war, the air war and then the ground war, what we're called to do. We are called to be defenders of truth and and freedom. Jack O'Brien: corrects Rebeccca: Mm. Dave Connett: in our world and even at Good Life Church we've said that we're here to transform the world with the truth and the power of Jesus Christ. Not just transform the church, not just transform the church community or the kingdom of God. Like what we're looking to is transform and so we've got to actually have strategies that transform. We've got to be ready to go to war. are, if there are nefarious forces or if there are issues that we've got to go. Jack O'Brien: Yes. Dave Connett: Let's have a great strategy. Let's work this out. Let's be a team. Let's be clever. Let's understand. Don't be ignorant of the devil's devices over your family, over your city, over your nation. We've got to be able to unite and say, well, God, you've called us not just to have some nice church services, but we actually are going to have to shake the shake the tree a little bit sometimes. Jack O'Brien: Mm-hmm. Rot. Rebeccca: Mm-hmm. And coming back to our, yes, exactly. Coming back to what we talked about before about preaching being prophetic, there's many, many times, and I'm sure you would agree with this, Dave, but I couldn't tell you the amount of times that I will be preparing a message and delivering a message. And I'm so conscious that I'm not just preaching to the people sitting in front of me. Jack O'Brien: Mmm. Peacemakers, right? We're gonna make peace. Dave Connett: Yeah, Mike, peace. Rebeccca: I'm actually preaching, I probably see a lot of the time I see two things that's happening or three things that's happening at the same time. One is I'm preaching people in front of me but the other two things that I'm very conscious of is that I'm actually preaching to the spiritual atmosphere, I'm preaching to the heavenlies, right? When the Bible talks about the heavens it's not just talking about heaven as in the place where God lives but actually the spirit realm. And so often as I preach I can actually, I am preaching to the spirit realm. Dave Connett: You are bang on, babe. You are so bang on. Rebeccca: And so actually am trying to cut through with a sword, which is the word of God, right? Into the spirit realm, not my sword, it's the word of God, into the spirit realm. But the other thing is often when I'm preaching, I can also sense that it's a message for, I guess, the capital C church. And as I'm preaching, I'm aware the capital C church, as in the church global, however you want to call like the Church of Jesus Christ, can't hear me. Dave Connett: Thank you. Rebeccca: But yet it needs to be prophetically declared into the atmosphere over our nation what we're preaching. so there's multiple levels. You you preach into people in the room, preach into the spiritual atmosphere, and you're also prophetically declaring over the Church of Jesus Christ in Australia what God was saying. Jack O'Brien: Mm. Dave Connett: I think it's a part of that, but it's also we're responding to what God's saying. And so you're going to find there's going to be, if that's the prophetic word, then that's going to be happening a lot across the body of Christ. And so we're responding to what God's saying for the nation, for the body of Christ in the nation, because he wishes that none would perish, but all would come. And so he wants to activate the church in the season to be transformative. Rebeccca: true. Which is why you often see God saying the same thing in different locations all at the same time. Suddenly it just all comes up, you're like, ⁓ wow, because he said the same thing. Jack O'Brien: Right. We might land this episode here, but it's a good note to finish on for good lifers listening. This is more than just a local parish in the suburbs of Newcastle. We are a prophetic apostolic church. Bex, in your office on our National Exec, David, your role to our movement. We as a church are not just a local parish. We speak to the broader church and that is the house that we are a part of. It's an important note for good life is to be aware of that when we say we're transforming the world, it is your world personally, and it's our world collectively across the body. And it ⁓ is quite humbling and a joy to be a part of a church under your apostolic ⁓ pastoral leadership, David Beck. So thank you for what you carry in the unseen. And this has been a wonderful series so far. And I think you up this weekend, Beck, is that right? Rebeccca: No, I'm up next, I'm on the 2nd of May. I don't know who's up this week. Dave Connett: on next week. I'm on co- me! It's me and Lily Coles. No, it's me and Lily Coles. Jack O'Brien: No one knows what it looks like. ⁓ Okay, great, there you go. Dave Connett: It's all on this Sunday. It's gonna be spectacular. Rebeccca: Yeah. Jack O'Brien: fun and games. Awesome. Well, I hope you enjoyed that episode. Passive Dave, Passive X, thank you. And I will see you on another one again soon. Dave Connett: Ciao. Rebeccca: Thanks guys.