Latest / Rick Manis Ministries Podcast / I Once Was Blind. Now I See: Part 2

Transcript

I Once Was Blind. Now I See: Part 2 · Rick Manis Ministries Podcast

• 0:07
  SPEAKER_00: Amen.
• 0:08
  SPEAKER_00: All right, you can be seated.
• 0:10
  SPEAKER_00: I am so excited this morning to be able to share what I what I have this morning.
• 0:20
  SPEAKER_00: Um I want to get right into this and start with and start by by reading something out of Isaiah chapter 32.
• 0:27
  SPEAKER_00: And this is where this is a a promise, a prophecy that we're that we're looking at.
• 0:32
  SPEAKER_00: And and I like this passage because it gets very specific about what we're what we're looking at here, what we what we have.
• 0:42
  SPEAKER_00: There is.
• 0:47
  SPEAKER_00: This is not an indictment, it's an exciting thing if you think about it.
• 0:51
  SPEAKER_00: There is so much room to grow in the knowledge of God and the things of God.
• 1:03
  SPEAKER_00: And even better news is that we have the revealer of truth in our lives and in our heart every moment of every hour.
• 1:17
  SPEAKER_00: And so today I want to give something that I think can help, help us with the connection that's made, where the where it's not just so much in the head, but really living out of the spirit, really living out of that place where we where we know, where we see, and where we understand.
• 1:36
  SPEAKER_00: And Isaiah chapter 32, verse begins in verse 13.
• 1:40
  SPEAKER_00: And he says, on the land of my people, and and and we don't have this up here because I just I just got it on the way here this morning.
• 1:47
  SPEAKER_00: So I wanted to I'll read it to you.
• 1:48
  SPEAKER_00: It says, on the land of my people, this is the prophecy, will come up thorns and briars.
• 1:53
  SPEAKER_00: Now this is this first part's not the prophecy, it's the condition.
• 1:56
  SPEAKER_00: Will come up thorns and briars, yes, and all the happy homes in the joyous city, because the palaces will be forsaken.
• 2:03
  SPEAKER_00: That doesn't sound good, the bustling city will be deserted, forts and towers will become lairs and dens forever, be a place of wild donkeys, a pasture of flocks.
• 2:16
  SPEAKER_00: Until.
• 2:18
  SPEAKER_00: So what he's saying here is that it's gonna be desolate, it's gonna be ugly, it's gonna be barren, it's not gonna be pretty.
• 2:25
  SPEAKER_00: You can look around at the things of the world, you can look around at things in life, you can look around maybe even at some of your circumstances and situations, and many times the ugly parts can be overwhelming.
• 2:35
  SPEAKER_00: They can fill up your field of vision to where life doesn't seem to be good.
• 2:41
  SPEAKER_00: You don't seem to be blessed, you seem to be overwhelmed with the negative things that are going on or the negative things that are around us.
• 2:48
  SPEAKER_00: And he and I see that picture, he's describing it.
• 2:50
  SPEAKER_00: He says, the cities will be barren, the the field, it'll it's there's nothing good going on here.
• 2:56
  SPEAKER_00: He says, and it's gonna be like that.
• 2:58
  SPEAKER_00: And we see a situation of mankind ever since the fall of man, and he says, it's gonna be like that until, and here's the prophet, until something happens, until.
• 3:09
  SPEAKER_00: And he says, until the Spirit is poured upon us from on high.
• 3:19
  SPEAKER_00: And the wilderness will become a fruitful field, and the fruitful field will be counted like a forest.
• 3:25
  SPEAKER_00: Justice will dwell in the will in the wilderness, and righteousness will remain, righteousness will remain in the fruitful field, and that work of righteousness will be peace, and the effect of righteousness, quietness, and assurance forever.
• 3:39
  SPEAKER_00: And so what we're we're saying here, he says, I'm going to do what's necessary, I'm going to give something.
• 3:45
  SPEAKER_00: And he was prophesying about what happened in Acts chapter 2 when he poured out his spirit on the earth, and he gave the one thing that was that what we're looking at is the promise here.
• 3:57
  SPEAKER_00: He gave a promise.
• 3:58
  SPEAKER_00: He says, This is what they were looking forward to.
• 4:01
  SPEAKER_00: Yes, they call it looking coming for the coming of the Messiah, the Christ, the the you know, the the entering into the kingdom and all of that.
• 4:10
  SPEAKER_00: But how would all that how what would be the remaining point of all of that is that he would give the spirit.
• 4:17
  SPEAKER_00: Remember, Jesus had already spilled his blood on the cross for our sins.
• 4:22
  SPEAKER_00: He didn't stop there.
• 4:24
  SPEAKER_00: He he rose from the dead, defeated death.
• 4:26
  SPEAKER_00: He didn't stop there.
• 4:27
  SPEAKER_00: He ascended on high because he says, it's better for you that I go, because if I go, the spirit will come to you.
• 4:36
  SPEAKER_00: And he gave the spirit.
• 4:37
  SPEAKER_00: But he says, When I give the spirit, that's going to take care of all this.
• 4:41
  SPEAKER_00: Now, people people think and they say, Well, he's given the spirit.
• 4:45
  SPEAKER_00: I know I have the spirit, Rick, but what's why is there still such hardship?
• 4:49
  SPEAKER_00: Why is there still such struggle?
• 4:51
  SPEAKER_00: Why am I still not all that happy?
• 4:58
  SPEAKER_00: It's a matter of seeing.
• 5:00
  SPEAKER_00: It's a matter of knowing.
• 5:02
  SPEAKER_00: It's a matter of being aware.
• 5:03
  SPEAKER_00: And this is why we come to church.
• 5:04
  SPEAKER_00: This is why we read our word.
• 5:05
  SPEAKER_00: This is why we talk to God, so we can see, so we can be aware, so so that the truth that's in our heart that comes to us by the Spirit can take the ascendancy.
• 5:17
  SPEAKER_00: And when that happens, that's what takes care of the situation, and it turns the barren places into a fruitful field.
• 5:24
  SPEAKER_00: He says, He goes, he goes on and he says, My people will dwell in a peaceful habitation, in secure dwellings, in quiet resting places, even though hell would come down on the forest, even though the city would be brought low in humiliation.
• 5:42
  SPEAKER_00: Blessed are you who sow beside all the waters, and you will freely send out your oxen and your donkeys.
• 5:51
  SPEAKER_00: In other words, even though all these bad things are still in the earth, you'll be blessed.
• 5:56
  SPEAKER_00: You'll still live freely.
• 5:59
  SPEAKER_00: Because the spirit has come, and in the spirit, the kingdom has come.
• 6:04
  SPEAKER_00: Because the kingdom is righteousness, peace, and joy.
• 6:08
  SPEAKER_00: Where?
• 6:09
  SPEAKER_00: In the Holy Ghost or in the Holy Spirit.
• 6:14
  SPEAKER_00: So the Spirit has come.
• 6:17
  SPEAKER_00: We have received the Spirit.
• 6:19
  SPEAKER_00: We've received the fullness, the abundance.
• 6:22
  SPEAKER_00: We've received the promise.
• 6:23
  SPEAKER_00: It was the promise that was made to Abraham.
• 6:25
  SPEAKER_00: Galatians 3 14 says this was what it was all about, that the promise of the Spirit would come upon us, the Gentiles.
• 6:33
  SPEAKER_00: The Spirit, what I want us to get out of that right here, is that the Spirit was all that was needed.
• 6:40
  SPEAKER_00: The Spirit was the fix.
• 6:41
  SPEAKER_00: The Spirit was the promise.
• 6:44
  SPEAKER_00: That when the Spirit of God would come to us, when the Spirit of God would come to live in us, I'll give you a new heart.
• 6:51
  SPEAKER_00: I'll take that hard one out and I'll give you a soft heart.
• 6:54
  SPEAKER_00: I'll put my ways inside you.
• 6:57
  SPEAKER_00: My thoughts and my ways will be in you.
• 7:01
  SPEAKER_00: My ways will become your ways.
• 7:03
  SPEAKER_00: In fact, 1 John chapter 2, verse 20 and 21 says that you have an anointing.
• 7:09
  SPEAKER_00: This is us now.
• 7:10
  SPEAKER_00: We have an anointing from the Holy One, and you know all things.
• 7:15
  SPEAKER_00: I've not written to you because you don't know the truth, but because you do know it.
• 7:20
  SPEAKER_00: We know there's another place that says, but you have the mind of Christ.
• 7:26
  SPEAKER_00: So there's a part of you that knows these things.
• 7:31
  SPEAKER_00: He says, You know everything.
• 7:32
  SPEAKER_00: Why?
• 7:33
  SPEAKER_00: Because the Spirit knows everything.
• 7:34
  SPEAKER_00: And so the Spirit of God is that part of you that knows all of this.
• 7:39
  SPEAKER_00: That's why when you see truth, when you see revelation, something happens.
• 7:43
  SPEAKER_00: You light up inside.
• 7:45
  SPEAKER_00: You know.
• 7:46
  SPEAKER_00: There are certain points in your life as you're looking into these things to where it just becomes so real to you that you would bleed it.
• 7:55
  SPEAKER_00: Nobody could ever take it away from you.
• 7:57
  SPEAKER_00: It becomes a part of who you are, and then it becomes a part of your natural operation.
• 8:04
  SPEAKER_00: Where you don't even have to think about it, it becomes more automatic to you because it's become a part of your life.
• 8:10
  SPEAKER_00: You're not trying to get it, it's not clunky, it's not confusing, you're not trying to figure it out.
• 8:15
  SPEAKER_00: You're not wondering, is this right or is this wrong?
• 8:19
  SPEAKER_00: The brain is dealing with all of that because that's what it does with information.
• 8:24
  SPEAKER_00: But there's a part of you that knows.
• 8:27
  SPEAKER_00: There's a part of you where you know God.
• 8:30
  SPEAKER_00: You do know Him.
• 8:32
  SPEAKER_00: There's a part of you where you know the things of God.
• 8:36
  SPEAKER_00: There's a part of you that knows the ways of God.
• 8:41
  SPEAKER_00: There's a part of you that knows and can see the kingdom of God.
• 8:46
  SPEAKER_00: Though the cities are brought low and the hail is falling on the forest, there's a part of you that knows abundance and peace and joy and goodness in the midst of this.
• 8:56
  SPEAKER_00: That is the kingdom of God.
• 8:58
  SPEAKER_00: Righteousness, peace, and joy by the Spirit.
• 9:05
  SPEAKER_00: So maybe as we look at this, maybe God will help us this morning to see to see how to make that connection.
• 9:11
  SPEAKER_00: It's there.
• 9:11
  SPEAKER_00: First of all, we want to establish that we have it.
• 9:14
  SPEAKER_00: And that should forever, that should help us right there to value the spirit to where we don't, we don't just overwhelm ourselves with saying, I don't know.
• 9:26
  SPEAKER_00: I can't get this.
• 9:27
  SPEAKER_00: It's hard for me.
• 9:28
  SPEAKER_00: And we know we know what's meant.
• 9:30
  SPEAKER_00: We understand that, but but let's be spiritual.
• 9:36
  SPEAKER_00: Let's value the spirit.
• 9:38
  SPEAKER_00: Let's value the promise that God made because he said, I'm going to do that, and that that's going to take care of it.
• 9:45
  SPEAKER_00: That's going to be what they need.
• 9:46
  SPEAKER_00: That's going to change everything.
• 9:48
  SPEAKER_00: It's going to save my people.
• 9:50
  SPEAKER_00: It's going to bring them peace and joy.
• 9:52
  SPEAKER_00: It's going to bring them the abundance and goodness.
• 9:55
  SPEAKER_00: It'll bring the kingdom of God to them where they'll experience this.
• 9:59
  SPEAKER_00: In fact, in John chapter 3, it's a very, there's a very familiar passage where Jesus answered and said to Nicodemus, most assuredly I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.
• 10:15
  SPEAKER_00: Now we've taken, we've sort of taken that and used it in what I think is a very narrow way to where essentially what we said this means is, unless you're saved, you don't get to go to heaven when you die.
• 10:31
  SPEAKER_00: But it was so much bigger than all of that.
• 10:34
  SPEAKER_00: He's talking spiritual existence, and he says, unless a man is born again, and that born again is born of the Spirit, or born from above, coming from the Spirit, living from the Spirit, born of the Spirit, operating from the Spirit.
• 10:50
  SPEAKER_00: He said, unless one is born again, he cannot see.
• 10:55
  SPEAKER_00: Cannot see.
• 10:57
  SPEAKER_00: Without the Spirit, he cannot see the kingdom of God.
• 11:02
  SPEAKER_00: In fact, that word see is a Greek word, Ido, which means literally to see, to know, to be aware of.
• 11:11
  SPEAKER_00: So he's talking about a condition here that we live in, where it's not just not just something that happens when the body falls down lifeless, that it's an awareness of something, it's knowing something.
• 11:27
  SPEAKER_00: Jesus totally saw the Father and saw the things of the kingdom.
• 11:32
  SPEAKER_00: That's why he did what he did.
• 11:35
  SPEAKER_00: He saw things completely different than his disciples did, didn't he?
• 11:40
  SPEAKER_00: When there were thousands of people that needed to be fed, Jesus saw the abundance.
• 11:44
  SPEAKER_00: Why?
• 11:45
  SPEAKER_00: Because in the kingdom there's nothing but abundance.
• 11:47
  SPEAKER_00: There is no lack here.
• 11:50
  SPEAKER_00: Think about it.
• 11:52
  SPEAKER_00: In the kingdom of heaven, in the kingdom.
• 11:57
  SPEAKER_00: You know, when we we lose a loved one to death, one of the things that we take solace in is that we know that they're not in pain, they're not in anything ugly, no fear, no stress, no worry, no none of those things.
• 12:16
  SPEAKER_00: And if all of that is in the Spirit, if it's in the kingdom of God, then really we understand He didn't just do all of this just to take us to a place when we die only.
• 12:28
  SPEAKER_00: But he came to give us an existence that he showed us as He would operate it, that He operated in.
• 12:36
  SPEAKER_00: He said, I do what I see the Father do, I hear what I say, what I hear, the Father saying.
• 12:41
  SPEAKER_00: So he was hearing and seeing some things by the Spirit that lived within him.
• 12:48
  SPEAKER_00: So he saw things.
• 12:49
  SPEAKER_00: He saw things completely different.
• 12:51
  SPEAKER_00: He saw people completely different.
• 12:55
  SPEAKER_00: But the seeing only came because he had the spirit without measure.
• 13:02
  SPEAKER_00: And so do you, because the book of John says that God gives the Spirit without measure.
• 13:07
  SPEAKER_00: He doesn't measure, he didn't measure you a little bit.
• 13:11
  SPEAKER_00: It's God Himself living in us.
• 13:14
  SPEAKER_00: And there's that part of us that allows us, that has enabled us to see.
• 13:17
  SPEAKER_00: And that's why all of you that have on this walk with God, you see things that you didn't once see.
• 13:23
  SPEAKER_00: I know I do.
• 13:25
  SPEAKER_00: I see things that I swore weren't true.
• 13:30
  SPEAKER_00: And those things that we've seen have changed us.
• 13:34
  SPEAKER_00: It's made me a lot happier, made me a lot nicer to be around.
• 13:39
  SPEAKER_00: It's made you look a whole lot better, too.
• 13:41
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, you don't irritate me so easily now.
• 13:45
  SPEAKER_00: It certainly changed my outlook on life.
• 13:47
  SPEAKER_00: It's made me a grateful soul.
• 13:51
  SPEAKER_00: Sometimes I wish people could see where I've come from.
• 13:54
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, because I think I wonder if people even believe it when I talk about it.
• 13:58
  SPEAKER_00: If they think I'm exaggerating how I used to be.
• 14:00
  SPEAKER_00: I'm not even telling the half of it.
• 14:04
  SPEAKER_00: But I remember being as a young man, and I've uh had a relative who's a very who was a very negative, worrywart type of person, looked at me one time and said, Rick, you've got the worst outlook on life I've ever seen.
• 14:18
  SPEAKER_00: And that's a lot coming from her, of my grandma.
• 14:22
  SPEAKER_00: Love grandma, sweet, wonderful woman.
• 14:24
  SPEAKER_00: Probably loved me more than anybody I've ever known.
• 14:28
  SPEAKER_00: But she was that way.
• 14:31
  SPEAKER_00: She thought I had the worst outlook on life.
• 14:33
  SPEAKER_00: Because everything was just, there was nothing but negativity.
• 14:36
  SPEAKER_00: Nothing was good.
• 14:37
  SPEAKER_00: I was convinced that nobody could ever be happy in this world.
• 14:40
  SPEAKER_00: It's too ugly, it's too hard.
• 14:42
  SPEAKER_00: There's not enough good going on.
• 14:44
  SPEAKER_00: There's a whole lot of bad, and it seems like it's all happening to me.
• 14:50
  SPEAKER_00: Sometimes wondered why I even continued to live.
• 14:54
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, that's how how the negativity was upon me.
• 14:58
  SPEAKER_00: That's all I could see.
• 15:01
  SPEAKER_00: Of course, now I see so much more.
• 15:02
  SPEAKER_00: I see that life can be good, and there's so much wonderful, there's so much beauty, and there's so much love, and I see all those things, but I didn't see any of it then.
• 15:09
  SPEAKER_00: Why?
• 15:10
  SPEAKER_00: I was overwhelmed with the veil of the things of the natural world that that seemed to be so much bigger than any good that might have been going on.
• 15:19
  SPEAKER_00: And there's a reason for that.
• 15:21
  SPEAKER_00: There's a reason that you ever wonder why, at least I know people ask me this a lot, they say, Rick, why is it why is it so much easier to not believe than to believe?
• 15:31
  SPEAKER_00: Why is it so much easier to expect something bad than to expect something good?
• 15:37
  SPEAKER_00: Why does it seem that so many humans that that it's more natural to gravitate toward what is wrong or what is negative?
• 15:46
  SPEAKER_00: Because it happens.
• 15:48
  SPEAKER_00: Many of us look in the mirror.
• 15:50
  SPEAKER_00: Some of you are very handsome and beautiful people here, but you go home and look in the mirror and you find one thing that's wrong.
• 16:00
  SPEAKER_00: And it's like your whole face looks like that.
• 16:07
  SPEAKER_00: I don't do that because there's nothing wrong with my face, but I you see, you shouldn't even laugh at that because now you're telling me something.
• 16:19
  SPEAKER_00: But what we'll do that.
• 16:21
  SPEAKER_00: I'll look at myself and it's like, oh, I need this done.
• 16:23
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, I need that done.
• 16:24
  SPEAKER_00: I need all these, you can see all these things, and and and we're seeing what's wrong, and we're missing the beauty of the whole thing.
• 16:32
  SPEAKER_00: And we do that in life.
• 16:33
  SPEAKER_00: And then why, why, why, what's the reason for that?
• 16:36
  SPEAKER_00: Well, uh, simply we could say it's the former, it's that former nature, and we see that right off the bat.
• 16:42
  SPEAKER_00: When Adam, uh, you know, when we got that knowledge of good and evil, it first thing he saw was how bad he looked.
• 16:50
  SPEAKER_00: What's wrong?
• 16:52
  SPEAKER_00: The world looks at what's wrong.
• 16:54
  SPEAKER_00: They're always trying to fix what's wrong.
• 16:55
  SPEAKER_00: That's why so much church has so much condemn has had so much condemnation preaching, because we're trying to fix what's wrong.
• 17:02
  SPEAKER_00: Here's what you need to be doing, here's what you need to get out of your life, here's what you need to stop, here's what you here's what we what God expects of us.
• 17:09
  SPEAKER_00: You need to do more.
• 17:11
  SPEAKER_00: You say you're already praying, pray more.
• 17:13
  SPEAKER_00: You're giving, give more.
• 17:15
  SPEAKER_00: You need you're already evangelizing, do it more.
• 17:18
  SPEAKER_00: Whatever it is, do it more, do it better, do it louder.
• 17:22
  SPEAKER_00: Fix this, fix that.
• 17:24
  SPEAKER_00: I read yesterday an article which said that that life coaching and self-help resources is such a booming business never than uh more than ever before.
• 17:36
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm not against those things.
• 17:37
  SPEAKER_00: There's good truth and positive things in all this, and in all these things sometimes, but but it says, in spite of all of that, people are spending more on self-help resources, getting help through life coaching and all that, all trying to trying to get better, trying to get happier, and they're more unhappy than they've been.
• 17:59
  SPEAKER_00: There is so much unhappiness in spite of all of this.
• 18:04
  SPEAKER_00: Because people are overwhelmed with the negative, and there's always more to fix.
• 18:09
  SPEAKER_00: There's always more to fix.
• 18:12
  SPEAKER_00: Negativity comes in a scientific way, if you'd like to study the brain, which I do, it's it's cortisol.
• 18:18
  SPEAKER_00: There's a chemical that the brain really likes these chemical drugs that get released, and negativity has this cortisol that's released, and it's it was given for a defense mechanism.
• 18:31
  SPEAKER_00: Back when we had to be afraid that there might be wild animals behind the trees.
• 18:36
  SPEAKER_00: There was the possibility, we had to be aware that there's a possibility of something bad happening there, and that's a much stronger emotion than the emotion that says, Oh, there's no wild animals behind those trees.
• 18:50
  SPEAKER_00: Yippee.
• 18:52
  SPEAKER_00: You don't, you, you, you, you, you, you don't gravitate to that.
• 18:57
  SPEAKER_00: So many people think, what's wrong with the church world today?
• 19:01
  SPEAKER_00: Why does it seem, you hear, I've heard this before, why does it seem like most of the pastors in churches, now this isn't true, but this is what people have said, why does it seem like most of the pastors in churches are either stealing money or having affairs or falling into immorality and all that?
• 19:17
  SPEAKER_00: And and and it does seem like that, but it's really not true statistically.
• 19:22
  SPEAKER_00: It's just that whenever you hear about it, it's big.
• 19:26
  SPEAKER_00: And it gets your attention and it makes you talk.
• 19:32
  SPEAKER_00: Because nobody ever writes a story, nobody like tomorrow, if I'm faithful to my wife and I don't steal any money, nobody's gonna talk about that.
• 19:43
  SPEAKER_00: That doesn't get anybody's attention.
• 19:46
  SPEAKER_00: But the negative, then the negative does.
• 19:49
  SPEAKER_00: So we have that, and and and being aware of that, also understand that we have the spirit that speaks truth, and it's the truth that makes us free.
• 19:58
  SPEAKER_00: And the truth, that the truth really looks at everything, and it gives the whole picture.
• 20:06
  SPEAKER_00: It gives the good a real chance.
• 20:13
  SPEAKER_00: It allows us to see the goodness of God.
• 20:16
  SPEAKER_00: And we were hearing this this morning about how God is loving and forgiving, and he's all about reconciliation, and people, people, people struggle with this, and I want to believe he loves me.
• 20:26
  SPEAKER_00: I want to believe that I'm forgiven, and how do I get that?
• 20:29
  SPEAKER_00: And and and it's hard to explain because I'd love to give three steps if that was a way to do it, but there's a there's a spirit in man, and the inspiration of the Almighty gives him understanding, and you know this by the Spirit.
• 20:40
  SPEAKER_00: So, what we're talking about here is connecting to the Spirit, or let's say it this way: let's start putting much more value because we put a lot of value on this.
• 20:51
  SPEAKER_00: Because we're used to this, we're used to doing that, we're used to letting this be the boss, we're used to letting this tell us what's real and what's not, and what's true and what's not, and all it can do is just take in sensual information and give us a feedback.
• 21:09
  SPEAKER_00: But there's a spirit that knows God, that knows eternal things, and we give it more value and understand that when this when when this thing is buried in the ground or burned or however you do gonna do it, this is gonna live forever.
• 21:24
  SPEAKER_00: You, the real you, the hidden man of the heart, gonna live forever.
• 21:28
  SPEAKER_00: If your body were to, if my body were to fall down dead right now, I'd still be standing somewhere.
• 21:33
  SPEAKER_00: I'm still alive.
• 21:36
  SPEAKER_00: And always gonna be, always gonna be existing, always gonna be alive, always gonna be walking with God forever and ever and ever, whether in this body or out, I will live.
• 21:48
  SPEAKER_00: And so will you.
• 21:50
  SPEAKER_00: And this is who we really are, amen.
• 21:54
  SPEAKER_00: This is who we really are.
• 21:57
  SPEAKER_00: Born from above, we're born of the spirit.
• 22:01
  SPEAKER_00: We're a new creation.
• 22:04
  SPEAKER_00: Spiritual.
• 22:05
  SPEAKER_00: We hear the spirit.
• 22:06
  SPEAKER_00: We know the spirit.
• 22:08
  SPEAKER_00: We listen to the spirit.
• 22:10
  SPEAKER_00: We value, and I think that's the word I'm I keep coming back to.
• 22:13
  SPEAKER_00: We value the spirit.
• 22:16
  SPEAKER_00: We value the reality of this thing, that we're not alone with just our thoughts.
• 22:24
  SPEAKER_00: We value the spirit.
• 22:25
  SPEAKER_00: And the spirit knows all things.
• 22:28
  SPEAKER_00: The spirit reveals truth.
• 22:30
  SPEAKER_00: The spirit.
• 22:34
  SPEAKER_00: That's where the life is.
• 22:37
  SPEAKER_00: In fact, Romans 8 9 tells us that we're there, that we have that.
• 22:41
  SPEAKER_00: It says, You are not in the flesh, but you're in the spirit.
• 22:46
  SPEAKER_00: If God dwells in you.
• 22:48
  SPEAKER_00: And then down there in previous verse in the same chapter, he says, But he that's in the flesh is the one that puts his mind on the things of the flesh, but he that's in the spirit or operates in the spirit, walking in the spirit, by the spirit, is that that puts his attention on the things of the spirit.
• 23:04
  SPEAKER_00: It's just a matter of that, of looking.
• 23:07
  SPEAKER_00: It's like Clark and I were talking uh last week after service, and and and and and this is why I wanted to bring this part out in more fullness is that it's not that we can't see, we can.
• 23:18
  SPEAKER_00: We do.
• 23:21
  SPEAKER_00: But do are we looking?
• 23:23
  SPEAKER_00: We have the ability to see, we have the spirit.
• 23:27
  SPEAKER_00: But are we looking?
• 23:30
  SPEAKER_00: Or are we being fascinated by all the negative that's going on?
• 23:34
  SPEAKER_00: You know, Jesus said in Mark chapter 4, uh, you know, he talked about the type of ground where the thorns spring up and they they they choke the word and they make it unfruitful.
• 23:42
  SPEAKER_00: It doesn't say it kills the plant.
• 23:44
  SPEAKER_00: They're still going to church.
• 23:46
  SPEAKER_00: They're still alive, it's still a living green plant.
• 23:49
  SPEAKER_00: Now, the ones, the other ones that he talked about, they died, but this one's still alive, it's just not bearing fruit.
• 23:57
  SPEAKER_00: Love, joy, peace, gentleness, goodness, kindness, fruit.
• 24:01
  SPEAKER_00: And he said, and and and he says, why?
• 24:03
  SPEAKER_00: He says, it's the cares of this life.
• 24:06
  SPEAKER_00: It's the distractions or desires of other things, the deceitfulness of just making the living and these outward things.
• 24:15
  SPEAKER_00: He says, they distract, they they deceive, they get our attention.
• 24:19
  SPEAKER_00: He says, and that's what's going on there.
• 24:22
  SPEAKER_00: But what's the antidote, Rick?
• 24:24
  SPEAKER_00: Just be aware of something today.
• 24:25
  SPEAKER_00: I guess that's what I'm saying.
• 24:26
  SPEAKER_00: Value something, value the eye of your spirit, value that you can know things, value that you know.
• 24:32
  SPEAKER_00: I love going to it so often when there's a problem.
• 24:35
  SPEAKER_00: What does God say?
• 24:36
  SPEAKER_00: What does the spirit say?
• 24:37
  SPEAKER_00: When people are telling, listen, there is so much unsubstantiated information bouncing around all over the place.
• 24:45
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, I'm thankful for the spirit because I'm finding myself almost every day.
• 24:50
  SPEAKER_00: What does the spirit say about this?
• 24:54
  SPEAKER_00: Does he want me living in this protracted vision of fear that if this happens, all hell, we're gonna all, you know, it's all are we gonna be motivated by the fear of what men are doing or listen to what the spirit says?
• 25:10
  SPEAKER_00: Because in the spirit we're we're we're we're established, we're strong, we're steadfast, we stand in truth, and we're able to stand and declare and give this world what it really needs, and that's the things of the spirit, the speaking things of the spirit, sowing seeds of the spirit, and not the repeated words of man that are bringing about fear, bringing about anger, bringing about hate.
• 25:40
  SPEAKER_00: Not alone what it's doing in culture and society, but what it does in the individual.
• 25:53
  SPEAKER_00: I'm running across the I can get negative now.
• 26:01
  SPEAKER_00: Colossians 3.
• 26:03
  SPEAKER_00: Colossians 3, verse 1 says, if then you were raised with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ is sitting at the right hand of God, set your mind on things above and not on the things of the earth.
• 26:16
  SPEAKER_00: There again.
• 26:17
  SPEAKER_00: It's on the things of the spirit, it's on things above, born from above.
• 26:22
  SPEAKER_00: And if we're risen with Christ, and there again, we are.
• 26:31
  SPEAKER_00: What does that even mean?
• 26:32
  SPEAKER_00: How what how what how am I supposed to even think of that and all that?
• 26:35
  SPEAKER_00: In the spirit, you know it.
• 26:38
  SPEAKER_00: You know you're with him.
• 26:40
  SPEAKER_00: In the spirit, you know you're spiritual.
• 26:42
  SPEAKER_00: In the spirit, you know that you know you are God's child.
• 26:47
  SPEAKER_00: You are in the family, you are one with him, you're close, you're tight with him.
• 26:52
  SPEAKER_00: You know this in the spirit.
• 26:53
  SPEAKER_00: If we're only in the brain, it's like, uh, give me another scripture, Rick.
• 26:56
  SPEAKER_00: What do I have?
• 26:57
  SPEAKER_00: Uh you got a verse that'll help me with this and all that, and like we get these calls, and and and like like let's be spiritual.
• 27:04
  SPEAKER_00: Let's understand.
• 27:04
  SPEAKER_00: I think people don't know that they can see.
• 27:07
  SPEAKER_00: Somebody asked me one time, even about hearing, says, says, Rick, why does it seem like it's like it's so hard to hear God?
• 27:14
  SPEAKER_00: And my answer to Thomas says, it might be because you think it's hard to hear God.
• 27:20
  SPEAKER_00: And that's that's true, for as a man thinks in his heart, so is he, right?
• 27:25
  SPEAKER_00: And I remember sharing how I how I, you know, one time I was apologizing.
• 27:28
  SPEAKER_00: I said, God, I seem like I can't hear you.
• 27:30
  SPEAKER_00: I'm just I'm I'm I'm dense here, I'm sorry.
• 27:33
  SPEAKER_00: And and then the Lord just let me know.
• 27:35
  SPEAKER_00: He says, I can cause you to hear.
• 27:38
  SPEAKER_00: I can cause rocks to hear and they'll cry out.
• 27:41
  SPEAKER_00: I can cause Balaam's donkey to to hear me and he'll talk.
• 27:45
  SPEAKER_00: I can cause you to hear.
• 27:46
  SPEAKER_00: And suddenly it became more about what he can do, how he can reveal to me, rather than my ability to get it.
• 27:55
  SPEAKER_00: It's the rest in the spirit.
• 27:58
  SPEAKER_00: If we're raised with Christ, let's put our mind on the things of the Spirit.
• 28:02
  SPEAKER_00: And what do the things of the Spirit do?
• 28:03
  SPEAKER_00: What when you put your attention on God, His Spirit, sometimes you just gotta in the in the all the noise, please, and all the noise that's going on, just be still and listen.
• 28:20
  SPEAKER_00: The Bible says, be still and know.
• 28:27
  SPEAKER_00: I love knowing.
• 28:29
  SPEAKER_00: I love getting that knowing when the world is looking shaky and all this stuff is going on, and you just stop for a moment and you be still and then you just know we put our attention on the things about the seat.
• 29:03
  SPEAKER_00: Right at the right hand of the father.
• 29:10
  SPEAKER_00: Have you ever looked at that in the spirit and also that you're seated right there too.
• 29:27
  SPEAKER_00: You're aware of that.
• 29:29
  SPEAKER_00: You're not trying to bring your way out of these things.
• 29:32
  SPEAKER_00: You're not down here fighting all this fight that's going on.
• 29:41
  SPEAKER_00: You're looking all that's going on.
• 29:47
  SPEAKER_00: But you look at it from a whole different perspective.
• 29:58
  SPEAKER_00: There's such love.
• 30:06
  SPEAKER_00: The promise has come.
• 30:08
  SPEAKER_00: The comforter has come, the spirit has come.
• 30:18
  SPEAKER_00: One of my favorite quotes of all time.
• 30:28
  SPEAKER_00: She came up with you know her.
• 30:30
  SPEAKER_00: She was a drug addict, and you know, so many creative people have been on that.
• 30:36
  SPEAKER_00: And there's a beautiful line in the poem aurorally.
• 30:39
  SPEAKER_00: It says, Earth is crowned with heaven.
• 30:42
  SPEAKER_00: Every common bush is a fire with God.
• 30:46
  SPEAKER_00: But only he takes off his shoes.
• 30:50
  SPEAKER_00: Would y'all stand up with me?
• 30:55
  SPEAKER_00: And uh I want to pray.
• 31:03
  SPEAKER_00: And um and I want to pray that this is not just a good message or a bad message, whatever.
• 31:24
  SPEAKER_00: I want to pray kind of like Paul prayed for the Ephesians.
• 31:30
  SPEAKER_00: You know, he could have prayed a lot of things, I'm sure they had a lot of needs, but he said, I pray that you would have the spirit of wisdom and revelation and the knowledge of him, which is the eyes of your understanding being opened so you can know.
• 31:53
  SPEAKER_00: So you can know.
• 31:54
  SPEAKER_00: Somebody says, What is it seeing?
• 31:55
  SPEAKER_00: You're not you're not imagining a picture of God being aware of perfection, his goodness, his love in you and all around you.
• 32:10
  SPEAKER_00: What is it to see God?
• 32:12
  SPEAKER_00: What is it to see the kingdom?
• 32:13
  SPEAKER_00: What's it look like, Rick?
• 32:14
  SPEAKER_00: You know it when you know it.
• 32:17
  SPEAKER_00: It feels very peaceful, it feels like there's abundance.
• 32:24
  SPEAKER_00: If you need healing in your body, just being aware, you realize you're living in a kingdom.
• 32:34
  SPEAKER_00: You're living in the spirit, you're living in a presence, you're living in a place where there's really no lack, no sickness, no nothing in the kingdom.
• 32:47
  SPEAKER_00: You're living in a place where they're in the spirit.
• 32:50
  SPEAKER_00: It's impossible to fear by living out of your spirit.
• 32:57
  SPEAKER_00: You cannot do it.
• 32:59
  SPEAKER_00: You cannot be sad with the spirit of joy, having taken the ascendancy.
• 33:06
  SPEAKER_00: You cannot be sad.
• 33:08
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, sad things can happen, but you won't be overcome by it, I'll say it that way, or it becomes a part of you.
• 33:20
  SPEAKER_00: Because in the Spirit, in His presence, there's fullness.
• 33:27
  SPEAKER_00: Can it be that God was that good, that He had that in mind for us, that He said that He left the world like it is, and Jesus said there's trip there's there's still tribulation in this world?
• 33:37
  SPEAKER_00: But in me there will be peace in the middle of all this.
• 33:43
  SPEAKER_00: And go ahead and have fun and rejoice and enjoy this.
• 33:48
  SPEAKER_00: Be of good cheer.
• 33:51
  SPEAKER_00: Because I have overcome all of that.
• 33:55
  SPEAKER_00: And I see something now.
• 33:56
  SPEAKER_00: I see how he's done that.
• 33:59
  SPEAKER_00: I'm no longer, I'm no longer looking through a dark veil in this area where I'm like, how are you going to do that?
• 34:05
  SPEAKER_00: When are you going?
• 34:06
  SPEAKER_00: I see he's overcome it by giving me the eyes, the spirit.
• 34:12
  SPEAKER_00: I see.
• 34:15
  SPEAKER_00: By seeing, I'm learning this thing.
• 34:18
  SPEAKER_00: Loving what I'm learning that in the midst of all this horrible.
• 34:23
  SPEAKER_00: And there's not, by the way, there's not just horrible going on in the world.
• 34:31
  SPEAKER_00: There's so much good.
• 34:33
  SPEAKER_00: There is a lot of love.
• 34:36
  SPEAKER_00: There's a lot of goodness that humans are doing.
• 34:42
  SPEAKER_00: I contend it's not getting worse and worse.
• 34:46
  SPEAKER_00: Because I see something else happening.
• 34:52
  SPEAKER_00: And in the spirit, you can't be overcome by the evil that some people might be doing.
• 35:06
  SPEAKER_00: You see, I love you guys.
• 35:09
  SPEAKER_00: And very simply, I want you happy every day.
• 35:15
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know how to stop trials from happening in your life.
• 35:18
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know how to stop them from my life, really.
• 35:20
  SPEAKER_00: Never figured that out.
• 35:21
  SPEAKER_00: I've tried.
• 35:24
  SPEAKER_00: Job really tried.
• 35:25
  SPEAKER_00: He couldn't stop it either.
• 35:28
  SPEAKER_00: But I have found something that I'm hooked on.
• 35:33
  SPEAKER_00: I've found something that's changed everything.
• 35:35
  SPEAKER_00: And it's heavenly vision.
• 35:40
  SPEAKER_00: Judy and I have this thing, we we we laugh about it, but we're very serious about it.
• 35:45
  SPEAKER_00: But I really believe that that is our a superpower that we have.
• 35:51
  SPEAKER_00: That we can see the kingdom.
• 35:53
  SPEAKER_00: We can see good.
• 35:57
  SPEAKER_00: We can see good when we look at God.
• 36:02
  SPEAKER_00: In spite of all the lies that people told me about God, it was him, the spirit in me, the part of me that knows him for real.
• 36:13
  SPEAKER_00: When I was willing to look at him honestly and let the spirit show me him, and without me arguing about it, without me fighting to have an image of God that looked uglier, just let the spirit show me.
• 36:26
  SPEAKER_00: It started to blow me away.
• 36:28
  SPEAKER_00: I thought, wow, God, can he be that good?
• 36:33
  SPEAKER_00: And now I realize he's got to be.
• 36:36
  SPEAKER_00: I know.
• 36:37
  SPEAKER_00: I know that I know he's even gooder than what I can see now.
• 36:41
  SPEAKER_00: And that excites me.
• 36:44
  SPEAKER_00: Can God have good for this world?
• 36:47
  SPEAKER_00: Not only can he, it's inevitable.
• 36:54
  SPEAKER_00: Can God actually love some of these people that I feel like we're commanded by God to hate?
• 37:02
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, see with your spirit.
• 37:06
  SPEAKER_00: There's so much power.
• 37:12
  SPEAKER_00: What about my life, Rick?
• 37:14
  SPEAKER_00: You don't know what I'm going through.
• 37:15
  SPEAKER_00: I don't.
• 37:16
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm sorry for your pain.
• 37:17
  SPEAKER_00: I really am.
• 37:18
  SPEAKER_00: I don't I hate it everybody might have hurt.
• 37:25
  SPEAKER_00: But there is a promise.
• 37:29
  SPEAKER_00: I really want to wrap this up.
• 37:31
  SPEAKER_00: Try.
• 37:33
  SPEAKER_00: Let me say it like this.
• 37:36
  SPEAKER_00: And it doesn't take trying real hard.
• 37:39
  SPEAKER_00: Don't strain to see these things.
• 37:42
  SPEAKER_00: In fact, do the opposite.
• 37:46
  SPEAKER_00: Rest.
• 37:47
  SPEAKER_00: Like sitting back in a spiritual, easy chair and just let God be.
• 37:53
  SPEAKER_00: Rest and know.
• 37:57
  SPEAKER_00: And let peace happen, please.
• 38:01
  SPEAKER_00: Because he's bringing it all the time.
• 38:04
  SPEAKER_00: I've come to believe that God is revealing and speaking all the time.
• 38:10
  SPEAKER_00: Let's value that.
• 38:11
  SPEAKER_00: And let's listen.
• 38:13
  SPEAKER_00: Even though the brain has become addicted to a chemical that makes us want to gravitate towards something that angers us, towards something that causes us to point the finger and to curse, towards something that would break a sense of oppression upon our lives.
• 38:40
  SPEAKER_00: But the spirit does the total opposite.
• 38:44
  SPEAKER_00: And it does, it's not giving you fake feelings about it, it's not giving you denial about the situation.
• 38:49
  SPEAKER_00: The spirit is making us bigger.
• 38:53
  SPEAKER_00: Or revealing to us that we're bigger because we are, and greater is he that's in us than he that's in the world.
• 39:05
  SPEAKER_00: Well, that was my prayer.
• 39:08
  SPEAKER_00: Bless you.
• 39:08
  SPEAKER_00: I love you guys.
• 39:10
  unknown: Enjoy.