Latest / Rick Manis Ministries Podcast / The Abundance of the Kingdom of God

Transcript

The Abundance of the Kingdom of God · Rick Manis Ministries Podcast

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_00: And in Genesis 48, beginning in verse 13, we jump into this uh story with uh Joseph and his daddy, Israel.
• 0:11
  SPEAKER_00: And uh Joseph has brought his two sons to him, Ephraim and Manasseh.
• 0:18
  SPEAKER_00: And Isaac is old, and his eyes, he doesn't he can't see very well because he's so old, and he and uh he he wants to bless the boys, and he says, Bring bring your sons to me.
• 0:31
  SPEAKER_00: In verse 13, it says, Then Joseph took them both, Ephraim in his right hand, toward Israel's left hand, and Manasseh with his left hand toward Israel's right hand, and he brought them near him.
• 0:44
  SPEAKER_00: So now you picture this.
• 0:45
  SPEAKER_00: Here's Israel, he's sitting here in his chair.
• 0:48
  SPEAKER_00: Joseph brings his two young boys to him, and he takes Ephraim in his right hand and push and pushes him in front of Israel, in front of his left hand, to be blessed by him at his left hand.
• 1:01
  SPEAKER_00: He takes Manasseh, because Manasseh was the firstborn in his left hand and puts him in front of Israel's right hand so he can have, he can bless him as the firstborn with his right hand.
• 1:14
  SPEAKER_00: He is going to giving them so that Israel can bless Manasseh with his right, the firstborn, the secondborn, Ephraim, with his left hand.
• 1:23
  SPEAKER_00: The right hand blessing is the blessing of the firstborn.
• 1:27
  SPEAKER_00: It's a greater blessing.
• 1:29
  SPEAKER_00: Um it's it's it's it's coveted.
• 1:32
  SPEAKER_00: People have been jealous of it, people have thought about it, but rightfully it belongs to uh Manasseh the firstborn, and uh Joseph knows it.
• 1:43
  SPEAKER_00: So he sets them in the proper order.
• 1:45
  SPEAKER_00: And verse 14 says, and Israel stretched out his right hand and he laid it on Ephraim's head instead.
• 1:51
  SPEAKER_00: He crossed his hand over.
• 1:53
  SPEAKER_00: And he crossed his hand and he laid it on Ephraim's head, who was the younger one.
• 1:57
  SPEAKER_00: And he put his left hand on Manasseh's head, guiding his hands knowingly, or wittingly.
• 2:03
  SPEAKER_00: In other words, he knew what he was doing.
• 2:05
  SPEAKER_00: He wasn't making a mistake, he knew what he was doing, guiding his hands knowingly, uh, even though Manasseh was the firstborn.
• 2:13
  SPEAKER_00: So on purpose, Israel is giving the right hand blessing to the secondborn, not the firstborn.
• 2:19
  SPEAKER_00: Now, the significance of this is the is the is the boys' names.
• 2:24
  SPEAKER_00: The spiritual message here that God, that this is why that why God gave us this story here to show us something that is very consistent throughout the Word of God, and it's and it's it is the way of operation in the kingdom.
• 2:38
  SPEAKER_00: It's talked about in the New Testament, which we'll look at that.
• 2:41
  SPEAKER_00: But but the significance is the names.
• 2:44
  SPEAKER_00: Manasseh the firstborn means means to forget, or actually, he was named because uh his when his mother named him, she had not been able to bear a son, and she has she was uh she was very sorrowful because uh because of that.
• 2:59
  SPEAKER_00: And when Manasseh the firstborn was born, she rejoiced and she named him Manasseh.
• 3:03
  SPEAKER_00: She said, because God causes, has caused me to forget all of my pain and all my sorrow.
• 3:11
  SPEAKER_00: And then the secondborn, when he was born, Ephraim, um, Ephraim means double fruit or abundance of fruit, fruitfulness, essentially.
• 3:21
  SPEAKER_00: So the firstborn is firstborn is to forget, and the secondborn is fruitful.
• 3:27
  SPEAKER_00: And here's a significance of that, because when we look at the difference of operations, you know, we'll read this here in just a moment, but in Romans 8, where he talks about the difference, Paul talks about the difference between the carnal mind and the spiritual mind, heavenly mind.
• 3:42
  SPEAKER_00: And he says the carnal mind puts his attention on the things of the flesh, but the spiritually minded put it on the things of the spirit.
• 3:50
  SPEAKER_00: And and and the way it normally operates, if you look at this and think of this just for a moment, is that in the carnal mind, in the fallen man's mindset, ever since the first day of that fall that we read about in the book of Genesis, the idea of mankind has been to get rid of what is wrong.
• 4:16
  SPEAKER_00: The idea has been to attack what is wrong.
• 4:21
  SPEAKER_00: The idea has been to get rid of poverty.
• 4:25
  SPEAKER_00: Um many of us might pray, Lord, when if you're hurting, if you're sick, say, Lord, take away this pain or take away this sickness, because you're looking at the sickness or the lack or what needs to be gone that you don't want to be there and you want it removed.
• 4:44
  SPEAKER_00: And and and and and and the reason that there's there's a different way of looking at this is that in the spirit, the spirit comes from abundance in the kingdom of man, you c uh it's based on a it's based on a uh a foundation of lust and lack and want and need and hunger and thirst.
• 5:03
  SPEAKER_00: When we fell, when we chose to make it about ourselves instead of about God, who was our fullness.
• 5:10
  SPEAKER_00: And we chose to get our own fullness, and that's what that whole thing about the tree of knowledge of good and evil was.
• 5:16
  SPEAKER_00: And when we when we chose that, it all became about us, and the first thing we do is what?
• 5:21
  SPEAKER_00: We're afraid and we're ashamed because we see ourselves lacking.
• 5:25
  SPEAKER_00: And immediately we try to deal with the lack.
• 5:30
  SPEAKER_00: And we've been coming from a position of lack and need and want, and that's why most of the prayers of Christianity are about lacks and needs and wants.
• 5:43
  SPEAKER_00: And I see in in my operation with my brothers and sisters in the body of Christ, and in our travels, we see that this is this is something that there's a change going on where by and large the body of Christ is is being presented with a new and living way, is presented with the ways of the kingdom that so many of them just really haven't been shown yet.
• 6:04
  SPEAKER_00: It's kind of sad in a way, very sad actually.
• 6:07
  SPEAKER_00: And they haven't been shown how to live in the abundance of the kingdom.
• 6:11
  SPEAKER_00: And so many of them are lack um oriented instead of abundance-oriented.
• 6:19
  SPEAKER_00: And so Joseph is putting his sons here because the firstborn is to forget.
• 6:26
  SPEAKER_00: People want God to remove the pain, remove the sorrow, remove the lack from my life, remove the darkness from my life, remove what's wrong, because if you can remove what's wrong, I think I'll be happy.
• 6:44
  SPEAKER_00: Hmm.
• 6:49
  SPEAKER_00: We have the picture that we refer to a lot where where God took care of everything that was wrong for 40 years in the wilderness.
• 6:58
  SPEAKER_00: And they were never happy.
• 7:00
  SPEAKER_00: And what did he say in Deuteronomy 28 about that?
• 7:03
  SPEAKER_00: He says, Because you did not serve the Lord your God with joy and gladness of heart for the abundance of all things, therefore you serve your enemies.
• 7:14
  SPEAKER_00: They were not abundance-minded, that's why God said, For forty years they saw my works, but they never knew my ways.
• 7:21
  SPEAKER_00: They didn't operate like me.
• 7:23
  SPEAKER_00: Therefore, when it when it was time to walk in their fullness, they said, We can't, we're grasshoppers.
• 7:29
  SPEAKER_00: They never took on the mind of Christ.
• 7:33
  SPEAKER_00: Huh?
• 7:34
  SPEAKER_00: They were still, when they when they when they saw the promised land, instead of seeing the abundance and acknowledging the abundance, what did they acknowledge?
• 7:43
  SPEAKER_00: Their lack.
• 7:50
  SPEAKER_00: And so we see this uh a similar picture here with the forgetfulness, because one is one is made to forget, and so people think, often Christians think, oh, this works good.
• 8:01
  SPEAKER_00: Give me Manasseh and Ephraim, Manasseh the firstborn.
• 8:04
  SPEAKER_00: God, if you'll cause me to forget my pain, God, if you can remove the sorrow from my memories and my experience, then I can be fruitful.
• 8:13
  SPEAKER_00: I can be Ephraim, the secondborn.
• 8:15
  SPEAKER_00: Give me the firstborn first, give me Manasseh, remove the pain, then I can be fruitful, then I can be happy.
• 8:25
  SPEAKER_00: Christians believe that about their walk with God.
• 8:28
  SPEAKER_00: If I can just remove me and get me out of the way, then I can enjoy God or be godly or be blessed.
• 8:36
  SPEAKER_00: Or then I can enjoy abundant life.
• 8:39
  SPEAKER_00: And there again, the mentality is carnal because you're still trying to deal with a sense of lack and a fallen condition.
• 8:46
  SPEAKER_00: And so that's why one reason the Bible, all through the New Testament, has all this glorious language in it that says you're complete in Him, you're a new creation in Him, now you're sons of God, now you're risen with Christ, now you're seated with Him, now you're resurrected with Him, and all that, and all these things we can acknowledge.
• 9:01
  SPEAKER_00: And what's the church doing today?
• 9:03
  SPEAKER_00: Lord, take away my pain, take away my sorrow, take away the darkness.
• 9:07
  SPEAKER_00: And all that is, is just it's it's ignorance.
• 9:10
  SPEAKER_00: You know, it's carnally minded.
• 9:13
  SPEAKER_00: Huh?
• 9:14
  SPEAKER_00: And as the church of the living God, bless our darling hearts.
• 9:18
  SPEAKER_00: When I say us, I'm not talking about you specifically, I'm talking about our our body of Christ at large.
• 9:24
  SPEAKER_00: But what did God say causes destruction in people's lives?
• 9:28
  SPEAKER_00: My people are destroyed for a what?
• 9:30
  unknown: Lack of knowledge.
• 9:32
  SPEAKER_00: Ignorance, lack of knowledge.
• 9:33
  SPEAKER_00: We just don't know.
• 9:36
  SPEAKER_00: Because we have come from a place of being carnal minded, and a lot of our religious teaching has reinforced that.
• 9:44
  SPEAKER_00: That's where the whole warfare thing comes.
• 9:47
  SPEAKER_00: What's it about?
• 9:48
  SPEAKER_00: Attacking the devil.
• 9:49
  SPEAKER_00: Attacking and all that.
• 9:50
  SPEAKER_00: Why?
• 9:50
  SPEAKER_00: Because you're acknowledging something that needs to go rather than acknowledging the abundance of what you have.
• 9:58
  SPEAKER_00: So so that's uh that's the significance of this picture here is that Joseph is doing it the normal way.
• 10:04
  SPEAKER_00: Put Manasseh first.
• 10:06
  SPEAKER_00: First, let's get Manasseh.
• 10:09
  SPEAKER_00: Cause me to forget, remove the bad, then we can have the fruitful, Ephraim.
• 10:16
  SPEAKER_00: And Israel says, No, it's the other way around.
• 10:19
  SPEAKER_00: I'm putting my right hand on Ephraim.
• 10:22
  SPEAKER_00: We're putting Ephraim first.
• 10:24
  SPEAKER_00: We're going to bless and make you fruitful first, and the other stuff will disappear.
• 10:30
  SPEAKER_00: The forgetting will happen.
• 10:32
  SPEAKER_00: How many of you have grown so much and you've been blessed so much that some of the ways that you used to act or some of the ways you used to think, it almost seems like that wasn't even you anymore.
• 10:40
  SPEAKER_00: It was like a whole different person.
• 10:43
  SPEAKER_00: In fact, how many of you can look back on some of the ways that you might have acted, or some of the ways you might have thought, or some of the ways you might have taught, and it's almost like you forgot how to do that now.
• 10:54
  SPEAKER_00: You don't even know how to do that so much anymore.
• 10:57
  SPEAKER_00: When I just, when I look back on the on my life, I just, I can't do that.
• 11:01
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know how to be that way.
• 11:03
  SPEAKER_00: And that was once my normal, everyday breathing life.
• 11:07
  SPEAKER_00: Huh?
• 11:07
  SPEAKER_00: But it was the abundance of Jesus that came in.
• 11:10
  SPEAKER_00: It was the abundance of the kingdom of heaven that blessed me so much and made me so fruitful that I forgot all that other life.
• 11:17
  SPEAKER_00: I forgot how to be that and do that because I'm a new creation.
• 11:21
  SPEAKER_00: So I'm not on this journey of trying to rehabilitate an old Rick and fix a Rick by getting wrong, get rid of all that's wrong with Rick.
• 11:31
  SPEAKER_00: Because Philippon 6 says that our faith becomes effective by acknowledging all the good things, not the bad things, not what's wrong, not the lack, acknowledging the good things that are within you.
• 11:43
  SPEAKER_00: And those things are in Christ Jesus.
• 11:45
  SPEAKER_00: There again, we're complete in Him.
• 11:47
  SPEAKER_00: Welcome home, church.
• 11:48
  SPEAKER_00: There's no place hell to go.
• 11:51
  SPEAKER_00: You're in the kingdom.
• 11:54
  SPEAKER_00: So he said he put his right hand on Ephraim's head and crossed his left hand over to Manasseh's head, guiding his hands knowingly, because Manasseh was the firstborn.
• 12:05
  SPEAKER_00: Verse 17, jump down there.
• 12:07
  SPEAKER_00: It says, and when Joseph saw that his father laid his right hand on the head of Ephraim, it displeased him.
• 12:12
  SPEAKER_00: So he took a hold of his father's hand and he removed it from, to remove it from Ephraim's head, and to put it over on Manasseh's head and make it right.
• 12:22
  SPEAKER_00: And Joseph said to his father, Not so, my father, this one is the firstborn.
• 12:26
  SPEAKER_00: Put your right hand on his head.
• 12:28
  SPEAKER_00: But his father refused, and he said, I know, my son.
• 12:33
  SPEAKER_00: I know.
• 12:34
  SPEAKER_00: He also, he'll become a people too.
• 12:38
  SPEAKER_00: And he also shall be great.
• 12:40
  SPEAKER_00: But truly his younger brother shall be greater than he, and his descendants will become a multitude of nations.
• 12:47
  SPEAKER_00: So he blessed them that day, saying, By you, Israel will bless, saying, It's by the abundance, Ephraim.
• 12:55
  SPEAKER_00: By you, Israel shall bless, saying, May God make you as Ephraim and as Manasseh, and thus he set Ephraim before Manasseh.
• 13:05
  SPEAKER_00: Go with me to Romans chapter 8.
• 13:09
  SPEAKER_00: Don't you love the Word of God?
• 13:12
  SPEAKER_00: Now, we could we could go on and on and on and on about this.
• 13:19
  SPEAKER_00: You know how?
• 13:21
  SPEAKER_00: I used to pray, Lord, I must decrease so you can increase until I finally read it right there in the page in the Bible.
• 13:27
  SPEAKER_00: John the Baptist didn't say, I must decrease, you must increase.
• 13:30
  SPEAKER_00: He said, You must increase, I must decrease.
• 13:33
  SPEAKER_00: The increase comes first.
• 13:34
  SPEAKER_00: The Ephraim comes before the Manasseh.
• 13:37
  SPEAKER_00: Even though in the natural world, it has to be the Manasseh, they think.
• 13:42
  SPEAKER_00: They try to do the Manasseh first.
• 13:43
  SPEAKER_00: That's what Adam and Eve first did.
• 13:45
  SPEAKER_00: They tried to get rid of their lack.
• 13:46
  SPEAKER_00: They tried to try to fix them what was wrong with them.
• 13:51
  SPEAKER_00: Because they're thinking if we can just get rid of what's wrong, then we'll be right.
• 13:55
  SPEAKER_00: And you can never be right by getting rid of what's wrong.
• 13:59
  SPEAKER_00: That's never worked, never has worked, nobody's been able to do it.
• 14:03
  SPEAKER_00: Even Jesus didn't do it.
• 14:05
  SPEAKER_00: Jesus didn't come and get and come uh to and get rid of what was wrong with him.
• 14:09
  SPEAKER_00: He came right already.
• 14:13
  SPEAKER_00: See, and that's why we have, we see, um, you see this this uh this picture in the whole creation.
• 14:23
  SPEAKER_00: If you look at 1 Corinthians 15, it says there's a verse that says, That which came first is not spiritual but the natural, and afterward the spiritual.
• 14:34
  SPEAKER_00: And it says, and as we have borne the image of the earthly man, so shall we now bear the image of the heavenly man, is talking about the first Adam, the last Adam, Adam, and Jesus.
• 14:43
  SPEAKER_00: And so what we see with the natural eyes, we see Adam, and we see us all in Adam, and then later on, Jesus comes along and makes us a new creation, and it looks like Adam was first.
• 14:57
  SPEAKER_00: But the truth is Jesus was before Adam.
• 15:00
  SPEAKER_00: Right?
• 15:00
  SPEAKER_00: You can see the truth.
• 15:02
  SPEAKER_00: Now, if you look at it in the flesh, you think Adam came first, and then Jesus came thousands of years later.
• 15:06
  SPEAKER_00: But the truth is, Jesus says, before they all were, before Abraham was, I am, before them all, before Adam was created, Jesus was because Adam was created by Jesus.
• 15:16
  SPEAKER_00: For without him, there's nothing made that was made.
• 15:19
  SPEAKER_00: Are you here?
• 15:20
  SPEAKER_00: So when you're aware of the Jesus, then you're operating, you're you can operate in abundance.
• 15:26
  SPEAKER_00: That's why Jesus, when he had gave us the Last Supper, he said, now as often as you do this, remember me, remember me, remember me.
• 15:33
  SPEAKER_00: Don't remember you.
• 15:34
  SPEAKER_00: That's what got you in trouble in the first place, and this is why I had to come.
• 15:38
  SPEAKER_00: Remember me.
• 15:39
  SPEAKER_00: Are y'all here?
• 15:40
  SPEAKER_00: By the acknowledging of every good thing that's in you.
• 15:43
  SPEAKER_00: Greater is he that's in you than he that's in the world.
• 15:46
  SPEAKER_00: And what's in the world is your flesh.
• 15:49
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, Romans chapter 5, uh, excuse me, 8, verse 5.
• 15:53
  SPEAKER_00: And there I mentioned this a moment ago.
• 15:59
  SPEAKER_00: But it's it simply tells how it worked.
• 16:02
  SPEAKER_00: Now, watch this.
• 16:03
  SPEAKER_00: For those who live according to the flesh are those who set their mind on the things of the flesh.
• 16:07
  SPEAKER_00: What are the things of the flesh?
• 16:09
  SPEAKER_00: Everything is wrong with you.
• 16:12
  SPEAKER_00: Everything that's wrong with you, everything that's wrong with your life, don't ever be lied to again about this.
• 16:18
  SPEAKER_00: Don't ever be deceived again about this by thinking if you can just get rid of this one bad thing going on, then you'll be happy.
• 16:27
  SPEAKER_00: God proved that to us, didn't he?
• 16:29
  SPEAKER_00: In that reference that I referenced so much about the people of Israel going through the desert for 40 years.
• 16:34
  SPEAKER_00: He over and over and over again got rid of what was wrong.
• 16:39
  SPEAKER_00: But they never got happy.
• 16:43
  SPEAKER_00: Because the human nature will there's because there's so much wrong.
• 16:49
  SPEAKER_00: There's so much wrong and so much to go wrong in this fallen world.
• 16:54
  SPEAKER_00: And so haven't you noticed the pattern after all these decades of existence?
• 17:00
  SPEAKER_00: That you get rid of something wrong and then there's something else?
• 17:05
  SPEAKER_00: How many of you ever were, how many were ever you were ever in a church or the or in the church world where you where you had the impression that if you could just get rid of what's wrong with you, then you'd have then God would love you, or you'd have God's favor, or you could be blessed, or you'd be more anointed, or or something.
• 17:22
  SPEAKER_00: And you know, if you could just get rid of this, and then you'd be more blessed, more favored, more anointed.
• 17:30
  SPEAKER_00: And uh, you know, and so you you you're you're you're you're in that atmosphere where they're trying to get rid of everything wrong, and so you work on it, and you work on it, and you work on it, and you finally get a breakthrough and you finally muscle over it, and you're like, now I don't have that habit anymore, or now I don't have that tendency, or now I don't have that thing about me, and I've got the victory over it, and praise God, and now I feel holy and I feel clean, and it's wonderful to repent and get rid of that sin because now I know what holiness really feels like, then doggone if they don't find something else wrong with you a few days later.
• 18:02
  SPEAKER_00: And you're working on that, huh?
• 18:04
  SPEAKER_00: And you work and you work and you work, and I promise you, you and if you can't do it, they'll help you find something else wrong with you.
• 18:13
  SPEAKER_00: And in fact, if when you when it looks like you're doing it all right, they'll make up some more.
• 18:18
  SPEAKER_00: I've been in churches where you, I mean, it wasn't an I mean, how many laws are in this Bible?
• 18:22
  SPEAKER_00: Thousands of laws in that Old Testament there?
• 18:25
  SPEAKER_00: 700.
• 18:26
  SPEAKER_00: How many laws?
• 18:27
  SPEAKER_00: There's, I mean, you can't even count them, and let alone do them.
• 18:33
  SPEAKER_00: But outwardly you can look like you're doing them.
• 18:37
  SPEAKER_00: And so that's why some of these churches had to make up more things.
• 18:41
  SPEAKER_00: I've been in churches where a man couldn't even wear a tie.
• 18:44
  SPEAKER_00: He could wear a suit, but he had to wear it without a tie because that was, I don't know, it was too much, it was adornment or something.
• 18:49
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know.
• 18:50
  SPEAKER_00: Of course, then then the women, of course.
• 18:54
  SPEAKER_00: And you know the men made all the rules because it was always harder on you guys, on the one of the women, right?
• 18:59
  SPEAKER_00: Men could look pretty good.
• 19:02
  SPEAKER_00: But you had to look like you just came in on a covered wagon.
• 19:12
  SPEAKER_00: Where did they get all this?
• 19:13
  SPEAKER_00: They they they they make all this stuff up.
• 19:20
  SPEAKER_00: Women can't wear pants and men can't wear dresses.
• 19:22
  SPEAKER_00: Well, when the Bible was written, the men wore dresses and the women wore the pants.
• 19:34
  SPEAKER_00: If you live after the flesh, you're setting it's because you set your mind on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the spirit are those who set their mind on the things of the spirit.
• 19:42
  SPEAKER_00: That's very simple.
• 19:43
  SPEAKER_00: Walking in the spirit doesn't mean you got rid of everything wrong, it means you're looking at everything that's right.
• 19:49
  SPEAKER_00: And as you and and if you see it, then you can be it.
• 19:51
  SPEAKER_00: If you're what you're what you're looking at, what you acknowledge is what you experience.
• 19:56
  SPEAKER_00: That's why if if if if if you've noticed, God has not taken your perfection away, and I mean your imperfections away, and he has not taken away all of my imperfections.
• 20:05
  SPEAKER_00: I'm I want to get better.
• 20:07
  SPEAKER_00: I'm growing and things, but God has not uh gotten rid of all my imperfections, but what I'm acknowledging is I am perfect and clean and holy in Christ right now.
• 20:18
  SPEAKER_00: And I live from that perspective.
• 20:20
  SPEAKER_00: That's why, as he starts this chapter, there is therefore no condemnation in Christ Jesus.
• 20:26
  SPEAKER_00: The only way to have no condemnation is to believe the things of the Spirit that don't make it about you and your flaws, your frailties, your mistakes, your sins.
• 20:36
  SPEAKER_00: People say, you know, they get they get nervous.
• 20:38
  SPEAKER_00: You talk too much about God's love and God's grace, make it too unconditional, make it too too big, because they say, well, you don't want to make it so big where it leaves, or they'll say, you make it so big that it just it allows all this room for sin.
• 20:56
  SPEAKER_00: My answer is you better be glad it does.
• 20:59
  SPEAKER_00: Yes, it does.
• 21:00
  SPEAKER_00: While you were yet sinners, he had he came with plenty of room for your sin to make you righteous in spite of what was wrong.
• 21:10
  SPEAKER_00: And he gave you the spirit, the Bible says in 1 Corinthians 2, so you can know the things that have been freely given to you, not so you can know what's wrong with you.
• 21:21
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you for that half amen there.
• 21:26
  SPEAKER_00: Verse 6, because to be carnally minded, and what do you say carnally minded was looking at the things of the flesh?
• 21:32
  SPEAKER_00: Are y'all hearing this?
• 21:33
  SPEAKER_00: This is good stuff.
• 21:34
  SPEAKER_00: Looking at the things of the flesh, or to be carnally minded, it's death.
• 21:39
  SPEAKER_00: That's why no matter how sincere you are, trying to get rid of trying to be better by getting rid of what's wrong, you continue to slip and slide away.
• 21:49
  SPEAKER_00: And it seems like the nearer your destination, the more you're yeah.
• 21:55
  SPEAKER_00: For to be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace.
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_00: Peace.
• 22:01
  SPEAKER_00: He said, My peace I give you, not like the world gives.
• 22:04
  SPEAKER_00: It's a peace that passes understanding, right?
• 22:07
  SPEAKER_00: Why does it pass understanding?
• 22:09
  SPEAKER_00: Because you have a peace when you shouldn't have peace.
• 22:12
  SPEAKER_00: It doesn't make sense.
• 22:13
  SPEAKER_00: It doesn't make sense.
• 22:16
  SPEAKER_00: Now, what makes sense is if God takes away all your problems, then you can have peace.
• 22:20
  SPEAKER_00: That makes sense.
• 22:22
  SPEAKER_00: If God will just give you Manasseh, then you can have Ephraim, right?
• 22:26
  SPEAKER_00: But God says, no, I'm not doing that.
• 22:28
  SPEAKER_00: I'm giving you Ephraim first.
• 22:29
  SPEAKER_00: I'm giving you the goodness, the abundance, the fruitfulness, even while you still got all this other stuff.
• 22:36
  SPEAKER_00: That's why I say if you notice the whole pattern, you'll realize in the beginning, darkness was on the face of the deep.
• 22:42
  SPEAKER_00: And the Bible does not say, so darkness was on the face of the deep, and God removed the darkness from the earth.
• 22:48
  SPEAKER_00: No, he did not remove the darkness.
• 22:50
  SPEAKER_00: He said, let there be light, and light was, and darkness wasn't.
• 22:58
  SPEAKER_00: He did not take away my imperfections.
• 23:01
  SPEAKER_00: He gave me a love that was perfect in spite of those imperfections, and that's what I preach, that's what I'm aware of, that's what I celebrate, that's where I live in.
• 23:10
  SPEAKER_00: In him we live and move and have our being, not in my imperfections or my goodness.
• 23:17
  SPEAKER_00: It's all about Jesus, isn't it?
• 23:20
  SPEAKER_00: He did not take away all the troubles in my life.
• 23:25
  SPEAKER_00: Because I still have some.
• 23:27
  SPEAKER_00: In fact, I still have lots.
• 23:31
  SPEAKER_00: And where I used to pray for a life with no troubles, now I celebrate a life of peace in the midst of troubles.
• 23:39
  SPEAKER_00: Because even when I have troubles, now all is well.
• 23:44
  SPEAKER_00: Huh?
• 23:46
  SPEAKER_00: All is well.
• 23:47
  SPEAKER_00: Now, if I'm carnal-minded, then I say, Lord, you've got to take this away so I can have peace.
• 23:52
  SPEAKER_00: You got to give me Manasseh so I can have Ephraim.
• 23:55
  SPEAKER_00: And he says, What if I just give you Ephraim first, anyway?
• 23:59
  SPEAKER_00: What if I give you Ephraim while there's still that?
• 24:02
  SPEAKER_00: What if I give you peace while there's still trouble?
• 24:05
  SPEAKER_00: What if I give you righteousness and holiness and perfection even though you still make lots of mistakes?
• 24:15
  SPEAKER_00: What if I give you love even when you act unlovable and unlovely?
• 24:20
  SPEAKER_00: What if I give it to you see how this salvation works?
• 24:23
  SPEAKER_00: It's front loaded.
• 24:24
  SPEAKER_00: That's why we can celebrate it, and that's why it's different from all religion.
• 24:28
  SPEAKER_00: Because all religion is flesh.
• 24:31
  SPEAKER_00: In its best, beautiful, pious efforts.
• 24:36
  SPEAKER_00: It's just flesh with pretty robes on, and it's deceptive, and it's a way that seems right unto a man, but the end of it is this to be carnally minded is death.
• 24:49
  SPEAKER_00: But to be spiritually minded is life and peace.
• 24:52
  SPEAKER_00: Because, verse 7, the carnal mind is enmity against God.
• 24:56
  SPEAKER_00: Watch this.
• 24:58
  SPEAKER_00: Because it's not subject to the law of God.
• 25:01
  SPEAKER_00: In other words, it just will not work.
• 25:04
  SPEAKER_00: It will not cause the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus to flow and operate.
• 25:11
  SPEAKER_00: The carnal mind pushes against it.
• 25:14
  SPEAKER_00: The carnal mind resists it, though it's trying to be good.
• 25:19
  SPEAKER_00: It's trying in its goodness, it's sincere in wanting the goodness of God.
• 25:24
  SPEAKER_00: It doesn't work.
• 25:26
  SPEAKER_00: It's not subject to the law.
• 25:28
  SPEAKER_00: The carnal mind, the carnal mind, putting your attention on the things of the flesh, the things that are wrong, does not subject you to the perfect law of freedom, liberty.
• 25:43
  SPEAKER_00: What does being spiritually minded, acknowledging what we do have, acknowledging a love that's unconditional, acknowledging a grace that has no boundaries, acknowledging the joy, the peace, and all the gifts that God has given us.
• 25:58
  SPEAKER_00: And there's the list goes on and on.
• 26:00
  SPEAKER_00: By the acknowledging of every good thing.
• 26:03
  SPEAKER_00: That's scary to the religious because they think that if you just acknowledge the good, that you'll ignore the bad, and the bad will just increase.
• 26:13
  SPEAKER_00: But what did Israel say about Ephraim and Nasseh?
• 26:18
  SPEAKER_00: The forgetting will come too.
• 26:21
  SPEAKER_00: That's gonna increase too.
• 26:22
  SPEAKER_00: That's gonna be great, but I'm putting the fruitfulness first, and the removal will happen.
• 26:28
  SPEAKER_00: They're both gonna happen.
• 26:31
  SPEAKER_00: Because that is putting you subject.
• 26:33
  SPEAKER_00: When I give you the abundance first, when I give you the Ephraim first, that's putting you in subject in subjection to the law of God.
• 26:41
  SPEAKER_00: Am I making any sense to you?
• 26:45
  SPEAKER_00: Verse 8.
• 26:46
  SPEAKER_00: So that's why, he says, so then that's why those who are in the flesh can't please God.
• 26:51
  SPEAKER_00: It's not just because he's got a temper and you're making him mad.
• 26:55
  SPEAKER_00: Why can't you please God when you're in the flesh?
• 26:57
  SPEAKER_00: Even though, and your s and your efforts can be sincere and you can mean it.
• 27:01
  SPEAKER_00: And you can be very full of passion and zeal toward God and the things of God.
• 27:07
  SPEAKER_00: But why is it still not pleasing?
• 27:09
  SPEAKER_00: Because Jesus told us, he said, because it's your father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom, but that other way, you can't receive it.
• 27:16
  SPEAKER_00: You're not receiving the kingdom, you're receiving all this other stuff.
• 27:21
  SPEAKER_00: That's why Hebrews 11, 6 says, So without faith, it's impossible to please God.
• 27:28
  SPEAKER_00: Why?
• 27:28
  SPEAKER_00: Because you don't, because what pleases God is for you to receive all of this.
• 27:33
  SPEAKER_00: That He's given, that He paid for, He died for.
• 27:36
  SPEAKER_00: And He's pleased if you just receive it.
• 27:40
  SPEAKER_00: But God, I got to make myself cleaner and better first, so I deserve it.
• 27:43
  SPEAKER_00: And God's like, oh.
• 27:48
  SPEAKER_00: You can't please God that way.
• 27:50
  SPEAKER_00: You can't please me that way.
• 27:51
  SPEAKER_00: You won't get it.
• 27:52
  SPEAKER_00: I just want you to get it.
• 27:53
  SPEAKER_00: I want you to have it.
• 27:54
  SPEAKER_00: I want you to receive it.
• 27:55
  SPEAKER_00: I've freely given it, freely receive.
• 28:00
  SPEAKER_00: Well, I gotta work on my inner healing first.
• 28:05
  SPEAKER_00: Gotta get my Manasseh first.
• 28:06
  SPEAKER_00: I gotta go back into my deep psychosis and find where in the womb mama did something wrong, and that's why I'm all messed up.
• 28:16
  SPEAKER_00: And maybe if I'll pay a counselor for the next 20 years, I'll get this right, and then I'll be blessed.
• 28:30
  SPEAKER_00: Why can't you please God if you're in the flesh?
• 28:34
  SPEAKER_00: It's simply because you can't can't receive, and it pleases God.
• 28:37
  SPEAKER_00: He loves you so much, he's so good, just altogether good and lovely and meek, and he's and just and he says, I want I've given this to you.
• 28:51
  SPEAKER_00: Enjoy it.
• 28:53
  SPEAKER_00: That's why Jesus told the story of He said, a man threw a big party, a feast.
• 28:58
  SPEAKER_00: He did it all himself.
• 28:59
  SPEAKER_00: He got the whole thing ready.
• 29:01
  SPEAKER_00: Nobody, he didn't ask anybody to help him do it.
• 29:03
  SPEAKER_00: He said, All things are ready.
• 29:05
  SPEAKER_00: Come and party.
• 29:06
  SPEAKER_00: Oh wow, you know, I gotta do this, and I gotta notice what they did.
• 29:10
  SPEAKER_00: They all said things that they have to do.
• 29:13
  SPEAKER_00: He said, I didn't tell you to do anything.
• 29:14
  SPEAKER_00: It's free, it's here.
• 29:16
  SPEAKER_00: I've done it all.
• 29:16
  SPEAKER_00: I'm not asking you to help set up the tables.
• 29:18
  SPEAKER_00: I'm not asking you to bring anything.
• 29:19
  SPEAKER_00: It's free.
• 29:20
  SPEAKER_00: It's done.
• 29:21
  SPEAKER_00: Bring it.
• 29:21
  SPEAKER_00: Come on.
• 29:27
  SPEAKER_00: So those who are in the flesh can't please God.
• 29:29
  SPEAKER_00: What would have pleased the guy that threw the party if everybody would just come and partake?
• 29:34
  SPEAKER_00: Verse 9.
• 29:36
  SPEAKER_00: But here's the good news.
• 29:37
  SPEAKER_00: Here's the good news.
• 29:38
  SPEAKER_00: Because when you read that, then you're like, oh God, boy, he nailed me.
• 29:42
  SPEAKER_00: I guess I'm in the flesh.
• 29:43
  SPEAKER_00: I guess I'm in the flesh because I sure think this.
• 29:45
  SPEAKER_00: Next verse.
• 29:47
  SPEAKER_00: But you're not in the flesh.
• 29:51
  SPEAKER_00: So that's the good news.
• 29:52
  SPEAKER_00: So you don't have to act like you're not in the flesh.
• 29:55
  SPEAKER_00: You're in the abundance now.
• 29:57
  SPEAKER_00: Wow.
• 29:58
  SPEAKER_00: That's why it's that simple.
• 30:00
  SPEAKER_00: Just acknowledge what you got, where you're at.
• 30:02
  SPEAKER_00: You're in the abundance.
• 30:04
  SPEAKER_00: And let me say this too.
• 30:06
  SPEAKER_00: It's not a mind game.
• 30:07
  SPEAKER_00: You're not trying to trick your brain into thinking you're in abundance.
• 30:12
  SPEAKER_00: You've got spiritual eyes.
• 30:14
  SPEAKER_00: The Holy Spirit is showing you these things.
• 30:16
  SPEAKER_00: You know it's real, and you know it's more real than your puny little temporary situation, your light affliction, which is but for a moment.
• 30:26
  SPEAKER_00: You've got eyes to see.
• 30:27
  SPEAKER_00: You see bigger than that.
• 30:28
  SPEAKER_00: You say, yeah, there's trouble here.
• 30:30
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, there's sorrow right here where I'm standing.
• 30:32
  SPEAKER_00: I'm right in the middle of it right now, Brother Rick.
• 30:34
  SPEAKER_00: But your eyes are bigger than that.
• 30:36
  SPEAKER_00: You can see, but there is so much goodness and life, and there's healing, and there's there's there's there's resurrection, and there's there's there's there's abundance for everything that I'll never need.
• 30:48
  SPEAKER_00: And if I continue to partake of more sorrows of this world, I will be right there with a love that'll never leave me.
• 30:57
  SPEAKER_00: I'll be right there with someone who's a helper, who's a counselor, who's a comforter.
• 31:02
  SPEAKER_00: I will always be fine in an ugly world.
• 31:09
  SPEAKER_00: For greater is he that's in you.
• 31:12
  SPEAKER_00: But you're not in the flesh.
• 31:14
  SPEAKER_00: You are in the spirit.
• 31:16
  SPEAKER_00: You're not trying to get in the spirit, you're not trying to cross over.
• 31:21
  SPEAKER_00: You're there.
• 31:22
  SPEAKER_00: You're standing there.
• 31:24
  SPEAKER_00: Welcome home.
• 31:24
  SPEAKER_00: Take off your shoes.
• 31:25
  SPEAKER_00: You're on holy ground.
• 31:27
  SPEAKER_00: You're there because Jesus conveyed you from the power of darkness into the kingdom of his dear son.
• 31:34
  SPEAKER_00: You're not in the flesh, you're in the spirit.
• 31:37
  SPEAKER_00: If one thing, one qualification, if indeed the spirit of God dwells in you, that happened by you simply receiving it.
• 31:47
  SPEAKER_00: Now, if anyone doesn't have the spirit of Christ, then he's not his.
• 31:50
  SPEAKER_00: But we're not talking to them, we're talking to you.
• 31:54
  SPEAKER_00: Y'all stand up.
• 31:55
  SPEAKER_00: I'm done.
• 31:56
  SPEAKER_00: I think that's enough.