(254) "Studying the Word in the Spirit" with Timothy Bence (Part 2)

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rekindle the flame, embrace the first fruits of what you had, the zeal that you had in the beginning,

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ask Him to explode that in you again so that you can become an effectual part of the Kingdom of God as it advances.

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Amen.

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And then pray for your own family, your own city, your own nation.

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But don't just pray what you want God to do.

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Ask Jesus what He's praying for them and pray in agreement with Him.

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God promises in Joel 2, 28 to pour out His Spirit on all humanity.

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Welcome to Global Outpouring.

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Are we content for that promised outpouring?

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Are we equipped for that outpouring so that we may engage in that very outpouring?

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I'm Philip Buss.

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And I'm Sharon Buss.

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Welcome to the podcast today.

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We have with us again a man that we just really love and admire in the Spirit.

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His name is Timothy Bentz, and he will be sharing with us some more of his experience and just going deeper into what he shared with us in the last episode about what happened when he was studying the Word in the Spirit.

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Thank you so much for joining us today.

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We really want to bless you with this recording.

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We know that it's going to be life changing for you as you go deeper into the Word with our guests.

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But before we get started, we want to encourage you, if you haven't already done so, that you get on our mailing list.

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You can get there by going to our website, globaloutpouring.net.

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It's going to be an opportunity for you to stay in touch with us, for us to stay in touch with you so that when we've got something going on, you can be informed about it.

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And you can also see on our website the event page that we have there that will show about our convention 2025, May 21st through 24th at the St. Louis Airport Marriott Hotel in St. Louis, Missouri.

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It's going to be a real time of going deep into the things of God.

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And we have our speakers all lined up.

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Siggy O'Blander will be opening for us.

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She's a mighty woman of God with a depth of revelation in the Word and a prophetic gift.

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Tony Kemp will be speaking.

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He's got such a depth in God and follows the leading of the Holy Spirit, bringing all kinds of wonders out of the Word and out of the gifts of God that operate in his life.

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Dean Braxton will be speaking and also having question and answer times so you can find out more about what happened to him when he was outside of his body for an hour and 45 minutes.

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Jean Little will be ministering in our special Israel evening.

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And Jeff Simons is going to be bringing a message that is on his heart that the Lord has given to him.

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He's been used of God in so many ways in the prophetic gift and in teaching and in bringing miracles, signs and wonders, ministering in the streets, all those kinds of things.

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And I will be bringing the message for the session one.

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We're going to be bringing new members into this ministry.

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So plan to be there.

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It's going to be a life changing event.

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And we are looking forward to seeing what God will do as we gather together.

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It's family camp.

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Bring your family, bring your loved ones, bring people that are hungry for the things of God.

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It's going to be a glorious, glorious time where we worship together in such a presence of God that is it's more so.

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I'm just going to say it's more so.

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It's probably what you've experienced in other places, only more so, where God comes down and ministers to people individually.

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And we bring our own personal anointing there and it feeds that corporate anointing, that amazing synergy that comes when the people of God get together.

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And the people of God that come together for this, many of them have fasted 21 days, 40 days, different amounts of time.

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But when you have denied yourself and taken up your cross and followed him, it increases your anointing.

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So the anointing when you get these people together is greater than lots of places.

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So we just encourage you to come and get immersed in the things of God that he's doing in this time.

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It's the Wednesday through Saturday of Memorial Day weekend.

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And we just know that it's going to be life changing for you if you get there.

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So come and bring friends.

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So, Timothy, thank you so much for being with us last episode and opening up the heart of our Father out of the Word and out of the experiences that you had with him in the Word.

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And I just encourage you, listener, if you didn't hear that episode, please go back and listen to it,

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because I think we're going to go deeper in these things that have to do with the heart of our Father and how he wants us to mature,

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to grow up as sons and daughters and to walk with him and operate with him.

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So, Timothy, just take us wherever the Holy Spirit is leading.

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I wanted to pick up on this.

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In the last session, we were talking a little bit about the combination lock, I would say, where a move of God is unlocking it.

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It required Peter's heart to repent for not loving the Gentiles the way God did.

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And as soon as he got over that, he repents.

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This is in the story in Scripture where he's in Joppa.

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He sees the sheet come down with things that are unclean on it.

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As soon as he can say yes to calling clean what God calls clean and calling unclean what God calls unclean, which is just coming into agreement with God.

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At that moment, a massive door opens, an effectual door of righteousness for the gospel of the kingdom of God to go to the Gentile world.

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At the same time, God is dealing with Simon Peter in Joppa.

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He's dealing with Cornelius, who's not very far away, but Cornelius is a Roman centurion, and he's Italian in his background.

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So Cornelius' house becomes the first fruit among the Gentiles in Scripture to bow their knee, get saved after the resurrection, and receive the baptism of the Holy Spirit.

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And now the move of God is on.

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Yeah.

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But when God gets ready to move in new ways, he doesn't just use the people that he's already called.

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He puts them in high gear, and they're already sent, but he shifts them into high gear.

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So I can say Peter's life got really fun and crazy and amazing after this experience.

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But at the same time, there's a move of God on, so God starts calling new people also.

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This is always part of his ways.

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So something old comes into full maturity and gets released.

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Something new gets commissioned at the same time.

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So at the same time, Peter repents for the hatred he had toward the Gentiles.

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Jesus goes and saves Saul on his way to Damascus, and he's a Roman citizen.

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He likes being called Paul, and he's on his way to kill people.

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And then he gets encountered by Jesus, saying, why do you kick him against the bricks for?

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I want you to save people.

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And Saul becomes a transformed believer because of the face-to-face encounter with Jesus.

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I'd submit to you to remember, I said it earlier, but please remember this if you didn't listen

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to the earlier tape.

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I want everybody to know that it takes a change of heart in order to be what God requires us

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to be.

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Yeah.

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It's not easy to just naturally step into it, even though it's what you're created for.

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We have to sometimes repent for something, and then we can step into what we were really

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created for.

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And repentance isn't always because you sinned.

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Saul at that time would not have thought he was sinning.

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He thought he was being zealous for the living God.

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He viewed what he was doing as doing God a favor.

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That's pretty wicked, but he had to have a face-to-face encounter to get delivered from

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his own darkened understanding.

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When he does, though, he becomes this profound preacher of righteousness.

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And I think he learned how to walk in God's ways probably better than most of the early

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mentioned people in the New Testament.

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He so zealously stepped into following after God and being an apostolic leader that he

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took the gospel further than almost anyone in his day.

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Now what I want you to see, we think it's just because he's extraordinary, but it's

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also because God has a way of doing things.

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And if you understand his ways, it's a lot easier to be extraordinary.

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If you don't understand his ways, somewhere along the way, you'll spend some time doing

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your best efforts.

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And it may not always be extraordinary, but eventually you'll figure it out.

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God doesn't want you to not figure it out, so he's wanting to help us with this.

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But Saul is, first of all, one clue we have in Scripture, he's Saul of Tarsus.

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He's not from Jerusalem.

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He's from Tarsus area, which is not very far from Tyre in Sidon.

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He's up there in Syrian territory.

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Probably grew up in a Jewish colony, but he would have been surrounded by a lot of the

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Gentiles in that area.

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And Tarsus is a really odd little city.

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It's sort of by the seashore of the Mediterranean as you're going up around the eastern side.

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So if you think about from Israel, you're going up through Syria area, and then you're

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going up.

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And if you follow around the north part of the Mediterranean in Europe somewhere.

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But when you look at why is he called from Tarsus, and Jesus immediately commissions

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him to be an apostle and sends him to the Gentiles.

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Yeah.

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Well, it's a combination lock.

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God gave the keys to Peter for the kingdom of God.

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So Peter has to put his key in the lock and turn it by his own repentance towards the

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Gentiles.

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And then God has to pick somebody that has been closely associated and probably understands

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the character of nature of the Gentiles better, and he sends him to save them.

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Wow.

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So those two keys now go into the heavenly doors and a broad, effectual door to speak

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the good news opens up.

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So the Gentile world to be saved, somebody still has to go and do the work.

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Right.

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So Saul continues on his journey, gets some prophetic deliverance, gets his blindness

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healed.

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I think it was more than just physical blindness.

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I think when Jesus opened his physical eyes from his supernatural encounter, because it

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says he was blind, he needed somebody else to lead him after he had this face to face.

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I think he got healed of his spiritual blindness also.

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Yeah.

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And the reason I say that, because he suddenly has this massive understanding of scripture

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and he gets this profound level of revelation for the rest of his life that he walks out.

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One of the things that I think he gained a revelation of was how God does relationships.

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And this is not talked about enough.

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We often talk about his journeys and what he preached and we read the letters that he

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wrote, but he didn't write a letter to a stranger.

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He wrote all of his letters to someone God connected him with.

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So if you study that out carefully in the New Testament, especially, and then go over

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into his letters, the book of Acts starts showing us this.

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And then it carries over into his letters.

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Every single person that he mentions by name in any of his letters or is mentioned in Acts

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that ends up associated with him, takes him to another country.

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He needs Barnabas to get to Antioch.

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He needs Timothy to get to Greece.

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Okay.

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If you look at the names mentioned, he gives him a son or a daughter, and then God gives

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him a nation.

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Beautiful.

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And now that is something we need to understand better because the evangelism has a spiritual

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pattern to it.

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It's not just a message of preaching the good news and then asking somebody to make a decision.

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It's also understanding how God divinely connects people.

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And if God wants to send you to a new place, he's probably for all of us, he's probably

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going to bring somebody from there to you before he's going to send you to them.

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That's good.

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Yeah.

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Good point.

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This is one of the reasons why America is so on God's heart because he's brought the

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nations from afar to this country.

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True.

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It's hard to go anywhere in America and not meet somebody that has a history in another

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part of the world.

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True.

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Yeah.

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And our immigration problem currently right now is a big political issue, but we have

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to understand how God views this.

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It's not just kindness towards the strangers.

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Why does God say, take care of the widows, take care of the orphans, take care of the

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strangers that come through, visit those that are in prison?

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Well, one of the things that God said that he wants, that he needs us to help him obtain,

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Jesus as the King is going to inherit nations, tribes, peoples, and tongues.

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Right.

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Can you consider that a widow probably has an anointing to give him one of those things?

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An orphan has an anointing to give him one of those things.

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Wow.

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And those that are in prison have the ability to give him something.

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Now, because we don't understand that very well, if we don't take care of the things

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that he said are concerning to him, we don't get those things unlocked as part of the inheritance.

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So what does the widow carry?

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Well, Jesus was pretty nice to widows.

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In fact, he said to me one time when I was complaining a little bit about taking care

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of my own mother, not because I didn't know him, but because I was a little bit of a

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widow, not because I didn't want to.

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I loved my mother immensely, but she forced me to move with what I call Nana pace.

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I'm rolling through life like a freight train and suddenly I got to take care of this 92

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year old lady that is much slower.

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Walking with a walker.

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Yeah.

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I had to learn to pace myself to her pace.

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I complained about it a little bit, not because I was complaining about her, because it was

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such a radical shift for me.

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Jesus didn't like my complaint very much.

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I never have one in argument with him, but he says to me, you know, son, I waited until

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my father died and I had the full care of my mother as a widow before I started my ministry.

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And I took Mary with me everywhere.

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And I'd realized in scripture that Mary was along for the ride, somebody had never dawned

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on me that Jesus was bringing her as a widow.

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Wow.

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So I said, well, I'd like to understand what she did.

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Now, if you've ever been around a Jewish mom, it's fun.

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And they're going to insert themselves in the dynamics of whatever's going on quite

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extraordinarily.

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And they're going to make their opinions known for sure.

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So you've got to grapple with that a little bit, especially if you're the son of man and

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you're going to change the world.

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Mom's going to be helping along.

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So the first miracle we see in scripture is instigated by Mary.

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True.

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And it has to do with a wedding.

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Yes.

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So she tells Jesus, oh my gosh, we're at this wedding and they're running out of wine.

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You got to do something about that.

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And he says, my time is not yet.

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That's a nice way of saying, daddy's not ready to send me to do that stuff yet.

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I can only do what I see my father do and only say what I hear my father say.

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You're getting ahead of the curve, mom.

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And she didn't care.

227
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She's a Jewish mom.

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So she appeals to father.

229
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Now it doesn't say this exactly in scripture.

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I'm telling you, I know this though.

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Just trust me.

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She didn't argue with him.

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She went to father.

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And when Lord revealed this to me, he said, I want you to know what my mother did, how

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she overrode my timetable.

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He said, did you realize that my mother was the most despised woman in Israel?

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I said, I didn't realize that.

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Why was she despised?

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He said, well, when she was a virgin and she found out she's pregnant by the power of the

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Holy Spirit, everyone didn't believe her.

241
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Most of her family rejects her.

242
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All of her friends reject her.

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When she and Joseph go to Bethlehem for the census, everyone there is a relative or a

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part of the same tribe.

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And there's no room in the end.

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That means none of your relatives, none of your friends will take you in.

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That's despise, but that's saying you've done something wrong and I don't care how much

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you say it's right.

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I don't think it is.

250
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So I'm not going to give you a room in my house.

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So I'd never thought about this much till Jesus said this to me because you get a little

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bit of that story in the beginning with Joseph and Mary, but then by the time Jesus is coming

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on the scene, we sort of forget what Joseph and Mary went through to Stuart.

254
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Stuart over this extraordinary baby.

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That would have affected Joseph's business.

256
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That affected their connection with social life.

257
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They were shunned by their own friends and relatives.

258
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And so Jesus said to me, my mother was very upset by what she found out at the wedding

259
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because it was the first time since her own marriage to Joseph.

260
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It was the first time she was invited to a wedding.

261
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For 30 years, she had not been allowed to go to a wedding with friends or families.

262
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And there's no way she's going to let the first time she gets to do that turn out bad.

263
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So she doesn't want this young bride.

264
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We don't even know who it is, whoever that young bride was.

265
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She doesn't want her to have any kind of shame or adversity on her wedding day because she

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had lived with despisement for 30 years and she doesn't want anybody to walk away from

267
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a wedding and say, boy, that family doesn't know how to throw a party.

268
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So she appeals to father and she says to father, I didn't get a wedding, but I got your son.

269
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I didn't get to go to funerals.

270
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I don't get to go to family gatherings.

271
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I don't get invited to reunions.

272
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Don't deprive this little widow of what I've had to lay down.

273
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My son is here.

274
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Fix it.

275
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And father changed the times and seasons to appeal to it.

276
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Why?

277
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Because he knows somewhere down the road, he's going to prepare a wedding feast for

278
00:20:10,200 --> 00:20:13,200
everyone that gets saved.

279
00:20:13,200 --> 00:20:16,800
And he's going to give Mary the right to help that one.

280
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She's not going to miss that one.

281
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Beautiful.

282
00:20:19,520 --> 00:20:26,840
So the release of the presence of God to say, I'm going to fix a problem with a wedding

283
00:20:26,840 --> 00:20:32,920
was a prophetic act on the earth that is telling us father's heart for the wedding feast of

284
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the lamb that's going to happen somewhere way down the road.

285
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Beautiful.

286
00:20:37,280 --> 00:20:42,600
And yet it's also a first fruit offering.

287
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You need wine.

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Bring me the wine, the grapes, the fruits, the first fruits, your crops.

289
00:20:46,960 --> 00:20:49,280
So this is a first fruit offering.

290
00:20:49,280 --> 00:20:50,920
Why is that important?

291
00:20:50,920 --> 00:20:56,120
Because if we give him the first fruits, then we get to reap the whole harvest.

292
00:20:56,120 --> 00:20:57,120
Beautiful.

293
00:20:57,120 --> 00:20:58,120
Beautiful.

294
00:20:58,120 --> 00:21:01,200
So Jesus is getting ready to go reap the earth.

295
00:21:01,200 --> 00:21:04,320
Mary makes sure that the first fruits are given.

296
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Beautiful.

297
00:21:05,620 --> 00:21:09,920
And not only that, but then she is actually transforming a nation.

298
00:21:09,920 --> 00:21:16,840
So she's saying this nation denied him the fig tree and has denied him the first fruits

299
00:21:16,840 --> 00:21:19,280
and has kept back from the festivals.

300
00:21:19,280 --> 00:21:23,280
We've not been doing these things in the prescribed way for a long time.

301
00:21:23,280 --> 00:21:28,360
Now the Messiah is on the ground getting ready to be introduced to the world.

302
00:21:28,360 --> 00:21:29,580
Let's fix this.

303
00:21:29,580 --> 00:21:34,520
And so she's fixing a nation with her request to father.

304
00:21:34,520 --> 00:21:38,240
I'd submit to you that the reason we're supposed to take care of the widows is because their

305
00:21:38,240 --> 00:21:41,200
prayers have power to transform nations.

306
00:21:41,200 --> 00:21:42,200
Beautiful.

307
00:21:42,200 --> 00:21:43,200
Wow.

308
00:21:43,200 --> 00:21:49,300
As soon as she sets up the miracle, Jesus is now sent to save the nation.

309
00:21:49,300 --> 00:21:56,400
So the first fruit unlocks his voice in the earth to begin to save the nation.

310
00:21:56,400 --> 00:21:57,400
Wow.

311
00:21:57,400 --> 00:21:58,920
What does an orphan do?

312
00:21:58,920 --> 00:22:00,480
An orphan doesn't know where they fit.

313
00:22:00,480 --> 00:22:03,580
They've been cut off from their inheritance, cut off from their household.

314
00:22:03,580 --> 00:22:07,120
They don't know what tribe they are.

315
00:22:07,120 --> 00:22:10,480
They probably don't know who their mother and father are.

316
00:22:10,480 --> 00:22:16,780
So God adopts the orphan and gives them power to save the tribes of the earth.

317
00:22:16,780 --> 00:22:23,080
If we understood that if he gives us an orphan to care for, he's also giving us a tribe.

318
00:22:23,080 --> 00:22:28,840
Evangelism would just transform phenomenally.

319
00:22:28,840 --> 00:22:29,960
Then why do we need the foreigners?

320
00:22:29,960 --> 00:22:34,200
We've got to treat them nice because God is going to inherit the tongues of the earth,

321
00:22:34,200 --> 00:22:41,000
all the nations, all the languages of the earth are fractured off pieces of the original

322
00:22:41,000 --> 00:22:46,280
language that he spoke when he said, thus saith the Lord, let there be light.

323
00:22:46,280 --> 00:22:52,440
So whatever he uses for creation, every language that exists in the earth is a fragment of

324
00:22:52,440 --> 00:22:53,440
it.

325
00:22:53,440 --> 00:22:58,520
If he wants to bring the nations back to him, he's going to speak their language on some

326
00:22:58,520 --> 00:23:02,840
level, but he wants to bring them back in an understanding fully of what he says so

327
00:23:02,840 --> 00:23:08,960
they can comprehend the full measure of everything that proceeds out of his mouth, everything

328
00:23:08,960 --> 00:23:10,840
he writes with his finger.

329
00:23:10,840 --> 00:23:17,200
So he needs someone from a foreign land to call out to him and then he saves the tongues

330
00:23:17,200 --> 00:23:19,800
of the earth.

331
00:23:19,800 --> 00:23:25,400
So a people group that speak a different tongue than you, you can gain permission to go reap

332
00:23:25,400 --> 00:23:31,840
them if you'll be kind to the stranger when they come near your house.

333
00:23:31,840 --> 00:23:38,040
And then those in prison, every nation, tribe, people, tongue, those that are in prison,

334
00:23:38,040 --> 00:23:43,080
in some way, everybody that's in sin is in prison and we have to have the blood of Jesus

335
00:23:43,080 --> 00:23:44,520
to let us out.

336
00:23:44,520 --> 00:23:50,040
So if I'm willing to go visit someone in prison, then God will give me an anointing to set

337
00:23:50,040 --> 00:23:52,880
free those that don't know him.

338
00:23:52,880 --> 00:23:59,760
So we need all four of those, obeying all four of those things in order to allow Jesus

339
00:23:59,760 --> 00:24:01,600
to have his inheritance.

340
00:24:01,600 --> 00:24:06,240
Now, Saul, I think, had some understanding of what I just described.

341
00:24:06,240 --> 00:24:11,000
He knew the ways of God enough that I think by the revelation that he had when he had

342
00:24:11,000 --> 00:24:16,100
this encounter with God, that he then begins to really pay attention to who God brings

343
00:24:16,100 --> 00:24:17,100
to him.

344
00:24:17,100 --> 00:24:23,760
So Agabus takes him into healing and releases an ability for him to understand supernatural

345
00:24:23,760 --> 00:24:24,760
healing.

346
00:24:24,760 --> 00:24:28,900
And again, this is one of those things that sometimes we have had someone pray for us

347
00:24:28,900 --> 00:24:35,160
and gotten healed, but we didn't ask for an impartation to go be the healer.

348
00:24:35,160 --> 00:24:39,600
And if you encounter somebody that can pray for you and you get healed, wouldn't it be

349
00:24:39,600 --> 00:24:42,320
obvious to say, can I have some of that?

350
00:24:42,320 --> 00:24:43,960
Come on, that's right.

351
00:24:43,960 --> 00:24:47,680
Because you're not the only one sick in your city.

352
00:24:47,680 --> 00:24:52,120
Quit being selfish.

353
00:24:52,120 --> 00:24:57,200
Ask God for power to clean out the hospital.

354
00:24:57,200 --> 00:25:03,560
If someone's anointed with God and their prayer for you is effectual, you can ask for an impartation

355
00:25:03,560 --> 00:25:04,880
as well as healing.

356
00:25:04,880 --> 00:25:10,120
It's good to get healed, but we ought to go for the whole thing.

357
00:25:10,120 --> 00:25:16,440
I think a lot of our sicknesses even are actually related to an intercession.

358
00:25:16,440 --> 00:25:21,320
Instead of just praying for my own body to get healed, I should ask Jesus, am I interceding

359
00:25:21,320 --> 00:25:23,760
for another part of the body?

360
00:25:23,760 --> 00:25:27,200
Am I experiencing a little bit of pain or an adversity in my body because you're trying

361
00:25:27,200 --> 00:25:30,440
to get my attention for something that's broken in the body of Christ?

362
00:25:30,440 --> 00:25:32,520
Oh, come on, explain that.

363
00:25:32,520 --> 00:25:35,400
Well, if I got a knee problem, for instance, my knee is hurting.

364
00:25:35,400 --> 00:25:39,160
I don't know why my knee is hurting, but every time I try to walk, my right knee is hurting.

365
00:25:39,160 --> 00:25:43,040
If I just pray for my knee and it doesn't get healed, it's a pretty good evidence that

366
00:25:43,040 --> 00:25:47,200
you're actually carrying an intercession.

367
00:25:47,200 --> 00:25:49,720
Because we get healed when we pray.

368
00:25:49,720 --> 00:25:53,320
And if you don't get healed, it means God's trying to tell you something first.

369
00:25:53,320 --> 00:25:54,320
Wow.

370
00:25:54,320 --> 00:25:56,800
Stop thinking that he doesn't want to heal you.

371
00:25:56,800 --> 00:25:59,920
You're not good enough or he doesn't love you enough or he likes his sister so and so

372
00:25:59,920 --> 00:26:00,920
and not you.

373
00:26:00,920 --> 00:26:01,920
Come on.

374
00:26:01,920 --> 00:26:06,000
And if he doesn't heal you immediately when you pray the first time or especially if somebody

375
00:26:06,000 --> 00:26:09,560
else prays for you, then ask him, why am I not being healed?

376
00:26:09,560 --> 00:26:10,720
What am I not seeing?

377
00:26:10,720 --> 00:26:12,000
What am I not hearing?

378
00:26:12,000 --> 00:26:13,360
That's good.

379
00:26:13,360 --> 00:26:16,980
There's something related to my sickness that you're trying to show me.

380
00:26:16,980 --> 00:26:20,680
So show me what it is and then my healing will come.

381
00:26:20,680 --> 00:26:24,680
But when it comes, you're also going to probably get an assignment because he's trying to show

382
00:26:24,680 --> 00:26:27,760
you something, not just heal you.

383
00:26:27,760 --> 00:26:34,480
So very likely you're interceding for the part of his body that is lift up your hands,

384
00:26:34,480 --> 00:26:37,640
strengthen the feeble knees.

385
00:26:37,640 --> 00:26:41,400
Is there a part of the body of Christ that you're related to in your city that has feeble

386
00:26:41,400 --> 00:26:42,640
knees?

387
00:26:42,640 --> 00:26:45,520
Pray for that to get healed and your healing will accelerate.

388
00:26:45,520 --> 00:26:47,800
This is so good.

389
00:26:47,800 --> 00:26:48,800
Yes.

390
00:26:48,800 --> 00:26:51,120
I can't see well and I'm losing my vision.

391
00:26:51,120 --> 00:26:56,200
I don't like wearing glasses, but I pray all the time for the body of Christ to get better

392
00:26:56,200 --> 00:26:57,200
vision.

393
00:26:57,200 --> 00:26:59,240
This is good.

394
00:26:59,240 --> 00:27:04,360
And what I find is over and over and over, sometimes people ask God multiple times to

395
00:27:04,360 --> 00:27:06,400
get healed and they don't.

396
00:27:06,400 --> 00:27:08,480
And then they just get frustrated, give up.

397
00:27:08,480 --> 00:27:10,360
God doesn't want to do it.

398
00:27:10,360 --> 00:27:12,640
Instead of, no, you're praying for the wrong thing.

399
00:27:12,640 --> 00:27:16,520
You're putting yourself first and God wants you to pray for his body first.

400
00:27:16,520 --> 00:27:17,520
Beautiful.

401
00:27:17,520 --> 00:27:21,920
You eat the kingdom of God first, then all these things are added to you.

402
00:27:21,920 --> 00:27:25,680
So when I pray for another person to have the very thing that I want, now I have the

403
00:27:25,680 --> 00:27:27,600
right to ask for it too.

404
00:27:27,600 --> 00:27:28,960
That's good.

405
00:27:28,960 --> 00:27:33,660
Abraham was told in blessing, I will bless you and multiplying, I will multiply you.

406
00:27:33,660 --> 00:27:37,080
So give it away and then you have a right to ask for it.

407
00:27:37,080 --> 00:27:38,080
That's good.

408
00:27:38,080 --> 00:27:39,080
That's good.

409
00:27:39,080 --> 00:27:45,440
Pull down the power of God for somebody else and you'll never be deprived of it.

410
00:27:45,440 --> 00:27:50,520
Now, when I began understanding that sometimes God subjects us to a little bit of adversity,

411
00:27:50,520 --> 00:27:54,340
it's not because he's being mean to us or because he doesn't like us.

412
00:27:54,340 --> 00:27:56,640
It's probably not because you did something wrong.

413
00:27:56,640 --> 00:28:01,280
It's just the way God wants to help us connect with other parts of the body.

414
00:28:01,280 --> 00:28:06,500
And we're so out of touch with his ways that we don't understand this very well.

415
00:28:06,500 --> 00:28:09,360
So we're very selfish, motivated most of the time.

416
00:28:09,360 --> 00:28:15,040
It's me, me, me, me, every minister I know, you better know who I am because I need something.

417
00:28:15,040 --> 00:28:16,880
Instead of what can I do for you?

418
00:28:16,880 --> 00:28:17,880
That's right.

419
00:28:17,880 --> 00:28:20,560
And how can I serve my King best?

420
00:28:20,560 --> 00:28:25,840
So if he needs something, I want him to know he can call on me.

421
00:28:25,840 --> 00:28:30,920
If somebody near me needs something, I'm available, Lord, send me.

422
00:28:30,920 --> 00:28:35,440
If I make his priorities my priority, your life gets really, really fun.

423
00:28:35,440 --> 00:28:36,440
Yes.

424
00:28:36,440 --> 00:28:37,440
Beautiful.

425
00:28:37,440 --> 00:28:42,000
But what I discovered in my own life is that he wasn't subjecting me to adversity because

426
00:28:42,000 --> 00:28:43,640
he was punishing me in some way.

427
00:28:43,640 --> 00:28:45,360
He was trying to get my attention.

428
00:28:45,360 --> 00:28:46,360
Yes.

429
00:28:46,360 --> 00:28:51,440
And once he had my attention and said, this is that, this little discomfort in you right

430
00:28:51,440 --> 00:28:55,480
now is actually related to a part of my body that I need to fix.

431
00:28:55,480 --> 00:28:59,440
Now as soon as you begin addressing that, your pain goes away.

432
00:28:59,440 --> 00:29:01,280
Glory to God.

433
00:29:01,280 --> 00:29:03,000
And it's not that you get healed.

434
00:29:03,000 --> 00:29:06,840
It's actually that you weren't sick.

435
00:29:06,840 --> 00:29:12,800
You were just feeling something that was making you sensitive to part of the body that is

436
00:29:12,800 --> 00:29:13,800
hurting you.

437
00:29:13,800 --> 00:29:14,800
Yes.

438
00:29:14,800 --> 00:29:16,880
The eye cannot say to the hand, I don't need you.

439
00:29:16,880 --> 00:29:19,560
The head cannot say to the feet, I don't need you.

440
00:29:19,560 --> 00:29:24,600
So sometimes God makes the head uncomfortable when his feet are hurting.

441
00:29:24,600 --> 00:29:29,640
So this is happening all over the body of Christ and we're processing this as God doesn't

442
00:29:29,640 --> 00:29:30,640
want to fix me.

443
00:29:30,640 --> 00:29:35,240
Instead of, no, God is aggressively fixing his body and he needs your help.

444
00:29:35,240 --> 00:29:36,240
Beautiful.

445
00:29:36,240 --> 00:29:37,240
Yeah.

446
00:29:37,240 --> 00:29:39,680
Now that said, I think Saul figured this out.

447
00:29:39,680 --> 00:29:44,240
So we have this extraordinary thing where Saul is going like a freight train right after

448
00:29:44,240 --> 00:29:45,240
he gets saved.

449
00:29:45,240 --> 00:29:50,000
And remember he's from Tarsus and he understands a little bit of the ways of God.

450
00:29:50,000 --> 00:29:58,000
So he's the protocol in the ancient text for a traveler is, and not just apostolic, but

451
00:29:58,000 --> 00:30:04,360
anybody that's traveling is to go sit in the gate of a place that you're going or a stop

452
00:30:04,360 --> 00:30:09,360
you're going to make along the way and wait for someone that lives there to offer you

453
00:30:09,360 --> 00:30:11,800
hospitality.

454
00:30:11,800 --> 00:30:15,760
Now why would that be a protocol that is ancient?

455
00:30:15,760 --> 00:30:19,760
Goes back thousands of years for cultures to do this.

456
00:30:19,760 --> 00:30:22,800
This be back before hotels were out there.

457
00:30:22,800 --> 00:30:26,240
There wasn't an abundance of ends and places to stop.

458
00:30:26,240 --> 00:30:31,280
So you were kind of subject to the weather if you didn't follow this protocol, but it

459
00:30:31,280 --> 00:30:35,360
made them sensitive, especially if they were entering into another community along the

460
00:30:35,360 --> 00:30:36,360
way.

461
00:30:36,360 --> 00:30:39,520
They were sensitive to the gates of another city because they would usually sit in the

462
00:30:39,520 --> 00:30:45,240
gate and wait for somebody local to offer them hospitality.

463
00:30:45,240 --> 00:30:53,000
So the instructions to the early church was every city you enter into, pray for your peace

464
00:30:53,000 --> 00:30:54,800
to impart to it.

465
00:30:54,800 --> 00:30:56,040
Well, how's it going to impart to it?

466
00:30:56,040 --> 00:30:57,320
You don't know anyone there.

467
00:30:57,320 --> 00:30:58,800
You've just gotten there.

468
00:30:58,800 --> 00:30:59,800
What's this mystery?

469
00:30:59,800 --> 00:31:03,600
How do I just release my peace to an intangible place?

470
00:31:03,600 --> 00:31:04,840
Well he answers that question.

471
00:31:04,840 --> 00:31:10,000
He says, when you speak your peace, when you pray for your peace to impart to that city,

472
00:31:10,000 --> 00:31:16,800
if there be a man of peace there, it'll land on him.

473
00:31:16,800 --> 00:31:21,040
And when you find him, go into his house.

474
00:31:21,040 --> 00:31:27,520
But if not, if they don't receive it, then ask for your peace to return to you and shake

475
00:31:27,520 --> 00:31:29,720
the dust off your feet and go on.

476
00:31:29,720 --> 00:31:35,000
It's not a mean thing to shake the dust, but it's going to bring down a correction on that

477
00:31:35,000 --> 00:31:42,720
city because God knows, I'll say it very boldly, God wouldn't have sent you if there wasn't

478
00:31:42,720 --> 00:31:45,040
a man of peace there.

479
00:31:45,040 --> 00:31:50,720
So if they don't respond, they're disobeying him and they're locking up their city to a

480
00:31:50,720 --> 00:31:53,340
move of God.

481
00:31:53,340 --> 00:31:55,920
So they're going to need some correction for that and he'll correct them nicely.

482
00:31:55,920 --> 00:31:56,920
They'll get a little spanking.

483
00:31:56,920 --> 00:31:57,920
He'll give them another chance.

484
00:31:57,920 --> 00:31:59,920
They'll do it again.

485
00:31:59,920 --> 00:32:03,320
Eventually the glory of God's going to fill the place because it's going to fill the whole

486
00:32:03,320 --> 00:32:04,320
earth.

487
00:32:04,320 --> 00:32:05,320
That's right.

488
00:32:05,320 --> 00:32:06,320
Yes.

489
00:32:06,320 --> 00:32:10,120
Well, Saul figured this out and so he discovered along the way that when I have a mysterious

490
00:32:10,120 --> 00:32:16,600
encounter with a person, it is Father God unlocking a nation.

491
00:32:16,600 --> 00:32:17,920
Beautiful.

492
00:32:17,920 --> 00:32:25,280
So he paid attention to this and he didn't plan his way like a revival train, an 18-wheeler

493
00:32:25,280 --> 00:32:29,080
that's going to roll into town and advertise to everybody that the revival wagon's here

494
00:32:29,080 --> 00:32:32,040
and we've got a certain tent set up on Main Street.

495
00:32:32,040 --> 00:32:34,800
Come and join us and bring your tithes and offerings.

496
00:32:34,800 --> 00:32:37,240
He went looking for a man of peace.

497
00:32:37,240 --> 00:32:38,440
Come on.

498
00:32:38,440 --> 00:32:42,400
And when he found it, he reaped cities, whole cities and nations.

499
00:32:42,400 --> 00:32:43,400
Beautiful.

500
00:32:43,400 --> 00:32:48,080
Because he figured out the ways of God, not just the responsibility of preaching the gospel.

501
00:32:48,080 --> 00:32:49,080
That's good.

502
00:32:49,080 --> 00:32:50,760
But remember, he saw of Tarsus.

503
00:32:50,760 --> 00:32:51,760
Why Tarsus?

504
00:32:51,760 --> 00:32:58,800
Why did God choose a man from Tarsus to be the first fruit among the Gentiles?

505
00:32:58,800 --> 00:33:03,080
Because Tarsus was the city where idolatry that was proliferated all over the earth was

506
00:33:03,080 --> 00:33:04,080
born.

507
00:33:04,080 --> 00:33:05,080
Wow.

508
00:33:05,080 --> 00:33:09,680
The main piece of idolatry in that day was the bull.

509
00:33:09,680 --> 00:33:10,680
Okay.

510
00:33:10,680 --> 00:33:12,320
It's just Baal.

511
00:33:12,320 --> 00:33:13,320
Yeah.

512
00:33:13,320 --> 00:33:16,720
It's the same bull that we see Egypt serving.

513
00:33:16,720 --> 00:33:20,240
We see Israel transgressing with that when they were out in the desert.

514
00:33:20,240 --> 00:33:24,320
They created a golden bull and worshiped it.

515
00:33:24,320 --> 00:33:27,280
We see this happening in many parts of the world.

516
00:33:27,280 --> 00:33:35,240
That manufacturing of idols from a little place in Tarsus also imparted to whole nations

517
00:33:35,240 --> 00:33:38,240
along the Silk Road, along the trade routes.

518
00:33:38,240 --> 00:33:43,120
So idolatry was proliferating throughout the world along the trade routes.

519
00:33:43,120 --> 00:33:45,440
Now Saul journeys and he finds a person.

520
00:33:45,440 --> 00:33:47,200
He gets to their city.

521
00:33:47,200 --> 00:33:48,400
The gospel opens up.

522
00:33:48,400 --> 00:33:54,040
He does it again and again and then he gets to this spot and acts where it says he wanted

523
00:33:54,040 --> 00:33:59,400
to go to Asia and for the first time the Holy Spirit says no.

524
00:33:59,400 --> 00:34:03,400
Why would God tell him no when he's already been told to go to the ends of the earth?

525
00:34:03,400 --> 00:34:04,400
Yeah.

526
00:34:04,400 --> 00:34:05,400
Yeah.

527
00:34:05,400 --> 00:34:09,360
Well, he at least understood that that meant no and ask again.

528
00:34:09,360 --> 00:34:11,240
Yes, that's it.

529
00:34:11,240 --> 00:34:13,160
That is a good word.

530
00:34:13,160 --> 00:34:14,480
It's not no, you're never going to go.

531
00:34:14,480 --> 00:34:17,840
It's no, you can't go because something's not lined up with my protocol.

532
00:34:17,840 --> 00:34:18,840
So ask again.

533
00:34:18,840 --> 00:34:20,480
Yeah, that's good.

534
00:34:20,480 --> 00:34:22,520
What's the right question to ask again?

535
00:34:22,520 --> 00:34:23,520
Why can't I go?

536
00:34:23,520 --> 00:34:24,520
Yeah.

537
00:34:24,520 --> 00:34:27,320
Well, I'm missing a relationship.

538
00:34:27,320 --> 00:34:30,200
I don't have a son or daughter from Asia yet.

539
00:34:30,200 --> 00:34:31,200
Wow.

540
00:34:31,200 --> 00:34:33,640
So I can't inherit Asia.

541
00:34:33,640 --> 00:34:35,400
Wow.

542
00:34:35,400 --> 00:34:38,800
I've got Greece in my pocket because I found Timothy.

543
00:34:38,800 --> 00:34:40,240
Yeah.

544
00:34:40,240 --> 00:34:42,840
I've got Antioch because I found Barnabas.

545
00:34:42,840 --> 00:34:44,080
Yes.

546
00:34:44,080 --> 00:34:47,880
I've got to find something that God has not connected yet.

547
00:34:47,880 --> 00:34:50,600
So he prays and he has a dream.

548
00:34:50,600 --> 00:34:51,600
Yes.

549
00:34:51,600 --> 00:34:55,680
And in the dream he sees a Macedonian man saying, come over here and help us.

550
00:34:55,680 --> 00:34:56,680
Yes.

551
00:34:56,680 --> 00:34:59,160
What did Macedonia do?

552
00:34:59,160 --> 00:35:02,880
As a nation, they did two things really extraordinary.

553
00:35:02,880 --> 00:35:05,480
One, they conquered most of the known world.

554
00:35:05,480 --> 00:35:06,480
Yeah.

555
00:35:06,480 --> 00:35:08,380
Through Alexander the Great.

556
00:35:08,380 --> 00:35:15,280
They took an army to the ends of the earth, secular power, military power.

557
00:35:15,280 --> 00:35:19,440
They conquered nations because God was doing something.

558
00:35:19,440 --> 00:35:24,920
It looks weird because I'm not condoning Alexander trying to say that was all a good thing.

559
00:35:24,920 --> 00:35:28,360
If he was a nation he conquered, it might not have been a good thing.

560
00:35:28,360 --> 00:35:34,440
But sometimes God uses something like that in history to pave the way for his gospel.

561
00:35:34,440 --> 00:35:35,760
Beautiful.

562
00:35:35,760 --> 00:35:40,040
In the same way Rome had done the same thing, Rome sort of followed in Alexander the Great's

563
00:35:40,040 --> 00:35:43,880
footsteps and they conquered much of the same areas of the world.

564
00:35:43,880 --> 00:35:48,320
So the gospel with the apostles spread on the Roman roads.

565
00:35:48,320 --> 00:35:51,040
It spread on the pass of the Macedonian army.

566
00:35:51,040 --> 00:35:52,040
Wow.

567
00:35:52,040 --> 00:35:53,040
Why?

568
00:35:53,040 --> 00:35:57,960
Because they were going out to transform countries to their understanding of thinking.

569
00:35:57,960 --> 00:36:01,000
If they had had the gospel, that's what they would have taken.

570
00:36:01,000 --> 00:36:02,000
Sure.

571
00:36:02,000 --> 00:36:05,920
Rome didn't have the gospel, but it knew how to build cities, it knew how to build

572
00:36:05,920 --> 00:36:06,920
citizenships.

573
00:36:06,920 --> 00:36:10,440
It had a level of government that was quite extraordinary compared to what most people

574
00:36:10,440 --> 00:36:12,200
were used to.

575
00:36:12,200 --> 00:36:15,400
In its founding principles, it had some really good things.

576
00:36:15,400 --> 00:36:19,680
It deviates and gets a little crazy because of the military and the Caesars.

577
00:36:19,680 --> 00:36:26,920
But the Roman design was a better design than what most cities had in that era of the world.

578
00:36:26,920 --> 00:36:30,660
So when you became a Roman citizen, it carried a lot of weight.

579
00:36:30,660 --> 00:36:36,120
It was like having a passport to America or to the European Union or something.

580
00:36:36,120 --> 00:36:40,640
However, they didn't do everything perfectly, but God used them.

581
00:36:40,640 --> 00:36:46,020
He raises them up, He allows them to have that kind of power, and then He uses whatever

582
00:36:46,020 --> 00:36:52,520
they did do that was worthwhile as a foundation for the gospel.

583
00:36:52,520 --> 00:36:56,840
This is a mystery because you can't condone everything about them and you could certainly

584
00:36:56,840 --> 00:37:02,380
say, I wish they weren't there, but something emerges out of it later where as God brings

585
00:37:02,380 --> 00:37:09,520
their kingdom to an end and His rises above it, He uses their roads for the apostles.

586
00:37:09,520 --> 00:37:12,160
It's a case of all things working together for good.

587
00:37:12,160 --> 00:37:13,160
Exactly.

588
00:37:13,160 --> 00:37:16,440
Saul understood that in part, but he's stuck.

589
00:37:16,440 --> 00:37:20,440
He can't go into Asia.

590
00:37:20,440 --> 00:37:22,720
He just simply asked God why.

591
00:37:22,720 --> 00:37:24,360
Has this dream?

592
00:37:24,360 --> 00:37:26,440
Sees a Macedonian and said, come over and help us.

593
00:37:26,440 --> 00:37:33,560
Well that is Macedonia is sort of in our day, we see it as a little circle in the middle

594
00:37:33,560 --> 00:37:39,200
of Greece, but in his day, Macedonia was bigger than Greece.

595
00:37:39,200 --> 00:37:42,620
So for Macedonian man in a dream, say, come over and help us.

596
00:37:42,620 --> 00:37:49,840
It's including Asia minor because that's what they controlled.

597
00:37:49,840 --> 00:37:54,000
And today we can't see this as clearly on a map, but if you go back and look at an ancient

598
00:37:54,000 --> 00:38:01,800
map prior to this period of history, you've got to go back far enough about 200 AD or

599
00:38:01,800 --> 00:38:09,280
earlier, you'll see the current country of Turkey is named Lydia.

600
00:38:09,280 --> 00:38:12,000
That's right.

601
00:38:12,000 --> 00:38:13,000
Why is it named Lydia?

602
00:38:13,000 --> 00:38:17,680
Well, because there's this extraordinary lady that lives there named Lydia that's part of

603
00:38:17,680 --> 00:38:22,040
the royal families.

604
00:38:22,040 --> 00:38:28,440
And he dreams a dream and sees a Macedonian man saying, come over and help us.

605
00:38:28,440 --> 00:38:33,120
The thing that's interesting about Macedon or the Macedonians is they train their women

606
00:38:33,120 --> 00:38:36,480
to fight just like the men.

607
00:38:36,480 --> 00:38:40,440
So very often if you saw somebody in Macedonian army, you wouldn't have been able to tell

608
00:38:40,440 --> 00:38:45,840
if it was a man or a woman and they would have fought just as skillfully.

609
00:38:45,840 --> 00:38:49,280
So they were very, very difficult people to beat or conquer.

610
00:38:49,280 --> 00:38:53,920
You couldn't conquer their cities because the women would fight to the death.

611
00:38:53,920 --> 00:38:55,320
The men would fight first.

612
00:38:55,320 --> 00:38:56,320
You'd have to get through them.

613
00:38:56,320 --> 00:38:58,520
If you got through them, you're not going to get through the women because they're not

614
00:38:58,520 --> 00:39:02,200
going to let you get their babies.

615
00:39:02,200 --> 00:39:06,160
And even the children were trained to fight before they were trained to walk.

616
00:39:06,160 --> 00:39:09,420
They could ride a horse before they could walk.

617
00:39:09,420 --> 00:39:11,260
They were fierce warriors.

618
00:39:11,260 --> 00:39:13,280
So he sees a Macedonian man.

619
00:39:13,280 --> 00:39:17,800
It might've actually been a man, but I'd submit to you, he probably saw somebody in Macedonian

620
00:39:17,800 --> 00:39:22,160
armor and he assumes it's a man.

621
00:39:22,160 --> 00:39:24,320
And then out of frustration, he doesn't know where to go.

622
00:39:24,320 --> 00:39:28,120
So the right thing to do when God says no is go back to the last place.

623
00:39:28,120 --> 00:39:29,120
You got a yes.

624
00:39:29,120 --> 00:39:32,760
That's a good, good, good key there.

625
00:39:32,760 --> 00:39:34,180
That's a good word.

626
00:39:34,180 --> 00:39:39,200
So he goes to Phurgia in Greece, already has relationships there.

627
00:39:39,200 --> 00:39:40,200
Everything works right there.

628
00:39:40,200 --> 00:39:43,000
When he goes there, it's friends, it's fellowship, it's peace.

629
00:39:43,000 --> 00:39:46,960
The gospel's advancing and spreading among the Greeks.

630
00:39:46,960 --> 00:39:48,340
And he's got lots of friends there.

631
00:39:48,340 --> 00:39:52,000
So he goes there to try to figure out why can't I go into Asia?

632
00:39:52,000 --> 00:39:53,880
And he's doing what he always does.

633
00:39:53,880 --> 00:39:58,280
Now he's preaching where he has permission and freedom again, within the context of the

634
00:39:58,280 --> 00:39:59,900
ways of God.

635
00:39:59,900 --> 00:40:02,120
And then this lady named Lydia shows up.

636
00:40:02,120 --> 00:40:05,000
She was a seller of purple.

637
00:40:05,000 --> 00:40:06,540
She's not from Phurgia.

638
00:40:06,540 --> 00:40:09,120
She's from Thyatira.

639
00:40:09,120 --> 00:40:10,360
And she gets converted.

640
00:40:10,360 --> 00:40:12,860
And then she makes this nice little statement to Saul.

641
00:40:12,860 --> 00:40:19,560
She says, Saul, if you consider me a believer, come to my house.

642
00:40:19,560 --> 00:40:22,280
Or her house was in Asia Minor.

643
00:40:22,280 --> 00:40:25,040
Oh, wow.

644
00:40:25,040 --> 00:40:30,240
We don't see Saul having to ask again to go to Asia immediately.

645
00:40:30,240 --> 00:40:32,800
Lift up your heads, oh, you gates that the king of glory come in.

646
00:40:32,800 --> 00:40:34,400
The gate just opened.

647
00:40:34,400 --> 00:40:36,520
The keys just turned in the lock.

648
00:40:36,520 --> 00:40:38,360
The gospel can now spread to Asia.

649
00:40:38,360 --> 00:40:39,360
Wow.

650
00:40:39,360 --> 00:40:43,880
But he had to find the gatekeeper's house.

651
00:40:43,880 --> 00:40:48,640
And I call her a gatekeeper because I think he understood that when she invited him to

652
00:40:48,640 --> 00:40:51,800
her house, she was unlocking her nation to the gospel.

653
00:40:51,800 --> 00:40:52,800
Beautiful.

654
00:40:52,800 --> 00:40:54,720
It's the same way as Peter.

655
00:40:54,720 --> 00:41:00,920
When Peter repents for the Gentiles, God opens up the factual door to the Gentiles, saves

656
00:41:00,920 --> 00:41:02,760
Cornelius' house.

657
00:41:02,760 --> 00:41:09,000
What we've not understood about the way evangelism works is that if one person says yes to Jesus,

658
00:41:09,000 --> 00:41:12,160
so God is going to go after much, much more.

659
00:41:12,160 --> 00:41:13,720
Amen.

660
00:41:13,720 --> 00:41:17,180
You don't know who you're connected to in the spirit.

661
00:41:17,180 --> 00:41:24,720
You don't know how God views your DNA, but he aggressively is going to use your obedience

662
00:41:24,720 --> 00:41:29,480
as an open door for the gospel to now to spread much further than you.

663
00:41:29,480 --> 00:41:30,480
Amen.

664
00:41:30,480 --> 00:41:34,640
If you cooperate with that design and you share your testimony with your friends and

665
00:41:34,640 --> 00:41:37,360
families, all the more it will accelerate.

666
00:41:37,360 --> 00:41:38,360
Amen.

667
00:41:38,360 --> 00:41:39,360
All right.

668
00:41:39,360 --> 00:41:44,840
So when the apostles figured out these kinds of ways, they weren't just preaching like

669
00:41:44,840 --> 00:41:45,840
we understand.

670
00:41:45,840 --> 00:41:51,360
They were preaching by design within the ways of God, looking for that missing piece that

671
00:41:51,360 --> 00:41:54,720
had to get saved before the whole city would.

672
00:41:54,720 --> 00:41:55,920
Wow.

673
00:41:55,920 --> 00:42:00,920
And he gains Lydia and then he goes into Asia Minor and he begins to speak the good news

674
00:42:00,920 --> 00:42:01,920
there.

675
00:42:01,920 --> 00:42:06,840
Again, now he's got a green light, permission from God to do anything in Asia.

676
00:42:06,840 --> 00:42:07,840
Wow.

677
00:42:07,840 --> 00:42:08,840
That's interesting.

678
00:42:08,840 --> 00:42:09,840
Why?

679
00:42:09,840 --> 00:42:10,960
Because she opened the door.

680
00:42:10,960 --> 00:42:17,680
From Thyatira, we end up with stories in the gospels where he ends up birthing the church

681
00:42:17,680 --> 00:42:21,000
in seven cities of her domain.

682
00:42:21,000 --> 00:42:22,280
Oh yeah.

683
00:42:22,280 --> 00:42:24,440
So we get the seven churches of Asia.

684
00:42:24,440 --> 00:42:25,440
Right.

685
00:42:25,440 --> 00:42:27,440
Mentioned in the book of Revelation.

686
00:42:27,440 --> 00:42:28,440
Wow.

687
00:42:28,440 --> 00:42:34,840
Ephesus, Philadelphia, Sardis, Thyatira, you can look them all up.

688
00:42:34,840 --> 00:42:38,520
All of them were in Lydia's domain.

689
00:42:38,520 --> 00:42:39,520
Wow.

690
00:42:39,520 --> 00:42:42,640
But another strange thing happens.

691
00:42:42,640 --> 00:42:45,360
If you look at this ancient map, it's not too hard to find.

692
00:42:45,360 --> 00:42:47,600
You can go dig for it and find one.

693
00:42:47,600 --> 00:42:54,060
The whole country that was named Lydia on an ancient map looks like a bull with its

694
00:42:54,060 --> 00:42:58,360
head down charging towards Israel.

695
00:42:58,360 --> 00:43:03,320
And it's the seed of idolatry for the trade routes all over the world.

696
00:43:03,320 --> 00:43:04,460
Wow.

697
00:43:04,460 --> 00:43:11,960
So it's not just worshiping the queen of heaven and Baal and Marduk and some of these ancient

698
00:43:11,960 --> 00:43:13,160
gods.

699
00:43:13,160 --> 00:43:17,120
It's merchandising them all over the world with trade routes.

700
00:43:17,120 --> 00:43:18,320
Wow.

701
00:43:18,320 --> 00:43:23,480
So God saves someone that understood the royal dye.

702
00:43:23,480 --> 00:43:29,640
The other anointing that she carried is she controlled the market for the royal dye that

703
00:43:29,640 --> 00:43:32,640
made robes for kings and queens.

704
00:43:32,640 --> 00:43:33,640
Wow.

705
00:43:33,640 --> 00:43:38,720
Which means she's got connection with kingdoms all over the world.

706
00:43:38,720 --> 00:43:39,720
Wow.

707
00:43:39,720 --> 00:43:45,160
She's cornered the market on the commodity that they want.

708
00:43:45,160 --> 00:43:50,440
And now she's going to befriend an apostle who's going to take the gospel the same way

709
00:43:50,440 --> 00:43:52,440
she took purple dye.

710
00:43:52,440 --> 00:43:53,980
Glory to God.

711
00:43:53,980 --> 00:43:54,980
This is powerful.

712
00:43:54,980 --> 00:43:58,840
Now, when you look at this ancient map and you see the bull with its head down charging

713
00:43:58,840 --> 00:44:04,120
towards Israel, this is idolatry that had been set up in the earth probably by the fallen

714
00:44:04,120 --> 00:44:05,760
angels originally.

715
00:44:05,760 --> 00:44:12,920
And they have created a seat of power to stop the gospel and to punish any way possible

716
00:44:12,920 --> 00:44:14,920
anyone that comes into covenant with God.

717
00:44:14,920 --> 00:44:16,880
They're warring with God's people.

718
00:44:16,880 --> 00:44:17,880
Yeah.

719
00:44:17,880 --> 00:44:21,080
So God picks a man from Tarsus to fix it.

720
00:44:21,080 --> 00:44:23,840
Glory to God.

721
00:44:23,840 --> 00:44:29,120
He finds somebody from the very birthplace of that idolatry, says, there's one I can

722
00:44:29,120 --> 00:44:30,120
use.

723
00:44:30,120 --> 00:44:31,760
He's zealous for the wicked.

724
00:44:31,760 --> 00:44:33,040
Now he's zealous for me.

725
00:44:33,040 --> 00:44:34,360
We're going to fix this.

726
00:44:34,360 --> 00:44:35,360
Wow.

727
00:44:35,360 --> 00:44:38,440
Now, this is what we've not understood about churches.

728
00:44:38,440 --> 00:44:41,680
Saul didn't go birth churches anywhere he wanted.

729
00:44:41,680 --> 00:44:45,000
He didn't pick out good place for real estate.

730
00:44:45,000 --> 00:44:50,200
He birthed churches where he had a convert.

731
00:44:50,200 --> 00:44:52,760
So first he finds the son.

732
00:44:52,760 --> 00:44:55,240
Then he gains the house.

733
00:44:55,240 --> 00:45:02,800
And then if you pray in the house, you very likely are going to get endued with power.

734
00:45:02,800 --> 00:45:09,560
And when you're endued with power, Jesus says the king might call you his Ecclesia, but

735
00:45:09,560 --> 00:45:12,960
you're not allowed to be called an Ecclesia just because you wanted to put a piece of

736
00:45:12,960 --> 00:45:15,360
real estate there.

737
00:45:15,360 --> 00:45:18,160
You don't start the church and then invite the people.

738
00:45:18,160 --> 00:45:20,400
You go find the people that God is saving.

739
00:45:20,400 --> 00:45:26,840
And it becomes a prayer room and out of that prayer room, the Ecclesia emerges.

740
00:45:26,840 --> 00:45:29,200
This is the apostolic pattern that we've missed.

741
00:45:29,200 --> 00:45:33,780
We're trying to take over churches with apostles now instead of birth them with the same way

742
00:45:33,780 --> 00:45:35,260
that the first ones did.

743
00:45:35,260 --> 00:45:39,480
If we go back to the first fruit, the way they did it in the first hundred years, we

744
00:45:39,480 --> 00:45:43,800
would reap the earth, I think, in a rapid way.

745
00:45:43,800 --> 00:45:49,260
Right now we're trying to take over things that probably have been birthed illegitimately,

746
00:45:49,260 --> 00:45:52,600
but they have Jesus' name on them.

747
00:45:52,600 --> 00:45:53,960
And I'm not saying that's all bad.

748
00:45:53,960 --> 00:46:01,160
I'm just saying that we need to go back to the pattern of how God wants to save the world.

749
00:46:01,160 --> 00:46:02,780
Why is this so important?

750
00:46:02,780 --> 00:46:09,140
When he was told, no, you can't go to Asia, God knew this is the seed of idolatry.

751
00:46:09,140 --> 00:46:12,120
He's not telling Saul, you can't go there.

752
00:46:12,120 --> 00:46:14,120
He's saying you got to go there the right way.

753
00:46:14,120 --> 00:46:18,840
You can't bring something down until you get it out of you.

754
00:46:18,840 --> 00:46:24,600
And I can't send you until you go in the way that I want, walk in my ways, not just with

755
00:46:24,600 --> 00:46:26,280
my message.

756
00:46:26,280 --> 00:46:31,480
When he finds Lydia and he has this green light, he goes to her house, he engages with

757
00:46:31,480 --> 00:46:38,000
her family, he ends up with freedom to preach in all seven of these cities.

758
00:46:38,000 --> 00:46:43,440
And a church emerges or an ecclesiast emerges in all seven of these cities.

759
00:46:43,440 --> 00:46:50,080
Now if you look at them on this ancient map, four of them line up exactly horizontally

760
00:46:50,080 --> 00:46:54,520
right here and three of them line up just a few kilometers away.

761
00:46:54,520 --> 00:47:01,800
And they are a collar on the neck of the bull.

762
00:47:01,800 --> 00:47:07,680
The strategic place that the churches are birthed becomes a place for the foot of the

763
00:47:07,680 --> 00:47:12,800
king to put his foot on the neck of his enemies and break the idolatry in the earth.

764
00:47:12,800 --> 00:47:16,000
Glory to God.

765
00:47:16,000 --> 00:47:22,320
So when they dealt with this correctly, first they save some, they get them praying, and

766
00:47:22,320 --> 00:47:28,640
then they've got to deal with this marketing of the idolatry and that becomes a riot.

767
00:47:28,640 --> 00:47:34,920
But God doesn't answer the riot with another riot, he answers the riot with power.

768
00:47:34,920 --> 00:47:40,160
They actually probably murdered Saul and the disciples gathered around him and he jumps

769
00:47:40,160 --> 00:47:44,120
back up and goes back in there and starts preaching again.

770
00:47:44,120 --> 00:47:49,320
He's preaching until the idolatry comes down.

771
00:47:49,320 --> 00:47:55,400
But he's not preaching against the idolatry, he's preaching the kingdom of heaven.

772
00:47:55,400 --> 00:47:59,440
If Jesus is lifted up, I will draw all men unto me.

773
00:47:59,440 --> 00:48:05,640
So when a guy gets resurrected, what's the message?

774
00:48:05,640 --> 00:48:08,240
He's not going to go back in there and say, y'all are idolaters and you need to repent.

775
00:48:08,240 --> 00:48:12,520
He's going to go back there and say, I told you, I served the king that's resurrected.

776
00:48:12,520 --> 00:48:13,520
Yes.

777
00:48:13,520 --> 00:48:16,000
Look, you killed me and now here I am preaching again.

778
00:48:16,000 --> 00:48:20,360
Try it again if you want to, but you're going to do this until you see him because I'm here

779
00:48:20,360 --> 00:48:23,000
to show you the face of the one that made you.

780
00:48:23,000 --> 00:48:24,400
Beautiful.

781
00:48:24,400 --> 00:48:27,440
If I be lifted up, I would draw men unto me.

782
00:48:27,440 --> 00:48:30,440
They don't do that easily, they don't change easily.

783
00:48:30,440 --> 00:48:32,840
He deals with another thing that's a part of this.

784
00:48:32,840 --> 00:48:37,240
He gets the little servant girl that follows him around.

785
00:48:37,240 --> 00:48:39,160
That story sort of relates to the same thing.

786
00:48:39,160 --> 00:48:43,720
These are some of the types of opposition we get and we think it's spiritual warfare

787
00:48:43,720 --> 00:48:46,640
and it's actually, let me say it a different way.

788
00:48:46,640 --> 00:48:49,760
It's not the enemy's spiritual warfare to resist us.

789
00:48:49,760 --> 00:48:55,400
It's strategic warfare that if we understand the ways of God, we plow through it, break

790
00:48:55,400 --> 00:48:59,680
it easily and then we gain a massive move of God.

791
00:48:59,680 --> 00:49:00,680
Amen.

792
00:49:00,680 --> 00:49:07,800
So when he gains this foothold in seven locations and you could literally say, now the King

793
00:49:07,800 --> 00:49:14,360
of Kings has put his foot on the neck of idolatry that's messing up the world.

794
00:49:14,360 --> 00:49:15,360
Wow.

795
00:49:15,360 --> 00:49:16,360
Wow.

796
00:49:16,360 --> 00:49:22,960
At that point, John finds out about it and Mary the mother of Jesus finds out about what's

797
00:49:22,960 --> 00:49:26,400
going on over there and they come to visit.

798
00:49:26,400 --> 00:49:31,680
They went into the temple of Diana and they prayed for the idolatry to come down.

799
00:49:31,680 --> 00:49:32,680
Wow.

800
00:49:32,680 --> 00:49:36,920
And when they prayed, a massive earthquake happened and the temple fell.

801
00:49:36,920 --> 00:49:38,360
Wow.

802
00:49:38,360 --> 00:49:42,280
When that temple fell, whole cities were buried.

803
00:49:42,280 --> 00:49:43,280
It set off earthquakes.

804
00:49:43,280 --> 00:49:45,440
It set off volcanoes.

805
00:49:45,440 --> 00:49:51,600
It was massive and it was so massive that God shook the nation and he broke the head

806
00:49:51,600 --> 00:49:52,600
of the bull off.

807
00:49:52,600 --> 00:49:53,600
Glory to God.

808
00:49:53,600 --> 00:49:59,280
So today, if you look at a map, you don't see the whole country of Lydia.

809
00:49:59,280 --> 00:50:06,320
You see a bunch of fragments that have become the Greek Isles between Turkey and Greece.

810
00:50:06,320 --> 00:50:09,260
And they weren't Greek Isles in the biblical era.

811
00:50:09,260 --> 00:50:11,600
They were the head of the bull.

812
00:50:11,600 --> 00:50:13,040
Wow.

813
00:50:13,040 --> 00:50:19,800
So the strategy of this is if you put the body of Christ into full functionality in

814
00:50:19,800 --> 00:50:27,400
the spot that God wants, then he inhabits that with his presence and that can transform

815
00:50:27,400 --> 00:50:28,880
the whole city.

816
00:50:28,880 --> 00:50:29,960
Amen.

817
00:50:29,960 --> 00:50:31,600
We need to understand this again.

818
00:50:31,600 --> 00:50:34,120
Now, I go one step further.

819
00:50:34,120 --> 00:50:39,860
Saul writes a letter that he couldn't go to Asia and then within days or weeks, he meets

820
00:50:39,860 --> 00:50:43,560
Lydia and something just dramatically opens up.

821
00:50:43,560 --> 00:50:48,960
He then writes a letter a few years later and he says, all of Asia has heard the gospel.

822
00:50:48,960 --> 00:50:49,960
Hallelujah.

823
00:50:49,960 --> 00:50:52,880
Do you realize what a miracle that was?

824
00:50:52,880 --> 00:50:53,880
Wow.

825
00:50:53,880 --> 00:50:54,880
Wow, wow.

826
00:50:54,880 --> 00:51:00,840
In about a two-year period of Lydia saying yes to Jesus, all of Asia heard the gospel.

827
00:51:00,840 --> 00:51:03,080
Glory to God.

828
00:51:03,080 --> 00:51:06,320
That's about how long it took Alexander the Great to conquer it.

829
00:51:06,320 --> 00:51:07,320
Wow.

830
00:51:07,320 --> 00:51:09,360
You see the pattern.

831
00:51:09,360 --> 00:51:13,960
God took something negative that had happened in history and he fixed the history of the

832
00:51:13,960 --> 00:51:19,360
Macedonians with their ruling over other nations to make them more like themselves instead

833
00:51:19,360 --> 00:51:21,480
of bringing them something good.

834
00:51:21,480 --> 00:51:25,440
He follows the path of war and conquer with the good news.

835
00:51:25,440 --> 00:51:26,440
Beautiful.

836
00:51:26,440 --> 00:51:28,680
To say, let me bring my kingdom to you.

837
00:51:28,680 --> 00:51:31,040
It's going to be good for you.

838
00:51:31,040 --> 00:51:32,240
I'm not here to conquer you.

839
00:51:32,240 --> 00:51:38,480
I'm here to transform you into a nation of light and peace and prosperity.

840
00:51:38,480 --> 00:51:45,280
The walls that had kept him out, they fall by the little acts of obedience like people

841
00:51:45,280 --> 00:51:51,640
like Lydia and Timothy and Titus and Barnabas and these people that are mentioned throughout

842
00:51:51,640 --> 00:51:52,640
scripture.

843
00:51:52,640 --> 00:51:56,240
They're catalyst for the power of God to move because they said yes to Jesus.

844
00:51:56,240 --> 00:52:01,220
Now God will move through whatever stewardship they have in the earth.

845
00:52:01,220 --> 00:52:07,200
We ought to be looking at ourselves this way saying, I don't know who I am fully because

846
00:52:07,200 --> 00:52:09,880
I know a little bit about my genealogy.

847
00:52:09,880 --> 00:52:16,920
In the heavenly map, when God looks at me, he has an understanding of a nation, a tribe,

848
00:52:16,920 --> 00:52:20,960
a people and a tongue that relates to me also.

849
00:52:20,960 --> 00:52:25,760
So if I say yes to him, he's not just going after me.

850
00:52:25,760 --> 00:52:31,800
He's going to go after everything that I'm connected to with my spirit.

851
00:52:31,800 --> 00:52:37,840
And if I give him freedom to save me, it's just like a trade route, it just opens up

852
00:52:37,840 --> 00:52:44,520
a trade route for the gospel to have success with the hearers to the extent of my boundaries.

853
00:52:44,520 --> 00:52:50,280
My whole point in this is that the modern country of Turkey or ancient Lydia, I think

854
00:52:50,280 --> 00:52:56,720
is one of the most profound examples of how God wants to move in the earth.

855
00:52:56,720 --> 00:53:00,920
I'm praying for that area of the world to have another move of God the way they did

856
00:53:00,920 --> 00:53:07,640
in the ancient days, but also that we would understand God's protocol and his ways on

857
00:53:07,640 --> 00:53:10,040
how we want to do this.

858
00:53:10,040 --> 00:53:17,080
The apostolic grace is very important to understand when it's sent, it must go in the right way.

859
00:53:17,080 --> 00:53:22,720
It's not just sent because it's an apostle or it's not an apostle just because it's

860
00:53:22,720 --> 00:53:23,720
sent.

861
00:53:23,720 --> 00:53:27,120
They must learn to walk in God's ways.

862
00:53:27,120 --> 00:53:33,240
So their primary job is to lay their life down in order for others to be lifted up.

863
00:53:33,240 --> 00:53:38,940
So they have to walk correctly, not necessarily without making mistakes.

864
00:53:38,940 --> 00:53:45,240
We all make some, but when they walk in God's ways, profound things open up.

865
00:53:45,240 --> 00:53:52,800
And the other thing is the link between the apostolic grace and evangelism should be reinstituted

866
00:53:52,800 --> 00:53:55,600
in a profound way with wisdom.

867
00:53:55,600 --> 00:54:00,040
We understand how these two graces work together.

868
00:54:00,040 --> 00:54:06,160
I think we've seen the first tier of evangelism in our lifetime because we've seen people

869
00:54:06,160 --> 00:54:09,760
get saved either from a message or at a meeting.

870
00:54:09,760 --> 00:54:16,000
A gifted five-fold evangelist comes to town and has a grace to get a lot of people saved.

871
00:54:16,000 --> 00:54:21,720
But the second tier of evangelism is when the person that gets saved, like Lydia, as

872
00:54:21,720 --> 00:54:29,240
I was just describing, when she brings her testimony to her own family and friends, now

873
00:54:29,240 --> 00:54:32,960
it has power with God to do it again.

874
00:54:32,960 --> 00:54:37,880
She doesn't need Saul to show up at her house so he can preach to all of her friends and

875
00:54:37,880 --> 00:54:38,880
family.

876
00:54:38,880 --> 00:54:43,760
She needs him to bring his grace into the room, which helps bring the presence and brings

877
00:54:43,760 --> 00:54:46,480
some bit of a support for her.

878
00:54:46,480 --> 00:54:50,760
But it's the person that just got saved or just got a miracle.

879
00:54:50,760 --> 00:54:57,080
Their testimony that's important to save their friends and family or their city.

880
00:54:57,080 --> 00:55:02,360
When they give their testimony and we're there in the room to help them, we're not doing

881
00:55:02,360 --> 00:55:05,280
it for them, but we're encouraging them to do it.

882
00:55:05,280 --> 00:55:08,120
When they do it, we'll pray with them.

883
00:55:08,120 --> 00:55:12,040
The word testimony in the ancient text means to do it again.

884
00:55:12,040 --> 00:55:18,040
Now whatever God did to save them or to heal them or to deliver them, saved, healed, set,

885
00:55:18,040 --> 00:55:23,680
re-delivered, whatever happened that was glorious in their life when they testify about it,

886
00:55:23,680 --> 00:55:26,800
then we can pray with them and God will do it again.

887
00:55:26,800 --> 00:55:31,960
His intention is to save their family and their friends.

888
00:55:31,960 --> 00:55:34,480
Then it begins a prayer room.

889
00:55:34,480 --> 00:55:37,760
Now that's sort of a repeat of the upper room.

890
00:55:37,760 --> 00:55:46,280
Now this new convert and her family and her friends begin to pray for Asia.

891
00:55:46,280 --> 00:55:50,000
But they're praying for the part of Asia that they understand.

892
00:55:50,000 --> 00:55:53,000
They want the other cities where they got relatives and friends that live.

893
00:55:53,000 --> 00:55:56,400
They want those cities to be touched by the gospel.

894
00:55:56,400 --> 00:56:00,360
But they're not just paying for Saul to go to the next place.

895
00:56:00,360 --> 00:56:04,360
They're praying and their prayers are what's getting answered.

896
00:56:04,360 --> 00:56:10,720
He's basing his activity on what God is doing in a divine relationship.

897
00:56:10,720 --> 00:56:17,080
So when she gets saved, she brings her friends and family into it, he prays for them along

898
00:56:17,080 --> 00:56:18,080
with her.

899
00:56:18,080 --> 00:56:23,940
God saves a household, saves a family, saves a city, and then it begins to spread throughout

900
00:56:23,940 --> 00:56:25,760
the trade routes.

901
00:56:25,760 --> 00:56:31,440
As we see it goes to those seven churches of Asia, then God moves in a massive way to

902
00:56:31,440 --> 00:56:32,880
accelerate it.

903
00:56:32,880 --> 00:56:35,840
He breaks off the idolatry and the earth.

904
00:56:35,840 --> 00:56:41,400
He deals decisively with the demonic powers that are resisting the gospel.

905
00:56:41,400 --> 00:56:43,440
And now it's like an open heaven.

906
00:56:43,440 --> 00:56:47,760
It just spreads like a wildfire throughout Asia.

907
00:56:47,760 --> 00:56:53,320
As that goes to the next place, again, we need to pay attention to the divine connections

908
00:56:53,320 --> 00:56:58,320
because I'm looking for the widow, the orphan, the poor, the alien among us, those that are

909
00:56:58,320 --> 00:56:59,320
in prison.

910
00:56:59,320 --> 00:57:03,240
I'm looking for the man of peace when God sends me somewhere.

911
00:57:03,240 --> 00:57:10,360
And I find these clues that connects up something that God is concerned about and they receive

912
00:57:10,360 --> 00:57:11,360
the gospel.

913
00:57:11,360 --> 00:57:16,480
Now we can move to the second tier, which is to begin to save who they're connected

914
00:57:16,480 --> 00:57:17,480
to.

915
00:57:17,480 --> 00:57:24,760
If we reach that spot where now Lydia's house gets saved, Cornelius' house gets saved, now

916
00:57:24,760 --> 00:57:30,240
we've got friends and family that are coming into the gospel and it bursts a prayer meeting

917
00:57:30,240 --> 00:57:32,600
that's effectual for the kingdom.

918
00:57:32,600 --> 00:57:33,600
Yes.

919
00:57:33,600 --> 00:57:38,240
It also lifts the king up over whatever they're stewarding over.

920
00:57:38,240 --> 00:57:43,520
So they begin to declare his name over their trade, their business, their ministries, whatever

921
00:57:43,520 --> 00:57:46,760
they're doing as a part of their life.

922
00:57:46,760 --> 00:57:52,120
The third tier of evangelism is after their friends and family and something in their

923
00:57:52,120 --> 00:57:55,240
house begins to stir with God.

924
00:57:55,240 --> 00:58:01,760
And now they're requesting of God to enlarge and expand his kingdom in their domain.

925
00:58:01,760 --> 00:58:08,080
When God may answer in mysterious ways, he may choose somebody to be sent, he may just

926
00:58:08,080 --> 00:58:13,400
sovereignly begin to show himself to many, he might start performing massive signs and

927
00:58:13,400 --> 00:58:19,920
wonders, whatever it is that he responds to their prayers, it's the apostles of the five

928
00:58:19,920 --> 00:58:22,600
folds row to follow the clues.

929
00:58:22,600 --> 00:58:29,320
So when God moves, we respond and we ask him to do it again.

930
00:58:29,320 --> 00:58:36,280
If he heals somebody, he's probably not just healing a person along the way, but he's healing

931
00:58:36,280 --> 00:58:44,200
someone strategic that it's their testimony that is probably the key to save the city.

932
00:58:44,200 --> 00:58:47,800
And we need to let them give their testimony.

933
00:58:47,800 --> 00:58:52,280
Very often ministries in our day are trying to testify about what God's doing, but we

934
00:58:52,280 --> 00:58:55,720
don't give the microphone to the person he did it for.

935
00:58:55,720 --> 00:59:00,080
So we get on the stage and we tell somebody, well, God, you know, save this lady from cancer

936
00:59:00,080 --> 00:59:01,080
when I prayed for her.

937
00:59:01,080 --> 00:59:03,000
Well, great, but where is she?

938
00:59:03,000 --> 00:59:05,160
Come on, give her the microphone.

939
00:59:05,160 --> 00:59:06,360
It's her testimony.

940
00:59:06,360 --> 00:59:10,400
If you let her have the testimony, God will do it again.

941
00:59:10,400 --> 00:59:14,840
And it doesn't mean you don't get any credit for it, but it's a combination of law.

942
00:59:14,840 --> 00:59:20,040
If I take the credit as my ministry, I deserve some because I was there because I was a part

943
00:59:20,040 --> 00:59:26,640
of it, but if I take her testimony from her, then I diminished its power and glory.

944
00:59:26,640 --> 00:59:31,840
And that probably is not going to see the same results as if I let the person that got

945
00:59:31,840 --> 00:59:35,960
that miracle testify about even if they don't feel comfortable doing that, or they don't

946
00:59:35,960 --> 00:59:38,560
feel like they're any good, or they don't feel like they're called of God.

947
00:59:38,560 --> 00:59:41,720
Still, they're the ones that God did the miracle for.

948
00:59:41,720 --> 00:59:46,280
They are the ones that need to go and declare what great things God has done for them.

949
00:59:46,280 --> 00:59:48,400
And then he'll do it again.

950
00:59:48,400 --> 00:59:53,400
If we follow that pattern out correctly, we should see a person saved that God strategically

951
00:59:53,400 --> 00:59:58,520
chosen and then we see their family transformed along with their friends.

952
00:59:58,520 --> 01:00:05,160
And then we see him release strategy to save their city, and then we'll see their nation.

953
01:00:05,160 --> 01:00:10,000
And the pattern that I want us to understand that if I adopt a son or a daughter, if I

954
01:00:10,000 --> 01:00:15,840
take heed to what God's doing and just one person that's important to him, then we may

955
01:00:15,840 --> 01:00:19,000
be able to see the King inherit a whole nation.

956
01:00:19,000 --> 01:00:20,000
Amen.

957
01:00:20,000 --> 01:00:25,600
And I believe that's the pattern that God is going to unveil again in our day on a massive

958
01:00:25,600 --> 01:00:26,600
scale.

959
01:00:26,600 --> 01:00:30,920
We're going to reap the earth and the harvesting angels are coming to help us.

960
01:00:30,920 --> 01:00:35,960
And the glory of God is going to fill the whole earth with his glory.

961
01:00:35,960 --> 01:00:41,680
But we need to wrap ourselves around his ways again and relook at scripture and say, this

962
01:00:41,680 --> 01:00:43,840
is what happened in the days of old.

963
01:00:43,840 --> 01:00:46,880
Let's ask God how to do it again in our day.

964
01:00:46,880 --> 01:00:47,880
Amen.

965
01:00:47,880 --> 01:00:48,880
So thank you for listening.

966
01:00:48,880 --> 01:00:52,080
I'm just praying that you'll step into this fully.

967
01:00:52,080 --> 01:00:56,720
All of you that are listening to this, I would ask that you would pray for an ability to

968
01:00:56,720 --> 01:01:01,200
hear and to see and to obey.

969
01:01:01,200 --> 01:01:07,640
And also that you would rethink about when you got saved, what did God do for you that

970
01:01:07,640 --> 01:01:10,620
caused you to receive the gospel?

971
01:01:10,620 --> 01:01:13,160
Ask him to do it again for your friends and family.

972
01:01:13,160 --> 01:01:18,880
Even if years have gone by and you've sort of lost that first fire, rekindle the flame.

973
01:01:18,880 --> 01:01:19,880
Amen.

974
01:01:19,880 --> 01:01:24,120
Embrace the first fruits of what you had, the zeal that you had in the beginning.

975
01:01:24,120 --> 01:01:29,120
Ask him to explode that in you again so that you can become an effectual part of the kingdom

976
01:01:29,120 --> 01:01:30,960
of God as it advances.

977
01:01:30,960 --> 01:01:31,960
Amen.

978
01:01:31,960 --> 01:01:36,880
And then pray for your own family, your own city, your own nation.

979
01:01:36,880 --> 01:01:40,320
But don't just pray what you want God to do.

980
01:01:40,320 --> 01:01:44,360
Ask Jesus what he's praying for them and pray in agreement with him.

981
01:01:44,360 --> 01:01:45,360
Beautiful.

982
01:01:45,360 --> 01:01:46,800
I look forward to seeing you again.

983
01:01:46,800 --> 01:01:51,840
Thank you for having me and I just pray that global outpouring will continue to prosper

984
01:01:51,840 --> 01:01:53,360
and do what God has created them to do.

985
01:01:53,360 --> 01:01:58,080
And I look forward to seeing them in the days ahead and hopefully we can come back and chat

986
01:01:58,080 --> 01:01:59,080
some more.

987
01:01:59,080 --> 01:02:00,080
So thank you guys.

988
01:02:00,080 --> 01:02:01,080
Appreciate you.

989
01:02:01,080 --> 01:02:02,080
God bless.

990
01:02:02,080 --> 01:02:03,080
Amen.

991
01:02:03,080 --> 01:02:04,080
God bless you.

992
01:02:04,080 --> 01:02:09,080
Thank you.

993
01:02:09,080 --> 01:02:15,160
If you enjoyed today's podcast, please subscribe, rate and review this podcast on Apple podcasts

994
01:02:15,160 --> 01:02:17,760
or wherever you listen to podcasts.

995
01:02:17,760 --> 01:02:22,240
Your review helps the podcasting platform suggest this podcast to other listeners who

996
01:02:22,240 --> 01:02:25,840
are also looking for a great move of the Holy Spirit.

997
01:02:25,840 --> 01:02:31,120
Check out our website at globaloutpouring.org to find out more information, read our blogs,

998
01:02:31,120 --> 01:02:33,000
connect with us and donate.

999
01:02:33,000 --> 01:02:37,280
You can also browse our web store for life changing anointed books.

1000
01:02:37,280 --> 01:02:41,560
Until next time, this is Sharon Buss and I'm Philip Buss.

1001
01:02:41,560 --> 01:03:08,560
God bless you with this overwhelming loving presence.