The Seven Pillars (Part 1) - Importance Of Spiritual Family - Rod Mills

​This is a series on the 7 Pillars of the AeroNova spiritual family, the DNA markers of who God has called us to be as a people. 

 In this first installment, we discuss the importance of spiritual family, covenant community, submission to one another, and the prosperity that flourishes in our lives when we are set into a family (Psalm 68:6).

Full transcript generated by ai (please excuse errors):




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​And, you know, it's it's interesting how, in our, in our experience in faith, sometimes the the culture of the wineskins that we have been in, have taught us to be spectators. And I say this for all of us, myself included, even as a pastor for years and doing this, that I often find that when I'm not in a particular role, and others, someone else is speaking or ministering or God is speaking, I often will set myself into a passive mode, almost like a spectator mode. And I don't mean that I'm listening. I mean, obviously, we should all listen, we should all have our hearts open. But there's a difference between listening and putting our hearts into a spectator mode. And, you know, and I'm going to use this illustration a little bit later today. But when I was in high school playing on a basketball team, there was a difference between sitting on the bench and sitting in the, in the bleachers. When you're sitting on the bleachers, you're not waiting for the coach to get to say, Mills, you're in right now. Like, you're, you know, it's your, you don't have the same posture, as whenever you're sitting on the bench, or you're on the team, and you're wearing the jersey this morning, as we, as we, before we get into our study, I want to ask you a question. And I feel like God is asking us this. So I'm just repeating what I sense Him saying, through these words that were just shared. Are you wearing the jersey? Or are you sitting on the bench? If you're wearing the jersey, and you're sitting on the bench, so to speak, you're ready to get on the court? When you're called? Or you're ready to, you know, or the question is, are we sitting on the bleachers? Where are we? And I feel like God is asking us, are you wearing the jersey? Do you have the team uniform on so to speak, are we postured to, to serve and to walk in the fullness of who God's called us to be? Or have we allowed the culture to train us as spectators, because much of the church culture and some of the wineskins we've all lived in, have inadvertently or in an applied manner, trained us to be spectators. And the king in the scripture says the kingdom of God is not by observation. There's a whole lot to unpack there. But I pray that this word will come alive to us in many, many different ways, not just this morning, but as time goes on. And I say this a lot. But there's no one who's too young. There's no one who's too old, there's no one who's too unqualified or irrelevant. The Lord is in the process of bringing us into the fullness of His calling in our lives. And we know that most of this calling is eternal. It's not even in this life. This is just the beginnings of that preparation. So anyways, I just wanted to share that as an addendum into what was just shared. We're starting this series for the next several weeks on the seven pillars of our own, if what I consider the seven pillars of our own spiritual family or Nova, our spiritual family and friends. And this is really exciting. I'm, I'm really excited to get into the the Seven Pillars themselves. And as I was preparing and praying, I just had a strong sense from the Lord that before you talk about the seven pillars, you really we really need to define and explore the meaning of a couple of terms and what they entail. So that as we get into the seven pillars, if you will, I call them DNA markers of who God's called us to be, as a people not who God's called everyone to be even though everyone will identify in the body of Christ with each of these in some way or some form. But I think that there's a few things that God really wants us to talk about, in preparation for hearing him. Now. Have you ever you know, when I took biology Two years ago, many years ago, one of the requirements in the biology course was before you start the course, you had to memorize the vocabulary for that unit. And I hated doing that by the biology of all the subjects in school biology was not one of my favorites, I would chemistry and calculus were great physics, but I hated biology. And I just didn't like having to memorize all this stuff. And so one of the requirements was in starting each unit, we had to memorize the vocabulary for that unit. And, and I thought, Man, this is rough. But I found out, it was very important because as you got into the unit itself, if you didn't understand all the new terms, or all the terms that you thought you knew before, then when you studied the material, it didn't mean the same thing to you, you didn't understand it. And so I feel like in this study, there's a couple of things that we want to understand as we explore God's calling to us, as spiritual family and friends, and what I really call the Friends of Jesus. I say movement, I say that humbly. Because I don't mean like, we're some big group of people, I just mean that there's a movement of the Holy Spirit among people. And we're part of that, to walk in this spiritual order, if you will, as the Friends of Jesus, which has, I believe, very specific DNA, spiritual DNA markers, that characterize people who live this way. So the two of those terms, one is a term we use a lot and which used in some other circles a lot is spiritual families, spiritual family. And the other term is something you've heard me teach just a little bit here and there on and that is redemptive calling, or redemptive purpose. I don't know where this redemptive calling first emerged, I first started reading about it in the 1990s, early 90s, many years ago, but we're not we're going to start today with spiritual family, a term we use a lot. And, specifically, if you if you'd want to look with me, one verse in Psalm will kind of be the epicenter of our discussion today. And that's Psalm chapter 68, verse six, Psalm, a verse that's familiar to many, if not all of you, a verse that we were just talking about recently in one of our prayer gatherings. And I'm going to read this from the New King James, it, you know, it's really helpful. If you go online and bring this verse up on Bible hub, or something like that, and just read it in about 15 different versions, it's very interesting to read how this is described, or how this is translated. The psalmist says, God sets the solitary in families, he brings out those who are bound into prosperity. But the rebellious dwell in a dry land. God sets the solitary that is in the translation there of the solitary is the individual, the one person, the alone person, it doesn't necessarily mean lonely. But it's the one person he takes people who are individuals who are living their life as an individual. And he sets them into families. And he brings them who are bound into prosperity. So the psalmist is bringing these together and saying, These are the same, the same thing is happening here. When you're set into a family. You're brought, you are brought out of bondage. There are people who are very bound in in the solitariness of their living and dwelling, and he brings them into prosperity. Now, many of you, as I look on my screen across zoom into different places in the world, in this country and other countries, I see people that I know, I've known some of you for a very long time. Others of you I've known for five or six years, and I've watched and we've watched each other, we've watched one another, as God has set us into a spiritual family. And we've watched God bring many out of bondage, and we've watched prosperity of the kingdom come in great overflow in many areas of your lives and my life in our lives together. And we're seeing Psalm 68, six in our midst. Now, you guys hear me say this a lot. If you look outside the window, you can watch the tree grow, but you can't see the tree grow. Right? So when you're looking at it You know the tree is growing, but you can't see the tree growing until you do before after pictures. And you look at and we've got us many of you know, we've got this giant Christmas tree in our front yard. And I was looking at pictures the other day between when we moved in six years ago. And now, and it's astounding the change, I never saw the change. But now I look at it. And I'm like, Oh my gosh, that's incredible, the change in that tree in that period of time. So I'm just want to say amen to we have watched this in our midst in slow motion. And so today, we want to talk some more about spiritual family. So that when we talk about the seven pillars, they will have much more meaning to us when we use this term, because this is going to be a key term for the rest of our lives. God sets people into families, he sets them into natural families. And he also sets them into spiritual families. So He sets us into both natural and spiritual families. Now, a healthy natural family is a spiritual family. Right? Because we're spiritual people, we're spiritual beings. Many of you know that passage in Genesis chapter two, and it's used to teach or speak at marriages and marriage ceremonies a lot. And it's Genesis 218, the Lord said, it's not good that man should be alone. Now, God did not just say this, because he was only going to provide a wife to Adam and a husband to Eve. He didn't just say that, because of the marriage. He said it because he was creating a family. When God said, It's not good for man to be alone. He's saying it's not good for any of us to be alone. He was not just creating a companion for Adam and a companion for Eve, by creating Eve and creating Adam. First, he was creating an entire family. So God says it's not good for people to be alone. He's not just saying it's not good for people, some people I've heard say, Well, you need to get married, because God said, It's not good for people to be alone. Well, that might not be the exact translation. Paul might not agree with you on that. But he's saying that it's not good for us to not be together in family is a greater application of that. That's not what he's saying. But that's a greater application of what he's saying. Life and spiritual family is designed to be a place of prosperity. So think about this. He the author of the Psalms specifically correlates prosperity, to living in families being set into families. Now, that's an interesting concept. Because we see that he's not just talking about prosperity financially, we often think of prosperity we think of money, or he's talking about overall holistic prosperity, prosperity, of relationships, prosperity, of health, prosperity, of well being prosperity of our souls, our mind, our will, our motion, everything God sets people into families. And he, he he draws this contrast that it's the opposite of the desert or the dry land. It's the opposite of aloneness. Because aloneness is a dry place. It's a desert land, God did not create us to live that way. He did not create us to live alone. And I don't mean he didn't create us to be in a house by ourselves, he, he did not create us to live without being surrounded by those deep relationships. That's the way God made us. It's a place where the boundaries are set free. Now, I've had many dear friends and family over the years, who have lived in the deer in the desert of aloneness, from genuine spiritual family. And, you know, quite a few of them attended church regularly. They went to church, but they didn't necessarily have those close and deep relationships. And they were, they just find themselves starving, starving for a deeper spiritual friendship that nourishes both the soul and spirit. And I learned this years ago, you can be surrounded by people and be alone. It's very possible to be very alone and be surrounded by people all around. And our society is filled with people who are surrounded by people, but they're alone. And I just asked you to consider this where even when you're moving about many times when we're out in public, I don't know why but I just saw someone will catch my eye. And I look at them and I Can I just see aloneness not just loneliness but aloneness upon them, and my heart goes out to them. And I feel that's the Holy Spirit, prompting me to pray for them. And I've found that this is true in some churches, but it's also true in some families, there are some natural families where people, they're in a natural family, but there is no deep fellowship, there. Everything is surface, everything is on the surface. And what happens is, if everything is on the surface, and all we talk about is very surface topics, we can be deeply alone spiritually, and not have the nourishment of close friendship and relationships. And this is vital to who we are. I liken it to it's like if you eat potato chips, and that's all you eat every day, while you're eating, but you're not getting nourished, you're not getting protein, you're not getting your vitamins, you're not getting the nutrients that God designed the human body to get. So there are people who have fellowship, but they're not being nourished. If that fellowship is potato chips, and it doesn't move on to the hors d'oeuvres, and then on to the main course, and then on to the dessert of the meal, then that relation, those relationships are severely limited. And those people live in deep loneliness. And so when we talk about spiritual family, when we use the word fellowship, which we're going to use when we mentioned, Acts chapter two, again, fellowship, when we say fellowship, we're not just talking about potato chips, we're talking about people relating to one another on a heart level, on a real on a, on a deep relational level. And you know, you can't relate to people on a deeper level, unless you build a relationship that accommodates that deeper level, it just doesn't happen, you know, you, if you don't believe me, the next time you're at the grocery store in the line, turn around to the person behind you, and tell them you know, something that you're really struggling with in your life and start talking to them and see how they react, most of them are gonna be like, Whoa, you know, what, what, are you talking to me about this? I don't know you, because you don't have that relationship with them. So that's kind of what we mean there. Why are the bound, set free? And this is the big question for the day. Because when we talk about the seven pillars, this will all come into play in a profound way. Why are the bound set free and blessed with prosperity? When they are set into spiritual families? There, there are probably quite a few reasons why. I'm going to read the question again. Why are the bound set free with prosperity and blessed with prosperity, when they are set into spiritual families, I'm going to try to cover just today, what I feel are a few of the reasons that I have personally observed and experienced. And as we talk about this, keep in mind, we can live among a spiritual family. And that spiritual family can be very connected. And we can be disconnected. It is possible for that to happen. And I've used the illustration in times past of Judas Iscariot, the the apostle who betrayed Jesus, because you Judas did not wake up one day, and decide he needed 30 pieces of silver and betrayed Jesus. Y'all see what I'm saying? When we read the stories of Scripture, sometimes we forget to look at them as life really is. When someone betrays someone, there is a period of time and development in relationships, or the lack of relationships, that, that cause those things to come to a head or to come to pass. And so there was a lack of heart connection of some kind, for a period of time. And I think that when we watch the video later in eternity, and we see how this played out, and we can see how Judas is interaction was with the other apostles, and the other apostles were with Jesus. This wasn't a situation where Judas was just like the rest and he was faithful, and he was in there and they were all doing it. And then all of a sudden, one day Judas was like, but I think I'm gonna sell Jesus out for 30 pieces of silver. There is a disc a heart disconnect that had to happen earlier on between Judas and Jesus and Judas and the other disciples, that brings him to that place. Here's why. I say that I'm, I'm not saying that people are disconnected are Judas, but what I'm saying is that it's possible to be in the bet, like in this case, he was in the best spiritual family that had ever been seen on earth. Jesus was leading this group of disciples, not just 12, but other disciples who were with them and their friends and family. And they're in close community day and night, close community every day. And then we see that there is one who is very disconnected from Jesus and very disconnected on a heart level from the others. Here's my point. If we live among spiritual families who relate in closeness and Heart to Heart levels, that does not mean that we are connected on the level that everyone else is. It's important, and I tried to do this, I like to do an inventory every few months of my heart in my life and say, Lord, where am I, in my connections? Where am I in my relationships? Here in Colorado, we're into the season when we've turned our sprinklers on, our yards are growing. And now we're trying to deal with the weeds and make sure the yard is healthy. And all of this. And it is a process where we consistently each yard and each section of each yard, we're constantly cultivating so that it will be healthy green grass. And the same is true in the kingdom in the relationships that God's called us to. I am a steward of those relationships that God has given me whether they be in my own natural family, or whether they be in my own spiritual family. For example, during my prayer time, this morning, I was contemplating different people in my spiritual family, and different people in my natural family. And even as I was doing it, the Holy Spirit was saying, Maybe you should connect this way with this person. And then a little while later, this came up with one of my grandkids. And the Lord said, I think maybe with this particular grandchild, this is what this one needs. And this was all relational. This is all relational. In our society, relationships have been put back on the back burner, they're not as important as making money and doing well becoming prestigious and owning things, and you know, all those other things. And yet in God's economy, the relationships are at the front of the line. But we forget that, you know, we forget sometimes. And so God calls us to be spiritual stewards of these things. So when we talk about the seven pillars of our DNA, and calling as a spiritual, body, family, friends and ecosystem is very important that we have these foundation blocks in our thinking and in our lens and understanding as we're looking at them to understand them. Now. I'm going to repeat the question that I asked, and then I just want to cover a few concepts. Again, what why, why are the bounds set free, and blessed with prosperity, when they are set into spiritual families, I'm gonna start with the first one, I believe, one of the most important, we won't spend a lot of time on it. But God created us to belong. We're wired that way. We're just created that way we are made that way. You will not get that out of your system, because it's in the fabric of who you are as a person. God wired us to belong. Belonging is something we want, and it's something we need, and the people who tell you they don't want to. They're either lying to you, or lying to you and lying to themselves in most cases, and, and belonging is something we want and need. But belonging always comes with a cost, right? Now belonging is an ownership term. Therefore, it's a covenant term. Now, you might say, Rod, what are you talking about? When I say belonging is an ownership term? It's a covenant term. And those two go together. And let me let's talk about a couple of examples. And then I'll close the loop on this ownership covenant concept. In marriage, there is a mutual submission of power and authority over one another. Now, this is biblically, I'm not talking to the world doesn't necessarily agree with this, but this is what the Scriptures teach. In fact, it's so comprehensive in marriage, that it can be described, and has been described by some as an exchange of ownership. And I'm going to read a passage in First Corinthians and there are many different translations that are interesting to read this passage in but perhaps just in the original might be the most helpful as far as understanding the words but I'm reading from New King James the wife does not have authority over her own body, but the husband does. And likewise, the husband does not have authority over his own body, but the wife does. So we see that in marriage, marriage is a covenant. And in that covenant, there is an exchange of rights and ownership. This is a divine merging that God creates in a healthy human marriage, so that we submit in marriage to one another, there's a Can you see that there's no way you can live in obedience to this passage in in First Corinthians, unless there's a mutual submission to one another, and respect for one another. Now, that doesn't mean that the wife or the husband tells their spouse, you go here and you go there and you go, we don't we're not saying that it's not. That's not the biblical concept that Paul's talking about. But what he's talking about is that there's this mutual submission to one another. And likewise, we see this between God and His people. And I love this. I absolutely love this. And I think the prophet who loved it the most was Jeremiah, because Jeremiah said it the most. And he offered he, he tells us that there's this, there's this radical exchange of ownership also between us and God. In Jeremiah 32, verse 38. He says, Jeremiah is prophesying so the Lord is speaking through Jeremiah, they shall be my people, and I will be their God. Then I will give them one heart, and one way, that they may fear me forever, for the good of them, and their children, after them. So he says, I shall be their God, they shall be my people, I shall be their God. In other words, we surrender ownership as people as ourselves to God, literally, we say, Lord, we are your people. And we surrender the rights to do what we want. We you surrender the rights to be self willed, We surrender the rights to go where we please, we surrender the rights, to make life decisions on our own. And we say, Lord, our lives are yours, you tell us and we, we come into submission so that we can literally live out the pleasures of God through our lives. And the Lord says something remarkable here. He says, and I will be their God. And literally, we see later on in Scripture, God's not just saying, I'll be a god appear, and you can worship me like this, the Lord comes down to the earth, and he goes, I give myself to you. And he gives his life for us. And this is much more than the crucifixion, the crucifixion is just a glimpse of what God has done. He literally says, Here, I will give you my presence. I will own you as my people, and you will own me, as your God. Now, friends, if you if God gives himself to us, you cannot be any richer. There's no way God can give us any more than himself. Because when he gives us himself, he's just given us everything. And there's actually a few scriptures that says that, that says that God has given us all things. And a lot of people are like, Man, that's a big one. And it is a big one. But we won't talk about it today. But there's this exchange of ownership and belonging. So now I don't belong to myself. I belong to God. And God says, Oh, guys, I don't belong to myself. I belong to you. I am your God. This is the reason why marriage is used to describe the coming relationship that the people of God have with Jesus the church has with Jesus, because there is no other earthly relationship that can even come close to describing the relationship that we will have with the king in the coming ages. And even the marriage relationship in this natural world has its shortcomings, but it's the closest thing that will actually illustrate or describe what is coming. There are some other passages in Jeremiah, you can look them up that say the same thing. God says this three or four different times in Jeremiah, we give ourselves to God as His people. He takes ownership of our lives and all that we are. He gives himself to us, we receive ownership of Him as God, and the people of God are called the Bride of Christ, you start to see the picture now. So the world says, Be yourself, you're your own individual, you own your ways you make your decisions. The world teaches us individualism again and again and again. The world teaches us rebellion, the world teaches us submission is a bad word. The world teaches us all these things. And God keeps saying, let me show you how to live. Let me show you how to live in a marriage relationship. Let me show you how to live in a community of covenant relationship where we honor one another and love one another. And we'll go into that, although living and cutting out I make just one disclaimer, living in covenantal community as spiritual family does not have the deep covenantal intimacies of marriage or the divine marriage. So we're I'm not equating them. I'm not saying that. Obviously, the submission that I have in my marriage is different, and is much deeper than the submission I have in my spiritual family. We're not equating them. But we're saying they have parallels together. That's very important. God still has covenantal intimacies with us and belonging, that are unique and deep in their nature between us and Him. And folks, this is the life of accountability. Now, accountability is the word a lot of people don't like these days, for obvious reasons. But Paul teaches us in Ephesians, 521, submit to one another in a fear of God. How many sermons and teachings have you heard in church on Sunday morning, about submitting to one another? And yet, this is the way of covenant community. Now, don't don't, don't miss hear me or misunderstand me. This doesn't mean we all tell each other what to do. He didn't say, Go tell everybody in your church family what to do. You didn't say okay, if you want to know what kind of car to buy, go ask, you know, people in your church family. And when they vote on it, that's the car you buy. There's no scripture that says that, right? It doesn't teach us that. So don't misunderstand what I'm saying. But submission is heart attitude. submission is a is a is a term of humility. submission is a term that says, I honor the movement and the voice and the activity of the Holy Spirit God in your life. And I'm listening. And another word for listening is obedience in the Latin, it means obedience. And that doesn't mean that when you say something, I go do it. But it means I'm being obedient to God. And there's a heart attitude of listening to one another. And open literally, I call it taking the lid off the bucket, so that all the buckets lids are off, we're all listening and receiving from the Lord and from one another. And I have found that when we live this way, we put a draw on the Holy Spirit in other people's lives. I have you ever had a word from God that's sitting in your heart, and you didn't have the freedom to share it. And you were around people who needed it, but you didn't have the freedom to share it. And you're around other people, and you go visit these people, and they need it, but you didn't have a freedom to share it. And then you go around this, these people, and they're like dry sponges. And for some reason, they're putting a drawl on you. It's not that God didn't want to speak to the other people a lot of times, some of them didn't need it, maybe but a lot of them did. But there are people who are hungry, and they put a draw on the Holy Spirit on on the words of God to pull it out of us literally, so that we're like, Man, I gotta share this, these these, they're hungry. They're, there's a draw, the sponge is dry. It's, it's putting a draw upon God. And what he's saying and doing. This is this is what we're talking about living in covenant community, spiritual family, there is an openness now, you guys, most of you have have families or have lived in everybody's lived in some family. And I'll tell you, if you live in a family where everybody is closed, it's a rough place to be. And there are families like that where people are closed or we're certain people are closed. And what ends up happening is is that many of those don't benefit from the growth of what God wants to do. Belonging means that we live in accountability. Most of us have lived our lives in layers of accountability. This is required So in covenant community, now, it's comfortable to live in church communities, where it let me say it's comfortable to the flesh, not the spirit, it's comfortable to the flesh, to live in a church community, where you can kind of do what you want, no one really knows. And I'm not talking about big sins necessarily. I'm just saying that some people, they're like, Well, I just want my privacy. And I don't want anybody to kind of know what's going on. And they just kind of live that way. Because there are areas of their lives that they don't want to be transparent. They don't want those areas to be seen. Now we're getting into some uncomfortable areas. So if you start squirm and turn your camera off, so we can't No, I'm just kidding. It's like, the point is that the life of covenant is a life of accountability. It's a life where we learn to love and grow together, so that we live in accountability. Now, let me say this. Whenever we're set into spiritual families, and we live lives of accountability, this is not a bad thing at all. In fact, it has tremendous power in our lives as we live as covenant people. Now, there's different kinds of accountability. And so let me just cover a couple here. And I'll just, I'm gonna try to breeze through this quickly. But I think it's important to mention, in my own life, I was thinking about this, I thought, well, what kind of accountabilities do I live under, and, and I've gotten so used to it, I don't even think about it anymore. But I live under what I call personal accountability. A personal accountability is what I call integrity, accountability, integrity, accountability is how I live my life. That another kind of spiritual accountability, and that is a spiritual stewardship, that I have a spiritual stewardship of my family, I have a spiritual stewardship of my spiritual family, and of relationships, and I'm responsible to one another, and to God for those for those relationships and for that stewardship. And then, as a ministry leader, I have a statutory accountability to our board. And it's a legal stewardship of how the money spent, what the policies who we invest in how we're raising up leaders, and, and all of those things. So I can think of at least three layers of accountability that I personally live in now. Under under spiritual accountability. I'm open. I mean, I'm accountable, to be open and listening, which means obedient to the Holy Spirit's counsel, through the leaders over me. Now, I most many of you may not realize this, but I have spiritual leaders over me. I have several pastors and spiritual fathers, that I stay in touch with on a continual basis, I have the board that I briefed consistently about everything that's going on with our leaders, not everything, but leaders, and developing leaders and ministry, every single ministry that we do, all that all of these things, and that requires a connection, and a relationship on a consistent basis. And this is the way of covenant life. This is very important. I'm just using myself as an example. Because I can, I can think of it more quickly. And it's pretty easy. I'm accountable for the souls that we lead. And that we have watch over the scripture says in Hebrews 1317, obey those who rule over you and be submissive, for they watch over your souls, as those who must give an account. And and this is very, very important for us to recognize that all of the the the work that God's called us to in the relationships God's called us to, there's a divine accountability. So when we start talking about the seven pillars of our own spiritual family, ecosystem, network, friends and family, this is very important to me, because this is a stewardship that God has given not just me, but he's also given many of us. So it's important for much of this stewardship to be clear, so that we understand and we can also socialize it with the Holy Spirit. In other words, I put this out and I say, Guys, this is what I'm seeing that God has called us to. These are the pillars I'm saying, This is what I'm saying, well, the pillars aren't the only part of the building, right? Like what will happen is as I share the pillars, God will speak through you and he will say yeah, and these steps Yeah, and this roof and these walls, and God will give you revelation of the fullness of the of the spiritual house to which we are called and minister in the nation's and by the way, that's a sneak preview, because that's one of the pillars to the nation's I'm accountable to the leaders of Aaron Nova and I Talking about you, many of you, I'm accountable to many of our leaders accountable to invest my life into you accountable to am accountable to everyone on a personal integrity level, I can't just do what I want to, I can't just live my life the way I want to. There's a lot of places in life where Christians do that. They just, they get jobs where they can pretty much do what they want. But the problem is, their lives become filled with compromise in many cases. And because of that, they're weak. And because of that, they live in a desert. And because of that, they live in a dry place. And because of that, they're not prospering. And pretty soon you see Psalm 68, six very clearly, coming on the opposite manifestation. So don't be afraid of accountability, because it will bring great strength in our lives. But countability is one little term inside this idea of covenant community. Now, I hesitated on how much to share, because you guys know this goes out all over the world. But I will tell you in in our own marriage of Beth and I, we don't have secrets, we we own the passwords to every device and computer in our lives we have we have location on everything we do. That's not because we don't trust each other. That's because we are so merged to each other. Do you see what I'm saying? We're so connected. So we know where each other is, we know what they're doing. We're not spying on each other. Because I want my wife to know where I am. I want my wife to know what I'm doing. I want Why do I want her to know? Because we are one flesh, we are one people together. So there is a level of accountability that it's not because I'm going whoa, on a be accountable. You know, that's not it at all. It's because there's a covenantal relationship of intimacy and closeness there. That knows no barriers. Now, obviously, it's different for spiritual family. But at the same time, the the app, the principles are the same. The second reason or answer to the question, my answer, ask the question again, just to refresh your memory. So I asked this, why are the bound set free and blessed with prosperity when they are set into spiritual families, the next one is gifting. Now the most fertile soil I have seen in the kingdom, for gifts to blossom is the rich soil of spiritual family. Can I say that again? In my notes, it's highlighted. The most fertile soil I have seen in the kingdom, for gifts to blossom is the rich soil of spiritual family. There is used this is usually where many what I'll call eagles are nested and they take flight. Now I've met a lot of folks who have been in the Lord for some years. And they were or were not really deep in spiritual Family Covenant community, and they come into covenant community. And whether they're older, whether they're young, or whether they consider themselves older, young, they come into that real into that covenantal community. And suddenly, gifts start to blossom. And people are like, Wait a min, I didn't know you had that gift. I'm what I didn't see that in, you know, because all the seeds are lying in the soil of their hearts. And when they come into spiritual family, that soil gets intermingled with the soils of spiritual family. And it's rich soil, folks there. If you want gifts and callings to come to life, in other people's lives, teach them the way of spiritual family. And those gifts and many of them will come to life. And I'll tell you, I've watched people hear this teaching or hear a teaching like this. And a year goes by, and a decade goes by, and another decade goes by. And then 30 years later, they awaken to it. And they're like, oh my gosh, how come I didn't like because just because I've heard the teachings does not mean the soil will be in my life. I have to actually be submerged. submersed if you will, are immersed into a spiritual family and gifting begins to come a life. And I've seen some who once they begin to take flight. And they and they experience a little bit of the blessings in that community. Sometimes they're like, Oh, this is really good. And then they just kind of veer off out of spiritual covenantal community, spiritual family. And what ends up happening is they just kind of plateau, right there where they are. Now I've said this many times, but I'm gonna I'm gonna say it again. And I'm actually I wrote it down again, because I want to read it to you, I want to say it to you again and again. And again. I am not different than anyone else. I'm no stronger than anyone else. I'm no more disciplined than anyone else. But I have done this, I've spent my life everywhere I've gone and Ben and you guys know, we've lived a lot of places, living in spiritual family, and close holy community around people who are more godly, more spiritual, more wise, more prayerful, and more powerful than I am. Folks, they're out there. But I, I'll tell you how many times they were right around me, but I couldn't see them. Because when you get close to people, you see their freckles. When you get close to people, you start seeing like the wrinkles in their face, you start seeing the hiccups, you start seeing the mistakes, you start seeing the things that aren't perfect about them. Every one of my spiritual fathers and men in my life and women spiritual mothers that I consider giants have had major challenges in their life. They've had flaws, they've had difficulties. And and some of you've heard me say this, a lot of my colleagues and friends, I would say, hey, you know, we're gonna get together and he's mentoring me, or he's investing into my life. And I'm like, no, no, you know, he does this. And now I can do, and they'll give me a couple little, you know, things that they don't like about him. And the problem is that many of the people God gives us in our lives, they're right around us. Have you ever heard that term? familiarity breeds contempt? Don't let familiar arity blind you to what God will do through the people he has set around you. Now, in a family. If I were to ask you, I was like, Hey, you grew up in a family, you have three brothers and sisters or two brothers and sisters. Were they perfect? You'd be like, let me give you a list, I can tell you all kinds of things is wrong with him, you know, because when you live in family, you see all kinds of things wrong with people. But that doesn't mean that they don't have a lot to give you. And this is the this is one of the remarkable things about spiritual family, natural family two is that God has so much to give us if we can receive from one another. And don't think that if you go back to the New Testament, and you plop down in some of these churches Paul's talking to they're no more holy than a lot of other churches out there. That's not like the their regular people like we are they just speak a different language. And that's one thing I learned living in many different cultures in the world. cultures are different. But people are people. It's very interesting. People are people. And they just they speak a different language. And they have a little different way of doing it, but they're still people. And the same is true in Scripture. And we have to remember that. Let me catch up on my notes here. Oh, yes, I was reading just this portion. If you want to run faster, run with fast runners. If you want to be a live a winner, live with the winners. If you want to be a warrior, hang around the Warriors. If you want to be wiser, live among the wise and listen carefully. But Be humble. Be teachable. Be willing to change. Consider that you might be wrong about some things. Be honest with yourself about your shortcomings. Not for condemnation, but for consecration and growth. Now, this is one thing I learned growing up with a brother and a sister. You will learn to be honest about your shortcomings if you get close enough to brothers and sisters, because they'll let you know. I mean, my you know growing up, I don't most siblings are pretty willing to let each other know. So they'll let you know if you're having a challenge. They're gonna let you know and then some. Why do I say this? God made us in to set us into families so that we can be honest with each other and grow and invest into one another. No, we're not talking about hurting each other. But we're talking about honesty. You know, the Scripture says Faithful are the wounds of a friend. Well, you know, I've often said this, you know, when you watch America's Got Talent or American Idol or one of these shows, and they get all the way to being on TV they've gone all the way through the gamut all the way to being on TV and and when And then when the song starts and they start singing, and they're terrible, like they're, they're like, they can't even carry a tune. And I say, where are all their friends? Where are all their family, who let them get this far and sound this terrible, and, and embarrass themselves in front of the entire world. And I would say that most of those people, they have a serious lack of true friends in their lives because they let them get that far and embarrass themselves in front of the whole world. Unless just one caveat, they just happened to be one of those really funny persons who likes to do things just to make people laugh. Other than that, though, they don't get a pass. Be honest with yourself about your shortcomings. This is all part of the profession of practicing the presence of Jesus and knowing God. Why do I say that? Because we do not practice the presence of Jesus, nor walk with God in a vacuum as Lone Ranger's. God didn't create us that way. He didn't set it up that way. Jesus taught us that this is always done in spiritual community, spiritual family. The other one the other reason the other answer to the question that I've been reading is love. People experience enormous freedom, and spiritual families, because they experience the kind of love that brings enormous freedom. Now, there is a love that the world talks a lot about, they use the word love, and they talk about love. And a lot of times they mean lust, a lot of times they mean affection, a lot of times they mean, you know, just to entertain entertaining in nature, but very, very seldom do they actually mean the deep God kind of love that happens in covenantal community. And I asked you this to consider the command of Jesus, some of you have heard me make this application. But I'm going to do it as we prepare our hearts for the seven pillars of our calling. Jesus said, in John 1334, and he said it again and John 1512, A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another as I have loved you. He goes, I'm sorry. He says, I give to you that you love one another, as I have loved you that you also love one another. He actually says Love one another twice. But he says to do it, as I have loved you. How to put yourself in the setting in this moment. You were about the second maybe the third year into Jesus ministry on the earth. And he speaks to His disciples now. Put put yourself like put yourself around a campfire for a moment. And Jesus saying these words we've been together now for two, two and a half years, we've been walking together. And Jesus set looks at each one and says, I command you that you love one another. As I have loved you. How did he loved them. He loved them by calling them to follow him, bring them into close community, and live as a spiritual family and friends walking about the Earth doing the work of God. They lived in community. So Jesus is teaching them he is saying, Hey, I have loved you in close community. So if you love one another love one another as I have loved you, in close community in spiritual family together, do this together is part of what he's saying. Another one is another answer to the question is this identity because God is calling us to a heavenly citizenship identity, not an individual identity. And so a lot of Christians are still stuck thinking in an individualistic identity who I am in Christ, how many sermons and teaches that we heard who I am in Christ, but it's not just who I am in Christ, it's who we are as a people and I go back to the illustration, are you wearing the jersey in Amin? Now there are fans that wear jerseys in the stands right? But they're not really expecting the coach to call him down start playing so there's a little bit more than wearing the jersey but the idea is is that we are in the same identity there is an identity of people Here's a big one big reason I believe for this prosperity is learning forgiveness patience, mercy and long suffering you know proverbs 14 Four says, we're no oxen are the trough is clean. But much increase comes by the strength of the ox, family and close community is messy. Can everybody can I get an amen somewhere? Now I know you got it on mute. But yeah, it's messy. That's just the way it is, it's much easier to slide into a Pew once or twice a week, hear a good sermon, pay your tithes, send the kids off to the nursery, go get them afterwards and head home. It's so much easier because then you don't have the messiness of the relationships whenever you start getting together and building relationships, or when you start ministering together or doing the work of God together, when you actually have to put the yoke on. So the yoke of ministry that Jesus calls us to remember, a yoke is something that literally yokes me in next to someone next to me, like the oxen, when the oxen would put the yoke on, it would actually link them together, so that they were pulling together so that they were in unison, and they were working together. And that yoke when you first put on that yoke of spiritual family, where you're working, this is the yoke of Jesus. By the way, whenever we put that yoke on and we're working together in the kingdom, don't you know, when you first put that yoke on as an oxen, your neck is not sensitized to it, you're, you're like, oh, man, this itches, ah, you pulled me this way. You know, and you can even see those oxygen as they first start pulling, you know, and it takes a little while to get used to each other, develop a little bit of callus around the neck and start to be able to pull together and get through that honeymoon phase and start working together. In the vineyard. There's a big difference between kingdom life like this, and kingdom life that slides in and out of the pew, you see what I'm saying? You know, I say this, I debated on where not whether or not to say this, but I'm gonna say it. I've known several folks over the years who seemed like very patient people in normal church life, until they got into close community. And when they came into close community, the individuals that everyone thought was were humble or spiritual, begin to discover they were highly critical, and of many things and of people. And at this point, those folks are faced with a pivotal decision. Do they deal with the heart issues that that that are starting to come out? Because heart issues will come out? When we live and walk in spiritual family? Do they deal with the heart issues and the criticisms and the things that start to spill out? Or do they just retract back into normal church life, I call it normal, but into average church life, without close community because they you they have a decision, many I've seen will actually just retract back out. Because if you live in community, you, you don't hide things very long. And I'm not saying that people are out discovering your sins. I'm not saying that. I'm just saying that this is part of living in community together. So I'm going to end with an illustration. And just actually, I'm gonna give this illustration. And then maybe a couple other things real quick. But when I was growing up, I love to play basketball. And I mentioned this at the beginning. Now, I wish I was as good as I wanted to be. But I love the game. Like I just loved the game. Unfortunately, I was much better at baseball than I was basketball is much more of a natural in the game. But I loved basketball. And so I played for hundreds of hours, like I had my own dirt court. And I played and I played one on one and a played one on three. And I played basketball for hundreds of hours. And I loved it so much that I actually I tried out, I played on the high school team for one year. And when I got on the team, we had practices during the week. And when I started playing on a team, everything changed. My bad habits, and my unsuccessful techniques, were quickly exposed on the practice court very quickly. Like all these things, I thought were great. And I was doing good. When I started practicing with a group and a coach who's saying do this, don't do that do this. And and and you know, and you know, coaches good coaches yell at you be like, Hey, don't you do that again, you know, and literally just catching me saying you can't do it this way. And suddenly everything is different now because I thought I was playing basketball. But really what I was doing was playing individual ball not playing basketball. And when I started to play on a team, my bad habits and these techniques start coming to surface and I also begin learning new and better habits and ways and techniques. And the coaches saying good job on these things which I wasn't used to hearing someone say good job and the CO which was saying, Hey, you don't do that. Don't you know? And when a coach, have you guys ever noticed when the coach criticizes players, first of all, he's not being critical. He's there to make them better. When a coach does that, the coach is not doing it privately, like, the coach doesn't go, oh, Mills, come here, I want to talk to you. And hey, you don't do him very good with it. But now, maybe some coaches do that I'd ever had one. They, you know, the coach usually is like saying, hey, fix this, you know, my point is this that all of a sudden, what I did well, and what I didn't do, well, became very apparent to the whole team. And then once we began to play other teams, it became apparent to the other team. And it became apparent to everyone in the stance, there's a price for getting on the court, there's a price for moving from the bleachers, down into the spiritual family, there is a price, but God is calling us to live our lives in the game. I mean, in the kingdom, he's calling us to live our lives in the kingdom, get off the bleachers, you can't keep getting back on the bleachers is what I hear the Holy Spirit saying to many of us, you've got to get in the game. And you've got to stay in the game, and you got to keep the jersey on. This is the way of spiritual community. And this is a big deal as we begin to prepare our hearts to look at the seven pillars of our calling, as a people and as a spiritual family. There are many Christians who still just play on their own court. And there are others who have joined the church, but they mostly sit on the bench, while others play, while others lead, while others minister. There's something comfortable about sitting on the bleachers, the bleachers, or sitting, or playing on your own court, there's something comfortable about it. Because there's no uncomfortable feedback from the coach or the players. When you make a mistake, no one sees it. Or better yet, when you sit on the bench or you sit on the bleachers and let others play, you don't make any mistakes, and nobody sees them. But then again, you're not in the game. However, you don't have the fulfilment of playing on the team and learning and growing and becoming better and making the impact that God has called you. And I'm telling you, this is part of our calling as a spiritual family, you're getting a sneak preview of one of the pillars. But God has called us no spectators. God has called us to raise up people of God, who walk in friendship with him, but who live on the spiritual battlefield of life. God is calling us to get people out of the bleachers off of the bench and into the game, into the fight into the kingdom, and into the ways of God. God is calling us to teach them, hey, you can live in this spiritual community, spiritual family like this, and you can live in other places as we go and minister to them. God is calling us to deliver to them a message a word from heaven, that calls them into spiritual families that causes them to live this way, and to what we call walk with God and flock with his people walk and flock in Jesus name. Living in spiritual family moves us from the bench to the court, it moves us from the bleachers, to the court as well. Instead of just watching other people use their gifts, we're seeing God develop people and develop their spiritual gifts. This is what it means to be set into a spiritual family. Being set into spiritual family does not mean become the member of a church. It means to become part of covenant community, and to live in covenant community. When our shortcomings, challenges and difficulties are more visible. We tend to be much more patient and long suffering. Can I get an amen? Because I'll tell you, one thing I learned when you're on the court and you're playing, you make mistakes, as hard as you try, you make mistakes. And when you do, you want to do better. But then when someone else makes a mistake, if they don't see it, you help them see it. But then if they if they do see it, you help them have confidence and you say, Hey, listen, you can do this, come on, let's go. You could do better. And we're a lot more patient with people. And I'll tell you some of those critical people I've seen that I mentioned earlier, very critical of others, but they don't get on the court. They don't want others to see their shortcomings. And so they're afraid and it's important to get past those fears and get people up and get them ministry now you guys know This many of our leaders know this. I'm a lot of times I'm asking questions. I'm like, How can we get so and so that I see this gift? And I see this gift and I see this gift in their lives? How can we help draw that out? We need to get them in front of people. We need to get them ministry, we need to get them sharing. Many times I say this, and many times you guys don't see it, because I don't tell you. But a lot of times, I'll set it up and I'll go okay, so and so will you lead? Will you do this? Will you do this, and I'll leave town. And it's intentional, I want you to know, it's very, very intentional. And sometimes I've even extended trips we've had for longer periods of time, not because I want to be gone. But because people need to start thriving. They need to, you know, there's that element of they need, they need to blossom their needs, something needs to grow and blossom there. Many times when I'm asking people to serve, it's not because we don't have other people, it's because I'm wanting to give them an opportunity to get those wings, spread those wings out and start flapping. So you will grow. So Amen, I could see some people saying amen out there. But everybody's on mute. So living in spiritual family, cultivates this deep appreciation for other people's gifts. And I know I'm going long, so I won't, I won't cover as much as I was planning on today. But listen, this is going to be a powerful series, I believe. I'm so excited. I want to get into the seven pillars, but it's like, just like tactical patience, the Holy Spirit's saying walk, you know, smooth, slow and slow as fast. So living in spiritual family cultivates this deep appreciation for other people's gifts and contributions. I want to use an example. When I first started playing on the basketball team in high school, there was a guy who could he had, he would pass the ball to you, what he would do is he would get everybody's attention. And you would think he was going to score, like because he could score. And so he would start going for it. And you would think he was going to shoot or do a layup. And he would do some kind of start running. And all of a sudden, he has passed the ball to somebody. And it's hit him in the face because they didn't know the ball was coming. And it used to annoy me. I was like, man, wow, this guy, you know, he's, you know, he's got a clear shot, and he throws the ball right in your face, you know. And as I started playing games with him, what used to annoy me, I began to really, really appreciate because he had a tremendous ability on a basketball court to get everybody's attention on him. And then he would pass the ball behind his back or under his legs. You know, he's kind of like the Harlem Globetrotters and he would pass the ball. And it would be in the hands of somebody who's clearly and completely open. And literally what he was doing was, he was setting the team up and setting that person up to be able to score. There are many times when gifts and talents and things in other people's lives can be very annoying, until you get on the court with them, until you go to battle with them until you get in the place of warfare with them. And suddenly that that quality that you didn't like, you're like, wait a minute, this is a gift God like this is God is doing this in their lives. But you would never know it. If you didn't play the game. If you just were on your own personal court with the guy, you would have just been annoyed. But when you get on the team and you're engaged in the warfare, then suddenly it all gets real and you realize, oh my goodness, this is a unique gifting. God has given this person and I see the value and I and so then we begin to affirm what God is doing in them. Living in spiritual family, or family level covenant community requires humility and patience and work. I think that's kind of summing up some of that. And I'll tell you forgiveness, one of the most precious qualities required in spiritual family is forgiveness in spiritual family. Forgiveness has to become a lifestyle. This is true and family. I mean, I'll tell you, we can all look to the unredeemed segments of our family, whether it be people unredeemed, or just unredeemed areas of people's lives. And the lack of forgiveness, and the lack of the free flow of forgiveness will lock people up so quick, they will be so bound they will be so dry, they will be so unfulfilled. And one of the one of the blessings of covenantal community is God sets people free because it brings much of this to the surface so that we have to deal with. So in all of this, I tell you, I just want to encourage us to be prayerfully, considering what God is saying to us about spiritual family, because when we look at the seven pillars of our calling, all of it is in the context of spiritual family. Now I want to just I want to just briefly mentioned something, and I'm really doing this intentionally. Because I want to plant a seed in your heart to be praying, and thinking and letting the Lord teach you, because I think you're going to come back, and you're going to teach us things the Lord shows you about this. So I ask you just to perk up your spiritual ears here on this. There is evidence in Scripture, and in the natural order of things as well, that God has created in our order, naturally, and I believe spiritually, that spiritual families have collective inheritances, and eternity. Oftentimes, when we think of eternal rewards, we think of ourselves as individuals. But many times, there are collective inheritances that come to spiritual families, I believe, in the age to come. And those inheritances are received by those families in this life. There is still much to be studied in scripture on this, I'm not going to mention, I have several scripture passages listed for my own reference. I'm not going to mention them right now. Because I want to ask those of you that are that are listening and receiving that you would begin to think and pray over this, but it's very interesting. And I think that there is an inheritance for many of us as spiritual family for us to enter into, that involves an inheritance that's coming in the eternal ages. And so I want to be faithful in the spiritual family that God's called me to, so that I can receive the fullness and I can help us as a spiritual family receive the fullness of that calling in that inheritance in the coming age. And those of you who know me and know our teachings know, I believe that there's no relationship to the kingdom by accident. Many of these relationships are established and predetermined in preparation for the plans of God in his thoughts, and what he wants to do in the coming ages. So I'll say a word of prayer. And then I'm going to turn off our recording, and we'll open it up for thoughts and insights. Lord, we want to thank you, that you've called us to live in covenantal community, it's our desire to be faithful to that and to be faithful to you and to live, as you have called us to live because we know how you have called us to live is the fullness of the kingdom. It's the fullness of your ways, in the fullness of your overflow in your blessings. So Lord, we pray that you will usher us into this so that you will translate us into the fullness of your kingdom, and spiritual family that you have designed for us, that we may enter into the great calls of God that you have predetermined in the heavens, and that we may not miss one ounce of the call of God in the coming creation, as well as this life in Jesus name. Amen. Thank you for joining us today. Aaron ova is raising up spiritual leaders in many nations through our spiritual enrichment events, syndicated NetCast international prayer Council network, and numerous international seminary scholarships. Together, we are lighting the fires of revival, fueling prayer movements and raising up friends of Jesus in the nations. We invite you to partner with us in this extraordinary movement. You can sign up as a prayer and financial partner today by going to Aaron nola.org and clicking give. Please include your email address so that we can send you updates. That's era nova.org. 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