The Seven Pillars (Part 2) - Redemptive Callings & Apostolic Prayer - 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 second part, we discuss in-depth the first pillar, prayer. Apostolic prayer and calling forth redemptive purposes of God is critical to the health of a spiritual family.
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When Jacob prophesied over each of his sons, he called out unique, redemptive purposes and qualities that he saw in his sons, who would become the 12 tribes of Israel. The same is true with spiritual fathers and mothers. We call out those redemptive qualities, the spiritual DNA that we see in the people of God, so that people can see and receive and have faith to enter into those callings.

Full transcript generated by ai (please excuse errors):




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​As we begin our second installment on this series, on the Seven Pillars of just a ver Nova of our spiritual family, and what we call the Friends of Jesus order or movement, I want to refer back to and just connect some things that were just spoken today with something I'd sent out this week. And I'll be talking more about this. But I sent out some things I was learning about old vines old grape vines that are used by vintners to produce wine. And what's interesting about those vines is that the older they get, if they, if they continue their lifespan, and they don't die, they have very broad and deep root systems more than the average grape vines. And because of that, they're able to draw many of the nutrients that your average or younger grape vines are unable to draw. And there's a lot of lessons in this, this is a very fascinating illustration. But the thing that stood out to me was, as we've been talking about this season of COVID. And I'll tell you, I know some folks that this has had a tremendous, it's just wrecked families, because these families were not prepared for isolation they are in and I mean, this is a strange way to say it, but some of them were not prepared to be together so much. And there's a whole lot of learning in that too. But one of the things God was showing me was that this season, was going to expose those areas of the ground where our roots need to be going deeper, where we need to have surrendered areas, Lucy shared this on one, one or two of the prayer streams talking about a surrender in every area of our lives for the freedom of the Holy Spirit. And the that is symbolic to me of the ground, the soil being surrendered, so that God can take those root systems and grow them deep into every part of the ground He's given us. And you know, the lie of the enemy is that if you retain these areas of your life, where you really don't want God, you want to do your own thing, that somehow you're going to be happier. And there's nothing true about that. Because whenever we surrender every area of the soil and ground of our hearts to God, and to his desires and His ways and obedience to him, what he does is he takes those roots of our of our lives and grows them deep. And we begin to experience the blessings of the nourishment, of a healthy life in God, which is the healthiest life you can have as in God, and not apart from him. So there's a lot more in that. But I really wanted to share that on the just kind of on the tail end of some of the encouragement, but also some of the things I'm seeing and hearing that God is speaking to us that I think will come forth, and some more of the sharing, whether it be today or later on. So more on that later on. We'll talk more about that in some of our probably in this study, but definitely in a couple of our studies. But in this study, if just to give you a one minute review, we're talking about the seven pillars of our own, calling spiritual family, our spiritual ecosystem that we live in what I call the Friends of Jesus, I call it a movement. It's not like all over the world. But even though we are connected around the world, there is this FRIENDS OF JESUS order, I look at as much like a spiritual order, and you'll see why. I'll talk more about that today. But before we talk about the seven pillars I introduced, I said I feel like it's important to give some background on the meaning what we mean when we say spiritual family, what I believe the scripture means in the principles that are taught that are related to this term. We use that term a lot others use that term a lot and so to different people. It means different things. So I kind of began to explore some of this and we looked last week at Psalm 68 verse six. I'll read it again just for review so that that scriptures in it kind of in the forefront of our minds as we begin our discussion today, but The psalmist says God sets the solitary into families, he brings out those who are bound into prosperity. But the rebellious dwell in a dry land. And we explored a lot of things about this verse, If you want to, if you weren't there, you want to go back and review it, or whatever it's published this week, it's, it's up on the the app and, and all of our different media streams that we have. So you can listen to that. And that's part one of the seven pillars. So I'm going to pick up where we left off last week. And I'll say this, that, you know, if you think about it, you don't choose the family, that you're going to be a part of, you're born into that family, God chooses. Even those who are adopted usually don't choose the family that they are, that they are grafted into, there is an act of sovereign act of God involved, there are choices of parents who adopt, we are brought into families, usually not by our own will. Usually we are brought into family, by the will of God. That's the way we understand it. And I found this to be similar, similarly true. In spiritual families, we could have made our own choices about what spiritual family that we wanted to be a part of. But Beth and I early in our marriage, we quickly learned that the first that really in those early years, God has his own plans about the spiritual family He wants us to be a part of. And I told you this story before some of you have heard it, I'm going to tell it again, it's not in my notes, but I'm going to tell it again to illustrate. But when we were married, we were in one of the finest churches in the country. And we were receiving tremendous training in the kingdom. And we were apprentices to ministry in our minute, God just use that time for about six years to build the foundations of our marriage and of our ministry in our lives. And I sat under a spiritual father who had some of the wisest, most insightful teaching that I've ever received in the kingdom. And most of that teaching I collected into a group of notebooks of 30, some notebooks and this is when I was 1819 2021 2223 years old. So those six years of my life, and Beth and I were married during that time, and we had our first two kids in that time. And so I collected these all of these notes, and which became the early seeds of 1000s of teachings that have grown and I've learned in the kingdom over the years from those times. So we were in a fine church, everything was done with excellence, spiritual depth. I mean, it wasn't a perfect church, there's no such thing as a perfect church. There were mistakes people made, and so forth, and leadership, but still, it was a phenomenal church. And then God called us across the country, to the east coast. And we were looking for a church and we went to this one church for a while we liked the people, and they seem to be doing a really good job and, and in the Lord was just stirring us going, this is not where I've called you. And we're like, Lord, but he's like, this is not where I've called you. I'm calling you. And I could feel it going to this church, and it was down in the inner city, and I had some friends affiliated with it. And it was kind of a revitalization project. And, and so I thought, Lord, you know, you know, we're pretty comfortable here. And we fit in with these folks, and yada, yada, yada, you know, all these excuses we make? And the Lord is like, No, you need to go. And so we went, I told Beth, I said, you know, we gotta we gotta go, you know, down there, I just don't, I can't in good conscience before God, pray and continue without obeying Him and going and checking his church up. And so we went down there to check it out. And I tell this story, before I went into the sanctuary, I had to use the restroom in this church was not well kept at all. And so I go into the restroom. And the janitor is what is cleaning the toilet and he's got the toilet brush down inside the toilet. And he's cleaning the toilet, you know? And he's, you know, like toilet like we do when we clean the toilet. And then he pulls it out and he starts cleaning the walls with it and he's just washing the walls right straight out of the toilet. And I'm not kidding you. This really happened. I go I out loud. I go, Lord, I'm responding to the Lord. I go, Lord, are you kidding me? Like I just was so overtaken. I'm like, what? How can you be calling us here? You know, but that's where God was calling us. And I'll tell you I we learned early on. And the Lord spoke to me in prayer in some of you remember me saying that As the Lord says, Rod, this is not the mall, where you go to the store that you want to go to. This is about spiritual family and my calling on your life you need to go where I have called you. And what we find is that when when we do, there is a spiritual unity that God has unified us with His people, in spiritual family. And there's nothing in the natural that can replace that harmony that comes from the Holy Spirit. So when I, when you hear me say, we don't choose the family that we came from, and we don't choose the spiritual family that we're in, you understand that our whole lives we have lived in obedience to what we believe is God's desire as best we understand it in the fullness and, and peace of the Holy Spirit. So I share that. Now, as we think about this, I pray that this will take give some context to spiritual family as we dive into a few things now that before we get into the first pillar, that will shed some light on this churches, families, and spiritual families have unique redemptive callings, and purposes. When Jacob prophesied over each son, he called out unique redemptive purposes and qualities that he saw in his sons, and each what what would become the 12 tribes, that in the generations that followed, and the thing that's fascinating guys about this is that we see those traits. If you look at the prophecies of Jacob, you see those traits manifest in those tribes in profound ways. For example, go read the prophecy he gives over Judah. And what he says now, when you read the prophecy over Judah, you would think Man, Judah must be the firstborn son. But he wasn't. He was what he was, I think, third born or I can't remember off the top of my head, but he was he was in the mix. But he's prophesied over him like he's the leader. And yet there is a redemptive calling and purpose. What king came from the tribe of Judah, do you remember? Jesus, I mean, David came from the tribe of Judah. And then Jesus lineage came down from the tribe of Judah. But there was a kinship anointing, there was a leadership anointing on the tribe of Judah. And we see this manifested throughout the scriptures. When you read the prophecy over Benjamin, man, I'll tell you, he pegged it with Benjamin. And you could see in some of the Old Testament stories, where this happened. And whenever we look at the sometimes we look at Prophecy like this, we look at it like, well, he says this, Therefore this is going to happen. And I don't think that's really what was going on there. I think God was giving Jacob discernment into his into his sons. Have you guys experienced that those of you who are parents, if you as you're praying over your children, God will give you discernment over your children, he will cause you to see the strength in their life, the gifting in their life, the what needs to be called out in them. And as you speak, into their lives, what God says, you start to call out those redemptive purposes. This is very important as parents to call out redemptive purposes that we see. And many of those things are seen both in the natural and the spiritual. Remember what we say about the natural in the spiritual we are both spiritual and natural beings. God did not call us just to function in the natural and he didn't call us just to function in the spiritual, he called us to function in both realms, and to call out those things. The same is true with spiritual fathers and mothers. We call out those redemptive qualities. Those that spiritual DNA that we see in the people of God, we call them out. We speak them so that people can see and receive and receive and have faith and enter into those callings, and they grow like seeds into their full form. In similar fashion, we observe that this this phenomenon in natural families, we observe this phenomena in spiritual families. spiritual families also carry a kind of spiritual DNA or strengths or gifts. So constellations of calling together, that's the nature of family, spiritual families do the same thing. And these are unique redemptive purposes in the body of Christ. So I asked you to think about this, just have a moment for reflection, consider the local churches that you have seen and been aware of throughout the years of your life. Some are very focused on evangelism. Have you noticed that? Have you ever seen a church? I mean, I can think to exact churches right now in my mind, and everybody who thought of that church, they immediately thought, oh, yeah, those are the people, man, they're, they're evangelizing in the prisons, they're on the street corners, they're down on Skid Row. They're in all these places, you know, and that was what characterize those churches, other churches, strongly emphasized discipleship. And they were there was a heavy emphasis on discipleship or teaching, or you know, different things like that. Some churches were very focused on community service related, and they were taking the gospel through feeding the poor and extending programs to the needy, not that the other churches didn't do that all of the churches did those things. But they had emphases, they had specific areas that they were really good at some. There was a church in California years ago that I read about in the church was started specifically for foreign missions. And so when the pastor planted the church, get this guy's he says, from day one 90% of our church budget is going to go to foreign missions. That church actually grew to several 1000 people. Now how they did that, I don't know. But 10%, they literally ran that church on 10% of the budget, because their calling as a church was foreign missions. And that was their unique redemptive calling, and what was, you know, how characterize them. If you notice that families operate the same way. Now, if you, I want to encourage you guys, here's a homework assignment, to do an inventory on your own family. And think about what are the what are the what's the constellation of gifts and skill sets that God has given our family. Now, what will happen is what those skill sets are in those gifts, when you put them all together, they form a beautiful mural, a collage, if you will, but this beautiful mural of God's redemptive purpose and calling on your family. Now, I want to give you an example. And I do this. In my own family. I'm doing this because I do well with examples. So if you can give me an example, and tell me what you're talking about, it's helpful to me. So I just started doing an inventory in my own family. Now, in our family, this has been a topic for 20 years plus, so we've been talking about redemptive purpose and calling for a long time. So it wasn't real difficult. We've actually codified much of this, in our family covenant, many of you are aware of that we spent 10 years plus praying over a family covenant with God that we felt he wanted to have with us. And after a little over a decade of writing and praying, we published that and signed it. Since that time, all of our children, when they, when they marry their the marriage, the spouse enters into that covenant with God together as a family. And it's sourced in the Covenant, the in the covenants of the New Testament. But in our own family, we recognize several different qualities. Let me give you an example. If you do an inventory of just Beth and I and our kids. So when I say our kids, I mean, our kids and their spouses. There are 15 undergraduate college degrees and 10 graduate degrees, and two college professors and a third one who's been teaching at the college level, who's about to get his doctorate and another one who's about to follow him with his doctorate a couple of years later here just a few years later. So you say why are you telling me this? Because there is something in our family DNA and I don't mean our physical DNA, I'm talking about calling that characterizes that. Just like if you meet our family, most of the people in our family, Beth and I, our kids and their spouses, play multiple instruments they play they play some of them play the drums and the guitars other players play the gate bass guitar and the electric guitar and the keyboard and the and the The violin and the cello and the, you know, you name it all these things you say, Rod, why are you telling us this, and I'm drawing a picture for you. Have you noticed in our family, everyone in our family, every family in our immediate family is in the military except for one family. And that family, in research in the work, they do work for the military, or they don't, not employed, but they work every day with and for the military. So I would say it this way, I would say if you back off and look, connect the dots of this constellation of skill sets and gifts, in our family, we are called as especially these are just emphases as warriors, as worshipers, and as scholars. That is the constellation of giftset that that is in our personal family. And your family has the same things now not I'm gonna say it, it's exactly like ours. But your family has a constellation of redemptive purposes and skill sets that literally define the mural of your redemptive calling as a people. And as spiritual fathers and mothers, we must be aware and watching. So that like Jacob, we can call this out in our children, both in the specifics now, please don't hear me say something that I'm not saying, I am not saying that we all do the same thing. We don't all do the same thing. We don't all have the same job. We don't all. So that's why we call it DNA. It's not an exact, like, we're not producing clones. That's not what we're saying. But what we're saying is there's a redemptive purpose around how we're called as a family. And then in that redemptive purpose, God has all kinds of gifts that blossom in unique ways that surprise us every day. And so there's a tremendous freedom in it. It's not like our children weren't growing up, and we said, dark, you have to do this, or you have to go to college, or you have to join the military. We didn't do that. This is all because of just cultivating the gifts of God in in his people in family. Every family has this constellation of gift sets. I already said that the same listen close. The same is true with spiritual families. So spiritual families also have gift sets they are they have a certain kind of spiritual DNA that we connect and resonates with us when we're called into those spiritual families. And it's not just about what we like on the outside like us, when we went to that church. The Lord says, I'm calling you to this family to be a part of these people. And it's not about what the building looks like, or how the janitor cleans the bathroom, even though we tried to help teach him some better ways down the road. Amen. Yeah. Let's talk for a few minutes, I want to I want to do a quick history lesson. And you'll see where I'm going with this in just a moment. But in the birth of the early church in the New Testament, their congregations inherited many of the cultural aspects and the traditions of the synagogues, the Jewish synagogues because the church was birthed by Jesus, and then the apostles. And so we see Jesus and the apostles ministering in synagogues a lot. And both Jesus and the apostles using the CIT the synagogues and the temples. This was what helped birth the culture of the church is gathering in the New Testament. The Jewish synagogue historically, was a place for really three things. Number one, prayer, number two, assembly, and number three study of the Scriptures. There were the let me say this, the in the churches birth, the birth, adopted the same, the church adopted the same qualities. So the church became a place of prayer. When the church gathered, it was a place of prayer. It was a place of assembly, which I mean, fellowship together, there was a relational it was very relational, and then for study of the Scriptures, in the time of the New Testament, and this is going to play an important part in what we're going to talk about for a few minutes. In the time of the New Testament. There were two kinds of synagogues. There were public municipal synagogues, and there were Association synagogues in the first kind There's no historical evidence of any kind of restriction on who could attend a public municipal synagogue, it was like Walmart, whoever wanted to go could go, they just go, they could just show up and to the synagogue. In the second kind, the association synagogues. They were more similar to a spiritual or a religious order. They were communities of learning and worship that you joined, you had to join, to become a part of they weren't just like an open public synagogue that you just walked into these Association, synagogues were developed. This is where many were focusing on developing spiritual disciplines and practices that were emphasized in their particular faith community, to be a part of them, you had to join them. And then by joining them, you were joining into the lifestyle and the culture, or that cultural DNA of that spiritual community, you were committing to that. So very, very different concepts of these two kinds of synagogues in the time of Jesus, in the New Testament, when the early church was birthed or born, it took on qualities from both of the synagogue, both kinds of synagogues. In the first several 100 years of the church, persecution intensified dramatically. I mean, in a short time, by the time that we see 3040 years after Jesus was resurrected, that the persecution intensified, I think it was around 8070, that Vespasian came and surrounded Jerusalem, and it was a bloodbath. And then the Jews were scattered from that time. And Roman persecution intensified to an unimaginable level against the Christians. And during this time, the church began to take on many of the qualities of the association synagogues, just for survival, so they didn't have just open public meetings they met, it was a little bit more quiet, where they met when they met, it just wasn't as public as it had been before. And in the process, religious orders and spiritual communities emerged during that time, where people were extremely devoted to prayer, walking with God, the spiritual disciplines, and studying the scriptures. But it was very, they were very careful about how that they met. And this is where, even later on many of the communities of the church fathers, the Desert Fathers emerged during the seasons for the first several 100 years of the church. Beth and I were just talking this week, Beth has been reading a book on some of the spiritual mothers of the early church. And Beth told me a fascinating story. If I had been prepared, I probably would have had her come up and share. But maybe she can do this later on. But there were actually certain spiritual mothers in the church, who their ministry was to meet and get to know people who were interested in the church before they would let them into the body because the body was meeting secretly. Because there were imposters trying to expose the Christians so they could feed them to the lions. And this was a very dangerous time. And Beth has been reading to me stories of young mothers with children being thrown out being going to the Lions Gate, literally, because they were part of their role in the church, they got exposed as Christians. And here they are young mothers, and they're given their children to family members to take care of them, because they're going to the lions to be killed. And if the lions didn't kill them, then the gladiators did. And these spiritual mothers in the church, even some of them very young, their role in men and some of these places in churches was to just vet people, so that they could get the people who were sincerely interested in joining the church, the spiritual community that they were in. So in this time, the churches took on a much less public role, and more of like the association synagogues where you came and you joined and you were committed to that spiritual family, because it was survival. And then something beautiful happened in the midst of that persecution. And those churches rose as very powerful spiritual communities, committed to lifestyle, a prayer in the spiritual disciplines and holiness and walking with God in profound and deep ways. So this is this was a remarkable thing that happened. Now, in our Our own spiritual community and I'm talking about the Aaronovitch ecosystem. I'm talking about Michigan House in Colorado, I'm talking about our friends in different states in different countries that we relate to on a spiritual and a familial level as a family, as we minister together and as we enter into the call of God. In a similar fashion, we have taken on many of the qualities of these Association type Christian communities, the spiritual orders, much like the association synagogues in similar way, but we haven't done it because of persecution. Now, this happened in the church, this began to happen as the persecution lifted, many spiritual communities continued to emerge because of the richness that those communities were able to live in, in spiritual family. But But for us, it has emerged because of this desire, and this pursuit of a deep spiritual life and a community of people with a lifestyle of prayer lifestyle in the spiritual disciplines. And this kind of ministry that we enjoy that flows from this kind of lifestyle. Are you guys tracking with me so far? Just give me an amen or a thumbs up. I know everybody's muted, but we've got a lot of people on so yeah, good deal. And, and so this, you will hear me use this term a lot. Throughout our time together different times that we've had together, I talk about friends of Jesus I talk about sometimes I call it Friends of Jesus movement, sometimes I call it order of the Friends of Jesus, friends of Jesus is simply a term that I call our spiritual community. Because we are not we Yes, we have an organization Yes, we have a 501 C three, yes, we have a church Yes, we have a you know, we have all these things. But I we don't our our focus is not organizational, it's kingdom. And in this we are more like a spiritual order in how we operate. Because spiritual orders have a spiritual DNA, and a way of life a lifestyle with which they operate. So you'll hear me use this term, friends of Jesus, it is both this is both a spiritual order and a lifestyle. So if you hear me say, friends of Jesus, we made a spiritual order, and we made a lifestyle. So if you those of you, we have quite a few people who have either a commission or an ordination, with Aaron Nova. But if you look at your ordination certificate, if you look at that commission or ordination certificate, you will see that that ordination says you're ordained this, this, this, this, this, this, this, this, and then smack dab in the middle of that certificate, in big bold letters, right in the center, it says, in the order of the Friends of Jesus. And the reason why it does is because we are calling out the redemptive purpose and the spiritual DNA of who we are. And that's who we are. So there is a literally the intention of the that certificate is to say, this is not just you're part of an organization, whether you're ordained or commissioned, or whether you're just part of a spirit, the spiritual family, the the order of the Friends of Jesus is a way of life in prayer, and spiritual disciplines at spiritual family, and the things we're going to describe and what I call the seven pillars. So now you start to see we're kind of unveiling what we mean when we say the Seven Pillars we're about to describe the order of the Friends of Jesus, we're about to describe our spiritual calling, and spiritual family. People become a part of this work through relationships. And I'm going to one of the pillars of the seven pillars is the relationship pillar. It's has to do with spiritual family, it has to do with the relational aspect, because the Kingdom of God operates along relationships, but people begin committing to a lifestyle of prayer and spiritual disciplines, and pursuit of the holy along with the seven pillars. And this characterizes our own spiritual order. And it characterizes our unique calling in the church. Now please hear me. We're not saying all the churches need to be like us. We don't believe that. Just like the hand doesn't say to the foot well, you need to look like me. And the eye doesn't say to the nose, you need to look like me. We all know that wouldn't be good, right? So we understand that we're not saying that. This is the only wine skin or this is the best wine skin or this is the you know what Have you, what we're saying is that what we believe God is saying is this is the spiritual family in order God's called us to. Now I personally believe it's a lifetime calling. That's my personal belief. Most spiritual orders, that's one of the things that characterizes them is people feel a lifetime calling to this way of life. And I believe there's something powerful about committing now the difference between when I commit to an organization, and when I commit to my family is I'm committed to my family forever. My family, I'm committed to my family, for a, I'd say, for a lifetime, for someone who's going to live forever, a lifetime is very long, right. So in other words, my commitment to our spiritual family and friends, there is a deep commitment there, to each of you that I believe last into eternity. I don't understand how that works. But I believe that that it lasts into eternity. And I think there are a lot of scriptures that can bear this out. But we won't go into that today, when people join our Erin Nova spiritual family, or they begin to come into this order of the Friends of Jesus and relate in various ways are extended to our extended ecosystem, if you will, they're not joining an organization, I'm going to say that again. And again, and again, this is not about membership to an organization, it is about walking and living in a family lifestyle and relationships that go with that. They are connecting in a deeply relational way. And they are walking into a lifestyle that operates as a spiritual order that we call the Friends of Jesus. All right, is everybody tracking with me? Just real quick, I want to get a heads up or click is are you tracking with me? Is there anybody just totally lost? I won't embarrass you, but just wave at me if you're just completely lost, right now. Okay. Because, well, I see a joke there, okay. Well, we have a spiritual and familial culture and calling with spiritual practices, and norms, and values and lifestyle. And together, the tribe of this culture, and calling fulfills our unique place in the body of Christ. So we recognize that we were not all all the churches and ministries and so forth in the kingdom, there were not clones in that great. Like, God, I know, parents were amazed when you had your kids when you had your first kid, you're like, Okay, well, then when you had your second kid, I don't know what it is about parents that they think that God's gonna give them clones. But parents are always amazed that their kids are different. It's like, I can't tell you how many times we're like, Wow, I can't believe how different these kids are. And I kind of hear the Lord chuckle sometime back then and say, What do you think I was gonna give you a bunch of clones, like, they're all gonna be the same. And kids are so different. And you're when you're a parent, once you have the second one, or the third one and the fourth one, then you're like, oh, man, and you come to realize that the same is true. In the body of Christ, the same is true in the kingdom of God. Now, I just want to throw out a couple of observations and thoughts. If someone is just looking for a group to fellowship with or to worship with on Sunday. Or if they're looking for a platform for their ministry, they will quickly realize that what we're doing here is much more than an average church experience where you do that. Because relationships, personal discipleship, and a lifestyle of prayer, play as deep of a role in our spiritual family as gifting does. So I want to comment on this for a minute, because I've been a part of ministries where they're looking for people, Oh, do you have this gifting up? We gotta plug you in up. Do you have that gifting? Oh, we got to plug you in. And a lot of times, we didn't even know the people that well. We're just looking, you know, I used to teach a spiritual gifts class for years. And it was just to help people plug in, you know, and nothing wrong with that. But what I'm saying is that in our DNA, there's a whole lot more than what your spiritual gifting we're going to plug you in. For, for really two reasons come to my mind immediately. Number one, what if people come in they don't really, we don't know. Or we you know, they don't seem very gifted. Are you looking at me like well, not really seeing music gifting and already seeing a speaking gifting and now already see that? And so what do we do? We try to make them Usher's or greeters or parking lot. attendance. And, and that's not what we do. If you notice, we don't have one of those in our spiritual family. Why? Because we have found and this is the second one I'm going to mention, we are committed to the relationship and the investment into people. So we're not just looking for Well, can you fit a slot? Because I have found when I invest my life into people, I have found that God always brings profound gifts that emerge that have an impact on the body of Christ, beyond just the gift of helps. And I'm all for the gifts of helps. But I believe in I started to wonder years ago, when I was pastoring, some larger congregations, I'm like, Lord, what, what's the deal? Or is your church really just 5% teachers and worship leaders and 95%, ushers, and greeters. And folks, I came to understand that is not true that that is not how it works. There are many of God's people called in the gifts of the Holy Spirit, and many of the gifts of ministering to the body and having a great impact. But the way we find that out is by spending time and investing into those people. And in that investment, there is growth, miraculous growth that happens. And it will blow your mind sometimes what's inside of people, we didn't know it because it was in seed form. So this is part of the reason why we are called to the deep relational aspect. Now, one of the drawbacks to that is, you're not going to be $100 million organization, you're not going to be $100 million ministry, you're not going to be a mega church operating that way. But that's not our calling our calling is to build the big kingdom of God by building big people. And this is a different name. This is the difference of the calling of people who are calling the Friends of Jesus lifestyle, if you notice that our emphasis is not on building better administrators, but we have a different emphasis. And we'll talk about that in the seven pillars. All right, let me catch up in my notes here. All right. Sometimes I get so far ahead in my notes, I've got to do quick check. Although we don't make this official, in many ways, we operate like a lot of spiritual orders. And there is a discernment period. So if you study, probably hundreds of the spiritual orders and religious orders in society in the last 1500 years or 2000 years. Most of those orders have a discernment period. So what they do is they come in, and they get to know the people in that spiritual community. And as they get to know them, they start they go through about a two year sometimes it's three years, sometimes they stack it, and they have different phases. But they go through a discernment period, to see if this is what they're called to have this am I called to this community to live in this fashion and this lifestyle and what have you. And we don't, you know, we don't make this necessary. We don't make this official. But if you notice, this is exactly what happens in our own spiritual community. People will come in, and they will connect. And we're we have open hearts and open arms, and we love people, and we want to connect and minister to them. But most of the time, people don't realize it and they're actually going through the discernment period, just like other other spiritual orders do, but they don't even we don't talk about it, because it's just something that happens fairly natural, because they're making an assessment. How do I fit in here? Does this is this my calling, and some people really want to fit in. But when they get into it, they come to find out, they're like, you know, I don't really know if I want to pray three hours at a time. Prayer counsel, you know, that's a little bit much for me, you know, and so they just kind of do that for a few weeks or a year and, and then kind of back out, you know, and or others, you know, they're like, I don't know if I want to get into all this fasting and, and, you know, and these prayer streams are, you know, there's too many texts. I just got to turn it off, you know, well, that's not how we live, folks. We have prayer streams that are alive, and people are sharing and people are bringing words of encouragement every day, and many are giving and receiving those words of encouragement, because that's our lifestyle. We have some people in our spiritual family that's in several per councils, because that's a lifestyle There, they feel called to now, there are usually two reasons why people come out of the discernment period. And they think, I'm not sure I'm called to this number one, is because they're just not called to it, God, God's called them somewhere else. They're not called to this lifestyle. Another situation that I've seen is people, God is calling them to it. But their heart is not ready to enter into this kind of I mean, this is a, it is a serious way of living there, this is a, you're not just committing to go connect twice a week and and pick up a few sermons and pay it ties. This is a lifestyle way of commitment, this is something I enter into, and become part of a spiritual family. Now, I understand not everyone's doing the same thing, or the same commitment levels and all of that, and God's very gracious, he's very merciful, he'll bring us in to the level we want. And then we tend to grow to the next level, grow more, grow deeper, grow further, all of us are in that situation, there's no one here that should not be growing to the next level, or the next depth or what have you. So don't feel bad. If you look at it and go, Well, I'm really not in this as deeply as I as I should be. But I really love it I want to be, because that's just part of growing, that's part of the normal course of spiritual growth in life with God. So, as best that I've been able to discern, in this lifestyle, I've noticed over the years, what I call seven pillars, and let me check our time. We've got just a few more minutes, and we'll cover we'll start covering the first pillar here. So the first pillar in this lifestyle that we call, does anybody want to guess? Now I have given the answer to this test question so many times, that everybody here ought to know what the first pillar is. It is prayer. That's the number one. And I call it apostolic prayer. Good job. Justino. I could tell I know you're on mute, but I know you got the answer. Yes, sir. It's prayer. And I call it and I'll tell you why in a few minutes, apostolic prayer, a lifestyle of continual prayer and the Word of God. Now, if you notice, I include the word of God with prayer. Now I realize you can include it or not include it, but I'm throwing that in there. You'll see why as we talk about it in the next few weeks. Our commitment to prayer is far beyond an hour prayer meeting here and there. It is a lifestyle of individual prayer, family prayer, can I get an amen? spiritual fathers and mothers who lead their families in prayer that's part of who we are. And spiritual family prayer, hours and hours of intercession, Scripture insight, prophetic insight, spiritual warfare, peering into God and His Word, peering into the plans and calling of God deep and close community, with God himself, as individuals and as family as corporately. Although prayer is considered one of the spiritual disciplines, it's such a strong marker in our own spiritual DNA, that we identify it separately as a separate pillar than the spiritual disciplines. In other words, we could say, well, one pillar is the spiritual disciplines, which, which every you know, most scholars and people in, in the in the faith, understand that includes prayer. But we believe that prayer is such a central part of who we are, that we actually name it as the first pillar. Jesus says, this, My house shall be called a house of prayer. If there is an identity to us, as a people, as a as a ecosystem, as a spiritual ecosystem, and family that stretches throughout the world, it is prayer, that we will be called a house of prayer, that when this spiritual family stands before the Lord, that we can hear him say, Well done, good and faithful servants. You were a house of prayer, as I called you, and I hear Jesus saying that, and we want to hear those words from him on that day, and I I will tell you, it will be a great honor for me to stand beside every one of you, so that we can hear him say those words. And the reward he has for that faithfulness, I believe, is beyond our imaginations. The call of Jesus. Oh, let me say this also, we understand that a house of prayer in this day, it's not just a building. It's a, we are the building of God. We are the house of God, the people of God, we understand that from Paul's teachings. So we understand that we are that house of prayer, if we are committed to a life of prayer, that we are that house of prayer, this is our commitment and part of our identity. The call of Jesus to be a house of prayer is a rich calling into personal prayer, and community prayer, prayer councils, prayer groups, prayer streams, prayer convictions, I'm sorry, prayer convocations. And let me say this. This is not about air Nova. I mean, we've got all kinds of people in all kinds of prayer groups and per councils, folks, I don't mind I'm not here to make Aaron Nova big, you understand that? If someone says, I'm in a prayer group or a per Council, and it's with this ministry over here, I'm like, Hey, praise the Lord. Great. You know, yes, we're running per counsels, we're going to continue to train leaders, and we're going to continue to pray, we're going to, we're going to by the grace of God, we're going to raise up prayer leaders in the nations. But it's not about us having our name on it, where our name is out there, just because that's our identity, our spiritual family, but we are building the kingdom, that's the kingdom of God, is our calling. So we understand that God calls his people, here's a key word, you can mark this in your journal, to spiritually govern, to spiritually govern, I'm gonna say it again, to spiritually govern our affairs on the earth, through communion with Him. So we all are called to many things on the earth to spiritually governed through prayer, when we get into trouble is when we try to govern and to, to bring order to our lives without doing it through prayer first. So God calls us as as kings and priests unto Him, to spiritually governed through prayer, our lives, our families, our jobs, our relationships, our ministry, our nation, our cities, God calls us to do all of these things in communion, and consultation with him, so that his name is exalted. And so that his kingdom comes, and so that His will, is being done on the earth. And this is why when the disciples asked Jesus, to teach them how to pray, the first three, three things he taught him was to revere the name of God, to worship the name of the Father, over all things, to bring the kingdom of God in all things on the earth as it is in heaven, and to bring the will of God in all things on the earth as it is in heaven. And we do this first by prayer. Now, of course, there is a step of obedience that comes after this. But many Christians think they're going to do it without prayer. They don't say that, but subconsciously, they believe it. And God says, consult with me, work with me, pray with me, decree with me, Prophesy with me, repent with me, and how I'm showing you to repent, and you will see the kingdom of God come, you will see the will of God be done, and your family and your nation and your ministry and the work that I've called you to, as a people and as a family. Some folks feel that prayer means do your best to do the right thing and just ask God to bless it and go along with it. Now, we all know that's not what we mean, when we say pray. Most of us have lived this way, at some time in our lives. I've, I don't think I've ever met a Christian who didn't have seasons in their life when they live this way. And then we live this way. And after a while, we figure out man, this is not working out so well. And then we start learning that instead of doing it that way, we learn to discern the will of God and walk in his way. And then pray and the blessings of God are very, very rich in it. We see a lifestyle of prayer is constant communion and consultation with God, both individually and then also as families so it's important that we as families, consult with the Lord, and interact and have fellowship with Him as families, our children need to grow up in fellowship and consultation and prayer with God. This is very important. You cannot just teach your children to have an individual faith, because faith is not just individual. Some people say faith is a private thing. No, it's not a private thing. Show me where Jesus teaches that faith is a private thing. Jesus is always making a ruckus in the public scene, because he's obeying the father, because he's doing what God says to do. And the reason why he's able to obey the father and do the works of the Father is because he's spending much time in prayer with the Father. This is God's calling upon our lives. A lifestyle of prayer is the saturation of God's counsel, and the saturation of God's influence in our lives, in our community, in our spiritual community, in our calling in our relationships in our families, the practice of the presence of God is the true fulfillment of communion with God in this life. Now, there are many kinds of prayer. And I'm going to mention a few here as we prepare to close. But practicing the presence of God through prayer and holy scripture, is the way of his close ones, those who work closely with him. If you want to walk close with God, there's no way there's no shortcut around this. This is the way walk in it. When we see the word prayer, if we automatically think petitionary, prayer, ie grocery list, we will miss 90%, of the meaning of the first pillar called apostolic prayer. So I'm, I know, we know most of us know, there are many kinds of prayer. Unfortunately, many of us are still stuck in a rut, where when we say prayer, we think of a grocery list, we think of a group of people asking God for a group of things. And we think of that as prayer. I know that we know better. But I just feel that I need to speak into this briefly. And just name some of the kinds of prayer now this is not an exhaustive list. You're going to find more in the Scripture than this. But I want to just read to you a short list that I put together, of the different kinds of prayer. So when we say lifestyle of prayer, we mean all of these things and more. worship and adoration prayer intercessory prayer, protection, prayer, deliverance, prayer, consultation and wisdom prayer, listening prayer, warfare, prayer, healing, prayer, prayer, casting out demons, decrees and declarations of God's Word and promises prayer, prayer of agreement, Midnight prayer or Nightwatch prayer, watchman prayer, morning prayer, prayer in the Holy Spirit, prophetic prayer, the sinners prayer, corporate prayer, prayer for a nation city or family. repentant repentance, prayer, identification, oh, repentance, prayer, that's where we're actually repenting on behalf of someone or a group, prayer for the church. Communion prayer, the prayer faith, supplication or petitionary prayer groanings of the Spirit prayer, or also known as travail prayers through scriptures, or scripture praying, forgiveness, prayer, where we are forgiving someone confessional prayer, where we are asking God we're confessing our sins and asking God to forgive us, which also overlaps with repentance, prayer, and many more, you start to get the picture. So when we say a lifestyle of prayer, if you think grocery list, even if you know there's other kinds of prayer, if you think grocery list, you're going to think, oh, man, that's boring. I know. That doesn't sound very interesting to me at all. But when we think of the whole, what we're really describing is the nucleus of our relationship with God himself. That's what we're really talking about. Maybe that's a better way to define it. Instead of saying prayer, we say, pillar number one, the nucleus the epicenter of our relationship with God. God, that might be a good way to say it. Now there's some overlap in the meaning of the different kinds of prayer that I that I just read off. And I understand that. For an example, there's consultation prayer is is a type of listening prayer. But there are many types of listening prayer. If you look into the gifts of the Holy Spirit, like the word of wisdom, or the word of knowledge in Corinthians, many of these are birthed out of prayer, where the gift of the Holy Spirit is supernaturally giving someone knowledge or understanding for a situation. Now, my last explanation, this is in closing, the reason why we call this apostolic prayer instead of the reason why we say pillar number one is apostolic prayer. It's not just prayer. It's apostolic prayer. And so you may say, Rod, what's the difference between prayer and apostolic prayer? And I want to read this to you. Acts, chapter six, verse four, you know, the story, many of you know the story. So the apostles got really busy helping the poor, and they were trying to manage the food and the people being fed at the tables and what have you. And then they realize this is overwhelming. We're I mean, we're the Apostle said, we're not called to be administrators. There, they said, We're called to something else. So they appointed seven, who would administrate the distribution of the food. Nothing wrong with that that's important in the church, someone needs to do that. But then the apostles make a statement in Acts chapter six, verse four, that defines what I believe to be apostolic prayer. They said, the reason why they could not do that, those that wait on those tables, they said is because we must, the I'm sorry, they said, but we will give ourselves continually to prayer, and the ministry of the word. That's apostolic prayer. Apostolic prayer is where we say, I am committing to continually a lifestyle of prayer in the Word. Now, you may say, Man, I don't know if I can do that, I work a job. I don't know if I can do that. I'll tell you what, you can do it. Now, you may not be able to do it as fully as they did in that day. But I found that throughout my life, I was able to grow in X six, four, I was able to grow even with a long workweek in the military, I was able to commit two hours of prayer and study in the Scriptures every week. Now, I'm not saying I always did it, right, because it took me a while to catch on to this. But I was able to really conquer it, master it and say, Nope, I'm gonna give myself even if it cost me a lot of time, I'm gonna do this. And I want to encourage you, that regardless of how your life is, there is a way to walk this way and, and be committed to continually walking in a lifestyle of prayer in the Word. And maybe at a different time, we can share what some of those techniques are. But I'll tell you, one thing that helps me a lot is the prayer streams, because it keeps me engaged with what people are hearing in the Spirit, I might be busy, because I work a lot of hours now. But I might be busy doing something. But man, when those prayer streams fire up, it causes me like Daniel to stop and pray. It causes me like Daniel to stop and listen. Remember, Daniel, committed to three times a day, and he was the governor of Babylon. And so we can also do the same thing. So at this point, I want to just say a prayer for each of us. And then we'll close and I'll turn the recording off. And then we'll open it up for discussion and questions. Lord, we thank you so much for this honor to be called to love and to live and to minister and to minister to the nations with this spiritual family and friends, with this order of the Friends of Jesus with our dear friends in different states in different countries. Lord, we thank You for this privilege. And Lord, what an honor it is to be a part I'm deeply honored to be a part of this with so many spiritual friends that will last forever. So Lord, we pray that you will cause my words to fall to the ground that have been spoken today and cause your words to rise in our spirits. Anything that was said that may not be from you just let it fall to the ground. And let the words of God rise in our spirits Holy Spirit, we pray that you will electrify those words caused the power of Heaven, to come in to speak to us in Revelation in a spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that the counsel of God and the king Council of heaven will be plenteous and will grow in the word of the Lord will be plenty as in each of our families and to the nations of people to whom you have called us that we may be found faithful in all of the house of God, in Jesus name. Amen. Thank you for joining us today. 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