The Seven Pillars (Part 6) - Generational Transfer & Spiritual Authority - 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.
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 In these further teachings on generational transfer we discuss the critical truth that our spiritual authority is directly related to our intimacy with God.

Full transcript generated by ai (please excuse errors):

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​One of the most powerful ways to activate grace is by obedience. A lot of people think that grace is received passively, it's not it's received actively active obedience, active repentance, active pursuit, we engage God. And when we do, grace is activated. And it's like, you know, I know this is a silly example. But if you like chocolate milk, it's not gonna be chocolate until you put chocolate in it or add milk to it, right? That you got to add the milk. And so many times in our lives, we got it ready to do it, he's ready to activate it. But we must pursue or walk in that direction of grace. The best way to to use this example, the best way to run a marathon is go out today and walk a half a mile, or walk a mile, and then walk to and then walk two and a half, and then run a quarter mile and walk two and a half, and then run a half a mile, and then walk a mile and then run a quarter mile then Well, the point is that most of the things God calls us to do, we're not usually capable of them. And a lot of times I've seen people will only do what they feel like they're capable of. And because of that, God often does not do the impossible in their lives, not because he doesn't want to, but because they're not activating grace and pursuing that they're willing to do what they already know they can do. I love what one, one well known. Pastor said years ago, he says attempted attempt something so great for God, that unless he intervenes, you will fail. Now, I want to caveat that. Don't just attempt anything, attempt what God is calling you to. But don't necessarily feel like you have to do it all today. And I use this example here while back if you if God's calling you to do something like say you use the marathon example. Don't try to run the marathon today, but start pursuing and walking in obedience in that direction. So anyway, what I was going to tell you is Colin, I remember, I was a little older than you but not much. And God really began to stir my heart about leading worship. And you know what, two years ago you didn't even play the guitar. Did you? Yeah, so one of one of my goals is to develop people cultivate and develop people. It takes time. And it takes work. And so for me, I was so scared that whenever I would start to sing a song, I would do just fine till it got in front of people. And then I'd be like, Man, I'm off tune or I'm struggling with the timing. Because I was nervous. And and then God called me to this inner city children's ministry. And Janae you were born already. Andrew was alive. I don't think Nicole was. And so we were literally like working in the inner city, bringing these kids into church with these buses and the inner city. And guys, listen, I'm talking like, we would have to they would get to the bus. And we'd say no, you can't bring that pistol to church. I mean, a 12 year old. No, you can't bring the pistol to church, take it back home, we'll come back around and pick you up. That's the way it was. And we were bringing on over 100 kids a week. And so the one of my friends that was leading the program, he goes, Well, you lead worship. And I'm like, Well, I don't know how to lead worship. But I knew God was calling me as well. I don't know how to lead worship, but I can I can lead the kids. You know, it's like if I go off tune or out of time, they won't know it. Right? And they didn't. And if they did know it, guess what? They didn't care. And because of that, that period of my life was a tremendous growth and just leading worship, leading people in worship. It was a tremendous time of growth. And so I say this, because part of our calling is to develop people, whether it be worship, whether it be teaching, whether it be sharing, how many of you have shared and taught the whole world through this broadcast through other ways and means where before you were intimidated, just to stand up in front of a microphone. Right. So that's very important. So that's that I don't know why I just that's for somebody today, maybe for several but I share that with you. All right. What are we talking to About what's our topic that we've been exploring here? Yeah, the seven pillars of our own spiritual family, but also of what I believe is the Friends of Jesus movement. The Friends of Jesus, what I call spiritual order, is characterized by these DNA qualities. Now, if you have not heard the teaching, from the last two weeks now, they're not published yet, I want to ask you to especially go back and listen to those. Now, they're all important. But the last two weeks, we have began to explore the third pillar. And what we're talking about the last week and this week are extremely important. I believe they, they are one of the peaks or the highlights of the Seven Pillars of what we're talking about, in this these DNA quality, spiritual DNA qualities of our calling and uniqueness as a spiritual family. So let me just give you this third pillar who remembers what the third pillar is? Can you remember? What do we call it? We call it several different things. So there's more than one right answer. Yeah, New Testament community, or being a people who are deeply relational. Or another way to say it is spiritual family. What we're talking about as being a deeply relational people, because the Kingdom of God operates on relationships. It is literally relationships are like the power lines, the kingdom of God is like electricity, the power and presence and movement of God is like that electricity that operates through relationships. Now, if you have you guys ever seen the really huge power lines that have these giant towers that hold them, thank God, we don't have one over your house here, Jennifer. But you've seen those Have you ever noticed how far they hang from the tower, they hang along waist down from the tower. And the thing that they're hanging by is called an insulator. The insulator is what keeps that electricity from arcing on to the electrical pole or the electrical tower. The reason why those insulators are so large, is because there is so much power being pumped through those lines, that they those lines have to be a long distance from the actual tower or pole. Now, if you go out, we don't have them in this neighborhood. But if you go to some of the neighborhoods that have these telephone poles and have power lines on them, the insulators about this big it's about the size of my hand. The reason why is those lines don't carry near as much power in them. If If the lines are symbol, if we're using this illustration, the lines are like the relationship. The heavier, the deeper, the stronger the relationship, the more you will see this power move through our lives. So I want to be like those lines, the lines that are on those towers, if you if we pulled one of those lines down, or you could see one, they are huge. They're I mean, they are big. They're not small, like the ones in your average neighborhood. They are huge lines. And I'm using this illustration for the relationships. If the relationships are deep and broad and strong, then what we see is that there's tremendous conductivity, for the power of God to operate through us. If we minimize the relational depth in our lives, if we minimize if we turn the church into a business, if we turn the church just into an organization, we will minimize how much impartation can take place from one generation to the next from one spiritual generation to the next. This is part of the reason why this church is struggling so much right now with generational transfer. And this is an epidemic problem right now in America. And the reason why is not because the churches are bad. It's not because there aren't good things happen. It's because there's a lack of relational depth, and all of the things that surround that meaning there's a lot of things that surround that meaning. So last week, we really kind of started to dive into this verse in Genesis 18. And this is God speaking in Genesis, this is the Lord himself speaking. And I want to reread Genesis 18 verses 17 1819. I'm reading from New King James. And the Lord said, Shall I hide from Abraham, what I am doing? Since Abraham shall surely become a great and mighty nation, and all the nations of the earth shall be blessed in Him. God is literally rehearsing the covenant of Abraham right there. If you go back and read Genesis 12 He's literally saying it again. First night team. This is the part to pay close attention to God says, For I have known him, in order that he may command his children and his household after him, that they may keep the way of the Lord, to do righteousness and justice that the Lord may bring to Abraham what he spoken to him. Now we dissected this verse last week, we went into great depth into this verse, we won't reteach the whole verse, however, I will just review a few points before we dig into the next portion of this, God directly connects his relationship with Abraham, to Abraham's ability to impart the ways of God to future generations. In other words, Abraham's relationship with God, is the power. It is the generation plant that produces the power that will literally impact the next generation, you and I can do all the right things, we can go to church, we can do all these things, we can be good fathers and good mothers, and do this and do that, and do this and check the blocks and do all these things. But without the deep relationship with God, without this intimacy with God that Abraham has, that God's talking about with Abraham, there is minimal power to significantly impact the next generation. Now, we looked last week at how this is so intense, and it's so supernatural, that we even see it reaching down into the grandchildren, and the great grandchildren. And I use some examples, we looked at these in Scripture. This is very, very interesting, because what God does, and we're not just talking about natural generations, we're also talking about spiritual generations. So not just physical children and grandchildren, but spiritual children and grandchildren. What God does in their lives, many times he will do because of his relationship with you. And the scriptures are filled with these examples. And we looked at a few last week, if you want to look at those go back when we publish it and listen to it on the teaching library. This is This is remarkable, because God will impact those generations, because of his relationship with you. Now, why do I say you? Because we cannot just read the scriptures and go, yeah, oh, God did that for Abraham. The reason why these things are written, the Scripture says in the New Testament, is for our instruction to show us the way that you can have that kind of relationship with God. And that God will impact your future generations physical and spiritual, because of his relationship with you, and how he feels about you, and how you feel about him and what your covenant level of relationship and faithfulness is to him. And with him. Can I get an Amen? All right. All right. Secondly, the power of generational transfer is sourced in this close relationship with God. So keep that in mind. It's sourced in that close relationship with God. Now, we began to examine some of these, some of these words and what's in this verse. But there's a special word I want to key in on today that I briefly alluded to last week, and that is the word command. So I'm going to read it again. So that you're keyed in on command, God says, For I have known Him in order that he may command His children. Now, if you just stop there for a minute, if you just look at this at face value, you get what? What does that mean? Like every parent commands their children, right. And if they don't, there's something wrong, you know, like every parent commands their children. And we looked at this word briefly, but I want to just explore this a little bit more. There are two important components of this word. God says, in order that they make command, he directly connect your ability to command the next generation, based on your relationship with him. Same with Abraham. He, the first and primarily, there is a component of authority, we understand something you cannot command without authority. You can but it's not real command. Is that right? You were at a change of command last week, you're the commander. So you could go around commanding people before the change of command. But once you're the commander, and you you have that authority, there's there's a different level of effectiveness right there. Now we often see the level of authority you have as a parent, you have authority in someone's life, children's lives because you're their parent, but there's also a deeper authority that God is referring to here. There is more than just that. legal authority of being a parent, there is the spiritual authority of being a parent. And there is a difference. If you only appeal to the legal authority that you have, whether it be at work, whether it be in your job, whether it be in the military, whether it be in any, any sphere, if you only appeal to the legal authority, you will be lacking. There are greater authorities than just a legal authority. Now, I'll tell you this living for many decades in the military, any good leader understands this, that just because people do they do what you say, because of your position, it doesn't mean they respect you, it doesn't mean you carry a heavier authority with them a personal authority with them, because of the type of leader that you are. The same is true here. God is teaching us that there is a spiritual authority that comes from intimacy with God. You can be a person of no title, no fame, you can not have a single degree to your name, never have written a book and not have a single official position in the world, and still carry tremendous spiritual authority and influence the world. Do you believe that? Is there anyone you know who fits that description? Anyone? Someone, anyone? Who, who fits that category? Someone more qualified than me. who fits the quote that characteristics I just named to you. Jesus did. When Jesus walked the earth, he didn't hold an official position toward that man's position. He didn't have a degree. He didn't have a title, if you will, other than what people called him. You see what I'm saying? He never wrote a book isn't an amazing, he never wrote a single book. I mean, today, people think if you're going to be a significant Christian leader, you got to at least have a book to your name. Right? He never wrote a single book. Most people, if we lived a life like he lived, we would be called a failure. And yet Jesus carried tremendous spiritual authority, that authority was not based upon a title in the synagogue, it was not based upon a degree that the Pharisees had, it was not based upon a school that he had attended. It was not based upon a royal family of physical royal family that he was a part of it. Of course, he was part of the spiritual royal family. It was based upon his intimacy with God. And because of that, he carried great authority. Now, the Hebrew word is often used as command in the military, in order to order with authority. And in this context, God reveals to us a spiritual authority that's coming directly from intimacy with God. Guys, listen, this is, this is one of the most important concepts that we need to live and practice in our lives. We need that intimacy with God telling you if you're if you walk closely with the Lord, when you speak, Heaven will listen and angels will respond. Do you believe that? Remember, whenever an entire army came against Elijah, an entire army came against Him. And He didn't seem to be too worried about it when they surrounded him and they were going to take him you remember what happened. And he prayed that the eyes of his servant would be opened, because his servant was afraid. Because his servant did not understand the heavens resources that were at his disposal. That's a bad way to say it, but we're backing him up, we're resourcing him, and surrounding him. And that day, an entire army was struck blind. And then he kindly and in mercy help them He fed them and help them find their way even though they were going to kill him, or at least capture him. We know. What are we saying? It wasn't his position. It was his relationship with the Almighty that brought this authority and had this impact. Now there are those who command without spiritual authority to do so. And we quote this a lot. You know, what is the what is the story in x? Where some dudes decided they're going to command? Yeah, the sons of Skiba decided they're going to, they're going to command in the name of Jesus. And they said, all the right words in the name of Jesus whom Paul preaches we command you today. And the demonic spirits, attack them through those individuals and just tore them up. Because saying the right thing was it didn't matter what they said it mattered who was saying it right? You can order a lot of things to happen. But it's totally different than if you're the president is totally different than if you're a commander if you're in a position. Well, the same is true of the kingdom of God. This authority comes from intimacy with God. And I use this example, in some of our other teachings, there are those who pray and decree or command was spiritual authority, heavens backing, and because they speak heaven response. And Samuel is one of my favorite examples. First Samuel seven, nine through 13. So Samuel cried out to the Lord for Israel in the Lord answered. And Samuel was offering up this burn offering, because they were coming into battle against the Philistines. And the scripture says, when he did that, they had been at a stalemate, and they were about to get whipped big time. They were in this stalemate, they were in a bad situation. The king was nervous. Samuel came and he prays, and he offers this offering. And he prays in the Scripture says, The Lord thundered with a loud thunder upon them that day, and it confused them. Now, we don't know exactly what that means, right? Like, I'm telling you, Warriors don't stand on the battlefield and little bit of thunder comes in, they all just start getting confused. That doesn't happen. Right? So this had to be like some kind of significant thing that happened. But heavens resources came to bear upon a physical situation, because of a man who was praying. Now how do we know it was because of him? And not what he was saying? How do we know it was because of Samuel, because of who was saying it and not what he was saying? Well, if you skip down there, to the future verse there, the Scripture says in verse 13, so the Philistines were subdued. And they did not come any more into the territory of Israel. And the hand of the Lord was against the Philistines. All the days of Samuel. What did what did the scriptures just tell us? Yeah, it's connected to the man. So the victory that God set upon the nation and the protection he set upon the nation, God directly tied that victory to the man himself, not just to the prayer he prayed, but to the man who prayed it. And that has to do with that man's relationship with God, and the position he held because of that relationship. It's connected to the person. So I often say this. It's not necessarily how hard you pray, or how clever you pray. It's who's praying it many times, many, many times. Now, you might say, Well, I'm not that person. And the Lord saying, you can be, you can be Abraham, you can be Samuel, you can be like Jesus, you can be the person who walks with Him. And God influences the world around you, because of his relationship with you. And we looked last week at some remarkable stories of how God intervened two generations down three generations down because of his relationship with that person. Now, we're talking about the power of spiritual authority that comes from intimacy, not from titles, right. I mean, titles are good titles have their purpose, but we understand that the title itself is not is not really the essence of of what we're talking about. The power and effective spiritual authority. Let's talk about this for a minute. near my hometown, there's really something very remarkable as you're going on the four lane highway going into my hometown. There's a railroad track that parallels the highway, and probably I don't know maybe 30 miles out 50 miles out from my hometown. There is an old one of those old Volkswagens, not the new kind, but the old Volkswagens room, the old Volkswagen bugs, and the car, it looks like someone just heated it up like plastic, and then wrapped it around this pole. And the pole is a railroad crossing pole. So what they did was, I guess they got a crane. They pulled that pole in that car altogether out of the ground, and they just set it there next to the railroad tracks. Now why is that car wrapped around that pole? Does anybody know? That's the train. So what happened? This car was sitting on the train tracks one day or one night, and a train was coming through. The train was not moving fast. You can tell by the dent on the on the car, that the train train was moving relatively slow, pretty slow. It was not the speed of the train. It was the weight of the train, you know that in physics, they call that mass, this, the speed times are the same as momentum speed times the mass equals momentum. So the speed was relatively slow, but the train was huge. So the train, it didn't, it wasn't one of the six car trains, it wasn't an Amtrak train that goes real fast and carries people and only has five cars on it. It was one of these giant freight trains that had like, I don't know, 3040 cars loaded down with coal or something heavy and, and extremely heavy. And when it hit that car, even though it hit it almost in slow motion, the force of that train, wrap that car, right around that pole. This is a great illustration. Because the train is an illustration of our relationship with God. So you know, you guys have heard me say this, there are people who have one year of history and God. And there are people who have 10 years of history in God. And there are people who have one year of history and God 10 times. What's the difference? The difference is that the person who has 10 years of history and God, it doesn't mean they've been with God for 10 years only, it means that they've been growing 10 years worth in their relationship, and in their pursuit. And in their transformation. You may have been a Christian for 20 years. But I asked you do you have 20 years of history and God? Or do you have one year 20 times? Or do you have two years? 20 times 10 times? In other words, are we just going through the motions and learning the same things? Or are we growing in our faith and growing in our experience and growing in victory and growing in our we're the we're God's word is not just in our heads, but it grows up like a like a tree and has a fruit in our living experience. This is the nature of the Word of God, it will grow up into full experience and practices. And then that tree will yield and it will yield an entire forest of fruit in our lives. Now, I will tell you that I have way more love in my life than I had 30 years ago, way more love, asked the people who knew me 30 years ago, they'll tell you, I have a lot more wisdom in my life. I'm not saying I'm the example. I'm just trying to say that this is the way to go go this way, you know, follow me as I follow Christ. I'm trying to say this is a good way to go and God. Now the worst part is sometimes people go backwards. You know, we talked about backsliding, that's where they're actually losing ground in their walk with God and their relationship with God. So I want to go forward. So the faith level, the trust level, these the experience of the supernatural, the miracles in life have gotten bigger and bigger and bigger in life. I want to live like this in God. So back to the train. In my life, if the train is my relationship with God, am I just trucking along with five cars? And that's good? Or am I adding more cars as we go? Am I growing in that depth with God because of Italia. If it's a 50 car train, the impact is profound. The impact is profound. When you speak when you pray when you act, there is enormous consequences and enormous effect. Even though it's invisible, it will show up. I promise you that it will show up. And you'll be like, Man, I didn't even do that much. You know, I'm just like, I just did this little bit. I did this and how did we get here? And you're you're literally amazed at the profound effects of walking with God and walking in simple obedience. Another illustration I really like is I was watching this tornado documentary. Now tornadoes. Interesting. Because the unique thing about tornado versus the wind is what though how fast the winds going. And they were showing these playing cards and they were embedded into the wood. Did you hear that? Like literally it looked like somebody took you know took the card like a razor like like it was a metal razor or a knife and threw it in it literally just embedded like an inch into the wood. And it's a playing card, a little paper playing card. That's the power of the wind in a tornado The same is true in our relationship with God. When we're walking with God, remember, the Scripture calls the Holy Spirit, the wind says wind blows where it wants, you don't know, you know what I'm talking about in James, this is the wind. Pneuma is spirit meaning wind, the wind of the Holy Spirit. He is a force in our lives, you may you may look at your life. And you may say in your life, you may look at your life and say, Man, my life is just a little playing card. You may go, man, my life is just a little playing card. I'm like, What am I going to do? Right? What are you going to do? You got Lord, how are you going to use this little playing card, I'm just little playing card. And then the tornado hits the power of the Holy Spirit takes this little life of yours, this card, and you go, man, I don't have very many talents. I don't make any gifts. Did you know God doesn't need a lot of talents and gifts. He needs a playing card, a person who is willing to be used of God. So the Holy Spirit comes, and he takes your life like that playing card is shameful. And man, he can cut to the chase, he can do things that you cannot do on your own. You know, like, maybe we should have had a little illustration and passed out some playing cards and said, Okay, anybody and Jennifer, don't worry, embed this card in your piano or your wall over there. You know, me and my own power is very limited. But what God can do with your life, what God can do in you, is profound with the wind of the Holy Spirit. Think of this verse in Genesis chapter 19. When God says that you will be able to command your children, because of your relationship with me. This is not just for Abraham, this is for Mike. This is not just for Abraham. You know, this is for Tyler, this is for Jennifer, this is for all of us. God is saying to us, that I will use you and I will exercise my power. Only come close to me. I'm the one you need. You guys know with God, you're always a majority. You can the whole world can be against you. I'm probably going to be talking about this last week. I mean, next week last week. Wow, that'd be tricky. Probably gonna talk about this next week. And when we talk about spiritual fathers, did you guys know there's a point where Paul was abandoned by the churches in his leaders, there's actually a point where he says everyone in Asia has forsaken me. Everyone had left him and forsaken him. Was Paul wrong? Was he it's not he hadn't been in a sin. The point I'm trying to make is there was a period in his life, when those who were in leadership and the churches that he had founded for suck him. But he was still walking with God, he was still in the will of God. And you are still a majority, even when people don't get it if you're walking in the will of God and walking close to him. And I'm gonna tell you in the hour, which we live, the world, the flesh, and the devil are going to tell you that you're in the minority because the world doesn't agree with you. We've got new beliefs in the world and new virtues. And this is right, and this is wrong. And God says, No, that's not true. And you are still in the majority. Even if the whole world came down to it was just you not won't, you won't be alone. He's promised us that. But even if it came down to where it was just you or me in the world, with God, you're still a majority, because you're standing with what he says with truth, what he believes what he feels. One of my favorite examples of this, this whole concept of generational transfer, and by the way, generational transfer applies physically and spiritually. Now, I'm going to say that probably 100 times because I want us to always be thinking spiritual generational transfer, physically and spiritually, Genesis. You can look these up and then I'll just tell you, I'm not gonna go read them. Genesis 416, Genesis 423 through 26. So basically Genesis four, and then Genesis 524. I want to talk about two guys. lemak and Enoch is very interesting. So, in canes, y'all remember Cain is popular for killing his brother. That's what we know him from in Scripture. Cain killed his brother Abel. If you track change generations, the anger and the murder that was in his life, it trucks through the generations, and then we find that when you get to the seventh generation, it's Lemak. So from Kane But from from I don't remember if it's from Adam, to layman or if it's for cane to lay Mac, you could look it up, but it's seven generations down, you will see lame duck and lame duck murders. And he's proud about he's actually very proud that he's murdered and he actually goes out and boasts about it. What's interesting is if you track the same number of generations, down through Seth, you come to Enoch. So now you have seven generations down through two lineages. Kane's lineage, and Seth's lineage. And Seth was known because he walked with God, he wasn't like Cain, he walked with God, he was faithful to him. That's a good name, Seth. It's a very good name. Seven generations down. In our comes up, and the Scripture says, in our walk with God, and he walked with God so closely that he was not he was no more God just took him. So the Lord saying, Look, you need to know that in the generations, the generation of fruit is multiplying every generation, physically and spiritually, the spirit, though generational fruit is exponentially growing, you might think you're just planting one tomato plant, or one tree, or one this but you are never planting just one seed you are never planting. What was that saying years ago, they used to say, anyone can count how many apples are on a tree. But only God can count? How many trees are in an apple. You see, God wants us to know that anytime you're being faithful, you're like down here, and you've got a few people you're investing into, or you're down here and you're a parent, you got a few kids that you're pouring your life into. And the enemy saying, Yeah, you're wasting your time. This is a big one, you could be making something of yourself, you could be out you could have a big name. And you're like God saying, Nope, disciple these people, or nope, disciple, these children. And God wants you to know that you are never ever, ever just holding one seed in your hand, you think you are, but in that seed is an entire harvest. And the cool thing about the kingdom is it multiplies exponentially. So that you will have children like Enoch, you will have offspring, you'll have disciples like Enoch. So whatever the primary discipleship responsibility that God has given you, do it with joy. You know, if God gave you the responsibility, and said, well, here, here's 5000 People take care of them, you know, do all of this, you might go, You know what, I kind of liked it back when I just had five, you know, Well, God sets it up so that it's not hard, we make it hard. What we do is we say, well, it's not significant unless and then we add on all these expectations that God did not add on. And the Lord said, Just be faithful with what I've given you what I've called you to kind of what we alluded to a few weeks ago, just be faithful with that, because God will not hold us accountable for how much we do. God will hold us accountable for how much we did of what he called us to do. You see, we're all called in are given a sphere. And we want to be faithful with that. Now the second component to this oh, by the way, let me just I want to mention this to Timothy, two, two. You guys know this. Paul shows us four generations and two Timothy two, two, if you look at that, because he tells Timothy, he tells him to invest into faithful men who will be able to teach others also. So you got Paul, you got Timothy. That's the next set you track and generations, Paul trains, Timothy, Timothy trains the men, the men train others who will also is what he says. So he shows us for generations. Paul is teaching us that all the time when we're investing. We're thinking about generational transfer. Paul, when he's training Timothy, Paul is never thinking about Timothy. He's thinking about Timothy's thinking about Timothy's generation that he's investing into next generation he's investing in too, and the next generation that they're investing into, one of my favorite things to say to you guys a lot is preaching to the choir. Now the reason why I say I'm preaching to the choir, is not because I just want you to go Oh, yeah, Rod knows I got that one. That's not why I say that. I say it because I'm, what I'm literally saying is, I know you're doing this, and I know you believe it. But I'm reminding you so you can go out and teach and train others. You know, and that's part of what we do. That's why we give out our notes. That's why we teach other we say hey, take them administer and teach and grow and develop your own and go beyond go to the next level with this, and that's our call in the kingdom of God. Now the second component of the command that God is calling that God is talking to Abraham about when he says command, is the concept of instruction. So wrapped up in this word when he says, he, he's close to Abraham, so that he will be able to command his children. He doesn't just mean command them with spiritual authority, he also means to instruct them, to teach them to show them that's part of the meaning of this word in Genesis 19. So it means to command or and I pulled this quote from the lexicon, to instruct with understanding. So here's a scripture that we all hear a lot, but I'm going to try to highlight something we don't talk about a lot. Ephesians 117. Paul identifies the quality of the spirit of wisdom and revelation, if I said, How many of us have prayed for spirit of web business and revelation, probably almost everybody in this room would raise both hands. He says that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you the spirit of wisdom and revelation. Now, I want to confess to you, I'm guilty, because I also read the whole verse, But I'm guilty of turning my mind off right there. But there's another phrase, he says, that he may give you the spirit of wisdom and revelation, in the knowledge of him. The spirit of wisdom and revelation always comes from the knowledge of God. Now, when we read knowledge of God, a lot of Westerners think, Oh, I know about God in my head. That's not what he's talking about. So, in other words, if you were to say to someone today, Rod, has a knowledge of Beth, or rod knows Beth, the meaning of that word takes on a whole different thing. It doesn't mean I understand her like a book, or I understand, you know, her favorite color in her favorite day of the week and her favorite, you know, these fill in the blank test kind of questions. What it means is, is that I know her relationally I know her intellectually, I know her. As a husband and wife, I know her maritally I know her physically. I know her emotionally. The knowledge of God is intimacy. He's talking about people who know and walk with God. There is a level of revelation that opens based upon our intimacy with God and our knowledge of Him. So it's important to note the spirit of wisdom and revelation is only received in the knowledge of God. The deeper our walk in intimacy with God is the deeper wisdom and revelation comes, what's the difference between wisdom and revelation? And I'll just say it this way, because we use this a lot. What's the difference between revelation and information? Information can go into my brain, there are many verses I know information. There are many truths of God. I know in my brain, it's information. The word revelation, it means unveiling. to unveil means that I can see it, it means that I know it with depth. I know it with experience, I know it from different perspectives. I know it experientially, I know it raised relationally. And in this with God, it means I know him in these ways. So wisdom and revelation comes because of relationship with God that comes because of intimacy with God. So if I pray this prayer, if I say, Lord, I want wisdom, Lord, we pray for wisdom and revelation. In effect, what I'm praying is, Lord, I need to be closer to you. Because then I will see, there are many things in my life that I could not see it as I got closer to God, I start seeing I was like, Whoa, how is it that I've been doing this for this many years, and I've never seen it until today. And it's related to and connected to our walk and intimacy with the Holy Spirit of Jesus, and knowing him. Wow, I'll tell you I love this. So in Genesis 18, God directly links Abraham spiritual authority to command his relationship with God. And first God directly links Abraham's ability to command with authority to his relationship, but he also directly links his ability to command with instruction to his relationship. So when you think of authority, think of the wind behind the card. Think of the train that I used the example To wrap the car around, but when you think of the instruction part, think of the lights being turned on, so that people can see. It's not enough just to know the facts, we need to be able to see. Have you guys ever been around someone who walks so close with God, their life exudes Revelation. Now I tell you, I've got most of my spiritual fathers are with the Lord now. And there's actually one particular spiritual father that's with the Lord. And he wasn't particularly, he wasn't a gateway, you wouldn't call him a highly gifted man. You know, I'm saying like, he didn't have any great charisma, he wasn't a great worship leader, he didn't lead a great organization, but I'm gonna tell you something, every time I got around him, I would see something in God I never saw before. Every time like, we would just it would come out in the conversation, he wouldn't even be teaching, we'd just be talking. And he would share something, and I would just go, oh, and those have formed so much of my relationship with God today. And so the idea here is that when we live in the light of this intimacy with God, what ends up happening is that light comes around to all the other people. So when you walk with God in your household, as a man or a woman of God, as a father, or as a mother, your children will live in Revelation they could not live in, if you didn't, no matter if you went to church every day of your life. There's a difference between it. There are some homes spiritually, they have dimmer switches on their lights in their home, and the lights are turned down where you're just trying to make stuff out. And there are other homes that are like Walmart, man, the lights are so bright. It's like, Oh, I see that shadow on the wall. Yep, I see that mark over there. Yep, I see that dirt. You know, every little thing stands out to you both good and bad, you could see it. And the reason why is because they live in the light. Now, some families don't like living in the light, because what does it do? It we used to have a saying I told our kids all years growing up, I said no secrets. We don't. We don't have secrets in this house. Now. I play with the kids with secrets. But that's different ways. We're, you know, the secret. We have the secret nesting dolls in the library and things like that. But what I'm talking about is, there's no secret sins we don't. It's not like, the kids growing up knew this. So when they become teenagers, it's like, oh, okay, you know, I my sister's doing this, but I'm not gonna tell him but no, that didn't work that way, in our family. And the reason why was because we cultivated a culture of light, so that we operate in the light. And even though it might be a little embarrassing, once a while, a little embarrassment is nothing compared to being broken and crippled and destroyed by sin. Right. So the light was enormous. And so what ended up happening was, the conversations that were in our family, were not just for a moment, we had conversations that lasted for years. And these conversations are what I call conversations of Revelation. They were conversations of wisdom. There are certain conversations of wisdom that would go through the years, and we would talk about them. And you know what, when they left home, those conversations didn't stop. They're still going today. Remember how we always said the quality of the relationship is based on what the quality of the conversation, that's, that's core. And those conversations are going on, and we're living in the light. Now, this is my prayer for us. That we will be a people who live in the light, that we will be a people who live in this open light, and revelation and understanding and wisdom. Because many times we will not find the solutions in the natural on our own many of the solutions and many of the extraordinary victories, many of the breakthroughs, many of the getting into the next level of where God wants to take us happens because we are a people of revelation of people of light. And we cannot be a people of revelation or people of wisdom unless we live in closeness in our intimacy and walk with God. Amen. Amen. There's a lot more here, but we've been going for a while. So here's what I'm gonna do. I'm gonna pray. And then I want to open it up and give us an opportunity to share as questions. Lord, we are thanking you that you didn't just want to walk close with Abraham, that your heart is toward every person in this place in this room, and toward those in that we're in relationship with that you desire, a walk in intimacy with you, so that we can command our generations and See the fulfillment of these promises you mentioned in Genesis 19. And, Lord, it's our desire to live this way. In order that you may have your free reign, and the wind of your spirit can blow and have impact on the world that we cannot have, and most of all that we may enjoy your presence among us. So it gives you thanks in Jesus name, a man. 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. 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