The Seven Pillars (Part 9) - NT Community & The Supernatural Nature Of Spiritual Friendship - 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 teaching on the third pillar, New Testament community, we dive deeper into the concept of spiritual friendship and it’s supernatural nature as opposed to natural friendship. True friendship requires God's presence and is sacramentally set apart in the kingdom of God.

Full transcript generated by ai (please excuse errors):




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​All right, well, we're starting our we're still in pillar three, by the way. This is how many of you remember the first pillar of this of the Seven Pillars of Aaron Nova? And what is it apostolic prayer, and the seven pillars of Aaron Nova and the friends of Jesus apostolic prayer, and then we separated out the spiritual disciplines. And we didn't spend a lot of time teaching on the spiritual disciplines. And then the third pillar is New Testament community. I also call this being a people who are deeply relational, or spiritual family, we have spent a lot of time in pillar three. The reason why one reason why is because a not as much as taught on this, there's a whole lot taught on prayer, there's a whole lot taught on the spiritual disciplines, not as much as taught on New Testament community, or what we call being deeply relational, or spiritual family, these, these terms have different meanings to different people. And we want to go deeper in understanding them because they characterize so much of our own DNA, as the Friends of Jesus, that is people who operate in kind of in this DNA or ecosystem of ministry. And we understand there are many people we don't even know who also operate in this, we just gave it a name and call it FRIENDS OF JESUS much like a spiritual order. Because I believe that's really what it is. And so some of the things we covered his spiritual family and close community what that looks like, we looked at another subtopic called Love Jesus style. How does Jesus define love, and we touched on that then we looked pretty heavily at generational transfer, and friendship with God, and how this friendship with God is essential to generational transfer, as we understand the Scriptures. And we looked at Abraham and his covenant with God, and what God had to say about the power of imparting generational transfer of faith and walking with God, friendship with God, that was critical. We did touch on spiritual fathers and mothers, we're going to come back to this in another pillar. So there's going to be more on spiritual fathering and mothering a sneak preview. I mentioned this last week, I was not expecting to be speaking on what I'm speaking on at the retreat. But it's very tied into honoring spiritual fathers. And some of you may hear that and go, how does that relate to the theme of the retreat, you got to come and find out so. But I'm so excited about it, because it's been such a revelation to me and what God is saying, in this hour, the Lord is really speaking vividly in my life, about this. And so I'm very excited about it. Then we we did a week of teaching on guilt based living, we looked at how New Testament community is guilt based living, if you did not hear that, or matter of fact, if you did, if you were live, and you heard that guy's you, you gotta go listen to it again, when when it's published, you've got to go listen to it. I'm telling you, this is life changing, because it takes many of the principles of of New Testament community that many of us compartmentalize to the church service, and it brings it into daily life. So it changed. I'll tell you, for me, it was transformational. Because many concepts in Scripture, we view in light of the church service, not in light of spiritual closeness and community. So please listen to that. And like I say, I listened to him, I mean, not my own, but others I listened to three times I encourage you to do that. And then last week, we embarked upon going deeper into spiritual friendship, and what is spiritual friendship. So I'm going to pick up there, and I'm just going to pick up right where I left off. And one of the scriptures by the way, I'll reread one of the scriptures that we looked at, and it was in Psalm just a minute me pull my notes up Psalm 84. And the scripture Psalm 84, verse four, through seven blessing are those who dwell in your house. They will still be praising you say law, blessing is the man whose strength is in you, whose heart is set on pilgrimage. As they pass through the Valley of Baca, they make it a spring. The rain also covers it with pools, and they go from strength to strength. Each one appears before God in Zion. Now, I'm not going to reteach that. But guys, we mined some phenomenal gold out of this passage, and some other passages last week. So I encourage you to go and listen to those when we publish them. But we're going to pick up today, and we're going to continue in this same vein. And I want to say this spiritual friendship is it, we really should have a different noun for it, because it's different than earthly friendship. Sure, there's some overlap, there are some similarities, but spiritual friendship. Even though it has many of the same qualities, it is also completely different because it's saturated with the presence of God. If we walk together as the psalmist describes, and I we went through several different songs that I'm referring to from our last teaching. So I'm gonna use an illustration here to kind of kind of give us some similarities to this. It's like two exact models of an airplane. Yet only one of the airplanes has fuel, and pilots. And the other one never has fuel, and never has pilots. They both have all the same mechanical parts, there's two identical airplanes, they both have all the same mechanical parts, but only one has fuel and has the life to fly it, that is the pilots, they both look pretty much the same. And they even feel the same on the inside the seats are the same, the carpet is the same, the color is the same, but they are actually nothing alike in function, because one never flies track with me on this. One contains a group of people who traveled the world who fly it 30 or 40,000 feet. And they travel all about the world. And they are in the atmosphere of the world flying from place to place. The other contains a group of people who always sit on the tarmac, in one place, are you tracking now. So this is the difference between earthly friendship and spiritual friendship. Even if our friendships were identical in components, and the makeup as the world's, which they're in, by the way, they're not the same. They are nothing alike, except there are similarities, but they're nothing alike, and that ours contains the fuel, and the power and the life of the presence of God. So the difference may be here, that one group of people are living in the shell of what it's meant to be. And the other people are living in what it is meant to be with the power and the life to run it with the power in the life to bring it out of the terrestrial domain and into the spiritual domain. So I'm using this illustration so that we will see spiritual friendship looks a lot like in the to the natural world friendship. But even though they have the similarities in form, they are not the same in function, because one sits on the ground and is terrestrial, and one flies in atmosphere in his celestial in nature. There's a man who was alive. He was a leader in the church about 1000 years ago in England, and his name is ale read of revol. His name is spelled AEL R E D. And this guy writes on spiritual friendship 1000 years ago, and has some very interesting writings on spiritual friendship. But he quotes Augustine in his book on spiritual friendship, and this is what he quotes from St. Augustine. Nothing could entirely captivate me, however, learned, however, neatly expressed, however true, it might be, unless his name is in it. So while he's writing on spiritual friendship, he says, Nothing can captivate me in spiritual friendship. Unless the name of Jesus is in it, and he is one of these guys who begins to see the difference between natural friendship and spiritual friendship, so much so that he says I'm completely captivated by friendship when the name of Jesus is in the friendship itself. And Augustine reinforced one of another church fathers ambrosus Christian explanation of friendship. So now, we have Augustine, quoting Ambrose, both church fathers, and explains friendship. And he insists that the presence of God has to be in true friendship, both Church Fathers here, and this goes way back further than 1000 years, both of these Church Fathers say you cannot have true friendship without the presence of God in it. And he defined friendship, saying that it will not end because it's established in God, we've been teaching this for years, that if you if you inventory, the things around you right now, just take a moment, the room that you're in inventory, the things in your room that's there. Now, I asked you this question, is there anything? Is there any tangible thing in that room that you can take with you, and that will be forever? Yes, there is. It's the relationships that you sit there in that room, the relationships that we have in this room, they are eternal, they're the only thing in the room that's eternal. Now, the Holy Spirit's in the room, so he's eternal and our relationship with Him. But our relationships are the only eternal thing that we possess tangible, everything else is borrowed or rented, and it will pass away. But what we hold in relationships with one another, and with God, they are eternal pulses, they're invisible. And those things that are invisible are more real, than those things that are visible. So this is somewhat what Ambrose is referring to. He says, no friends are true friends, unless you might God bind them fast to one another, through that love which is sown in our hearts by the Holy Spirit. So both Ambrose and Augustine, quoting him as saying that it's not true friendship, it's an aeroplane on a tarmac, that's not really acting like an aeroplane, if it doesn't have the presence of God in it. If it's one thing to just be Christians, it's another to have the presence of God and fellowship with one another. So l read also teaches that there is a sacramental nature of friendship in the kingdom of God, especially when it's contrasted to other species of friendships, and sat by the way sacramental means holy, it means sacred, it means set apart. And we use the scripture we quote the Scripture a lot. Second Corinthians five, verse 16, he Paul says this, he says, Therefore, from now on, we regard no one according to the flesh. So Paul is teaching us that when we know people, we don't know them according to just the contours of their physical presence. We know them according to the contours of their spirits, and they're so and their personality and their heart. We know one another after those divine forming contours of a person's heart and spirit, when we know them the world. When the world looks at people, the world says, Are they pretty? The world says, Do they look good? The world says, Do they look rich? The world says, Do they look famous? The world says does everybody else look at Him. And God says we don't look at each other that way. We know one another after the spirit. We see each other in the lens of eternity. I love Doug and had Duncan had taught me this and actually learned it from another of our spiritual fathers. And he said it's important that we see and know people through the lens of their destiny. And he's talking about eternal destiny, not just natural that we know one another, through the lens of their destiny, and not just through the lens of their failures, or their flesh or their natural man, their natural person. Because all of us have hangups, right everybody gathered here today has hangups, we have faults. We have freckles, we have things we like about ourselves, and we have things we don't like, well guess what, when God looks at you, he He's looking at you, like you looked at those kids when they were little, you didn't just see a little kid, as a parent you saw, you began to see who they are becoming, you begin to see them through the eyes of faith through the eyes of the prophetic through the eyes of what God says. And then the best parenting does not rehearse and rehearse the mistakes. The best parenting says, Oh, you made this mistake, I'm not gonna let you do this, because this is who you really are. And we speak this into kids day in and day out who they really are, because we see them through the eyes of the of their destiny, the lens of their destiny, it is not enough, just point out their mistakes. God does the same thing with us. God may rebuke us, he may chase in us. But when he does, he goes, I'm not gonna let you do this, because this is not who you are. And then he loves us and knows us through the lens of that destiny. This is what it is to know one another after the Spirit, to know each other in the contours of our hearts and our spirit and our calling, and our destiny. Now we're getting into the real stuff of spiritual friendship. Man, let me catch up in my notes, I love this man. I love this stuff. All right. I'll read also teaches the sacramental nature. And there's a book that see if I have the name of it here. All read of revol spiritual friendship. It's by an author named Lawrence braceland. And it was published about 10 or 11 years ago. And he describes I'll read this way. He says, The Abbott teacher, which by the way, Abbott is the father spiritual father, the father teacher statement, that the one who remains in friendship remains in God. And God in him is a statement about literally this sicker sacramental nature. And he's talking again about the plane that flies not about the plane that doesn't fly, are you tracking with me, he's talking about the spiritual friendship that has celestial qualities to it. It has Kingdom qualities, the Scripture teaches us that when we live in walk in the kingdom, that we are literally tasting the powers of the age to come. So our friendships, our friendships that live in those elements have the powers of the age to come, whether it be a miracle that happens, or whether it be transformation, or whether it be the love bond, that God creates that spiritual in nature. And you know what, no matter how hard you try to bond in love with someone, if we do not have the presence of God, and that yield and surrender that comes from the hearts, we will not have that same level of supernatural love, the supernatural love of God, when it bonds together. It cannot be separated, whether it's us in God or whether it's in relationships. This is why it's so important that we don't just have natural love and ability that we have the supernatural. He insists on the sacramental nature of friendship, and it's echo of First John 416. And the words of the Song of Songs and from Psalm 34, eight, as they're used to define this union with Jesus, that one reaches through loving one's friends. So I want to look at the first John scripture for a moment. First, John four. And we're looking at verse number 16. He says, and we have known and believed the love that God has for us, God is love. And he who abides in love abides in God, and God in him. I love this next part, he says, Love has been perfected among us in this, that we may have boldness in the Day of Judgment. You don't hear a lot of teaching on that, do you? Because as he is so are we in this world, there is no fear in love but perfect love casts out fear heard a lot of sermons on that phrase, because fear involves torment. But he who fears has not been made perfect in love. We love Him because He first loved us. Now the world I just a little caveat here the world constantly redefines love. Many forms and definitions of love in today's society is not love. It's not true love. It's not God's love. And it shouldn't even have those four letters in it at all. Because it's not. In many cases it's perversion. In some cases, it's sin. In other cases, it's compromise. But since God created every kind of love that he that he exists, true love that exists in the world, then he gets to define them, right? So God gets to define love, every kind of love that he made, he gets to define it. And as his people, we yield to his ways and definitions of love. And we reject every definition that the world gives us that God says is not love. No matter if the whole world tells us it doesn't matter. You see, eight, nine 10 billion people, a million billion people, whatever number that is, can say one thing, but it doesn't make it true. When God says it's true. And so we embrace what God says, the perfecting of Love happens to us. In spiritual community. Let's look at verse 17. He says, Love has been perfected among us in this. Here's what he's saying. Love cannot be perfected. If you're a lone ranger. You will not have love perfected in your life, if you're isolated. This is very important that we have to live in spiritual community with the people of God. Now, when we say spiritual community, it means something different than what some people say. Just going to events at the church is not spiritual community. We've talked about this ad nauseam. But I'm gonna keep saying it. Because just because I'm at an event does not mean I'm living in spiritual friendships, spiritual depth, deeply relational, or any of those things. And I've told you guys stories about people sitting next to people that they saw every Sunday, and then they go out and kill their whole family. And they're like, well, well, you know what, they didn't know each other. They didn't know that person's heart. That's the reason why this happens. And I gave you an actual example of this happening. But there are many examples of this. And it's a tragic story. But it really speaks to what we're saying here. That just because we're at a church event with people again and again and again, does not mean we are living a spiritual friends, spiritual friendship is so much more than this. Did you notice this? I do not have boldness in the Day of Judgment. We have boldness in the Day of Judgment. Can you feel the difference? This is it this interesting. First of all, I haven't really explored this a lot. And if some of you have, I would be really interested to hear your thoughts and your insights on this because I've not really heard, I've heard teachings on let us boat come boldly to the throne of grace. But I have not heard a lot. Because, you know, I believe the Day of Judgment is a fearful day. I mean, no matter who you are, I mean, we believe it's going to be a day of great reward for the faithful. But you got to admit it's still scary. Like if you're not scared in some way, I don't know. Um, I don't want to teach the wrong kind of fear. But man, it kind of, you know, I've dedicated my life to this. I haven't been perfect, but I've dedicated my life to the ways of Jesus as best I know how I made a lot of mistakes along the way. But when I think about standing before God, do you I mean, man, that's the heebie jeebies area. It's like whoa, Lord. Whoa, you know, because you guys realize nothing is hidden. Like everything is revealed. There's no secret sin, you don't show up and somehow hide now yes, the Lord washes our sins away. And we are no longer guilty. And we're purified, and we're blessed. And this is wonderful. But there's no hiding anything from God. At that point, everything is there. And the scripture says that we're judged Actually, according to our works. And of course, we believe in grace, thank God, we have the grace of God in the blood of Jesus to wash away our sins. I hear people talk about how bold they are. And I'm like, huh, whoo. You know, that's intense. Now, I'm saying all this in the fear of the Lord. But he says here, that we have boldness in the day of judgment, and I believe this is community. Now you guys know I believe that in the day of judgment, let's just do a short X curses here. In the day of judgment, the scriptures indicate that communities will speak. So, you see Jesus given us a glimpse of this, he says, he talks about in the judgment meant that one city will rise up and speak. And even I don't know if the word is condemned, but another one city will come up and rebuke another city in the judgment. Are y'all getting the picture? So there's some kind of discussion or cross examination. We don't know exactly. And again, I'd be interested to hear your thoughts and studies on this too. But Jesus indicates that a city will rise up in the judgment, and will say different things to other cities. We see this, that there are communities that speak in the judgment. And I believe that also does not just apply municipalities. It applies also to families, I believe that spiritual families will have a voice in the judgment based upon the teachings of Jesus and what what he gives us these glimpses of some people might limit that to municipalities because Jesus only use municipalities. But I tend to look for the principal, not just the example. And this is very fascinating, because we see here, that John also gives us this glimpse of communities who have a community in the judgment, so that spiritual families stand before the Lord. Now, corporate accountability is something that we're not used to as Americans, we're used to individual accountability a lot more. And just as we talk about many times, we talk about God doesn't just have a relationship with a husband, a wife, a father, a mother and their children. God has relationships with entire families. When God made a covenant with Abraham, God was entering into relationship with Abraham, and with his descendants who would willingly enter into that covenant. So literally, God is not just in relationship with Abraham, God is in relationship with you and me through that faith by our father, Abraham. And there's a whole mystery wound up in this. You see in Hebrews, he says things like, he tells the church, the Hebrews writer tells the church that when they're paying tithes, that they are literally paying tithes into the heavens, into Abraham into Melchizedek. That's a fascinating mystery. And his point is that these relationships and the mysteries of their ties stretch into eternity. They're not limited just to the earthly. And so we see that God has relationships with families today, you and I experience blessings, because of God's relationship with someone in our spiritual heritage, our spiritual fathers or our natural fathers. And some of us enter into those wells in those mantle's to receive, and this is something I'm excited about talking about at the retreat. Because this is has to do with, when we honor our spiritual fathers, and mothers to our spiritual fathers and mothers, there is an there is an impartation, there is a mantle that we enter into, there are blessings that we enter into. And this is a mystery, because it stretches beyond just the natural timeline that we're in. Pretty powerful. All right. John, also reveals to us that love is much larger, God's love is much larger, and is much more tangible than most people think. So most people they see love as predominantly something that's inside of them. Would you agree with that? Like, if you think of love, you say, Well, you know, if you have love, okay, you have love in your heart, we tend to think of love as something in our hearts, which is true. But John shows us that love is also something we live in. So now something was small in my heart is now become big like my house. John says that we live in love as the people of God. It's not just something that's inside of us. It's also something we're in and he shows us that this is something we live and dwell in. He uses the word abide the same word I believe that Jesus used, and we see in verse 17, that love is lived and it's perfected in the communion of saints. So here's the point. When we talk about living in love, God is not just saying through John, he's not just saying, Okay, guys, you're going to live among one another, have some love in your hearts. He literally said he's literally teaching us in this passage, that when we live in the family of God, now understand that We're talking about not just events, but living in family, relating as spiritual family, in relationships, in fellowship, in breaking of bread, in Heart to Heart life issues together. He says, This is how we live in love. If we do not live in that community of faith and family and relationship that he talks about, then we are missing out in the fullness of the love of God. Now this goes back to our our subtopic in this pillar called love Jesus. Now remember, we read the passage where Jesus says, He commands us a new commandment, I give you that you will love one another as I have loved you. And then we asked the question, How did Jesus love the disciples, just like this, just like First John, He, in other words, he lived in family with him, he remember he says, who's my mother, who's my brother, who are my sisters, those who do My will, those who are in other words, it's the people who followed him, who walked with him closely. In community. They're the people who work together in God. They weren't just in the same program. They were in the same family. They weren't just in the same, quote, organization. They were in family relationship together. And John is telling us, this is how we abide in love. I love First John for because he's teaching us how to have more than just a few ounces of God's love in our hearts. He's teaching us how to literally be baptized into love, and immersed in it. And you know, me, I'm the kind of guy, if it's a good thing, I want all that I could get a good thing. And this is really awesome. To live this way. Because when we do, it's amazing how much love just seems to come out of thin air. Have you ever noticed when you live around people who love much? Have you ever noticed how much love just start coming out of your heart? Let's do the opposite. Because many of us can relate to this. Have you ever lived around a group of people who hate much, or who are toxic some of you guys, we can all look to some of our military experiences. You ever lived around a group of people where everybody's mad at each other? What ends up happening if you live around a group of people that's toxic, and they're all angry, and everybody's stressed at each other, what ends up happening to you. That's right, you start getting angry, you start getting stressed, you start getting toxic, you start getting, you know, mad. And then I remember one time, I went into one of my commanders many years ago, and he was screaming matter of fact, he was screaming so loud, he kicked the s3 out of his off the ops officer out of his office, and he was screaming, and everyone was like, Don't go near that door Chaplain don't go near. And I thought that's exactly what I need to do. I need to go straight to that door. And he's screaming, I can hear him screaming. I walked straight down the hallway. And and the s3 was coming out and he's yelling, and I walked right into his office. And I closed the door. And I looked at him. And I said, you don't Okay, sir. Sometimes in that environment, we got to bring the love of God and God will show us how to do it. It doesn't mean preaching at people, but to let people know we care about them. But folks, listen, you cannot live in a toxic environment and not become toxic. I mean, if you do, and I'm not saying you might have a rough work environment, that's that much more. You need to be living in a love and a family with a love of God just overwhelming so that when you do go into that environment, the Kingdom displaces the kingdom of God displaces the kingdom of darkness and not vice versa. Right. But you cannot live that way. There are some families who live this way. And kids grow up very jaded, because they grow up and everybody's yelling and condemning each other and saying bad things and what have you. Well, you can't live in that kind of environment. Now. Some people are okay with mediocre they'll say well, you know, as long as we're a Christian family, and we go to church, we love God. Yep, that's a good start. But it's not enough. We if you want the best, we've got to immerse ourselves in spiritual relationships, spiritual friendships, because that's how the nutrients of love and the qualities of God get imparted to us, from other people. Make sense? Now let's look at Psalm 34. I'll read quotes this and braceland quotes. I'll read a quote In it from Psalm 34, verses five through eight. He says, they look to Him, and were radiant. I love that verse right there. I could stop right there. We could just teach all day on that. And their faces, were not ashamed. This is starting to sound like that other passage about having boldness in the judgment, isn't it? See what love does. Love brings us into purity. Love brings us into the radiance in the glory of God. Love doesn't just bring me into it or you into brings us into it. Love brings us into the love of God so deep, that we can be bold in the Day of Judgment, so much that our faces are no longer ashamed of the sins we've committed of our past life. There's no more shame, there's no more toxicity, there's no more unforgiveness, those things that people did to us and betrayed us, we can let it go. And it's not hard to let it go. Because the love of God in the presence of God in spiritual communities, in the family of God displaces it. Guys, listen, this is not something where you can publish a checklist from the Bible. And then you just go through the checklist and forgiveness enters your heart and love into your heart. And it all works. It has to actually we have to live into it as spiritual family. And then when we do, it's almost like magic. Have you noticed that when you're living around people who are forgiving, and they're loving, it's amazing how much easier those things become. Because much of that those graces are being imparted into our lives. The graces of God are mostly imparted through relationship through our relationship with God, but also our relationship with one another. And I referenced two weeks ago, the teaching on guilt based living, because that's kind of how it starts right there. David, he goes on to say this poor man cried out and the Lord heard him. And he saved him out of all of his troubles, the angel of the Lord and camps all around those who fear Him, and He delivers them, oh, taste and see that the Lord is good. Bless it as the man who trusts in Him. Now, guys, if you all listened last week, remember the pattern that we noticed, in the other song, there was a pattern we called out. And here it is, again, it alternates between the plural and the singular, they end there in verse five, to this man and him in verse six, to those and them in verse seven, to the man in verse eight. And we pointed this out last week, in the other passage in the Psalms, there's a pattern of the plural to the singular, because the blessings that come to us as individuals come because of what's happening to us in community. And in both places, the psalm illustrates this pattern exactly the same. So we come into this, I go back, now that we've mentioned it, now you'll see it. He says, they look to Him, and we're radiant, not I looked to him, and was radiant, but they looked at him and we're radiant, and their faces were not ashamed. They were bold, in the judgment, right, the plural. Then he says, This poor man, now it gets to the individual. The poor man can cry out and the Lord can deliver him and the Lord can save him out of all of his troubles, because he's part of those in the spiritual community who looked to God in our radiant. This is something that happens in the communion of saints. Man it makes you want to get in the communion of saints doesn't. Now a lot of people think of the communion of saints, you know, in the apostolic creed, they think of it as Oh, I'm a member of the church. That's a good start. But there's more. Communion means something. And it's not just the Lord's supper or the Eucharist. Communion is the communing together of the people of God in spiritual intimacy and closeness and Heart to Heart living. This is the communion of saints. Make no mistake, that when we enter into this, this is how the radiance of God gets transferred, because we've looked to him and upon him as the communion of saints, not just as a group of people who are part of a 501 C three, we call it church. Amen. Somebody's saying Amen. I know you guys are muted. So there's this pattern in this problem. As a group blessings, followed by individual blessings, when we walk in supernatural, friendship, spiritual friendship, the plane that flies not the plane that sits on the ground, big difference. Big difference, you sit on the ground and air. You guys ever sit on the ground in an airplane for an hour or longer, what happens? It gets hot, it gets muggy, people get testy, it gets it's rough. People are not happy. You know, it's a, both airplanes are the same, but the way of life is completely different. All right, well, again, this pattern, it draws out something else. I love this. He says, taste and see now notice something with me, taste and see is embedded as a privilege of the communion of God's people. Are you tracking now? Can you start to see it. In other words, taste and see that the Lord is good is to the ones who live the way he just described. If people attend activities in the church, but they don't live in the deeper communion of the people of God, they will struggle with their taste. They will struggle with their ability to see the goodness of God in all of his riches. Have you ever been to a restaurant and you love the food, but you couldn't eat? Maybe you had too fast the next day. So you went with someone or, you know you were going in for a procedure I can think of a few times when I had to go for a procedure or a surgery, and I couldn't eat the night before. But everybody else in my family wants to eat right. And the food is good, but you can't taste it. You don't get to taste it you ever been there before. It's very possible to be in the church, and not be able to taste or to only taste a little bit. It's very possible to be in the church, but only be able to see a little bit. And he teaches us here that the whole taste and see comes from a certain way in god of living. That goes from the blessings of the communion to the individual, from the communion to the individual. And it's important that we can see this so that we can live it out. Amen. Wow. Well, we've got a lot more here. But I think this is probably a good place to, to stop today, we're gonna go deeper next week into some more of what he teaches. But my prayer for us is that God will bring us into the lifestyle of tasting, and seeing. And it's not enough just to know what's on the menu. And I'll tell you guys, I can go back to a time in my life a season in my life, when I used to live more, not isolated completely, but not able to live in this communion, this spiritual friendship. And it's totally different, because I'm not getting to taste. And truly see like I am, when I've entered into this lifestyle, it is so awesome, that I just want to live it more, I want to go deeper into it. And it's like, Man, I these blessings of God they are for us. But so much in the church has gotten commercialized that many times our hearts have also been commercialized. We've become so much organization that we've lost some of the core, organic nature and spirituality of what God has called us, too. And so God I feel the Holy Spirit is calling the whole church. I feel this in this hour, in this season in this decade. God is calling the church back into New Testament living. Because we are going to see New Testament revival, it's common. We're going to see New Testament miracles, we're going to see more and more of them. I know we're seeing many of them now. But these are just the tremors. These are the beginning. These are the initial rumblings of what God is going to bring in the earth. But I believe that in order for the Lord to bring it like he wants to, he's calling the church back into this New Testament community and way of living. And it will talk about hopefully next week way of worship also. Because this is not just a way of living. It also should be characterizing our worship as well. Amen. Let's pray and then we'll open it up for sharing your comments and insights. Lord, we are thanking you so much that you have honored us with Your love that you have said, we don't just have to know about these things we can actually experience firsthand your love in our relationships and the communion of saints and the people of God. And so Lord, we pray that you will take us past the information of what's been spoken, and bring us into the revelation, open our eyes to see what this means, and how this impacts our lives. Lord, we want to live the way you want us to live. We want to desire the way you want us to desire. We want to taste and see your goodness, in fullness without anything held back. We want to be able to see and hear without inhibition, and Lord without impedance in Jesus name. So, Lord, it's our prayer. Take us all into this communion of saints in fullness. In the mighty name of Jesus, we pray, Amen and Amen. Thank you for joining us today. Aaron ova is raising up spiritual leaders in many nations through our spiritual enrichment events, syndicated NetCast international prayer Council network, and numerous international seminary scholarships. Together, we are lighting the fires of revival, fueling prayer movements and raising up friends of Jesus in the nations. We invite you to partner with us in this extraordinary movement. You can sign up as a prayer and financial partner today by going to era nova.org and clicking give. Please include your email address so that we can send you updates. That's era nova.org. 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