The Retreat 2021 - Holiness, Hearing, & The People Of God - Nancy Wheatley

This series of teachings is recorded live from The Retreat by AeroNova 2021. To find out more about how to attend the annual Retreat visit theretreat.aeronova.org. 
​Holiness is crucial to the people of God because it affects our ability to hear and perceive what God is doing. In this teachings we explore what it means to be a set apart people, holy to God, listening closely to His voice and following Him.

Full transcript generated by ai (please excuse errors):




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​And I just want to say, to Rod and Tibet on behalf of this spiritual family, and on behalf of the world, thank you for walking and faithful friendship with Jesus, and thank you for the legacy of your family to us, we now get another generation. And apparently you're multiplying rapidly, rapidly. And so there's lots more to come. And, and we need all that you are and all that you have. So thank you for that. Yeah, what a sweet presence of Jesus is here. So I'm gonna say some words. Now, if you know me, it's a lot of words. My prayer is that you will just hear what Holy Spirit is speaking to your heart. Receive that deeply. And we'll be good. So, those of you who know my, my beloved Tom, he is not able to be with us. This weekend, he sends his love. And I want to start this morning by sharing with you just a little story. So Tom, and I love to read aloud to each other. We loved to read aloud together as a family when our kids were little. And now that our kids are grown and gone, we thought we don't have to lose that. So we still read aloud to each other. And when we go on trips, or you know, if I'm cooking, he'll sit at the kitchen table and read to me out of whatever book it is that we're reading. Sometimes we read fiction, sometimes we read nonfiction, we just whatever we're in the mood for. So not too long ago, we decided to revisit a series that we started when our kids were younger. Do I have any red wall fans here? Oh, yeah, I've got some good wall peeps. Okay, so we never read the whole series of 22 books. I think my kids did. But we kind of read aloud the first few and then left off and bought the rest. But anyway, red wall is a series of now 22 books by a man named Brian Jakes. They are not Christian in any sense that I'm aware of. But they are really wonderful stories. They're well written. They're delightful. And so we just started with that. And they're just so captivating that we just can't stop. So now we're on the third one. And I have found that even though they're not overtly Christian, they speak prophetically to me in ways that some Christian literature never has. They're so powerful. And so Tom and I are now on the third book, which is called madam mayo. And I'm going to introduce you to madam Mayo very briefly. So, Madam Mayo is the son of Matthias sorry, these are all woodland creatures there. These are mice I'm talking about. So, setting the preface, we're talking about talking mice who live in an abbey called red wall. Okay. So, Madam Mayo is the son of Matthias the red wall warrior, Matthias had delivered red wall from an overwhelming enemy in the first book, which is just called red wall. So, Matthias is the red wall warrior in residence. And it's now several seasons later, and Matthias is son, Madam Mayo is very young. And Madam Mayo is also spoiled. He views his position as the son of the red wall warrior as a position of entitlement, not responsibility. He has plenty of strength and courage. But he is using these qualities in undisciplined and immature ways. And when he and several of his young friends are kidnapped by a creature seeking revenge on red wall, Madam Mayo begins to discover that it is Is time and past time for him to grow up. He has a responsibility to his friends. He has a mantle that He alone can carry. He has a rich heritage, that he is duty bound to lay hold of, because there is a torch that only he can carry, and he must receive it, and he must faithfully carry it and pass it on to those who will follow him. As he steps into his prophetic destiny, he finds himself in possession of knowledge, insight, wisdom, skill, strategy, everything he needs, flows to him, as he embraces maturity and the call on his life. Brian Jakes the author may not have had the kingdom of God in mind as he wrote these stories. But the Holy Spirit sure has a lot to say to me as I read them. I believe madam Mayo's story speaks powerfully to us in the Western Church today. There is a call on us. And in some ways, the Western Church has been a bit like Mattie mayo, receiving the blessings of being God's children, and despising the responsibility. Now, please understand, I know I'm speaking in broad generalities here, there are plenty of people both known to us and unknown, some here in this room, who are embodying this message. And I honor them. I speak today to those who need this message. And I'm first in line for that. We have shrunk away from the set of heartedness that we are called to. We've allowed lesser things to draw our attention and our affection away from our Heavenly Bridegroom. And as a result, we find ourselves unready for the battle we were born for. It's time for us to wake up to who we are, who were called to be, and what the our demands of us. As we do, as we align ourselves with God with his purposes, for his set apart people, we will find that we are more than we've known ourselves to be, and that we have access to all we need to fulfill our role in this hour. Now, for those of you like me, and apparently like rod, who are more left brained and who need a roadmap, here's our little roadmap for this morning. This morning, we're going to turn the telescope to holiness, and hearing whatever it is that springs to mind for you, when you think of the word holiness, when you hear that word, could you do me a favor, and let's just set that on the shelf for just a few minutes. Not that it's wrong, it might be very right. But let's just consider the Word of God together. Because a lot of us immediately shrink back from that word. And we can't, we can't, we can't. If we do we'll miss it. So let's just kind of table our objections and the things we think we know and the the voice of the enemy over us and all that. Let's just set all that on the shelf and just tell it to be quiet for just a few minutes. Okay. So first, we're going to consider holiness. And I think you'll see how this ties in with meta Mayo story as we go. We're going to look at what it means for us to be a holy people. And then we're going to look at how holiness impacts our ability to perceive what the Lord is saying and doing. So we're going to be theoretical for a few minutes hang with me, because I promise we're gonna get rubber meets the road practical in ways that I think will be helpful by the time we're done. Okay, so holiness. I'll be honest with you. I've been confused by this word, and I, maybe I'm the only one. That's okay. This is a I remember years ago, early in my walk with the Lord asking him, what is holiness? I don't think I get it. And it turns out, I'm in good company. Because as I researched for this talk, it turns out that scholars hotly debate what holiness actually is, as scholars will do, so I feel like I'm in good company and I feel a little affirmed by that. Modern usage tends to equate holiness with purity, or with moral perfection, which there's a sense of that that's included in the word but When we consider the use of the word in Scripture, and not just in Scripture, but also in the ancient Near East texts in a way that it was that same word or its equivalent was used in cultures around Israel's culture, it has a somewhat different meaning. So we're going to look first at the holiness of God, and then what that means for us. So first, the holiness of God. This is the primary descriptor that God uses for himself. It's the first thing that Moses and the people of Israel needed to know about him as he initiated the Mosaic covenant with them, I am holy, that's the first thing you need to know about me. So the reality is that we don't have words, big enough to capture all that. This means we're limited by the constraints of language. And God is not limited by the constraints of language. And so our little language, as developed as it is, cannot capture who God is. Holiness has been described as God's otherness, that he is completely separate from an above everything else. That certainly includes the idea of moral goodness. But it's so much more than that. It includes power, and glory, and transcendence, and uniqueness and exclusiveness and pureness, and an element of dangerousness even rod calls holiness, the culture of God. And what that says to me is that the word itself is given definition, by who God is. In other words, we look at God and we gaze upon all that he is, and lacking any other language for that we go. Holy. Oh, that's the only word I have to describe that is holy. So we gaze upon all that God is in his nature and his being, and we and the angels together, sum that up has holy. So we could spend all day here, but for now, let's just think of it as the nature of God. Okay, all that he is. Okay. So what could it possibly mean, then, that God's word to his people, both in the Old Covenant and in the new, are told to be holy? Because I am holy? That bar seems a little high, doesn't it? What are we supposed to do with that? So let's look at what's implied by the use of the word. And I just have to preface this by saying, there are so many scriptures that I could have used. And it's so many of them ended up on the cutting room floor, and that hurts my heart. But what I'm trusting is that, as we consider this together, that as you come to your own study of the Word, the Holy Spirit is going to be just doing this in you all over the place. So you're welcome that I didn't try to include them all. Okay, so you dig for yourself. I want to start in Leviticus 20, parts of verses 24 to 26. And God is speaking to Israel. Again, this is at the initiation of the Mosaic Covenant. And he says, I am the Lord your God, who has separated you from the peoples meaning from all the other peoples around and you shall be holy to me. For I the Lord, am holy, and have separated you from the peoples, that you should be mine. In an interesting, so God's saying, because of all that I am, I have chosen you out of all the peoples and I have separated you from them, and I have separated you not just from them, but to myself. Let's consider a few more examples. In Exodus 20, verse eight, God says, Remember, or observe the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Therefore, the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it or made it holy declared it holy. So the day isn't holy, because it's morally good. The day is holy, because it's been set apart by God for His special purpose. Because it is set apart to God it's not to be used for any common purpose. Okay, We see that the ark, once it had been consecrated unto God, by the blood of the sacrifice was much more than just a golden box. Its very presence caused the Philistine God Dagon to topple in his own temple. Failing to treat the ark in the way God had ordained caused oozes death as they were trying to bring the ark back to Jerusalem. Once hallowed are set apart or consecrated, there are a lot of words we could use here unto God, the Ark actually bore a bit of His glory, with consequences for those who disrespected that. So we see that holiness as it relates to people in things involves being dedicated, devoted, separated unto God belonging to him. His you always told the Israelites in Exodus 313, I am the Lord, who sanctifies you know, sorry, 13 three, I am the Lord who sanctifies you or in other translations, I am a God, who makes you holy. I set you apart for myself. God's purpose, from the beginning of Scripture to the end was always to create this people who'd be his why? Deuteronomy seven, six through eight tells us, for you are a holy people, to the Lord your God, the Lord your God has chosen you to be a people for Himself a special treasure above all the peoples on the face of the earth. The Lord did not set his love on you, nor choose you because you were more in number than any people for you were the least of all peoples, but because the Lord loves you. And because he would keep the oath, he swore to your father's out of his covenant love. God chose a people to be his to represent him. Now one of the ways their holiness would be seen would be in moral purity. But that was going to be a result of their holiness, a result of them being set apart for Him, not the some of it. Isaiah 4321 says this, this people I have formed for myself, they shall declare my praise, declaring his praise was not just shouting hallelujah. Although that's fine, too. It was adjusting their lives to who he is, through their worship. Through the rhythms of life, Yahweh had ordained for them through the justice and coded in their law. They were to put the nature of Yahweh on display. And this is key. Although the constant drumbeat of the law is be separate, be separate, be separate from the pagan nations around you. smash their idols burn, they're carved in images don't inter intermarry with them. There was a separateness that was absolutely supposed to govern their lives, the goal of that separateness was so that they would be witnesses to those exact same people of the nature of your way. They were always intended to be the light to the Gentiles. God was creating a people who were in relationship with Himself, and through them a culture that was designed to display what the kingdom of God is like, so that others could see and drawn nearer. So let's consider a few New Testament mentions. Okay. In Ephesians one, Paul introduces his list of all the things God has done for us with this long before he laid down earth's foundations. We were talking at the breakfast table this morning about God's long game. Long before he laid down earth's foundations, these mountains that surround us they've been here a long time. I mean, there's debate over how long that's above my paygrade. But before these Mountains were formed. God had us in mind. He had settled on us as the focus of his love, to be made whole, restored to his intentions, and holy set apart to him. Bye bye. His love. Later Paul describes the process by which God did this in Ephesians five. This is in the context where he's talking to people in marriage about their roles. And he says, Husbands love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself for her from before the foundation of the world that He might sanctify, set her apart to himself, and cleanse her with the washing of water by the word. Your Holiness and your being without blemish, have been ordained since before the foundation of the world. Why? That He might present her to Himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that she should be holy and without blemish? Do you notice who's doing the doing in those verses? How much striving is there on our parts in that? We are recipients. We are the pursued. If you ever feel unwanted, you ever feel unloved? It's a lie. Just let it go. It's a lie. Once again, yeah, all the way through Jesus did the setting apart. Along with the cleansing and the being made whole. Hebrews 1010 says, and by that will in there he's referring to the will of God which brought about the incarnation. We have been made holy, set apart through the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ once for all, just as in the tabernacle, when they had prepared all the, the implements in the tabernacle that were to be part of the worship. But it wasn't until they had been anointed with the blood of the sacrifice, that they were consecrated to God, they were holy, we have been sacrificed we excuse me, we have been sanctified by the sprinkling of the blood of Christ. And by that sprinkling of the blood of Christ, we've been declared set apart, belonging to God a finished work that we can rest in. And yet, it seems there is a process. So let's consider the process. Hebrews 1014, just a few verses later says, For by one offering, he has perfected forever. Those who are being made holy. Holy hold the phone writer of Hebrews. We thought you just said that this was a done deal. And yet here we are participating in some way. Well, if there's a participatory nature to this deal, then we should probably be aware of our part in that. Yeah. Okay. So let's consider Paul's argument in Second Corinthians six. He says, Do not be yoked together with unbelievers for what to righteousness and wickedness have in common? Or what fellowship can light have with darkness? What harmony is there between Christ and Baleal? Or what does a believer have in common with an unbeliever? What agreement is there between the temple of God and idols? For we're the temple of the living God? Do you hear the separation? What business do you have? Coming out of that place of being set apart to God and being yoked together with something else? He's horrified. You can hear it in his tone of voice. He goes on to say in this here he's quoting from the Old Testament. I will live with them and walk among them and I will be their God and they will be my people. There For come out from among them and be separate, says the Lord, touch no unclean thing and I will receive you. And I will be a father to you, and you will be My sons and daughters says the Lord Almighty. Therefore, since we have these promises, dear friends, let us purify ourselves from everything that contaminates body and spirit, perfecting holiness, out of reverence for the Lord. These promises that the God V God, the One God, the One whose nature we considered at the beginning, the one who is eternal, who has made us the object of his love, since before the foundation of the world, who's pursued us who actually shed his own blood on the cross for us, wants to live with us, and walk among us and be our God and have us be his special set apart people. And the condition of that, he says, is that because of all that I am, there is some stuff that can't come with you. There's some stuff that can't be in my presence. So I've made you holy, and I've made you clean. And your job is to maintain that so that you can be with me, and I will be a father to you, and you will be My sons and daughters. And I think in Paul's estimation, that's worth anything. If there's an unclean thing, what on earth would I want to do with that when I can have this? So holiness is what Jesus did for us. Out of his burning holy love, he sanctify us by His blood, setting us apart, making us a people who belong now holy to him. And holiness is also something that we passionately pursue, because of these great and precious promises. He's looking for people who will belong wholly to him, who out of reverence for him, will pursue this separation from the world, and everything that defiles in order to see him because the Scripture tells us that without holiness, no one will. He's seeking passionate lovers, who will catch the vision, carry the cross, pay the cost, sell all for the Pearl of Great Price, despise the trinkets that the world offers, and choose his burning heart of love, instead. So the New Testament begins by telling us what has been done for us. And then it spends much of the rest of its time telling us how to work out our salvation, in fear and trembling, but encouraged because it is God who works in us both to will and to do of His good pleasure. The Spirit of Jesus is at work cultivating in us something that we are to cooperate with yield to become one with. So now the call to be holy as I am holy comes with the power of fulfillment, and the heart cry of God that we lay hold of what he's provided for us in His Son. The picture he gives us, is of the relationship of marriage. Think about marriage. Now, Tom, and I've been married almost 35 years now. And we've not done this perfectly. I don't know anyone who has. But the idea is that it is a total commitment of our lives to one another. Everything is now shared in common. What was his is now ours. And what was hers is now ours. What kind of a marriage would it be? If, at the initiation of the Covenant, the husband said, everything that's mine is now yours. I pledge, all that I am and all that I have to you. You have access to everything in me, I give myself to you utterly. And she responded with well, I'll come live in your house. But everything I own is still mine, not yours. So don't touch it. And I'm gonna still give the same amount of my time to my friends that I did before we were married, and I don't care to know your friends at all. I'm going to keep doing all the things that I did before we were married with my time so I don't know how much I'm going to have for you. Honestly, I'll try to squeeze in a few minutes here and there. I'm going to keep seeing my old boyfriends. And I'm not really interested in intimacy with you on any kind of level at all. But you can go ahead and deposit some money in my account and the lawn needs mowing. How'd that fly is not much of a marriage. In marriage, the two are supposed to be set apart to each other. That isn't to say, we won't have our own friends, of course, you know, we remain, maintain our individuality in earthly marriage. But everything that we have is now weighed against the covenant. So earthly marriage is a picture of a greater reality. George MacDonald said, but there is a reality of being in which all things are easy, and plain oneness that is, with the Lord of Life. incarnational reality, the Holy One. Now indwells us all that he is now lives within us. And as we set ourselves apart, come away, and set ourselves apart to him, to belong entirely to him in this bridal union. There is a oneness with him. That is both individual and communal. And all that is his is now available to us. And all that was ours, is now his. So what does that look like in practice? So the church's idea of come out from among them and be separate has looked like a lot of things, some of which have been parody worthy, and off putting. I think we can all agree on that, right. Like, out of a genuine desire to be separate. The church has done some weird stuff. And in doing the weird stuff, they've also like, strained out the knots and swallow the camels, we've missed the big picture of holiness, and picked on some things that made the world go, you're just weird. If Jesus was the holiest man who ever lived, and I think we can all agree on that, then it becomes clear that holiness was attractive, especially to the downcast. Holiness was powerful. It was compassionate. It was savvy. It was brilliant. It was a refuge for those damaged by life. And yes, holiness was also a rock, against which those who would choose a cheap counterfeit, would dash themselves again, and again and again. So seen through this lens, much of the rest of the New Testament, becomes this composite picture of what it looks like to be God's set apart. People I love to read this way, when we think about the fact that in the first century church, the first generation church, this stuff was all new. They were learning by experience, what do we have now? That we didn't have before? It's so cool to think about, oh, wow, look at that, I've got this thing that I didn't have before I can suddenly speak a language that I that I don't know and never knew. And someone else can understand what I'm saying. That must be something that is a part of the life of Jesus in me. So as they're discovering this, we see it lived out. So consider act to all the new believers disrupted their old patterns of living, to begin a new community. Need among them was unknown, because the Spirit of Jesus now lived inside them. And he tuned their value systems to his. So things that used to seem important to them, that they'd may be saved and worked and sacrificed to buy, now mattered less to them that that then that their new brother or sister and Messiah had all they needed. So they gathered from house to house daily with gladness and simplicity of heart, just to be with each other and to experience that aspect of union with mushiya with Yeshua, that can only be experienced in community. That self sacrificing love, radical generosity, and gathering together in the new community of Yeshua. Totally. Consider x three, James and John approaching the temple to pray were accosted by a man who had never walked in all his 40 plus years. He called out to them for money as no doubt he did to every person who passed by No doubt some gave to him out of pity or out of devotion to God. But Peter and John gave to him out of Christ, who indwelt them. You see, they were abiding in Christ and He in them as he promised their union with Him played out like this that day. First, they gave the man eye contact, as you heard Nicole talk about last night. How many times do you think they had witnessed Jesus make eye contact with society's outcasts as he was healing them. 1000s 1000s You know, he did it every time. They looked him in the eye, they locked eyes with him and said, Look at us. And now Christ in them, is doing his works. So they honored this man with eye contact. And then they loved him with a love that met, not his perceived need, but his actual one, which was restoration. In Yeshua, Silver and gold have I none, but what I do have I give you in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise up, walk. And then Peter took him by the hand, and those legs that had never supported weight, and those muscles that had never developed, and that brain that had never ordered the movement of legs before received an influx of life, from the one who invented legs and muscles and brains. And the one who had never taken so much as a step before, was suddenly off leaping and whooping and praising the God who is Tell me that's not holy. Jesus had told them, that the father in him was doing his work. Now Jesus in them, was continuing that work. Consider acts for it turns out that Jesus now indwelling, Peter, and John by His Spirit is just as disruptive as he was when he was in the flesh. Having ruffled the feathers of the religious leaders with the aforementioned healing, and the subsequent declaration of bold truth, they were threatened with a very pure persecution that had sent them scurrying for cover a few months before. Now, they were united with Christ in His death, and they feared nothing but God. Returning to their companions, they acknowledged that this persecution was directed against none other than Yahweh and His Christ. And they asked no higher privilege than to more boldly and powerfully act as his witnesses in the earth come what may. And the Lord was so pleased with their prayer, that he shook the building. And he doused and filled them with his spirit all over again. And they took to themselves the privilege of speaking his name and doing his works with boldness, because he knew he was in them and with them, totally set apart for Him. Consider Ephesians four. Paul tells us to walk in a worthy in a manner worthy of the calling you have received. What's the calling? To be holy, to be set apart to God? What's that look like for Paul? I'll summarize lowliness, gentleness, long suffering, bearing with one another in love, endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace, growing with the rest of the body into our head, Christ, each part doing its share, no longer walking as the pagans do, because you've come out from them. But putting off all that belongs to the self focused flesh life and putting on the new identity that you've already received in Christ. So no lying, no grudges, no stealing, no corrupt speech, those have no place among the people who belong to God. Instead of bitterness, wrath, etc, that are common among those who don't belong to God. Put his nature on display through your treatment of each other in kindness tenderheartedness supernatural forgiveness, because you are holy, be imitators of God is to your children, and walk in love being a reflection of Christ's self giving love. So I want us to really catch this because I feel like this is one of the this is a camel in the knots in the camels. This is a camel. Holiness is first of all, a posture of the heart toward God, which informs our choices in every area of life. But do you notice how in Paul's description holiness is also a posture of the heart toward others? It's deeply relational. At least 90% I would guess of the New Testament descriptors of holiness and the holy life. The new covenant life has to do with our treatment of others. Looking at the new tests cement as this period of discovery, what is it that we now have in Christ? Read First John through that lens. One of the things that takes me aback every time is John describing, one of the things that we find in ourselves now that Christ lives in us, is, first of all, we have a desire to walk in the light as He is in the light. And secondly, we have a love for the brethren. There's a love for you, and you and you, that wasn't there before. But now that Christ dwells in me, man, I love you guys. And John even goes so far as to say if you don't have that love in you, then you need to have a conversation with Jesus. The angels around the throne are constantly calling Holy, holy, holy. What on earth here on Earth, makes us say, oh, that's holy. Isn't it so often the stories of supernatural love, like Corrie 10, boom, forgiving the Nazi guard, who was at least partly responsible for the death of her sister, and her looking him in the face, and saying, within herself, Jesus, I don't have it in me to forgive him. And yet out of the life of Christ in her, releasing that forgiveness over him, we gaze on that and we say, oh, that's holy. That's holy. It's the life of Jesus being produced in a human life. mutual submission, honoring one another above ourselves, speaking the truth, in actual self giving love. It is the life of mutual love within the Trinity, expressing itself in our midst. It's a holy. So holiness is the culture of heaven, being expressed in a fallen world. It has no other way of being expressed, than through us, the ones who are in union and set apart to the holy one. It's the nature of God being lived out in a million different ways through the life of his people, putting his glory on display, both that the crooked and perverse generation might see it, and either be drawn to it or show themselves judged. And also, though, that the watching spiritual realms might see and be energized by it. I have to believe that angels respond to holiness lived out. So forsaking all other masters, renouncing all competing affections, we yield our very selves for union with Christ. And union with Him, we're yielded to all that he is. Our intellect yielded to his brilliance. Our hearts yielded to his compassion and justice. Our desires yielded to his intercession. Our faculties, yielded to his voice, all the myriads of ways that he speaks and moves and reveals. Our hands yielded for his power to flow through our judgments submitted to him and we find ourselves yielded to His Mercy. Of course, we're transformed in this union. Of course we are, how could we not be. But we also then become the conduit for his river of living water, to flow through us and to the world around us. All that he is now has an outlet to reach a broken world. It's Christ in us the hope of glory. It starts in the secret place. It won't it won't get anywhere without it. It starts in that secret place of saying God thank you for setting me apart. Thank you for making me holy for calling me yours. I yield myself for union with you Let me experience that oneness with you that Jesus died for me to have. Walking in fellowship with God in this kind of Surrender means to be filled with and surrounded by and aware of his presence, but also his communication. When your spirit is alive to him, his voice is not hard to find. I, in the inner healing ministry that I do, I am constantly interacting with people who say, I can't hear the voice of God, I don't I don't know how to hear the voice of God. And it's not hard to hear the voice of God, I think we massively underestimate the ways that he is speaking to us through a million different things. Honestly, when you begin to tune into his voice, he is positively chatty. He really is he, he loves to communicate with us. He is a master of communication. He is the originator of communication, communication emanates from Him, He is the living word. Our rather rudimentary means of communication, like language, and body language, and art and music, only begin to scratch the surface of all of the ways that God is communicating. He's a million light years beyond us in communicating. But it's not hard for him to communicate to us in ways that he knows that we can understand. I mean, Jesus could read people's thoughts, it's not hard for him to do this stuff. One thing I look forward to in eternity is developing all the ways of communicating that exist in God. One small example of this that I had recently was, there was I love to do my my secret place time on our screened in back porch. And it's been a hot, humid summer in Pennsylvania. So there have been a lot of mornings that it has just been sticky out there. But there was this one cool morning. Just out of nowhere, in the midst of a hot, sticky summer, there was just this cool morning. And it felt like the first morning of fall, I knew it wasn't because it was way too early for that. And I could see the forecast. But that's what it felt like. And as I was sitting there, and I just felt that Christmas, you know what I mean? You know, when that all of a sudden you go, the seasons changing? Ah, that which was is no more, it's fading, and that which has not yet been isn't, is now here. And I mean, like it takes me way longer to express it than it took me to experience it. But in that moment, I just sense the Lord going. Receive that that's for you. So what are some hindrances to this life, of oneness of union with Him, and have the experience of his voice, seeing what he sees living in that place of the kings observatory? I won't spend a lot of time on these, but I think it's worth hitting a few, just because we have so many objections. So here are a few. Unbelief is one. So many of us are really unbelieving believers. We read the Word of God or don't, that it's a problem right there. So that should probably be number one. But maybe we read the Word of God. And there's nothing in us that unites faith to what we're reading. If we do not believe in the God who speaks, if we don't believe in the Union, we now have in him with Christ, he says that he now lives in us. He says that rivers of living water are going to flow from us. He says that His sheep hear His voice. If we don't believe him, if we don't accept that, that communion and communication with him as part of our new birth birthright, then we're going to leave our receiver turned off and we'll miss most of what he's saying. Okay, another hindrance is separateness. It's a lack of abiding, it's that marriage that I talked about. If we're not finding ourselves receiving from him, we need to give some attention to that one spirit union with Him. Are we trying either through ignorance or rebellion? To keep parts of our lives separate? And under our own rule instead of his? Are we grieving his spirit by wanting his input in some areas, but rejecting it in others? Are we giving ourselves exclusively to him to be in union with Him? Or are we uniting ourselves to other things, giving ourselves over to other masters is the pure in heart are the single focused in heart, who see God and hear God. When we choose separation from Him, we find ourselves cut off from him and from others, because remember that union with others comes from our union with Him and cut off from our own life in Christ and the river that's supposed to flow from it. How many times did Jesus talk about those who were dull of hearing? Why are they dull of hearing because their heart of heart. Those who have ears to hear, let them hear. Those who have ears to hear, will just a few more intimacy, killing beliefs. These are the agreements that we make out of our experiences of brokenness, and they tend to crowd out the voice of God. So beliefs, like God loves others, but not me. I am hopelessly broken, God is distant and unapproachable. And the like, will cause the flow of God's River in us with all the aspects of his nature that flow with it to be blocked or distorted. We are essentially denying the finished work of Christ when we agree with those beliefs. And we are trying to interact with God. Catch this out of our old man. We're wanting God to agree that we're hopelessly broken. That's not the conversation God is having. He's interacting with us, as we know are in the finished work of Christ. That's the conversation he's having. So if we keep coming to God wanting to talk to him about things that already went to the cross with Jesus, it makes sense that it would be a disjointed conversation because God's going, I don't want to talk about that. I want to talk about who you now are in the glorious work of my son? Why would we have a conversation about a dead man? Those old man beliefs have got to be dealt with. Ask him regularly. God, is there anything I'm believing about you? Or about me? That is not of you. That is not true. That is of the old man. And when he shows you something, repent. Say, I'm going to choose to believe you, God, show me in Your Word where the truth is that I need to be able to counteract that work of the enemy in my life, because I'm going to believe you. Okay? Another hindrance. Similar to to the choosing separateness is choosing the flesh. The flesh or the self life, is everything in us that's opposed to a heartfully given to the king because it wants its own dang kingdom. It's a Teflon shield against the voice of God because all it can hear is its own voice. If our thoughts are filled with self focused self justifying self pity, self aggrandizement, self protection, self righteousness, pride, all we're going to hear is that voice and we will often attribute it to God. Because we've made that God. Leanne pain in her beautiful book, The healing presence calls this practicing the presence of the old Adamic fallen self. Going to practice the presence of something. Shutter there is only one thing to do with the flesh. And that's crucify it. When we are out of step with Jesus, we're not going to hear or heed what he's speaking we're not we're going to be out of joint and out of step. We're going to hear our own flesh thoughts, that carnal mind that just can't ever please God because it's opposed to him in every way. Crucify that sucker. It's the only thing to do with it. Okay, couple other hindrances, one is distraction and laziness. John Eldridge says this Holiness will cost you it will certainly cost you the expense of laziness. There is no more coasting through life. You have to be aware now of where your heart is going on any given day, what you're allowing in and what your heart is wandering off to. Its from his beautiful book, the utter relief of holiness. tuned to other things, we will miss most of what he's saying, although he's certainly still speaking he never stops Sometimes he'll break in with like a PSA out of His mercy. But that's not the relationship he wants to have with us. And then the last one is disunity in the body. Going back to that one of the main manifestations of holiness is our life and community. Which by the way, that's, that's part of why spiritual family is important. Because it's in spiritual family, that that's the laboratory in which we learn that holy love. If we're not in spiritual community, then we are almost certainly dwarfed in our ability to express the holiness of love. So disunity in the body when we fail to honor God's commands, regarding the treatment of our brothers and sisters in Christ, including those were related to in the natural. We grieve the Holy Spirit, and He withdraws. So I could go on. But here's the thing. This is a journey. We are learning this way of life, this union we have in Christ and what it looks like when his life is expressed through us. Blessed is the man whose strength is in you, whose heart is set on pilgrimage. Psalm 84, five. A highway shall be there in a road, and it shall be called the Highway of Holiness. The unclean shall not pass over it, but it shall be for others. This is my favorite part. whoever walks the road, although a fool shall not go astray. Yes. set your heart on this pilgrimage. Men pay attention. What is your union with Christ producing in you? What is it producing through you? Follow that. I want to close with one more quote from Leann Payne. She says this, in the presence there is spiritual power. And under the anointing of the Holy Spirit, we are to do the work of God. Whether our task like zuba bells is one of building a place where a nation can once again find its true identity in the worship of God. Or if like Zacharias, it is one of proclaiming truth and healing. We are authorized and under a mandate to move in the power of the Spirit Gibbs we can then celebrate our smallness and our inadequacy knowing that it is by His Spirit, that we transcend our limitations. We do not run ahead, nor do we lag behind. But we moment by moment obey God. When we wait upon the Lord for his mind, on the task or the difficulty, then we are spared from substituting our own limited vision and unaided wisdom for the mighty work he would do. So spoiler alert. We started with Madam Mayo's story, in case you wondered, Matt Mao steps into the fullness of the legacy he's been given to serve the purposes of good in his generation. It requires sacrifice on his part, and a quick maturing. But it's already in Him in His blood, and in his bones. It's his birthright. So when he makes demands on it, honoring it, he finds himself able to access something that is part of him, and yet transcends him. May we do the same? 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. 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