The Seven Pillars (Part 10)-NT Community & The Divine Pleasures Of God-Dwelling - 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. 
 As we continue to dive into the third pillar, New Testament community, we introduce this important truth: that the pleasures of loving and knowing God enter into our spiritual friendships with others. The spiritual practice of God-dwelling is the practice of dwelling in relational proximity to God. But it's lived out as group God-dwelling. The practice of dwelling with God within deep relationships with others.
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Full transcript generated by ai (please excuse errors):

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​We're starting I think this is what is this part 10. You know, I have to admit, I never thought this series, we're gonna go this long. And the deeper we got into it, the deeper we went. So we've published the nine the first nine parts. This is Part 10. I sent out we're trying something new, we're going to try to start sharing a teaching notes folder with those of you that are involved in ongoing study. So have any of you been able to access that so far? Did it work? Anybody? Did it work? Can anybody testify that it worked? You can Okay, Tyler's got it. All right, it's a PDF. A couple of things about these notes on any of the series. Usually, what I'll try to do is at the title page at the beginning, I'll put as of date, because it's always been changed in while we're in the series, and then I'll try to put that on the PDF file name inside the dropbox link that I sent you. And so that way, you'll know if you have the latest, and you can, you can get the latest will. We are on the third pillar. So I was funny, I was praying about this. I'm like, Man, seems like we're spending forever in the third pillar. Well, you know, it feels like the pillars have gone, you know, higher and higher. And this one's like way up. There is a big, big pillar in the spiritual family, but also in what we call the Friends of Jesus. Movement order ways. It's a lifestyle, people who live this way. So we recognize that we're not the only ones that do it, but we just gave it a name. So we least we know what we're talking about. When we talk about friends of Jesus lifestyle, friends of Jesus movement, friends of Jesus spiritual order. And the first pillar. Does anybody even remember the first pillar? That's right, apostolic prayer. What's the difference between prayer and apostolic prayer? I'll give you a hint as chapter six. The Apostle said, we must give ourselves continually to the Word of God into prayer. The second pillar is the spiritual disciplines, we didn't spend a lot of time on that pillar. But there's a lot there. Because that that could be many series and many teachings, because there's so much there. This third pillar is the call to New Testament community, also what we call being deeply relational, or people who live in spiritual family. And the reason why I think one reason why we've spent a lot of time in this pillar, is because it's important that we know what it is because it's the lifeblood of how we do life. It's the lifeblood of how we live, it's the lifeblood of our lifestyle. And this is a lifetime calling for me personally, and I know it is for you as well. And in our last time, that last time we were in the series is actually before the retreat. So when you look at the teachings, you'll see them the last one, and then they're all the retreat teaching start. And then we'll pick up with actually, we won't pick up with this one, there'll be a couple others that will be published before this, that we've had teachings on. But we have entered into this area of spiritual friendship and we're talking deeper about what is spiritual friendship. Now, I'm going to probably butcher this verse because I'm not quoting it word for word, but there's a verse I believe, and maybe somebody can help me find it. One of our scholars like Colin, could help me find this. I believe it was Solomon said that if a man depends on the version you read, but if a man has to have friends, he must first show himself friendly. There is a aspect of spiritual friendship. spiritual friendship will not come upon you by osmosis is a matter of fact, we'll talk about this briefly today. You can even live among people who are living in spiritual friendship and be an observer. And there are some in the Scriptures we see. So spiritual friendship is something we enter into. And I have referred to I don't even know if I pronounce his name correctly. I might be butchering his name too. I'll read of revol revol it's it's a difficult I need to look up His pronunciation. Revo is 1000 years ago, and in Great Britain, and he wrote extensively on spiritual friendship. Now he was not the first one, by all means in church history. Of course, this is a scriptural concept. And we'll get into some others who taught on it later on. But he really created a body of knowledge on it, because he believed so deeply and practiced it. And so we're going to pick up talking about him today, and talking about some of the insights that he has into this lifestyle. Because I don't want to just say, New Testament community, first of all, community is a problematic word. And the reason why is community means a lot of different things to a lot of different people. So we have to be careful when we just say we're called the New Testament community, we have to define it, we're talking about spiritual friendship, we're talking about people who are deeply relational. That's the way we operate. The kingdom of God operates on relationships. And when we talk about relationships, we're talking about something deeper than what the world is talking about. When the world talks about relationships. And I'll read, he does something interesting. And I'm if you have the notes, I'm on page 36. He combines the holy nature of spiritual friendship bless you. He combines the holy nature of spiritual friendship and God, with the whole person experience in embodies now you might say, man, what does that mean? I would probably say it like this, the pleasures of loving and knowing God, enter into our spiritual friendships with others. In other words, we God does not call us into the pleasures of loving God, there's some great books and writings on the pleasures of loving knowing God, it is not an individualistic activity. Yes, it has. We have an individual relationship with God. But community is everything. And, and I'll say, you know, I'm going to read from Lawrence braceland analysis of all read and what he says about this, and I'm reading a quote here, he says, As a resonant motif of the sacramental nature of friendship and the promise, that spiritual friendship begins and ends in Jesus Christ, all red threads throughout the work, a compelling imagery of food and drink. Now, we'll, we'll get to what this means but tacitly he's insisting that friendship involves the whole person, body and mind, senses and spirit. Friendship is not he implies limited to reason or emotion. It is somatic. That means bodily, it's, it's it's a physical experience. It's corporeal, using some fancy words here, but it's bodily is what it means. It's, it's, it's a physical experience. It's experiential. It involves the five senses, and uniting all of a person to friends in God. So you might say, what does that mean? Let me give you a practical example. Those of you who are joining us by zoom, we love you. And we've had some wonderful times with you. But today, our experience with our friends on Zoom, no matter how much they can turn their cameras on, by the way, thank you all for turning your cameras on. It's good to see you. We'd like to see you. And I mean, have you ever gotten on a zoom session, and I do this as a professor, I'll teach the students and we'll get on a zoom and nobody has your camera on. And I'm like, turn your cameras on, I want to see you know, I like to see people, because at least you get some experience. But our experience with our spiritual family and friends on Zoom, will not be the same as our experience today, when we break bread. And when we eat together in this place, it's just not the same. And you don't need me to even tell you that. I mean, imagine this, this person you love in your life so deeply. If your relationship with them was on Zoom. Just let that sink in for a minute. You still can talk to them. You still can see their face. You still can have conversations, but imagine the difference in your relationship with someone you love. If it goes from living with them in the same house, to a relationship on Zoom. This is what all reds talking about. Now he didn't know about zoom, so he couldn't give that as an example. But this is what he means when he It's bodily, it's when you come in and, and we give each other a hug. And we talk. And we experience you know, they say one of the reasons why all these fights are happening on the airplanes, is because people's faces are covered. You can't see the facial expressions. And suddenly there's a, there's an indifference, there's a, there's a removal from personal reality. Because sometimes all you need to do just smile at someone to put them at ease. Sometimes just a smile, just to, you know, a twinkle in your eye and a smile, someone goes, Oh, that person's nice to me, or that person likes me. And, and whenever you cover over buddy's face, then now there's that lack of emotional connection that starts to happen. Now on Zoom, we can see each other's faces if we turn our cameras on. But still, it's not the same as that somatic, that bodily that physical experience, friendship is a spiritual experience. Brad and I were texting back and forth this week, and he's looking at doing another camping trip to get prepare us for camping trip for the men's wisdom guild. Something happens when we sit out there around a fire. It's not the same as being in here at the table as something when we get around a fire. And, and we're in it together. And there's a connection that happens that can't happen on Zoom and can't happen at Mission House. Some Some of it's just a group of men being together in spiritual friendship, or a group of women being together there are connections that happen that are supernatural. This is this is why our connections through zoom will never seem as good as when we see the other person in person. Now 10 times in all reds work, variants of this word appear. Now this is an this is probably a Middle English word. It's called CEPR. He uses the word CEPR. And it's actually the word we use now is savor. He uses this, it means full flavor, it means taste. And he references it to tasting scripture, conversations with friends and friendship with it's literally friendship itself. So the first book that he writes on this refers to the honeycombs of Holy Scripture, and the moleculus name of Christ. Now these are fancy or they're not really fancy words. They're just old words. That mean it means honeyed, silky, rich, flowing sweetly, dropping like honey. And the second book compares the imminent conversation on friendship to a spiritual meal. Perhaps the greater keenness of your previous desire will make this collation of ours like food or drink for the spirit, all the more rewarding, I'm quoting from his book. So what are we saying here? I'll read, what he's saying is, is that our experience of God being something more than intellectual assent with me to taste God's ways? It cannot happen, unless we live in ways that taste God's ways in his people. Guys, listen, this is one of the greatest downfalls of 20th century and 21st century Christianity is it became so intellectual, that it lost its taste. That's why we covered that scripture, oh, taste and see the Lord is good. Because if all of this is concepts and truths that are information, and it doesn't become a life, we taste and friendships that are Honeycomb, that are me, like bread is like you know, that have the that have the food and drink of life in them, then our faith will feel the same way. Because the kingdom of God is bodily also. And what I mean is, it's spiritual, but it manifests in the natural realm. If you and I are living in a kingdom that does not have a manifestation in the natural realm, we will not be fully complete or fulfilled. What if Jesus went about doing good and never healed? Anybody? What if Jesus went about teaching and never ate with anybody? Right? Like he didn't just do the miracle, he did the miracle that brought us into the experience. Remember the first miracle? That was actually my first episode to ever see in the chosen was when Jesus turned water into one line. I love it. Because when Jesus turned water into wine, he wasn't just doing a magic trick. He wasn't just pulling a rabbit out of a hat. He wasn't just unveiling some cool truth. He was turning water into wine, and he turned it into the best wine. And then they drank it together. And they, they literally did not just taste wine that night, they tasted the mysteries of God. The mysteries of God must have physical manifestation in our lives. And if we as believers only have intellectual, God help us. We're bankrupt. Because then revelation has become mere information. It is no longer revelation. What is revelation? It's the scene it. Revelation means it's become more than information. It's become more than electrochemical transactions in the brain, and it has reached down and it's touched our spirits. And then it has a physical, real reality, in our friendships together as we break bread together. Why did Jesus say you must eat my flesh and drink my blood? Because he calls us to the Lord's table to eat together? And my friends, especially those of you that have spent years with me in the military, and with each other, it's more than a little Styrofoam wafer. D Are you tracking with me? What an injustice to God. It's Jesus didn't break Styrofoam wafers. I'm sorry, my military friends that are listening and chapels do I'm not I'm just saying that when Jesus broke bread, it was real, and it was tasty. And they drank the wine together and they enjoyed the meal together. And I will tell you this, I want to enjoy the table of the Lord with you. Because it's only a downpayment, of what's coming of that great feast, amen. When we come together in friendship, the Lord is calling us to the dining experience of spiritual friendship in all its richness and experience, to be tasted, an experience in which we are to be filled, energized, and satisfied. In the love of God. Some of you have told stories about losing your smell and your taste during COVID. My friends, there are many who've lost their smell and taste in the Kingdom. They've lost their smell and their taste. And they no longer can savor the richness and the smells of the kingdom. We're talking about spiritual community and spiritual family. This is both the first commandment and the second commandment, right? Remember the first to love the Lord our God with all our heart, soul, mind strength, and to love our neighbor as ourself. If you try to love your neighbor out of intellectual energy, it will never be enough. But if you and I come into the table of the Lord, and we break bread with our Creator, and we enjoy his presence, and his love, and the bodily experience of knowing God and knowing his people, the full intellectual, spiritual, emotional experience that goes with it, how much easier is the second commandment to love our neighbor as ourself? I'll tell you one of the best ways. Yeah. Have you noticed that when you experience something really cool. Like I was just telling Woody, I was just telling Woody the last week, Andrew cooked I mean, he was like, these guys are incompetent. They're good. So they could smoke some meat. Listen, Woody is an expert, and Andrew smoked the best baby back ribs I've had in my life. And I was like, man, so immediately, what do I want to do? What I want to do, I want to do it, but what else do I want to do? I want to tell somebody about it. I want to say, man, you gotta try this. This is good. Whenever you experience something that's awesome. You love to tell people about it. And then you don't want to just tell them you want to say hey, let's try this together. You know, come on, because we want to enjoy it together. When we come into the pleasures of God, and we experience more than just the intellectual but Revelation touches us and touches our lives and touches our livelihood and touches our our ways and touches our experience. Then we want to go Whoa, I got it. I got it. We got to experience this. Hey, come over. Let's try this. You're gonna love this. And they come in and they also take To the Lord. This is why so much of evangelism has struggled in recent times with many people, because they've reverted to the intellectual gospel, rather than the revelation of the gospel. In Jesus manifestation like he did. There has to be a manifest presence of God. Like there has to Jesus cares enough to heal, he cares enough to meet the need, He cares enough to I was reading this morning, when when he when he multiplied the loaves and the fishes, he cares enough to make the wine he cares enough to bring us into the experience, right? I love this. This is both the first and second commandment in action. Now, it's so rich, that it kind of feels selfish. Doesn't it feel like ooh, this is pretty good. Like, shouldn't I be suffering more like, God wants us to experience His richness, and the wealth of this His presence and blessing and all of this, so that we can give it away You can't give what you don't have. Right? You can't share experiences you've never had before. But if you've had them, you can share them. So it almost feels selfish, but it's not selfish. This is the way of the kingdom this is the way of the Great Commission being accomplished God's way. So how do we accomplish the Great Commission make disciples of all nations? How do we do that? Out of the overflow of the great commandment, I'll tell you this, you know this already, I'm preaching to the choir. But I'm reminding you so you'll preach it. That the more the great commandment is robust in our lives, the Holy Spirit will cause the Great Commission to happen in our lives. You'll be so excited to go obey the Great Commission. You make disciples. You'll do it in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and all the uttermost parts of the earth. And when you go to the uttermost parts of the earth, you'll love it. Even if it's Arkansas, right? You'll love it. I say that for those that are listening, because we have someone going to Arkansas this week to move. So this is wherever we go. This is the awesomeness of the great commandment, this is its relationship to the Great Commission. There are many people who live around spiritual communion, this one I've referred to earlier. They live around spiritual communion and friendship. But some don't live in it. And this was Judas Iscariot mistake. So he lived around the greatest nucleus of spiritual friendship in the history of the world, even the Son of God. But being around it wasn't enough, right? You guys that are married know this in your marriage. It doesn't work to just be around. Being around doesn't make your marriage any better. You have to be engaged in the friendship. Same thing with raising kids. Some people think that raising kids, well, if I'm just there, and I'm in the house, we'll be in in the house doesn't make you present. Right? It doesn't make you present in the kids lives. There's a there's an emotional connection. There's a connection. In the physical, there's a connection. In the relational there's a connection at the dinner table, one of the best things you can do as a family is have dinner together. Because now we're back to that Kingdom Principle. We're breaking bread together. We're eating together, we're sharing life together. We're sharing stories together. We're finding out what happened in the day. And then we're able to give input advice, calibration counsel, it's not enough to just be around spiritual friendship, we must be proactive to enter into it. So let's enter into this lifestyle of walking with God and others. And I tell you, I'll incur I'll encourage you this ask this question. I like to do this a lot. I like to do, by the way, these three questions, they work in a lot of situations. Whether it's a life situation, whether it's a life challenge, whether it's a victory, whether it's a dream, whether it's the counsel or advice somebody gave you, whether it's from Bible study, or a prophetic word somebody shared, this is what I like to ask, What did number one, what is God saying? What's God saying to me through this number one, number two, what does it mean to me or for me or for us? And the third question, what am I going to do about it? Those are the three questions What is God saying? What does it mean to me or mean for me? And what am I going to do about it and your life situation right now? God's speaking, kind of like I liked the way Nancy Wheatley said it. I was like, this is perfect, she said Good. The older she gets, the more she finds that God is positively chatty. He is speaking God is speaking. Even when he silent he's usually speaking what do you mean? What I mean by that, Pastor? What I mean is, is usually speaking and I'm just not hearing. Many times I'm not on the right frequency you ever been there? I have. I want to talk for a few minutes about God dwelling. We've been talking much about this in the third pillar, the spiritual practice of God dwelling. I didn't call it that, I don't think but I want to revisit Psalm 84. The spiritual practice of God dwelling is the practice of dwelling in relational proximity to God, where he dwells, where he interacts. But it's lived out as what I call group, God dwelling. That's where it's lived out. Now we're gonna cover the scripture in a minute. It's a communal practice, and it's an individual practice. So when we talk about God dwelling, we're talking about dwelling in God. And Psalm 84, is where we, we talked about this before, consider this. Here's something I just want to ask you think about this for a moment. God has always, that's a big word for God always lived in close community. So before the creation, before anything was ever created anything, God lived in community, between the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. So rich spiritual community is more than a created or a temporal experience, a track with me on this, most things that we know of are created. But we just found something that is not created. We just found something that has always been, it's eternal. So anything we find in the nature of God is eternal. Anything that comes from the nature of God was not created, it has always been Can we agree with that? If it's in God, it has always been, if it's in God, it never had a beginning. If it's in God, it is eternal, both forwardly eternal, like we are. But it's also eternal in the backwards which we are not because we're created. So there are things that are eternal in the in the past, those things that are eternal in the past only come from God, they were never created. And so spiritual community close spiritual friendship, is in itself, an eternal quality, eternal thing, an eternal experience that has always been because it's in the Godhead. So rich spiritual community is more than a created or temporal experience, because it dwelt in the Godhead forever, both forever in the past and forever in the future. Our friendship with God is much more than an individual journey, can we come to an agreement on that? There's no and we treat as we're good at this as Americans to treat our journey as an individual trying to treat the promises of God as individual promises. Most of these things have a have their greater manifestation in spiritual family and community, even then the individual. And we looked even at the pattern where it's where if you live in the spiritual community, we looked at this pattern through several scriptures earlier in the series, that there is an individual fruit that comes from it. There are many individual promises, the promises that come to God's people, but they only come off of the tree, the tree that has spiritual community in it otherwise, that promise, it doesn't get through. And we looked at that extensively, you can go back and listen to it in the teaching library. We're talking about communal proximity with God. And this is what the psalmist says, he says, he describes us as those in Psalm 84, as those who dwell in your house. Now, some people think of that as those who live in the church building or those who lived in the tabernacle. That's not what David means, right? We know that that's not what the Psalms means. The spiritual practice of group God dwelling is different than the practice of individual God dwelling. Let's review a few of the Scripture Psalm 84, verse four, I'm going to read Psalm 84 Four again, through verse seven. So this is a review of these passages from before. Bless it are those singular or plural? Plural, blessed are those who dwell in your house. They will still be praising you And then he just says rest, c'est la vie. Just think about that. I love this, they'll still be praising you and still be praising you. Life will pass. 100 years will pass 100 trials will pass and they'll still be praising you. Like it's just something that rises up and they'll still be doing it. But they dwell in community in God. Blessed is the man whose strength is in you. He says, Now this man is blessed. This woman is blessed. This individual is blessed, because they live in the community of God. That is the communion of God himself. And he says, whose heart is set on pilgrimage as they pass through the Valley of Baca, they make it a spring, Baca was a desert it even when they pass through all these deserts, it doesn't matter. I'll tell you, we've had some deserts in our life. Man, we've, we've passed through and I've got a few of my close family members here can tell you, we've passed through some deserts. I'll never forget one time we ran an assignment and we went to the chapel on the first Sunday. And it was a dark day, because it was it was in Alaska, I'll just tell you that. So those that are listening will know. But it was before you guys got there is the darkest day of the year, I think. And when we drove home, everybody in the car was crying. Except for me. Everybody, every single person now, I don't even know if my kids remember this. And I'm sure I'll have a couple kids will say I wasn't crying. Every last one of them was crying. Every last one of them had tears in her eyes, including Beth because they were just like, This is terrible. And and. And then God sent us Doug and Jennifer. And Doug and Jennifer bought a canoe. But life got better. And my point is, is that no matter how deserty you think it is, get ready, because God's getting ready to bless your socks off. All you got to do is dwell together in the house of the Lord. And then what does that mean? The community of God's people dwell in the communion, the spiritual relationships, the breaking of bread, the praying together, the spiritual connections, all of the above the journey, the pilgrimage, the hiking, the camping, everything that goes with all of this, there's a lot that goes with it. And when you live like this, I'm telling you, you got to give you an oasis in any desert. That's what he's saying here that I'm paraphrasing. He's saying, I'll give you an oasis in the desert, this is not hard. You know, you might be in the middle of the desert. But when you wake up, you're gonna see palm trees and pools everywhere, because this is how God operates. But you can't do it on your own right? We can't do it by ourselves. This is how we live. This is our third pillar right here. And this is the third pillar, we're teaching people. Because God's called us to the nation's. So I preach to the choir all the time. It's the greatest thing preaching to the choir. Because when you preach to the choir, they're the people that receive it. I spent years pitching and people didn't receive it, some of them, you know, but I'm telling you that they receive it, and that's who you are. Because we're preachers of righteousness. That's what the Scripture calls Noah. And that's what we do. And we take this out, and we impart this and teach this to the nations, right? We're imparting this to the nations you can live this way, no matter where you are, God will do it. God sets the solitary and family Psalm 86, at 68, six. And he brings out those who are bound, who are who are isolated who are in the desert, he says he brings them out into prosperity, blessing, but the rebellious dwell in a dry land. Now, let's stop there for a minute. One of the quickest ways to enter a dry land, no matter where you live, is to become rebellious, to become stiff necked, to press against the ways of God and this, to do it on your own by yourself. To not engage any of those things. You see what I'm saying is, in other words, to be obstinate, to be like the donkey that won't move, you know, to just be resistant and obstinate. And I'll tell you for some of us had to work a lot of this out of our system because we were we inherited a lot of it, didn't we? I mean some of our family, some of us can speak firsthand of our families, teaching us a lot of stubbornness that we had to learn to yield to God, a man thank God for those that were raised, that taught us differently, taught us the ways of yielding the ways of the Lord. Psalm 133. You know this one Behold, how good and how pleasant it is, for brethren and that means Systran to write to dwell together in unity. He says it's like the precious oil. It would almost seem that David wrote this psalm to describe unity and communion of God's people, in the words of all read because it says Sounds kind of mellifluous, mellifluous, right. That word. You know, we've learned a new word today mellifluous. So if you see it on a test anytime soon, you'll know what it means, honeycombed, silky, reflowing, sweetly, dropping like honey, David understood and communicated that the flowing oil upon Aaron was symbolic of the mantle. Remember its oil? What was Aaron, he was the head of the priestly order. And the oil was representative of the anointing of the Holy Spirit. So wherever we find the anointing of the Holy Spirit, there is a power. There's a richness of life together. So sometimes when we talk about the anointing, some of us because of our backgrounds, we think of this powerful preacher or this powerful, you know, something on a stage, you know, you pick what you see in your mind. And yet David tells us in Psalm 133, that anointing is mellifluous my word, all reds word. But then it's silky, that it's flowing, that it's love, that its fullness, that it's sweet that it's good. I love this. So when you think of the anointing, remember that the one of the chief qualities or characteristics is in Psalm 133? Not necessarily the last five television preachers, are you with me on this because our culture has given us a definition. And we see in the scriptures that there's a lot more to this definition, this power flows in the love of God and in the spiritual family, community love relationships that happen. Now, whenever that happens, the deep compassion of God enter us, like they enter Jesus or like they were in Jesus, and people are healed. People are delivered, because of that anointing that flows. Not because we could do it a certain way on a stage in front of a camera. Oh, this good, I love this. I love it. This there is extraordinary power in this communion of the saints. Not necessarily in a 501 C three organization we call the church. But the communion of God's people in New Testament community, totally different. Now, sometimes it is in the 501 C three, you know what, but my point is, is that the the essence is we're talking about spiritual families the key, the most powerful force on the earth. Think I said this a few weeks ago, is what? test questions see who remembers the most powerful force on the earth? The Holy Spirit, the Holy Spirit is the most powerful force on the earth. There is no force on the earth greater than God. In God, the Holy Spirit is the person of God. Jesus tells us that lives on the earth right now. He's not he's not a symbolic. He's not an IT. Don't call the Holy Spirit in it. He's not an IT. He's a person. In the Scripture, did you notice the Holy Spirit? The apostles in the prophets refer to him? And I know I've got good friends that call him Holy Spirit. But the apostles and the prophets refer to him as the Holy Spirit, to give him preeminence above all other Holy Spirits. Why? Because your spirit is holy, by the power of God, your spirit is holy scriptures give him preeminence by referring to him as the Holy Spirit. You see, Jesus is not just king, he is the king. He is the King of kings. And the idea there is the preeminence. He is the most powerful force on the earth. And the second most powerful force on the earth is the church, the people of God, because in US lives, the Holy Spirit. Many times the tide of evil has been held back by the Holy Spirit, and the church. And John says, And the Spirit and the bride say, Come, the most powerful force on the earth combined is the power of the Holy Spirit, and the power of the church that is the bride of Christ, the people of God. Now, I'm not talking about political power. I'm not talking about military power. Did you notice that Jesus didn't need military power? Did you notice that Jesus needed no political power? Jesus needed no power in the religious community. He needed no title. He needed no degree. He needed his name at the bottom of no book. He didn't write one book while he did his earthly ministry. His power was of the Kingdom of God and The same is true for you or me. You don't need a military rank, you don't need a political rank. What we need is the Holy Spirit, to walk out the calling of God that He has given us to live on the earth as God has called us to live, man. We're not talking about business power, we're not talking about influence or power because you got a bunch of Instagram followers or you know, Facebook, whatever, you know, all of that is meaningless in as far as the kingdoms, the kingdom of God, God changed through the Holy Spirit transforms people. Instagram, never transform any anybody other than just toxicity and all the studies that are coming out now that it's bad for people, but we won't go into that. Lester Summerall used to say this, he used to say, wherever I go and do ministry, I like to start a church. But he didn't stop there. He said, Because the gates of hell will not prevail against the church. That was his reasoning. That's Matthew 1618. The gates of hell will not prevail against the church. What is God saying? He's like, You will never, it doesn't matter. We there in history, there have been many tyrants who have tried to extinguish the church, it will never happen. You know, I mean, I saw this, some of you know about the Armenian Genocide, World War One, the Ottoman Turks took over a million Christians and crucified to put them on crosses and killed them, and thinking they were going to extinguish Christianity, how foolish to think you're going to extinguish the church, you will never extinguish the church, you can, you can literally kill everybody on the earth, and you will not extinguish the church. So that's a futile effort. All in all, it's a futile effort. What am I saying the gates of hell will not prevail against the church, God says, The church will be victorious. That is the promise of the king, not a king, the king, not a Holy Spirit, the Holy Spirit, not a father, the father, his promise is that the Church will prevail, and the kingdom of God will prevail. And the gates of hell will not prevail in Jesus name. That's probably a good place to end there. There's a I got a lot of notes here, but you guys have. I tell you what I just, I am so grateful to God, to be a part of what he's doing in the earth and this hour. And you know, what's cool is we do this. God has a lot in store. And he has a lot in store for you and your family. He has a lot in store for our family has a lot in store for the nations. And it is an honor to walk with you. It's an honor and a blessing to love God with you. It's awesome to do this together. I'm so grateful. God called me out of a lot of the things I'm realizing now, I should have probably left a long time ago. But God's called me into this rich way of life and living. And it's, it's extraordinary to be in this with you. I want to bless you in the name of Jesus. And then we'll end the recording and open it up for comments and sharing. Lord, we thank you so much that you have neither left us nor forsaken us but you are with us. You have left your Holy Spirit, sent your holy spirit here on the earth to be with us. And Lord, we want to thank you that we were called in designed and built for this hour. We thank You that You've called us to the nation's in the hour in which we live, we will not shrink back we will not be intimidated. We will not be afraid, we will not be defeated. In the name of Jesus right now. Isaiah 60, let our light shine in the darkness. And Lord, we pray that the light of God will spread throughout the earth. And the darker the darkness, the brighter the light and we pray in Jesus name, that you will bring a spirit of victory, hope and faith and love in every family, in the name of Jesus, draw us into this friendship and this way of pleasures in God, that we may share it with the nations in Jesus name. And we pray that you will multiply spiritual families throughout the earth so that people live and move this way and enjoy you this way and fulfill the Great Commission this way. And Lord, I pray for all my friends and those who are listening across the world, that you will bless them their families bless their nations that they live in, that they are from Bless each nation with the love of God in the name of Jesus. Every nation of people who listens to these teaching library sessions Lord, we pray you bless their governments, their nations and caused them to turn their hearts to you that they may be richly blessed. and enjoy the ways of the Lord, in love and in repentance toward the Lord in Jesus name, 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. Click give and become a monthly partner today. 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