The Seven Pillars (Part 12) - Lifestyle Of Obedience, Listening, & Honor - 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 in the series of the 7 pillars we talk about the fourth pillar, a lifestyle of obedience and listening. There is great blessing in giving honor to those with spiritual authority, in listening and walking in obedience.
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Full transcript generated by ai (please excuse errors):

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​Alright, today we're moving to the fourth pillar. And Jennifer was really excited. I was excited about it too. But I have to confess, I never imagined we would spend so much time on the third pillar. And so what we're calling the seven pillars, you know, I say the Seven Pillars of air Nova, but really the Friends of Jesus movement and this, this DNA this order this way in God? How many of you remember the first pillar? Yeah, it's apostolic prayer. The thing that distinguished apostolic prayer from just prayer was Acts chapter six, the Apostle said, we must give ourselves continually to the Word of God into prayer. So really, it's not just people who pray, but being a people who continually pray, who pray without ceasing, who prayer is a lifestyle. The second one was the spiritual disciplines. Now, the prayer is actually a spiritual discipline. But we separated those two, because we wanted to emphasize prayer so much in the seven pillars. And then the third one is there are different names for it. But it's this concept of really deeply being a deeply relational people, spiritual family, and developing what we call communities of Revelation. But communities of Revelation are largely developed and cultivated. In spiritual family, you can have a community of revelation that is not heavily spiritual family, but it's going to be limited. We looked at some of the reasons why from the scriptures, that that's true. It's kind of like growing a crop in soil. That's not the best soil. But it's not. It's not undoable soil, it's not soil that you can't grow anything in. Have you ever grown something and then found out well, the soil wasn't that great, you had to really get get it into good soil? And then it just flourished like crazy. So the fourth one, are you ready? Drumroll? No. Some people are excited. I don't think I had it in those notes that I put up on the on the link is a lifestyle of obedience, what we call listening, in the mantle of Elijah. Now you might say, wait, first of all, these pillars will have overlap, first of all, so any of these pillars are going to overlap with each other, you're going to see connections with the pillars in all these cool ways as we go on. So we haven't it's not like we've never mentioned the mantle of Elijah before and looking at this. You may say, Wow, what's that connection to obedience. Now, it was really interesting. Lucy sent out a word, which is what we're talking about today. And then it was talked about with the worship leaders. None of them knew what this is like. I didn't give them my notes or anything. So let's dive into this. But we're calling it given ourselves to a lifestyle of obedience, which I'm putting in parentheses listening. You'll see why in a minute. Divine followership, remember how we started talking about the life of followership. This is not something that's dominant in the western church anymore. It followership, and then sonship in the mantle of Elijah. So the Latin word for obedience, what do you think it means? It means obedience. But it also means something else it means listening. See the connection? Now in my English, kind of my Western Greek? Let's give her a break here. Sorry. Somebody doesn't like this teaching very well so far. No, I think she just hungry. And you know, at that age, they got to learn obedience just like we did, right. So the Latin word for obedience is to listen. Isn't that interesting? Now, if you're a parent, you totally understand this. Because when you say to your kids, listen to me. What you're really saying is, listen to me and obey me, is what you're saying. Right? Start see the connection there. And the the spiritual art have what I call careful listening. And concurrent obedience is essential in the Friends of Jesus lifestyle. And it's a core practice. Are you with me in prayer. It's a core practice in spiritual disciplines. It's a core practice in the life of humility and genuine spiritual community. Now what happens? I'm debating on how to say this. In a family, let's think of your extended family. That's a little safer to say that because really, that's really what I'm talking about, in an extended family. Sometimes, there's someone who is really, really, really more obstinate than everybody else. Every family unfortunately has that person, someone in their family, who is obstinate, they don't really, they're not quite teachable. And I'm talking about if you go out into your, your aunts, and your uncles and your cousins, and all of those, usually there's somebody in the family, who is just kind of a knucklehead, you know, and everybody knows it. This is true of most families. I'm not this is not any big secret. You don't have to not smile, because you're thinking, Oh, no, this was kind of nervous to talk about, I'm not going to ask you to come up to the mic and tell us what the name of the person in your family, your extended family. But usually, in an extended family, there is someone who really needs some help. And a lot of times, they have to hit rock bottom before they get there. But my point is that for you to, to be to blend well in your immediate family, and for an immediate family to do well, everyone has to have a certain amount of humility, and willing to listen. And if there's someone in your immediate family, that doesn't listen, that is not listening, that's not obedient. That's not whether it's a parent, whether it's a child, whether it's a husband, or whether it's a wife, it makes the whole family go into this, it's dysfunctional. And it's very problematic. So what happens, the cool thing about families is, families have their own center of gravity or influence and peer pressure and peer group, so to speak. And so whenever, if you if I become even just now that my kids are grown and everything, if I become obstinate about something, or I'm not listening, or I'm not really obedient and something I don't know about your family, but my family will let me know, right? In some way, shape or form, they're gonna let me know. And if I don't get it, they're gonna let me know a little more forcefully. And if I don't get it, they'll let me know a little bit of gently kind of ease into it. But the the cool thing about family is that families tend to speak a little more plainly. Now. I know there are some families that don't that need to. And that's very dysfunctional. We won't go into family dynamics there. But the point is that spiritual family is a great atmosphere to learn obedience, and listening. There were things and some of my kids are probably on the Zoom today. And I shared this here a while back, but this was really funny. But as my kids began to reach graduation time in high school and go into college, and then reach graduation time in college, there were still things I'm a father, so my hand is on the heartbeat of many things in their lives. So you could you ever have you ever been on your computer, and you're getting ready to print and and you look at you can click on this little link and it'll show you the toner levels in your computer. We have a color printer, and it will show you that the toner levels are this high, this low this high this low. As a father, in my experience, the way I experienced my own kids was, I could see the toner levels. I could see like, okay, they still need a lot of work in this area. Man, they're doing great. That toner is great. We got a lot in there. But this one needs some help. This one's about medium. I had a good sense in my kids lives of where their growth areas are and what they needed next. And some of it I just could not replace the toner cartridge. I just couldn't is like I was praying like God, I'm gonna do this. So don't worry, we'll take care of this. And I remember one time over specifically one of my kids, not any major sin or anything like that, but something they needed to work on and I was praying over them. And I distinctly remember the Lord saying Don't you worry, this, I won't say whether it's a boy or girl, this person, they're going to get married. And they're going to learn this really well, really quick really soon. So I was like, Okay, Lord, I remember having this conversation when we lived in Hawaii. And so sure enough that that one just like all the rest of them got married. And that area where that toner cartridge was low, man, the spouse let them know, right away, he's like, You can't do this, like, is this something you got to work on? Well, now that even though they couldn't learn it in with, as from their father, or perhaps their mother, even though we told them over and over and over, then the spouse begin to speak now, it has more Wes like, whoa, wait a minute, and they listened, and they opened up. And so they begin to adjust. And God replaced the toner cartridge in that area. And that toner went up, up, up, up, up. And now in that particular area, that particular child of ours grown child is very good in this area. And this we have to remember that in spiritual family, God will bring us to a place where we learned obedience, where we learned listening, I said, spiritual family, because spiritual family is different than just going to church we say this over and over and over. Because it gets kind of messy. It's not like the the commercial experience where you just come in, go to church and leave. Now we've got people, we've got kids sitting around like we did today, man, I don't even know how many kids were on the floor, and all this stuff. And so we've got to work through it. But the cool thing about family is family helps bring us into this lifestyle of what I'm calling obedience. But what we see now is listening. And just think of the parent that says, listen to me. What they're saying, listen to me and obey, listen to me and receive what I'm saying and do what I'm telling you to do, is what they're really saying. And, according to Jesus friendship with him, is entered into by those who walk in the fullness of obedience. And you could see that in John 15. Actually, I think it's in verse 14. So there's a powerful connection between the spiritual discipline of obedience, and listening, where you all see the connection, obedience and listening with the mantle and the call of Elijah. And you might be going, Okay, where are the connections, we're going to draw some of those connections and highlight them, the Apostolic Church, related to their spiritual fathers, with honor and reverence you guys know, I taught a whole teaching on honoring our spiritual fathers at the retreat. And the Lord really brought me to a deeper place in honoring my own spiritual fathers. And I went to them. And I did like we did there at the retreat. Afterwards, I gave an altar call. And then I stepped up, I was the first person because I said, Lord, I want to obey this, I want to respond to you. I'm not trying to be clever, I really do want to respond to you. And I also did this with another of my spiritual fathers. And I believe this, this is extremely important for many reasons, we'll talk about why. But the Apostolic Church related to the spiritual fathers with honor and reverence and because the church has moved more and more away in the West, the church has moved away from the spiritual family model, and more to a commercial model. It's not the same field. It's not the same relationship with the early church in the Apostolic Church. And for centuries in the church, there was a deep understanding of the relationship of obedience and listening with impartation of spiritual authority. Today, now you can go back and read the church fathers. And there's a lot of material on this. But today, you don't hear a lot of sermons or teachings on it. It's not a popular topic. And there are some reasons we'll get into. I've watched and I want to share my own experience with you. Have you noticed that sometimes, you can't really see your own experience until the Lord kind of opened your eyes with something in Scripture. And then suddenly, as soon as he opened your eyes through this truth in Scripture, you start looking around and you see it all over your life, and you didn't see it before. The example I use is when you're looking at buying a car, when you start looking at buying a new kind of vehicle and a new model, a new make and model. As soon as you start doing research on that car. What happens? Yeah, while you're driving, wait a minute. There's one there's one, there's one you see, because now your attention and the lens that you're looking through through is focused in on that particular kind of vehicle. And I found this Dynamic to happen to me where God will begin to unveil and show me something in the Scripture. And when he does, then I start seeing this play out in my the history of my life. I'm like, wait a minute, this happened in this decade of my life, this happened in that decade of my life. That's what I'm about to share with you. I've watched the dynamics of this relationship play out for decades, in my own life, and in the lives of friends and acquaintances of mine that I've known. There are two groups of people. Among those who I've considered people who seek heart after God, they pursuing the Lord. They're pursuing his ways. And I'm specifically talking about my circle of friends and acquaintances over the years, and the decades of the 80s, the 90s, the 2000s, the teens, and now into the 20s. There is a group who were pursuing heart after the Lord. And they were hearing God like they were truly hearing God, and growing deeper. And they walked in what I would consider a powerful honor of our spiritual fathers, the people, okay, so I'm talking about a lot in my generation, we had spiritual fathers. And there was a deep honor for those spiritual fathers in this particular group. And whenever that that those fathers spoke, and mothers, by the way, when I say fathers, I'm talking about fathers and mothers. But the scripture emphasizes spiritual fathers for a reason. And we've talked much about that. I've noticed that whenever they would speak, my, my friends and acquaintances in this particular group, their air leaned in, whenever there was an opportunity to receive to walk to understand to seek, there, everything about them was putting a draw upon those fathers and mothers, they were truly putting a deep draw on those people in their lives. If there was an opportunity for apprenticing for mentoring for learning. They were there. And Beth and I, we, we tried it from the early times of our marriage, even before we were married, made an intentional decision, to listen, and to walk in this particular group, and be receptive and learn everything we could from these fathers and mothers. And what we did that we did what they counseled us to do. Now, I'm not saying like, we didn't go, Okay, should I buy this car? Yeah. Although if they said, hey, you know, what I've learned about carbine. And they'll say something, man, I'm listening. I'm like, tell me what your wisdom is on this. Well, I want to hear everything they could some of you I've shared my story in the 80s. With one of my spiritual fathers, I sat under for six years. And I took copious notes, handwritten notes. And so by the time those six years were over, I had 30, some notebooks full of notes, from everything spoken. And later on, I hired my teenage son to scan all those in, we have those notes that now I look at him like, man, these are terrible notes, but I took them. And maybe they aided in me learning and growing. But I'm not just talking about during teaching, I'm talking about when they're sharing when there's relationship time when there's interaction meals, anything, but I'm just, I'm absorbing everything I can. And I'm not trying to say I would, I'm the example I'm just trying to say I did what I could, and really pursued this, we wholeheartedly sought to obey the way they taught us the ways in God, there was a reverence for where, where God had brought them and taking them. And this is lost in this generation. And even in our generations earlier, it was more and more being frowned upon, because this independent spirit that loses much of the biblical aspect of impartation, and what God wants to give, and people think that they're being really good by doing this by being independent, they have no idea they're actually cutting off some impartation and things God wants to do in their lives. So we genuinely sought to follow Jesus by following them, because that's what Paul said, Follow me as I follow Christ. And so I know that this you know, by the way, this is, this has been easier in my friendships. This has been easier with some of my Catholic friends than some of my Protestant friends because of this independent spirit we have in Protestantism. I'm not criticizing Protestantism. I I'm Protestant. But my point is that there is a reverence there that maybe we need to recover, I think would be really valuable. So we generally sought to follow Jesus says, By following them What do I mean? And again, I'm not I don't mean like a cult, you know, I'm talking about healthy Christians where we say, You know what, the way this person is following the Lord, I'm gonna learn to follow him like this spiritual father like this spiritual mother. And so Paul's another word for follow was imitate or do like I do do it like I do. Remember this what Jesus said of the Father, I do what I see him doing. And I do it exactly like I see him doing it in the same manner. As I have watched the lives of these people. Every one of them that I can think of, and I sat there, as I was preparing my notes for this, I was inventory in my life, and I'm thinking of all these people, every single person I could think of that I consider in this category, are still prospering greatly in their lives and walk with God, every single one I could think of, and I'm thinking of some people way back. And I'm thinking of people I've known over the years on my, I could not find one person or one family that I consider in this group, who were not experiencing enormous blessing in their walk with God, in their families, their relationships. I'm not saying they haven't had hard times, I'm not saying they haven't been challenged. I'm not saying they never failed in anything, but that the prosperity of God's presence and work in their lives, is market. Now, there's another group of friends that I've had over the years, just throughout different places and times, who were also pursuing heart after God. They were hearing him, and some of them with tremendous accuracy, growing deeper, and they too, had respect for our spiritual fathers. But they were not to a place of what I would describe as what I considered fully honorable to them. And, and listening to them and taking to heart what they said, it was not uncommon to find them disregarding advice or counsel. And I remember having conversations with peers of mine over the years, and they'd say, Yeah, I probably gonna, I don't think I'm gonna, it was it. It wasn't that we had to do everything. They said. I'm not saying that. But to take to heart there. Counsel. There's a did you see what I mean? It's I'm not talking about robotic. Oh, yes, Brad, you told me to do this, I will do it. You know, I don't mean that. I don't mean that. That's not what we're talking about. I'm talking about where they would give us counsel, they would give us advice they would teach, they would say, hey, consider this. And it was just kind of like, they felt like they knew better. And that's this. That's the difference in this group. They still they still respected them. I'm not saying there was, there was no respect. And they were not at a place where I would say dishonor. Now there were some that did that. And I couldn't think of any of them where things went well for him. And I've went through a lot of people in my mind. And I'm like, Huh, that's interesting. Most of these, though, fell, I'm talking about people who they respected him. But there was just this lack of this deep honor that we see called for in Scripture. And most of them fell into various snares over the years of various kinds, just snares and traps of the enemy. For some of them, it took more than a decade, before a snare was manifested, or before it really came to pass, some of them only a few years. But it, it took time, and so many of them suffered unnecessary troubles. And I guys, I want to tell you, I was astounded as I started thinking through all the people I've known over the years, and I'm just like, Lord, this is kind of scary how accurate this is, at least in my own personal experience. In our relationships, and I'm talking about with many of these people in the second group, it felt like there was about a, this is just a feeling it felt like, well, there's 90% honor and 10% Not so much. It's kind of like yeah, it was kind of like a respect that was good enough. And I always felt like man, you know, like, I was just like, come on, you know, these people are pouring their lives into us. Let's go for it. Let's, let's, let's take to heart what they have to say. And this was kind of like what I would say the percentage of rejection of what wise counsel, it was like it was like five or 10%. It wasn't a lot. I'm talking about people who respected them. And I found it a bit disturbing in my spirit. But I didn't really understand what it was like. I was like, young when I was younger, especially I struggle more with discernment as much as now. And I would be like that something doesn't feel right about this, but I can't quite put my finger on the spiritual heart. And I'm not talking about the origin of the heart, the physical heart, I'm talking about the spiritual heart, the center of who we are, mine will motion spear somebody. It's a mysterious thing. And it's difficult to understand sometimes. But you there's a sense or a feeling and that discernment. And that's really what I'm referring to. So, I shared my experience. Now I want to just dive into a few scriptures, and talk about this DNA character, this marker, this quality of people who follow after follow in this lifestyle of obedience and listening, by the way, we may not have time to get to it today. But this was specifically articulated by many of the spiritual orders, and people in the early early years of the church in the first several 100 years of the church. This was a very important trait and quality. And we'll get to that later. The lifestyle of obedience and listening is characterized by a lifestyle of submission to one another. Back to the family example, First Peter five, five, Peter says likewise, you younger people, submit yourselves actually the word your is not in here, he says, Submit yourselves to elders, yes, all of you be submissive to one another, and be clothed with humility. Now, if we could transport back to this early Apostolic Church, and we could experience them as they meet, like, we're meeting now, Peter, saying, younger people, he says, Submit yourself to elders. In other words, be open to them, be humbled, receive from them. And he says, All of you be submissive to one another. So he prioritizes you know, this elders, and it's not just, oh, you're older than me, I'm going to honor you more. It's not that it's that there are people in the faith who are elders in the faith, and we see them, we know who they are, it's not usually uncharacteristic to know who they are. And he says, Submit yourselves to them. And all of you be submissive to one another. That's that quality we're talking about in the family. That's how I got the toner cartridge elevated in some of the kids lives was by praying in the Lord move them into their own family. And then they were like, man, we got to, you know, Dad, wooden kitten, this won't work unless I submit to my wife, my wife submits to Me and the girls say, I submit to my husband, my husband, there's a mutual submission there, that, that we have as married people. And as fathers and mothers, that makes the family work really well together. Did you notice how well a family works? When people are humble? Did you notice how bad a family work, you know, somebody whose family is arrogant, and they're arrogant with each other. And those families do not work? Well, they are dysfunctional, because God did not create us nor call us to be that way. God crawl called us to be humble and submissive to one another, to learn from one another, and to have this spirit of submission one to another. And then, if we can do that, then we can receive even more from those God places in our lives as coverings to bless us to lead encourage us, and to be people who bring great impartation into our lives. Now this word humility, and this word, humble. This word, submit, man, you want to pick an unpopular word in the United States of America or in the Western world. Start teaching on Submit and see what people's responses are. That's a cuss word in many people's vocabulary. They'll say a lot of cuss words, but don't you dare say that word. Right? Because the spirit has been spirit of people have been rebellious against God. We'll talk more about that later. Hebrews chapter 13. Well, let me say this. This is also characterized by a lifestyle of listening to an honoring our spiritual authorities appointed by God over us. The Hebrews writer says, to keep watch over our souls, and that's Hebrews 1317. He says, Obey those who rule over you he's talking about lead that word rule means lead. Obey those who lead you and be submissive. For they watch out for your soul. So they keep watch over yourselves, just in case you were wondering. He's not talking about your boss at work now. Yes, that's Romans 13, I think. And some other passages are Ephesians In Ephesians. But this particular passage of Scripture, he's specifically talking about our spiritual leaders, he says they keep watch over our souls. So he says, Be submissive, as those who must give an account. For us, that's kind of scary to me. And he says, Let them do so with joy, and not with grief, for that would be unprofitable for you. So he's teaching us, hey, there is a way in God, there's an order in God. Now, I'm not teaching you guys anything you don't know. However, my prayer is that God will teach us deeper than what we knew before. You know, if I know that, if I know it three foot deep, God helped me learn it 30 foot deep, 300 foot deep, I want to learn it, I want to grow in it. And this was, this is really an tandem teaching with the honoring our spiritual fathers that I gave at the retreat. And then the Lord moved upon me to go to those spiritual fathers, and to submit to them and to receive from them and to hear their counsel and to carry on that relationship with them. And some of them have been for many, many years. When the spirit of the world I said, this despises what we're talking about right now, this is not popular with the world. There is a severe disdain for obedience, for submission for humility. And yes, now I never thought I'd see this in my lifetime. Even Fathers right now, father's a bad word in the world, man, they are preaching against father, it's terrible, what's going on? Across much, many places in the world. In many circles, it's scary. What's happening, the more anti God and Antichrist they become, the more hatred you and I will see against the ways of God, as we proceed closer and closer to the end and clothes of this age in the opening of the next age. Don't let this surprise you. Don't be surprised by it. You know, someone's got was one day they were saying something. They were upset because these people were doing this and doing that. And I was like, are you there? Like, are you upset? And I'm like, Well, I mean, I wish they wouldn't do it. But I don't expect them to be to live like Jesus. They're not Christians. They don't know God. It's like, you know, like we were when we didn't know God, we didn't. Like, you know, that's kind of what I expect is people to act like they don't know God if they don't know God. And there are people who think they know him, and they don't, they don't have a relationship. And you say, Well, you know, how do you know that? There's a whole lot of people that show up on the day of judgment, and they think they know God, and Jesus words to them are what? Depart from me, you worker of iniquity, I never knew you. Right? They thought they knew him. There are many people who think they know him, but they don't know him. It's better to say it now and let a few people be upset, in case some of them actually go, Wait a minute, Do I know him? What have I bought into? What am I believing? And then the Lord changes their heart. And you know what, you have spoken truth in love. And God will use that in a powerful way. James explicitly warns us about this. And this is just a side note. He says, Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? The word enmity means hatred. It means hostility. He says friendship with the world is hatred and hostility against God. He says, Whoever therefore wants to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God. This is James for for now, he's not talking about Don't be relational evangelist. He's not saying don't love people. He's saying friendship with the values and the way the world believes, instead of the way the Scriptures teach. We can hit any hot button issue right now. And go, what does Jesus think about this? And what Jesus thinks about it, and what the world thinks about it, are two very, very different things. And he's literally James is saying, Hey, if you go with this crowd, and you choose to believe like they believe you just made yourself an enemy of God. That's kind of scary, isn't it? We don't hear a lot of teaching on that. When's the last time you went to a church service and in the title of the sermon was enemies people becoming enemies of God? You know, we don't teach a lot on this and James, he just lays it out there. And in case you don't think he's talking to the church, go read James four, four and read Right before the words I just read to you, because you see he specifically addressing the church, James is talking about friendship with the world's ways, the world's values, the world's way of thinking, turn on the TV, turn on the news, pretty much any network and see what the values of the world are and ask yourself, Do I disagree with a lot of these? Or do I just believe what they believe? Because many of them are not what Jesus believes nor what the Scriptures say, right? All right, that was just a free, free commercial on that one. The traits of obedience and listening have been foundational character traits of close disciples of Jesus for over 2000 years. Now. Here's a little exercise if you have time. Now, if you have a Bible software, this is a lot easier. Do a search on how many verses and scriptures Jesus says, tells the disciples Do what I say to do. Keep my commands, do what I say. He says, If you love me, you will keep My commandments. If you love me, you will do as I say, and so there are many people who say, God, I love you. But they don't do what it says. And you know what, I've done a lot of marriage counseling over the years. And and you know what, when a husband looks at a wife and says, Oh, honey, I love you. But he's just cheating on her time after time after time. It doesn't matter what he says, what matters is what he does. If he says, Honey, I love you, but he won't help her, he won't be there. All of these things, then the actions speak louder than the words and the words are just words. And we have a lot of people today, especially in society, and leadership, and all these places who say a lot of good words, but they don't live it. Right, because that's what's that's kind of where we are as a society. Those who live under spiritual authority, carry great spiritual authority, I can tell you that in my life, as I have lived of some awesome spiritual authorities and spiritual fathers, that the level of spiritual authority, the level and again, when I say say authority, I'm, I'm not talking about rank. I'm talking about ability to influence and do and move, heaven and earth to do what God says and to experience God in our lives. It takes authority, over the darkness over evil over sin over all these things. Listen, you cannot become victorious as a Christian, just by trying harder, right? You're going to have to have some spiritual authority, some spiritual power in your life, power over sin, power over evil, power over the darkness, because it is a this life is a spiritual battle. That's why Paul said that we needed to fight the good fight. That's why he said we need to endure as a good soldier of Jesus Christ, right. He's using that terminology, because there is a battle, similar to Christian orders and spiritual families. Throughout the centuries. We also in the, in this spiritual family, in the Friends of Jesus movement, we submit to God, we submit to one another, we submit to spiritual authorities place in our lives, we recognize that God placed a spiritual and father's spiritual fathers and mothers over spiritual families to bring us into the fullness of his calling. This is the awesome thing about it. This is part of the problem is we have many orphans in the church. And I don't mean they don't have physical parents, but they don't have spiritual parents. They don't have relationships with spiritual fathers and mothers. And my friends, no matter how hard you try to do what's right, if we don't relate and have spiritual fathers and mothers, we will relate as a spiritual orphan, without even realizing it many, many times and trying to do life. Without that, that power. We recognize that God places them in our lives. And then what happens when we have spiritual fathers and mothers, we become spiritual fathers and mothers and spiritual leaders in the kingdom of God. Man, I don't know about you, but I love this stuff. Because I'll tell you that a lot of this stuff, I didn't know exactly what was right. Some of it I was just getting it right by accident. Some of it I knew I was like, Yeah, this is right. Some of it is just the Spirit of God guiding us, according to the Scriptures. But I want to tell you guys, I'm passionate about this, because I see how blessed people are in that first group I talked about with you that and I see how many were ensnared in the second group. That's why this is So I'm so passionate about this. How many of you know church executives do not produce spiritual fathers? Right? Good administrators don't necessarily produce spiritual fathers. You can have a big ministry, you can have an elegant ministry that's big or small. But if you and I do not live as spiritual fathers and mothers to people and do not have spiritual fathers and mothers in our lives, we will have a hard time time reproducing that because God made us we see in Genesis, God made us so that we reproduce after light kind. You cannot reproduce spiritual fathers and mothers, unless you yourself are becoming a spiritual father, or mother. This is why the Apostle Paul was so intent on being a spiritual father, and not just a teacher to the people of God. We see that in First Corinthians four spiritual orders throughout the centuries, such as the Benedictines found extraordinary power in obedience and listening. And they saw this as one concept not to and we already talked about that now. And they had really three rules in the Benedictine order, they had three rules, and one of them is obedience, meaning to obey and to listen. And there was tremendous honor to the spiritual father there. Now they, you know, again, we're not Catholic, I'm not saying that we're Catholic, but I'm gonna tell you this. There are many things people in the faith and in the family of God get right. And we have to get away from going well, they have this label on him, I can't learn from them. There are many truths and things that God reveals that are really good. And we have to be able to see them and receive what is scripture, what is godly, what is true. And, as described by Paul, and by the Hebrews, writer, in the previously mentioned scriptures that I said, they emphasize that the key to holistic obedience to God, and profound listening involves a life in the ever growing skills of listening to God being able to hear and obedience in three areas. Now, keep in mind, obedience is the response portion of listening. Does that make sense? So if I listen, and I don't obey, what ends up happening is my listening is not complete, right? I'm hearing words. And I'm calculating thoughts in my mind. But without obedience, then I have only received words in my brain, I have not actually listened as they teach what listening is what? And that's obedience. So we named we just looked at three in those scriptures. One was personal listening, and submission. So there's that personal, hearing God, and then submitting to God. Now, this is a really popular area in Christians lives, they like this part. Because they're in control, complete control, right? They think they are. And so that people like that, well, I think I heard God say this, and that and the other. And so they kind of follow that pathway. How many of you've been in that circle until you got around some of your Christian friends, and you started running things by them and you start praying together, and the Lord brought more light to it. And you're like, Hmm, maybe I was off a little bit on this, you know, I think I had part of the puzzle, but not all of it. And then by me, opening myself to them, I begin to receive, and that is mutual listening and submission that scripture we read, of submitting ourselves one to another. Now submitting ourselves one to another is a whole lot more than coming in on Zoom or in person and us kind of worshiping together, having a teaching and then having a meal together. mutual submission requires relationship, it requires going, what do you think about this or sharing it, this is what I love about prayer councils. Because in a prayer Council, you share what you hear God's saying or doing. And then when you share other people share, and then another person shares and then another person shares. And a lot of times in that sharing, God will take some little thing that I think I see, and he will go turn the lights on. And I'll be like, oh, what I thought I saw was not quite what I saw. And now I see a bigger picture. And it's a lot more clear. I love that. But it requires a mutual submission. In a mutual way. It also requires humility because you when you share, you have to be humble enough to share first of all, some people are too proud to share because they're afraid that it might not be quite right. Right. And so they don't share. And so when you share it takes a certain amount of humility because what am I doing? I'm laying it out there for people to do Judge, right? You say little world doesn't like that word judge, don't judge don't judge. They never teach. By the way, when they quote Jesus on don't judge, they leave out all the rest of what he just says right after that, which is to judge therapeutically is what he was saying. But Paul says, When you come together, and you share a revelation, you share a word, you share a prophetic word, whatever. He says this and First Corinthians 14. And he's then he says, There is those who will judge and say, What is this from the Lord or what is from God. And that's what we do in prayer counsel, we share, and then others share. And then what we're seeing or hearing gets calibrated by the rest of the body. And God gives us a picture of the bigger puzzle. Because when I come to the table, I may only have 1234 pieces of the puzzle. Have you ever had, have you ever been putting together a puzzle, and even though you could see the picture of the puzzle, you think it's this part of the puzzle. And then when you start working on it, you realize, wait a minute, that's not this part of the puzzle. This is way over here. This is another part of the puzzle. And God brings clarity through the body. And then the third one is spiritual authority, listening and submission. Now tell you in my life, when the spiritual authority speak, I'm not just wanting to hear the words, I'm reading between the lines, I'm like, God, you know, just this week, I had a dream about three nights ago. And it was kind of like, well, no, and a whole lot to this dream, you know, but I have learned with dreams, write them down and ask the Lord. And so I was like, Oh, well, you know, this doesn't seem real significant. But I wrote it down. And after I wrote it in my prayer, journal, it prayer time. I said, Lord, what do you you know, what's your anything in this, you know, and immediately God began to speak to me, like, just intensely. And I believe that if in our personal time, in our mutual time and in our spiritual authority, relationships, if we will lean in, and we will listen, and we will turn up the hearing aid, so to speak, and really tune in, we will receive the full counsel of God, and the full blessing. And I'll tell you, that when I described that second group to you guys earlier that I've known, those people were doing well, if they were in college, they were making 90% They were getting a minuses and I'm like, it doesn't work. You got to go wholehearted like this. There's a reason why the scripture says go wholehearted into this thing. You have to love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, all your mind, all your strength. And by the way that will manifest into our actions like go all the way go all the way in. Beth and I were just talking about this this morning. And the Lord was speaking to her about it in her prayer time this morning, how the Lord was saying you got to you got to go all in like you don't hold back or reserve for something, go all in like 100% all the way in pursue the Lord. And listen with a heart of humility and hunger, and God will bring the full counsel of God, you will not regret it. And I'm gonna tell you that second group of people I described to you. I'm sorry, that first group of people, the people that really honored wholeheartedly, they've never regretted it, and they are blessed in tremendous ways. If there was a way for me to say this, with more weight, I would say it like if there was a way I'll tell you, I thought about it. I was like, Lord, you know, could I? You know, wouldn't it be cool if I could just give a give out $100 bills, you know, and say, Listen, if you've ever lived if you've ever, if you ever wanted to listen to something, this one's worth way more than this here, take this $100 bill. And remember that this is worth way more than anything that you can put money tag on because this is so powerful. In that Benedictines, this, this concept is so important that they actually take a vow of obedience for life. Because it's so important to them. And you know, there again, I'm not this is not a call to become Benedictines were Protestants. But I just wanted to emphasize some things that are perhaps our our friends in that community have learned. And my prayer for us is that we will receive the fullness of God's blessing with nothing held back. That's my my hope and prayer for us. Amen. All right, Lord, we just thank you so much. And, Lord, this is just the beginning of this pillar as we begin to explore this pillar together. Now Lord, we ask that you will give us spiritual appetites and not carnal so that we will have have a desire to hear and receive these things that they don't appeal to the flesh Lord, but they appeal to the Spirit. Oh Lord, Your Spirit loves these things, because they are the way of the Father. And so we pray, Lord, that you will teach us this heart of humility and love toward you toward one another, and toward the spiritual fathers and mothers in our lives, so that we can walk in the fullness of the blessings of this pillar, and the mighty name of Jesus we pray, amen. And a man. Thank you for joining us today. Aaron ova is raising up spiritual leaders in many nations through our spiritual enrichment events, syndicated NetCast international prayer Council network, and numerous international seminary scholarships. Together, we are lighting the fires of revival, fueling prayer movements and raising up friends of Jesus in the nations. 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