The Seven Pillars (Part 14) - Obedience & Listening

​This is a series on the 7 Pillars of the AeroNova spiritual family, the DNA markers of who God has called us to be as a people. 
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 There is extraordinary blessing in the relationship of obedience and submission we have to one another and to spiritual leaders in our lives. This life practice of spiritual leadership followership is a three fold braided cord: spiritual fathering and mothering; spiritual sonship; and generational transfer.
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Full transcript generated by ai (please excuse errors):

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​So I'm really excited that today is the first Sunday of Advent. Over the next five weeks, we are going to be celebrating that first arrival of Jesus coming to the earth. And I'm excited that we're beginning it here because this is where Janae was when she encouraged each one of us to look into studying the scriptures of Advent. And really looking into that and how the Lord has really blessed her over the over the years as She's studied this. And that really moved my heart to really start looking for Okay, Lord, I want to find a study, a really good study on admin, I want to dig into the scriptures. But my heartbeat, if any of you know me, my heartbeat is always on that, those 150 chapters of the last days, and when Jesus is returning to the earth, and that is what Advent means. It means arrival. It means coming. And so as we're looking at the first time that he arrived, when he took on the form of man, when he became a baby, we're also I'm going to be looking at when he returns again to the earth. And I want to be digging into the scriptures. I want to be like those Bereans who knew and understood, is it the scammer? Okay, I want to be like those brands who dig into the scriptures, who won't recognize what he is saying in there. And I want to be like the sons of a cigar, who recognize the signs of the times. And this time, this Sunday, this Advent, I believe is very special, because it's also the beginning of Hanukkah. And so we have our Christian calendar, and the literal what we would call the liturgical calendar, lining up with the Hebrew calendar. And it's that celebration of Hanukkah. And so in this, I'm going to be reading a scripture that is is often quoted during Advent. But I also want to talk a little bit about why Hanukkah, Jesus celebrated that feat. It's called the Feast of Dedication or the feast of lights. He was there at the temple celebrating this feast. And so it makes me think, okay, what is it about this feast, that we too can learn, and we too, can celebrate. So coming from John, John, starting in John one, I'll be reading from the passion translation. It says in the very beginning, the living expression, or as we know, the word was already there. And the living expression was with God, yet fully God. They were together, face to face in the very beginning. And through his creative inspiration, this living expression made all things for nothing has existence apart from him, life came into being because of him, for his life is light for all humanity. And this living expression is the light that bursts through gloom, the light that darkness could not diminish. Skipping down to verse nine, the light of truth was about to come into the world and shine upon everyone. He entered into the very world He created, yet the world was unaware, he came to the very people he created to those who should have recognized him, but they did not receive him. But those who embraced him and took hold of his name, were given authority to become the children of God. In looking back, we are like those who embrace him and take hold of his name. We understand we embrace that light, but we want to be able to understand and embrace that light when he returns again to the earth. We want to be like those who understand when he returns and comes to his own. We don't want to be like the ones who were his own and did not recognize him. We want to recognize him on that day of the return. But to understand the darkness that is spoken of in here, the darkness that could not diminish that light, I think it's helpful for us to understand what that darkness was that Jesus entered into when he was born as a baby. Less than 200 years earlier, it was about 169 years I guess earlier, is when the the miracle of the light happened. When the Maccabees were fighting against all of the, the armies of the of Antioch epiphanies. And all these things that had happened were a great darkness had come upon their land. But even before that, another great darkness had come upon their land. And that was when all of the Israelites were taken into captivity. And they were taken into captivity. And we know the stories and the things that Daniel had said, in the book of Daniel, and the things that we've read in the book of Ezekiel, all of the people had gone into captivity in Babylon, and their temple was destroyed. And that light that was supposed to be shining in the temple, those seven lamps that burned day and night, day and night before the Lord, that light was extinguished. And that light was the representation of the light of God, that life of God within his people, and it had been extinguished. And there was great darkness that came upon the people and hope. Often it became extinguished. But we read about men, like Daniel and his friends, I like to call them by their Hebrew, Hebrew names Hannah, nyah, Azariah. And Michelle, even though they were taken into captivity, and they were taken into a land of darkness, they did not let that inner light shine the truth of God, they did not let that light be extinguished within them. They maintained intimate relationship with God. And that's where that light comes from. That light, that is the wisdom from God. And I was reading about all of the deeds that had happened in that time with the Maccabees. And one of the things that the author was writing about. He said, that men did deeds of zeal in an age of wrath. Where did those that place come from those deeds of zeal come from that came from intimate relationship with God, and knowing God. And Daniel said that those who know their God will do exploits. And he also said that they would shine. Like the stars in the heavens, they would shine like the firmament, they would be wise, those who know their God would be wise. So it's in that place, that secret place of being with God, that we receive that very light that John is even talking about, that light that shone out of darkness in the very beginning, that light that came to the people in that time and of great darkness. The other thing that happened so after, after all of this in the being taken into captivity, they were in captivity for the 70 years. And then as promised, they were able to leave and they were able to go back and they rebuilt the temple. So we read those in like Nehemiah and Zechariah. And Ezra, we read about how that happened, and how they rebuilt the city and they rebuilt the temple. And they were able to have a new temple and they dedicated it to the Lord and the light began to shine again. And then enter the Greeks. And they came in and they took over and especially Antioch is epiphanies. I won't go into all of it. But he came, and he made a declaration that you would no longer be able to worship God, you would know you had to worship his gods, and you are no longer able to worship God even in your home, you could not celebrate the Sabbath. But the the greatest sadness to me, as I read through, I read through the Mac, the First and Second Maccabees, the greatest sadness to me was that there were priests who went to the king, and they said, Hey, make me the high priest. And I will give you Israel. And they were the ones who stopped all of the regular priestly duties. And they were the ones who allowed all of the things to come into the temple, and for the light to be extinguished, and so many horrible things to happen in the temple of God, where we read about the about what they call the abomination of desolation being set up. It was a great darkness in the land. But there were men like Mattathias and his five sons, that we call them, the Maccabees. And they stood firm. And there were other men and women who were very, very strong in their faith in the Lord. They lost their lives. In order to worship the Lord. They stood strong and firm as well. But the Maccabees fought and they run owes up. That's why I loved how we started off singing about the life and the breath of God within us. That He is the light that shines in the darkness. But we ended with a song of great victory, that the Lord is calling us to rise up in times of darkness and to speak truth and to not fear and to speak to those mountains and to speak victory over our families. And to be strong in the faith even when it gets darker and darker and darker around us. Even though there are things that we are watching that, that our rights are being taken away. And many of us are seeing rights being taken away all around us, we must not lose that faith, we must not lose that life, we must not lose that time and the intimate place with God, for it is there that we will gain the wisdom to know what to do and when to do it. It is there that we will be able to rise up and speak truth and bring encouragement to the people who are around us who who are losing faith who are losing hope, who that light is beginning to flicker. So with that I want to read in Isaiah chapter 60. Because Isaiah is speaking of that new day when Jesus returns, and he says to the people, rise up in splendor, and be radiant for your light has dawned and your ways glory now streams from you look carefully, darkness blankets the earth. And thick gloom covers the nations but your way arises upon you and the brightness of his glory appears over you. Nations will be attracted to your radiant light, and kings to the sunrise glory of your new day. Skipping down to verse 19, he says the sun will no longer be needed to brighten the day nor the moon to shine at night for Yahweh will be your unfailing light, your God will be your glory, there will be no more sunsets or new moons for Yahweh will be your everlasting light and your days of sadness will be over all your people will be righteous and will permanently possess the land I planted in there as a tender sapling, the work of my own hands to display my glory, I will multiply the least of you into 1000 and the weakest one into a mighty nation. I am your way and when the right time comes, I will accomplish it swiftly. So let's keep that light burning. And let's keep looking forward to that day when he fully accomplishes what he promises that He will do. Thank you guys for sharing. And thank you, Beth. And Colin for that scripture. You know, the first this Today's the first week of Advent. And the theme of this Advent week is hope, or also promise. And I thought is very fascinating with just all that God is speaking to us. And how related this is to, I mean the promises contending for the promises of God walking as a people with hope. You know, hope doesn't work real well without faith. Have you ever noticed that? Like if you have faith, and then some will make a backup. Some people mistake faith as hope they think of faith as hope. In other words, when you say well, I really have faith. And and you say What do you mean by that? And they go well, I'm just, you know, I'm really hoping this to work out, you know, and what they really mean is they mean hope. They mean hope but they say faith. The truth is that hope doesn't work without faith. But when you have faith, there's tremendous hope. And I sense that God has been speaking that to us in the worship time today, to have faith to believe, to have the substance of that thing that's hoped for. And Advent, in many traditions and my experiences with many, many wonderful people over the years has been a backward focus. What you know, we look at the coming the first coming of Jesus and we we talk about hope this week and and then we read a few scriptures of what happened back then. But all of this is the launching pad for the Second Coming. Advent is about the Second Coming of Jesus. And so we look through the lens of the first coming so we can understand someone said History doesn't repeat itself but it rhymes. That is very true. You were talking about Antichrist epiphanies. He is so much like the antichrist that there are some theologians who believe he was the Antichrist, because they have a little different theology of their millennialism is a little different their beliefs. But regardless of what you're asking tautology is, in the end times we're going to face this on a on a culminating scale on an ultimate scale. And I believe in Takus epiphanies is in fact, like many of the other Antichrist through history, a harmonic in history of the antichrist that comes the spirit of antichrist, and the antichrist that comes. And you say, why are we talking about this? Because God has called us, regardless of the generation we're in to prepare the next generations, how do you prepare the next generations for the coming of the Lord, we need that lamp burning, it has to be hot, and it has to the light of God is burning. I'll remember 15 years ago, next month, our family moved to interior Alaska, two days before the longest, darkest day of the year. So we went from living in the South, we were in South Carolina, to live in an interior Alaska we drove in the wintertime, I think it was something like 4400 miles. And we drove up there in the winter with two vehicles, five kids, two cats and a dog. So it was an adventure. But we get up there. And I mean, like, there's like no daylight, like some of you have lived up there with us, you know, and there's like, two hours of daylight and a two and a half hour, I don't remember. And even that daylight is very, very dim. And so people told us, they said, when you get there, you know, you're probably going to have to get these lamps that will help you not get depressed, and so forth. And a lot of our friends did, but we got there. And I was so excited to be there. And the family was so excited to be there. And, and it dawned on me after about six weeks, I'm like, you know, it's dark all the time. And for some reason, this is not even bothering me. In the darkness, there was a light in our family. And I don't even know that every season of our lives would have been like that. But then this season, the light of God was so bright in our family, that the outer darkness, the outside darkness did not affect us. We didn't get discouraged. We didn't get depressed, we were excited. It was an adventure, God was moving, a lot of things were happening. And I thought what a picture of us because in the world, sometimes there are seasons, when darkness comes upon the earth in great measure. And when it does, your light only gets brighter, if it's burning, if it's burning. And so our call is to have that lamp stand to be Lampstand families, the brightness of God. And we've talked much about that we've talked about being Lampstand family, it's for those that are here and listening. It's in the teaching library, you know, go it's a great series, but talking about being Lampstand people, this is God's call on our lives. And this light burning in us, I believe is going to intensify. Now, yes, the darkness gets darker at times. But I still believe God is increasing the luminosity of our faith, our families, our relationships, our spiritual family and the people God has called us to. And so I am saying amen to all of this. But also, as we transition now into, we're still teaching on the seven pillars. I was thinking about it this morning. And I thought, you know, in a lot of ways the Seven Pillars describes our DNA as a spiritual family, but also what we call a spiritual DNA, our way of life for what we're finding to be many of God's people on the earth, who you know, it's Isn't it amazing how the Holy Spirit starts speaking to you. And then you start connecting with other people and you find out he's been speaking to them the very same things all over the earth. It's amazing how God does that. But he does it. And we're finding that these qualities that God is calling us into our qualities in a way of life that God is calling many spiritual families in the earth too. And so we have a call from God to connect with people who are sensing this call. And literally the Lord is calling His people to call his people into the way of life what we call the Friends of Jesus. Now we understand everybody loves Jesus in the church, but this is our call, we identify with it. So we're on the fourth pillar, which has been obedience. And what's the Latin word obedience? You guys help me out? Listening, right? It's to listen. And I use this analogy or this example, is like when you say to your children, those of you are parents, you say to your kids, listen to me. You're You're not just saying Hear my words. You're saying hear my Words and do what I'm telling you to do. So obedience and listening are very close to one another. I have found in the seasons of my life when I am most yielded to God, and most obedient, I hear the best. That's when I often find that my hearing is better tuned in to what God's saying, into my own family and to other people. And so this is these are closely related. We connected this into the mantle of Elijah, because there is a spiritual father son relationship God's called us to. Now we also mean spiritual mothers now may tell you this, I spiritual fathers and mothers, the Scriptures do not teach, they're the same thing. Their roles are different. This is important. We live in an age when fatherhood is not just not respected. Now we're into an age where it's actually being put down by a lot of people. You know, I believe that many of the problems we have in society today, today is the attributions people are giving to the problems are wrong. It's because of a lack of fathers and Thomas natural fathers who are good fathers. And when you lose fathers, there are so many things that can go wrong in homes and families. But spiritual fathers are different than spiritual mothers. But God is calling us to be spiritual fathers and mothers. Now, when we talk about sonship, or being the sons of God, we are talking about men and women, the Scripture calls men, sons of God, the Scripture calls women, sons of God, when we talk about sonship, just like it calls men, the bride of Christ, and it calls women, the bride of Christ. So this, this, this fourth pillar, is what we're calling obedience, listening, but it's tied into the Elijah mantle. Because it the thing is, if I say I obey God, but I don't have that kind of spirit toward the spiritual leaders and spiritual fathers in my life, then I can't hardly say I obey God. And that's what we're really pointing to is the Scripture. Now, Americans like to do that. Americans like to say, Well, I'm, I'm faithful to God, especially Protestants, you know, yeah, I've got a one line. I've got a VFR direct with God and, and I obey him. But I don't, I don't always listen, these other guys, you know, but that's not God's way. There is a relationship of obedience and submission we have to one another, spiritual leaders in our lives, in honor. But what we see is that there is extraordinary blessing in that, but the world does not like those words. The world doesn't like the word obedience. The world doesn't like the word humility. The world doesn't like the word submission, or submission to one another. The world likes autonomy, because the flesh likes autonomy. The flesh doesn't want anybody telling it what to do. It wants to do what it wants to do. But what the flesh doesn't understand is that everybody's a slave to something. Right, Joe, was what Paul said, you are a slave to whom you obey. So everybody's obeying somebody, they just don't realize that they are obeying the flesh, they're obeying the enemy, then they are slaves of the enemy. And same with the kingdom of God. If we obey God, we are in fact, free because of God's goodness. Now, this week, we're going to start exploring some of the characteristics of what I call this spiritual leadership followership model. We talk about it a lot. But listen, we've got to talk about this a whole lot in our lives. This is something that doesn't just want it need to be in my conversation and teaching, it really needs to be in your conversation in your teaching, and your impartation. Because this is the way we're going to teach this to the people who God's called us to. God's called us to the nations to teach this to the nation's many people. And so in that calling, this is a full blown family effort. This is not something for me to teach. This is something for all of us to teach, to impart, to discuss too. There are many ways to teach and impart. So, let's talk about some of these characteristics. One is the lifetime commitment of spiritual fathers and mothers. This being a spiritual father, being a spiritual mother is a lifetime commitment. spiritual fathers and mothers are committed for a lifetime. Because fathers and mothers, this is the nature of fathers and mothers. We don't, biblically we don't say to our kids, okay, when you turn 18 Or when you graduate college, you're on your own, and don't talk to me anymore, or I'll see you, you know, and yet in the church, we have been to churches like this where as long as we're in that church and relating to them, then we're a part of it. We're part of that spiritual family, but then especially those of us that have been military, when it's PCs time, it's time to move. And you move, they say, God bless you, they give you a mug and say, have a good life, we'll see you in heaven. Because that's kind of the traditional church, or that tradition by the church that we see in America. God is calling us to something different. He is calling us to lifelong relationships. Relationships, where we are committed to each other relationships where we say, Hey, I'm not committed to you just when I think you can help my program, or I can help your program, we are committed for a lifetime, because this is how families operate. And if all if natural families operate this way, how much more should an eternal family the family operate like this. So you begin to notice overlap in these pillars, you're going to see that each one of them just kind of overlap and bleed in and blend in to the others, you're going to see this over and over, as we explore the seven pillars. So we had discussed spiritual fathers and mothers before in the pillar of spiritual family. But we cannot talk about this with the mantle of Elijah, without talking about spiritual fathers and mothers. We can't talk about obedience and honor without talking about spiritual fathers and mothers, because this is the biblical model. And last, in the last session, I talked about how a lot of people, they'll talk about this, and I see this a lot with my students teaching theology, they'll say, Well, this was a, you know, this is a cultural thing back in those days, you know, someone had a had followers, and they would teach them and they would invest into their life. But it wasn't just during that period, when Jesus was on the earth, it was hundreds and hundreds of years before. In the Old Testament, it was hundreds and hundreds of years later, with the church fathers. That's why we call them Church Fathers, because they operated this way. And then somewhere in the process, we got really polished. And church became in some ways, more of a business, not completely, it's still the church. But the Lord's calling us to recover this DNA quality in the people of God. And he's calling us to preach it, he's calling us to speak it, he's calling us to impart it, he's calling us to spread it, because this is part of the in Time moves of God, we have to be like this in order to experience and achieve generational transfer, like we've seen in Malikai, for with the mantle of Elijah. So it's also the lifetime commitment of spiritual sons. And like I said before, this is men and women, spiritual sons and daughters are committed for a lifetime. Now, this is the nature of genuine family. But a lot of times what happens with kids, you guys who've been parents for a while, those of you have grown kids, for example, what happens kids, they kind of start spreading their wings, they get out of the house. And they're kind of go out on their own. And sometimes they actually get so far on their own, that they are pretty disconnected to an unhealthy level, because God has called us to still relate as families. And then many times as they mature, and they start realizing Wait a minute, there's still so much relationship there. Many times kids come back. And I don't mean they move back in. I mean, some families they do, but that's another issue altogether. But we're talking about reconnecting and having these family, healthy families, that even though they're adults, they can still receive now I've noticed with kids, especially when they start getting into their late 20s, they start going, oh my goodness, all the things I thought I knew. Some of them are true, and a lot of them are not. And they get some wisdom and maturity. And they realize my dad was a lot smarter than I thought he was my mom's a lot wiser than I thought she was. And so they realize, oh, there's still so much wisdom there. And they, they recover a lot of that relationship and receive more, and began to give more because we one thing that's cool about about healthy relationships as fathers and mothers, is when people grow up in God or they grow up naturally. Either way. There's a point where they start to teach you things. Now in the natural level, it's usually electronics or technology. You know, you're like, Wow, man. I don't know technology like that. And the kids are going here. Here's how Instagram works and blah, blah, blah. And this is things that you thought were complicated. Oh, no, it's simple, you know, and they just do it. But there are many other things like that. Yes, where we can learn from them also, and this, this is a lifetime commitment. And I want to say the energy of the commitment. Now this is the initiative I'm talking about. It comes from the follower. I'm not saying the fathers and mothers are not committed. But I'm saying that there has to be that initiative that comes from spiritual sons that comes from followers that comes from these who they don't have to be coaxed. Have you noticed that it doesn't work very well, when you have to do that. Like, if you if you're a parent of grown kids, I can tell you, you know exactly what I'm talking about you if they have to be coaxed to listen to you and persuaded and pulled and pulled and persuaded and pulled, usually what happens is, they're not quite there to really receive law. But if they are motivated, and then they're pursuing that relationship, there's a tremendous amount of impartation, that can happen, because their hearts are open, because their spirits are open. Now I want to look at in First Kings 1919, I want to look at Elijah's response to Elijah. The Scripture says, in 1919, First Kings, Elijah passed by him, he threw his mantle on him. And he Elijah left the oxen, and he ran after Elijah. And then he said, Please, let me kiss my mom and dad. He's like, Hey, let me kiss my mom and dad, goodbye, at least let me say goodbye to my family. He goes, then I will follow you. And Elijah said to him, go back again, for what have I done to you? Now, that is a strange response. There's a lot of theories. On that response. There's you go read, like there's a lot of stuff out there on that response right there. And the theories are wide ranging. But the scholars I've read the predominance of scholars I've read, they don't believe that Elijah is being resentful toward Elijah, saying, you know, having a fond goodbye to his parents. But Elijah lets Elijah know, the initiative is on you, buddy. It's like, I you know, he's like, What have I done, you know? In other words, hey, if this is going to work, you have to understand the initiative must come from you. I'm here to give you everything. But the initiative has to come you have thing is a follower has to follow. If they're not following, they're not close enough to get the blessings. One old preacher I knew many, many years ago, back in the 70s, he used to say, I want to be under the spout where the blessings come out. And in a lot of ways, this is the nature of of this model is Elijah is going, Hey, I've got to be right there with him to receive. So he came in to serve. And what he did was he served a light Elijah, he served the ministry serve the people they ministered to, but in that serving, he was following and he was receiving. Now during the retreat in the fall in August, Summer, late summer, I taught on honoring our spiritual fathers and I went through several scriptures in that teaching on Elijah, it looks like a Elijah is testing Alicia. I personally having read what all the things that Elijah had to say to him. My conclusion is that Elijah did not want to get a license to quit following him when he said these things, but he was being tested. I'll read Second Kings to to Elijah said to Alicia, stay here plays for the Lord has sent me on to Bethel. And Alicia said, As the Lord lives and as your soul lives, I will not leave you. So they went to Bethel, which you know what Bethel is, there's a whole nother teaching right there. And who where they we're going. I want to stop say this. I sent out a note this week from my prayer journal. And I was prompted because Paula had shared something on one of the prayer streams, or I think it was on the main group, about God's testing, she shared a video and I shared a word on the Aaronovitch stream, I encourage you to go read. It's about God's testing. And one of the things that we see is that God, we know from first or I think it's first John three or Second John three, one of the John threes out there. We know that God already knows everything. There's nothing he doesn't know. Like, if he if he puts us through a test, it's not so he can see or find out what's in us. Who's it for. It's so we can see what's in us. Many times, and I talk about the Lord's Prayer and how the law how this how Jesus prayed, Lord, lead us not into temptation. He's talking about testing. Don't please don't lead us into testing deliver us from evil. And there's, there's a whole teaching in that maybe we'll do it sometime. But I sent this out on the mainstream, you can read it. But I will tell you that there are times in life. First of all, all of us, there are certain things in life we must all be tested on. Then there are some things in life where God will test us so that we see what's in us. Unfortunately, many of the times that's the hard path, not the easy path. That's the more difficult path. And it's and I talked about in that teaching just briefly, on how to find that right path. Because it's it's counterintuitive on how you find the will of God in that. But we see here that Elijah does this several times he does it again in verse four, when they're going to Jericho. And he says the same thing to him. And Elijah says, No, I'm not leaving you. I'm staying right with you. Now, some people would think, Oh, that's because he wanted the double portion. No, no, he didn't even know how he was going to get the double portion at this point. Because Elijah hadn't told him. And then in verse six, Elijah does it again, tells him to stay here, don't continue with me. Man, what kind of disciple, leader, Rabbi prophet tells people to quit following them. I mean, that doesn't seem like the way to get lots of followership or sonship, or effect, you think, man, I want to have an effect in this guy's life to the very end. We see Jesus do this in John chapter six, when he says an outlandish statement, you must eat my flesh and drink my blood. And he says, this thing that sounds like cannibalism, and then doesn't offer to explain himself, which we believe is a test. It's a test, to test the hearts to see who will stay around and be committed to find out what he means. And those who could not trust him could not stay. So we see that many times these tests, no matter what your IQ is, no matter what your deductions are, in your logic, finding the will of God is more of a heart issue than it is a logic issue, more than it is a decision matrix issue. And so here we see Elijah tests. And then finally, in verses nine through 14 of Second Kings to Elijah says, Hey, how can I get a double portion? And he says, You've asked a very hard thing. But then he tells him, if you're with me to the very I'm paraphrasing, basically says, if you're with me, you've asked some very difficult, but if you're with me to the very end, most of us believe that the greatest impartation that we have received from our spiritual fathers and mothers was early on, because that's when the learning curve was real high. That's true in the natural, but spiritually, the greatest reward and the fullness of the exponential crop of impartation happens on the end phases of that relationship, and that the flesh does not understand that because the flesh goes, Wait a minute, I've gotten 99% of everything. He could teach everything she could teach me, and the Lord goes, but my nature is faithfulness. My nature is to be faithful to you. My nature is for you to be faithful to one another. So I believe honoring our spiritual fathers and continuing to journey with them to the very end is much more than just being about the double portion. It's about the nature of God. So that God did not create faithfulness, faithfulness, everything in this room you look at right now is created. And many of the things that we see, even intangibly are created, not the things that aren't physical. But faithfulness is a quality in God. It's an eternal quality. It has always been its it wasn't created, therefore it cannot be destroyed. It's something that's in the very nature of God the Godhead Himself. Its faithfulness is about being like our Father in heaven. When we carry these qualities, we're literally carrying these eternal qualities of God Himself. And this is a mystery when you are faithful in your marriage, when you're faithful to your children, when you're faithful to your brothers and sisters in Christ when we're faithful to our spiritual father. others, we literally are being like our Father in heaven. And the flesh doesn't understand that, but the Spirit of God in us, he understands it. And everything in you goes, yes, everything you do goes, This is who I am. And this is who I want to be. Because God has called me to be this way. And God transforms us in these eternal qualities we carry in us. And in this relationship, Jesus tells us in John, that literally we are holding eternal life inside of us. That's how you live forever. That's how we live forever. A certain scribe in Matthew eight, nine and 10 came to Jesus. And he says, teacher, I will follow you wherever you go. And Jesus said to him, foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests. But the Son of God has nowhere to lay his head. What kind of recruiting program is Jesus running? He doesn't say okay, yeah, that let me help you. You know, it'll be tough. He doesn't have a pastoral enhancer. He's, uh, okay, well, listen, it's gonna be tough. It's gonna be hard. But I'm telling you, the reward is good. You know, the rewards, really, he doesn't try to talk him into it. Why? Why? Why is Jesus doing this? Then another day, another of his disciples said to Him, Lord, let me first go bury my father. But Jesus says to him, Follow me. Let the dead bury the dead. Now, what if your pastor said to that to you over the year? That's not pastoral? Let's admit that is not a pastoral answer. What is Jesus doing? It, he's not just saying this is going to cost you. What he's really communicating in that is, you have to this has to come. This initiative has to come from you. You have to be all in you have to be sold out. You have to be into this all the way. There's, there's no 90% 50% Like, you gotta be all in to follow me. He's saying, Yeah, you can love God. He didn't say this here. But I believe that if we read all of the teachings of Jesus, we can safely say, Jesus is saying between the lines, yes, you can love God. Yes, you can. You can believe but to follow me. This followership thing, like Elijah did, is a soul. Doubtless it's an all the way. It's a complete commitment. Jesus is teaching them several things. followership is not easy, we know that, but also that we have to abandon self interest to listen, to lean into this lifestyle to live into it. You don't have to, you don't have to sacrifice a lot of self interests. If you want a good church, or good experience in church, where you go to Sunday, and the worship is great. And they got good programs and all that you don't have to there's not we see this in church, great churches all over the country, and the world for that that matter that fact but there are many places you can go and worship and love God. And the men the commitment is minimal. Now, yes, there they're teaching Yes, give your whole life and way to the Lord. But the actual Kingdom commitment is not real high. And so there are many people who have done this now part of the problem with that is it has led to a watered down faith in many places. And that's not healthy. But this I in and oh, by the way, this followership happens in many of those churches, but it doesn't usually happen across the board. It happens in, in smaller family unit, spiritual family units and relationships, but to follow, to lead to be committed as a spiritual son of spiritual father, spiritual mother is a it's a full commitment you, when you sign up to be a spiritual mother, when you sign up to be a spiritual son, when you sign up to be a spiritual father. We are signing up for this kind of lifestyle. We this is important for us, we have some decisions to make in our lives. Now many of you have already made those decisions. Some of you have made them but you're finding that you have to make them again, when we sign up for this. This is an all the way lifestyle. This is a full blown. We love God, we love one another. And we are committed and these are the people God used to change their generation. That's what I'm interested in. Right? Like, yeah, there's a sacrifice and yeah, it's heavy. It's heavy duty, but I got a feeling in 100 years from now we're gonna be really happy about it. I'm gonna happen about it now, what I've found is you can't outgive God, you can give and surrender, you get God, this is a big sacrifice have you ever done that I've done that loves the Lord. Lord, this is a big one, this is a big one. And you ever noticed, it always costs a lot, it costs you, like, there's a cost to it. And sometimes I've told the Lord, what the costs on my Lord is gonna cost is gonna cause that, and it's gonna cause this not complaining, but just having that conversation of how costly it is. But I'd say I just have to do it, I love him so much. And that's the the Spirit that God wants us to have in the heart, is that when we do it, we didn't have to be tucked into it. We did it because we're like, Mary, she brings the alabaster box, we sang about it today, there's a great teaching in these notes that we're not gonna have time to get to today. But I want to confess to you that while I was studying, I just cried and cried my tears. Because God was just showing me that it's if you look in the notes, it's called a we're not, it's called higher levels of obedience. And God began to show me this this week. And I just could not even study because my I'm just crying, this higher levels of obedience. And I'm like, Lord, this is insane. This is awesome. Because he began to show me this. But it's it's a different kind of obedience, it's different. And you can read through the notes, and maybe you'll have more to share next week than I will. But I'll tell you what, I could not even learn it without crying. And you know, me, I don't just cry at everything. But I was just like, Lord, this is awesome. This is beautiful. Jesus doesn't want to coheres you to do it. He doesn't want to force you to do anything that you don't want to do other than he wants to you to repent. So you will want to do it right. But the point is that he wants us to come to him with willing hearts. And then he shows us the secret way of how to get there. That's what's cool about God is He knows how to change the heart. I love that. That's why David said Delight yourself in the Lord. And He shall give you the desires of your heart. How did I get off on that? Man, I'll tell you, I want to teach on this next subject so much, but we're not going to have time today. This type of spiritual father and mothering, this type of spiritual leadership, this type of discipleship will be required of anybody who's going to walk in the mantle of Elijah, and impart the mantle of Elijah, in these final generations. Now, guys, there are people who would argue with me about this or say, I don't think that's true. But I'll tell you from the bottom of my heart, I believe it is. I believe it is, I believe that it this is the way God calls us. And when we live this way, you're going to be stunned at what God will do through you. The impartation do not say you're unqualified, don't look at your mistakes. God is in the business of taking people who make mistakes. God is in the business of taking people who haven't had those victories we talked about earlier, and making us victorious. And even when we teach on this next section next week, I even talk about Peter, you know, Peter goes, Lord, you know, I'm with you all the way to the end. You know, even though Peter failed, I like Peter, because, I mean, he thought he's like, Lord, I'll die with you. Now, do you think he was serious? I know, he was serious. He was dead serious. He was like, Lord, I will die with you before I'll let this happen. Now he did pull his sword and cut a guy's ear off. But, you know, once he found out Jesus methodology for dying, he wouldn't so excited about it anymore. But I still like him. Because Jesus is like, you know what, I'm gonna make you bigger, stronger, you're going to have faith? And yes, you're going to be like this. It just won't be as quick as you thought it was. And so even if you and I are like Peter, and we go, Lord, I'm all in. And then something happens. And we're like, Oh, I'm not all in remember, Peter, because he can still pull us into that. But he's not going to do it by talking us into it. Can I get an amen? Yeah. Because Because of Elijah's example, we see this life practice of spiritual leadership followership, as what I call a three fold braided cord. And this you know, the Bible doesn't say it, it just I'm looking at all these scriptures going. This looks to me like a three fold cord. It's spiritual fathering, and I'll throw in mothering too, because I think That's, that's in their spiritual father and a mother. Spiritual sonship is the second braid. And then what does that bring about the third braid, generational transfer. And that core does not work with two braids. It only works with three, you got to have all three of those braids together. And synonymously. They're kind of like this braided cord, which each of these calls with each of these qualities, Elijah relating to Elijah as a spiritual father, the followership and sonship of Elijah, he committed everything. And Elijah carrying that mantle and Malcolm for now, we gave a lot of examples in a previous teachings on Paul, and Jesus, this pattern keeps repeating itself. It repeats itself with Jesus, it repeats itself with Paul, it repeats itself with the church fathers. And I believe that God is is reviving this to repeat itself in the in times, to prepare and Elijah generation, and the two witnesses and I believe that they're the church will be like the two witnesses on the earth, in the final generations. And I'm gonna tell you what an exciting time to be alive, to impart this to these to those who are ready for this message. And there are many who are. So you might get tired of hearing me talk about it. Because if you'll notice, when we did our school spiritual leadership, I'm talking about it on a different angle. But I can't I have to be faithful. The Lord is bringing this in from every which angle, because this is something I've think he's pouring out in us, I believe he's pouring into us. And you are key to this. Because the way we take this to the nation's is not by it's not the Billy Graham method, the God's not going to do this the Billy Graham method, what's the Billy Graham method, the Billy Graham method is, is that we build a big ministry, and we get lots of supporters. And then, and then you guys really helped me out and I become Billy Graham, right? Or you go start a ministry and you become you see what I'm saying? It's not going to work like that. This is something that the church must raise up many spiritual fathers and mothers and the way they become spiritual fathers and mothers is by having spiritual fathers and mothers and living in this impartation. And when we do, this generational transfer of the mantle of Elijah is happening on a grand scale. So in this way, one more paragraph here, in this way of living, exhibited by Elijah, Jesus and Paul, spiritual parenting, and the followership, discipleship way of life, are you guys kind of tracking now, this is a followership, discipleship way of life. It's the center of gravity of our faith practice, it's a center of gravity of our walk with God. In other words, I have decided, Okay, Lord, I see in this call, I can no longer walk with you as a consumer based Christian anymore. I can no longer walk with you, Lord, as a commercial, what I call commercial Christian, I are a cultural Christian either. Like, I recognize, Lord, this is a live call. And I have to be all in to live in the blessings and the fruit of this. So, I will tell you, even for myself in the Western Church, this concept has been very foreign to me. Even though you guys have known me all these years, and I've been teaching little bits and pieces here, I gotta tell you that culture change is not easy. I still find myself having to transform paradigms of thinking, in my own mind, around this kind of living. And most of us believe that we can walk and serve God without this way of life, either subliminally or overtly. Yes, we can. But it's very minimal. Compared to this way Jesus teaches us, God is calling His church here it is back to spiritual family, back to spiritual parenting, and sonship. Back to this kind of obedience and listening he and flow and that flows from these kinds of relationships, relationships, because the Kingdom always flows along relationships, not long organizations. The Kingdom will work through organizations, but it's conducted through relationships. He is calling us back to the authentic spiritual authority that flows from these kinds of relationships. And he's calling us to the mantle of Elijah and generational transfer that flows From these kinds of relationships, let's pray. Lord, we just thank you so much to be alive in this hour. What an honor it is to be called to live in the hour in which we live, open our eyes. Help us to see the generation which we're living. Open our eyes, causes us to see who we are, who you see us as, as individuals as people in this hour. Oh, God opened our eyes to see the spiritual landscape of what is occurring in the heavens and on earth in this very moment, in this very time. What a time to be alive. And, Lord, we want to thank You that You've called us that you actually trust us with this calling. And that's kind of scary. But Lord, we thank you that you're with us and that you will bring us into the fullness of this divine call and understanding of it which we still Lord are still learning. We're still trying to understand it in greater fullness. So we thank you in Jesus name, Amen and Amen. 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