Advent Meditation On Adoration Followed By The Seven Pillars (Part 15)-The Higher Levels Of Obedience - Janae Go & Rod Mills

Advent is more than a time of celebrating an event but is actually a time of adoration and worship of a person, Jesus. True adoration requires intimacy, which requires vulnerability. In this meditation on Advent we focus on the deep adoring worship that comes when we fully open up ourselves before the Lord in intimacy.
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​Well, that scripture for this Sunday is John 316, which I think we all know. And it's one of those things, it's really easy to get used to, which I think is perfect for what the Lord put on my heart to share. So I'm going to read the Scripture first. It's 316 and 17. For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world, through him. I have to start with the story. Because you guys know I love Advent, and using it as a time to really press into the Lord and like, remembering what the seasons about remembering again, the story that the Lord has brought us into. And this week, we were getting ready to go I think we were going to mom and dad's taking all the grandkids over to do something fun and Christmassy and I was like, singing a Christmas song getting my shoes on. And I was really happy. And it was right on this line. I can't remember what song this is. But you know, the, there's a happy feeling nothing in this world can buy. And I was singing that. And I just go, oh, shoot, I forgot to buy a Christmas present for I'm not gonna say who I forgot. I'm recording. And just immediately, you know, that physical feeling of stress that comes from your head and you feel it go all the way to your toes? You're like, oh, no, I haven't even found something. What if it doesn't come in time. And as soon as I felt it, I just realized how ironic it was that I'm singing this happy feeling nothing wrong. And I was like, that's kind of what Christmas the whole Christmas season in the Advent season is like, like, that's our actual experience of it. Is this sort of like, oh, Lord, thank you. And then we don't have the person's I didn't wrap anything. And then you're like, oh, right, right, right, V center V center, in you're just kind of this whole series. So I wanted to start with that. That story. Before we go into this, just keep that in mind. The other thing, not just we all know about the craziness, I don't have to teach on like, oh, it can be stressful and crazy this time of year. We all know, we all know that. But one of the things that I want to point out that sometimes can happen. When even when we're in worship, and adoration of this time of year, it can easily become about celebrating the season or the event. And we kind of stopped right there. Those are both just glorious and wonderful. But there's another step there's a second step to take. And what I mean by that is we look at the wonder, you know, like oh, Jesus came as a baby, we think about the event, we see the picture of Jesus as a baby coming to earth. And we're like, wow, that's it's wonderful. Oh, Jesus came and contained himself in a human body. And we and that's kind of the first step, you know, or we think of this as the time to celebrate the birth of Jesus and what he's done for us. And it's the event Do you guys see what I'm saying? How it's, it's the event and the wonder of what happened. But worship, and adoration and love is not of the event that happened? It comes from that because that is the action of God's love for us. But worship and adoration and love is of a person. And I'm not gonna apologize for crying in this, but I will apologize for the times I'll have to stop because I knew this was gonna happen this morning. I could not stop being completely wrecked. What the Lord was speaking on this and what he has for this so I pray that I can get this out clearly. The next critical step of worship, adoration and love is to look at the person of Jesus To see who he is and to enter into the intimacy that adoration takes. You have to enter into the circle of revelation and love. And what I mean by that is, when we look at Jesus, and we even look at the actions that show his love, we get revelation of that love. You see, like, look what he did, then the next thing is, look, this is the revelation, it starts to sink into your hearts starts to touch you, not just your mind, and you see what he did. And you can make the logical sense of why this transaction works for God to redeem us from our sin. You can get it into your heart and into your soul. That's the revelation. And then the adoration comes out of the Revelation, The Adoration doesn't come out of the intellectual knowledge. It comes out of the heart, the revelation, changing your soul, then the adoration begins to arise. And as you adore, you look at Jesus, you look at God and who he is, and you're entering and more into seeing what he's done. And feeling what he's done for you and knowing what he's done for you. And then, right, that's revelation, again, an iteration, and it's a circle and a cycle. So how do we take the next step from just looking at the events and celebrating the event, into actually going into that heart? I was sort of asking the Lord, this follows during this morning. I was like, so this is the application part, right? Holy Spirit, how do we take the next step? And I felt like the Lord said, you know how to take the next step. And you all do, I'm not gonna get up here and tell you how to worship God, because you already know it's one of those things like eating when we know how to worship God. And it's kind of like me saying, Well, guys, don't forget, this is the season of feasting. So don't go out there and just smell all the food and say, Look at this feast. Wow. And just take it all in with your eyes and your nose, and then be like, but how do we eat it? It's like, take the next step, make a plate and start eating. Like we all know how to worship. But so what I actually want to encourage us to is to do is, remember, when we start to, okay, Jesus, look what you've done for us and you and you feel that first step you're taking it, it still has to be the first step. Remember, take the next step in to looking at Jesus, the person of Jesus, to starting to adore and to worship, and not to just focus on the events of Advent or the event of Jesus coming again. But to look at, you're coming again, you're coming back for me, you are going to rescue us. And you start to get in do you guys are starting to pick up what I'm saying here, you get into who he is, because of what he's doing and what he's promising to do. One thing that one of my favorite authors said, one time that has always stuck with me is life is a series of forgetting and remembering, forgetting and remembering, and that's our struggle in this world is that, you know, sometimes you're like, I have all this wonder and worship and the next day you wake up and you feel a little off. And you're like, Well, what's going on? You forget? And then you remember. And sometimes then we get into life, and we start forgetting. And we remember. And I think one of the important parts to point out is that to not beat yourself, don't waste time beating yourself up about about forgetting. Because I sometimes think Satan uses that as a strategy. You know, we just stay home. I've forgotten again, oh, I'm not worshiping. I'm getting all caught up whatever it is. And I have a story to tell about that. And I don't think he's gonna mind me telling it on the recording. But my brother Andrew, when we were young, like teenagers and young adults, he would, he would always do this. He's a good example. I don't think he's gonna mind. I hope he doesn't mind when we already probably knows what I'm gonna say, when we were kids, young people, you know what I mean? He would just come to me me like, he'd be really unsatisfied about where he was in the Lord, something going on in his life, you know, and he'd just be like, Man Janae I haven't been praying like I shouldn't I'm just not feeling the connection of the Lord and I did this thing wasn't right. And and he would just kind of go on. And I'd be like, well, and just Get up again, like, let's, let's go just start back like you have the right heart. And I would have to just I felt like I would have to just kind of give him a push of stop, just sit like you know what's wrong, and you know what's right. So don't be paralyzed in that place, you know, take the step forward, don't don't waste your time being worried that you forgot. It's like, well, you've remembered now and just remember, it's a series I forgot. Now I remember I'm stepping back into it. And you keep stepping back into the revelation of the Lord. Andrews not like that anymore. Haven't had a phone call like that in about 10 years. So just so you know. adoration and love of Jesus, this is my third point, not only do we forget, but one thing that can be a block to looking at that is the adoration and love. And worship of Jesus, or of anyone, this is just a truth takes actively opening up ourselves and inviting intimacy. You can't love and adore and worship someone that you don't know. Now, sometimes it kind of seems like you can because we say oh, they're worshiping that celebrity, or like, Oh, they're just in love with that person they don't even know. But what really what we do, when that happens is we create a character in our mind. And they have all these attributes, and they treat us a certain way. And that's a total fantasy. And then we say that we adore them, that's what we adore is something that we've created, or we adore someone that we actually really know. And my point about this is intimacy that can sometimes be the wall where we stay at worshipping the event, or just worshipping at the event like Thank you, God that you did that. And you just kind of stay right at the event. And the way I think of it is like you walk up to the doorway of God's house and you look inside, the doors open. And you look inside, and it's beautiful. And there's a feast and beautiful Christmas decorations and all the things you see the love. But you just stand at the doorway and say, Wow, look at this house. It's beautiful. And you just stand there looking at it in the doorway all the time. When God is inside the home, and He's inviting us in, I think of if you've ever seen that cartoon Christmas, Carol, the with Jim Carrey. In the second Ghost of Christmas Present. Scrooge is doing the same thing. He's sitting at the doorway. And he's like, ooh, like all the Christmas decorations in his own house. And the big giant Ghost of Christmas presents has come in man and know me better. And that's what I see God saying when we're standing at the doorway, looking at just the events and stopping there worshiping but just stopping there. God saying come in and know me better. You have to come into the intimacy of the home, you have to come in to knowing Him and to looking at him. And it's can be scary, because it requires opening our own hearts up going into God's heart. And when we do that, because of the world that we live in a lot of times, it means leaning in to pain. And we don't like to admit it to ourselves. But humans are extremely averse to pain. I was listening to this guy, an acting coach talked the other day about what makes a good or a bad actor. And he said a lot of times, an actor can't come off as realistic, because they avoid the pain. So if there's some kind of negative emotion they need to do, they just act it out. But they will not go into it and feel it they will avoid and it's rare to find an actor who will go in, lean into that pain and brace it and feel it because we're so averse to pain. And I think that that fear and aversion to pain can be one of the biggest blocks to intimacy with God because we don't want to think about the pain. But when we do it can be one of the biggest open doors last night. I was falling asleep in bed and I suddenly I don't know what triggered it but I suddenly had a flashback to something very traumatic that happened to me this year. And I felt If you've ever experienced something like this, you know I'm talking about you see it, almost like you're there. And I felt all the physical feelings, you know, my heart was racing. And I could see all the memory clearly and hear everything perfectly like I was there. And I started praying for help, you know, because I was panicking, in that. And I suddenly saw Jesus was there. In the memory, all through it, I could see clearly. And when I opened my heart, and allowed him in to my pain, he healed it. It completely reframes pain, and difficulty in our lives, even frustration. When we press in and allow Jesus to be in with us, it brings us very close, it brings our hearts close. And that is the key to adoration. Because we can say, God came into a human body, he sent his son Jesus, He knows what it's like to be a human, we can say all of these things and know them intellectually. And then we can open up our hearts allow God into our pain, or difficulty or fear. And then he speaks to us and says, I know what you're feeling. I have compassion, I've been there, too, and heals it. That's the difference between the event and worshiping God at kind of a shallow level, and worshiping Jesus, who he really is, and that adoration just arising out of that revelation. I had a dream last week. And I don't even remember any of the dream except this little scrap, where someone was asking me, very antagonistically Who is Jesus to you? Like someone was asking me that. And I had this feeling of like captivity and fear wherever the situation was, and someone saying, Who is Jesus to you? And in that moment, it wasn't an intellectual answer of like, Well, Jesus is my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. You know, like that kind of intellectual. I said, Jesus is my Savior. And I felt it because whatever the situation of the dream was, I needed saving. And it was deep and, and intimate. And I looked at Jesus in in my heart in the dream. I looked at him and I said, Jesus is my Savior, and it was deep, and then worship and adoration just started coming out of my heart and gratitude and the fear was gone, the captivity was gone. It was just worshiping Jesus, because I was looking at who he really was to me. So I want to encourage us this Christmas, to look at him, to see him to go beyond the doorway to walk in, know him better let that adoration arise, from that rather revelation, to know him, and then to love him. Thank you, Janae. And this just dovetails marvelously with what we're talking about today. We're on the third or the fourth pillar, talking about the pillars of the DNA, so to speak, of our own spiritual family and of other spiritual families. I call the Friends of Jesus people who have begun to live and walk this way. And I think you're going to see an interesting connection between these two. Very fascinating connection. The first pillar was prayer. The second one was a lifestyle prayer, I should say, apostolic prayer, the first pillar. second pillar is a lifestyle in the spiritual disciplines. The third one is, is really a lifestyle of spiritual family, and living in spiritual family community, what we call communities of Revelation. And so now, the fourth one we've been talking about, is a lifestyle in obedience and listening and we talked about how obedience the Latin word for obedience is listening. And that doesn't, we don't necessarily have a connection right away. To that until we think of it as parents were You look to your kids and you say, listen to me. Well, what you're really saying is, hear what I'm saying. And obey is really, you're trying to get their attention. And it's not just that you want their intellectual attention, you want them fully engaged with what you're speaking to them, because they think you're getting ready to tell them what to do, when in fact, what you're doing, you are telling them what to do, but what you're seeking to do, is to impart truth and life into them through their actions in life to, you're trying to pour out an enormous amount into their life. And so what you mean, and what they think you mean are two different things. And today, I'd like to continue this fourth pillar, and talk about the higher levels of obedience. There are levels of obedience. And this was not real clear to me for a long time. What I call the loyal actions that flow from love. Now, that's what Janae was talking about is seeing past the event, and seeing to the full engagement with it, that what you're really talking about love. That's really what you're, what you're defining or talking about is the love. And in obedience is the same way. And we don't often or I won't say often, we don't always hit the bullseye of God's best. And this is often illustrated in the times in life, when God gives us choices in life directions, all these different things. I mean, I would like to say that I always hit the bullseye in life, but I don't we're not perfect, right? We can all look back. And you know, it's funny because Hindsight is 2020. And long distance also, hindsight is really 2015 or 20. It's even better vision over time. And we can see more clearly, when we look back and see those things we've done. And often this is true and major decisions in life minor decisions. But here I want to share with you some examples that come to mind. As we explored a few weeks ago, Elijah, he demonstrated this sold out Agnus, right this, he wasn't just Intuit for a job like when Elijah came along. And he called him to follow him. He Alicia was not just like, oh, yeah, new career, good deal. I'll update my LinkedIn. Right. It wasn't that kind of attitude. He likes shit for a lie ship, it was not required to sacrifice his oxen, and to burn up all of his implements in the fire. That was not, it wasn't there was no requirement for him to do that. And yet, this was the means of his livelihood. And he literally sacrifices all of his oxen. I think there were 12 If I remember the Scripture, but there were all these oxen that was his livelihood as a farmer. And then he takes all of his farm implements and uses them as the firewood. And he burns it up like this, dude, this is a different kind of level of obedience. You know, this is not the level of obedience that says, Okay, let me go talk to my parents. I'll put all my farm implements and storage, I'll have my dad take care of the oxen, just in case things don't work out. You know, he didn't. It wasn't that kind of commitment to Elijah or to the Lord. It was a high level of obedience. It was this heart level, like Janay saying concerning love on an adventure, it was not just the event. It was the whole shooting match the whole thing. We looked at Timothy back in the summer. He's another example of this kind of this sold out pursuit of God. And I had read the Scripture during our honoring spiritual fathers teaching. And Paul makes this amazing comment in Second Timothy, chapter one, that all the leaders in Asia had forsaken him. Let that sink in for a minute. When Paul died when Paul was martyred. There were very few left who were with Him. Very few. Does that remind you of anybody? Remember Jesus, and yet Paul still love them. He still love them. But here is this beautiful I love. I just love the faithfulness of God. I love I just love it. And you see it in Timothy's life. And there's Timothy and he still sold out. He still totally in he still completely committed. And his commitment to God was reflected in his commitment to Paul. You can't say you're committed to God and forsake your spiritual children. You can't say you're committed to God. and forsake your spiritual parents. Right? That doesn't work. Like the fact that he's committed to the Lord. His heart was wholeheartedly toward the Lord is manifested in his wholehearted commitment to Paul. And likewise, Paul, for Timothy, there's this wholehearted level of obedience. It's, it's people who live at this level, live at a different altitude. They live at a different elevation than everybody else. They're not any more special than anybody else. But they just took the opportunity in the promises of God and said, Yes, Lord, I want to live this way. I want to live all the way in. Peter demonstrated this, he wanted this kind of now, you know, what if you and I don't have it, and we want it, that's a good thing. Remember when Peter, Peter gets a lot of flack, and I think we're way too hard on these guys. And some of it is just the hubris of modernity. We live in modernity, where and we look back, we think, oh, people back then weren't as smart. And they're just as smart as we were. They didn't have the technology. They didn't have the breakthroughs. But you and I are not Isaac Newton, right? We're just living in the fruits of Isaac Newton. Right. The point is that we are generation there's a hubris, there's a, there is an arrogance that looks upon all of humanity, like they were less than we are. It's not true. We're all human. It's not like as the further back in time you go IQs go down, right? It doesn't work that way. And so don't be too hard. On Peters all I'm saying. And Peter wanted this dedication. And remember, Peter said, Lord, you know, I think it was Matthew 26. Peter said, Lord, if if you you know, if you go, I'm gonna die with you. If this happens, Lord, I will die with you. I will I'm with you all the way. And the Lord tells him what he's going to do. Was God trying to bust his bubble? Was Jesus trying to bust Peters bubble? No, he's letting him know, Peter, I already know what you're going to do. I'm with you. Like, it's not I'm not gonna quit loving you. And he there's a reassurance in that he's not condemning him. He's saying, um, your commitments, not as much as you think it is, you know, it's kind of like when you're a parent, and your kids are teenagers, and they tell you, they're going to do something, and you're like, oh, yeah, I know how long that'll last, you know. And you're not trying to bust their bubble. But at the same time, you know, there's some growth, it's, it's okay to not have but one it because that means that we're on the road to getting there. And that's where Peter was, there is there is the obedience of obeying God's commands, and keeping the words of Jesus, this is so important. This is an important foundation in practice. But there's also the obedience, of loyalty. What we would even say is the obedience of love, because if you love, if you love someone, you are loyal to them. If you love them much, you're very loyal to them. There's also the obedience of loyalty and love. And it takes the initiative to live deeper than the commands. This is what Jesus taught again, and again, he was teaching about living deeper than the commands. This was his constant conflict with the Pharisees, because they were stuck on the commands, but not the heart and the roots that go, they were stuck to use generic vernacular, they were stuck on the event, and not the reasons and people persons for the event that are in the event. It's that which lives from the heart and goes beyond external obedience to the command. It's the kind of listening that listens to more than just external expectations. It's what I like to call heart listening. Now, if you're married, this is an very important skill. We've taught this many, many times in our marriage retreats. You can't just listen to the words, you have to listen to the heart. You can't just read the lines. You have to read between the lines. You have to look at the person's heart. You have to see that what they're saying is only part of the story. And what's in their heart is the rest of the story. What their words are to use your vernacular Janay is just the event. But the love is to see beyond it into the heart to see the whole person whether it be Jesus or whether it be someone we love. It is loyal and listens to the heart and read spawns with deep love and counseling marriages. Over the years, I have counseled many marriages that are, I'd say eight to 1012 years old and some are much longer. And whenever they come in their marriage is falling apart. And, and what's happening is they're not getting this, this is the thing they're not getting. This is core to what they're not getting. And they went about their marriage following the rules of what you're supposed to do in marriage. But they were missing the heart and passion of the deeper loves and loyalties that flow from this kind of listening. So this deep heart listening, it's easy to miss, we get busy, we're raising families, we're doing our jobs and all of these things. And it's easy to just pass by it. So if we were to draw a Venn diagram, and I don't have a board here today, but if we were to draw a Venn diagram, and put a few terms up there, we put obedience up here, and then we drew a circle that that's obedience, and then we drew a circle and that's listening, listening would would be a big section, they would overlap each other, listening and obedience would be much the same, they would be very similar. So there would be a lot of overlap in those two circles. But there would also be a big overlap of love. So where does this obedience and listening spirit come from? Ultimately, it comes from love. Ultimately, it's beyond just going through the motions. Without this kind of deep heart listening and love for one another. The marriage turns into a business proposition. I'll say that, again, the marriage without that the marriage turns into a business proposition, you say, what do we mean? We have these agreements? We have these lifestyles. Who does this with the kids? Who does this with the dishes? Who does this with a job? Who does this? It's kind of like being in a unit in the military or being on a job ever do you have your job description, they have their job description, and we do them right. That's what it becomes transactional. And the same is true in our relationship with God, if we're not careful, our relationship with God can turn into a business relationship. God does this and I do that. And we have our job descriptions, he has his job descriptions. And pretty soon, we start losing heart and Janae you that was a great who would have thought this would be such a great intro into what we're talking about. Because at the heart of this kind of hire obedience, it's impossible to have it unless we have love, deep love, the more love you have, the easier it is. Paul says in first Corinthians 13 One, if we don't have love, we become a sounding brass or a clanging cymbal. Now obedience is the fruit of love. But obedient, even obedience can become hollow. That's what he means. When he says the brass and the symbol. He's saying that hollow sound, you know, anything we do, any act we do, we could sacrifice he said, you could sacrifice your body to be burned, you can give to the poor, you can do this, you can do that. And he lists all these things that we can do. But to use your term brother, he's saying all these things without enormous love is transactional. And they're hollow. And Janae is talking to us about how not how Christmas is not to be hollow. It's not to just be event and event. So submission to one another as part of this, we've covered that and the scripture that teaches us to do that. But it involves a deep obedience and listening to one another. Right? So now, it's not that we just have this transactional relationship, but we learn to listen from the heart to one another. We start listening from the heart. Now, we're not always good at this. None of us are perfect at this. But like you said, you know, if you forget, like if someone says something to you, and you know, just kind of goes, Oh, yeah, that's good, good. You're busy, blah, blah, blah, you get home. You start thinking about it, and you're like, Oh, I think I wasn't heartless. I mean, I do that a lot. I had a whole lot of times I do this. I get home. And it's a little quieter at my house most of the time now. Most of the time. Not, not this weekend. And I get home and it's quieter. And part of you know, it's a Holy Spirit showing it to me. And I go, I don't think I was hard listening. And so I'll have to reconnect with that person. loving one another involves this deep obedience. So in Jesus example, in this kind of obedience, when God calls us to go with him a mile now I know he says, You're your brother, but let's look at God. When the Lord says, hey, if the Lord ever called you to do something, or ask you to do something, it's Hey, will you do this? How many times do we say Yes, Lord? And how many times do we say, matter of fact, Lord, I'll. I'll go with you, too. Don't be afraid of failure. That's what I love about Peter. He's like, Lord, and I'll go with you. I'll go all the way the death it Peters not like, Lord, I'll go with you two miles. He's like, Lord, I'll go all the way to the cross with y'all die with y'all Baba, Baba. But at least he's trying. And it's those kinds of people who end out walking on the water. Because he was the only apostle in the boat who said, Lord, if it's you, call me out, come out. Oh, and I want this kind of heart before the Lord. Peter starts sinking back to back to your words. Janay. Why do we not ask Jesus to call us out on the water? Fear? Did he think he did sink for a little bit? God saved him? Did he fail? Did his words fall to the ground? Did he deny the Lord three times? You bet he did. But he also came back and he also was there Pentecost. And he also wrote two books of the Bible. And he also sits on one of 12 thrones in the heavens, according to Jesus. Quit criticizing Peter. I think he liked it. I got a man in heaven. Let's Let's be like that. Let's be like Peter, let's say Yes, Lord. I want to be like that. Or David's example. In this kind of obedience and listening, young David. He, what were his marching orders. He was given instructions to take lunch to his brothers, one preacher said, God called him to take some sandwiches down to his brothers on the battle line on the forward edge of battle. It gets there and this giant is defying the Lord's armies. And he could not like this higher level of obedience we're talking about. This is the thing about this kind of love that moves us to this level. It's very, very passionate. It's very intense. And sometimes it's very uncontrollable. I have a feeling that when Jesus when Peter asked Jesus to get to call him out on the water, I just have this feeling that he probably thought, what did I just say? Like? What did I just ask? And I'm sure David probably had that feeling too. Like he's like, Well, who is this? You know, he's a kid up there. I lose that giant that a father, armies of the living God, and then he's probably like, Oh, I'm committed. Now higher level of obedience is not something you just go in and dilly dally, and you look at your list and you go, Oh, I think I'll obey God on the higher levels today. It's something that wells up out of the heart like you're teaching us Janay I've always liked to say this worship is volcanic. Real worship is volcanic. It comes up out of this furnace of this relationship with God. It's not like you go, Oh, Catholic, I'll put some love out today in my worship. It's like you just like, Yo, and then next thing you know, just pull it you know, and and you might have just had marching orders to take sandwiches to your brother on the on the forward edge of battle. And next thing you know, you're going who's as giant to defy the arm as a living God, and you're living at a higher level of obedience. You're at a high C Well, he was listening to the Lord the Lord. The voice of the Lord was so loud about obedience and listening. The voice of the Lord was so strong in his life. It just came out of his mouth before he could even almost think about it. Yes, spontaneous. Mary. Oh, I love this story. She couldn't just ask Jesus to forgive her of her sins. She was like, she gets this alabaster box, worth a year's wages. And she can't she probably didn't have time to even calculate what she was doing. Her heart. It was volcanic. It's coming out of her heart. And she's like, Jesus and that she was asking Him to forgive her. But rather than just Lord, please forgive me. She brought that box in and she poured out a year's wages, and everybody started criticizing her, you just wasted money you could have given to the poor. This was a criticism, Jesus got a lot in his ministry. So you could have given to the poor with this, you could have done this. And they start thinking with their head instead of their heart. And this higher level of obedience comes from the heart. You can try to produce it in the head all day long. You can calculate, you can write books on it, you can figure out how to do it. And still it won't work. It has to come out of the heart and why won't it work. Because when you finish calculating, you're going to realize that when you get on that water, you're going to sink. When you finish calculating, you're going to figure out that nine foot giant will kill you. Right? When you finish calculating, you're going to figure out that you just wasted a year's wages. Your mind can't get there. I love the mind. You guys know I love intellectual. I love going to college. I love teaching college. I love them. I love intellectual. But we can't put intellectual where the heart belongs. Right? This higher level of obedience, moves his head, this kind of obedience. Even though Moses was allowed by the laws of God, to live as a prince in Egypt, when he found out who he was, the Bible says he first took all of it, the pleasures of sin, the pleasures of those of that extravagance, to go live with the slaves. The mind would say, Hey, you can help them a lot more in Pharaoh's palace than you can down there living with the slaves. The mind says, you could do so much more for the slaves. If you're up there in front of Pharaoh every day in your apprentice and you're in charge who knows? You might be Pharaoh someday and the heart just goes, No. I'm gonna live with my brethren. I'm going to live with the children of promise, a higher level of obedience. These examples are people who took the initiative to choose God's best. And God's best always comes from the heart and the heart affections. They went above and beyond what was required, because their hearts were sold out to God to His ways to the spiritual shepherds in their lives to God's people in their lives to the slaves. Everyone they were sold out to all God loves, not just God. You cannot say you love God, but then not treat with great care, those ones that he loves so dearly. Those ones he says those little He calls us little ones, and says it would be better if someone harms him it would be better for them if they would had a millstone wrapped around their neck and cast them to the sea. Be careful. Be careful. When we love God, we love those that are precious to him. This higher level plunging into this higher level of obedience. We talked about this this week on on the tech stream. I don't remember who sent out the first tech I think it was Nicole sent it out. But this is the pathway out of the lifestyle of surviving and into the lifestyle of thriving. This is the difference. One is this lifestyle that says okay, I'll just obey God, on a minimal level. They kind of live in the shadows of Canaan, like on the edges of Canaan, they live on the edges of the promised land. We don't want to live on the edges of the Promised Land. Brad was talking about this. I think last week, maybe it'd be in prayer council about those who had gone into Canaan, but then not taking the promised land that was given to them. I don't want to live that way. This is the whole heart obedience that Joshua describes actually, that the Lord describes in Joshua, he says the Book, this Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth. In other words, keep saying it's always You're always saying that you're always speaking, you're always speaking. He says, You shall meditate in a day and night, not meditate in it. Every Sunday, or every Sunday, Wednesday night or for us every Sunday, Tuesday night. You should not just meditate in it. Every morning, he says every day and night. In other words, just it's just it's all encompassing us. And then he says that you may observe to do all that's a big word. Only three letters in the English language. Oh, that is right. And then it and then you will make your way prosperous, then you will be blessed. He says, then you'll be strong, you'll be have a good courage, you won't be afraid, you won't be dismayed, you won't, you won't shrink back. He says, For the Lord your God is with you. The point that he's making here is, this is how you live on the higher levels of obedience. This is how we live in the spirit of victory. We talk about this a lot. And this is something I pray for us as a spiritual family, as a people as families, I have prayed this since I was very young, and I pray for spirit of victory. And I had this imparted to me from a couple of spiritual fathers when I was young, in my late teens, early 20s. And I always thought, okay, you know, you're gonna have to accept some defeats here and there, you know, that's just the way life is. And I'm not saying we don't have to experience defeats, but don't go in it that way. We'd go in it going, Okay, I'm contending for the full victory. I'm contending for the whole thing. Many of you know my personal testimony, when God called us to start air Nova. And he said, these were the words I heard in my spirit. And I heard him many times as I prayed. And the Lord says, I'll make it worth your while. And, but he didn't promise me like, he didn't go if you do it, I'll do this, I'll do this. I'll do this. Now, after we got here, and we started. Then he spoke to me and says, now that you're here, and you're doing it, and then he spoke some things to me, and says, I want to make a promise, because you did this. And he spoke some promises to me. But he did say to me, he says, if you stay in your career, you stay on the course you're on. He says, I want you. The Lord told me this very clearly, very, very clearly. He says, I want you to know, I will bless you. And then he told me, this other pathway, I will bless you. He says, I'll bless you in both pathways. Now, what do you do when God tells you two pathways? And he says, I'll bless both of them? What do you do? What do you do? What do you guys do? Do you roll the dice? What do you do? Yeah, it was like, Lord, okay. And so this is what happened to me. I inquired deeper. Oh, like, Ah, I feel like he's wants to say something more. And I said, I was like, my attitude was, I don't think I said this. But my attitude was, Lord, I don't want to roll the dice here. That's where I felt. And so I inquired further. And I was like, Lord. You know what, tell me more. And he said, but this is closer to my heart. That's all I needed. That's all I needed. I didn't need anything else. Like my heart just leaked. I just went home. He says, this is closer to his heart. I said, Lord, and I started crying. When he said it to me in prayer. I started crying. I said, Lord, I couldn't even finish my sentence. So that's where I'm going. I'm going that way. My like many of these kinds of decisions, it involves sacrifice. You have to sacrifice, money, prestige. Whatever those things are, the Lord will always have something you have to sacrifice. I mean, you may not know what they are, but they will be there. And I love David's words and chronicles 21. He says, I will not give him anything. That costs me nothing. That's what David said. Don't you love his heart? He's like, No way. He's remember he was getting ready to make a sacrifice. And the guy who owned the land says here, and he's like, hey, you know, he goes, No, he goes, I'll buy the land, I'll buy the buy this, I'll buy this. I will not give him anything that costs me nothing. There's always a price to pay. But you will never outgive God, never. You will never sacrifice more than God can bless you with. Dick Duncan has taught me this principle in his life. And I've just loved these conversations. He says, this is one addict, he, if you spend any kind of time with him, you'll hear about this. He says, Lord, and at first time he said it to me, it kind of threw me off for a minute he goes, Lord, I don't really want to do your will. What, what? And then he finishes he goes, I want to do those things that bring you the greatest pleasure. In other words, I want to bring I want to do your most precious will I want to Lord if you want to, if you want me to do Your will I just want you to put me in the center like what's most precious to your heart? We will find that when when we ask the Lord this question, most, if not all of the time, it will be directly linked to his people. Because his people are his most precious possession on the earth. His people are more precious than anything, any other things on the earth and in the heavens. So it will always come back to something to do with his people in some way, shape, or form. Now, I mentioned this illustration I'm gonna talk about today, I mentioned that two weeks ago, I like to buy my wife flowers. So if you come to our house, a lot of times, there are flowers. Now I have a confession to make. She's not here to enjoy. Oh, she isn't here to enjoy it. So when we first got married, you guys, is there any there's really nobody here knew me. When we first got married, I was Mr. Practical, right? And so she liked flowers. And I said, Well, why would you want to? Like, why do we want to get flowers because a week from now they're gonna be wilted. They're dying. Let's get some plastic flowers, because they'll last all year long. You know, it's like cousin Eddie and Christmas vacation. It's the gift that just keeps on giving Clark. And I'm like, I'm trying to understand why you wouldn't want plastic flowers, because they'll last all year you put them up. They're beautiful in the house, kind of like these Christmas trees. Here. They you get them every year, right? They never will the needles don't fall off any of that. Yep. But I learned that what she loves is real flowers. And so often I go look for flowers. And when I'm looking for flowers, sometimes it'll kind of be What do I like, but most of the time, it's like, I'm thinking now What was she like? Like, what kind of flowers does she like I know, as I say, give me a lot of years, but I'm figuring it out what flowers she likes. Sometimes I'll surprise her, try to expand her tent pegs a little bit and a flower loving. But that I love to buy her flowers because I know how it touches her heart. I don't care if they will. Right? Because I know how it touches your heart. Now, it's not the same. If she says hey, when you're down at the grocery store, will you buy flowers? Now? You bet your money. I'm gonna buy some flowers. Right. But my point is, it's not the same as when she doesn't ask me. This is the stuff with marriages. I always had trouble with these marriages, especially in the army, trying to tell them okay. Well, she you know, the guy soldiers do what they're told, right? And they don't do what they're not told a lot of times, you know, and so I'm trying to okay, I know, she didn't tell you to buy flowers, but that's what she wanted. You know, dude, you gotta learn to read between the lines, you know? And that's not the way the military operates, right? Neither is it the way God operates. There is no command in the Bible to husbands that says, Buy your wife flowers, right? Because then if you were buying her flowers every time you did, your wife would be thinking, Well, you did that because God told you you had to write. But there is a command to love your wives, to love your wife, Husbands love your wives. Right. But God did this in such an ingenious way. So that he gives you a command. But then there is a way for you to enter into the higher levels of the way this command works. And we're able to give from the heart. And this is the same type of thing. David's talking about in our relationship with God that He shows us that Alicia shows us that these Peter shows us that all of these ones, because it's about the heart affection, that blooms the initiative. It's the heart affection that causes that initiative to bloom out into reality. The higher ways of obedience are about much more than doing what God tells us. Now, I'm not saying that obedience is doing more than God tells us please hear me on this. If God says I want you to be a missionary to such a such country. And so you go to that country and you're a missionary and you think well Lord, this worked out so well. I'm gonna go to 10 more. You better ask him first. Right? Like we don't mean like, if God tells you to, to invest into a group of however many people 50 People don't figure out how to make it 1000 Just trust the Lord and he'll show you the way so I'm what we're not saying is don't just add on things to the call of God. We're not saying that At, but folks have made sacrifices that God didn't call them to. God will not hold you accountable to how much you did. He'll hold you accountable to how much you did that he called you to write. So I just want to, to make sure that we understand that. But the higher ways of obedience are about choosing that which is closest to his heart, in that obedience and to his commands. It's about loyalty. It's about listening. It's about deep heart affection toward him. It's about desire to bless him with fullness of pleasure, by touching his heart with ours. The higher ways of obedience come from deep love, and the ways of the heart commands of Jesus, it's the initiative to buy the flowers. It's the initiative to do it. It's the initiative to choose those things in life and those directions in life that bring him the greatest pleasure. It's one thing to obey the commands of Jesus concerning specific things to do, but it's altogether different, to obey His commands concerning his heart. Because now you're reading between the lines. Now our heart listening, or you see the difference, or heart listening. So heart, listen to the Lord. Let's heart listen, because heart listening will bring us into places in God, where we've never been. This kind of obedience and listening is the yearning, of Simeon and Anna, for runners, who saw the coming to the king before he showed up. They didn't have to live in the temple. They didn't have to live their lives. They're praying seeking the Lord. But they did. And because they did, they were able to see the future they were able to see the coming King. They didn't they, they didn't have to be in this temple. They didn't have to be to that level of commandment. It wasn't required of them. But the heart had come up and move them into this place. This kind of obedience and listing is the persistence of Elijah. This is the persistence of Elijah. You see now where it's coming from. It's come from the same place who were faithful to God until the very last moments. Folks, it God's not Saint were you there are so many Scriptures in the Old Testament and the New Testament, that say, but let me just boil it down. I'm gonna paraphrase. I was just reading a zekiel yesterday about this. But it's all over the Bible, you have to be faithful to the end. That that's what marks the true elect, the people who are faithful to the end, the Scripture says this again and again and again. I just read in Ezekiel, yesterday Paul says it Jesus says it in different ways they say it, this faithfulness to the end is the manifestation of those whose hearts are his, with who the Scripture calls the elect. What am I saying? We're really saying we're communicating this higher level of obedience, is this heart level brings us into this persistence of Elijah and Elijah who Elijah goes, Hey, dude, you gotta be with me to the very end, not just with God with me. Right? And then Elijah, same thing, we see this heart toward the Lord, like it's whenever it's the end of the race. These people run through strong, they finish strong. That's why it's so important to finish strong, not so you could check the finish strong block. But because there is this growth of faithfulness in our hearts, that brings us to what is an aerodynamic a celestial level of obedience rather than a terrestrial level of obedience. And then I love what Peter says, because when we run through this tape, Peter has something incredible that he says, in one of the books a Peter, he says that tells us that we can have an abundant entrance into the kingdom. And they tell you, it doesn't really matter how many people attend your funeral. We just there was just a big state funeral for Bob Dole in our country and people around the world spoke great things. And he was a good man. He was a war veteran, and a leader and all these things but let me tell you, at the end of the day, all of that's not really going to matter to you. It's not going to matter to you how many people are crying at your funeral all over the although that's important to think about who those people are because those are the people we've invested into their lives but what really matters is not our exit but our entrance. When we enter the age to come. There are some Who will have an abundant entrance into the age to come. And it will not be based on how famous they are here, it will be based on their relationship with the king, and who knows their name in the heavens. It has nothing to do with fame. It has nothing to do with money. It has nothing to do with worldly accomplishment. It's about those whose hearts are his like these we see in Scripture, who just pursue God with everything they have. This kind of obedience is, and listening is the heart of David who yearned for God and long to build him a house. And if you remember the Prophet, Nathan, he goes, Yeah, that's a good idea. And then he came back later, he's like, Oh, no, the Lord hasn't called you to build him a house. But still his heart long to build him a house. And it Bless the Lord. The Lord did not let him build that house. But it was the heart that counted. And so his son built a house. It's not about the building of the house, it's about the heart that's going to do it. And God says, nope, nope. Because the heart, that's it. This is the higher level of obedience. This is the kind of obedience and listening the friendship of Enoch, we talk about Enoch, who walked with God, but then look how many years he walked with God. You know, back in those days, people lived longer. He walked with God for a long, long time, before he was taken. He didn't walk with God. So he would be taken. He walked with God, because he wanted to walk with God, he loved him. This is the same kind of obedience and sacrifice and listening that the early church martyrs had, Beth was reading a story to me the other day of a young mother, who was convicted of being a Christian. And she was pregnant with her baby. True story in the early church, the early first few centuries of the church and in Roman Empire. And they said, You're pregnant, you're going to have this baby. And they said, if you will deny the Lord. That's all you have to do. We'll let you live. And you can raise this child. And she did not calculate, she didn't go, well. If I didn't know the Lord, he'll understand. Because I can just turn around and affirm him again. But at least I'll be able to raise my child. She says, No, I will not deny the Lord. I will give birth to this baby. And I will go and give my life for him. And someone else will raise my child in faithfulness to him. The mind doesn't think this way. This is heart stuff. This is the heart. Well, there's a lot more here. But I just I feel like this is a good place to close. But I'll tell you, I love this. I love what God does to our hearts. I love the way He changes us. Whoever we are today, we we're not always that person, right? Like there's a guy in my past that I don't want you to know. I'm talking about me early, early on. But God changed me. And he changed you and He changes our hearts. And he's changing others. But Lord, I just want to say Father, I don't want to stop where I am in obedience. I don't want to just come into the event of Christmas and worship the event, or adore the event. I don't want to just look at the command and just do the command. But Lord, we pray for hearts that are so full like David, like Elijah, like Alicia like Moses, like Peter, like your Son, Jesus, who our hearts are completely into this all the way in, totally committed to you, which means totally committed to one another. This level of obedience is something that's a precious gift to those who want it. And Lord, we just say from the bottom of our hearts today, Lord, we want to live this way. We want to live this way in you. And it's truly an honor and a pleasure to do so. In Jesus name. Amen and Amen. Thank you for joining us today. Aaron ova is raising up spiritual leaders in many nations through our spiritual enrichment events, syndicated NetCast international prayer Council network and numerous international seminary scholarships to get There we are lighting the fires of revival, fueling prayer movements and raising up friends of Jesus in the nations. We invite you to partner with us in this extraordinary movement. 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