The Seven Pillars (Part 24)-Pillar 6 - Raising Spiritual Leaders And Spiritual Authority - Rod Mills

This is a series on the 7 Pillars of the AeroNova spiritual family, the DNA markers of who God has called us to be as a people. 
The essence of the meaning of the Great Commission is spiritual authority. Jesus command of the Great Commission is actually an impartation, of spiritual authority. This is a critical truth to walk in and impart as we raise up spiritual leaders.

Full transcript generated by ai (please excuse errors):





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​Well, this is the second week that we are talking about pillar six. And I know some of you thought, we're starting pillar seven today with all the music in worship in Spanish, but to the nations but we're still on pillar six. raising up spiritual leaders is part of our spiritual DNA. This is who we are some people and I said this last week, some people who know us, when people ask them, they go, Well, what kind of ministry? Is there an ova. And they this, I didn't tell them to say this, this is what they say. They go, Oh, they they are a ministry that raises up spiritual leaders. And I'm like, Well, yeah, that's pretty. I mean, that's pretty good, you know, so that this is a heavy part of our spiritual DNA. But you know what, you can't raise up spiritual leaders, unless you are a spiritual leader, I cannot do that. And I'm talking about being true disciples, true followers, if you will. So we believe that this is not just for the people who are on the stage, we don't even have a stage or we're on a stage once a while. But we don't believe this is for people on the stage in the front rows of the church. We believe this is for all of the church. So if you notice how many of you just finished ministering here, I wish that everyone here ministers, that's my goal. I My desire is to see everyone flourish into the fullness of their gifts and calling, including our gifts in the body of Christ, and how that spills over into everything else. So one of the key scriptures that we brought into this pillar is a is a well known when we talk a lot about in our spiritual DNA, both as a spiritual family, but also as an ecosystem. And we're recognizing an emerging movement in the earth, among many spiritual families. We talked much about the great commandments, and the Great Commission. And I don't believe we can separate these two. The people who do the great commission the best are the people who live in the great commandments. Because the love is the driving force, loving God with all of our heart, soul, mind and strength, the first command first great one, and the second one loving our neighbor as ourself. And so we literally do the Great Commission out of the overflow of living in this love relationship with God. And I don't know if you noticed it, I think you have, the more we enter into this overwhelming relationship with God and love. Love just comes out of your every which way you're loving everybody, there's people, even people who are unlovable, suddenly, it becomes a lot easier to love them. You don't have to try to love people to not love them, then you would have to try not to, to not love them, and don't do that. But the point is that the love of God, when we connect into the great commandment, the love of God just comes out of you it. It's an it's an incredible force on the earth in us, God's people. And Jesus had some things to say about the unity and love for one another, they'll have incredible impact upon people. So I'm going to read Matthew 28, again, and we're going to do or I'm just going to review a couple of main points. And then we're just going to dive right into it. Matthew 28, Jesus came and spoke to them saying, Now this is interesting. The first thing Jesus says about the Great Commission is all authority has been given to me, in heaven, and on earth. First thing he says, not go. But all authority has been given to me, in heaven and on earth. Then he says, Go therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things I've commanded you. And lo, I'm with you always, even to the end of the age. And we looked at how there's an old saying, this is not the great suggestion. It's the Great Commission. This is not just for the missionaries. This is not just for the pastors. This is to people who are followers, disciples, this is the key. To receive this word. You got to be a disciple. This is a hard word to receive if you're not a disciple, and we covered that last week. And so I'm going to review real quick to pray I suppose the 111 principle and the two to two principle Do you guys remember them? The first one, First Corinthians 11? One I know there's four ones in that but he says, Paul says, Follow me. as I follow Christ. Paul introduces to us a way in God. That is followership. In other words, he says to his leaders, and many who were called apostles, he says, the way you follow Jesus is follow me as I follow Jesus. And this kind of followership is an art and it's largely been lost in many sectors of the church, and not all sectors, thank God. But this concept of followership so that I am following someone did you guys know right now, I am following people who follow Jesus right now, you may not know that, I mean, most of you do. This week, I'm on the phone with both. Not both, I've got more than two but two main spiritual fathers. I'm on the phone with both of them this week. And, and a lot of times, those are video calls, not audio calls, because they want to see my face. And they want to see how I respond. And they want them to see me to see how they respond. This is my relationship with them. The tu tu tu principle was from Second Timothy two, two, and the things that you have heard from me, among many witnesses commit these to faithful men who will be able to teach others also. So right here we see four generations of leaders, we see Paul, we see Timothy, we see faithful men, and we see the men, those others that these men are teaching. So we see four generations. And that's the two to principle is this followership is not just happening, so that I'm following, it's also means that I'm in partying. So take Timothy, for example. He's following Paul, but he's leading faithful men, and he's teaching faithful men to lead others, right. And this is not just for men, by the way, this is men and women. Paul keeps the generational chain, got it chain, chain chain, remember that? There's a chain reaction to this. And we talked about this power. There is. Have you guys ever done that experiment? You might have done a lot of experiments when you were kids, when we were kids, we used to take vinegar, and you pour the baking soda, and then it starts fizzing over. I'll never forget one time when I was in high school, I was working at Walmart, and I was having a hard time cleaning something and I thought, Man, I gotta clean I gotta get some strong stuff. So I mean, not remembering my high school chemistry class. I had some ammonia there. And so I just poured bleach into the ammonia, and screwed on the lid. And then I got a call, you know, back in the old days, everything was over the intercom. You know, this was one of the first WalMart started by Sam Walton. He used to visit once a month, by the way, so we got to know Sam a little bit. And, and I, I come back to this closet where I'm mixed this concoction. It freaked me out. So this spray bottle is literally just spraying across the room. Because the pressure is building up between this bleach and ammonia, you chemischen tell us more tase biochemist, you could tell us a lot. So this is literally and I remember thinking going, it's demon possessed. No, I knew better. But I mean, I was just like, you know, it's like a movie. And so my point though, is that you mix, you mix those together, and you get you know, you're going to get more than a sprayer bottle if you you know, and I went to grab it, and what did it feel like? Very, very hot. So there's this chain reaction. And I want to say this, when you are following someone who's following the Lord and discipleship, and you are leading people, and you're teaching them to follow. You are mixing ammonia with bleach, you're mixing baking soda with vinegar, you are starting to mix something that's creating a chain reaction. That's very, very powerful. So when we talk about this chain reaction, this sustained chain reaction of the two to two principle in Second Timothy two, two, this is what I want us to see I'm praying that we'll be able to see this. And we looked at it last week in Matthew 28. There's two receivers, not one, there's not just the receiving to go make disciples, there is the receiving that they had already done. That is the prerequisite to be disciples. So he's speaking to people who are already following him and we talked about that Greek word there and what it means to follow because it's actually the word imitate. It means to just imitate me literally. All right, so now Oh, that's a little review from last week, we're going to talk about spiritual authority, doing the Great Commission. The essence of the meaning of the Great Commission is spiritual authority, you got to see this, we have to see this, that spiritual authority is at the core of the Great Commission, it's important to see that Jesus command is an impartation, of spiritual authority. So we receive this authority as we enter into the Great Commission. So if you don't receive the commission, you're not entering into the spiritual authority. Some of you know in the military, what it means to receive a commission, that's a commission by the President of the United States. That is a commission that gives you authority. Now, I will say this, that the Commission can be partially received, you know, I'm talking about, we can enter into it a little bit. And what we in fact are doing is just entering into a little bit of that authority that we're being given. So there's two key components to walking in this authority in Matthew 28. And I want to read this was kind of dovetailing with last week, living as both a disciple and living as a disciple maker, so living as a spiritual follower, and living as a spiritual leader. So to enter into that spiritual authority, the disciples first had to be disciples, they actually had to be followers. So many people who were not disciples, were still believers. You guys got that? Right. Many people who quit following Jesus, they were still believers in Jesus. They just weren't disciples. They weren't in that followership relationship. But they were still they were still believers. But we're talking about entering into this authority by being a disciple a follower, and being also a disciple maker, a spiritual leader as well. There are so there are two reasons I believe that people do not walk in the authority God has given them now guys, I got it. There's more than two reasons. But I see here two main reasons why people walk in a deficit of spiritual authority. And this is not a class on spiritual authority. However, this week, I was getting back deep into Watchman Nee and some others. And there's just tremendous truth there, I gotta go back. I've read that book several times, I need to go back and read it again. Because maybe we can do a study on spiritual authority. This is very important, but some walk in a deficit of spiritual authority, because they do not live under authority. The more I've walked under spiritual authority in my life, following closely, my spiritual fathers, mothers and mentors, the more authority has been deposited and manifested in my own life. Now, guys, I want to say this, the correlation now that I've done this for years, is striking. It's striking that I can look on seasons in my life, and see striking contrasts. And so this, what I'm saying from experience is a profound thing. We're not talking about worldly authority, here's what's worldly authority, worldly authority is the authority to tell people what to do. That's not what we're talking about. So let's, let's clear that up. We're talking about the weight and gravity of our words, our council, and our life upon the hearts of others, as well as our spiritual authority in the spiritual domains. So those are two different areas, two different domains, the relational domain and in a spiritual powers domain, we're talking about two different domains. This, this authority comes through the deputizing authority of Jesus. So literally, Matthew 28, we see if you can allow me to use this term, the sheriff and the sheriff decides who he's going to deputize the sheriff decides, and then he opens it up for those who want to live deputized in this Matthew 28 authority. And Jesus describes it in the Great Commission, from God's government. This is the Government of Heaven. God deputizes people into spiritual authority through who, who does God deputized spiritual authority through. He always does it by the power of His Holy Spirit through his church. That's who He does it through his church. I love this, Matthew 1618, the gates of hell shall not prevail against the church. I remember years ago Lester Summerall said wherever he goes, he did a lot of church planting and ministering evangelism and mission work. But he said, everywhere I go, he goes, we have a church. And he said, because the gates of hell will not prevail against the church. And so he believed that it was very important that you have the church, operating and spiritual community in that place. So all through the years, we've experienced people in our lives. Now, guys, some of you, in this setting can identify with this. But what I want you to know is, this is true throughout many seasons of our lives, way all I mean, for decades now. So what I'm about to say is more than just the spiritual community, all through the years, we've experienced people in our lives, who were somewhat either adrift, and I don't mean they weren't serving the Lord. But they were disconnected. Or maybe they were more alone, than they should be in ministry, or in life, or in spiritual things, many times, operating in their own authority, or just not as much authority that's given to them, or Jesus wants to give them through the church. Now, part of this reason is we've spent decades in the military and traveling and a lot of us were disparate, very dislocated by nature anyway, because of our lifestyles, not everyone here, but most many, many people in this room. So because of that, we tended to be just we're over here, and we're over there. And we're somewhat disconnected. We didn't, you know, for me, I always had a home church. And I always had a spiritual authority over me there. And I had a spiritual authority over me in my ordination, and I still have those authorities in my life that I relate to today, who still speak into my life, who I still connect with on a regular basis. But many of these have lacked spiritual covering. And some of this was not all their fault, because they struggle to find a place in the church beyond the helps ministry or the parking lot attendant or sitting in the pew on Sunday. So a lot of times what happens is people, it's not that they don't want to walk and live this way, it's that they just did not see the opportunities. And so what happens, there's an enormous amount of ministry locked up inside of them, that needs to be turned loose, that needs to be released. But in order to do that, people need spiritual mentors and investors and fathers and mothers. And if you don't have those, or if they don't have those, what ends up happening is those seeds are not activated. Have you ever bought seeds for your garden, and you go home, you put them up in the garage, you didn't go out to the garage one day, and there's tomato plants growing on the shelf. Right? Those seeds start growing when they get planted in the ground and watered. And that's what spiritual mentors, spiritual fathers and mothers do is they plant seeds, and they water them. They, you know, it's not hard to be a spiritual mentor disciple people, all you have to do is help them get their gifts planted, and then start watering their gifts. And then help them learn. Okay, you got some beautiful tomato plants here, but you got to cut the suckers off. Because if you don't cut them off, you're not going to bear near as many tomatoes. And oh, by the way, all these weeds here we got pull these weeds, that's where it gets a little more intense, right in that relationship. And those of you that are parents say Amen. So as we began to invest in people this way, all through these years and seasons, and believe in them, and validate them, and affirm the gifts of God in them as a church, their ministry, and their spiritual authority starts to blossom. You see what's happening. They're not just becoming disciple makers. There is an increase of this deputized spiritual authority in their lives. And guys, listen, I know we're Protestants. And we want to get everything direct from God. But the fact is that probably 70 to 80% of what I've received from the Lord I've received from somebody else. Jesus says, there's many gifts in the body of Christ. If he wanted you to heal yourself, every time you got sick, he wouldn't give healing gift to your brother to pray for you. He wouldn't say call for the elders of the church right? Whenever your toe hurts, your hand reaches down and assist your toe with what it needs right? The toe does not fix itself, the leg delivers blood, the circulatory system in the leg delivers blood to it, the heart pumps the blood, the hands reach down, and men the wound. And so we ministered to one another this way in the body. And by doing so, we start to lift up spiritual leaders in the body of Christ. And this is our vision, God has called us this is in our DNA, it's in the DNA of a lot of spiritual families in the earth, to help them move in this so that we get more and more in the body of Christ, out of the pews out of the church building and into ministry, and flourishing in their calling. And this is the great commission that we're called to living under spiritual authority is especially characterized by what relationship? Can you remember that this, if someone says, What does it mean to live under spiritual authority, in essence, we're talking about relationship that's different than the world. So if you live under authority on your job, it means you get a paycheck, it means that you're on the payroll, it means you get your benefits from that organization, it means you have a boss. That's not what it means in the kingdom in the kingdom of God, to live under spiritual authority is to have a robust relationship. And if I minimize that relationship, I minimize what God wants to pour into me and into my life. And so this is critical for us to see that the essence of spiritual authority is imparted to us through relationship, not just membership, or a title or a position, the more I engage in relationship with my spiritual fathers and mothers and mentors, what does that mean? seeking their counsel, I'm seeking their counsel, I'm seeking their perspective, I'm seeking their wisdom, then the more I am usually living in the umbrella impartation of that spiritual authority, to many believers in the church, live and minister with an orphan spirit. Now, guys, we talked a lot about this at the men's sabbatical, not so much in these circles. But too many in the church live with an orphan spirit, which causes them to live in much less spiritual authority than God intends for their lives. And this is, this is important for us to see because God doesn't want us to operate in that orphan spirit. Now, who, you know, this just side note who operates an orphan spirit. Many times it's not orphans that don't have any parents. It's people whose parents were not present in their lives or spiritual parents were not present in their lives. And so they just the natural tendency is to operate more in that orphan spirit, and not connect. Now, I will tell you, I've especially noticed this with people who did not have healthy relationships with their fathers. And I don't know if that's, that's anecdotal for me, I'm not saying that's a scientific fact. But one thing I have noticed in hundreds of people I've interacted with, who tend to operate more than that orphan spirit, and not connect, or those who did not have healthy relationships with their fathers. And many times, they start to operate in that because they just don't know how to live healthy in that relationship. spiritual authority is given to and I'm redefining, I'm just repeating the definition of disciple, Eagle eager, invested followers. Remember, we looked at the definition of a disciple and a disciples, one of the definitions is an eager learner. Now many of us were eager learners when we were young. But the challenge is, can you be an eager learner as you get older, that's the challenge is to always be learning to always be seeking to always be hunger, hungry, to grow, and to grow with that hunger. So it's easy when you're starting out but as you get older, I noticed that the very best of my spiritual fathers are those who are still just hungry to learn, and they're still gleaning and still reaching. And they're not just reaching upward to those who are their spiritual covering, they're reaching down to those that they're imparting and giving to and they're receiving, and and that receiving is a hunger. It's a spiritual hunger for righteousness, that it's a hunger and a thirst for righteousness. You're in a dangerous place as a believer when your hunger and thirst starts to subside. Somebody wants said one of the most dangerous things is to be a board Christian because As man, the enemy can spot it and smell it from a mile off board Christians get into trouble. They just do. Because the enemies does it. I mean, he's coming after that heart that's not hungry and thirsting for God. Now, here now, so let me repeat reason number one, go back to this page, because I want to read it to you. Reason number one, some walk in a deficit of spiritual authority, because they do not live under authority or because they live in a limited amount under that authority number reason number two, some walk in a deficit of spiritual authority, because they do not do the great commandments and the Great Commission. You see what I'm saying? So in other words, they're followers, and they're relating, and they're connected. But then they're not reaching out like Timothy did to start investing into others. Now, you some of you know, what I've tried to do is try to cultivate each person to go, Okay, let's get you let's get what's in your heart. What's, what are you passionate about? What's, what's the gifting in you? And how can we get you doing this? That's part of what we do. So that you're not just in a follower mode, you're in a leading mode. That's very important. You got to be leading, you got to be in party, you got to be making disciples beginning with who? Quiz? Yep, your own family. Remember, my first discipleship responsibility is my own family. Now my family keeps getting bigger. So my responsibilities getting bigger. But that's my primary responsibility. And that's what the Scripture teaches. And if I can do well, in my own family, then I can do well in the body of Christ. That's what Paul taught concerning leaders. So that's my primary. So some walk in this deficit, because they do not do it as a result. They're running this deficit. And they don't realize, hey, all you have to do is put your badge on and get out there. And what is it that God's calling you to do and start practicing? Now, I found I have a lot of confidence to do this over the years, when other people believe in me. And when other people believe in me, and they go, Hey, what have you thought about doing what's on your heart? And then I say it and they go, Well, why don't you do it? How can I help you? What's you know, and then you start doing it and you start entering into that. And pretty soon, you find that that authority is coming into your life. Now, when the authority comes into your life, don't let it go to your head. Right. And that's part of the value of maintaining the followership relationship. Have you guys seen that episode of Andy Griffith, where there's some guys selling food on the side of the road, and it's against the city permit? And so Barney goes out here to tell them that they need to pack their food up and get out of town because they don't have a permit. And so these guys are bullies. And they they threatened his life, you know, and they, and so Barney is scared. He's all afraid. And he's real scared. And, and he leaves. You know, I'm talking about deputy Barney's. And so he goes back. Well, Andy, the sheriff finds out about it. And so he goes out there and he goes, I wish you hadn't done that. And they're like, why? And he's like, when, you know, when he starts taking his fist and hitting his gun, like that, he goes, Look out, you know, fierce fight, he probably shoot you. And so what he does is he sets it up. So these guys will be scared. And so he tells Barney go back out there. Well, now he's scared to go back out there and tell him to move. And so Barney goes out there. And he's real scared. And his nervous habit is to hit his holster with his hand, because he's scared. And when he does it, the dudes pack up the food. And I get Sir, we're out of here. And so then Barney goes, I love this scene, he goes, get that vehicle out of here, you know, and he's all confident, but then it goes to his head, you know? And then pretty soon he's walking like John Wayne, and the authority kind of goes to his head, well, then the guys find out it's not true. And I won't go through the whole story. But here's my point. There, the point came in the story, where he had to actually exercise the authority of the badge that he was wearing. That is the deputized authority that he had. But when he first did it, the power, the authority kind of went to his head. And so Andy was there for him. He was the father figure to help him with it and go home. Okay, listen, you can do this for real without my help. You can do this. And this time, it was harder, but because it was harder, he was able to exercise it and learn humility in the process. Obedience is the key with this authority. Obedience is the key entering into it. So let's talk about obedience for a moment. Now, where have you heard obedience before in this series? Number Four. pillar number four, obedience and listening. All right, so pillar number four is obedience and listening. That's so you're going to see all of these pillars actually overlap with each other. But obedience is critical. You can't, we can't enter into this without a lifestyle of obedience. That's the way we enter into this great commission. And I sent this word out on the streams this week. We often talk about praying in results, or praying in breakthrough, are praying in a miracle or praying in this. But there are many things that just cannot be prayed in. They must be obeyed in, are you with me? I'm not saying quit praying. I'm not saying prayer is not powerful. But what we're saying is that it's kind of like Dr. Cho said for years. You know, he said, the key to success in life is to pray and to obey. And you have to do both, like Pastor chose saying, you can't just pray and not obey. It doesn't work. You have to do both together. And I sent a couple of scriptures out, I didn't know at the time, how well they the scriptures fit into this. So I'm gonna say something. I'm gonna gonna read them. First Samuel 1522. Samuel says this to Saul, this is right. When Saul is about to lose his kingship. He says, Behold, to obey, is better than sacrifice. And to heat is better than the fat of rams, that means sacrifice. Rebellion, is as the sin of witchcraft. That is it to be witching, rebellion is be witching. It's deceiving. And stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry. So that's the prophet Samuel, talking about obedience. And he tells Saul, listen, this is how important obedience is. But also, this is how dangerous disobedience is. Stubbornness of spirit will get you into trouble. And then Deuteronomy, I sent that out, you can read that later. I won't read Deuteronomy 1113 was Moses through verse 15. And basically Moses says this, Hey, if you can catch this and walk in obedience, you're going to find that blessing will be poured out in all these places in your life. It a lot of people think how the blessings are going to come is because the how good my job is, and how good my education and training is, and how good this isn't that? Yes, all that's important. But it's not the key that unlocks it. Obedience is the key that unlocks it. Jesus said, Matthew 633, Seek first the Kingdom, all these other things will just come at you, they'll be added to you. A lot of people in the world are doing this. They're trying to get blessings in they're going, they're grabbing out this way. And they're grabbing out that way. And they're they're looking for this open door, and they're looking for that open door, and they're looking for this raise in their salary. And Jesus goes, Hey, you, you want to know how to do this. Let me show you. You don't have to reach for any of this. I can make all this come at you. But you got to seek the right thing. It's like you were teaching about earlier, Brad. And I think I can't remember who all talked about it. The world is is so they're worshiping happiness. They're going Have you noticed that the people who try to seek happiness are some of the most unhappy people in the world. Well, that didn't make me happy. So I did this. Well, that didn't make me happy. So I did this. Well, pretty soon. You got these people, they got money, they got access, they got all these things, and there's some of the most unhappiest people in the world. And the reason why is because they're worshipping happiness. This is the great thing about the kingdom. If you live that life, you're talking about game, that sacrificial life and the difficulties in the call of God focused on the Kingdom. All these things get added to you. Suddenly, you're like, Man, I love my life. I love my wife. I love my children. I love my job I love I mean, you know what most of my life has been this way. But I didn't seek those things. I just said, God, where do you want me? What do you want me to do? walk in obedience. They'll come at you. That's what Deuteronomy says also, the blessing shall overtake you. In other words, the blessing shall chase after you. And it's the same principle in in Matthew six when Jesus said, Seek first the kingdom. If I will seek first the kingdom and go I don't care how this works out in my job. I don't care how this works out in my house. I don't care how this works out. I care about doing what God has called me to do and seeking first the kingdom and I want to testify to you and many of you could do the same. I want to testify to you that God has made Everything just chases me like I'm like blood, like God, like just the blessing chases me in my job and my friends, and opportunities and all these things. And God says, Listen, I want you to know something, this works. Can somebody say this works? Because it does. It works. If you seek first the Kingdom, this is the essence of obedience. And when we enter into this and say, You know what, I'm going to quit worrying about how much money I make. Now, I'm not worried about how much money I make. But this is a common thing. Many people worry about how much money they make, what kind of car they drive, what kind of this what kind of that you fill in the blanks, stop worrying. And go do what is first the Kingdom, pursue first the Kingdom, in everything, pursue first Jesus and the kingdom of God, hunger and thirst for righteousness, and be so hungry and be so thirsty, that you don't care about the other things. And when you do, God will make those things chase after you. And the more you don't care about them, the more he can make them chase after you because you won't turn around, start worshipping them like Gideon did. Right? Or like some other people in the Bible did. I have come to believe, Concerning Natural blessings and spiritual blessings, I have come to believe that God really does want to give you as much as he possibly can without ruining you. Now, some people go, Oh, you're getting over. And, you know, and I'm not sure about that. I'm just telling you that the way I've seen and experienced God as same as scripture, his heart of a father is to give and to bless you who are parents know exactly what I'm talking about. You want to give your parent your kids more, but you're like, I want to give them more. But I don't want to ruin them. Right, I want to give them more. But I don't want to steal their faith. I don't want to teach them to trust me. I want them to trust God, they've got to learn the hard lessons in life, because that's what will make them victorious. And that's what will cause the fruit of life to come to them. You don't want to rob them from that, and God doesn't want to rob you either. But in his heart, he really does want to bless you with every single way he can possibly bless you, but not ruin you, but bring you into great fruit and blessing in the glory of God. Man, I thought for sure there'd be at least one Amen out of that one. Man, I love this, because I love God. And I love his ways. This is the way he is. Where are you look at the challenges before you in your life, maybe your finances, maybe your job, maybe your marriage, maybe this or what? Remember this, God wants that blessing more than you want it. God wants that breakthrough in your life more than you want that breakthrough. Where your ministry is as as a disciple maker, and you want to do more. God wants to help you do more 1000 times more than you want to help you do more. You're worried about your kids, you're worried about this or that or the other. And you're taking before the Lord God loves those kids a million times more than you love those kids. He is in this and he's not following you. You're following him. He's in the lead. Amen. See what I'm saying? This is God. Oh man, I love this. Who? I gotta find my place in the notes. So in my own life being a disciple. Oh, wait, wait, wait, I gotta get the scripture here. John 1421 and 23 he who this is Jesus, this is written and read in my notes. He who has My commandments and keeps them. It is he who loves Me. You want to know how much you love God. All right, here's the way it goes. If you're going to drive home today, and you want to know how much gas is in your gas tank, what do you do? You look at fuel gauge, right? Here's the fuel gauge right here. A lot of people won't preach on this because they don't want people to feel bad if the fuel gauge looks like it's on empty. Ignoring the fuel gauge on empty or on a quarter tank is not going to help you because you're going to run out of gas going home. You cannot ignore the fuel gauge. He says he has My commandments and keeps them it is he who loves me. And he who loves Me will be loved by My Father. Now there's another whole teaching there. This is beyond the unconditional love of God. This is a special love that people enter into by their own desire. And Jesus says and I will love him. You see what's happening here there's a special love relationship. And he says in verse number 23 If anyone loves Me, he will keep my word. Man that's kind of Scary now. Oh, are you with me? So here's what I do. When I start reading scriptures like this, I start thinking about an area where I'm disobeying God. Or you stay with me because everybody has to go through this. It's not just you who can think of a sin in your life or something. Right? He says, If anyone loves Me, he will keep my word. And my Father will love him. If you want to know how much love is in the gas tank. Look at your obedience level. That's what Jesus is saying that you guys correct me if I'm wrong. But Jesus says this multiple times, I just picked two verses. He said, there's another passage, he says, If you love Me, keep My commandments. So he's saying, if you ever wondered what Jesus love languages, y'all know love languages, I think he has all five personally. But this one here is acts of service. Those of you who have acts of service, as a love language, know exactly what I'm talking about. If you if someone does something for you, you're like, oh, my gosh, they love me so much. Jesus is telling us acts of service here. If you love me, do what I asked you to do, do what I command you to do, do what I tell you to do. And if you want to know how much love is in the gas tank, look at the obedience needle, and you'll see how much is in there. Now, no one's here to condemn you. If you look at your gas tank, and you see that it's on a quarter tank, an eighth of a tank or an empty tank. What that means is that we're all in this together, we're going to help you get gas and your gas tank. We're not going to pretend it's not on empty. We're going to say, Okay, Lord, how can I get some help here, and we're going to fill this gas tank up with love so that it's overflowing. I know, they don't want you to do that to gas station. But we want this gas tank to overflow with the love of God. Amen. Somebody say amen. Even if you're convicted, we're all convicted, right? Or all convicted. So in my own life, being a disciple has meant being a follower. You say, Rod, you already said that, but track with me, not just being a follower of Jesus. But being a father, a follower of my spiritual fathers and mothers who are followers of Jesus. And I'm still a follower today. Most of my spiritual fathers and mothers tend to be quite direct. Do you have a parent who's quite direct? Parents? Are you direct with your kids? Some kid says Amen to that. When your parents are direct, you don't you know, say they don't love you. You say they do love you. That's why they're being direct, right? Most of my spiritual fathers and mothers are very direct people. And they're uncompromising. And they have been most of my life. And I think that the reason why was because when I went out and looked for people who were willing to invest in my life, those were the people who were willing. And the reason why they were willing was because they loved me. And the reason why they're direct is because they love me. Are you with me? They're uncompromising, and they hold very high standards for me. And they hold very high standards for themselves. One of my spiritual fathers this week, I was on a zoom call with him, and he offers an admonishment to me. And then he checks on me to see okay, are you you're handling this, I go, Yep, I receive it in Jesus name. The thing is, we need these relationships with people who are not afraid to tell us when we're wrong. Or when we're off kilter, or when we're not on the Azmuth God has for us. If you don't have those relationships, you're cheating yourself. Right? When people are direct with you, don't call them judgmental. Usually, it's because they love you. And I'll tell you early on, this was harder for me. But this is what makes fathers and mothers. Are you with me. This is what makes moms and dads in the natural and it's true in the spiritual. Many years ago, the Lord rebuked me many, many years ago, I think I was in my early 20s. And the Lord rebuked me, and he this what the Lord told me, he said, Stop finding faults in your fathers and mothers and start listening to them. And listen for them. Because I got into this little you know, I was growing and I was learning. And then I started getting into this thing where I want to be better Lord, I want to be better. And pretty soon I'm finding the faults in my spiritual fathers and mothers now we all did that as kids and my kids Kids will tell you I got two of them sitting here. My kids will tell you that when they were teenagers, I think we lived in Alaska at the time, called them all in the living room. I said, I need to ask you guys to forgive me. Y'all remember me saying this, I need to ask you guys to forgive me. They're like, we won't forgive you, dad. I said, because of what we're doing wrong in our parenting. They're like, What are you talking about? And I said, I don't know what I'm talking about. Because we're doing our best. But what's going to happen is you're going to get 17 1819 years old, and you're going to see things that we did wrong. And then you've got a choice to forgive or to get bitter. Because if you don't forgive, you're going to become bitter about it. And then the enemy will bring a fracture between that parent tool relationship. And that's what he's trying to do to break the generations. So they don't have generational transfer, so that there's bitterness. And then I said, Man, when you're about 25, or so you're going to realize about 50% of the things we did wrong, we didn't really do wrong, you just thought we did wrong, right. So the Lord spoke this word to me. And he said, The Lord told me, he said, You need to cherish their admonishment. Cherish the fact that they care enough to walk on the ice with you to walk on the eggshells and go, You know what? I'm gonna say something to you, because I want to help you. Right? Those are the people who really love you, who tell you when, you know, things aren't right, we could use a lot of illustrations there, cherish their admonishment and their rebuke, like you do their encouragement, ask for their counsel, or you may not get it. That's what the Lord told me. Because what I found was many times, my spiritual fathers and mothers had counsel for me. But they would not give it to me unless I sought it. Because the perception was if I wasn't asking for it, I didn't really want it. Are you with me? So the perceived discrepancies that some people found in my fathers and mothers, became the strengths that produced groups of men and women who are humble and wise. There's, you know, what, the more authority you get in your life, the more you need somebody to help you stay humble. And, you know, I found that in the military a lot. And one of the things I used to tell my NCOs my ncyc says, Listen, you can't worry about offending me. Now, if you got something talk to me about, let's do it in private, but I need you to tell me if I'm doing something wrong, or you think I'm doing something wrong, because I don't have anybody else around me who's probably going to be willing to do that. So I need that feedback. And I had some friends that would give me that feedback also. But the more authority God gives us in our lives, the more we need people to help us walk in love and humility. And that's what spiritual fathers and mothers do. Again, everything I have guys was given to me. Everything you have was given to you. And most of it did not come from God directly. I said this earlier, some of it did some of it, you got directly, but most of it, we it came from God, through other people teaching, mentoring, investing, counseling, advising us, most of what we have came from someone else. And this is discipleship. And this is the power in discipleship. And the authority and power that's imparted from Jesus through his leaders, to others comes this way. So the more we humble ourselves, as followers of Jesus, you see where I'm going with this. To be a follower of Jesus means you have to keep humbling yourself, because you're still following. And the world tells us that when you get to a certain place a certain authority, you're not a follower anymore. You're a leader. People follow you. I mean, you know that people will say, I heard someone say something that when these exact words, but it was something to this effect. Elon Musk didn't follow anybody, people follow him, you know, and he's in the news right? Now, the point is, that in the kingdom of God, we don't operate that way. We are leaders, but we are always followers of Jesus. And I'll tell you, the day we enter into heaven, the day you graduate and the day you enter into heaven, we're going to realize how Junior we are. Because all of us on a spiritual level, no matter how mature we are, we are in diapers compared to many who've been in God for 1000s of years. And you think about this, somebody like Jobe who's the first guy, first book of the Bible's job, who's walking with God before most people even were born in the Bible. He gets into heaven. And he has, I don't know what they call him years, but he has all this history and God in the heavens. You talk about seniority, and I'm talking about depth and history and God. I'm talking about what we know if you have Ever wondered like when you get to heaven, and you've been there for a little while, you look back and go, Man, I can't believe the day I got here, what I didn't understand what I didn't know what I didn't have, what I did what it wasn't. And they grow, we don't stop growing, you don't get into eternity and just stop growing, right? We still grow and develop. This is part of how God has made us and who we are. So the more we humble ourselves as followers of Jesus, the spiritual thought, and the spiritual fathers he places in our lives, the more he lifts us up into divine authority. Remember when we did the teaching, and we said, the way to carry majesty, and power of God is humility. If you if you want to have the ability to carry great power, great authority in God and majesty, of God, the key to carrying that weight is is humility. It's a fear of the Lord. Right? In this life, the way you carry weight as you work out, and you get stronger and stronger and stronger. In the spiritual realm, we work out in humility, and we work out in love, and we work out in walking in a life of submission to our spiritual leaders, but also the Bible says we submit to one another, we live that way. And what happens is we gain the ability to care carry weights that many people cannot carry in the kingdom of God and in the spiritual realm. Wow, do you guys like this man, I love it. I love this. Because these are the mysteries of the kingdom. These are the keys of the kingdom, if you will. We'll find a stopping place here. But man, I could go on. Whoa. Ah, he lifts us up into this divine authority. The scripture says Humble yourself in the mighty hand of God. And He will. What? He will lift you up. Why did you say Humble yourself, because he wants you to be able to handle lift being lifted up and not exalt yourself. So when I'm lifted up, I'm lifting up, I'm a city, I'm a light on the hill. And I can lift up him and still walk in that humility. So in the kingdom of God, godly followers, make godly leaders. But godly leaders make godly followers. Now guys, there's a whole bunch more on this. And we don't have time today to continue in it. So we will, we will take a break. But I want to say this, I think it's in my notes somewhere, I might have missed it. In my own life. The three closest spiritual mothers in my life, and one is my own natural mother. And then a couple of other ladies, they are extremely strong women. As a matter of fact, they are intimidating to most men. I'm talking about the three closest spiritual mothers in my life. They are very strong women. And the thing is, is that it's very important for us that we recognize when God brings people into our life. And when God brought these ladies into my life, what I didn't understand was they had graces to impart into me. That could not be imparted to me by normal ladies. I'm talking about spiritual mothers. Are you with me? Every spiritual mother has a unique constellation of talents, gifts and abilities and graces that are in them. And he knows what you and I need. And let me tell you what, while many peers of mine, missed out on the impartation I got, I feel like man, I struck the jackpot. I got it all. Now there's others besides me that also got it. But what I want you to know is that whenever God brings a spiritual mother into your life, don't say, well, she's too strict. Or she's too. I can tell you some stories. I won't do it on the microphone. But I can tell you some stories. But I want you to know, quit looking for your profile of who God has and listen to His and He will bring those people into your life and also I'm talking about disciples, He will bring them in. And if they don't fit what you think is the right profile. Remember, if they have a heart for God, they're available, they're faithful and they're teachable, then that's fertile soil right there. Amen. Ah, Lord, we thank you. I'm so grateful to you. We are so grateful to you for the fathers and mothers and mentors and And the disciples who have deputized us in the authority of Jesus from Matthew 28. And today, so many of us in this room, we live with enormous spiritual authority in our lives, because of those people. And Lord, we just pray in Jesus name, that you will help us not to be just recipients of that, but now to go forth and to invest into other people's lives. And those you've called us to love and those you've called us to serve, and to serve them with love, and to serve them with all of our hearts. Because when we do it, we're serving You. And Lord, we just want to say we love you. And God, we pray, fill our gas tanks with love so that when we look at the meter, obedience is all the way pegged to the full line. That's why I want to be Lord, I want my life to be a great blessing to your heart. And I thank you for grace and forgiveness that has empowered us to do that. By the blood of Jesus. Lord, we're grateful to you. We bless you in Jesus name, Amen and Amen. Thank you for joining us today. Erin Nova is raising up spiritual leaders in many nations through our spiritual enrichment events, syndicated NetCast international prayer Council network, and numerous international seminary scholarships. Together, we are lighting the fires of revival, fueling prayer movements and raising up friends of Jesus in the nation's we invite you to partner with us in this extraordinary movement. You can sign up as a prayer and financial partner today by going to Aaron nola.org and clicking give. Please include your email address so that we can send you updates. That's era nova.org. Click give and become a monthly partner today. Invest in some of the most fertile spiritual soils on the planet. 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