Spiritual Insights For 2023 & Beyond (Part 7) Increase In Fear Of The Lord, Judgment, & Mercy - Rod Mills

​Throughout Scripture we see God reveal to his people His plans and highlight certain focuses for the coming season of time. Each year, we pray and seek the Lord for His guidance, insights, and direction for the upcoming year. This series is an overview of some of the prophetic insights God is highlighting to the AeroNova spiritual family for the year 2023 and beyond.
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In this segment, we’re exploring deeper the fear of the Lord, repentance, preparation for judgment, and opportunities for the mercy of God.

Full transcript generated by ai (please excuse errors):




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​All right, we're picking up again on spiritual insights. For the coming years I say 2023 and beyond. These are things that the Lord is releasing, understanding revelation, and I said this early in the year and I think many have said this, that in years past up until about 2020, whenever we would pray about the next year, the Lord would give us these bite size revelation about what he's doing the next year direction, understanding insight, different things. And then something began to change in 2020. And God began kind of lifting our perspective from just a few feet in front of us to kind of what I said two thirds down the runway, we're starting to see in larger increments, and I think it's because it's necessary for the church to prepare. If God had spoken to Noah, just one little piece and said, No, I want you to go out and start cutting lumber. And then the next time he says, No, I want you to start drafting a picture of a boat, Noah would have, I don't know if he would have stuck with it or not. But God spoke to No, it says I want you to build an ark. So it gave him that longer term vision, that longer term, prophetic insight. And this is something we've seen the Lord doing. Last week, Lucy shared this powerful message, Lucy, I want to hear it again. We the whole thing didn't record the recorder shut off. I'm not sure why. But so we're going to, if you're willing, we're going to re record it, maybe we'll talk about it, maybe some of it this weekend. We'll see we'll talk about it and see. But we've got to get that on recording. Because there were so many themes, I tell you, Lucy, there was probably eight or 10 themes that were just like threads that God keeps speaking to so many of us in different areas about this, this as we look forward in God's preparation for His people. Today, you're gonna see some of those threads and what Lucy talked about last week. And I just and this was written down months ago. So we're not we're not necessarily comparing notes other than just afterwards talking and seeing it. But I believe that what we're seeing now is an increase in the fear of the Lord, especially among the people of God. And an increase in exposure of sin, and opportunity for mercy. Now, I tell you, whenever I hear things like that increase in exposure, say, Man, that makes me nervous, you know, and I'm not sitting before you as a guy who's has anything to hide, like, I don't have any big thing I'm wanting to hide, but you know, naturally we go whoa, kind of uncomfortable when you say that. So just stick with me on this. And let's dive into this. But in this segment, we're exploring deeper what I what I see when I'm seeing I'm sharing with you to compare notes with you on the fear of the Lord repentance, preparation for judgment, and opportunities for the mercy of God. And I want to start by reading a passage all of you guys know here and many will know that are listening online. Amos three, seven, Surely the Lord God does nothing, say nothing. Nothing, unless he reveals his secret. That secret word secret has also translated plans to his servants the prophets. God will reveal what he's about to do. Every era in history, God is willing to reveal what he's going to do. Now I'm not saying every single detail in every single little thing, but God is willing to those who are listening his servants the prophets are those listening those who are tuned in those who are who are moving in obedience with the words God is giving them in all these different areas of life, He will reveal of things to come. Have you ever had a situation where the Lord told you to pray about something and it was something negative? And you didn't really want to pray about it because you just didn't want to even entertain the idea. So Beth and I had this when we were early marriage, whenever something would come up it was kind of like a Warning, like an early radar warning or something. This is this is kind of how we would do and she's not in here to talk about this, but she might have some interesting things to share. But whenever the Holy Spirit would like, give us like a warning or whatever, we'd have something in our spirits that we didn't have a piece about it, something's up, something's up. This is kind of how we would do it. Oh, no, that's not of God, you know, we don't want to, we don't want to, and we would kind of just stick our head in the sand about it. And this happened with our son, Daniel, when Beth was pregnant with him. And both of us had a disturbance in our spirit about the birth. And rather than engage it, we just tried to ignore it. And so what happened was, it was a blizzard. And then the, the delivery went into complications which she had given birth naturally to the other four, with no issues, no problems, no drugs, no nothing. And so whenever this happened, it literally what ended up happening was she had to have a C section, but we learned an important lesson in our family. And it's a mile marker in our family today, whenever there's a warning, or there's some kind of disturbance in the spirit, or some kind of warning radar, anything. We don't ignore it. We don't stick our head in the sand. We don't pretend everything's gonna be okay. We don't just rebuke the devil, even though that's a good thing. We say, Okay, we're engaging this, and we're going to talk about it, we're going to pray into it. We're going to move into this well, in the church, there are many when you start talking about judgment, or difficulty or tribulation, the natural tendency of the flesh is to say, oh, you know, let's just, let's just go to the positive scripture. Let's go with the positive thing. Pastor tell me only the positive stuff. Well, and the scripture says that people who do that are the ones that want us to tickle their ears, right? That's what Paul warned about. So I'm like, Lord, I don't want to be that person. So I need to stand up like a man, and listen and receive what you have to say kind of like Habakkuk said, See what he will say to me, and how he will correct me. You know, I love Habakkuk. Because he, he has enough maturity and confidence in the Lord, to say, Lord, I will stand and I will be corrected by you, I'll receive whatever you give me. Don't you know, as the Father, He loves that. He's like, now here's a son there. Here's a daughter who can do this. And he loves that. And Habakkuk was really seeking to understand. And so I want to be like that. In the days of Noah, God revealed his plan in the coming judgment to know, I know, this is all guys, I'm gonna say this, and it seems too obvious. But you'll kind of see I want to establish the pattern. In the days of Abraham, God revealed the judgment that would come to the Amorites. For generations later, in the days of Moses, God revealed to Moses the judgments that would come up on Egypt, and how to prepare and to be saved, ie the Passover. In the days of Jesus, God revealed to the disciples the coming judgment, upon Jerusalem from Jesus warnings. And the historian Josephus tells us when the when Vespasian besieged Jerusalem around 70 ad, and there was a great slaughter, by the way in 78, D. VA spacey and surrounded it, and then he turned it over to his son. And it was incredible bloodshed, it was so bad, that this patient actually said, kind of let and I don't remember the exact words, but he was kind of holding his hands out going, let there be a record that I did not do this because there was killing inside Jerusalem. And it was so bloody, but Josephus tells us that all the Christians had left the city because they remembered what Jesus said in Matthew 24. And, and they didn't wait like, oh, well, we don't know if it's the second coming of Jesus or not. But we see this, we see this, we see this and we see this I'm leaving, and they had left the city of Jerusalem, and the Christians, he said, every one of them. Now I don't know if that's every single one. I mean, he's a historian, but he says every one of the Christians had left the city. So we see this pattern of God speaking through his servants to prepare for things that will happen. One of my favorite scriptures, Proverbs 22, four, by humility, and the fear of the Lord. Our riches, honor and life. And I will tell you, I like riches, honor in life, does anybody here not like riches, honor in life? I love those three things. So when you've Okay, Solomon, you've got my attention, humility, and the fear of the Lord. And so God is calling us and Lucy was teaching on this last week. This this concept, the fear of the Lord and humility, so important because it prep. hairs, our hearts for wisdom. Because the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. Remember, that's what Solomon told us. That's what the Psalm has told us, probably David, who wrote it and Proverbs 910, Psalm 111 10. This is the spiritual wisdom, which comes from above, and teaches our hearts to walk carefully before the Lord in this life. Nancy, you're I love the two weeks of your teaching on humility. And I wish that we had got the second one recorded. Because that I my notes, I couldn't stop typing. Nancy, that was a phenomenal teaching on humility, that second one, some of the things you said, I've never heard before. I don't mean, you were giving us a truth we never heard but you were giving us perspectives that I had not taken before. And sometimes that's key, I'll tell you, have you ever had something you've looked at all your life, and then all of a sudden you see it in a whole different light from a totally different perspective, you're like, oh my gosh, now sometimes that's a positive thing. Sometimes it's a negative thing. It's a negative thing when I look at the refrigerator every day, and then one day, I have to pull it out, and I see what's under it. And I go, Oh, my gosh, I didn't see this perspective here. But the idea is that God has given us greater insight, greater revelation and understanding which leads to spiritual wisdom, not human wisdom, but spiritual, what the Bible calls heavenly wisdom in the New Testament. In the coming years, I believe that God is exposing egregious sin. And he's giving human authorities an opportunity to properly repent or properly judge righteous judgment brings future mercy upon generations. I'll say it again, righteous judgment, brings future mercy upon generations, we see governments exercising righteous judgment in some places. And I don't just mean national governments, I mean, state, provincial governments, city governments. But we also see governments not exercising righteous judgment. And there is a reward or a consequence, depending on how they operate. For us as Christians, it's going to be very important for us to understand the landmines in the landscape of, of the earth in of the lands that we live in and move in traveling and working. More than ever, you know, it's different when you when you travel across the land, and there's no landmines. But if there's landmines, it's a different ballgame. And we're entering a season when I believe that there are going to be different kinds of landmines and we need wisdom to operate. If human authorities do not judge righteously, then God, He will, He will have mercy and patience for a time, but then he will bring righteous judgment. It is the mercy of God He will bring righteous judgment in order to preserve future mercy. So the question I asked myself is how do I respond to the knowledge of God concerning emerging judgment? Paul teaches us first to judge ourselves so that we will not be judged now. When you say, Okay, do this and you will not be judged like you got my attention. Okay, you really got my attention. First Corinthians 1131. For if we would judge ourselves, we would not be judged. I love that verse. I'm like, Okay, I'm about that. He says, but when we are judged, he's talking to Christians. Now. We are chastened by the Lord, that we may not be condemned with the world. Well, I'm not a big fan of chastening. But I'm a whole lot bigger fan of chastening than I am being condemned with the world. So I'm with you, Lord, like Okay, God, I'm with you here on this. In order to judge ourselves. It's required of us to be people of humility in the fear of the Lord. This is what Nancy and Lucia been teaching us several past several weeks. This is the key. If I have humility, in the fear of the Lord, my heart will be postured and hungry and able to absorb, judging myself examining my heart being honest. It's one thing to examine my heart. It's another thing to be brutally honest. You know what I'm saying? And the and this is why close relationships are so important. Have you ever watched American Idol? And somebody gets up on American Idol, and they cannot carry a tune in the bucket and they're on international television? And they get up there and it's an embarrassment. And I always say, Where are their friends? Where are the people who love them? Because obviously, they've been lying to them and saying, you sound great, you should go on American Idol. I'm like, No, you shouldn't. You know, you need people who love you who will speak truth to you. That doesn't mean you'll never carry a tune. Your friends will say, hey, you know what, maybe don't get on national television yet. I know a great voice teacher, and let's get you some training, because you have a great voice. And you could really sing but you need to do this. The point is, is that we need people in our lives who love us, who are willing to be honest with us, but not judgmental, not critical, right? That not critical, but just say, Hey, I love you, I care about you. But I promise you, I'll be honest with you. And that honesty is part of the examination. It's part of living in the fear of the Lord. And you say, Rod, what does that have to do with the fear of the Lord, stick with me? Because it's actually in the Bible, and we'll get to it in a minute. I don't want to wait until some judgment event comes to have the fear of God and intense holiness. It's like, if you have the fear of the Lord, literally, you're you're you are freed from the fear of judgment, right? Because we have the fear of the Lord, we do not fear the judgment of some of the final judgment, the final judgment, we do not fear, the final judgment as God's people, we are not condemned. But we don't fear the final judgment because we fear the Lord because we have respect and reverence for his holiness and His ways. And that respect for who he is brings us into alignment with his desires and His ways and what he wants to do. And it literally removes the fear of judgment because of it. And we are not condemned as the scripture says, Jesus teaches us to judge with righteous judgment is funny. Being a professor in in Biblical Studies, Christian ministry, you would be amazed how No, you wouldn't be amazed how many students quote, the first phrase of Jesus, when He says, Judge not. And they stop. They're like, Okay, well, he said more, they're judged, not that you and you will not be judged. And they just stop. And they're like, Jesus says, don't judge. And it's like, well, the next verse, he says, remove this beam from your own eye. Oh, so I am supposed to judge myself, right? And then you can help your brother remove the speck from his eye. Oh, so I'm supposed to help judge that situation to the differences. He's saying, Don't be don't have a critical spirit. Don't be judgmental, in your attitude or in your spirit. Be therapeutic, be healing, be a beam and spec remover. And you know, it's amazing when we are willing to look at the beams in our eyes, how willing people are for us to help them with the specs in theirs. It's amazing. They're like, Oh, man, he was really honest about the beam in his eye. I trust him to help me with my eye, because he was honest about what was in his eye. Jesus says in John seven, verse 24, do not judge according to appearance, but judge with righteous judgment. So Jesus actually commands us to judge, but he tells us to do it with righteous judgment. And he tells us to do it. Not according to appearance, so it's according to the heart. Now, let's get into this there. There are at least two instances that I could find in the New Testament church, when the fear of the Lord came upon the church in a tremendous way. that got my attention, like okay, when the fear of the Lord comes upon the whole church and acts, I want to look into that, because I want the fear of the Lord in my life and I want the fear of the Lord upon the church. Because when we operate in this humility and the fear of the Lord comes, riches, honor and life. So as a shepherd and as a lover of the church. I want to see the church operate enriches honor in life. I want to see my family receive riches honor and life I want to see my spiritual family walking enriches honor in life. Like right now I literally this affects me so much literally my hairs raising up I'm so moved by it because I want you operating enriches honor in life. I want the people you invest your life into to operate enriches honor in life. So humility, and the fear of the Lord is one of those keys and I tell you, the Bible doesn't say this. But if you look at the teachings in the scripture, and I mentioned this the first week Nancy taught on it, I believe humility, and I'll let me say it let me couple it together because that's what it says. Proverbs, I believe that humility and fear the Lord go together. Now, not everybody who's humble has the fear of the Lord, but everybody who has a fear the Lord's humble. And so I believe this is one of those master keys of the kingdom. Not necessarily opening every single lock, but opening many, many locks. It will open many, many locks. If you have places that are locked, that won't open in your life, there are keys of the kingdom that will open that door, that will bring breakthrough where you couldn't get through that barrier. Many times, if you don't have any other key, if you have the key of humility and the fear of the Lord, you might not get there immediately, but it will open that door. And it will bring a breakthrough that you and I sometimes cannot even anticipate. So that's why this is important to me. Where did fear come upon the church, fear of God. So the fear of God came upon the church, when the Holy Spirit was poured out in Acts two, and the church began living in close spiritual community. So in Acts two, you guys know the story, the Holy Spirit's poured out upon the church, powerful tongues of fire, were seen upon the people there. And God began moving in an extraordinary way. And I'm going to begin reading in verse 41, of Acts two, that's the context of this verse, These verses, then those who gladly received his word were baptized. And that day, about 3000 souls were added to them. And they continued steadfastly, you guys know this verse by heart because I preached it so much. They continued steadfastly in the apostles doctrine and fellowship, in the breaking of bread, and in prayer, stop. And then he says, then the word then fear came upon every soul. Now, he didn't say fear came upon every so right after the Holy Spirit was poured out. He says, The Holy Spirit's poured out, they were baptized, 3000, people were added, the church starts moving in these four areas, and then he uses the word then, to tell you this is what followed all these things I just told you, fear came upon every soul. And many signs and wonders were done through the apostles, now all who believed were together and had all things in common. So what are the results, the results of the fear of the Lord coming upon the church is remarkable. So the fear of the Lord came because of the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, and the church living in spiritual community. Okay, so it's not enough for us to just have an outpouring of the Holy Spirit. It is also the spiritual community of that intimate community that will see the sphere of the Lord cultivated in the church. I don't know why. All I know is that he, Luke says this, this, this and this, and then fear came upon every soul. But we see there was an increase, get this in signs and wonders, there was an increase in apostolic authority. And there was an increase in unity of the Spirit. Those three things Luke specifically says, in one form or another, there was an increase in signs and wonders, there was an increase in apostolic authority, and there was an increase in the unity of the Spirit. So it seems natural to me to link the fear of the Lord, to an outpouring of the Holy Spirit to me that when you say an outpouring of the Holy Spirit, I can Okay, I see the fear of the Lord comes upon people. But it is not intuitive to me or does not seem intuitive, to link the fear of the Lord to live in enclosed spiritual community. So the Holy Spirit's poured out, and then they live steadfastly. The Bible says steadfastly not just living in it, but living in steadfastly apostolic teaching, fellowship, breaking bread and prayer. And Luke includes it as the key ingredients leading up to the church, living in the fear of the Lord. And I think part of this also is because God wants to reproduce this kind of heavenly wisdom. If people who live in humility and the fear of the Lord, they live in a, in a heavenly wisdom, that is not understood by the world, and it's not understood by worldly minded Christians, because it doesn't make sense in the flesh. But it makes a whole lot of sense in the Spirit. The second instance that I found, where the fear of God came upon the church was when there were immediate consequences for Ananias and Sapphira. Lying to the Holy Spirit and lying to the apostles about their giving. I want to read that passage in Acts chapter five. I'll start in verse nine, Peter said to her I'm not reading the whole story because you guys know the story. But I want to get to the to the crux of the matter. Then Peter said to her, this was to Fira. How is it that you have agreed together that is with her husband, to test the Spirit of the Lord? Look, the feet of those who have buried your husband are at the door, and they will carry you out. Now this tells me Peter knew she was going to be struck dead. Yeah, this is scary. She's not an unbeliever, you're gonna see some fire in heaven, as far as I can tell. I mean, from what we understand. She's not an unbeliever. She's in the church. And Peter's like, oh, by the way, the guys that took your husband out there, stand outside the door, they're gonna take you out. Man, that's scary. I don't know any pastor who's ever said that. But man, it happened. It's in the Bible. It's in the church. It's, it's scary. Then immediately she fell down at his feet and breathed her last. Bible tells it like it is it is Luke wrote, just like it was. And the young men came in, and found her dead and carried her out, they buried her by her husband. So great fear came upon all the church, and upon all who heard these things. Again, this is a fear of the Lord. This is a different kind of fear of the Lord. This is a fear of the Lord. That did not result from the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, it resulted from disobedience. And he says, and this is what Luke says next. And through the hands of the apostles, many signs and wonders were done among the people. And they were all with one accord in Solomon's porch. Do you see anything familiar here, the results of the fear of the Lord coming upon the church is remarkable. There was an increase in signs and wonders, there was an increase in apostolic authority, and there's an increase in unity in the spirit. Isn't that amazing? When the fear of the Lord came upon the church, the same three things were increased. Wow, does this hit you as much as it when I saw this, I was like, Oh, my gosh, this is amazing. Because it's the same three things increase in signs and wonders, increase in apostolic authority increase in unity of the Spirit. In these accounts and acts, there were two ways that the fear of the Lord came upon the church, won by the outpouring of the Holy Spirit and deep spiritual community and family, and one by judgment for sin. Now, going back to Paul's words for me, I want to say, Okay, let's go Paul's Way, you know, let's not have any Ananias and Sapphira is okay. And everybody said, Amen. Let's, if we would judge ourselves, we would not be judged. I'm going God, I want feared of the Lord to come upon the church, the fear than the fear of the Lord and the humility, but I want it to come by the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, because we have judged ourselves. And because we walk as a humble people who are honest and seek the Lord in this humility, as Nancy taught us. And as Lucy taught us on the fear of the Lord, similar to Paul, Peter also teaches us that judgment must begin at the house of God. Now, this is not popular, people don't teach on judgement. The you just it doesn't attract people back the next Sunday. It doesn't make them want to attend that church or like, oh, the pastor has got a new series. It's on judgment. And it's end of the first three installments is on judgment in the church. Make sure you don't miss it, man, I'll tell you what, I don't want to miss it. Why? Because I don't want to be anodized as a Fira. I don't want to be caught unaware. And I'm not saying we should be scared that we're going to be in an isolated fire. But we should walk with the fear of the Lord, respect for who God is, by the way, the fear of the Lord. What is the fear of the Lord is respect for who he is. Listen, why did you teach your kids when they were little to keep their hands off the stove? Because the burners are hot, right? It's not remember the dude who they were moving the Ark of the Covenant. And an ark started to fall. And he was just trying to do the right thing. He reaches up, and he's not supposed to touch the ark. And he touches it. Was God mad at him? I mean, I don't I don't think he was I don't know. I don't think he would I think there was just a lack of reverence for the manifest presence of God. You see what I'm saying? It's not, it's not personal. If your kids, if a child reaches up on the stove puts their hand in the flame of a gas stove, you don't go well, God must be mad at you. You don't say that? You say no, I got to teach them to have respect for fire. Right? I have to teach them reverence for what fire is. We have reverence for the presence of God. We have reverence for his holiness. We have reverence for his leadership, we have reverence for the things he's told us and we respect it. There's a difference. It's not a, it's not a thing. And it's not. I mean, sometimes God does get angry, but it's not an anger of the Lord thing. A lot of times, it's because of there's a lack of respect for the holiness of God. And I've seen this in people in the church, that you know, they don't, they will treat somebody wrong in the house of God, and then they suffer. God disciplines them for it, because they're not respecting God's presence in that person. And that's what Paul teaches us about taking communion says, examine yourself, many are sick among you and some of your dead because you don't fear the LORD, right? You don't respect the presence of God in one another. And that's what God is, is teaching us. And I've seen this happen so many times, and I've seen people literally, I've watched it happen, and then I've watched them get sick, and I've watched some of them die. Literally, I've watched the whole thing from beginning to end. I'm old enough. Now I've seen some of these happen. And so God is teaching us to have this fear of the Lord, that is a respect for the manifest presence of God, the relational presence of God in His people in one another. This is the fear of the Lord. So we'll get back to this first Peter chapter for you guys know this, verse 17, for the time has come for judgment to begin at the house of God. So anytime God brings judgment in the earth, what is judgment? It's a calibration. It's a correction, God's bringing a correction. Lot of times I used to look at the Prophets when I was younger, and I think, man, was everybody mad. I remember one time this lady came to me for counseling, and she goes, I don't understand there's well why is God mad all the time? I go, he's not. But but she would read the prophets and there's frustration. God's anger is not because he just wants to be angry at people. It's because what they're doing is hurting people. What they're doing is destroying lives. What they're doing is bringing destruction on souls in God loves people. He loves people. And that's why that's why God can be dangerous, because he loves people. He loves that person that you offended. He loves that person that we maybe said something we shouldn't have said. And so we need to ask for forgiveness. And we need to connect with them and, and have that cleansing because we respect God and we respect his presence in other people. And so God, before he will bring a correction in the earth, He will bring a correction in his church. What does this mean? He's preparing us because he doesn't want us to come under what is said in the earlier Scripture, the condemnation of the world. He wants you and me to be on the ark, he wants them to be on the ark too. But if people will not receive that correction, they find themselves sometimes they find themselves outside the ark. And then Peter says, If it begins with us first, what will be the end of those who do not obey the gospel of God? He says, if the righteous are scarcely saved, where will the ungodly and the sinner appear? Whoo, that's one of the scariest verses in the Bible. That's a scary verse. When we fear the Lord, we do not need to fear judgment as we talked about, because we judge and examine ourselves in order that we may not be judged in this way. We become people who revere God, we revere his ways. And we respect God in His people. And we walk and repentance and humility, as has been taught the last several weeks. So we also see this pattern in some of the prophets where God removed their inadequacies and their sin before he used them. And he touched their mouth. Remember Isaiah and Jeremiah, both he touched their mouths. And we see, we see more of the picture in Isaiah, what it means to touch their mouth. He's not just giving them their words. There's a purity going on. We see this in Isaiah, the fear of the Lord. And the reality of Isaiah, his own sin came upon him because of his encounter with God. He, when he saw the Lord, he saw himself, he, you see him saying, he saw the Lord and all of a sudden he's like, Oh, I'm not as good as I thought I was. I'm pretty, you know, can you imagine just seeing the Lord? Can you imagine the first time we come face to face with Jesus? I mean, I can't imagine that I'm gonna be able to say a word. I probably just fall apart. Right? Because of the glory, the majesty, the purity, the holiness, the greatness, the intensity, the magnificence, presence, the presence I'm in. I'm in And I probably feel pretty small. But what I love about Jesus is when he looks at us, we see ourselves through his eyes, right? But when we stand in His presence, we see, I can imagine that probably all I'm gonna say is Lord, sorry. Sorry, because I see my sin. I'll tell you, when you're in that much light, I see the inadequacies, sins, darkness, things in my life that are so insufficient. But what I love about Jesus is he doesn't stop there he looks you and me in the eyes. And when he looks us in the eyes, we see ourselves through his eyes, not through our eyes, and the righteousness of Jesus. When we fear the Lord, we don't fear judgment. And in this way, we become a people who revere God. And in this pattern when, when Isaiah saw the Lord, the Bible says he was undone. Can I just read this to you? I want to read Isaiah six. In the year that verse one that King Josiah died, I saw the Lord sitting on the throne. And he was high and lifted up in his train, the train of his robe filled the temple. And Above it stood Sarafem. Each one had six wings with two, he covered his face with two he covered his feet to he that he flew, and one cried to another and said, so one of them look to the other one. He's telling him what he sees. And he says, holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts. This is not a rote memory thing. He is erupting. You can't be silent in the presence of God. I mean, unless unless he gives us a grace to do it, because he's literally he sees something glorious, and he just, he just has to get it out. He has to say, Holy, the whole earth is full of his glory. And the posts of the door were shaken by the voice of him who cried out, are you getting the picture Sarafem cries out. And when he cries out, his voice has so much authority, and so much power, that literally the post the pillars begin to shake? Have you ever had your speakers up so loud, or I know sometimes someone or drive up and they got a woofer. And it's so loud, that things start vibrating in our house? Well, that's what happened just when he spoke, holy, holy, holy, there was so much power that the post was shaking, and he cried out in the house was filled with smoke. There's the smoke, this intense vapor, like Solomon's temple. Remember, when they dedicated the temple and there was a vapor, there was a smoke that filled there, and it wasn't a smoke machine. This was heavenly smoke. And so Isaiah, He doesn't say glorious, as the Lord immediately says, Woe is me, for I am undone. Because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people with unclean lips from my, my eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts. And then when Sarafem flew to me, having in his hand a live coal which he had taken from the tongues of the altar, and he touched my mouth with it. And he said, Behold, this has touched your lips, your iniquity is taken away, and your sin is purged. So there, God touches his mouth through the Sarafem, the Sarafem brings the power of the altar, touches his mouth, because he was humble enough to see who he was in light of who God is. And that brought a tremendous fear of the Lord upon him. And it brought a humility. One of the quickest ways to have humility in the fear of the Lord is to encounter God, to encounter the Lord. And when we encounter him, and we, our eyes are open to see him, then humility, and the fear of the Lord comes so much more easily because we're in his presence, relational presence, and it comes upon us. And then God comes and he purges that sin, he touches our mouth. And that's what he did in the life of the prophet before he used him. You see, he has to purge the prophet before he can use the prophet. He has to cleanse him. Like Peter said, he has to click, he has to he has to purge the church before he can use the church. And so it's better for us judge ourselves, go through whatever chastening go ahead and get that purity in your life. I would rather be that than to be condemned with the world. Because guys, I want to be on the ark. I want to be with the blood on the doorposts I want to I want to experience I want my family I want You mean our spiritual family. I want our family of families to explore into the mercy of God, may the fear of God come upon your souls. May the fear the Lord come upon us. May the humility of the heaven come upon us. God caught Lord caused me to be undone by my sin. Even the little sins, don't say Well, I'm doing pretty good I don't have a big sent no little sins lead to big sins, right? I'm undone by my little sins. I'm I'm done by my inadequacies, God deliver me I don't want to become what that man becomes in the flesh. I don't want to be that I'm under done God cause humility in the fear the Lord come upon me, let me see the Lord. Let me see you. Let me see the Sarafem cause us to be a people who are humble, have the fear of God in us, man, I'll tell you what a wonderful place to live. Because if we have the fear of the Lord, he can bring us into that great presence of God. A lot of times, God will not bring people around, I'm gonna use some imagery, some metaphoric imagery, God will many times God will not bring us around the ark. There are people that God will not allow His manifest presence to reveal an extraordinary amount of power, or things or authority, because they'll get themselves killed. They they don't belong around the art because they don't understand or respect the, the intense holiness. And so when God gives us spiritual authority, when God does works by our hands, when God fulfills prophecies that we speak, it is so important for us to be in the presence of the Lord and the presence of spiritual community. It's not enough for me to just be a spiritual Lone Ranger, either, because spiritual community causes me to keep walking in forgiveness, it causes me to walk in humility. You notice it's it's not as easy to walk, it's easy to walk in humility if I don't have very many people around me, right. But when I walk in family, it gets dicey. You know, some of us we don't we're like, I don't know if I'm gonna go see my extended family because it's drama. Yeah. Well, you know what, God told you to love your extended family. Even if there's drama, you gotta go. You gotta love them. You can't just, you can't just circle yourself with three or four people, if your favorites and not love the family, God's placed around you. Likewise, we must live in the presence of God. But listen, God will bring us when when we can be trusted, and we don't get ourselves killed. He'll give us spiritual authority. He'll impart spiritual authority, he'll do things, He'll cause words to come to pass, that you and I speak, but we must be like the prophets, and have our lips and our hearts purged by the coals from the altar, so that we have the humility and the fear of the Lord to carry it. Remember a few years ago, when I did a series teaching on humility and the fear of the Lord. And we use this analogy, we use this metaphor, that humility is like a, a big 18 wheeler truck. And if God gives you a load to carry, because, okay, I need you to carry this 10 ton load, you're not going to show up in a Volkswagen van. Because a Volkswagen van cannot carry a 10 ton load, right. And that the truck, the big semi tractor trailer is humility and the fear of the Lord. It is the vehicle that can carry that kind of weight, that kind of anointing, that kind of blessing, that kind of, of heavy outpouring of God. And if you and I have a Volkswagen bus, or van or whatever, you I'm just picking something. Because I remember as a kid in a Volkswagen van, and sometimes there were five people in it, we had trouble going up the hill, you had to really manage the gears. But the point I'm trying to make is that God will not give us blessings that will destroy us. Even spiritual blessings. He loves us too much. He doesn't want us to be struck like the guy at the art because he didn't respect the what he was working with and, and so forth. Jeremiah's inadequacy in the reality of his inability and fears were front and center when the Lord came to him also. And similar to Isaiah, he was purified and anointed by the touch of God upon his mouth. Now we don't see the Cole imagery. But we understand from Isaiah as experience what God tends to do when he's touching a person who is being called into office. He says, In Jeremiah one, six, then said, I, our Lord GOD, Behold, I cannot speak again. He sees in his inadequacies, I am a youth. But the Lord said to me, don't say I'm a youth, for you shall go to all to whom I send you, and whatever I command you now God's exercise his authority a little bit, you know, he's, he's flexing his authority. He says, Whatever I command you, you shall speak. Do not be afraid of their faces, for I am with you to deliver you says the Lord. He says, Then the Lord put forth his hand, and he touched my mouth. Again, when God touches you, there's a purging. It's not just some people read this to just be there's just putting words in his mouth, you can't be touched by God not be purged, right? When God touches you, he brings cleansing, he brings up purifying, he brings up an eternal, supernatural holiness that cannot be conjured up on my own, he gives us this is why it's not enough for us to serve God in our own energy, we must be people who encounter God, again, and again and again and again. And it has to be our lifestyle to encounter him. It has to be our lifestyle, to encounter him, if you have things that are impeding you. And I'm not just speaking to you guys in his room, but all the people listening, if you have things that are impeding you, that are distracting your attention, it's where you're not having serious encounters with God, then get those things out. Because you and I need these encounters. Because these encounters what purifies us, they are what bring the humility of fear of the Lord. They're what in bring in the grace and anointing and power to operate as God is calling us to operate in our own ability just to obey God is not enough. We need this grace that comes from the encounters with God. And then he says, Behold, I put my words in your mouth. See, now this is what we taught on the last time I taught on the series, the call of Jeremiah, notice that the call did not come until these things happened. And then he says, See, I have this day, set you over the nations and over the kingdoms, to root out and to pull down, to destroy, and to throw down to build into plan. God wants to be able to trust us with spiritual authority. God wants to be able to trust us with spiritual power. And this is what he's doing in Jeremiah, he said, Hey, I can't give you the authority, to root out to pull down to destroy, to throw down to build in a plant until I touch you. There needs to be a touch from God. And I would go as far as to say there needs to be multiple touches from God. I believe Jeremiah continue to have many encounters with the Lord. It's not just he won't just go ahead this one encounter with God that will do it. No, we need those multiple encounters. We see that in Jeremiah. But the result was the calling. And it was the impartation and the increase of the prophetic anointing upon his life. So we see this increase happen because of his encounter, and God is able to trust him. He's able to trust Jeremiah, and Jeremiah not get himself killed. Now, there are plenty of stories in the Bible of men who mess this up. And who did get did do things they shouldn't have done. You know, we see the story of Gideon, who ended out making an ephod it became an idol we see the story of the man that that Oh, I forget his name, who prophets or he was down there, they wanted him to prophesy for the benefit of the king, and the donkey spoke. Remember that story. There are other illustrations where these men of God and did not get it right. And so I don't want to be one of those stories. I tell you, I've told the Lord this man time to the Lord, I don't want to be one of those stories. Help me out, please. I don't want to be one of those stories. I want to be I want to be faithful in all of God's house like Moses, except I don't want to get mad and strike the rock. Lord, I want to be faithful like Daniel, I want to be faithful like Samuel. I want to be faithful like and I named them. And then if they had some things that happened that weren't supposed to go, God, please keep those out of my life. I really want to operate as you have called me in the fullness of this calling. Amen. This is probably a good place to stop. Let's pray. We'll have some sharing here. But there's a lot more on this father. We just oh Lord, we thank you. Because you're yearning and your heart is so deep, to move in us and through us. And your your yearning is to establish us with extraordinary authority in you that because we are humbled because we fear the Lord, because we can be trusted to carry the load. And Father, we just cry out to you. We want to be faithful. Lord, we want to honor you. We want to honor one another. We want to honor your people. We want to honor your creation and so we pray in Jesus name that you will usher us into this all those who are listening. All those who are listening in our teaching library and the nation's we pray for each and every one that you will bring us into this grace this calling as you did the prophets as you call the apostles so that we can live this way in God and we can reproduce this in God in Jesus name will give you all the glory all the praise all the honor forever, your name be praised. Amen.