The Extraordinary Joy Of Vineyard Living (Aeronova Retreat 2023) - Rod Mills

In Jesus parable told in Matthew 20, the workers who worked all day received the same wage as those who only worked the last little bit of the day. But who really got the greatest reward? Relational closeness with God and others is a gift, but it is one that requires opening hearts to the experiential and relational knowledge of God. 

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Well, I want to just take a few minutes to, and this is I've kind of feel like I need to do this again tomorrow. But I'm not speaking tomorrow so that we always have stragglers that come in on late flights of different things. And so this is something I want to really express to everyone. But just my sincerest love and appreciation for all of you in this place. And some of you, we've been friends for decades. And some of you we've been friends for a few years, and some a few months, and some I just met today, there's a whole variety of people who have been kind of interwoven in the tape history of our lives. And I want to say to you from really the depths of my heart, and my soul, that your friendships and your love, has really nourished our souls. And I would say really nourished us into some very bountiful, and some beautiful places in God. And all of the things of the kingdom, move by relationships, they all move by relationships are the power lines of the kingdom. And they operate along those power lines. And it has brought extraordinary fruit in our lives. A lot of times, we look at the fruit in our lives. And when we were young, we thought that came from us. And then when we were older, we realized it came from the vine we were in. And I know we read it, we heard Jesus say it or read Jesus saying in the Bible, but until you really experience it and realize this is all coming from the vine, because we've all had seasons of our lives, when we detach from the vine, didn't we? Maybe not completely, but enough that the Lord led us realize if you stay detached, you're going to die. And it was enough to humble us and to cause us to see that the nutrients of the vine, Jesus flute flows through him. But it also flows through the people who are connected to the vine, so that we're all being nourished from one another. And because of that, this deep gratitude comes over us. Because we look around us, and we see the nourishment of Jesus divine in us working and nourishing our lives. And you know, some of us, it took us a while to catch on. Before we really for me, it took years to see it. And you're gonna hear me say this a lot. You know, there's a difference between knowing it and seeing it, knowing it is information, seeing it as Revelation. And there's a big difference when you when you know something, it's it's really dangerous to know something and not be able to see it. Because then it's just knowledge, it's information. But when you know it and you see it, it changes your life together. As we've traveled this journey, and I'm going to speak we because many of us have known each other for years, and like I said, some for months and some for a day or two. But as we've traveled this journey together, we've learned a way in God that is most profound. And it's refreshing. But it's more than just being a Christian. It's more than just being a church attender. It's more than just being faithful to check the blocks of whatever programs we're involved in. Sometimes, for me, it feels accidental, that we came into this way and God and I know it wasn't but I'm talking about this rich community of fellowship and this rich community of fruitfulness that we live in. What I often refer to as spiritual family, and spiritual family of families. And that family of families now extends out into other spiritual families, but there is a community there's a fellowship that is unique. It's close. It's heartfelt. It's more than friendship. It's spiritual friendship. It's deep. It's people you learn to trust with your life. And you deeply do life with them, whether they are near or even when they're far. And we know the Holy Spirit of Jesus has dissolved I find this tapestry that we're in this, this magnificent connection of relationships that we're in. And our steps are not accidental that brought us into this pathway, even though sometimes it feels that way. And I call it knowing and walking with God and His people, you guys know, sometimes I refer to it in our own spiritual family, as walking with God, and flocking with people walking and flocking. So if you hear me say, walking and flocking, we're talking about this community that we operate in. And for us, I never really saw it possible that the community could extend so much into other states, other places under other countries and peoples, but it's happening. And in our lives, we've experienced a synergy of grace, like certain things, you know, when certain things come together, they produce more than went into it. And synergy is when two things come together. And suddenly, there's 10 times as much, and you're like how that happened. And it's miraculous, It's Supernatural. And this synergy is a blossoming and growing in our lives of God's grace of three things. And this is really we're going to be talking a lot about this in the retreat. And that is rest, relationships, and revelation. And those may not seem real connected right now. But they're going to seem very connected by Saturday afternoon. And I think we've, for me, I feel like we've happened upon this ancient path of deep richness, this continuing renewal, that is beyond what I thought was possible. And, you know, we like to say we have faith, but there's some things we're experiencing now. That is so deep, that's so rich, that's so powerful. That's so refreshing. That's so renewing, that you look back, and it's like, I look like what I don't think I thought this was possible, just to be really honest with you, to live in these kinds of relationships of trust, and ways that the synergy of God's grace starts to just blossom out in places where you're not even controlling it. Can you think of a time in your life, when you were trying to make God's things happen? Can you I mean, I can look back into my life and times and go, Man, I was trying to see God do this. And that, and it seems like we'd work 1000 calories and get 10 calories worth of fruit. And now it feels like we're working 10 calories, and getting 1000 calories worth of fruit out of it. And it's because of that synergy of walking in obedience of the things God's called us into. And you remember the words Jesus, He said, Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me, from my yoke is easy, My burden is light. And when we do it Jesus way, then the yoke is easy, and the burden is light. When we do it our way, when we start going, well, I need recognition. And I need this and I need that and I need money. And I need this and I need whatever it is, then what ends up happening is we do it our way. And Jesus goes, Okay, I'm gonna let you figure this out. It's going to be toilsome. And it won't be the yoke of Jesus. It'll be your yoke. It'll be what you put on. And so for me, I'm sharing a little bit of my life story there when I say that. But now we're in this supernatural thriving that's going on. And many of you know exactly what I'm talking about, because you're living in it. Some of you are going, Man, I'm not sure I'm living in that and some of you are going right now. I know I'm not living in it. And this is not a condemnation wherever you are. But it's to say this, that there is a way in God that He calls us to, and He's inviting us in and this weekend, wherever you are, first of all, it doesn't matter if you think you're in the center of it. You need to keep getting in the center of it never think okay, I'm where I should be just keep pressing in. But if this is what I see this weekend, and this often happens, it's like a vortex it's like a massive tornado and it's turning. Now tonight is is quiet is gentle move of the Holy Spirit tonight. And I promise you, you're gonna feel the wind, the winds gonna blow and the Lord's easing us into it. But as we do, there's a vortex to pull us into this lifestyle deeper into this lifestyle. And this is an opportunity this week to let the Holy Spirit of Jesus pull us into this lifestyle. Because we're not just here for an encounter or an experience. We're here for an encounter that's transformational. And this is what I love about Jesus. See, I used to think for years especially in my early life in the Lord that there's one transformation, you know, you get saved, and then Jesus starts transforming you, you're in sanctification, and there's all this transformation, and the caterpillar turns into a butterfly. And then I got older and realized, you know what, there's a lot of caterpillars in my life. There's a caterpillar here, and there's this part of my lots of caterpillar in this part of my life is a butterfly. And this part of my life in the Lord's like, you know what, I want to fill your life with butterflies. I want to turn the caterpillars into butterflies. But you got to see that there's these areas of your life. And I want to bring you into a way in God, where transformation just happens all the time, all kinds of ways. This is the awesomeness of the God we live in. Because he is the god of regeneration. So constantly, he's regenerating the spiritual cells of our lives. I was we were talking about this a few weeks ago, all of the cells in our skin, they regenerate every 21 days, you got brand new skin, the skin you have right now is brand new from 30 days ago, because God literally created us to regenerate cells. And I want my spiritual life, my soul, my relationships, my marriage, my children, my grandchildren, my spiritual family, everything about us, God, I want to be living in the regenerative power of God. And Jesus says, This is eternal life that we know him. But a lot of times, we just look at it and go, Okay, I know him, I'm going to heaven. That's not what he said. It's way more than going to heaven. It's literally having the eternal fire of God regenerating the cells inside of us. So that even the cells in our bodies, when they die one day, they will still live, they will still be regenerated in the resurrection. They can't stay dead, because of the God who lives in them. Same with our soul, Jesus's though he dies, he shall live and he shall never die, right, he shall live forever, right. And so we pray to live in this depth of relationship. So that that regeneration is always happening in every area of our lives. And I find that when I come together in the river, so right now, if I walked around this room, and this is why we want you to share. And I know it's quiet tonight, but it won't be it's important that you share what the Holy Spirit is doing in you. Because in every family, in an every person, a river is flowing. And it's not the same river in your family as it is in mine. It's the same Holy Spirit. But there are different rivers of revelation and encounter with God happening this week in every family. And big rivers happen when little rivers come fluids to get come together, converging Confluence together, that's when big rivers flow. When you see a vortex on a weekend like this, it's because the rivers of relationship with God are coming together. And they're, they're in convergence in that place. And so we don't come. And this is something we've worked very hard on is not to be observers in the kingdom, because Jesus says the kingdom of God is not by observation. The kingdom of God is active when we move into that kingdom. Now, I'm preaching to preachers and many in this room. But it's not everybody. But I'm saying that God is calling us to come together and release whatever rivers God's doing and share what he's doing in you, not just around the table up here, not just up here, but in the hallway, so that the confluence happens in the convergence starts to take place, and it will. And so as we see this renewal in the supernatural, thriving, that I'm talking about, in our own lives this way in God, that we've moved into the last few years, we start to see a thriving, and we're like, what, like this thriving of our souls, this thriving of our lives, this thriving of relationship and you're going, Oh, my Lord, how did this happen? God, how did this happen? And Jesus goes out, don't you remember? You quoted it over and over my words, Seek first the kingdom of God, and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added in that the all these things starts coming upon us. Like Deuteronomy said, The blessing starts to overtake you. The blessing starts to chase after you and overtake you. And so there's this thriving that starts to happen, by the way, when Jesus said, Seek ye first. If you're looking at that in the original, it's literally in the second person plural. In the Greek, he's saying you please Role seek first the Kingdom. And then when he says, all these things shall be added to you, we quoted in the English like it's individuals, and you at the end is also in the plural. There's a difference. Because when we seek God together in community, it's totally different because now the seeking is in the spiritual community, the rivers of God in relationship. And it's different than when we just do it by ourselves. And yet, we've quoted it and thought of it many times as Okay, I'll seek first the Kingdom. I'm not saying don't do that. But I'm saying that God is calling us to do this in spiritual community. And it's different, because you can't be by yourself. And guys, listen, you can be in a church full of people and be by yourself. That's what we don't like about the way the chairs are situated right now. Because what ends up happening is you have a few participants up front and observers in the back. And that's not God's call. Now, I'm not saying there's anything wrong with it with the scene in order tonight, we just got to get you out of your chair, to release what God is giving you and sharing. So the theme this weekend is returning to what is real, the refreshing rhythms of rest, relationship and Revelation and God's creation. And you say, man, what is that? We're going to talk about it all weekend. But I'd like to just spend a few minutes exploring what I want to call the extraordinary joy of vineyard living, the extraordinary joy of vineyard living now, I won't read the Scripture tonight, Matthew 20s, where I'm going to be referring to, but in the scripture of the Parable of the Vineyard workers, I want to I will touch on a verse or two in Matthew 20. But you guys know the story, the vineyard workers, the vineyard workers came in, and the vineyard owner said, I'll pay you this much at the beginning of the day. And then a few hours go by and because I'll pay you this much. And a few hours go by and he says I'll pay you that much. Well, at toward the end of the day, like three o'clock in the afternoon, he calls them in, he goes, Hey, I'll pay you and he he agrees to pay them the same thing. He agreed to pay the people who came the first thing in the morning. And the scripture says in verse 11. And when they had received their pay, they complained against the landowner saying, these last men have only worked one hour. And you have made them equal to us have borne the burden and the heat of the day. And the end, the vineyard owner said to them, friend, I am doing you know wrong. Did you not agree with me for a denarius? Take what is yours? And go your way? No, that's, that's not the words, I want to hear from the Lord. Take what is yours and go your way. But that's what they heard. I wish to give to this last man the same as to you. Is it not lawful for me to do what I wish with my own things? Or is your i evil because I am good. So the last will be first and the first last. And some of you've heard me say this. But in I want to draw this out as we talk about vineyard living for a few minutes tonight, in the parable of the vineyards who received the greatest reward those who worked all day, or those who worked one hour and got the same pay, who received the greatest reward? Most would say the end of the day workers receive the greatest reward because they're looking up the hourly wage. How much do I get for what I gave? Right? Some would say it's equal, because it's the same amount of money. You're probably a money man, aren't you? I already know he is. That's his profession. So that's what I would expect. But those I would propose to you, those who received the greatest reward were those who began at the beginning of the day. Because they were with the vineyard owner from the beginning. They were with him in his vineyard. Oh, it's so good to be in the vineyard of the Lord. This is where I live and this is where I'll die. And God's vineyard. I love it here. And when I die, I'm just changing headdresses and I'll still be in the vineyard of the Lord. And yeah, I want to tell You guys, I love being in it with you. I love you guys, so many of you, you're deep in my heart, I'm with you forever. Next year, I'll be walking with God for 50 years. I'm so grateful that the Lord saved me as a boy, my family didn't know the Lord. It would have been very easy for him to let me go for a few years and see that I need him. But those who are with the Father, in the vineyard, there's no other place I'd rather be. And it's not just his presence, it's what he does with his presence in you and me. We don't usually feel this way or understand it. When we're young. We don't. I mean, you be honest with yourself, you old guys out there. Yeah, you're honest, you're you know, you're we're you're way past all that. But the beauty of that friendship and being with the Father. In these guys, there was that we're complaining, there was a significant deficit of relational closeness. You can be sitting right next to somebody and be a mile or 10 miles or 100 miles away from them. And so the relational closeness is a gift. But we have to open our hearts to live this way. And the relationship, that deep relationship, wow, the gift it is the doorway into this ancient path that we're talking about, to live in God's vineyard and this kind of relationship. It leads us through this growing revelational experience of God together, that words are not adequate. And knowledge is dangerous. Because when we say something that you already know, but you don't see or feel that knowledge met, it devalues the kingdom, commodity to something common. Do you hear what I'm saying? It takes something extraordinary and precious, and intense and life changing. And because you theologically know what it is up here, but not in here. It's extremely dangerous, it would be better to not even know it in our minds. But to know it first in our hearts. And this is the danger of knowledge. Paul talks about the danger of knowledge, it makes people arrogant. But it doesn't change the heart. Truth changes the heart, there's a difference, because truth is something that sinks down into us and becomes revelation, and not just information. And this is the danger of many of my friends who grew up in the church, because a lot of scriptures and truths are nothing more than cliches, because they're stuck up here in their mind, and not in their spirits. And so when you talk about something fantastic, something so glorious, something heavenly that you're going through, they just hear theological terms that all the church people said all the years, and it means nothing. And the enemy takes that and create something of devalued in them. And there's a wall that it cannot penetrate. What keeps our hearts soft and smokeable to be able to soak in the things of the kingdom? It is community. It I'm talking about spiritual family. Now community is a big word, right? There's a lot of things community means and I don't mean all those things. I mean, spiritual family, people who live in relationship. I'll tell you a family will keep you humble. Right? Because when everyone else won't tell you, your family will tell you and it hurts. But they tell you because they love you know not talking it's not always critical. Right? Mostly your family loves you. If you have a functioning family that's biblically functioning at least to some degree. I mean, all of us come from some crazy families, natural families. But you know, I'm saying but still, family loves you. That's the value that family loves you and speaks into your life. And this is the this is the life of spiritual family living in Working in the vineyard together. Because when you work with someone long enough, you get to know them. And when you walk with them, pretty soon, the truth self starts coming out. Because you can't fake it to your family very long, right? And then it gets real. And when we finally reach that place, it produces humility in our lives. And Jesus goes, now we're getting somewhere. Because that humility causes me to receive the graces that are in your life. Because God has all these things in you, He wants to give me and he has all these things in you in me that he wants to give in you. And then humility takes what I call the lid off the bucket. And now Christ begins to flow and flow and gifting begins to flow. And the river of the Holy Spirit of Jesus begins to flow, because now he's not impeded by the flesh in our lives. When I was serving in the army, as a chaplain I was my in fact is when we were together, Mike at Fort Campbell, in the 101st airborne division. And this was before the war kicked off, I was in an infantry battalion. And we were mobilized to go fight forest fires in Montana. And so we had to go through firefighter training all this and I thought, man, what am I doing? I never thought I was gonna be fighting fires a firefighter, I'm, it's, I'm a certified wildland firefighter. I bet you didn't know that about me. And so we go through all this training, and we go out to Montana, in 2000. That was the Bitterroot National Forest fires in 2000. And it was bad. And we set up a base camp around 4000 feet, and we would go up into the mountains, fighting forest fires, eight 9000 feet. And we were all in the shape of athletes. I mean, this battalion, we were in phenomenal shape. And, and they said, Now, here's what you need to know about wildland fires, especially guys that are in good condition like you guys, you're gonna burn eight to 10,000 calories a day. I was like, There's no way. They're like, Oh, no, you're gonna burn 8000 to 10,000 calories a day. And so, they, they said, so we have special diet for firefighters. And I'm like, how I'm like thinking, what, like, what are they gonna do? You know, give us IVs and food bags or something? And they said, no, no, no, they said, We're gonna feed you the best food you've ever eaten in your life. And they said, When you come through the line, you're gonna find that it's like these massive beautiful steaks and all kinds of just incredible food. And when you get to the line, you literally tell them how many steaks you want. And I'm thinking, This is crazy. It's true. We're getting in line. And I mean, the guys in front of me are like in their five pound T I'm not five pound one pound T bone steaks and guys would go, I'll take five of those, please. And eat every bit of it. Because we're burning so many calories, it was intense. And the in the food was incredible. That was an incredible experience. Matter of fact, Natalie, you're here tonight, because of those wildland fires. Did you know that? You probably don't even know that, do you? I brought back pictures. This is a side story. I brought back pictures of Montana and the beautiful mountains and how awesome it was. And our son Gabriel, who's not here tonight. He said, I want to go to college in Montana. That sounds beautiful to me. And he was a horseman. And he went because he loved the pictures. And so he went to Montana in the same class, Natalie, in the university. They were Presidential Scholars. Well, because Gabriel went then Dan, the next year, he went the same school. And they went to Montana to the university because of that. And then you guys met and got married. And the rest is history. And I have Yeah, three beautiful grandkids from you guys. And it's wonderful to see how God works like that. I just had to tell that story when I looked down at you. But here we are in Montana back to the story. And we have guys I've never lived anywhere been anywhere where it's like, we have special foods and special diets and eight to 10,000 calories a day and they're just give you as much as you want. They can man. This is like diet and going to heaven for a teenager, you know, back when we used to eat a lot. And I use this example because we had our own cuisine, and it was unique. It was exquisite. And as I look into the scriptures, I realized Jesus In a similar way, for his people, has his own cuisine. It's different than everybody else. The diet. I think I read literally when I was thinking of these passages of Scripture I'm gonna share with you in a moment, I in my mind immediately went to the wildfire fighting wildland fires because I was like, Man, this is kind of like fighting wildland fires and having your own cuisine, your own chefs your own massive amounts of incredible food. And this is what Jesus did for his people, is he gave us a cuisine that's different than what all of humanity lives on. Now, they could live on it. But they don't want to fight fires. They don't like the 8000 Calorie part. By the way, there is an 8000 Calorie part in the kingdom. I didn't say everything was easy. When I talk about the yoke of Jesus, there is work involved, right. But I like to talk about the spirit food in the soul food of Jesus and Matthew four, four, he tells us what the Spirit food is, he says mentioned I live by bread alone. but by every word that by the way, that word word, there is Rhema spoken word that proceeds from the mouth of God, he's quoting Deuteronomy, eight, three, in our life, breath, our wellness, our ability to be fully alive, say that, again, our ability to be fully alive, is dependent upon a sustained flow of what God is saying, not just what he wrote. But what he's saying, from what he wrote, what he sang from the people that he wrote it on their hearts right now, he sang things in your life and written that word on your heart. And now he's speaking that through you, and it is this diet. And I had to use this example, because if I say diet, and the rest of you're gonna think we're gonna go on 100 calories every three hours diet, right? That's not the diet of the kingdom, right? It's literally an exquisite spirit food that he offers to his people to live in and to live on. And it's flowing in us as the people of God. And this is, this is critical to us to live in this lifestyle. We're talking about this way in God. Because now, it's not just about me, hearing what God says to me and my prayer times in the morning, and many of you in this room are in prayer streams that we're in. And one of the things I do after I've been praying for a couple hours, I open up those prayer streams and I say what God's saying to His people, immediately I start looking for what is the Lord saying, because there is a flow, there is a diet of the spirit of the spoken word of God, and the Lord many times will do supernatural things in our lives many times because there's a flow of God speaking, speaking, speaking all the time, God is speaking. God, I love it. A few years ago, Nancy was teaching here and she goes guys, the the older I get, I just learned that God is positively chatty. And I used to think, man, God, why are you why are you not speaking and many times he was speaking, but I was either in the wrong place or in and when I say wrong place, not usually physically but in the wrong place spiritually to hear or not around the people he speaking through. You know, in our house, we got a couple of those Bose speakers that you can Did you guys know now you can hook to both speakers up to your phone? Did you know that? I still can't figure out why can I hook up five, like but for some reason I can't, I can only hook up to. But in God's house, there are many Bose speakers, and you are them. And he's speaking, and he's flowing. And God is doing things constantly in the living Word of God is what keeps us alive. But somehow, even those of us that have been Christians, 2030 years, 35 years, however long still reach these days where we think we can just go without food and we're going to be just fine. Right? And you can't do it. It's impossible. You cannot fast the Word of God very long without it having detrimental Minutemen detrimental effects, to your soul, to your spirit to your heart, and eventually to your body, into your relationships, and to your work and to everything that your life touches in is composed of because it it's the living Word of God that brings that regenerating power. As soon as the word of God quits flowing. Have you ever seen someone who has like one of these conditions where they can't eat because they're so worried about their weight? What do they call that? Anorexia and they haven't really severely if someone has severe you've probably seen a few As a practitioner Nayland, if someone has severe anorexia, things don't look right on them. Their teeth are rotting. Now all these bad things are happening, because there's not enough nourishment, those cells on our skin that regenerate every 28 days, how many things in the soul are there that need to be regenerated every 28 days. And without, even with a deficit of nutrition of God's word, things quit regenerating. But because it's in our soul, we may not notice it. And we just wonder what has gone wrong. And that's the opposite of what we're talking about life. In the vineyard, the extraordinary joy of vineyard living is just the opposite. Because vineyard living is not just about picking grapes, right? It's been where the the the true maker of the wine is the one the you know, the wine is the Holy Spirit. And it's been with the people who are with the Holy Spirit in the Lord's vineyard, like he describes here. And God's calling us into this kind of living. And no matter how long you've been a Christian, there's always more depth into this way. And God in Unfortunately, many of my friends over the years, live way out on the edges and not necessarily even in the vineyard of the Lord. Now, one of the things I love about food when we when we read about this food is both fuel and fellowship. It's not just fuel. God didn't make us Did you notice this? How much you like to be with people when you eat? You ever noticed that? You'd love to be with people when you eat. Now, there's probably somebody out there saying, No, I like to eat alone. But most people, when we go down here to the cafeteria, they don't have individual booths, where you go sit down and get in your little booth. He said, I'm saying you don't get in your little booth and eat is how I'll see you after the meal. Right? We eat together. Because food is more than fuel. The food is the fellowship and back to what Jesus said, When he said Man shall not live by bread alone. When we partake, we partake of this together, not just individually. The other food that we talked about spirit food, the soul food, I call it, John 434, Jesus says My food is to do the will of Him to sent me and to finish his work. Hmm. Now this is really an interesting, you mean to tell me work is food? Oh, practicing the will and desires of God nourishes the soul in ways that nothing else can. You know what I'm talking about when God tells you go do this, and you go do it. And it might be work and it might be hard or it might be challenging. But when you're done, you're like, Yeah, that was the food that that's like Jesus saying My food is to do the will of my Father. And you go ha, I did the will of my Father. And there's just a tremendous fullness that comes over you when you do that. And then when you do it with God's people, and you're in fellowship, and that you do it together, it's like this. Man, this is it's like Thanksgiving. And you might be tired at the end of Thanksgiving, you know, you're tired. You ate that Turkey. The tryptophan kicked in, you work for hours. Some of you guys smoked it all night long. And we used to do this Where's Dan, when when the boys were little we get up we take shifts every two hours and feed the smoker because we didn't have the pellet smokers back in those days. So somebody had to get up every two hours, and put the wood in the smoker and all of that. Well, by the end of thanksgiving. We were tired, but we were full and we were satisfied. And the kingdom of God is like this. And we move together as spiritual family. We move together in that fellowship of the king. i You've heard me say this illustration, some of you have. But this war we're in. It's a fellowship. And I love Tolkien when he wrote The Lord of the Rings. In that one section he calls the Fellowship of the Ring. Now that's a strange name when you think about it, because it's this group of warriors fighting this war. And they are fighting and they're doing this, but they are a fellowship. It's the Fellowship of the Ring. It's the fellowship, who's on this mission in this war in these battles together. And Diggs is going to talk to us on on Saturday morning, more about suffering. And you think what is suffering got to do with what we're talking about here? The connection will be made. Because listen, Jesus says in this world you have tribulation. He's, it's not you're not gonna go without suffering, right? But but he's like, but don't worry about it. I like that Jesus goes, but don't you worry about it. I've overcome the world. In other words, we will enter into this fellowship man. And Mike and I, we, there may be somebody else here, some of you other guys have been to combat over the years, we didn't get into combat and it was rough. People were dying. We didn't go, man, sufferings is killing me. You didn't You didn't think about your suffering, did you? You did not think about your suffering. You're just trying to stay alive and keep the people around you alive. You were in a war, you're fighting a battle. And that's what we're in. We don't think about our suffering, we are in a spiritual battle. And just like in the in the Lord of the Rings, when it talks about the Fellowship of the Ring, that the sweetness of the fellowship is that much greater in the bond is that much stronger. And by the way, when you have bonds in those crucibles, the bonds lasts forever. And you even have bonds with strangers when that happened, because there's a common crucible that you have been through. I found this out nine years ago, when the doctors told me it was the end of my life. And they said, You've got advanced cancer, it's a rare cancer, and you have two years to live. In that time when that happened. I could not believe Mike, you guys walked through through that with us together. I couldn't believe the number of people I knew who came up to me and said, Yeah, hey, I had cancer. Don't worry about it. You can win over that. And I'm like, what? I didn't know that. What if one guy came up to me? Because yeah, I had cancer when I was 14 years old. And I fought it for four years. And I'm thinking, Man, I didn't even know this about this guy. But suddenly, there's a bond that you have with those people. Because you've been through that crucible. It's not exactly the same, but the fact that you've been through it together, there's a divine bond because of how God created us in His image. Do you know when you're going through hardship when you're suffering? I tell you, the heart of the Father bonds to you. He is compassionate. He is probably the most vulnerable person in all of creation. Because we're made in His image were made in His likeness. And he made us to be vulnerable people. It's the world that told you don't be vulnerable. It's the world that said build up your defenses and protect yourself. It's not God. It's not his way. And the Lord bring whenever we go through a crucible, guys, those of you have children who've been through something really hard, you know exactly what I'm talking about. Right now. We're praying for some some of our spiritual family who's going through a horrendous time this week right now, and we'll talk about that when we're not on the mic. But let me tell you something. Whenever you're going through something and your kids are involved in their lives are involved. There is something in you that God created a deep compassion, a bond that that reaches out and yearns to connect with the heart, because you and I are created in the image of God. And he's the one who made us that way. We do not need to uncreate ourselves. And we're going to talk tomorrow morning, Riley is going to be talking more about this too. We have surrounded ourselves with manmade things. And God gave us a creation to route surround ourselves with in Romans chapter one. He says his invisible attributes are clearly seen in the things that are made. And what's the crowning achievement of all of creation. Only one, only one thing in God's creation was created in His image. Look around when we surround ourselves with God's creation. And not all this, electronics and silicone. I realize you got to have a phone and all this I'm carrying one too. But we need to take dominion. Tyler's gonna talk to us about this tomorrow night. Take dominion over this right here. We're going to talk about that. Because God is calling us to surround ourselves with his creation and with him. And his creation is in this room. Before we go outside and we're surrounded. This is a gorgeous place, isn't it? It's beautiful. Did y'all see the deer just walking around us and all this? I think you could feed them from your hand probably don't try it but the creation here it's absolutely incredible here. But when we you're surrounded with us, you can feel the presence of God. But I want to tell you something. When I'm surrounded by you that's when I feel the pressure Isn't of God the most, because you're made in His image. And I pray to god help us Lord, deconstruct the manmade mechanisms that have kept me from the glory of God. And my brothers and sisters, you are the kings of tomorrow, you are the priests of forever. There's a new creation that's coming in all of us right now are living in the womb, of that which is to come. And when we get there, I believe we will see that none of these relationships were accidents, they will all were part of a tape history that will blossom and manifest in a coming age, in a new creation. And you will look at these relationships and go, Oh, Lord, I had no idea. Think of the people you grew up with a brother or a sister, cousin, of best friend. You know, when you grow up with someone, you're forever bonded to them. It doesn't matter if it goes 20 or 30 years, I have people in my life who are far, far, far, far, far from God. But I grew up with them. And even to this day, when we connect, the tears will flow. The hearts are still connected. And I say this because we'll look at to eternity. Because right now we're all just children. I say this to my kids a lot. When we get to heaven. You're gonna think Man, I've been in God all these years, I've been walking with the Lord, I'm a spiritual father, you're gonna get to heaven find out man, I'm still in diapers, there's people been here 1000s of years. And they're deeper into God, they've been walking with God for 1000s of years went by the way, this is just a side note. There's nothing in God's creation, nothing I can find in the Bible, nothing I can find in the character and nature of God to say that heaven is static. In other words, whenever we come into the heavens, everything about what God has shown us indicates that we will keep growing and keep learning and keep progressing and keep there's a blossoming to happen in that coming age. And when it does, there is a manifestation of these friendships that we have. They all have a purpose. Nothing is by accident, nothing. There's no one in this room, and the friendships that many of us have had with one another, some new, some old friendships. But still, there is no accident in this room. These friendships strands, will stretch into eternity, and have incredible, incredible fruit in that which is to come. And even now is deeply connected into the saints of God that are in the heavens. Now we sang about it a few minutes ago. And I'll probably share a little bit about this, I might share something tomorrow night just in a in a sharing time. But I will tell you that many times. And I saw it again on this meeting, when we began to gather for something because we gather for a lot of things and a lot of places in the world. When we get together sometimes I'm in prayer. And I can see specific people in the heavens who are gathering with us. This is scriptural. The scripture says there's great cloud of witnesses in the Hebrews. What happens is we read a scripture like that, and we just keep it impersonal. There are people who have a vested interest in your life right now who are in the heavens. And John told us in the revelation that the He even talks about the prayers of all the saints that are going up before the Lord, what does all mean? Oh, all the saints in heaven are interceding and praying. They are spiritually governing over the affairs of the earth by prayer and their relationship with Jesus Himself. And we are doing the same. And we are in this fellowship. It's a mystery to how we are connected to them. But I saw a gathering of the saints, worshiping the Lord with us. So what happens as we read the scriptures, if we keep them in personal, they're not impersonal. They're actually people like the witnesses that we that speak into our lives. We'll share more about this later. Thank you for joining us today. Aaron ova is raising up spiritual leaders in many nations through our spiritual enrichment events, syndicated NetCast international prayer Council network and numerous international seminar airy scholarships. Together, we are lighting the fires of revival, fueling prayer movements and raising up friends of Jesus in the nations. We invite you to partner with us in this extraordinary movement. 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. 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