Returning To Creation-A Call To Sense God's Reality (Aeronova Retreat 2023) - Rylee Morris

The lies of self-absorption coming from every angle in our culture are causing people to become numb to the holy and to what their soul desires from God. But there is a call back to Creation, a special appreciation for it that shows us how we can come to see and know the Father through it.

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Full transcript generated by ai (please excuse errors):





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How y'all doing this morning? Good. Good. Before I start, I have a couple of things to just share about. Y'all can hear me now. Sorry, I'll make sure to say this close. I have a couple of stories to share about some things that I've learned over the summer. Regarding creation. The message today is going to be on returning to creation and and truly absorbing the gifts that creation has for us and how God speaks to us through His creation in a divine way. So we were in Washington this past summer, and we went on this Sea Kayak Tour. And there were all of these creatures, and this is northern Washington. So I'm kind of expecting the ocean to be you know, dark, gloomy, cold, really cold, and not able to see anything. But my dear cousin up there, she owns a sea kayaking tour. And we went on the ocean Ely and I and the ocean is just teeming with life. And there's these giant starfish that are just this neon purple, these giant starfish that are neon pink. There are seals and otters and all of this amazing life and the water is like water that you would experience in the Bahamas. I wish I was truly shocked. The water is also not nearly as disturbed as what you notice on the furthest west coast. It's very calm. When we went out that morning, it was literally like glass, you could see your reflection off of the ocean, it was so calm. And as we're kayaking out, there's all of these jellyfish start appearing. And y'all I'm from New Mexico. So I see a jellyfish and I'm like enamored. I've got we've got like, you know, cockroaches or tarantulas. And I'm like, and there's these beautiful giant jellyfish. And there are several different species of jellyfish up there. But what they all have in common is that they all shrink themselves when they become sick. So if you've ever been to a zoo, and you've seen like the you've gone into the jellyfish, or like the aquarium, that's where I live as the aquarium and you go over into the jellyfish tanks, you might notice and take a look at this next time, you might notice that they're jellyfish, you've got really little ones, and then you've got medium ones, and you've got great big ones. But the truth is, is that all of those jellyfish could be the same size the same age, but the smaller ones most likely are sick, and they have shrunk themselves down so that they can receive healing so that their systems can be more efficient. So they go from these great giant, beautiful bells down to these little tiny cell looking things. So think about that. And then, for those of you who don't know me, I love plants. I think I'm up to like 50 in my house right now my husband's sick of it. But recently, I kind of was dabbling in some rare house plants. And there is a house plant called called the Go Persia in Cygnus and this is a really interesting type of plant and it's part of a family commonly known as prayer plants. So I actually took a 24 hour time lapse of one of my plants this this new plant that I bought this new power plant. And the the leaves at their face are bright green, dark green, have white, they're very vivid. And then the underside of the leaves are just a flat Maroon. But they have these really special things that happen in their cells that somebody else could speak better about, that essentially allow their joints to allow them to fold up at night. So whenever they recognize the light, the leaves understand the light coming through the window or outside, they will close up as that gets darker and they'll open up again as it gets light. And they complete this every single day without fail in the same way. So my time lapse shows these leaves constantly moving in this 24 hours. There is not a moment that the leaves are not moving because they are in a constant cycle a constant rhythm of either rest and protection and renewal or work there pulling in the light to work and build up the plant. So with that, I'm going to start off the teaching today with psalms 19. The heavens declare the glory of God the skies proclaim the work of his hands. Day after day they pour forth Speech Night after night, they reveal knowledge. They have no speech, they use no words, no sound is heard from them. Yet their voice goes out into all the earth, their words to the ends of the world in the heavens, God has pitched a tent for the sun. It is like a bridegroom coming out of his chamber like a champion, rejoicing to run his course. It rises at one end of the heavens and it makes it circuit to the other. Nothing is deprived of its warmth. The law of the Lord is perfect, refreshing the soul. The statues of the Lord are trustworthy, making wise the simple. The precepts of the Lord are right giving joy to the hearts. The commands of the Lord are radiance, giving light to the eyes, the fear of the Lord is pure, enduring forever. The decrees of the Lord are firm, and all of them are righteous, they are more precious than gold, than much pure gold. They are sweeter than honey than any honey from the honeycomb. By them, your servant is warned in keeping them there is great reward. But who can discern their own errors, forgive my hidden faults, keep your servant also from willful sins, may they not rule over me, then I will be blameless, innocent, a great transgression. And just say this last part with me if you have your Bible open, may these words of my mouth and this meditation on my heart be pleasing in your sight, oh Lord, my rock, my Redeemer. I love that. I love that song. So just take into consideration the holiness of creation, the impartation that has been placed upon it by the most anointed God, and consider all of the rhythms, all of the ways that nature glorifies the Lord, as we continue. So there are a lot of different messages that I've received about this topic. The loudest one that God has given me is this call to creation, that there is this really special gifting and creation that we all have something to learn from. And historically, if you look back in history, indigenous people, people from way back when they all had a really special relationship with with the earth with creation. And please hear me I'm not saying to go worship corn or anything like that. But I'm just saying that each of them had a special appreciation for nature and what was given to them through that. There is something speaking to me and stirring in me about what God has to say about his creation, and how we can come to see him through it, how we can come to know him through it, how we can learn through it. And I feel that he has been speaking a lot about the worldly lies that are causing us to put on glasses of colorblindness. We no longer go out and we see our trees, we read something on our phone, we no longer go out and then absorb the blue sky. We read our phone, or we go watch TV. We don't go sit and appreciate the colors around us. And I don't know about any of y'all. But if you've ever gone through southern Colorado during the fall, you might notice that there is never a more brilliant yellow than the yellow that is on the aspen trees in southern Colorado. I've not yet found a color and I'm a painter. So I've been through a lot. We are so numb. And when I say we please hear me I'm talking to collective I'm not pointing to anybody specific in this room. But as a collective, as a nation as a people. We are becoming numb to these holy things. We don't see them. We become absorbed with timeframes and deadlines and getting somewhere on time and being perfect and having the right clothes and having the right face. And we're becoming numb to what our soul wants to feel from God. We don't feel it, we don't see it. Because there is a lie of self absorption coming at us from every single angle. Look better sound better, sing better paint better read better be a better person. But it's funny because all of those things are coming from other humans who are also imperfect and we never look at the one holy God who can actually show us what we should look like. This generation specifically and I'm talking to the folks that are my age and younger. We are experiencing a really hard growing pains right now. I believe that those of us that are in the body of Christ like power Surat was mentioning, we have a very distinct calling to bring forth our peers out of the darkness that is surrounding our generation. We need to pursue a renewed connection with God and abandon that has that which has been advertised to our senses. When we need to abandon that, there is this calling to return to this instinctual spiritual connection, not what you think it should look like, not necessarily what Sunday morning preaches it should look like, but what is the Holy Spirit speaking to you? How is he calling you forth? What does he wants you to look like? What does he want you to do today? How does he want you to serve him today. And no one else can tell you that, but the Holy Spirit. We are craving authenticity. We are craving connection, vulnerability. And we're so disappointed. And we're tired, and we're hungry. And we have nowhere to turn, we are lost. And this is happening, especially for a lot of our Western Christians. I would venture to say that the westernized church is growing dimmer and dimmer in its light. And I will be bold enough to say that we do not pursue the Holy Spirit in the way that we should. We are constantly being stalked by the spirit of confusion. And this is pretty evident in this in this day and age, am I right? We don't know who we are, we don't know our identity, we're splicing body parts, because we're looking for something. So we'll just start cutting things off or attaching things. And maybe that will maybe that will give us our identity. We're so confused. And you see this in our young babies, and our teenagers and younger they don't know. Because there is that lost connection. And a lot of my peers here that are my age are also parents and this is the calling to leave this world and to bring our kids to the extent at which we have been able to grow so that they can go further so that they know who their identity is they know that it's God THEY KNOW that Jesus and that Jesus is in them. Hebrew 313 says, But exhort one another every day, as long as it is called today that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. And I gotta tell you all Hebrews is power packed. I've read it several times this year, I recommend it. But I'm gonna read that one again. But exhort one another every day, as long as it is called today that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. Okay, folks, so this is where that connection comes from. And it's not through Instagram. It's not through Snapchat. It's by coming together and praying, coming together and worshiping coming together and speaking life into one another. We have to be confident, and unapologetically stand in this Hebrews 313, calling to encourage one another daily, while it is so called today. Because, folks, there's a happy time coming when the Lord returns, amen, he's coming. And we have to do this so that we don't fall back into disobedience so that we can rise up in the spirit of victory that Nicole was talking about earlier. We need to rise up and that Jesus saved us. Jesus loves us, he renews us every day he washes us clean every day that is victory. So let us do that. Let us follow this calling to connect with God so that our children can stand in the coming days so that they will supersede us and their children even more. So. Let us continue to translate the inheritance of Jesus upon our children. And I would also argue that this is a time to start coming and challenging ourselves challenging the mindsets and challenging one another, against the word against the Holy Spirit. I think today we're so afraid of judging others, we won't say that's wrong. We won't say what are you doing? We won't say, Dear child, you are far too loved for this. We're so afraid for that. And we call it you know, some kind of being self righteous patient or loving one another and just letting people live their truth. It's not loving and is not kind to allow ourselves or our peers or our loved ones to continue being pulled away by the enemy that is not love. We need to come up with one another and challenge one another. Are you sure that's from the Lord? Let's pray about that together. That's not how God sees you. I had a personal testimony to share really quickly about how you can get in trouble with the Lord. When you don't follow his calling, to be bold in his truth, my older brother is, he's seven years older than I am. And for a long time, we have been at odds spiritually, he has been searching for things and he is so lost. And he purposefully will call me to have conversations regarding religions. He's been exploring pagan religions himself. The other day, he was at my house, and we were all supposed to be having a family dinner together. And my parents weren't there yet. That's why this conversation happened. And he came to me with some interesting beliefs about himself, and lies about who God is or who the gods are. And I started just sharing my truth, actually, excuse me, I'm gonna use that phrasing because I just said, Don't do that. God's truth. I'm gonna share God's truth. And as I did this, you know, he became a little frustrated with me. And he said, Well, you know, I didn't think that this was a time for us to come apart or anything. I was just sharing my beliefs. And I said, Well, I was too I thought we were exchanging beliefs. And at the time, I thought that was good. Because he stopped there. And he goes, Oh, well, I just misunderstood that. And I decided, I then read kind of retreated to my bedroom to take a small breather, because I didn't want this to continue further. And God said to me so firmly and so kindly, you fear your brother more than me? And I said, What? And he said, you fear your brother more than me. And guys, he was right. In that moment, I did not choose to say, Brother, you are loved, you are wrong. That is not the truth. I chose to let him speaking about his beliefs and I passively tried to explain mine in best humanly words, I could. So I asked God, what should we do about that? What should I do about that? Tell me what to do. So I can rectify this, because that was heavy for me. And he said, say my name. And I said, heard, which named Shall I call you? Because there's many. And he very clearly said to me out, and I, which means my Lord. So I encourage you all, to ask God. What would he like for you to call him today. And this is what happens when you don't fully fear God, when we don't fully commit to him in every facet in our lives, we miss that opportunity to come into the fullness of truth, we miss the opportunity to bring others into the fullness of truth, we miss the opportunity to allow the Holy Spirit to guide us to others and to guide others to us. We miss opportunities for relationships, we miss opportunities for connection and vulnerability. And most importantly, we miss the work that God has set for us when we choose to not follow what He commands. He wants that for us. He doesn't want us to be lukewarm. He's very clear about that. He doesn't want us to passively say that. He wants to be on fire. As a matter of fact, he said it's worse to be lukewarm than it is to be cold it might as well be one or the other. So if you're going to be something about God be scalding hot, be a fire for him because that is what he is for each and every one of you. That is what he is for all of his children. He is on fire for you. His heart is ablaze. Hebrews, that's a heavy book we're going to be into today. Hebrews two one through four says this, we must pay the most careful attention therefore to what we have heard so that we do not drift away. For since the message spoken through angels was binding and every violation and disobedience received. It's just punishment. How shall we escape if we ignore so great salvation? This salvation, which was first announced by the Lord was confirmed to us by those who heard Him. God also testified to it by signs, wonders, and various miracles and by gifts of the Holy Spirit distributed according to His will. The verse that says, How shall we escape if we ignore such a great salvation is so powerful to me and that that is powerful. That would be horrendous. So we've been talking a lot this year about the calling to the senses, that hearing that scene. And so because of this, we have to be we have to pay attention to what we're hearing and what we're seeing What exactly are we looking at? Because the devil is crafty folks, he will use what God has given us. And he'll shift that just a little bit just like he did with Eve. He'll shift it just a little bit. So it's okay. But is that what God wants you to look at? Is it what he wants you to hear? Is it what he wants you to see? Speak of. And we are constantly being attacked. And I'm gonna go over some a few ways that our present day reality is quite literally being shifted. One, the new Apple goggles, and I gotta tell you guys confession, I thought they were really cool. When I first saw them. I thought, holy moly, you can put these things on and see whatever you want. But then as I started watching the commercial for these Apple goggles, I got this really icky feeling in my spirit. And the Lord was saying, not for you, sister. And the part that bothered me the most is it when you were the commercial was showing that when you put on the goggles, you can select a scenery that you would like to look at. So you can be relaxing on your bed in your home with, you know, blackout curtains or whatever. And you can be outside in the sun. You can also attend meetings through them, and it will mock your face using technology things that I don't understand. And on the other person's screen, it'll kind of have like this caricature of you that it has built. And it will move your mouth when you're talking. So that the other person pretty much thinks you're there. And it doesn't quite look like you. But still, it's like you don't actually have to be there. It mimics your movements, it mimics your facial expressions, it mimics the earth. Now let's just go back a few moments. The devil twists things in just little ways. So that it seems okay. And I'm not trying to demonize technology or anything like that, folks, but I am saying be careful what you watch. Be careful what you allow, be careful what you hear. Be careful what you allow to become your reality. Is it the screen that's like you know going to burn your eyes? Because it's so close to your face? Or is it the actual sky that's out there? Because you don't need goggles to see clouds you can look up what do I feel like this is doing this is literally blocking us from being outside. And we know the effects of that. This is 2023 We're post COVID like two years now hallelujah. But we know what isolation does to us spiritually, mentally, physically wasn't a good time. We aren't meant to be alone. God also made that clear. And we're not meant to be inside in boxes either. We were given the earth for a reason as well. We are given creation for a reason as well. So we need to bridge this gap, we need to take off these colorblind glasses. And we need to go back to what real senses are. Use your actual eyes to look at actual creation. Go smell a flower. I would argue smelling a flower is more rejuvenating the smelling a candle 10 times out of 10. Again, I'm not demonizing candles, I like candles too. But just saying usually fall fake senses fake smells gonna smell a flower. They're out there too. They smell great. And there's also we're removing ourselves from the green spaces that are rejuvenating. I'm going to talk about a study a study in a second about green spaces. Other things that are coming up for us at are the API's are now fully writing news articles or publications. You can also hire the little bot, you can download a little app, I've actually tried it to see if it was really that good. And it really is that good, scary. But you can download the little apps and then you can say write a blog about this bot or blog, boom done. Write a book about this book done. So you perhaps could be reading a book at any given time written by a robot, not by an actual human interpretation or human knowledge or, most importantly, Holy Spirit given word. At any point in time, it could be completely false. Video games are also really present, right? There's violence, phenom fantasies, anybody can do anything they want in the video games, they can make up these fake lives and what a great way for the enemy to come in and try and snatch what the Holy Spirit has for you. Ads, commercials, billboards, they're constantly intruding on our homes, in our eyes with covetous intent, and it's all littered with lies. The second way that our realities are changing is truly how we are speaking about things, our words, our definitions are changing. And it's all again, for the sake of respect. I used air quotes for the recording. Here's some example of how society has started changing our terms so that they're more inclusive, and more acceptable. pedophiles are called minor attracted people now. Body Dysmorphia is now gender dysphoria. Instead of calling it murder, we call it abortion or women's health advocacy or pro choice, which by the way, is solely rooted in how a person feels about their baby. Usually, in most cases, just how somebody feels about it. Uh, adultery is now called open marriage or consensual non monogamy. And in that one, I heard a couple laughs I mean to, instead of being a responsible parent, you're now a child abuser, because you won't let your child take hormones and they will take your child away, they won't tell you. And that is real. In New Mexico, the laws are now that if a child goes to a school nurse, and wants to change at any age, they are not legally allowed to contact parents. Because you're not responsible parents, and not as the enemy that is a twisting of words, that is a lie. Pornography is rampant throughout society. Our men are constantly attacked. And now it's called adult entertainment. And it should be okay. An example of this in my own life, of changing things or just you know, pushing the boundary just a little bit further because it would better fit origin as is our use of Disney plus, and again, hear me, y'all have your own calling from the Holy Spirit. You follow those? But this is mine. About two years ago, Eli and I, my husband, he came to me and he said, I don't think we should have Disney plus anymore. And I looked at him and I said, Well, what about the Mandalorian? He's a Star Wars fan. And so am I he's converted me. And he looks at me, he goes, Oh my God. And we also liked a little show on there called bluey for our kids. Pretty wholesome show. And they were just so many good things that were coming out. But man, we felt this pressure. Don't don't have that. Don't subscribe to that. Don't pay for that. And now we weren't watching any of the movies that we felt convicted about. We weren't doing that. We weren't allowing those to be shown in our home. But I still paid for them. But I wasn't watching them so it's okay. You see that line starts getting further and further away because we were placed what the god what God is saying to us with these little shifts in reality little shifts and truth. Well, there's a new show coming out and this was our cutting point. There's a new show on Disney coming out called Pauline on Disney plus and it is a show where a teenager has a intimate relationship with a another teenage boys so she thinks and she becomes pregnant. While she finds out she goes ahead and has the baby and she finds out that the other teenage boys have to show means for it to represent literally the devil and that was the point that I said no more. And then God spoke to me again he said what about my line? That was like 20 choices back What about that line? You just decided to keep pushing the line because you thought it was okay cuz I'm Mandalorian come on Riley. We have to pay attention to the line that we are convicted of. Then while it is called today, brothers and sisters to day do the calling. Go to the calling, hear the calling, see the calling, do not allow for it to become tomorrow. Because none of us know if there is one quite frankly, I pray there is but we don't know. So do what He has called you today. While it is still called today. The third way that our realities are changing is our natural families are being split apart by many governmental systems. The president of this time has recently tweeted several this was a couple of months ago but recently tweeted quote, these are our kids. These are our neighbors, not somebody else's kids. They are all our kids. He then followed that with a statement stating that children who identify as part of the LGBTQ group are the backbone of the country. So he replaced the mutal is the Whoa, that was a little blip in my mouth. mutilation of children was so called philanthropic righteousness. The world is attempting to take away our roles as mothers and fathers and replacing them with teachers school now versus doctors, therapists and guys, I have two master's degrees in therapy. I have an a therapist, but it is real. They are trying to replace our children with therapists. And they're promoting these folks, these teachers, these nurses, these therapists, to a false level of custodial garden guardianship, in the name of love, we love the children, so we're going to be their parent now. No, that is a lie. And listen, all the women in my family are teachers, I love teachers, I love school nurses, they're all great. They all help kids. But their place is not my child's mother, or my child's father, they are not my child's parent. My child is not the President's. My child is mine any most, first and foremost, my children are the Lord's. So the Lord, going right along with Hebrews, August, flipped Hebrews and stay there. The Lord has repeatedly declared Hebrews four to me throughout this year, which says today, if you hear His voice, do not harden your hearts, I'm encouraging you all today, to restore the color to your eyes, to hear his voice to go out into a very dull world, and go see the vibrant colors, go take a walk in the mountains, the colors are out there, life is out there it is teeming just like it was in that very cold ocean that I thought was going to be dark and dreary hundreds of jellyfish, by the way, hundreds. And so I have asked Lord about these things. I have said, well, how do we combat this, or at least what's my calling to combat this God. And this is basically what he has said to me, creation remains authentic. Whereas things that creep their ways into our homes, mask authenticity with pleasure, and they are a farce. So we must reconnect with this on authenticity provided in creation, we must continue to sharpen our true senses, so that the spiritual senses do not begin to fade in the background. Our discernment is quite literally at stake here in a very big way. So we must act today. Back to that study I mentioned several minutes ago on these green spaces. So this was a study that I decided to take a look at, I had done some researching about, you know, just creation on Google. And there's little written about it, by the way, no surprise. But there was one interesting meta analysis that was completed about what they call green space, which is just their term for nature. So they took a huge survey, and it was actually longitudinals, which that means is that they took studies from people who were up to newborn very, very young childhood. And they followed them for several several years to see the outcomes of where they lived, what kind of lifestyle they had. And they took a look at their overall happiness and mental health and things like that. For the children who were not exposed to green spaces on a daily basis, in other words, for children who were not brought out into nature, and allowed to explore creation and allowed to play in the world that God gave them and see the leaves and see the birds and see the trees and, and allow themselves to go out and experience God. They had a 55% higher chance of mental disorders, including but not limited to the following substance abuse, mood disorders, schizophrenia and eating disorders, people who were analyzed and interviewed. As part of this study, it seemed to echo one another when asked how it felt to be in nature. There are no scientific words, by the way, here's the words that they received, they, they said that they felt they had a higher sense of giving. They felt purposeful, they felt content. And these things have been shown in this in the stats to be a consistent predictor of happiness. Outcomes that people who did not experience the green spaces consistently during childhood were involved in things like having higher crime. They have poor life outcomes, increased incidences of domestic violence, cyclical poverty, and we are seeing those in our big cities, guess what, not a lot of green space. And more than that, not a lot of green space, how much more they pressured than those of us who live out, you know, in the desert of New Mexico and get to see the Milky Way every night. Because of the billboards and the ads and the fashion and the way of life. They are pressured to stray from their identity, because there'll be more pretty or they'll be more accepted. And that's a lie. One researcher who executed the study and he's actually the one who ended up writing the full report He stated that when people experience nature, they have an unidentifiable sense of awe. That was his term. And I found that really interesting because again, that's not a very scientific term. This is a scientific study. So I said, I wonder what the actual definition of all is. And here it is a feeling of reverential respect mixed with fear or wonder. And we all know what that is, don't we haven't we all felt Ah, I know, I felt it on that ocean. I know, I feel it in the mountains. I know I feel it when I'm here with you. Because the Holy Spirit has joined us this weekend already. And he is here. And I am in awe of him. So here's some facts about nature, along with my plants and everything, and why it is so on spiring. Let's start about just a few facts of our body. Every single second, your body is producing 25 million new cells every second, your heart beats 100,000 times a day, or approximately 35 million times in a year. And I have yet to find a machine that works that well. That runs its entire life almost flawlessly. The heart continues to be the lungs continue to move, the cells continue to regenerate. There are also approximately 86 billion neurons in the brain. And these are all estimations because of course, you can't count neurons. So that's that's just a lot though. Okay, so let's take a look at what nature says about how to experience God how to praise God, and the length at which nature goes to live in its God give him rhythm and cycle, just like my plant moves 24 hours a day without fail. Job 12 seven through 10. But ask the animals and they will teach you or the birds in the skies and they will tell you or speak to the earth and it will teach you or let the fish in the sea inform you. Which all of these does not know that the hand of the Lord has done this, in his hand is the life of every creature and the breath of all mankind. Amen to that. Isaiah 5512 says the mountains and the hills will break into singing before you and all the trees of the field will clap their hands. Psalm 9611 through 13 says, Let the heavens be glad and the earth rejoice that the sea and all that fills it resound let the fields and everything in them celebrate. Then all the trees of force will shout for joy before the Lord for He is coming. Romans 819 through 22 for the creation eagerly await with anticipation for God's sons to be revealed. There's a fantastic teaching on the library that Nancy gave about the different definitions of waiting. If you can find that it's amazing. Because there are different types of waiting. And the waiting that creation does is anticipation and sight and excitement. It's not like a fearful waiting. For the creation was subjected to futility not willingly, but because of Him who subjected it in the hope that the creation itself but also be set free from the bondage to decay into the glorious freedom of God's children. For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together with labor pains until now. Isaiah 24 Four says the earth morons and withers and the world wastes away and withers. The earth and creation are so in tune with the rhythms that has been assigned. And they never failed to declare who the Holy One is. They never failed to say Adonai so if we just take a little review of the different things that nature does it claps rejoices, sings exalts praises, mourns and waits. All of those things pointed to God we can replace that claps for God rejoices for God seems to God exalts God praises God mourns for the returning of the Lord and waits with anticipation for the returning of the Lord. Let that teach you. It teaches us so if nature does all of this, think about what our potential relationship with the Lord could look like, because we are the children of God. So if the Lord can set all of these beautiful rhythms and patterns into nature, think about what he can produce out of us how he can work and move in us. How beautifully devoted is nature to God, yet he minds us who failed to be constantly devoted. How beautiful. Does nature desire the law Word, yet he desires us. Even though we fail to desire him, he pursues us. And we are just contented being lukewarm. We gotta say enough to that the line has been drawn in the sand and it was way back there, y'all. Let us not settle with all our 86 billion neurons. By the way, those jellyfish that I talked about earlier, don't have a brain. And we have 86 billion neurons. We have self awareness, we have heartbeats per year, and we settle 35 million heartbeats a year and we settle. creation has not been given the gift that we have been so fervently given by the Lord. We can sing, we can paint we can pray. We can do so many things because of what God does in us and we settle for less. And we settle for what someone else has to say about us instead of what the most God high says about us. Most High God, there we go. So what would happen if we met creator out in his creation? What if we went out and talk to him and we abandon all of our manmade distractions? My dear friend, Natalie here has abandoned her smartphone and put you on the spot Natalie, sorry, I hope I can talk about you and throw you into this message. But she's abandoned her smartphone, and she's gotten this dumb phone, I guess. And it has granted her and it has granted her such a freedom. She's expressed to me how much more intune she is with her children and the rhythms of her day, how much more free she feels, because she's not pressured to check the phone or check the email or check Pinterest. That's what I would be doing anyways. So what would happen if we just abandon that? And we worshiped with creation. And we did what God told us to do, so that we could experience His Majesty so that we could experience relationship. And I believe that nature is teaching us I believe, all we have to do is go ask it. creation has a life giving purposes that remind us and expose us. They expose, it exposes our fallacies. It exposes the fallacies of this world. Because like I said, there is no paint that I've ever painted with that as yellow as the Aspen's in southern Colorado in September. So I asked the Lord, okay, what's some practical applications God? This first one, I'm going to get into a little bit praying, praying, praying, praying over our properties, gathering outside to pray, discussing the importance of prayer, y'all, I'm sorry, my nose is like itching. We have been going through as a spiritual family, something very difficult in these recent times, and we have been Thank you, David. And I sense the Lord saying to me, why was this the first time that you all prayed together so fiercely? Why doesn't this happen every week. And I mean, we have been in prayer, some of us for days. And it has been physically exhausting, and spiritually strengthening, because the spirit is willing. But God has been saying to me these last few days, you need to talk about this Riley, we don't pray enough. We don't. It should be constant, it should be constant praise, worship exaltation to the Lord. There is a massive call to this church right now to pray to the spiritual family to pray. Because there is something coming. There is a shaking. And if we pray, the Lord will be with us. If we pray, the Lord will do his will through us. And He is calling us to prayer. He is calling us to be in relationship with him to be in authenticity with him to be vulnerable with him. And folks, I'm not just saying that you have to just pray only only, you know, Jolly good things. I pray to the Lord yesterday and I said I'm a little bit upset right now. I'm not quite sure what's happening. I'm not sure where you are. He quickly put me in my place. Because he's always there he is always by our side. He's always doing good works. Out of every ash he brings life. Nothing that the enemy can do will prevent him from bringing life nothing. And we don't always have the foresight or the knowledge about what that's going to look like but he will always bring good and we have to pray to see that For him to open our eyes, for our eyes to be open for our ears to hear him. We cannot settle anymore. And I believe that that is a command from the God you from God. You cannot settle anymore. You cannot draw the line where you think the line is drawn. He'd draws it. Pay attention to it. It's way back there folks. Other ways, is taking your families out to worship in the mountains. i We haven't done that yet. But man, that would be beautiful. literally bring nature into your home. Y'all know I have 50 houseplants, bring them in. I actually tried to convert my mom to stop buying plastic plants because I told her that brings death and real plants bring life. And she laughed at me. But I was like, I'm serious. That is plastic. This plant actually gives oxygen. This is a perfect time for my at home mamas to start working in a science or art lesson. I have littles so it's a lot easier for me, but I just let them go out there and say, Hey, go get me a pine corm as my daughter calls them, pine cones. And she'll run over there. And she'll just grabbed, you know, keep bringing pine cones and pine cones. She's like, look at all of them. And it's so amazing. Our little ones will also teach us won't they? They're in wonder about the pine corms. And it's so beautiful. They constantly are in that space of exalting God and exalting his creation and thanking him. We could learn from that. Start creating things yourself, our God is a creator. And he's good at it. So right paint, draw, seeing, do whatever it is that you do, but be creative. Let the Holy Spirit speak through you. And I also have personal testimony about that I normally paint with a paint called Go wash. And I normally paint boats and water and things like this. And over this last week, and I felt God saying to me, praise me in the ways that I asked you to praise me use the gifts that I have given you because they're specific. And so I painted and he pulls out, he has me pull out my watercolors and I'm like, oh, buckle up. It's normally rough. Turns out I have painted three of the most beautiful paintings to me, that I have seen come out of me. But it wasn't me it was God. So do those things. Connect through God through your creativity and also connect with each other come together and worship come together and paint come together and draw seen come together? Go camping for the weekend. But I feel it the call today is to rejoice to go exalt to go worship, to go sing, to go praise to go dance to go joyfully to wait for the return of our king because he is coming and he loves all of us. Thank you guys. Thank you for joining us today. Aaron ova is raising up spiritual leaders in many nations through our spiritual enrichment events, syndicated NetCast international prayer Council network and numerous international seminary scholarships. 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. 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