Rich Blessings Of Spiritual Community - Rod Mills

God sets individuals in families, both natural and spiritual, and desires to create Kingdom legacy in generations of families. The richness of the blessings from belonging to a spiritual are eternal because the relationships are eternal in nature. Growth, accountability, guidance and joy is found in belonging to family. ​

​





Full transcript generated by ai (please excuse errors):


​

​

I believe that this message God's given us many times, he's given it to us to deliver to what I would consider catalysts of the kingdom, this message of spiritual family. And it's not so much sometimes when we say catalyst, we'll think well, spiritual leaders that are like pastors or leaders of organizations. And what we're finding is most of the time, those aren't necessarily catalysts they can be. But a catalyst in the kingdom is someone I kind of call it the strategic Domino. And here's, let me use this illustration to kind of describe it to you imagine that you come into a room, and there are dominoes set up in the room. And in that room, there are certain dominoes that if you just touch one, it will cause a chain reaction to start to happen. And there are many dominoes that Yeah, it'll cause a few to fall. But it won't be the strategic domino that will cause so many to that chain reaction to begin. And I believe that God raises up people in the kingdom, who believe in simple obedience and faith, not fancy, it doesn't have to look big. If you look at many of the most influential things of the kingdom, that happened in the scriptures. Many times they happen in quiet and small places, all throughout the Bible, whether it be you know, the encounter of the angel with Mary, or the encounter with Elijah with God in the cave, or whether it be Daniel, in his house by himself when he has a vision, or an interpretation of the dream of Nebuchadnezzar, on and on and on, we see many times what God does in history that causes the dominoes to begin to fall and have a great impact. They don't have as much to do with whether somebody is on a stage, whether they have a title on their name in the kingdom, but more to do with their intimacy with God and their intimacy with God's people, their closest with him and his people. And so what we're finding is we've done this in a lot of places, and a lot more topics than just this, but especially this topic is often God is bringing us to people who don't necessarily know it, and they are catalysts in the kingdom. And whenever they begin to walk in this lifestyle, it creates a domino effect a second, third, fourth, fifth 10th 20th 100 1000s Order of effects that start to happen. So as we share today, I just pray more than the words themselves, you'll feel our hearts and feel the impartation of what the Holy Spirit is saying and doing to with you specifically. Because really what's going to be most important is what is he depositing in your heart today? What is he not just what is going up here in my head, but what's going beyond my head, what's hitting my brain, but going down into my heart and going, Whoa, have you ever had someone speak something? And it was powerful intellectually, but more than that there was an anointing out what was being said, and it had spiritual percussion to it. Like you could feel the sound waves, spiritual sound waves, if I can use that metaphor, man who just hit your heart, you're like, Whoa, man, this is life changing. And I believe what we're going to talk about today, many if not all of you are already living in it. We had a great breakfast yesterday with Chris. And I told Chris, I said, I am so encouraged to hear what you're saying because it we keep seeing this the Holy Spirit of Jesus is speaking this to many in his church, and it confirms what God is already doing. And we realize hey, we're just one little piece of the puzzle in what God's called us to do. But the kingdom of God is a big puzzle isn't it's a big, big thing. It's a big mosaic that we're a part of. And God doesn't require us to do all these things the world says we have to do to be great in all the same things the world says that somehow get interpreted into the church and tell people if you want to be the great in the kingdom gotta have this title or you got to be on this stage or you got to have this audience or you have to as gods like no simple obedience simple faith, simply walk with God, where I have called us what God's saying to us. So without further ado, I'd like to read a passage of scripture. And before I do, you will, it will just turn with me, if you will, Psalm 68. This is a favorite scripture. Tyler's already prayed for us. So we'll just press right into it. 68, Psalm 68.


And I'm reading from verse six, where the psalmist says, God sets the solitary in families, he brings out those who are bound into prosperity. But the rebellious dwell in a dry land. And that word solitary there means the individual or alone, or just the one. God sets people into families, he sets people into natural families, we know that. But he also sets people into spiritual families. And please, as we talk about spiritual families will define this again and again. And again, we mean more than just going to a church. In fact, that might be part of the problem is we have developed a definition in our own cultural experience. And so we want to challenge some of those definitions from the Scripture. In other words, we believe the Holy Spirit is challenging us to say, hmm, maybe you need to calibrate this and think about what your definition of spiritual family has been. And in Genesis two, verse 18, you guys know this passage, you won't even need to turn there. The Lord said, it's not good. That man should be alone. But you know, as God did not say this, just because he was going to provide a wife to Adam, what else was he going to provide to Adam? It was going to provide children, which is providing a family, and then generations, God's going to provide generations. So in fact, when God said, It's not good for man to be alone, there's a bigger message here than just, oh, yeah, I want you to get married. What God was saying was that he's going to create family. And Adam wasn't just going to be with Eve, he wanted to sit Adam into family, and even to family, their children into family. And so this is a bigger message than just marriage, even though the cornerstone of that is is that marriage? What's the cornerstone in spiritual family? If it's the marriage in the natural family, what would it be in the spiritual family? The marriage, it is the marriage of the Bride of Christ, now, to the Lamb of God, to Jesus. And I believe that we operate both in the natural and the spiritual, because we are natural beings. And we are spiritual beings. So we operate in natural family and spiritual family. And if our natural families are healthy, we're learning to function in spiritual family, even in our natural family. You can be a biological father to your children and not be a spiritual father to your children. Because the spiritual father is not a biological function, it's a relational function. And there's a constellation of definitions around what a spiritual father is what a spiritual mother is, you know, what I love about God is it's never too late. If you're here, it's not too late. No matter where we are, in our lives, whether we're young, and we're just getting started, or whether we've been doing this a long time. The Lord is bringing us into the fullness of His ways of his ancient pathways in obedience and practicing the presence of God in the ways we're talking about. And so I just, I just pray for us that as we go through this, that our eyes will be on the lens of the future. One of my spiritual fathers, some of you know, Dick Dungan and one of his spiritual fathers challenged him and he challenged me, and I asked him to pray for me. And it was at one of the sabbaticals in Nebraska a few years ago, I said, Will you lay your hands on me and pray for me? Because I want to receive this. And this is what it was. He said. One of the most important things as a spiritual father as a leader, is that you see people through the lens of their destiny, not through the lens of their failures. lens of failures are looking backwards, we're looking back going well, I'm looking at you through this and that. And the other will, the problem is, God is looking at them not problem. But the solution to the problem is God is looking at that person through the lens of their destiny. Most of our destiny is where it's in the age to come most of our destiny 99.999999999. And I probably need to say that for about a few more 1000 years of our destiny is in the coming ages. And so we see that God is calling us, as families and spiritual families to start relating in these relationships of love and affection, that are deep at the heart level. And there's a lot there to unpack. But this is so important for us. Because I'll tell you this, and I don't have notes on this to teach on it right now. There is a lot, there's a lot of evidence in the Scripture, without going into the teaching, that most of what's going on here has a strategic continuity with the plans of God in the coming ages in the eternal ages. And in eternity. So you'll even see this in the teachings of Jesus, he'll say something like, You've been faithful with the five meanings and made 10 meanings, I will make you ruler over 10 cities or talents or, you know, there's the main as in the talents, but one of them is been faithful 10 Come and be ruler over 10 cities now some people go, Well, is that literal? Well, we don't know if it's literal, but we know it has meaning, right? And he uses the word 10 and 1010, faithful to make 1010 cities, what he's doing, is he saying, hey, there's a strategic continuity between our obedience here, and what is happening here, with what's going to come in the eternal ages. Now some people think of this almost like business people, they're like, Well, it's kind of like a reward. You know, you did this, you made that, okay, there's going to be 10. And whatever it is, there's going to be 10 of them for you. On the other side, I think it's a lot more dynamic than that. I believe that God has given us a glimpse, Jesus has given us a glimpse, that there is a strategic continuity between everything we are in do in this life, with the age to come. Now, whenever, whenever, whenever God created Adam and Eve in the garden, did he know the fall was going to happen? Right, he knew, right? Whenever the fall happened, did, did God say, oh, no, and look at all the angels and say, What are we going to do, we're in trouble. This thing he knew it was going to happen. Now this is hard for some people to accept. But we know that God, God does not force people into slavery against their will. So there is a bigger plan at work, a plan and which there is a creation, where people will live in total freedom, no slavery, no forced to be there. And yet rise to great destiny that we do not understand nor comprehend. Can we be in agreement that the new creation which is to come is much greater than this creation. And so now God gives us this creation, the Scripture says in Romans one, that his invisible attributes are clearly seen in the things that are made. So when we look at things that are made, we can see the attributes of God. A few years ago, there were some scientists, some astrophysicist that got together and decided they wanted to meet with some geologists and compare two facts. They said, we want to compare how many stars in the universe that we know of, and compare that number to the number of the grains of sand on the earth. And so the geologists have a way to extrapolate, of course, nobody went and counted every grain of sand in the earth, but they have a way to extrapolate how many grains of sand are on the earth because they know how deep it is in certain places, and all this kind of stuff. And they compared the two numbers that they came up with, which was they're more of stars. There were more stars in the universe verse in their count than the grains of sand on the earth. So now what just happened when we see this? God is revealing the invisible attributes of who he is, and the invisible attributes of who He is revealed to us hints and glimpses of that which is to come. So the nature of God Himself, knowing him begins to reveal this. And you say, Rod, what does this have to do with spiritual family?


Think about the largeness of what we just saw in this age in this creation. And God says, exceedingly, abundantly above more, all that you can ask or think. And there are several scriptures like this, where God is telling us literally, no matter how much you can imagine, no matter how much you can see, no matter how much you can pray, my plans are much greater than this. And then you get into these questions, and I'm not teaching a strange theology, they're just questions. When you think about the creation, okay, and the first creation, God created for six days, and he created in six days, more stars than grains of sand on the earth. How long is he going to create next time? What's he going to create? Who's he going to create? He's not telling Izzy, he's not telling. But whatever it is, it's big. And whatever it is, we know from numerous scriptures, that we have a major part in that. And I believe the indications from the teachings of Jesus are that their strategic continuity between this age and the age to come. I believe that every relationship has meaning and destiny, with what is to come. When I met brother, IRA, and your wife, Sylvia, the Holy Spirit, I'm not making this up, he literally begin to whisper This to me as we met. He said, Do you realize you have a destiny together? I'm talking about the ages to come, I'm like, every time you meet some I'm not saying every single person. But when you meet people, and God is is doing something and there's a there is a kindred spirit, that's there. Many times the Holy Spirit is giving hints to there's something great. Think about the people you grew up with, maybe a brother or sister, or maybe someone that you were very, very close to growing up, and you were close friends, all those years as a kid, when you grow up with someone and you know them and you see them every day, and you spend time and their best friend or a best brother or sister, whatever that might be. And then you move off and like us like we did we move off we are in the military, we travel, we're gone. 2030 years go by. And then one day you run into that person. It's amazing how that bond and that connection is still there. There's a unique connection, that still there that was formed in those formative years. And I would propose to you that the relationships God brings us together with they have a bond God is forming bonds and relationships that have eternal purpose. And so it is so important for us to be stewards of these relationships. In our world today, we can see what's important by turning on the TV to the world and talking about, we can see what's important to the world. Because you see these displays of what's important and what they're talking about in the news. And a lot of that stuff you guys know is not important, or it's not as important as we think it is. Now, the older you get, you know, if you've got your retirement accounts and all of that man when stopped me, you know, when I was 20? Nobody, nobody watched the stock market, the 20 year olds did, but now it's like all the people with retirement accounts, you know, they're like, What, wait, wait down a half a percent? What's going on? You know, and 5% that's really big right now. I think the market is down five or 6%. You know, people are like what? And I think about that ticker tape. Imagine in the kingdom, that there's a ticker tape. And that ticker tape is saying, Where is this relationship? It's telling you what the health level where's this relationship? It's not the health level of a stock. It's not the health level of what's in your retirement account. But it's going What's the health level of this relationship? What's the hell flow? And literally, it's a it's literally going across the screen of heaven, if you will, because there are things in heaven. And there are things in eternity way more important than this little stuff, you know, that we're dealing with. And so I believe that relationships and what God's saying to us about living in spiritual family is critical. So this is part of the background. I'm asking you to be in prayer and ask the Lord to show you. Here's what's going to happen. You see are thinking about this. And now, when you're reading the Scriptures, the Holy Spirit's gonna go home, look at this, and you're gonna see it, here and there, and they're in there. And I didn't come prepared to really teach on that. I just wanted to mention it as a background to what we're talking about today. Because the relationships we have have eternal purpose. The difference between a church relationship and a kingdom relationship, what is that? They might be the same. But we were talking to yesterday with Chris about this. And I was telling him that the Lord really began to challenge me to change how I was living the Christian life, and how I was committing to people. And so one of the sayings that we have in our own spiritual community fan, I say, spiritual families become a family of families, and communities, is that I'm committed to you for life. That's my commitment to you for a lifetime. Now, you're gonna live a pretty long time. Can you agree with that? That's a long commitment. That means stretching into the heavens, we're covenantal people. So we live by covenant, and covenants of God lasts long time forever. We live in covenant together. And so there's a commitment to one another that lasts forever. So when you move to Mississippi, and you leave Colorado, we say this, we don't give you a mug, say a prayer for you and say, have a good life will see you in heaven. Yeah. Because if you have a healthy family, you didn't you don't do that with your kids, when they turn 18 and go to college, you don't go well have a good life, I'll see you in heaven. If you're a good father, good mother, you're committed to them, you're still their father and mother. And there's that commitment. Life and spiritual family is designed to be a place of prosperity. And I go back to the Scripture. Notice how he contrasts that he says, God sets the solitary and families and he brings out those who are bound into prosperity. So there is a connection of prosperity to spiritual families, then if you're not sure, there is a connection, he gives you the contrast and the next sentence. And he says, but the rebellious dwell in a dry land. Isn't it interesting that the opposite of those who are called into spiritual family or the rebellious and that they live in a dry land? One is prosperous, one a sparse. Man, I'll tell you, if you want to live in a healthy family, you're gonna have a hard time if you're rebellious. All of us without naming names, have some crazy rebellious person in our family somewhere in our family tree, some uncle, some some person who you're gonna man, everybody knows he's the crazy rebellious one that can't get along with anybody. He's the one that's arrogant. He's the one that you know. And the problem is, is if people live that way, it's the opposite of spiritual family because they can't. It's hard to live in spiritual family, unless we walk in humility. And that's part of the whole development of what happens is our souls are developed our spirits, we literally grow and become a different person, in spiritual family. And once again, I say we're not just talking about going to church together, we're talking about people who relate in close relationship together. I've had many dear friends and family who've lived years in the desert of aloneness, and loneliness from genuine spiritual family. And quite a few of them actually attended church regularly. You can sit in a pew, surrounded by people and be totally alone. They're starving for deeper spiritual friendships that nourish the soul in the Spirit, even though they're surrounded by people. We kind of use this example sometimes, when you're standing in the checkout, at the grocery store, or Walmart or something, just because you're next to someone doesn't mean you're close to him. You can be physically close and relationally a light years apart, and not know them not know what they're going through. And this is, this is a challenge. I mean. I've found the same to be true in churches, people who are alone, or people who are isolated, or people who you really don't know how they're doing. And a good friend of mine, some of you know him. He was telling me the story a few years ago.


And actually the way the story came up is I said, Hey, man, did you see this in the news? And he goes, Yeah, and what happened was, there was a guy who had moved to another city, not in Colorado somewhere else. And on Christmas Day, that guy killed his entire family. He killed his wife. He killed all of his children, everybody in his family. And then he goes, Yeah, he goes, I know that guy. I'm like, what? He goes, Yeah, he goes, I used to go to church with him. And he said, we went to this big church, and he goes, everybody sat in the same section. And you know how people kind of congregate to certain sections. This is a big church, 10 12,000 people. And he said, you know, he said, they like everybody during the greeting time to shake hands with each other. I don't know why. But I've always kind of struggled with greeting times a little bit, because I like to get to know people, you know. And I feel like man, I just shook a bunch of hands. But I didn't get to know anybody. Not one person did I get to know him? And he said, This guy was in our section, he goes, every he goes, most Sundays, he come up, man, he gives me a big ol hug. He just oh, how you doing and give you a big hug. And he thought everything was fine with that guy. But he didn't know. Because he didn't know what was going on. In his heart. You see this all the time, some guy does some horrendous thing in the news media will come down and interview the neighbors. And then they go they go away. He was a nice guy. It's just a side note. Our society has decided that nice is like the chief characteristic of someone with good character. There's a lot of nice people who are not nice, right? That's a that's another theology teaching somewhere else. But you know, it just gets me people think if you're nice that you're somehow godly. And there's no, there's a lot of evil people who are nice to get what they want, right? Well, this guy truly had some things going on in his heart, he was troubled. But the people around him in church did not know it, because they were not connected relationally. And so it's so important for us to connect relationally. And that's when we began to develop in ways that we probably didn't even plan on in a lot of ways. God wired us to belong, didn't he? Everybody needs to belong. He's this way we're made he made us to need to belong. And God's family is the first way to belong his family, he created the family as the amino acid, the basic building block, if you will, of society is the family. That's the reason and it doesn't take a rocket science to figure this out. That's the reason why the society in Western society as we know it, the fabric is eroding rapidly, we are in a very serious erosion situation. And the fabric is breaking down rapidly. Because of the lack of the basic building blocks of society. God says his family. And I believe that what we're going to see is God preserving natural families and spiritual families, while the rest of it erodes because he will draw a contrast so that people will see the light and move to the light. And Jesus says in the last day, God said to let the week grow, let the tears grow and the weeds getting more mature and the tears are getting more mature. Well, as time goes on, people start to go, Wait a minute, why are you guys so happy? Well, even though they disagree with you about most beliefs, and everything you're doing, I go, Wait a minute, how come these people are so happy, and God is drawing people into the light, because he's drawing a contrast between light and darkness between good and evil. We see this happening, I believe it's going to happen, especially in people, the kingdom, who live in healthy families and healthy spiritual families. Belonging is an ownership term. You ever thought about that? If I belong, I have a stakeholder ship in others, but they also have a stakeholder ship in me. In other words, my children and grandchildren, they will say, My children will say that's my father. They own me as their father, do you see what I'm saying? I am their father. I'm not just that's not just a relational term or a positional term. It is an ownership term they I am their father. And if I am a godly father, they have access to me and stakeholder ship in my life as a child that they can access at any time. So there is a kind of ownership there they own me as their father, and likewise as children. Marriage, in marriage, there's a mutual submission of power and authority to one another. And so it's so comprehensive in marriage that Paul describes it as an exchange of ownership. Hmm. Have you ever thought about that? First Corinthians seven in verse four? He says, the wife does not have authority over her own body. But the husband does. And likewise, the husband does not have authority over his own body. But the wife does. Man, that's some serious there's a lot of people in the church that don't even believe that, at least not practically. Right? Because you gotta have some serious, you're talking about an exchange of ownership. Are you guys tracking? So in marriage, there's this exchange of ownership, where I say to my wife, honey, I don't own my body, you do? You have authority over my body, my life. In that respect, you see, there's a mutual submission. And in that mutual submission, there's an exchange of ownership. And the world says, No, the flesh goes, No. And God goes, you're seeing the beauty of it. The beauty of this. Now, let's look at God, he does the same thing. And I don't know if I have the scriptures written down. Yeah, I do. Jeremiah 3238. This is a radical covenant concept here. And it's like any other truth, it can be carried too far. It can be that any truth in the Scripture can be embellished and carried too far. And, and so if you hear somebody teach this, and then they go off with some crazy idea, we didn't teach you that, right? I'm not saying take it too far. But the idea here is this exchange of ownership and Jeremiah 3238. He says, They shall be my people, and I will be their God. Then I will give them one heart. And one way, how is that because in the exchange of ownership, there's a unity that comes in that exchange, that they may fear me forever, for the good of them and their children after them. So in covenant, there is an exchange of ownership in marriage that we have with God as God's people, not just individually, but as a family of God, we say, Lord, I am not my own. I'm bought with the price. And the Lord says, I'm gonna give you a good deal. I'm gonna give myself to you, as a husband gives himself to a wife, I'm going to give myself to you, and I will be your God. And you have me as your God. And that's why the Lord is so jealous, this reason why the scripture says the Lord God is a jealous God is not because God is an immature deity. Some people kind of have that idea in the world, God, some, you know, he's, you know, and they look at God through the lens of a fallen human being, it's like, no, the Lord's heart is in this. You see what I'm saying? Like, his heart is 1,000%. In it. He wants to completely give Himself to you, as your God. But in return, he wants you to give yourself to him, as his as his son or daughter as his people as his bride. But when this happens, the heart affections that are involved in this are extraordinary, because in that exchange of ownership, a unity forms that supernatural, this supernatural, no matter how much you and I try to be a positive thinker and think the right things and think the right scriptures and all of this, there has to be something more than just thoughts. There has to be a tangible thing that's actually happening spiritually, where we are literally living in surrender to Him.


And then we start to experience an affection level with God that has gone past the mind. Because knowledge alone without revelation is one of the biggest enemies of the kingdom. Now people say, Rod, what are you talking about? Truth is good. Yeah, it is good. But if it's just knowledge, what is Paul say? It makes one arrogant, it puffs up. But whenever that knowledge becomes revelation, so knowledge is something I know revelation, something I see. Revelation means unveiling it means the opening of our eyes. When our eyes are open, that truth goes past the mind sinks into the heart. And no longer do I just think about loving my wife. Now my heart is engaged now. I love her now. There is a growing passion and compassion and heart filled desire to give my life to her. In 1,000% of faithfulness, now we're talking about something that wasn't created. Faithfulness is not created you guys There's no that right? Hmm. Talk about this theology for a second. It's not created. It's not a created thing. Faithfulness is in the nature of God. Therefore it was never created. It has always been in the nature of God. And so the nature of God starts to come into you and me, faithfulness, faithfulness comes in, and we're like, we start to breathe the divine. It's like this grace. You know, Peter said it when he tested these great and precious promises by which we take on the divine nature of God, he doesn't mean just acting like God, he means that the nature of God literally starts to pump through the veins of your soul becomes we literally in a spiritual level, there is a DNA mutation, if you will, what Paul calls a transformation, he uses the word metamorphosis, in the Greek where there's a transformation into the very nature of God, so that I don't try to be faithful to my wife. I'm not saying I don't try. It's not that I try. It's that it's who I am. That's why Jesus says, change, make the tree good, and the fruit will be good. There's a lot of people trying to make good fruit without changing the tree. And he's saying, hey, when you come into the divine nature, there's this divine mutation or transformation, if you will, there's a transformation that happens in us, much of what God has to impart to me, has come from these people in this room that I've known for years, and many other people. Because there is an impartation that comes from them. Every person in this room, you have things and qualities in your life, that you can impart that I have a deficit in my life. This is true of everyone, Joe, just like the human body delivers nutrients to all of the parts of the body. This right now there are nutrients flowing through the veins in this right arm that the left arm needs, even if the right arm didn't produce it, and it flows to them. But if we are not connected, at the heart relational level, there are many things that don't get conducted, there are many things that don't get imparted back to the Walmart cashier line, that person may have some great things to give you. But if you don't know them, you're going to check out they're going to check out you're going to go home, and you're not going to go home with any more than you went in with other than the groceries or whatever you bought at Walmart, right. But if you and I grow in a relationship, a family level, heart level relationship, things start getting imparted to me. Because the Lord knows rod, you need this in your life rod, you need that in your life. Now, belonging also means we live in accountability. Now my wife and I, we always have this caught my phone here. The the location services are always on to each other. We always know where each other is. Always. We can look and see where one another is at any time. Why? Because we want to look after each other. If we're going to the store, we say Hey, honey, I'm going to the store, I'm going to Walmart going to gas station or I'm going to go pick up this or meet with one of the kids. But we're always telling each other are we doing it because there was a prenuptial agreement in our marriage that said you got to tell each other where you are at all times. Right? There's no law, right? It's written on our hearts. Because we're looking after each other. We're watching out for each other. We live in accountability. Now this is where it gets dicey because a lot of people don't want to live in accountability. Can somebody say amen? And then if you're a leader, there's more accountability. Because now, not only am I accountable to my family, for everything I do, I'm also accountable to all these people I love and serve. Now, there's a good number of us in this room that have lived our lives in the military. We've lived under accountability. Matter of fact, the military's real good at giving you too many bosses sometimes, and you got too much accountability. And it's truthfully because it just doesn't work. You know, but the point is that we live under accountability, but this is the way family works. Right? I've had friends that they love it when they when they get to a ministry position that's kind of more and more removed because there's they feel like there's less accountability. No, there's not. You might think that but If you live that way, very long something is going to happen that you might regret. So we are open and accountable to one another. This is the nature of spiritual family. And when we live close to one another, because we're looking after each other, you say, Rod, what is this? Why are you we talking about this, because many of the things in my life that need to be shaped, formed, refined, and all of these things will happen in that kind of atmosphere. They're happening in that that place that they wouldn't if I was removed, I have some dear friends who are Christians, but they have lived aloof from people. And some of them in the ministry. And they've lived aloof from people maybe because they've been hurt or different things, maybe because they don't want people to see too deeply into their lives. There's a lot of different reasons. But I'll tell you, the most fertile soil I've seen in the kingdom, for gifts to blossom is the rich soils spiritual family. That's the rich soil I've seen. I mean, I've seen different soils. But usually this is the place where people who really didn't think they had much to offer grow and blossom, and come into some extraordinary realization and maturing in the gifts that God's called them to.


I've said this many times, but it's important to say here today, and I wrote it down. I've had a lot of people over the years say, Ron, man, you seems like you're really spiritually strong. And you're this and you've achieved you've had victory here and victory in this area in that area. And and, and how are you so strong as I'm not a stronger than anybody else. If you knew my family and how I grew up, I mean, my extended family. I mean, when I came to the Lord, my family was in walk with the Lord, my mom didn't even know how to lead me to cry, she had to go get the preacher had to go get someone else to lead me to the Lord. Because they didn't know how I didn't even know anything. I didn't even know Jesus died for me. All I knew is man. Those guys up there at that pavilion are given their lives to God. And somehow I know this is the meaning of my life, because the Holy Spirit's pulling on me like this. So my family is like your family. If you ever met a family, don't have skeletons in your closet, don't have generational sins, doesn't have all kinds of problems. They don't exist on the earth. Every family has generational sins and problems, and nobody wants to really talk about them. But But what I tell people is I've spent my life and I have spent my life in spiritual family. My whole life since I came to the Lord, I've spent my life surrounding myself with people who are closer to God than I am, who pray more deeper, stronger, who hear God more clearly than I do. I look for people who are wiser than I am. And a lot of people they look at me and they go, Oh, no, you got a lot more wisdom than I do what I might have in this area. But what about that area? What about this area over here? What about that area over here, all of a sudden, you realize you got areas of your life where God has grown tremendously, and you have something to give, and I need it. And so I learned this years ago, when I became a runner, if you want to be a faster runner, or run longer distance or be a stronger runner, go find those people who are good runners, and they will teach you and they won't just teach you, they'll take you with them. And they'll challenge you. And pretty soon you'll be a faster runner than you were you'll be a longer runner than you were you'll do things you never thought you could do before. And so there's an impartation that happens. But it happens because of the relationship. Right? It happens because there's a relationship there. The deeper the relationship, the further it is you go if you want to be a winner live around winners. If you want to be a warrior, live around warriors, if you want to be a victorious warrior live around victorious people. But it's not enough to sit in next to them in a pew the poor guy I mean that I gave you an example earlier and some people say he's not poor, he did this wickedness but the man was hurting a man to kill his family had to be hurting. He was hurting on the inside. And so yeah, there's a justice and there's a judgment that he has brought into his life. But there's also the compassion of God said, Wait a minute, what did he need? And it's very possible I'll tell you what I'm doing. A lot of people said, Man, my life I that's where I would have gone above and beyond for the grace of God. But somebody came into my life that God sent. And that guy probably had people God sent to him that were passed by. But there's transformation that happens because of those relationships. And so this is where where we are God's calling us, I believe, to live this way and be challenged this way. People experience enormous freedom and spiritual families, because they experience a kind of love that brings freedom. Think about this, have you ever been in a relationship that was not a love relationship? It might have been your fault might have been their fault might have been both of us fault. Usually it is it's usually on both sides. But if we're in a relationship, that's not a love relationship, it's not founded on true genuine care or love. You will see two very bound people in a relationship, whether it's a work relationship, colleagues, marriages, whatever you brothers, sister, whatever it is, if you see a relationship, and it's not founded on love, they're bound up. And there's just all kinds of entanglement and problems. But man, you see a love relationship. I remember Doug and Jennifer, you shared with us. And we were noticing during COVID, we were noticing that some relationships. Were just tanking man. I mean, I know people got divorced from COVID. Because they got home and they lived together and hated each other. And what happened was being together just manifested problems that were already there. And other relationships got stronger and more beautiful and more robust. And I was like, man, what's going on here? And we were having a prayer Council one night, and Doug and Jennifer's man, we're just loving it. We just love man. They were say, I mean, you know, they're glass half full people anyway, but they're like, Thank God for COVID Man, dogs at home all the time. We're together all the time. We just love it. You know, when I when I retired from the military, I got some friends. I says, oh, man, are you and your wife about ready to kill each other? I'm like, No. And they're like, man, we're ready to kill each other. I told my husband get out of the house, you know? And because there's issues going on there that need to be resolved. But when a relationship is healthy, the it's free and it sets you free. You're a free person. Man, do you love this stuff? I sure do. And I just want everybody else to get it too. I just want. I'm just like, God, I want people to have this. And I want to tell you something. I believe you're here today for a reason. Because number one, you can live this way. Many of you already live in this way. But you can live this way. Number one, no matter what our past is made, if you knew my past, you might people told my parents they thought I'd be in prison by the time I was 12. And that was the path I was heading on. But God and you can live this way doesn't matter what your path is. And then what happens is, you bring other people into this way of living. And you might think it's small. But you guys know that illustration? Which would you have rather have $100 or a penny doubled every day or something like that? Was it? I can't remember the math behind it. But it was like, the right answer was the penny doubled every day? Because you know, within a short time in your life, you're like multi multimillionaire, why am I saying this? Because you might think it little when you're just impacting the people here in my life or here in my life. But the multiplication effect of the kingdom is is the big stuff. And that's part of the problem that we're struggling with right now. We were talking about this yesterday with discipleship and relationships. Because in our, in our American western mindsets, we have Miss identified what big is, we have said big as if you have a big crowd. Well, that's great. I mean, I love big crowds, if we're doing good things, but what changes hearts and lives, Jesus invested into 12 and their extended friends and family. Those were the world changers. It wasn't the multitudes that healed Yes, they had an impact. But the impact that changed the entire world, and multiplied the kingdom of God over a period of several 1000 years was those few people that, that 12 and their extended friends and family and that 70 And that 120 And maybe that 500 It saw his resurrection. So I'm assuming it wasn't the multitudes. And so remember that the biggest things come in small packages, and every time you're loving people and and you're in these relationships, and you're investing like we're talking about teaching people through your example to live in spiritual family, that what you're doing literally is you are planting those seeds in that old saying, everybody, anybody can tell you how many seeds are in an apple. But only God can tell you how many apples are in a seed. And we're carrying this Seeds of tomorrow's revivals, we're carrying the seeds of tomorrow's moves of God. And think about the simple obedience. Here's Paul. He's out planting churches. By the way, Beth and I just signed up. We're excited. We're going next year, Lord willing to see that it's called The footsteps and churches of Paul. And we're gonna go look at where Paul, I've been wanting to do this for a long time. And where Paul was planting these churches, and church historians believe the largest church Paul ever planted was current. And you know how big they think it was, it's based upon where the meeting places were, you know how big they think it was 75 people, and all the other churches were smaller. But here he was, he's vested invest in his life. I really don't think Paul probably knew maybe he knew by revelation, but he probably didn't really realize how many gazillion or Ezra would say Googleplex of times. His name is is in his spoken and he's quoted. I mean, it's got to be in the billions of times, how many times have you said, Well, Paul said this, or I read, Paul, you know, all the time, just gazillions of times, he probably didn't know that he was just being faithful in his little spaces in the world that God had called him to. Yes, please come on up here, come on up anybody else to if you have something, come right on up.


It's just a great spot in there, of what I just read in here. As Rod was teaching, and sharing from First Corinthians seven, four, I went on to seven, five, and there, it's really talking about marriage, but then we can extrapolate from there, into these relationships of being in spiritual family. And so he was talking about the exchange of ownership there that the woman owns, has authority over the man's body, the Man has authority over the woman's body. And in verse five, then it says, Do not deprive one another except with consent for a time that you may give yourselves to fasting and prayer. And, you know, I've always kind of seen that, okay, you just, you know, you might not have some certain kind of relations for a little while for fasting and prayer. But when I read the meaning of the word deprive, it means to steal. I was like, what, Lord? What are you saying there? What does this mean? Well, if I am not fully giving myself in relationship, whether physically, mentally, emotionally, if I'm not fully invested in our marriage relationship, I'm literally stealing from my husband. If he's not fully invested into the relationship with me, he's actually stealing from me. And as he was talking about the relationship with one another in the spiritual family, and what we bring to the table, and what we can give, if we're not fully invested into those relationships in the kingdom, we're actually stealing from one another. I've learned so much from Jennifer from dog from Kiyomi. From Edwin, from Tyler, and Marina I've received so much they've given so willingly and because they are such givers, I've learned how to enter deeper into a family relationship, a friendship relationship, I've learned so much and how to walk in friendship and in deep friendship with one another. They did not steal from me, and I'm learning to give into the relationship. And so I'm thinking through when when rod said, you know, how many times do people say Paul said this, Paul said that he was fully invested into those relationships with the churches. Think of how much we would have lost in this world had Paul held back and stayed aloof. By No, he didn't steal from us. He gave willingly. And that's what I'm seeing with all of this with being living in spiritual family in this way.


That's good. There's such a true love produces such an earnestness and intensity. It's the opposite of passive. And the stronger that relationship, the more it does that. Here's a scripture that we've heard quoted a few times. Proverbs 14, four. Solomon said where no oxen are, the trough is clean. But much increase comes by the strength of an ox. I I've had dear friends in the military, and they said, Well, I don't I'm too committed to my career. I don't have time to have children. And then when they got old or, and the rest of us have grandchildren. Now, some of them are going man, I think I should have had some kids or I think I should have invested in, in the next generation and they're kind of struggling with it. Some of them are really struggling with it right now. Because they didn't realize that avoiding the messiness also avoided a lot of other blessings in their lives. family and close community can get messy, can it? So it's a lot easier to slide into a Pew once or twice a week. You know, send the kids over to children's church and pay your tithes, shake a few hands, get to know people a little bit just in passing. But what happens is, if you don't really get to know them, and you're not close, you don't have to deal with your differences. You know, they don't know what your hang ups are. And you don't know what their hang ups aren't. It's just easy, isn't it? It's pretty easy. That way. You don't have to deal with conflict who likes conflict? Man, I don't like conflict. But if you get in close proximity with people, conflicts gonna come if it doesn't, I would say, hey, our close heart, you guys, you know, there's got there's things that come up in human relations. You know, I've known several folks over the years, and they seem like really patient people. And they were patient in normal church life, until we start getting close. And then I realized, man, you know, as soon as they got some challenges, or some little kids running around, or this is happening, or that that's happening, suddenly, they're not as patient as I thought they were, or perhaps as they thought they were. So what happens is, we come into this close relationship, we have to start working through these things. And I know it's work, but it's worth it. It's really worth it. Because when you get on the other side of it, you're a better person, they're a better person, we're more mature. Have you ever met someone who has a really mature emotionally mature and healthy family? Man, I always admire those people because they're patient, and they're working with each other, and they're kind to each other. And all of us, as a lot of us have some significant dysfunction in our families. I'm talking about our upbringing in our historical family. And so man, I just was like, Man, I admire that because there's some things in my life. That took me 10 years of adulthood to get that some of my friends had the day they walked out the door on their own at 18 years old in their families. Can anybody identify with that? That's my life. And I look at those families and go man, to have that maturity and growth is a tremendous blessing. And that's what God has for us. When I was growing up, I love to play basketball. And I love the game of basketball. I was a natural at baseball, like baseball came so natural to me. Who knows how far I could have gone because it was just easy for me. I just did well at it. But I loved basketball. And so I had this cord. My grandmother got me a basketball hoop and my dad helped me clear this area and get this cord, this dirt cord. And man, I played basketball every day for hours I played. I played basketball man, I had my friends over we played basketball. I probably who knows man, I kind of wish now I'd done something with my time better. But I loved basketball because who knows. But I did all this. And then I played basketball in high school. Oh, man, I show up to play basketball in high school. And all of a sudden, I find out I got this bad habit. And I've got that bad habit and, and I find out there's a lot of people way better at this game than I am. And then the coach is going, Hey, don't do that again. And he's saying change your ways here. Don't let me show and all of a sudden I start seeing all these problems. I'm like, man, I've been playing basketball for years. I didn't know I had all these problems. I didn't know I had all these things. But suddenly, when I'm out there and I'm with a team, now, I start seeing all these issues. And that's why it is was spiritual family. And that's the way it is when you have someone in your life or someone's in your life, if you will, who are spiritual shepherds in your life. They're the coaches. We need the coaches of our life. And if they bark at you once in a while, it's not because they don't like it's because they love you. I just was talking to a group of men last weekend we had a group of men from the churches in Denver around Denver and outside Denver up in the mountains. And I said there's too many people they're getting offended when when And they're brought in to any kind of correction. And it's from people who love you. Those people love you. That's why they're doing it. You know, you see American Idol, once a while, they'll have some person and get on there. And they get up in front of all the world. And they start singing, and it's horrible. And you're like, and I love it. I don't know who I first heard say this, but I've repeated a lot. They said, where is that person's friends? Where are their friends? How did they get all the way to national international television. And their friends didn't say don't do this. And their friends thought they were really loving them. And they get up in front of the whole world. And it's embarrassing, because they weren't ready for it. Right? We need friends in our lives, who love us enough to say things to us. And that coach, you know, on the basketball team, when when he when he's yelling out and barking out things, and whether it's good job, or whether it's Don't ever do that, again. It's because he loves you. He wants you to be a winner. He wants the team to be a winner. And so spiritual family has coaches has spiritual fathers, spiritual mothers, and people that we love. But there's still a lot of Christians who go to church, but they're playing on their own court. They're playing on their own court. And so because of that, they're doing it because there might be afraid somebody might see I'm not very good at this. Well, you know what, they won't see any of your mistakes. If you just stay over here on the bench. They won't see any of your mistakes. They won't see any of your faults, they won't see any of your problems. Oh, man, it sure is fun to be an armchair quarterback, isn't it? I know I switch games football, but it's easy to be armchair quarterback. But man, when you get into spiritual family, and you start doing life with family, there's something comfortable about being on the bench. But man, there's something awesome about being in the game. It is awesome to be in the game. It is awesome to be in family. I'll tell you what we're doing here. We've done this all over heaven, we we've traveled different place. I mean, man, it is so awesome. And it's so awesome to see God change people's lives, entire churches, in groups and leaders. And literally the Holy Spirit right now is transforming the way people live in the kingdom. And it's having extraordinary fruit. And we get to do this. Have we had challenges along the way, of course we have. But man, those are just a small price to pay for what's happened in live in His spiritual family moves us from the bench to the court. And instead, you guys are gonna relate to this, instead of us being all these people watching a few people in their gifts up on the stage. Now, we've got all these people living on the court.


That's my vision. My desire is there. Most of God's people in the church do not realize the spiritual leadership, they're really called to. Because they've been put in observer mode. And I'm not saying it's anybody's fault. It's cultural. It's happened. But they've come into observer mode, where we watch a few people in their gifts most of the time in the church, rather than us operating in the giftings and callings of God as spiritual family. And so my vision is to get people to walk in that now. I know the church. This is a beautiful facility we're in today, by the way, and we're very thankful for you guys appreciate you getting this for us. And it takes a lot to run a facility like this. And it takes people to clean and it takes people you know, and when he got to church, he got greeters and you've got people parking lot attendants and you've got people cleaning the toilets, and all of the things above all of that's important. But man, my calling. I'll tell you what I told the people in our spiritual communities, I said, Man, we're not raising up parking lot, greeters, and I thank God for him. Gifts of help is important. But that's not my calling. I want to draw out of you the gifts of God to be ministering and speaking into hearts and lives and mentoring and spiritual father and in spiritual mothering. Because whether you park cars or preach on Sunday, God's calling you to be a spiritual father, spiritual mother. God has that calling on your life. And you say, Rod, how do you know that because we are called to spiritual family. And Paul said though, you have 10,000 instructor's teachers in Christ, you have not many fathers and we can also say you have not many spiritual mothers either, do you? Yeah. And those are the people when you look back on your life and you go, Okay, let me go back and do an audit of my life and say, Where was I I'm most transformed. I can name names, and you can too. It wasn't just most of the time. You don't quote a 501 C three organization most of the time, maybe you do. Most of the time you quote people's names. And you could say, you know, when I was a young man, I'll tell you, I was a new believer. I wanted my parents to go to church and give their lives to the Lord and man, I was praying for him. And I got a little Gideon Bible because back in those days, the Gideons went to public schools, and they handed out Bibles. And that's how I got my Bible. I got it from the Gideons, the little, you know, the little red pocket, New Testament, they handed out at the public school. And then I carried that thing in my pocket for two years, I put it on my desk at school, I prayed for my parents to come to the Lord, and, and start serving him and I said, I want to go to church. And two years went by, and both of my grandfather's died six months apart. And my mom and dad got serious about the Lord. And we started going to church. And immediately I was like, Okay, I'm in church. Finally. Now, where can I find someone. And, and, and the Sunday school class was being taught by a guy named Aubrey Christie, who was an old Marine Corps, Korean War combat veteran. And I think I was 11 years old, or nine, I can't remember drowned, 10 years old, something like that. And he became my first spiritual mentor, spiritual father. And he was man he was imparting, and he was giving and he was investing. And I can just start with brother, Aubrey, and start naming names. And I can name names all the way up until this very day, somewhere between 45 and 50 men and women who've invested in my life. And I'm a composite of those people who said, You know what, a program is not enough. Our brother, Aubrey didn't just teach my son, his cool class, man, he had us over as boys that come over to his house and do camp out so on the water, and he would teach us the things of God, and he would challenge us and all of the above. And those people are the people that God uses to change our lives. And today, no matter where we are in life, this is God's calling us now, to live this way as spiritual family.


And then, whenever that happens, we have to live in humility. Don't wait. Man, it doesn't take very long when you live this way, with people close to you. You're like, Wow, that guy, man he can. He's really gifted in this area. And it's awesome to see it. But it's also awesome. Because if it makes me humble, and go, Wait a minute, I can't do that. And all of a sudden, there's a humility that comes with it. And we're open we go, brother, can you teach me that? Or can you pray that for me? Or can you cannot walk with you? I remember a few years ago, and I'll close with this. We had just we were in the early years when we started air Nova. And, and Brad tells the story. He's not here today. But Brad tells the story. And I'm gonna tell it for him today, because he's not here. But he was just really, God was doing some things in his heart. And he was really catching fire. And he and he's like, brother, he's like, is there like a book where you can tell me to go and get, you know, this book, and he'll give me like five or six key principles. So I can live this way and walk this way. And I just started laughing. That's what everybody wants. They want a book. Yeah, checklist they want. They want just, you know, just give me the checklist. Show me the book. You guys ever you've flown on airliner? If you ever ask the pilot, if he's been to pilot training, how would you like it? If you walked up to the captain? Before you get or you get on the plane? You know, you get ready to get seated. You're talking to the captain. And you say, hey, where did you go to pilot training? He goes, Well, I didn't. But I read a book on it. Would you go anywhere with that pilot? Right? This stuff is learn this stuff is learned. It's caught, it's taught it's imparted. And there are there are things that we do where we need guides in life. You know, I remember you know, I've spent my share of time in combat over the years. And when you go into combat operations, the first if you're brand new at it, the first thing you do is you look for those who have been there and done that immediately. And then once you've been spent months, Doug and I have spent We spent a year together and in combat in Iraq, and when you've been there and done that, immediately when you see new people and they, they're, they're new to the whole environment, the first thing you do is pull them in, take them under your wing, say, Hey, don't do this, do this here, watch out for that. Constantly, constantly, constantly, constantly. And that's the way it goes the whole time. And then as they get more experienced, what do they start doing? They start doing same thing. They go, hey, you know, we saw yesterday, this happen, and we almost were almost killed because of this. And okay, thanks. That's where we are in the spiritual war that we're in. And we need that same kind of closeness. And that same kind of move. But I'll tell you, we need guides in the kingdom. We need spiritual fathers and mothers. And unless we start living a spiritual family, and closeness, it won't happen. But when we do, the amazing thing is it's actually not that hard. That's kind of what Jesus said. He goes, Take my yoke upon you learn of me, for my yoke is easy. And my burden is light. Amen. All right, well, hey, I've got about another 200 hours of this that I could teach today. But I want to tell you something. There are other people here have things to impart and say that I don't have, and I'm really looking forward to this teaching today. Tyler, he just told me a little bit and I was like, Man, I have never heard a teaching on this. So I'm, I'm really pumping up expectations here. Because I it's gonna be good. It's gonna be good


yeah, I promise you, it's gonna be good. I know it will be. And you know what it? Here's what I also love about this spiritual family here, man. It doesn't matter when you're sharing. Everybody's got stuff now right now, I guarantee you there's a lot of people have stuff. They're being quiet right now. But they won't be. And there's, there's so much. So before we take a break, I'd like to just take a moment and say a prayer for you. And Lord, we're just thanking you. There's so much here that you're doing. It's really not important, important, what I'm saying. But it's important what you're saying. And Lord, every heart you're saying specific individual things to every heart in this room, and they may not be the same, it could be different. And so Lord, we pray that you Holy Spirit will take what it is that you're saying to us individually, and help us to receive it wholeheartedly. With all our hearts, all our souls, all our minds. Lord, we pray for your transformation in us. We open up our hands and we sit God doing us what you desire. We trust you. We trust you with our very lives. We trust you with our future, with our past, with our present, with our mistakes, with our failures, with our successes, with our gifting everything with our relationships, we just want to say Lord, You are trustworthy. And we trust you with everything we have in everything we are. And so Lord, we pray make us the fertile soil like you spoke in the parable, where the the the fruit is extraordinary Lord, we pray for a hundredfold harvest on every side and in everything. For the years that the moth is eaten and taken away, perhaps from the enemy's attacks or our failures, Lord, we pray that you will restore them by your supernatural power. Oh, Lord, we thank you Romans 828, that you can actually work all things for good, even our mistakes, even our failures. And God, we thank you from the bottom of our hearts. Jesus, we love you. And we just want to say this morning Jesus of Nazareth, we worship you. We glorify Your name. We bless the name of the Lord, from the depths of our soul, in our whole lives We bless the name of the Lord, and we pray be exalted. Oh King of Glory in our lives in Jesus name, Amen. And amen.


Thank you for joining us today. Aaron Nova is raising up spiritual leaders in many nations through our spiritual enrichment events, syndicated NetCast international prayer Council network, and numerous international seminary scholarships. Together, we are lighting the fires of revival, fueling prayer movements and raising up friends of Jesus in the nation's we invite you to partner with us in this extraordinary movement. You can sign up as a prayer and financial partner today by going to Aaron nola.org and clicking give. Please include your email address so that we can send you updates. That's era nova.org. Click give and become a monthly partner today. Invest in some of the most fertile spiritual soils on the planet and give the gift of faith and Love today to those with a deep need and hunger to know God. Their lives will be better because of your generosity and heaven will be greater because of your love. We pray that you will be drawn ever closer in your walk with God and that you will see his dreams unfold in your life in extraordinary ways. Thank you for your faithful prayers and gifts that enable us to take the Friends of Jesus movement to the nations as we watch the rise of the presence of God in His people throughout the earth.