WEBVTT

1
00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:07.040
You've already started stepping out into rest and starting to do things with intention,

2
00:00:07.040 --> 00:00:08.520
which was the commitment gesture.

3
00:00:08.520 --> 00:00:10.480
It's extremely important.

4
00:00:10.480 --> 00:00:13.920
So before you even knew what it was, some of y'all that I was even going to be talking

5
00:00:13.920 --> 00:00:19.840
about other than rest, you were actually already doing, you were already taking a step that

6
00:00:19.840 --> 00:00:21.160
is in the right direction.

7
00:00:21.160 --> 00:00:27.680
You're already starting to implement certain actions that we have to take as sons of God

8
00:00:27.920 --> 00:00:30.960
if we want to change, if we want to shift into rest.

9
00:00:30.960 --> 00:00:38.760
And so in the commitment gesture, you were using your power of intention and saying,

10
00:00:38.760 --> 00:00:43.760
this is what I desire, Lord, and I'm stepping into it, and this is how serious that I am.

11
00:00:43.760 --> 00:00:49.000
And that is actually setting you spiritually on a particular trajectory.

12
00:00:49.000 --> 00:00:54.040
And there is a bit of breakthrough that comes just because you made that step, and the amount

13
00:00:54.040 --> 00:00:56.400
of money did not matter.

14
00:00:56.400 --> 00:01:01.400
The reason that, and y'all know from having read this, that the money, that the actual

15
00:01:01.400 --> 00:01:05.880
amount was all about what that amount meant to you.

16
00:01:05.880 --> 00:01:08.560
Do you take $10 seriously or do you not?

17
00:01:08.560 --> 00:01:11.840
Do you take $2,000 seriously or do you not?

18
00:01:11.840 --> 00:01:14.800
It's all relative to you.

19
00:01:14.800 --> 00:01:17.720
You're trying to get your soul's attention.

20
00:01:17.720 --> 00:01:25.680
So when you are, but the important thing is that in moving forward with intention, we

21
00:01:25.680 --> 00:01:32.220
do it all from a place of rest, and you've already started that process.

22
00:01:32.220 --> 00:01:38.280
So we're going to continue that by me highly recommending to everyone, a very shocking

23
00:01:38.280 --> 00:01:45.520
thing, I highly recommend from experience with myself and with my clients to not take

24
00:01:45.520 --> 00:01:47.520
notes.

25
00:01:47.520 --> 00:01:51.880
So you will have the recordings, so you don't have to worry.

26
00:01:51.880 --> 00:01:52.880
It's all there.

27
00:01:52.880 --> 00:01:57.520
The reason why is you're, we are more than our mind.

28
00:01:57.520 --> 00:02:00.280
We're more than our, than what we can put through our brain.

29
00:02:00.280 --> 00:02:08.479
In fact, only 5% of our decisions, our activities, how we even send intention out into the world,

30
00:02:08.479 --> 00:02:15.600
only 5% of that actually scientists say, non-believing scientists say that goes through our brain.

31
00:02:15.600 --> 00:02:20.680
95% of our life and our decisions is driven by our subconscious.

32
00:02:20.680 --> 00:02:23.280
Our will is deeper than our mind.

33
00:02:23.280 --> 00:02:27.180
And that also means so that what that means is that there are, there's more to us than

34
00:02:27.180 --> 00:02:33.440
just what we can, that just what we can shovel and kind of funnel through, through our brain.

35
00:02:33.440 --> 00:02:38.760
And we're wanting to allow those other aspects of ourselves to have a part in our journey.

36
00:02:38.760 --> 00:02:43.120
They are all meant to function in a way that we don't consciously know how to direct them

37
00:02:43.120 --> 00:02:47.740
in, but they were created by God to function in a particular way.

38
00:02:47.740 --> 00:02:49.680
They know how to work.

39
00:02:49.680 --> 00:02:52.280
We don't, we don't know how they need to work.

40
00:02:52.280 --> 00:02:57.480
We need to let them be themselves and we need to allow our whole self, which is both, which

41
00:02:57.480 --> 00:03:02.160
is all spirit, soul, and body to have a part in the transition.

42
00:03:02.160 --> 00:03:08.600
So the aspect of not taking notes allows you to sit back and begin to practice receiving

43
00:03:08.600 --> 00:03:14.120
and allowing your soul and your spirit subconsciously to shift you into rest.

44
00:03:14.120 --> 00:03:16.440
Do you see how effortless it is?

45
00:03:16.440 --> 00:03:21.700
So it's not, we're not, we are not working hard so that we can finally rest.

46
00:03:21.700 --> 00:03:25.120
You can't have rest unless you rest.

47
00:03:25.120 --> 00:03:28.360
You can't have rest unless you stop.

48
00:03:28.360 --> 00:03:31.320
So that's what we're going to be talking about this whole weekend.

49
00:03:31.320 --> 00:03:32.320
Stop.

50
00:03:32.320 --> 00:03:35.480
Whatever you're doing, just stop.

51
00:03:35.480 --> 00:03:40.280
It's that easy because we're already everything we wanted to be.

52
00:03:40.280 --> 00:03:42.000
So I highly recommend that you don't take notes.

53
00:03:42.000 --> 00:03:43.160
You can do whatever you want.

54
00:03:43.160 --> 00:03:48.440
Some people can only pay attention if they're taking notes or, but I recommend you don't

55
00:03:48.440 --> 00:03:50.160
think about what you're writing.

56
00:03:50.160 --> 00:03:54.640
If you can just write just because you're listening to me and you're mindlessly writing,

57
00:03:54.640 --> 00:03:55.640
that's great.

58
00:03:55.640 --> 00:03:57.280
If you want to doodle, that's great.

59
00:03:57.280 --> 00:04:01.040
Highly recommend that whatever it is you do, you're not mentally engaging with it.

60
00:04:01.040 --> 00:04:02.040
That's the whole point.

61
00:04:02.040 --> 00:04:04.360
It's just allow, do whatever you need to do.

62
00:04:04.360 --> 00:04:08.800
Y'all are adults, free will beings, but that's what I would highly recommend.

63
00:04:08.800 --> 00:04:13.640
And that's one of the ways you can start practicing receiving.

64
00:04:13.640 --> 00:04:16.000
Jonathan, is this okay?

65
00:04:16.000 --> 00:04:19.240
I think it keeps changing the volume.

66
00:04:19.240 --> 00:04:20.240
So I'm wondering if I'm moving.

67
00:04:20.240 --> 00:04:21.240
Am I moving it?

68
00:04:21.240 --> 00:04:22.240
Are we good?

69
00:04:22.240 --> 00:04:23.240
Just your fluctuation.

70
00:04:23.240 --> 00:04:24.240
Okay, perfect.

71
00:04:24.240 --> 00:04:27.240
Just wanted to make sure.

72
00:04:27.240 --> 00:04:31.720
Okay, because remember, when we receive, the reason that we can receive is that there's

73
00:04:31.720 --> 00:04:34.200
nothing left to do.

74
00:04:34.200 --> 00:04:35.400
God's already died.

75
00:04:35.400 --> 00:04:36.680
He's already had the victory.

76
00:04:36.680 --> 00:04:38.200
He says that we're already one with him.

77
00:04:38.600 --> 00:04:40.880
We're already one with him in spirit.

78
00:04:40.880 --> 00:04:43.240
He says that we can't come to him by behavior.

79
00:04:43.240 --> 00:04:44.760
There's nothing left to do.

80
00:04:44.760 --> 00:04:47.320
So we just, we can receive everything.

81
00:04:47.320 --> 00:04:50.480
Another thing, how to receive some of the information that I'll be talking about.

82
00:04:50.480 --> 00:04:54.760
So some of it for, some of y'all have heard this before.

83
00:04:54.760 --> 00:04:57.000
Others of y'all have never heard it before.

84
00:04:57.000 --> 00:05:00.040
So I wanted to give y'all a recommendation of how to.

85
00:05:00.000 --> 00:05:05.000
Listen to new revelations from the Lord.

86
00:05:05.000 --> 00:05:10.000
I highly recommend, remember, you're not trying to be convinced by me.

87
00:05:10.000 --> 00:05:14.000
I am just up here telling you what I believe.

88
00:05:14.000 --> 00:05:16.000
I'm telling you how I live.

89
00:05:16.000 --> 00:05:22.000
I'm telling you what I've had to own in my life and what I literally live out, and it's transformed my life.

90
00:05:22.000 --> 00:05:26.000
You can choose to have part of it if you want, but you receive it from the Lord.

91
00:05:26.000 --> 00:05:28.000
You don't receive it from me.

92
00:05:28.000 --> 00:05:30.000
So when I'm talking, you just listen.

93
00:05:30.000 --> 00:05:32.000
What is your spirit saying?

94
00:05:32.000 --> 00:05:34.000
Where is your spirit coming alive?

95
00:05:34.000 --> 00:05:39.000
If your spirit comes alive, it means your spirit already knew that thing.

96
00:05:39.000 --> 00:05:40.000
You already knew it.

97
00:05:40.000 --> 00:05:48.000
It's between you and the Father, and you can 100% receive that revelation that the Lord is giving you in your spirit into yourself,

98
00:05:48.000 --> 00:05:51.000
because that will allow it to transform you.

99
00:05:51.000 --> 00:05:56.000
But if there's something that maybe I say and you're not really sure about that,

100
00:05:56.000 --> 00:06:02.000
I don't really know about that, I would highly recommend don't immediately reject it,

101
00:06:02.000 --> 00:06:10.000
because what that does is internally and spiritually we start shutting down, and that's an actual problem.

102
00:06:10.000 --> 00:06:14.000
What we want to do, this is what I recommend, is this is what I do.

103
00:06:14.000 --> 00:06:19.000
I have something that I call my Area 51 Warehouse,

104
00:06:19.000 --> 00:06:23.000
and when I hear something that I'm just not quite sure about,

105
00:06:23.000 --> 00:06:27.000
something that sounds a little out there, but I don't want to reject it, but I don't want to receive it,

106
00:06:27.000 --> 00:06:30.000
I just stick it in my Area 51 Warehouse and just tell the Lord,

107
00:06:30.000 --> 00:06:35.000
okay, Lord, you can pull it forward if ever it is time to reveal that to me,

108
00:06:35.000 --> 00:06:38.000
and I just am not currently ready to receive the truth.

109
00:06:38.000 --> 00:06:42.000
Maybe I don't have a grid for it, or maybe I'm not supposed to receive it at all.

110
00:06:42.000 --> 00:06:44.000
But right now, Lord, I can't figure it out.

111
00:06:44.000 --> 00:06:47.000
So I'm not going to reject it, but I'm not going to receive it either.

112
00:06:47.000 --> 00:06:49.000
So I'm just going to put it back there and just let it hang out.

113
00:06:49.000 --> 00:06:51.000
There's no problem with that.

114
00:06:51.000 --> 00:06:56.000
Then if God tells you something point blank in your spirit to reject, well, then that's different.

115
00:06:56.000 --> 00:07:02.000
But I wanted to mention about how I would recommend hearing people, not just me,

116
00:07:02.000 --> 00:07:09.000
just hearing people, coming across new ideas.

117
00:07:09.000 --> 00:07:12.000
There's a third option.

118
00:07:12.000 --> 00:07:15.000
We don't have to receive or reject.

119
00:07:15.000 --> 00:07:18.000
We can just kind of stick something back there, and you don't have to be worried

120
00:07:18.000 --> 00:07:24.000
that you could be threatened or corrupted by something that you hear here that you weren't quite sure about.

121
00:07:24.000 --> 00:07:27.000
All denominations are represented in this room.

122
00:07:27.000 --> 00:07:33.000
We have conservative, and then we have way out there, and we have everything in between.

123
00:07:33.000 --> 00:07:38.000
But what we're talking about when we're talking about rest is it's actually extremely foundational.

124
00:07:38.000 --> 00:07:40.000
It's the gospel.

125
00:07:40.000 --> 00:07:43.000
It's what we have as a result of the gospel.

126
00:07:43.000 --> 00:07:45.000
Therefore, it is for everyone.

127
00:07:45.000 --> 00:07:49.000
It is freely and effortlessly received by everyone.

128
00:07:49.000 --> 00:07:56.000
We're learning basically the building blocks from which to do everything else that we've been learning in life so far.

129
00:07:56.000 --> 00:08:01.000
So think of all of the other conferences that you've been through or sometimes you're a pastor or whatever,

130
00:08:01.000 --> 00:08:03.000
teachings, books that you've read.

131
00:08:03.000 --> 00:08:10.000
Some of those are like, think of it kind of like at the high school level or at the university level,

132
00:08:10.000 --> 00:08:14.000
the conferences that you're going to, things that you're trying to do with the Lord.

133
00:08:14.000 --> 00:08:18.000
We are going all the way back to kindergarten with this,

134
00:08:18.000 --> 00:08:26.000
because if you're frustrated with why you're hearing people that you highly respect,

135
00:08:26.000 --> 00:08:31.000
that you highly admire for what it is that they can do and have and be and experience in the Lord,

136
00:08:31.000 --> 00:08:36.000
and no matter how many years you've been in it, you can't seem to break through,

137
00:08:36.000 --> 00:08:38.000
there's something with that foundation.

138
00:08:38.000 --> 00:08:40.000
Go all the way back.

139
00:08:40.000 --> 00:08:47.000
Because everything, everything that we do, everything that all of those people talk about has to be done from rest.

140
00:08:47.000 --> 00:08:55.000
So if you're trying to implement it out of strife and get their same experiences out of strife, it won't work.

141
00:08:55.000 --> 00:09:00.000
They talk about rest, but so often people don't know, yeah, but how do I move into it?

142
00:09:00.000 --> 00:09:02.000
We'll be talking about how to move into it.

143
00:09:02.000 --> 00:09:04.000
So rest is actually very foundational.

144
00:09:05.000 --> 00:09:09.000
And once you get those building blocks in place and once you understand them, don't worry.

145
00:09:09.000 --> 00:09:13.000
We're not going all the way back to ground zero, scrapping all of this and starting over.

146
00:09:13.000 --> 00:09:14.000
We don't have to start over.

147
00:09:14.000 --> 00:09:18.000
We still have all of that, but now because we're getting a new foundation,

148
00:09:18.000 --> 00:09:24.000
now as the Lord will take us back to revisit all of these things, we will move very quickly.

149
00:09:24.000 --> 00:09:29.000
So I started to learn all of this when I was around 34 or 35, and I thought, oh my word.

150
00:09:29.000 --> 00:09:33.000
Once I got this new foundation, I thought, I'm going to have to learn everything all over again.

151
00:09:33.000 --> 00:09:34.000
I discovered I didn't.

152
00:09:34.000 --> 00:09:39.000
I was able to catch up really quickly, and then suddenly I took off.

153
00:09:39.000 --> 00:09:46.000
I had gotten to a point and I couldn't get past that point no matter how many years or decades that I spent on it.

154
00:09:46.000 --> 00:09:52.000
Finally, with that new foundation, I was able to come back up to that point and push past it.

155
00:09:52.000 --> 00:09:55.000
So we're just relaying a new foundation.

156
00:09:55.000 --> 00:09:56.000
We're learning how to read.

157
00:09:56.000 --> 00:09:57.000
So you can go to university.

158
00:09:57.000 --> 00:10:00.000
You can listen to a professor, talk to you about calculus.

159
00:10:00.000 --> 00:10:06.780
In the spirit and all kinds of stuff, but if you don't know how to read you can only go so far

160
00:10:07.640 --> 00:10:13.240
So that's what we're that's what we're going to do. It's very basic. Everything that we're talking about is our inheritance

161
00:10:13.480 --> 00:10:17.280
So it is something that you not only have a right to you already have

162
00:10:17.560 --> 00:10:21.320
We're just learning how to remove the layers that have kept us from understanding

163
00:10:21.720 --> 00:10:23.720
How to access it

164
00:10:23.720 --> 00:10:30.200
Okay, this is really important

165
00:10:32.360 --> 00:10:37.160
Okay, we'll be talking more about this, but I provide I try really

166
00:10:37.680 --> 00:10:43.000
My heart is to provide a very safe and supportive environment for people to be able to shift

167
00:10:43.440 --> 00:10:49.000
Because the what it is that we're going to be facing when we enter rest. We're going to be connecting with God

168
00:10:49.400 --> 00:10:52.300
That's where rest is rest is in God

169
00:10:53.100 --> 00:10:55.100
So if we don't have rest

170
00:10:55.180 --> 00:11:01.420
We haven't we haven't allowed ourselves to get close to him and it's because we're afraid of him

171
00:11:01.660 --> 00:11:07.100
So we're going to be removing that fear and we're going to be we're going to be experiencing God and we're going to be coming

172
00:11:07.180 --> 00:11:10.000
We're going to be entering him and then we're going to discover. Oh my word

173
00:11:10.000 --> 00:11:13.100
I was I was here, but I didn't realize that I was I was here

174
00:11:13.140 --> 00:11:19.220
So in order to do that, this is going to cut this is going to require some very serious choices

175
00:11:19.860 --> 00:11:27.580
So the phrase that I like to use is reckless abandon and I don't mean that I don't mean that gently

176
00:11:28.740 --> 00:11:34.340
It is as scary as all the power that you can think it is all the reasons why we've said no

177
00:11:35.460 --> 00:11:37.460
We have made our lives very complicated

178
00:11:38.260 --> 00:11:45.220
Very painful. They're full of a lot of struggle and we have created that world in all of our effort

179
00:11:45.980 --> 00:11:47.980
Trying to resist and and

180
00:11:48.300 --> 00:11:54.020
Trying to resist him and in all of that effort of saying no, that's how we built this up

181
00:11:54.020 --> 00:11:57.300
we're gonna learn how to stop saying no and

182
00:11:57.940 --> 00:11:58.980
so

183
00:11:58.980 --> 00:12:06.140
Remember that phrase remember the reckless abandon because that whenever you come up and up against an obstacle whenever you're afraid whenever you're scared

184
00:12:06.140 --> 00:12:09.540
You're more than welcome to let me know whenever that happens. I can walk you through it

185
00:12:09.540 --> 00:12:12.620
I have done it so many times over very extreme situations

186
00:12:13.500 --> 00:12:19.380
And remember in those times remember that phrase reckless abandon because that's what it requires

187
00:12:21.740 --> 00:12:24.400
And the fastest way that we can become like our father

188
00:12:24.820 --> 00:12:29.460
You know in in doing this in being like just recklessly abandoning ourselves to something

189
00:12:29.500 --> 00:12:34.020
The fastest way that we can actually become like our father is to start acting like him

190
00:12:34.660 --> 00:12:36.300
Not to learn about him

191
00:12:36.300 --> 00:12:39.180
Jump in before you know and figure it out on the ground

192
00:12:39.380 --> 00:12:43.020
And this is the last person in the world that I thought would ever tell you that I

193
00:12:44.180 --> 00:12:46.180
built my entire life

194
00:12:47.020 --> 00:12:54.500
Observing and waiting until everything was perfect before I would step in and so I got to a point where I was so desperate

195
00:12:54.500 --> 00:12:57.900
I realized nope, that's not going to work and I put everything on the line

196
00:12:57.900 --> 00:13:01.460
I put I literally put my life my family my relationships my

197
00:13:01.780 --> 00:13:08.500
relationship with God on the line in order to jump in because nothing was working and that's when I found the Lord and

198
00:13:08.580 --> 00:13:11.060
And in it did require that reckless abandon

199
00:13:12.180 --> 00:13:17.620
Okay, so I'm sorry. I want to try to make sure that hair stand off of that

200
00:13:18.860 --> 00:13:22.140
okay, so let me quickly go walk you through my

201
00:13:23.780 --> 00:13:28.980
Testimony really quick so I was I was very legalistic

202
00:13:28.980 --> 00:13:34.340
I did grow up in a charismatic home, but I was very legalistic. I took that on myself

203
00:13:34.460 --> 00:13:36.700
It was how I interpreted things it was

204
00:13:37.620 --> 00:13:42.060
It was some of the some of the school that I went to some of the some of the church that I was exposed to

205
00:13:42.060 --> 00:13:45.740
Certain things that I would hear someone say and I just interpreted it as very legalistic

206
00:13:45.740 --> 00:13:52.580
I read the Bible like that. So don't ask me how this worked, but I was a five-point Calvinist charismatic. I

207
00:13:53.420 --> 00:13:55.740
Don't know how that's possible. Yes

208
00:13:57.560 --> 00:13:59.560
How did what work oh

209
00:14:01.420 --> 00:14:04.320
Just said that well, there you get there you go. See you caught me there

210
00:14:04.320 --> 00:14:06.240
and

211
00:14:06.240 --> 00:14:10.400
So the I don't know how it worked. That's the problem. That's why I'm I mean hi

212
00:14:10.400 --> 00:14:14.600
I got to the point I realized why isn't this working? Well, it doesn't so I

213
00:14:15.240 --> 00:14:20.080
Yes, it's very very legalistic. You understand you get things with five-point Calvinism are

214
00:14:21.000 --> 00:14:24.400
Are things like limited atonement only so many people can get saved

215
00:14:25.120 --> 00:14:29.760
And God God predestined them and you know, I don't know all kinds of things

216
00:14:30.240 --> 00:14:33.960
So I'm not I'm not talking about about whether those are right or wrong

217
00:14:33.960 --> 00:14:39.520
My point is just to mention those regardless of what it is that we believe even if you are a five-point Calvinist

218
00:14:39.520 --> 00:14:41.520
It is very extreme

219
00:14:41.560 --> 00:14:42.800
so

220
00:14:42.800 --> 00:14:47.400
You know regardless of whether or not it's the truth. It is extreme. So I was extreme in everything

221
00:14:47.400 --> 00:14:49.400
but then I was also charismatic I

222
00:14:50.560 --> 00:14:53.640
Was baptized in the Holy Spirit when I was seven and so I started speaking in tongues

223
00:14:53.640 --> 00:14:59.160
And so I was saved on this for baptized in the Holy Spirit when I was seven baptized in water when I was nine

224
00:14:59.160 --> 00:15:01.560
and

225
00:15:00.000 --> 00:15:13.000
But my life was very joyless, very joyless. It was very oppressed, and I didn't understand how I was supposed to—

226
00:15:13.000 --> 00:15:19.000
I didn't feel loved by God, and I didn't understand other people who liked being Christians.

227
00:15:19.000 --> 00:15:26.000
Now, I didn't tell anybody that, but that's what I was thinking. Also, I did not like Jesus.

228
00:15:26.000 --> 00:15:39.000
I really, really didn't like Jesus. God the Father was the one I would always focus on because he's the Father, and he makes all the rules.

229
00:15:39.000 --> 00:15:47.000
But Jesus was my perfect big brother that I was always being compared to against, and I could never match up.

230
00:15:47.000 --> 00:15:53.000
And that brought a lot of resentment. So that was where I came from.

231
00:15:53.000 --> 00:16:01.000
But, of course, you would never know that. I was a perfect little church girl and went to a very conservative Christian college.

232
00:16:01.000 --> 00:16:09.000
And finally, backtracking just a little bit to let you know what was going on in my professional life, because that plays into it.

233
00:16:09.000 --> 00:16:18.000
So I'm 36 now. At the time that the Lord brought me into this threshold, I was 34.

234
00:16:18.000 --> 00:16:29.000
It was December 2018, and I was 34 years old, and I had been a turnaround business consultant with my best friend who's here, so her and her husband.

235
00:16:29.000 --> 00:16:32.000
I was turning consultants with them. They hired me, trained me.

236
00:16:32.000 --> 00:16:40.000
And the things that you have to go through in that industry, especially the type of people that we wanted to help, it's very extreme.

237
00:16:40.000 --> 00:16:51.000
So a turnaround business consultant takes on a company that is either about to go bankrupt, and you're trying to save them the 11th hour, because that's when they find you is in the 11th hour,

238
00:16:51.000 --> 00:17:01.000
or they've already settled for bankruptcy, and then they save turnaround consultants to grow them very radically so that they won't be like that again,

239
00:17:01.000 --> 00:17:08.000
or you're taking a company that's local and couldn't break through the glass ceiling into national, and you help them finally break through.

240
00:17:08.000 --> 00:17:13.000
Point in explaining that, it's extreme. It's beyond normal business consulting.

241
00:17:13.000 --> 00:17:22.000
It was fire all day, every day. Everybody that you work with, all of your friends and colleagues, all of their lives and their families,

242
00:17:22.000 --> 00:17:31.000
livelihoods are on the line for decisions that you are making like that, and I burnt out.

243
00:17:31.000 --> 00:17:42.000
So I burnt out personally because of how I was living my life. I felt that I was constantly oppressed, that God at least needed something from me,

244
00:17:42.000 --> 00:17:48.000
that it was about my behavior, not about who it is that I was. It's all about what it is that I did and didn't do.

245
00:17:49.000 --> 00:17:56.000
So I burnt out obviously in that, spiritually as well, and then as you can tell, I burnt out professionally,

246
00:17:56.000 --> 00:18:02.000
and I burnt out in all three of those areas multiple times, multiple times in my life,

247
00:18:02.000 --> 00:18:08.000
because I'm one of those people that drive so hard, I literally will drive to death, physical death.

248
00:18:09.000 --> 00:18:17.000
Physically, and in my professional life, I will risk whatever is necessary to do what I think is right,

249
00:18:17.000 --> 00:18:21.000
not what necessarily is right, but whatever it is that I'm thinking must be right.

250
00:18:21.000 --> 00:18:25.000
I will run everything into the ground, sacrifice everything, relationships.

251
00:18:25.000 --> 00:18:29.000
The only thing that I would not risk was my relationship with the Lord.

252
00:18:29.000 --> 00:18:33.000
So finally, that was the final thing I had to risk.

253
00:18:33.000 --> 00:18:36.000
It was very, very extreme, so I was absolutely exhausted.

254
00:18:36.000 --> 00:18:42.000
December 2018, I had all of these dreams that I had built up for 34 years, and I just thought,

255
00:18:42.000 --> 00:18:51.000
oh, if I just endure, if I had faith, if I just keep doing the right thing, what I thought was the right thing,

256
00:18:51.000 --> 00:18:53.000
then finally I would get my reward.

257
00:18:53.000 --> 00:18:58.000
So December 2018, I was hit with the realization, something happened, I was triggered,

258
00:18:58.000 --> 00:19:07.000
and I realized that people around me had been given all, not some, literally all of the dreams

259
00:19:07.000 --> 00:19:11.000
and all of the gifts that I had ever asked God for, all of them.

260
00:19:11.000 --> 00:19:22.000
All of the people around me received all the dreams, and I didn't receive one, not even one, nothing, and I had it.

261
00:19:23.000 --> 00:19:31.000
And I had struggled with depression and PTSD when I was in college and then out of college for about seven years.

262
00:19:31.000 --> 00:19:36.000
Anxiety, you know, would hyperventilate, have terrible, terrible demonic nightmares,

263
00:19:36.000 --> 00:19:39.000
and I struggled with all of that for about seven years.

264
00:19:39.000 --> 00:19:43.000
Finally, thankfully, the Lord healed me and saved me from all of that,

265
00:19:43.000 --> 00:19:46.000
but I'd been healed from that for quite a while by the time I hit 34.

266
00:19:46.000 --> 00:19:52.000
So when I hit 34 and I was triggered again, I went down to suicide level again,

267
00:19:52.000 --> 00:19:54.000
because I'd been at suicide level back then.

268
00:19:54.000 --> 00:19:58.000
I went down to suicide level in hours.

269
00:19:58.000 --> 00:19:59.000
It was that fast.

270
00:20:00.000 --> 00:20:06.360
to suicidal in hours because my brain you know my emotions knew that path it

271
00:20:06.360 --> 00:20:11.520
was very very familiar so I had I realized I remember standing in my

272
00:20:11.520 --> 00:20:15.560
bathroom yeah I think it was December 27th 2018 and it was like I saw this

273
00:20:15.560 --> 00:20:20.680
open vision I had been literally crying for almost 48 hours my eyes were so

274
00:20:20.680 --> 00:20:25.680
swollen that they almost couldn't open and and I I was just I was plummeting

275
00:20:25.680 --> 00:20:29.260
fast and I saw it's like I saw this this vision or something it was like I could

276
00:20:29.260 --> 00:20:35.340
see myself outside of myself and I was and I was spiraling down and and and I

277
00:20:35.340 --> 00:20:40.740
was just feeling my soul just fall into the suicidal depression and and I and I

278
00:20:40.740 --> 00:20:43.940
thought okay Ashley you've been there before you've been in that pit now yes

279
00:20:43.940 --> 00:20:48.680
God is there God is that the low because I had been at what God told me was the

280
00:20:48.680 --> 00:20:52.700
lowest point that a human could get he said Ashley I was I remember I was down

281
00:20:52.700 --> 00:20:56.740
on my knees I was just I was just exhausted and God said Ashley when

282
00:20:56.740 --> 00:21:01.460
people lose spouses or children this is where they go he said this is as low as

283
00:21:01.460 --> 00:21:05.620
a human being can go and he said and he gave me a promise he said I promise you

284
00:21:05.620 --> 00:21:09.380
will never be here again but you've got to get out of this and you've got to

285
00:21:09.380 --> 00:21:14.860
choose me so all that I chose was that he was real I didn't even choose that he

286
00:21:14.860 --> 00:21:19.500
was good I just chose he was real and so that happened like 12 years ago or

287
00:21:19.500 --> 00:21:23.060
whatever so by the time that I'm now in this place where I'm watching myself

288
00:21:23.060 --> 00:21:26.420
spiral down again I'm thinking okay I've been there before and I am NOT

289
00:21:26.420 --> 00:21:30.420
going back because I can hear God there because God's everywhere so I know he's

290
00:21:30.420 --> 00:21:34.460
in that deep dark pit but it's really hard for me to hear him down there and to

291
00:21:34.460 --> 00:21:38.780
have the courage to make the choice that I need to I know that I'm going to but

292
00:21:38.780 --> 00:21:42.580
good night I don't want to go through that hell right because that it does

293
00:21:42.580 --> 00:21:48.060
that feels like hell right there so I what I did is I made a choice very an

294
00:21:48.060 --> 00:21:51.980
intentional decision that power of intention we'll be talking about that on

295
00:21:51.980 --> 00:21:56.020
Sunday and I reached out with my hand not literally with my hand but it's like

296
00:21:56.020 --> 00:21:59.620
I could see in this vision that this hand went out from me and I chose to

297
00:21:59.620 --> 00:22:04.300
grab myself up by the scruff of my neck and yank myself up and internally I felt

298
00:22:04.300 --> 00:22:09.260
my soul rise I'm like okay all right so that was a close one so I was actually

299
00:22:09.260 --> 00:22:12.860
spiritually doing that to my soul it's very very interesting I was very

300
00:22:12.860 --> 00:22:15.420
interesting experience I've never interacted with a vision before but hey

301
00:22:15.420 --> 00:22:19.020
you know when you're in that situation you don't question it all I knew is that

302
00:22:19.020 --> 00:22:24.780
I had made a choice I'd made a very powerful choice to save myself and so I

303
00:22:24.780 --> 00:22:29.860
then told the Lord okay God all I know is that everything that I have done so

304
00:22:29.860 --> 00:22:37.380
far in life hasn't worked nothing has worked I believed that your that your

305
00:22:37.380 --> 00:22:41.300
pleasure came through my through everyone's spiritual maturity so your

306
00:22:41.300 --> 00:22:43.740
pleasure came through my spiritual maturity more spiritually mature I

307
00:22:43.740 --> 00:22:48.300
became the more you were pleased with me and my spiritual maturity came through

308
00:22:48.300 --> 00:22:53.580
pain I thought that that's how we got spiritual maturity the more pain you go

309
00:22:53.580 --> 00:22:58.380
through the more spiritually mature you become and the more pleased God is with

310
00:22:58.380 --> 00:23:05.500
you so so that meant that I saw pain the higher the pain the greater God's

311
00:23:05.500 --> 00:23:12.940
pleasure very twisted idea of who it is that God is but I because I believed that

312
00:23:12.940 --> 00:23:16.860
the higher the pain the more God's pleasure I embraced pain when it came to

313
00:23:16.860 --> 00:23:21.700
me I didn't just I didn't just deal with it I embraced it and took it into

314
00:23:21.700 --> 00:23:27.220
me I made it harder and then if enough pain didn't come my way I would seek it

315
00:23:27.220 --> 00:23:33.020
out and create it because I'm trying so very hard to please my God so very hard

316
00:23:33.020 --> 00:23:37.260
to get close to him so I told God this is what I've been doing so far and Lord

317
00:23:37.260 --> 00:23:41.340
whenever I've made a decision I would not move forward or backward unless I

318
00:23:41.340 --> 00:23:45.500
heard your voice when we forward or backward unless she told me so and then

319
00:23:45.500 --> 00:23:48.700
unless somebody came to me and I absolutely had to do make a decision

320
00:23:48.700 --> 00:23:52.380
right then and then the way I would make a decision is okay what is it that I

321
00:23:52.380 --> 00:23:56.660
want to do then I won't do that one what is it that I not wanted that I don't

322
00:23:56.660 --> 00:24:00.780
want to do this one so this is the one I'm gonna do so I always did what I

323
00:24:00.780 --> 00:24:05.100
didn't want to do and would never allow myself to do what I wanted this is who I

324
00:24:05.100 --> 00:24:12.260
thought God was so this is that this is who God has saved me from so like I said

325
00:24:12.260 --> 00:24:16.260
in in that December I told God okay none of that worked but I don't know

326
00:24:16.260 --> 00:24:19.980
what does so until you show me I'm asking that you show me what really does

327
00:24:19.980 --> 00:24:25.020
work but until you show that to me I'm going to start doing the opposite of

328
00:24:25.020 --> 00:24:28.580
what I've done in life so far I'm gonna start living the opposite of what it is

329
00:24:28.580 --> 00:24:31.860
that I've lived so I thought okay well what would the opposite be because I'm

330
00:24:31.860 --> 00:24:35.180
not gonna walk away from God because you know I've chosen him so what am I

331
00:24:35.180 --> 00:24:39.420
gonna do and then I thought okay my decisions I'm not gonna do whatever I

332
00:24:39.740 --> 00:24:43.860
if I'm gonna do it that's what I'm gonna do so I started making decisions and

333
00:24:43.860 --> 00:24:48.940
that's when I found my God and I was so weird I still remember exactly where I

334
00:24:48.940 --> 00:24:51.820
was sitting where where my spirit or soul moved or something I made a

335
00:24:51.820 --> 00:24:55.860
decision God this is what I'm gonna do and then my insight my soul moved and it

336
00:24:55.860 --> 00:25:01.180
could breathe my spirit could breathe and I thought there's my God

337
00:25:00.000 --> 00:25:06.540
my word. I've been looking for him for 34 years. Then about six months later, I

338
00:25:06.540 --> 00:25:13.200
heard the gospel for the first time in a very transformative way. Obviously, I was

339
00:25:13.200 --> 00:25:16.680
saved when I was four, but I heard about it in such a way that when I interacted

340
00:25:16.680 --> 00:25:20.160
with the gospel in this way, when I interacted with Christ in this way, I

341
00:25:20.160 --> 00:25:24.320
finally felt that huge transformation that you hear about in other people's

342
00:25:24.320 --> 00:25:26.660
testimonies, you know, where they were like drug addicts and then they have

343
00:25:26.660 --> 00:25:31.060
this like moment of blinding light and whatever. And then they just

344
00:25:31.060 --> 00:25:36.700
immediately left their drugs. They had this epiphany. They had

345
00:25:36.700 --> 00:25:41.420
this ecstasy feeling. I thought, what must that be like? It's like everything turned

346
00:25:41.420 --> 00:25:45.700
into technicolor in their lives. I thought, that must be wonderful. But I was four and I

347
00:25:45.700 --> 00:25:52.180
don't feel any different. In fact, I don't like being a Christian. So what is all

348
00:25:52.180 --> 00:25:56.340
that about? I discovered what that was about. So some people remember their

349
00:25:56.340 --> 00:26:02.540
salvation date. My salvation date was July 11th, 2019, because that is when I

350
00:26:02.540 --> 00:26:08.380
found my God. So I listened to the gospel from a man that I'll be

351
00:26:08.380 --> 00:26:14.220
teaching a lot of my stuff from, Chris Blackaby. A lot of you know him. And I'd

352
00:26:14.220 --> 00:26:18.540
heard his message on YouTube. Didn't know a thing about him, just clicked on it.

353
00:26:18.540 --> 00:26:22.780
And he started talking about the gospel. And I told the Lord, I

354
00:26:23.300 --> 00:26:26.940
remember pausing it at one point, and I told God, I could just, I don't know, it's

355
00:26:26.940 --> 00:26:30.900
like my spirit could just sense him here. And so I talked to him and said, God, I'm about to

356
00:26:30.900 --> 00:26:35.100
go into that. And I don't know if it's right or wrong. I don't know if you

357
00:26:35.100 --> 00:26:39.060
created a relationship with you to look like that or not. All I know is that

358
00:26:39.060 --> 00:26:44.500
nothing else that I've done so far has worked. And that sounds wonderful. It

359
00:26:44.500 --> 00:26:47.580
sounds wonderful and absolutely perfect if a relationship with you could look

360
00:26:47.580 --> 00:26:52.980
like that. So I am choosing Lord, you know, before I wouldn't move forward or

361
00:26:52.980 --> 00:26:56.460
backward unless the Lord said, I didn't do that this time. I told the Lord, I'm

362
00:26:56.460 --> 00:27:00.980
gonna go into it. After I go into it, if I'm wrong, you can correct me. But I told,

363
00:27:00.980 --> 00:27:05.060
and I'm not recommending that you talk to God like that. But you know, we all have

364
00:27:05.060 --> 00:27:08.340
said things to the Lord in very desperate moments, and he's a big

365
00:27:08.340 --> 00:27:12.620
God. He can handle it. But I told him, I said, I'm going, I wasn't disrespectful, but I

366
00:27:12.620 --> 00:27:15.900
was very serious. I'm gonna go into that, and then if I'm wrong, Lord, you can

367
00:27:15.900 --> 00:27:20.780
correct me when I'm in it. So I jumped in with both feet. That's another thing

368
00:27:20.780 --> 00:27:23.900
that we're gonna be talking a lot about this weekend. It has to be all

369
00:27:23.900 --> 00:27:27.860
chipped in. That reckless abandon. None of this, oh, I'm gonna test this out. It

370
00:27:27.860 --> 00:27:33.140
won't work. I promise you it will not work. But I jumped a hundred percent in,

371
00:27:33.140 --> 00:27:39.860
and I was like, oh my word, this is God. I, this is the God that other people talk

372
00:27:39.860 --> 00:27:45.380
about. This is the God that people die in Colosseums and facing a lion for. I

373
00:27:45.380 --> 00:27:51.140
did not understand that until that time. So we'll be talking, so before we

374
00:27:51.140 --> 00:27:56.660
even talk about rest, we'll be talking about the gospel. But it's in a very

375
00:27:56.660 --> 00:27:59.420
different way than some of you have ever heard. Some of you have heard

376
00:27:59.420 --> 00:28:03.140
Chris Backeby, and then others who teach like him, who have understood that

377
00:28:03.140 --> 00:28:08.180
message from our Father. But for some of you, it might be very, very new, and it

378
00:28:08.180 --> 00:28:15.740
is completely, completely transforming. So then the Lord just has just walked me

379
00:28:15.740 --> 00:28:18.980
through a time where he was just teaching me what it is that, who it is

380
00:28:18.980 --> 00:28:23.060
that I was, how to operate in from this new place, with this new understanding of

381
00:28:23.060 --> 00:28:28.300
my identity in Christ, as to, based on this new gospel that I now had. And then

382
00:28:28.300 --> 00:28:31.620
I then, I then had to take it into other areas of my life, including my business.

383
00:28:31.620 --> 00:28:34.980
Okay, now I was a turnaround business consultant, but I was feeling that the

384
00:28:34.980 --> 00:28:38.100
Lord wanted me to do something different. What is this thing in me that

385
00:28:38.100 --> 00:28:42.660
needs to come out? So over about a year, year and a half, and the reason I'm going

386
00:28:42.660 --> 00:28:46.900
into this detail is for those of you who are holding on to a frustrated dream of

387
00:28:46.900 --> 00:28:50.420
like business or something else, that you feel something's inside of you, and it's

388
00:28:50.420 --> 00:28:53.620
frustrating that it's taking so long. Sometimes it just takes a long time. And

389
00:28:53.620 --> 00:28:58.540
my year and a half was, oh my word, that was so pressurized. It was very, very, very

390
00:28:58.540 --> 00:29:04.820
fast. And anyway, so about a year, year and a half, it took me for the Lord to

391
00:29:04.820 --> 00:29:08.780
finally begin to articulate, Ashley, what I have been teaching you about for years

392
00:29:08.780 --> 00:29:14.980
is rest. So remember what I said, that when you go back to your foundation, how

393
00:29:14.980 --> 00:29:19.220
you now see all of your life through a different paradigm. God didn't, God didn't

394
00:29:19.220 --> 00:29:21.740
obliterate everything it is that I had learned, everything it is that I

395
00:29:21.740 --> 00:29:25.740
experienced and accomplished, as if, oh well, that doesn't mean anything. You know,

396
00:29:25.740 --> 00:29:29.900
let's start all over, because that was just trash. God's like, no, no, no. Now let's

397
00:29:29.900 --> 00:29:35.460
just see it through a totally different way. And, and so he then began to show me,

398
00:29:35.460 --> 00:29:39.380
Ashley, I've been teaching you about rest, but you were doing it out of strife. You

399
00:29:39.380 --> 00:29:44.420
were trying to get the results that you were, that you were getting in life. You

400
00:29:44.420 --> 00:29:49.620
need to stop trying, because it's who you are, and it needs, and you need to let, you

401
00:29:49.620 --> 00:29:57.900
need to stop and finally let it out. So that is very, very brief testimony of my

402
00:29:57.900 --> 00:30:01.820
36 years with the Lord.

403
00:30:00.000 --> 00:30:08.000
But I'm very grateful to finally be in this place and to have received from the Lord the message of rest

404
00:30:08.000 --> 00:30:15.000
because it's transformed my life. It is, like I said, it's the basis from which we do everything else.

405
00:30:15.000 --> 00:30:19.000
So after this, you can go to all these other conferences and learn all of these different things

406
00:30:19.000 --> 00:30:22.000
about how to experience God this way or how to learn more about God in this way

407
00:30:22.000 --> 00:30:25.000
or how to be intimate with the Lord in this way.

408
00:30:25.000 --> 00:30:30.000
But you have to do it all from a place of rest or none of it will work.

409
00:30:30.000 --> 00:30:38.000
Or it can't be sustained. You might get glimpses of it, but it can't be sustained unless it's in rest.

410
00:30:38.000 --> 00:30:46.000
So what actually is rest?

411
00:30:46.000 --> 00:30:55.000
So rest is actually not inactivity, and it's not the absence of unpleasant circumstances.

412
00:30:55.000 --> 00:31:02.000
Rest is actually abiding in God. It's actually a place. That place is God himself.

413
00:31:02.000 --> 00:31:06.000
We are in him. We abide in him. So when we're in that place, we're in rest.

414
00:31:06.000 --> 00:31:14.000
And so rest is actually a place in God in which we are allowing him to be

415
00:31:14.000 --> 00:31:19.000
or understanding and acknowledging the fact that he is the source of everything in our life.

416
00:31:19.000 --> 00:31:23.000
He is the source of how we get our protection, our provision, our identity,

417
00:31:23.000 --> 00:31:27.000
the fact that we feel loved, liked, and comforted.

418
00:31:27.000 --> 00:31:31.000
The reason I point all those out are, and we'll be talking about that in a second,

419
00:31:31.000 --> 00:31:35.000
is actually that is where mother and father wounds stem from.

420
00:31:35.000 --> 00:31:43.000
Father wounds stem from issues that we've had with the masculine in our lives

421
00:31:43.000 --> 00:31:45.000
that can come from either a man or a woman.

422
00:31:45.000 --> 00:31:47.000
Typically, though, obviously it'll come from a man.

423
00:31:47.000 --> 00:31:50.000
Usually it'll come from a father, which is why it's called a father wound.

424
00:31:50.000 --> 00:31:55.000
But it's from the masculine, and the masculine is meant to help someone else understand

425
00:31:55.000 --> 00:31:59.000
that they're protected, provided for, and identified.

426
00:31:59.000 --> 00:32:03.000
And if they don't have that, and then they now suffer traumas and are coping

427
00:32:03.000 --> 00:32:07.000
and come up with all kinds of coping mechanisms as a result of it, it's called a father wound.

428
00:32:07.000 --> 00:32:12.000
Mother wound is the other aspect of the father, other aspects that he provides.

429
00:32:12.000 --> 00:32:21.000
And it is where, a mother wound is where we have a lack in our lives of understanding

430
00:32:21.000 --> 00:32:25.000
that we are loved, liked, and can expect to be comforted.

431
00:32:25.000 --> 00:32:30.000
So if we have that, well then we can develop what's called a mother wound.

432
00:32:30.000 --> 00:32:33.000
We have all these traumas, and then that will manifest itself in particular ways,

433
00:32:33.000 --> 00:32:37.000
and we end up coping and using all kinds of things.

434
00:32:37.000 --> 00:32:44.000
I'll mention some very specific things in just a second that are indicative of mother wounds

435
00:32:44.000 --> 00:32:47.000
and other things that are indicative of a father wound.

436
00:32:47.000 --> 00:32:50.000
But the whole point of all of this is to help us understand,

437
00:32:50.000 --> 00:32:54.000
to get some kind of a physical foothold of things in our lives that are going on

438
00:32:54.000 --> 00:32:57.000
and understanding it's not our father and our mother.

439
00:32:57.000 --> 00:33:01.000
The issue is we projected those things onto God, and that's how we interact with Him.

440
00:33:01.000 --> 00:33:05.000
So we have this father wound with God, or this mother wound with God,

441
00:33:05.000 --> 00:33:08.000
and that is what we need to overcome.

442
00:33:08.000 --> 00:33:15.000
We need to understand that we have not been given a very, have received a very clear picture

443
00:33:15.000 --> 00:33:19.000
in reality of who it is that God actually is.

444
00:33:19.000 --> 00:33:27.000
So rest is understanding that He is actually allowing him, not understanding.

445
00:33:27.000 --> 00:33:32.000
It's allowing him to be the source from which we receive all of those things

446
00:33:32.000 --> 00:33:35.000
and being the source of everything that happens in your life.

447
00:33:35.000 --> 00:33:42.000
Your clients, who you get, your business, your dreams, your heart's desires,

448
00:33:42.000 --> 00:33:50.000
your relationships with other people, your finances, everything needs to come from God,

449
00:33:50.000 --> 00:33:55.000
not by us working for it, thinking God has left us abandoned and alone,

450
00:33:55.000 --> 00:34:00.000
and that He's going to come back one day making sure that we got it right,

451
00:34:00.000 --> 00:34:06.000
that it's all on us, and that we have to carry that burden and that weight of that responsibility,

452
00:34:06.000 --> 00:34:13.000
because it's not. The Lord is the one that we need to rely on to provide for all those things.

453
00:34:13.000 --> 00:34:16.000
We'll be walking into that about how to literally, practically do that,

454
00:34:16.000 --> 00:34:21.000
because I have to live it, so I want to explain it to y'all about how you can live it that way too.

455
00:34:21.000 --> 00:34:28.000
So rest, why are we not in rest? Rest is actually our natural state.

456
00:34:29.000 --> 00:34:33.000
So to not be in rest is not natural for a son of God.

457
00:34:33.000 --> 00:34:39.000
So what is it that we're doing? We're actually in a constant state of resistance.

458
00:34:39.000 --> 00:34:45.000
I'll be drawing some visuals later to help us understand, but we're in a constant state of resistance.

459
00:34:45.000 --> 00:34:47.000
If you're not in rest, you're in resistance.

460
00:34:47.000 --> 00:34:51.000
You're actively doing something. You're not passively doing something.

461
00:34:51.000 --> 00:34:54.000
You are actively doing something.

462
00:34:54.000 --> 00:34:58.000
Now you may not be conscious of it, but we are resisting.

463
00:35:00.000 --> 00:35:03.600
be going through, you'll come up against hurdles.

464
00:35:03.600 --> 00:35:05.600
And I want to walk you all through those.

465
00:35:05.600 --> 00:35:07.440
So feel free to let me know when you run up

466
00:35:07.440 --> 00:35:09.520
against one of those and can't seem to go through.

467
00:35:09.520 --> 00:35:13.440
Because I can work with you to help identify that that is

468
00:35:13.440 --> 00:35:15.400
actually resistance.

469
00:35:15.400 --> 00:35:17.160
Because it feels like I'm doing everything

470
00:35:17.160 --> 00:35:18.440
and I can't go any further.

471
00:35:18.440 --> 00:35:19.740
You know, I'm not doing this, Ashley.

472
00:35:19.740 --> 00:35:20.240
I'm trying.

473
00:35:20.240 --> 00:35:21.400
I want this.

474
00:35:21.400 --> 00:35:22.920
No, we're resisting.

475
00:35:22.920 --> 00:35:25.760
And to help us identify deep down where that resistance is

476
00:35:25.760 --> 00:35:27.240
coming from.

477
00:35:27.240 --> 00:35:29.960
So if we're not in rest, we're actually in resistance.

478
00:35:29.960 --> 00:35:32.320
And we're resisting God.

479
00:35:32.320 --> 00:35:37.400
If rest is in God, and we're not feeling at rest,

480
00:35:37.400 --> 00:35:39.120
it means we're in resistance against him.

481
00:35:39.120 --> 00:35:42.560
Why would we be in resistance against God?

482
00:35:42.560 --> 00:35:45.480
Because we don't feel safe with him.

483
00:35:45.480 --> 00:35:47.040
And why don't we feel safe with him?

484
00:35:47.040 --> 00:35:48.800
We don't feel loved.

485
00:35:48.800 --> 00:35:52.920
We don't feel provided for, protected, identified, loved,

486
00:35:52.920 --> 00:35:55.400
liked, or able to be comforted.

487
00:35:55.400 --> 00:35:57.760
And so we're in a constant state of resistance.

488
00:35:57.760 --> 00:35:58.920
We want to keep him at bay.

489
00:35:58.920 --> 00:36:00.080
We want to learn about him.

490
00:36:00.080 --> 00:36:01.440
And we want to get close to him.

491
00:36:01.440 --> 00:36:02.880
We want to feel him.

492
00:36:02.880 --> 00:36:04.800
But we don't want to move into him.

493
00:36:04.800 --> 00:36:06.920
And we don't want him to move into us.

494
00:36:06.920 --> 00:36:09.200
Because it's very, very vulnerable.

495
00:36:09.200 --> 00:36:11.960
And we have to overcome that.

496
00:36:11.960 --> 00:36:16.680
So that is the state that we're actually in.

497
00:36:16.680 --> 00:36:19.920
But I want to make sure to constantly layer

498
00:36:19.920 --> 00:36:23.200
in lots of encouragement in here.

499
00:36:23.200 --> 00:36:24.840
Excuse me.

500
00:36:24.840 --> 00:36:28.000
You are actually in a state of rest.

501
00:36:28.000 --> 00:36:30.480
You're just not aware of it.

502
00:36:30.480 --> 00:36:33.920
So we are trying to move our soul to the point

503
00:36:33.920 --> 00:36:37.680
where it stops resisting because our spirit's already in rest.

504
00:36:37.680 --> 00:36:38.960
It is already who you are.

505
00:36:38.960 --> 00:36:41.560
That's why you have permission to move into it.

506
00:36:41.560 --> 00:36:46.400
You're not going to be doing something or becoming

507
00:36:46.400 --> 00:36:49.840
something this weekend or from this message of rest

508
00:36:49.840 --> 00:36:51.360
that you're not already.

509
00:36:51.360 --> 00:36:56.200
You're going to realize that you are and choose to stand in it.

510
00:36:56.200 --> 00:36:57.360
That's all we're doing.

511
00:36:57.360 --> 00:36:58.840
You already have it.

512
00:36:58.840 --> 00:37:00.720
You're not gaining anything.

513
00:37:00.720 --> 00:37:03.320
Because God's already given you everything.

514
00:37:03.320 --> 00:37:05.400
You're not becoming something different.

515
00:37:05.400 --> 00:37:07.160
You don't have to change.

516
00:37:07.160 --> 00:37:09.360
You're everything you've ever wanted to be.

517
00:37:09.360 --> 00:37:10.920
You were all of those commandments

518
00:37:10.920 --> 00:37:12.280
that Jesus told us to be.

519
00:37:12.280 --> 00:37:14.000
You're everything in the Ten Commandments,

520
00:37:14.000 --> 00:37:16.560
everything on the Sermon on the Mount,

521
00:37:16.560 --> 00:37:18.480
all of the edifications, all the encouragements,

522
00:37:18.480 --> 00:37:19.320
all the whatever.

523
00:37:19.320 --> 00:37:23.760
Those are actually descriptions of your character.

524
00:37:23.760 --> 00:37:25.880
But we don't believe that that is.

525
00:37:25.880 --> 00:37:27.360
And whatever it is that we believe

526
00:37:27.360 --> 00:37:28.840
is what has power in our lives.

527
00:37:28.840 --> 00:37:31.280
So we've got to shift our belief to actually believing

528
00:37:31.280 --> 00:37:34.680
that whatever God says about us is true.

529
00:37:34.680 --> 00:37:39.880
So when I was first learning, well,

530
00:37:39.880 --> 00:37:41.720
let me go back really quick.

531
00:37:41.720 --> 00:37:43.880
So the reason why we don't feel safe with God

532
00:37:43.880 --> 00:37:47.160
is we don't want to receive his love.

533
00:37:47.160 --> 00:37:50.360
It feels very, very dangerous, especially those of you

534
00:37:50.360 --> 00:37:53.200
who are married or those of you who have been married.

535
00:37:53.200 --> 00:37:57.280
You understand that love is a very, very vulnerable thing.

536
00:37:57.280 --> 00:37:59.200
You have to be vulnerable in order

537
00:37:59.200 --> 00:38:01.440
to give and to receive love.

538
00:38:01.440 --> 00:38:03.960
So if you don't feel safe, you're

539
00:38:03.960 --> 00:38:05.280
going to keep it at a distance.

540
00:38:05.280 --> 00:38:07.840
And you can't.

541
00:38:07.840 --> 00:38:10.040
And you're not allowing the other one

542
00:38:10.040 --> 00:38:12.120
to love you if you're keeping them at a distance.

543
00:38:12.120 --> 00:38:13.120
So we're in resistance.

544
00:38:13.120 --> 00:38:17.400
And we're not able to receive or accept and move into God's love.

545
00:38:17.400 --> 00:38:19.480
But actually, what it is that we've chosen

546
00:38:19.480 --> 00:38:22.640
is, just like Brennan Manning says,

547
00:38:22.640 --> 00:38:25.000
so Brennan Manning was a man that God first

548
00:38:25.000 --> 00:38:29.440
introduced the extremity of his love to me through.

549
00:38:29.440 --> 00:38:33.320
And he talks about the fact that Christianity

550
00:38:33.320 --> 00:38:35.520
is not an ethical code.

551
00:38:35.520 --> 00:38:37.360
It's not a moral ethical code.

552
00:38:37.360 --> 00:38:40.160
It's actually a love affair.

553
00:38:40.160 --> 00:38:43.120
What it is that we've chosen, when we chose God,

554
00:38:43.120 --> 00:38:45.120
we didn't choose a religion.

555
00:38:45.120 --> 00:38:46.280
We didn't choose a faith.

556
00:38:46.280 --> 00:38:49.720
We did not choose something to believe in.

557
00:38:49.720 --> 00:38:54.400
We didn't choose a group or an organization

558
00:38:54.400 --> 00:39:00.960
to be a part of, to make us even get a sense of our world.

559
00:39:00.960 --> 00:39:03.760
We actually chose a husband.

560
00:39:03.760 --> 00:39:05.720
We chose a being to be united with

561
00:39:05.720 --> 00:39:08.760
in the whole rest of our lives, everybody,

562
00:39:08.760 --> 00:39:13.120
the people that you've married, the businesses that you have,

563
00:39:13.120 --> 00:39:15.840
the decisions that you've made in life, where it is that you

564
00:39:15.840 --> 00:39:17.140
go, how it is that you journey.

565
00:39:17.140 --> 00:39:21.860
All of that is for the purpose of directing and guiding

566
00:39:21.860 --> 00:39:24.220
the development of our relationship with God.

567
00:39:24.220 --> 00:39:26.060
That is the whole point of everything,

568
00:39:26.060 --> 00:39:28.540
is the development of relationship.

569
00:39:28.540 --> 00:39:31.740
And so Christianity is actually a love affair.

570
00:39:31.740 --> 00:39:35.020
It is our love affair with a being.

571
00:39:35.020 --> 00:39:37.420
And so we have to allow that being.

572
00:39:37.420 --> 00:39:39.460
He's not there giving us lists, not there

573
00:39:39.460 --> 00:39:41.220
giving us 10 commandments.

574
00:39:41.220 --> 00:39:44.620
He's there trying to say, I want to show you who I am.

575
00:39:44.620 --> 00:39:47.300
I want you to know my favorite color.

576
00:39:47.300 --> 00:39:52.140
I want you to know how to, I want you to feel me.

577
00:39:52.140 --> 00:39:55.260
I want to feel you.

578
00:39:55.260 --> 00:39:58.140
I want to be affected by you.

579
00:39:58.140 --> 00:40:01.340
I don't just want you to be affected.

580
00:40:00.000 --> 00:40:04.860
by me. I went to be affected by you. I created you so I could be affected by

581
00:40:04.860 --> 00:40:15.220
you. It's very, very, very powerful. So we have a little, so, so very backwards, I

582
00:40:15.220 --> 00:40:19.140
did, so very, very backwards, and it made life so hard because it's actually not

583
00:40:19.140 --> 00:40:23.740
the way that it, that it is. Everything is, everything that the Lord is, is

584
00:40:23.740 --> 00:40:29.500
beautiful, is good, is love, and it's freedom. All of your trials and all of

585
00:40:29.500 --> 00:40:34.660
your struggles are actually thresholds that God is using as an invitation. Okay,

586
00:40:34.660 --> 00:40:39.420
you know, I can, I would love and accept you unconditionally right here, but

587
00:40:39.420 --> 00:40:44.580
wouldn't you like more love and freedom? That's what your trial is. The trial is

588
00:40:44.580 --> 00:40:49.180
an invitation. It's not a test of, okay, you know, I've been teaching you all

589
00:40:49.180 --> 00:40:53.020
these years. Let's see what you know. Let's see if you pass this test. That's

590
00:40:53.020 --> 00:40:57.020
not what God's asking. God is saying, you know, I know you're going through a hard

591
00:40:57.020 --> 00:41:04.460
time. I want, I want you to know you have this choice. Do you want to move into

592
00:41:04.460 --> 00:41:08.860
more love and freedom? Because this will enable you to cross that threshold. Do

593
00:41:08.860 --> 00:41:13.700
you want to choose that or not? If you don't choose that, that's fine, but this

594
00:41:13.700 --> 00:41:19.020
is an invitation. What are you going to do? It's not a sinner in the hand of an angry

595
00:41:19.020 --> 00:41:24.620
God. He's not looking at us, you know, just like, you know, like the school

596
00:41:24.620 --> 00:41:29.540
master or this, you know, this, this business master. Okay, you know, here's

597
00:41:29.540 --> 00:41:33.780
your test. What are you going to do about it? And holding us accountable to it, he's

598
00:41:33.780 --> 00:41:37.420
saying, no, no, no, I'm inviting you. Wouldn't you like to move into more love

599
00:41:37.420 --> 00:41:41.980
and freedom? Wouldn't you like to experience more of this? Okay, so let's

600
00:41:41.980 --> 00:41:47.380
look at some scripture references really quick. We're not going to be looking at

601
00:41:47.380 --> 00:41:50.860
it up on the screen for just a second. I'm just going to say them really fast.

602
00:41:50.860 --> 00:41:56.380
So when God loves us in a variety of ways, he loves us very tenderly, which is

603
00:41:56.380 --> 00:42:02.060
what we're very used to. We're used to that, the lamb and the

604
00:42:02.060 --> 00:42:09.900
shepherd and the child, the parents, and it's all very nice because it's safe. But

605
00:42:09.900 --> 00:42:14.060
what about the other aspects of God's love that he talks about in scripture? So

606
00:42:14.060 --> 00:42:19.020
in Hosea 2.6, I want to talk about the intimacy that he talks about really

607
00:42:19.020 --> 00:42:23.380
quick. In that day, declares the Lord, you will call me my husband. That doesn't

608
00:42:23.380 --> 00:42:27.580
sound like a parent to me. It doesn't sound like a shepherd. In that day, you will

609
00:42:27.580 --> 00:42:33.500
call me my husband. You will no longer call me my master. In Song of Solomon 4.9,

610
00:42:33.500 --> 00:42:38.580
it says, you have stolen my heart, my sister, my bride. You have stolen my heart

611
00:42:38.580 --> 00:42:44.300
with one glance of your eyes. God said that. We didn't ask him to say that. That

612
00:42:44.300 --> 00:42:48.740
was him voluntarily giving something of himself to us. Then in Song of Solomon

613
00:42:48.740 --> 00:42:54.860
6.5, it says, turn your eyes from me. They overwhelm me. That is how we affect God.

614
00:42:54.860 --> 00:42:59.380
So he had just said, you've stolen my heart, my sister, my bride. You've stolen

615
00:42:59.380 --> 00:43:04.780
my heart with one glance of your eyes. Then he says, turn your eyes from me. They

616
00:43:04.780 --> 00:43:11.180
overwhelm me. You affect the Lord like that. You have permission to step into

617
00:43:11.180 --> 00:43:18.340
that love because he's affected by you and he desires you. He created what he

618
00:43:18.340 --> 00:43:25.020
would desire. We have power over God's heart because he gave it and what that

619
00:43:25.020 --> 00:43:30.620
means is he had to put himself in a vulnerable position to do so. He made, the

620
00:43:30.620 --> 00:43:37.660
God of the universe made himself vulnerable to you as an individual. So

621
00:43:37.660 --> 00:43:42.820
he does have, he does have that tender love. He does have love like friends. He

622
00:43:42.820 --> 00:43:46.620
has the love like parent to a child, but he also has a very wild and

623
00:43:46.620 --> 00:43:50.780
compassionate love. The reason I want to bring that up is it's very forceful, it's

624
00:43:50.780 --> 00:43:54.820
very strong, and that's what we're afraid of. But that is the highest form of

625
00:43:54.820 --> 00:43:59.580
intimacy with God. So if all we want to be settled with is the five-year-old

626
00:43:59.580 --> 00:44:03.180
Sunday school version of, you know, a shepherd and a lamb, that's all we're

627
00:44:03.180 --> 00:44:08.220
going to get of God. And there's a lot of distance there. Yes, we all had to

628
00:44:08.220 --> 00:44:12.700
start there. So that's fine. There's nothing wrong with that. And there's still

629
00:44:12.700 --> 00:44:16.540
aspects, no matter how mature that we get, where God still interacts with us as a

630
00:44:16.540 --> 00:44:20.620
shepherd and a lamb. But there are other aspects that we're wanting to move

631
00:44:20.620 --> 00:44:26.300
into intimacy with the Lord that can only be had between a husband and a

632
00:44:26.300 --> 00:44:35.180
bride, and they can only be had with that intimacy. So if we look in Song of

633
00:44:35.180 --> 00:44:42.220
Solomon, it talks about the fact that, so this is a very interesting subject for

634
00:44:42.220 --> 00:44:46.860
me to have to talk about, excuse me, because most people are just like, oh

635
00:44:46.860 --> 00:44:50.580
okay, okay, I got it. And then other people, it's really bothered, so I

636
00:44:50.580 --> 00:44:53.900
try to be very careful with it. But hey, it's in the Bible. And that's the fact

637
00:44:53.900 --> 00:45:01.500
that in Song of Solomon, we can see that actually our

638
00:45:00.000 --> 00:45:08.000
The picture that God has put on earth of our interaction with him is as lovers.

639
00:45:08.000 --> 00:45:13.000
The most intimate way that we can be connected with God is as lovers.

640
00:45:13.000 --> 00:45:15.000
So, as a husband and a wife.

641
00:45:15.000 --> 00:45:21.000
And that means that, as you can read in the Beloved and the Lover talking to each other

642
00:45:22.000 --> 00:45:25.000
Talking to each other in the Song of Solomon.

643
00:45:40.000 --> 00:45:45.000
So, the fact that with a husband and wife, if we're looking at the Beloved and the Lover and how they talk to each other,

644
00:45:45.000 --> 00:45:53.000
you can tell that, by their language, God created us to be sexually aroused by us.

645
00:45:53.000 --> 00:45:55.000
Now, bear with me for just a second.

646
00:45:55.000 --> 00:45:59.000
We're not talking about earthly sexual arousal.

647
00:45:59.000 --> 00:46:07.000
Sexual arousal is the type and shadow on this earth of something that we don't even have a grid for in the Spirit.

648
00:46:07.000 --> 00:46:09.000
So, let's not all get caught up with,

649
00:46:09.000 --> 00:46:13.000
wait a minute, so what are you saying, that God wants to, no, no.

650
00:46:13.000 --> 00:46:19.000
That's an early picture that kind of gives us some ideas, because of how physical anatomy works and whatever.

651
00:46:19.000 --> 00:46:23.000
What our interaction with the Lord looks like in the Spirit.

652
00:46:23.000 --> 00:46:24.000
So, think of it kind of like this.

653
00:46:24.000 --> 00:46:32.000
Think of the grid that a baby would have for being able to understand the consummation in a marriage between a man and a woman.

654
00:46:32.000 --> 00:46:33.000
No grid.

655
00:46:34.000 --> 00:46:44.000
I mean, how much logic has to develop spiritually, mentally, emotionally, logically, whatever, to be able to get to that point?

656
00:46:44.000 --> 00:46:47.000
There's decades in order to get to that point.

657
00:46:47.000 --> 00:46:56.000
That is how it is with us trying to compare the consummation of marriage between a man and a woman and what God actually means.

658
00:46:57.000 --> 00:47:03.000
So, break the shock value off of yourself for just a second.

659
00:47:03.000 --> 00:47:12.000
It's not what God doesn't mean literally, but he's using that as a type and a shadow so that we can look at these pictures,

660
00:47:12.000 --> 00:47:19.000
look at the interaction and be able to understand what we can expect and what we should desire out of a type of intimacy with him.

661
00:47:19.000 --> 00:47:25.000
Now, it requires a vulnerability on both sides.

662
00:47:25.000 --> 00:47:29.000
Intimacy between a man and a woman requires a vulnerability on both sides.

663
00:47:29.000 --> 00:47:32.000
It's very extreme.

664
00:47:32.000 --> 00:47:34.000
It's not just physical vulnerability.

665
00:47:34.000 --> 00:47:36.000
We're all very aware of that.

666
00:47:36.000 --> 00:47:37.000
It's not just physical vulnerability.

667
00:47:37.000 --> 00:47:43.000
There's obviously the taking off of garments, etc., but it's more than that.

668
00:47:43.000 --> 00:47:46.000
You have to be emotionally vulnerable.

669
00:47:46.000 --> 00:47:50.000
So, this goes back to the mother wound and the father wound.

670
00:47:50.000 --> 00:47:56.000
This is the part in this teaching that I like to bring this up because it really helps to drive some things home.

671
00:48:06.000 --> 00:48:13.000
It's easy to understand why somebody who's not married might struggle with certain addictions because we would think in the physical,

672
00:48:13.000 --> 00:48:18.000
well, there's no place for them to be able to express themselves in their need or whatever.

673
00:48:18.000 --> 00:48:23.000
But then when they get married, why do people still struggle with those types of addictions, still sexual addictions?

674
00:48:23.000 --> 00:48:26.000
Because it's not just the physical intimacy.

675
00:48:26.000 --> 00:48:29.000
It's the emotional vulnerability that's required.

676
00:48:29.000 --> 00:48:36.000
So, if there's still a struggle, it means that there's a lack of emotional vulnerability to some degree.

677
00:48:36.000 --> 00:48:45.000
So, the two examples that I want to give, usually an addiction like pornography will come out of a mother wound.

678
00:48:46.000 --> 00:48:51.000
This belief that we're not loved, liked, or can expect to be comforted, and it's a form of self-comfort.

679
00:48:51.000 --> 00:48:55.000
And the reason for that is there's distance because there's no one else involved.

680
00:48:55.000 --> 00:49:01.000
Because they don't like to be emotionally vulnerable.

681
00:49:01.000 --> 00:49:02.000
They don't feel safe.

682
00:49:02.000 --> 00:49:04.000
And so, they can't do that with their spouse.

683
00:49:04.000 --> 00:49:10.000
So, that's why you can be married and still struggle with some of these addictions because the physical isn't the problem.

684
00:49:10.000 --> 00:49:21.000
So, then on the other side, a father wound is what can actually end up dealing, people who deal with father wounds can end up in homosexuality.

685
00:49:21.000 --> 00:49:24.000
And that, yes, that is both gay and lesbian.

686
00:49:24.000 --> 00:49:25.000
It's both.

687
00:49:25.000 --> 00:49:28.000
And I've actually heard that from someone who used to be homosexual.

688
00:49:28.000 --> 00:49:30.000
They said that it doesn't matter what gender.

689
00:49:30.000 --> 00:49:36.000
It comes from a father wound because fathers identify us.

690
00:49:36.000 --> 00:49:41.000
It is by the masculine that we come to know who it is that we are.

691
00:49:41.000 --> 00:49:48.000
Protection, provision, and identity comes from the masculine, love, like, and the expectation to be able to be comforted.

692
00:49:48.000 --> 00:49:50.000
The nurturing aspect comes from a mother.

693
00:49:50.000 --> 00:50:00.000
So, I wanted to point out, the reason I wanted to point out those two perversions is there is a, we need to see that all of these things are types and shadows.

694
00:50:00.000 --> 00:50:02.720
So many times, especially non-believers don't understand,

695
00:50:02.720 --> 00:50:04.360
well, why is all of that wrong?

696
00:50:04.360 --> 00:50:06.680
Because it's a type and a shadow

697
00:50:06.680 --> 00:50:08.200
of what is happening in the spirit,

698
00:50:08.200 --> 00:50:10.280
and that's a very serious thing.

699
00:50:10.280 --> 00:50:11.920
So in not having emotion,

700
00:50:11.920 --> 00:50:14.480
or not allowing ourselves to be emotionally vulnerable

701
00:50:14.480 --> 00:50:16.320
with the Lord, we'll come to the Lord and say,

702
00:50:16.320 --> 00:50:18.520
okay, God, I'm here.

703
00:50:18.520 --> 00:50:21.400
I'm here in my quiet time, and why aren't you meeting me?

704
00:50:21.400 --> 00:50:22.840
Well, if we're not allowing ourselves

705
00:50:22.840 --> 00:50:25.120
to be emotionally vulnerable past a point,

706
00:50:25.120 --> 00:50:29.920
he's not going to violate our free will and pass that.

707
00:50:29.920 --> 00:50:34.920
So we have to learn, in some of these practice exercises,

708
00:50:36.760 --> 00:50:41.360
that how to actually push past that,

709
00:50:41.360 --> 00:50:44.000
how to allow ourselves, how to expose ourselves

710
00:50:44.000 --> 00:50:47.600
to finally be emotionally vulnerable with the Lord.

711
00:50:47.600 --> 00:50:48.880
There's also that aspect of, you know,

712
00:50:48.880 --> 00:50:50.320
where I talked about, you know, father wounds,

713
00:50:50.320 --> 00:50:53.320
you know, and how, in the physical,

714
00:50:53.320 --> 00:50:55.200
it manifests a lot of times as struggles

715
00:50:55.200 --> 00:50:58.160
with, like, your identity as in, like, homosexuality

716
00:50:58.160 --> 00:51:00.840
or some other transgender, you know, issue.

717
00:51:01.880 --> 00:51:05.120
And, of course, in the spirit,

718
00:51:05.120 --> 00:51:07.080
if we're not allowing ourselves to be close to the Lord,

719
00:51:07.080 --> 00:51:10.720
because we don't, we are not getting our identity from him,

720
00:51:10.720 --> 00:51:13.360
we're getting our identity by something it is that we do,

721
00:51:13.360 --> 00:51:16.780
or how it is that we behave, our career,

722
00:51:18.280 --> 00:51:19.680
I don't know, just all kinds of ways

723
00:51:19.680 --> 00:51:21.960
that we use to identify ourselves,

724
00:51:21.960 --> 00:51:23.880
then it's a perversion,

725
00:51:23.880 --> 00:51:26.520
and it's also not letting us be close to the Lord

726
00:51:26.520 --> 00:51:29.240
and have the intimacy in the only way that we can have it.

727
00:51:29.240 --> 00:51:31.040
So these, so I mention those things

728
00:51:31.040 --> 00:51:34.040
because those, it kind of gets us,

729
00:51:34.040 --> 00:51:36.200
something that we understand, okay,

730
00:51:36.200 --> 00:51:38.120
we got a grip of these types of,

731
00:51:38.120 --> 00:51:42.600
these types of addictions or of issues or whatever,

732
00:51:42.600 --> 00:51:44.920
this is how it translates into the spiritual

733
00:51:44.920 --> 00:51:49.920
so that we can understand that we are all doing that,

734
00:51:50.880 --> 00:51:53.160
that version in the spirit,

735
00:51:53.160 --> 00:51:55.360
and that's why we're not at rest,

736
00:51:55.360 --> 00:51:56.840
and this is a big issue.

737
00:51:56.840 --> 00:51:59.320
It's the lack of emotional vulnerability,

738
00:51:59.320 --> 00:52:02.480
and the lack of, and then us choosing to be identified

739
00:52:02.480 --> 00:52:05.040
by something outside of God.

740
00:52:05.040 --> 00:52:09.120
So there, we can see the seriousness of it in the physical,

741
00:52:09.120 --> 00:52:11.200
but it's, there were just pictures

742
00:52:11.200 --> 00:52:14.960
of the seriousness of it in the spiritual as well.

743
00:52:16.320 --> 00:52:20.120
Now, and so intimacy can only come

744
00:52:20.120 --> 00:52:21.860
through complete vulnerability,

745
00:52:21.860 --> 00:52:25.080
not halfway, not one toe in, not trying,

746
00:52:25.760 --> 00:52:27.400
complete, and yeah, it's hard.

747
00:52:27.400 --> 00:52:30.320
It is really, really, really hard.

748
00:52:30.320 --> 00:52:32.640
We're gonna be walking through an exercise in a second

749
00:52:32.640 --> 00:52:37.640
that I don't like to do because I have to go to Jesus,

750
00:52:37.800 --> 00:52:39.640
and I love Jesus now.

751
00:52:39.640 --> 00:52:42.280
I love Jesus, but so I don't have that same problem

752
00:52:42.280 --> 00:52:43.760
with Jesus that I used to have.

753
00:52:43.760 --> 00:52:45.480
I love Jesus now, I talk to him all the time.

754
00:52:45.480 --> 00:52:47.440
I probably talk to him, I may talk to him

755
00:52:47.440 --> 00:52:49.280
more than I talk to God the Father, I'm not sure,

756
00:52:49.280 --> 00:52:54.000
but I have to allow him to love me,

757
00:52:54.000 --> 00:52:57.320
and I have to receive it, and I don't,

758
00:52:57.320 --> 00:53:00.960
and it scares me every time, and I know how wonderful it is

759
00:53:00.960 --> 00:53:03.560
because it's changed my life, and it's that scary

760
00:53:03.560 --> 00:53:04.920
that even after all of this time,

761
00:53:04.920 --> 00:53:07.440
I still don't like doing it, but I get to a point,

762
00:53:07.440 --> 00:53:09.800
now, I can move further into it than I used to.

763
00:53:09.800 --> 00:53:12.000
I can allow him to love me more than I used to,

764
00:53:12.000 --> 00:53:14.280
but I, even I hit a point, and I'm like, oh my word,

765
00:53:14.280 --> 00:53:16.880
there you go, there's that, and I don't wanna open myself

766
00:53:16.880 --> 00:53:20.320
up that much, Lord, so we'll be walking through that,

767
00:53:20.320 --> 00:53:22.880
but it is very, very challenging,

768
00:53:22.880 --> 00:53:26.720
but that is where everything we've ever wanted is.

769
00:53:27.840 --> 00:53:30.080
We're already in that place.

770
00:53:30.080 --> 00:53:32.040
We're just bringing ourselves to acknowledge

771
00:53:32.040 --> 00:53:33.280
that we're already there.

772
00:53:34.640 --> 00:53:37.520
Now, love is his nature.

773
00:53:37.520 --> 00:53:39.840
It's his essence, it's his DNA.

774
00:53:39.840 --> 00:53:42.680
It's not something he does.

775
00:53:42.680 --> 00:53:45.340
It is in, it's in the fiber of his being.

776
00:53:45.340 --> 00:53:49.080
It is actually what defines love out here.

777
00:53:49.080 --> 00:53:52.280
It's something in here that comes out,

778
00:53:52.280 --> 00:53:54.720
so it's the very essence and the very DNA

779
00:53:54.720 --> 00:53:56.680
of who it is that he is, so he subjects

780
00:53:56.680 --> 00:53:59.760
all of his character to love, all of it,

781
00:53:59.760 --> 00:54:01.680
even his might, even his power.

782
00:54:01.680 --> 00:54:03.600
Everything is subject to his love.

783
00:54:03.600 --> 00:54:06.600
Everything in the universe is subject to God,

784
00:54:06.600 --> 00:54:08.740
and God subjects all of his character,

785
00:54:08.740 --> 00:54:11.480
all the aspects of his character to his love,

786
00:54:11.480 --> 00:54:13.860
and you are the object of that love,

787
00:54:14.760 --> 00:54:16.920
so now we know why Satan doesn't like us.

788
00:54:17.920 --> 00:54:22.140
Now we understand we are the object of God's focus,

789
00:54:22.140 --> 00:54:24.720
God's character, of his DNA, and his essence

790
00:54:24.720 --> 00:54:26.020
that is coming out.

791
00:54:26.020 --> 00:54:27.560
It is coming out towards us,

792
00:54:28.480 --> 00:54:31.780
so it's very, very powerful.

793
00:54:31.780 --> 00:54:35.840
That is, and, okay, so could we look

794
00:54:35.840 --> 00:54:38.560
at Ezekiel 16 really quick, Jonathan?

795
00:54:40.400 --> 00:54:44.360
This is talking about God's love of us

796
00:54:44.360 --> 00:54:46.420
during our lack of it.

797
00:54:47.280 --> 00:54:50.640
And, which I think is really, really fascinating.

798
00:54:56.160 --> 00:55:00.040
Thank you, I think, I think maybe it starts in verse six.

799
00:55:00.000 --> 00:55:04.000
We'll be reading, I don't remember, maybe through verse 14?

800
00:55:04.000 --> 00:55:08.000
Perfect, okay.

801
00:55:08.000 --> 00:55:12.000
So, then I passed by and saw you kicking about in your

802
00:55:12.000 --> 00:55:16.000
blood, and as you lay there in your blood, sorry for the gruesome picture,

803
00:55:16.000 --> 00:55:20.000
but as you lay there in your blood, I said to you, live.

804
00:55:20.000 --> 00:55:24.000
I love that that's God's first word to us. Looked at us

805
00:55:24.000 --> 00:55:28.000
and said, live. He speaks life over us. I made you grow like a

806
00:55:28.000 --> 00:55:32.000
plant of the field. You grew and developed and entered puberty. Your breasts had

807
00:55:32.000 --> 00:55:36.000
formed and your hair had grown, yet you were stark naked.

808
00:55:36.000 --> 00:55:40.000
You were vulnerable. Later I passed by and when I

809
00:55:40.000 --> 00:55:44.000
looked at you and saw that you were old enough for love, I spread the corner of my

810
00:55:44.000 --> 00:55:48.000
garment over you. When we come to God in vulnerability, He covers us.

811
00:55:48.000 --> 00:55:52.000
So, vulnerability in God is a safe

812
00:55:52.000 --> 00:55:56.000
place. Vulnerability isn't bad and it's not

813
00:55:56.000 --> 00:56:00.000
unsafe. We don't have to feel unsafe in our vulnerability. The vulnerability was made

814
00:56:00.000 --> 00:56:04.000
to be covered by God. It's the fact that Adam and Eve

815
00:56:04.000 --> 00:56:08.000
moved us out from under it, you know, before Christ died,

816
00:56:08.000 --> 00:56:12.000
we were just out from under it, that we suddenly realized the exposure because it was always

817
00:56:12.000 --> 00:56:16.000
meant to be covered. There's nothing wrong with it. It's not being hidden.

818
00:56:16.000 --> 00:56:20.000
We and our spirits, you know, being covered by God, we're not being hidden.

819
00:56:20.000 --> 00:56:24.000
We're just being covered by the one that we were intended to be covered by.

820
00:56:24.000 --> 00:56:28.000
And then also I thought, I love it, where it says

821
00:56:28.000 --> 00:56:32.000
I saw that you were old enough for love. You were old enough for

822
00:56:32.000 --> 00:56:36.000
you to be affected by God and for God to be affected by you.

823
00:56:36.000 --> 00:56:40.000
I gave you my

824
00:56:40.000 --> 00:56:44.000
psalm oath and entered into a covenant with you, declares the Sovereign Lord, and you became

825
00:56:44.000 --> 00:56:48.000
mine. He always talks throughout the Bible in terms of possession.

826
00:56:48.000 --> 00:56:52.000
I bathed you with water and washed the blood from you and put ointments on you.

827
00:56:52.000 --> 00:56:56.000
I bathed you with water. You remember in Ephesians, we're going to be talking about this

828
00:56:56.000 --> 00:57:00.000
tomorrow, you washed the bride with the washing of water by the word.

829
00:57:00.000 --> 00:57:04.000
I clothed you with an embroidered dress and put

830
00:57:04.000 --> 00:57:08.000
sandals of fine leather on you. So this is very important. I know it's a long passage,

831
00:57:08.000 --> 00:57:12.000
but this part is really important. I dressed you in fine linen and covered

832
00:57:12.000 --> 00:57:16.000
you with costly garments. I adorned you with jewelry. I put bracelets on your arms

833
00:57:16.000 --> 00:57:20.000
and a necklace around your neck. And I put a ring on your nose, earrings on your ears, and a

834
00:57:20.000 --> 00:57:24.000
beautiful crown on your head. So you were adorned with gold and silver. Your clothes were

835
00:57:24.000 --> 00:57:28.000
of fine linen and costly fabric and embroidered cloth. Your

836
00:57:28.000 --> 00:57:32.000
food was honey, olive oil, and the finest flour. You became very

837
00:57:32.000 --> 00:57:36.000
beautiful and rose to be a queen. And your fame spread among the nations on account of

838
00:57:36.000 --> 00:57:40.000
your beauty, because the splendor I had given you made your beauty perfect,

839
00:57:40.000 --> 00:57:44.000
declares the Sovereign Lord. So the reason I wanted to

840
00:57:44.000 --> 00:57:48.000
go through that passage is the reason that God is giving all of those clothes

841
00:57:48.000 --> 00:57:52.000
and all of that jewelry is not to cover us or to make us into something that we're

842
00:57:52.000 --> 00:57:56.000
not. Because you don't make a silk purse out of a sow's ear.

843
00:57:56.000 --> 00:58:00.000
Putting a gold ring in a pig's nose isn't going to change

844
00:58:00.000 --> 00:58:04.000
it from being a pig. It can't change us. He's not covering

845
00:58:04.000 --> 00:58:08.000
us up, hiding us, like, oh my goodness, we can't look at that.

846
00:58:08.000 --> 00:58:12.000
That's not pretty, so let's just make it look better. The reason that a king

847
00:58:12.000 --> 00:58:16.000
is giving all of that to his bride is that the value of what he

848
00:58:16.000 --> 00:58:20.000
gives her has to match her value.

849
00:58:20.000 --> 00:58:24.000
Otherwise, there's going to be an imbalance.

850
00:58:24.000 --> 00:58:28.000
It can actually corrupt the things, or you can be

851
00:58:28.000 --> 00:58:32.000
not fully clothed

852
00:58:32.000 --> 00:58:36.000
and appropriately honored if what you're given

853
00:58:36.000 --> 00:58:40.000
is less than what you are. So what this is actually saying

854
00:58:40.000 --> 00:58:44.000
is this is how God sees us. This is the value that He's

855
00:58:44.000 --> 00:58:48.000
giving us an actual picture of the value that we can

856
00:58:48.000 --> 00:58:52.000
understand the value in which He sees that we already are. He's not

857
00:58:52.000 --> 00:58:56.000
giving us value, more value than He says that we have. He's saying that we

858
00:58:56.000 --> 00:59:00.000
are that. So I wanted to just really

859
00:59:00.000 --> 00:59:04.000
point that out. God is just declaring all of these things over us. We don't have

860
00:59:04.000 --> 00:59:08.000
to be afraid when we come to Him and we want to be loved. Or we want

861
00:59:08.000 --> 00:59:12.000
to receive His love. He's given us all of this. All of it.

862
00:59:12.000 --> 00:59:16.000
We didn't even ask for it.

863
00:59:16.000 --> 00:59:20.000
Last few things before we go into the practical exercise.

864
00:59:20.000 --> 00:59:24.000
It's very important when learning to

865
00:59:24.000 --> 00:59:28.000
learn to be loved by the Lord. That all sounds

866
00:59:28.000 --> 00:59:32.000
great. How do I learn to be loved by God? Because I want to be loved

867
00:59:32.000 --> 00:59:36.000
by God. If you're like me, I thought, well God, I love you

868
00:59:36.000 --> 00:59:40.000
and I'm here. You say that you love me, but I don't feel it.

869
00:59:40.000 --> 00:59:44.000
Even though I didn't want to say it out loud, I was thinking, God, this is all in you.

870
00:59:44.000 --> 00:59:48.000
I'm doing everything, but I don't feel loved.

871
00:59:48.000 --> 00:59:52.000
You need to do more things so that I'll feel loved. You need to have this

872
00:59:52.000 --> 00:59:56.000
happen in my business. You need to have this happen in my relationships. You need to

873
00:59:56.000 --> 01:00:00.000
have this happen in my finances. Then I'll know that I'm loved.

874
01:00:00.000 --> 01:00:09.000
Goodness, I guess I've been talking for a while and so it's getting drier.

875
01:00:09.000 --> 01:00:16.400
So in order to, I didn't know what else to do, I thought I'm doing everything that God

876
01:00:16.400 --> 01:00:17.400
says to do.

877
01:00:17.400 --> 01:00:20.120
God says if I love him, I'm going to follow his commandments, so I'm following his commandments,

878
01:00:20.120 --> 01:00:21.120
you know.

879
01:00:21.120 --> 01:00:24.720
And he says that he loves me and he's showing me all of the time, but I'm just not feeling

880
01:00:24.720 --> 01:00:28.400
it and I'm just not seeing it, there must be something wrong with me or God's just not

881
01:00:28.400 --> 01:00:30.600
holding up his end of the bargain.

882
01:00:30.600 --> 01:00:32.320
So how did I move past that?

883
01:00:32.320 --> 01:00:37.320
And this is what I recommend for y'all, again, remember Reckless Abandon.

884
01:00:37.320 --> 01:00:44.040
I began to realize in the Bible that there, I had no, God gave me no obligation to love

885
01:00:44.040 --> 01:00:48.120
him back, none.

886
01:00:48.120 --> 01:00:53.760
So the first thing to do if you want to start not just loving the Lord, but being able to

887
01:00:53.760 --> 01:01:02.400
receive his love, is to finally release yourself from being obligated to love God.

888
01:01:02.400 --> 01:01:06.840
The reason we feel, you are a new man, you're not the old man.

889
01:01:06.840 --> 01:01:12.040
The new man lives, the old man has died, the new man always loves his father.

890
01:01:12.040 --> 01:01:15.680
God's not worried you're not going to love him back if you don't feel obligated, you're

891
01:01:15.680 --> 01:01:19.400
always going to love him, because you already do, but it's the old man that we keep trying

892
01:01:19.400 --> 01:01:22.480
to resurrect that our soul still thinks is alive, that it's holding onto, and we think

893
01:01:22.560 --> 01:01:23.560
we have to try to love God.

894
01:01:23.560 --> 01:01:27.000
You don't need to try to love him, God's not worried that you're not going to love him.

895
01:01:27.000 --> 01:01:31.920
But you have to, remember what I talked about, about rest, what we're going to be saying

896
01:01:31.920 --> 01:01:35.080
repeatedly, stop.

897
01:01:35.080 --> 01:01:37.200
Whatever it is you're doing, stop.

898
01:01:37.200 --> 01:01:39.380
Stop loving him.

899
01:01:39.380 --> 01:01:42.040
Stop trying, because you already do.

900
01:01:42.040 --> 01:01:46.500
And as soon as you, because the only way that we know how to love is to try, so stop.

901
01:01:46.500 --> 01:01:50.560
And then you'll discover this other aspect of you that loves very, very powerfully from

902
01:01:50.560 --> 01:01:53.760
the Spirit, and that is how God wants to be loved.

903
01:01:53.760 --> 01:01:57.760
You already have it, you already do it, but we've been hiding it, thinking that we didn't

904
01:01:57.760 --> 01:01:59.560
have it and had to try.

905
01:01:59.560 --> 01:02:03.220
So stop trying.

906
01:02:03.220 --> 01:02:05.120
Stop trying to love God.

907
01:02:05.120 --> 01:02:06.120
Stop loving him.

908
01:02:06.120 --> 01:02:08.080
I'm not saying hate him, I'm not saying that.

909
01:02:08.080 --> 01:02:11.040
Stop loving him, and then you find out that you do.

910
01:02:11.040 --> 01:02:15.640
So we're removing all of that trying, we're removing everything that we're actually doing

911
01:02:15.640 --> 01:02:18.560
that's actually creating resistance.

912
01:02:18.560 --> 01:02:19.560
So that's what it is.

913
01:02:19.560 --> 01:02:20.560
When we're trying, we're resisting.

914
01:02:20.560 --> 01:02:21.560
I'm trying, Lord.

915
01:02:21.560 --> 01:02:22.560
I'm trying.

916
01:02:22.560 --> 01:02:26.140
We don't under, we think that we're moving forward, and we're resisting.

917
01:02:26.140 --> 01:02:28.440
That trying is resisting.

918
01:02:28.440 --> 01:02:30.600
So release yourself from obligation.

919
01:02:30.600 --> 01:02:35.320
Remember that someone, when someone loves you, you're not, and this goes for God, and

920
01:02:35.320 --> 01:02:36.320
it goes for people.

921
01:02:36.320 --> 01:02:40.880
When someone loves you, you're not obligated to love them back, and you're not obligated

922
01:02:40.880 --> 01:02:43.360
to receive their love.

923
01:02:43.360 --> 01:02:48.000
Because love has to be freely given in order for it to be love.

924
01:02:48.000 --> 01:02:51.220
If it's not freely given, it's not love.

925
01:02:51.220 --> 01:02:55.560
So if we're loving out of obligation, you're not even loving anyway.

926
01:02:55.560 --> 01:02:56.560
So just stop.

927
01:02:56.560 --> 01:02:59.840
But you already are it, so there's nothing to be afraid of.

928
01:02:59.840 --> 01:03:01.280
You're going to find it there.

929
01:03:01.280 --> 01:03:03.360
Again, reckless abandon.

930
01:03:03.360 --> 01:03:06.400
These radical things that we're doing that we're thinking, oh my goodness, I'm going

931
01:03:06.400 --> 01:03:07.400
to risk my relationship with the Lord.

932
01:03:07.400 --> 01:03:10.520
You know, that's what I thought I was going to do.

933
01:03:10.520 --> 01:03:14.520
But I had to take that step, and I promise you that's where you find him, is if you make

934
01:03:14.520 --> 01:03:19.040
those very radical decisions.

935
01:03:19.040 --> 01:03:30.800
Remember that, here's proof, that when Christ died, he died with us hating him.

936
01:03:30.800 --> 01:03:33.180
He didn't die when we loved him.

937
01:03:33.180 --> 01:03:39.120
So if God would die because he loved us, in order to restore back to himself someone who

938
01:03:39.120 --> 01:03:45.440
is not only hating him, but actually causing the killing, then we apparently really are

939
01:03:45.440 --> 01:03:48.440
not obligated to love God in order for him to love us back.

940
01:03:48.440 --> 01:03:49.440
He already did it.

941
01:03:49.440 --> 01:03:53.720
He went as far, greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his

942
01:03:53.720 --> 01:03:54.720
friends.

943
01:03:54.720 --> 01:03:57.420
He's already gone as far as he can possibly go.

944
01:03:57.420 --> 01:04:00.800
So we're truly under no obligation to love the Lord back.

945
01:04:00.800 --> 01:04:08.120
So that's proof that we've actually already been there in spirit, because God says that

946
01:04:08.120 --> 01:04:15.600
actually we all killed Christ, and so we've already done all of that in spirit, and there's

947
01:04:15.600 --> 01:04:18.080
nowhere else to go.

948
01:04:18.080 --> 01:04:23.640
Your desiring him is not required for him to desire you.

949
01:04:23.640 --> 01:04:29.040
And you can't lose it, and you don't have to love him back, so just let it go.

950
01:04:29.040 --> 01:04:33.800
You have to let, okay, this is the crux of rest right here.

951
01:04:33.800 --> 01:04:36.320
Rest is release.

952
01:04:36.320 --> 01:04:38.400
Rest is letting go.

953
01:04:38.400 --> 01:04:44.240
You have to let go in order to love, because everything in God has to be freely given and

954
01:04:44.240 --> 01:04:48.600
freely received, so it's all about having open hands and letting go.

955
01:04:48.600 --> 01:04:50.440
And then we find that everything works.

956
01:04:50.440 --> 01:04:52.680
We find that we already are that thing.

957
01:04:52.680 --> 01:04:57.720
So you have to let go first before you can actually receive God's love, and before you

958
01:04:57.720 --> 01:05:00.080
can love him back.

959
01:05:00.000 --> 01:05:03.000
you love him because of who it is that you are, not because of something that

960
01:05:03.000 --> 01:05:13.500
you learn or try to do. Okay, so we're about to get into the practical

961
01:05:13.500 --> 01:05:23.320
exercise just really quick. One of the few things I wanted to prepare us

962
01:05:23.320 --> 01:05:33.460
for is that how do we know that we're loved is we have to observe. We have to

963
01:05:33.460 --> 01:05:40.120
watch and we have to receive. We can't try. We can't try to understand. We just

964
01:05:40.120 --> 01:05:44.320
have to let it come. And here's the thing, you can't just let it come at you like

965
01:05:44.320 --> 01:05:47.680
because we're gonna be sitting there and looking at Jesus and we don't just let

966
01:05:47.680 --> 01:05:53.200
it come at us. We have to let it come in and that's what's not gonna feel good.

967
01:05:53.200 --> 01:05:58.600
Meaning like, you know, that right before, now it feels good once it goes in, but

968
01:05:58.600 --> 01:06:02.560
that that moment right before all of the resistance of no I can't receive that, I

969
01:06:02.560 --> 01:06:06.800
don't I don't deserve it. I don't want him to see what he what I think he might

970
01:06:06.800 --> 01:06:11.360
see. I didn't know how he might respond. I didn't know what he might say. We

971
01:06:11.360 --> 01:06:15.960
have to we have to push through all of that and we have to allow ourselves to

972
01:06:16.040 --> 01:06:22.080
just observe what it is that he wants to give us because the gift or the love is

973
01:06:22.080 --> 01:06:28.280
all about the giver. It's not about the receiver. So God's love is not about us.

974
01:06:28.280 --> 01:06:33.760
It's about who it is that he is. So when you go to God, this is very important if

975
01:06:33.760 --> 01:06:38.720
you remember nothing else from this whole weekend, please remember this, that

976
01:06:38.720 --> 01:06:45.200
we need to come to God and allow him to be who he wants to be with us. We don't

977
01:06:45.240 --> 01:06:50.520
get to dictate. We don't get to have a say-so. We need to come to God and allow

978
01:06:50.520 --> 01:06:55.480
him to and just come to and say, okay God, whoever it is that you are, give me that.

979
01:06:55.480 --> 01:07:00.800
Just allow him to allow him to love us because that is the greatest way to love

980
01:07:00.800 --> 01:07:05.000
someone is to not do those five love languages and I'm not saying that

981
01:07:05.000 --> 01:07:08.600
there's not value in them and that that's like a stepping stone. It is not

982
01:07:08.600 --> 01:07:14.040
a mature way to love. Those five love languages are not a mature way to love.

983
01:07:14.040 --> 01:07:17.960
They're a way to grow in love and that's fine but they're not a mature way.

984
01:07:17.960 --> 01:07:22.760
A mature way is not, hey look, this is how I feel loved if you give these

985
01:07:22.760 --> 01:07:26.960
things to me. So I need you to change what you're doing. I need you

986
01:07:26.960 --> 01:07:31.280
to understand I feel loved when people give me gifts. I feel loved when da-da-da-da.

987
01:07:31.280 --> 01:07:35.240
Well, that's not how I give love. Well, that's how I receive it. So if you

988
01:07:35.240 --> 01:07:38.240
want me to feel loved, you know you need to do that. These are the

989
01:07:38.240 --> 01:07:41.640
conversations that husbands and wives have had ever since that book came

990
01:07:41.640 --> 01:07:45.040
out. The problem is we're demanding something of somebody else that has to

991
01:07:45.040 --> 01:07:49.040
be freely given in order for it to be real. So when you love someone, the best

992
01:07:49.040 --> 01:07:53.080
way to love someone is to allow them to be whoever it is that they are

993
01:07:53.080 --> 01:07:56.360
and whatever it is that they want to give you to give it and you to choose

994
01:07:56.360 --> 01:08:00.800
that you're receiving that person. That is what we're choosing in a marriage. Who

995
01:08:00.800 --> 01:08:06.400
do we want to receive from unconditionally without rules? Allowing

996
01:08:06.400 --> 01:08:10.600
them to be who it is that they are. Now we're not talking about

997
01:08:10.600 --> 01:08:14.320
abuse. We're not taking this into some really weird, very extreme. I'm just

998
01:08:14.320 --> 01:08:17.260
talking about healthy relationships. We need to allow

999
01:08:17.260 --> 01:08:20.840
someone to be who it is that they are and to express of themselves what they

1000
01:08:20.840 --> 01:08:24.279
want to give us because what they want to give us is themselves. So if we are

1001
01:08:24.279 --> 01:08:27.720
dictating to them what it is that we're giving to them, what we want from them,

1002
01:08:27.720 --> 01:08:32.760
what's going to make us feel good, that's like taking a drug. It's fake. It doesn't

1003
01:08:32.760 --> 01:08:37.520
work. They have to give of themselves, not be dictated to about

1004
01:08:37.520 --> 01:08:40.279
something. Okay, I'm going to give you this grocery list. This is how I feel

1005
01:08:40.279 --> 01:08:45.939
loved. That is how we honor and truly love someone else is by

1006
01:08:45.939 --> 01:08:50.200
allowing them to be themselves. So we do the same with the Lord. It's all about

1007
01:08:50.200 --> 01:08:55.520
the giver. Love is all about the giver and not about the receiver. So it's

1008
01:08:55.520 --> 01:08:59.880
sensing what he delights in. When he's looking at you, when we go through this

1009
01:08:59.880 --> 01:09:03.600
in a second, he's looking at you and you're receiving all of this. Just sense

1010
01:09:03.600 --> 01:09:12.680
what he's delighting in in you. So in this exercise, what we're going to do

1011
01:09:12.680 --> 01:09:18.640
is, I didn't learn this from anybody. I just started doing it and I realized how

1012
01:09:18.640 --> 01:09:21.479
powerful it was and then I started telling other people about it, my

1013
01:09:21.479 --> 01:09:24.439
clients or whatever, and you wouldn't believe the number of people who said,

1014
01:09:24.439 --> 01:09:28.000
oh my word, I actually can do it. Because it sounds so simple. It's such an easy

1015
01:09:28.000 --> 01:09:32.520
thing, but that emotional vulnerability, they finally came head-to-head with, oh

1016
01:09:32.520 --> 01:09:37.080
that's my problem. I'm not doing that, am I, whenever I go to the Lord. So it

1017
01:09:37.080 --> 01:09:40.479
highlights what areas in which we don't feel, how we're not feeling safe with

1018
01:09:40.479 --> 01:09:45.240
the Lord. So what I recommend is that you can do whatever you want. You can stay

1019
01:09:45.240 --> 01:09:49.240
exactly where you are. If it was me and I was sitting out there, my personality is

1020
01:09:49.240 --> 01:09:52.720
I would like get in a corner and sit on the floor and do it. You can do whatever

1021
01:09:52.720 --> 01:09:56.160
you want. You can stay in your chair. You can turn your chair around and move your

1022
01:09:56.160 --> 01:10:02.240
chair somewhere, but just get whatever, whatever in

1023
01:10:00.000 --> 01:10:04.480
that you need to create for yourself, you can lay down, whatnot, whatever environment

1024
01:10:04.480 --> 01:10:11.360
that you need to create for yourself in order to allow yourself to focus on the Lord and

1025
01:10:11.360 --> 01:10:17.760
to give yourself a chance and a supportive environment for you to feel safe to move in

1026
01:10:17.760 --> 01:10:23.080
the Lord in a way that you haven't felt safe to do so before, in order to risk, in order

1027
01:10:23.080 --> 01:10:29.520
to have that courage and to risk being vulnerable and move into a place that you don't feel

1028
01:10:29.520 --> 01:10:30.520
safe.

1029
01:10:30.520 --> 01:10:38.640
So when you come up against some of this resistance, then just realize, okay, I don't feel safe

1030
01:10:38.640 --> 01:10:43.400
there, so I'm going to free fall into where I don't feel safe.

1031
01:10:43.400 --> 01:10:46.560
So there's no safety net, I'm afraid.

1032
01:10:46.560 --> 01:10:50.680
Now there is a safety net, I mean, it's God, but there's no safety net I can logically

1033
01:10:50.680 --> 01:10:53.520
walk you through to help you cope.

1034
01:10:53.520 --> 01:10:54.520
There's nothing.

1035
01:10:54.520 --> 01:10:56.840
But God says he's there.

1036
01:10:56.840 --> 01:11:00.280
It's this risky, it's this reckless abandon.

1037
01:11:00.280 --> 01:11:02.240
This is the foundation of rest.

1038
01:11:02.240 --> 01:11:03.920
This is why we're talking about it.

1039
01:11:03.920 --> 01:11:08.320
If we do not, are not able to receive God's love, we can't shift into rest because he

1040
01:11:08.320 --> 01:11:09.840
is rest.

1041
01:11:09.840 --> 01:11:11.960
That is the place we're going into.

1042
01:11:11.960 --> 01:11:17.200
So anyway, that's why it's important and that's why we needed to talk about it tonight.

1043
01:11:17.200 --> 01:11:18.400
It's the foundation to everything.

1044
01:11:18.400 --> 01:11:24.880
So when you're in that place, you know, when you've got your little environment set up,

1045
01:11:24.920 --> 01:11:28.440
I imagine Jesus coming to you.

1046
01:11:28.440 --> 01:11:31.280
I personally like to, my favorite place is to sit on my bed.

1047
01:11:31.280 --> 01:11:36.080
I just sit on the side of my bed, you know, where Jesus can come, and I position myself

1048
01:11:36.080 --> 01:11:38.240
where Jesus can come and also sit on my bed.

1049
01:11:38.240 --> 01:11:41.320
And I think I like that because it just feels relaxed.

1050
01:11:41.320 --> 01:11:45.880
And it feels kind of like, I don't know, like close, because I can't do anything.

1051
01:11:45.880 --> 01:11:50.800
I don't like doing it standing because I feel active, feel on the go, and you know, my body

1052
01:11:50.800 --> 01:11:51.800
wants to run and whatever.

1053
01:11:51.960 --> 01:11:55.400
I just, I put myself in, where do I feel is safe?

1054
01:11:55.400 --> 01:11:59.840
And then I invite my Jesus to come, and he just sits there, and then I let him look at

1055
01:11:59.840 --> 01:12:00.840
me.

1056
01:12:00.840 --> 01:12:07.000
So I advise, look him in the eyes, and there's two things that I recommend, do not break

1057
01:12:07.000 --> 01:12:09.120
eye contact.

1058
01:12:09.120 --> 01:12:12.640
Because what happens is when you just sit there and you allow the Lord to love you,

1059
01:12:12.640 --> 01:12:17.720
look at you, you know, like he loves you, you know, how you would imagine somebody who

1060
01:12:17.720 --> 01:12:22.080
loves you would look like, allow him to just love you.

1061
01:12:22.080 --> 01:12:28.280
And it's not going to increase incrementally, like one, two, three, four, five, and feeling

1062
01:12:28.280 --> 01:12:31.320
stronger slowly, it compounds.

1063
01:12:31.320 --> 01:12:35.680
And it goes one, two, four, sixteen, a hundred and thirty-two.

1064
01:12:35.680 --> 01:12:39.120
It goes really fast, and what you're going to want to do is you're going to want to break

1065
01:12:39.120 --> 01:12:41.800
eye contact because that gives you relief.

1066
01:12:41.800 --> 01:12:44.800
It breaks it, and you have to start all over again at one.

1067
01:12:44.800 --> 01:12:49.720
You get up to like sixteen, oh my word, that's too hard, okay, okay, now I'm at one again.

1068
01:12:49.720 --> 01:12:51.000
It creates a bit of relief.

1069
01:12:51.000 --> 01:12:54.840
So I highly recommend that you just, you know, try to stay in eye contact with him as long

1070
01:12:54.840 --> 01:12:58.240
as possible and allow yourself to be loved.

1071
01:12:58.240 --> 01:13:04.240
Here's the other very, very important thing, do not love him back.

1072
01:13:04.240 --> 01:13:06.320
In the exercise, do not love him back.

1073
01:13:06.320 --> 01:13:08.800
I'm not saying hate him, that's not what I'm saying.

1074
01:13:08.800 --> 01:13:13.680
Don't take, you're going to feel a force coming at you, don't, and you're going to want relief

1075
01:13:13.680 --> 01:13:14.680
from it.

1076
01:13:14.680 --> 01:13:17.720
He's going to love you, and you're going to feel intense, and you're going to want to

1077
01:13:17.720 --> 01:13:19.640
try to relieve yourself by giving it back.

1078
01:13:19.640 --> 01:13:25.240
Oh Lord, oh my goodness, this is so amazing, I love you too, and don't do that.

1079
01:13:25.240 --> 01:13:31.800
Now if you, you know, you can't help it, you know, because you're his son, and you're his

1080
01:13:31.800 --> 01:13:35.040
bride, so you are going to love him back, so don't worry about that, don't like try

1081
01:13:35.040 --> 01:13:36.800
really hard to not love him or something.

1082
01:13:36.800 --> 01:13:45.000
My point is be very aware of not giving into a flow, because then, because what we're trying

1083
01:13:45.000 --> 01:13:48.160
to do is we're trying to not receive.

1084
01:13:48.160 --> 01:13:53.520
We're trying to do whatever we can, including godly things of loving him back, trying to

1085
01:13:53.520 --> 01:13:58.280
avoid receiving, and you, and so that's what rest is.

1086
01:13:58.280 --> 01:14:05.400
We have to receive, so anyway, that is what the exercise is, so let him love you how he

1087
01:14:05.400 --> 01:14:11.880
wants to, and let him give you of himself what he wants, and so, and be vulnerable,

1088
01:14:11.880 --> 01:14:15.360
so when you're there, be very vulnerable, and you're going to feel the resistance, and

1089
01:14:15.360 --> 01:14:20.680
you're, and give, and so give in to the lack of control that you're going to feel.

1090
01:14:20.680 --> 01:14:25.120
Just do that kind of free fall into the, into the unsafe, where you, where you don't allow

1091
01:14:25.120 --> 01:14:28.040
yourself any safety net.

1092
01:14:28.040 --> 01:14:32.760
I mean, I can, I can already feel it, and I'm telling you, it really is very scary.

1093
01:14:32.840 --> 01:14:37.360
I'm kind of doing that a bit in the spirit already, and I'm like, oh wow, so give in

1094
01:14:37.360 --> 01:14:44.080
to not being safe, give in to what he might see in you, and then give in to what he might

1095
01:14:44.080 --> 01:14:50.000
know, and then give in, meaning like give in, you know, just surrender to it, give in

1096
01:14:50.000 --> 01:14:52.000
to what he, how he might respond.

1097
01:14:52.000 --> 01:14:55.200
Is he going to be disappointed?

1098
01:14:55.200 --> 01:14:57.880
Is he going to chastise me?

1099
01:14:57.880 --> 01:14:59.960
Are all of my worst fears of what god

1100
01:15:00.000 --> 01:15:03.440
thinks about me or what I think about myself,

1101
01:15:03.440 --> 01:15:07.280
am I going to discover that they're actually true

1102
01:15:07.280 --> 01:15:09.800
and fall into it?

1103
01:15:09.800 --> 01:15:13.120
And you're going to discover that they're not.

1104
01:15:13.120 --> 01:15:15.480
But only he can tell you that.

1105
01:15:15.480 --> 01:15:17.680
Going through the rest intensive and hearing teachings

1106
01:15:17.680 --> 01:15:19.240
isn't going to do that.

1107
01:15:19.240 --> 01:15:21.760
Your God is the only one who can convince you

1108
01:15:21.760 --> 01:15:23.760
that you're worth enough.

1109
01:15:23.760 --> 01:15:25.920
So anyway, that's what we're going to do.

1110
01:15:25.920 --> 01:15:28.240
Before we do that, though, I would like to play.

1111
01:15:28.240 --> 01:15:32.320
We're going to play a song and just remind ourselves

1112
01:15:32.320 --> 01:15:35.720
of who it is that God is called, a son of God.

1113
01:15:35.720 --> 01:15:40.880
Just kind of remind ourselves of the strength and power that

1114
01:15:40.880 --> 01:15:43.760
is embodied in who our God actually is.

1115
01:15:43.760 --> 01:15:45.040
So I advise you don't listen.

1116
01:15:45.040 --> 01:15:47.040
She's going to be talking about different things

1117
01:15:47.040 --> 01:15:50.560
that God does or Jesus did, like his miracles and whatever.

1118
01:15:50.560 --> 01:15:54.560
I highly recommend don't focus on those outside things of,

1119
01:15:54.560 --> 01:15:57.080
oh my goodness, my God, he's so big.

1120
01:15:57.080 --> 01:15:58.920
And oh my word, he can do all of these things

1121
01:15:58.920 --> 01:16:00.080
and all these miracles.

1122
01:16:00.080 --> 01:16:03.160
Because again, we're trying to move things away from us

1123
01:16:03.160 --> 01:16:04.760
because we don't feel safe.

1124
01:16:04.760 --> 01:16:06.480
So we're trying to think of who it

1125
01:16:06.480 --> 01:16:09.480
is that God is, who it is that I'm observing.

1126
01:16:09.480 --> 01:16:10.720
It's out here.

1127
01:16:10.720 --> 01:16:12.240
I highly recommend don't do that.

1128
01:16:12.240 --> 01:16:18.560
Just listen to the music and allow it to just kind of like

1129
01:16:18.560 --> 01:16:20.880
open yourself up spiritually and vulnerably

1130
01:16:20.880 --> 01:16:24.800
and receive in the power and the love of who it is that he is

1131
01:16:24.800 --> 01:16:26.880
and receive that into yourself.

1132
01:16:26.880 --> 01:16:28.080
I hope that all makes sense because I

1133
01:16:28.080 --> 01:16:30.560
don't mean this to sound really hokey of like receive it

1134
01:16:30.560 --> 01:16:31.360
into yourself.

1135
01:16:31.360 --> 01:16:33.360
But there's this feeling that I've

1136
01:16:33.360 --> 01:16:36.200
learned that I've realized, oh my word, that's resisting

1137
01:16:36.200 --> 01:16:38.080
because I don't want it to be part of me.

1138
01:16:38.080 --> 01:16:40.160
Let it become part of you and hit you.

1139
01:16:40.160 --> 01:16:41.400
Don't think about it.

1140
01:16:41.400 --> 01:16:42.120
Don't observe it.

1141
01:16:42.120 --> 01:16:43.320
Don't try to figure it out.

1142
01:16:43.320 --> 01:16:45.440
That's all out here.

1143
01:16:45.440 --> 01:16:47.360
And that's keeping you safe.

1144
01:16:47.360 --> 01:16:50.000
And that's what you've been doing your whole life.

1145
01:16:50.000 --> 01:16:51.520
And we're in resistance.

1146
01:16:51.520 --> 01:16:54.400
And so we're trying to figure, we're trying to take baby steps.

1147
01:16:54.400 --> 01:16:57.160
Actually, baby, we're taking a big, huge step in.

1148
01:16:57.160 --> 01:16:58.640
But we're starting here.

1149
01:16:58.640 --> 01:17:00.880
We're going to go other places from here

1150
01:17:00.880 --> 01:17:03.320
but throughout this weekend.

1151
01:17:03.320 --> 01:17:07.760
But we're trying to learn how to identify our resistance

1152
01:17:07.760 --> 01:17:09.360
and to start giving into it.

1153
01:17:09.360 --> 01:17:12.760
So just even allow the music to come in.

1154
01:17:12.760 --> 01:17:16.160
So yeah, if you could start that for us, thanks.

1155
01:17:17.120 --> 01:17:33.320
Oh, son of God, oh, son of God, you have made me,

1156
01:17:33.320 --> 01:17:35.760
you have made me whole.

1157
01:17:35.760 --> 01:17:42.640
Oh, oh, son of God.

1158
01:17:42.640 --> 01:18:04.800
Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh.

1159
01:18:04.800 --> 01:18:10.120
I was born a slave to the water,

1160
01:18:10.120 --> 01:18:15.600
casting nets in a sea of disbelief.

1161
01:18:15.600 --> 01:18:19.800
There you were saying, don't you be afraid.

1162
01:18:19.800 --> 01:18:25.200
Then you called me, you called me.

1163
01:18:25.200 --> 01:18:38.840
Oh, son of God, oh, son of God, you have made me,

1164
01:18:38.840 --> 01:18:41.320
you have made me whole.

1165
01:18:45.720 --> 01:18:51.120
Oh, son of God.

1166
01:18:51.120 --> 01:18:56.600
All my life, I was just a lowly beggar,

1167
01:18:56.600 --> 01:19:01.960
paralyzed by the shame that held me down.

1168
01:19:01.960 --> 01:19:06.200
But there you were saying, stand up and go home.

1169
01:19:06.200 --> 01:19:11.600
And you healed me, you healed me.

1170
01:19:11.600 --> 01:19:25.200
Oh, son of God, oh, son of God, you have made me,

1171
01:19:25.200 --> 01:19:27.600
you have made me whole.

1172
01:19:32.000 --> 01:19:34.400
Oh, son of God.

1173
01:19:37.200 --> 01:19:40.200
I will follow you.

1174
01:19:45.200 --> 01:19:53.680
Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh.

1175
01:19:53.680 --> 01:19:56.240
I will follow you.

1176
01:20:00.000 --> 01:20:16.140
♪♪♪

1177
01:20:16.140 --> 01:20:41.140
O Son of God, O Son of God, You have made me, You have made me whole. O Son of God.

1178
01:20:46.140 --> 01:21:11.140
O Son of God, O Son of God, You have made me whole. O Son of God.

1179
01:21:11.140 --> 01:21:36.140
O Son of God, O Son of God, You have made me whole. O Son of God.

1180
01:21:36.140 --> 01:22:01.140
O Son of God, O Son of God, You have made me whole. O Son of God.

1181
01:22:01.140 --> 01:22:21.140
O Son of God, O Son of God, You have made me whole. O Son of God.

1182
01:22:22.140 --> 01:22:35.140
Allow, don't try to fix yourself up and break down your own walls and overcome yourself and all of this in order to be able to receive God's love.

1183
01:22:35.140 --> 01:22:42.140
Come to God's love. Make yourself as vulnerable as possible and His love will break down the walls.

1184
01:22:43.140 --> 01:22:52.140
Again, if there's nothing that we can do to get into the kingdom, then there's nothing that we can do in order to receive God's love.

1185
01:22:52.140 --> 01:22:58.140
We don't need to try. You don't need to try to overcome yourself. You just need to stop.

1186
01:22:58.140 --> 01:23:04.140
You need to present yourself to your Father and allow the ways of His love or however it is that you might experience it.

1187
01:23:04.140 --> 01:23:08.140
And this might be a development thing. You might not experience much tonight, but you may tomorrow.

1188
01:23:09.140 --> 01:23:12.140
So don't worry about it. As you can tell, I'm still experiencing things.

1189
01:23:12.140 --> 01:23:18.140
But just allow His love to topple your walls and to break down your walls.

1190
01:23:18.140 --> 01:23:20.140
Your walls were not meant for you to tear down.

1191
01:23:20.140 --> 01:23:25.140
They were meant for them to be completely demolished when you exposed them to His love.

1192
01:23:25.140 --> 01:23:31.140
Allow them to fall. Don't keep holding them up when He's trying to knock them down.

1193
01:23:31.140 --> 01:23:36.140
Just let all of those walls of resistance be just broken down by His love.

1194
01:23:37.140 --> 01:23:41.140
That's it. We're just going to play a song. We're going to play it just a couple of times.

1195
01:23:41.140 --> 01:23:47.140
It's going to be about 10-11 minutes because I want to give people a really good time to settle into this.

1196
01:23:47.140 --> 01:23:52.140
But that's all it's going to be, so don't be terrified that you have to be there looking at Jesus for 10 minutes.

1197
01:23:52.140 --> 01:23:55.140
Because trust me, it can be a long 10 minutes.

1198
01:23:55.140 --> 01:24:01.140
And then after that, everyone can leave and we'll see you all tomorrow at 9 o'clock here.

1199
01:24:02.140 --> 01:24:09.140
And we'll be talking about the fact that God says that we are one spirit with Him.

1200
01:24:09.140 --> 01:24:13.140
We're one with Him. We're going to be talking about the tree of life versus the tree of the knowledge of evil.

1201
01:24:13.140 --> 01:24:19.140
The idea of resting versus how we've been living life, choosing to strive for everything.

1202
01:24:19.140 --> 01:24:22.140
And then we'll be talking about spirit, soul, and body.

1203
01:24:22.140 --> 01:24:29.140
How we operate in those three different realms and how to shift up into our identity, which is in our spirit.

1204
01:24:29.140 --> 01:24:32.140
And also some more practical exercises tomorrow.

1205
01:24:32.140 --> 01:24:35.140
After we're done, y'all have a really good night.

1206
01:24:35.140 --> 01:24:39.140
I recommend you practicing this as much as possible with your Lord while you're here.

1207
01:24:39.140 --> 01:24:41.140
Thank you, John.

1208
01:24:59.140 --> 01:25:00.140
Amen.

1209
01:25:30.000 --> 01:25:40.020
♪♪

1210
01:25:40.020 --> 01:25:50.020
♪♪

1211
01:25:50.020 --> 01:26:00.020
♪♪

1212
01:26:00.020 --> 01:26:10.040
♪♪

1213
01:26:10.040 --> 01:26:20.040
♪♪

1214
01:26:20.040 --> 01:26:30.060
♪♪

1215
01:26:30.060 --> 01:26:40.060
♪♪

1216
01:26:40.060 --> 01:26:50.080
♪♪

1217
01:26:50.080 --> 01:27:00.080
♪♪

1218
01:27:00.080 --> 01:27:10.100
♪♪

1219
01:27:10.100 --> 01:27:20.100
♪♪

1220
01:27:20.100 --> 01:27:30.120
♪♪

1221
01:27:30.120 --> 01:27:40.120
♪♪

1222
01:27:40.120 --> 01:27:50.140
♪♪

1223
01:27:50.140 --> 01:28:00.140
♪♪

1224
01:28:00.140 --> 01:28:10.160
♪♪

1225
01:28:10.160 --> 01:28:20.180
♪♪

1226
01:28:20.180 --> 01:28:30.180
♪♪

1227
01:28:30.180 --> 01:28:40.200
♪♪

1228
01:28:40.200 --> 01:28:50.200
♪♪

1229
01:28:50.200 --> 01:29:00.220
♪♪

1230
01:29:00.220 --> 01:29:10.220
♪♪

1231
01:29:10.220 --> 01:29:20.240
♪♪

1232
01:29:20.240 --> 01:29:30.240
♪♪

1233
01:29:30.240 --> 01:29:40.260
♪♪

1234
01:29:40.260 --> 01:29:50.260
♪♪

1235
01:29:50.260 --> 01:30:00.300
♪♪

1236
01:30:00.000 --> 01:30:02.000
You

1237
01:30:30.000 --> 01:30:32.000
You

1238
01:31:00.000 --> 01:31:02.000
You

1239
01:31:30.000 --> 01:31:32.000
You

1240
01:32:00.000 --> 01:32:02.000
You

1241
01:32:30.000 --> 01:32:32.000
You

1242
01:33:00.000 --> 01:33:02.000
You

1243
01:33:30.000 --> 01:33:32.000
You

1244
01:33:38.000 --> 01:33:40.000
You

1245
01:33:50.000 --> 01:33:52.000
You

1246
01:34:00.000 --> 01:34:02.000
You

1247
01:34:10.000 --> 01:34:12.000
You

1248
01:34:20.000 --> 01:34:22.000
You

1249
01:34:30.000 --> 01:34:32.000
You

1250
01:34:40.000 --> 01:34:42.000
You

1251
01:34:50.000 --> 01:34:52.000
You

1252
01:35:30.000 --> 01:35:40.000
♪

1253
01:35:40.000 --> 01:35:50.020
♪

1254
01:35:50.020 --> 01:36:00.020
♪

1255
01:36:00.020 --> 01:36:10.040
♪

1256
01:36:10.040 --> 01:36:20.040
♪

1257
01:36:20.040 --> 01:36:30.040
♪

1258
01:36:30.040 --> 01:36:40.060
♪

1259
01:36:40.060 --> 01:36:50.060
♪

1260
01:36:50.060 --> 01:37:00.080
♪

1261
01:37:00.080 --> 01:37:10.080
♪

1262
01:37:10.080 --> 01:37:20.100
♪

1263
01:37:20.100 --> 01:37:30.100
♪

1264
01:37:30.100 --> 01:37:40.120
♪

1265
01:37:40.120 --> 01:37:50.120
♪

1266
01:37:50.120 --> 01:38:00.120
♪

1267
01:38:00.120 --> 01:38:10.120
♪

1268
01:38:10.120 --> 01:38:20.120
♪

1269
01:38:20.120 --> 01:38:30.120
♪

1270
01:38:30.120 --> 01:38:40.120
♪

1271
01:39:00.120 --> 01:39:10.120
♪

1272
01:39:10.120 --> 01:39:20.120
♪

1273
01:39:20.120 --> 01:39:30.120
♪

1274
01:39:30.120 --> 01:39:40.120
♪

1275
01:39:40.120 --> 01:39:50.120
♪

1276
01:39:50.120 --> 01:40:00.120
♪

1277
01:40:00.000 --> 01:40:04.000
Anyway, you all have a wonderful night, and I will see y'all tomorrow morning.
