WEBVTT 1 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:08.880 Good day everyone. Today is day 12. It is obedience. Restful one, I call your spirit 2 00:00:08.880 --> 00:00:13.600 to attention in the name of Jesus of Nazareth. Listen with your spirit to the 3 00:00:13.600 --> 00:00:20.280 Word of God for you. As the Father has loved me, so I have loved you. Now remain 4 00:00:20.280 --> 00:00:26.760 in my love. If you obey my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have 5 00:00:26.760 --> 00:00:32.040 obeyed my father's commands and remain in his love. I have told you this so that 6 00:00:32.040 --> 00:00:39.800 you may, that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete. John 15 7 00:00:39.800 --> 00:00:46.120 9 through 11. Restful one, I bless you with the joy of obedience and with 8 00:00:46.120 --> 00:00:54.080 obedience being a joy, not a bondage. I bless you with the unique joy of 9 00:00:54.080 --> 00:00:59.800 obeying your father in great detail because you are motivated by love. It is 10 00:00:59.800 --> 00:01:04.319 a terrible thing to obey because of fear that disobedience could cost you 11 00:01:04.319 --> 00:01:11.960 something or to look at an authority and do what you need to do to avoid pain and 12 00:01:11.960 --> 00:01:18.720 punishment. It is beautiful when you obey God because you know it brings pleasure 13 00:01:18.720 --> 00:01:22.840 to him and you experience pleasure in experiencing the joy and love of your 14 00:01:22.840 --> 00:01:28.080 father. I bless you with seeing in the natural the results of your obedience. I 15 00:01:28.080 --> 00:01:32.960 bless you with understanding natural law, the universal cause and effect 16 00:01:32.960 --> 00:01:38.880 relationships that God has installed in the world, and with finding tremendous 17 00:01:38.880 --> 00:01:43.920 joy in understanding the design of nature, of relationships, of spiritual 18 00:01:43.920 --> 00:01:49.200 intimacy and power. I bless you with seeing how to weave these laws together 19 00:01:49.200 --> 00:01:57.240 and new ways to produce new results. I bless you, restful one, with discovering 20 00:01:57.240 --> 00:02:02.480 hidden truths in Scripture. I bless you with the immense joy of firstfruits 21 00:02:02.480 --> 00:02:07.600 investments and these truths you discover quickly seeing the fruit in 22 00:02:07.600 --> 00:02:14.760 your life, the fruit in your own life, and the lives of others and celebrating 23 00:02:14.800 --> 00:02:20.240 the liberating power of God's truth. I bless you with having people bring to 24 00:02:20.240 --> 00:02:26.520 you problems that direct you to the Word of God. I bless you with eyes to see the 25 00:02:26.520 --> 00:02:32.240 biographies of Scripture and to mine out of those biographies rich understanding 26 00:02:32.240 --> 00:02:37.600 to see where they are reaping generational blessings and where they 27 00:02:37.600 --> 00:02:43.720 are reaping the results of God's law. I bless you with eyes to see the joy of 28 00:02:43.720 --> 00:02:48.720 being God's truth. I bless you with experiencing the rich rich love of your 29 00:02:48.720 --> 00:02:53.920 father as you are obeying him. I bless you with seeing, hearing, and knowing the 30 00:02:53.920 --> 00:02:58.720 pleasure of your father when you demonstrate your love for him by your 31 00:02:58.720 --> 00:03:03.920 love for his commandments. Each lover of your level of your obedience will 32 00:03:03.920 --> 00:03:09.880 release a new level of your father's joy to you. When you obey his law your father 33 00:03:09.920 --> 00:03:15.080 will celebrate you. I bless you with spiritual ears and your spiritual eyes, 34 00:03:15.080 --> 00:03:20.040 the eyes of your understanding to be open and to know the love of your father 35 00:03:20.040 --> 00:03:27.720 so that this will become the driving motivation to obey more and more. I 36 00:03:27.720 --> 00:03:33.560 bless you with setting the standard of obedience in your community. Make it your 37 00:03:33.560 --> 00:03:37.640 spiritual ambition to be known as a person who loves the Lord and who is 38 00:03:37.640 --> 00:03:43.640 loved by the Lord. I bless your place in the new generation who will blot out the 39 00:03:43.640 --> 00:03:49.680 old stigma of legalism because the world will see in your life the complete 40 00:03:49.680 --> 00:03:55.560 merging of obedience and love. I pray that as you celebrate all that your 41 00:03:55.560 --> 00:04:01.960 father has for you, you will relish his love and that will be your 42 00:04:01.960 --> 00:04:08.320 mark in your community. I bless you with obedience that leads you to that level 43 00:04:08.320 --> 00:04:15.640 of love and that level of love that leads you to obedience. Just as it says 44 00:04:15.640 --> 00:04:21.880 in the passage from John 15, as the father has loved me so I have loved 45 00:04:21.880 --> 00:04:27.560 you so remain in my love. If you obey my commands you will remain in my love 46 00:04:27.560 --> 00:04:34.080 just as I remain in my father's commands and remain in his love. I have 47 00:04:34.080 --> 00:04:42.720 told you this that my joy may be in you and your joy may be complete. Restful one, 48 00:04:42.720 --> 00:04:47.040 I bless you with complete joy with discovering areas of obedience that 49 00:04:47.040 --> 00:04:52.440 will bring greater levels of joy as you experience more and more of your 50 00:04:52.440 --> 00:05:00.800 father's love resting upon you. I bless you in the name of Jesus of Nazareth. 51 00:05:00.000 --> 00:05:16.320 What is so interesting that for so many they look at Christianity, if we want to use that 52 00:05:16.320 --> 00:05:26.240 terminology in a sense, they look at Christianity as a list of rules of the do's and don'ts 53 00:05:26.240 --> 00:05:41.600 when Christ himself came to set us free from the law, but from those sitting in the bleachers 54 00:05:41.600 --> 00:05:53.820 it can often look like following you is all that you have to give up. 55 00:05:53.820 --> 00:06:02.060 And hidden in that truth, in that mystery, is by giving up those things you actually 56 00:06:02.060 --> 00:06:06.940 apprehend them. 57 00:06:06.940 --> 00:06:09.340 By giving things up, you actually receive. 58 00:06:09.340 --> 00:06:19.980 By giving up control, you receive control, by, well, in a sense, by giving up your freedom 59 00:06:19.980 --> 00:06:23.960 in a sense, you gain it. 60 00:06:23.960 --> 00:06:31.060 By giving up your identity in a sense of who you are, you really come into who you actually 61 00:06:31.060 --> 00:06:34.500 are. 62 00:06:34.500 --> 00:06:42.780 And so in the place of obedience, it isn't to be, as they discussed, where we obey solely 63 00:06:42.780 --> 00:06:43.780 out of fear. 64 00:06:43.980 --> 00:06:50.740 There is a healthy place of the fear of the Lord, but a misunderstanding of what the fear 65 00:06:50.740 --> 00:06:53.460 of the Lord is. 66 00:06:53.460 --> 00:06:59.740 There's a time when we are to be in awe of the enormity of an almighty God. 67 00:06:59.740 --> 00:07:05.180 It is a fearful and powerful thing to be placed in the hands of an almighty God. 68 00:07:05.180 --> 00:07:12.540 That we really, like so many, may be in a sense that when you grow up with a dad, he's 69 00:07:12.540 --> 00:07:13.540 just your dad. 70 00:07:13.540 --> 00:07:24.500 He isn't the CEO or the President of the United States or the MMA champion of the world. 71 00:07:24.500 --> 00:07:28.900 He is those things, but to you, he's just a father. 72 00:07:28.900 --> 00:07:38.420 And we forget, in a sense, of who God really is in the fullness. 73 00:07:38.500 --> 00:07:45.580 We can come to a place where we really obey in love, and our obedience brings about love, 74 00:07:45.580 --> 00:07:49.900 and then our motivation is love, and then the more that we obey, the more we love, and 75 00:07:49.900 --> 00:07:52.740 the more we love, the more we obey. 76 00:07:52.740 --> 00:07:56.660 It's a little like when Moses was saying, Lord, teach me your ways so I may find your 77 00:07:56.660 --> 00:07:59.380 favor and give me favor that I may know your ways. 78 00:07:59.380 --> 00:08:05.140 And there's this cycle, this circle of ever increasing glory or ascension. 79 00:08:08.420 --> 00:08:25.460 You know, Lord, it says often that you want obedience, not sacrifice. 80 00:08:25.460 --> 00:08:33.299 But our heart's position before you is so important. 81 00:08:33.299 --> 00:08:38.179 There are many that do a lot of things in your name that you say you will never know, 82 00:08:38.220 --> 00:08:45.020 and that is a terrifying scripture, if you're not in relationship. 83 00:08:45.020 --> 00:08:51.300 You don't want automatons, you don't want robots. 84 00:08:51.300 --> 00:08:57.780 That we are slaves in a format of, in a way, we're slaves to righteousness, but you want 85 00:08:57.780 --> 00:09:05.820 a relationship. 86 00:09:05.820 --> 00:09:11.580 So Lord, I pray that there be a heart change for all of us today. 87 00:09:11.580 --> 00:09:23.260 I'm reminded of a wonderful, wonderful man, everybody calls Papa Ron, and he's been serving 88 00:09:23.260 --> 00:09:32.340 you, Lord, longer than I've been alive, let alone that I've known you, and he learned 89 00:09:32.340 --> 00:09:33.340 a hard lesson. 90 00:09:33.340 --> 00:09:41.780 He was getting tired and burned out in ministry and the whole service aspect of things, and 91 00:09:41.780 --> 00:09:52.300 the Lord, just in a loving kind of confrontive way that only he can do, you talk to him about 92 00:09:52.300 --> 00:10:00.020 what service really was, and you change his heart towards it. 93 00:10:00.000 --> 00:10:02.120 Once his heart towards it changed, 94 00:10:02.120 --> 00:10:04.400 his attitude about it all changed. 95 00:10:04.400 --> 00:10:05.720 His heart changed. 96 00:10:07.400 --> 00:10:09.000 And so then he would go, 97 00:10:09.000 --> 00:10:10.520 and he would go to other churches 98 00:10:10.520 --> 00:10:12.000 and he would preach about service 99 00:10:12.000 --> 00:10:15.280 and then everything in the church would change. 100 00:10:17.680 --> 00:10:19.320 Papa Ron would say, 101 00:10:19.320 --> 00:10:21.840 I've never heard anybody talk about service 102 00:10:21.840 --> 00:10:22.920 like that before. 103 00:10:22.920 --> 00:10:24.280 I had it all wrong. 104 00:10:24.280 --> 00:10:29.280 Lord, I pray that there be a loving embrace of between us 105 00:10:35.280 --> 00:10:37.680 to increase our love towards you, 106 00:10:37.680 --> 00:10:39.480 to be more soft towards you, 107 00:10:40.440 --> 00:10:43.240 to remove any misunderstandings 108 00:10:43.240 --> 00:10:48.240 of what love and obedience and submission is. 109 00:10:50.760 --> 00:10:53.800 Any barriers that would keep those things 110 00:10:53.840 --> 00:10:56.160 or keep aspects of us removed from you, 111 00:10:56.160 --> 00:11:01.160 where we have a certain level of identity or self, 112 00:11:01.480 --> 00:11:02.880 independence from you. 113 00:11:04.560 --> 00:11:07.000 But there'd be a real growth today, Lord, 114 00:11:07.000 --> 00:11:10.880 in our love and obedience and our obedience in love. 115 00:11:13.680 --> 00:11:18.240 And that we would kind of looks like a bird, 116 00:11:18.240 --> 00:11:20.000 like an eagle. 117 00:11:20.000 --> 00:11:21.760 This bird I'm seeing is, 118 00:11:21.760 --> 00:11:23.120 looks even bigger than an eagle, 119 00:11:23.120 --> 00:11:24.480 has a tremendous wingspan. 120 00:11:24.480 --> 00:11:28.040 And as my friend Chris says, 121 00:11:28.040 --> 00:11:29.280 that when an eagle, 122 00:11:30.200 --> 00:11:31.760 once it gets off the ground, 123 00:11:31.760 --> 00:11:33.960 it locks its elbows, 124 00:11:33.960 --> 00:11:36.840 it locks its wings, its arms in position 125 00:11:36.840 --> 00:11:38.680 and it doesn't flap them anymore. 126 00:11:40.440 --> 00:11:42.080 They just ride the thermals. 127 00:11:43.840 --> 00:11:47.000 That Lord, that we would be in ever increasing heights today 128 00:11:48.000 --> 00:11:49.840 in this place of love 129 00:11:51.040 --> 00:11:53.800 and obedience or submission to you. 130 00:11:55.360 --> 00:11:58.080 And the more Lord we can love you, 131 00:11:58.080 --> 00:12:00.960 the more we can do things from a place of love. 132 00:12:00.960 --> 00:12:05.600 There's this ever increasing mutual escalation 133 00:12:05.600 --> 00:12:06.880 between the two of us 134 00:12:08.040 --> 00:12:11.440 or between each and every person here and you. 135 00:12:11.880 --> 00:12:14.240 Oh, that we could get it Lord. 136 00:12:14.240 --> 00:12:15.240 So today pray Lord, 137 00:12:15.240 --> 00:12:17.040 I pray you would lavish your love 138 00:12:17.040 --> 00:12:20.760 and increase each person's capacity for love. 139 00:12:22.120 --> 00:12:24.680 That you would rewrite our definitions for yours. 140 00:12:24.680 --> 00:12:26.680 It would be like our dictionary, 141 00:12:26.680 --> 00:12:28.600 our internal dictionary 142 00:12:28.600 --> 00:12:30.680 and yours to come into alignment. 143 00:12:32.320 --> 00:12:34.760 And that you would speak into this place. 144 00:12:34.760 --> 00:12:38.120 Then you would change our understanding of love 145 00:12:38.120 --> 00:12:39.400 and obedience to you. 146 00:12:41.520 --> 00:12:44.520 And you would change our understanding of what this means. 147 00:12:46.600 --> 00:12:49.000 Like to obey your commandments 148 00:12:49.000 --> 00:12:53.520 and what does this really mean to each of us? 149 00:12:54.600 --> 00:12:56.520 That Lord, even if it's just one thing, 150 00:12:56.520 --> 00:12:59.600 just one whisper that today you would change, 151 00:12:59.600 --> 00:13:01.760 you would speak into this place. 152 00:13:03.720 --> 00:13:05.400 And that something would be reframed. 153 00:13:05.400 --> 00:13:07.880 There would be a shift in some area today 154 00:13:09.000 --> 00:13:10.200 and that our hearts would change, 155 00:13:10.200 --> 00:13:12.120 our motivations would change 156 00:13:12.120 --> 00:13:14.040 and our actions would change as a result. 157 00:13:14.040 --> 00:13:16.800 We bless you and we love you Lord, in Jesus name.