Hi guys, good afternoon.
It's lunchtime here in Tairoa in New Zealand.
I know there will be people tuning in from many different spots around the world.
Some of you are watching the replay and others of you will be here live.
And I just want to say hi, welcome, thanks for tuning in, thanks for being a part of
the School of the Spirit.
We are about to get into Session 5, School of the Spirit.
Now what I've done is I've actually made a last minute decision.
And my last minute decision has been to swap out Session 5 and Session 6.
So I've actually swapped them over and I'm going to do Session 6 for Session 5 and Session
5 for Session 6.
So hopefully that makes sense.
Also just to note that the three week activation, which will be a part time, it's not going
to take up all your time and it's not going to take up all my time, but it will be a three
week long activation hosted through the online School of Sonship that will happen after this
course.
If you're interested in that and want to be a part of that, the link is actually in the
description of this live video now.
As opposed to in the other ones, it's been in the comments.
So yeah, awesome.
Hope you guys are all doing great.
I hope you've been having a good time.
I'm just going to take this jacket off.
It's actually reasonably warm in my house.
It's kind of a cold day, but it's warm inside.
So thank you, Jesus.
Feel free to drop a comment where you're tuned in from.
And some of you, I can recognize your names from the previous sessions, and so good to
see you again.
We'll just wait for a couple more people to jump online.
And while we do, I'll have a sip of my tea.
Thank you, Jesus.
Yes, Lord.
Yeah, I'm just going to pour another tea.
So good.
All right.
Well, it's been some cool just looking at some of the comments and things from the last
few sessions.
Really appreciate all of the comments, whether it's a hallelujah, whether it's a high five,
or whether it is someone stepping out and having a prophetic word or a word of encouragement
for someone or a testimony or just sharing what God's doing in your life.
It is just so cool to read some of the comments and to see some of the feedback from the last
sessions.
It seems like many of you are having a really good time and getting stuff out of the sessions.
So I really hope that's the case.
I mean, it obviously is the case for many of you.
So that is cool.
In a moment, we're actually going to pray for, I'm just going to get, I apologize, I
forgot the name, Michael Wellington, who is feeling a bit unwell.
I'm not sure exactly what's going on, but he's needing a miracle.
And so we're all going to pray for him.
He's been engaged in the school for the last few sessions, and he just asked for prayer.
So we're going to pray for him together, and I'll lead us in that in a moment.
And then we are going to get into session five, passing through the eye of the needle,
what to do with disappointment, how to handle, how to navigate disappointing scenarios.
I'm going to share some pretty personal stories in this session.
And I have found in the past that this has been a really empowering and encouraging session
for people.
This really is probably one of the main reasons why most people and many people give up on
supernatural ministry and on the ministry of the Spirit is because they get tripped
up with disappointment.
Disappointment is just what happens when there is distance between you and where you've been
appointed to be, disappointment.
And God is really wanting to reappoint people all over the world back into their appointment,
in His presence, in His power, and in His purpose.
And so this is going to be a great session.
And we're going to get into it in just a moment.
Just buying a little bit of time while a few more people jump online.
Then straight after that, we are going to do session six.
Session six, I forgot actually what I've entitled session six.
It is stewarding the seed or something along those lines.
Someone remind me.
We've got the little outline there. I've put it in the outline, but it's about stewardship anyway.
Love for someone just to remind me what the title of that is. I'm very sorry I've forgotten the title.
Sometimes I've got like 10 different titles that I'm weighing up what to call something,
and I just, in the end, have to take a stab and pick a title. But yeah, so that's going to be coming up.
Then we're going to finish with the still small voice, and I'm going to share about an angelic
encounter that I had, and some of the things I've learned about being led by the Spirit.
Some of the dynamics of that. Remember, this whole school is called the School of the Spirit,
and the purpose of the school is to take you into a deeper experience of walking with the Holy Spirit,
walking in the Holy Spirit, which would include engaging in the gifts of the Spirit.
I know we're not covering specific gifts per se, but everything I'm sharing in this course
applies to, and can be applied to, every single one of the gifts of the Spirit. I know some of
you are hungry for prophecy, word of knowledge, word of wisdom, tongues, interpretation of tongues,
all those things. There's so much to be said about each one of those things,
and what I'm sharing over this course is really going to help you in all of the gifts of the
Spirit, because they're going to connect you in a deeper way to the Holy Spirit from whom all the
gifts flow. Feel free as well, as we're going through this session, to post and comment any
questions you've had from any of the previous sessions. I'm going to be reading through
the comments, and I love seeing questions. If you drop a question, I'll really try hard to answer
that question, so please feel free to ask any questions, and share what the Lord is doing in
your heart. Please share what the Lord is doing in your heart. Share what He's doing in your life.
Share what He's doing in you. Share what you're getting from the school so far. It's just so good
to get feedback. Remember, I'm not in the room with you. I can't see your faces, so any comment
just helps me stay engaged with the fact that there are actually people who are receiving from
this teaching. This teaching, by the way, has taken me as far as preparation. I've been preparing
this school for you specifically, just to let you know how much time has gone into this.
I've been preparing this school since 2001, October. So what's that? 20 years I've been
preparing this school for you, and I'm sharing some of the richest lessons I've learned over
the last 20 years, and how many know that God doesn't teach you a lesson so that it can just
stay with you. Whatever He gives you, whatever He teaches you, is so it can be passed on to
the people around you, and to the generations to come. So cool. Awesome.
So please engage with the comments. Drop us a high five. Drop us a hallelujah, a what's up, or
whatever you can think of saying. We just love to see the comments. Also, I love to see who's tuned
in. Right, before we start in session five, what we're going to do is we're going to pray for
Michael Wellington, who, if you weren't on just when I mentioned last, a few seconds ago,
Michael is needing a miracle. I don't exactly know what for, but he's needing a miracle. So
we're going to pray for him, and right now, we just stop, and just do this with me. We stop,
and we drop into the Spirit. We take a big deep breath. Our Father who is in the air,
we breathe. We stop and make space for you right now. We honor you. We honor your presence.
Holy Spirit, you are good. You are good. Right now, over Michael, we reach our faith out in the
Spirit right now, over Michael, and in the name of Jesus, we take authority over every sickness,
and every disease, and every ailment, and every pain right now, and we break the power of sickness,
and we break pain, and we break the plan of the enemy over Michael's life right now, and I declare
the healing power of Jesus over you right now, Michael. I declare the healing power of God
flowing through your body right now, in the name of Jesus. Amen. Awesome, and if anyone else needs
a miracle right now, just breathe that in. The atmosphere is rich for miracles right now. I
just declare the healing power of God by the Holy Spirit flowing over every person that's tuned in
who needs it.
miracle right now. I declare it right now. I just declare the power of God being
released. The power of God, not the power of emotional hype. The power of Jesus
Christ by the Holy Spirit being released onto people who need miracles right now
in Jesus name. And it's true that God is not restricted by a screen. God is not
restricted by physical distance. God is not restricted by space or time. God is
unlimited in his capacity to heal you and where faith is released and no
matter what way it's released, God is released in that situation. So we just
this will be an agreement with that for those who are needing a miracle. Yes God.
And Lord we just pray right now and we ask for a spirit of wisdom revelation.
I ask you to open people's hearts to receive in this session Lord what you're
doing. Amen. So guys we're gonna get into session, for those of you who weren't
tuned in at the time, we're gonna get into session 5. But I swapped session 5
and session 6 around. So we're actually going to get into what is what I've
titled passing through the eye of the needle. Passing through the eye of the needle is
what we're gonna really get into in this session is how to deal with
disappointment. How to handle disappointment. How to navigate
disappointing situations. How to handle it when and what to do when it doesn't
work out the way you were expecting it to or the way you are hoping for it to
work out. When you're left feeling high and dry. When you're left feeling like
God where were you or where are you? And we all experience those moments. We all
experience that feeling from time to time. And this is one of the primary
reasons why people bail out of supernatural ministry and out of the
ministry of the Spirit is because of disappointment. And disappointment is
really just when there is distance between you and where you have been
appointed to be. You have been appointed to be in the manifest presence of God
flowing in the power of God engaged in your purpose that is from God. And
sometimes when things don't happen and our hope is dashed we can we can embrace
a distance that is really an illusion but we can embrace a distance or a sense
of distance between us and our appointment in God. And I believe and I
hope and I pray what God is going to do through this session is he's going to
reappoint people into their purpose into his presence and reconnect them with his
power. So passing through the eye of the needle we're gonna turn to Matthew 19 so
you can do that turn to Matthew 19 again love the scripture Matthew 19 let
me just double-check that Matthew 19 and verse 24 by the way feel free to please
again just drop any encouraging high fives or thumbs up or comments it's very
cool for me to get some feedback on the comments I know I'm saying the same
thing again and again but would really love to see the comments and can you
guys hear me is everything cool let me know if you if my mouth is moving and
you can't hear me or there's major glitches in the screen and we'll try and
sort that out but cool okay Matthew 19 24 and again I say to you oh let's
actually start in verse 21 Jesus said to him oh no no no no no okay context is
he's talking to a rich young man and verse 21 Jesus said to him if you want
to be perfect go and sell what you have and give to the poor and you will have
treasure in heaven come and follow me but when the young man heard that saying
he went away sorrowful for he had great positions in other words he was rich and
when Jesus said to his disciples sorry and then Jesus said to his disciples
assuredly I say to you that it is hard for a rich man to enter the kingdom of
heaven and again I say to you it is easier for a camel to go through the eye
of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God and there's a lot
more to be said about that and there's a lot more that Jesus has to say about
that in that very chapter of Scripture right there but the one thing I want to
say is that sometimes we need to learn to let go of things that we're holding
on to in order to follow God through the gap that he's leading us through and
this is a principle that's true in almost every area of life that you can
think of and it's most definitely true of supernatural ministry and the
ministry of the Spirit is that there are rites of passage that we
that God leads us to and intends to lead us through, and many people get to but
many people don't get through. And a lot of that is because there is an
unwillingness to let go of some of the things that we need to let go of in
order to get through the spaces that God is leading us through. In this
ministry of the Spirit, there's this invitation to pass through the pain of
the gap, I call it. That's the space between our position and our promise.
That's the space between who Jesus says you are and who you feel like right now.
That's the gap between you have all authority, and last time you
prayed for someone that didn't get healed, and you're trying to weigh up
that, ah, something is, I'm in the gap. I need to somehow bridge this gap between
I've got this promise of all authority, that's a truth, that's a reality, that's a
fact, but I've got this experience and it doesn't seem to be working out. What is
going to be the thing that forms me and frames me and determines who I am? Is it
going to be the promise of God and the fact of God and the voice of God, or is
it going to be my experience? There's often a gap in between, and if we can
internally bridge that gap, we will eventually externally bridge that gap.
What I just said there is actually a really powerful thing. If you can
internally bridge the gap of distance, well, I would call that the eye of the
needle in this particular scenario. If you can bridge that gap internally, you
will in time bridge it externally. In other words, what you build internally in
your life will eventually determine where you head externally in your life.
And to bridge that gap for this kind of ministry that we're talking about, the
ministry of the Spirit, one thing is really, really required, and that is
surrender, and surrender of a number of things. I just want to share with you,
just to give some examples of passing through the eye of the needle and passing
through this rite of passage of bridging the gap, I want to share some personal
examples that I have both seen and that I have experienced personally in my life
of moments that where Jesus has led me to the doorway of the eye of the needle,
where I have wrestled with, I do not know if I can fit through that eye, and I have
chosen to, or people that I know have chosen to say, you know what, Jesus, I
trust you, letting go, surrendering, and passing through the eye of the needle and
the glory that's on the other side of that. I want to share a couple of stories
and then we're going to go into how to be needle fit, how to be eye of needle fit,
how to be trim enough and slim enough to fit through on any occasion, and to do
that we're going to go to Asaph's advice, and that'll all make sense in a
moment. Please feel free to drop some comments. I feel like you guys are really
quiet today. Can you hear me? Are you there? I'm gonna have a sip of tea and
wait for some comments just to come up.
Even just a high-five or a wave, just wave at me. Is anyone there? Just give me a
wave.
Let me see, let me see. Okay, I'm just gonna see if there's something wrong on my end
here. No?
Maybe I can't see my comments. Are you guys commenting?
No? Okay.
Are my comments off?
No one's commenting. This is crazy. Okay, let's see, let's see. All right, I can see.
All right, cool, cool. All right.
Okay, all right, cool. Apparently you guys are commenting, but I can't. Oh, guys, I'm
so sorry. For some reason I can't see the comments. This is tragic. Oh, you don't
know how much encourage. There are heaps of comments. Oh my gosh, I can't
even see the comments. I'm so sorry, guys. Please keep commenting, though. I'm
gonna look back and be retrospectively encouraged. Okay, awesome.
Oh my gosh, I'm starting to feel a bit discouraged, like, man, is anyone listening to me?
But this is cool.
Apparently, you guys are listening, but apparently, for some reason, I cannot see this.
All right, cool.
Anyway, I'll carry on then, and I'll just by faith believe that you are engaged in this.
So I want to just share a couple of stories.
One is, the first one I want to share is, really, it's not really my story.
I'm going to leave the person's name out of it, but there's a young man that is a very
important young person to me, who I haven't been in touch with for a little while, and
really think this guy is a absolute champion.
Some of you will know this person, you know who I'm talking about, and some of you who
are on this were actually probably there at the time when this took place, this story.
But I remember taking a team to the Philippines, and there were probably 10 of us or so, and
I prepared my team for just, you know, everything that might happen in the Philippines, and
they were all geared up and ready to roll, and ready for the supernatural, ready for
the miraculous, and to see the Holy Spirit move, and God touch people's lives, and everyone
was pretty excited.
And at the time, we'd just started our church, and I had this young man with me, and his
family were part of our church, and his mom was actually struggling with cancer.
And the story actually goes that she was actually healed of the cancer, which was amazing.
She had brain tumors, and she actually felt them drip out, fall, slide down the back of
her throat, like they came out of her brain, it was just quite a, I don't even know how
that works.
But anyway, they opened her up, and they checked, and they didn't, apparently, this is what
I've been told at least by the husband, they didn't find any of the tumors, which is amazing.
And so we're on the flight on the way to the Philippines, we arrive at the Manila Airport,
and this young man, well I actually get an email on my phone saying, get the young guy,
it's from his sister, get him to call home immediately, as soon as you get this.
So he calls, and he burst into tears on the phone, super tragic, and it was a shock to
everyone.
His mom had passed away while he was en route from Auckland to Manila, apparently from an
infection due to the surgery to see if the tumors were there, which, if that doesn't
produce questions of like, what, what, you were healed of the tumors, and then you died
of an infection because of the operation, what?
Just, we were all befaffled, and it was really upsetting, obviously, and we were all gutted.
So we got around this young guy, and we just started to comfort him, and we prayed, and
obviously we were believing for a resurrection, and that's a whole other story in and of itself.
His mom didn't come back to life, and I said to this young guy, I said, we'll put you on
a plane straight back home, you can be with your family, and he said, he took some time,
thought about it, we're in the airport for hours, and he just said to me, Matt, I don't
want to go home, I want to stay on this trip.
I want to stay on this trip, I'm not going to let the enemy have the last say here.
And I said, well what do you want to focus on on the trip?
He said to me, I want to kill tumors, I want to go after tumors, and I realized I'm sitting
down with a David who's confronting his Goliath right now, he's not backing down, he's not
jumping off the field, he's not afraid, he's manning up to the giant that has just taken
out his mom, and all the emotion of that, and just a real powerful time, and in one
of the meetings, we had a leaders meeting over there a day or a couple of days later
after that, and we were all lined up, and we were all kind of giving words of knowledge,
and I don't even know if it was a word of knowledge for him, but he just said, is there
anyone with a tumor, and this lady actually stood up, she had a, there were actually a
couple of people with tumors, but one of them had a tumor that was almost like the size
of a basketball in his stomach, and you know, like, sorry, my phone's ringing, just saying
no to that.
And it was crazy, I said to this young guy, I said, okay, you pray, and the weight of
the presence of God was just like, whoa, because you could just feel, he just stepped up, and
when he stepped up, the rest of the people in the room didn't know what he was stepping
through to step up, but he was passing through the eye of the needle at this point.
He was saying, Jesus, I don't have the answers to what happened to my mom.
I can't reconcile what happened.
I can't reconcile what happened to my mom.
I'm believing that you're good, but I've got question marks, honest question marks,
because why did that happen? But I'm surrendering the need to know the answer to the questions,
and I'm going to choose to believe that you're good anyway, and in the midst of my darkness,
in the midst of my pain, I'm going to choose that you're still good. And he passed through the eye
of the needle, and he prayed a simple prayer, and the tumor just went and just disappeared.
She starts bending over, her pants get all loose, because the belt was around the tumor,
and that's all gone. She can bend over again for the first time in a long time. I'm freaking out,
she's completely healed. And we're all cheering, and most of the team is crying, not because the
person got healed, that was amazing, but because we just watched a young David pass through the
eye of the needle and confront his Goliath. And that's sometimes what it looks like in
supernatural ministry, in the ministry of the Spirit, is that you have to confront those
questions around God. I can't reconcile what happened in my experience back there,
but I'm going to continue to choose to believe that you are who you say you are, and you are
still Jesus. The word, you know, Jesus is still what God has to say about himself. I'm going to
continue to believe that, despite my experience of lack in the past.
Another moment, I know that kind of probably begs a little bit of time to just spend some
time talking about that and processing that, but we're going to move on to the next story,
and I've got a lot of stories like this, and you'll have a lot of stories like this too,
if you continue forward in this direction. It comes with the territory. You've got to pass
through the eye of the needle if you're going to carry on. I remember, I mean, to give you context,
there have been many years and seasons of my life where not a day would go by,
for years and years on end, without seeing a real life, physical, proper miracle.
And I've had the privilege of seeing a lot of miracles,
the power of God flow in many different circumstances and occasions. And
I remember being in Rotorua, which is a town in New Zealand, and a person in the crowd actually
responded to some question that I said. They said that they had an incurable heart problem,
and I think by memory it was a hole in the heart that there was an issue. And they actually were a
doctor and worked in the hospital there in Rotorua. And they asked me to pray, and I
found myself at the entrance to the eye of the needle at that exact moment.
I felt a wrestle happen within me. I felt myself torn between the promise and the truth
of all that God is to me and to this person who needs a miracle and my past experience. My past
experience is that a few years back now and a few years before this moment in Rotorua,
my 25-year-old younger brother passed away in Sydney, Australia of a freak heart attack.
His aorta valve actually ripped off his heart in his sleep. He was otherwise perfectly healthy.
He had no known heart condition. It was completely random, but he was fit, he was healthy,
he was happy, he was newly married, he just landed his dream job. He was in the prime of his life,
25 years old, Sydney, Australia. And in the early hours of the morning,
his life was stolen from him and from us by the devil, is what we would hold on to and what we
believe. And physically, his aorta valve actually fell off his heart in the middle of his sleep.
And so, obviously, there's a lot to say about that, and there's really not too much that needs
to be said about that, other than that was one of the worst and hardest times of my life.
And to lose a brother, to lose a family member, and I know many people tuning in have probably
experienced similar things. It doesn't matter. It doesn't matter the circumstance. It's not easy,
and it's not good, and it sucks. We went to Sydney. I tried to raise him from the dead.
I spent an hour in the morgue with my brother trying to raise him from the dead. He didn't
come back to life. And I was left with a whole bunch of questions about the goodness of God,
and I had to make my decision. I had to pass through that eye. And I now actually really
love praying for people with heart conditions because I have made a decision. I've made war
against the devil. I've made war against the devil. I've made war against the devil.
the Goliath that attacked my family that day. And I believe I have authority and I
have a sword to confront that particular giant in an authority that
actually, you know, Jesus paid a price for and actually I've also paid a
little bit of a price for that too. And that's, sorry if that comment messes with
you, but that's just, I've had to pass through something for that one. And the
Holy Spirit has led me through something for that one. So we prayed for the sky
and I said, you know what, I'm not listening to the disappointment, I'm not
listening to that past experience and of course those memories come flashing back.
But I'm gonna choose to believe your goodness, prayed for him. He said he felt
like an electric shock just go boom in his heart and went to work the next day,
put himself through all the different tests you could put yourself through and
he was completely, utterly healed. It was a total creative miracle and now that
wouldn't have happened if I had not passed through that eye. Now was that
easy? No, no, that actually wasn't easy and the feeling actually wasn't good. And
when the feeling isn't good, sometimes it's hard in that moment to actually
hear God's voice and to be clear. But that's where trust comes in and that's
where surrender comes in. And there's this moment we just have to, we just have
to say, I surrender, I give up, I'm letting go of the questions, I'm letting go of
everything. I think you owe me God and I realize I'm actually not entitled to
anything, not even the air I breathe. Now I'm gonna follow you. I am gonna follow
you no matter the cost God, I'm gonna follow you. And I realize that there, I've
just shared two examples there, I could, there are just so many examples that I
could share with you. And for those of you that know me, you know I've got lots
of, lots of examples of that. But yeah, that was a, I can see your comments now
by the way, so thanks for commenting. Yeah, that was a job, a job moment. Yep,
that's true. Yeah, surely, yeah, you remember that. Yep, a lot of the people
that were in our church at the time remember that. There's lots to be said
about that. But we all go through hard times and if you choose to believe God
and you choose to believe He is who He says He is, and you choose to believe the
Scripture, you choose to believe the life of Jesus and what that teaches you about
who God is, not just out there but with you, then you will be confronted with
confliction, you will be confronted with situations that challenge your
beliefs and that challenge you. And to actually accept and embrace what you've
always believed, you'll have to surrender some of those questions and learn that
it's okay sometimes to live in the mystery. Here's a principle that I
wanted to share with you. I want to teach you something now that has
prepared me and that I believe can prepare you to and strengthen you to not
be caught off guard by disappointment. My experience of life is not what
defines me, God is who defines me. And if you let your experience of life define
you, you will limit your life considerably. But if you determine in
your heart, God, you are my soul definer, you are the one who defines who I am,
then your experiences don't have the power to define you anymore and your
experiences will come into alignment with who you believe that you are in the
side of God. And we're going to turn to Psalm 78 in a second and then we're
going to turn to Psalm 77 straight after that. But before we do, I want to share a
principle that's really going to undergird both this session and the next
session and it's this. What you focus on, you agree with. What you agree with, you
empower and what you empower manifests in your life. The world that you steward
internally today is the world that you will experience externally tomorrow. Your
internal world will by default shape your external experience of life. I'll
say that again, what you focus on, what you put your attention on, is what you
what you are in effect coming into agreement with. What you put your
agreement towards
is what you empower and what you empower by your own powerful empowerment is what will manifest
and concretize itself into your experience of life. That's worth writing down and that's a
principle that I will repeat again. Chris, good to see you buddy. And we're gonna just with that
principle in mind, we're going to turn to Psalm 78. Okay, so turn to Psalm 78.
I feel like I'm just having a chat with you guys in my living room and that's pretty much because
I am literally having a chat with you in my living room. Let's have a look here. Psalm 78
and verse 40. And the whole of Psalm 78 is actually worth reading to be honest. But here we go. Verse
40. Talking about the children of Israel as they walked through the wilderness. How many know they
were in Egypt? They were called into a promised land but they had to go through a middle gap.
They had to embrace the gap. They had to bridge the gap and the gap was called the wilderness.
Says this verse 40. How often they provoked him in the wilderness and grieved him in the desert.
Yes, again and again they tempted God and limited the Holy One of Israel. Limited God. They actually
limited, dialed down the power of God and the influence of God in and through their lives. Now
God is God and you are you and I am I and Israel is Israel. How can a mere human limit God?
And did it just say that? It did just say that. We have been given by God authority and a level of
influence in the earth whereby we actually by our own choices can either empower or disempower God
and into our lives. And God has made it that way. Israel literally limited the Holy One of Israel.
It's a pretty sobering thought to think and realize that you have the power and authority
to actually limit God by your actions and whether those are intentional actions or actions out of
ignorance. I didn't know I was doing that but you have the power to actually limit God in your life.
That's a pretty sobering thing. They limited the Holy One of Israel. How? Because they did
not remember His power the day when He redeemed them from the enemy. There's something about
not remembering. There's something about being a person that forgets. There's something about not
being a person that doesn't intentionally because it has to be intentional. It doesn't intentionally
remember the goodness of God that doesn't keep a track, keep a record of the goodness of God in
their lives. One thing I have on my phone is I have a file of photos and I haven't managed to
take even most of the photos of these different moments but some moments I've been able to take
photos of people's faces after they've been healed or different memory stones I call them,
marker moments in my life that have been moments with God that I felt it's important to remember
this moment. I've got a file on my phone of all those photos and often I will just look through
those photos and I will just remember that moment, remember that moment, remember that moment,
remember that moment, remember that moment, and remember the testimony because in the remembrance,
my remembrance of what God did in the past sets me up for what God will do in the future.
It's amazing to me that when we choose a way of life whereby we're not
intentionally remembering the goodness of God and the power of God and the way God has been
with us in the past, it actually causes us to enter into our present and our future in a way
where God is limited in our lives and we are unprepared for the Goliaths that we will inevitably
face and we are unprepared to pass through the eye of the needle when God actually leads us to
that place and expects us to come with him through that eye. We actually have to let go and sometimes
letting go is only possible in the environment of remembrance. Let's just go to Psalm 77
and we're going to read the Psalms of Asaph. This is Asaph's advice.
Go to chapter 77. You know, you don't get to choose what happens to you externally often.
You don't have full control over what's going on around you.
Bad things happen to good people. That's just true. There's sessions that we could take on
there. We could talk about the sovereignty of God and all that sort of stuff and there's some
theology that probably would be helpful to talk about, but the truth is bad things happen
to good people.
And it's not God's fault, and it's not necessarily your fault either.
Some of it's just because we're in a world.
And that world is a world where war is happening, spiritual war, and bad things do happen to
good people.
Just look at Afghanistan right now.
I mean, just look at these, I mean, look at my life, look at your life.
There are bad things happening to good people, and it's probably true.
In every person's life we're all confronting challenges that we didn't necessarily sow
the seeds for.
You don't get to choose what happens externally often, but you do get to choose what kind
of world you build internally.
And the world that you build internally will determine, or I should say your external experience
of life will come into alignment with the world that you intentionally steward internally.
And that is true.
You can read that, and that's a theme right throughout Scripture.
But Psalm 77, you know what's happening right now for me?
Just a little quick interlude to let you into my world.
My next-door neighbor is doing the weed whacking, the trimming of his lawn, and his little engine
is so loud.
It's the sound to me, if I was going to put a sound to, if I was thinking of striving,
and I wanted to put a sound to it, that would be the sound I'd put to striving.
It is the most striving a sound.
So glad he doesn't do it at three in the morning.
But I also wish he wasn't doing it right now.
Bless my neighbor, Lord.
It'd be so cool if you blessed him so much he just fell out under the power of God right
now and let go of the trigger on that weed whacker.
All right, so let's read Psalm 77 from Asaph.
I cried out to God with my voice, and He gave ear to me.
In the day of my trouble I sought the Lord.
My hand was stretched out in the night without ceasing, my soul refused to be comforted.
I remembered God and was troubled.
I complained and my spirit was overwhelmed.
You hold my eyelids open, I am so troubled that I cannot speak.
I have considered the days of old, the years of ancient times.
I call to remembrance my song in the night.
Sometimes you've just got to call to remembrance your song in the night.
I meditate within my heart and my spirit makes diligent search.
And sometimes it's not a quick fix.
Sometimes you're going through a thing where you just can't sleep at night, where you're
worried, you're concerned, you're anxious, and sometimes you're searching.
But like a little surface search, a man look as my wife calls it, isn't going to find what
you're looking for.
Sometimes you've got to dig deep.
Sometimes you've got to go into the files that you've actually forgotten about, and
you've got to go deep into your history with God, deep into your moments with God, and
you've got to stay in them.
And sometimes there's a fight for this.
Sometimes passing through the eye of the needle is actually not easy.
And sometimes it's not the quick fix we all hoped it would be.
And then in verse 7 he says this,
Will the Lord cast off forever, and will He be favourable no more?
Has His mercy ceased forever?
Has His promise failed forevermore?
Has God forgotten to be gracious?
Has His anger shut up His tender mercies?
And I said, this is my anguish.
Now you know, what I've just read there from Asaph, each one of those sentences, probably
many people that are tuned in right now, could relate moments of their lives and could
relate to those sentences and those comments, those statements that Asaph is making.
Has your mercy ceased?
God, where are you?
Are you even with me anymore?
Has your kindness just stopped?
It seemed like you were healing people then, but you're not now.
It seemed like I've seen so many things happen out there, and now my own family has gone
through such a hard time.
These statements are things that us humans can relate to, and these are the statements
of people who are going through the gap.
And Jesus went through a gap.
Jesus was in the Garden of Gethsemane sweating blood.
He was in a moment, I mean, He could read this psalm and relate to this psalm.
Even though He knew the big picture, even though He knew what the Father was doing,
He still had to wrestle with something to come through the eye of the needle.
And I said, this is my anguish, but, boom, I love it when the Bible puts a but in there.
But I will remember the years of the right hand of the Most High.
You should put that on your wall.
But I will remember the years of the right hand of the Most High.
I enter the most high. I will remember the works of the Lord. Surely I will
remember your wonders of old. I will also meditate on all of your work and talk.
Now I'm not just gonna think about it. I'm not just gonna keep it in here to
myself. I'm gonna talk about it. I'm gonna verbalize it. I'm gonna externalize it.
I'm gonna take it from the invisible realm of the inside of my heart and I'm
gonna get it into the physical atmosphere around me. I'm gonna let it be
on my lips. I'm gonna speak words because my words create worlds. My words
are creative by very nature. My words are substance. They're not just information
and whatever I talk about will happen more and more. I'm not just gonna meditate
internally. I'm gonna meditate externally. I will also meditate on all your work
and talk of your deeds. The way O God. Your way O God is in your sanctuary. Who
is so great? A God is our God. You are the God who does wonders. You have
declared your strength among the peoples. You have with your arm redeemed
your people the sons of Jacob. And then he goes through and he just starts
giving more and more examples of moments where God has moved. And I'll tell you
what, as the sons and daughters of God and as a church in the world, as God's
people, as ones led by the Spirit, we need to become resilient in this way
and we need to learn resilience in this way. And I believe that there is a real
need for us to learn the ways of strengthening ourselves in the Lord and
not waiting for some external strength to come from somewhere else, but
learning to actually dig a well. Learning to actually put some practices in our
lives that prepare us for moments where we have to pass through the needle. That
when we reach those moments, when we get to the door of the eye, we're not too fat
to fit through, but we're slim and trim and ready to pass through because of the
practices we put in our lives. And so my challenge to you in this session is to do
something about that. For me, I made a file on my phone. I've got the photo file
of all the miracles that I've, not all of them, but just various miracles that I've
seen. And I've also got my prophetic words that I've managed to record in
another file and I've got other moments that I've got there. And that's
a practice that I've been practicing for years and years now and it's done me
very, very well. It's kept me on track and I've chosen to be a person that will
not forget the goodness of God. Sometimes you see something, I tell this to all of
my mission teams, as soon as you see a miracle, write it down straight away
because you'll probably forget by the end of the day. And people like, I won't
forget, there's no way I'll forget. I'll tell you what, people that don't
write it down and forget, just about every single person that writes it down,
and it could be like a blind eye opening up, but they forget. And you think, how
would you forget something like that? Well, I don't know, maybe it's human
nature, you just do. Sometimes you just forget. And so it's important to
intentionally remember. And to remember to meditate, to cogitate, to verbalize,
and in light of that, to meditate with a thankfulness. Thankfulness is one of the
great keys to the kingdom. Thankfulness is one of the great keys to stewarding
your life in the Spirit, stewarding the gifts of the Spirit, stewarding the
miraculous in your life, stewarding all these things that God is doing. Whatever
you water, whatever you spend the most time thinking about, will grow the most
in your life. Whatever you spend the most time meditating on, will be the thing
that will be the largest in your life. Whatever you, let me think about, if there's
a different way I want to say this. Yeah, you become what you behold.
Thank you, Melody. You become what you behold. That's exactly right.
Whatever the central axis of thought is in your life, will be the
axis that forms what your life looks like. There's lots of ways to say the
same thing, but thankfulness is such a massive, massive key. David said,
I will magnify the Lord with thanksgiving. In other words, I will make God,
the children of Israel made God smaller by their forgetfulness. David said,
I will make you bigger through my thankfulness. And thankfulness is such a...
The key, when it comes to meditation,
when it comes to remembrance,
is to take what you've remembered,
to take your remembrance,
to take your memory stones
and water them with thankfulness.
Whatever you give thanks to,
whatever you celebrate in the kingdom will increase.
Celebration is like fertilizer to the goodness of God.
Celebration is like petrol to a fire.
Celebration is one of the great, great, great keys
to walking with God and walking in the Spirit
and to being immune to disappointment
and immune to discouragement
is learn to be someone that is absolutely thankful.
Even when you're talking,
and now, here's what I'm not saying.
I'm not saying take your disappointment
and sweep it under a rug.
Asaph didn't do that either.
He was honest about his disappointment.
He came to the Lord and said,
God, I'm gutted.
Where are you?
But in light of that,
and in the honesty of that,
he said, I'm feeling horrible right now, God.
But I'm not gonna forget the goodness of old.
I'm not gonna forget the moments,
and I'm feeling like this,
but I'm going to remember this.
It's important that you don't shut down the feelings of,
I'm wrestling and I'm going through a hard time,
but it's important that you don't pitch your tent there.
Oh, sorry.
I'm back on.
Dorothy, thanks for letting me know.
Is there, hopefully you didn't miss too much of that.
People have been, would you believe it?
People have been trying to call me on my phone
and interrupting the session.
Oh, cool.
That's good to know, Melody.
Awesome.
Okay, cool.
Thank you.
Thanks for your comments, guys.
I can see your comments again.
It's kind of weird that I couldn't see your comments before.
Anyway.
So guys, just to recap,
passing through the eye of the needle,
grappling with, building a bridge
over the gap of disappointment.
We're all gonna face it at times,
and for us to pass through that,
we need to be intentional to remember
and intentional to give thanks.
And not just when we need it, but as a way of life.
And so my challenge to you right now,
we're gonna pray in a second.
My challenge to you right now is,
and I'm gonna give you a specific challenge.
I'd like you in the next 15 minutes to write 33,
and I just like the number 33,
33 different specific, not general,
but specific things that you are thankful for.
To just present those things to God in prayer,
and just literally just allow your heart
and take some time to actually say thank you, God,
for those things.
I know that sounds overly simple,
and much of the kingdom is overly simple.
And this is a very simple practice to put into play,
but it will literally change your life.
Some of you might even wanna start
like a living document on Google Docs or something,
where you just keep adding to the list
of things you're thankful for.
It's a very healthy thing to do,
and it will get you through that eye
when you need to get through it.
Awesome, I think thankfulness is actually something
that the spirit of God sticks to.
It's like, I was four-wheel driving the other day,
and I saw there was a little anchor point
on the front of the bumper
of one of the other four-wheel drives.
And that little anchor point was something
that you could tie a rope around and put a hook on
and pull the car out of a sticky situation.
And it's helpful to have those anchor points
when you're four-wheel driving.
And sometimes life is like four-wheel driving.
Sometimes two-wheel drive just doesn't cut the mustard.
You need to find a four-wheel drive,
and sometimes a four-wheel drive doesn't cut the mustard,
and you need an anchor point.
Well, I'll tell you what, thankfulness,
when you engage in thankfulness,
thankfulness is the part of the vehicle of your life
where God can attach anchor points to.
Where He can pull you from.
And so I wanna encourage you to do that.
And I'm gonna pray right now
while you're getting your bit of paper
or making your file or whatever
and starting to do your 33 points there.
I'm gonna pray.
And Lord Jesus, right now,
I thank you that you are our appointment.
And I break the power of disappointment right now
and discouragement.
Where the enemy has tried to discourage right now,
I just break the actual power of that off
and I release the grace to be encouraged
and to be reappointed in Jesus' name.
Thank you, God.
Oh, Father, I pray that.
That every person, as they're writing down their list, and as they're engaging in meditation and thankfulness,
God, I pray that you would surround them with grace to feel, see, and sense your presence, God.
That they would be made glad with you, God.
God, that you, Holy Spirit, are the one that brings moments like this to remembrance.
And, Lord, I pray that in people's hearts and minds you would bring to remembrance different things that have happened.
Moments that you've been with them, God.
That they can latch onto, meditate on, verbalize, and thank you for, God.
I declare, God, that there'll be such a sense of union as they're doing this, God, and such a sense of joy.
Thank you, God, that the enemy has been dismantled right now, in Jesus' name.
Amen.
All righty, guys. That is just amazing. That's awesome.
It's 1 o'clock now. We're going to meet back in 10 minutes at 10 past 1 with session 6.
And we're going to try and fit session 7 in too, but we might end up going to more like 2.30.
But session 6 in 15 minutes—sorry, did I say 15 minutes?
No, 10 minutes. 10 past 1. 10 minutes. We'll see you soon, and God bless you.