All right, I think this is a deep dive topic that's for a very select few, including me,
by the way.
I know what the topic is, and I'm excited to hear it, and this is a brand new topic
that Dion has not shared on before, and so be ready, be ready.
And so I'm excited.
Dion, I'm just going to pass it to you and let you riff, let you go.
Thank you.
Sorry for me taking my sweet out of my mouth there.
I don't want you to do that in the background.
I know professionals get good at that.
Well tonight, this isn't us four no more talk, is it?
Oh, we got five.
There we go.
There you go.
We just had 25% growth.
It was amazing.
So we're going to jump right in.
Hey, Stephanie, good to see you.
We're going to just jump right in.
Tonight I want to talk about a new topic, something that's been growing very dear to
me, and that is this idea of what sets us free in our relationship with the Lord and
how do we walk in that freedom?
So I've entitled it, Occupying the Space or Inhabiting the Space God Has Prepared for
You to Walk in or to Live in.
And I think, you know, one of the big things for the Lord is He likes language, which is
around the idea of habitation, that we're a habitation, we're a temple of the Holy Spirit.
He loves home language.
We'll come and make our abode, to use a good old-fashioned English, with our home in you.
Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are living in you.
The kingdom of God is within you.
So He loves all those metaphors and all that language.
And so I've been watching, especially as we've been teaching our School of Leadership, you
know, those people, we spend every week with them for almost 32 weeks.
And you know, I've watched a very specific progression.
The first eight weeks, it's the detox stage, you know, they're getting rid of all that
performance stuff, they're dropping all the, I have, you know, all the stuff I'm supposed
to do, because that's one thing most of us learned, is what we have to do to have a great
relationship with God.
But the Gospel is all the stuff God did to have a great relationship with you.
It's so profound, the difference.
Then what we do is just respond.
Like the bride being pursued, you know, we're the bride, and He's the bridegroom.
He pursues us with such a passion.
Well, as I've watched those first two weeks, and then we get all the usual theological
questions, all the usual stuff they were taught.
And once people start to come free, and they start to learn their new nature habits, and
they realize the old is gone, the new has come, suddenly a new language starts to develop.
So tonight, I want to spend a minute reframing what it's like to inhabit that space that
God has prepared for you.
So I'm just going to make a couple of simple points tonight.
And the first one is that God has a space He wants to share with you.
And number two is learning how to live there.
And then we'll just break it up into those two separate areas.
So the space God wants for you is that, you know, He desperately wants you in His heart.
And so He's made a space for you to inhabit, not just the space to visit.
So this space isn't something we visit during worship, visit during an encounter, and then
we go live our lives, and hopefully it helped.
That actually is not the gospel.
And it reminded me of a shocking story from a trip I did when I was in my 20s.
And I was in Bavaria, the southern part of Germany.
And we went to go and visit this castle that was originally built by King Ludwig II.
And it was in the, you know, the late 1800s.
And they spent like 10 or 12 years building this castle.
And he literally came there, stayed there a few nights, and never came back again.
And you go into this castle, into the master bedroom, which stares, looks up this mountain
in Bavaria, and they carved this staircase, massive white staircase to be a waterfall
that looks like it's about to rush right into the bed.
And at the last minute, it tucks in under the building and flows behind.
He literally came in, stayed that first night and said, yeah, it's nice.
So think of the thousands of laborers and the unbelievable cost and everything they went into.
And it's like, uh-huh, nice.
And I feel sometimes that's the response
from people in the kingdom.
Jesus, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit,
had this grand plan before the beginning of time
to create a space for you that was so vast,
so glorious, so majestic, so incredibly mind-blowing.
And many of us come and visit for a few nights and go, cool.
And so what he wants from us
is a completely different response.
So I want to think about it this way.
You know, it's about allowing God
to draw you into the life that he wants with you.
It's not about persuading him
to move into your life and circumstances.
We spend a lot of time trying to get God
to come into our downstairs stuff and help out.
And so we think if we dial it in or we behave
or we say this magic prayer or we do this or this or that,
but it's not about any of that, actually.
The kingdom is about allowing him
to draw you up into the space he has.
He wants you to be part of his life.
We hear a lot about you should invite God into your life,
you should invite God into your life, which is true.
But the bigger wonderful story
is that God wants you in his life.
So it's about allowing him to pull you into his life.
And this is a complete reframe for many of us.
So when you're pulled into that space,
something extraordinary happens.
You automatically start to move in step with him.
That's the first thing.
And the second thing is all the stuff
that used to hold you back,
all the things that were trapping you
just automatically fall away.
This sounds almost too good to be true.
But the reason is, is that that stuff can't exist upstairs
because Jesus paid for it.
He killed it off.
So this is the life God always intended for you to have.
And he draws you in with his beauty.
How does that work?
It means that when you see the beauty of Jesus,
you see yourself.
Whatever you can see in Jesus, you can have.
Because what you see in him
is his beauty reflected in you.
You and Christ are one.
You're married to him.
And so it's not like nobody,
well, I'd be very disappointed
if I ever heard downstairs language like this.
If Bridget walked around telling people
that she is a Dion follower,
that would be catastrophic.
It would mean, people would be thinking,
what kind of a husband is he
that he would make his wife say that?
So when I hear Jesus follower, it's that same thing.
What reflection of the father is that?
He's out there, I'm over here,
and I'm trying to follow him.
Aren't you and he one?
Somebody would say to Bridget,
but aren't you guys married?
Aren't you one?
And she says, well, of course we're one.
So she would never use language
that would make it sound like we're separate
or that he's in a different space than me.
You know, they were like, are you guys separated?
You know, you don't.
And I think a lot of times we can have learned
from the world separation language.
And so we think like,
well, if you're feeling far from God,
he hasn't moved, guess who moved?
You know, all that sort of stuff.
And all this is downstairs separation language,
but that's nothing of what the Lord invited us into.
So the life God intended for you and for me
was to draw you in with his beauty.
He's not coercive.
He's persuasive and he persuades with beauty.
It's his beauty that's pulling you in.
Because we're wired to respond to beauty.
Whether it's a beautiful scenery, a beautiful person,
a beautiful context, anything of beauty.
We love art, we love music, we love things of beauty
because we're designed to respond to beauty.
And Jesus is the most beautiful person in the universe.
And so what this reframe does is it changes us from,
it's not about me trying to make less mistakes,
it's about him getting it right in me.
It's not about me getting it wrong,
it's about him getting it right in me.
See, the Lord owns your learning.
Jesus completely owns your learning
and he is pulling you into it
because he wants you to be in his heart.
He made this space for you.
So this isn't a space we go and create
and then invite God into.
This is a space he created that he's inviting us into.
is a complete reframe.
What does that mean for us?
That means that we're not measuring ourselves.
How do I come into that space is by invitation.
Jesus qualifies me to be in that space.
It's who I'm married to,
and I have been given his righteousness.
I've been made the righteousness of God in Christ.
So I step into a place he has prepared.
It's a beautiful space that we're in that space.
So when we do it the other way around,
as opposed to I've got to create a quiet time
and I've got to, all that stuff's fine,
but when the mindset behind the scene,
when the mindset is I'm trying to get God
to invade a space I created,
rather than I'm stepping into a space he's created,
I want to go and inhabit the space he wants to share with me.
And in the kingdom, we call that territory.
So when you step into that space,
you get released 50 times faster
than you thought was possible,
because he's called a quickening spirit.
This is also referred to as kingdom acceleration.
A few months ago, we talked about kingdom acceleration.
When we step into that space,
we're not trying to fix this one,
we're just stepping into the new space.
Now, we bypass all the stuff that has tripped us up,
all the nonsense that was holding us back,
because in this space with him,
you don't get it wrong, he gets it right.
He isn't sitting there waiting for you to get it right
so the space can work.
He's not saying, oh, well, you got that wrong,
now the space doesn't work.
The space he creates a safe place.
We can think of it as a fortress.
Lord, I run into your fortress,
or the shadow of his wings.
The Bible gives very many words to the space,
but it all has the same basic idea,
that this is a safe place that he created
that he's inviting us into.
So what happens in this moment,
when we move into that space,
we discover the territory he prepared.
And that's why the scripture says
that we are his workmanship,
created in Christ Jesus to do good works,
which he has prepared beforehand for us to walk in.
So that means that all those good works
were prepared where?
In Christ.
They weren't just prepared downstairs in your life,
and you'll step into them,
and then everything that happens,
we say, well, that was all God's will.
I think a lot of stuff happens that isn't God's will.
And when the Lord creates the space for us,
he creates it in Christ,
and he knew the only way to keep us fully qualified
for that space is to hide us in Christ.
We are hidden with Christ in God.
So, number one, you feel safe.
That's what it feels like.
It feels safe.
Number two, I stop panicking,
wondering about where I stand with God.
My standing now is settled.
I relax in that standing,
because here's what happens.
The life of God in you keeps you moving forward,
because the world, the flesh, the devil,
can't keep up with what God is doing.
And the reason is is because he moves us upstairs.
This is one of the most fascinating elements,
watching people in our school
go from this downstairs space they live in,
where they visit upstairs, go to church,
have an encounter, go to worship,
get some ministry to pray for them, whatever.
They have these upstairs encounters
and go back and live downstairs.
God never meant for us to live downstairs
and visit upstairs.
We were designed to live upstairs and visit downstairs.
We work downstairs.
So we live from heaven to earth.
As it is in heaven, so it is on earth.
That means we're practicing right now
how to live in heaven.
Not one day.
When we get to heaven, we go,
hey, this is quite a familiar place.
I know where I'm at.
Wouldn't it be weird if you got there
and you didn't fit in?
Like, what is all this?
So God is teaching us to live in heaven now.
He's teaching us to live in the kingdom.
And so, you know, the church may or may not help
with that process.
Some do, some don't.
The issue is, does it reflect heaven?
So now you get to live in an upstairs space.
Well, upstairs, there is no hold
that the enemy has on you.
And so Jesus said, the enemy has no hold on me.
And as he is, so are you.
in this world. So the reason we get trapped, the reason we become vulnerable, the reason we
fall into all the stuff that, you know, the world, the flesh and the devil is because we go back
downstairs and we go live there. But actually, that's not your natural habitat. Since you were
born again, you became a new creation. And new creations need new spaces to live in.
You don't fit downstairs anymore. You can't. You're in the world, but you're not of it.
You're of a different realm. You're now a God-indwelt being that's walking in fellowship
with the Creator, with the Redeemer, and with the Comforter, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
That means, foundationally, your starting point is, I'm safe. I'm fully redeemed. I'm fully
accepted. I'm fully loved. And so that's just 101 starting point. Most of us, if you listen to most
believers, they can spend 30, 40, even 50 years not being sure about those few things. Am I safe?
Am I loved? Am I fully forgiven? And you can say to believers, look, at some point,
you have to settle that issue. Actually, it's not about settling the issue. It's that He settled
the issue. And He wants you to join Him in that frame of mind. So how would you live in that frame
of mind upstairs if you're fully loved? Never doubt that. How would you live if you're fully
forgiven, fully accepted, fully loved, and that all your learning, that Jesus is fully in charge
of all your learning? I think so much of it goes to, even at Brilliant, we have to watch for
language that sounds like we're going to swap this kind of learning for this kind of learning,
and where it's all back to you doing it just in a different language or a different mode.
So I want to say this. The reason Jesus said, take my yoke and learn from me, was He was setting up
what living upstairs is like. When you're in partnership with me, it's going to feel really
easy. My yoke is easy. It feels really easy. And what we do together will feel light to you.
It doesn't mean that you don't work hard. You may work long hours, but it will feel effortless
to you. So where are the leaders? Where are the kingdom business leaders that look like
it's easy and light? Where's the lightness of being in the kingdom leader? It's not something
we have to try to put on or mimic or imitate. It's just a natural consequence
of living in your space God has created for you to inhabit. So let's talk about the second part
of this, which is learning to live there. So God is saying, hey, this is my territory.
I brought it with me into this relationship, and I'm sharing it with you. And now it's yours.
This is who I am for you in this space. For Him and for you, it's innately personal,
and it's innately loving and innately kind. So this is how God is with us in these spaces.
It's not about solving problems and dealing with circumstances. He knows all that. Absolutely. But
that is in His heart and mind is so automatically done and taken care of. He knows, Jesus said,
the Lord knows that you need feeding. But look at the birds of the air. They don't worry about
that stuff, right? The reason is because it's a settled issue. It's not that God doesn't care or
doesn't want to talk about that. You can talk about it with anything with Him. But in His heart,
it's such a set. Of course, you're my beloved. I would never leave my wife to go hungry or not be
able to do whatever. And any husband who's had to go through that experience because of business
issues or whatever knows that feeling. Well, God is not that, Jesus is not that kind of a husband.
So what we're learning to do in this space is learning how to rest in this, how to walk with
Him and how to be joyful and peaceful. What we're learning to do is become overcomers. When you live
over your circumstances, you're an overcomer. That's what, where your circumstances don't give
your emotions and your mindset, Jesus does. He gives permission. And we'll talk about that more
in just a second. So I want to address one of the biggest traps that we see that has held people
back. One of the biggest difficulties people struggle with when we watch them come through
the school. It's amazing. We're now at the stage of the, I think we just did, we're doing
week 19 tomorrow. And watching people in that stage already, you can see they're in a whole
different level already. But they're not quite there yet, but getting there quickly.
But here's the thing I've noticed, and I want to talk about visitational culture versus
habitational culture. God doesn't want you, he didn't build the castle for you to walk
and sleep a couple of nights and say, cool. You know, that, that waterfall thing he was,
was, was pretty impressive. You know, that what he wants you to do is come and thoroughly enjoy
the space with him. So here's the problem with a visitational culture. Firstly,
it's not part of the kingdom. A visitational culture is not part of the kingdom. Here's why.
In a visitational culture, I don't need to change. The whole setup is God can pitch up and fix
everything. He's the repairman in this mode, except nothing gets repaired, because nothing
is permanent, because you're only as good as your last encounter. And so you don't get to keep your
growth. You can't build anything. And even when we're watching movements, or we talk to churches
or pastors, and you see them building in that strong visitational mode, we firstly, that's a
very man-made mode and a very old covenant idea that if you behave, God comes on you. And if you
don't, then he spirit leaves. Yeah, but we're not part of that. We're part of nothing can separate
you, no height, no depth, no this or that, no anything in this world, others can separate you
from God's love. Once you're born again, you're a new creation, you and Christ are one. And so
in a visitational culture where nothing is permanent, you're learning from a kingdom
viewpoint, you're kind of learning in an illegal way. And I want to say that kindly, because
in that, you're not part of that environment. That is not the space God has invited you into.
You still have negativity, you still have worry, you still have very limited joy.
So I want to tell you a quick story about a large group of pastors met in the city.
And they were all talking, and they came from all these different denominations and different
persuasions. And there was a lot of worry about an upcoming event. And clearly, they were worried
about sheep stealing and whatever other stuff they were worried about. And it was one of those
kind of conversations. And there was, well, I'm not so sure about this. And you guys who believe
in, you know, healing, and you guys who believe in this, and there was all this, just no unity
whatsoever. And there was a prophet in the house, and he just sat quietly and didn't say anything
for an hour and a half. Until finally, somebody said, Well, you know, don't you have anything to
say? I'll leave his name out. And it's not Graham. Yeah, I leave his name out for this conversation.
But he just got up. He said, I have one question for you guys. One. If you and Jesus are one,
how come you're not whole?
He says, you still have negativity. You still have worry. There's no fullness of joy.
You've not learned. And Jesus did not die. So you can struggle with that
ongoingly. Now, is it time for growth? Is there grace for your learning? Absolutely. Sure.
And so this comes from a visitational cultural idea. What the new covenant offers in Jesus
is a habitational culture, which you never leave. You go move into that beautiful castle Jesus
prepared, and you learn to rule and reign from there. You learn to have fellowship with them.
You learn to have that beautiful space. So he's bringing you into a space that he created for you
to inhabit, not to visit. And this is what that kind of life in the castle is really like.
So in the book, Wired, I think I pointed, nope, wrong direction. Yep. I don't know where my
camera is on that side of me. In the book, Wired, I wanted to, I talked a lot to the Lord about how
to start that book. And I decided to choose the story of the Shulamite woman, which is being a
song. It's just a fantastic story. And except I changed the story to act more in a way that I
think most people hear the gospel, as opposed to what it actually is. And then I told the full
story. But you know, the story, of course, is the Shulamite woman. She's, there's no dad in the
picture. There's a mom, there's a lot of brothers, and they're really rough with her. They're tough
on her. They're rough with her.
with her, you get the impression, you know, they treat her abominably.
And she's always out in the field.
And the scripture makes this point that she's very dark
from being in the sun, which in the culture of the time was
to show that you were very low class, you know, that you were a laborer or whatever
it was, so culturally she was diminished.
Anyway, one day she meets this amazing guy there in the woods and she meets this guy
and they meet a couple of times, doesn't take long.
They fall in love and she just cannot believe that he's handsome, he's smart,
he's wonderful, super caring, very attentive to her.
And she cannot believe this guy is taken with her.
She was like, of course, she brings up the point.
She's of dark skin, i.e.
not the most favored nation status, not the most desirable,
all the stuff that was of her culture at the time.
Anyway, they fall in love, the relationship develops.
She keeps it from her family.
But one day they're in the fields and the and the king's entourage comes
with all the procession that comes with the king's entourage.
And, you know, the whole parade and all the workers in all the fields,
they all go down on their one knee and their heads all bowed in respect to the king.
And to her absolute horror, the carriage stops right in front of her.
And she just keeps her head down.
She's absolutely shaking from fear.
And the king walks out and all she can do is see shoes and he picks her up and he
lifts her up and he looks and she looks right into the eyes of her lover.
She had no idea he was the king.
Now, if we tell the rest of the story,
the way some people hear the gospel is and he said, now behave.
Remember, I love you.
Gets in the carriage and drives off.
What actually happened was he takes her and he puts her in the carriage
and he takes her back to the castle, the one he prepared for her.
And she has to learn a whole new way of life.
She she she gets bathed, dressed beautifully.
But now she has to learn how to walk, how to carry herself with authority.
And then each each day, certain times of the day, they had the secret garden.
They just the two of them hung out in.
No one else was allowed there, just her.
None of the attendants or anything were allowed in there.
There was just the two of them.
That was their moment, their place to be together.
And she just loves and longs for those moments with him.
But she has to learn to command.
She has to learn how to live.
She has to learn how to speak.
Everything about her life is new.
She's now a queen with authority.
And that person I just described was you.
That's you.
That's what you're learning to go and inhabit the castle he created for you.
And when he did that, you know, the habitational culture.
This is how we learn best.
It's how our learning becomes permanent.
Your learning can never be permanent if you don't feel safe.
Your learning cannot be permanent unless you're in a place that you know you're
loved, you know, you're totally forgiven, you're totally adored.
He's besotted with you.
And in that space, that's when you're learning, feel safe and you will grow.
And for many believers, that's the good news they need to hear.
So Jesus will continually feed that in you
because he means for you to joy him and he's enjoying you.
And that's why he talks so much around fullness of joy.
He has four quick verses where he says that John 15, 11,
these things I've spoken to you, that my joy may remain, not visit,
remain in you and that your joy may be full.
OK, so while that's a very extreme verse, is there another one?
John 16, 24.
Until now, you've asked nothing in my name.
Ask and you will receive.
Why? That your joy may be full.
He's not using partly, partly joy, full joy.
John 17, 13.
But now I come to you and these things I speak in the world
that they may have my joy fulfilled in themselves.
Jesus is really driving this home.
1 John 1, 4 picks this up.
And these things we write to you that your joy may be full.
Every time joy is mentioned in the new covenant,
it's mentioned in the context of fullness.
Why?
One, joy is a stronghold of God's affection.
God has set you up and locked you in because joy makes us alive to our new man
in Jesus, to our new creation being in Jesus.
Joy is the vehicle of His presence abiding in us.
Joy is the atmosphere of the castle we just talked about.
And joy is very personal for God
because it's how we get to know Him.
Very difficult to get to know God
without joy and without peace.
And that's why it's called the joy and peace in believing.
When you believed on His name, joy and peace came along.
Jesus brought that with Him.
And He gave it to you.
So it's important to Him that we have fullness of joy
because it's with fullness comes intimacy,
goes to that place inside the castle
that's just for you and for Him alone.
This is such a different paradigm shift.
And for us to know and to start to relax
as that as a given fact in our lives
so we don't have to keep struggling with our acceptance,
our placement, how forgiven we are.
Once we settle that and that goes away,
then the question is, what will we be busy with?
If we're not fighting sin or trying to conquer the devil
even though He's already conquered.
Everything comes to you in Jesus, everything.
And now you're learning to be with your beloved
and you get in the carriage, stopping a labor in the field,
get in the carriage and go straight to the castle.
New life awaits.
And so in that place, He's prepared for you.
So beautiful, Jesus said,
I go to prepare a place for you.
We think that means one day when I die and go to heaven.
Sure, but it also means now.
You do know you don't have to die to go to heaven, right?
Because you're already seated with Him in heavenly places.
So that's the case.
You're there now.
And so what I'd love to land it on is,
beloved, you are safe.
You are adored.
And in this place God has for you,
it's not about you making less mistakes or getting it wrong.
It's about how He gets it right in you.
So Jesus has taken full responsibility
and accountability to the Father.
And the Holy Spirit has committed to the Father
to take everything that belongs to Jesus and make it yours.
Your job is to allow Him to draw you into that space.
Let Him woo you.
And this is the biggest mindset shift we've seen
that brings people into freedom,
where people will say things like,
I've grown more in three months or six months
than I have in 30 years because of this.
They found out God is deeply relational
and He's all in on the relationship.
So I'm gonna pause it there, have some discussion.
Yeah, powerful, powerful.
So Lisa or Stephanie, any questions,
anything you'd like to bring up there?
Yeah, it's just awesome.
Just constantly, what He helped me with last week
was last Monday, I called Dion
and I was pretty stressed about something.
And so I'm having these very stressful thoughts
and I'm like, man, I thought I was past this.
Why am I having these stressful thoughts?
And it's weird because I was praying.
I'm like, Lord, I thought I was past these stressful,
like I thought I was past these things stressing me out
and I kept getting, you are.
And I'm like, but I seem stressed out.
And so I'm like, what do you mean?
And what I now realize He was doing
is He was training me to just really have discernment
around what aren't my thoughts.
And that was a type of spiritual warfare.
That was a type of just me thinking that these thoughts
that I was having were mine, they weren't.
I was past them, but I allowed these negative thoughts
to kind of happen on me.
And so He's, this past week, He's trained me to,
okay, when you're experiencing that, it's not you,
rebuke it, get rid of it.
And so I've been doing that.
So I've probably I've done it several times this past week,
but he's taught me to no longer be tricked by thinking you've slid backwards
in your growth, it's just you just need to have awareness.
And and so, you know, that was that was helpful.
So let's talk about that, Ray, because when we talked about it last week,
we can say a few more things that might help with this.
It comes from a mindset that the enemy is already a conquered foe.
God made a public spectacle.
What was designed to be a public
humiliation of Jesus turned into a public God flipped it and was a public
humiliation of the enemy he's crushed, conquered and anything he has.
He's stolen, deceived or lied to to get to it.
So everything he can't create anything.
He can only take what is and reduce it to nothing.
That's all he's got.
You can't create a single thing.
Second, the second mindset shift that you
just brought up as you used a key word, you said, I thought I had to realize they
not quote my thoughts. Well, they may have been thoughts you
previously had from your old nature, but that nature is dead.
So it isn't you anymore.
So it isn't your thoughts.
You're right about that.
It's your old dead thoughts that came from the flesh or the world or the devil.
Isn't the source makes absolutely no difference.
The stress is the same. Right.
So the impact's the same.
It doesn't matter who, when, how.
The issue is that God sees you as the new you in Christ.
So that's not some fake thing.
That's the real you he sees.
The problem is you don't see the real you in Christ.
So he spends all his time trying to introduce you to you, the real you in Jesus.
And well, Lord, that's just not the way I am.
And he goes, you don't know anything about how you are.
You don't know yourself because you you only know yourself in your historical
years up to now, much of which has been informed by the world or your old nature.
So when he introduces you to the new you,
which is, I think, part of what the Lord was saying, you do know that we're past all this.
It's called taking every thought captive.
What thoughts are we taking captive?
The thoughts that don't belong in our in our space with God.
We don't have those thoughts here. Right.
It's like people who use, you know,
really bad language and they go, well, I was just being authentic to the old self.
Why would you use words that have venom in it to the outside?
If I brought the president of the United
States, regardless of which president it is, into your living room,
you would not use language like that.
You'd be on your best behavior.
You'd be in a whole different space because the president,
the difference here is this isn't the president.
This is the creator of the universe and the lover of our soul and the one who knows
you the best, loves you the most, who's with you.
But he's trying to introduce you and he's trying to get agreement.
When we say God allowing him to draw us in, it means agreeing with him
about who he, what he's really like and who you really like.
Oh, that's why when you see the beauty of Jesus, oh, I'm like that.
Jesus is so peaceful.
I'm peaceful.
Jesus is joyful.
I'm joyful as he is.
So are you. So when you get to see, right, when you get to see his beauty,
you get to see your own beauty as you discover God, you discover yourself.
It's like an instant mirror.
And it's like so the Lord says now in that note, those are not your thoughts.
You know why? Because they're not his thoughts.
When we were going through a tough thing
and I know we've told the story several times, but it's useful here, I think.
And that is when I'm talking to Graham in the midst of all this, I've been with three
soul films through the day, I'm going through every imaginable thought.
I feel like the scum of the earth in this moment.
And Graham says to me, how are you doing?
I said, Graham, I'm really worn out.
And he said, no, you're not.
And Bridget, like, nearly lost her mind, like, you have no idea.
And she goes, you know, he was with attorneys and so on, very politely.
But I could tell, I know Bridget well enough, she'd gone into lioness mode.
Don't mess with my man.
And
and
Bridget literally doesn't care who the person is on the other end.
She's not impressed by titles, people, whatever.
It doesn't impress her, never has.
And and he just waited patiently.
And he said, no, the reason I know you're
not stressed out is because Jesus is not stressed out.
So you're not stressed out.
And as I've told the story many times,
half an hour later, I'm not stressed out.
What happened?
Let's just break that down for a second.
What happened?
I took an old thought that I took ownership of again, that I learned from my old self
or the world, or you're supposed to be stressed when you're being sued or whatever
the thing is, it just doesn't matter when you're in a storm.
Yeah, you're in a storm. Right.
And of course.
He's sleeping in the storm, in the boat,
which is, that's why he's sleeping,
to invite you to rest too.
So as you're going through that moment,
and all Graham did was just create an alignment
with what God is like, and therefore what you're like.
I saw a beauty of what Jesus being unstressed
in a stressful situation,
therefore I am unstressed in a stressful situation.
What could be stressful isn't.
There is a storm brewing, and Jesus is sleeping.
So when God isn't speaking to you in a storm,
it's because he's resting,
and he's inviting you to join him in the rest.
And then to the amount you rest,
you can speak peace to the storm,
and then you can sail on in calm.
So you get as much authority over the storm,
depending on how you can rest through it.
Powerful.
So what happens in those things?
So here's the question to you, very easy.
My beloved Jesus, is he stressed?
Is he worried about finances?
Is he worried about losing that big client?
Is he worried about that relational issue?
What is his heart?
As he is, so am I.
So I agree with that beautiful thing in Jesus.
That's why all beauty starts in Jesus.
It's not about your identity, identity, identity.
It's about his identity, and then what,
therefore your identity.
Yours is a derivative identity.
That's the key.
As I derive my identity from my beloved,
I look into his face and I go,
hey, he's not worn out, I'm not worn out.
He's full of joy, I have his joy in me.
So I'm gonna practice his joy.
So I have nothing downstairs to be joyful about.
That's not why you're being joyful.
You're being joyful because Jesus is with you.
Because the overcomer,
when Jesus said, you will have trouble in this world,
but be of good cheer, be happy,
because I have overcome the world.
So when the overcomer is with you,
that's reason enough to be joyful.
It's a paradigm shift.
Now let me ask you, Christian,
what on earth does the world,
the flesh, or the devil for that matter,
notice he's on the back of the line,
what would he do with someone like that?
Who looks, who stares fear dead in its face and just laughs,
and says, well, he isn't fearful, so, meh.
I'm not fearful.
Powerful.
I wanna make sure Stephanie, Lisa, or Rebecca,
questions while we got Dionne on here.
And Rebecca, you can swap me out.
I don't have any questions.
I just wanna say thank you, Dionne.
When you were telling the story of the Shulamite woman,
it was as if God was saying, that's you, that's you.
And you brought me to tears, and I wanna say thank you.
I've been a believer for over 20 years,
and I have to keep remembering how much peace I had
when I first got saved.
Nothing bothered me.
Absolutely nothing.
And I have, I keep going back to the old me,
like you said, the downstairs.
And as I've gone through the Mind of a Saint,
I wanna call it a program conference in the app,
it's very, it's in alignment with what you talked about.
And knowing that everything's gonna be beautiful.
I mean, I've never set goals in my life before,
because I made it more difficult than it needed to be.
And I actually watched the legacy of Bob Proctor,
and he talked about the secret and all that,
and it's biblical.
And he said, the secret is just write up a goal card.
What are your goals?
And speak them over yourself all the time.
Guess what I got?
I got a goal card.
And knowing that I don't have to worry
about finances anymore.
I don't have to worry about my future husband,
God's working it, and it's gonna show up,
I don't know when, I've got a goal.
We'll see if it happens in my timeline.
If not, that's okay.
But it's having that,
I'm excited to have that peace again, and thank you.
Oh, you're most welcome.
One of the things I think we're learning is that
in this space, his dreams for us are bigger than our dreams,
because our dreams are based on our history.
And we tend to try to get permission from our
past for our future, right? So we look at our past and say, well, sometimes I trusted
and it didn't work out, sometimes I didn't, you know, it didn't work out. So we scale
down and then we kind of add a zero to make it look like faith. What he's actually doing
is when we put that aside and say, Lord, what's your dream for me right now? And we can call
it a goal if we like. What I found is when I do the downstairs, when I do a goal, I project
from my past into my future. When God gives me a goal, he goes from his heart, which knows
the plans he has for me, plans to bless me and prosper, give me a hope and a future.
And he shares a piece of that for me that won't distract me. Because if he tells me
too much, I'd get the wrong idea, go in the wrong direction. I'd make strategic errors.
Sometimes he tells you a lot, sometimes he tells you a little. What's he doing? He's
drawing you into himself. He keeps drawing in. So what he'll do is he'll talk to you
at a certain level, then he just stops talking at that level. Ray, you and I have talked
about this, right? What's he doing? He's drawing you into a higher level. So what worked before.
So when you're first saved, it's like, you know, it's very instructional, like, you know,
you're learning obedience, like obedient child. Good. And then that stops working.
And he stops because he pulls you into himself and the silence draws you in. And then you
start asking very, very different questions. So instead of saying, Lord, what must I do?
You start saying, Lord, who must I be? And then you start asking, Lord, what are we doing
together? Who am I becoming in you? Lord, what is it about my learning that you love
right now? What is it about who I'm becoming next that you love? And I love pleasing you.
I love making you happy, Jesus. Tell me, what are we, you know, what are we doing, who we're
being together? When we realize it's not him and me trying to get it right, or try to get
it less wrong. It's not about that. It's about the togetherness. That's the thing for him.
So when he shares his dream, he doesn't rely on your history. He relies, he relies on his
heart and on what you are fashioned and purposed for. And it's the big mistake I've seen a
lot of Christian businesses make as they try to build out the big dream, the down the road,
the 20 years down the road. In my personal experience, he can give you a word. But if
God gives you a prophetic word, it starts today. It's for now. So it's not like, oh,
God gave me a word, and it's for 20 years in the future. No, he gave it to you today
because you were ready for it today. It's already starting to step into its functioning.
And the reason he introduced you to it now is so that you would engage him and start
taking that, he's drawing you in up all the time. So God calls, it's like Egypt, he calls
us out of the old, and then you go into the desert. That's where you find God, right?
Into the new, and then he calls us up. So what happens is once Egypt's gone, and we're
in the desert, then we sometimes have the wishing for Egypt days. Back in the old days,
we had food, meat to eat, you know, then we, what comes into question in the desert? Why
did God bring us out here to die? What is that? An accusation against his character,
against his nature. So God settles you in his nature, then he takes you into the promised
land. So what I'm saying is when you're talking about goals and dreams, it's a great, it's
a great question to ask him, Lord, what is your dream for me right now that we're working
on together? Not that you want me to do for you, he doesn't want you to do stuff for him,
he wants you to do stuff with him. So what is it you have for me now? And you could even
go to him and say, hey, I have this card, how does that sound to you? And he might say
I love it. And he might say, nope, not even close. That's okay.
That's awesome. Because through this, and you talk that he's the bridegroom, and I'm
the bride. And I, and I knew that, from a knowledge perspective. Yet, when you went
through the story, it's like, now I have someone to talk to, and ask deeper questions. What
it said, what does he have for me? And, and in the past, I kept saying, I don't know the
right questions. Because that was downstairs thinking of what the world has drilled into
my head for me to believe that's not true. So now, I actually have a husband, and I know
that. But it's, I don't know, it's just, it's been a whirlwind of just awesomeness. So I'm
excited.
I did. Thank you.
Well done. Yeah. You could ask him Lord, what question would
you like me to ask you? It's like chat GPT. I don't know what
question to ask. What would be the greatest question to ask you
chat GPT to get the highest quality answer? Well, this is
not chat GPT. This is the kingdom which is eternal. So I've
gone to the Lord said Lord, I don't even know what question to
ask you right now. But you know, because you know what, you're in
charge of my learning. I'm not in charge of my learning. Yay. I
want you to feel so free and so loved and but I'd love you
tonight. The invitation from the Lord was in my heart as I
partnered with his heart was that you settled in completely
relaxed in his presence, moving to the castle, make it your
don't ever leave.
And, and Dion, that story is that Song of Solomon, right?
Yeah, yes. For those that may not know the reference of its
Song of Solomon, the Shulamite woman. Yeah. Stephanie or
Rebecca? Anything? Any questions, comments?
I know. I don't have any questions. I just same as Lisa,
I feel really grateful. I boxed Ray a couple weeks ago. I hit
me tonight, like, how far we've come. I'm like, just in Lisa's
speaking and what she's saying. And like, when I started this, I
felt like a toddler and like, the way that you've spoken
about God has been totally different from what I've heard
all my life, and that it's not performative. And then I was
telling Ray, like, I thought I was coming to the mastermind to
like, perform and, and do the things. And what it's been is
it's been an undoing. And it's been. At first, it was like, so
frustrating. And I was wrestling with myself around it. And then
there came a surrender point. And just to what you're
speaking to tonight, about him taking you into the desert,
like, that's how I felt. And I've noticed, it got me teary
tonight of like, just the way that I'm relating to things that
are happening in my life and the relationship that I have
with him of relaxing and settling that place of like,
when he's not speaking to you, like rest. I'm finally starting
to like, get to that place of like, oh, like, first time Ray
was like, he has peace. So I have peace. When you were
telling the money story. I was like, that sounds so fantastic.
I'm so happy for you for that. I am not there. And that'd be
great. Like, that's a great place to get to. And now I feel
like, wow, I'm starting to experience like, what you were
saying to Lisa about goals, like, it is all in the past. And
there's a lot of habits that I've had based on my old
identity that come up. And like, they're just habits. That's all
like, it's just there. And so like, I don't know what the like
how the new me moves in this. And like, I'm figuring all that
out. But it's a, it's been just a profound journey. And I just
want to say thank you, because I never ever thought I would be
here at this place.
Well, firstly, well done. And as you're speaking, I just want you
to be aware, Stephanie, that you're not trying to get to that
place, you are in place because you're in Christ. So I know that
we learned we have to get somewhere because downstairs,
that's how it works. We are learning goes in graduated
steps. And we learn towards something upstairs, we start in
fullness and learn to live in it. You know, so it is a
completely different and I know you, I can see you got that. I'm
just wanting to take the pressure off like, well, one day
when I'm there, the kingdom is always now and the kingdom is
normal. Meaning this isn't some special thing. What a master
mind class does is it helps you access kingdom acceleration. So
it compresses your learning from this, it doesn't take you 30
years like it took me. So this year, I've been a believer for
47 years, and I've had a mentor, and 48 years, and I've had a
So the question is, can I could have I skipped 30 of those years
probably, maybe 40 of them. And so that's the joy. Almost all of
it is in what I spoke of tonight. And so I love that for
you. That's really, really cool. Yeah.
One, one thing, you know, the scripture is let the Prince of
rain, it's not learn
It's not get it already. It's not, you know, go get there and let him, you know, it's let it's just let
Yeah, and so what I'm finding that I'm not letting peace reign. I
just need to
Back up and just let and be like, okay
Let me not focus on the situation. Let me focus on God seek he first the kingdom of God and and all of a sudden
Not a big deal
Another word might be give permission
You know letting is giving permission
It's you aligning your will God will never override your will he would never break your sovereign being status
Because he doesn't want a relationship with a robot. He wants with you and
So he's always always
Luring you in drawing you deep and in the kindest uses goodness and kindness to bring you to repentance
What is repentance agreeing with God about me that you co-know-yourself the same way God knows you
That's it. That's repentance in the New Covenant
Repentance is stepping into where you should be who you actually are in Jesus
Repentance in the Old Testament is saying sorry for the stuff you did wrong
So that's a completely different thing. So the way repentance would sound
In the new if I were to draw it out to bring all the elements together and I've done something really dumb right this minute
I would say
Father thank you that I'm dead to that dumb thing. I just did and I'm alive to you
Thank you that I'm already completely forgiven
Thank you that you have completely cleansed me and
Thank you that you're teaching me how to walk in the new thing. So what would the opposite of the dumb thing be? Oh
That's beautiful. That's who I am. I get it and suddenly the sin
Brings a revelation of Jesus of beauty and therefore your new nature in him
How how tough is that? So every time the enemy?
Yeah when the enemy so people say
You know because the sin fixation is a visitational idea and
And the can you in the you just quoted the verse seek ye first the kingdom of God and his
Righteousness, you could add in you the inference in the scripture. There is in you seek the right his righteousness in you
Mm-hmm. Now what happens is oh
I've been given the gift of righteousness. I didn't earn it. You can't earn a gift
Right you you but you've got to learn the gift, right? So if I gave Ray a brand new laptop and
But it has no operating system
My picking on a sore spot, right?
If I gave Ray a brand new laptop, but they had no operating system and no buttons and no keyboard it ran entirely on AI
It's the most genius thing ever
Is that it's it's it's a million times more powerful than any laptop out there
It'd be of no use to him whatsoever. He didn't learn how to use that gift
That's a bit like is in the kingdom
God has given you the gift of righteousness
Righteousness is how you access everything
If you think he just didn't just give you himself
He gave you the mind of Christ, which means you said well, I can't think in that way. Actually you can
What if it's not hard to live in fellowship with the Lord? Oh, hang on. Somebody said it was easy and light
Let's join that decision, let's say yes to that plan. Oh the Christian life is so hard Jesus
Disrespectfully disagrees
It's not hard he paid with his life to make it easy for you
He's bright. I know we're a few minutes over but
Right as always a lot of fun to hang out with you guys. I always enjoy it
Thanks for taking this this talk on its maiden voyage tonight
It was awesome DM. Will you will you pray us out? Is that all right for sure?
Father
Tonight just it's just a sweet sense of your joy
Lord just the atmosphere of belief of peace
Your kindness to us is extraordinary
Thank you Jesus that you gave your life so we could go and live in the fortress in the castle with you
Thank you that you've given us your peace and your joy the joy and peace in believing
Lord, what a great gift. Thank you Lord that you just packaged all the gifts up
Put them all in Jesus then put us in Jesus so we couldn't miss a single one
What an extraordinary thing you've done
Lord we stand amazed at our salvation
the goodness of the gospel, the kindness of your heart.
Thank you for these folks, Lord, tonight,
and those who are listening in the replay.
Thank you, Father, that they are stepping
into the full freedom that Jesus already set them free into.
Lord, they're being transformed
into this new place in Jesus.
Lord, we thank you for the gift.
Now we wanna learn to use the gift,
and we thank you in Jesus' name, amen.
Amen, love it, thank you, thank you.
I had a great, as I was saying,
that funny picture popped into a story
I told my little granddaughter,
two goldfish in one of those round fish bowls,
you know, that looks like a windshield,
two goldfish in a windfield,
the one fish turns to the other one and says,
how do you drive this thing?
You know, so it's a little bit like that in the kingdom.
Where are the controls?
There are no controls, you just have to be with him.
There's no way to drive this thing.
Guys, thank you so much.
Thanks.
And guys, if you have anything, feel free to box me.
You know, I'm here for you.
And just really, really good.
Appreciate you guys showing up.
Thank you, Rebecca, you're amazing.
Thanks guys.
Thank you guys, awesome.