WEBVTT

1
00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:04.040
So we're going to be talking about the two trees.

2
00:00:04.040 --> 00:00:08.440
I like this little section here because, you know, I've talked about the fact that we're

3
00:00:08.440 --> 00:00:13.160
one in spirit, now there's two trees, and then in Lex we're going to be talking about

4
00:00:13.160 --> 00:00:14.160
three realms.

5
00:00:14.160 --> 00:00:17.560
So it's like this little nice neat package, one, two, and three.

6
00:00:17.560 --> 00:00:23.240
Something I do want to highlight here is the information, I think the information, this

7
00:00:23.240 --> 00:00:28.480
message I was exposed to by a man, you know, Chris Blackaby.

8
00:00:28.480 --> 00:00:31.920
If y'all would like to, if y'all like all of this information and you want to know more

9
00:00:31.920 --> 00:00:34.360
about it, I love how he describes it.

10
00:00:34.360 --> 00:00:37.320
He just makes it very clear and very down to earth.

11
00:00:37.320 --> 00:00:43.880
He is the one through whom God began to reveal to me this message of the gospel.

12
00:00:43.880 --> 00:00:49.280
And so I highly recommend that you go look him up, especially things like his things,

13
00:00:49.280 --> 00:00:54.520
let's see, his sermon Living from Heaven is a very common one, and it's one that, I think

14
00:00:54.520 --> 00:00:58.920
it's an hour, 45 minutes long, but I'm telling you what it goes into.

15
00:00:58.920 --> 00:01:03.320
It explains the gospel and then it goes into, it takes what we're going to be talking about

16
00:01:03.320 --> 00:01:06.760
today and it just really, really, really goes into depth.

17
00:01:06.760 --> 00:01:08.240
So I highly recommend that.

18
00:01:08.240 --> 00:01:12.720
I just wanted to mention him because I wanted to honor the fact that he is the one through

19
00:01:12.720 --> 00:01:19.000
whom I heard this, but I had to own it in my relationship with my father before I could

20
00:01:19.000 --> 00:01:21.120
give it out.

21
00:01:21.120 --> 00:01:25.600
Because otherwise it's just reiterating something that somebody else said.

22
00:01:25.600 --> 00:01:30.280
But when I say that, you now go and own it.

23
00:01:30.280 --> 00:01:35.400
And now you go and teach it because this is the children's bread.

24
00:01:35.400 --> 00:01:38.940
This is your message from your father.

25
00:01:38.940 --> 00:01:40.520
This isn't mine.

26
00:01:40.520 --> 00:01:42.000
This isn't Chris's.

27
00:01:42.000 --> 00:01:45.240
This isn't anybody's to own, none of us have a corner on it.

28
00:01:45.240 --> 00:01:47.600
This is God's to his children.

29
00:01:47.600 --> 00:01:54.640
So when you own it and you live it out in your life, then you then have it to give to

30
00:01:54.640 --> 00:01:57.720
someone else and then to pass all of that along.

31
00:01:57.720 --> 00:01:58.720
But it is yours.

32
00:01:58.720 --> 00:02:00.280
So it's not mine.

33
00:02:00.280 --> 00:02:05.600
So people who go through my coaching program, I'll happen to catch them on live periodically

34
00:02:05.600 --> 00:02:08.039
and in their other groups.

35
00:02:08.039 --> 00:02:13.120
And I'll hear the things that we talk about in the rest intensive and like, they're owning

36
00:02:13.120 --> 00:02:16.360
it and they're passing it along because it's theirs.

37
00:02:17.120 --> 00:02:22.600
Okay, in talking about the two trees, so the difference between the tree of life versus

38
00:02:22.600 --> 00:02:29.960
the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and the fact that operating according to the

39
00:02:29.960 --> 00:02:33.360
tree of life versus operating according to the tree of the knowledge of good and evil

40
00:02:33.360 --> 00:02:38.880
is a choice that goes all the way back to the reason why Adam and Eve originally fell.

41
00:02:38.880 --> 00:02:42.520
That didn't happen once where Adam and Eve ruined it for the rest of us.

42
00:02:42.520 --> 00:02:46.880
We continually are presented with this choice all day, every day in a thousand different

43
00:02:46.880 --> 00:02:50.280
ways and we make a choice between the two trees.

44
00:02:50.280 --> 00:02:51.680
So let's look at what happened here.

45
00:02:51.680 --> 00:02:56.000
So now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the Lord God had made.

46
00:02:56.000 --> 00:03:01.640
He said to the woman, did God really say?

47
00:03:01.640 --> 00:03:06.920
There's nothing more important than God's word.

48
00:03:06.920 --> 00:03:11.820
When God, our God is invisible, right?

49
00:03:11.820 --> 00:03:13.580
So how do we know God?

50
00:03:13.580 --> 00:03:14.580
What does he give us of himself?

51
00:03:14.580 --> 00:03:18.820
Remember we were talking about yesterday that it's about the giver and the best way to love

52
00:03:18.820 --> 00:03:22.780
someone is to allow the giver to be himself and to give of himself what it is that he

53
00:03:22.780 --> 00:03:23.780
wants.

54
00:03:23.780 --> 00:03:25.060
What do we get from God?

55
00:03:25.060 --> 00:03:27.180
What does he talk about continually in scripture?

56
00:03:27.180 --> 00:03:28.180
Word.

57
00:03:28.180 --> 00:03:33.100
When we want something from God, when we want God, we want a portion of him, what does he

58
00:03:33.100 --> 00:03:34.100
give us?

59
00:03:34.100 --> 00:03:35.100
Word.

60
00:03:35.100 --> 00:03:36.100
That is himself.

61
00:03:36.100 --> 00:03:41.620
Remember word is spelled with a capital W because it's a being and it was formed in

62
00:03:42.380 --> 00:03:44.820
the image of Jesus Christ.

63
00:03:44.820 --> 00:03:48.520
So that is how he chooses to give of himself.

64
00:03:48.520 --> 00:03:52.860
So the very essence of who it is that God is and how he wants to be known and how he

65
00:03:52.860 --> 00:03:58.580
wants to present himself comes because we can't see him, he's like, well, I want you

66
00:03:58.580 --> 00:04:00.740
to see me, so here's word.

67
00:04:00.740 --> 00:04:02.940
That is how we receive God.

68
00:04:02.940 --> 00:04:08.180
So that is what Satan was questioning.

69
00:04:08.180 --> 00:04:09.900
Did God really say?

70
00:04:10.180 --> 00:04:14.180
It's going all the way back to what it is that God wants us to, how God wants us to

71
00:04:14.180 --> 00:04:19.420
be able to receive him and he's trying to get her to question it.

72
00:04:19.420 --> 00:04:23.540
Another thing that we're going to talk about here, I'm mentioning all kinds of things that

73
00:04:23.540 --> 00:04:26.860
we're going to explain later, so I'm sorry to just keep dropping these things out of

74
00:04:26.860 --> 00:04:30.620
context, but I think that they're so important to highlight when we see them.

75
00:04:30.620 --> 00:04:35.540
So did God really say, Satan, we're going to discover has no power over us.

76
00:04:35.540 --> 00:04:39.420
We're going to talk later about why that is and how we can be assured of that.

77
00:04:39.420 --> 00:04:46.220
He has no power over us, so he had to convince, Eve is the one that had the power, so he had

78
00:04:46.220 --> 00:04:49.860
to convince her to use her power against herself.

79
00:04:49.860 --> 00:04:51.540
That's manipulation.

80
00:04:51.540 --> 00:04:57.420
That's a violation of, this is a seeking to violate somebody else's free will.

81
00:04:57.420 --> 00:05:00.020
So did God really say, you must not eat from any...

82
00:05:00.000 --> 00:05:05.600
tree in the garden. The woman said to the serpent, we may eat fruit from the trees in

83
00:05:05.600 --> 00:05:12.160
the garden. It wasn't just the tree of life. This was not just a choice between the tree

84
00:05:12.160 --> 00:05:18.320
of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. The tree of life is not mentioned

85
00:05:18.320 --> 00:05:25.160
until after the fall. She compares the tree of the knowledge of good and evil to all the

86
00:05:25.160 --> 00:05:32.160
other trees in the garden. There's lots of trees. It is a big world. We are not surrounded

87
00:05:34.320 --> 00:05:40.280
by sin and everything bad, and we're trying to hold so tightly to this last little thread

88
00:05:40.280 --> 00:05:47.280
of righteousness somewhere. The earth is our gods. He owns it. So he created all of these

89
00:05:47.840 --> 00:05:54.840
trees that we can choose from. That was the choice. The choice was between the trees and

90
00:05:55.920 --> 00:05:59.800
operating according to the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. But God did say, you must

91
00:05:59.800 --> 00:06:03.560
not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch

92
00:06:03.560 --> 00:06:09.560
it or you will die. You will not certainly die, the serpent said to the woman, as we

93
00:06:09.560 --> 00:06:16.240
know, trying to get her to doubt the Lord. For God knows that when you eat from it, your

94
00:06:16.240 --> 00:06:23.240
eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil. She didn't know

95
00:06:23.960 --> 00:06:27.720
the difference between good and evil before she ate from the tree of the knowledge of

96
00:06:27.720 --> 00:06:34.720
good and evil, and she was perfect. You are not subject to not knowing about something.

97
00:06:37.960 --> 00:06:42.240
You aren't subject to your knowledge about something in order to protect yourself or

98
00:06:42.240 --> 00:06:49.240
to do what is good. It is who you are. You operate according to the character of God

99
00:06:51.640 --> 00:06:56.880
that you are abiding in, and it's from that place that you always act according to his

100
00:06:56.880 --> 00:07:02.160
character. So if God's character is always good, then everything that you do from that

101
00:07:02.160 --> 00:07:08.280
place will always be good. So that was the temptation. The temptation is, wouldn't you

102
00:07:08.360 --> 00:07:13.680
like to know the difference? Who wants to know the difference between good and evil?

103
00:07:13.680 --> 00:07:18.640
An evil person or a person who wants to do good? Evil people don't care. Evil people

104
00:07:18.640 --> 00:07:21.440
don't care about the difference between good and evil. They're doing what they want to

105
00:07:21.440 --> 00:07:26.720
do as being very self-serving. Who wants to know the difference between good and evil?

106
00:07:26.720 --> 00:07:33.720
Somebody who wants to know how to please God. She was being tempted to doubt that her being

107
00:07:34.720 --> 00:07:41.720
was enough, and she wanted to know. She wanted to be like God. That was the temptation. There's

108
00:07:41.840 --> 00:07:45.840
a variety of ways that we can see it. I actually believe that there's multiple layers to what

109
00:07:45.840 --> 00:07:51.240
it is that Eve was being tempted with here, but that is in the fact of, well, was that

110
00:07:51.240 --> 00:07:54.520
a good choice? Was that not a good choice? Was this a selfish choice? Was this a choice

111
00:07:54.520 --> 00:07:58.160
of, well, actually, she was just trying to please the Lord. I believe that you can see

112
00:07:58.160 --> 00:08:02.080
it in a variety of different ways, but I just wanted to bring up that element because I

113
00:08:02.080 --> 00:08:07.520
think that so often we villainize Eve. She's just bad. She's just evil. She just wanted

114
00:08:07.520 --> 00:08:14.520
to rebel. She wanted to be equal with God, be whatever. Personally, I see it a bit different.

115
00:08:15.160 --> 00:08:18.960
I think that it is possible that there was that element in it. I believe that there might

116
00:08:18.960 --> 00:08:24.440
be a layer, but what I also believe is a layer is the fact that she wanted to know the difference

117
00:08:24.440 --> 00:08:31.440
between good and evil. She wanted to know. She wanted to understand.

118
00:08:32.440 --> 00:08:37.159
When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye

119
00:08:37.159 --> 00:08:42.240
and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to

120
00:08:42.240 --> 00:08:45.600
her husband who was with her, and he ate it. The eyes of both of them were opened. They

121
00:08:45.600 --> 00:08:50.040
realized they were naked. They realized they had removed themselves from that covering

122
00:08:50.040 --> 00:08:56.040
of Christ, and they realized that in their vulnerability not being covered, they were

123
00:08:56.120 --> 00:09:03.120
now exposed. Nothing wrong with vulnerability. Vulnerability was meant to allow us intimacy,

124
00:09:04.680 --> 00:09:11.200
but if you have that vulnerability without the intimacy, you're uncovered and you're

125
00:09:11.200 --> 00:09:12.320
exposed.

126
00:09:12.320 --> 00:09:19.320
Nakedness isn't bad, meaning like in the way that they mean it here as in spiritual, metaphysical,

127
00:09:19.320 --> 00:09:23.800
whatever. This nakedness, this vulnerability that we think of, especially in the Western

128
00:09:23.840 --> 00:09:30.840
world, but everywhere, we think of as weakness is not weakness. It allows intimacy, but intimacy

129
00:09:31.640 --> 00:09:38.640
is only meant to be provided for in a particular context. It was created to be covered by him,

130
00:09:38.800 --> 00:09:43.280
not covered because it was bad, but covering is the intimacy.

131
00:09:43.280 --> 00:09:49.720
How does God cover us? He gives us himself with the two of us are united and we're inserted

132
00:09:49.720 --> 00:09:56.560
into one another. That's how we're covered. She saw that it was good for food, pleasing

133
00:09:56.560 --> 00:09:59.960
to the eye, also desirable for gaining wisdom.

134
00:10:00.000 --> 00:10:06.800
ate it. She also gave some to her son, her husband, and then he ate it, excuse me.

135
00:10:06.800 --> 00:10:10.160
Then the eyes of both of them were opened, they realized they were naked, so

136
00:10:10.160 --> 00:10:13.840
they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves. That's what

137
00:10:13.840 --> 00:10:16.600
happens when we operate according to the tree of the knowledge of good and evil,

138
00:10:16.600 --> 00:10:22.640
is now that we're exposed and we were vulnerable, we now know the

139
00:10:22.640 --> 00:10:28.920
difference between good and evil. We can choose, we can choose, do I want to

140
00:10:28.920 --> 00:10:34.560
follow the good or do I want to follow the evil, and we pick one in attempts to

141
00:10:34.560 --> 00:10:38.480
cover, to cover that vulnerability. But there's nothing wrong with our

142
00:10:38.480 --> 00:10:42.280
vulnerability, but that vulnerability can only be safe

143
00:10:42.280 --> 00:10:46.160
in one place, and that is an intimacy with them, that's an intimacy with the

144
00:10:46.160 --> 00:10:52.440
father. So when we don't have intimacy with the father, and when we are, when

145
00:10:52.440 --> 00:10:57.080
we're outside and we were exposed, we're constantly trying to find our

146
00:10:57.320 --> 00:11:04.000
protection provision and identity elsewhere, trying to cover

147
00:11:04.000 --> 00:11:10.640
ourselves. Another point I wanted to make here really quick is that he's

148
00:11:10.640 --> 00:11:20.000
trying to get Eve to question what it is that God said. This sin is not

149
00:11:20.000 --> 00:11:28.400
action. Sin is unbelief. So if God is word, and that's God's

150
00:11:28.400 --> 00:11:34.640
initiation. God's initiation to us is giving us this word. So how do we

151
00:11:34.640 --> 00:11:39.040
then, how are we then called to respond? Remember all we do is receive, right? So

152
00:11:39.040 --> 00:11:45.000
he initiates, we receive. He initiates word, how do we receive? Belief. That's how

153
00:11:45.000 --> 00:11:51.480
we receive that. So unbelief is sin, and what do we see unbelief as?

154
00:11:51.480 --> 00:11:58.000
Separation. Everything goes back to union. Everything is always about union. All

155
00:11:58.000 --> 00:12:03.840
union, no separation. Word, belief. Non-belief is sin. Why? It creates

156
00:12:03.840 --> 00:12:08.880
separation. It all goes back to union, always goes back to union. That's why sin

157
00:12:08.880 --> 00:12:14.920
is bad. Sin isn't bad because, well, it's not good to, you know, kill

158
00:12:14.920 --> 00:12:19.200
another person. It's not good to do whatever. Why do we, there's something, if

159
00:12:19.200 --> 00:12:24.400
you go really, really deep down into it, what is actually going on? Deep down,

160
00:12:24.400 --> 00:12:29.280
getting really, really seriously down to the root level, the issue is what it

161
00:12:29.280 --> 00:12:36.000
means spiritually. That's why it's wrong. No wonder non-believers are tripping

162
00:12:36.000 --> 00:12:40.000
over themselves trying to figure out why they feel a particular way, why they feel

163
00:12:40.000 --> 00:12:43.760
that something's wrong, but they can't in their worldly logic work out why it's

164
00:12:43.760 --> 00:12:49.960
wrong. And I'm using a very extreme example of like, of murder, but, but,

165
00:12:49.960 --> 00:12:54.040
because I like to use extreme examples to help us understand that whatever it

166
00:12:54.040 --> 00:12:58.120
is, that when I'm talking about things, you can take it as far as it can go.

167
00:12:58.120 --> 00:13:01.800
These aren't just like, oh, these just, these, these things that we're talking

168
00:13:01.800 --> 00:13:07.920
about, they only cover us in, they only cover us in the easy situations. No, they

169
00:13:07.920 --> 00:13:12.360
cover us in everything. You can't get to the end of what, of what it can cover for

170
00:13:12.360 --> 00:13:33.560
you. And the, what it was that Eve chose was a, excuse me, was she, she thought, how

171
00:13:33.560 --> 00:13:43.520
do I want to word that? Okay, let me, let me rephrase it this way. Eve and Jesus

172
00:13:43.520 --> 00:13:50.080
were tempted with the same thing. And so Eve, so let's remember that, that when

173
00:13:50.080 --> 00:13:59.520
Adam ate of the tree, that, that, that, that is when there was the fall. And, excuse

174
00:13:59.560 --> 00:14:06.160
me, so the second Adam, Jesus had to redeem what the first Adam did. So both of

175
00:14:06.160 --> 00:14:10.400
them had to be tempted the same. So both Adam, you know, through, through Eve, you

176
00:14:10.400 --> 00:14:15.720
know, with the questions that, that Satan asked her and tempted her with, are the

177
00:14:15.720 --> 00:14:20.840
same questions that Jesus was tempted with in the wilderness. Protection,

178
00:14:20.840 --> 00:14:26.320
provision, and identity all coming from God as the source. Both of them had to be

179
00:14:26.320 --> 00:14:33.240
tempted in the same way, in the same, so that everything that God, that, that, that

180
00:14:33.240 --> 00:14:38.240
Eve and Adam said no to, Jesus had to say yes to in order to redeem. So if we look

181
00:14:38.240 --> 00:14:44.520
at, for instance, in, oh, can we pull, sorry, Genesis three back up? I didn't

182
00:14:44.520 --> 00:14:48.800
realize I was going to be referencing it again, sorry. Let's go down to, yeah, can

183
00:14:48.800 --> 00:14:52.720
we go now to verse six? There we go. Then the woman saw that the, that the fruit of

184
00:14:52.720 --> 00:14:59.840
the tree was good for food, and, and that it was pleasing to the eye, also desirable

185
00:14:59.840 --> 00:14:59.960
for

186
00:15:00.000 --> 00:15:02.120
gaining wisdom, and took some and ate it,

187
00:15:02.120 --> 00:15:03.120
and then of course, you know,

188
00:15:03.120 --> 00:15:05.280
knowing the difference between good and evil.

189
00:15:05.280 --> 00:15:09.900
So the, excuse me, the protection,

190
00:15:11.000 --> 00:15:14.280
there's protection, provision, and identity in here.

191
00:15:14.280 --> 00:15:15.480
I'm sorry we're going so fast

192
00:15:15.480 --> 00:15:16.780
and I'm not gonna be able to explain it,

193
00:15:16.780 --> 00:15:21.120
but it's very, but it is in there.

194
00:15:21.120 --> 00:15:26.040
Let me, but let me focus instead on Jesus,

195
00:15:26.040 --> 00:15:28.120
because I wanna drive that one home,

196
00:15:28.120 --> 00:15:30.000
and I only have so much time.

197
00:15:30.000 --> 00:15:33.040
So in Jesus, there is the element of,

198
00:15:33.040 --> 00:15:35.000
remember that he was tempted with,

199
00:15:35.000 --> 00:15:37.480
if you are the son of God,

200
00:15:37.480 --> 00:15:41.160
turn this bread, turn these stones into bread.

201
00:15:41.160 --> 00:15:42.360
What is that?

202
00:15:42.360 --> 00:15:44.520
That is your, that's your provision.

203
00:15:45.960 --> 00:15:48.840
And so what did Jesus, what did Jesus give Satan?

204
00:15:48.840 --> 00:15:51.480
We always talk about, oh, Jesus quoted a scripture at him.

205
00:15:51.480 --> 00:15:54.480
No, Jesus gave him God's word.

206
00:15:54.480 --> 00:15:59.480
That is how he, that is how he chose to reject

207
00:15:59.480 --> 00:16:01.520
what it is that Satan was tempting him with.

208
00:16:01.520 --> 00:16:05.400
He used God's word, not throwing a scripture at him.

209
00:16:05.400 --> 00:16:07.060
God reveals himself through word.

210
00:16:07.060 --> 00:16:09.480
God says, I want you to accept me as word.

211
00:16:09.480 --> 00:16:11.720
So Jesus is like, I believe.

212
00:16:12.840 --> 00:16:16.840
So that belief, that's how he didn't sin,

213
00:16:16.840 --> 00:16:18.900
because Eve said, no, I don't believe,

214
00:16:18.900 --> 00:16:20.760
but Jesus said, I do believe.

215
00:16:20.760 --> 00:16:23.800
So that is his belief, receiving God's word.

216
00:16:23.800 --> 00:16:26.280
That's what his declaring of all of that is.

217
00:16:26.280 --> 00:16:28.880
It's not an attack against Satan of like,

218
00:16:28.880 --> 00:16:31.520
okay, well, you know, I'm gonna,

219
00:16:31.520 --> 00:16:33.640
if I throw God's word at you,

220
00:16:33.640 --> 00:16:36.660
if I throw a Bible verse at you,

221
00:16:36.660 --> 00:16:38.640
you know, you're gonna be hit in the face

222
00:16:38.640 --> 00:16:40.840
and then trip over backwards, and that's how I overcome.

223
00:16:40.840 --> 00:16:45.060
No, no, no, it's Jesus, it's not us fighting Satan.

224
00:16:45.060 --> 00:16:46.360
We'll be talking about this much more in depth

225
00:16:46.360 --> 00:16:48.280
when we talk about spiritual warfare later.

226
00:16:48.280 --> 00:16:50.240
It's not us fighting Satan,

227
00:16:50.240 --> 00:16:52.840
it's us joining ourselves together with God,

228
00:16:52.840 --> 00:16:55.120
which completely annihilates the issue.

229
00:16:55.120 --> 00:16:57.720
It completely neutralizes the issue.

230
00:16:57.720 --> 00:17:01.320
Life is not a battle, it's just not.

231
00:17:03.320 --> 00:17:05.079
All we have to do is neutralize it,

232
00:17:05.079 --> 00:17:06.119
and how do we neutralize it?

233
00:17:06.119 --> 00:17:08.599
We neutralize it as, what does God say?

234
00:17:08.599 --> 00:17:10.480
God is giving me himself,

235
00:17:10.480 --> 00:17:12.000
and what is of himself that he's giving me?

236
00:17:12.000 --> 00:17:12.839
He's giving me word.

237
00:17:12.839 --> 00:17:13.859
How do I receive that word?

238
00:17:13.859 --> 00:17:15.440
How do I join with it?

239
00:17:15.440 --> 00:17:18.079
I believe, that's all we have to do.

240
00:17:18.079 --> 00:17:21.119
It's very effortless, we believe.

241
00:17:21.119 --> 00:17:22.760
The reason why belief feels hard

242
00:17:22.760 --> 00:17:26.579
is we continue as we resist by coming up with why not?

243
00:17:26.579 --> 00:17:29.120
Why what God said might not be true?

244
00:17:29.120 --> 00:17:32.200
But if we don't question, and if we just choose,

245
00:17:32.200 --> 00:17:34.880
if we don't require that everything be reconciled first,

246
00:17:34.880 --> 00:17:39.880
but we have full faith, it's just received.

247
00:17:40.080 --> 00:17:41.200
It's very effortless.

248
00:17:42.240 --> 00:17:46.440
So then when he was tempted with,

249
00:17:46.440 --> 00:17:48.440
he was taken up to the temple and said,

250
00:17:48.440 --> 00:17:50.400
throw yourself down because it says

251
00:17:50.400 --> 00:17:53.800
that his angels will take charge over you

252
00:17:53.800 --> 00:17:57.000
and keep you from dashing your foot against a stone.

253
00:17:57.000 --> 00:17:59.480
So that was tempting Jesus

254
00:17:59.480 --> 00:18:01.280
with questioning God's protection.

255
00:18:02.700 --> 00:18:04.360
And what did he do then?

256
00:18:04.360 --> 00:18:06.260
He said, no, God said.

257
00:18:06.260 --> 00:18:09.200
What he's doing is he's choosing to put himself

258
00:18:09.200 --> 00:18:12.560
in a position where he's like, I'm receiving God's word.

259
00:18:12.560 --> 00:18:16.640
He's not taking God's word and slinging it at Satan.

260
00:18:16.640 --> 00:18:18.160
Who cares, who cares?

261
00:18:19.040 --> 00:18:22.840
The way that I deal with this temptation

262
00:18:22.840 --> 00:18:25.960
is I remember who God is and I receive that.

263
00:18:25.960 --> 00:18:26.920
That's all it is.

264
00:18:26.920 --> 00:18:29.280
It's all you have to do to battle spiritual warfare.

265
00:18:29.280 --> 00:18:31.680
Receive what God said, receive it.

266
00:18:33.440 --> 00:18:36.960
Then the last thing is where he said,

267
00:18:36.960 --> 00:18:39.640
excuse me, I took him up, what was that?

268
00:18:39.640 --> 00:18:40.560
I don't remember where he took him up,

269
00:18:40.560 --> 00:18:41.720
High Hill or something.

270
00:18:41.720 --> 00:18:44.440
And then he said, and he looked down and he said,

271
00:18:44.440 --> 00:18:46.520
these are all the kingdoms of the world

272
00:18:46.520 --> 00:18:48.760
and I will give them all to you if you bow down to me.

273
00:18:48.760 --> 00:18:50.800
What is that questioning?

274
00:18:50.800 --> 00:18:53.680
It is getting Jesus to question the fact

275
00:18:53.680 --> 00:18:56.880
that his identity is found in God.

276
00:18:56.880 --> 00:18:58.880
So protection, provision, and identity

277
00:18:58.880 --> 00:19:01.320
is what Jesus was tempted with with questioning

278
00:19:01.320 --> 00:19:05.440
and every single time he said, no, no, no, God said.

279
00:19:05.440 --> 00:19:07.160
And so he chose to receive it.

280
00:19:07.160 --> 00:19:08.600
But it is very effortless.

281
00:19:10.960 --> 00:19:15.960
And even Adam were tempted with the same thing.

282
00:19:16.680 --> 00:19:20.040
They chose a different answer.

283
00:19:20.040 --> 00:19:22.520
They chose sin, they chose unbelief.

284
00:19:22.520 --> 00:19:24.800
But Jesus reconciled everything

285
00:19:24.800 --> 00:19:26.960
by going through the exact same thing that they did

286
00:19:26.960 --> 00:19:28.460
and making a different choice.

287
00:19:32.080 --> 00:19:36.840
Now, okay, so the difference between,

288
00:19:36.840 --> 00:19:39.040
what's the difference between these two trees?

289
00:19:39.040 --> 00:19:42.800
So let's talk about in reference to the tree of life

290
00:19:42.800 --> 00:19:44.600
versus the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

291
00:19:44.640 --> 00:19:47.560
So the tree of life, what exactly is that?

292
00:19:47.560 --> 00:19:50.560
That is actually, it's called life, right?

293
00:19:50.560 --> 00:19:51.560
Tree of life.

294
00:19:51.560 --> 00:19:54.280
Because in God, when we are joined together,

295
00:19:54.280 --> 00:19:55.960
when we choose that we are joined together,

296
00:19:55.960 --> 00:19:58.120
just like he said, in relationship with him

297
00:19:58.120 --> 00:20:00.080
and we get everything from him.

298
00:20:00.000 --> 00:20:08.000
Then it's from that, that's a place of rest, and we allow him to be the source of all the results that happen in our lives.

299
00:20:08.000 --> 00:20:14.000
That's what, and it's very effortless, that's what abiding and operating according to the tree of life means.

300
00:20:14.000 --> 00:20:21.000
Then you have the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, and remember it's the knowledge of good and evil.

301
00:20:21.000 --> 00:20:26.000
It's not the evil tree, it is the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

302
00:20:26.000 --> 00:20:34.000
Relying on our knowledge, what it is that we know, relying on our knowledge of what's good and what's evil,

303
00:20:34.000 --> 00:20:40.000
even the things that are good, our knowledge of them, thinking that that is what will save me,

304
00:20:40.000 --> 00:20:45.000
that is what will make me pleasing to God, that is how I can get anything done in my business,

305
00:20:45.000 --> 00:20:52.000
that's how I can get closer to God, that's how I can learn about Him, I mean because I'm learning about Him,

306
00:20:52.000 --> 00:20:59.000
that's how I can know how to have a healthier marriage, how to raise my children, how to do whatever, knowledge.

307
00:20:59.000 --> 00:21:08.000
The problem with that is that it's relying on something outside of ourselves, meaning outside of God,

308
00:21:08.000 --> 00:21:13.000
because you know God's Spirit dwells within us, relying on something outside,

309
00:21:13.000 --> 00:21:21.000
thinking that we are subject to it unless we have it, that we're subject to the fact that we don't have it.

310
00:21:21.000 --> 00:21:28.000
So therefore that we're in lack, and we're relying on some other source to give us something that we don't have.

311
00:21:28.000 --> 00:21:36.000
We're claiming that it's more powerful than we are and that we need it, and if we don't have it, then we're in lack.

312
00:21:36.000 --> 00:21:43.000
We don't have it, we're a victim, and that's not true. God takes it very seriously.

313
00:21:43.000 --> 00:21:48.000
He says, no, no, no, I am your source for everything, do not reach outside of you.

314
00:21:48.000 --> 00:21:53.000
Remember, what does she have to do with the fruit? It goes through this very lengthy process.

315
00:21:53.000 --> 00:22:01.000
I think it says she saw, she reached, she took, or either that or she saw, she took, she ate.

316
00:22:01.000 --> 00:22:08.000
In other words, I thought it was really fascinating. I've always thought this when I read that passage.

317
00:22:08.000 --> 00:22:13.000
The Bible glosses over so much, but that, He walks us through each step that she did.

318
00:22:13.000 --> 00:22:19.000
In other words, there is very intentional. She saw it, she made a decision, she took it, she ate it.

319
00:22:19.000 --> 00:22:24.000
There's this process. It was something outside of her that she reached for.

320
00:22:24.000 --> 00:22:32.000
She thought, I need that because I'm in lack, and God says, no, then you're not believing me because I say you are not in lack.

321
00:22:32.000 --> 00:22:41.000
That is unbelief. It's denying that whatever God says about us is denying that we are not who God says that we are.

322
00:22:41.000 --> 00:22:51.000
We're looking for something outside. We think that, okay, I need to go to, and this is not condemnation for coming to a conference or anything,

323
00:22:51.000 --> 00:22:57.000
but the problem is if we think we have to come to a conference, we think that we have to be taught,

324
00:22:57.000 --> 00:23:05.000
we think that someone out there knows something about business or relationships or finances that I don't know,

325
00:23:05.000 --> 00:23:10.000
and therefore I'm not going to be successful in life or God's not going to love me or God's not going to be pleased with me

326
00:23:10.000 --> 00:23:24.000
until I learn more. Someone out there has something that I don't have, and I am in lack until I find that person that has some secret magic sauce

327
00:23:24.000 --> 00:23:31.000
that has the thing that I don't have, and that will empower me to do X, Y, and Z. That's a problem.

328
00:23:31.000 --> 00:23:38.000
So we're thinking we're in lack and needing something outside of ourselves, and God says, no, no, no, you're never in lack

329
00:23:38.000 --> 00:23:46.000
because I am your complete protection. I'm your complete provision. I'm where you find your complete identity.

330
00:23:46.000 --> 00:23:54.000
It's in your union with me. So that's the difference in operating between the two trees.

331
00:23:54.000 --> 00:24:02.000
If we think that we have to have something else, all of this stuff can sound very godly.

332
00:24:02.000 --> 00:24:08.000
Everybody in this room wants to do the good things. We look at the tree and we're like, okay, I want to know all of the good things.

333
00:24:08.000 --> 00:24:16.000
That's why we come to conferences, right? It's why we read books. It's why we go to Bible studies.

334
00:24:16.000 --> 00:24:20.000
We learn things from different people. We're constantly seeking to know and understand.

335
00:24:20.000 --> 00:24:26.000
The world tells us that knowledge is power, and we've believed it. We've believed that lie.

336
00:24:27.000 --> 00:24:32.000
We're wanting to know the difference between good and evil so that we can know what to do and what to avoid.

337
00:24:32.000 --> 00:24:44.000
We think that that attitude and that perspective is godly, and God says, no, you're relying on something that you do.

338
00:24:44.000 --> 00:24:50.000
You're relying on your knowledge of something and then making a choice of that.

339
00:24:51.000 --> 00:24:57.000
You're relying on that to provide for and to protect yourself, or that that's going to give you provision and protection.

340
00:24:57.000 --> 00:25:00.000
He said, you don't even have to know the difference between good and evil.

341
00:25:00.000 --> 00:25:06.640
evil, I'm telling you, you need to be unified with me. Once union from, you know, just like

342
00:25:06.640 --> 00:25:14.560
that gentleman says that I was telling y'all about where the Lord told him, you know, out

343
00:25:14.560 --> 00:25:21.280
of union with him, all else must flow. Once we have that union, everything else that it

344
00:25:21.280 --> 00:25:25.760
is that we're needing and wanting comes from the union. So forget the knowing. We don't

345
00:25:25.760 --> 00:25:31.240
need to know. When we understand that we're unified with God, we know all things. We always

346
00:25:31.240 --> 00:25:35.040
act according to our character, which is that the character of God, and we always do the

347
00:25:35.040 --> 00:25:42.040
good things. There's no good and evil. There's just God. God being who God is, you know,

348
00:25:42.040 --> 00:25:46.240
and if we're in him, well then we're being who it is that we're being of God's very nature

349
00:25:46.240 --> 00:25:55.880
and of God's very character too. And why do we like to pick the tree of the knowledge

350
00:25:55.880 --> 00:26:05.920
of good and evil versus the tree of life? Sorry. The tree of the knowledge of good and

351
00:26:05.920 --> 00:26:14.200
evil is the law, and then the tree of life is relationship. Everything from the tree

352
00:26:14.200 --> 00:26:17.800
of life is a free gift. Everything according to the tree of the knowledge of good and evil

353
00:26:17.800 --> 00:26:23.520
has to be earned by a wage. So it's very limiting. But if you receive things by gift, it's limitless.

354
00:26:23.520 --> 00:26:29.160
It's very effortless. And there's no limitations on it whatsoever. Why do we like the tree

355
00:26:29.160 --> 00:26:33.520
of the knowledge of good and evil versus the tree of life? The tree of life, we have to

356
00:26:33.520 --> 00:26:38.040
rely on God. We're submitted to his will, meaning like, not that, oh well he just does

357
00:26:38.040 --> 00:26:41.840
whatever we want and we don't have a say so. I don't mean that. I mean we submit and surrender

358
00:26:41.840 --> 00:26:46.120
ourselves to his character and to his essence, which is always love and is always good. We

359
00:26:46.120 --> 00:26:49.680
are out of control and we don't like that. So we pick the tree of the knowledge of good

360
00:26:49.680 --> 00:26:55.680
and evil so that we can control something. So Adam and Eve were effortlessly covered,

361
00:26:55.680 --> 00:27:01.440
but once they removed that covering, they chose to remove themselves outside of that

362
00:27:01.440 --> 00:27:05.440
covering, they were exposed. Now they have to try to do everything themselves because

363
00:27:05.440 --> 00:27:10.780
they believe that they're abandoned and alone. They're abandoned by God and alone. That he's

364
00:27:10.780 --> 00:27:16.700
outside of them. Again, you see the problem? Separation. That he's outside of them and

365
00:27:16.700 --> 00:27:21.940
that he's therefore looking at them, expecting them to go through life in a particular way,

366
00:27:21.940 --> 00:27:26.620
make the right choices, don't make the bad choices, et cetera, and holding them accountable

367
00:27:26.620 --> 00:27:36.100
for that. And so that's where you get that idea of that issue of what God's issue is

368
00:27:36.140 --> 00:27:39.420
between us choosing the tree of life versus the tree of the knowledge of evil, is that

369
00:27:39.420 --> 00:27:46.420
idea of that separation. We like to choose it because we like that element of control.

370
00:27:47.420 --> 00:27:54.420
But what we don't understand is that while this is intimacy and this is distance, separation,

371
00:27:55.100 --> 00:28:00.620
this is life and everything that we do from here, even all the good things, only has death

372
00:28:00.660 --> 00:28:07.660
in it. Because this is called the tree of life. God is life himself, God's spirit, so

373
00:28:08.660 --> 00:28:15.660
anything that we do from that spirit, that breeds life. The fruit from life and the fruit

374
00:28:15.740 --> 00:28:22.740
from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil can look the same. You can go out and

375
00:28:23.460 --> 00:28:29.940
help people build homes for a habitat of humanity from the tree of life, or you can do it from

376
00:28:29.940 --> 00:28:33.620
the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. They can both look the same. Two people can

377
00:28:33.620 --> 00:28:38.500
be working on the project at the same time, but one is bringing life into the earth and

378
00:28:38.500 --> 00:28:43.780
one is bringing death. It can look exactly the same. So my point in driving that home

379
00:28:43.780 --> 00:28:50.580
is it's all about the source. Where is it coming from? That is bringing life into the

380
00:28:50.580 --> 00:28:55.940
earth, this is bringing death. So why does this bring death, even if it's a quote unquote

381
00:28:55.940 --> 00:29:01.660
good thing? Because it's one fruit, it's good and evil fruit. So in everything good,

382
00:29:01.660 --> 00:29:05.660
there's evil in it. So everything it is that we're trying to do that's good, there's evil

383
00:29:05.660 --> 00:29:10.220
in it when we're doing it from our own source. It always goes back to union, it always goes

384
00:29:10.220 --> 00:29:15.620
back to the fact that we're being unified with God, that is our source. The source is

385
00:29:15.620 --> 00:29:22.620
our union and our love and our relationship with him.

386
00:29:25.940 --> 00:29:38.700
So, the law, however, is, I wanted to point out that the law is actually, and the tree

387
00:29:38.700 --> 00:29:45.300
of the knowledge of good and evil is not a bad tree. It's a good tree. In fact, if we

388
00:29:45.300 --> 00:29:50.580
could pull up Romans 7, we'll discover that the law, that tree, which is created by God

389
00:29:50.580 --> 00:29:54.780
because he only creates good things, that the tree of the knowledge of good and evil

390
00:29:54.780 --> 00:30:00.020
is actually not only not a bad tree, it is quoted as a holy tree.

391
00:30:00.000 --> 00:30:10.280
The problem is operating according to it, and thank you, I appreciate that, is the problem

392
00:30:10.280 --> 00:30:14.240
is operating according to it, and using it as our source.

393
00:30:14.240 --> 00:30:16.320
So where do I want to start?

394
00:30:16.320 --> 00:30:25.000
Let's look at, so the law, and y'all let me know if y'all can hear this in the mic, because

395
00:30:25.000 --> 00:30:26.000
if so I'll put it out.

396
00:30:26.000 --> 00:30:34.080
So the law is a gift from our loving Father, and they are principles that are meant to

397
00:30:34.080 --> 00:30:39.920
give us a way, if we've chosen to separate ourselves, God's like, okay, I don't want

398
00:30:39.920 --> 00:30:42.160
to leave them abandoned and alone.

399
00:30:42.160 --> 00:30:43.160
Isn't that fascinating?

400
00:30:43.160 --> 00:30:47.280
We find ourselves feeling very abandoned and alone, and God's like, I don't want to leave

401
00:30:47.280 --> 00:30:48.720
them unprotected.

402
00:30:48.720 --> 00:30:53.680
I'm a loving Father, so if that's their choice, what we would see here is what in the world's

403
00:30:53.680 --> 00:30:57.160
eyes would be referred to as enabling.

404
00:30:57.160 --> 00:31:02.080
God gave us the law because he thought, okay, if you're not going to allow me to provide

405
00:31:02.080 --> 00:31:06.720
for and protect you, I'm going to give you a way that if you're going to choose to do

406
00:31:06.720 --> 00:31:12.320
it all on your own, I'm going to give you the tools to be able to do it on your own.

407
00:31:12.320 --> 00:31:13.880
That's called enabling in our world.

408
00:31:13.880 --> 00:31:19.280
But anyway, because in God's world, he's like, no, that's love.

409
00:31:19.280 --> 00:31:21.120
I love my children.

410
00:31:21.480 --> 00:31:26.320
If they are going to remove themselves from my protection and provision and me identifying

411
00:31:26.320 --> 00:31:32.640
them, I want to give them a way in which they can provide for, protect, and seek to identify

412
00:31:32.640 --> 00:31:33.640
themselves.

413
00:31:33.640 --> 00:31:35.840
But here's the problem.

414
00:31:35.840 --> 00:31:43.080
He also knew that because of separation, all of those things would bring death anyway.

415
00:31:43.080 --> 00:31:46.960
We're still removed ourselves from life.

416
00:31:46.960 --> 00:32:02.320
We'll start in verse 7, I think, what are we going to go till, sorry, 7 through 14.

417
00:32:02.320 --> 00:32:03.520
So what should we say then?

418
00:32:03.520 --> 00:32:06.200
Is the law sinful?

419
00:32:06.200 --> 00:32:07.200
Certainly not.

420
00:32:07.200 --> 00:32:08.200
The law is not sinful.

421
00:32:08.200 --> 00:32:10.160
It's not a bad tree.

422
00:32:10.160 --> 00:32:14.720
Nevertheless, I would not have known what sin was had it not been for the law, for I

423
00:32:14.920 --> 00:32:18.040
would not have known what coveting really was if the law had not said thou shalt not

424
00:32:18.040 --> 00:32:19.040
covet.

425
00:32:19.040 --> 00:32:25.360
But sin, seizing the opportunity afforded by the commandment, produced in me every kind

426
00:32:25.360 --> 00:32:26.720
of coveting.

427
00:32:26.720 --> 00:32:28.480
For apart from the law, sin was dead.

428
00:32:28.480 --> 00:32:29.880
So sin was dead.

429
00:32:29.880 --> 00:32:31.400
We were exposed to the law.

430
00:32:31.400 --> 00:32:35.040
The law is holy, but it created death within us.

431
00:32:35.040 --> 00:32:40.640
Death was created within us when we were exposed to the law, but the tree itself is not bad.

432
00:32:40.640 --> 00:32:45.520
When we operate according to it, it's bringing something up out of us that is death.

433
00:32:45.520 --> 00:32:49.600
And so this is the point I wanted, one of the points I wanted to drive home about this.

434
00:32:49.600 --> 00:32:52.640
Remember, we were talking about the fact that no matter what it is that we do from this

435
00:32:52.640 --> 00:32:56.600
place, it's always from a place of death, even the good things.

436
00:32:56.600 --> 00:33:02.560
It's because God over here is our source, but over here, we're our source.

437
00:33:02.560 --> 00:33:06.240
And so what are we giving, what are we fueling all of our efforts in?

438
00:33:06.240 --> 00:33:09.840
All of our good efforts, all of our bad efforts doesn't matter.

439
00:33:10.600 --> 00:33:14.440
We don't have life in us because we've separated ourselves from it in our belief.

440
00:33:14.440 --> 00:33:18.800
I'm not saying we are separated from God, because even when we sin, we're not.

441
00:33:18.800 --> 00:33:21.440
Even when we choose to operate according to the tree of the knowledge of good and evil,

442
00:33:21.440 --> 00:33:22.440
we're not separated from God.

443
00:33:22.440 --> 00:33:24.520
You know, God's very serious about that.

444
00:33:24.520 --> 00:33:31.120
But according to our belief, that's how we subject ourselves to operating like that and

445
00:33:31.120 --> 00:33:33.640
getting those types of results in our life.

446
00:33:33.640 --> 00:33:36.920
Not according to what's true, but according to what we believe is true.

447
00:33:36.920 --> 00:33:39.360
We have that much power and that much authority.

448
00:33:39.360 --> 00:33:45.320
So we're using ourselves as our own source, and all we have to give it is death.

449
00:33:45.320 --> 00:33:50.160
That's why everything we do according to this tree brings death, because the law created

450
00:33:50.160 --> 00:33:53.020
death within us, and that's all we have to give.

451
00:33:53.020 --> 00:33:54.020
We have no life.

452
00:33:54.020 --> 00:33:58.480
But over here, when we're one with Christ, we have life to be able to give us.

453
00:33:58.480 --> 00:34:05.040
Thank you, I was meaning that, we have life to be able to give.

454
00:34:05.040 --> 00:34:11.000
Once I was alive, apart from the law, but when the commandment came, sin sprang to life

455
00:34:11.000 --> 00:34:12.000
and I died.

456
00:34:12.000 --> 00:34:13.320
Sprang to life within me and I died.

457
00:34:13.320 --> 00:34:16.400
Remember that the law, God only gives good gifts.

458
00:34:16.400 --> 00:34:20.679
God is a good and a holy God, so he wouldn't create a bad tree.

459
00:34:20.679 --> 00:34:27.560
But it created, it found something within us that caused a reaction and death rose within

460
00:34:27.560 --> 00:34:30.080
us when we were exposed to that commandment.

461
00:34:30.120 --> 00:34:36.520
Again, being vulnerable and exposed outside of, because we chose to believe we were separated.

462
00:34:36.520 --> 00:34:43.159
I found that the very commandment that was intended to bring life actually brought death.

463
00:34:43.159 --> 00:34:47.880
So in the first sin, seizing the opportunity afforded by the commandment deceived me through

464
00:34:47.880 --> 00:34:49.560
the commandment put me to death.

465
00:34:49.560 --> 00:34:54.120
I thought operating according to the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and doing

466
00:34:54.120 --> 00:34:59.920
the good things would be, would, what does it say?

467
00:35:00.000 --> 00:35:04.400
would actually bring life. I want to do good, Lord. I don't want to do the evil

468
00:35:04.400 --> 00:35:07.040
things. I want to do the good things. So I'm thinking, oh this is gonna be work,

469
00:35:07.040 --> 00:35:11.200
this is gonna be great, it's gonna bring forth life, but it didn't. It deceived me

470
00:35:11.200 --> 00:35:16.280
and through the commandment put me into death. By operating, or put me to death, by

471
00:35:16.280 --> 00:35:21.280
operating according to this, we think, oh I'm gonna do the, see Eve, oh I'm gonna

472
00:35:21.280 --> 00:35:25.040
know the difference between good and evil and I can pick the good things. No,

473
00:35:25.040 --> 00:35:29.840
it still doesn't work, because all she had, it caused death within her, so now

474
00:35:29.840 --> 00:35:33.120
when she gives it out, she's used to giving things out over here and it

475
00:35:33.120 --> 00:35:37.000
brings life. Now she, everything that she gives out can all, and you know in

476
00:35:37.000 --> 00:35:40.440
Adam, speaking of the fact that he's Adam, so we can continue to compare to the

477
00:35:40.440 --> 00:35:44.880
second Adam, everything that they did would only bring forth death. So then the

478
00:35:44.880 --> 00:35:52.720
law is holy. God himself said that the law is holy, the commandment is holy,

479
00:35:52.800 --> 00:35:58.440
righteous and good. Did that which is good then become death to me? No. So the

480
00:35:58.440 --> 00:36:04.360
law does not become death to us. Instead, in order that sin might be recognized as

481
00:36:04.360 --> 00:36:08.880
sin, it used what is good, you and all of the good things, you know in the tree of

482
00:36:08.880 --> 00:36:12.160
the knowledge of good and evil, used what is good, because God only creates good

483
00:36:12.160 --> 00:36:17.560
things, to bring about my death. So that through the commandment, sin might become

484
00:36:17.560 --> 00:36:24.240
utterly sinful. And then we know that the law is spiritual, but I'm unspiritual,

485
00:36:24.240 --> 00:36:29.480
sold as a slave to sin. So the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, it's not

486
00:36:29.480 --> 00:36:34.360
a bad tree, it's a holy tree, but it brought death within us and now that's all we

487
00:36:34.360 --> 00:36:43.560
have to give when we operate from that place, but God did give it. A really

488
00:36:43.560 --> 00:36:48.400
fascinating point of how God actually identifies people operating from this

489
00:36:48.400 --> 00:36:56.800
tree is in Deuteronomy 27 through 28. So at this point, if you remember back in

490
00:36:56.800 --> 00:37:01.200
Exodus, which we're not going to look at, it does not mention this passage, it does

491
00:37:01.200 --> 00:37:05.560
not mention this interaction between Moses and the Lord. So when the

492
00:37:05.560 --> 00:37:10.520
Israelites were called by God, hey come to Mount Sinai, I want to make a

493
00:37:10.520 --> 00:37:15.000
covenant with you. I want to make a covenant of, he didn't word it like this,

494
00:37:15.000 --> 00:37:19.000
but we know what it means, that he wanted to make a covenant of sonship. The

495
00:37:19.000 --> 00:37:22.080
Israelites came, they heard the thunder, saw the lightning, heard the booming

496
00:37:22.080 --> 00:37:26.720
voice of the Lord, and they were like, okay we're scared. You know, Moses, you go talk

497
00:37:26.720 --> 00:37:32.920
to the Lord, and you go talk to the Lord, and you tell us, and you get all the

498
00:37:32.920 --> 00:37:39.000
instructions for us, and we will do whatever you say to do. So what did they

499
00:37:39.000 --> 00:37:42.880
do? God wanted to create union, and they said no, we want separation, and instead

500
00:37:42.880 --> 00:37:48.040
just tell us what to do. So according to the tree of life, remember how do we give

501
00:37:48.040 --> 00:37:51.440
life? We're just being in God. We don't have to know the difference between good

502
00:37:51.440 --> 00:37:56.000
and evil. We don't have to do anything. It's of who it is that we are. We just

503
00:37:56.000 --> 00:37:59.400
operate according to how it is that we are. We just be. But according to the tree

504
00:37:59.400 --> 00:38:04.560
of the knowledge of good and evil, we don't have that ability to be

505
00:38:04.600 --> 00:38:09.040
anymore, and so the only way that we have hope of getting anything

506
00:38:09.040 --> 00:38:12.760
accomplished moving forward, trying to get protection, trying to get provision,

507
00:38:12.760 --> 00:38:17.320
is to do something, and that's what the Israelites chose. They said just we want

508
00:38:17.320 --> 00:38:24.720
separation because intimacy scares us. They came up to God, and they heard and

509
00:38:24.720 --> 00:38:27.800
saw what God was, which is what we experienced yesterday. It's like,

510
00:38:27.800 --> 00:38:34.080
okay, I really don't want to know. I don't know what it

511
00:38:34.120 --> 00:38:37.520
is that he's going to see in me. I don't know how I'm going to experience him. I

512
00:38:37.520 --> 00:38:40.720
don't know what he's going to be like, how he's going to reveal himself to me, how

513
00:38:40.720 --> 00:38:42.880
he's going to show me what he's going to ask of me, what it is that I'm

514
00:38:42.880 --> 00:38:46.960
surrendering myself to. I feel very, very unsafe. The Israelites would come up

515
00:38:46.960 --> 00:38:51.600
against that same question. I feel very, very unsafe, and so they made the

516
00:38:51.600 --> 00:38:54.720
choice, no, I want to stay separated, but God, we still want to be connected with

517
00:38:54.720 --> 00:39:02.160
you. So just we will not live like the Gentiles.

518
00:39:02.200 --> 00:39:07.080
We will live according to your laws. Just tell us what to do, and we'll do it. It

519
00:39:07.080 --> 00:39:11.680
all sounds good, but what's not mentioned in the Exodus passage, and instead is

520
00:39:11.680 --> 00:39:15.800
mentioned here in Deuteronomy, is the exchange that happened then between

521
00:39:15.800 --> 00:39:19.320
Moses and God. So we're thinking, my goodness, they rejected the covenant of

522
00:39:19.320 --> 00:39:23.360
sonship. Surely God would say this is evil, and this is bad. He did not.

523
00:39:23.360 --> 00:39:31.440
I'm sorry, did I not give you the correct passage? So it's a Deuteronomy 5,

524
00:39:31.440 --> 00:39:45.720
27 to 28. So in Deuteronomy, Moses is now talking to the

525
00:39:45.720 --> 00:39:48.600
second generation. The first generation of the Israelites came to Canaan, and

526
00:39:48.600 --> 00:39:52.880
they said, no, we're not going to go in. We're too afraid. We're concerned that

527
00:39:52.880 --> 00:39:57.040
this isn't actually going to work out, and so God said, okay, according to

528
00:39:57.040 --> 00:39:59.760
your words, so be it.

529
00:40:00.000 --> 00:40:01.360
that much power and that much authority.

530
00:40:01.360 --> 00:40:03.040
He said, here's my word.

531
00:40:03.040 --> 00:40:05.680
And they said, no, I don't believe it.

532
00:40:05.680 --> 00:40:08.240
And so God said, OK, then you're subject

533
00:40:08.240 --> 00:40:11.400
to the consequences of that.

534
00:40:11.400 --> 00:40:13.720
So they go around the wilderness.

535
00:40:13.720 --> 00:40:17.320
They all die off, except Joshua, Caleb, and Moses.

536
00:40:17.320 --> 00:40:23.040
They come to, now it's the second generation.

537
00:40:23.040 --> 00:40:25.960
And Moses is now talking to them before he dies, telling him,

538
00:40:25.960 --> 00:40:27.660
OK, the last time your fathers were here,

539
00:40:27.660 --> 00:40:29.080
this is the choice that they made.

540
00:40:29.080 --> 00:40:32.140
So he's reiterating to them what it is that they went through.

541
00:40:32.140 --> 00:40:36.300
And that's when he talks about this interchange.

542
00:40:40.380 --> 00:40:42.700
So the Israelites were telling Moses,

543
00:40:42.700 --> 00:40:45.540
go near and listen to all that the Lord our God says.

544
00:40:45.540 --> 00:40:48.380
Then tell us whatever the Lord our God tells you,

545
00:40:48.380 --> 00:40:52.340
we will listen and obey.

546
00:40:52.340 --> 00:40:55.740
Living a life of servitude and obedience of like,

547
00:40:55.740 --> 00:40:57.660
I'm not saying that it's not good to obey God.

548
00:40:57.680 --> 00:41:00.240
But living a life of servitude and this idea

549
00:41:00.240 --> 00:41:02.320
that, oh, I have to, what is it that God's saying

550
00:41:02.320 --> 00:41:04.360
and how do I obey, is living according

551
00:41:04.360 --> 00:41:06.200
to the truth and knowledge of good and evil.

552
00:41:06.200 --> 00:41:07.840
God calls us instead to understand

553
00:41:07.840 --> 00:41:09.520
that you're reunified with me.

554
00:41:09.520 --> 00:41:15.120
And I want you to, in that union with me, you will just be.

555
00:41:15.120 --> 00:41:17.080
And you will naturally do all of these things

556
00:41:17.080 --> 00:41:19.640
that you thought you had to try to do.

557
00:41:19.640 --> 00:41:22.600
So the Lord heard you when you spoke to me.

558
00:41:22.600 --> 00:41:24.540
And the Lord said to me, I have heard

559
00:41:24.540 --> 00:41:26.160
what this people said to you.

560
00:41:26.160 --> 00:41:28.740
Everything they said was good.

561
00:41:28.740 --> 00:41:30.860
They rejected the covenant of sonship,

562
00:41:30.860 --> 00:41:32.220
and God called it good.

563
00:41:32.220 --> 00:41:33.540
Why could they do that?

564
00:41:33.540 --> 00:41:35.940
Because what they chose is, when they chose something

565
00:41:35.940 --> 00:41:38.860
from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, which

566
00:41:38.860 --> 00:41:40.900
is not relationship, but understand,

567
00:41:40.900 --> 00:41:42.140
what is this tree called?

568
00:41:42.140 --> 00:41:46.540
The tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

569
00:41:46.540 --> 00:41:48.780
They had a choice between good things and evil things,

570
00:41:48.780 --> 00:41:50.580
because they chose separation, which puts them

571
00:41:50.580 --> 00:41:51.780
in the tree of the operating according

572
00:41:51.780 --> 00:41:53.460
to the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

573
00:41:53.460 --> 00:41:55.540
Now that they're here, which one did they choose?

574
00:41:55.560 --> 00:41:56.720
The good one.

575
00:41:56.720 --> 00:41:58.120
I will obey you.

576
00:41:58.120 --> 00:41:59.540
I could go the way of the Gentiles,

577
00:41:59.540 --> 00:42:02.120
but instead, I will choose good things, and I will obey you.

578
00:42:02.120 --> 00:42:07.960
That's how God was able to say, what they have chosen is good.

579
00:42:07.960 --> 00:42:10.600
But the problem is, they still rejected him

580
00:42:10.600 --> 00:42:14.560
and still wanted separation instead of union.

581
00:42:14.560 --> 00:42:16.240
So I just wanted to point that out.

582
00:42:16.240 --> 00:42:19.120
So God consistently talks about the fact the law is good.

583
00:42:19.120 --> 00:42:20.160
The commandment is good.

584
00:42:20.160 --> 00:42:21.040
It's from me.

585
00:42:21.040 --> 00:42:22.120
It's holy.

586
00:42:22.120 --> 00:42:25.520
But it's not union.

587
00:42:25.520 --> 00:42:27.700
So do we understand that the thing in life

588
00:42:27.700 --> 00:42:29.860
is not the difference of good and evil,

589
00:42:29.860 --> 00:42:32.220
and doing good things in life, and doing evil things,

590
00:42:32.220 --> 00:42:34.140
and make sure to do all of these right things

591
00:42:34.140 --> 00:42:35.700
and hold all of these standards?

592
00:42:35.700 --> 00:42:36.300
It's not.

593
00:42:36.300 --> 00:42:38.340
The difference is separation and union.

594
00:42:38.340 --> 00:42:40.300
So that's why I told you, no matter what it is

595
00:42:40.300 --> 00:42:42.860
that you're going through, no matter how big the struggle is,

596
00:42:42.860 --> 00:42:45.140
always don't think, oh my goodness,

597
00:42:45.140 --> 00:42:46.460
what is God expecting me to do?

598
00:42:46.460 --> 00:42:47.980
First, shift back.

599
00:42:47.980 --> 00:42:49.340
I need to be.

600
00:42:49.340 --> 00:42:53.340
I need to choose that I'm unified with God,

601
00:42:53.340 --> 00:42:55.600
to receive that union, to receive that relationship

602
00:42:55.600 --> 00:42:56.700
and love.

603
00:42:56.700 --> 00:43:05.040
That is the choice that you're being faced with all day,

604
00:43:05.040 --> 00:43:05.680
every day.

605
00:43:05.680 --> 00:43:08.600
It's not, will you make a good choice or a bad choice?

606
00:43:08.600 --> 00:43:11.040
It's, will you choose union or separation?

607
00:43:11.040 --> 00:43:14.360
All day, every day, all of the little and the big decisions

608
00:43:14.360 --> 00:43:17.280
that you make, the struggles, anything that comes to you,

609
00:43:17.280 --> 00:43:20.800
it's all a question of, will you choose union or separation?

610
00:43:20.820 --> 00:43:22.940
It's not, will you choose something good or something

611
00:43:22.940 --> 00:43:23.440
evil?

612
00:43:28.020 --> 00:43:33.820
So also, let me just point this out really quick,

613
00:43:33.820 --> 00:43:35.900
that Chris Blackaby talks about this,

614
00:43:35.900 --> 00:43:37.660
so I'll mention this real quick, because I

615
00:43:37.660 --> 00:43:39.060
think it's really good.

616
00:43:39.060 --> 00:43:41.660
And I was able to recognize it in my own life,

617
00:43:41.660 --> 00:43:44.500
because you remember that I explained my testimony to you

618
00:43:44.500 --> 00:43:45.460
yesterday.

619
00:43:45.460 --> 00:43:47.660
So I was a very, very, very good girl.

620
00:43:47.680 --> 00:43:51.160
Well, why did it take me burning out however many times

621
00:43:51.160 --> 00:43:56.120
till I was 34 years old before I finally gave it all up?

622
00:43:56.120 --> 00:43:58.160
How could I last that long?

623
00:43:58.160 --> 00:43:59.880
And I didn't even explain to you fully

624
00:43:59.880 --> 00:44:02.040
about how extreme that was, but my sister

625
00:44:02.040 --> 00:44:06.960
can attest to you to the fact that I'm a different person.

626
00:44:06.960 --> 00:44:09.880
I'm a very different person than the way that I used to be.

627
00:44:09.880 --> 00:44:29.500
And once I'm inside, it gets better.

628
00:44:29.500 --> 00:44:32.460
But once I go outside, I started getting all that tickle

629
00:44:32.460 --> 00:44:34.660
in throat, and so I had to walk outside to get here,

630
00:44:34.660 --> 00:44:39.780
so it's still liking to play with me.

631
00:44:39.780 --> 00:44:52.760
But anyway, so I'm a very, very different person.

632
00:44:52.760 --> 00:44:57.560
The reason why it took me so long, and other people

633
00:44:57.560 --> 00:45:01.280
are able to get to this understanding faster.

634
00:45:00.000 --> 00:45:05.000
is that what I chose when I chose from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil is I chose the good things.

635
00:45:05.000 --> 00:45:09.000
Both of them bring death, both doing good and doing evil, you know.

636
00:45:09.000 --> 00:45:14.000
But the thing is, and this is the way that Chris talks about it,

637
00:45:14.000 --> 00:45:17.000
is think of it kind of like a clock.

638
00:45:17.000 --> 00:45:22.000
That when you're operating according to the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil,

639
00:45:22.000 --> 00:45:24.000
both the good and the evil go around the same clock.

640
00:45:24.000 --> 00:45:26.000
You're going around the same clock.

641
00:45:26.000 --> 00:45:30.000
And it's going to eventually lead you all back to the same place,

642
00:45:30.000 --> 00:45:36.000
whether you spend your whole life doing good or your whole life doing evil or a little bit of both.

643
00:45:36.000 --> 00:45:41.000
And the thing is that if you are choosing the evil things, the clock goes faster.

644
00:45:41.000 --> 00:45:44.000
You lead yourself to destruction faster.

645
00:45:44.000 --> 00:45:48.000
But if you do good, you're on the same clock, but it's much slower.

646
00:45:48.000 --> 00:45:50.000
But you go to the same place.

647
00:45:50.000 --> 00:45:55.000
And so that's why it took me so much longer to get the idea across

648
00:45:55.000 --> 00:45:58.000
is you're on the same trajectory.

649
00:45:58.000 --> 00:46:00.000
It leads to nothing but death.

650
00:46:00.000 --> 00:46:02.000
There's nothing but death in it.

651
00:46:02.000 --> 00:46:05.000
It's not that, oh, I'm doing all these things and eventually I'm going to get to the point

652
00:46:05.000 --> 00:46:08.000
where I'm going to experience some kind of a death.

653
00:46:08.000 --> 00:46:10.000
No, no, no.

654
00:46:10.000 --> 00:46:17.000
What you're giving out and what you're living is giving nothing but death into the world at that time.

655
00:46:17.000 --> 00:46:20.000
There's nothing redeeming about it.

656
00:46:20.000 --> 00:46:25.000
But doing good, which is why when God gave the law to the Israelites,

657
00:46:25.000 --> 00:46:29.000
he gave the law to the Israelites to protect them because they had rejected the covenant of sonship.

658
00:46:29.000 --> 00:46:32.000
It's like I desire them to, if they choose separation,

659
00:46:32.000 --> 00:46:36.000
I want them to be able to have the tools to provide for and protect and figure out

660
00:46:36.000 --> 00:46:41.000
and get a semblance or an idea or a feeling of identity for themselves.

661
00:46:41.000 --> 00:46:45.000
And so I'm going to give them the law.

662
00:46:45.000 --> 00:46:48.000
And in doing so, obviously it was a very kind thing.

663
00:46:48.000 --> 00:46:50.000
It was a very loving thing.

664
00:46:50.000 --> 00:46:54.000
And he gave them all those laws and all those rules and, oh, my word,

665
00:46:54.000 --> 00:46:58.000
all the things they had to remember in order to be good.

666
00:46:58.000 --> 00:47:00.000
Why did God give them those?

667
00:47:00.000 --> 00:47:06.000
Because they chose that clock, but their clock is now moving slower.

668
00:47:06.000 --> 00:47:11.000
And that's the mercy of God, giving them time.

669
00:47:11.000 --> 00:47:14.000
Remember, he holds back his wrath, and he's waiting.

670
00:47:14.000 --> 00:47:15.000
He's waiting.

671
00:47:15.000 --> 00:47:19.000
So that's why there's a difference between the evil and the good

672
00:47:19.000 --> 00:47:22.000
and within the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

673
00:47:22.000 --> 00:47:29.000
And another reason why God giving the Israelites the law was a loving thing to do.

674
00:47:29.000 --> 00:47:32.000
It's like, okay, let's slow it down.

675
00:47:32.000 --> 00:47:35.000
Follow all of these things, and you will be blessed.

676
00:47:35.000 --> 00:47:37.000
Don't follow them, and you will be cursed.

677
00:47:37.000 --> 00:47:42.000
You will travel, you know, pass through the clock a lot faster.

678
00:47:42.000 --> 00:47:47.000
I wanted to point out the difference between those two.

679
00:47:47.000 --> 00:47:54.000
Okay, I've already pointed that out.

680
00:47:54.000 --> 00:47:58.000
I've already talked about a lot of these things.

681
00:47:58.000 --> 00:48:06.000
Okay, why then did God put the tree of the knowledge of good and evil even into the garden?

682
00:48:06.000 --> 00:48:08.000
I've heard this explanation before,

683
00:48:08.000 --> 00:48:13.000
but it didn't make sense until I fully understood more of the gospel.

684
00:48:13.000 --> 00:48:20.000
He gave the tree of the knowledge of good and evil because he is a good God.

685
00:48:20.000 --> 00:48:22.000
He's very loving.

686
00:48:22.000 --> 00:48:24.000
And what is very, very important to him, remember,

687
00:48:24.000 --> 00:48:29.000
multiple things that we now have here that God reiterates to him are very, very important.

688
00:48:29.000 --> 00:48:35.000
Union, relationship, love, and free will.

689
00:48:35.000 --> 00:48:41.000
He desired to give us a choice.

690
00:48:41.000 --> 00:48:44.000
He's like, I don't want to be loved, and I don't want to be wanted,

691
00:48:44.000 --> 00:48:51.000
and I don't want to be wanted union with, or how you have union with, and you have no choice.

692
00:48:51.000 --> 00:48:57.000
You have the choice in having the choice to choose separation if you want.

693
00:48:57.000 --> 00:49:00.000
You get to choose me, and that's what I want.

694
00:49:00.000 --> 00:49:03.000
I want to be chosen.

695
00:49:03.000 --> 00:49:08.000
So he created the tree of the knowledge of good and evil to honor our free will

696
00:49:08.000 --> 00:49:11.000
because he desires to be affected by us.

697
00:49:11.000 --> 00:49:17.000
The God of the universe wanted to be chosen, and he didn't want us to have to.

698
00:49:17.000 --> 00:49:21.000
That doesn't make any of us feel good if we feel obligated to love someone else

699
00:49:21.000 --> 00:49:25.000
or someone else tries to make us feel obligated to love them.

700
00:49:25.000 --> 00:49:27.000
God of the universe wanted to be chosen,

701
00:49:27.000 --> 00:49:35.000
and so he created a good thing that will discover you can actually use the tools

702
00:49:35.000 --> 00:49:37.000
at the tree of the knowledge of good and evil,

703
00:49:37.000 --> 00:49:39.000
but there's a difference between using them.

704
00:49:39.000 --> 00:49:43.000
Jesus used this tree, but he didn't operate through it.

705
00:49:43.000 --> 00:49:48.000
He lorded over it, and once you lord over it and you realize you're not subjected to it,

706
00:49:48.000 --> 00:49:53.000
you get to benefit by using all of the things without thinking you need them

707
00:49:53.000 --> 00:49:55.000
and you're underneath them.

708
00:49:55.000 --> 00:49:56.000
That's the difference.

709
00:49:56.000 --> 00:49:59.000
So it's a good tree that we will continue to use.

710
00:49:59.000 --> 00:50:00.000
Even Jesus used it.

711
00:50:00.000 --> 00:50:06.560
But there's a vast difference between operating according to it and using all of the, using

712
00:50:06.560 --> 00:50:09.680
all of the tools that come with it.

713
00:50:09.680 --> 00:50:23.440
The, excuse me, I'm just going to point this out real quick because I think it's very interesting.

714
00:50:23.600 --> 00:50:31.760
Could we look, pull up Revelation 2 and then we'll do like, I don't know, 18 through 20 maybe?

715
00:50:35.520 --> 00:50:39.280
This is talking about, you know, the fact that God gave us free will,

716
00:50:39.280 --> 00:50:42.000
gave us an opportunity in our free will to choose.

717
00:50:42.720 --> 00:50:53.200
And so in this, excuse me, in this there, remember that the name of the tree is the

718
00:50:53.200 --> 00:50:55.760
tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

719
00:50:55.760 --> 00:51:00.720
So to the angel of the church in Thyatira write, these are the words of the son of God

720
00:51:00.720 --> 00:51:04.640
whose eyes are like blazing fire and whose feet are like burnished bronze.

721
00:51:04.640 --> 00:51:09.360
I know your deeds, your love and faith, your service and perseverance, and that you are

722
00:51:09.360 --> 00:51:11.600
now doing more than you did at first.

723
00:51:11.600 --> 00:51:13.920
Nevertheless, I have this against you.

724
00:51:13.920 --> 00:51:18.000
You tolerate that woman Jezebel who calls herself a prophet by her teaching.

725
00:51:20.560 --> 00:51:21.680
Something's wrong.

726
00:51:21.680 --> 00:51:22.480
Do I have the wrong passage?

727
00:51:23.360 --> 00:51:24.560
I mean, I think it's the same.

728
00:51:25.760 --> 00:51:27.520
Revelation 2, 20.

729
00:51:29.680 --> 00:51:30.320
Okay.

730
00:51:30.320 --> 00:51:33.200
Could you expand it to, I must have the wrong verse.

731
00:51:33.200 --> 00:51:37.520
We do want this chapter, but we'll just extend it to the rest of the,

732
00:51:38.320 --> 00:51:47.280
and we'll start I think in, in, in 18, but I don't remember where it goes.

733
00:51:51.040 --> 00:51:56.880
Okay.

734
00:51:56.880 --> 00:51:57.120
Okay.

735
00:51:57.120 --> 00:51:59.760
It was, it was, let me change that minute.

736
00:52:00.800 --> 00:52:05.680
It is verse 24.

737
00:52:06.400 --> 00:52:06.960
Okay.

738
00:52:06.960 --> 00:52:11.920
So, so let's look at verse 24.

739
00:52:11.920 --> 00:52:17.280
Now I say to the rest of you in Thyatira, to you who do not hold to Jezebel's teachings

740
00:52:17.280 --> 00:52:23.680
and have not learned Satan's so-called deep secrets, I will not impose any other burden

741
00:52:23.680 --> 00:52:27.040
on you except to hold on to what you have until I come.

742
00:52:27.680 --> 00:52:29.360
He commended them for not knowing.

743
00:52:30.560 --> 00:52:33.200
Remember that over here, we don't need to know anything.

744
00:52:33.200 --> 00:52:34.560
We already just are it.

745
00:52:35.520 --> 00:52:37.920
We always operate according to good.

746
00:52:37.920 --> 00:52:40.400
Everything, because it's of our character.

747
00:52:40.400 --> 00:52:45.440
All of these commandments that we're seeing are actually descriptions of your character,

748
00:52:45.440 --> 00:52:47.360
the descriptions of who it is that you are.

749
00:52:50.160 --> 00:52:53.600
And, and over here, you can choose the tree of the knowledge of good and evil,

750
00:52:53.600 --> 00:52:57.680
relying on your knowledge of things in order to know, okay, what's good?

751
00:52:57.680 --> 00:52:58.560
What should I do?

752
00:52:58.560 --> 00:52:59.440
What's godly?

753
00:53:00.720 --> 00:53:03.200
And what should I do or not do, et cetera.

754
00:53:04.000 --> 00:53:09.360
And, and, and relying on knowledge as our source is the source from which we can then

755
00:53:09.360 --> 00:53:15.680
execute and get success or to get God's pleasure or, or connection or intimacy is,

756
00:53:15.680 --> 00:53:17.120
oh, I have to know more about God.

757
00:53:17.120 --> 00:53:17.680
No, you don't.

758
00:53:18.320 --> 00:53:19.280
You have to abide in him.

759
00:53:20.240 --> 00:53:21.040
Just abide in him.

760
00:53:21.600 --> 00:53:22.720
Last night, I was here.

761
00:53:23.520 --> 00:53:25.840
After all of y'all had your time with Jesus, it was my turn.

762
00:53:25.840 --> 00:53:30.800
So all the lights were out and I, and I sat here on the floor and I had my time with the

763
00:53:30.800 --> 00:53:37.760
Lord and, and one of the things that I noticed is instead of having Jesus come and sit there

764
00:53:37.760 --> 00:53:41.280
and, and appear, because I couldn't see him last night.

765
00:53:42.080 --> 00:53:43.120
Sometimes even I don't see him.

766
00:53:43.840 --> 00:53:46.160
So I couldn't see him last night.

767
00:53:46.160 --> 00:53:48.240
And so I thought, okay, but actually you don't even need a tool.

768
00:53:49.040 --> 00:53:50.160
You know what it is.

769
00:53:50.160 --> 00:53:54.480
You just need to submit and surrender yourself to God and allow him to love you.

770
00:53:54.480 --> 00:53:58.880
So I found that place in me because I became familiar enough with it from having gone through

771
00:53:58.880 --> 00:54:02.880
so much with the Lord and just like continue to try to expand myself and make myself vulnerable

772
00:54:02.880 --> 00:54:03.680
with him.

773
00:54:03.680 --> 00:54:08.160
So I went to, I went to that, that place that I learned to identify.

774
00:54:08.160 --> 00:54:10.240
And then I opened myself and became vulnerable.

775
00:54:10.240 --> 00:54:14.080
And he just came and he just, and I, and I just received his love.

776
00:54:14.080 --> 00:54:19.920
He came and he, and he, and he would, and, and he would flood me, but see, I had to receive it.

777
00:54:20.800 --> 00:54:26.080
That's what allowed me to feel it is I chose to be that vulnerable and that open.

778
00:54:26.880 --> 00:54:28.560
And yes, it's very scary.

779
00:54:28.560 --> 00:54:29.120
Oh, I'm sorry.

780
00:54:29.120 --> 00:54:30.000
We're going to get back to it.

781
00:54:30.880 --> 00:54:32.960
Um, oh no, I think that, I think that we're done anyway.

782
00:54:32.960 --> 00:54:34.240
I can just continue to reference it.

783
00:54:34.240 --> 00:54:39.600
So the thing is that the reason I wanted to, um, uh, point out the thing about, uh, what

784
00:54:39.600 --> 00:54:43.520
he talks about Thyatira is he commended them for not knowing.

785
00:54:43.520 --> 00:54:45.040
He said, you don't have to know.

786
00:54:45.840 --> 00:54:50.880
You don't have to know Satan, Satan's dark secrets in order to avoid them or to know

787
00:54:50.880 --> 00:54:53.280
how to combat them or, or, or anything.

788
00:54:53.280 --> 00:54:55.040
That's not your protection.

789
00:54:55.040 --> 00:54:56.560
We got to know what's out there.

790
00:54:56.560 --> 00:54:58.000
So we know what to avoid.

791
00:54:58.080 --> 00:54:58.720
It's not true.

792
00:54:59.280 --> 00:54:59.840
If we know.

793
00:55:00.000 --> 00:55:04.920
the truth, and we know who it is that we are, anything that comes that doesn't

794
00:55:04.920 --> 00:55:09.640
line up with that is automatically obvious. We don't have to know it. We're

795
00:55:09.640 --> 00:55:14.600
not in a place where we're not protected, not provided for, and we're all always on

796
00:55:14.600 --> 00:55:20.360
the defensive in our lives. We abide in God. If we are, we're having to cover

797
00:55:20.360 --> 00:55:23.040
ourselves. We feel that we're not protected, so what is it that we have to

798
00:55:23.040 --> 00:55:28.480
rely on? Knowledge. I have to learn more about Satan's tactics. I have to

799
00:55:28.480 --> 00:55:32.680
learn more about warfare tactics. I have to learn more about, like, how to heal, you

800
00:55:32.680 --> 00:55:36.440
know, all of the ins and outs of the psychology of, you know, how to heal

801
00:55:36.440 --> 00:55:40.880
from personal trauma. I've discovered that you can heal from personal

802
00:55:40.880 --> 00:55:44.920
trauma, because I've done it myself, effortlessly, without even knowing and

803
00:55:44.920 --> 00:55:49.800
recognizing or acknowledging what the trauma was, and I discovered it because I

804
00:55:49.800 --> 00:55:53.600
would find myself in situations where I had always been triggered, and suddenly I

805
00:55:53.600 --> 00:55:58.120
wasn't being triggered, because I found my identity in Christ, and I didn't have

806
00:55:58.120 --> 00:56:01.560
to deal with it. I didn't have to battle it, battle the lies. Okay, well, I need to

807
00:56:01.560 --> 00:56:05.720
remember, don't believe this about myself, and instead believe this. I just had to

808
00:56:05.720 --> 00:56:09.760
be, and once I was, I wasn't being triggered anymore. It's wild. We don't have

809
00:56:09.760 --> 00:56:14.200
to know, and it's all we need in order to heal. I'm not villainizing all of these

810
00:56:14.200 --> 00:56:17.760
other tips, tricks, and tools that we can learn about how to heal from trauma or

811
00:56:17.760 --> 00:56:22.040
how to heal from other things. I'm just saying that let's

812
00:56:22.040 --> 00:56:27.720
make sure that we understand that if we use them to read the knowledge of

813
00:56:27.720 --> 00:56:31.960
good and evil, understand they are good gifts from a holy tree, from a good

814
00:56:31.960 --> 00:56:37.880
Father, but we are not subject to them. We do not need them in order to be healed.

815
00:56:37.880 --> 00:56:45.040
We have permission to use them in our process, but in their using of

816
00:56:45.040 --> 00:56:49.160
them, if we're feeling dependent on them that, oh, I need to go to a counselor, I

817
00:56:49.160 --> 00:56:52.760
need this, I need it, nothing wrong with going to a counselor, nothing wrong with

818
00:56:52.760 --> 00:56:56.520
going to a conference, nothing wrong with that. The problem is this internal

819
00:56:56.520 --> 00:57:01.520
feeling, do I need it? Is that my source? That's the problem, but if you realize

820
00:57:01.520 --> 00:57:07.920
it's not your source, everything is permissible. Paul says everything is

821
00:57:07.920 --> 00:57:12.060
permissible, but not everything is edifying. Everything is permissible. Jesus

822
00:57:12.060 --> 00:57:19.200
used tools. Eating is a tool, right, but Jesus ate. He even ate in his

823
00:57:19.200 --> 00:57:23.120
spiritual body, but why could he do that? Why could he do that as a perfect man,

824
00:57:24.080 --> 00:57:29.520
and in his human body, his physical body that was subject to corruption and

825
00:57:29.520 --> 00:57:33.120
death, and then also ate again in his spiritual body. Remember when he ate fish

826
00:57:33.120 --> 00:57:36.720
in front of them to prove to them that it really was him? It's because he

827
00:57:36.720 --> 00:57:39.440
knows he's not subject to it, so once you understand you're not

828
00:57:39.440 --> 00:57:44.240
subject to it, the world's yours. The world is not the devil's, the world is

829
00:57:44.240 --> 00:57:48.760
yours. Heaven is the Lord's, the earth was given to man, but we have to

830
00:57:48.760 --> 00:57:53.560
understand our position over it. We can use them, but we cannot

831
00:57:53.560 --> 00:58:01.000
believe that we need it, and that we're in lack if we don't have it, but once we

832
00:58:01.000 --> 00:58:05.400
realize that we're not, then God's like, hey, I created lots of trees in the

833
00:58:05.400 --> 00:58:11.120
garden. Which one do you want to use? Which one do you want to do? So you see

834
00:58:11.120 --> 00:58:15.120
the difference that God did not come to sit and make bad people good. He came to

835
00:58:15.160 --> 00:58:20.560
make dead people live. The difference is between death and life, between distance

836
00:58:20.560 --> 00:58:27.880
and intimacy, and between separation and union. That's the decision that we're

837
00:58:27.880 --> 00:58:32.840
always faced with. So don't worry, oh, I'm in this situation, I need to

838
00:58:32.840 --> 00:58:38.240
make sure to do the right thing. Mm-mm. Skip that. Back up. Excuse me.

839
00:58:38.240 --> 00:58:42.760
Find your identity in the Lord, and then from your identity in the Lord, you're

840
00:58:42.760 --> 00:58:46.120
now abiding, you know, in Him, according to the tree of life. You're

841
00:58:46.120 --> 00:58:49.440
operating according to His character and yours, and out of that character flows

842
00:58:49.440 --> 00:58:53.840
nothing but good, and out of that you are learning to operate in

843
00:58:53.840 --> 00:58:57.600
wisdom and in knowledge, and then you will know what to do. Then you will know

844
00:58:57.600 --> 00:59:01.760
what action to take, because the action is being done out of who it is that you

845
00:59:01.760 --> 00:59:04.680
are, and who it is that Christ is, as opposed to what it is that you've

846
00:59:04.680 --> 00:59:12.480
learned, and what it is that you know. Let's look at, I don't remember what this

847
00:59:12.480 --> 00:59:19.200
verse says, but it must be important. Let's look at Galatians 1, 6 through 14.

848
00:59:27.320 --> 00:59:34.000
And we'll see, we might be ending a little early today, which will be good.

849
00:59:34.000 --> 00:59:44.920
Okay, yes, now I remember. Okay, so, I'm astonished that you are so quickly

850
00:59:44.920 --> 00:59:48.520
deserting the one, so he's talking to Christians. I'm so astonished that you

851
00:59:48.520 --> 00:59:51.200
are so quickly deserting the one who called you to live in the grace of

852
00:59:51.200 --> 00:59:54.960
Christ, and are turning to a different gospel. What different gospel? The tree of

853
00:59:54.960 --> 00:59:58.360
the knowledge of good and evil, that what's required of us is what it is

854
00:59:58.360 --> 01:00:01.440
that we do and don't do.

855
01:00:00.000 --> 01:00:04.120
which is really no gospel at all.

856
01:00:05.120 --> 01:00:06.720
This is the gospel that I was given

857
01:00:06.720 --> 01:00:08.600
when I was four years old.

858
01:00:08.600 --> 01:00:12.680
This is the gospel that I received on July 11th, 2019.

859
01:00:12.680 --> 01:00:15.320
And this is what all of a sudden transformed my life.

860
01:00:15.320 --> 01:00:19.660
My life turned into Technicolor and I finally understood.

861
01:00:19.660 --> 01:00:21.560
And you've got to understand this person,

862
01:00:21.560 --> 01:00:26.400
this girl knew the Bible very well.

863
01:00:26.400 --> 01:00:28.480
I literally, not figuratively,

864
01:00:28.480 --> 01:00:31.680
literally spent, I would wake up on Saturday mornings

865
01:00:31.680 --> 01:00:33.920
when I was in college, wake up on Saturday mornings

866
01:00:33.920 --> 01:00:36.720
at, I don't remember if it was like 5.30 or six.

867
01:00:36.720 --> 01:00:37.920
I think it was probably six.

868
01:00:37.920 --> 01:00:38.880
I would get ready.

869
01:00:38.880 --> 01:00:42.160
The earliest that the cafeteria opened, I think, was seven.

870
01:00:42.160 --> 01:00:44.900
So I would get there by seven, Saturday morning.

871
01:00:46.540 --> 01:00:48.840
Get there by seven, eat my breakfast,

872
01:00:48.840 --> 01:00:52.160
and then I would go to this little restaurant on campus

873
01:00:52.160 --> 01:00:55.440
and I would sit in the back corner, I'd get coffee,

874
01:00:55.440 --> 01:00:57.600
and I would literally sit there until noon.

875
01:00:58.760 --> 01:01:00.240
Every Saturday.

876
01:01:00.240 --> 01:01:01.640
And I would study the Bible.

877
01:01:02.960 --> 01:01:06.680
But this girl got nowhere but condemnation.

878
01:01:06.680 --> 01:01:09.040
I knew what I was talking about.

879
01:01:09.040 --> 01:01:11.520
I could argue, I could debate.

880
01:01:11.520 --> 01:01:14.700
I wrote theological papers that got A's.

881
01:01:17.200 --> 01:01:20.480
But this, that I wasn't experiencing life.

882
01:01:20.480 --> 01:01:23.120
I transitioned into this and all of a sudden

883
01:01:23.120 --> 01:01:26.580
I began to understand that wasn't the gospel.

884
01:01:26.580 --> 01:01:27.880
This is the gospel.

885
01:01:28.280 --> 01:01:29.720
The fact that I am unified with Christ.

886
01:01:29.720 --> 01:01:31.620
The fact that Christ has done everything.

887
01:01:31.620 --> 01:01:33.080
The fact that it's not about the difference

888
01:01:33.080 --> 01:01:35.000
between doing something good or doing something evil

889
01:01:35.000 --> 01:01:36.800
or doing something good and something bad.

890
01:01:36.800 --> 01:01:39.040
The difference is between death and life.

891
01:01:39.040 --> 01:01:43.880
The choice is do I choose separation or do I choose union?

892
01:01:43.880 --> 01:01:46.080
Union requires my vulnerability.

893
01:01:46.080 --> 01:01:47.920
That's the cost.

894
01:01:47.920 --> 01:01:50.320
That's the living sacrifice.

895
01:01:50.320 --> 01:01:52.720
It requires vulnerability and it requires me

896
01:01:52.720 --> 01:01:56.960
and subjecting my, choosing that I'm not unsafe

897
01:01:57.120 --> 01:02:00.000
and choosing instead I'm going to just cast,

898
01:02:00.000 --> 01:02:01.920
I'm going to cast myself into the unknown,

899
01:02:01.920 --> 01:02:04.560
choosing that God will be there in the blackness,

900
01:02:04.560 --> 01:02:07.980
in the dark, that blackness of faith in the dark

901
01:02:07.980 --> 01:02:11.240
and then when I free fall, that safety net will catch me.

902
01:02:11.240 --> 01:02:13.920
That is the gospel and that is where I found freedom.

903
01:02:13.920 --> 01:02:14.920
That's where I found life.

904
01:02:14.920 --> 01:02:16.080
That is where I found joy.

905
01:02:16.080 --> 01:02:18.040
That's where I found love and God's constantly

906
01:02:18.040 --> 01:02:20.880
inviting us into deeper and deeper levels of all of that.

907
01:02:22.000 --> 01:02:25.660
So this other, this other is what we're,

908
01:02:25.660 --> 01:02:28.900
is what we have been taught and have taught our children

909
01:02:30.300 --> 01:02:34.580
is the gospel and we can all be freed from that.

910
01:02:34.580 --> 01:02:36.380
This isn't condemnation.

911
01:02:36.380 --> 01:02:38.220
You know, none of us need to, you're saving in condemnation

912
01:02:38.220 --> 01:02:39.220
of oh my goodness, going back.

913
01:02:39.220 --> 01:02:40.420
Oh my goodness, who have I corrupted?

914
01:02:40.420 --> 01:02:41.660
No, no, no, no, no.

915
01:02:41.660 --> 01:02:44.680
The thing is, do we realize that's not who you are?

916
01:02:44.680 --> 01:02:46.220
So just rest.

917
01:02:46.220 --> 01:02:48.020
In other words, let it go.

918
01:02:48.020 --> 01:02:49.260
That's what rest means.

919
01:02:49.260 --> 01:02:51.000
It means, that's how we shift into rest.

920
01:02:51.000 --> 01:02:52.840
You let it go and you just release.

921
01:02:52.840 --> 01:02:55.620
You don't have to have it.

922
01:02:56.460 --> 01:02:57.300
Just let it go.

923
01:02:57.300 --> 01:03:00.260
There's no payment for what it is that we did and didn't do

924
01:03:00.260 --> 01:03:01.700
and believed and didn't believe.

925
01:03:01.700 --> 01:03:02.980
There's no payment.

926
01:03:02.980 --> 01:03:05.940
You just stop and you move on

927
01:03:05.940 --> 01:03:07.640
because there is therefore now no condemnation,

928
01:03:07.640 --> 01:03:09.260
nothing to have to be paid for,

929
01:03:09.260 --> 01:03:11.120
nothing to have to feel sorry for.

930
01:03:12.060 --> 01:03:13.380
You just stop.

931
01:03:13.380 --> 01:03:14.860
That's all that Jesus required

932
01:03:14.860 --> 01:03:17.140
of the woman who committed adultery.

933
01:03:17.140 --> 01:03:18.860
He didn't tell her, okay, I need you to go back

934
01:03:18.860 --> 01:03:20.860
and make restitution for everything.

935
01:03:20.860 --> 01:03:23.940
You know, when he was down there drawing in the sand

936
01:03:24.420 --> 01:03:25.260
and the woman came up, you know,

937
01:03:25.260 --> 01:03:27.020
and this man said, you know, well,

938
01:03:27.020 --> 01:03:28.180
you know, she needs to be stoned

939
01:03:28.180 --> 01:03:29.020
and da, da, da, da,

940
01:03:29.020 --> 01:03:31.060
because she was found in the act of adultery.

941
01:03:31.060 --> 01:03:34.100
He said, okay, whichever of you has not sinned,

942
01:03:34.100 --> 01:03:35.900
you know, cast the first stone, they all leave.

943
01:03:35.900 --> 01:03:36.860
He then turns to her and asks,

944
01:03:36.860 --> 01:03:39.100
well, where are those who condemn you?

945
01:03:39.100 --> 01:03:40.780
And where are your accusers?

946
01:03:40.780 --> 01:03:41.940
And she said, they're all gone.

947
01:03:41.940 --> 01:03:44.140
He said, then neither do I condemn you.

948
01:03:44.140 --> 01:03:45.740
Go and sin no more.

949
01:03:45.740 --> 01:03:47.380
He didn't tell her to feel sorry.

950
01:03:48.780 --> 01:03:50.340
What he did tell her to do is repent

951
01:03:50.340 --> 01:03:54.100
and all repent is stop and do the other thing.

952
01:03:54.100 --> 01:03:56.260
You no longer have to pay for what you did.

953
01:03:57.540 --> 01:03:59.060
So just want to mention that.

954
01:03:59.060 --> 01:04:00.220
So there's no condemnation.

955
01:04:00.220 --> 01:04:02.140
So this other here,

956
01:04:02.140 --> 01:04:03.300
a tree of the knowledge of good and evil

957
01:04:03.300 --> 01:04:05.260
is really not a goddess of gospel at all.

958
01:04:05.260 --> 01:04:08.460
Evidently, some people are throwing you into confusion

959
01:04:08.460 --> 01:04:11.060
and are trying to pervert the gospel of Christ.

960
01:04:11.060 --> 01:04:13.740
But even if we or an angel from heaven

961
01:04:13.740 --> 01:04:18.180
should preach a gospel other than the one we preach to you,

962
01:04:18.180 --> 01:04:20.180
let them be under God's curse.

963
01:04:21.140 --> 01:04:22.180
So now I say again,

964
01:04:22.180 --> 01:04:24.500
if anybody is preaching to you a gospel

965
01:04:24.500 --> 01:04:25.980
other than what you accepted,

966
01:04:25.980 --> 01:04:27.700
let them be under God's curse.

967
01:04:27.700 --> 01:04:30.780
God takes this very seriously.

968
01:04:30.780 --> 01:04:33.780
Remember, when Jesus was at set with people,

969
01:04:33.780 --> 01:04:35.540
what was he at set with people about?

970
01:04:35.540 --> 01:04:38.860
When they were talking to people

971
01:04:38.860 --> 01:04:41.580
about having to live like this in order to be connected

972
01:04:41.580 --> 01:04:46.580
or having relationship with God and affirming separation.

973
01:04:46.940 --> 01:04:49.620
Jesus took that very, very seriously.

974
01:04:49.660 --> 01:04:52.620
So am I now trying to win the approval of human beings

975
01:04:52.620 --> 01:04:53.540
or of God?

976
01:04:53.540 --> 01:04:55.060
Am I trying to please people?

977
01:04:55.060 --> 01:04:56.780
If I were still trying to please people,

978
01:04:56.780 --> 01:04:58.900
I would not be a servant of Christ.

979
01:05:00.000 --> 01:05:06.360
Okay, I think I'm going to, could you scroll down just a little bit?

980
01:05:06.360 --> 01:05:07.360
Okay, never mind.

981
01:05:07.360 --> 01:05:10.840
I already, yeah, I already reached the end and didn't realize it.

982
01:05:10.840 --> 01:05:15.520
Yeah, okay, so that's all we need there.

983
01:05:15.520 --> 01:05:20.080
So we're going to finish with some last things here.

984
01:05:20.080 --> 01:05:25.440
One of them I've already mentioned and, oh, well, okay, let's look at Hebrews 6.

985
01:05:25.440 --> 01:05:29.520
Where do I want to start?

986
01:05:29.520 --> 01:05:37.440
Let's see, could we just pull up Hebrews 6 and then we'll scroll down to, okay, the certainty

987
01:05:37.440 --> 01:05:39.840
of God's promise, that's where I want to start.

988
01:05:39.840 --> 01:05:43.240
So this is how God makes promises.

989
01:05:43.240 --> 01:05:47.760
We're about to talk about this because God makes promises and covenants with us when

990
01:05:47.760 --> 01:05:51.640
we're at rest because there's nothing left to do.

991
01:05:51.640 --> 01:05:55.920
Remember, if there's something for us to do, if this was the gospel, then we're operating

992
01:05:55.920 --> 01:05:58.120
according to the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

993
01:05:58.120 --> 01:06:01.560
So we're actually called to operate according to the tree of life.

994
01:06:01.560 --> 01:06:06.400
So in the tree of life, how are covenants made?

995
01:06:06.400 --> 01:06:12.480
They're always made where God initiates everything and we effortlessly receive it.

996
01:06:12.480 --> 01:06:17.880
Here we realize we're not even part of the covenant.

997
01:06:17.880 --> 01:06:20.720
We're the beneficiaries of the covenant.

998
01:06:20.720 --> 01:06:24.880
So when God made his promise to Abraham, since there was no one greater for him to

999
01:06:24.880 --> 01:06:29.720
swear by, he swore by himself saying, I will surely bless you and give you many descendants.

1000
01:06:29.720 --> 01:06:33.680
And so after waiting patiently, Abraham received what was promised.

1001
01:06:33.680 --> 01:06:38.080
People swear by someone greater than themselves and the oath confirms what is said and puts

1002
01:06:38.080 --> 01:06:43.680
an end to all argument because God, over here, he's making this covenant, God wanted to make

1003
01:06:43.680 --> 01:06:48.880
the unchanging nature of his purpose very clear to the errors of what was promised and

1004
01:06:48.880 --> 01:06:50.540
he confirmed it with an oath.

1005
01:06:50.540 --> 01:07:02.660
God did this to that by two unchangeable things, which is his, I think it says promise, yeah,

1006
01:07:02.660 --> 01:07:06.980
being very clear to the errors of what was promised, two unchangeable things, promise

1007
01:07:06.980 --> 01:07:11.420
and an oath because God made covenant with himself in which it is impossible for God

1008
01:07:11.420 --> 01:07:12.420
to lie.

1009
01:07:12.420 --> 01:07:18.140
We who have fled to take hold of the hope set before us may be greatly encouraged.

1010
01:07:18.140 --> 01:07:25.300
We have this hope as an anchor for the soul, firm and secure.

1011
01:07:25.300 --> 01:07:32.300
So what it is, what it's saying there is it said God made covenant with himself, Abraham

1012
01:07:32.300 --> 01:07:34.980
received the benefit.

1013
01:07:34.980 --> 01:07:42.420
All covenants are made while we're at rest, even Jesus.

1014
01:07:42.420 --> 01:07:45.260
Jesus wasn't part of the covenant between the church and the bride.

1015
01:07:45.420 --> 01:07:48.620
It always says the father gave his bride to Christ.

1016
01:07:48.620 --> 01:07:53.140
I think even Christ says at some point, he says, you know, the father gave the bride

1017
01:07:53.140 --> 01:07:58.180
to me or God gave you to me and I don't take anyone except those that the father draws.

1018
01:07:58.180 --> 01:08:02.780
God the father initiates everything, God, Jesus wasn't even part of the covenant.

1019
01:08:02.780 --> 01:08:08.740
Jesus was at rest, he was in a deep sleep when God made the covenant.

1020
01:08:08.740 --> 01:08:11.420
God created his bride and made the covenant.

1021
01:08:11.420 --> 01:08:17.779
Abraham was asleep when God created Eve and made covenant.

1022
01:08:17.779 --> 01:08:18.779
Same thing with Abraham.

1023
01:08:18.779 --> 01:08:23.580
Abraham, if we go back to what this scripture reference is referring to, you remember when

1024
01:08:23.580 --> 01:08:27.740
Abraham made the altar and he took those does and all those other animals and he would divide

1025
01:08:27.740 --> 01:08:29.580
them in half and he had them all on the altar.

1026
01:08:29.580 --> 01:08:30.580
What does it say?

1027
01:08:30.580 --> 01:08:31.580
I always thought it was very weird.

1028
01:08:31.580 --> 01:08:33.620
This is a very important moment, Abraham.

1029
01:08:33.620 --> 01:08:35.580
Why are you going into a deep sleep?

1030
01:08:35.580 --> 01:08:37.380
It was very confusing to me.

1031
01:08:37.380 --> 01:08:40.420
It's because Abraham, God put Abraham at rest.

1032
01:08:40.420 --> 01:08:45.939
He's like, no, no, no, you're the beneficiary, but you're not part of the covenant.

1033
01:08:45.939 --> 01:08:47.740
You're not one of the two parties.

1034
01:08:47.740 --> 01:08:49.939
You're the third party beneficiary.

1035
01:08:49.939 --> 01:08:55.779
I make covenant with myself and you benefit and it goes so far as to show even in Christ's

1036
01:08:55.779 --> 01:09:03.660
life where Christ died and even Christ, who is God, in order for him to be the beneficiary.

1037
01:09:03.660 --> 01:09:09.479
So understand in our covenant with God, he's the beneficiary.

1038
01:09:09.540 --> 01:09:12.720
He wanted to bless himself and what did he bless himself with?

1039
01:09:12.720 --> 01:09:13.720
You.

1040
01:09:13.720 --> 01:09:20.960
You are what God chose to bless himself with to the point that he followed that same principle

1041
01:09:20.960 --> 01:09:27.479
and he put his son, who would benefit from having a bride, to sleep and Jesus wasn't

1042
01:09:27.479 --> 01:09:28.840
even part of the covenant.

1043
01:09:28.840 --> 01:09:36.160
God made covenant with himself, created a bride for his son so that when he reawoke,

1044
01:09:36.160 --> 01:09:39.760
they were reunited.

1045
01:09:39.760 --> 01:09:45.640
So God doesn't keep certain laws and rules and principles for us.

1046
01:09:45.640 --> 01:09:51.560
He proves how far this goes by operating according to those same principles.

1047
01:09:51.560 --> 01:09:57.400
Even when he wanted to give himself a blessing and a benefit, he put himself to sleep, made

1048
01:09:57.400 --> 01:10:00.000
covenant with the other aspects of himself, so to speak.

1049
01:10:00.000 --> 01:10:04.560
I know all of this is hard even for me. I don't even fully know how to articulate it, but

1050
01:10:05.200 --> 01:10:07.200
the other aspects of himself

1051
01:10:07.320 --> 01:10:14.280
made covenant while Jesus was asleep and he and he benefited us and gave us. He benefited himself

1052
01:10:14.820 --> 01:10:16.820
with us as the gift.

1053
01:10:17.040 --> 01:10:18.560
God always does everything.

1054
01:10:18.560 --> 01:10:24.800
So Adam, Abraham, and Jesus are just three examples in Christ in scripture that we see of being put at rest

1055
01:10:24.960 --> 01:10:28.840
when God wanted to make covenant. When God wants to do something, he does it.

1056
01:10:30.840 --> 01:10:33.480
Doesn't mean that we don't get to participate.

1057
01:10:33.480 --> 01:10:39.320
We'll be talking about that later about how to govern creation and our participation, which is very, very important.

1058
01:10:39.320 --> 01:10:41.600
That's that power of intention that we keep talking about.

1059
01:10:41.600 --> 01:10:47.440
We have a seed to contribute and we do have to voluntarily and of our free will give that seed.

1060
01:10:47.640 --> 01:10:50.700
But when God wants to actually, but

1061
01:10:51.440 --> 01:10:55.600
with God's seed comes everything that's needed in order to create the result.

1062
01:10:55.920 --> 01:10:59.080
But it's our partnership that he requires in

1063
01:10:59.560 --> 01:11:04.320
in the relationship of union with him that actually allows something to manifest on the earth.

1064
01:11:04.680 --> 01:11:07.880
Just drop that little thing in there, but we'll be explaining all that later.

1065
01:11:09.440 --> 01:11:15.600
Last thing I wanted to go over, there's lots of scripture references that we could use here, but I'm just going to mention my favorite.

1066
01:11:15.600 --> 01:11:22.800
I have this, I always remember this reference. It's Luke 12, 22, starting in verse 22.

1067
01:11:22.800 --> 01:11:30.520
I don't remember what it goes through, 26, 28, whatever. You might want to leave the end open-ended.

1068
01:11:36.960 --> 01:11:38.200
Okay.

1069
01:11:38.200 --> 01:11:43.080
Jesus has talked to me about this a lot. So for those of you who don't know, I guess I didn't mention this in my testimony.

1070
01:11:43.080 --> 01:11:46.400
God called me to start traveling with him back in June of last year.

1071
01:11:46.400 --> 01:11:51.000
So I am sold 90-95% of everything that I owned.

1072
01:11:51.800 --> 01:11:52.960
And

1073
01:11:52.960 --> 01:11:56.160
now literally everything that I own, including me and my little dog,

1074
01:11:56.640 --> 01:11:59.000
can fit into a closet that

1075
01:11:59.200 --> 01:12:05.240
where my parents allowed me to store my stuff in at their house. And no, it's not a big, huge walk-in closet.

1076
01:12:05.240 --> 01:12:09.440
It's just a closet. I can fit literally everything I own in there except my car.

1077
01:12:10.040 --> 01:12:13.600
And I went from about a 1,400 square foot home,

1078
01:12:14.280 --> 01:12:18.840
fully stocked and fully settled in, kitchen, dining, living room.

1079
01:12:18.840 --> 01:12:25.640
I mean, I had all of the furniture to fill that filled two bedrooms and two full-size baths.

1080
01:12:26.200 --> 01:12:28.480
I sold and got rid of all of that between

1081
01:12:29.400 --> 01:12:31.400
February and

1082
01:12:31.800 --> 01:12:34.160
August, I think. It took a very long time.

1083
01:12:34.800 --> 01:12:40.360
But anyway, and God did that in preparation for what he would tell me in June, which is,

1084
01:12:40.360 --> 01:12:45.920
Hey, Ashley, I want you to actually be on the road. And so I moved out of my apartment.

1085
01:12:46.920 --> 01:12:48.440
And

1086
01:12:48.440 --> 01:12:53.080
And so I've been, I, he called me, he said, Ashley, I want you to travel with me.

1087
01:12:53.080 --> 01:12:59.560
He'd given me a vision of him. And, and he's like, I want, when traveling with me,

1088
01:12:59.560 --> 01:13:03.320
he said, the purpose is I want you to rely on my character.

1089
01:13:04.160 --> 01:13:09.560
Now you can rely on God's character without, without traveling and doing anything as extreme as I did.

1090
01:13:09.560 --> 01:13:15.440
But I had been, understand, I had been living this while I had all my stuff. So now God's like, okay,

1091
01:13:15.440 --> 01:13:17.160
let's just take you to a new level.

1092
01:13:17.160 --> 01:13:21.240
Not everybody's gonna experience it quite like this, but this is how I want you to experience me.

1093
01:13:21.240 --> 01:13:26.600
I want you to experience being sustained by my character in multiple ways.

1094
01:13:27.880 --> 01:13:32.320
To the point, I run out of gas on the road. A single woman alone out in the middle of nowhere,

1095
01:13:32.320 --> 01:13:36.320
I've run out of gas. And it was the Lord that got me to the next gas station.

1096
01:13:37.840 --> 01:13:41.520
So, I mean, I have to rely on his character and that's what I did. In that moment,

1097
01:13:41.520 --> 01:13:43.720
I had to shift in and like, okay, God, who are you?

1098
01:13:43.720 --> 01:13:48.680
And the reason I'm interjecting this, this, um, this part here is

1099
01:13:49.320 --> 01:13:54.720
because remember I said that with God's word comes everything that we need in order to be sustained.

1100
01:13:54.840 --> 01:13:57.120
So I'm driving down the road and I'm thinking,

1101
01:13:57.680 --> 01:14:00.240
God said, I know who he is.

1102
01:14:00.920 --> 01:14:06.160
To the point where I choose him, even if I don't make it to the gas station.

1103
01:14:06.720 --> 01:14:10.800
My God is still good and the evidence does not tell me otherwise.

1104
01:14:10.800 --> 01:14:15.680
He gets to tell me what's really going on. The world does not dictate to me who God is.

1105
01:14:16.320 --> 01:14:19.360
So it's being sustained by, being sustained by his character.

1106
01:14:19.600 --> 01:14:25.800
So he always, very, very often takes me back to this, this passage to remember where my source is.

1107
01:14:26.560 --> 01:14:31.800
My source of my provision, my protection, you know, my money, um, uh, what's going to happen to me?

1108
01:14:31.800 --> 01:14:34.960
You know, physically, am I in a safe environment? Am I going to be protected?

1109
01:14:34.960 --> 01:14:38.440
I'm driving alone at night, you know, da, da, da, da. I'm out in the middle of nowhere.

1110
01:14:38.480 --> 01:14:43.600
You know, whatever's going on. Um, and then, and then my identity, which we so often, um, uh,

1111
01:14:43.600 --> 01:14:50.600
and, uh, which we so often come up, um, uh, trying to figure, uh, trying to be,

1112
01:14:50.600 --> 01:14:57.600
where that aspect of this is questioned when someone is, um, uh, when we're being tempted to believe.

1113
01:15:00.000 --> 01:15:02.400
believe that we're something other than God said that we were because of

1114
01:15:02.400 --> 01:15:05.560
something that somebody said or some movie that we're watching or some or

1115
01:15:05.560 --> 01:15:08.000
something that happens and we think well surely that wouldn't have happened if I

1116
01:15:08.000 --> 01:15:11.160
was good surely that wouldn't have happened if I'm obeying God surely that

1117
01:15:11.160 --> 01:15:15.280
wouldn't have happened if I'm pleasing to him and we start questioning our

1118
01:15:15.280 --> 01:15:20.080
identity anyway and all of those things God wants us to rely completely on his

1119
01:15:20.080 --> 01:15:24.800
character I'm sustained by the fact that he said it and with his word comes

1120
01:15:24.800 --> 01:15:30.440
everything that I need and it can and I allow him to manifest his character

1121
01:15:30.440 --> 01:15:37.600
however he wants Shadrach Meshach and Abednego said he my God can save me from

1122
01:15:37.600 --> 01:15:44.360
the fire our God will save us from the fire but even if he doesn't so it they

1123
01:15:44.360 --> 01:15:48.240
what we're choosing is we're choosing God's character we're not choosing the

1124
01:15:48.240 --> 01:15:55.200
manifestation it's very very extreme so we've all heard this passage so many

1125
01:15:55.200 --> 01:16:00.680
times I ask you to take this passage in a way that maybe you never have before

1126
01:16:00.680 --> 01:16:07.840
God Jesus is talking literally this is not a parable it's very literal this is

1127
01:16:07.840 --> 01:16:16.520
how I live my life this is how God this is how God provides for me sometimes

1128
01:16:16.520 --> 01:16:20.400
it's financially some in the financial and the financial come in a variety of

1129
01:16:20.400 --> 01:16:24.240
ways sometimes it's not financial I can never I can never quantify it in a

1130
01:16:24.240 --> 01:16:28.880
dollar amount sometimes it's like a gift of something sometimes it's the fact

1131
01:16:28.880 --> 01:16:34.800
that I normally would need something and I don't have it and God makes me where I

1132
01:16:34.800 --> 01:16:41.320
don't even need it like think about food for instance we can think okay well that

1133
01:16:41.320 --> 01:16:44.880
okay well God I I don't have money oh my goodness that means that I won't have

1134
01:16:44.880 --> 01:16:50.760
food okay God can you please give me money so that I can have food well

1135
01:16:50.760 --> 01:16:55.720
instead of giving money so that you can get food God can just give you food and

1136
01:16:55.720 --> 01:17:01.680
completely bypass the money or he can simply make you not hungry where your

1137
01:17:01.680 --> 01:17:05.640
body is being completely sustained by his character and you don't need to eat

1138
01:17:05.640 --> 01:17:15.320
Jesus didn't need to eat Moses spent 80 days without food he spent 40 went down

1139
01:17:15.320 --> 01:17:18.880
off the mountain then immediately you know when and during the whole golden

1140
01:17:18.880 --> 01:17:23.840
calf fiasco went immediately back up and spent another 40 days fasting Moses

1141
01:17:23.840 --> 01:17:29.280
spent 80 days without food Jesus spent you know 40 days in the wilderness and

1142
01:17:29.280 --> 01:17:34.600
you know without food because they were relying on God's character to sustain

1143
01:17:34.600 --> 01:17:40.920
every aspect in the self spirit soul and body sustained by nothing but the

1144
01:17:40.920 --> 01:17:45.880
Word of God it's that extreme so God's teaching me more and more how to live

1145
01:17:45.880 --> 01:17:48.960
this and he's teaching all of us how to do that he's just taking me on my own

1146
01:17:48.960 --> 01:17:53.560
unique journey of what it happens to look like in life but but this is what

1147
01:17:53.560 --> 01:17:57.200
God wants for all of us so again take this literally I always used to take

1148
01:17:57.200 --> 01:18:00.960
this as a parable sort of kind of I mean I know I was supposed to take it

1149
01:18:00.960 --> 01:18:04.280
literally but I could never figure it out and then I started living it I'm

1150
01:18:04.280 --> 01:18:09.080
like oh wow this is literal so then Jesus said to his disciples therefore I

1151
01:18:09.080 --> 01:18:14.400
tell you do not do not worry about your life what you will eat and he does mean

1152
01:18:14.400 --> 01:18:18.280
that literally do not worry about your life what you will eat or about your

1153
01:18:18.280 --> 01:18:22.480
body what you will wear for life is more than food and the body more than than

1154
01:18:22.480 --> 01:18:25.680
these clothes right here not we're not talking parables we're talking about

1155
01:18:25.680 --> 01:18:31.640
literal I consider the Ravens they do not sow or reap they have no storm all

1156
01:18:31.640 --> 01:18:36.400
of those all of those animals out there that are outside right now they do not

1157
01:18:36.400 --> 01:18:40.400
sow or reap and they have no storeroom or born yet God feeds them and how much

1158
01:18:40.400 --> 01:18:44.800
more valuable you are than the birds so if God would literally give birds food

1159
01:18:44.800 --> 01:18:50.920
why would we think that God's talking in a parable to us literally God can give

1160
01:18:50.920 --> 01:18:54.840
us everything it is that we need it's not figurative and how much more

1161
01:18:54.840 --> 01:18:58.800
valuable than you are in the birds who of you by worrying can add a single hour

1162
01:18:58.800 --> 01:19:01.240
to your life oh my goodness where am I gonna get this where am I gonna get that

1163
01:19:01.240 --> 01:19:05.920
since you can't do this very little thing why do you worry about the rest of

1164
01:19:05.920 --> 01:19:10.320
it consider how the wildflowers grow they do not labor or spend yet I tell

1165
01:19:10.320 --> 01:19:15.400
you not even Solomon in all of his doing all of his trying all of his prove all

1166
01:19:15.400 --> 01:19:20.560
of his worldly provision and means of protection not even he in all of his

1167
01:19:20.560 --> 01:19:26.640
wonder was dressed like one who's not working for it if that is how God closed

1168
01:19:26.640 --> 01:19:30.560
the grass of the field which is here today and gone tomorrow but you're

1169
01:19:30.560 --> 01:19:37.480
eternal then how much more will he cloak you you of little faith so I encourage

1170
01:19:37.480 --> 01:19:41.440
you take passages like this there's multiple passages and beyond this where

1171
01:19:41.440 --> 01:19:48.000
God says if you abide in the tree of life you were I have everything with

1172
01:19:48.000 --> 01:19:53.160
God's God says you know actually I have everything within me and you are in me

1173
01:19:53.160 --> 01:19:57.320
and from that you have everything it is that you need you were always sustained

1174
01:19:57.320 --> 01:19:59.760
so here's something very interesting this is kind of the way that I think

1175
01:19:59.760 --> 01:20:02.000
about it

1176
01:20:00.000 --> 01:20:11.800
And this is where we'll close, is that I just kind of think about it like, as I've tried

1177
01:20:11.800 --> 01:20:15.720
to like kind of sense things in the spirit, I realized, okay, God says that we're not

1178
01:20:15.720 --> 01:20:16.720
in lack.

1179
01:20:16.720 --> 01:20:22.280
Therefore, provision, protection, identity, being loved, liked, and expect to be comforted

1180
01:20:22.280 --> 01:20:30.600
is not something that you're in lack of until you're given it by God.

1181
01:20:30.600 --> 01:20:34.880
It's not a thing that is transferred.

1182
01:20:34.880 --> 01:20:41.720
It is an environment and a substance that was created, yeah, it's an environment, I'm

1183
01:20:41.720 --> 01:20:44.800
trying to make sure that I get the right word to articulate what I'm trying to say.

1184
01:20:44.800 --> 01:20:50.160
It's an environment that was created in order to sustain you.

1185
01:20:50.160 --> 01:20:52.120
It's like this substance that we're in.

1186
01:20:52.120 --> 01:20:56.520
We're in this substance called, and don't think of it like literally, this is the best

1187
01:20:56.520 --> 01:20:59.600
way that I can picture it for us of what's going on in the spirit.

1188
01:20:59.600 --> 01:21:05.760
It's this, think of like a house that would be built, you know, that God says, you know,

1189
01:21:05.760 --> 01:21:07.840
that he was going to go and build mansions and all of that.

1190
01:21:07.840 --> 01:21:11.640
Think of like a house that God is building and you're thinking, okay, well, I'm going

1191
01:21:11.640 --> 01:21:12.640
to be put in it.

1192
01:21:12.640 --> 01:21:17.520
The house was built to create an environment to give you something.

1193
01:21:17.520 --> 01:21:18.680
So that's what it's like.

1194
01:21:18.680 --> 01:21:22.360
It's like this environment, the protection, provision, and identity is like this environment

1195
01:21:22.360 --> 01:21:24.640
in which we're always in.

1196
01:21:24.640 --> 01:21:29.160
We were born into this.

1197
01:21:29.160 --> 01:21:34.040
We've never, you know, being, when we've been, during the time that we've been, you know,

1198
01:21:34.040 --> 01:21:39.720
we accepted Christ our Savior, we're one with Christ, you know, however you see that.

1199
01:21:39.720 --> 01:21:45.280
When we're in that place, we have always, it is an environment in which we're in and

1200
01:21:45.280 --> 01:21:51.920
we're never in lack, no matter what our circumstances might try to prove to us otherwise.

1201
01:21:51.920 --> 01:21:55.040
Provision and protection is not something you don't have that you're praying God for

1202
01:21:55.040 --> 01:21:58.800
to give you something that you're in lack of, because that's an acknowledgment of the

1203
01:21:58.800 --> 01:22:04.600
fact I'm in lack, and God says, no, you're never in lack.

1204
01:22:04.600 --> 01:22:09.960
You're always in me and I am the provision and the supply of everything.

1205
01:22:09.960 --> 01:22:13.700
I am the thing from which everything else emanates.

1206
01:22:13.700 --> 01:22:17.220
So you're never in lack, and then I transfer it to you, and then you're not in lack.

1207
01:22:17.220 --> 01:22:25.100
It's that you are in a substance in which you are always provided for and protected.

1208
01:22:25.100 --> 01:22:30.820
So it's an actual environment that I believe was created for us that sustains us.

1209
01:22:30.820 --> 01:22:34.100
But it is, again, we're not subject to it.

1210
01:22:34.100 --> 01:22:35.380
We don't need it.

1211
01:22:35.380 --> 01:22:37.980
That's feeling that we're operating in life according to the tree of knowledge of good

1212
01:22:37.980 --> 01:22:38.980
and evil.

1213
01:22:38.980 --> 01:22:40.180
I need something outside of me.

1214
01:22:40.180 --> 01:22:42.540
God, I need you to give me something.

1215
01:22:42.540 --> 01:22:46.100
We think we're in lack and we need something outside of us, including God's provision and

1216
01:22:46.100 --> 01:22:47.100
protection.

1217
01:22:47.100 --> 01:22:48.180
God says, no.

1218
01:22:48.180 --> 01:22:53.620
Provision and protection is from me, but it's an environment in which you exist.

1219
01:22:53.620 --> 01:23:00.180
He wants us to not ever acknowledge that we don't have a measure of protection and provision,

1220
01:23:00.180 --> 01:23:04.260
but we're faithing in something he's going to transaction to us.

1221
01:23:04.260 --> 01:23:10.740
He's like, no, choose and acknowledge the fact that it's a substance and an environment

1222
01:23:10.900 --> 01:23:16.700
that you are always in that I have built specifically for the purpose to serve, to sustain, and

1223
01:23:16.700 --> 01:23:20.500
to support you in everything it is that you do.

1224
01:23:20.500 --> 01:23:25.180
What we've been learned from the Lord is, how then, Lord, am I in this feeling where

1225
01:23:25.180 --> 01:23:27.620
I'm not protected and I'm not provided for?

1226
01:23:27.620 --> 01:23:33.340
How mature me, Lord, to the point of understanding how to engage with the provision and the protection

1227
01:23:33.340 --> 01:23:36.140
of the environment in which I'm in.

1228
01:23:36.140 --> 01:23:40.740
It's an engagement of an environment that we're in, that we're maturing into understanding

1229
01:23:40.740 --> 01:23:41.740
how to do.

1230
01:23:41.740 --> 01:23:42.740
I'm sorry.

1231
01:23:42.740 --> 01:23:49.620
I know that this is a very big esoterical concept, but I just wanted to point it out

1232
01:23:49.620 --> 01:23:55.980
that it is something that as we mature, we're learning how to engage with.

1233
01:23:55.980 --> 01:23:59.140
That's the prayer.

1234
01:23:59.140 --> 01:24:04.460
God teach me how to understand what it is I already have to access and engage with it,

1235
01:24:04.460 --> 01:24:09.580
as opposed to, God, provide this for me.

1236
01:24:09.580 --> 01:24:10.580
Protect me.

1237
01:24:10.580 --> 01:24:11.580
I don't have.

1238
01:24:11.580 --> 01:24:13.860
I need.

1239
01:24:13.860 --> 01:24:19.540
God doesn't like us to feel that we even need protection and provision, because we're separating

1240
01:24:19.540 --> 01:24:20.540
that from him.

1241
01:24:20.540 --> 01:24:23.380
It's a thing he's giving us.

1242
01:24:23.380 --> 01:24:30.700
I know I'm really, really going into what to call that, that I'm not meaning to try

1243
01:24:30.700 --> 01:24:31.700
to split hairs.

1244
01:24:31.820 --> 01:24:35.420
I'm trying to give us the understanding that we're in that much freedom.

1245
01:24:35.420 --> 01:24:37.380
We are in that much freedom.

1246
01:24:37.380 --> 01:24:41.260
You were always provided for and protected and identified, because it's a substance and

1247
01:24:41.260 --> 01:24:47.460
environment that was created in order to serve you by sustaining you in your and the Father

1248
01:24:47.460 --> 01:24:58.840
journey through life, being propelled forward by your combined will.

1249
01:24:58.840 --> 01:25:00.020
That is what's moving us forward in life.

1250
01:25:00.000 --> 01:25:02.000
You