We're talking about the actual steps that we can take to shift into rest, the actual
practical things that you can do, like tools that you can grab a hold of that we're not
subject to, that we do not need, but they are things that kind of like a child would
use in order to help themselves figure out how to do something so that they eventually
no longer need the tool because they understand how to do it themselves.
They understand it's who it is that they are, and then they can operate out of that place.
So that's what these tools are.
There's nothing magical about them.
What they're doing is they are triggering something within us that we have a choice
of how we want to respond to it, and it helps us figure out how to set our intention towards
something and actually choose to shift into rest, actually help ourselves walk through
the steps of, okay, if I'm not believing God, how do I move myself to the point where
I actually choose?
There are going to be six things, and I think that we're going to be talking about five
of them.
Then we're going to have a break.
Then we're going to talk about the last one because that one's going to get into healing
the soul and the body effortlessly from a place of rest, including being able to talk
to other people and other people's bodies.
I've done this myself, and there's been healing.
I've talked to my own body, and there's been healing.
So we'll do that, and then we will break for lunch.
So I hope y'all can't hear me rattling this around in my teeth.
I'll just try to keep it off to the side.
So when we go through this, by the way, and we're starting to use these tools, understand—
Sorry, I think it's hitting something.
Maybe it's mine.
Just a second.
Let me take off my necklace.
We've been concerned about my hair and concerned about my necklaces, so hopefully it'll be
fine.
I suppose that this collar isn't as stable as some of the other collars.
Okay.
Thanks, Jonathan.
Appreciate it.
Okay.
He's my cheerleader back there.
Okay, Ashley, you're doing a good thing.
Every now and then, I have to go back and check.
Am I being a good guest speaker, or am I making art on you?
So before we go into this, understand that when we're using all of these tools, they're
tools, and they do make it easier to kind of grab a hold of a concept and use, but we
still have to do the thing.
We still have to choose, and it's still hard.
Now hopefully it'll make it easier, but we still have to make the intentional choice
that we are going to leave what basically is making it simple.
The way that we've been operating in a particular area of our lives, according to the tree of
the knowledge of good and evil, trying to provide for, protect ourselves, trying to
drum up our own environment of safety, and this thing that we're using to try to protect
ourselves, and we're now having to risk that if we jump out in faith that God is actually
going to protect us, and that we're actually going to be safe, and that we're going to
have a safety net.
So we still have to make that choice, and there's a reason why we've all gotten to whatever
age that we are, and we've been saying no.
There's a reason it's hard, and that pain is the letting go of something that we don't
want to let go of, because we think that's our savior.
We think that's our saving grace.
We think that that, in a manner of speaking, is what is holding body and soul together.
It's that desperate, and so we have to actually let go of that, and it depends on what areas
that we'll be taking this into, deeper and deeper areas of our lives, and I can tell
you from experience that when I, the Lord began to teach me about this, I guess like
seven, six, seven years ago, and I was driving down the highway, I was going to work in the
morning, and it was dark, it was probably like 6.30 in the morning or something like
that, and I was driving along.
I was in the middle of a very miserable time in my life.
I had already come out of depression and PTSD and anxiety
and all of that.
But I had plummeted.
And so it took me a long time to realize
that I needed medication to help me,
because I resisted it for so long.
No, surely a son of God wouldn't need that and all of that.
And I didn't believe the gospel the way that I do now.
And I still back then thought, well, no.
Surely it would be wrong to take depression medication.
Surely it would be wrong to do that.
It would be denying who it is that I am
and what it is that God said.
But finally, I realized that my faith
was down in the body realm.
I didn't know how to articulate it like that.
But that is where I couldn't figure out how to.
I wasn't making the choice to believe what God
said to the fullest extent.
So I had to grab one of the tools and one
of the very good gifts that he's given us
by giving us something in the medical field
that I could use as a tool to kind of leverage myself
and get myself up and out of it.
So it took me a while to get to the point
where I was OK with that.
It took me a while to get to the point
where I was OK with counseling.
Ended up that I ended up only going to one counseling
session.
But all of those things were very hard for me to admit.
I thought, oh, well, this is weakness.
This is whatever.
And I felt a lot of shame and a lot of condemnation.
So anyway, what it is that I chose is like, OK, Lord,
I'm just going to choose that.
Nothing else has worked.
Hopefully, this will.
So I had already been off of the medication,
and I had gotten better.
But then some things had happened.
I'd been triggered, and I went down into a slump again.
So even though I think I was going through depression,
in fact, I know I was going through very major depression
again, it wasn't to the point where I was taking medication.
But I knew this time that my issue wasn't, oh, you know,
my life is just like this, and this is so sad,
and I don't like it.
It was that feeling.
But I knew deep down, OK, this time
I know that the root is spiritual.
I've got something.
I'm mad at God, and I am so mad at Him.
And it takes a lot for me to have gotten mad at God.
So I was so very mad at Him, and I just did.
I felt abandoned and alone, but I'm still talking to Him
because I can still sense Him in my spirit.
So I still talk to Him, so I'm driving down the road.
And I am just in this terrible depression,
and asking God where He is in my life.
And I don't remember.
I was probably like, I think I was 29, 30, no, 30, 31
at the time.
In other words, I had lived a good bit by then.
I had gone through a lot of experiences.
All of these affirmations of these lies
that were going on in my head, I'd
had a good amount of time to build all of those up.
So I had a lot to overcome.
So I'm driving down the road, and I
don't know how to describe to you how bad it got.
But think of your worst moments and your worst depressions.
It was that.
So I'm driving down the road, and I
knew what God was telling me to do.
God said, Ashley, let go.
You're holding me accountable to something.
So back then, that was years ago,
I still have the same reminder on my phone.
I began to write to the Lord.
I began to write to myself a reminder every single day,
stop holding God accountable to your dictations.
And I still have that reminder that pops up
on my phone every now and then.
It used to pop up every day.
I then moved it once a week.
It's now probably like once every month
or every quarter or something like that,
just kind of like remind myself.
It's right.
Hold no accusation against the Lord.
But I knew that that's what was going on.
So I'm driving down the road, and I
knew He wanted me to give it up.
Here's my point of telling you this story,
is that I knew, and I felt it physically in my body.
Because remember what we were talking about yesterday.
Spirit, soul, and body are unified.
And your body is going to visibly manifest,
including physically how it feels,
along with your soul and your emotions and how they feel.
It's going to reflect what it is that we actually believe.
So my body began to physically manifest the fact.
It went into panic.
And it thought it was literally, not figuratively.
Literally, my body thought it was about to die.
And so because God is having me make a choice.
And of course, He's having me make the choice in my soul.
Because my spirit's one with the Lord.
My spirit's the new man.
But my soul is in contention.
And my soul is in disagreement, and out of agreement
and out of alignment.
So anyway, I knew what the Lord was asking me to do,
to stop holding Him accountable.
having caused certain things in my life and not allowed others.
And I had to release him of that.
I had to absolve him of that.
My body, like I said, physically felt like it was going to die.
I thought, if I do that, then I felt
like I was going to suffocate.
It felt like I was drowning.
And I thought, as soon as I give it up,
I'm literally going to die.
And so my brain started thinking, oh my goodness.
I mean, it went so far that my brain starts thinking,
I'm driving down the middle of the road.
I'm driving down a four-lane highway.
What's going to happen to my car?
Well, I've seen those movies about the raptures.
I mean, if someone is a Christian and left behind or whatever,
and then their clothes are left behind in the driver's seat,
and all of these cars crash, and it causes all these collisions.
And these left-behind movies always present the rapture
in such a dramatic way.
And anyway, I thought that was going to happen.
So in my mind, I'm thinking, oh my goodness.
Am I going to actually cause other people destruction
because I'm making this choice?
I am recklessly abandoning.
I'm going to die, and then I'm going to cause other people's death.
Because I thought, as soon as I make this choice, I'm going to die.
I'm not going to be controlling my car, and who knows what it's going to do.
I'm not.
I caught myself in the middle of thinking this.
I didn't force myself to go through this.
My soul and my body are reacting, and they're one,
and it thinks it's going to die.
And I caught myself in the middle of the thought.
So it's all automatic.
And I thought, OK, I'm going to make the choice anyway.
Again, reckless abandon.
Complete reckless abandon.
So I did.
I made the choice.
And all of the sudden, everything within me stilled.
It was all gone.
So I didn't know it then.
This was, like I said, maybe seven years ago.
But I shifted into rest because I chose him.
I didn't even believe it.
I didn't believe he was going to be there.
I didn't believe he was going to be my safety net.
But I chose.
And when I chose, then everything within me stilled.
There was complete peace.
And it was like a light had turned on in my head
because I had removed all of that noise, all
of the reasons why not.
And I would shift a bit more, so to speak, into my identity.
I was completely at rest because I'd chosen him.
I wasn't matured enough in the spirit
to be able to understand what it was that was going on.
But that's what had happened.
So I tell you that story to let you know,
sometimes, depending on what it is that you're shifting,
what situation that you're finding yourself in,
what accusation in your life that you're
holding up against the Lord, depending on what it is,
it can actually feel like you're dying.
It will always feel, in a way, like you're dying.
But it depends on how important that thing is to you
and how much you think that it's actually your life source,
not something that makes you comfortable, actually giving
you life, allowing you to continue to breathe
and to exist.
It depends on how much you are depending
on that thing as to how much it's
going to actually feel like you're going to die,
reckless, abandoned.
So this is not a Sunday school lesson for five-year-olds.
This is very serious, very, very serious.
So when I talk about all of these things, it's not easy.
It's not gentle.
But it works.
Because whenever our God says something, he's always true.
It's always right.
And you can take that to the nth degree, no matter how extreme.
So the things that we're going to talk about
can sound very simple.
It's like, that's all I have to do to shift into rest?
Are you sure?
Yes.
That's all you have to do.
You will actually learn here, everything
in this conference, in a very short amount of time
that you need in order to shift into rest in literally
every single area of your life.
So if you are struggling with a particular area,
if you're like, OK, well, I've been
using these tools to shift into rest this far
and all these other areas.
But oh my word, this one's different.
This one's harder.
Surely this one needs a different explanation.
None of them do.
I promise you, they all go back to the same simple things.
Because God's principles are always the same.
God doesn't have easy.
It's not like, oh, well, yeah, this
is a simple solution for really simple issues.
But oh my goodness, you get into something bigger and more
intense.
more personal, then we have to make it complicated.
Then we have to add, okay, well, yeah, I'm sorry, Ashley,
yeah, I forgot to mention that one to you,
that one's an exception.
Yeah, so that one we're gonna have to do a bit more,
we're gonna, absolutely not.
God is very simple.
The gospel is very simple.
His laws are very simple.
We have made them complex.
We have made them hard in efforts to try to avoid
doing the thing that we have to do.
It's very simple to do everything it is
that God has told us to do.
And we create this complex religious system
of all of these things that we can do, tools, whatever,
in order to try to avoid having to do the thing.
But actually, what it is that we have to do
that actually works is extremely simple.
So just wanted to help everyone understand
how to view your situations
when you're applying these tools,
and know, so that you basically,
so that you have context, so that you're prepared.
I'm not trying to scare you, I'm trying to let you know,
you can apply this wherever.
So don't limit it, don't think,
oh, that's really simple, you know,
and think that you've missed something somewhere
because there's an area of your life that,
oh, yeah, but that one's especially hard,
and so, I guess Ashley didn't have time to cover that one.
Mm-mm, it's all the same.
So, excuse me.
Also, okay, another thing I'll mention
is in, you know, talking about the increased levels,
and talking about the fact
that we always use the same simple principles,
if you will run into areas of your life,
you know, we're all very familiar with this feeling
where it feels like,
God, haven't I already learned this lesson?
Why am I here again?
You did learn that lesson.
This is a deeper measure of the same thing.
It's a deeper measure of the amount of accusation
that you have against God,
and so, he's going deeper, and deeper, and deeper,
but he doesn't overwhelm us by giving us the whole thing,
and saying, okay, deal with this area.
He's like, no, no, no, okay, just deal with this one,
because he's a loving father,
and there's no condemnation for all of this.
He's like, let's just work on this,
and then, after that's removed,
well, then, now this is exposed,
and so, the next time that something comes up,
we're like, wait a minute, this feels very familiar.
Yes, but it's a deeper layer,
deeper layer revealing the level of accusation
that we have against the Lord.
So, when you're using these tools,
you use them to move into deeper and deeper measures of rest.
So, just in the same areas.
Okay, so the first thing is,
so, like I said, there's gonna be six of them,
but we're gonna just, well, I'll say six of them.
Let me just word it this way.
Let's just say five, five practical shifting tools,
and then, we're gonna talk about that other one in a minute.
Okay, so the first one is
to, when you get to a place, let me actually set up.
This doesn't look like one word.
So, imagine that you're in a situation,
and I always like to use this example,
that you're in a relationship with someone.
It could be a friend, it could be a spouse.
Let's use a spouse because that really hits emotions.
I say your spouse has just said something to you,
and then they leave, and they go to work,
and either you're a wife, and you're staying at home,
or you're a wife or husband, or you're a husband,
and you're going to work.
You're going your separate ways.
Point is, they're in a meeting all day.
You can't get a hold of them to reconcile the issue.
They just said something to you that really, really hurts.
Really hurts, and God wants us to know that we can always,
that we have a right to live in rest,
and we can shift into rest without needing something else,
including reconciliation with the other person.
So, so often when it feels like we have a rift
or an issue in a relationship, especially in a marriage,
you know, you're one flesh, we feel, wait a minute,
I can't resolve this.
We have to work this out, and yes,
the relationship needs to work it out,
but you as the Son of God have a right to always be in rest,
and you shift into rest between you and your God,
and you do not need the other person.
Remember, true to the knowledge of good and evil,
we don't need something outside of us
in order to give us something that God says that we are,
and that we already have.
It's very important.
So, so let's use that kind of scenario in the example.
The very first thing that we do
whenever we're running into any type of any,
where we realize that we're in unrest in any area,
The first thing that we do is choose that what God says is true and he says that we are under no shame and no condemnation.
There is therefore, Romans 8, 1, there is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.
There's no shame, there's no condemnation.
Now, let's explain both of these real quick.
Shame. Guilt is the idea of when you've done something wrong and how you feel about it.
Shame is the belief, I am intrinsically wrong.
Something is intrinsically wrong with me.
And we have to release ourselves from that because we're the new man.
There's nothing intrinsically wrong with anybody.
And then there's no condemnation.
Meaning that there's, remember there's no consequence as in like a spiritual death that is required for payment.
There's no requirement, there's no payment that's needed for what it is that you just did.
You're completely absolved from it.
It doesn't mean that you didn't just do that.
It doesn't mean that you didn't just do the thing.
It means that God has, you're choosing that Jesus said that he bore all of our sins on the cross.
Everything's already been paid for.
There's nothing left to pay.
He didn't tell the adulteress, and this is even before Jesus died.
He didn't tell the adulteress, you know, go and make restitution and do this and do that.
He just told her stop. That's it.
He didn't tell her to pay moving backwards.
He didn't even tell her, you know, go reconcile with anybody or whatever.
It is important to do all those things.
But the reason that that's important is, like we were talking about with husbands and wives a while ago,
is for relationship, for the health of a relationship.
But between you and the Lord, as far as sin, as far as holiness, and shame, condemnation, all of that stuff,
it's just between you and the Lord.
And there is therefore no shame, there's no condemnation.
And we have to release ourselves from that.
That's that practice that we were doing yesterday.
Practicing learning how to do that when, remember how we had beta and delta,
and how I was saying that it's easier when our brainwaves are slower and we're more suggestible.
In other words, we more readily receive things in that state and don't hold so much things in resistance.
It's easier to learn how to release shame and condemnation down here than when we're in beta state
and we're thinking of all the reasons why not.
But when you're being triggered, you're in beta state.
So we practice when it's easier because it's hard enough.
It's hard enough, you know, when you're in beta state,
and it's really hard when you're in beta state and you're triggered.
So that's why we were practicing that other thing.
Okay, so yeah, no shame and no condemnation is the most important thing
because you're choosing union with God.
Remember that that's the most important thing to the Lord.
I'm choosing union, I'm choosing identity,
according to who it is that God has declared himself to be and who God has declared me to be.
That is what I am choosing.
You choose that first before you think about what it is that I should do,
especially if you're feeling shame or condemnation and unrest because you did do something, because you sinned.
Yeah?
I have a question.
I think you were talking about this other type of thing.
Can you speak to the diversity thing in my mind about how,
if you were to go to a community that talks about similar interests,
you can't really tell if you're not together as husband and wife.
Can you speak to that and kind of explain how that works right now?
Yeah, so the question was, for those joining virtually,
so the question was if, you know, with husbands and wives talking about the fact that they should always reconcile
whenever there's a major rift or anything, that prayers are being hindered.
God makes it very, very, very clear that, I mean, for one thing, we misunderstand what prayers are actually.
And another thing, God doesn't allow anything to separate us from the love of the Lord.
So the prayers being hindered is an act of, I'm trying to think how to word this really simply,
is an act of spiritual, is one of the, kind of like a spiritual law.
So spiritual laws are still spiritual laws.
The problem is we govern over them.
So if we choose that we are who it is that we are, who God says that we are,
the spiritual laws are underneath us.
That always supersedes everything.
But if we are operating mostly, which usually is what's happening when we're in a, well, it is what's happening.
If there's a major rift and we're both mad at each other
and we're not viewing each other in light of the Lord
and all of that, we believe that we are abandoned and alone
and we're in the soul or the body realm.
So therefore, we're subject to the law
of prayers are hindered
because we framed up our world that way.
We said, this is where I am
and therefore I'm subject to them.
But if we choose, no, God says that I'm not that,
God chose that my identity,
God told me that my identity is in my spirit.
We can choose to shift into that place,
operate from that place and declare something.
I don't wanna say different,
but something that supersedes it.
Just like when Jesus commanded the wind
and the waves to die down,
he didn't change the laws,
he didn't change the laws by which they worked,
but he did govern over them
and then give them a new instruction
of how to act or how to operate.
So that is a spiritual law.
Just like we're not,
if when we shift into our identity
and choose that we're operating
in the identity of our spirit,
we're not subject to the laws of sowing and reaping.
That was a really big thing for me to learn.
It doesn't mean that the law of sowing and reaping,
it doesn't mean that it doesn't exist.
It's still in effect,
but if we're making ourselves subject to that law,
then we place ourselves under an aspect of condemnation
and the fact that we're damned if we do
and damned if we don't.
But if we understand, no, I actually govern laws,
now I can use them.
But God, because remember, God didn't come,
Jesus didn't come to abolish the law,
but he did come to fulfill it.
So if we choose that he said that he came to fulfill it
and we are in him,
then we have already fulfilled the law
because we were in Christ,
it says when he died on the cross,
that we've already fulfilled the law
and therefore we now have the right
and we're currently in the process of being matured
into the point where we can govern it.
So the laws don't go away,
they still are in existence, they're still true,
but we govern over them.
But if obviously husband and wife are having major issues,
usually it's a two-way street
and they're in the soul or the body
and therefore they've chosen,
oh, I'm a victim and I'm subject to these types of laws.
And there's a lot that comes with that realm
that we don't understand subconsciously,
we're agreeing to.
Does that make sense?
So that's what it is.
So remember, the Bible doesn't contradict itself
and if the Bible says it, it's absolutely true.
And yeah, so anyways,
what else are you gonna say about that bit?
There we go.
So after that, no shame and no condemnation,
it's the most important thing,
oh, that's where I was going.
So you handle that first before you handle
how it is that I should,
how it is that I should resolve or reconcile
what it is that I just did,
especially if you're feeling, like I said,
shame and condemnation for something you did.
Okay, how should I fix this?
What action should I take?
The problem is we're triggered by what should I do?
That's like, no, always choose union first.
Always choose identity first.
What is it that I have said?
Then after that, after you shifted into rest,
you're now, I wish I had the,
I keep wanting to point to it,
so I'm just gonna write it down.
But it's on the other side, so.
Spirit, soul, and body.
So after we shift into it,
after we shift and choosing that,
okay, God says that my identity is in my spirit,
I'm gonna choose that my identity isn't,
excuse me, is in my spirit,
then we require for our soul and our body to come into,
excuse me.
Goodness sakes.
I was starting to get a sore throat last night,
and I was like, no you don't, no you don't.
No.
Thankfully I woke up without one today.
So, that,
I lost my train of thought.
Oh well, if I remember, I'll come back to it.
Yeah, because I'm sure I will.
Because all of this stuff is just,
is talking about the same thing
just from multiple points of view.
So, after the no shame and no condemnation,
and choosing that we are who God says that we are,
then,
sorry, I've been,
I am,
I'm not a preacher, I'm a teacher.
And so there's a particular method
in which I always like to teach,
and I'm always trying to think and figure out,
okay, what is the easiest way to explain this?
People all get it, just the fastest and the simplest.
All of these steps that I'm going to be talking about,
it's actually, you can use them one of two ways.
Well, really, it's the same thing.
But we're going to progress into greater tools that
help you at a greater and greater intensity level.
That's what I'm trying to say.
This is where you start.
And then if that either doesn't work,
if you don't shift into rest, or if you only
shift into rest to a certain percentage, certain amount,
you go to the next one.
You go to the next one.
Or, and the reason why I said that there's a second thing,
or what you can do is the same thing
that I do because I've been doing this so long.
And then my clients as well, they
started doing this as well.
They've been going through this so long that they can just
kind of know, this is the one I need to deal with.
So boom, they go right there.
So you don't have to go through all six steps.
But they're all six tools that you can use.
And if you don't know which one that you need,
just start somewhere.
Always start here.
But then after that, you can just,
sometimes this is all that you need.
But then after that, you would just kind of either grab one,
or you would just kind of like start.
OK, well, then now I'm going to go to the next one.
OK, well, that only got rid of part of it.
So I've shifted into rest a little bit more.
So I'm going to go to the next one.
OK, I shifted into rest all the way.
OK, that's as far as I got.
That's as far as I needed.
The next time, which might be five minutes later,
might be five days later, whatever, where you realize,
oh my goodness, I'm out of rest.
I need to shift into rest.
So I can begin to live and operate from that place.
Well, then you might only need no shame and no condemnation
on that one.
There you go.
You might run into that exact same problem tomorrow.
But this time, no shame and no condemnation doesn't work.
It's revealing an accusation that you
have against God.
And it's coming to light stronger and at a deeper level
today than it did yesterday.
So no shame, no condemnation.
OK, well, that kind of sort of worked, but not really.
So I'm going to go to the next one.
And then you just keep going.
So that's what it is that we're drawing out here.
So after this one, let me draw these in different colors.
I think it'll be easier to note.
After the no shame and no condemnation,
we're going to go to, just to update my notes here,
we're going to go to stop.
It's very simple.
All of these are very, very simple.
You just stop.
You just tell yourself, OK, but you
remember how we were talking about the body and soul
and talking to the body and soul?
We'll be talking more about that in the second session.
But you just talk to your soul.
And you just tell it, hey, I don't know why you're anxious.
I don't know why you're stressed.
I'm feeling this.
I don't know what's going on.
But whatever it is that you're doing, stop.
The only way that this works, in talking to your soul like this,
is if you are having to, that you're choosing,
I am who God says that I am.
And you're standing in that authority and in that position.
Because the soul is having to, it
needs to respond to a son of God standing in authority.
It needs to respond to authority.
And it needs to hear your voice.
And I don't mean like out loud.
It needs to hear your inner voice,
who it is that you are.
Because you are the king.
Your spirit is the king over your own soul.
And so you don't have to know.
We're going to talk about this more in the second session,
which I really, really enjoy, about the fact
that the soul and the spirit know how to heal themselves.
So your soul knows what to do.
It's an aspect of creation that God created
that knows how to be what it is.
It already knows it.
You don't have to know.
You don't have to micromanage.
You don't have to figure it all out.
You don't have to judge it.
Give it direction.
Give it instruction.
You just tell it, OK, you know what to do.
I'm telling you as your king, I want
you to do how you know how to function,
how you were created to function.
And I want you, whatever it is that you're grabbing a hold of,
you don't even have to know what it is.
Just tell your soul, I don't know what it is.
I don't know what has triggered you.
But whatever it is, I'm telling you, stop.
And again, I know I keep going back to this.
And we're not even going to talk about it until tomorrow.
But intention, that focus, that's
why we were practicing that yesterday,
learning how to actually zero in on something
because we choose so, as opposed to, OK, well, I want to do this.
But oh my goodness, other things keep coming.
And they won't let me.
They won't, absolutely not.
You're a son of God.
And you can choose.
And you and the father, like I've said before,
are propelled through your life by the.
and propelled by your will.
You decide, you determine, and therefore you do.
And it actually moves you forward.
So it's the same thing for this.
You decide, OK, soul, this is what it is that I want you to do.
As if you're talking to a child, be very kind to yourself.
Because if someone, including your soul,
your soul is afraid of your spirit.
So if you come to it, if you come to it,
so remember why the soul is afraid of the spirit.
I want to clarify that.
The reason the soul is afraid of the spirit
is it's afraid of God, which is why it's out of rest.
And your spirit is in agreement with God.
So it's afraid of the same thing that the spirit believes,
it's the same thing that God has said that makes it feel unsafe.
So it's afraid of its own spirit.
So if the spirit's not coming to it, giving it direction,
it's going to respond to it kind of like it does God.
It's like, wait a minute, you're saying the same word.
And I don't like that.
I don't want to receive that word.
So if the spirit's coming, it needs
to provide a safe place for the soul
to have the courage to make the hard decision
that it needs to make.
So talk kindly to it.
Remember, talking kindly does not
mean like talking to a child.
That's not the authority of a king.
But the authority of the king also doesn't talk like this.
And this is how it should be.
This is how someone talks who has authority
and feels it's threatened to be taken away.
If we are who God says that we are,
we know that we're not threatened.
So do we see the difference?
So it's very important.
And I'm just going to mention this just
because it came to mind.
So I'm just going to throw it randomly in here.
It's important when you're talking to yourself
about things like also other things
that you want your body or your soul to do, like,
for instance, I was talking to a client about this
the other day, losing weight.
Talk kindly to your body, in authority, but kindly.
And your body will start losing weight.
But anyway, you have to do it kindly,
as opposed to thinking that your body is bad,
that it is your enemy, that it's not
doing what you want it to do.
Your body is not an enemy.
No wonder it feels that it's unprotected and unprovided for.
We think it's an enemy, and it's not.
So that's why I talk about how important it is
in how we're telling it to stop.
It's a particular type of authority
that knows who it is, that doesn't feel
threatened by its position.
I mean, meaning like that its position can be taken away
or that it could be stripped of its position or whatever.
It knows who it is.
And so from that place, it doesn't
have to feel threatened, so it can speak kindly.
But it is in a position of authority,
not in a position of, will you please do this for me?
I'm trying to convince you.
It's a king.
I've given you direction.
You have free will.
You can choose, soul, whether or not
you want to respond to the spirit.
But I am telling you as a king, with authority,
this is what it is that I want you to do.
That is the way in which you talk to your soul
with this whole stop thing.
Otherwise, stop can sound like you're supposed
to get mad at yourself.
Absolutely not.
That won't help.
That won't work.
So just tell yourself to stop.
And you would be shocked at the number of times.
All I have to do is just tell myself, OK, stop.
Whatever it is you're doing, stop.
I don't say it out loud.
I mean, you can if you want.
I've done that, too.
Once you find that place of intention,
you just turn into that place of intention.
And then you focus it on your soul.
And you just say, let that thing go.
I don't know what it is, but let it go.
And it lets it go.
It's wild.
You don't even know what triggered you.
But it listened.
And it said, oh, there's nothing to fear.
There's nothing to be afraid of.
OK, my king has spoken.
So again, everything is effortless.
You don't even have to know what it is.
And our bodies and souls, all of it
was created as its own sort of entity with its own functions.
And it knows how to function according
to the way it was created.
So let it do that.
Let yourself be more than your conscious mind.
And allow the other parts of you to be involved in your life.
OK, so after stop, if that doesn't work,
or if it works partway, this next one I go to a lot.
So maybe you're like, OK, well, I felt a little bit better,
but not all the way.
Or it didn't work at all.
The next one is no judgment.
We were talking about yesterday.
No judgment.
I really, really like this one.
I go to this one probably more than,
I definitely do this more than stop.
I don't know why.
I think it's because I've realized over time,
I can recognize.
I'm holding a tremendous amount of judgment against myself.
Again, that whole shame and no condemnation thing.
And what I mean by no judgment is we've already
dealt with the no shame and condemnation about ourselves.
This judgment is about the situation, and it's about God.
It shouldn't be like this.
It should be different.
We've made a judgment about it.
Here's the problem.
If we're in unrest, we're down in our soul or in our body.
In other words, we're not down in there.
We think our identity is down in there.
That's what it is.
Our identity is always in our spirit,
but we think it's down here.
So whatever it is that we think, whatever it is we believe,
we have been given authorization and power
by the Lord for that to be true in our lives.
So anyway, if we believe that our identity is in our soul
and our body and that we're subject to earthly laws,
we're subject to spiritual laws, that we need them,
that we're in lack, et cetera, then we're
going to think that we're not in a righteous position
in order to make a righteous judgment.
We're not in a place to be able to judge the situation.
The only way that you can judge a situation
by the soul or the body is according
to the tree of the knowledge of good and evil,
and we're trying to avoid operating by this tree.
Because according to this tree, how
do I know what's good and evil?
How do I know if I should allow them to treat me like that?
How should I know if that was OK for them to do,
or if that's OK for me to do, or if that's the right decision
that I should make, or whatever?
OK, well, what is it that I've learned?
What did I learn in Sunday school?
How old am I?
How many years of learning do I have in church,
in school, university?
What have I learned in my career, whatever?
We're going through this list.
We're analyzing really quickly, going
through all these calculations and all of these measurements.
OK, what's good, what's evil, under what circumstances
were those?
And it gets more complicated the older
we get, because while children learn and operate
in their world very black and white, as adults,
we have a huge gray area.
Very, very, very confusing.
So we're not in a place to be able to make
a righteous judgment, so release yourself of the responsibility.
You don't have to judge what just happened
or what is going on, including, and I only
bring this up because I've been in these situations,
including an abusive situation.
So I've been in emotional and verbal abusive situations,
and they were extreme.
They were very extreme.
And so I'm telling you because I've lived it,
and I've lived it multiple times over very long periods of time,
and that wears you down.
And I've had to make these choices.
So anyway, even in, say, an emotionally or verbally abusive
situation, you're in a situation like that,
and you're thinking, it shouldn't be like this.
So the issue isn't, honestly, in this situation,
because we're trying to shift into rest,
that the issue isn't actually whether or not
they should be treating us like that.
That's not the issue.
The issue is the Son of God is feeling threatened,
and that's a problem, because the Son of God
is not threatened.
That's the problem.
We have to shift ourselves out of that understanding,
because that then neutralizes the power of what's going on
and how it can affect us.
They might still be saying those things,
because trust me, I've shifted into rest,
and I would still be in that emotionally abusive situation,
that verbally abusive situation.
They're not stopping.
But I have chosen, I don't have control over the other person.
Yeah, there's certain things you can do,
especially if it's a work situation.
You can try to go to HR.
You can try to use tools, again, to acknowledge good and evil.
As long as you know who it is that you are,
you can use the tools in this tree.
You just don't need to believe that we're subject to them.
But you can be in the situation.
A person can still do it, but it's no longer affecting you,
because you've neutralized its power according to your belief
that what God says is true.
That's what it is that we're doing.
So that's what this whole non-judgment thing is.
You're not declaring that what it is that's going on
is OK or not OK.
You're not declaring in this situation
that, well, they should be doing this, or they shouldn't,
or I deserve this, or I don't.
Don't let it identify you.
Just release yourself from judgment,
release judgment, and stop demanding
that God reconcile the situation and change it
from change the situation in order for you to be at rest.
You have a right to be at rest without your circumstances
having to change.
We're not subject to and victimize.
by our circumstances, as a son of God in our identity.
So that's an additional point I wanted to make here.
And then, yeah, lots I could say.
OK, another thing that we need to do
in this whole aspect of judgment is let go of multiple things
here, including not even just judgment about,
like, well, someone did something to me,
including things like, I just did something.
Don't make a judgment about it.
You can make a judgment in a minute
once you're shifted into rest, because up here,
you're now in a position of the Lord being in Christ,
choosing that your identity is in your spirit
and that is in your position.
And Jesus is a righteous judge.
And from that position, your mind is cleared
and your emotions are cleared of feeling fear.
We don't want to make a judgment out of fear.
The only way that operating out of the soul or the body
understands how to interact with life is out of fear.
You can't make a righteous judgment out of fear.
So in shifting up into rest, we can then
make a righteous judgment about the situation,
because we're in a place and in a position as a righteous judge.
So we're called to judge.
We're called to judge angels, it says.
But we can't make that judgment down here.
So we have to shift into rest first.
And then from there, we can make a righteous judgment.
And then, of course, we're always
going to operate according to the heart of the Father,
because that's like us, too.
In the heart of the Father, there's
so much more, there's so much involved in righteous judgment
beyond simply, well, that was wrong
and we should just completely annihilate you.
There's love and there's mercy.
And that's what God personally called me.
And I'm just mentioning this because that was the example
I gave a while ago.
He personally called me to have love and mercy
in my abusive situations.
And it wasn't most of the time.
I'm not saying that y'all should do this.
I'm just telling you what it is that I've
lived through so that you can choose whether or not you
trust this actually works.
So God has had me stay in a lot of emotional and verbal abusive
situations that I've been in, because he said,
Ashley, they're not a threat to you.
And I want you to learn how that you can be in them
and realize they absolutely don't,
it doesn't matter whether they're saying that or not
because I'm not threatened anymore.
There are other times where he's had me remove myself,
where he's had me add boundaries, et cetera.
That's not really the point of what we're talking about here.
Remember, we have to shift into rest
in order to be able to make a righteous decision
with the Lord.
OK, what should I do in this situation?
What kind of boundaries should I be making?
What kind of boundaries would Jesus make, et cetera?
The point is right now, we're trying
to believe what does God say.
Everything goes back to what is it
that we believe about what God has said.
We have to choose that first before we figure out
what do I do.
It's really the knowledge I couldn't yield.
So this, like I said, plays out for the situations
that you would find yourself in where we're called to not judge.
It's not just when someone's done something against you,
but when you've done something.
Don't judge that either.
You just yelled at somebody.
You just did something.
Heaven forbid, you just stole something.
I don't know.
You just did something.
No judgment of the situation that it should be different
than what it is.
You're not declaring it's OK, but you're also
not declaring it's not OK.
You're not in a position to be able to do that.
No judgment.
And as soon as you have that no judgment,
you shift into rest.
And now you see things not from a place of fear,
but you see things from a place of love.
You see things from a place of righteousness.
And now you can make a judgment of, OK,
how should I reconcile this issue?
What should I do to make restitution?
Not restitution like payment, but again,
reconciliation between a relationship or whatever.
And if nobody knows, then it's not anything that anybody.
Maybe it's something that you told God.
Well, then you can say, hey, Lord, my relationship with you,
I want you to know I'm sorry.
I'm so sorry that that hurt you.
I'm not feeling remorse and guilty and all of that stuff.
None of that's needed because the payment for all of that
has already been made.
We don't have to make a payment of shame.
I thought that I had to pay for everything I did with shame.
And so I would, I'm very.
Familiar with shame because I learned it. I taught myself shame. I know that might
sound really weird. I taught myself shame because I didn't believe that people
believed that I was remorseful unless I acted extremely ashamed and I was not
going to be hypocrite. I was going to if I was going to act ashamed then it meant
then I was determined that it that it was out of what it is that I felt not
because I was acting. So I made myself feel as worse as bad as I possibly
could. So anyway nobody wants to have lived my life. But anyway so the
other thing about the non-judgment not just a situation you know that someone's
done something to us or that we've done something but also Lord I have done all
of these things. I followed this formula. I obeyed you. I would ever and look at
and I'm not getting the results. Even judging even not judging that situation
because what is it that we're judging? We're not actually judging the
situation even though I keep saying that. We're actually judging God. We're saying
God this says something about you and that's an issue and I need you to
reconcile this. I need you to bring restitution. I need you to fix it. I need
you to change. You say your character's not like this. Fix it. We don't realize
that that's what we're doing but we do. That's exactly what we're doing and
we'll realize that we know that that's what we're doing as soon as we release
judgment shift into rest and all of a sudden we can see it. We're like now that
I'm in rest and now that I'm in complete agreement with the Lord I realized that
was not in agreement. I was mad at God. I believe that my situation was saying
something about God and I was holding it against him. Everything always goes back
to what it is that we believe about God and that determines in which of these
realms that we're actually living in at the time. So if you're if you're
frustrated because well God why am I not getting more success in my business? Lord
why am I not like a variety of things? You know why why don't I have this
dream yet? Why don't I have a house yet? Or you gave me this dream or this promise
or this vision that hasn't happened. We're judging God by the situation
saying it shouldn't look like this and it should be something different. So
that's a phrase that I used to help myself to help myself in this
place where I'm talking about no judgment. When I'm talking myself through no
judgment. So I'm like okay wait a minute how do I do that? How do I recognize that I'm
in judgment and how do I release that? I believe apparently that whatever is
going on whatever even if it's internal even I feel this way. I feel this way and
that's my situation. I feel this way and I'm thinking okay I'm not in rest and I
feel this way. I'm judging the fact that I think I should feel different. I'm
judging the fact that I should like say if you're angry I'm judging the fact
that I feel angry. No judgment. No judgment. It is and then you release
it because you're holding your whole you're having accusations against God
and the fact that that you know you're angry you think that that you shouldn't
be and you think that it's saying something bad about you. There's this
whole rabbit trail that we that we go down and we don't realize it. It's just
because it's it's not going through our conscious mind because you're more than
your conscious mind. It's going through your subconscious. Your soul has
already made this belief and that's why it is that your body and your soul with
all of these emotions are responding in this way. There's a deep
level root there. So we don't and that also goes through
learning how to do something. Am I doing it right? I don't know am I and maybe I'm
not doing it right. Oh I'm so sorry Lord you know maybe I'll try better and I'll
do it different. You know am I shifting into rest? Am I learning this? Am I you
know am I getting this? Judgment. Judgment that it should be different
than what it is. Let go of the judgment and I promise you you will learn things
faster in life. You will obey the Lord faster. You will you will follow him
faster. You will shift faster. You will look more like God faster if you stop
judging it. Stop judging it. Choose that God is who he says that he is and then
from that place then you can make a judgment about you know because you're
in a righteous position understanding that everything needs to be addressed
from the perspective of love and mercy and whatever the heart of the Father is
for that unique situation with those unique people or how you felt in that
unique moment whatever it's all handled. Remember what we talked about in spirit
how these are governed by laws but spirit is governed by relationship. It's
all by relationship and therefore there are no rules. It's all an evidence of who
the character of God is but we have to be in we have to recognize that we're in
him in order to be able to know
So, okay, how does God uniquely want me to handle this situation?
Does it evidence itself in an expression of mercy?
Does it evidence itself in an expression of love?
Does it evidence itself in an expression of righteous anger, which is allowed as long
as it's coming from a position of being in the heart of God and God says, that is a reflection
of my character.
But us just determining from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, well, this is
right and this is wrong, and therefore, if I'm mad about evil, that's righteous.
That is absolutely not true.
That's true of the knowledge of good and evil, and we're making a judgment about, we're in
the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, making a judgment about the evil.
We're not in a position to be able to make a righteous judgment.
In order to have righteous anger, we need to be in the position of being within the
heart of the Father, and from that place, we can, there's righteous anger.
Being angry about wickedness from this point is not the same thing.
It's not the same thing as righteous anger.
That's why when people operate in ways that they say, oh, well, you know, I'm just attacking
evil and just attacking the wickedness or whatever, you'll notice in that type of anger,
there's how they talk, the tone of their voice or how you talk or whatever, there's an insecurity,
there's a fear, there's a desperation.
I've got to fix this, and we give it a godly title, like it shouldn't be like this.
This is wicked.
This is bad, and et cetera, but anyway, okay, so the key to letting go of holding God accountable
is reconciling, the key is to let go of holding God accountable to reconciling something before
we choose him and what he says.
That's what we're doing with the no judgment.
We're choosing him prior to proof.
That's faith.
We're not requiring reconciliation of the situation and how God, okay, God, this doesn't look
like your character, but you say that your character is loving goodness.
This does not look like loving goodness from you into my life.
That is, we're then holding God accountable, requiring him, okay, God, in order for me
to believe that you are as loving and as good as you say that you are, you need to show
me, because I'm telling you, this doesn't look like it, and you need to fix it.
It's another part of the no judgment.
You're going to release, another helpful word for me in that is to know, is to release ownership
of the situation.
Again, we're holding God accountable to something.
We own it.
We have a right to it.
We're claiming it, and God, you owe me something.
That no judgment, that's what you're doing when you're letting go.
You're releasing ownership of it.
It depends on the situation as to which word will kind of help you.
For me, sometimes using that, articulating it as the word ownership helps me realize,
wow, that is what I'm doing.
I feel like I own this, and that God's accountable to explain himself, or to fix it, or whatever.
The next one is to, we're going to choose, we're going to choose wherever your spirit
finds peace.
We'll be talking, well, I don't know.
I think that we'll be probably talking more about this when we get to how to make decisions
from a place of rest, but I'll just mention some stuff briefly here.
We're going to, at this point, we're going to choose.
The really cool thing about choosing is, when we're choosing, we are having faith, and we're
having faith without believing.
Faith is an act of our will.
Technically, and I'm going to mention this little caveat here, technically, when you're
choosing, you are choosing to believe.
You are actually believing.
That muddies the water so much when we talk about it that I don't mention that.
The way that I word it is, I say that it is past belief.
You can choose without believing.
Here's why.
Our idea of what it means to, we've attached, over the years, we have taken something within
ourselves that we feel.
that, okay, if it feels like this, it means I'm believing it. And that's
actually not true. So our idea and our understanding of belief is
incorrect, and so if we think that we're waiting on that to have faith,
you don't need that. So the thing is that actually we are over here,
you know, when we're having faith, it's not that we're having
faith without believing. We are having faith by believing, but it's a belief in
a way that we're not familiar with. We've taught ourselves that belief means
something different, that it feels something different, and you do not have
to have that feeling that you have or that knowing or whatever. I actually
believe this. That thing that 99% of the population attaches
its idea of belief to is not needed in order for you to have faith, and all you
need is faith in order for God to manifest into your life. So if
you get to a particular situation, like, okay, God wants me to choose that what it
is that he says is true to the degree that he says that he is it. I don't
believe it. I don't feel it. I don't believe it. But you can choose it as an
act of your will, and you aren't even subject to the fact that,
yeah, but I don't even believe it. It's not even needed, but your intention and
your will is, and so you can choose faith. So how this works, so what we've
done, and let me write this down actually. This is how faith works, and this is
how God teaches us how to grow in faith over, you know, in our spiritual
walk. So, sorry, let me make sure that this is written a bit bigger. So normally
what we do is we look for proof of something. Then, if we've seen enough
proof of it, you know, in ourselves, in our lives, in, you know, something that God
said. So God's wanting us to believe him about something, and we're like, yeah, but,
you know, where's the proof of that? Do I see it, and here's a big
thing, do I see it in somebody else's life? Have I seen it in other people's
lives? Have I seen it in my own life, or have I seen it in Scripture? And we'll
sometimes use Scripture, like we talked about the other day, as a way of
separating us between, separating ourselves from the Lord. God, I won't
believe your word until I see it in this proof, because God is more and
bigger than the Bible. Everything in the Bible is true, but he's more, and he's
bigger than that. God isn't the Bible. God is expressed in the Bible. God
expressed himself in the Bible. We don't worship the Bible. We worship the one who
wrote the Bible, the one from whom all of those words came. So even
requiring that we see it in Scripture. Now, I'm not saying that it
says something opposite in Scripture, you know, than what God is saying,
and then we're like, well, God, you know, and we're requiring proof that way.
That's not what I'm talking about. I'm talking about the fact that God's
telling you something, you're thinking, you know what, I don't know where that would
be in Scripture. I don't remember having ever heard that. We're talking about, you
don't know. You haven't felt like you've been exposed to it or something like
that. Not that, actually, the Bible says opposite. We're not talking about that.
Did you have a question?
Yes, yeah, correct. Yes, exactly, yeah. Yeah, that's a perfect verse for that. Yeah,
absolutely. So when we normally, when we're requiring of God proof
somewhere, we have to see it written down in Scripture, we have to have, or even,
you know, some people who hear the audible voice of the Lord, you know,
God, I had to hear your audible voice on that one, or I have to hear your, I have
to have a dream, or I have to whatever. I'm requiring proof, Lord, before I believe.
And then after I believe, because now I've seen enough proof, now that I
believe, now I'm going to actively act, choose something. I'm now going to
actually choose that what God says is true, and I'm going to act on it.
That's another thing, you know, with faith. So I'm going to mention this down here.
So faith, remember, action. Faith without works is dead, according to James. If you
believe something, in other words, if you have faith for it, you will act on it. So
when we talk about the fact that you choose this, when we're talking about
this one right here, the
One of the scary things about this one
is that you have to actually act on it.
You can't just say, OK, God, I'm in this situation.
I don't like it.
And I'm going to choose.
Put your life on the line for it.
In that situation, act on it.
If you're choosing that whatever God says about that situation
is true, then you think, OK, then
what would I do in this situation
if what God really says is true?
Well, then that would mean that the world operated
according to these particular rules.
And if the world operated according
to those particular rules, if what God says about that thing
is true, then I would make this type of a decision.
Then act on it.
Put your money where your mouth is.
Act on it.
So that's the power.
I mean, that's why this is, again, reckless abandon.
Big choices.
We're not just choosing.
OK, God, I choose it, but I won't act on it
until I see proof.
It's not faith.
Faith without works is dead.
If you don't act on it, it's not faith.
Now, by acting on it, I don't mean
you literally physically have to do something in a moment.
Otherwise, you're not actually having faith.
That's not what I'm talking about.
I am talking about the fact that there's an internal shift,
that you actually do act on.
And I'm not saying that you have to come up
with some kind of a physical action
in order to prove to yourself that you really do have faith.
That's absolute bogus.
So I'm not going that direction.
But this is how God teaches us how to have faith in him.
When we're young in the faith, whether you
became saved when you were 5 or 35 or 95,
when we're young in the faith, God
will give us just like what we do.
We hand-feed children, figuratively speaking.
He gives us lots of proof.
And then we believe him.
Now I've seen lots of proof.
OK, so now I believe it.
And now God's like, OK, now act on it.
This was a hard journey for all of us.
It still is in certain areas of our life
in which our faith is not built very high in a particular area.
So it's still hard to go this way, where eventually, we
do have to make this decision that we're going to choose.
And then we have to act on it.
So that's already very difficult.
But what God is doing is he's constantly taking us
through this repetitively.
I'm going to give you proof.
Now I'm calling you to believe.
Now act on it.
OK, here's another proof of something else.
I'm calling you to believe.
Now act on it.
And he takes us through all of that.
But this is not faith, so to speak.
It is the journey to faith.
But this isn't how God wants us to operate
in faith and maturity.
This is actually teaching us to trust
that God is who he says that he is.
And he gave us the, what would you call that?
He, I don't know, just handed it to us on a silver platter.
He gave us all of the proof first.
He made it easy for us.
Because he's trying to prove his faithfulness.
Then over time, he's like, OK, now
that I've proven my faithfulness to you,
now choose before you believe and before you ever
see the proof.
So and this is not in little circumstances.
I've had to do this multiple times when I've literally
had no money in my account.
No credit card backup, nothing as a grown adult.
In other words, you're carrying the responsibility.
So and it's not just that.
I've had to do this in relationships.
I've had to do this in business, ministry, whatever.
I've had to choose.
And it's major.
It's very, very major.
These aren't things that are just kind of like, oh, Lord,
I really like that to happen.
And if it doesn't happen, then that's OK.
So in situations like that, Lord, I'm going to have faith.
No, these are the things that make me feel like,
oh, my word, that's what I'm holding onto is my safety
and it's my security.
And if I don't, I feel like I'm going to die.
I choose.
This is very hard.
But I mean, see, it's very hard, meaning like we resist.
It's not hard.
It's very simple.
Because it's of, it's of your nature.
It is who you are.
This makes you think that you're not,
but you actually are this thing.
This is extremely simple.
It feels hard because we're so used to resisting everything.
We're so used to saying no.
So what God wants us to do is eventually
come to the point where we choose.
Then here's a really cool thing.
So once you're in a situation and you shift into rest
by choosing I am who God says that I am,
and if I believe this in this situation,
therefore, what will I act on?
How will I act if I actually believe that this is true?
Once you do.
that you've shifted yourself, you've chosen voluntarily
by your own intention and free will
to shift yourself up into your spirit.
And the cool thing is, when you shifted yourself
into the spirit, you're acknowledging, I am a new man.
And guess what?
You got here because you skipped over proof,
you skipped over belief because you couldn't even believe.
I'm just like, oh my goodness, I just
don't even have belief for this.
I don't think it's actually real.
He said it, but I don't believe it's real.
I have followed the Lord on things
that I did not believe were real, but he said it.
So I didn't even believe it.
I'm choosing it.
So I'm going to choose it anyway,
and I'm going to act like I believe it.
Put everything out on the line.
I don't even believe.
It's like saying, I don't believe that gravity exists.
Or gravity exists, and then God says, no,
gravity doesn't exist.
If gravity doesn't exist, what would I do?
This is what it equates to in our spiritual life.
It's major decisions.
What would I do if God says that gravity doesn't exist?
But not only do I not see proof, I don't even believe it.
I'm like, God, that doesn't make any sense at all.
But if he said it, and he tells me to act on it, I'm like, OK.
Then that's what I'm going to do.
The cool thing is, because now that you've chosen,
you shifted yourself up into your spirit,
you've chosen that you're the new man,
and the new man always believes.
You had skipped over it because you didn't have it in order
to choose, because you're down here.
Remember, we're in a state of unrest.
We're down here.
Unrest, remember, is when we're down here,
and when we're down here, remember the problem.
We believe that we're separated from God.
That's the issue of believing our identity
is in the soul or in the body.
Because why?
Our spirit is one with God, and if we
don't believe our spirit's here,
we believe that we're somewhere else that's not one with God.
So if we believe that we're not one with God,
we're going to operate according to the old man.
So when we choose something as the new man,
then the new man always believes his father.
So you will find that you will effortlessly
come to believe it.
Everything is a free gift, including belief.
All we have to do is receive a word.
Believing is receiving.
It's not hard when I say believe, meaning like choose,
because I'm not wanting to get really confusing here.
Belief and faith are so similar, they're basically
the same thing.
But I'm trying to keep it separate here
so that we understand that whatever feeling that we're
looking for that we call belief is not needed for this.
But technically, in faith, we're choosing to believe.
But most people don't know, how do I make myself believe?
Actually, I want to believe, but I don't know
how I'm going to make myself believe.
So I just word it like this to make it simple.
It reminds me of the scripture where Paul says,
help me in my unbelief.
Yes, yeah.
Help thou my unbelief, yeah.
And the more that we choose to step out of faith,
the more we believe and forgive and prove.
Yes.
Because that fulfills our choice.
Exactly.
Yes, exactly.
Yes, that's completely right.
So when we choose something, then we're
going to effortlessly come to believe it.
Once we believe it, remember, that's receiving a word.
We're going to be talking.
Oh, good night.
When are we going to be talking about that?
Because that's very important to bring up.
I'm sorry.
I'm trying to think if I need to mention it now,
because it's extremely important.
No, we're going to talk about it when
we talk about governing creation and manifesting things
into creation.
And no, it's not new-agey, said the Bible.
It's all OK.
I know it's a trigger word, manifest, meditate.
What is Ashley teaching?
But yeah, so we'll talk about that in a little bit.
So there's the word, and we receive the word.
The word is received by our belief.
And when we do that, so our word joined together with, sorry,
God's word joined together with our belief in God's word, which
means God is initiating something.
God's initiating.
We're choosing to receive it by belief.
That is what manifests something into reality.
We're looking, OK, this is a really big deal.
We are looking for creation to tell us, well, let's go here.
Just show you here.
We're looking for creation, what happens in creation,
to tell us something about God, something
about our relationship with God.
We're trying to get it to tell us who God is.
And God's like, no, no, no, no, no.
The way that it actually works, and the reason
that creation is currently subject to frustration,
is the fact that you don't know who it is that you are.
And once you know who it is that you are,
you partner with me.
with me together, and we make creation.
That is how creation, that, so this,
it says in Romans, it says in Romans 8,
trying to think if I'm gonna actually get to that now,
says in, do I wanna say that?
No, I'm gonna talk about in governing creation,
so we'll talk about that later,
but in Romans 8, it does talk about the fact
that creation was subjected to frustration,
and is waiting for the manifestation of the sons of God.
So the reason why is creation is lower than us.
Creation is lower than us.
It only knows who it is when we tell it what it is.
God created the animals, Adam named them.
Adam identified them, and with a name,
with an identity, comes characteristics,
comes, you know, so to speak, personality.
It comes a sense of how it's supposed to function.
We know that, that's not stretching out.
I used to think when I heard that,
I was like, that's really stretching out, Genesis 1.
My goodness, that's really, you know,
I don't think that that's what God means, you know,
God meant when he said, told Adam,
hey, Adam, you get to name all of the animals.
Didn't he just give them a name?
Said, well, this thing, therefore, shall be called an elephant.
This thing, therefore, shall be called a dog.
But God put such a strong emphasis on names,
and throughout the Bible, that when,
that he chose to change people's name
when they were 90 years old.
He changed Abram's name to Abraham,
and Sarai's name to Sarah.
What is the, why would God do that
and confuse all of their legal documents,
confuse all of their relationships?
They've been calling each other Abram and Sarai
for 90 years.
You know, why would God do all of that
unless it was extremely important?
Because it was a physical manifestation
of a spiritual thing that he said was changing.
And everything, all the way down,
needed to be in alignment, including their name.
There's so much that is carried with a name.
It is a sense of identity.
I didn't know about you, I love when people call,
when people say my name.
I don't really know why that's very important to me,
but it is.
I mean, it's important to everybody,
but for whatever reason, it feels especially important to me,
I have no idea why.
I love it when people call my name,
when people talk to me and they use my name.
And it's because there's, God gave me that name.
And so they are declaring over me
what it is that God has already said.
There's an identity in creation and in the visual
that's being carried from the spiritual
that manifests as a physical name, so to speak.
It does not mean, if you don't like your name
and your name means something like bitterness
or something like that,
that it does not mean that you are destined
to have to carry that thing out.
Remember, you are, you're identified in Christ,
and then that supersedes everything.
But there are things that,
I'm just trying to give an example.
My name, actually, fascinatingly, God gave me that name.
I didn't know that I was gonna be teaching this message.
My name, Ashley Nicole,
one of the reasons why I use Ashley Nicole
as opposed to my last name, which is Wheeler.
One of the reasons that I do that
is that Ashley means to rise from the ashes like a phoenix.
Repeatedly rise from the ashes, resurrection after death.
You never die.
So whenever you die, you're always resurrected,
which is an example, obviously,
of what it is that God claims that we have in him
that no matter how many times I'm down here,
I pass through, I release, I let go, and I can shift.
Always, always.
I'm not down here, I'm not defined by this.
You can always come up, and this is what I teach.
Nicole means victory of the people.
So together, and that's one of the reasons
why I think that God gave me this name,
because not only did I believe this,
but I actually literally carry out this message now verbally.
I didn't know that.
I didn't start doing that until I was 35 years old.
I had no idea.
But God knew, and he gave me that name.
So there's so much being carried over in a name.
So Ashley and Nicole together means
for the people to rise together in victory
from the ashes repeatedly.
Never, always, always life after death.
Death is never, you never come to an end with death.
So anyway, names are very, very,
names are very important in identity.
So when we're called to it, we're called to tell,
be part of God's will and action in creating the earth
and declaring over it what it should be
and how it should act, including spiritual laws, et cetera.
We'll be going over this in more detail.
If any of this sounds weird or,
I mean, I think that most of y'all are just like, okay.
Okay, that's fine.
Y'all have heard this before.
Some of you may not have heard this before.
If it sounds really weird,
just wait until we talk about how to govern creation
from a place of rest and we'll add more context.
We'll go through Rowan's Eight and show how God says
that this is actually our destiny.
Manifesting the invisible into the visible.
Declaring over creation its identity and what it should be
so that it can then hear its name and rise up.
So, but anyway, that's why we can't look for proof.
Because we're supposed to tell it what it's supposed to be.
It can't tell us anything.
So no wonder we have really skewed ideas of who God is
if we're looking at a creation
that's subjected to frustration.
Why?
Because we fell.
We fell.
We're no longer acting as kings, you know,
and under Adam, not under Christ.
Under Christ we're obviously acting as kings.
But when Adam died,
creation was subjected to frustration,
it says in Romans Eight,
and it was because we were the kings over it
and we had fallen.
So it now no longer has a king to identify it
and tell it who it is.
So we can't be looking at creation
to tell us anything about ourselves or God.
It's the other way around.
It's the top down.
It's not bottom up.
It can't declare anything about this.
Everything comes from the invisible realm
into the visible.
So that's what's going on here.
The last thing that we'll talk about
before the break is, what?
Oh, yeah.
Could you clarify proof?
I'm struggling with the word proof.
Oh, uh-huh.
That is- Evidence.
It's a creation scenario,
not a position of rest, right?
When you're in a position of rest,
don't you just have the confidence
that your faith is based on belief
and is sustained by confidence
and being in that position of rest?
Yes.
I'm not really sure what you're saying about the proof.
Is that what creation requires
or is that what we have when we're in a position of rest?
This is the progress that we take.
This is part of the process of having faith.
That's what this is.
So in trying, this is faith right here.
These are not.
So this right here is faith.
But how do we get to faith?
Like, okay, God, you're telling me to believe you.
How do I do that?
Well, normally what we do is we require proof first
before we begin to believe God.
And then finally, when we have enough
of that drummed up in ourselves,
we have enough faith to choose and to act on it.
So all that this is, is this right here
is not one of these.
It's not one of the things that we're,
one of the tools that we're having to use
in order to shift into rest.
This right here is strictly the progression
that the Lord takes us through
in the maturation of our faith,
teaching us to believe him without needing anything else.
That's what the proof is.
Normally, when we're learning to have faith in the Lord,
we're like, I'm just not sure about you.
I just, I don't know that I could fully believe that Lord.
Remember the 30, 60, and the hundred fold?
The body only, you know, if we're down in the body realm,
we're like, okay, well, God, you said this,
but I only believe 30% of that.
So the rest of it, I'm gonna require proof.
I've got 30% of the faith required to receive everything.
It is to receive 30% of,
the faith required to receive 30% of what you've given,
what you've said.
But the rest of what it is that you've said,
I'm gonna require proof before I believe it
and before I have faith.
And that's a hindrance to us.
But God says, well, that's because you're immature
in that area.
So I'm going to continue to prove that I'm faithful.
So I'm gonna prove it to you.
And okay, now that I've proven it to you,
okay, all right, now, now, do you believe me?
Yeah, all right.
Okay, now I want you to act on it.
I don't know about that, Lord.
No, come on, come on.
This is what we think,
this is what we think our lessons are that we're learning,
that we're always going this direction,
that God is always trying to prove something to us
and then walking us to the point
where we actually believe it.
We can feel this in our own lives,
how we've walked through this progression.
And then finally we choose, okay, I'm gonna act on it.
But what we need to understand is this direction
is how God teaches us and matures us,
but it's not what we act,
how he calls us to act in faith in actual maturity.
Maturity of faith is going here.
Then from here, we partner with the Lord
and cause everything else to move this way.
But we start here.
When you're mature, you start here
and you cause these things to happen.
When you're immature, you start here
and require God to do everything before you get here.
Does that make more sense or not?
So that is the mature process, starting with proof.
Yes.
The more blessed are they who believe
that you have not seen.
Exactly.
That's the best position.
Yes.
Okay.
Yes, blessed are they that believe
and yet have not have seen.
Remember Thomas?
But Thomas was.
It's like, no, I have required proof, unless I see his hands
and can put my hand, unless I see that wounds in his hands,
stick my fingers in the wounds of his hands
and stick my hand into his side, I will not believe.
And so Jesus then corrected him and he said,
no, blessed are those that believe and yet not have seen.
So, but we do understand why Thomas said that.
And we do have noticed all in our own lives
how generous and kind God is in having given us proof
without requiring us to have faith first,
because he's teaching us, child,
I want you to know your father
and I want you to know that I'm faithful.
So he's teaching a child,
but we're not supposed to stay there.
So just because we're familiar with this path
does not mean that that's the path
that we stay on our whole lives.
That was just to teach us to always trust
and now God's like, okay, now that you're mature enough,
now that we've had enough of a relationship
that you know who it is that I am,
I've proven myself faithful.
How many times I've proven that I'm love?
How many times I've proven that I'm goodness?
You know, how many times?
Now I want you to choose it in this new situation,
in this hard situation without even believing it
and without seeing proof.
So anyway, does that make sense about the proof thing?
Yeah, so proof is just any kind of,
it doesn't have to be necessarily,
it is creation, but it's not,
it doesn't always have to have a visible form.
It just means that proof of like, I don't know,
I feel a particular way.
I heard your voice.
I saw it in scripture.
So I saw it happen in so-and-so's life.
I saw it happen in my life.
You know, whatever.
It's just wherever it is that whatever it is
that we're demanding of God to reconcile
before we receive his word,
that is, that would all fall into the category of proof.
Okay, so the last thing that we will talk about
and then break,
okay, well, and then I'll mention the fact
that what it is that we're choosing here
is we're choosing to risk the very actions of our lives
on what he says his character is,
not on whether he has proven himself to our satisfaction.
And you also remember that faith,
you know, being, choosing that God is who he says that he is
is simply because he said it.
Remember that when Jesus was being tempted by Satan,
he didn't say, so you don't have to focus so much
on what at least I was taught growing up,
you know, in churches and school and whatever,
is I was taught, okay, well, you know,
I declare, I believe this, I believe this, I believe this.
When Jesus was tempted by Satan,
he didn't refute Satan by saying, I believe.
He refuted Satan by saying, God said.
Your belief isn't what's important.
What God says is what's important.
Very, very important.
So, because remember, even once you shift into the new man
and the new man always believes his father,
you've received it effortlessly as a gift.
How did you become the new man?
You received it effortlessly as a gift.
Belief is not something you have to do.
It's not something you have to try for.
It's a gift you were given.
But we have to receive God's word.
Choosing is not an action we have to do.
Choosing is simply as easy as receiving
and stopping the resistance.
That's all that receiving is.
Have a, anyway, okay.
Can you say that again?
So, receiving is very easy.
Receiving is not, okay, so choosing
is not something we have to do.
Choosing is simply a word that we're using
to say that we are stopping the resistance
and we're receiving the full word of God.
Whatever he says is true.
That's all that.
So, in other words, everything's effortless,
including choosing.
Everything must be effortless.
There's no paying.
There's nothing left.
God's done everything.
There's nothing left to do.
So, the last thing is we're going to,
if you can't do any of those,
if you're really struggling, then,
and you can't even choose,
because I've been in that position.
Like, Lord, I'm sorry.
I just don't even have the intention
and the will to be able to choose.
But if you say it, I declare it's true.
I'm not choosing it and I'm not acting on it,
but I do declare it.
And so, in a way, you're actually choosing.
I just use the word declare to kind of like,
kind of like help us understand the difference
between the two, but really, it's the same thing.
So, you're just declaring.
whatever God says is actually true.
decision in the body, well, then you would operate there.