Alright, so today we're going to be
starting out talking about, like I said yesterday,
basically this whole day is set aside to talk about the gospel.
But the gospel, understanding the true
gospel and the freedom that we get in that is what gives us the
foundation to be able to understand what rest is and how we can move into it.
Because if we actually truly fully understand and receive the gospel,
we have everything that we need. We don't need anything else.
And so that means that if we fully understand the
gospel, we all automatically shift into rest
without needing anybody to tell you how. Because it is
in you, it's in all of us, we've already been given it, it is who we
are. So we'll be explaining it. So what I do is I always
lay this foundation of the gospel and what rest is
and it's actually very, very simple.
You can even describe what it is that I talk
about in three sentences and then the rest of my coaching and the rest
of my teaching and all of that is all about helping people
understand how to reconcile what it is that we used to believe
with what is actually true. So it's just helping us to basically
unlearn and remove all of those filters and all of those layers.
So it's not that rest is complicated. So we're not having however many
hours of sessions. I think it's like 18 hours of sessions or something
like that. We're not having all of that because it's complicated.
It's extremely simple. You could say it in three sentences. But we make it complicated
because the system that we're trying to leave is very complex.
And I continually run up against this and other
people just like I ran up against it in my own life.
But what about this?
And we constantly throw at it all of these reasons why it might
not be true. So I spend the majority
of the time trying to reconcile all of that for us. But it's actually
extremely simple. And the reason why I want to say that, that's extremely freeing.
So just know that this is not hard. There's nothing wrong
with you. There's nothing broken.
So we're just trying to remove
the things that we have thought made life so
difficult and complicated. So right now we're going to start
with the fact that we are one with God.
And God is the one who said this. So we're not saying that we're God.
We're not saying that we're God the Father. We're not saying that we are
higher than Jesus. Remember that we are one with
Jesus. We're one body but He's the head. The head is still part of the body
but it's higher than the body. So it always has preeminence.
He's always gone before. He always
initiates. Everything about God in His relationship with us
always initiates. We just respond
and it's very, very easy. We just receive but we do
have to make ourselves vulnerable in order to be able to receive. And that's why it feels
hard because we don't want to do it. But actually
the relationship with God and developing that with Him
is very, very easy. So
in being one with God, the reason I like to start with this is
that our very identity, the way that I
describe it, is our very identity is the point at which
our spirit connects with God's spirit. That's what
makes each one of us one because we're all united in Christ
but we're all unique. That point at which our
personal spirit is united with God's spirit is what I
so far, and I'm sure I'm going to learn more, but so far this is
what I understand to be our actual identity.
Another reason why you can't describe it. Our identity
is not the fact that you like Mexican food and what
you think your love language is and what your characteristics are or your
personality or your opinions. That's not who it is that we are.
That's how we choose to express who we are. But
actually trying to define who somebody is is
extremely difficult. It can only be, the only way that I've
been able to discover it so far is I just have to sense it.
So when I talk to people and they ask, so Ashley how are you able to go into
such and such a situation that's normally very intimidating or whatever,
how did you handle that? And I just tell them I shift into my identity. I remember
who it is that I am. So can you articulate that
for me? I'm like, no. It's just this place that you go into
with the Lord and you suddenly know. I can't explain it to myself.
I can't explain it to someone else. It's just this place of knowing and everything within you stills
Because it's rest and you're in God and you just know everything's fine. Everything's okay
You don't need it's like you don't need to know anything and yet, you know, everything it's very very fascinating
And so that's the place of our identity
Is that oneness and that union with the Lord?
so we're gonna be walking through what it is that God has said about the fact that we're unified with him and
and
And I do want to take this this moment to mention why I'm going back to such basics
Because whenever we're going to be going into practice exercises where we're going to be trying to shift into rest
You know like what we were doing yesterday trying to figure out. Okay, so why can't I?
Why why am I not allowing Jesus close to me or I?
You know, I this didn't work or this didn't happen or whatever when we're running up against hindrances or resistances within ourself
We're needing to always go back to okay. There's some basic thing. I'm not agreeing with and
Sometimes that's our union with God that we're not truly
Understanding and agreeing with to the depth that he says that it is and there's some other basics
We're going to be going through as well. That are the basics of why it is that we're resisting
You know what it is that we're not believing or agreeing with about the Lord and why we're in a state of resistance
So that's why we're starting out with these basics
if we don't get these we can't shift into rest because these are these give us the the courage the
permission and the authority
That we that we understand that we have or how we understand that we've been given that authority in that
Permission in order to shift into rest and it helps us shift into rest faster
So we're these are the basics that we're always going to be going back to so even though maybe all all of today
I won't be mentioning the word rest a lot this remember that the place of rest is in God
So it's the same thing you say God you say rest
It's kind of the same thing in the fact that that it's that it's that place
So I just wanted to let you know, you know, you came to hear about how to enter his rest
But I'm not using that word
It's where I'm just using different words. I'm talking about God. I'm talking about union with him
I'm talking about relationship
But all of that is that is that place that place of that and being in him and abiding in him
We're in a place of rest. So rest isn't something we do rest isn't something we get something rest is not something God gives us
Rest is a place where we are and it's from that place
Which is why I always talk about it with a capital letter meaning like when I write it
Rest is a place from which we do
everything
Based on our union with the Lord our spirit and the Lord's Spirit
United together and that spirit coming forth from a place of rest. We even fight from a place of rest
Everything is done from a place of rest. So don't think that we have it. What about fighting? Do you hear another?
Yeah, but yeah, but what about this? What about that even fighting battles warrior anything like that is done from a place of rest
So if we could pull up Ephesians 1 3 through 14 and I might only be going
reading verses 4 and 11
If you would like to learn more go more in depth with with the father about
Our identity read Ephesians Ephesians is a book that God focuses very heavily on on our identity
Thank you, okay, so
This is where it all started. I
Did not know this and when I learned this it changed everything
Because this helped me unite things even more before I just thought okay well
God
United me with him later
But where did I ever start?
So in other words at some point I was separated or I was created as something outside of him
You know, we hear we hear that Adam, you know was created from the dust of the ground
So we're thinking okay God looked at something outside of him. And so in other words, I'm hearing distance
I'm hearing separation from my God from the very beginning which I didn't know about you does not make me feel comforted
Sure
I've been united now
But there was there was there's some aspect that I felt at the very core essence of my being at my creation point
I was separated. I was created as separate in that Bob and that really bothered me. So and then I
Did I was pointed to this? So looking at Ephesians 1 verse 4 for he chose us in
him
Before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight and then in love Hebrew destined us
You know, we were talking about love yesterday. So
So I wanted to focus on the fact he looked inside himself before creation, before Adam
was ever created from the dust of the ground.
Before Adam was ever created from the dust of the ground, he looked within himself.
He found us and he pulled us out.
So the very essence of ourselves, the very essence of our DNA is of God himself.
It's of the very DNA of God.
Again, we're not saying that we're God.
We are not saying that we're higher than Christ, but we are saying that we are born of his
essence.
We're born of his DNA.
And that changed everything for me.
I'm like, okay, so I'm actually of him, which is why it made sense when God said he restored,
he redeemed, he reunited.
It has to have happened before in order for it to be done again.
And so he chose us out of himself and then separated us.
Why?
If he was going to just reunite us later, what's the point of separating us in the beginning?
I mean, wouldn't you just like to just always stay together?
You'd never have that separation.
But here's a really, really special thing.
With separating us, and then reuniting us, he's now able to have a relationship and union.
Best of both worlds.
So it's relationship within union, which is what we see represented when I'm pictured
in God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit.
There are three, but they're one.
They have the best of both worlds.
They have relationship within union.
If something wasn't ever taken out of you, separated as a separate identity, and then
reunited, you don't have relationship.
So it had to be separated, then reunited, and then now you have the relationship, but
you also have all of the benefits that you always had of the union as well.
It's really, really special and very important.
So we see actually this picture, because I wasn't really sure about this.
I thought, wouldn't it be nice?
It would be really wonderful, but am I reading that verse correctly?
And then I realized, excuse me, I realized that it is all throughout scripture.
There's actually pictures when God created Adam, and then later on with Jesus as the
second Adam, we see this union, separation, and reunion, and I didn't know that.
I did not know that that's what it was saying.
So if we go to, if we think about, if we think about Adam, that he was created from
the dust of the ground, and then he was put into a, it was said that it is not good for
man to be alone.
So remember, this is a picture of what God had done with humanity, and so he put it as
a type and shadow in creation on the earth, just like what we were talking about yesterday
with physical intimacy, being a type and shadow that God uses to help us understand the type
of intimacy that we can know that he has given to us to have with him, so that we can know,
so that we can be guided as to trying to seek it, trying to understand what is this thing
in me that desires for something, desires for a union, like, okay, there's that type
and shadow, so that must mean, it's a type and shadow of something that exists in the
spirit that I'm allowed to be a part of, and I'm invited to be a part of.
So it's the same thing with, so God just has types and shadows over everything, and he
did this union, this separation, and this reunion, pictured in both Adam and Jesus.
So with Adam, he was put into a deep sleep, rest, because God always does everything.
Adam went to sleep.
God opened up his side, took out his DNA, took out his rib, and created Eve from Adam's
DNA, which is why, when Adam woke up and looked at her, he could say, you are bone of my bone,
flesh of my flesh.
You are of my essence.
You are of my DNA.
So Eve was in Adam.
She was taken out of Adam, so she was separated, and then it said, and then Adam then went
on to say, for this reason, a man shall leave his father and mother, and shall cleave to
his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.
So we see, so he's saying all of that at the same time.
He's saying, you are bone of my bone, and flesh of my flesh, and for this reason, you
know, a man will leave father and mother, and be reunited with his wife.
So it is union, separation, and then reunion.
We see this again in the second Adam.
So Jesus redeemed all kinds of things, and then re-pictured for us all kinds of things
that the first Adam went through, and we see how we, as the bride, were taken out of, and
then reinserted back into Christ on the cross.
Remember, when Jesus died, that his side was open.
by a soldier's spear to make sure that he was dead.
So it went up through his side, into his heart,
and when it pulled out, it brought with it water and blood.
And with that water and blood, excuse me,
which I'll explain the significance of in just a second,
with that side being opened, it was a symbol
of the second Adam going through what the first Adam did
and the fact that his bride, his church, was being born.
Because you remember that we were able to be reunited
back with Christ and reunited back with the Lord
in fellowship and in restoration at Jesus' death,
not his resurrection.
His resurrection accomplished different purposes,
but the ability to be reunited with the Lord
came at his death.
We know that because at his death, the veil was torn.
It wasn't at his resurrection, it was at his death.
So while Jesus, so Jesus, just like the first Adam,
Jesus was also put into a deep sleep
when God opened his side and his bride was born.
God always does everything.
So he even put his own son, himself,
the one he'd been covenant with, to sleep
so that God, the father, could birth a bride out of Jesus
just like Eve was born as a bride out of Adam.
So we know that we've seen multiple places
throughout scripture now, in the verse,
in those two pictures, that this is something
that is very, it's a theme throughout scripture.
It is very, very important to the Lord.
One of the reasons we're talking about love
and now oneness with the Lord is those are
the two most important things to God.
You'll remember that as talking about the fact yesterday
that that love is the aspect of God's character
that he submits all the rest of his character to.
Even his power, even his might, even his strength
is subject to his love.
That's one of the amazing things about the Lord.
The Lord even subjects his own might and power to his love.
Now, we have to understand love from God's perspective,
not from our earthly perspective of like,
well, you know, why would you, you know?
Surely, if you love somebody, you wouldn't treat them
like God just treated so-and-so.
We don't understand love from God's perspective, so.
But then the other thing is the fact that
in being one with God, he desires union.
Once we see it in scripture, you know, start seeing,
okay, this is a principle that God has,
you start seeing it everywhere.
The only times that Jesus was upset with someone,
Pharisee, even Peter, is when one of them,
either the Pharisees or Peter or the religious leaders
or whoever, were, through their actions
or through their words, through their beliefs,
were creating separation between God and his people.
And he takes that very seriously.
So if you look throughout scripture,
and you look at the places in which Jesus was upset,
even at Peter, remember where he said,
get thee behind me, Satan?
It was, if you look deeper, it was because Peter was,
the things that Peter was saying could imply
an aspect of separation and of something coming
in between God and his people.
And God takes that very seriously,
even with his own disciples.
Everything all comes back to union.
And remember everything that we talked about yesterday
and the fact that God desires us to be very vulnerable
with him, to come to him, he takes it extremely seriously.
So your sin can't separate you from the Lord.
We'll be talking about that a bit later.
But our sin can't separate us from the Lord.
Nothing can separate us from the Lord.
It says, you know, principalities and powers
and all of these things cannot separate us
from the love of God.
Separation, God takes extremely seriously
because everything is, it's very,
union is very, very important to him.
Extremely important.
More important than his issue with your sin.
More important than just, than anything.
Okay, then let's look at Ephesians five,
starting in verse 25.
Thank you.
Okay, yeah, so husbands love your wives.
Just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her.
I think, oh, I'm sorry, we'll go through verse 32.
So 25 through verse 32.
So husbands, love your wives,
just as Christ loved the church
and gave himself up for her to make her holy,
cleansing her by the washing of water through the word.
Remember that when Jesus' side was opened,
out came blood, which pays for the covenant
because the covenant's being made, a covenant of marriage.
So Jesus, and a price has to be paid for a covenant,
and it's always paid in blood.
So his blood was shed, and then also with that came water
because it's very important for him,
identifying also, not just with the covenant,
but with the fact that it was water,
the fact that what's being birthed is his bride
because it says that you cleanse her
by the washing of water through the word
to present her to himself as a radiant church
without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish,
but holy and blameless.
So you've already been identified,
you've already been described here
without stain, wrinkle, any other blemish,
holy and blameless.
In this same way, husbands ought to love their wives
as their own bodies.
He who loves his wife loves himself.
After all, no one ever hated their own body,
but they fed and cared, they feed and care for their body,
just as Christ does the church,
for we are members of his body.
For this reason, a man will leave his father and mother
and be united to his wife,
and the two will become one flesh.
So later on, we'll be talking about spirit, soul, and body.
Spirit, you know, within us, spirit is spirit.
Our flesh is our soul and our body.
It's not just our body, it's our soul and our body
because our soul and our body were created.
Our spirit, we just learned, was not.
So God is uncreated.
He's spirit.
So now technically, you could say,
okay, well, when he took us out of him, we were created.
I mean, yeah, you could say that,
but it's very, very different than the type of creation
that happened with our soul and our body.
So whenever you read in scripture about flesh,
it's talking about more than our mortal flesh.
It's talking about our soul as well
because that's also an aspect of creation.
So when a man and woman are united, they become one flesh.
There's an essence of unity in not just the body
that's symbolized in physical intimacy,
but also in the soul,
which is why when people divorce, it's traumatic.
Or when there's issues in a marriage, it's traumatic
because it's more than the body.
There's a covenant being made in the metaphysical
and another aspect of the person.
I'm gonna go ahead and throw this in now,
even though we're gonna talk about it later.
Think about spirit, soul, and body.
And when a husband and wife come together,
so a man is spirit, soul, and body, he's one.
His wife is spirit, soul, and body, she's one.
So if they are one together in Christ
in the fact that they're both believers,
so they're one together, they're one in spirit already.
So y'all are one with me in spirit.
I mean, so we're all one in spirit in the Lord.
But a man and woman who've joined together in marriage,
they're one in soul.
So why is physical intimacy in marriage
one of the reasons why it's so powerful
and why things actually happen in the metaphysical
and the spiritual realm when that happens
in the physical realm?
It's because finally the last element
that isn't unified is finally unified.
So you have spirit, soul, and body
and the man being one.
You know, the woman being spirit, soul, and body
and being unified to herself,
their spirits are unified, their soul is unified,
and now their body is.
You have six elements that are in complete union
and that is extremely powerful.
Six is a very important number to the Lord.
But so this is a profound mystery,
but I'm talking about Christ in the church.
So we become completely one with him in all aspects.
So he is talking about, he said, you know,
I'm talking about marriage,
but he said this is a profound mystery.
Why is it a mystery?
It's a mystery because there's union,
separation, and then reunion.
Very important.
And it was a mystery that God had put into time
that he'd always intended us to be reunified with him.
And he hid it within himself.
And there's other aspects that we'll talk about
that he also hid within himself.
And that they were a mystery until it happened.
And then so we understand through all of that
that no one knew what God intended.
Not even Satan.
It was a mystery.
And so then now it happened,
it's like, okay, we were not expecting that.
We're not expecting something born of God
now being reunited with him.
And being able to receive all of the,
receive everything of who it is that God is.
receive into themselves everything and it be of their very essence, everything it is that God is.
So you have it in you. You were made from the fabric and the DNA of God.
And so think of how we describe God. You know, he's fully righteous. He's fully holy.
He knows all the things. He is,
he's all wise. We actually have
that in our very DNA.
So this is not something that we're begging the Lord for and wanting so badly to be accepted and for and
and to be accepted and
allowed to participate in.
It is of your nature and God is and we see all throughout all throughout not just scripture
but also in nature itself. God's very serious about nature not being corrupted.
He even protects things when like say for instance
when when there's a
DNA mutations, God makes like say for instance
certain things like a horse and a donkey, you know have a mule, but a mule cannot reproduce.
When there are certain mutations that happen in the DNA, God does not, God allows it to be infertile.
It's like no this isn't, he takes he takes that kind of thing very seriously.
It's like we're not going to keep that keep that going.
So God of the universe allows himself to be made one
with man.
I mean, I don't know about y'all. I can't fathom that.
I mean, why would the God of the universe want to be, you know, united with me?
But here's something that I would recommend that we start transitioning into understanding. That can feel very overwhelming
especially from the perspective of
traditional Christian, a lot of it a lot of it very
Calvinistic Lee influenced perspective that we are sinners
saved by grace and
you are no longer a sinner.
You are not.
Please don't ever identify yourself as a sinner again. You are a saint. You are in Christ.
You are perfect and holy. The issue is we don't believe it. That's why we're not acting like it, but we are it.
Um, let's look at Revelation, excuse me, 13.8 and
know that
that the that
Excuse me, I knew what to do this time. I've got tea with honey in it. So I thought that'll hopefully
lubricate the throat. My sister is a nurse. So anybody who needs anything, she's here. I'm volunteering your services, but
she's all morning. She's been throwing things at me. I'm like, what is this? She's just take it. Well, what is this?
Just take it. Here's water. Take it. Put this into your tongue. Write this on your feet. Do this today. So
It's like, oh my word, where have you been for the past week and a half? I could have kind of gotten a leg up on this.
Hmm
but
so the purpose for which we exist is
relationship with God.
That's why God took us out of him. Our purpose is not to accomplish something on this earth.
We will be talking about what what our interaction with earth is supposed to is supposed to be about,
why we're here, and the fact that we do have a purpose. Um, but
our the purpose
for our life is not
creation.
The purpose for our life, the purpose for our existence is what I mean, you know,
the essence of art, because we were born a spirit before and before our soul and our body were created.
We were born, we were, you know, created, taken out of Christ in order to have relationship with him.
So you are relieved of
feeling obligated that the core of your being, there's something that God is expecting you to do.
If you, um, if you were supposed to live out your
your destiny and your purpose for which you were created, because that is a lie.
You were created for relationship with him. Everything that we do here on earth, all of our interactions with creation, are all supposed to guide
the development, how our relationship with God is uniquely developing. That's why all of us have very different,
it's one of the reasons, there's a lot of reasons, but that's one of the reasons why we all have very different lives.
Very different lives, marry different people, we have different personalities, different characteristics, like different things, express ourselves differently.
It's
it's all to guide the development of our unique
relationship with the Lord.
So in looking at Revelation 13 8,
it says,
as that, yeah, all inhabitants of the earth
will worship the beast.
All his names have not been written
in the Lamb's book of life, the Lamb,
who was slain from the creation of the world.
So his sacrifice, remember, his death,
the birthing of the bride, all of that,
he was slain, he was sacrificed
before the creation of the world.
God takes union with us so seriously
that he separated us from himself before creation,
and then he sacrificed in order to ensure
the provision for us to be reunited with him,
no matter what, before he even created the world,
before he created Adam, before our souls and our body,
you know, our flesh were created.
Union is that important to God,
that as soon as he separated,
he ensured of the reunification,
because that was the whole point with union.
The whole point is relationship within union.
Now if we could go to 1 Corinthians 6, 17.
I love this one.
And we're belaboring this,
we're going over multiple places in scripture
so that you can be assured for you,
in your spirit and in your heart,
you take this before the Lord,
Lord, am I unified with you?
Lord, did I come out of you?
You seek that in your own spirit with the Lord
because it's the only thing
that's gonna transform your life.
Hearing about it and making, oh, well, I don't know,
sounds like that might be a logical way
to explain that verse, you know, it's not going to work.
It's not going to work when your child is sick in ICU.
So you really have to get this between you and the Lord.
And so I'm going through multiple scripture references
so that you can have,
so that I can just kind of like hand you
all of these examples,
and there's more examples than this,
but all of these examples that can give you,
because the Bible is kind of like an anchor
for a lot of people.
You do know that most of the people in the world,
most Christians in the world have never read the Bible.
Most of the Christians in the world
do not have access to the Bible.
Having the Bible, reading it, understanding what's in it
is not required to have a relationship with the Lord.
This is a tool that we're using.
It's very holy, so I'm not denying its value.
I'm just saying that God doesn't allow anything,
anything, even the Bible, to come between us and him.
If we don't ever want to use this as a stumbling block
or as the thing that we're holding up
to create separation between us and the Lord.
But I'm just mentioning this
because we all have been trained so long,
okay, what does the Bible say?
What does the Bible say?
That's all good, and that's fine.
There's nothing wrong with that.
I'm saying that that's why I'm focusing so much
on all of this scripture is,
okay, what are we used to looking at
in order to prove something to ourselves?
So we're kind of baby-stepping our way into this.
What is a known that we're used to hanging onto?
And then let's prove it there,
and then it's more easy for us to have faith
when we don't see it in scripture.
I'm not saying it's contradictory to scripture.
I'm not saying that God tells us something,
or we hear something that's contradictory to scripture.
I'm just saying we can't find it,
and we're frustrated because we're like,
well, I'm not a Bible scholar.
I don't know, is it in scripture somewhere,
and I'm just not seeing it?
So in other words, there's this absence.
I don't want us to be afraid.
God does not want us to be afraid of him
because of an absence,
feeling that we have an absence of,
again, that we're holding this between us,
and here I'm like, God, I don't see proof.
So we're not supposed to look for proof
in order to have faith,
and sometimes our idea of proof
isn't something physical we see.
We're requiring to see in the Bible before we believe God,
and God won't allow that at all.
But I am using this because it is very important
to us to understand that God has repeated this
throughout scripture, and he's written it down for us.
He has given us examples in nature for us
to be able to see, to know for sure
that this really, truly, to drive this home for us,
that we really, truly have a right to believe this,
and he desires it because he desires union with us
above everything.
He desires union with us more than he desires you
having a particular destiny here on earth
and accomplishing it or whatever.
And so whoever is reunited,
whoever is united with the Lord
is one with him in spirit.
So now we're gonna be going into how one are we?
What does that actually mean?
So being one with him, sometimes we kind of think,
okay, well, we're living.
together. You know, like a husband and wife. You know, we have the same house, we have
the same bank account, we do everything together. But it's more than that. We're one with him
in spirit. One. So we'll go through some examples of how extreme this actually is.
So now we're going to go to my favorite passage about the oneness with Christ that we can
claim in scripture, and that's Galatians 3, 15 through 29. Okay, so every time I read
this I get very excited. Okay, in 15, so brothers and sisters, let me make an example from,
let me take an example from everyday life. Just as no one can set aside or add to a human
covenant that has been duly established, so it is in this case. Okay, so the promises
were spoken to Abraham and to his seed. Scripture does not say and to seeds, meaning many people,
but and to your seed, meaning one person, who is Christ. So they have, if we didn't
get it, he is spelling it out. He's saying it's not seeds, meaning many people, but seed,
as in one, and then he identifies who Abraham's seed is. He said that Abraham's seed is Christ.
Then it just goes on talking about 430 years later, talking about the covenant.
So let's look then down at verse, I think it's 25, no it's not 25, what's the other one?
Okay, so in Christ you were all children of God through faith. For all of you who were
baptized into Christ have clothed yourself with Christ. Verse 28, there is neither Jew nor Gentile,
neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you were all one in Christ Jesus.
Again, no separation. Everything that we use here on earth to separate us, God's saying,
God's identifying all of those things. He's like all of the things that you've created in your
complex worldly system as separation. He's like, he's getting rid of all of those. He said it
doesn't have anything to do with race. It doesn't have anything to do with, what would that be
referred to, is like kind of like a type of relationship that you have of a servant and a
master, and there's no separation like what we think of between male and female. There is
absolutely none. None of that exists in Christ. You are all one in Christ Jesus. Okay, so we all
get that. We're all one. We've all been taught that. Okay, we're all one in spirit. How one are
we? If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham's seed and heirs according to the promise. So he's
already identified that scripture did not say, and to seeds meaning many, but and to seed meaning
one, which is Christ. And then later in verse 29, he says, and you are that seed. You were that one
with Christ. It's not seeds plural as in it's you and Christ. And you're just, you're just hanging
out together and you're really, really close. So remember, I no longer live, but Christ lives within
me. So my spirit is Christ's spirit. We're that unified. Our spirits are not, you know, kind of
just entangled and just kind of really close together. And we have it, we have a possibility of
and a threat that something we or Satan or somebody does can possibly separate us. You can't
separate something that's one. It's just, it's just one being. So we're that unified with Christ.
That is the extent of being one spirit. It's not two things that you think of as like a, and then
call it a collect. It's not like two things put together in a container and then you just call it
one thing. And because, and that one thing just means the collection of it. No, it's like, think
of like M&Ms. Like there's lots of M&Ms in there, right? But then you think of, but then we would
call it a bag. So well, it's a bag of M&Ms. But we know inside, okay, yeah, but they're all separate.
That is not what we're talking about. So seed is not the word bag. Seed is the word M&M.
It's one, one thing. So it's not referring to a, it's not a word that's referring to the
collection of the two. It's talking about the fact that no, the, there is no two anymore. It's just,
it's just singular. And then last verse we're going to look at here is John 4.
1420. So again, to what extent are we unified? To what extent? On this day you
will realize that I, you know Jesus talking, that I am in my Father and you
are in me and I am in you. So we're very used to talking about the fact, okay well
we're one is the body of Christ and then there's Jesus. Okay well now we've
reunified ourselves with understanding, okay no, we're all one and we're, you
know, we no longer live but Christ lives within us. We are one spirit. We are one
seed. But then there's God the Father. Jesus is in God the Father and God the
Father is in Jesus. So you are one with God the Father. You're one with the Holy
Spirit. You're one with Christ. You're one with God the Father. This is all in
Scripture. So you can, again, you're not God. We're not saying that we're
God but we're that unified into Christ. We're one with Christ but he always has
the preeminence. So there is no threat of separation and you can't separate, you
know, what is one. That means you are so unified. Remember that you're one
spirit with Christ. One seed. Therefore you, whatever Christ's nature is,
is your nature. You're not a sinner who goes into situations and is
trying, has to work so hard to figure out how to handle it correctly.
Which laws that you need to remember and follow and obey in order to be
appropriate, in order to be, you know, loved, in order to be accepted, in order
to be right, in order to be, you know, whatever. If God is that thing, you are
that thing. And you walk into every situation like that. If it's God's nature,
it's yours because we're all one. We are part, and don't be shocked when I say
this because we understand from everything that we've talked through,
we're one with the Trinity. We're part of the Trinity because Christ is in the
Trinity and we're in Christ. So we are that. We're that one. And from that flows,
from that essence of union flows everything else that
we're going to be talking about. That is, that's absolutely foundational. And God
said that not only, it's not something that he said, hey, you know, I'll
just give you this. Hey, you know, we'll just do this. No, he said that is the
most important thing to me. It's union. It's not you pleasing me, doing things
right, you know, all of that. It's union. Union is connected with, within the
union is love. So when you have the Trinity that comes together or the fact
that God, when we want to get close with God, we have to, it has to be in love or
we're not being close. We're not being intimate. So it's, when, remember I talked
about there's a relationship within union. The thing that allows, that
flows in that relationship, the thing that creates the relationship is a flow
in between every like entity, so to speak, you know, Christ, you know, God,
the Father, us, whatever, is love. And it's like, I'm gonna, I'm gonna phrase it
this way just to kind of give us a picture. Think of the fact that the way
that we enter, the way that we interact in the Spirit is in spirit. And that's,
that's this force, so to speak. I'm just using some words to kind of give us a,
I'm not saying these are all perfectly theologically correct. I'm just trying to
give us an idea to move us from a known all the way to this, this unknown that we
don't have a, have a grid for. I think, you know, it's, think of it kind of like
this force that's, that this essence of us that is, is flowing between all of us.
And in that is love. That's the only, that's the thing that unifies us is love.
So you can't separate union, when we talk about us and the Lord, the thing, the
things that you always have to talk about together are union, relationship, and love.
If one of those is missing, then the others don't exist. Union with God only
comes through love, because it's almost like this, this, like this force, this
bond that, that brings everything together. It's more and deeper than that,
but I don't know how to articulate that even to myself. It's just something I
sense in the Spirit. So, sorry, that's something I don't have words for, but you
can just seek your Father about it yourself. But it's that union.
And that love and that relationship,
it's very important to the Lord above everything else.
So if ever you find yourself in a place
where you're struggling, you're feeling condemned,
you're struggling, even shifting into rest,
or you're struggling with some, I don't know, issue,
or you feel like you just sinned,
and you just did something,
or you want something more of the Lord,
and no matter how much you seek it,
you can't get there, you can't get a breakthrough,
the first thing that I'm gonna be talking about
about shifting into rest,
the very first thing is choose union first.
Choose love, relationship, and union first.
From that, everything else will flow.
There's a teacher that I listen to,
and that is something that he said that the Lord told him,
is that he said, out of union with me, all else must flow.
In fact, from that phrase,
the Lord birthed his ministry.
It's from that single phrase that the Lord told him,
out of union with me, all else must flow.
And then it set him on this journey
and this trajectory to understand, okay,
what does that mean, and where are we going from here?
But yeah, out of union, that's why it's so important.
We can't do anything expecting to try to get to that union.
We have to scrap everything, reckless abandon,
go back in the most critical and dire moments,
and go back to union,
and in union is that love and that relationship.
And that is how we can then handle
all of these difficult things that are coming,
that we're struggling with, et cetera.
Life, honestly, is not difficult.
It's our interaction with it that makes it difficult.
It doesn't mean, just like I talked about rest yesterday,
rest is not the absence of unpleasant circumstances.
We're still gonna go through unpleasant circumstances.
I go through them all the time.
Some of them are still very extreme.
Jesus lived a perfect life,
meaning that he always lived in rest, right?
And yet, look what happened to him.
It doesn't mean that we're not gonna go
through unpleasant circumstances.
That's not what makes life hard,
and I can attest to the fact because I live it.
What makes it hard and difficult is my reaction to it.
As soon as we, and this is so exciting and so powerful,
that what you can,
what changes everything is my reaction to it.
So if I'm in a very unpleasant circumstance,
and by that it might be internal,
it might be some major relationship issue
that I'm going through,
it might even be a struggle that I'm having
between me and the Lord,
something that I'm struggling to, I don't know,
get or move into or whatever,
and I have discovered that everything can continue
to be chaotic around me,
as long as when I,
because me shifting into rest
completely neutralizes its power over me.
It's still going on.
It hasn't changed.
That person is still verbally abusing me.
You know, I've been in multiple different types
of abusive situations,
emotional abuse, verbal abuse, whatever.
Thankfully I've not experienced physical,
but I've experienced the other,
and I'm telling you, if you shift into that place,
everyone can continue to do it,
but it neutralizes its power.
So I just wanna clarify that understanding
how to live in rest is not going to,
is not going to,
we don't do it in order to change our circumstances.
A lot of our circumstances will change,
but we're gonna be talking about,
but we have to intentionally,
we intentionally tell creation from a place of rest
how it needs to operate,
but that doesn't always mean,
because creation has a free will,
whether it's another person's soul,
or it's an animal, or it's a circumstance,
it has a free will to choose
how it wants to respond to a son of God.
So just because we're in rest,
we can neutralize its power over us,
but it doesn't necessarily mean
that all of the circumstances are gonna change.
Just need to clarify that,
because otherwise people are just like,
well, actually, these situations are still going on.
Yep, Jesus was killed, very, very brutally.
So rest is very different from the absence
of unpleasant circumstances.
Okay, so right before we break,
I wanted to mention just this exercise.
And I'll let you do it by yourselves really quick,
just so that you'll have the practice of doing this.
You don't have to do it this way.
This is just the phraseology that actually worked with me.
So whenever I'm about to go into meditation,
circumstances, or whatever, where I'm triggered. And I'm like, okay, I'm
about to have such-and-such a conversation with so-and-so, or so-and-so
is talking at me in this way, or I'm about to need to make a decision, and I'm
feeling very unsure about myself.
Appreciate y'all being patient. I go through this, so I always shift
myself back into my identity, and sometimes I need a tool. So yesterday,
before I started teaching, I did this. I was standing up here, and
probably just looked like I was looking at my computer screen, but I was shifting
back into my identity. In other words, reminding myself, because it's so easy
for me to be triggered to get out of it. You know, I've been trained so long, I have
all of these temptations, these fears of the Lord, you know, of intimacy and all of
that, and so I would keep trying to push out of myself. I was like, nope, who
does God say that I am? And so I've learned to do it sometimes, not every
time, but sometimes I've learned to shift into my identity without going through
this exercise. But this exercise is what I used, kind of gave me a tool. Remember
how we were talking about steam, and then changing the form down at ice, and
something we can grab ahold of? That's what we're doing here, is we're
actually taking something that we can grab ahold of and use, and kind of like
as a leverage for our soul, kind of giving ourselves a bit of a bit of a bit
of help. And I would talk myself through this, and I would figure out, okay, this
is how it feels to shift into my identity. And so then once I began to
identify what that feels like, in other words, in my spirit, I don't even need the
tool, and I can just shift myself there. But these tools help you get there, and
there are some times when I feel especially, when I'm especially struggling
in my faith, or I'm especially struggling, feeling intimidated, or whatever, I'll
still use this tool. So it's not that, oh well, you know, I progress now, I don't do
it. No, it just depends, you know, on the on the time and circumstance. So what I
did is, for whatever reason, I always imagine God the Father here. I don't know
why, but I do. You might sense him in your spirit somewhere else. But I
always sense him here, which I love, because it means he's beside me. And then
for whatever reason, I always see Jesus out here, probably because I'm always
interacting, I interact with him a lot. And when he talks to me, he's always
out here somewhere. And so I tell Jesus, I remember, okay, I remember
the fact that God says that I'm one with him, the fact that I'm his bride, that he
desires me, that I'm one with him. And so from that place, like a husband and wife
getting together at the altar and making a marriage vow, each one has to
voluntarily, of their own free will, speak the vow in authority. So the
husband always speaks first, right? He always makes the vow first. The wife, when
it's her turn, you know, the lady who's getting married, they're not husband and
wife yet, but when they do that, she is not repeating his words back to him. She
is making her own vow and her own authority of her own free will. And that
is how I need to talk to Jesus. He told me all of these things I'm about to tell
him, but I have to own it for myself and choose of my own free will, because we
can only love by free will, otherwise it's not love. We can only give ourselves
by our free will, and God will not violate free will. It's another thing
that's very big with the Lord. Love, relationship, union, and free will. God
always respects our free will, and he calls us to respect each other's free
will. We'll be talking a lot about that later when we talk about our
interactions with other people, how to interact with them, especially
somebody who's very, very difficult when interacting with them, so we're not
trying to manipulate them. Manipulation is a violation of
somebody's free will. God takes that extremely seriously. God of the
universe doesn't even do that to us, so we definitely don't have a right to do
it to our children, our spouses, you know, whoever else. But anyway, so my own free
will, I have to talk to the Lord. So Jesus, God always initiates everything first.
Jesus told me all of these things. He made me this vow, so I'm now
repeating it back to him, my own free will. I'm owning all of that, and I'm
telling God, this is what I'm—this is who it is that I am that I'm giving to you.
So I tell Jesus, okay, Jesus, because remember, I'm doing this exercise
because I'm trying to remind myself of my identity, and I tell Jesus, okay, Jesus, I
believe I was taken out of you, and I believe that I was put back into you.
Again, I speak this with authority. I'm not commanding. This isn't—
or spiritual warfare, so don't get hard about it.
It's authority.
Choose, center yourself in your free will.
This is something that I am owning.
So God, you know, Jesus, I believe I was taken out of you,
and I believe I've been reinserted back into you.
And I abide in you, and you abide in me,
and we abide in the Father, and the Father abides in us.
Therefore, I am always about my Father's business.
And that's how I taught myself through it.
Because I'm trying to remind myself
of what it is that he said,
and I'm choosing to stand in an authority
that I don't even believe it is that I have yet.
So, and until the end of the process,
then I'm like, okay, maybe I really did have, you know,
that authority to be able to say that.
So that's called faith.
We're stepping out on something that is that God said,
when we're not having proof,
even proof of our own feelings.
So I, that's what I do.
I go through that.
Y'all can say, if something else works for y'all,
y'all can say that.
That works for me.
Sometimes, depending on my day,
I might have to say it six times
in order to shift myself, in order to remember.
Because it's not, you're not trying to convince yourself,
you're trying to choose.
You're trying to find that place of intention in you.
It's a really big topic we're gonna talk about on Sunday.
It's so very big.
I wish we could talk about it earlier,
but it's not gonna make sense
unless we talk about it later.
But it is so very important.
Everything that we do has to go,
we have to do it with an intention, with a choosing.
My own free will, this is what it is that I have decided,
and I am sending it forward into the spirit,
and into the metaphysical,
which will eventually manifest into the visible.
And that's, and we can,
that's why we can speak things, actually, into existence.
You know, we know that our words are very powerful.
So, I'm trying to shift myself back into that identity.
And so I just go through that.
So I'll go through it one more time.
And again, if this doesn't work for you,
and something else does, do that.
But you're trying to find that place of identity within you,
and identify that.
So eventually, you can get rid of the tool,
and you won't even need it.
And you just shift yourself into choosing that you are
who God says that you are.
So I tell Christ, Christ, I believe that I was,
I mean, I talked to him.
Nothing else is around.
That's what I'm doing right now.
I'll just go through it, as if y'all aren't here.
So, excuse me.
Christ, I believe that I was taken out of you,
and I have been reinserted back into you.
And I abide in you, and you abide in me.
And we abide in the Father, as the Father abides in us.
And therefore, I am always about my Father's business.
And I shift.
And so once you find that place,
once you shift, and once you get very familiar
with that place of intention,
you can do that, like I said, without doing the tool.
And in a moment, which is what actually I did yesterday,
I could just shift into it, and just remember,
okay, I'm out of alignment somewhere.
There's some concern, there's some thing
that I'm not believing about me and the Lord,
not believing something that God says is true.
And I shift.
So, I would just ask that y'all can,
you can say it out loud if you want to.
You can just say it to yourself.
You can close your eyes, keep your eyes open.
Jester, not Jester, do whatever you want.
But I recommend going through this for just a bit,
and for probably just about two minutes or so.
And what you're looking for is you're looking for,
you're making a very intentional choice.
God, this is me in my own free will,
and in my authority, I'm making a vow to you.
And you're choosing that you believe
that God is who he says that you are.
.