Okay, guys, I'm just putting this in, this thing, one second, this is so unprofessional,
I'm so sorry, okay, okay, I think I'm the right way up, I think I'm the right way up,
Ashley, I think I'm the right way up, come on, okay, hey, guys, well, thanks for tuning
in, I'm super excited to share this session, I'm gonna be talking in a moment about Jesus
Christ's perfect theology, a technical term for that would be Christology, and I'm gonna
be speaking more into that, and I'm really excited about that, over the next two weeks
after this week, I'm also gonna be sharing, I'm gonna be sharing this one on Jesus's perfect
theology, Christology, and I'm gonna share, next week, I'm gonna share on David's stones,
and the foundation of sonship, and that's gonna be super exciting, I'm gonna share some
revelation that God shared with me out of, it was actually just a really cool encounter
I had in the Scriptures, where God just started to reveal stuff to me in the Scriptures, and
that was, I wanna share some of that with you, and then the week after, I wanna share
on the place that God has hidden you, for you to find you, and so that's what's coming
up for me in the next few weeks, but today I wanna talk on Jesus Christ's perfect theology,
and I'm excited to see some of you guys tuning in, and I've just been, sorry I was a little
bit late, I just got a little bit carried away down here, I'm in a recording studio
right now at the bottom of our church, and I just had quite a fun prayer time, and I
got a little bit carried away, and then I looked at the clock and thought, oh my gosh,
I've gotta do this live session now, so here I am.
I wanna begin by just saying this, God is good, and I wanna put a full stop at the end
of that, hey Brendan, good to see you man, well, good to see your comment, at least,
and the profile picture, but I wanna say God is good, and I wanna put a full stop at the
end of that, and say God is good full stop, God is not 99% good, and 1% bad, He's not
good 364 days a year, and then one day a year He's bad, in a bad mood, and does bad things,
God is good all the time, full stop, God is good, and hey Owen, morning bro, hey Angela,
and so I wanna begin by just saying that, and I probably am gonna end by saying that,
and then I wanna just unpack that a little bit in the middle, but before I do, I wanna
just share a God is good story from the weekend, we've been seeing God do some amazing things,
and some amazing things, and a lot of people at our church have just been having crazy
encounters with God, and unusual encounters with God, unusual encounters with God, and
so that's been super fun to just witness, and be a part of, and to hear about, and to
also myself having some cool encounters with God as well, and it just feels like God's
up to something a little bit new, it feels like we're stepping into a kind of a new season,
but here's just a couple of cool little stories from last Sunday, we had a lady come, and
she had, well someone gave a word of knowledge for neck pain, just a pretty simple word of
knowledge, and they actually shared that they had the word of knowledge, because they actually
had pain in their neck, and they thought, well I don't think it's a word of knowledge,
but honestly maybe if I sow healing into someone's neck, maybe I'll get healed too, which is
just kind of a funny way to have a word of knowledge, but cool, and anyway a lady was
at church, and she had, I think it was like two years of neck pain, but one of the causes
of the pain was there was a big lump growing in the back of her neck that she could feel,
and during the time that we were praying, she felt this like crack, crack, crack in
the back of her neck, like someone was like cracking her neck three times, and she's like
whoa, what was that, and then all of a sudden all the pain was completely gone, she was
totally healed, the lump had started shrinking, and then within a few minutes the lump was
completely disappeared, so that was just on Sunday, she was obviously pretty stoked, and
we thought that was a pretty amazing testimony of just God's, God's miraculous hand touching
someone's life, and one more just from Sunday.
Sunday was, one more fun one, was a lady came and she had had a brain aneurysm.
And I might get some of the story wrong, but as far as I understand, this is how it worked.
She had a brain aneurysm, which is like a thing in the brain, and the aneurysm had caused
her nerves to be kind of a little bit mixed up.
So one of the things that happened as a result was, if you put your hand on her shoulder,
she would feel like you were touching her head.
So there was kind of like a mix up in the nerves.
And anyway, in the prayer time, bam, she gets completely healed.
Everything's back to normal.
I just thought that was so cool, like a brain aneurysm, like a reworking of the brain just
in the healing time on Sunday.
So anyway, super cool, I just want to give you a couple of recent updates.
And there are many more cool updates that I'm kind of like tempted just to share cool
stories.
But I do have something I want to share with you.
And it's a little bit teachy.
When I say teach, I don't mean boring, I just mean a little bit teachy.
And I want to share that with you.
I want to preface this by saying this is kind of an introduction to Jesus Christ's perfect
theology.
It's an introduction to Christology.
It's by no means going to answer all of your questions.
And honestly, one of my goals is that at the end of this, you would have more questions
than what you began with, because questions lead you further into Jesus.
And so please take any expectation off of me, or off of yourself, for me to answer all
of your questions, because that simply is just not going to happen today.
But I am going to share about some stuff that I'm really excited about.
And we'll see where it goes.
Feel free to comment.
If you do have a burning question, I might be able to answer your question.
So feel free to comment in the comments.
And if I see it, I'll be looking at it.
And if I have time, I'll answer your question.
So I want to share again, God is good.
And I want to talk about the way we see God.
And I want to talk about something I believe God is doing right now, is He's unpixelating
His face.
He's bringing us on a journey into greater and greater and clearer and clearer face-to-face
relationship with Him.
And it's almost like one of those pixelated images that's just becoming unpixelated as
we move closer, as we move into a greater awareness of God's presence.
We're starting to see His face clearer and clearer and clearer and clearer.
And this is so important because of this.
When we see Him clearly, we can know Him deeply, and we can represent Him gloriously.
And the less clear we see God, the less we can know Him deeply, and the less accurately
we represent Him gloriously.
And so there is a huge, it's a huge deal.
The way we see God is a huge deal.
He cannot be seen clearly through us until He's been seen clearly by us.
I'll say that again.
He cannot be seen clearly through us until He's been seen clearly, first of all, by us.
The clearer we see God, the deeper we know God, and the more glorious we represent Him.
Until we're all walking like Jesus, seeing what the Father's doing, seeing what the Father's
like and living out a perfect representation of what He is and who He is on the earth.
And so this is a big deal, the way we see God.
And I want to just share an illustration to kind of paint, set a little bit of a context
and paint a little bit of a picture of this whole scenario.
I have three daughters.
As most of you know, I have a, oh sorry, Siri has just shown up.
Siri, I don't want you.
Siri, go away.
Siri, leave.
Sorry, Siri literally just showed up on my notes and I couldn't see my notes anymore.
So I got three daughters.
I've got Ari, she's my eldest daughter.
I've got Sienna, she's my second daughter.
And I've got Mila.
And I remember a while ago, it's still true today, but particularly a few years ago, Ari
and Sienna were obsessed with their dresses and dressing up.
And one of their favorite places to be was their wardrobe, because in their wardrobe
were all their favorite dresses, all their Barbie dolls, all their Lego, all their cool
stuff was in their wardrobe.
And they would spend hours in their wardrobe, like taking all the dresses out, putting their
dresses on.
They've got like Myanmar dresses, Indian dresses, Russian dresses.
princess dresses, Elsa dresses, blah, blah.
They've got all these different kinds of dresses
and they just, they would just put on different dresses
and they just loved their dresses, right?
And one of their favorite places to be
until it was time for bed.
And what would often happen, and this happened,
this happened for months on end actually,
is particularly with my eldest daughter,
is the sun would start going down,
the light would start going down
and it would be time for bed.
So I'd put her in bed and say goodnight,
pray for her, all the rest of it.
And about, normally it was about 20 minutes later,
she would come, hey Benji, what's up buddy?
Stoked to see you too, or at least your profile picture
and your comment there.
And she would come in about 20 minutes later
and she would say, dad or mom, I'm scared.
I think there's something in the wardrobe.
There's something in the cupboard.
There's something in the wardrobe.
I think there might be a monster in there.
And we'd be like, babe, there's no monsters in the wardrobe.
It's just the same dresses that were there in the daytime,
the same dresses that are there in the nighttime.
Just because the light's gone doesn't mean
there's anything changed about the cupboard.
It's all just the same.
No, no, no, I saw a shadow.
I saw something move.
There's a monster in the cupboard.
Dad, I need you to come and shut the cupboard door.
And I would say, Ari, you can just go
and shut the wardrobe door yourself.
Just go and shut the wardrobe door.
Everything's fine, it's okay, it's okay.
And she'd be like freaking out.
Dad, I need you, because I think there's a monster in there.
And so I'd come in, I would look in the wardrobe
and I'd say, yeah, there's no monster in there.
I've checked through everything.
There's no monster.
But I'd shut the cupboard door
because having the cupboard door open,
the wardrobe door open at nighttime,
with all the darkness and with the lack of light
and all the shadows,
she was imagining monsters in the wardrobe.
Now here's the thing, here's the thing.
Nothing's changed.
All that's changed is there's less light.
All that's changed is there's darkness.
All that's changed is there's shadows.
All that's changed is she's not seeing
what's in the cupboard clearly.
And so what is she left with?
She's left with the figments of her own imagination.
She's left with, she's left in this place
where her imagination is conjuring up all these images
that aren't really there, but she believes they're there.
And therefore she's actually experiencing a real fear,
a real sense of lack of safety,
a real sense of there's something in there.
And she's beginning to believe a lie that's not true.
There's a lie about the cupboard.
There's a lie about the wardrobe that she's believing
that's absolutely not true.
Her favorite place has become a place that she's afraid of
because she's seen it differently
because of a lack of light.
And here's the thing, here's the thing.
That's sometimes what it's like with us in God.
And that's what it's like with the world in God
is that we lost our sight.
We lost, it's like the sun went down
and it was nighttime on the earth.
And at nighttime, when we couldn't see clearly
and when the light was gone, can I just say something?
Nothing changed about the wardrobe.
Nothing changed about God.
God never changed.
God has always been the same.
But what changed is that we couldn't see Him clearly
and because of that, we were left
to our own darkened imagination
that was filtered with our own shame
and our own sin and our own guilt
and our own sense of we deserve punishment
and we deserve this because that's the way we saw ourselves
and because we're now under a tree
of the knowledge of good and evil
and we're punishing and we're looking for right and wrong
and we've got this whole different framework of life.
And now we're seeing God through our own darkened lenses.
And because of that, we began to believe things
that are not true about God about God.
And that, again, the less clearly you see God,
the less you can know God, the less you can know God,
the less you know yourself
and the less you gloriously represent Him.
And so we have a problem.
And one of the things that Jesus did on the cross
and not the only thing,
but one of the things that Jesus did on the cross,
Jesus died, He sacrificed His life to not only save you
but to also save the image of God for you
so that you could see what God's truly like.
One of the things that is saved on the cross
is the image of God.
And here's what I mean by that.
Jesus Christ is what God looks like.
Jesus, God is 100% like Jesus
and Jesus is 100% like God.
Of course, Jesus is God.
Jesus is the Son of God.
Jesus is God the Son.
And then there's God the Father,
there's God the Holy Spirit.
But if you've seen the Son, you've seen the Father.
If you've seen the Father, you've seen the Son.
Jesus is what God looks like.
Not 99%, but 100%.
God is 100%.
100% like Jesus, and Jesus is 100% like His Father.
This is so cool because Jesus, for us,
saves the image of God for us
so that we can finally see Him clearly.
Jesus is the dawning of a new day.
Jesus is the light flooding in to my daughter's room
and illuminating the once darkened cupboard,
the once darkened wardrobe,
so that she can see again
what she'd lost sight of during the night.
And in the new day, she can see,
oh my gosh, nothing's changed about the wardrobe.
I thought there were monsters in there,
but there's no monsters in there.
I wanna say, God does not have a dark side.
God does not, there are not monsters in God.
There are not monsters in the wardrobe.
God is good, and He's 100% like Jesus.
John 1.14 says this,
that the Word became flesh and dwelt amongst us.
When the Bible talks about the Word, by the way,
just a side note, the Bible's not referring to itself.
The Bible is referring to the man, Jesus Christ,
to the God-man.
He's referring to what God has to say about Himself,
life, and you guys, made flesh.
He's talking about the communication of God
put into human flesh format
so that we could all see Him, understand Him,
and relate to Him so that we could know Him,
know ourselves, and enter into the life
He's designed for us.
God is, or I should say, Jesus Christ,
I heard someone say this, this is a great quote,
Jesus Christ is what God has to say.
He's the Word made flesh.
Jesus Christ is the final Word of what God has to say.
Jesus Christ is the full stop.
God is good, full stop.
Jesus Christ is the Word made flesh,
and Jesus Christ is the dawning of a new day.
He's the light flooding into the bedroom.
He's the light flooding into the wardrobe,
showing us that, guys, we might have believed
for a moment that there was a dark side to God,
but there is not, there is not.
There is no dark side to God,
and Jesus shows us that forever,
and He stamps His final stamp of approval at the cross
and says, man, if you could have done anything
to push me away, if you could have done anything
to draw that bad side of the angry side
that, now, God does get angry, by the way,
but it's an anger based on His love,
and it's an anger based on His goodness,
because He never strays from that, because it's who He is.
But at the cross, we see this final stamp,
we see this final punch, we see this final thing of God
that says, if you could have done anything
to push me away from you, it would have been murdering me.
But even when you murdered me, no way, man,
you can't push me away.
I'm not gonna be bad just because you are bad.
I never am bad, and I never stray from my nature.
I always am who I am, and so it's pretty cool,
but I get a little bit passionate about this, guys,
because I really love God,
and I want people to know that God is like Jesus.
I want people to know what God's really like.
In Hebrews 1, 1 to 3, in the Passion Translation,
let me read this.
I'm gonna read Hebrews 1, verse 1 to 3,
and then I'm gonna read John 6, 46,
and then we're gonna go from there.
This is the Passion Translation, like I said.
Chapter one of Hebrews, verse one.
Throughout our history, God has spoken to our ancestors
by His prophets in different ways.
The revelation He gave them was only a fragment.
Hey, Norm, hey, man, good to see you.
The revelation He gave them was only a fragment.
Listen here.
The revelation He gave them was only a fragment at a time,
building one truth upon another,
but to us living in these last days,
God now speaks to us openly in the language of a son.
This is still the language He communicates with,
the appointed heir of everything,
for through Him, God created the panorama
of all things and all time.
The sun is the dazzling radiance of God's splendor.
The exact, whoa.
The exact expression of God.
Okay, this is just too good just to say once.
The exact expression of God's true nature, His mirror image.
Let me just say that one more time, this is so good.
The sun is the dazzling radiance.
He's the new day.
He's the rising of the sun on a new day.
He's the light flooding into the wardrobe.
The dazzling radiance of God's splendor,
the exact expression of God's true nature,
His mirror image.
God spoke in fragments through the prophets
throughout history.
He spoke in fragments.
He spoke in bits and pieces.
He gave partial revelation.
He gave little aspects of Himself
through Moses, through Elijah, through David,
through these ones who carried
true and real revelation of God,
but it wasn't the full revelation of God.
They carried bits and pieces for moments of time
and in moments of time, and they built on one another,
but none of them had the full revelation
of what God's like until Jesus came.
And when Jesus came, the Word was made flesh,
and the sun is the dazzling radiance of God's splendor,
the exact expression of God's true nature,
His mirror image.
He's the fullness of what God has to say.
He's not just part of what God has to say.
He is what God has to say.
He's the fullness of what God has to say.
And then John 6, 46 says this.
Not that anyone, this is Jesus.
Not that anyone has seen the Father
except the one who is from God, He has seen the Father.
Not that anyone has seen the Father
except the one who is from God,
referring to Himself, He has seen the Father.
Now, Jesus is saying this knowing that Moses, for example,
was face to face with God in a cloud
in his tent, speaking with God face to face
as a man does to his friend,
knowing that Jacob wrestled with God face to face,
knowing that these different ones had obviously seen God.
So in one sense, you've got to hear
what Jesus is trying to say here.
He's not saying, I mean,
He is actually literally saying this,
but He's not communicating that no one
has ever seen God in part.
What He's saying is that no one has fully seen the Father.
No one up until this point has been able
to fully represent the Father
because no one up until this point
has ever fully seen the fullness of who He is.
No one has.
It's as if compared to the way I see God,
not Matt Lansdowne, but Jesus is saying,
compared to the way I see the Father,
it's as if kind of no one has seen the Father.
Now, does that mean no one has seen the Father?
No, no, let me put it like this.
It's kind of like if you held a light bulb up
and the light bulb was on
and the light bulb was shining light,
kind of like that light bulb right there.
It's shining light, right?
Now, that light bulb is producing real light.
It's not dark, it's light.
There's light coming from the light bulb.
So that light is a revealer of what's in the room.
That light bulb is a revealer of what's in the wardrobe.
That light is a revealer of what the face of God is like.
There's a light bulb and it's producing real light.
It really is producing light.
But if you took the sun
and you placed it right alongside the light bulb
and you compared the power of the two lights,
the radiance of the sun is so intense
that it's kind of as if the light bulb has no light at all.
Because when you compare them, there's really no comparison.
And that's what Jesus is referring to.
Jesus is saying, hey, listen,
I'm shining a light that kind of eclipses.
Now, it doesn't disqualify.
It's not saying that the light that has been
is actually darkness.
No, it's not saying that,
but it's saying if you compare the two lights,
there's really no comparison.
The light that is the light of Jesus
is the full light of God,
the full radiance of His splendor,
the exact representation of His nature
and the full radiance of His glory.
And if you put the two next to each other,
oh my gosh, it's as if the light bulb,
you hear what I'm saying?
And so let me just share this right now.
This is as a side note,
just in case any of you are worried.
I believe in the whole Bible.
In fact, I love the Bible.
I love the scriptures.
I love every book in the Bible
from Genesis through to Revelation.
The Bible, the scripture,
is going to begin taking a more,
is going to begin, I suppose,
being honored more deeply again in the church.
I believe that.
That is very important.
I, again, I believe that every single word,
every scripture is God-breathed, okay?
Let me just say that right from the beginning.
But here's the other thing.
Not all scripture and not all truth in the scripture
is equally weighted.
Not all truth in the scripture has the same level of volume.
Not all truth in the scripture,
not everything that is written in there
is to be taken with the same amount of weight.
And I love what John G. Lake says.
He says this,
the red letters in the Bible, the letters of Jesus,
the words of Jesus, they are the high court of scripture.
And I like that because the words of Jesus, they trump.
Now, the words of Moses are good words,
but the words of Jesus trump Moses' words every time.
The words of Abraham, great words.
The life of Abraham, the story of Abraham, great story,
and a true story, and an amazing story,
and part of our story, part of our foundation.
And it's amazing.
But the life and the words of Jesus,
they trump those words and they trump that life.
They hold more weight.
And where there is like a sense of like,
hey, this is not maybe lining up with this.
And sometimes you get that.
I'm gonna go into that in a little bit in a second.
Sometimes you get that.
Then what we do is we're actually disciples of Jesus.
And our anchor is Jesus.
Our anchor is not Moses, our anchor is Jesus.
Moses reveals Jesus, not the other way around.
Moses is meant to lead you to Jesus.
And Jesus is the final word from God about who he is,
about who you are, and about what life is all about.
When you see Moses,
Moses couldn't say, when you've seen me,
you've seen the Father.
Moses could say, when you see me
and hear what I have to say,
you can see an aspect of the Father.
But only Jesus can say, when you've seen me,
you have seen the Father, the fullness of the Father.
I am exactly what he's like.
So I hope you're getting what I'm saying.
Because this is kind of a huge deal.
Let me read this other scripture to you from Luke 9.51.
It's actually quite a challenging scripture.
And this kind of illustrates from one of Jesus' disciples,
from some of Jesus' disciples,
kind of a little bit about why this is important.
So Luke 9.51, when the disciples of Jesus
were approaching for his ascension,
he was determined to go to Jerusalem
and he sent messengers on ahead of him
and they went and entered a village of the Samaritans
to make arrangements for him.
But they did not receive him.
The village did not receive Jesus.
Hey guys, thanks for the comments.
Thanks, oh, I love you, man.
Miss you, bro.
Hope you're recovering from your surgery well.
And let me just carry on.
Because he was traveling towards Jerusalem.
When his disciples, James and John saw this,
they said, Lord, how crazy is this?
Lord, do you want us to command fire
to come down from heaven and consume them?
But he turned and rebuked them and said,
you do not know what kind of spirit you are of.
For the son of man did not come to destroy men's lives,
but to save them.
And he said, Lord, do you want us to command fire
to come down from heaven and consume them?
For the son of man did not come to destroy men's lives,
but to save them.
And they went on to another village.
I just want to say this.
Jesus goes to a Samaritan village, oh, sorry.
They go to a Samaritan village and they get rejected.
And James and John, sorry, I just had to remind myself,
which ones were they?
James and John.
Oh yeah, and in their mind they think,
yeah, Jesus is going to be totally down with this.
Now, the reason that they think Jesus
is going to be down with this is this,
because they are referring back
to one of their greatest national heroes, Elijah.
And in some versions of the scripture,
it actually refers to Elijah in this passage,
that they're actually literally referring to Elijah,
the one who called down fire from heaven
and consumed armies and different people
using his prophetic anointing to call down fire
to kill people.
And so they're like, well, it's in the scriptures
and obviously Elijah did it and he's one of our prophets.
And so they have a place to look back at
and say, you know, like this is justified
because it's in the Bible, it's in the scriptures.
It's a way that they believed God.
moved in the past or a prophet.
And I thought, well, you know, because of that,
this must be what God's like.
And so let's just suggest to Jesus
that we've got all this power and authority now.
I'm pretty sure we could do it.
I'm pretty sure we could call the fire down.
And honestly, the freaky thing is,
you can use your gifting and your authority
and your anointing to call down fire,
but here's the deal.
Jesus says this.
They say, basically, why don't we just kill everyone
and call the fire down?
And Jesus rebukes them.
And he says, guys, you do not know what spirit you're of.
The son of man did not come to take life, but to give life.
And here's the thing.
Jesus knows they're being inspired by Elijah.
And this is what he's inferring, guys.
Now, I love Elijah.
He's one of my greatest heroes.
And I love many things about Elijah's life.
But here's what Jesus is implying, in my opinion.
And I think it's a biblical opinion.
And I think this is a valid opinion.
Jesus is implying this.
When Elijah called down the fire,
he was not operating under the spirit of God.
He was releasing a different spirit.
And that's why Jesus says,
you don't know what spirit you're of, guys.
If you do that, that's a different spirit.
That's not the Holy Spirit.
That's not the spirit of God.
I mean, I'm not gonna speak too much more on this,
but if you just follow the logic,
Jesus is saying, hey, that wasn't the spirit of God.
Even though God was happy to get a little bit of mud
on his face for a season,
God's cleaning the mud off his face right now.
And he's saying, hey, guys,
that's actually not the way I am.
That's the way you saw me in the Old Testament Scriptures,
but they're only a partial revelation
of what my father is like, of what I'm like.
They're only a partial revelation.
But in me, you're seeing the full picture.
And I want you to know that that's not the spirit of God.
The way you see him determines how deeply you can know him
and how clearly and gloriously you represent him.
And James and John were just about to misrepresent God.
Many Christians today misrepresent God
because they believe wrong stuff about what he's like.
And it's because they're getting their bearings,
they're getting their compass,
they're getting their reference for what God is like,
and they're putting more weight on the Old Testament
than some of those revelations
that God gave through the prophets and fragments in times.
They're putting as much weight on those things
as on the life of Jesus.
And the thing is,
we're meant to put weight on those people's lives.
I hope I'm explaining this clearly.
I don't want to be misunderstood here.
I love the Old Testament,
but we're meant to put more weight on the life of Jesus.
We're meant to put more weight,
we're meant to put our anchor point is meant to be Jesus.
Okay, so hopefully I've made that clear.
If anyone has questions,
feel free to fire them away.
Here's something that's true, that's true.
When we don't see him clearly,
we misrepresent ourselves
and we also misrepresent him.
We can't know who we are until we know whose we are.
And here's the thing, you become like what you worship.
If your image of God is wrong,
if your image of God is wrong,
if the way you see God is wrong,
then you're going to be in a kind of a mixture
of worshiping God for who he is,
but then the parts of you
that are seeing monsters in the cupboard
or the parts of you that are seeing God
for not truly for who he is
or outside of how Jesus represented him,
there's kind of a little bit of an idol there
and you'll be coming like what you worship.
And if you're worshiping a false image,
you're becoming like a false image.
And what that means is if your image of God is wrong,
then this is the result of that.
If your image of God is wrong,
then there's something in you
that will remain not quite right.
The clearer we see God,
the more we come in to who we are.
And I'm going to talk more about that in two weeks time.
We are made in the image of God.
The way you see him is the way you represent him.
And when you see him wrong, you misrepresent him.
But not only that, when you see him wrong,
you can even find yourself empowering what is not of him.
Like what James and John were about to do.
And like, honestly, if I can just say it,
possibly what Elijah did.
Possibly what Elijah did is empowered
because he saw God, but there were parts of God
that he wasn't seeing.
There was a few shadows in the wardrobe.
And I think he actually, without knowing it,
empowered, sometimes empowered what wasn't of God.
But through the authority that God had given him
in the name of God.
And so I hope that makes sense.
I can explain any more questions or anything like that.
Some of this can be, I know, a little bit controversial.
So I want to share kind of something that happened to me,
not kind of, something that happened to me
on Queen Street in Auckland quite a few years ago now.
But an illustration of how when we see him
through our shadows and when we don't see him clearly,
we misrepresent God and that can be quite detrimental.
I've been related to wrongly.
I've had people also look at me and not see,
like not, they're not seeing who I am.
They're relating to me based on something that I'm not.
And the story I'm going to share with you
is both a story of how someone was relating to me
based on a lie around who I am.
And also because, and that's because God
had been misrepresented to them
and they believed a lie about who God was
because of the way that God had been represented to them.
So I was walking on Queen Street in Auckland,
in New Zealand, and walking down the road
and I see this guy on the side of the road,
sorry, just by like the IMAX theater there
by the Burger King, if you've been to Queen Street.
And he's sitting down there, he's kind of eating a burger
and he just looked a bit lonely and I thought,
man, I'm just going to go say g'day to this guy.
I'm going to say hi and I'm going to,
um,
yes.
Let me just stop for a second.
Storm just said,
I get worried about embracing a marshmallow God
instead of a holy God that
scripture says to reverence and fear.
That's my honest thought.
Yeah, awesome Storm.
I love it.
The thing about a holy God is that
God's holiness is perfectly represented in Jesus.
Jesus is the picture of what a holy God looks like.
And so yes, God is completely holy
and he's not just a marshmallow God,
but he is according to scripture and according to,
according to God, according to the word, which is Jesus.
I'm not saying Jesus is a marshmallow God,
but I'm saying Jesus is a God that is 100% like Jesus.
Sorry, God is a God that's 100% like Jesus
and Jesus is a God that's 100% like Jesus.
So that's what I'm saying.
Um, but good.
Yeah, I think that we,
I think that the fear of God is actually something
that we are beginning to get more of a revelation on
and we are going to continue getting more of a revelation on.
And it's one of the keys for what we're stepping into
as a global church right now
is an understanding of the fear of the Lord.
And I'm excited about that,
but that's a topic for kind of another day.
So I say to this guy,
Hey, listen,
um, I just wanted to come up.
I just want to say, mate,
you're, you just look like a champion.
I want to say that if,
can I just say this to you?
God loves you, man.
And I don't know,
is there anything I can pray for you for?
And he just stands up,
this guy on Queen Street,
he just stands up and he says,
he says,
he swore at me.
I was thinking, how do I say that word?
I'm not going to say that word.
He swore at me.
He cursed me and he told me to,
in very colorful language,
go away.
And so I said, bro, bro, bro.
And he looked really angry.
And I said, bro,
sorry if I've done anything to offend you.
Like, I just wanted to bless you.
Sorry if I've done anything to offend you,
but is there like, what's going on?
How come, why are you so angry?
And, and he goes,
you beeping Christians.
I hate you beeping Christians.
And I said, mate,
sorry, man.
What, what, what happened?
Why do you hate,
why do you hate Christians?
And he said, he said,
well, I was here not long ago,
sitting in the same spot
and this beeping Christian came up to me
and he comes up to me and he says,
he says,
he says this to me
and he's furious, man.
Like his face is filled with anger.
with anger. He said, Hey, do you know about Jesus? I said, No. He goes, Do you know, if
you die tonight, do you know where you spend eternity? He goes, No. And then the guy said
to me, Well, hold out your hand. And so I held out my hand, just thinking, Okay, hold
out his hand. And the guy gets a cigarette lighter out of his pocket and lights it. And
then he, and he's fuming, man. He goes, the guy burnt my beeping hand. He got the cigarette
lighter and he put the flame on my fingers and he burnt my hand. And I just about smashed
the guy, just about punched the guy. And I said, Man, I probably want to punch the guy.
And, and, um, and I told him to beep off and, and then I tried to run after him and
he, he sprinted off and I was angry. I was going to beat him up. And then he, and I,
and just before he ran away, he said this to me, he said, See that feeling you're feeling?
That's what hell is going to feel like, but all over your body for all of eternity. Now,
this is not a teaching on hell guys. So I'm not even going to mention hell right now.
And I'm not saying anything about hell and I'm not even saying that that's true or untrue.
I'm not even going to go into that. But here's what I am saying. That is a freaking misrepresentation
about what God's like. Jesus would never walk up to someone with a cigarette lighter and
burn their hands and say, you know, if you don't change, that's what your whole existence
is going to be like for the rest of eternity. And your whole body is going to be feeling
this pain and you better get saved. And you better follow me because if you don't, you're
going to, you know, Jesus doesn't threaten people into relationship with him. He loves
people into relationship with him. And so this guy had had Jesus misrepresented to him.
Why? Probably because the guy that misrepresented God to him had had God misrepresented to him
in the first place. He wasn't seeing God clearly. So he was representing him grossly, wrongly.
And he was probably not able to know God to any level of depth because what he was
seeing of God was not true of God. And so this is the thing. There are no monsters in
God's cupboard. God is love. There are no monsters in God's cupboard. Now is God a holy
God? Yes. Is God a just God? Yes. Does God get angry? Yes. But all those things are based
and built upon his love and his goodness. He never, ever strays from that. He's always
the same. He's always like Jesus. God is a hundred percent like Jesus. What kind of God
do you see in Jesus? Well, I mean, that's a huge question, but let me just run through
a few little things to let you know. And like I said, this is kind of just an introduction
and guys, sorry, I hope it's been clear. And I haven't waffled too much, but hey, you
know, give me some grace. But let me just run through a few things that just off the
top of my head. Oh, let me, sorry, Raewyn, I just saw your comment. Oh, my heart is breaking
for that man. Me too. The end of the story though, let me just share the end of the story
because it's a cool end of the story. I said to the guy, I said, man, and I was thinking
to myself, WWJD, what would Jesus do right now? And I said, you know what, man, that
guy that burnt your hand was completely misrepresenting what God's like. God is not like that, man.
I'm so sorry that that tainted your view of what Christians are like and more so what
God is like and what Jesus is like. And I want to let you know, God is not like that
at all. God is a God of love and He loves you so much. And yes, man, He does want change
for your life because He wants the best for you. And you were designed to do life with
Him. You were designed to be in relationship with Him. And when you're not, something's
going to be missing in you, man. You were designed for this. You weren't designed to
lead your own life. You were designed to be led by Jesus. That's the way that God has
designed your being. But here's the thing, God would never walk up to you. Jesus would
never walk up to you and burn your hand. He loves you, man. And I'm so sorry that that
happened to you. And He said to me, man, thanks for talking to me, man. And thanks for being
patient. Man, if Christians are more like you, man, Christians are awesome. And He's
like, you're a good dude, man. You're a good dude. And if Jesus is like you, or if you're
like Jesus, man, maybe I'll give Jesus a go. And He started talking like that. And you
could see just the...
the image of God being almost rescued on the inside of him.
So it was a really cool end to the story.
So thanks, positive waffling, ha ha.
Thank you.
Yeah, I know it's a bit waffly.
Sorry, it's not much sleep last night, you know.
But anyway, let me get back to where I was at.
God is like Jesus.
What kind of God do you see in Jesus?
You see this.
You see a friend of sinners.
You see someone who is number one on the door at all the parties.
Like he's, no one is the guy that hangs out with the guys who are off the rails.
This is Jesus.
This is, if you've seen me, you've seen the Father.
This is what God's like.
God is a God that is not afraid of sin, is not afraid of sinners.
He's anointed with joy more than all of his companions.
In other words, he's the happiest guy in at least all of Israel at the time.
He's the one that believes and knows that no one else is willing to believe.
And he's the one that picks the fishermen, the fishermen.
He's the one that picks the fishermen.
He's the one that picks the ones that no one else will pick.
He's the one that believes in you and no one else will.
He's the one that fights for what's best for everyone.
He's the one that doesn't pick a side.
He's the one that is the only one with the right to throw the first stone.
And yet he shows mercy at the expense even of his own reputation.
He's the one that stands and the woman caught in adultery and the Pharisees dragged that
woman up in front of Jesus and they say, according, that's another thing, guys, according
to the Scriptures and according to the law and according to the law of Moses, this woman
must be stoned.
Of course, there's no mention of the man that she was committing adultery with.
He gets completely let off the hook.
But she's dragged out and shamed and embarrassed and she's dragged out.
And what's happening, guys?
You have religion's perspective and representation of what God's like clashing with God's perspective
of what God's like.
And Jesus says, he who is without sin, he who is without sin, you've got two opinions,
you've got two perspectives of God, you've got the perspective of the wardrobe filled
with light and you've got the perspective of the wardrobe flooded with shadows.
You've got a religious community that have been studying the Scriptures, studying God,
trying to know God for years and years, for decades and decades, for centuries and centuries.
And they're left with their own darkened imagination and they're left with an incomplete picture
of what God's like.
And they're saying, stone her, stone her, stone her.
And then God steps on the scene in Christ and God says, basically, I'm not like that.
He who is without sin cast the first stone and they all leave.
And then this is what he says in response.
He doesn't say, oh, you're fine, just keep on living the way you're living.
No, no.
He holds it to account, but in love.
And he says, go, where are your accusers?
Jesus casts out accusation.
Accusation is never from God.
He casts out the accusers.
He casts out the spirit of accusation, which, of course, is the Satan.
And he says, where are your accusers?
Gets rid of them.
And then he says, go and sin no more.
Go and change.
Another way of saying it is, go and repent.
Go and live life in a different way.
But he gives grace in his mercy and in the way he responds to her and in the way he loves
her.
He gives grace that is imparted to her to actually be able to live differently.
Accusation never gives grace to live differently, but love gives grace to live differently.
And so he's the one that is the only one who has the right to cast the first stone.
And he never casts the stone.
He only casts love and mercy.
That's what God is like.
He's the one who healed all who came to him.
He's the one that wept over the death of his friend, even though he knew he was about
to be raised from the dead.
That's compassion.
He's the one that stands at Lazarus's grave and sees all these ones weeping and howling.
And he starts to weep with tears.
And it says that he was groaning from deep within himself.
He was sobbing.
He was upset.
Not because he was upset that Lazarus had died, because that's not true.
He's about to raise him from the dead, of course.
But he has compassion because he's able to relate to you and your pain, even though he
knows that your story ends well.
He's the God of compassion.
He's the God that relates to you.
That's what God's like.
That's what Jesus is like.
He's the one whom which nothing was or ever will be impossible.
He's the one who when we see a God, he's the one that washes our feet.
He's a God that's not afraid of our dirt.
He's the one that comes down to our level.
He's the one.
He's represented.
This is what God's like.
He's the one that comes and comes to the lowest place.
He takes the role of a servant.
He takes the lowest place in the house.
This is God, the King of the universe, taking his all authority and using it to come in
underneath us and serve us from the ground.
ground up he washes our feet he's not afraid of your dirt he's not afraid of
the dirt of your day and he will make you clean this is amazing this is what
God's like he's the one who gave himself to a bloody torturous death all for the
sake of saving those who were to blame for his own murder I got a tender mercy
rather forget radical forgiveness and selfless love this is what God's like
he's a God that died on a cross not on your best day not when you deserved it
but on your very worst day on the day that you murdered God he died for you he
gave his life to you saying there is nothing that will ever separate you from
my love this is what God's like this is the God that we see in Jesus Jesus is
the dawning of a new day Jesus is the sunrise of a new day Jesus is the light
flooding into the into the wardrobe and I want to say this one more time there
are no monsters in the wardrobe and and but if you if you look into the wardrobe
without the light on there will be shadows and where there are shadows
where there are shadows you will be left to imagine through sometimes maybe your
own darkened imagination what you imagine might be there and it probably
won't do you any good it probably won't do you any good so this is what I
suggest as you're reading the scripture as you're reading the scripture read the
scripture through the lens of Jesus as you're looking at life look at life
through the lens of Jesus as you're as you're looking at your friend look at
your friend through the lens of Jesus as you're looking at your enemy look at
your enemy through the lens of Jesus as you're looking at yourself look at
yourself through the lens of Jesus whatever you look at look at that things
through the light that is Jesus Christ and he will illuminate to you what's
really there but if you don't if you fail if you neglect I should say to put
on the light of Jesus Christ to put on the life of Jesus Christ to put on the
perspective that Jesus gives us if you fail if you neglect to put on the Word
of God to be clothed in the Word made flesh that tabernacled amongst us if you
if you neglect to do that then when you read and when you see and when you relate
and when you live you will be living through shadows that will hinder your
capacity to see what's truly there and you will end up at some points in some
way you will end up misrepresenting yourself misrepresenting God it will
hinder your your relationship with God and you won't be able to represent him
as glorious as you could be representing them if you wore the lens of Jesus
Jesus is the highest form of theology
and I'll end with a statement our experiences do not define who he is but
if we will see him clearly and know him deeply who he is will define our
experiences one more time our experiences do not define who he is
say la think on that but who he but if I'm sorry but if we will see him clearly
and we can see him clearly but if we will see him clearly and know him
deeply who he is will begin to define our experiences until our lives begin to
look just like the life of Jesus a practical step one thing you can do to
begin looking at Jesus more as you could begin you could begin by reading the
four Gospels I remember being at BCCM and and Papa Bill Johnson would say this
all the time he would say his most read books in the Bible by far are the four
Gospels Matthew Mark Luke and John I'm so sorry that the recording died I don't
know where it died but sorry about that if you have if I missed any vital point
please feel free to ask a question but I want to suggest that that's maybe a
place you can start is you can look at Jesus by looking into the life of Jesus
through reading the the life of Jesus in the Gospels and that that's a great
practical place for you to start I want to pray for you in a second that God
will give you a spirit of wisdom revelation and as I pray I want to give
you an opportunity to just join with me and I want to just ask you to be open to
God showing you any areas in your own life where where you have been see you
You have been relating to God in a way, you have been seeing God in a way that is incongruent
with the God that we see in Jesus.
I want to just ask you to be open to the Holy Spirit showing you like, hey, are there any
ways that I've been seeing God and relating to God that are not based on actually who
He is?
And Jesus, if that's true, Holy Spirit, if that's true, could you show me so that I can
actually repent, change, and start relating to you and seeing you the way you are, which
is like Jesus?
I'm going to pray for you in a second, but before I do, before I started this live, I
had this impression, and I just want to ask out there right now, just in case anyone who's
actually watching now has this, but I had this birthday.
God often gives me dates, and they're normally, they're almost always, never wrong, they're
always, that's, yeah, they're normally right, but I had this strong impression of a date
when I started this Facebook live, and it was February the 14th, it was someone's birthday,
I believe that someone, well, it's either your birthday, I think it's your birthday,
it's February the 14th, so if that's you, just drop a comment, February the 14th, you
might not be listening, you might be someone that tunes in later on, and if that's true,
then you drop a comment then, February the 14th, but it's someone with their birthday,
February the 14th, and you have a back injury, and I felt like it was your upper back, you
have a back injury, and I feel like the Lord is actually healing you today, as you watch
this, God is wanting to heal you, and so I declare over you right now, in fact, if anyone
has any back injuries right now, just put your hand on your back, but particularly you,
if your birthday is on February the 14th, I felt like God just said to me, I'm going
to heal the person whose birthday is February the 14th who has a back injury, and so right
now I declare the healing power of God over that person, oh, it's Valentine's Day, right
on, yep, so someone who's got their birthday on Valentine's Day, and I just declare the
healing power of God over that person right now, and I minister that in the Spirit right
now over you, and I declare that your body comes into alignment with the Kingdom of God
right now in Jesus' name, pay and go, thank you, Lord, thank you, Lord, that's awesome.
There are a few other things, but I'm just going to end with that. Let me pray for you,
Lord, thank you that you're so good, thank you that you're so loving, thank you that
you're so kind, God, you're not a marshmallow, God, you're not a tame lion, you are to be
feared, but you are to be loved, and your goal in our lives is to love us and to hold
us, Lord, and I thank you for the way that you relate to us, I thank you for the way
that you see us, God, I thank you for the sacrifice that you made for us, Lord, I thank
you, God, for who you are to me, God, I thank you, God, for revealing yourself to me, and
I thank you for revealing yourself to these people who are tuning in, God, I thank you,
God, for a greater revelation, God, and I ask for the spirit of wisdom and revelation
to come upon every person who's watching right now, and upon your church, Lord, I declare
the spirit of wisdom and revelation to see you clearly, to know you deeply, and to represent
you gloriously, I declare, Lord, right now, I declare a tribe, an army of lovers, an army
of ones who see you clearly, know you deeply, that would go out and represent you gloriously,
God, I declare the rising up, the raising up, Lord, of an unveiled people, God, the
raising up of a people who live face to face with you, the raising up of a people, the
raising up of each person listening, to live in a space where they are so face to face
with you, that everything else melts into insignificance because of the light that they're
living in, God, I declare that every space in anyone's life, where they're looking in
the wardrobe, or they're looking into your face, and they're looking in through shadows,
and they're not seeing clearly, God, I declare that the light of Jesus shining so brightly,
I declare that today is a new day, I declare that the sun has risen, and there is light
in the room, and where the curtains are still drawn shut, I declare that they are being
drawn open, because the veil has been torn, not only in the temple, but over the minds
of the people, that as we turn to the Lord, who is the Spirit, there is a veil that is
torn in our minds. And I declare that taking place right now over people's lives. I declare
a clearer and a deeper and a more colorful and vibrant revelation of the true nature
of God, and I declare it into your spirit, in the name of Jesus. Thank you, Lord. Thank
you, Jesus. Wow. Well, guys, again, sorry for a small little bit of waffle there, but
I had fun just sharing that with you. And if you have any questions, I'll be kind of
just, I'll keep an eye on this feed over today. And if you have any questions, feel free to
just put them in the comments. Storm, thanks for sharing your perspective before, too,
and just talking about the marshmallow God. I love hearing that, because it's good for
me, too, to know what I haven't covered super clearly, so I can cover a little bit more
clearly. And so thanks for your comments. Thanks for tuning in. Cool to hear that people
have been ministered to in their backs and all that kind of stuff. God bless you. You
guys are just awesome. Amazing, amazing people. Again, I also want to say as well, just a
quick, again, another thank you for some of you who prophesied over my friend Alexei while
I was in Russia. And he was just sharing with me how blessed he was by those prophecies
again. And so thanks again for loving on my friend in Russia. That's so cool. Be praying
for us here. We are, sorry, be praying, which interpretive means, be praying for us here
in Fangire at Bethel Church. We're going through a really good time right now. There's a little
bit of shaking going on, which I think, you know, it's not comfortable, but I think it's
good. But at the same time, there's some really amazing things starting to happen, like I
mentioned at the beginning. And so please pray for us. I believe that God's about to
do something pretty profound and big, and not only in our church, but in the church
in general, but particularly also in our church. And so if you could be praying for us, that
would be awesome. Anyway, love you guys. Bless you. Have a great day.