Oct. 7, 2024

Eternal Kingdom Living: Embracing Jesus' Timelessness (First Words 06)

Eternal Kingdom Living: Embracing Jesus' Timelessness (First Words 06)

Send us a text Imagine living in an eternal "today" where the truths of the Bible aren't just ancient texts but powerful realities shaping your life now. This episode promises to reframe your understanding of time and faith, starting with Jesus' profound declaration in Luke, chapter 4. By challenging traditional customs like rigid Sabbath observance, we encourage a deeper alignment with the timeless principles of God's kingdom. Discover how embracing the present moment within God's eternal re...

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Season 1

Send us a text

Imagine living in an eternal "today" where the truths of the Bible aren't just ancient texts but powerful realities shaping your life now. This episode promises to reframe your understanding of time and faith, starting with Jesus' profound declaration in Luke, chapter 4. By challenging traditional customs like rigid Sabbath observance, we encourage a deeper alignment with the timeless principles of God's kingdom. Discover how embracing the present moment within God's eternal realm can transform your spiritual journey.

Are we genuinely fulfilling Jesus' mission today? We examine the concept of eternity as laid out in the Bible, urging self-reflection on whether we're manifesting the anointing of Jesus in our lives. From preaching the gospel to healing the brokenhearted and liberating captives, this episode explores the continuous applicability of Jesus' timeless words. How do our lives measure up against these eternal principles? We'll challenge you to recognize the daily fulfillment of God's Word and step into your divine calling.

Finally, we delve into the radical inclusivity of the gospel, illustrated through Jesus' teachings and Old Testament examples like Elijah and Elisha. Jesus' message that God's grace extends beyond the Jewish people was revolutionary, and we discuss the early Christians' struggles to spread this universal gospel. Highlighting the transformative power of the Holy Spirit, we recount how Christianity expanded beyond Jerusalem. From Jesus' miraculous feats to the expectations of modern believers, this episode underscores the enduring power and relevance of the gospel for all humanity.

00:00 - Principles of Eternal Kingdom Living

12:16 - Today's Manifestation of Eternal Truth

32:24 - The Gospel for All People

44:22 - Miraculous Feats of Jesus

53:16 - Walking in the Way of Jesus

WEBVTT

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praise the Lord.

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Let's turn to Luke, the fourth chapter.

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Luke, the fourth chapter we are talking about, still talking about first words.

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The first words are important because they set into motion, especially when they come from the mouth of the Holy Ghost, and these words that we are studying from Jesus are words that he spoke in the first few days after he was baptized with the Holy Spirit at the River Jordan.

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He went down into the river as a son of Abraham, by in the flesh Amen.

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He was under the law, but when he came up out of the river, he was a son of Abraham by the Spirit, and the voice spoke from heaven and declared him to be the son of God Amen, confirming what John had already said, that behold the lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.

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I have seen and I have testified that he is the son of God.

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Praise God.

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So all these things were happening.

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Then Jesus went out in the wilderness and we studied the words that he spoke to the enemy out in the wilderness.

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We've also looked at some other instances where he spoke after, when he started to preach in Galilee and we're still here in Nazareth, in Luke, chapter 4, when he went into the synagogue, as was his custom, and he picked up the scroll of the prophet Isaiah, where it is written the Spirit of the Lord is upon me because he has anointed me.

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I want to pick it up today in the section of Scripture that follows, where Jesus read that, and we're going to start in verse 21.

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Because they establish some things that are going to be principles.

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They establish some things that are going to be guidelines.

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They're going to establish a framework for which things work.

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If you're going to start a business or something like that, you have to have a vision statement.

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You have to have a a business or something like that.

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What you have to have a vision statement, you have to have a mission statement, you know, which gives kind of a scope and an overall sense of direction of where this thing is going right.

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Well, the same thing happens here, at the beginning of Jesus' ministry.

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The words that the Holy Spirit recorded for us as part of His first words are words that give His ministry, his body, his mission, gives it definition and gives it the capability of of how should I say this, gives it the shape, if you will, that we have to work in.

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We can't work outside of what he has put into motion, what he has put under his authority.

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We can't go outside of that, or we're not in him, of what he has put into motion, what he has put under his authority.

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We can't go outside of that, or we're not in him, we're not functioning in the realm that he established, not only for us but for himself.

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Okay, praise God.

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So in verse 21.

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Well, let's start in verse 20.

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Then he closed the book, after he read from the book of Isaiah, and gave it back to the attendant and sat down and the eyes of all who were in the synagogue were fixed on him and he began to say to them Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.

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Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.

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So what Jesus was saying to the people that were assembled there and we're not talking about a vast multitude, we're talking probably a few dozen and in that day, if I'm correct, only the men went to the synagogue and there was a few dozen people I mean, nazareth wasn't a big place in those days, I mean Nazareth wasn't a big place in those days but he looked at him and he said what I've just read that scripture has come to pass today.

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One of the first principles that Jesus initiates here is that in the new creation, in the kingdom of God, because it is spiritual, it is eternal, and because it is eternal, there's not a Monday or a Tuesday or a Wednesday or a Thursday and there's not a Sabbath day.

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I've had people all my ministry try to convince me that we're worshiping on the wrong day.

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We need to be worshiping on Saturday.

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Well, you know, the first thing I tell them when they have a 3 o'clock in the afternoon on Saturday meeting, I said you should have been meeting yesterday at sunset, because that's when the Sabbath started.

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You all are about out.

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You've got three hours left before the Sabbath ends and if this meeting goes into the fourth hour, you'll be breaking the rule.

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They look at me like what, what?

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Because they're just enamored.

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We have a saying around here.

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You want to hear the saying?

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I say you can be enamored or in love with an idea, or you can be in love with the truth.

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Most people are in love with ideas.

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Most people are captivated by an idea and they think that that is truth for them.

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But if your idea doesn't match up to the reality and the truth of God's Word, then your idea is just foolishness.

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Amen.

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But most people are in love with an idea.

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Those people I was just talking with.

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They're in love with the idea that we ought to go back and be Jewish and we ought to worship on the Sabbath.

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But they don't do their homework and they don't realize that if you're going to do that, then your whole clock changes and your days start at sunset on one day and end at sunset on another, so Sabbath actually starts at sunset on Friday.

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Amen.

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But they're so in love with an idea they don't even check the reality.

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Glory to God.

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But the point here is the reality.

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The truth is that in the kingdom of god, in the body of christ, in this eternal eternity that that jesus has brought us into, in the second creation, everything is in a day called today.

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Today is the day of salvation, today is the day that we are going to find ourselves in this kingdom and we are going to live in an eternal today.

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There is no tomorrow, there is no yesterday, there is only today.

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Today is the place that God lives in.

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Hello, somebody could have said amen, god lives in a place.

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The only reference to God, for God, to time, is a place called today or a place called now.

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Now faith is Not yesterday's faith, yesterday's faith won't do you any good and tomorrow's faith is just hoping.

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You know you got to have faith now.

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Does that mean?

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Does that mean you know, right now?

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It means in this place that God defines as an eternal moment, that is now.

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It's not in time, it's not out of time, it's not of time.

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Do you understand what I mean by that?

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If it was in time, it would be in time.

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If it was out of time, it still has a reference to time, but it's neither of those things.

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It would be in time If it was out of time.

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It still has a reference to time, but it's neither of those things.

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It's not of time.

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It's something different, and this is what the kingdom is unique in.

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The kingdom is unique in that it is eternal.

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Now here's the thing.

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Jesus says this that the kingdom of God does not come by observation, because observation, by definition, involves time, because you're stuck in time.

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You can't have one observer be out of time and another observer be in time, or they wouldn't even see the same universe.

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So if you're going to have something, you're going to have.

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If you're going to have something, you're going to have people agreeing about something, they have to have the same kind of frame of reference.

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Okay, if we wanted to describe something that was going on in this room, amen, and you were five miles down the road, you wouldn't be in this frame of reference.

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You would have no frame of reference.

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You wouldn't know what's going on in here.

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You've never been here.

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You don't know what the furniture is, you don't know Praise God.

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So this thing that we live in in the Spirit is totally unlike where we live in the flesh.

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Now, most Christians never understand this, because most Christians never get taught this, but I'm telling you that the reason that we need to be taught this is that this is where we're going and this is where we are.

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If you don't know where you are and you don't know where you're going, then you are a confused person.

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I mean, there would be there would be a lot of names that we would call that person.

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If they don't know where they are and they don't know where they're going, what do you say about them?

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They're lost, they're confused, they're drunk, they're any number of words that aren't very nice words, and that's what most Christians are, because they don't know where they are and they don't know where they're going.

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Well, I'm going to heaven.

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Well, if you're going to heaven, if that's the goal, heaven is an eternal place.

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There is no night, there is no day.

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If there's no night and there's no day and the lamb is the light, then there's no way to count time, because it's timeless.

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And if that's where you're going and any kind of careful reading of the Bible would tell you that what happens between salvation and going to heaven is a time of preparation, you're getting ready to go.

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So what does that tell you?

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You're getting ready to be eternal.

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Now, what the Bible would really tell you is that you're already in eternity.

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You have already been translated from the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of light.

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That was a dissociation from time.

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The cord to time has been cut off.

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Hallelujah, hallelujah.

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But it takes a lot of meditation to let the Lord teach you about this, because the Lord is the only one who can teach you about eternity.

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I mean, I can't teach you that.

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You wouldn't believe me anyway, because I'm here in time.

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The Lord has to take you out of time and teach you about timelessness.

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Okay, so, with about a half a dozen words, jesus is telling us that today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing Now.

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I guarantee you.

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I guarantee you that he could look at almost any scripture that comes out of the New Testament and say that the question is is it fulfilled for you in the today that God is bringing you through?

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Are these things that Jesus just spoke true of your life?

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Are you anointed to preach the gospel to the poor?

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Are you anointed to heal the brokenhearted, to bring eyesight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised or captives?

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Are these things real for you?

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Have they been made fulfilled in you?

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Because you have heard the Word of God and you are living it?

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Jesus is talking to you right here.

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He's saying today.

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He was talking to a bunch of people in Nazareth, but this Word is eternal.

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He says today, today, today, today, today.

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Is this word fulfilled in your hearing?

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Is it fulfilled or are we just pretending?

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These are legitimate questions.

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You know that you have to ask yourself when you read through the scriptures and you see this, that the Spirit of the Lord, god, is upon me.

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He has anointed me.

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Well, you know he's talking about Jesus.

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No, he's talking about you.

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If you're in him Now, if you're not in him.

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He's not talking to you, but if you're in him, he's talking to you Because, whatever happened, as he is, so we are, he is anointed, we are anointed.

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If we are anointed for these purposes, then we, then we also, are anointed.

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Where is the manifestation?

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Are you in that today, that is being fulfilled, amen.

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These are important questions.

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This is not a study on what happened to Jesus.

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This is a challenge to us to measure ourself against what Jesus says here, because he's putting principles first principles into effect here at this time.

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Principles first principles into effect here at this time, so that it could be applied to you in the time that you enter when he sends you here.

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See, we were all sent out of time into time.

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We're all going to come out of time back into this eternity.

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Now, if you know that, it makes understanding what we're doing here easier.

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Otherwise this just appears like a great cosmic joke.

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You know what in the world is going on.

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How did I get here?

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How did God find me?

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You know where are we going?

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How do we get there?

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You know those kinds of questions are important questions to ask, but they're not the most important question.

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The most important question is how is Jesus going to manifest himself to the church?

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We've been almost eight years answering that question.

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How is that going to happen?

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Because that's the most important question Amen.

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And the answer to that is in a manifestation of today.

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Is the Word being manifested in your life, in this, today?

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Amen, this is what Jesus is saying here.

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He didn't mean that on the whatever day of Nisan that he happened to be in Nazareth going to church that day.

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It wasn't that day.

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He wouldn't talk like that.

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He would say the day he's talking about is that eternal today?

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And he wants to know is it being manifested in you?

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You have a question.

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Look at, look at how the look at how this worked for Jesus.

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That word was spoken to Isaiah 700 years before Jesus came.

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Okay, jesus spoke it again amen.

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Under under a more powerful anointing than Isaiah ever, walked in and Isaiah said in the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord and he was high and lifted up his train, filled the temple.

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That's a pretty powerful touch from God, amen.

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And Jesus walked in a whole other anointing, saying that what Isaiah spoke in his day is now if I say now, now being fulfilled in your hearing, now, once Jesus says those things.

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And once it becomes read in your Bible, amen, it just keeps on reverberating and keeps speaking, and keeps speaking to every generation that'll pick up this word and really read it Amen.

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Not like it's a history lesson, but like it's being spoken to you.

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Praise God.

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So I like what it says here in verse 22,.

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All bore witness to him and marveled at the gracious words which proceeded out of his mouth and they said this is not Joseph's son.

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And so Jesus never, ever, ever, in all four gospels, never, ever let somebody butter him up.

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He never let anybody flatter him, he never let anybody just.

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You know, oh, you're just the most wonderful preacher I've ever heard.

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You know, he would turn that into a teaching lesson that you probably did not want to have, amen.

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And so here it goes.

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This is about about to happen.

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Amen, because he knows what's in the heart of men.

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It says that in John, chapter three, he said he, he didn't need the approval of men because he knew what was in the heart of men.

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And he said to them you will say this proverb to me, surely, this proverb to me physician, heal thyself.

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In other words, physicians go around healing other people, but if he gets sick.

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Who's going to heal the physician?

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Well, heal yourself healing other people.

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But if he gets sick, you know who's going to heal the physician?

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Well, heal yourself.

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In other words, whatever we have heard done in Capernaum, do also here in your country.

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In other words, show us something, show us something and we'll believe.

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Because as far as we know, you're just Joseph's kid, you're the carpenter.

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And Jesus replied back to him, verse 24, he says Assuredly, I say to you, no prophet is accepted in his own country.

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I think in the King James it says no prophet is without honor except in his own country, or that may be in another location, but at any rate you get the idea that no prophet is accepted or honored in his own country.

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Why is that?

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Because of familiarity.

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Listen to me very carefully.

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We're talking about first words.

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Anybody that has preached this gospel has found this out the hard way, that if you want to be effective preaching the gospel, you almost have to go someplace else other than where you were raised.

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You have to get out of town you have to get away from, and the hardest people to convince are the people in your own family, the people that grew up with you, right around the corner Cause.

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Hey, they, they saw you throw rocks through the windows.

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They saw you, you know, pick fights with everybody.

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They know you.

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That this is.

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You know, aren't you Joseph's kid?

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You know that sums up the attitude of what local people think and what they say.

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You know what goes after, aren't you?

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Joseph's kid, is who do you think you are?

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Who are you to preach to us?

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But if you go over in the next county where they don't know you, and you start having meetings and they start seeing the evidence and they start seeing the fulfillment and they start seeing the manifestation of what God has put on your life, amen, they don't have all of this backdrop.

00:22:46.338 --> 00:22:48.528
They don't have all of this backdrop.

00:22:48.528 --> 00:22:52.423
You know, they don't have all of this stuff to deal with.

00:22:52.423 --> 00:23:04.104
And this is why this is important, because Jesus said you're going to have a hard time in your hometown, you're going to have a hard time in your own family.

00:23:04.104 --> 00:23:08.861
It's not going to be easy, easy.

00:23:08.861 --> 00:23:11.728
It never is easy to do that.

00:23:11.728 --> 00:23:18.066
Me preaching this gospel is is hard enough anyway.

00:23:18.066 --> 00:23:32.943
But you know, if you want to try to, you know if you think it's going to be easy in your hometown, you got another thing coming, because you've got this principle of the kingdom working for and against you.

00:23:32.943 --> 00:23:42.367
Because, listen, can I say this this is God intended.

00:23:42.367 --> 00:23:45.559
You know why?

00:23:45.559 --> 00:23:52.039
Because if it was easy to minister in your own neighborhood, you'd never leave.

00:23:56.737 --> 00:24:03.404
And Jesus, in another place, in red, said all authority has been given unto me, now go.

00:24:03.404 --> 00:24:08.321
He didn't say now stay.

00:24:08.321 --> 00:24:11.019
He didn't say be comfortable.

00:24:11.019 --> 00:24:11.503
He didn't say now stay.

00:24:11.503 --> 00:24:12.191
He didn't say be comfortable.

00:24:12.191 --> 00:24:24.682
He didn't say camp out, somebody else will come in from somewhere else and take care of the ones that you love.

00:24:24.682 --> 00:24:29.047
And you think that is really a strange thing.

00:24:29.047 --> 00:24:56.435
But it's actually a God principle and it's built into the kingdom so that you don't mind going out because, well, you might mind it, but you understand that I have to go and I have to be sent in order to be sent, in order to be effective in the spreading of the gospel.

00:24:56.435 --> 00:24:57.116
Amen, jesus.

00:24:57.957 --> 00:25:03.240
I mean, they knew who he was in Capernaum, but he wasn't of Capernaum, he was of Nazareth.

00:25:03.240 --> 00:25:05.921
You know, people didn't travel all over the place in those days.

00:25:05.921 --> 00:25:09.222
They just, you know, they hung out and they stayed there.

00:25:09.222 --> 00:25:10.844
He wasn't of that town.

00:25:10.844 --> 00:25:13.944
So when he got to Capernaum he was able to do great things.

00:25:13.944 --> 00:25:21.989
The Bible says I believe it's in the book of Mark that he was unable to do many great miracles in Nazareth because of their unbelief.

00:25:21.989 --> 00:25:37.974
And their unbelief was based on the same unbelief that James had and his brothers had and his sisters had, and even Mary had to a certain extent.

00:25:38.636 --> 00:25:49.335
Praise God, assuredly, I say to you that no prophet is accepted in his own country.

00:25:49.335 --> 00:25:55.441
So here you go, and this is one of the hardest things that we have to deal with.

00:25:55.441 --> 00:26:03.240
Amen that a lot of times our best efforts with our own family are difficult.

00:26:03.240 --> 00:26:22.007
Which is why I've said I've tried to teach you this all along that the principle of Paul on the road to Damascus is an essential part of kingdom dynamics.

00:26:22.007 --> 00:26:43.061
You can minister to your children all day long, and you need to do that, but don't despair when you don't see earth-shaking results, because they still need to have their own private encounter with God.

00:26:43.515 --> 00:26:45.181
God has to ring their doorbell.

00:26:45.181 --> 00:26:46.484
Go, knock, knock, knock.

00:26:46.484 --> 00:26:57.689
Like he did with Paul, like he did with Peter on the rooftop, like you know, there's just case after case after case after case where God just has to reveal himself.

00:26:57.689 --> 00:27:16.826
You know, you can tag along on mom and dad's coat strings for a while, but God is going to take you aside and say now listen here, this isn't about me and your dad or me and your mom.

00:27:16.826 --> 00:27:18.381
This is about me and you.

00:27:18.381 --> 00:27:22.622
And what are you going to do about it?

00:27:22.622 --> 00:27:28.026
Everybody has to have that kind of encounter.

00:27:28.026 --> 00:27:35.546
You have to, or else your relationship with Jesus is not yours.

00:27:37.636 --> 00:27:41.055
Everybody wants to talk about this being a personal relationship with Jesus.

00:27:41.055 --> 00:27:50.914
Well, personal relationship with Jesus starts with dealing with him directly, not through a mediator of your mother and father.

00:27:50.914 --> 00:27:55.164
Do we understand that?

00:27:55.164 --> 00:27:56.248
Praise God.

00:27:56.248 --> 00:28:13.007
So then Jesus goes on to teach something that at first glance, you go.

00:28:13.007 --> 00:28:14.068
Well, what's wrong with that?

00:28:14.068 --> 00:28:29.270
Because it produces one of the most violent and ugly reactions in the people that you could possibly imagine, that you could possibly imagine.

00:28:29.270 --> 00:28:38.205
So he goes on and he gives two illustrations of what it means to not have honor in your own country.

00:28:41.029 --> 00:28:59.805
Okay, but I tell you truly, verse 25, many widows were in Israel in the days of Elijah, when the heaven was shut up, three years and six months, and there was a great famine throughout the land.

00:28:59.805 --> 00:29:11.244
If you're a believer, if you're a Jewish person, you really can't argue with that statement.

00:29:11.244 --> 00:29:17.667
That is a summary of one of the great ministries that Elijah went through.

00:29:17.667 --> 00:29:34.819
If you'll remember, he was up on the mountain, hit away by the brook Cherith, amen, and was there for a season when God had to bring him food by means of ravens Amen, remember this story.

00:29:34.819 --> 00:29:54.924
And then an angel came and brought him food from heaven and told him to take and eat of this food, for the journey is too great for you, and eat of this food, for the journey is too great for you, and I'm going to send you to a place called to a widow in Zarephath.

00:29:54.924 --> 00:30:13.106
And so Elijah went down off of the mountain and went to a place in out of Israel, into a foreign land, into a city in that foreign land that was also suffering under the persecution or not persecution, but famine.

00:30:13.106 --> 00:30:15.569
You know the story, amen.

00:30:18.698 --> 00:30:45.843
He went there, he found the widow's house and she was about to fix the last bit of wheat that she had, the last bit of wheat that she had, the last bit of oil that she had, and make a cake for her and her son and then die, because there wasn't any hope for her, there was no employment, there was no way to get any more, so she was going to eat this one cake and die.

00:30:45.843 --> 00:30:47.980
Elijah said give me the cake, now, that would be a hard decision, wouldn't it?

00:30:47.980 --> 00:30:48.513
But not if you're going to eat this one cake and die.

00:30:48.513 --> 00:30:51.182
Elijah said give me the cake, now, that would be a hard decision, wouldn't it?

00:30:51.182 --> 00:30:53.162
But not if you're going to die anyway.

00:30:53.162 --> 00:31:03.737
You know what's one cake going to do, you know it can't be the best cake in the world, but by the act of faith he told her then to go fill the vessels, and not a few.

00:31:03.737 --> 00:31:05.363
Amen.

00:31:05.363 --> 00:31:12.915
Gather up the vessels and not a few, few.

00:31:12.915 --> 00:31:13.016
Amen.

00:31:13.016 --> 00:31:29.650
Gather up the vessels and not a few, because the Lord says this hallelujah, glory to God that the, that, the, that the, the, the grain will not fail, neither will it, the, the, the oil go, except at my word.

00:31:29.650 --> 00:31:34.884
And he stayed with her for the longest time.

00:31:34.884 --> 00:31:35.906
Amen.

00:31:35.906 --> 00:31:37.500
And they ate like kings.

00:31:37.500 --> 00:31:41.463
And the vessels never ran empty.

00:31:41.463 --> 00:31:43.980
Great miracle.

00:31:44.615 --> 00:31:46.000
And everybody, we believe that.

00:31:46.000 --> 00:31:50.604
We believe that it happened like that because it's the Word of God.

00:31:50.604 --> 00:31:54.759
The Jews believe that happened like that because it's in there in their Bible.

00:31:54.759 --> 00:31:56.183
Amen.

00:31:56.183 --> 00:31:58.450
This is not, this is not heresy.

00:31:58.450 --> 00:32:01.862
And Jesus didn't say anything about it.

00:32:01.862 --> 00:32:05.519
I mean, he didn't give him a sermon on that, he didn't explain it like I did he.

00:32:05.519 --> 00:32:08.766
He just stated it and everybody that heard it would have believed it.

00:32:08.766 --> 00:32:12.759
Right, but none.

00:32:13.099 --> 00:32:33.640
Here comes the second fact but to none of them, none of the none of the widows that were in Israel was Elijah sent to, except for the widow in Zarephath.

00:32:33.640 --> 00:32:38.146
Okay, you got that.

00:32:38.146 --> 00:32:40.250
This is what he says, he said.

00:32:40.250 --> 00:32:43.625
But to none of them, none of the widows.

00:32:43.625 --> 00:32:58.609
There were many widows in Israel in the time of Elijah, but to none of them was Elijah sent, except to Zarephath, in the region of Sidon, to a woman who was a widow.

00:32:58.609 --> 00:33:14.446
And there were many lepers in Israel, verse 27, at the time of Elijah the prophet, and none of them was cleansed, except Naaman the Syrian.

00:33:14.446 --> 00:33:25.898
Now, if you read those two scriptures, there's absolutely nothing controversial about that.

00:33:25.898 --> 00:33:41.432
That is established record in 1 Kings amen of what happened in the ministry of those two great men of God.

00:33:41.432 --> 00:33:43.820
You know the story.

00:33:43.820 --> 00:33:48.862
We just recounted the story about the widow.

00:33:49.604 --> 00:33:51.326
You know that Naaman came.

00:33:51.326 --> 00:34:14.440
He was a military leader of the Syrian army and the Syrian army was about to conquer Israel and he had heard about this man named Elijah and came to ask that the man treat him favorably and heal him, and he thought he was going to get.

00:34:14.440 --> 00:34:27.583
You know this, you know all this pomp and circumstance that you know Elijah was going to come out and trumpets were going to blare and you know we were going to call down healing from heaven and you know there'd be this dramatic thing.

00:34:27.583 --> 00:34:31.644
And Elijah said doesn't he bother to get up and go see the guy?

00:34:31.644 --> 00:34:38.047
He just says, sends his servant out and says tell him to go bathe in the river Jordan seven times.

00:34:38.047 --> 00:34:45.427
Well, naaman's a little bit ticked off, you know he's not real happy about this.

00:34:45.427 --> 00:34:47.702
He was hoping to at least get to see this guy.

00:34:47.702 --> 00:34:50.454
You know, of course he didn't, wouldn't get too close.

00:34:50.454 --> 00:34:55.177
But you know, maybe after he got healed he'd be able to, you know, have a meeting with him.

00:34:55.177 --> 00:35:13.981
Anyway, he didn't want to go get in this old muddy River, you know, and who who cares, but For him, for his sake, he was glad that he did because the servant said look, you come all this way.

00:35:13.981 --> 00:35:24.402
Had he told you to do something more extravagant or more with more fanfare, or more hoop to hoop, you know you'd have done it.

00:35:24.402 --> 00:35:28.262
All he's telling you to do is go dunk yourself seven times in the river.

00:35:28.262 --> 00:35:32.585
Well, you know the story.

00:35:32.585 --> 00:35:33.347
You'd have done it.

00:35:33.347 --> 00:35:35.313
All he's telling you to do is go dunk yourself seven times in the river.

00:35:35.313 --> 00:35:35.875
Well, you know the story.

00:35:35.875 --> 00:35:39.469
After the seventh time he came down and he got up out of that river and his skin was as fresh and new as a baby's skin.

00:35:39.469 --> 00:35:43.403
Glory to God, hallelujah.

00:35:44.034 --> 00:35:50.108
Now what I'm telling you is that those things were accepted facts.

00:35:50.108 --> 00:35:54.478
This wasn't Jesus saying.

00:35:54.478 --> 00:35:59.289
I'm going to give you some revelation today out of the book of 1 Kings.

00:35:59.289 --> 00:36:02.144
Well, for one thing, that's not what they called it in those days.

00:36:02.144 --> 00:36:06.166
But you know, I'm going to give you some depth to the word of God.

00:36:06.166 --> 00:36:08.362
He just said what happened.

00:36:08.362 --> 00:36:11.182
You know, you got that book over here, bring it over here.

00:36:11.182 --> 00:36:14.260
He just recounted what happened.

00:36:14.260 --> 00:36:17.887
Now look at what happened, verse 28.

00:36:20.356 --> 00:36:28.065
So that all those in the synagogue, when they heard these things, were filled with wrath.

00:36:28.065 --> 00:36:30.501
How does that work?

00:36:30.501 --> 00:36:32.199
Well, I'll tell you how it works.

00:36:32.199 --> 00:36:37.945
When you get spiritual, unspiritual people will react.

00:36:37.945 --> 00:36:53.670
Listen, they had heard these stories by the multiplied dozens and they had heard them recited by very unspiritual rabbis.

00:36:53.670 --> 00:37:10.387
This is why you know, time after time, you see in your Bible that people were amazed at the teaching of Jesus, because he taught as one who had authority, not as the scribes and the teachers of the law, amen.

00:37:10.387 --> 00:37:37.103
So here's what Jesus is putting into motion with these words and with the careful choice of these two examples, and he's putting this in motion, and he's framing this around the core of what the new covenant is all about, what the new creation is all about, what the body of Christ is all about.

00:37:38.315 --> 00:37:44.088
First thing is that this gospel is not just for the Jews.

00:37:44.088 --> 00:37:55.025
Now I'm going to tell you to be quite honest I'm going to just mention a few things that we mentioned these before when we studied in the book of Acts.

00:37:55.025 --> 00:38:20.628
But it took at least at least one, if not two, generations to get Jewish tradition out of the gospel, and it only took about four or five generations for Jewish tradition to creep back in and take Christianity captive.

00:38:20.628 --> 00:38:29.603
That's how insidious the law is to the gospel.

00:38:29.603 --> 00:38:41.646
Insidious is like poison, it's like a venom that gets in and wreaks havoc.

00:38:41.646 --> 00:38:48.226
This gospel is for all.

00:38:48.226 --> 00:38:52.715
This gospel is for all.

00:38:53.614 --> 00:39:00.760
The Holy Ghost had to drive Christians out of Jerusalem to Antioch, from Antioch.

00:39:00.760 --> 00:39:29.947
Then Christians were sent all over the Mediterranean basin, all throughout, all of southern Europe, italy, spain, northern Africa, the Middle East, all around, using Antioch as a center point so that the gospel could be taken to the world, because it would not have been done so if it had stayed in jerusalem.

00:39:29.947 --> 00:39:37.755
Because the jews were just so convinced that, even if the messiah came, they didn't buy into jesus being the messiah.

00:39:37.755 --> 00:40:10.784
But if he did come, he was for the jews, he wasn't for everybody and even though the Jewish Christians had the revelation as James quoted in Acts, chapter 15, that this gospel was for the Gentiles as well as the Jews, and Peter had the same revelation in Acts, chapter 10 with the rooftop experience, they weren't having it.

00:40:10.784 --> 00:40:12.880
They were not having it.

00:40:14.096 --> 00:40:24.355
If you read Acts 15, you'll find out that the Jews sent emissaries all over southern Europe to disrupt Paul's teaching.

00:40:24.355 --> 00:40:27.768
Because they went out and said you have to follow the laws of Moses.

00:40:27.768 --> 00:40:28.713
Even if you believe in Jesus, you have to follow the laws of Moses.

00:40:28.713 --> 00:40:32.306
Even if you believe in Jesus, you still have to follow the laws of Moses.

00:40:32.306 --> 00:40:35.704
Paul said wait a minute, that's not the gospel I received.

00:40:35.704 --> 00:40:39.503
And they went to Jerusalem to have that checked out.

00:40:39.503 --> 00:40:40.606
Amen.

00:40:40.606 --> 00:40:52.054
And James finally decreed that this gospel is for all Amen, that this gospel is for all Amen.

00:40:52.054 --> 00:41:02.027
But God had to drive them out of Jerusalem to get them in a place where they could be sent out to the world, because this gospel is for all, amen.

00:41:02.735 --> 00:41:20.230
The fact of the matter is that none in the days of Elijah that Elijah was sent to none of the widows amen, or or, in in Elijah's case, to heal any of the lepers in Israel.

00:41:20.230 --> 00:41:21.858
Why was that?

00:41:21.858 --> 00:41:52.086
Because by that time this is what, 500 years or so before, 600 years or so before Jesus comes Israel was in such apostasy that they really couldn't believe even the ministry of Elijah or the ministry of Elijah Listen.

00:41:52.086 --> 00:41:59.298
When Elijah called down fire from heaven, amen.

00:41:59.298 --> 00:42:01.684
And then Jezebel wanted to run him out of town.

00:42:01.684 --> 00:42:03.507
Amen wanted to kill him.

00:42:03.507 --> 00:42:12.179
He went off and hid himself and started to cry out to God how he was the only one left and the only one left and the only one left.

00:42:12.179 --> 00:42:15.349
Because that was the physical evidence.

00:42:16.753 --> 00:42:26.487
Physical evidence in Israel was that there wasn't anybody left that was praising God, worshiping God, following the law, amen.

00:42:26.487 --> 00:42:29.070
They were all a bunch of backslidden.

00:42:29.070 --> 00:42:38.628
Just think of Ahab and Jezebel, just think of the apostasy that they had fallen into.

00:42:38.628 --> 00:42:41.222
And they were the king and queen of Israel.

00:42:41.222 --> 00:42:44.735
Are you following what I'm saying?

00:42:44.735 --> 00:42:46.239
There was nobody.

00:42:46.239 --> 00:42:49.266
And because there was nobody following the law.

00:42:49.266 --> 00:42:53.907
They didn't have a legal standing under the law to be healed.

00:42:53.907 --> 00:43:04.356
See, the question of healing was not a question of God's mercy Under the law.

00:43:04.356 --> 00:43:08.347
The question of healing was a matter of observing the law.

00:43:08.347 --> 00:43:13.083
You ought to be glad that we're not under the law.

00:43:13.083 --> 00:43:15.925
I don't know why people want to get back under the law.

00:43:15.925 --> 00:43:27.565
Because there's no mercy under the law, there's no grace under the law, there's only the observation of external commandments, and on that basis you can be healed.

00:43:27.565 --> 00:43:32.905
Okay, so how much law did the widow at Zarephath know?

00:43:32.905 --> 00:43:38.563
How much law did Naaman know?

00:43:42.356 --> 00:43:58.425
So the fact, what Jesus was telling us is the fact that this multitude of people in Israel could have been healed, could have been fed in the famine, dear Lord, if they were fed in the wilderness, they could be fed in the famine.

00:43:58.425 --> 00:44:04.126
This is not a big deal for God, except he couldn't find anybody that would believe.

00:44:04.126 --> 00:44:10.896
He couldn't find anybody that would believe, enough just to obey the law.

00:44:10.896 --> 00:44:31.237
And so, in order to extend his power to someone, he had to send his, his man, elijah, in one case, or he had to bring name into his man, elijah in that other case, and demonstrate his power to somebody that was not Jewish.

00:44:31.237 --> 00:44:34.309
Why is this?

00:44:34.309 --> 00:44:36.311
Because he was going to do it.

00:44:36.311 --> 00:44:46.456
He was going to honor the ministry of Elijah and the ministry of Elijah, but he was also setting Jesus up for the days of his ministry.

00:44:46.456 --> 00:44:47.117
Now watch this.

00:44:47.117 --> 00:45:16.411
So there were none healed or the famine wasn't stayed in Israel because of kind of miracles that were exactly done by Jesus in his day.

00:45:16.411 --> 00:45:24.534
Because he was sent to the lost sheep of Israel in spite of their unbelief.

00:45:24.534 --> 00:45:30.873
Why am I doing this?

00:45:30.873 --> 00:45:40.465
Because Elijah and Elijah were not Jesus.

00:45:40.465 --> 00:45:43.909
They were sent as God's prophets.

00:45:43.909 --> 00:46:01.565
Jesus was sent as the Lamb of God, as the Son of God, as the Messiah and as the judge of Israel.

00:46:01.565 --> 00:46:07.550
But he wasn't going to judge Israel by the words of his mouth.

00:46:07.550 --> 00:46:12.239
He was going to judge Israel by the acts of miracles that God, the Father, would do through him.

00:46:12.239 --> 00:46:17.155
So the things that Elijah and Elijah were not permitted to do.

00:46:17.155 --> 00:46:31.646
He was sent to none of the widows, except for a widow who was in Sidon, which is up in Syria, in Zarephath, amen.

00:46:31.646 --> 00:46:36.005
And none of the lepers were healed except for Naaman.

00:46:37.548 --> 00:46:42.117
In Jesus's day, his ministry was entirely confined to Israel.

00:46:42.117 --> 00:46:43.940
He was not sent.

00:46:43.940 --> 00:46:52.719
He had to go back up to Zarephath and set a widow woman's daughter free, just to pay homage to Elijah.

00:46:52.719 --> 00:46:55.411
Is anybody getting this?

00:46:55.411 --> 00:46:57.431
But he went back to Israel.

00:46:57.431 --> 00:46:59.530
Oh, I wish I could preach.

00:46:59.530 --> 00:47:06.956
He went back to Israel and healed ten lepers and the one that came back was a foreigner.

00:47:06.956 --> 00:47:17.226
And if you don't get the connection on those there amen you need to reread the passages again.

00:47:18.590 --> 00:47:25.846
God set Jesus up in Israel to do what Elijah and Elijah could not do and there were two.

00:47:25.846 --> 00:47:29.695
They were the greatest prophets in the old Testament, amen.

00:47:29.695 --> 00:47:31.398
But they could not do.

00:47:31.398 --> 00:47:34.865
There was nothing to compare them with.

00:47:34.865 --> 00:47:40.146
Because when Jesus came into Israel, I mean he was going to do things that they had never done.

00:47:40.146 --> 00:47:42.773
That's why they said we have never seen it like this.

00:47:42.773 --> 00:48:01.398
Because in all the years that Elijah did things and he raised the dead and did all kinds of miracles, he never did the quantity or quality of miracles that Jesus did, because he wasn't permitted to do it because of their unbelief.

00:48:01.398 --> 00:48:34.271
But since Jesus had come to judge their unbelief you hear me, jesus had come to judge their unbelief not as a judge of the law, but as their Messiah, and because he was sent by God to convict them of their unbelief amen, he was permitted to do things that even Elijah and Elijah couldn't do.

00:48:34.512 --> 00:48:35.474
So here's Jesus.

00:48:35.474 --> 00:48:38.309
How many lepers did he heal?

00:48:38.309 --> 00:48:40.777
Well, I don't know.

00:48:40.777 --> 00:48:47.215
The Bible recounts many, but he probably healed hundreds, if not thousands.

00:48:47.215 --> 00:48:51.494
See, all the things that Jesus did are not written here.

00:48:53.449 --> 00:49:00.492
There was a famine in Israel for three and a half years, amen, and no bread was available.

00:49:00.492 --> 00:49:05.512
But there was bread in the house of the widow in Zarephath.

00:49:05.512 --> 00:49:14.061
For as long as Elijah said kept his word Amen when people got hungry around Jesus.

00:49:14.061 --> 00:49:18.786
For as long as Elijah said kept his word Amen when people got hungry around Jesus.

00:49:18.786 --> 00:49:19.527
What did Jesus do?

00:49:19.527 --> 00:49:26.976
He caused food to multiply so that tens of thousands of people could be fed at one sitting.

00:49:26.976 --> 00:49:28.818
See, this is a miracle.

00:49:28.818 --> 00:49:29.960
That's off the charts.

00:49:29.960 --> 00:49:35.916
Nothing that Elijah did was like that.

00:49:35.916 --> 00:49:43.128
Elijah just caused one woman and her boy to get fed.

00:49:43.128 --> 00:49:45.253
Jesus called 5,000 men, their wives and their children to be fed, and that was one time.

00:49:45.253 --> 00:49:47.538
The next time that's recorded was 4,000.

00:49:47.538 --> 00:49:54.818
Okay, after that you don't know, because then we're in the realm of unwritten things.

00:49:54.818 --> 00:49:58.394
But if he did it once and he did it twice, do you not see a pattern?

00:49:58.394 --> 00:50:00.188
No, that's right.

00:50:00.188 --> 00:50:01.454
That's what it says.

00:50:01.454 --> 00:50:04.431
That's exactly right.

00:50:07.896 --> 00:50:17.217
And so these things were reserved for Jesus to do when he came to Israel, that neither of the greatest prophets that had ever been to Israel.

00:50:17.217 --> 00:50:19.552
I mean, how good do you have to be?

00:50:19.552 --> 00:50:21.391
How many miracles do you have to do?

00:50:21.391 --> 00:50:34.280
How many times do you have to leave the planet in a fiery chariot to be qualified as the greatest prophet that's ever visited Israel?

00:50:34.280 --> 00:50:35.891
I mean, what do you have to do?

00:50:37.204 --> 00:50:50.605
And then there were 16 miracles in the Bible attributed to Elijah, and 32 to Elijah because he asked for the double portion.

00:50:50.605 --> 00:50:56.170
And the last miracle that Elijah did, he did after he was dead.

00:50:56.170 --> 00:51:09.693
Oh yeah, a soldier was killed and they threw his body into Elijah's grave and he came back to life.

00:51:09.693 --> 00:51:12.780
Glory to life.

00:51:12.780 --> 00:51:21.364
Don't worry about God, hallelujah, are we getting any of this?

00:51:21.364 --> 00:51:23.693
And here comes Jesus and he's raising them left and right.

00:51:23.693 --> 00:51:26.552
Just think about that for a second.

00:51:26.552 --> 00:51:33.407
The man with the double portion of Elijah's anointing had to die before he could raise the dead.

00:51:33.407 --> 00:51:35.996
And here comes Jesus.

00:51:35.996 --> 00:51:38.784
He's just doing it, just walking by.

00:51:39.347 --> 00:51:43.599
Here comes to Acts, chapter 7, the, the, the boy at name.

00:51:43.599 --> 00:51:54.951
He did boys, just what is, but mom's taking to the funeral, crying and weeping and destitute and sad and all of that, and Jesus just stops by, raises him from the dead, goes on.

00:51:54.951 --> 00:51:57.532
How many times does that happen?

00:51:57.532 --> 00:52:13.429
His power got so great that when he raised Lazarus from the dead, he had to call him by name or else everybody that was dead within earshot would have come up, and that, in fact, did happen.

00:52:13.429 --> 00:52:24.130
After he was raised from the dead, they had hundreds and thousands of people come up out of their graves John the Baptist, david.

00:52:24.130 --> 00:52:25.875
All of them came up.

00:52:25.875 --> 00:52:35.347
Glory to God, so exactly.

00:52:35.347 --> 00:52:36.115
Glory to God, so exactly so.

00:52:36.177 --> 00:52:50.367
Here's Jesus establishing something at the very beginning of the emergence of the kingdom that is so important for us and defines what we are all about.

00:52:50.367 --> 00:52:56.577
This gospel is for all and we need to take it to all Amen.

00:52:56.577 --> 00:53:06.244
You have to make that assumption that this gospel is for all and you need to be a vessel that takes it to all Amen.

00:53:06.244 --> 00:53:31.309
When it's taken to all, the miracles that are going to be your calling card are going to be greater than those of the prophet Elijah and the prophet Elijah, and if you said that in most mixed company, they would do the same thing to you that they're doing to Jesus in this one.

00:53:31.309 --> 00:53:53.284
They would take you to the brow of the hill of the city and seek to cast you off, because that is heresy For you to say that you're going to do greater miracles than Elijah or Elijah Amen.

00:53:59.224 --> 00:54:00.407
It's blasphemous no, it's blasphemous to not think that way.

00:54:00.407 --> 00:54:04.034
It's blasphemous to think that jesus's miracle working power is being restrained from you.

00:54:04.034 --> 00:54:14.927
If it's not restrained from you but it's available to you and it's available to all, then how many people should you be raising from the dead?

00:54:14.927 --> 00:54:17.231
How many widows should you be feeding?

00:54:17.231 --> 00:54:20.257
How many lepers should we be?

00:54:20.257 --> 00:54:46.172
We both have had leprosy in our day is AIDS, and we have both had people that we have laid hands on in full-blown AIDS manifestation and had them come back with doctor's certificates that they were free.

00:54:46.172 --> 00:54:50.751
Glory to God.

00:54:53.846 --> 00:55:10.554
We've got to believe this, that this now salvation is ours to minister, and it's greater in magnitude and in power and in impact than that which was given to Elijah and Elijah in their day.

00:55:10.554 --> 00:55:13.483
Hey look, then, that was given to Elijah and Elijah in their day.

00:55:13.483 --> 00:55:22.679
Hey look, who came down from heaven to minister to Jesus concerning his death?

00:55:22.679 --> 00:55:27.344
Was it not Elijah and Moses?

00:55:27.344 --> 00:55:34.255
Hallelujah, they didn't come down as the master to the servant.

00:55:34.255 --> 00:55:49.777
They came as a servant to the master, and that was testified by Paul in the book of Hebrews when he said that Moses was faithful in his house, but Jesus, as the son, is the master of all of his house.

00:55:49.777 --> 00:55:56.184
The Son is the master of all of his house.

00:55:56.184 --> 00:56:02.936
Moses was faithful to the house that God appointed him as servant in, but Jesus was faithful in the house that he created.

00:56:04.306 --> 00:56:10.956
So don't tell me that Elijah and Moses came down as some sort of superiority to Jesus.

00:56:10.956 --> 00:56:12.030
That's just foolishness.

00:56:12.030 --> 00:56:16.914
But the amazing thing about that is not that.

00:56:16.914 --> 00:56:18.766
The amazing.

00:56:18.766 --> 00:56:20.873
You know, I've listened to all this stuff.

00:56:20.873 --> 00:56:23.152
I've listened to people teach about this stuff forever.

00:56:23.152 --> 00:56:38.414
The amazing thing is not that Moses and Elijah came down, but that Peter James and John entered in, and they entered in almost on equal basis with Elijah and Moses.

00:56:38.414 --> 00:56:42.851
They entered into the cloud.

00:56:42.851 --> 00:56:44.231
They all went into the cloud.

00:56:49.407 --> 00:56:53.333
Moses and Elijah went back to heaven and Peter James and John stayed here.

00:56:53.333 --> 00:56:54.590
To what?

00:56:54.590 --> 00:56:56.106
To go?

00:56:56.106 --> 00:56:59.054
To take this gospel to all?

00:56:59.054 --> 00:57:07.396
Amen To minister in greater power and dimension than the two that they just visited with what do you think?

00:57:07.396 --> 00:57:12.173
That maybe Elijah and Moses departed in an impartation with them?

00:57:12.173 --> 00:57:14.710
Did you ever think about that?

00:57:16.005 --> 00:57:20.356
You know, listen, there were plenty of times when Jesus said go wait over here.

00:57:20.356 --> 00:57:23.853
He would tell the nine to go wait over here.

00:57:23.853 --> 00:57:28.114
He'd take Peter and James and John with him and then sometimes he'd just say you wait here and I'm going to go over here.

00:57:28.114 --> 00:57:30.371
But he didn't do that that day.

00:57:30.371 --> 00:57:39.516
If there was ever a time that you had thought that he would have just gone and hung out with the Father by himself, but it wasn't for.

00:57:39.516 --> 00:57:41.891
That whole thing on the mountain was not for Jesus.

00:57:41.891 --> 00:57:45.014
The whole thing on the mountain was for Peter, james and John.

00:57:45.014 --> 00:57:47.726
It was for you.

00:57:47.726 --> 00:57:52.554
Hallelujah, hallelujah.

00:57:56.360 --> 00:58:06.416
So so you just had your big meeting, you just had your big spiritual episode in your life.

00:58:06.416 --> 00:58:10.010
You know somebody got healed, somebody got saved.

00:58:10.010 --> 00:58:11.909
You know somebody got you know, raised from the dead.

00:58:11.909 --> 00:58:12.657
Somebody got, you know somebody got healed, somebody got saved.

00:58:12.657 --> 00:58:16.380
You know somebody got you know, raised from the dead, somebody got you know hundreds came to know the lord.

00:58:16.380 --> 00:58:19.347
Whatever the case may be, I mean there's, you know, just name it.

00:58:19.347 --> 00:58:22.554
We've all been there, done that, we've all had our moments.

00:58:22.554 --> 00:58:44.693
But I'm going to tell you that that you know, you may have thought highly of yourself and you may have even felt that the Lord felt highly about you, but most of the people that were there didn't, and you might as well just suck it up and get used to it.

00:58:45.916 --> 00:58:49.929
And if you do anything for God, you are going to be poorly treated.

00:58:49.929 --> 00:58:50.733
You're going to be talked about.

00:58:50.733 --> 00:58:51.436
You are going to be poorly treated.

00:58:51.436 --> 00:58:52.764
You're going to be talked about.

00:58:52.764 --> 00:58:56.251
You're going to be gainsayed.

00:58:56.251 --> 00:58:57.896
You're going to be called a charlatan.

00:58:57.896 --> 00:59:00.788
You're going to be called you know all sorts of names.

00:59:00.788 --> 00:59:07.159
Hey, look, you know, you can, you can, you can tell me.

00:59:07.159 --> 00:59:11.052
That's not true, but I've been there when they've turned off the power to the radio station.

00:59:11.052 --> 00:59:11.634
I've been there.

00:59:11.634 --> 00:59:13.927
When they've locked the door on the churches, I've been there.

00:59:13.927 --> 00:59:15.806
When they kicked you out, I've been there.

00:59:15.806 --> 00:59:22.706
When they invited you and then invited you to leave, I've, you know, I've been there, you know.

00:59:22.826 --> 00:59:30.485
And these were, these are respectable Christian people, just like these people in Nazareth that day.

00:59:30.485 --> 00:59:32.117
They were respectable Jewish people, just like these people in Nazareth that day.

00:59:32.117 --> 00:59:45.672
They were respectable Jewish people and in their religious fervor they sought to throw the Messiah off a cliff.

00:59:45.672 --> 00:59:47.690
Now go figure that.

00:59:47.690 --> 00:59:51.152
Just read it for what it is.

00:59:51.152 --> 01:00:00.884
It's not the mob with pitchforks and lanterns, you know, coming to get the mad scientists you know and stuff.

01:00:00.884 --> 01:00:03.373
That's not what's happening here.

01:00:03.373 --> 01:00:11.976
These are religiously trained people who are about to throw the Messiah off a cliff.

01:00:11.976 --> 01:00:14.110
Glory to God.

01:00:14.110 --> 01:00:30.974
So when this kingdom of God has come nigh unto you and not only has it come nigh unto you, but God taps you on the shoulder and makes you a chosen vessel you might as well strap your helmet on.

01:00:30.974 --> 01:00:38.969
Amen, it is not going to be a Sunday school picnic.

01:00:38.969 --> 01:00:40.170
How many years is it now?

01:00:40.170 --> 01:00:42.574
It's going on 45 years.

01:00:42.574 --> 01:00:46.778
It gets worse all the time.

01:00:49.240 --> 01:00:57.871
And the thing I find amazing about this passage of scripture is that Jesus knew all this and he tries to get you ready for it.

01:00:57.871 --> 01:01:01.067
I mean, he said look, he said if they do this to me, they're going to do it to you.

01:01:01.067 --> 01:01:10.112
You know, if they tried to throw you off a cliff or me off a cliff, they're going to throw you off a cliff or throw you under the bus, or throw you someplace.

01:01:10.112 --> 01:01:14.320
Me off a cliff, they're going to throw you off a cliff, or throw you under the bus or throw you someplace.

01:01:14.320 --> 01:01:16.844
You know they're going to shut down your meetings.

01:01:16.844 --> 01:01:18.065
Where was it In?

01:01:18.065 --> 01:01:28.568
In in that town down by Capus, where they wasn't Capus, but it was the next one back from it where they were.

01:01:28.568 --> 01:01:41.773
They were going around and promising people to buy their groceries for a year if they would not come to our meetings.

01:01:41.773 --> 01:01:48.793
So here's what Jesus tells us about how to deal with all this.

01:01:51.166 --> 01:01:57.213
Verse 30 says In passing through the midst of them, he went his way.

01:01:57.213 --> 01:02:00.831
He just turned around.

01:02:00.831 --> 01:02:09.759
You know they were trying to force him to the edge of the cliff and push him off, and he just turned around and gave them.

01:02:09.759 --> 01:02:10.503
It had to be.

01:02:10.503 --> 01:02:10.724
You know.

01:02:10.724 --> 01:02:13.585
You can just imagine this.

01:02:13.585 --> 01:02:14.708
He just gave one of those.

01:02:14.708 --> 01:02:27.677
Jesus looks like you really think so, huh, and then just walk right through them.

01:02:27.717 --> 01:02:30.206
Now I don't know if he disappeared and reappeared.

01:02:30.206 --> 01:02:32.771
I don't know if he disappeared and reappeared.

01:02:32.771 --> 01:02:35.858
I don't know if they were temporarily blinded and couldn't see him.

01:02:35.858 --> 01:02:42.728
I don't know if the Holy Ghost just made a path in the.

01:02:42.728 --> 01:02:55.934
You know, my wife will tell you that the Lord struck them with temporary blindness and they couldn't even see her as she walked through their midst.

01:02:55.934 --> 01:03:05.492
I can tell you that God can put a bubble around you and they not even know that you're there.

01:03:05.492 --> 01:03:16.873
I know that you can become invisible and God move you from one place to another.

01:03:16.873 --> 01:03:17.775
I know those things.

01:03:17.775 --> 01:03:19.027
What happened here?

01:03:19.027 --> 01:03:19.550
I don't know.

01:03:20.565 --> 01:03:35.813
All I know is they weren't able to lay a hand on him and he just walked on and he went his way, not a way that was defined by somebody else, and this is what I want you to walk away from, this tonight.

01:03:35.813 --> 01:03:51.356
He went on a way that he was creating, that was created for him to walk before time began, a way that no one else could walk.

01:03:51.356 --> 01:04:10.215
But because he walked it, because he is the forerunner, because he is the one who makes a way where there is no way we can walk in that way and that's what he's telling us here is that there is a way made and you can walk in that way, amen.

01:04:10.215 --> 01:04:32.871
But if you start to get carried away by the affection of the crowd and the and the people around that are rejecting you, they're going to throw you over the hill, they're going to suck you into something and off you go, and you may walk away from all of this and say you know, I don't really like that.

01:04:32.871 --> 01:04:35.353
You know, I'd rather it be someplace else.

01:04:35.353 --> 01:04:39.476
And Jesus is trying to tell us that it doesn't matter what you like.

01:04:39.476 --> 01:04:43.554
This is just the way it is and a lot of this is the way the kingdom is built.

01:04:43.554 --> 01:04:58.907
The kingdom is built to put a barrier against those that reject it and put a magnet for those that accept it.

01:04:58.907 --> 01:05:20.547
And there's nothing you can do about that, because that's the way the kingdom is and Jesus is trying to set here, set some things in motion so that we'll understand that some of these key principles here are just the way things are.

01:05:20.568 --> 01:05:23.750
I remember David Wilkerson saying that a long time ago.

01:05:23.750 --> 01:05:24.849
He said he grew up and on the.

01:05:24.849 --> 01:05:33.554
You know, in some of the churches they had on one side of the front part they have the hymns for the day and then over here they'll have.

01:05:33.554 --> 01:05:44.099
You know how many attended worship service, how many attended Sunday school, how many were saved, how many were baptized?

01:05:44.099 --> 01:05:44.860
Some churches do that.

01:05:44.860 --> 01:05:45.780
He said they're missing one thing.

01:05:45.780 --> 01:05:47.961
He said because if it's a true church, he said they're missing the thing.

01:05:47.961 --> 01:05:54.625
He said because if it's a true church, he said they're missing the thing.

01:05:54.625 --> 01:05:59.289
How many were hardened?

01:05:59.289 --> 01:06:01.594
He said because the Word of God has that effect.

01:06:01.594 --> 01:06:25.735
Some will be softened and received and the kingdom will be a magnet to them, and some will reject and be hardened and it's like they're being repulsed away from the kingdom and thank God for mercy, because if it wasn't for God's mercy you'd only get one chance.

01:06:25.735 --> 01:06:29.509
And you know I don't know about you, but I got.

01:06:29.509 --> 01:06:31.838
I had a few and I thank God for that.

01:06:31.838 --> 01:06:36.978
You know I don't know about you, but I had a few and I thank God for that.

01:06:36.978 --> 01:06:39.052
You know, I thank God for that that he didn't quit.

01:06:42.856 --> 01:06:47.414
But we have to understand these principles are just how the kingdom works.

01:06:47.414 --> 01:06:51.929
The prophet is not necessarily honored in his hometown.

01:06:51.929 --> 01:06:53.394
He may have to go someplace.

01:06:53.394 --> 01:06:57.492
Amen, hallelujah.

01:06:57.492 --> 01:07:00.130
You may have to learn this reality.

01:07:00.130 --> 01:07:00.570
Also.

01:07:00.570 --> 01:07:23.931
I'm going to mention this you may have to understand that the land of Israel was prepared by Elijah and Elijah for Jesus, but they didn't necessarily see.

01:07:23.931 --> 01:07:27.911
They saw some wonderful things, but they didn't see what Jesus saw.

01:07:27.911 --> 01:07:31.373
But their ministry was absolutely necessary.

01:07:31.373 --> 01:07:35.025
But they didn't see what Jesus saw, but their ministry was absolutely necessary.

01:07:35.025 --> 01:07:38.286
You may sow in another water and another get harvest.

01:07:38.286 --> 01:07:44.016
I've seen that many, many times and I've been the recipient of what others have sowed.

01:07:44.016 --> 01:07:45.739
I've seen that.

01:07:45.739 --> 01:07:49.067
You just have to get used to that.

01:07:49.067 --> 01:07:49.286
That it's.

01:07:49.286 --> 01:08:00.833
You know kingdom rules for kingdom people, but if you don't know what the rules are, you'll never really get even get started in this work.

01:08:02.014 --> 01:08:05.940
Praise God, hallelujah, praise the Lord.

01:08:05.940 --> 01:08:07.690
Another first word.

01:08:07.690 --> 01:08:09.545
It's very important.

01:08:09.545 --> 01:08:11.934
First words are important.

01:08:11.934 --> 01:08:13.730
Glory to God.

01:08:13.730 --> 01:08:18.734
Father, we just lift up our brother Mike to you tonight.

01:08:18.734 --> 01:08:23.425
Glory to God, I'm believing for healing.

01:08:23.425 --> 01:08:27.176
I'm believing for all bleeding to stop.

01:08:27.176 --> 01:08:37.354
I'm believing for a total restoration of his body, supernatural replenishment of his blood supply.

01:08:37.354 --> 01:08:40.270
Glory to God.

01:08:40.270 --> 01:08:47.797
We command the blood to live and to stay in the containment where it is allowed to live.

01:08:47.797 --> 01:08:49.891
In Jesus' name.

01:08:49.891 --> 01:08:50.976
We thank you, lord, for miracles.

01:08:50.976 --> 01:08:51.625
We thank you, lord, for miracles.

01:08:51.625 --> 01:08:54.774
We thank you, lord, for divine healing.

01:08:54.774 --> 01:09:02.345
We thank you, lord, for the displacement of time and reality according to men's expectations.

01:09:02.345 --> 01:09:05.654
And we put Mike into your divine hands.

01:09:05.654 --> 01:09:18.451
We stretch forth our hand with your hand and we say be healed in the name of Jesus, be strong and of good courage and do it and rise up, hallelujah, and be healed in Jesus' name.

01:09:18.451 --> 01:09:20.296
Glory to God.

01:09:20.296 --> 01:09:22.131
Give him rest tonight in his body.

01:09:22.131 --> 01:09:24.969
Give him strength in every cell of it.

01:09:24.969 --> 01:09:29.297
In Jesus' name, hallelujah, praise God.

01:09:29.297 --> 01:09:33.152
Well, thank you Jesus.