“Growing in God Podcast” is a podcast dedicated to helping people understand God’s great love, develop spiritual maturity, and experience life as fully devoted followers of Yeshua (Jesus). The podcast provides insights and biblical studies that reflect the Hebraic roots of the Christian faith, as well as topics like sonship, discipleship, prophecy, prayer and intercession. It also tackles issues like anti-Semitism, lordship, and replacement theology from a biblical perspective. Hosted by author, pastor, and Christian leader Gary Hargrave D.Litt., “GROWING IN GOD Podcast” presents the Holy Scriptures as the guidebook to experience a daily dynamic life of faith that leads to spiritual maturity — a process that requires time, focus, and commitment.
Web Description: In this day it is essential that we know and believe the love God has for us, as we read in 1 John 4:16. Otherwise, we become overwhelmed by the increasing lawlessness in the world, and we find our love growing cold. The Kingdom is God’s love. And we can only minister His love to others when we know His love for us personally. Show Notes: Yeshua (Jesus) said, “Because lawlessness is increased, most people’s love will grow cold.” Already we see this happening with people as they react to the increasing lawlessness around them. The fact is that we are affected by the spirit realm. And as we watch all the negativity happening in the world, we have to take care that we are not drawn into the same spirit. Yeshua directly tied the increase in lawlessness to people losing their love. Satan knows this and brings all the lawlessness and wickedness because they generate a force in direct opposition to what Christ is trying to impart to us, which is His mind that has the capacity to know the love of God. As His Son, Yeshua knew the love the Father had for Him, and He came to impart the knowledge of that love to us as individuals. We need to come into the knowledge of the Father’s love for us because Christ is sending us into the world for the same purpose that He came. It is not to do signs and wonders. It is not to perform healings. It is not to speak living words. It is to impart the love of the Father into the lives of people. But you cannot impart what you do not have. The greatest preparation you can do right now to carry out the will of God in the earth is to become aware of His love for you personally. Key Verses: • Matthew 24:12–14. “Because lawlessness is increased, most people’s love will grow cold.” • 1 John 4:7–13. “The one who does not love does not know God, for God is love.” • 1 John 4:14–16. “We have come to know and have believed the love which God has for us.” • Ephesians 3:16–19. “Know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge.” • 1 Corinthians 2:16. “We have the mind of Christ.” • Romans 12:2. “Be transformed by the renewing of your mind.” • John 15:9–13. “Just as the Father has loved Me, I have also loved you; abide in My love.” • John 17:24–26. “The love with which You loved Me may be in them, and I in them.” Quotes: • “Everything that's going to happen in the bringing forth of the Kingdom between now and the manifestation of it in the earth is born out of love.” • “The spirits that are taking over this age right now have a purpose. And that is to block the knowledge of love. It is to remove love from the hearts of humanity.” • “If we can come to know this love that God has for us individually, we can be filled up to the fullness of Him, to the fullness of that love.” Takeaways: 1. When we see everything happening in the earth, our immediate tendency is to be caught up in the negative. But it is not for us to relate to what is going on from a negative perspective. It is simply a matter of shifting our focus and awareness to God’s presence. 2. Yeshua had the awareness of God's love for Him personally, and He functioned out of the knowledge and the understanding of that love. And Christ came to bring the knowledge of that love to us as individuals. 3. Why is satan bringing all this lawlessness and wickedness and this increase of evil? Because if he does that, then the love of people grows cold. The wickedness is in direct opposition to what Christ is trying to impart to us, which is His mind that has the capacity to know the love of God. 4. As humans we struggle with knowing the love that God has for us. That is why we need this impartation of the mind of Christ that is beyond human knowledge or human ability to understand.
10/30/24 • 29:10
Web Description: Let us come to Christ and learn of Him. Let us take on His yoke. Let us change our whole approach to walking with Him. Instead of stressing and struggling and carrying a burden He has not put on us, let us enter His rest. His works are already finished. And it is not our job to do new works or to pray for new things. We are simply to be the expression of what He has already created. Show Notes: After years of serving the Lord, do you feel weary? Do you feel a heaviness? Are you weighed down by all the burdens you carry? That means you need to try a different approach. Yeshua (Jesus) said, “Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest.” It comes back to the fact that we need to enter His rest. We need to remember the Sabbath. When you remember the Sabbath, what are you remembering? You are remembering that God has already completed everything He has promised. So if you are stressed out from serving the Lord, consider that your stress is from working so hard to bring the manifestation of His promises that you are doing your own works—not the works He has completed. Yeshua said that He could do nothing of Himself. He only did the works of His Father. And He told us to learn of Him. When we do that, we will find rest for our souls. We need to come to Christ and learn of Him because He knew how to be in God’s rest. And we need to know how to do that. Let us change our approach. Instead of being those who are struggling and straining to do the will of God, let us be those who are bringing into this moment all that God has already provided. Key Verses: • Matthew 11:27–30. “Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest.” • Jeremiah 31:25. “For I satisfy the weary ones and refresh everyone who languishes.” • Hebrews 4:1–3. “We who have believed enter that rest.” • Psalm 95:9–11. “Your fathers tested Me, they tried Me, though they had seen My work.” • Matthew 4:5–7. “It is written, ‘YOU SHALL NOT PUT THE LORD YOUR GOD TO THE TEST.’” • Hebrews 4:9–10. “The one who has entered His rest has himself also rested from his works.” • John 5:19. “The Son can do nothing of Himself, unless it is something He sees the Father doing.” Quotes: • “When you look at the world, it's languishing right now. We should be the ones who are imparting the refreshing of God's presence. But we can't impart what we don't have.” • “God gets angry when you test Him. Why? Because we should already know He's God. We should already absolutely know beyond a shadow of a doubt who He is and what He is capable of in our lives.” • “What do we remember on the Sabbath? We remember that everything we need, everything we're believing for is already done.” Takeaways: 1. We are not supposed to be weary, under a heavy burden, and stressed out in our walk with God. Yeshua is saying, “All you who feel this way, come to Me, and learn a new way. Learn a different approach. Learn of Me because My yoke is easy.” 2. This is necessary for us because the longer we walk with God, the more our tendency is to say, “I believe. But can God really do what I believe?” We have seen enough in our years of walking with God that our faith in Him should be absolute. And we must not put God to the test like those who failed in the wilderness by challenging His ability. 3. It is all about the Sabbath. The Sabbath was established because God finished His work. And we must come to the realization that everything God is going to bring is already done. We should not be praying for God to do things in the future. We should be manifesting His finished work.
10/23/24 • 28:51
Web Description: What is the Feast of Tabernacles about? It is about remembering God’s power to deliver, to protect, to provide, and to lead His people. As we celebrate Tabernacles this year, let us be grateful for everything God has done for us and worship Him, acknowledging His power to do all that He has promised for Israel and for us. Show Notes: Sukkot, the Feast of Tabernacles, is a time when Jewish families live and take their meals together in a sukkah or a booth, just as their ancestors did in the wilderness. It is a time to remember the miraculous works of God that delivered them from Egypt and sustained them in the wilderness. They are to teach this history to their children so that no generation will ever forget the miraculous provision of God's power. They know they must never forget that God is able to move today as He moved in the past. As Christians we should not regard Tabernacles as just a Jewish holiday. We must be those who remember God’s power in our lives because we are in serious trouble when we forget. And so we should celebrate Sukkot this year with Israel and the Jewish people, not religiously but in a true heart of remembrance. We should be rehearsing the stories about the forty years in the wilderness and recognize that the power of God for Israel then is the same power He has now. Today we need this provision of God moving in our midst. We must remember all that He has done. We must remember that we are sustained by His power alone and not by anything we do from ourselves. So let us study the Scriptures and teach our children the history of Israel and how God moves by His mighty power to take care of those He loves and covenants with. We keep these facts alive in our hearts and know that God can do the same thing in our lives today, right now. Key Verses: • Leviticus 23:39. “Celebrate the feast of the LORD … with a rest on the first day and a rest on the eighth day.” • Leviticus 23:43. “So that your generations may know.” • Deuteronomy 5:13–15. “The seventh day is a sabbath of the LORD your God; … You shall remember.” • Deuteronomy 31:8–12. “At the end of every seven years … at the Feast of Booths, … you shall read this law.” • Deuteronomy 8:1–5. “You shall remember all the way which the LORD your God has led you.” • Deuteronomy 8:11–18. “Beware that you do not forget the LORD your God.” • Psalm 78:4–18. “They forgot His deeds and His miracles that He had shown them.” • Psalm 78:35. “And they remembered that God was their rock, and the Most High God their Redeemer.” Quotes: • “We're in a time when many things are happening around us. Many things are happening in Israel. And it's necessary that we don't forget that He is a God of miracles and that He provides for His people.” • “We will probably need again to experience this type of miraculous provision from God during our lifetime.” • “There's got to be a humility that comes in our hearts to remember all that God has done, all that He provided because we may find ourselves living in what seems like a new time of wilderness. And in that wilderness, we must remember He is able miraculously to provide for us.” Takeaways: 1. The purpose of Tabernacles is that we come before the Lord to remember His mighty works, to remember His power, and to remember His ability to sustain us, to carry us, to protect us, and to shepherd us. 2. Let us not be like those who forget the works of God and therefore fail to keep His commandments. Let us not be like those who forget His deeds, who forget His miracles, and who forget all that He has spoken and sworn to Israel and to us. 3. We live in an age when the world is headed for disaster. And the greatest source of it is that we have forgotten the miraculous deeds of the God of heaven, and we have not honored Him or worshipped Him or given Him the credit for all that He has done. For Further Study: Deuteronomy 8 Psalms 78 Nehemiah 9 and 10
10/16/24 • 30:21
Web Description: We are coming to the Day of Atonement, which has great significance for us as Christians. It is about the forgiveness of our sins, something we understand well. But it is also about something we need a greater revelation and appropriation of, and that is our purification and the removal of our sins. Let this be our experience as we celebrate the Day of Atonement this year. Show Notes: We read in Leviticus 16 that the Day of Atonement is about cleansing the people of their sins. It was a solemn assembly, a time for the people to humble themselves and repent of their sins. Then the first goat was sacrificed as a sin offering, speaking to the forgiveness of their sins. But there was also a second sacrifice. The goat of removal was sent into the wilderness to take away all the iniquity of the people. Most Christians relate to Christ who is our Atonement in the context of the forgiveness of sins. But the Day of Atonement is about being cleansed of our sins. And cleansing is more than external washing. It is about our purification. The prophecy of the Messiah in Malachi tells us that He comes for the very purpose of purification. Yeshua (Jesus) HaMashiach, the Messiah, came for our purification, which along with forgiveness is the cleansing and removal of our sins. Therefore, we absolutely should celebrate the Day of Atonement this year. And as we celebrate it, we should remember that our atonement is not only about the forgiveness of sin. It is also about the purification of the believer, enabling us to truly enter the presence of the Father. With great thankfulness we reach in during this time to humble ourselves before Him and appropriate all that He has provided for us on this Day of Atonement. Key Verses: • Leviticus 16:29–31. “It is on this day that atonement shall be made for you to cleanse you.” • Leviticus 16:18–22. “The goat shall bear on itself all their iniquities to a solitary land.” • Malachi 3:1–3. “He will purify the sons of Levi.” • Hebrews 10:1–2. “The worshipers, having once been cleansed, would no longer have had consciousness of sins.” • Psalm 103:12. “As far as the east is from the west, so far has He removed our transgressions from us.” • Hebrews 10:14–23. “Let us draw near with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled clean.” Quotes: • “The Lord through the blood of Christ forgives us. But again, there's something more that the Day of Atonement is pointing to that we want to receive. And that is this removing out of us the iniquity and the sin so that we don't continue going through the same process of sinning.” • “We as believers are not just to live lives having been forgiven of our sin. We are to live lives that are more represented by this event in the Day of Atonement that we are forgiven but also cleansed and purified.” • “When God forgives, He does forget. He remembers our sin no more. But He goes beyond that because in the purification He is then able to put His law upon our heart and upon our mind.” Takeaways: 1. On the Day of Atonement two sacrifices were made. The first sacrifice was to forgive the sins of the people. The second sacrifice was to remove the sins of the people. We understand the forgiveness of our sins in Christ but not so much the removal of our sins. 2. Atonement is for our cleansing. And that is not just cleansing as we relate to cleansing ourselves by taking a bath or cleaning something by wiping the surface of it. It is talking about purification. 3. Malachi tells us that when Messiah comes, He is like a refiner's fire and fullers' soap and will sit as a smelter. The sacrifice of Christ forgives our sins but also puts us through the process of purification that is like the refining and purifying of gold or silver.
10/9/24 • 25:34
Web Description: As we come to the Day of Trumpets this year, let us cry out to the Lord in our intercession. But let us follow the pattern in His Word. When we shout and lift our voice like a trumpet, let it be done according to the Lord’s guidelines and instructions so that we may get the answers we need. Show Notes: This month we will celebrate a new year—not the New Year of the Gregorian calendar, but the biblical new year of Rosh Hashanah, which begins on Yom T’ruah, the Day of Trumpets. The Hebrew word t’ruah means “the blowing of trumpets,” which we read in the Scriptures was used to call the congregation together for a meeting or for going to war. T’ruah can also mean “shouting or expressing joy.” These expressions are something we can apply today. At Jericho the Lord gave the children of Israel specific instructions that involved t’ruah. They had to spend seven days blowing trumpets and shouting until the walls of Jericho fell. The Lord had promised them the land and told them that He had given Jericho into their hands. Yet to take what belonged to them, they had to follow exactly the pattern of the Lord. In a real sense our intercession is like t’ruah, and if we want to be as effective as the Israelites were at Jericho, then we too need to be obedient to the Lord’s pattern. That is why our intercession should be guided biblically by what the Lord has said—by what He has promised and by what He has given us through prophecy. How do we pray for Israel and the Jewish people today when the entire world seems determined to destroy them? We read the prophecies in the Scriptures of everything God has said He will do for His people in these end days. Then we cry out to the Lord and shout t’ruah and believe for the walls that stand against His Word to come down. Key Verses: • Leviticus 23:23–24. “You shall have a rest, a reminder by blowing of trumpets.” • Numbers 29:1. “It will be to you a day for blowing trumpets.” • Exodus 12:1–2. “This month shall be the beginning of months for you.” • Joshua 6:1–5. “When you hear the sound of the trumpet, all the people shall shout with a great shout.” • Joshua 6:15–20. “The people shouted, and priests blew the trumpets; … and they took the city.” • 2 Chronicles 7:12–16. “I will hear from heaven, will forgive their sin and will heal their land.” • Daniel 9:2–22. “O Lord, hear! O Lord, forgive! O Lord, listen and take action!” • Matthew 6:5–15. “When you pray, go into your inner room, close your door and pray to your Father who is in secret.” Quotes: • “God doesn't just tell us to pray for something. He doesn't just promise us things. He really directs us in how we should go about receiving those promised events that the Lord is giving.” • “While we're in these days of great intercession that the Lord is bringing to us, we must recognize that we have real instructions about how we're to approach the Lord and how we're to pray.” • “If we follow the pattern of how He taught us to pray, how He gave us instruction in His Word to pray and approach Him, then it will happen. Keep walking around the walls until you're instructed to shout in the day of victory, and those walls will come down and it will be given into your hands.” Takeaways: 1. The concept of a new year in the Scriptures is not the same as our concept according to the Gregorian calendar. Rosh Hashanah, which begins in the seventh month, is the beginning of the ordinary calendar year. The ecclesiastical year begins in the month of Nisan. There are also new years for the tithing of animals and trees. 2. The word t’ruah in Yom T’ruah, the Day of Trumpets, has various meanings such as “the sound of a trumpet, clamor or loud noise, a battle cry or alarm, rejoicing, and shouting.” 3. The Lord gave specific instructions to the children of Israel for the use of t’ruah in the taking of Jericho. Israel had to follow exactly the pattern of the Lord to take the land He had promised them. The pattern and instructions for our intercession are also laid out for us in the Scriptures. 4. We pray according to the scriptural promises and prophecies, according to the repentance and returning to the Lord that God revealed to Solomon, and according to the instructions that we have from Yeshua (Jesus).
10/2/24 • 31:10
Web Description: God rested from His works. That means they are completed. And that is what the Sabbath is all about. This Sabbath rest of God is expressed in the coming feasts of the fall season. They are windows of opportunity to enter God’s rest by rejoicing in, proclaiming, and appropriating God’s completed provisions. Show Notes: On the seventh day God rested from all His works that He had completed. Then He set apart the seventh day as the Sabbath, a day when we recognize that God has completed all His works for us. They exist now, and therefore we look forward to appropriating everything that He has made available to us. And the upcoming fall feasts are a perfect time for us to do that. We should approach these times with a drive in our hearts to appropriate God’s provisions and see them manifested. The fall feasts begin with Yom Truah, the Day of Trumpets. According to the meaning of truah, Yom Truah is a day of blowing the trumpet, shouting, or crying aloud before the Lord. This reminds us that while we have many promises in the Word of God, we should be shouting and proclaiming them. We find this command throughout the Scriptures that we are to shout, rejoice, and worship God in what He has spoken. His great provisions are available for us now, and we proclaim them into the earth. The Sabbath rest of God means that we are not waiting for the promises of the feasts to be fulfilled in the future. We rejoice in our total salvation on the Day of Atonement and in God’s presence with us at Tabernacles. These are already created in God, finished, and available to us. These days of the biblical feasts are more than just observances. They are a time to reach in for that which has been completed for us by God. We celebrate these feasts by entering God’s rest, by worshipping Him, by rejoicing in what He has provided, and by appropriating His provisions into our experience. Key Verses: • Genesis 2:2–3. “God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, because in it He rested from all His work.” • Psalm 98:4–9. “Shout joyfully to the LORD, all the earth.” • Isaiah 54:1–3. “Break forth into joyful shouting and cry aloud.” • Jeremiah 31:7–9. “Sing aloud with gladness for Jacob, and shout.” • Jeremiah 29:11–14. “You will call upon Me and come and pray to Me, and I will listen to you.” • Deuteronomy 4:29–35. “From there you will seek the LORD your God, and you will find Him.” • Ezekiel 36:24–28. “I will cleanse you from all your filthiness.” • Zechariah 2:10–13. “Sing for joy and be glad.” • Leviticus 26:11–12. “I will make My dwelling among you.” • Exodus 29:45–46. “I will dwell among the sons of Israel.” • Psalm 118:21–29. “Let us rejoice and be glad.” • John 7:37–38. “If anyone is thirsty, let him come to Me and drink.” Quotes: • “I don't want to wait for some day in the future. If I wait too long, I'm not going to be here to enjoy it. I want the Kingdom to come in my time. I want these things to manifest because Christ said, ‘It is finished.’” • “We want to appropriate the open door that exists right now for God's people to return to the land in a time of great blessing, upon a straight path which the Lord will make so that there is no stumbling.” • “We don't wait for Him to fulfill the promises and then feel thankful, then feel glad, then feel rejoicing. We feel it now. It is completed now. It exists now. It's available now.” Takeaways: 1. In looking at the Sabbath rest of God, we realize that God has finished the provisions that He made for us. The things that He has made available for us are ours to appropriate. They exist now. 2. The feasts are windows of time that God has made available. So we should approach these celebrations with a determination to find out what God has provided in them and be driven to receive all that He has for us. 3. The feasts are times to shout and declare God’s promises, to worship Him and rejoice in their completion and our appropriation of them today. 4. We live in a day when the nations are coming against Israel and the Jewish people. But that is the opposite of what God has provided. God has provided for many nations to join themselves to the Lord and to Israel and become His people. Then He will dwell in our midst. Let us celebrate this as a reality now at this time of Tabernacles.
9/23/24 • 35:31
Web Description: There are many ways that we could pray about the times in which we live, but we will be the most effective when we pray in all humility like Daniel prayed when he asked God to restore Israel according to His Word to Jeremiah. Today we pray that God fulfills Christ’s Word that the days of tribulation are cut short for the sake of God’s elect, and that Israel and in fact all mankind are saved from the destruction that satan has planned. Show Notes: There is power in prayer and power in the words that we speak. That is why we should not be making up prayers that do not align with the will of God. We should be studied and careful in the way that we pray, just as Daniel was when he prayed for Israel’s release from captivity in Babylon. He saw in the Scriptures that he was living in the time when God promised the return of Israel to their land. Therefore, he humbly entreated God according to the Word that God had spoken. Daniel’s prayer was very effective. And if we want to be effective, then we should follow Daniel’s example and pray according to the Word that God has spoken about our day. And in this day as we see the signs of tribulation all around us, the Word of God is clear. Concerning these days of tribulation, Yeshua (Jesus) said that God will cut them short for the sake of the elect. The Jewish people are God’s elect, and for their sake He will stop the course of the Tribulation to prevent the destruction of all flesh. This is how we pray. We declare this Word that the Lord will cut short the time, that the events planned by satan through Iran and its proxies are stopped dead in their tracks, and that the planned destruction of Israel and the Jewish people does not happen. We also pray according to this Word that satan’s planned destruction of humanity does not happen. Like Daniel, we humble ourselves, confess our sins before Him, and pray to the Lord that His Word is fulfilled in its time. Key Verses: • Daniel 9:2–3. “I, Daniel, observed in the books .... So I gave my attention to the Lord God to seek Him.” • Matthew 24:21–22. “For the sake of the elect those days will be cut short.” • Genesis 12:3. “In you all the families of the earth will be blessed.” • Mark 13:19–20. “For the sake of the elect, whom He chose, He shortened the days.” • Daniel 9:4–19. “O Lord, hear! O Lord, forgive! O Lord, listen and take action! For Your own sake, O my God.” • 1 John 1:9. “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins.” • 2 Chronicles 7:12–16. “My eyes and My heart will be there perpetually.” Quotes: • “We need to pray. But I think it's so necessary that we pray according to the Scriptures.” • “These days, the days of the Tribulation, according to Yeshua are going to be cut short for the sake of Israel, for the sake of God's chosen people.” • “We look at the Temple and say it applies to us. Its desolation is our desolation. Its destruction is our destruction. And the cause of that destruction is our own actions, our own failure to walk in His righteousness and His ways to keep His Word.” Takeaways: 1. When talking about Israel and the days of tribulation, Yeshua said, “Unless those days had been cut short, no life would have been saved; but for the sake of the elect those days will be cut short.” In other words, if the time is not cut short, there will not be a Jewish race and there will not be a land of Israel. But for the sake of the Jewish people and the land of Israel, those days will be cut short. 2. Just like Daniel saw the event of Israel’s restoration in the Scriptures and said, “This is for my day; this is what I'm praying over,” we can look at the Words of Christ and say, “This is for our day, and we will pray that the Lord will cut short these days of tribulation and save mankind.” 3. The tribulation comes about because of the wickedness that is even in our own hearts. Therefore, we put ourselves before God in an attitude of humility, believing that our brokenness and repentance combined with prophesying the Word of Christ will have the power to change the world according to that Word.
9/18/24 • 29:38
Web Description: Baptism is a sacrament. It is also a work we do as an expression of our faith. But even more than that, it should be our immersion into everything we believe about Christ, making His suffering, death, burial, resurrection, and ascension the real experiences of our walk with God. Show Notes: The Scriptures tell us that if we suffer with Christ, we are glorified with Him. That is not something you simply take by faith and say, “I believe He suffered for me, and so I believe I will share His glory.” No, you suffer with Him. That means the cross is more than something you believe happened in the past; it is something you experience now. It is something that moves from the realm of faith into the reality of experience. This is a truth that baptism teaches us. James wrote that faith without works is dead, and baptism is a work you do to express your faith. It must be more than symbolic, however, because our new way of life is to be immersed in Christ after we first believe in Him. That means we can be immersed in all that Christ experienced for us. We can live through His shame and suffering, His death and burial, and His resurrection and time on earth in a glorified body. We can experience His ascension to the right hand of the Father and be seated with Him as He begins to rule and reign. That is why we take up our cross daily. Our salvation can grow daily and become greater and greater as we experience deeper and deeper experiences in the Holy Spirit, in the Word, and in our waiting and meditation before God. He has given us these events so that through our faith we can experience them. We reach into God for the reality of the provision and the promise of baptism that He has given us. Key Verses: • Romans 8:17. “We suffer with Him so that we may also be glorified with Him.” • Matthew 27:51–53. “The tombs were opened, and many bodies of the saints … were raised.” • James 2:14–26. “Faith, if it has no works, is dead, being by itself.” • Romans 6:3–14. “If we have died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him.” • Colossians 3:1–8. “You have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God.” • Galatians 6:14. “The cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world.” • Hebrews 11:1. “Faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.” Quotes: • “The resurrection of Yeshua was so powerful that those who had gone before Him in death were literally pulled out of death into resurrection bodies also, came out of their graves, and began walking the streets of Jerusalem.” • “I think we have to be careful that we're not just being dunked under water and getting wet. We are to come up out of that water with experiences that are life changing for us.” • “Your faith should lead you into a life of prayer. It should lead you into a life with the Word. And as you immerse yourself into the Word, you're going to find that you not only want to believe that Word. You find yourself needing to experience what that Word is saying.” Takeaways: 1. Our faith is given to lead us into the experiences that we are to have. We can have experiences with the things of God that are even historical, bringing them up to the present moment, making them alive in our lives, and making them part of our walk with God. 2. The events of Christ’s death, burial, resurrection, and ascension are more than historical events that we believe in. These are events that we should be experiencing through baptism as the next step in our relationship with God and the building of our faith. 3. We need to see baptism as something beyond a secondary confession of faith. It should be our immersion into the fullness of Christ’s experiences as our new life.
9/11/24 • 29:18
Web Description: As Christians we are believers. And there are many blessings to believing. But believing in something must ultimately lead to experiencing what we believe. If we are to take up our cross daily and follow Him, then by the Holy Spirit there must be a way to make all that Christ experienced through the cross our daily experience. Show Notes: According to James, faith without works is dead. If you say, “I believe in riding bicycles,” do you stand back and never get on a bicycle? No, you jump on a bike and start riding it. This applies to your walk with God. If you want to walk with God, then you cannot stand back and say, “I believe in walking with God,” and yet never do anything to walk with Him. Walking with God is a daily experience of your belief in God. Yeshua (Jesus) said that to be His follower you must take up your cross daily. That means the cross of Christ must be a daily experience in your life and not just a belief about the cross. That is the purpose of baptism. It is to take all you believe and manifest it in your life as an experience. It is not just a sacrament that we do religiously. If we are truly baptized into Christ, then His sufferings and death to the flesh, His life in resurrection, and His ascension to the Father and reigning with Him can all be experiential realities for us. Do you find yourself struggling to believe God or struggling to be faithful to your beliefs? It is not that you need to try harder to believe. You need to experience the faith that you already have. In your daily prayer life and waiting on the Lord, ask the Holy Spirit to lead you into deeper spiritual experiences and make what you believe the reality in your life. Key Verses: • Luke 9:22–23. “If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must … take up his cross daily and follow Me.” • Matthew 10:38. “He who does not take his cross and follow after Me is not worthy of Me.” • Romans 6:3–13. “Consider yourselves to be dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus.” • James 2:26. “Faith without works is dead.” Quotes: • “Faith is something that enables us to move on into experience. Faith leads to works, and without works faith is dead.” • “We have to be able to say, ‘I know the cross because I have visited the cross. I've experienced what Christ experienced on that cross with Him. I watched Him as though I was standing at the foot of the cross, embracing it as He was suffering upon it.’” • “I think we should take up the reality of His death, His burial, and His resurrection so that they are experiences to us that we have connected with, even if it's by a deeper and deeper revelation through the Holy Spirit.” Takeaways: 1. We must understand that we walk by the Spirit, and we have the Holy Spirit through whom the Lord has granted for us to be able to experience our faith. 2. Faith without works is dead. The real purpose of faith is for us to progress from faith into the works or the experiences that we are to have because of our faith. 3. By the Holy Spirit let us be immersed experientially in everything Christ experienced in His suffering, death, resurrection, and ascension. This is what baptism is all about.
9/4/24 • 30:27
Web Description: Our relationship with God begins at the cross of Christ. But it is also where it continues. We never leave the need for the cross in our lives. The cross is the only means we have for winning the victory over our sin nature. It must be put to death and the only place that happens is at the cross. As disciples of Christ we take up our cross daily for that purpose. Show Notes: As Christians we generally see the cross as a one-time event that we associate with our initial salvation experience. Yet once we have already believed and confessed that Yeshua (Jesus) died on the cross for our sins, we often find ourselves struggling with condemnation over the fact that we still have sin in our lives. The feeling we have, and even the teaching we get in churches, is that once we are saved, we are not supposed to have problems with sin anymore. To deal with this we need to relate to the cross differently. Christ bore our sins in His body one time on the cross so that we might die to sin, but our own death to sin and the removal of our sin nature is not instantaneous at the moment we first accept Christ. To be a disciple of the Lord, we must daily take up His cross as our own and follow on with Him. There must be an ongoing relationship with the cross in our lives. The process of the Christian life includes a daily visit and encounter with the cross. We need to go back daily to the reality of the cross, to that place where sin is defeated and put to death. Just as Christ put sin to death in His body by hanging on the cross, we go back to that cross and make sure that sin is put to death in our body. As believers today we can take faith to mature and grow in this ability to be His disciples. Learn how to take up your cross and follow Him. Let it be a daily experience with His cross. Key Verses: • Luke 9:23. “If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must … take up his cross daily and follow Me.” • Luke 14:27. “Whoever does not carry his own cross and come after Me cannot be My disciple.” • 1 Peter 2:24. “He Himself bore our sins in His body on the cross.” • Romans 6:1–18. “Consider yourselves to be dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus.” • Romans 8:1. “There is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.” • Philippians 3:8–12. “I press on so that I may lay hold of that for which also I was laid hold of by Christ Jesus.” • Colossians 3:3–10 (HCSV). “Put to death what belongs to your worldly nature.” Quotes: • “I know we desire to grow in God and to mature in the things of the Lord, but many times maturity begins with the elementary expressions of what we know and what we must do.” • “This war can only be won by the cross. There was no defeat of sin and unrighteousness other than through Yeshua. And if you're going to master sin, you're going to do it at that cross, and you're going to do it daily.” • “What is the obedience? It's to go to the cross and to immerse ourselves once again in the blood of Yeshua as the victory over sin and death and commit ourselves to this way of life that He has opened up for us, which is to be instruments of righteousness.” Takeaways: 1. We recognize that the cross is not something that we just experience on the day of our salvation and becoming a Christian. It is something that we experience daily to see the defeat of everything of sin. 2. We put to death the old nature and the unrighteousness that still battles against us. We bring it to an end. And we have the ability and the tool to do that in the cross. There is no condemnation because we find ourselves in these struggles. We simply recognize we have been provided with the answer. 3. The cross is daily, continuously the victory of Christ given and provided by God over the things of sin and the flesh. And we as believers today will mature and grow into an ability to be His disciples because we understand how to daily take up our cross and follow Him.
8/28/24 • 34:29
Web Description: Through the cross of Christ, we have been raised up with Him. Therefore when you face difficulties or spiritual warfare, do not anxiously look around you. Instead look up. Rise up and be with Him where He is. Stay with Him. Focus on Him. Then you will be positioned to loose God’s will and His Kingdom in the earth. Show Notes: We read God’s Word in Isaiah: “Do not anxiously look about you.” This is God speaking to Israel, and it applies directly to what Israel is experiencing today. We are witnesses to all the warfare and anti-Semitism that Israel and the Jewish people are suffering. Yet the Word of the Lord to them is not to look at those things but to trust Him. As Christians we need to apply this same Word to ourselves. As we walk as believers these days, we can see many signs of the end times. They are called days of tribulation, and we know that very desperate things can take place. Yet again the encouragement from Yeshua (Jesus) is that we do not focus on the things that are happening around us. Instead, we stand up straight, lift up our heads, and look up because our redemption draws nigh. This focus is very important for us as we strive to experience the cross in our daily lives. Taking up our cross daily to follow Him does not mean that we spend all day on the cross. It is through the cross that we are raised up with Christ and daily we keep seeking the things above where He is. In our waiting on the Lord and in our meditation and intercession, we are to be where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. If we are too locked into the world around us and our human needs and human problems, our intercession will be hindered. Our focus is on what Christ and the Father are doing so that what we see in the Kingdom of heaven we can loose here on earth. Key Verses: • Colossians 3:1–3. “If you have been raised up with Christ, keep seeking the things above.” • Isaiah 41:8–14. “Do not anxiously look about you, for I am your God.” • Luke 21:25–28. “When these things begin to take place, straighten up and lift up your heads.” • John 14:3. “Where I am, there you may be also.” Quotes: • “The cross is not a stopping place. It really is a point of beginning.” • “The resurrection is as important as the cross. If Christ only experienced the cross and there was no resurrection, then we don't have what we're looking for.” • “If you've been raised up with Christ, then don't be moved from that place with Christ. Keep seeking the things above where He is. We're supposed to be there. We're supposed to live there. We're supposed to focus there.” Takeaways: 1. We do not just go to the cross and die and then that is the end. The cross is the beginning of being raised up with Christ and moving in His presence. And if we are raised up with Him, we keep seeking the things above where He is. 2. We are to set our minds on the things above, not on the things that are on earth. Our focus is not to be on the world around us and what is transpiring there. We are to keep our focus on the Lord. 3. We are to rise up, which is more than standing up straight or looking up. We are to rise into God’s presence and be with Him just as Christ said we could. 4. This is what makes our intercession effective. Yeshua taught us to pray, “Your Kingdom come. Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.” And if we are beholding His will in heaven, then we are able to loose it on the earth.
8/21/24 • 22:16
Growing In God Podcast Web Description: We need to do more than relate to the cross of Christ merely as a distant historical event. Yes, we believe it happened two thousand years ago and because it happened our sins are forgiven. But we need to embrace Him on the cross today because it works today. In your relationship with Christ, you never outgrow the cross. You never put it aside or make it secondary. It must be your daily experience. Show Notes: The cross is where our relationship with Christ begins. Yet it is easy for us to leave behind our salvation experience with Christ on the cross and move onto other things. We know that He is not only our Savior through the cross, but He is also the Lord, and so we are to know Him as Lord. We are to grow in the things of God and that means moving on. But we never stop walking on the foundation. And the cross of Christ is the foundation of our life and our relationship with God. You can embrace Christ on the cross at any given moment. Yeshua (Jesus) said that we must take up our cross daily if we are to follow Him. And we interpret our cross as being our personal grief and sorrows and suffering. But Christ bore our grief and sorrows on the cross. He bore our suffering that was caused by our sins separating us from God. The cross that we carry daily is the cross of Christ. And we need to start our day in a connection with all He did on that cross for us and because of us. If you are struggling every day with everything the world is imposing on you, the answer is the cross of Christ. It is only at His cross where you are crucified to the world and the world is crucified to you. We never leave the necessity of the cross of Christ. We must never get so far away from it in our lives that we become enemies of the cross, as Paul warned. Instead we strive to know the Christ whose death on the cross is our daily experience of being conformed to His death and to His resurrection. Key Verses: • Luke 23:34. “Father, forgive them; for they do not know what they are doing.” • Luke 9:23. “If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must … take up his cross daily.” • Isaiah 53:4–5. “Our griefs He Himself bore, and our sorrows He carried.” • Galatians 6:14. “In the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ … the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world.” • Hebrews 7:25. “He always lives to make intercession for them.” • Matthew 27:46. “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?” • 1 Corinthians 2:2. “I determined to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ, and Him crucified.” • 1 John 1:7–9. “If we walk in the Light, … the blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from all sin.” • Romans 10:6–10. “THE WORD IS NEAR YOU, IN YOUR MOUTH AND IN YOUR HEART.” • Hebrews 11:1. “Faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.” • Philippians 3:7–14. “I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them but rubbish so that I may gain Christ.” • Philippians 3:15–18. “Many walk, of whom I often told you, … that they are enemies of the cross of Christ.” Quotes: • “The cross will always be with us. Just as we understand that Christ Himself will bear in His body the marks of the cross, the cross itself is existent in the moment. It's existent now in this moment.” • “If I confess my sin in this moment, then the cross is alive in this moment, and He forgives me in this moment and cleanses me in this moment from all sin and unrighteousness.” • “There's no knowing of Christ without knowing Him in that moment—in those moments on the cross where He is dying for me and because of me, and He's dying for you and because of you, and He's dying for the whole world, who hopefully at some point will have this revelation and come to the cross.” Takeaways: 1. The cross of Christ is more than a historical event that we believe happened. The event of Christ’s death and what He accomplished by that on the cross is right now in the moment. And we need to experience that moment daily. 2. If that seems too mystical, then understand that everything about belief as a Christian is mystical. Everything surrounding our faith in God is mystical because God dwells outside of this realm of time-space that we are bound by. 3. There is one cross: the cross of Christ. You do not carry a different cross. Everything that you can interpret as your cross—your personal sufferings and sorrows—He bore for you and because of you on His cross. That is the cross that you take up daily to follow Him. 4. We never outgrow the need of the cross as we progress into the Kingdom of God. Our maturity means knowing Christ and that includes knowing Him on His cross.
8/14/24 • 30:30
Web Description: The fast of Tisha B'Av this year will be another time of fasting and mourning for the Jewish people. But also this year there are many who cry out as the comforters of God’s people—who speak kindly to Jerusalem, and who voice in faith the Words of the Lord that prophesy the rebuilding of the city and the reestablishment of the fortunes of Jacob. Show Notes: The fast of Tisha B'Av is observed on the ninth day of the month of Av, which in 2024 begins at sundown on August 12 and ends at sundown on August 13. Tisha B’Av is a fast of mourning for the tragic events in Jewish history occurring on the ninth of Av, but primarily for the destruction of the First and Second Temples in Jerusalem. The prophecies of Yeshua (Jesus) concerning the destruction of the Second Temple, which are recorded in Matthew 24 and Luke 21, are applicable to this fast. As Christians we need to see how specific these prophecies are to Jerusalem and to Israel. And it is important that we observe this time with the Jewish people because we have a purpose to fulfill. That purpose, as we read in Isaiah 40, is to comfort God’s people. With that purpose in mind, how do we pray for Israel and the Jewish people at this time when they are suffering so much from war and the threat of war? We pray for God’s promises of restoration to be fulfilled. God’s promise through Zechariah is that the times of fasting will be replaced by feasts of joy and that the nations will not return to Jerusalem with sword and spear but will go up to the house of the Lord. Also Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and Amos prophesied that the fortunes of Israel and Judah will be restored. We step up to be those who speak kindly to Jerusalem, who comfort God’s people, who declare that God will restore their fortunes today. Key Verses: • Luke 21:5–9. “See to it that you are not misled.” • Matthew 24:1–6. “See to it that no one misleads you.” • Luke 21:24–28. “Straighten up and lift up your heads, because your redemption is drawing near.” • Isaiah 40:1–2. “‘Comfort, O comfort My people,’ says your God. ‘Speak kindly to Jerusalem.’” • Zechariah 8:18–23. “The fast … will become joy, gladness, and cheerful feasts.” • Isaiah 41:8–14. “Do not fear, for I am with you; do not anxiously look about you, for I am your God.” • Isaiah 61:1–4. “The LORD has anointed me … to comfort all who mourn.” • Ezekiel 39:25–29. “I will restore the fortunes of Jacob and have mercy on the whole house of Israel.” • Amos 9:13–15. “I will restore the captivity of My people Israel.” • Jeremiah 30:15–20. “I will restore the fortunes of the tents of Jacob.” • Jeremiah 33:7–9. “I will restore the fortunes of Judah and the fortunes of Israel.” Quotes: • “When He says, ‘You're going to hear of wars and rumors of wars,’ that's significant at the moment because Israel right now is in a war and there are also rumors of another war to take place.” • “When these things begin, then you're to take a certain position, which is that you're to stand up. You're to lift up your head because your redemption draws near.” • “It's so easy to look around in this time of mourning to anxiously wonder what will happen. What will tomorrow bring? What are the days ahead going to be like? But He says, ‘Do not anxiously look about you for I am your God.’” Takeaways: 1. Tisha B’Av is a time of fasting and mourning for the destruction of the Temple. And this is specifically what Yeshua’s prophecies of the end-time are about, as we read in Matthew 24 and Luke 21. We generally apply His prophecies to events taking place in the world. But He was speaking of events that will happen in Jerusalem, on the Temple Mount, and in Israel. 2. When we see these things happening, as we are seeing them in Israel today, we are not to be focused on those events. We are to look up. We are to reach into the heavenly places to be focused on God and on Christ and on what they are doing to bring forth the Kingdom. 3. The command in Isaiah 40 is directed to Gentiles. We are to comfort God’s people and speak kindly to Jerusalem. In our prayer and intercession, we need to declare God’s promises of restoration to Judah and Israel.
8/7/24 • 29:21
Web Description: I do not want the crucifixion of Christ to be a distant impersonal event for which I have no responsibility. It must be real to me that Christ died for me and because of me. I believe that we as Christians must keep that uppermost in our minds. I want us to give ourselves to this reality that every day we take up our cross, which is the cross of Christ that He went through for us, and then begin to walk with Him on that basis. Show Notes: As Christians we all understand that Christ died for our sins, and we can apply that universally to all mankind. Christ died for the whole world to bring salvation to everyone. Yet salvation only works for everyone when it works for each person individually. As an individual you have to realize that Christ did not just die for everyone; He died for you personally. And more than dying for your sins, He died because of your sins. When Yeshua appeared to him, Paul realized that he personally was sinning directly against Christ. Paul was fully aware that Christ died because of his sin. That was Paul’s salvation experience, and that was the revelation Paul lived with every day after that experience. As with Paul, not only does our salvation begin at this revelation, but it must continue throughout our walk with God. What does it mean that you take up your cross daily and follow Him? It means that Christ wants His cross and His suffering for your sin to be extremely personal to you on a daily basis. It all starts with the reality of the cross and without the reality of the cross, there is no relationship with God. And so, to begin our day in a relationship with Him, we must go to this point of beginning: “He died for me. He died because of me.” No matter how many years you walk with God, no matter how much you grow and mature in the things of God, you must always go back to this point and keep it alive for yourself every day. Key Verses: • Acts 2:36. “God has made Him both Lord and Christ—this Jesus whom you crucified.” • Acts 4:10. “Jesus Christ … whom you crucified … by this name this man stands here before you in good health.” • Romans 5:8. “While we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.” • Ephesians 5:2. “Christ also loved you and gave Himself up for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God.” • Romans 4:25. “He … was delivered over because of our transgressions.” • Romans 8:32. “He … did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him over for us.” • Galatians 2:20. “I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me.” • 1 Peter 2:24. “He Himself bore our sins in His body on the cross.” • Isaiah 53:4–6. “Our griefs He Himself bore, and our sorrows He carried.” • Luke 9:23–24. “If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross daily.” Quotes: • “God delivered Christ to the cross as a sacrifice for me, and it was done out of necessity because of my sin. Christ had to die, or I had to die eternal death and damnation without His sacrifice.” • “Paul's life was being lived against Christ. He was persecuting Christ, not Christians. What he was doing was against Christ. And what Christ was coming to do was to be personally a Savior to him.” • “He died for me. He died because of me. And I need to go once again to that place of the cross and make that the reality and the most important event in my life, not to mention in my day.” Takeaways: 1. Accusing the Jews of crucifying Christ is at the root of anti-Semitism. Not only is it anti-Semitism on the deepest levels, but it separates us from the fundamental truth that the crucifixion of Christ was for our personal sins and because of our personal sins. 2. Let us not limit the purpose of the cross or generalize the concept of our salvation, and thereby take away from the extremely personal nature of the cross and what we must have as a very personal experience for salvation to be effective in our daily lives. 3. You cannot separate your cross from the cross of Christ. Christ Himself certainly suffered on that cross. But He was also bearing your sorrow, your grief, and your separation from God because of your sin and disobedience.
7/31/24 • 30:16
Web Description: Yeshua (Jesus) the Messiah is called the Prince of Peace because He reconciles us to the Father. Through Him we have shalom, which is expressed in the wholeness and completeness of mankind on the Sabbath when God rested after His works were completed. This is the peace that is ours in the fruit of the Spirit. And we reach in for the Holy Spirit to pour out this expression of God’s emotion within us. Show Notes: When we talk about emotions, we understand that there are human emotions and divine emotions. This includes the emotion of peace. And if we want to understand the emotion of peace only in human terms, we could find many ways that peace is defined and applied in the world today. However, the peace that we have in the fruit of the Spirit is not human peace but the peace that we receive from God. And we need to understand God’s definition of peace. In Hebrew, the word for peace is shalom. And shalom means “to be whole, to be entire, to be complete, to be in safety, and to be in health.” These concepts are distinctly tied to the meaning of the Sabbath. God rested on the Sabbath from all His works because His works were completed. They were perfect. They were whole and entire. Therefore to have the shalom that is the fruit of the Spirit is to have the wholeness and completeness that enables us to enter into the rest or Sabbath of God. Clearly there is no rest in the world because people are always striving to achieve or enforce peace according to their own definitions. But this striving is directly related to our lack of wholeness and completeness, which only comes through our reconciliation with the Father. And this reconciliation is only brought about by Messiah, who is called the Prince of Peace because He restores our oneness with God, allowing each of us individually to become whole and complete. Only when we individually have shalom in God will we be able to bring peace into the world. Key Verses: • Galatians 5:22–23. “The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace.” • Isaiah 9:6. “A son will be given to us; … His name will be called … Prince of Peace.” • 1 Thessalonians 5:23–24. “May the God of peace Himself sanctify you entirely.” • 2 Corinthians 13:11–12. “Live in peace; and the God of love and peace will be with you.” • Hebrews 13:20–21. “The God of peace … equip you in every good thing.” • Philippians 4:8–9. “Practice these things, and the God of peace will be with you.” • 2 Thessalonians 3:16. “May the Lord of peace Himself continually grant you peace.” Quotes: • “When we look at human striving that exists around us in the world today, we understand that all striving exists because of our lack of shalom, our lack of completeness. And that of course comes because of our separation from God.” • “From now on when we greet one another with the word shalom, we realize that we are releasing the ability to be made whole and complete by the peace that God has made available through His great love for us.” • “The prime objective of God's love is to bring about His peace with each of us personally and individually in order that peace can then encompass the globe.” Takeaways: 1. When God completed His creation, which included mankind, He sanctified it, by which man was purified. The Sabbath rest that followed was by the fact that everything was whole and complete, which is the definition of shalom or peace. 2. This reality was lost by Adam in Eden, and it has left all of mankind trying to figure out what peace is, while striving to accomplish or gain what will make them feel whole and complete. 3. God has made provision for our peace through His love manifested in Yeshua, who is the physical manifestation of the Day of Atonement. He is the Messiah, the great Prince of Peace, who has come to establish on this earth God's Kingdom of peace. 4. Peace is only possible when we individually are at peace, having been restored to wholeness through reconciliation with the Father by the Prince of Peace.
7/24/24 • 21:49
Web Description: We always point to the Day of Pentecost as the moment when the disciples changed. But I do not think we completely realize what changed them. It was the fruit of the Holy Spirit being poured into them. Instead of the negative emotions that had defined their lives, now they were filled with love, joy, peace, patience, faithfulness, and all of God’s emotions that came into them. Lord, we pray for that to be our experience today. Show Notes: When we think of being filled with the Holy Spirit, we do not usually think of being filled with emotions or functioning by emotions. Yet when we have the fruit of the Spirit, we have emotions like love, joy, and peace. God is love, and love is a key emotion that we are to be filled with as believers. We do not want to be filled only with human love. We want to be filled up to the fullness of the love that comes from God. That is why the Holy Spirit is such an important answer for our personal deliverance. We may be living in devastation because of emotions connected to a past event. We may have feelings, which are rooted in emotions that prevent us from having the peace that we need. How can we have the perfect love that casts out fear as the Scriptures promise? If we can be filled with the Holy Spirit, then we can be filled with God’s emotions to cast out the negative emotions that are restricting us. As Christians we need to realize the significance of our emotions and accept the Holy Spirit’s role in the emotional realm. Emotions connected to painful experiences of the past keep us living in the past. We want to be able to apply the fruit of the Spirit—God’s emotions, God’s feelings, and God’s thinking about a past experience. If we love God and are called according to His purpose, then He can change our negative picture of the past into a positive picture of His purpose in our lives. Lord, help us to walk in this. Key Verses: • 1 Thessalonians 5:24. “Faithful is He who calls you, and He also will bring it to pass.” • Galatians 5:22–23. “The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace ….” • John 21:16. “‘Simon, … do you love Me?’ He said to Him, ‘Yes, Lord; You know that I love You.’” • 1 John 4:16. “God is love.” • 1 John 4:18. “Perfect love casts out fear.” • Romans 8:28. “God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God.” • Revelation 7:17. “God will wipe every tear from their eyes.” • 2 Peter 1:3–4. “His divine power has granted to us everything pertaining to life and godliness.” Quotes: • “Whatever it seems like is going on in your life, I just know there's something bigger going on, which is God fulfilling His purposes in creating you.” • “The most emotional experience of our existence would be to stand there on that Day of Pentecost experiencing that outpouring and the mighty rushing wind and all that it meant.” • “I think that our deliverance begins when we are able to have the love cast out the fear, have these emotions of the Holy Spirit cast out the negative emotions.” Takeaways: 1. It is more significant than we realize, and more significant than the way we have tried to function in the Holy Spirit, that the Holy Spirit is poured out into us to bring us emotions. That is what the fruit of the Spirit produces within us—emotions like love, joy, and peace. 2. The Christian Church began with Judaism in the Eastern world. As the Church became Westernized it lost not only its Jewish roots but also the meditative practices of the East. But we need to meditate on the Lord and appropriate what He has provided. 3. We need God’s emotions and His feelings to replace our negative feelings that are rooted in the past. 4. God lives in eternity and His perspective is born out of eternity. Therefore, He can turn anything into your good because He is seeing not just the end of your life as a human; He is seeing you through an eternal relationship with Himself.
7/17/24 • 37:46
Web Description: Christ appeared the first time to bring salvation by being the sacrifice for sin. Then He appeared a second time to men such as Peter and Paul, not for sin but to deliver them from their reliance on themselves into a reliance wholly on God. We also need to reach into the promise that He will appear a second time to those who eagerly await Him. Lord, appear to us! Make us those whose works are one hundred percent from the throne of God and not mixed with human pride. Show Notes: We read in Hebrews 9:28 that Christ “will appear a second time for salvation without reference to sin.” We know that Christ in His first appearing came for salvation with reference to sin. He came at Passover to be the sacrifice for sin, for the forgiveness of our sins. We also know that Yeshua (Jesus) appeared again to His disciples during the fifty days between Passover and Pentecost. This was a time when the Lord was delivering them from the limitations of their flesh. Peter for example knew what it was to believe in Yeshua as the Christ, the Messiah. But something more had to happen for Peter. He had to be delivered from his own pride. So Christ appeared to Peter a second time for something beyond the revelation that He was the Messiah, beyond the salvation of forgiving sins. He appeared to Peter to break his spirit and bring a level of humility, without which Peter could never have moved in the apostleship that he was to move in. Like Peter, if we are to walk in the works that God has prepared beforehand for us to walk in, we will have to know that there is nothing of ourselves that comes from ourselves, that everything is from Him and by Him. Yes, we believe in the salvation for forgiveness of sins that Christ accomplished at His first appearing. But we need Him to appear to us a second time, as we eagerly await Him, for a salvation from the mixture of flesh and Spirit in our lives that hinders us from walking in the ministry that the world needs in this hour. Key Verses: • Hebrews 9:28. “Christ … will appear a second time for salvation without reference to sin.” • Luke 22:32–34. “Peter, the rooster will not crow today until you have denied three times.” • Matthew 16:16–17. “Flesh and blood did not reveal this to you, but My Father who is in heaven.” • 1 Corinthians 2:8. “If they had understood it they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.” • 1 Corinthians 15:1–5. “He appeared to Cephas [Peter], then to the twelve.” • Luke 22:61–62. “Peter … went out and wept bitterly.” • Ephesians 2:4–9. “It is the gift of God; not as a result of works, so that no one may boast.” • Ephesians 2:10. “We are … created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand.” • Philippians 3:4–12. “Not having a righteousness of my own … but … the righteousness which comes from God.” Quotes: • “God is not out of control. God is in absolute control. He knows what He's doing. Listen, He's had this plan for a long time. He's had this plan for so long, He wrote it down in a Book several thousand years ago.” • “We've had a walk by faith. We've had a walk by revelation. But I think that right now what we have to experience is a walk by grace.” • “What we've walked in up to this point has been wonderful, especially if you ask us. It's been wonderful because we see the partial as the perfect. And now He's coming to say, “No, it was partial. It was mixed. But now I'm removing the mixture.” What will come will be perfect. And it's going to be a walk of pure grace.” Takeaways: 1. During the fifty days between Passover and Pentecost, Christ appeared to Peter to deliver him from the problems of his flesh that would hinder his apostleship. We also have the promise that Christ will appear to us a second time, not to forgive our sins again, but for a salvation from the flesh that is still hindering us. 2. If satan knew the truth, he would not have crucified Christ. But he is incapable of knowing the truth, and he was so convinced of his own lie and his control of others to carry out his plan that he felt very free to express it. We find this same unrestrained manifestation of satan’s lie today. 3. People can have the same conviction concerning a lie. We have seen Christians with this problem. Are they saved? Yes. Are their sins forgiven? Yes. But are they also arrogant, boastful, and prideful? Yes. We must all admit that we have had this problem at some point in our Christian walk. 4. The Kingdom of God will not be a mixture of God’s works with human fleshly works. Just as Christ appeared to Peter and Paul to deliver them from the proudful reliance on their own flesh, we should have an anticipation that Christ will appear to us to remove that from us once and for all.
7/10/24 • 41:45
Web Description: This is a second podcast dealing with supersessionism and replacement theology, which are foundational to the problem of anti-Semitism within the Church. We have already seen through the Holocaust what anti-Semitism can lead to, and we agree with the cry, “Never again!” It is imperative therefore that we remove these doctrines of anti-Semitism from the Church so that the Church can be a force to remove anti-Semitism from the world. Show Notes: Replacement theology and supersessionism twist the writings of Paul to suggest that Christians have replaced the Jews as God’s people. Yet Paul wrote in Romans 11:1, “God has not rejected His people, has He?” Then he made that as emphatic as possible by stating, “May it never be!” That means it will never happen. God will never reject the Jewish people. Yet Christians continue to misinterpret verses from Paul’s Epistles to support their supersessionist doctrines. A belief in these doctrines requires picking a few verses and twisting them in such a way that makes them appear as meaning something they do not. But a comprehensive reading of Paul’s Epistles clearly shows that the new covenant enables Gentiles to be included; it does not exclude the Jews. Through Christ who is the natural seed of Abraham through Israel, Gentiles who are not the natural seed can participate with the descendants of Israel in God’s promises to Abraham. As Gentile Christians we are wild branches grafted into the same tree in which the Jews are natural branches. And Paul warns us not to be arrogant toward the natural branches because if God can cut them off, He can do the same to us. Yet replacement theology and supersessionism express arrogance toward the Jews. This is deception that we need to be delivered from because it works against the truth that God’s unilateral covenant with Abraham, expressed through Christ and ratified by Him on the cross, brings Christians and Jews to a point of oneness in our faith in God and in His Word. Key Verses: • Jeremiah 31:31–33. “I will put My law within them and on their heart.” • Jeremiah 31:34. “I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin I will remember no more.” • Jeremiah 31:35–37. “If this fixed order departs, … then I will also cast off all the offspring of Israel.” • Galatians 3:16. “The promises were spoken to Abraham and to his seed.” • Galatians 3:17–21. “If a law … was able to impart life, then righteousness would indeed have been based on law.” • Galatians 3:22–23. “The Scripture has shut up everyone under sin.” • Galatians 3:26–29. “If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s descendants [seed].” • Romans 4:1–7. “ABRAHAM BELIEVED GOD, AND IT WAS CREDITED TO HIM AS RIGHTEOUSNESS.” • Romans 4:9–12. “He received the sign of circumcision … so that he might be the father of all who believe.” • Romans 11:1. “God has not rejected His people.” • Romans 11:13–16. “If the root is holy, the branches are too.” • Romans 11:17–22. “Do not be arrogant; … it is not you who supports the root, but the root supports you.” • Romans 11:25–27. “THIS IS MY COVENANT WITH THEM, WHEN I TAKE AWAY THEIR SINS.” • Romans 11:30–33. “God has shut up all in disobedience so that He may show mercy to all.” Quotes: • “The Jewish people down through the generations have been a blessing to every nation, being those who agreed to the teaching, to the Law and what it stands for—what it means—bringing a moral code into existence to humanity and culture.” • “The new covenant was not canceling out the covenant with Abraham. In fact, it was being fulfilled by Christ who was promised to Abraham in that unilateral covenant.” • “I pray that people take this and study it; study these Scriptures carefully until they are delivered from every root of anti-Semitism, every root of supersessionism, every root of replacement theology.” Takeaways: 1. The Gentile world has full access to share in the new covenant by having the faith of Abraham. There is no need and no possibility, in truth, to eliminate the Jewish people from this covenant. 2. Yeshua (Jesus) was not the single seed of Abraham who replaced all the Jews by enacting the new covenant. But rather, Yeshua coming forth from the seed of Abraham—the lineage of the Jewish people—instituted the new covenant as the fulfillment of the promises that were given to Abraham that through him all the nations of the world would be blessed. 3. The Scriptures have shut up everyone, Jews and Gentiles, under sin so that the righteousness that is imparted by faith in accordance with grace might be guaranteed to all the descendants—that is the seed of Abraham—both Jews and Gentiles. 4. Supersessionism and replacement theology are an expression of arrogance toward God’s people that Paul warned against in Romans 11.
7/3/24 • 41:55
Web Description: This podcast deals with supersessionism and replacement theology, two names for a very dangerous belief system that is foundational to the problem of anti-Semitism within the Church. But what we see from both the Old Testament and New Testament is that the premise of this belief system is an impossibility. So I pray with all my heart that we can see removed from the Church, once and for all, these concepts and these doctrines, and we can begin to walk in oneness with our Jewish brothers and sisters. Show Notes: At the root of supersessionism and replacement theology is the concept that the Jews by disobedience broke their covenant with God, and Christians are the recipients of the new covenant. This is an assumption that the Scriptures do not support. It is true that God promised a new covenant to replace a broken covenant and that Yeshua (Jesus) instituted the new covenant at the Last Supper. These truths, however, do not suggest or imply that Christians have replaced the Jews as God’s people. God sought to replace the bilateral covenant at Sinai with a new unilateral covenant. The covenant at Sinai did not work because at Sinai the children of Israel agreed to follow the Law, something they were unable to do. It is also something that Christians and all humans with human flesh are unable to do. The new covenant that God promised to Judah and Israel is a unilateral covenant, meaning that God does everything. He puts His law in their minds and hearts, fulfilling the requirement of the Law and reaffirming that they are His people. Therefore, God did not replace the Law, and He did not replace His choosing of Israel. He only replaced the methodology of the covenant itself and how it was formed. God took it from a bilateral covenant into a unilateral covenant. This new covenant now opens the door for everyone to fulfill the Law by faith through grace. The fact that Gentiles can now be included by this grace is wonderful. To twist some Scriptures and say that the failure of a few Jews in the past caused God to reject all Jews and replace them with Gentile Christians is anti-Semitism. It is a form of racism that must be removed from our hearts and from the teachings of the Church. Key Verses: • Hebrews 7:26–27. “A high priest … who does not need daily, like those high priests, to offer up sacrifices.” • Hebrews 8:1–2. “We have such a high priest … a minister in the sanctuary and in the true tabernacle.” • Hebrews 8:6–7. “He is also the mediator of a better covenant.” • Hebrews 8:8–13. “Finding fault with them, He says … ‘I WILL EFFECT A NEW COVENANT.’” • Exodus 24:3. “The people answered … ‘All the words which the LORD has spoken we will do!’” • Luke 22:19–20. “This cup which is poured out for you is the new covenant in My blood.” • 1 Corinthians 11:23–26. “This cup is the new covenant in My blood.” • Jeremiah 31:29–30. “Everyone will die for his own iniquity.” • Revelation 20:12. “The dead were judged … according to their deeds.” • Jeremiah 31:31–33. “I will put My law within them and on their heart I will write it.” • Jeremiah 31:34. “I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin I will remember no more.” • Jeremiah 31:35–37. “If this fixed order departs … then I will also cast off all the offspring of Israel.” Quotes: • “He is not rejecting the people nor is He rejecting the Law. He is recognizing that there is a failure in that covenant, and therefore God is fixing it.” • “That is the significance of a unilateral covenant—God is going to do it. He is going to do that which man cannot do, Jew or Gentile.” • “Whoever sins, the Lord will deal with that person individually. So that must be clear, and it flies in the face of the whole idea of replacement theology.” Takeaways: 1. Replacement theology contends that the Jews broke their covenant with God because they failed to fulfill the Law, and therefore God rejected them, replacing them with Christians who have the new covenant. The Scriptures prove that this is false teaching. 2. When Christ instituted the new covenant, He did not do away with the Law or the promises that were given to the people of Israel. The new covenant comes to create in them a heart whereby they can walk in the Law. So clearly, God did not reject the Law nor did He reject His people. 3. God has not said to the Jewish people, “Your ancestors blew it, and therefore all Jews since then have been rejected.” It does not work that way. The Lord deals with each person individually according to his or her deeds. 4. God spoke that just as it is impossible to make day or night cease, it is impossible for Israel to cease from being a nation before Him forever. Very simply, God will never reject His people, which erases the very foundation of replacement theology.
6/26/24 • 32:47
Web Description: When we see the atmosphere of anti-Semitism on college campuses and elsewhere, we can react by injecting our own anger and judgment into the atmosphere. But the people engaging in these acts of wickedness are being controlled by the spirit realm. And a spiritual problem requires a spiritual answer. God’s answer to the problem is to send His love. And we must be moving in God’s love if we expect to have any impact on what is happening. Show Notes: Today we are immersed in a spirit world that is more and more filled with hate and contention. These spiritual forces are motivating people to commit the acts of anti-Semitism that we see abounding right now. And it is a mistake to assume that we cannot be influenced by these spirits ourselves. We need to search our hearts and eliminate any openness to anti-Semitism or hatred that could be used by satan. We need to be clean ourselves if we are going to be effective in changing the hearts and minds of people who are engaging in the wickedness that we see happening. That includes our reactions because we can react to what we see by demanding God’s judgment on people. But God is far more aware of the wickedness of mankind than we are. And His response to that wickedness was to send His love. God so loved the world that He sent His Son, not to condemn the world but so the world would be saved through Him. Christ comes as our deliverer to release us from the spirits of the world that are controlling us. And if we are going to be effective in releasing people from the spirits that are controlling them, we must have the one force that is powerful enough to do that, which is the power of God’s love. We immerse ourselves in His love and believe for the love of God in Christ to be expressed through us. That is what the world needs right now. Key Verses: • Ephesians 6:12. “Our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but … against the world forces of this darkness.” • 2 Corinthians 10:4. “The weapons of our warfare are … divinely powerful for the destruction of fortresses.” • Matthew 18:18. “Whatever you bind on earth shall have been bound in heaven.” • Matthew 24:12. “Because lawlessness is increased, most people’s love will grow cold.” • John 3:16–17. “God did not send the Son … to judge the world, but that the world might be saved.” • Isaiah 55:8. “My thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways My ways.” • 1 Corinthians 13:1–13. “When the perfect comes, the partial will be done away.” • John 21:15-17. “Do you love Me? … Tend My sheep.” • Ephesians 3:14–21. “Know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge.” • 1 John 4:16. “The one who abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him.” Quotes: • “The way that we would deal with everything that's going on right now is not at all the way God wants to deal with it.” • “What the world doesn't need right now is the Body of Christ being a noisy gong and a clanging cymbal. They're surrounded by enough confusion.” • “The only thing that doesn't fail is love. The only thing that is not partial is love.” Takeaways: 1. All the anti-Semitism and hatred that we see in the world today is coming from the spirit realm and must be dealt with from the spirit realm. 2. God’s answer to all the problems in the world was to send His love. Out of His love for us, God sent His Son not to judge mankind but to deliver us from the spirits of wickedness that control us. 3. In the crucifixion of Christ, satan was trying to kill God’s love. Today he is trying to kill God’s love coming forth in us. That is where our battle is; it is not against people. 4. Our human love is inadequate. We need the impartation of God’s love.
6/19/24 • 42:57
Web Description: Can we be witnesses of Christ in the same way that the first disciples and apostles were? I believe we can—and we must if we want to have the authority behind what we say and the power to impact the world in the way that needs to happen. Show Notes: According to the Hebrew Scriptures, to be a witness meant that you saw and heard firsthand what you were testifying about. Otherwise your testimony was not legal. The disciples and apostles of Yeshua (Jesus) therefore were true witnesses of Christ. They saw and heard firsthand everything that Christ did and taught. But the term witness in today’s Christianity does not meet that definition. Being a witness now means telling others what you believe about Christ, not what you witnessed Him do firsthand. I believe that not being witnesses according to this scriptural definition leaves us without the level of authority and power we need to break through the wickedness of this age and open people’s hearts to the Lord. That of course brings up the question: How can we be firsthand witnesses of Yeshua two thousand years later? One answer to that is in the ministry of the apostle Paul. After Yeshua’s ascension, Paul became a witness of all Christ said and did through the appearings and visions of Christ to him. That means that the same experience is available to us by the Holy Spirit. After Christ’s resurrection the disciples themselves had to have a spiritual impartation because they did not understand what they saw take place. When the Lord appeared to Job, he confessed, “I have spoken that which I did not know.” Instead of speaking that which we do not know, we should contend to see Him face to face and be witnesses of that which we know as we are fully known. This is a promise that we reach into with all our hearts. Key Verses: • 1 Corinthians 15:1–8. “As to one untimely born, He appeared to me also.” • Acts 22:6–16. “You will be a witness for Him to all men of what you have seen and heard.” • 2 Corinthians 12:1–4. “Such a man was caught up … and heard inexpressible words.” • Job 42:1–6. “I have heard of You by the hearing of the ear; but now my eye sees You.” • 1 Corinthians 13:8–13. “Now I know in part, but then I will know fully.” • John 3:3–11. “We speak of what we know and testify of what we have seen.” • Matthew 24:3–14. “This gospel of the kingdom shall be preached … as a testimony [witness].” Quotes: • “Can the gospel of the Kingdom be preached as a witness if there are no witnesses?” • “The Lord told Paul he would be a witness, and He imparted to him that which he needed to see and hear firsthand in order to be a witness.” • “I do believe that it is a potential to reach in and truly become a witness in any generation.” Takeaways: 1. Currently our level of witnessing is to tell others about our faith in Christ. We should contend to become true witnesses of Christ like the first disciples and apostles were—like Paul was. 2. When the Lord appeared to Job, Job had to repent because he was speaking that which he did not know. How much do we as Christians speak that which we do not know? 3. We know in part and prophecy in part. But the promise is that we will see Him face to face and know as we are fully known. 4. When we talk about being witnesses, we understand that there is a great deal of impartation from Christ by the Spirit that was given to the apostles, as well as to the other disciples and to Paul. By the Spirit we can contend for the same experience.
6/12/24 • 29:25
Web Description: Being a witness of Christ needs to be more than sharing what we believe or what we heard from someone else. Like us, Paul was in Christ after the Ascension, but he did not share with others what he heard from the disciples. In Christ’s appearing to him, Paul received all that the disciples experienced and that is what he delivered to the world. This Pentecost we should contend to be witnesses like Paul. Show Notes: The disciples and the apostles of Yeshua (Jesus) were true witnesses. They were witnesses of His resurrection and of His appearings to them. Even more they were witnesses of the Scriptures because He opened their minds to understand everything that was written in them concerning the Christ. So they had an experience with the Lord that was beyond seeing Him with their eyes and physically interacting with Him. They had an impartation that truly equipped them to be witnesses. When we engage in witnessing today, I think we have to be honest and admit that we are not expressing those same qualifications. Witnessing for us is simply the process of telling others what we believe. We are not sharing firsthand experiences of seeing or hearing or receiving from Yeshua. However, the more we move into the end times, the more we need the qualifications of those first witnesses of Christ. Yet is it possible to witness what they witnessed two thousand years after the fact? I believe it is and we have the perfect example in the apostle Paul. Paul was not with the disciples of Yeshua to witness everything Christ did. Yet when Paul saw Christ after the Ascension, his mind was opened to behold all that had transpired with Christ. He became a witness in all respects like the disciples and delivered to the world what he received directly from Christ. I believe it was by the Holy Spirit that Paul was able to have these experiences that made him a witness. And by the Holy Spirit we should be contending for the true experiences with Christ that will make us witnesses. Key Verses: • Luke 24:25–30. “He explained to them the things concerning Himself in all the Scriptures.” • Luke 24:31–32. “Then their eyes were opened and they recognized Him.” • Luke 24:44–45. “He opened their minds to understand the Scriptures.” • Luke 24:48–40. “You are witnesses of these things.” • 1 Corinthians 15:3–8. “I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received.” • Acts 22:6–15. “You will be a witness for Him to all men of what you have seen and heard.” • 2 Corinthians 12:1–7. “I will go on to visions and revelations of the Lord.” Quotes: • “I believe this generation needs witnesses, not just people talking about their faith.” • “When we look at the ministry of Paul, we recognize that Christ appeared to him just as He appeared to those on the road to Emmaus, just as he appeared to the disciples and apostles.” • “Paul is giving as a witness what was delivered to him, what was imparted to him, what he saw when he saw Christ. So his mind was opened to see, to behold all that had transpired with Christ.” Takeaways: 1. Paul was a true witness. And he became that witness following the ascension of Christ. 2. If Paul could become such a witness, then I believe we can also. Paul is proof that we can become witnesses in our generation. 3. Please remember there is a great deal of difference between being a witness and being a believer talking about our faith. We need to be witnesses to this generation.
6/5/24 • 26:26
Web Description: On the Day of Pentecost, the apostles were endued with power by the Holy Spirit, and that is something we emphasize the need for. But the other aspect of their ability to bring the world to Christ is also something that we need in the world today. That is the fact that they were His witnesses. Yes, our power to impact the world will be that we are filled with the Holy Spirit. But it will also be that we are true witnesses of the Lord. Show Notes: We recognize that the disciples of Yeshua (Jesus) were called witnesses, and we use that term quite a bit within the Church atmosphere today. We talk about going out and witnessing to others, which absolutely is an important part of our Christian life. But I think that we have lost the true meaning of the word witness. I think we are using the term too lightly, and that takes away from the veracity of it and the impact that it needs to have. The apostles were actual witnesses. They had witnessed Yeshua’s teachings and His works. They witnessed Him as the resurrected Lord. The disciple who replaced Judas had to have this requirement of being a witness. The Church focuses on the fact that these men were endued with power at Pentecost. But their impact on the world was also because they were witnesses. And we cannot ignore that fact if we want to impact the world today. We cannot sell short the power of what it is to be witnesses. It is time to minister to the world around us, and we need to do more than tell people what we believe in. We need to see true witnesses of the Lord going throughout the earth today. Let us reach into this in our hearts and in our own experiences. You could ask, “How is it possible to be witnesses of Christ so long after His ascension?” That is what we will cover in the next podcast. Be sure to listen to it. Key Verses: • Luke 24:13–27. “He explained to them the things concerning Himself in all the Scriptures.” • Luke 24:28–45. “He opened their minds to understand the Scriptures.” • Luke 24:46–48. “You are witnesses of these things.” • Luke 24:49. “Stay in the city until you are clothed with power from on high.” • Acts 1:21–22. “One of these must become a witness with us of His resurrection.” Quotes: • “The anointing upon them was tremendous, but they were in fact witnesses of these things. They were telling people what they had seen, what they had heard, what they truly were witnesses of.” • “I believe there’s no reason for us not to take another step beyond where we have been and where the Church has been.” • “I believe what this generation needs are true witnesses under the power of the Holy Spirit that can bring an impartation of change to the lives of individuals that are hearing it.” Takeaways: 1. For us to impact the world in a way that deals with the wickedness and depravity that is so prevalent today, there is a need for two elements: (1) that we truly be witnesses, and (2) that we be endued with power from on high through the baptism of the Holy Spirit. 2. Being a witness is more than telling people that we believe in what was written in the Gospels. That is wonderful and it can be powerful. But we need the power that the witnesses of Christ who wrote the Gospels had. 3. Those who witnessed the resurrected Christ not only heard what He said but also had the Scriptures imparted to their minds—something that was essential if they were to go out and speak to the world about what they had witnessed. We need the same witness of the Word today. For Further Study: Read Luke 24:13–49. Let this story impact your heart. Let it impact your life. And let it be something you use to contend with the Lord as we approach these tremendous days of Pentecost.
5/29/24 • 20:33
Web Description: In this day we need the power of God to be moving in us and through us. Yet we are often so conditioned by our past experiences that we do not believe in that power or, at the very least, lose the edge of our faith. The Passover shows us that God does deliver His people, and He does move in power. By thanking God for the lessons of the past, forgiving others, and moving into the love of Christ, we can move into God’s fullness and the knowledge of His power that works within us. Show Notes: When Moses came to them, the children of Israel had spent four hundred years in bondage to the Egyptians. Then they suddenly had to believe in the miracle power of God. Their conditioning made it very difficult for them to trust in God’s concern for them, let alone believe that He would deliver them from bondage and give them their own land. We too, as people who have walked with God, have been conditioned by what we have gone through in the past. We may have been led by God to pray for certain things or to be involved with certain people. Then after years of never seeing answers to our prayers or of having problems in relationships, we find that past experiences have worn away at our own ability to believe that we will see the power of God working in our lives. But the Passover is a reminder that God moves in power, and an aspect of the Passover was God moving to deliver the children of Israel from their past. We need this aspect of Passover to work deeply in our lives to free us from the conditionings of the past. And a key to being free from the past is forgiveness. As probably every Christian knows, forgiving others is one of the most difficult things we must do in our walk with God. Yet Paul tells us to know the love of Christ that is beyond knowledge. Clearly this divine love requires a divine enabling, but it is available to us in Christ. And we loose ourselves to appropriate it until we are filled up to all the fullness of God and are able to know the power of God that is above and beyond anything we can ask or think. Key Verses: • Isaiah 43:19. “Behold, I will do something new …; will you not be aware of it?” • Exodus 5:20–21. “They met Moses. … ‘May the Lord … judge you.’” • Genesis 50:20. “You meant evil against me, but God meant it for good.” • Psalm 105:19. “Until the time that his word came to pass, the word of the LORD tested him.” • Hebrews 5:8–9. “He learned obedience from the things which He suffered.” • Ephesians 3:14–19. “Know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge.” • Ephesians 3:20–21. “To Him who is able to do far more abundantly beyond all that we ask or think.” • Hebrews 12:26–27 “Those things which cannot be shaken may remain.” • Ephesians 1:19–20. “His power toward us who believe … when He raised Him from the dead.” • Philippians 3:13–14. “… forgetting what lies behind.” • Isaiah 55:6. “Seek the LORD while He may be found.” Quotes: • “I want Him not just to forgive me; I want Him to forget those things. We look for that thoroughness in our relationship with Him. But it means we’ve got to be that thorough in our relationship with others.” • “We not only want to be aware of the new day; we want to be free in our spirits to walk in the new day.” • “When we know the love of Christ, we will be filled up to all the fullness of God.” Takeaways: 1. If after being led by the Lord, circumstances happen to you that seem like a bondage to you, it does not mean that God did that. But God allowed it for the ongoing perfection of your heart and spirit before Him. 2. We all stand before God as individuals. We can choose to be one in our hearts with others and walk with God together, but that only works because each of us walks with Him individually. 3. We are in a new day, and we must be able to walk with Him in the new things He is doing. And so we want to be freed from all our conditionings and paradigms from the past. We must be totally free in our spirits from any judgment, any criticism, any lack of forgiveness and come into the love of Christ. 4. We reach in to know the love of Christ that is beyond understanding, whereby God can fill us up to all the fullness of God. We must know that God can do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think and that His unlimited power, which is continually beamed toward us, will work in us and through us to accomplish His will.
5/22/24 • 36:16
Web Description: We can look out on the world today and ask, “Where is the power of God? Where are the miracles and signs and wonders that God did in the past?” When we ask that, we are looking in the wrong direction because the same power of God that did those signs and wonders of the past, the very power of the Resurrection, is beamed directly to us who believe. We need to become aware of that and turn loose this power that is within us. Show Notes: God is powerful, and He moves in power. He moved in power when He delivered the children of Israel out of Egypt. He moved in power when He raised Yeshua (Jesus) from the dead. Yet as we go along day after day without seeing Him move with similar manifestations of power, we tend to let go of the faith and anticipation we need, and we neglect to exercise our belief in His miracle power, in His strength, in His deliverance, and in what He should be in our daily lives. According to Paul, the power that God exercised to deliver Israel out of Egypt and raise Yeshua from the dead is the very same power He is beaming to us who believe in Christ. We can say that we believe in everything God has given us. We believe we have salvation. We believe our sins are forgiven. We believe we have a calling and a destiny and blessings from God. But are we aware of the surpassing greatness of His power that is directed toward us who believe? Paul prayed that we would have a spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him, that the eyes of our heart would be enlightened to be aware of this power of God that is readily available to us through our belief in Him. But growing in this awareness takes energy on our part. We must seek the Lord with all our hearts, with all our might, and with all our strength. We must seek Him while He may be found. We must cry out to Him to release that power in our lives. He is a God of power. He is a God of strength. And we as His sons and daughters must not forget that. Key Verses: • Ephesians 1:3–6. “God … has blessed us with every spiritual blessing.” • Ephesians 1:7–14. “The riches of His grace … He lavished on us.” • Ephesians 1:15–19. “I pray that … you will know … what is the surpassing greatness of His power toward us who believe.” • Deuteronomy 4:34. “By a mighty hand and … outstretched arm … the LORD your God did for you.” • Ephesians 6:12. “Our struggle is … against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places.” • Ephesians 1:20–23. “He … seated Him … far above all rule and authority and power and dominion.” • Ephesians 1:18–20 (NET). “The eyes of your heart have been enlightened.” • Ephesians 3:14–21. “… beyond all that we ask or think, according to the power that works within us.” • Deuteronomy 6:5. “Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might.” • Isaiah 55:6. “Seek the LORD while He may be found.” Quotes: • “It’s very important for us to read in the Scriptures the reality that God has planned and promised to move for us, in us, and through us with His mighty power.” • “I think we can lose the fact that we’re serving a God of power.” • “This power that is being beamed towards us is also the power of the Resurrection, which is to impact us and to dwell in us.” Takeaways: 1. Life in the natural world continues as it always has from the time it was set in motion at the creation. Not a lot that is miraculous seems to take place in it. Therefore, we have difficulty believing in the power of God that moves in signs and wonders. 2. Our salvation in Christ means that we have an inheritance. God has given to us everything that Christ is and does. That includes the surpassing greatness of His power, which is the same power that resurrected Christ and seated Him at God’s right hand in heavenly places. 3. The power of God that delivered the children of Israel from everything that had power over them in Egypt is the same power that resides in us. God can do anything above and beyond what we could ask or think because of this power within us. 4. We are not asking enough or thinking enough in terms of what this power can do in our lives. And we need to change that. We need to wait on the Lord and meditate on Him to connect with this power within us.
5/15/24 • 27:04
Web Description: The God who shook the powers of Egypt and delivered His people with signs and wonders is the same God who will shake all things in the latter days. The fact that we may not have seen God move that way in our lifetime is not the issue. The issue is whether or not we will be the prepared people whose faith hastens His coming in this day. Show Notes: Read Deuteronomy chapter 4. Before they entered Canaan to possess the land, Moses reminded the children of Israel about their wanderings in the wilderness, their time in Egypt, and how God delivered them with signs and wonders. In the retelling of their story, Moses began with the statement: “For the LORD your God is a consuming fire.” This was true for them then, but it is also prophetic of the days to come. It needs to be real to us that God is going to move again as He did in Egypt. In many ways we are just like the children of Israel who were so conditioned by their bondage in Egypt for four hundred years that they had great difficulty believing that God would deliver them. As Christians we have two thousand years of history, much of which has been under the oppression of the world’s systems. We know we should believe that Christ can come at any moment with the power of God in signs and wonders and establish His Kingdom on this earth. But we struggle having the intense faith that we need because we have never seen the Lord move in that way. We tend to see Him just like the Israelites did in Egypt—He was the God of their fathers, a God who moved in the past. But we cannot let the passage of time cause us to lose faith. Our God is and always has been a consuming fire, and He will again shake all things. He is the same God who delivered His people when their preparation was complete. And just as He came down when they cried out to Him, He will respond to us when we seek Him with all our heart, knowing that He will move in the earth when we are the prepared people He is waiting for. Key Verses: • Deuteronomy 4:24. “The LORD your God is a consuming fire.” • Deuteronomy 4:25–30. “From there you will seek the LORD your God.” • Deuteronomy 4:31–40. “You shall keep His statutes and His commandments.” • 2 Peter 3:3–14. “The Lord is not slow about His promise … but is patient toward you.” • Romans 12:1–2. “Do not be conformed to this world.” • Hebrews 12:18–27. “ONCE MORE I WILL SHAKE NOT ONLY THE EARTH, BUT ALSO THE HEAVEN.” • Hebrews 12:28–29. “Our God is a consuming fire.” Quotes: • “He will see every promise that He has given us fulfilled. And our job is to be believers. We must believe. We must not doubt because time has passed.” • “We are living in the delusion of the material world that surrounded us and convinced us of something other than the living God who has the power to move in our lives.” • “He is waiting for the natural world to have its total preparation for what transpires in the day of His return. More than that, He may just be waiting for you. He may be waiting for your growth and maturity, for you to come to the place where you are ready.” Takeaways: 1. We are not to lose our faith because of the passing of time. We are to grow in our gratitude and offer up worship to God in reverence and awe. We should remember what Moses said: “Our God is a consuming fire.” And He is not slow to fulfill His promises. 2. Let us remember those promises. Let us remember the Words of God. And let us look back to our fathers—not to grow weak in faith but to be strengthened by their experience of watching and beholding the power of God moving in their midst on this earth. 3. We know that God will move to establish His Kingdom and bring Yeshua the Messiah to rule on the earth. That is what we believe and that is what we wait for. As a result, we do not grow weak in faith but grow bolder and have more anticipation to see God move on this earth.
5/8/24 • 37:52
Web Description: As we observe Holocaust Memorial Day this year with Israel, we must acknowledge the miserable failure of the United Nations to fulfill the goal of its own Holocaust Remembrance Day, which was to prevent the very thing that happened on October 7, 2023. We wake up to the fact that the determination to annihilate the Jews is not gone. And we raise our voices to the nations and declare our determination that the Holocaust will never be forgotten and that nothing like it will ever happen again. Show Notes: On May 6, 2024, Israel will observe their annual Holocaust Memorial Day. It is important to understand that this aspect of remembrance is something that God has imparted to the heart of the Jewish people. Remembering their history and teaching the lessons of that history from generation to generation is a focal point during the annual fasts and feasts in observance of the Sabbath and in the daily prayers. The Holocaust Remembrance Day, established by United Nations Resolution 60/7, was to have this same focus: to remember the Holocaust and to teach future generations so that something like the Holocaust will never happen again. Yet the attack by Hamas on October 7, 2023, has exposed the absolute failure of the U.N. to implement the very resolution it established. The horrors inflicted on innocent Israelis on October 7 proved the stated purpose of Hamas and other Islamic jihadist forces, which is the total annihilation of all Jews and Israel—the exact same purpose the Nazis had during WWII with the Holocaust. Not only did the U.N. fail in educating people to prevent this attack, but U.N. personnel actually educated the new generation of Gazan children to hate and annihilate the Jews. Furthermore, facilities and employees financed by the U.N. actively joined Hamas in committing the atrocities of October 7. We need to recognize this if we are to have an effective time of remembrance of the Holocaust and October 7, 2023. For this year’s memorial, please stand with the Jews throughout the world and with the State of Israel to remember the horrors of the Holocaust, to remember the horrors of October 7, and to honor the memory of those brutally murdered in these and other anti-Semitic attempts of annihilation. So please let your voice be heard in any way you can and in every way you can. Let it be heard clearly by your neighbors and by the nations. Let the cry ring out, “Never forget and never again!” Key Verses: • Exodus 20:8. “Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy.” • Exodus 20:11. “The LORD … rested on the seventh day.” • Deuteronomy 5:15. “You shall remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and the LORD your God redeemed you.” Quotes: • “When you’re remembering these events like the days of slavery in Egypt and the way God delivered them out of Egypt, it’s filled with lessons. And these lessons are to be remembered; they’re to be learned, and they’re to be taught and imparted generation after generation to all of Israel.” • “We must apply the lessons of the Holocaust to today. The reason we remember is because we want to do something about it today. We want to never forget what God has been teaching, and we want to do something about it.” • “As Israel prepares to remember the Holocaust Remembrance Day in Israel this year, sadly it is marred by the anti-Semitic protests that are transpiring in many nations. And these again are happening because of the failure of not only the United Nations as an organization, but also the nations themselves—the failure to educate the children.” Takeaways: 1. The observances of the Jewish people all have an emphasis on remembrance. The people are to remember what God did, act on what they remember, and teach the lessons of that memory to their children from generation to generation. 2. Holocaust Remembrance Day was instituted by the U.N. for that same purpose. It was enacted so that the Holocaust would be remembered and acted upon, and so that future generations would be taught the lessons of the Holocaust to prevent something like it from ever happening again. 3. The widespread anti-Semitism in the world and the barbarity of the Hamas attacks on October 7, 2023, have exposed the massive failure of the U.N. to uphold and implement the purpose of the Holocaust Remembrance Day that it established. 4. As Christians we must make our voices heard to remember and to teach about the Holocaust and October 7, 2023, and we declare, “Never forget and never again!”
5/1/24 • 25:07
Web Description: The Passover is a reminder of how God can move with signs and wonders by His great power. And we must continue to remind ourselves lest we forget God and turn away from Him after a period of preparation. Let this Passover be a time of remembering, a time of expectation in our faith to see God move. Show Notes: By the time the Lord sent Moses to deliver them, the children of Israel had never seen God move. Maybe they had heard about Him in stories handed down from their fathers. But after four hundred years of slavery and oppression, they had a hard time believing the words of Moses that this God they had never known was about to deliver them. Yet God did deliver them exactly as He had promised Abraham He would. Then after God delivered them by a mighty hand and signs and wonders, His presence continued to be with them, miraculously protecting them and sustaining them for forty years in the wilderness. So when the children of Israel were about to take the land as God had promised, Moses gave them a warning. After living in the land for a long time, it would again be easy for them to forget all that God had done for them. So they must continually tell the story from generation to generation and not lose their faith in Him. This telling of the story is an important aspect of the Passover that we need today. I think we are too much like those Israelites, who after waiting a long time could not believe in God, or they even abandoned His ways. We too can say that we have heard the stories about God and Yeshua (Jesus). But is He our God or just the God of our fathers? And this Passover I hope that we can remind ourselves. We may be in a time of preparation when God does not seem to be moving. But He is never without His great power, and He will move when He is ready. Will we be ready? Key Verses: • Genesis 46:2–4. “Go down to Egypt, for I will make you a great nation there.” • Genesis 15:12–16. “Your descendants will be strangers in a land. … Then in the fourth generation they will return here.” • Exodus 12:41. “At the end of four hundred and thirty years, to the very day, all the hosts of the Lord went out from the land of Egypt.” • Deuteronomy 10:20–22. “Now the LORD your God has made you as numerous as the stars of heaven.” • Deuteronomy 4:24–34. “He will not fail you nor destroy you nor forget the covenant with your fathers which He swore to them.” • Deuteronomy 4:35–40. “Know that the LORD, He is God; there is no other besides Him.” Quotes: • “Maybe it’s been a long time since we’ve seen God really overtly move on the earth or in the heavens through His power, through His determination to fulfill His Word. But He is going to move again, and we must be prepared for it.” • “One of the reasons God wants us to remember is so that we in our hearts can stay faithful and prepared.” • “Passover is preparing you for tomorrow. It’s not just talking to you about a story of yesterday.” Takeaways: 1. God is always working to prepare the material world for His moving. That may take time, but that does not mean He is not a God of power and might. He will move in signs and wonders when it comes time to bring about the fulfillment of His Word in the earth. 2. Moses came with signs and wonders when he matured and the time had come for Israel’s deliverance. Yeshua came with signs and wonders at the time that He matured and everything was ready for Him to manifest as the Messiah. 3. Passover teaches us that our hearts must always be prepared and be anticipating the power of God to move in our midst to fulfill His Word, His covenants, and His promises with Israel and with us as believers in Christ.
4/24/24 • 32:46
Web Description: This podcast is a call to prayer in response to a clear attempt by the current US administration to replace the duly elected democratic government of Israel. We need to bind our hearts together and unite our spirits as Christians to pray that the United States of America will not be moved into a place of being cursed by God. Show Notes: Psalm 83 talks about the countries who conspire together to wipe Israel out as a nation. Many believe that this psalm refers to a specific war that must take place in the end-time. Yet there have been many times in history when countries have come against Israel to destroy it. And we can easily apply this psalm to the fact that many nations are aligning themselves against Israel in this current conflict with Hamas. What is very concerning is that the Biden administration is positioning the United States of America to be one of those countries trying to destroy Israel. On the floor of the US Senate, Chuck Schumer called for new elections in Israel and the ousting of Netanyahu. This attempt to undermine the elected leader of an ally who has the support of the Israeli people underscored the shocking fact that the US government is plotting to overthrow the government of Israel. This comes at a time when there truly is an existential threat against Israel, and the Israeli people need our support more than ever. The reviling of Israel by Schumer and by others in the US government falls into the category of cursing God’s people and positions the US to be cursed by God. And we know that the prophecies about Israel in the end-time always address how God will call to account every nation that comes against Israel. The fact that the US is involved in coming against Israel right now is a wakeup call for all Americans. We need to pray for Americans to wake up and speak up and be the blessing to Israel that this country was raised up by God to be. Key Verses: • Psalm 83:1–5. “They have said, ‘Come, and let us wipe them out as a nation.’” • Psalm 83:13–18. “Let them be humiliated and perish.” • Genesis 12:1–3. “The one who curses you I will curse.” Quotes: • “I feel an ominous thing in my spirit about this. And again, the ominous concern is what are we facing as the United States of America as a result of God saying, ‘I’m going to curse the person or the nation that curses you’”? • “This is not an issue about the upcoming elections in November. It’s not about Biden and Trump. This is about the coming future of this country and where we stand in the plan of God.” • “I believe we’re called to change the darkness of this age into light. And I think we better start flipping the switches and making it happen now.” Takeaways: 1. Psalm 83 is not necessarily about a future war. There have been many times in history when people have tried to wipe out Israel as a nation. And that is happening now. 2. It is clear that the US is reviling Israel and undermining its ability to defend itself from being wiped out. According to Genesis 12:3, this is equivalent to cursing Israel and puts us in danger of being cursed by God. 3. The current US administration is trying to unilaterally impose a government on a democratic country that is our closest ally in the region. It is doing this against the will of the Israeli people and against the will of the majority of Americans who support Israel.
4/17/24 • 52:15
Web Description: It is difficult to see the Lord’s description of Laodicea in the book of Revelation in a positive light. But the lesson we need to take away from it is how great a love the Lord has for us. No matter how much we may have damaged our relationship with Him, He is always knocking on the door of our hearts. And we need to open that door and let Him in, honestly evaluating ourselves as we commune with Him, and let Him make a personal covenant with us. Show Notes: I think we resist learning the lessons of Laodicea in the book of Revelation because no one wants to be associated with the lukewarm church that the Lord spews out of His mouth. But we need to read the example of Laodicea with a new understanding. First of all the Laodiceans did not get to their state of lukewarmness overnight. They had been refusing the Lord for a long time. And we must end the pattern of refusing the Lord in our own lives. Next, we must see that the picture of the Laodicean church in Revelation is a picture of God’s deep love for us. Even though the Laodiceans had continually refused Him, the Lord was always knocking on their door, always pleading with them to let Him in. That means that no matter how separated from the Lord we have become, we can always open the door to Him and let Him back into our hearts. The Lord said, “If anyone opens the door ….” He is not addressing the Church in general. He is speaking to each one of us individually. If you open the door to the Lord, He will come in and dine with you personally. As we read in the Hebrew Scriptures, people ate together to make a covenant, and the Lord wants to make a personal covenant with each one of us. But for that to happen we must first take the initiative to open the door of our heart to let Him in. Then by seeing Him we will be like Job who said, “I have heard about the Lord before, but now my eyes see You. Therefore, I retract and repent in dust and ashes.” There will be a brokenness, but there will also be the joy of experiencing His love, of having a personal covenant with Him in His blood that is so necessary in these times. Key Verses: • Revelation 3:14–22. “If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and will dine with him.” • Jeremiah 31:31. “I will make a new covenant.” • Matthew 23:37–39. “How often I wanted to gather your children together.” • Hebrews 12:18–24. “You have come to … Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant.” • Hebrews 12:25–29. “See to it that you do not refuse Him who is speaking.” • Job 42:1–6. “Now my eye sees You; therefore I retract, and I repent.” • 1 Corinthians 11:23–32. “A man must examine himself, and in so doing he is to eat of the bread and drink of the cup.” • Isaiah 1:18. “Come now, and let us reason together.” Quotes: • “No matter how many times we may have refused Him in the past, He’s looking for us to open our hearts, to sit down with Him, and to, in essence, negotiate a new covenant.” • “He’s looking for something to happen on a level that is beyond what we as believers have ever known or ever understood before. And as this happens, we will find ourselves being very humble, very much in repentance before the Lord and opening our hearts in a way that maybe we were not able to open our hearts before.” • “Let us find that place of brokenness in our heart where there can be true repentance and true hunger to relate to Him in a new way.” Takeaways: 1. We have refused the Lord many times in our relationship with Him. But it is time to stop doing that. I feel like we are coming to a place in the timing of the Lord in these days when we need to be far more cautious about saying “No” to Him. 2. No matter how extensive our previous refusals of Him have been, Christ comes again to plead with us in these last days. 3. It really is time for us to make a personal covenant of peace with the coming Messiah. We talk a lot about the new covenant. And I believe there is a covenant once again that the Lord wants to make, and that is a very personal covenant with each one of us.
4/10/24 • 31:08