March 24, 2025 • 32 mins
Have you ever considered that your spiritual journey wasn't something you initiated? That perhaps God was pursuing you long before you even recognized it? This profound reality forms the foundation of our exploration into what lies beyond the basic gospel message.
The cross—that ancient instrument of torture and humiliation—serves as more than just a symbol of sacrifice. It represents the divine paradox where absolute weakness becomes the birthplace of ultimate power. Jesus, in his most vulnerable state—bloodied, mocked, and dying—defeated death itself. But this victory was never meant to be the end of the story.
Many Christians stop at the cross, content with salvation but missing the fullness of what follows. Resurrection life. Ascension authority. The privilege of functioning as citizens of God's Kingdom with real spiritual power and purpose. Throughout the New Testament, particularly in Paul's epistles, we find detailed instructions for living in this elevated reality—not someday in heaven, but right now in our everyday lives.
God is progressively unfolding His plan across nations and within our hearts. What was once mysterious is becoming clear. We're being invited to mature beyond spiritual milk to meat, beyond religious rituals to relationship, beyond cross to crown. This generation has access to one of history's greatest displays of God's presence and glory, if we'll only recognize and step into it.
Ready to discover what it means to be seated with Christ in heavenly places? To make declarations that transform reality? To grow up before you grow old? Let's journey together beyond the cross into the fullness of Kingdom life and authority.
Loving Yeshua/Jesus, Loving people... Come as you are and you will be loved!
Feel free to check out our website by typing in lifearoundthefire.com or Life Around The Fire ... We think you'll find some beneficial stuff to look at and apply to your life.
Shalom to you and your home.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:03):
I was recently reflecting on some of the
conversations and interactionsthat I've had with God over the
course of the past 50 years.
Over the course of the past 50years, and when I say dialogue,
(00:28):
conversations, interactions withGod, I really mean that, far
beyond figments of myimagination or someone's outside
skillful abilities tomanipulate the way that I think,
meaning some good speaker orcounselor or human being,
(00:56):
whoever that might be, doesn'texist, because no one exist,
because no one, no one person,has been able to captivate my
(01:17):
thoughts except except for theperson of Jesus Christ.
And that's coming from anindividual who didn't have any
intentions in their life at all,ever about getting involved
with Jesus.
I didn't necessarily know whatI wanted to do with my life, but
(01:40):
Jesus was not on my radar withmy life, but Jesus was not on my
radar except a unique thing wastaking place within me, and
that unique thing was this I wasbeing drawn, wooed, led.
(02:05):
I was being drawn in by God toexperience real relationship
with him, something that Ireally didn't necessarily, on
the surface, know that I wanted,but once things started to
(02:33):
become clearer to me thatsomething was going on inside of
me that was deeper than just mewanting to do something with my
life, and what would beinteresting and how would I make
money, and so on and so forth.
There's something deeper thanthat.
(02:54):
There's something going down toa place that I didn't really
have a connection with, but itwas deeper and that deeper was
my, what was going to be my bornagain nature, my spirit.
(03:16):
Inwardly, I was being preparedto literally become a harbinger
of God's life, a relationshipwith him in which there would be
(03:38):
such a knowing that the closesttype of example it could be
would be how a husband and wifeknow each other intimately,
where there's an exchange on alevel that is far beyond just
(04:07):
physical, but it involveseverything nonetheless.
When I say closest example,that's really it, because it's
even greater than that.
When we experience the realityof knowing God and Him knowing
(04:28):
us, the depth of love andrelationship that we share goes
beyond that.
But that's a good place toreally be able to say that's as
far as human being.
That's a high watermark.
And where I'm going with all ofthis is, once again, the fact
(04:55):
that I wasn't the one doing the,looking in my life and come to
find out that's the case for allof us.
None of us, none of us havebeen the ones who have initiated
the looking we might think wehave, but in all reality that's
(05:22):
not the case.
We were moving in the oppositedirection and it was God who
apprehended us.
It was God who so loved theworld that he created.
It was God who so loved theworld that he gave his only
begotten son so that whomeverwould believe in him, his only
(05:48):
begotten son, so that whomeverwould believe in him, would not
perish but have his everlastinglife in them.
Wow, that's called covenantrelationship.
What's mine is yours, what'syours is mine.
Divine exchange.
(06:11):
And God is the one who is takingresponsibility for being the
pursuer, the pursuer for beingthe pursuer.
Now, our part in yielding tothat is where our
(06:38):
decision-making, our will, comesinto play.
But one person once said we allhave free will until God gets
real close.
And if any of you have ever hadthat privilege, that experience
(07:04):
of God really just overwhelmingyou with his presence, you know
what I mean.
It's nearly impossible toresist an irresistible love.
His love is so significant, hislove is so strong, it never
(07:28):
fails.
The scriptures say love, thelove of God, not the thing that
we call love, because we call alot of things love, or we love a
lot of things, but the love ofGod, the agape, the
unconditional, absolute love ofGod, the agape, the
unconditional, absolute love ofGod, his ability to love beyond
(07:54):
anything that attempts to standin the way, because there's no
height, there's no depth,there's no height, there's no
depth, there's no creature thatcan separate us, that's powerful
enough to separate us from thelove of God that's in Christ
(08:17):
Jesus.
And so Jesus is his son that hegave to us right, and so when
that became real to me, that wasI couldn't when I submitted to
that wooing me when I was young,and Jesus was made real to me,
(08:59):
presented to me by God, theSpirit, and I fell in love with
him.
I gave him my life, I offeredmy life to him, he gave me his
life, and from that point on, Iwas 13,.
I'm 66.
Now, 53 years later, he hasnever, ever left me.
Even though I have at timesstumbled in my life, fallen hard
(09:27):
, made mistakes, he has beenfaithful to lead me and guide me
, even when I was unable tofunction properly, properly.
(09:59):
So, once again, I have beencaptivated by Jesus, but also by
Jesus and what he did on thecross, as I stated earlier,
prior to him making himself realto me, I really didn't have
that much interest in knowingabout the cross.
This cross, this system oftorture that the Romans had
(10:24):
perfected, called crucifixion.
It wasn't really like on myto-do list of things to do, and
that was to find out about thecrucifixion process, except once
I encountered Jesus andrealized that that was going to
(10:47):
be the means by which he wasgoing to give his life as a
ransom for many, meaning thepayment for us to be free from
sin and death and to haverelationship with God.
That's healthy, that's real,it's not just religious, but
(11:14):
alive.
He shed his blood so that wewould have that Type of
experience, because that's whathe experiences with his father,
and so also he wants a bride, hewants the people that know what
(11:35):
life is like, the type of lifethat he lives, and he said that
those of us who would follow himwould need to pick up our cross
, and so I realized I'm going tofollow him, him.
(12:16):
I'm going to pick up somethingthat is not just like a pretend
thing, that's going to bringabout an end to my old way of
living, but it was really goingto put an end to my old way of
living and that there was goingto be life on the other side of
it, that part right there yousee the cross.
(12:44):
The crucifixion process is meantto break an individual down so
that they are absolutely attheir weakest physical, mental,
emotional state in life.
It's the most humiliating Meansof torture, because a person is
(13:13):
stripped naked, whipped hard sothey're bloodied by A process
of A brutal whipping Before thecrucifixion and then the
crucifixion process of beingnailed to a wooden beam and hung
(13:33):
so that your body goes limp andyour ability to breathe becomes
horribly labored and yourjoints all come out of place and
you're left, sometimes for days, to hang there until finally
you die Weak, weak.
(13:57):
Jesus was so incredibly weak bythe time he gave up his life
gave up the ghost, as thescriptures say.
He breathed his last.
He was so weak that there wasno, literally no, eventually no
(14:20):
blood left in him and life is inthe blood.
And in the previous podcastepisode I remember we said we're
going to talk just a little bitmore about what Jesus did, why
(14:43):
the cross did, why the cross andthe real basis behind it is.
Ultimately, it was the systemof death that would bring a
(15:08):
person to their weakest place.
And it was in the weakest placeof Christ where he defeated the
greatest power of Satan, andthat was death.
(15:30):
Praise God, he made an openspectacle, a public spectacle of
death by dying on the cross,because there was going to be
(15:50):
something that was going to takeplace beyond the cross.
And that's where we want to getto, that's where we all want to
get to.
Some of us just don't realizethat's where we want to get to
until we meet Jesus and weexperience the cross, our own
(16:19):
death to our old way of living,a total submission to him,
hallelujah.
How that all plays out is goingto be different for each person
, but for Jesus it was a publicdisplay of absolute weakness, a
(16:45):
mockery of who he was as a man,let alone who he was as God, the
Son.
But in his weakness, all of hisjoints being out of place,
(17:07):
hanging thirsty, bleeding out,so that this heinous separation,
this barrier between us and Godcould finally be destroyed, not
(17:33):
just covered over, butannihilated, wiped clean, our
record Washed away.
Jesus accomplished that.
Jesus accomplished that on thecross.
(18:02):
If the cross would have been theend of Jesus, that would have
been the saddest commentary Ithink that could ever have been
written.
A sinless man being executedpublicly, a man without fault
(18:23):
Dying because of jealousy, envyand pride in other people that
were religious, just couldn'ttake it.
That's funny.
That's what religion?
Religion, yeah, that religious,that strict, stern religious
(18:49):
thing that we're going to do iton our own power thing, our own
works, eventually turns peoplejust harsh and bitter because
you're never going to be able tobe good enough.
So you got to keep hidingthings and then defending them
(19:11):
and putting blame to otherpeople and covering things up.
Religion, but religion sellsman.
It's like sex sells, religionsells.
There's money to be made inreligion.
(19:36):
But Jesus didn't come toestablish a religion.
A Christian religion Nah,wasn't on his radar.
He came for relationship.
But the cross it had to be atthe weakest place in order for
(20:03):
God to demonstrate the greatnessof his power and that there's
nothing.
There's nothing.
Death itself, satan's greatesttool, can no longer be useful in
(20:25):
holding us from relationshipwith God.
Holding us from relationshipwith God, the only thing holding
us from relationship with Godis our refusal to look at and
receive from the sacrificiallife and death of Jesus, his
(20:51):
doing it on our behalf and usplacing faith in him, trust in
him.
That that's, even if our mindscan't comprehend it, that's
sufficient, that's enough.
When we do that, that's theconnection point For God to
(21:18):
cause his life to enter into uslike a seed being planted in the
fertile ground.
In the fertile ground, his life, planted in us, begins to grow
(21:38):
like a seed.
And so where we're headed now,with this emphasis on the cross
and our study on the kingdom ofGod because we still are very
much involved in a study on thekingdom of God, because we still
are very much involved in astudy concerning the kingdom of
God, the rule and reign of God,his realm and how he does stuff,
(21:59):
the ways of God and us beingcitizens and learning to walk in
his ways, to function as hisculture, function within his
culture now beginning now, notwaiting until we die, but
(22:24):
beginning now and growing,growing in our usage of what is
available to us now.
More to come.
There's more to come, butthere's is available to us now.
More to come.
There's more to come, butthere's a lot available right
now that we haven't been using,and God wants us to use those
things.
He's unfolding his plan.
It may not have been clear up tothis point in time, but because
(22:48):
he's unfolding things.
What was once unclear is nowbecoming clear.
Some of you can attest to that.
There's things developingwithin your life that previously
you really didn't have anunderstanding of, a revelation.
That's because wisdom andrevelation are unfolding within
(23:09):
you, like the purpose and planof God is unfolding across the
nations, and we are part of that.
We are designed to be aliveright now in one of the greatest
displays, in fact, up to thispoint in time, the greatest
display of God's presence, ofhis glory and of his invitation
to function in life beyond thecross.
(23:32):
Hallelujah.
Life beyond the cross,resurrection life.
A taste, a foretaste ofresurrection life.
That's what I'm talking about.
That's what I'm talking about.
That's what I'm talking about.
Yes, we want to appreciate thefundamentals, but at the same
(23:56):
point in time, we want to moveon to things that are a little
meatier meaty, like they gotsome substance to them and
things that require a moremature appetite, not just milk.
(24:20):
We can handle the function, theauthority, the identity that
we've been called to live out ascitizens of God's kingdom, our
new identity Life beyond thecross, resurrection life and
(24:48):
ascension life.
Woo, jesus not only rose fromthe dead, he ascended to the
right hand of God, the Father.
Going forward is going up inthe kingdom of God.
He moved forward.
He moved to the cross, throughthe cross and now to the throne
(25:14):
of God.
All going forward, which meansall going up and his glory
coming down.
But he's calling us to come onup, to come on up and function
with him, seated with him inheavenly places, learning how to
do that stuff.
Yeah, yes, yes, yes, yes andyes.
(25:37):
Learning how to function,making declarations from things
above.
Where's that?
In the scriptures?
That's all over the NewTestament.
The Apostle Paul, in each andevery one of his epistles, gives
(25:59):
us not just a few insights, butgives us instructions
concerning life beyond the cross, a foretaste of resurrection
life, a foretaste of ascensionlife.
The best is yet to come on alllevels, and the fact that we are
(26:24):
alive right now in theunfolding time of God's plan,
one of those unfolding timeswhere it's been a little bit
mysterious and it will remainmysterious, but the mystery will
(26:50):
be known.
You see, it's the glory of Godto keep things concealed, but
it's the glory of kings to findthem out, to understand the
mystery.
And we are called to be kingsand priests, so it's our place
to understand the mysteries,because there's life that's to
(27:17):
be lived as a result of ourunderstanding of the mysteries
of God, and they're meant to bethere for people that are mature
.
There are certain things thatwe don't get, even in our human
life, as a result of us beingchildren.
(27:38):
We don't get, we don't have theprivilege of, we don't have the
privilege of driving a car, wedon't have the privilege of
owning certain things, we don'thave certain privileges.
Or then, putting it in thepositive, when we get older, we
(28:00):
have certain privilegesavailable to us but if we don't
use them, they are useless.
I want to use what's available.
I want to use everything that'savailable.
I want to use what's available.
I want to use everything that'savailable.
I want to be involved in thefullness of God's revelation
(28:28):
that he has for this generation,completely involved, and that's
what he is giving us theability to express, to encourage
, to help stimulate in all ofour lives a real hunger and
(28:51):
thirst for this, thisrighteousness, through this
particular podcast, throughthese episodes, to stimulate a
hunger and a thirst for thedeeper things of God, to move
forward, to move up, to come onupwards places seated at the
(29:14):
right hand of the Father ouridentity is hidden with him and
to be able to begin to learn howto function in the declaration
of his precious promises, hispurposes, and from the
declarations they becomemanifestations in the world that
(29:36):
we live in.
Hallelujah, we are living inpowerful times and we have been
given the opportunity to beinvolved.
Let's take God at his word andlet's grow together.
(30:00):
Let's grow up before we growold.
Let's be united, join togetherin his particular heartbeat,
under one head Jesus Christ, ourLord, our God.
Amen.
Let's pray, father.
(30:26):
I ask that you, by your Spirit,take these words that have been
spoken today and spread themaround the words that I'm
sharing, but also the ones thatother people are sharing all
over the place, that there wouldbe one voice that would come
out of many different mouths andit would be a voice of
(30:56):
encouragement for your people togrow up, to embrace the things
that you call us to live out andto function in them, just like
Jesus did, both prior to thecross.
On the cross, the resurrectionand the ascension.
(31:19):
On the cross, the resurrectionand the ascension.
All the way, we follow you.
Jesus, you're our leader.
Holy Spirit, you're our guide.
Thank you, thank you, thank you, and we stand here in the name
of Jesus and we declare thesethings to be so.
Amen, amen, amen, amen.
All right, folks, I love you.
(31:41):
If you have any thoughts,questions, concerns, once again,
please feel free to drop us aline at lifearoundthefire at
gmailcom, or type inlifearoundthefire and look us up
on the web.
We would love to hear from you.
In the meantime, god bless you.
Adios amigos.
I was recently reflecting on some of the
conversations and interactionsthat I've had with God over the
course of the past 50 years.
Over the course of the past 50years, and when I say dialogue,
(00:28):
conversations, interactions withGod, I really mean that, far
beyond figments of myimagination or someone's outside
skillful abilities tomanipulate the way that I think,
meaning some good speaker orcounselor or human being,
(00:56):
whoever that might be, doesn'texist, because no one exist,
because no one, no one person,has been able to captivate my
(01:17):
thoughts except except for theperson of Jesus Christ.
And that's coming from anindividual who didn't have any
intentions in their life at all,ever about getting involved
with Jesus.
I didn't necessarily know whatI wanted to do with my life, but
(01:40):
Jesus was not on my radar withmy life, but Jesus was not on my
radar except a unique thing wastaking place within me, and
that unique thing was this I wasbeing drawn, wooed, led.
(02:05):
I was being drawn in by God toexperience real relationship
with him, something that Ireally didn't necessarily, on
the surface, know that I wanted,but once things started to
(02:33):
become clearer to me thatsomething was going on inside of
me that was deeper than just mewanting to do something with my
life, and what would beinteresting and how would I make
money, and so on and so forth.
There's something deeper thanthat.
(02:54):
There's something going down toa place that I didn't really
have a connection with, but itwas deeper and that deeper was
my, what was going to be my bornagain nature, my spirit.
(03:16):
Inwardly, I was being preparedto literally become a harbinger
of God's life, a relationshipwith him in which there would be
(03:38):
such a knowing that the closesttype of example it could be
would be how a husband and wifeknow each other intimately,
where there's an exchange on alevel that is far beyond just
(04:07):
physical, but it involveseverything nonetheless.
When I say closest example,that's really it, because it's
even greater than that.
When we experience the realityof knowing God and Him knowing
(04:28):
us, the depth of love andrelationship that we share goes
beyond that.
But that's a good place toreally be able to say that's as
far as human being.
That's a high watermark.
And where I'm going with all ofthis is, once again, the fact
(04:55):
that I wasn't the one doing the,looking in my life and come to
find out that's the case for allof us.
None of us, none of us havebeen the ones who have initiated
the looking we might think wehave, but in all reality that's
(05:22):
not the case.
We were moving in the oppositedirection and it was God who
apprehended us.
It was God who so loved theworld that he created.
It was God who so loved theworld that he gave his only
begotten son so that whomeverwould believe in him, his only
(05:48):
begotten son, so that whomeverwould believe in him, would not
perish but have his everlastinglife in them.
Wow, that's called covenantrelationship.
What's mine is yours, what'syours is mine.
Divine exchange.
(06:11):
And God is the one who is takingresponsibility for being the
pursuer, the pursuer for beingthe pursuer.
Now, our part in yielding tothat is where our
(06:38):
decision-making, our will, comesinto play.
But one person once said we allhave free will until God gets
real close.
And if any of you have ever hadthat privilege, that experience
(07:04):
of God really just overwhelmingyou with his presence, you know
what I mean.
It's nearly impossible toresist an irresistible love.
His love is so significant, hislove is so strong, it never
(07:28):
fails.
The scriptures say love, thelove of God, not the thing that
we call love, because we call alot of things love, or we love a
lot of things, but the love ofGod, the agape, the
unconditional, absolute love ofGod, the agape, the
unconditional, absolute love ofGod, his ability to love beyond
(07:54):
anything that attempts to standin the way, because there's no
height, there's no depth,there's no height, there's no
depth, there's no creature thatcan separate us, that's powerful
enough to separate us from thelove of God that's in Christ
(08:17):
Jesus.
And so Jesus is his son that hegave to us right, and so when
that became real to me, that wasI couldn't when I submitted to
that wooing me when I was young,and Jesus was made real to me,
(08:59):
presented to me by God, theSpirit, and I fell in love with
him.
I gave him my life, I offeredmy life to him, he gave me his
life, and from that point on, Iwas 13,.
I'm 66.
Now, 53 years later, he hasnever, ever left me.
Even though I have at timesstumbled in my life, fallen hard
(09:27):
, made mistakes, he has beenfaithful to lead me and guide me
, even when I was unable tofunction properly, properly.
(09:59):
So, once again, I have beencaptivated by Jesus, but also by
Jesus and what he did on thecross, as I stated earlier,
prior to him making himself realto me, I really didn't have
that much interest in knowingabout the cross.
This cross, this system oftorture that the Romans had
(10:24):
perfected, called crucifixion.
It wasn't really like on myto-do list of things to do, and
that was to find out about thecrucifixion process, except once
I encountered Jesus andrealized that that was going to
(10:47):
be the means by which he wasgoing to give his life as a
ransom for many, meaning thepayment for us to be free from
sin and death and to haverelationship with God.
That's healthy, that's real,it's not just religious, but
(11:14):
alive.
He shed his blood so that wewould have that Type of
experience, because that's whathe experiences with his father,
and so also he wants a bride, hewants the people that know what
(11:35):
life is like, the type of lifethat he lives, and he said that
those of us who would follow himwould need to pick up our cross
, and so I realized I'm going tofollow him, him.
(12:16):
I'm going to pick up somethingthat is not just like a pretend
thing, that's going to bringabout an end to my old way of
living, but it was really goingto put an end to my old way of
living and that there was goingto be life on the other side of
it, that part right there yousee the cross.
(12:44):
The crucifixion process is meantto break an individual down so
that they are absolutely attheir weakest physical, mental,
emotional state in life.
It's the most humiliating Meansof torture, because a person is
(13:13):
stripped naked, whipped hard sothey're bloodied by A process
of A brutal whipping Before thecrucifixion and then the
crucifixion process of beingnailed to a wooden beam and hung
(13:33):
so that your body goes limp andyour ability to breathe becomes
horribly labored and yourjoints all come out of place and
you're left, sometimes for days, to hang there until finally
you die Weak, weak.
(13:57):
Jesus was so incredibly weak bythe time he gave up his life
gave up the ghost, as thescriptures say.
He breathed his last.
He was so weak that there wasno, literally no, eventually no
(14:20):
blood left in him and life is inthe blood.
And in the previous podcastepisode I remember we said we're
going to talk just a little bitmore about what Jesus did, why
(14:43):
the cross did, why the cross andthe real basis behind it is.
Ultimately, it was the systemof death that would bring a
(15:08):
person to their weakest place.
And it was in the weakest placeof Christ where he defeated the
greatest power of Satan, andthat was death.
(15:30):
Praise God, he made an openspectacle, a public spectacle of
death by dying on the cross,because there was going to be
(15:50):
something that was going to takeplace beyond the cross.
And that's where we want to getto, that's where we all want to
get to.
Some of us just don't realizethat's where we want to get to
until we meet Jesus and weexperience the cross, our own
(16:19):
death to our old way of living,a total submission to him,
hallelujah.
How that all plays out is goingto be different for each person
, but for Jesus it was a publicdisplay of absolute weakness, a
(16:45):
mockery of who he was as a man,let alone who he was as God, the
Son.
But in his weakness, all of hisjoints being out of place,
(17:07):
hanging thirsty, bleeding out,so that this heinous separation,
this barrier between us and Godcould finally be destroyed, not
(17:33):
just covered over, butannihilated, wiped clean, our
record Washed away.
Jesus accomplished that.
Jesus accomplished that on thecross.
(18:02):
If the cross would have been theend of Jesus, that would have
been the saddest commentary Ithink that could ever have been
written.
A sinless man being executedpublicly, a man without fault
(18:23):
Dying because of jealousy, envyand pride in other people that
were religious, just couldn'ttake it.
That's funny.
That's what religion?
Religion, yeah, that religious,that strict, stern religious
(18:49):
thing that we're going to do iton our own power thing, our own
works, eventually turns peoplejust harsh and bitter because
you're never going to be able tobe good enough.
So you got to keep hidingthings and then defending them
(19:11):
and putting blame to otherpeople and covering things up.
Religion, but religion sellsman.
It's like sex sells, religionsells.
There's money to be made inreligion.
(19:36):
But Jesus didn't come toestablish a religion.
A Christian religion Nah,wasn't on his radar.
He came for relationship.
But the cross it had to be atthe weakest place in order for
(20:03):
God to demonstrate the greatnessof his power and that there's
nothing.
There's nothing.
Death itself, satan's greatesttool, can no longer be useful in
(20:25):
holding us from relationshipwith God.
Holding us from relationshipwith God, the only thing holding
us from relationship with Godis our refusal to look at and
receive from the sacrificiallife and death of Jesus, his
(20:51):
doing it on our behalf and usplacing faith in him, trust in
him.
That that's, even if our mindscan't comprehend it, that's
sufficient, that's enough.
When we do that, that's theconnection point For God to
(21:18):
cause his life to enter into uslike a seed being planted in the
fertile ground.
In the fertile ground, his life, planted in us, begins to grow
(21:38):
like a seed.
And so where we're headed now,with this emphasis on the cross
and our study on the kingdom ofGod because we still are very
much involved in a study on thekingdom of God, because we still
are very much involved in astudy concerning the kingdom of
God, the rule and reign of God,his realm and how he does stuff,
(21:59):
the ways of God and us beingcitizens and learning to walk in
his ways, to function as hisculture, function within his
culture now beginning now, notwaiting until we die, but
(22:24):
beginning now and growing,growing in our usage of what is
available to us now.
More to come.
There's more to come, butthere's is available to us now.
More to come.
There's more to come, butthere's a lot available right
now that we haven't been using,and God wants us to use those
things.
He's unfolding his plan.
It may not have been clear up tothis point in time, but because
(22:48):
he's unfolding things.
What was once unclear is nowbecoming clear.
Some of you can attest to that.
There's things developingwithin your life that previously
you really didn't have anunderstanding of, a revelation.
That's because wisdom andrevelation are unfolding within
(23:09):
you, like the purpose and planof God is unfolding across the
nations, and we are part of that.
We are designed to be aliveright now in one of the greatest
displays, in fact, up to thispoint in time, the greatest
display of God's presence, ofhis glory and of his invitation
to function in life beyond thecross.
(23:32):
Hallelujah.
Life beyond the cross,resurrection life.
A taste, a foretaste ofresurrection life.
That's what I'm talking about.
That's what I'm talking about.
That's what I'm talking about.
Yes, we want to appreciate thefundamentals, but at the same
(23:56):
point in time, we want to moveon to things that are a little
meatier meaty, like they gotsome substance to them and
things that require a moremature appetite, not just milk.
(24:20):
We can handle the function, theauthority, the identity that
we've been called to live out ascitizens of God's kingdom, our
new identity Life beyond thecross, resurrection life and
(24:48):
ascension life.
Woo, jesus not only rose fromthe dead, he ascended to the
right hand of God, the Father.
Going forward is going up inthe kingdom of God.
He moved forward.
He moved to the cross, throughthe cross and now to the throne
(25:14):
of God.
All going forward, which meansall going up and his glory
coming down.
But he's calling us to come onup, to come on up and function
with him, seated with him inheavenly places, learning how to
do that stuff.
Yeah, yes, yes, yes, yes andyes.
(25:37):
Learning how to function,making declarations from things
above.
Where's that?
In the scriptures?
That's all over the NewTestament.
The Apostle Paul, in each andevery one of his epistles, gives
(25:59):
us not just a few insights, butgives us instructions
concerning life beyond the cross, a foretaste of resurrection
life, a foretaste of ascensionlife.
The best is yet to come on alllevels, and the fact that we are
(26:24):
alive right now in theunfolding time of God's plan,
one of those unfolding timeswhere it's been a little bit
mysterious and it will remainmysterious, but the mystery will
(26:50):
be known.
You see, it's the glory of Godto keep things concealed, but
it's the glory of kings to findthem out, to understand the
mystery.
And we are called to be kingsand priests, so it's our place
to understand the mysteries,because there's life that's to
(27:17):
be lived as a result of ourunderstanding of the mysteries
of God, and they're meant to bethere for people that are mature
.
There are certain things thatwe don't get, even in our human
life, as a result of us beingchildren.
(27:38):
We don't get, we don't have theprivilege of, we don't have the
privilege of driving a car, wedon't have the privilege of
owning certain things, we don'thave certain privileges.
Or then, putting it in thepositive, when we get older, we
(28:00):
have certain privilegesavailable to us but if we don't
use them, they are useless.
I want to use what's available.
I want to use everything that'savailable.
I want to use what's available.
I want to use everything that'savailable.
I want to be involved in thefullness of God's revelation
(28:28):
that he has for this generation,completely involved, and that's
what he is giving us theability to express, to encourage
, to help stimulate in all ofour lives a real hunger and
(28:51):
thirst for this, thisrighteousness, through this
particular podcast, throughthese episodes, to stimulate a
hunger and a thirst for thedeeper things of God, to move
forward, to move up, to come onupwards places seated at the
(29:14):
right hand of the Father ouridentity is hidden with him and
to be able to begin to learn howto function in the declaration
of his precious promises, hispurposes, and from the
declarations they becomemanifestations in the world that
(29:36):
we live in.
Hallelujah, we are living inpowerful times and we have been
given the opportunity to beinvolved.
Let's take God at his word andlet's grow together.
(30:00):
Let's grow up before we growold.
Let's be united, join togetherin his particular heartbeat,
under one head Jesus Christ, ourLord, our God.
Amen.
Let's pray, father.
(30:26):
I ask that you, by your Spirit,take these words that have been
spoken today and spread themaround the words that I'm
sharing, but also the ones thatother people are sharing all
over the place, that there wouldbe one voice that would come
out of many different mouths andit would be a voice of
(30:56):
encouragement for your people togrow up, to embrace the things
that you call us to live out andto function in them, just like
Jesus did, both prior to thecross.
On the cross, the resurrectionand the ascension.
(31:19):
On the cross, the resurrectionand the ascension.
All the way, we follow you.
Jesus, you're our leader.
Holy Spirit, you're our guide.
Thank you, thank you, thank you, and we stand here in the name
of Jesus and we declare thesethings to be so.
Amen, amen, amen, amen.
All right, folks, I love you.
(31:41):
If you have any thoughts,questions, concerns, once again,
please feel free to drop us aline at lifearoundthefire at
gmailcom, or type inlifearoundthefire and look us up
on the web.
We would love to hear from you.
In the meantime, god bless you.
Adios amigos.
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