September 24, 2024 • 20 mins
Neil and Lindsey sit down to discuss some of the practical ways that we can keep our eyes fixed on Jesus in the midst of real life situations. This is a follow-up conversation to Sunday's message, "Ceaseless Radiance: No One But Jesus Only."
Watch the video of this discussion here:
https://youtu.be/nGrgjYnVZL0
Watch the video of Sunday's message here:
https://youtu.be/CGAFsy1Uvj8
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www.thetablecalifornia.com
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
Ready?
Yes, yesterday we looked at thestory of King Jehoshaphat, 2
Chronicles, chapter 20.
God's people are beingthreatened by different nations
that surround them, and how theking's response to this crisis
was to proclaim a fast gather,all of God's people together,
(00:26):
and to seek the Lord.
And in 2 Chronicles 20, verse12, he gives an incredible
leadership strategy.
He says oh Lord, we arecompletely powerless.
We do not know what to do, butour eyes are on you.
We do not know what to do, butour eyes are on you.
(00:49):
And so we looked at thatposture of humility, of saying
I'm in the middle of a situationI cannot handle, but instead of
trying to fix the problem, I'mgonna fix my eyes on you.
And then in that story we sawhow God confused Israel's
enemies.
They destroyed themselves.
Israel wins, good guys win, buthow.
(01:09):
The lesson in that for us isJesus is always wanting to
reveal God into our situation.
And, to the degree that we keepour eyes on him in the midst of
our circumstances, he does whatonly he can do.
Our responsibility is to keepour eyes fixed on him.
(01:30):
His responsibility is to be Godin our situation.
And so I'd encourage folks, ifthey haven't listened to the
message, go back and listen toit.
But at the end we decided it'dbe good to talk through some
practicals of what does thatlook like to fix our eyes on
Jesus.
So, from your perspective, missLindsay, what would you say is
(01:56):
a practical that you found inyour life to be effective?
When you're in the midst of asituation that's wanting to pull
your attention off of Jesus,how do you keep your eyes fixed
on him?
Speaker 2 (02:10):
My first thought was that Jesus is the word made
flesh.
So if I want to fix my eyes onJesus, oftentimes I can do it in
scripture, and I think you knowwhen you read about people in
scripture that had a situation,an issue, you know Jesus, when
(02:34):
he was tempted, it was the enemycoming along and questioning is
this really who God is?
And so I think every situationthat we bump up against, every
difficulty, every impossibility,whether it's, you know, a
diagnosis from a doctor or whatyour bank account is saying, if
(02:58):
it's a child that's not walkingwith the Lord, that is the
enemy's assault on who God saysthat he is.
And so to be able to get inscripture and to find no, this
is who God is, and to stand onthat and to speak it over
yourself and even to remind thepowers and the principalities of
(03:20):
the air like this is who God is, I think, one, it takes our
hands off the problem, which isimportant, and I think, two, it
turns our focus onto Jesus, soour hands get removed from the
problem, because now the enemyis talking bad about God.
It has really nothing to dowith me, I'm just between.
(03:41):
I'm standing between the two,so I back out of it and I turned
my focus on to Jesus, and Ithink it's really interesting,
even in Ephesians, where Paullays out all of our spiritual
armor, like the only one that'sa weapon is the sword of the
spirit, which is the word of God.
Yeah, so that would be my first.
Speaker 1 (04:04):
Before you jump into the second one.
That's exactly what the enemydid with Eve.
The serpent comes in and hetwists the word of God.
He questions what God had said,he tries to get his eyes off
her eyes off of God and onto thetemptation of the fruit, and
that's exactly what she did.
And onto the temptation of thefruit, and that's exactly what
(04:25):
she did.
She looks to the fruit and shesees oh wow, it's actually
beautiful.
So in that situation, her eyesare off of God and onto the
temptation.
So by fixing her eyes on thetemptation, she enthrones the
temptation rather thanenthroning God, and she slips
and she falls.
Speaker 2 (04:42):
Yeah.
So I think a big encouragementis know your way around the
Bible and feast on his word.
It's beautiful, it's powerful,it's the weapon that you're
given to fight against the enemy.
My second thought was worship,because we enthrone what we
(05:06):
worship and it sounds reallycounterintuitive that we would
worship a diagnosis and thatwould cause it to be enthroned.
But the things that we give ourtime and attention to, it
actually is worship, and it maybe actually that we're
worshiping fear and we're bowingour knee to fear.
Or, you know, we're worshipingmoney if it's finances in some
(05:31):
form or fashion, and so for meit would be like getting in a
posture of worship and I thinkthat's maybe tied together with
getting into scripture likebeing able to proclaim his words
back to him from a place ofworship, like Jesus.
This is who I believe that youare, even though my
(05:54):
circumstances might saydifferent.
This is who I believe that youare.
I have faith, even if I can'tsee that this is who you are,
and I'm going to keep saying ituntil I see that this is who you
are.
Psalms say that he's enthronedon the praises of his people,
and I think he's enthronedregardless.
We can't do anything to elevatehis enthronement or to make it
(06:19):
any greater, but I think it'sfrom our perspective.
When we praise him, he becomesenthroned over everything else
going on around us.
Speaker 1 (06:29):
Yeah, I think 100%.
It is truth to say thatwhatever you're giving attention
to, you're worshiping.
Jesus says wherever yourtreasure is, there your heart is
, you're giving attention tosomething that becomes your
treasure.
That's where your heart is.
That's worship language.
(06:51):
So if we're focusing too muchattention on something that the
enemy wants to use, like whatyou said, to destroy the
testimony of God in our life,then we are empowering the enemy
to speak into a situation thathe should have no authority
saying anything into.
(07:11):
The enemy wants to use Goliathto destroy the testimony of God
in our life.
So, like what we talked aboutyesterday, goliath wasn't so
much David's problem as it wasGod's problem Because Goliath
was coming against not just thearmy of Saul, he was coming
against the testimony of whatGod was going to do to the
(07:32):
people of Israel.
So David saw it from thatperspective.
How dare you, uncircumcisedPhilistines, speak against God
and his armies this way?
God used the shepherd boy todeal with the problem because
the shepherd boy had a heartafter God whose eyes were fixed
on him always.
(07:52):
So OK, we said one of thepracticals is going to the word
of God.
Another practical is maintainingthat posture of praise and
worship even in the midst ofsuffering, trial, difficult
circumstances, whatever it maybe.
I would add a third, one prayer, but specifically I found
(08:16):
praying in the spirit to be mygo-to when I'm in a situation
that's just too big for me, whenI don't know what to pray
because the situation is too big.
Thankfully, the Holy Spiritdoes know what to pray.
He prays through us withgroanings too deep for
understanding, and so I'llincrease my time of praying in
(08:39):
the Spirit, and it brings me toa place of peace, encouragement,
comfort, just like thescriptures say that it will.
That's what the Holy Spiritdoes.
Speaker 2 (08:59):
He's our comforter, he guides us into all truth.
I love what you said yesterdayabout how praying in the spirit
really is an act of humility.
So maybe touch on that.
It's important because I thinka posture of worship in the
midst of circumstances that areout of our control, that's a
posture of humility.
It's a bow down posture, Ithink, leaning on his word when
(09:23):
we don't know what the future is, that's an act of like trust
and humility, as is praying inthe spirit.
Speaker 1 (09:31):
I would say praying in the spirit is an act of
humility because it makes nosense to our natural mind.
It even even like in thenatural.
It is a babbling.
It's a, it's a posture of thischildlike babbling that doesn't
make any sense.
You don't know what it is thatyou're praying.
You're praying out mysteriesand so you're trusting by faith
(09:55):
that God is receiving thesebabblings as something to
respond to.
It's an act of foolishness.
I mean the way that Paul talksabout it in 1 Corinthians 14, it
is foolishness.
But yet everything in thekingdom is foolishness to the
natural mind.
The cross is foolishness, youknow, coming and serving and
(10:19):
that being called kingly isfoolishness.
Praying in tongues is foolishand I would add also, maybe a
fourth practical would befasting.
That's another way to enterinto that place of humility.
You're posturing yourself inthis position of brokenness,
(10:42):
weakness, humility, and you'resaying I don't have the strength
to deal with this situation.
So I'm going to take all of myenergy, even the energy and
focus that I would put on foodand feeding myself, and I'm
going to direct 100% of my gazeonto Jesus and allow him to
(11:03):
reveal God in this situation.
That's humility.
That's a violent act ofaggression against everything in
us that wants to fix theproblem.
Speaker 2 (11:12):
That's so good and I think well, at least while you
were talking, one of the thingsthat I noticed is, in all four
of those like getting intoscripture and proclaiming who
God says he is, worship prayerand fasting, like praying in the
spirit specifically and fastingAll four of those are as if
(11:35):
humility and faith are holdinghands.
You know, like it takes humilityto come underneath the word of
God, like it takes humility tocome underneath the word of God,
because as humans, if we're allhonest, sometimes we think that
we can just figure it out anddo our best and come up with a
solution that makes the mostsense.
It is an act of surrender andhumility to come underneath the
(11:59):
word of God in faith that he isexactly who he says he is.
Worship, same Praying in thespirit, faith that the things
that you're saying are aheavenly language, that are
praying out things that are onhis heart that are too big for
you to understand, and it'saccomplishing things that we
can't even see in the naturalFasting.
(12:21):
Same Like faith that givingmyself over to this and coming
into a posture of weakness andhumility is actually seen by God
and it's positioning ourselffor victory.
I love that.
I love, that humility and faithcan hold hands in all of these.
Speaker 1 (12:43):
Yeah, and maybe we should mention this too.
It's not that we're ignoringreality, right, like we're not
taking the power bill and throwit in the trash.
Can you know?
We don't take the x-rays fromthe doctor and say they don't
exist, but what we're doing iswe're seeing those things
through the lens of the cross.
(13:03):
Psalm 16, 8, I have placed theLord continually before me
because he's at my right hand.
I will not be shaken.
So the x-rays aren't before me,the cross is before me and the
x-ray is on the other side ofthe cross.
The x-rays are still there.
That's still reality.
But I'm not looking at thex-rays trying to figure out what
(13:24):
to do.
I'm looking at the cross andsaying, jesus, you said there is
no more powerful prayer thanGod.
You said.
Speaker 2 (13:34):
And trusting that God is a God who speaks and who
reveals things and who's full ofwisdom, and he is the shepherd.
We are the sheep of his pasture.
I heard Graham Cook say onetime that God has no problems,
only solutions, and so,connecting ourselves to keeping
(13:56):
our eyes focused on the God whohas no problems, only solutions,
it makes those solutionsaccessible to us, you know, ones
that otherwise wouldn't be.
Speaker 1 (14:05):
I'm remembering a time when you and I were in a
situation where we had zeromoney, we did not have two
pennies to rub together, nothing.
But yet we knew the Lord hadcalled us to serve Him 100%
ministry, going to Bible school,all that stuff.
And I remember thinking, okay,I need to stay awake all night
(14:30):
tonight and I'm going to stormthe gates of heaven until
someone comes out and tells ushow to do this.
The posture was I have no ideawhat to do, we are powerless.
I have a whole bunch ofproblems right now and zero
solutions.
So let's go to the one who hasno problems and a hundred
percent solutions.
(14:50):
And the Lord spoke that night.
He gave us clear direction onhow he was going to provide for
our family in that season.
And, my goodness man, we neverwould have came up with Iron
Kite Films, starting a filmcompany to do weddings and
company Like.
We never would have thought todo that.
(15:11):
But that was God's plan.
So our eyes were fixed on himrather than the bank account.
And he, he gave us wisdom.
He told us what he wanted us todo.
I'd like to add one morepractical thing that we could do
.
I'd like to add one morepractical thing that we could do
, and that would be communion.
There's something powerfulabout coming to the Lord's table
(15:34):
, receiving His body andreceiving His blood and allowing
that to one, give life to us,but then bring comfort to us,
bring healing to even thethoughts that we're having about
the situation.
You know, if his blood has thepower to forgive and heal a lost
(15:57):
enemy trapped in darkness,sinner, it also has the power to
heal whatever broken situationwe find ourselves in, and one of
the statements that we madeyesterday was communion is an
act of aggression against powersand principalities that are
seeking to come against thetestimony of God in our lives.
(16:18):
Communion is one of the easiestthings that we can do every day
.
Again, it's an act of humility,it's an act of faith.
You're believing that it's notjust bread, it's not just juice
or wine, it's actually the bodyand blood of Christ, and you're
bringing Him into that situationin a tangible way.
(16:41):
The Word is becoming flesh.
Speaker 2 (16:45):
And we're joining ourselves to him fresh.
You know that like position ofabiding and remaining in him, we
can't walk through life anyother way.
It's especially trials anddifficulties we have to remain
(17:06):
in Him.
Speaker 1 (17:07):
While we were talking , I was thinking, man, these are
like the most basicfundamentals, but that really is
like the key to anything.
Do not graduate from thefundamentals, whether it's
basketball.
What's Kobe Bryant doing atfour in the morning Taking free
throws?
What's Tiger Woods doing earlyin the morning, taking free
throws.
What's Tiger Woods doing, youknow, early in the morning
Hitting his, hitting his chipshot again, is it?
Speaker 2 (17:28):
so Tiger.
Speaker 1 (17:29):
Woods.
I mean he's showing your age,but the fun.
You never graduate from thefundamentals.
Yeah, and it's the same thing.
Speaker 2 (17:40):
in the kingdom Prayer , the word communion, fast like
the basics, man, kingdom 101yeah, see how we like to grow up
out of things that should bebasic rhythms of life.
Speaker 1 (17:57):
Yeah, as a believer, yeah, you know it'd be like kobe
bryant practicing what I don'tknow.
It'd be like Kobe Bryantpracticing I don't know, half
court shots.
Like for what?
Like a globetrotter?
That's a better analogy.
Trying to be a globetrotter,that's not going to win you
championships.
Thinking you'll graduate fromthese basic fundamentals of the
kingdom, it's not going to winyou championships.
(18:18):
Yeah, Okay, this is good.
Anything else?
No, I don't think so.
Fundamentals, man, the basics.
Never graduate from them.
Whatever you look at youempower.
Whatever you look at youworship.
Whatever you look at youenthrone.
Enthrone Jesus in the midst ofyour situation.
Let him be God and do what onlyhe can do.
Speaker 2 (18:41):
That's so good.
I was thinking sorry, I do haveone more thing.
I was thinking on the way overhere about the importance of
being like, singularly focusedon Jesus, and I was reminded of
at the beginning of Song ofSolomon, where the bridegroom is
speaking to the bride and hesays about her eyes.
(19:02):
She has dove's eyes, and Iremember hearing once that doves
are only capable of lookinglike ahead of them.
Their eyes can't look.
It's not like human eyes wherewe can see like all around us.
They see like they'resingularly focused.
And so I think it's his heart,the Lord's heart, for his bride
(19:25):
to have those eyes that lookonly to him, always.
You know Jesus only.
Speaker 1 (19:30):
So good.
Those are the eyes of a lover.
You know, when you're fallingin love it's like the only thing
that you can see is the objectof your affection.
And then what happens?
Over time you start to just,you know, get lazy, look at
other things, become infatuatedwith other things.
But Jesus wants to have thosedove eyes of passionate first
(19:50):
love, intimate affection foronly him.
So good.
Speaker 2 (19:55):
Yeah, doves mate for life too.
Speaker 1 (19:57):
Doves mate for life Covenant.
Ready?
Yes, yesterday we looked at thestory of King Jehoshaphat, 2
Chronicles, chapter 20.
God's people are beingthreatened by different nations
that surround them, and how theking's response to this crisis
was to proclaim a fast gather,all of God's people together,
(00:26):
and to seek the Lord.
And in 2 Chronicles 20, verse12, he gives an incredible
leadership strategy.
He says oh Lord, we arecompletely powerless.
We do not know what to do, butour eyes are on you.
We do not know what to do, butour eyes are on you.
(00:49):
And so we looked at thatposture of humility, of saying
I'm in the middle of a situationI cannot handle, but instead of
trying to fix the problem, I'mgonna fix my eyes on you.
And then in that story we sawhow God confused Israel's
enemies.
They destroyed themselves.
Israel wins, good guys win, buthow.
(01:09):
The lesson in that for us isJesus is always wanting to
reveal God into our situation.
And, to the degree that we keepour eyes on him in the midst of
our circumstances, he does whatonly he can do.
Our responsibility is to keepour eyes fixed on him.
(01:30):
His responsibility is to be Godin our situation.
And so I'd encourage folks, ifthey haven't listened to the
message, go back and listen toit.
But at the end we decided it'dbe good to talk through some
practicals of what does thatlook like to fix our eyes on
Jesus.
So, from your perspective, missLindsay, what would you say is
(01:56):
a practical that you found inyour life to be effective?
When you're in the midst of asituation that's wanting to pull
your attention off of Jesus,how do you keep your eyes fixed
on him?
Speaker 2 (02:10):
My first thought was that Jesus is the word made
flesh.
So if I want to fix my eyes onJesus, oftentimes I can do it in
scripture, and I think you knowwhen you read about people in
scripture that had a situation,an issue, you know Jesus, when
(02:34):
he was tempted, it was the enemycoming along and questioning is
this really who God is?
And so I think every situationthat we bump up against, every
difficulty, every impossibility,whether it's, you know, a
diagnosis from a doctor or whatyour bank account is saying, if
(02:58):
it's a child that's not walkingwith the Lord, that is the
enemy's assault on who God saysthat he is.
And so to be able to get inscripture and to find no, this
is who God is, and to stand onthat and to speak it over
yourself and even to remind thepowers and the principalities of
(03:20):
the air like this is who God is, I think, one, it takes our
hands off the problem, which isimportant, and I think, two, it
turns our focus onto Jesus, soour hands get removed from the
problem, because now the enemyis talking bad about God.
It has really nothing to dowith me, I'm just between.
(03:41):
I'm standing between the two,so I back out of it and I turned
my focus on to Jesus, and Ithink it's really interesting,
even in Ephesians, where Paullays out all of our spiritual
armor, like the only one that'sa weapon is the sword of the
spirit, which is the word of God.
Yeah, so that would be my first.
Speaker 1 (04:04):
Before you jump into the second one.
That's exactly what the enemydid with Eve.
The serpent comes in and hetwists the word of God.
He questions what God had said,he tries to get his eyes off
her eyes off of God and onto thetemptation of the fruit, and
that's exactly what she did.
And onto the temptation of thefruit, and that's exactly what
(04:25):
she did.
She looks to the fruit and shesees oh wow, it's actually
beautiful.
So in that situation, her eyesare off of God and onto the
temptation.
So by fixing her eyes on thetemptation, she enthrones the
temptation rather thanenthroning God, and she slips
and she falls.
Speaker 2 (04:42):
Yeah.
So I think a big encouragementis know your way around the
Bible and feast on his word.
It's beautiful, it's powerful,it's the weapon that you're
given to fight against the enemy.
My second thought was worship,because we enthrone what we
(05:06):
worship and it sounds reallycounterintuitive that we would
worship a diagnosis and thatwould cause it to be enthroned.
But the things that we give ourtime and attention to, it
actually is worship, and it maybe actually that we're
worshiping fear and we're bowingour knee to fear.
Or, you know, we're worshipingmoney if it's finances in some
(05:31):
form or fashion, and so for meit would be like getting in a
posture of worship and I thinkthat's maybe tied together with
getting into scripture likebeing able to proclaim his words
back to him from a place ofworship, like Jesus.
This is who I believe that youare, even though my
(05:54):
circumstances might saydifferent.
This is who I believe that youare.
I have faith, even if I can'tsee that this is who you are,
and I'm going to keep saying ituntil I see that this is who you
are.
Psalms say that he's enthronedon the praises of his people,
and I think he's enthronedregardless.
We can't do anything to elevatehis enthronement or to make it
(06:19):
any greater, but I think it'sfrom our perspective.
When we praise him, he becomesenthroned over everything else
going on around us.
Speaker 1 (06:29):
Yeah, I think 100%.
It is truth to say thatwhatever you're giving attention
to, you're worshiping.
Jesus says wherever yourtreasure is, there your heart is
, you're giving attention tosomething that becomes your
treasure.
That's where your heart is.
That's worship language.
(06:51):
So if we're focusing too muchattention on something that the
enemy wants to use, like whatyou said, to destroy the
testimony of God in our life,then we are empowering the enemy
to speak into a situation thathe should have no authority
saying anything into.
(07:11):
The enemy wants to use Goliathto destroy the testimony of God
in our life.
So, like what we talked aboutyesterday, goliath wasn't so
much David's problem as it wasGod's problem Because Goliath
was coming against not just thearmy of Saul, he was coming
against the testimony of whatGod was going to do to the
(07:32):
people of Israel.
So David saw it from thatperspective.
How dare you, uncircumcisedPhilistines, speak against God
and his armies this way?
God used the shepherd boy todeal with the problem because
the shepherd boy had a heartafter God whose eyes were fixed
on him always.
(07:52):
So OK, we said one of thepracticals is going to the word
of God.
Another practical is maintainingthat posture of praise and
worship even in the midst ofsuffering, trial, difficult
circumstances, whatever it maybe.
I would add a third, one prayer, but specifically I found
(08:16):
praying in the spirit to be mygo-to when I'm in a situation
that's just too big for me, whenI don't know what to pray
because the situation is too big.
Thankfully, the Holy Spiritdoes know what to pray.
He prays through us withgroanings too deep for
understanding, and so I'llincrease my time of praying in
(08:39):
the Spirit, and it brings me toa place of peace, encouragement,
comfort, just like thescriptures say that it will.
That's what the Holy Spiritdoes.
Speaker 2 (08:59):
He's our comforter, he guides us into all truth.
I love what you said yesterdayabout how praying in the spirit
really is an act of humility.
So maybe touch on that.
It's important because I thinka posture of worship in the
midst of circumstances that areout of our control, that's a
posture of humility.
It's a bow down posture, Ithink, leaning on his word when
(09:23):
we don't know what the future is, that's an act of like trust
and humility, as is praying inthe spirit.
Speaker 1 (09:31):
I would say praying in the spirit is an act of
humility because it makes nosense to our natural mind.
It even even like in thenatural.
It is a babbling.
It's a, it's a posture of thischildlike babbling that doesn't
make any sense.
You don't know what it is thatyou're praying.
You're praying out mysteriesand so you're trusting by faith
(09:55):
that God is receiving thesebabblings as something to
respond to.
It's an act of foolishness.
I mean the way that Paul talksabout it in 1 Corinthians 14, it
is foolishness.
But yet everything in thekingdom is foolishness to the
natural mind.
The cross is foolishness, youknow, coming and serving and
(10:19):
that being called kingly isfoolishness.
Praying in tongues is foolishand I would add also, maybe a
fourth practical would befasting.
That's another way to enterinto that place of humility.
You're posturing yourself inthis position of brokenness,
(10:42):
weakness, humility, and you'resaying I don't have the strength
to deal with this situation.
So I'm going to take all of myenergy, even the energy and
focus that I would put on foodand feeding myself, and I'm
going to direct 100% of my gazeonto Jesus and allow him to
(11:03):
reveal God in this situation.
That's humility.
That's a violent act ofaggression against everything in
us that wants to fix theproblem.
Speaker 2 (11:12):
That's so good and I think well, at least while you
were talking, one of the thingsthat I noticed is, in all four
of those like getting intoscripture and proclaiming who
God says he is, worship prayerand fasting, like praying in the
spirit specifically and fastingAll four of those are as if
(11:35):
humility and faith are holdinghands.
You know, like it takes humilityto come underneath the word of
God, like it takes humility tocome underneath the word of God,
because as humans, if we're allhonest, sometimes we think that
we can just figure it out anddo our best and come up with a
solution that makes the mostsense.
It is an act of surrender andhumility to come underneath the
(11:59):
word of God in faith that he isexactly who he says he is.
Worship, same Praying in thespirit, faith that the things
that you're saying are aheavenly language, that are
praying out things that are onhis heart that are too big for
you to understand, and it'saccomplishing things that we
can't even see in the naturalFasting.
(12:21):
Same Like faith that givingmyself over to this and coming
into a posture of weakness andhumility is actually seen by God
and it's positioning ourselffor victory.
I love that.
I love, that humility and faithcan hold hands in all of these.
Speaker 1 (12:43):
Yeah, and maybe we should mention this too.
It's not that we're ignoringreality, right, like we're not
taking the power bill and throwit in the trash.
Can you know?
We don't take the x-rays fromthe doctor and say they don't
exist, but what we're doing iswe're seeing those things
through the lens of the cross.
(13:03):
Psalm 16, 8, I have placed theLord continually before me
because he's at my right hand.
I will not be shaken.
So the x-rays aren't before me,the cross is before me and the
x-ray is on the other side ofthe cross.
The x-rays are still there.
That's still reality.
But I'm not looking at thex-rays trying to figure out what
(13:24):
to do.
I'm looking at the cross andsaying, jesus, you said there is
no more powerful prayer thanGod.
You said.
Speaker 2 (13:34):
And trusting that God is a God who speaks and who
reveals things and who's full ofwisdom, and he is the shepherd.
We are the sheep of his pasture.
I heard Graham Cook say onetime that God has no problems,
only solutions, and so,connecting ourselves to keeping
(13:56):
our eyes focused on the God whohas no problems, only solutions,
it makes those solutionsaccessible to us, you know, ones
that otherwise wouldn't be.
Speaker 1 (14:05):
I'm remembering a time when you and I were in a
situation where we had zeromoney, we did not have two
pennies to rub together, nothing.
But yet we knew the Lord hadcalled us to serve Him 100%
ministry, going to Bible school,all that stuff.
And I remember thinking, okay,I need to stay awake all night
(14:30):
tonight and I'm going to stormthe gates of heaven until
someone comes out and tells ushow to do this.
The posture was I have no ideawhat to do, we are powerless.
I have a whole bunch ofproblems right now and zero
solutions.
So let's go to the one who hasno problems and a hundred
percent solutions.
(14:50):
And the Lord spoke that night.
He gave us clear direction onhow he was going to provide for
our family in that season.
And, my goodness man, we neverwould have came up with Iron
Kite Films, starting a filmcompany to do weddings and
company Like.
We never would have thought todo that.
(15:11):
But that was God's plan.
So our eyes were fixed on himrather than the bank account.
And he, he gave us wisdom.
He told us what he wanted us todo.
I'd like to add one morepractical thing that we could do
.
I'd like to add one morepractical thing that we could do
, and that would be communion.
There's something powerfulabout coming to the Lord's table
(15:34):
, receiving His body andreceiving His blood and allowing
that to one, give life to us,but then bring comfort to us,
bring healing to even thethoughts that we're having about
the situation.
You know, if his blood has thepower to forgive and heal a lost
(15:57):
enemy trapped in darkness,sinner, it also has the power to
heal whatever broken situationwe find ourselves in, and one of
the statements that we madeyesterday was communion is an
act of aggression against powersand principalities that are
seeking to come against thetestimony of God in our lives.
(16:18):
Communion is one of the easiestthings that we can do every day
.
Again, it's an act of humility,it's an act of faith.
You're believing that it's notjust bread, it's not just juice
or wine, it's actually the bodyand blood of Christ, and you're
bringing Him into that situationin a tangible way.
(16:41):
The Word is becoming flesh.
Speaker 2 (16:45):
And we're joining ourselves to him fresh.
You know that like position ofabiding and remaining in him, we
can't walk through life anyother way.
It's especially trials anddifficulties we have to remain
(17:06):
in Him.
Speaker 1 (17:07):
While we were talking , I was thinking, man, these are
like the most basicfundamentals, but that really is
like the key to anything.
Do not graduate from thefundamentals, whether it's
basketball.
What's Kobe Bryant doing atfour in the morning Taking free
throws?
What's Tiger Woods doing earlyin the morning, taking free
throws.
What's Tiger Woods doing, youknow, early in the morning
Hitting his, hitting his chipshot again, is it?
Speaker 2 (17:28):
so Tiger.
Speaker 1 (17:29):
Woods.
I mean he's showing your age,but the fun.
You never graduate from thefundamentals.
Yeah, and it's the same thing.
Speaker 2 (17:40):
in the kingdom Prayer , the word communion, fast like
the basics, man, kingdom 101yeah, see how we like to grow up
out of things that should bebasic rhythms of life.
Speaker 1 (17:57):
Yeah, as a believer, yeah, you know it'd be like kobe
bryant practicing what I don'tknow.
It'd be like Kobe Bryantpracticing I don't know, half
court shots.
Like for what?
Like a globetrotter?
That's a better analogy.
Trying to be a globetrotter,that's not going to win you
championships.
Thinking you'll graduate fromthese basic fundamentals of the
kingdom, it's not going to winyou championships.
(18:18):
Yeah, Okay, this is good.
Anything else?
No, I don't think so.
Fundamentals, man, the basics.
Never graduate from them.
Whatever you look at youempower.
Whatever you look at youworship.
Whatever you look at youenthrone.
Enthrone Jesus in the midst ofyour situation.
Let him be God and do what onlyhe can do.
Speaker 2 (18:41):
That's so good.
I was thinking sorry, I do haveone more thing.
I was thinking on the way overhere about the importance of
being like, singularly focusedon Jesus, and I was reminded of
at the beginning of Song ofSolomon, where the bridegroom is
speaking to the bride and hesays about her eyes.
(19:02):
She has dove's eyes, and Iremember hearing once that doves
are only capable of lookinglike ahead of them.
Their eyes can't look.
It's not like human eyes wherewe can see like all around us.
They see like they'resingularly focused.
And so I think it's his heart,the Lord's heart, for his bride
(19:25):
to have those eyes that lookonly to him, always.
You know Jesus only.
Speaker 1 (19:30):
So good.
Those are the eyes of a lover.
You know, when you're fallingin love it's like the only thing
that you can see is the objectof your affection.
And then what happens?
Over time you start to just,you know, get lazy, look at
other things, become infatuatedwith other things.
But Jesus wants to have thosedove eyes of passionate first
(19:50):
love, intimate affection foronly him.
So good.
Speaker 2 (19:55):
Yeah, doves mate for life too.
Speaker 1 (19:57):
Doves mate for life Covenant.
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