September 17, 2025 • 47 mins
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
You are tuned into abba silence ministries. Recently I have
been looking over what God's words says about reminders.
Speaker 2 (00:08):
Listen to this, dear friends.
Speaker 3 (00:11):
This is now my second letter to you. I've written
both of them as reminders to stimulate you to wholesome thinking.
I want you to recall the words spoken in the
past by the Holy prophets and the command given by
our Lord and Savior through your apostles. Above all, you
must understand that in the last days scoffers will come,
(00:34):
scoffing and following their own evil desires. They will say,
where is this coming? He promised? Ever since our ancestors died,
everything goes on as it has since the beginning of creation.
But they deliberately forget that long ago, by God's word,
(00:55):
the heavens came into being, and the earth was formed
out of water, and by water. By these waters. Also
the world of that time was deluged and destroyed by
the same word. The present heavens and earth are reserved
for fire, being kept for the day of judgment and
(01:15):
destruction of the ungodly. But do not forget this one thing,
dear friend. With the Lord, a day is like a
thousand years and a thousand years are like a day.
The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise as
some understand slowness. Instead, he is patient with you, not
(01:36):
wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.
But the day of the Lord will come like a thief.
The heavens will disappear with a roar, The elements will
be destroyed by fire, and the earth and everything done
in it will be laid bare. Since everything will be
(01:57):
destroyed in this way, what kind of people ought you
to be? You ought to live holy and godly lives.
As you look forward to the day of God and
speed it's coming. That day will bring about the destruction
of the heavens by fire, and the other mens will
melt in the heat. But in keeping with his promise,
(02:19):
we are looking forward to a new heaven and a
new Earth where righteousness dwells. So, then, dear friends, since
you are looking forward to this, make every effort to
be found spotless, blameless, and at peace with him. Bear
in mind that our Lord's patience means salvation. Just as
(02:42):
our dear brother Paul also wrote you with the wisdom
that God gave him, he writes the same way in
all his letters, speaking in them of these matters. His
letters contain some things that are hard to understand, which
ignorant and unstable people distort, as they do the other scriptures,
to their own destruction. Therefore, dear friends, since you have
(03:06):
been foreworn beyond your God, so that you may not
be carried away by the error of the lawless and
fall from your secure position, but grow in the grace
and knowledge of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. To
him be glory of now and forever.
Speaker 1 (03:24):
A man that was the Apostle Peter. In his second
letter telling us about the importance of reminders, he even
referred to letters written by the Apostle Paul, who also
warned the people of God by reminding them of God's word, written, spoken,
and taught. Let's take a look at one of those
(03:46):
reminders that the Apostle Paul wrote in his second letter
to Timothy.
Speaker 3 (03:51):
I remind you to find and to flame the gift
of God which is in you through the laying on
of my hands. For the spirit God gave us does
not make us timid, but gives us power, love, and
self discipline, so to not be ashamed of the testimony
about our Lord, or of me his prisoner, rather join
with me in suffering for the Gospel. By the power
(04:13):
of God, he has saved us and called us to
a holy life, not because of anything we have done,
but because of His own purpose and grace. This grace
was given us in Christ Jesus before the beginning of time,
but it has now been revealed through the appearing of
our savior, Christ Jesus, who has destroyed death and has
(04:35):
brought life and immortality to light through the Gospel. And
of this Gospel, I was appointed a herald and an
apostle and a teacher. That is why I'm suffering as
I am. Yet this is no cause for shame, because
I know whom I have believed, and am convinced that
He is able to guard what I have entrusted to
(04:57):
him until that day you heard from me. Keep is
the pattern of sound teaching with faith and love. In
Christ Deesus guard the good deposit that was in trusted
to guard it with the help of the Holy Spirit
who lives in us.
Speaker 1 (05:14):
With those scriptures in mind, for the next couple of weeks,
we are going to review a powerful word of God
that was previously taught here on our the Silence Ministries
now remember remind us from the Lord are faithful and true.
So here is the rebroadcasts of the sermons series Pay Attention.
Speaker 4 (05:59):
This is Abba Silence Ministries breaking change by opening the
eyes of the blind, helping the deaf to hear, empowering
the lane to walk through, unlocking a practical application of
the infallible word of God Isaiah sixty one and what
and now Minister Jody Serrino Barber, welcome back.
Speaker 1 (06:24):
To Oba Silence Ministries. I'm so glad that you are
able to return for the continuation of our Bible study
in God's word and reference to paying attention. We do
not take it for granted that you could be doing
something else at this time, but you chose to spend
your time with us. So we are honored to have
you with us, and we pray that you will be
(06:46):
encouraged and inspired by today's message. The past few weeks now,
God has been dealing with me heavily in reference to
paying attention. He has been requiring of me to not
just here, but to truly listen to what He is
speaking to me all day every day. The first week
(07:07):
he required that I worked on increasing my levels of
patience by having me to pay attention to how I wait?
Has anyone else been working on paying attention to how
you wait? It can be a challenge at times, can it?
But keep pressing your way in this area. I like
how James tells us in the fifth chapter, verse seven,
(07:30):
to exercise patients. How many of you know that when
you exercise your muscles that you haven't used in a
while and that needs to be strengthened, that you will
be left feeling sore afterwards. Yet Hebrews chapter six, verse
twelve tells us to imitate those who, through patience and
faith will inherit promises. So if we are going to
(07:55):
reach our goals, if we're going to reach our desired in,
then let's con continue to exercise patients. Amen. Last week
God impressed upon me the need to pay attention and
to obey. We discussed first Samuel chapter fifteen, verse twenty
two and twenty three, where Samuel told Saul that obedience
(08:17):
is better than a sacrifice and to pay attention than
the fat of rams. We learned through an examination of
the surrounding verses that we are not to push ahead
and that we are not to justify disobedience, but instead
we are to do exactly as God tells us to do.
(08:37):
I remember, when I was first studying SAWA's example in
reference to paying attention.
Speaker 2 (08:42):
And being obedient, that Noah came to mind.
Speaker 1 (08:46):
I could remember thinking to myself that I understood why
it was that Moses wrote in verse twenty two of
Genesis chapter six, where it says, and Noah proceeded to
do according to all somebody say, oh, according to all
that God had commanded him. He did just so. Now,
(09:08):
if you remember this account in Genesis chapter six, God
called Noah, at the old age of five hundred, to
step out and do something he never did before, to
build an arc in preparation for something that he never
seen before rain. God told Noah what materials to use
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and what the measurements were to be. And when I
reflected on that, it was spoken to my heart that
even though God called Noah to step out onto unshotted
ground and to go where no man has gone before,
God also supplied all of Noah's needs. So I, in
turn began to reflect on what I learned about Saul
(09:49):
last week, and I.
Speaker 2 (09:50):
Realized that in each instance.
Speaker 1 (09:52):
Where Saul failed to obey, his failures was a lot
greater than I initially realized. I understand and now that
though Saul was chosen to be the first king over
the people of Israel, that when he pushed a head,
he failed to acknowledge God as Adamani as Lord Master
and king over all of the kings. This is confirmed
(10:14):
in First Samuel chapter eight, verse seven, where the people
asked for a king and Samuel didn't want to give
them one. But God told Samuel to listen to the
voice of the people, because, as God said to Samuel,
it was he that they was rejecting as being king
over them. Now, what I found amazing was that this
was not the first time that the Israeites tried to
(10:37):
install a human king to leave them. In the Book
of Judges, they tried to make Gideon and his children
king over them also, but Gideon told them no, and
he reminded them that God was their king. I also
began to realize that in Saul's disobedience when he pushed
a head, that he was also failing to recognize God
(10:59):
as Jehovah, the banner bearer, who would tell him which
way to go. Last, but definitely not least, Saul failed
to recognize God as being Jehovah Jirah, the provider of
all of our needs, when he failed to obey and
do just as God told him to do when it
came to destroying the Amalekites. It began to occur to
(11:23):
me as God was calling me to pay attention and
to listen, and as He was showing me where Saul
had failed to pay attention. What Saul had failed to listen,
failed to obey, failed to establish for himself a relationship
with God. That this is why God said to Samuel
that the next person that he was going to choose
(11:44):
was going to be someone after his own heart, someone
whom he could have a relationship with.
Speaker 2 (11:51):
So what I found is.
Speaker 1 (11:52):
That when God tells us to pay attention to listen,
it is because God is trying to have a relation
relationship with us. He is trying to tell us who
he is. He is trying to show himself to us
as Ada Nie, Lord, Master and king over all, so
(12:12):
that we won't have to worry in any situation that
we find ourselves in because God is in control, Amen,
he wants to show himself to us as Jehovah Nissi
our banner bearer, so that we don't have to worry
about tomorrow. We don't have to fret over the unknown,
because He will tell us which way we are to go.
(12:33):
He wants to show himself to us as Jehovah Jirah,
our provider. He is our source to whom we need
to look to for our resources.
Speaker 2 (12:42):
Amen.
Speaker 1 (12:43):
So, as we prepare to continue where we left off
in our study of God's word, I want to remind
everyone of the scriptures we read last week. Found that
Hebrews chapter four, verse seven, where it says today when
you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts. This
is going to be a key scripture for us in
(13:04):
our studies, so you might want to make note of that,
keeping it foremost in your mind and heart. Our aim
as we study God's Word here at Abba Silence Ministries
is to not just hear God's voice, but to obey him.
And if it is as clear to you as it
is to me that God is telling us to pay
attention because He wants to have a personal relationship with us,
(13:28):
then let's make it our goal to see in our
studies what God is revealing to us about himself. Amen,
What are we learning about his character and about his personality?
You might want to write that question down in your
notes also, and then make note of the answers you receive.
Speaker 2 (13:48):
In your personal studies.
Speaker 1 (13:50):
Well, does everyone have their bibles, pen and paper ready
for today's study? As those who are new to Abba
silence ministries grab their Bibles and something to take notes.
With the rest of us, let's begin to prepare our
hearts and minds to receive a word from the Lord.
Let's take a couple of minutes to lift our voices
in praise and worship to God, our Father in the
(14:12):
name of Jesus Christ, asking him to show us his way. Amen,
and then we'll open up this Bible study with the
word of prayer.
Speaker 5 (14:20):
Sho show me.
Speaker 2 (15:09):
Father, God, in the name of Jesus.
Speaker 1 (15:11):
We are gathered here today ready to be taught by you.
Show us your ways, Father, so that we can walk accordingly.
Change us Father into men and women after your own
heart as you draw us closer to you. We seek
to do your will, Father, not our own. But in
order to do so, we need your guidance and direction.
(15:31):
Upon our study of your word. You said today when
we hear your voice, that we were not to harden
our hearts. So we ask that you open up your
word to us so that we can understand what we're
reading and so that we can apply it.
Speaker 2 (15:44):
Touch our minds to receive.
Speaker 1 (15:46):
Your words spoken and read, open our ears to hear
clearly from you, and grant us obedient hearts. Father, as
I take the lead in the study, I submit myself
to you, and I ask to be decreased so that
your whole spirit can increase within me and flow freely
and unhindered through me. I am your humble servant of
(16:06):
vessel used by you to speak to your people. So
I ask that you hide me behind the cross so
that my presence does not distract from this message that
you have given me to share with your people. I
turn this ministry, this Bible study, and myself over to
you in Jesus name, I pray, Amen, turn your bibles
(16:28):
to first Timothy chapter four, verse sixteen. This is gonna
be the foundational scripture for our Bible study today, and
we're going to read from it from a couple of
different Bible translations. Remember, Hebrews chapter four, verse seven is
a key scripture for us in our studies to focus
on but first Timothy chapter four, verse sixteen will be
(16:50):
the foundational scripture in which this study is based upon.
Speaker 2 (16:54):
Amen For those of you who are new.
Speaker 1 (16:57):
To OURBA silence ministries, I like comparing very translations when
I study God's word, and I also like looking up
definitions of words because I find that it helps me
to understand what I'm reading.
Speaker 2 (17:09):
Now, if you.
Speaker 1 (17:09):
Don't physically have several translations in your presence, you can
go online to Biblegateway dot com and they allow you
to compare at least five different translations of your choice
at once, and there are many translations that you can
choose from. It is a very valuable study tool. That's
(17:30):
Biblegateway dot com. You might want to write that website
down for future use. One Timothy chapter four, verse sixteen.
Everyone should have it by now. We're going to read
it first from the New World Translation, which says, pay
constant attention to yourself and to your ministry. Stay by
(17:51):
these things, for by doing this you will save both
yourself and those who listen to you. The New International
Version says, watch your life and doctrine closely, persevere in them,
because if you do, you will save both yourself and
your hearers. The King James version says, take heed unto
(18:12):
thyself and unto the doctrine, continue in them, for in
doing this thou shalt save both thyself and them that
hear thee. The New Living Translation says, keep a close
watch on how you live and on your teaching. Stay
true to what is right for the sake of your
own salvation and the salvation of those who hear you.
(18:35):
Did you notice the different ways in which we were
told to pay attention, to take heed, to watch closely,
to keep a close watch. There is so much valuable
information to be gathered from this verse, so we're going
to take it in pieces. We will examine first the
command to pay close attention or constant attention to ourselves.
(18:58):
As I mentioned a couple of weeks ago, when I
first started out on this journey of paying attention, and
let me add that it truly is a journey, because
until I made a conscious effort to pay attention, I
didn't realize how many distractions were surrounding us every day.
So as I started out, God's word has become like
a mirror for me. God has been calling me to
(19:21):
look into his word and see myself and after showing
me myself, he then proceeded to teach me by breaking
down his word to me in such a way that
I'm able to understand and apply what I'm learning. And
this is what I'm allowed to share with you through
the use of examples. One of the things that I
initially began to understand right from the start is that
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paying attention to ourselves and to our ministry helps us
to not only follow closely in Jesus' footsteps, but it
helps us also to see ourselves in God's word. For example,
Matthew chapter thirteen, verses thirty four and thirty five tells
us that Jesus would not speak to the crowds without
using illustrations, And I begin to comprehend that the purpose
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of the illustrations was to help us to visualize what
we were being taught so that we could apply it
in our everyday lives. So with that in mind, let
me share with you the first things that God began
to show me in reference to paying attention to ourselves. Now,
keep in mind the first two scriptures that we mentioned.
Verse Timothy chapter four, verse sixteen, which starts off by
(20:30):
saying to pay constant attention or to keep a close
watch on yourself and on how you live. And Hebrews
chapter four, verse seven, which says, today when you hear
his voice, do not harden your hearts. You have those
written down in your notes right.
Speaker 2 (20:47):
Well.
Speaker 1 (20:48):
During this time in which God has had me looking
into the mirror of His word for myself, I found
that I was entering into a period that I would
cause silence. It's a period in which I am called
to be quiet before the Lord, a time in which
He requires me to pay close attention so that I
can hear his voice. And what I began to experience.
(21:10):
The more that I ask to be used by the
Lord in prayer and in worship through song, the more
that I ask to hear his voice, the more that
I ask God to shape me, to break me, to
mold me, and to heal me. The more that I
have been desiring to draw closer to God. The more
I found myself withdrawing from interactions, especially in the area
(21:34):
of social media. I felt as if God were sitting
me alone. I also found that this has been an
intense time of tears for me, a time of great sensitivity,
a time of great brokenness. Now as a woman, everyone
knows that at certain times of the month, or during
(21:54):
certain seasons in one's life, a woman can be more
emotional than doing any other time or season. But what
do you do when that is not what you're going through?
One day, in the process of my praising and worshiping
God through song, I received a breakthrough and which I
began to realize that God had been purging me and
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that He is preparing me. And what really surprised me
was when I was shown that I had been asking
Him to do this in the various worship songs that
I had been singing.
Speaker 2 (22:50):
He said, on the whole the Holy Spirit.
Speaker 1 (22:53):
Begins to show me that during this process that I
was going through, when different ones would ask me if
I was okay, tell them yes, because I didn't know
how to answer their questions and reference how I was
doing this was because I didn't quite understand myself what
I was going through. He said to me that a
part of my paying attention to myself and to my
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ministry was that I also needed to be aware of
my facial expressions. What was I saying to those who
were observing me when I was deep in thought, deep
in prayer, without praying in the conventional way of having
my head bowed and my hands folded. What was I
ministering to those who were observing my behavior? My mannerism
(23:34):
spoken without words. The Holy Spirits spoke to me that
many are going through something similar, and they too don't
know or understand what they're going through, so they react,
they respond, they label it at times and correct.
Speaker 2 (23:52):
I was told to pay.
Speaker 1 (23:53):
Attention to myself during this time of pressing, during this
time of molding, during this time of being on the
threshing floor. I was to pay attention to it and
then find a way to share this information with others
who are experiencing the same and not knowing what they
are experiencing. I was to share this because it was
(24:16):
not a health issue, yet at times the pain felt
could manifest itself as being something that it isn't, just
like a woman in labor would have Braxton Hicks commonly
known as false labor pains before it's actually time. It
feels like the real thing, but it isn't. I had
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to pay attention to myself and to my ministry so
that I could share this in such a way that
those hearing would understand and be able to recognize it
for themselves in themselves. I was reminded of a scene
in The Matrix where Trinity first met up with Neo
and she said to him, you have been asking yourself
(24:59):
a question. We have all asked the same question. You
know what that question is. Yet my question was not
what is the matrix? My question was how do you
explain it when you're going through something and all you
can do is cry. But you don't know what you're
going through. So when someone asks you if you are okay,
(25:20):
you tell them yeah. But the truth of the matter
is that something is going on inside of you, appressing,
a beating, a shaking that will render you in tears
over the slightest little thing. You're not sick, and it's
not some major issue in which you'll need to go
to the emergency room to be checked out. Yet you
find yourself in tears asking to be forgiven for things
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in the past that you already pray for forgiveness over,
or you'll find yourself grieved over the quality of your
personal relationship with God, which to those on the outside
it might look to be okay and commendable, but to you,
you're reaching for or desiring something more. How can you
explain to another what you're feeling, desiring, experiencing when you
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can't find the words to accurately put a needle in
the mark of what you feel, and all you can
do is simply breathe through it and believe God to
bring you out of it.
Speaker 2 (26:17):
How do you explain that? Now?
Speaker 1 (26:19):
Keep in mind our scripture at one Timothy, chapter four,
verse sixteen, which tells us to pay constant attention to
ourselves and our ministry. And let's see how this was answered.
As a people, we tend to label things we do
not understand. So when we see a person crying for
no apparent reason, we like to call it depression, or
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we like to medicate it to numb it so that
it is not felt. We don't always understand that the breaking,
the pressing, the purging the tears could be God answering
prayers that was prayed without our realizing what we were
asking for. For instance, have you ever asked God during
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your personal study and worship time to help you to
see things as He sees it, to love like He loves,
to have a heart like his, And then you found
yourself in pain of heart hurting over the things you're
seeing around you and maybe even hearing. How many of
you have asked to be healed of something only to
(27:24):
find yourselves feeling like you're being broken? Is it an oxymoron?
How many of you have seen the passion of Christ
and expected to see the depths of God's love for us,
yet not expecting to be rendered bent over in tears
because of the pain that Christ had to endure. When
you hear the words the passion of Christ, do you
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even envision the pain? Remember Romans chapter eight, verse twenty
six and twenty seven says that when we don't know
what to pray for as we ought, that the Spirit
bears witness with our spirit with groans unuttered, and God
who searches our hearts know the meaning of the spirit.
When we pray to have a closer relationship with God,
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when we ask God to show us his way, do
we really know what we're asking for? If so, why
is it that we and or those around us get
concerned when all of a sudden we find ourselves called
into a place of silence, into a place where we're
made to be still, into a place where we don't
(28:30):
speak as much and we don't interact as much, into
a place where we feel moved to do nothing more
than to read our word and pray even in tears.
Speaker 2 (28:44):
Let me take a.
Speaker 1 (28:45):
Second to take you back to Hebrews chapter four, verse seven,
our key scripture. Again, what God says today when you
hear his voice, hearten, not your hearts. God is Jehovah Rotha. Right,
He is the great healer.
Speaker 3 (29:01):
Right.
Speaker 1 (29:02):
I want to challenge your thinking for a second. The
Holy Spirit is recalling to my memory an illustration that
I heard as a child of a person who broke
a bone and because it didn't heal. Write, the doctor
had to rebreak the bone and then set it again
so that it could heal.
Speaker 2 (29:18):
Correct. Stay with me for a second.
Speaker 1 (29:22):
Our bones are covered with flesh, so we can't see
them unless we have an X ray done right now.
In order to fix the problem once it has been discovered,
after the person has initially sought out the helpful whatever
the issue of brokenness was, a doctor would then use
anesthesia and put the person to sleep. While the person
(29:44):
is asleep, he will cut them open to expose the
area of brokeness so that he can work on it.
After he finishes, he will stitch the patient back together
and proceed to wake them back up out of their
sleep like state that they were in. Anyone who has
had surgery knows that there is a process of healing
that must occur, and that the body feels much pain
(30:07):
as it heals.
Speaker 2 (30:08):
Now, where am I going with this? I challenge you
to look at this now from a different angle.
Speaker 1 (30:14):
You see, we've been crying out to God, asking God
to help us, to heal us, to restore us, to
save us, to teach us, to forgive us, and so
much more. And like that patience spoken of above, we
have sought out Jehovah Ratha, the Great Healer, through our prayers,
our songs sung, and through groanings unuttered. And God has
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been answering us in the process of God answering us,
in the process of God working to heal us, to
deliver us, to save us, in the process of his
rebreaking us, so that we can heal. Correct Because we
don't know what is going on with us, because we
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don't realize that our prayers are being answered, do we
give in to the distractions, thus stopping the process before
the healing can be complete? Because of the pain, Do
we medicate or numb the pain so that we don't
have to feel it.
Speaker 2 (31:15):
Do we avoid.
Speaker 1 (31:17):
The pain altogether? Let's go back to First Timothy chapter four,
verse sixteen. Again, God tells us to pay attention to
ourselves and to our ministry. By doing this, we will
save both ourselves and those.
Speaker 2 (31:35):
Who listen to us.
Speaker 1 (31:36):
He tells us at Hebrews chapter four, verse seven that
today when we hear his voice to not harden our hearts,
so once again we find ourselves in a situation in
which we are experiencing a shaking, a beating, oppressing, and
again we seek out tearfully. The Great Healer chapter eight,
(32:00):
verse twenty seven says that God searches the hearts with
his X ray vision. He looks straight through us, and
he knows the meaning of those groanings unuttered. He knows
exactly what we're going through, even when we can explain
it to someone who will ask of us what is wrong.
He knows exactly where we are individually broken, and he
(32:25):
knows how to heal us.
Speaker 2 (32:27):
But if we haven't.
Speaker 1 (32:28):
Been paying attention to ourselves, if we don't understand what
is going on with us, we might find ourselves in
a place where we are either numbing or allowing something
to be numbed that needs to be addressed so that
we can be healed. We might find ourselves in a
place where we are putting band aids on issues that
(32:48):
need surgery.
Speaker 2 (32:50):
We need to be careful of this.
Speaker 1 (32:52):
We need to pay attention to ourselves and to our ministries,
because we don't want to find ourselves in a place
that Saul did, where he listened to the people's voice
over God's voice. Earlier in the instruction to pay attention
and obey, God revealed himself as Ada Nie, our Lord,
(33:13):
Master and King above and beyond the rulers of this world.
He revealed himself as Jehovah Nissi, our banner bearer, reminding
us that he will tell us the way in which
to go. And God revealed himself as Jehovah Jira, our Provider,
reminding us that he is our source and the giver
of the resources that we need. Right now in the
(33:35):
instruction to pay attention to ourselves, I feel as if
God is revealing himself to us as Jehovah Ratha, the
Great Healer.
Speaker 2 (33:43):
And God has put it.
Speaker 1 (33:44):
On my heart to share this message with you, a
message that is slightly different from what I initially expected
based on my studies. But I have to be obedient
and follow the leading of the Holy Spirit. Right now,
I have to be obedient and say what I'm being
told to speak. At this moment, the Holy Spirit has
reminded me that all of us, sick with sin that
(34:05):
we were born with, began at some point in our
lives to cry out to Jesus to help us, to
save us, to heal us, to deliver us, to free us.
Some of us are crying out even right now, in
our various trials and tribulations, in our various stresses and
health issues. We are crying out, as did blind bar
(34:28):
to Maas when he heard that Jesus was passing by,
and he cried out, Jesus, Jesus. The people around him
wanted to shut him up. They told him to be quiet.
They tried to numb his pain so that he wouldn't
cry out. But it was something about this blind man's hearing.
(34:49):
He knew what others didn't. He knew that the great
healer was coming. Now, let me stop here for a second,
because it amazes me that this blind man knew what
the lame man by the pull of bedsider didn't. Jesus
was passing by the blind man, and the blind man heard. Remember,
(35:11):
God said that today when you hear his voice, to
hearten not your heart. The blind man heard, and he
began to scream out Jesus. The people wanted to quiet him,
but he screamed out even louder. What this tells me
is that sometimes people will try to keep you in
(35:33):
your mess. They will try to medicate you to numb
you so that you won't feel the pain. Medicating the pain,
numbing the pain does not point you to the great
healer as your source for healing. It points you to man,
because you will have to keep going to man to
(35:54):
numb what God wants to heal you from. Man will
wipe your tears away and tell you to not cry.
But David said, under inspiration, when he pined the psalms
at Psalm Stands A one twenty six, verse five, those
who sow in tears show reap with shouts of joy,
and as Psalms Stands of fifty six, verse eight, he said,
(36:16):
to God, you have kept count of my tossings. Put
my tears in your bottle? Are they not in your book?
When you don't feel any pain? There is no need
for you to cry out to Jesus to heal you.
So shed those tears if you have to. But like
blind bottom mayors, we are not to allow people to
(36:38):
keep us in our mess by trying to tell us
to be quiet, by trying to numb the pain for us,
by trying to tell us to not feel Reach out
and begin to get your healing. Grab it now. Don't
let me stop you just because I'm talking. Get yours.
God said today, when you hear his voice, do not
harden your hearts. He didn't say when my servant gets
(36:59):
through talking. He said today right now, So right now,
if you are hearing God, then right where you are,
you need to begin to scream out. You need to
begin to call out Jesus like blind Bartimaeus did, and
get your healing.
Speaker 2 (37:13):
Don't let it pass you by.
Speaker 1 (37:15):
Which takes me back to that lame man sitting by
the edge of the pool. This man could see and
hear Jesus, who came and stood right in front of him.
This man didn't seek out Jesus for himself. Had Jesus
not chosen to stop in front of this man and
to speak directly to him, he would have continued to
lay in front of the pool, even though the healer
(37:37):
was right there in his presence. Jesus had to ask
him if he wanted to be healed, and the man
responded with excuses as to why he wasn't healed. As
I pondered this example of this man in comparison to
that of blind by the Maaeus, I begin to hear
the Holy spirits say to me.
Speaker 2 (37:58):
Aren't you tired? And that threw me off guard.
Speaker 1 (38:01):
So I questioned the meaning of that statement, because I
wasn't sure what I was being asked, tired of what
I wanted to say. Yet instantly I felt as if
I was standing there watching Jesus talk to the lame man,
and what I heard was this, aren't you tired of
watching everyone else around you get blessed and you are.
Speaker 2 (38:21):
Still crying out, praying.
Speaker 1 (38:23):
Begging God to answer, begging for a sign, a miracle,
a wonder, begging for your breakthrough, begging for your open door,
begging for your deliverance. Jesus said to this man, do
you want to become sound in Hell?
Speaker 3 (38:39):
Now?
Speaker 1 (38:39):
I must have had a perplexed look on my face
as all of this was being shown to me, because
of what I was seeing. There were so many different
questions running through my mind. For example, I found myself wondering,
what is it about our eyes that would cause us
to miss what is standing right before us? And instantly
I felt as if I heard Matthew chapter five, verse
(39:01):
twenty nine through thirty being spoken, and as if I
was listening in on a conversation. It says in verse
twenty nine, if your right eye causes you to stumble,
gouge it out and throw it away, and if your
right hand causes you to stumble, cut it off and
throw it away, it is better for you to lose
one part of your body than your whole body to
(39:22):
go into hell. And as I was pondering that, I
heard yet another voice speak to me of when Peter
cut off the ear of the soldier who had come
to arrest Jesus found in Luke chapter twenty two, verse
forty seven through fifty one, and how Jesus healed the
man's ear. And I guess I was getting ready to
get off track in my meditations, because I was shaken
(39:43):
back with what sounded as a loud voice saying to me,
pay constant attention to yourself and to your ministry. And
it began to occur to me that this blind man
couldn't see Jesus, but he heard him, and he began
to scream, being louder and louder until he received an answer.
He didn't allow others to stop him, and when Jesus
(40:07):
asked him, what can I do for you? He spoke
clearly and to the point what it was that he wanted,
paying attention to himself and to his ministry. He wanted
his healing bad and he was not going to let
nothing stop him. And he demonstrated that he was serious
about wanting his healing through his actions. Yet the lame
(40:29):
man who could see and hear just find took no
effort in his healing. He didn't seek out Jesus. When
asked if he wanted to be healed, he complained as
to why he wasn't healed, and paying close attention to
myself and to my ministry. I have to ask myself,
and I ask you to ask yourselves also, which one
(40:50):
of these examples is me?
Speaker 2 (40:54):
Am I radical about getting my healing?
Speaker 1 (40:57):
Or am I complacent and placing blame on others for
why signs, miracles, and wonders are not prevalent in my life.
To everyone listening to this message today, I dare you
to close your eyes to all that surrounds you, to
all the reasons why you can't have your breakthrough in
the various areas where you need a prayer answer. I
(41:19):
dare you to close your eyes so that you cannot
see the seemingly unsurmountable hurdles. And I dare you to
open your ears and begin to listen for the voice
of God spoken to you, telling you that your faith
has made you well, telling you to get up and walk,
telling you that your sins have been forgiven. I dare
(41:40):
you to begin to lift your hands to the great healer,
Jehovah Ratha. And I dare you, in that position of
prayer and waiting on the Lord in faith, to begin
to cry out to Jesus. I dare you, in the
midst of your time of silence before the Lord, in
the midst of your time of being consecrated to the Lord,
where he is setting you apart from everyone else where
(42:02):
he's causing you to be sensitive to the spirit, where
he is doing an inner work on you that is
unseen to the naked eye. I dare you to not
let people around you stop your praise and worship because
of what their eyes are showing them as they look
at you. I dare you to not allow anyone to
keep you in your mess while you are reaching out.
Speaker 2 (42:25):
For your breakthrough.
Speaker 1 (42:26):
Cry your way through if you have to as you
begin to press through. Remember Paul told Timothy in One Timothy,
chapter four, verse sixteen, when he said to Timothy to
pay constant attention to himself and to his ministry. He
said that if he stayed by these things, he would
save both himself and those who listen to him. Yes,
people are watching you. Yes, people will try to label
(42:50):
you when they don't understand what is going on with you.
Just like Eli tried to label Hannah as being a
drunk when she was crying out before the Lord, which
she was pouring out her soul before the Lord in
the midst of her area of brokenness, and all he
saw was that her lips was moving, but he didn't
know what was being said. Things are not always as
(43:12):
they appear to the mere eyes. And just like Hannah
was heard, I am told to tell you today that
you will be you are being, and you have been
heard too, God says today. When you hear his voice,
do not harden your hearts. So right here, right now,
close your eyes and begin to cry out to the
(43:32):
Lord for your healing, for your restoration, for your deliverance.
Speaker 2 (43:36):
Right here, right now, Allow God to begin his work
on you.
Speaker 1 (43:40):
Allow him to take you into a place of consecration
so that he can begin to prepare you, to mold you,
to shape you into the vessel that He has destined
you to be. Right here, right now, allow the pain
of the process to run his course, and know that
you are in the hands of the great healer who
is taking you from faith to faith, from glory to glory.
(44:03):
Begin to worship God right now, right where you are.
Don't let this opportunity pass you by. Don't be like
the man at the pool who had excuses for why
he wasn't healed. Receive your healing, receive your restoration, receive
your deliverance right now, in the name of Jesus.
Speaker 5 (44:21):
Holda, do I have the worshipers in the building.
Speaker 1 (44:24):
Hold let me hear the south of the worshipers, come on
sing new solmun to the law.
Speaker 5 (44:29):
Hame ond sa, do solven to the law.
Speaker 4 (44:31):
He's worried of a glory. He's worthy of the honor,
He's worthy.
Speaker 5 (44:35):
Of all the brain that's bless this about my home.
I wonder that's.
Speaker 3 (44:55):
Anybody come tonight looking for something from the law.
Speaker 5 (44:58):
Let's see in.
Speaker 1 (45:02):
My study at verse Timothy, Chapter four, verse sixteen. I
did not expect it to turn out like this. I
didn't expect God to deal with us in the places
where he caused us to separate, where he caused us
to be alone. I did not expect him to deal
with us in the place of our hearts, to deal
(45:22):
with us on the inside. Yet truth is that if
we are to pay attention to ourselves and to our ministries,
the work has to first be done on the inside,
and those changes will begin to manifest on the outside.
There was so much that God was and it's still
sharing with me from this verse in verse Timothy. I
(45:45):
knew when I started to study that it was going
to be a huge one and that it couldn't be
finished in one day. So I invite you to return,
and we will continue to look at and examine where
God is speaking to us through these verses where we're
being told to pay it attention to ourselves and to
our ministries. Let us pray, Father, God, in the name
(46:05):
of Jesus. Even though we're concluding this study right here,
we are choosing to stay in meditation before you on
first Timothy chapter four, verse sixteen, as your word says
in Romans chapter eleven, Oh, the depth of your riches
and wisdom and knowledge. How unsearchable are your judgments and
past tracing out are all your ways? Yet you tell
(46:26):
us in Jeremiah thirty three three to ask of you,
and you will answer us and readily tell us of
great and incomprehensible things that we have not known. You
tell us in the Book of James that if any
of us lack in wisdom, that we would ask of
you and you would give it to us generously. So, Father,
though we end the study here for now, we individually
(46:47):
stay before you, and we ask of you to continue
to have your way with this word the seed to
pay attention that is being planted and taking root in
our hearts. Continue to speak to us, continue to tea,
teach us, continue to draw us closer to you. This
is our heart's desire, and we're choosing to listen. We
are choosing to pay attention and Father, as you bring
(47:10):
us into a place of consecration, into a place where
we're being set apart for your will. As you increase
this desire in our hearts to be alone in your presence,
where we can worship and praise.
Speaker 2 (47:21):
You and be taught by you.
Speaker 1 (47:23):
We thank you for helping us to understand what is
happening with us, so that we will not struggle as
you begin and complete your work on us, breaking us,
shaping us, and molding us into the vessels that you
are predestined for us to be. We submit ourselves to you,
Lord God, and we thank you for all that you
are doing in our lives. In Jesus name, we pray Amen.
You are tuned into abba silence ministries. Recently I have
been looking over what God's words says about reminders.
Speaker 2 (00:08):
Listen to this, dear friends.
Speaker 3 (00:11):
This is now my second letter to you. I've written
both of them as reminders to stimulate you to wholesome thinking.
I want you to recall the words spoken in the
past by the Holy prophets and the command given by
our Lord and Savior through your apostles. Above all, you
must understand that in the last days scoffers will come,
(00:34):
scoffing and following their own evil desires. They will say,
where is this coming? He promised? Ever since our ancestors died,
everything goes on as it has since the beginning of creation.
But they deliberately forget that long ago, by God's word,
(00:55):
the heavens came into being, and the earth was formed
out of water, and by water. By these waters. Also
the world of that time was deluged and destroyed by
the same word. The present heavens and earth are reserved
for fire, being kept for the day of judgment and
(01:15):
destruction of the ungodly. But do not forget this one thing,
dear friend. With the Lord, a day is like a
thousand years and a thousand years are like a day.
The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise as
some understand slowness. Instead, he is patient with you, not
(01:36):
wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.
But the day of the Lord will come like a thief.
The heavens will disappear with a roar, The elements will
be destroyed by fire, and the earth and everything done
in it will be laid bare. Since everything will be
(01:57):
destroyed in this way, what kind of people ought you
to be? You ought to live holy and godly lives.
As you look forward to the day of God and
speed it's coming. That day will bring about the destruction
of the heavens by fire, and the other mens will
melt in the heat. But in keeping with his promise,
(02:19):
we are looking forward to a new heaven and a
new Earth where righteousness dwells. So, then, dear friends, since
you are looking forward to this, make every effort to
be found spotless, blameless, and at peace with him. Bear
in mind that our Lord's patience means salvation. Just as
(02:42):
our dear brother Paul also wrote you with the wisdom
that God gave him, he writes the same way in
all his letters, speaking in them of these matters. His
letters contain some things that are hard to understand, which
ignorant and unstable people distort, as they do the other scriptures,
to their own destruction. Therefore, dear friends, since you have
(03:06):
been foreworn beyond your God, so that you may not
be carried away by the error of the lawless and
fall from your secure position, but grow in the grace
and knowledge of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. To
him be glory of now and forever.
Speaker 1 (03:24):
A man that was the Apostle Peter. In his second
letter telling us about the importance of reminders, he even
referred to letters written by the Apostle Paul, who also
warned the people of God by reminding them of God's word, written, spoken,
and taught. Let's take a look at one of those
(03:46):
reminders that the Apostle Paul wrote in his second letter
to Timothy.
Speaker 3 (03:51):
I remind you to find and to flame the gift
of God which is in you through the laying on
of my hands. For the spirit God gave us does
not make us timid, but gives us power, love, and
self discipline, so to not be ashamed of the testimony
about our Lord, or of me his prisoner, rather join
with me in suffering for the Gospel. By the power
(04:13):
of God, he has saved us and called us to
a holy life, not because of anything we have done,
but because of His own purpose and grace. This grace
was given us in Christ Jesus before the beginning of time,
but it has now been revealed through the appearing of
our savior, Christ Jesus, who has destroyed death and has
(04:35):
brought life and immortality to light through the Gospel. And
of this Gospel, I was appointed a herald and an
apostle and a teacher. That is why I'm suffering as
I am. Yet this is no cause for shame, because
I know whom I have believed, and am convinced that
He is able to guard what I have entrusted to
(04:57):
him until that day you heard from me. Keep is
the pattern of sound teaching with faith and love. In
Christ Deesus guard the good deposit that was in trusted
to guard it with the help of the Holy Spirit
who lives in us.
Speaker 1 (05:14):
With those scriptures in mind, for the next couple of weeks,
we are going to review a powerful word of God
that was previously taught here on our the Silence Ministries
now remember remind us from the Lord are faithful and true.
So here is the rebroadcasts of the sermons series Pay Attention.
Speaker 4 (05:59):
This is Abba Silence Ministries breaking change by opening the
eyes of the blind, helping the deaf to hear, empowering
the lane to walk through, unlocking a practical application of
the infallible word of God Isaiah sixty one and what
and now Minister Jody Serrino Barber, welcome back.
Speaker 1 (06:24):
To Oba Silence Ministries. I'm so glad that you are
able to return for the continuation of our Bible study
in God's word and reference to paying attention. We do
not take it for granted that you could be doing
something else at this time, but you chose to spend
your time with us. So we are honored to have
you with us, and we pray that you will be
(06:46):
encouraged and inspired by today's message. The past few weeks now,
God has been dealing with me heavily in reference to
paying attention. He has been requiring of me to not
just here, but to truly listen to what He is
speaking to me all day every day. The first week
(07:07):
he required that I worked on increasing my levels of
patience by having me to pay attention to how I wait?
Has anyone else been working on paying attention to how
you wait? It can be a challenge at times, can it?
But keep pressing your way in this area. I like
how James tells us in the fifth chapter, verse seven,
(07:30):
to exercise patients. How many of you know that when
you exercise your muscles that you haven't used in a
while and that needs to be strengthened, that you will
be left feeling sore afterwards. Yet Hebrews chapter six, verse
twelve tells us to imitate those who, through patience and
faith will inherit promises. So if we are going to
(07:55):
reach our goals, if we're going to reach our desired in,
then let's con continue to exercise patients. Amen. Last week
God impressed upon me the need to pay attention and
to obey. We discussed first Samuel chapter fifteen, verse twenty
two and twenty three, where Samuel told Saul that obedience
(08:17):
is better than a sacrifice and to pay attention than
the fat of rams. We learned through an examination of
the surrounding verses that we are not to push ahead
and that we are not to justify disobedience, but instead
we are to do exactly as God tells us to do.
(08:37):
I remember, when I was first studying SAWA's example in
reference to paying attention.
Speaker 2 (08:42):
And being obedient, that Noah came to mind.
Speaker 1 (08:46):
I could remember thinking to myself that I understood why
it was that Moses wrote in verse twenty two of
Genesis chapter six, where it says, and Noah proceeded to
do according to all somebody say, oh, according to all
that God had commanded him. He did just so. Now,
(09:08):
if you remember this account in Genesis chapter six, God
called Noah, at the old age of five hundred, to
step out and do something he never did before, to
build an arc in preparation for something that he never
seen before rain. God told Noah what materials to use
(09:28):
and what the measurements were to be. And when I
reflected on that, it was spoken to my heart that
even though God called Noah to step out onto unshotted
ground and to go where no man has gone before,
God also supplied all of Noah's needs. So I, in
turn began to reflect on what I learned about Saul
(09:49):
last week, and I.
Speaker 2 (09:50):
Realized that in each instance.
Speaker 1 (09:52):
Where Saul failed to obey, his failures was a lot
greater than I initially realized. I understand and now that
though Saul was chosen to be the first king over
the people of Israel, that when he pushed a head,
he failed to acknowledge God as Adamani as Lord Master
and king over all of the kings. This is confirmed
(10:14):
in First Samuel chapter eight, verse seven, where the people
asked for a king and Samuel didn't want to give
them one. But God told Samuel to listen to the
voice of the people, because, as God said to Samuel,
it was he that they was rejecting as being king
over them. Now, what I found amazing was that this
was not the first time that the Israeites tried to
(10:37):
install a human king to leave them. In the Book
of Judges, they tried to make Gideon and his children
king over them also, but Gideon told them no, and
he reminded them that God was their king. I also
began to realize that in Saul's disobedience when he pushed
a head, that he was also failing to recognize God
(10:59):
as Jehovah, the banner bearer, who would tell him which
way to go. Last, but definitely not least, Saul failed
to recognize God as being Jehovah Jirah, the provider of
all of our needs, when he failed to obey and
do just as God told him to do when it
came to destroying the Amalekites. It began to occur to
(11:23):
me as God was calling me to pay attention and
to listen, and as He was showing me where Saul
had failed to pay attention. What Saul had failed to listen,
failed to obey, failed to establish for himself a relationship
with God. That this is why God said to Samuel
that the next person that he was going to choose
(11:44):
was going to be someone after his own heart, someone
whom he could have a relationship with.
Speaker 2 (11:51):
So what I found is.
Speaker 1 (11:52):
That when God tells us to pay attention to listen,
it is because God is trying to have a relation
relationship with us. He is trying to tell us who
he is. He is trying to show himself to us
as Ada Nie, Lord, Master and king over all, so
(12:12):
that we won't have to worry in any situation that
we find ourselves in because God is in control, Amen,
he wants to show himself to us as Jehovah Nissi
our banner bearer, so that we don't have to worry
about tomorrow. We don't have to fret over the unknown,
because He will tell us which way we are to go.
(12:33):
He wants to show himself to us as Jehovah Jirah,
our provider. He is our source to whom we need
to look to for our resources.
Speaker 2 (12:42):
Amen.
Speaker 1 (12:43):
So, as we prepare to continue where we left off
in our study of God's word, I want to remind
everyone of the scriptures we read last week. Found that
Hebrews chapter four, verse seven, where it says today when
you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts. This
is going to be a key scripture for us in
(13:04):
our studies, so you might want to make note of that,
keeping it foremost in your mind and heart. Our aim
as we study God's Word here at Abba Silence Ministries
is to not just hear God's voice, but to obey him.
And if it is as clear to you as it
is to me that God is telling us to pay
attention because He wants to have a personal relationship with us,
(13:28):
then let's make it our goal to see in our
studies what God is revealing to us about himself. Amen,
What are we learning about his character and about his personality?
You might want to write that question down in your
notes also, and then make note of the answers you receive.
Speaker 2 (13:48):
In your personal studies.
Speaker 1 (13:50):
Well, does everyone have their bibles, pen and paper ready
for today's study? As those who are new to Abba
silence ministries grab their Bibles and something to take notes.
With the rest of us, let's begin to prepare our
hearts and minds to receive a word from the Lord.
Let's take a couple of minutes to lift our voices
in praise and worship to God, our Father in the
(14:12):
name of Jesus Christ, asking him to show us his way. Amen,
and then we'll open up this Bible study with the
word of prayer.
Speaker 5 (14:20):
Sho show me.
Speaker 2 (15:09):
Father, God, in the name of Jesus.
Speaker 1 (15:11):
We are gathered here today ready to be taught by you.
Show us your ways, Father, so that we can walk accordingly.
Change us Father into men and women after your own
heart as you draw us closer to you. We seek
to do your will, Father, not our own. But in
order to do so, we need your guidance and direction.
(15:31):
Upon our study of your word. You said today when
we hear your voice, that we were not to harden
our hearts. So we ask that you open up your
word to us so that we can understand what we're
reading and so that we can apply it.
Speaker 2 (15:44):
Touch our minds to receive.
Speaker 1 (15:46):
Your words spoken and read, open our ears to hear
clearly from you, and grant us obedient hearts. Father, as
I take the lead in the study, I submit myself
to you, and I ask to be decreased so that
your whole spirit can increase within me and flow freely
and unhindered through me. I am your humble servant of
(16:06):
vessel used by you to speak to your people. So
I ask that you hide me behind the cross so
that my presence does not distract from this message that
you have given me to share with your people. I
turn this ministry, this Bible study, and myself over to
you in Jesus name, I pray, Amen, turn your bibles
(16:28):
to first Timothy chapter four, verse sixteen. This is gonna
be the foundational scripture for our Bible study today, and
we're going to read from it from a couple of
different Bible translations. Remember, Hebrews chapter four, verse seven is
a key scripture for us in our studies to focus
on but first Timothy chapter four, verse sixteen will be
(16:50):
the foundational scripture in which this study is based upon.
Speaker 2 (16:54):
Amen For those of you who are new.
Speaker 1 (16:57):
To OURBA silence ministries, I like comparing very translations when
I study God's word, and I also like looking up
definitions of words because I find that it helps me
to understand what I'm reading.
Speaker 2 (17:09):
Now, if you.
Speaker 1 (17:09):
Don't physically have several translations in your presence, you can
go online to Biblegateway dot com and they allow you
to compare at least five different translations of your choice
at once, and there are many translations that you can
choose from. It is a very valuable study tool. That's
(17:30):
Biblegateway dot com. You might want to write that website
down for future use. One Timothy chapter four, verse sixteen.
Everyone should have it by now. We're going to read
it first from the New World Translation, which says, pay
constant attention to yourself and to your ministry. Stay by
(17:51):
these things, for by doing this you will save both
yourself and those who listen to you. The New International
Version says, watch your life and doctrine closely, persevere in them,
because if you do, you will save both yourself and
your hearers. The King James version says, take heed unto
(18:12):
thyself and unto the doctrine, continue in them, for in
doing this thou shalt save both thyself and them that
hear thee. The New Living Translation says, keep a close
watch on how you live and on your teaching. Stay
true to what is right for the sake of your
own salvation and the salvation of those who hear you.
(18:35):
Did you notice the different ways in which we were
told to pay attention, to take heed, to watch closely,
to keep a close watch. There is so much valuable
information to be gathered from this verse, so we're going
to take it in pieces. We will examine first the
command to pay close attention or constant attention to ourselves.
(18:58):
As I mentioned a couple of weeks ago, when I
first started out on this journey of paying attention, and
let me add that it truly is a journey, because
until I made a conscious effort to pay attention, I
didn't realize how many distractions were surrounding us every day.
So as I started out, God's word has become like
a mirror for me. God has been calling me to
(19:21):
look into his word and see myself and after showing
me myself, he then proceeded to teach me by breaking
down his word to me in such a way that
I'm able to understand and apply what I'm learning. And
this is what I'm allowed to share with you through
the use of examples. One of the things that I
initially began to understand right from the start is that
(19:43):
paying attention to ourselves and to our ministry helps us
to not only follow closely in Jesus' footsteps, but it
helps us also to see ourselves in God's word. For example,
Matthew chapter thirteen, verses thirty four and thirty five tells
us that Jesus would not speak to the crowds without
using illustrations, And I begin to comprehend that the purpose
(20:06):
of the illustrations was to help us to visualize what
we were being taught so that we could apply it
in our everyday lives. So with that in mind, let
me share with you the first things that God began
to show me in reference to paying attention to ourselves. Now,
keep in mind the first two scriptures that we mentioned.
Verse Timothy chapter four, verse sixteen, which starts off by
(20:30):
saying to pay constant attention or to keep a close
watch on yourself and on how you live. And Hebrews
chapter four, verse seven, which says, today when you hear
his voice, do not harden your hearts. You have those
written down in your notes right.
Speaker 2 (20:47):
Well.
Speaker 1 (20:48):
During this time in which God has had me looking
into the mirror of His word for myself, I found
that I was entering into a period that I would
cause silence. It's a period in which I am called
to be quiet before the Lord, a time in which
He requires me to pay close attention so that I
can hear his voice. And what I began to experience.
(21:10):
The more that I ask to be used by the
Lord in prayer and in worship through song, the more
that I ask to hear his voice, the more that
I ask God to shape me, to break me, to
mold me, and to heal me. The more that I
have been desiring to draw closer to God. The more
I found myself withdrawing from interactions, especially in the area
(21:34):
of social media. I felt as if God were sitting
me alone. I also found that this has been an
intense time of tears for me, a time of great sensitivity,
a time of great brokenness. Now as a woman, everyone
knows that at certain times of the month, or during
(21:54):
certain seasons in one's life, a woman can be more
emotional than doing any other time or season. But what
do you do when that is not what you're going through?
One day, in the process of my praising and worshiping
God through song, I received a breakthrough and which I
began to realize that God had been purging me and
(22:17):
that He is preparing me. And what really surprised me
was when I was shown that I had been asking
Him to do this in the various worship songs that
I had been singing.
Speaker 2 (22:50):
He said, on the whole the Holy Spirit.
Speaker 1 (22:53):
Begins to show me that during this process that I
was going through, when different ones would ask me if
I was okay, tell them yes, because I didn't know
how to answer their questions and reference how I was
doing this was because I didn't quite understand myself what
I was going through. He said to me that a
part of my paying attention to myself and to my
(23:13):
ministry was that I also needed to be aware of
my facial expressions. What was I saying to those who
were observing me when I was deep in thought, deep
in prayer, without praying in the conventional way of having
my head bowed and my hands folded. What was I
ministering to those who were observing my behavior? My mannerism
(23:34):
spoken without words. The Holy Spirits spoke to me that
many are going through something similar, and they too don't
know or understand what they're going through, so they react,
they respond, they label it at times and correct.
Speaker 2 (23:52):
I was told to pay.
Speaker 1 (23:53):
Attention to myself during this time of pressing, during this
time of molding, during this time of being on the
threshing floor. I was to pay attention to it and
then find a way to share this information with others
who are experiencing the same and not knowing what they
are experiencing. I was to share this because it was
(24:16):
not a health issue, yet at times the pain felt
could manifest itself as being something that it isn't, just
like a woman in labor would have Braxton Hicks commonly
known as false labor pains before it's actually time. It
feels like the real thing, but it isn't. I had
(24:36):
to pay attention to myself and to my ministry so
that I could share this in such a way that
those hearing would understand and be able to recognize it
for themselves in themselves. I was reminded of a scene
in The Matrix where Trinity first met up with Neo
and she said to him, you have been asking yourself
(24:59):
a question. We have all asked the same question. You
know what that question is. Yet my question was not
what is the matrix? My question was how do you
explain it when you're going through something and all you
can do is cry. But you don't know what you're
going through. So when someone asks you if you are okay,
(25:20):
you tell them yeah. But the truth of the matter
is that something is going on inside of you, appressing,
a beating, a shaking that will render you in tears
over the slightest little thing. You're not sick, and it's
not some major issue in which you'll need to go
to the emergency room to be checked out. Yet you
find yourself in tears asking to be forgiven for things
(25:43):
in the past that you already pray for forgiveness over,
or you'll find yourself grieved over the quality of your
personal relationship with God, which to those on the outside
it might look to be okay and commendable, but to you,
you're reaching for or desiring something more. How can you
explain to another what you're feeling, desiring, experiencing when you
(26:06):
can't find the words to accurately put a needle in
the mark of what you feel, and all you can
do is simply breathe through it and believe God to
bring you out of it.
Speaker 2 (26:17):
How do you explain that? Now?
Speaker 1 (26:19):
Keep in mind our scripture at one Timothy, chapter four,
verse sixteen, which tells us to pay constant attention to
ourselves and our ministry. And let's see how this was answered.
As a people, we tend to label things we do
not understand. So when we see a person crying for
no apparent reason, we like to call it depression, or
(26:42):
we like to medicate it to numb it so that
it is not felt. We don't always understand that the breaking,
the pressing, the purging the tears could be God answering
prayers that was prayed without our realizing what we were
asking for. For instance, have you ever asked God during
(27:03):
your personal study and worship time to help you to
see things as He sees it, to love like He loves,
to have a heart like his, And then you found
yourself in pain of heart hurting over the things you're
seeing around you and maybe even hearing. How many of
you have asked to be healed of something only to
(27:24):
find yourselves feeling like you're being broken? Is it an oxymoron?
How many of you have seen the passion of Christ
and expected to see the depths of God's love for us,
yet not expecting to be rendered bent over in tears
because of the pain that Christ had to endure. When
you hear the words the passion of Christ, do you
(27:46):
even envision the pain? Remember Romans chapter eight, verse twenty
six and twenty seven says that when we don't know
what to pray for as we ought, that the Spirit
bears witness with our spirit with groans unuttered, and God
who searches our hearts know the meaning of the spirit.
When we pray to have a closer relationship with God,
(28:09):
when we ask God to show us his way, do
we really know what we're asking for? If so, why
is it that we and or those around us get
concerned when all of a sudden we find ourselves called
into a place of silence, into a place where we're
made to be still, into a place where we don't
(28:30):
speak as much and we don't interact as much, into
a place where we feel moved to do nothing more
than to read our word and pray even in tears.
Speaker 2 (28:44):
Let me take a.
Speaker 1 (28:45):
Second to take you back to Hebrews chapter four, verse seven,
our key scripture. Again, what God says today when you
hear his voice, hearten, not your hearts. God is Jehovah Rotha. Right,
He is the great healer.
Speaker 3 (29:01):
Right.
Speaker 1 (29:02):
I want to challenge your thinking for a second. The
Holy Spirit is recalling to my memory an illustration that
I heard as a child of a person who broke
a bone and because it didn't heal. Write, the doctor
had to rebreak the bone and then set it again
so that it could heal.
Speaker 2 (29:18):
Correct. Stay with me for a second.
Speaker 1 (29:22):
Our bones are covered with flesh, so we can't see
them unless we have an X ray done right now.
In order to fix the problem once it has been discovered,
after the person has initially sought out the helpful whatever
the issue of brokenness was, a doctor would then use
anesthesia and put the person to sleep. While the person
(29:44):
is asleep, he will cut them open to expose the
area of brokeness so that he can work on it.
After he finishes, he will stitch the patient back together
and proceed to wake them back up out of their
sleep like state that they were in. Anyone who has
had surgery knows that there is a process of healing
that must occur, and that the body feels much pain
(30:07):
as it heals.
Speaker 2 (30:08):
Now, where am I going with this? I challenge you
to look at this now from a different angle.
Speaker 1 (30:14):
You see, we've been crying out to God, asking God
to help us, to heal us, to restore us, to
save us, to teach us, to forgive us, and so
much more. And like that patience spoken of above, we
have sought out Jehovah Ratha, the Great Healer, through our prayers,
our songs sung, and through groanings unuttered. And God has
(30:37):
been answering us in the process of God answering us,
in the process of God working to heal us, to
deliver us, to save us, in the process of his
rebreaking us, so that we can heal. Correct Because we
don't know what is going on with us, because we
(30:57):
don't realize that our prayers are being answered, do we
give in to the distractions, thus stopping the process before
the healing can be complete? Because of the pain, Do
we medicate or numb the pain so that we don't
have to feel it.
Speaker 2 (31:15):
Do we avoid.
Speaker 1 (31:17):
The pain altogether? Let's go back to First Timothy chapter four,
verse sixteen. Again, God tells us to pay attention to
ourselves and to our ministry. By doing this, we will
save both ourselves and those.
Speaker 2 (31:35):
Who listen to us.
Speaker 1 (31:36):
He tells us at Hebrews chapter four, verse seven that
today when we hear his voice to not harden our hearts,
so once again we find ourselves in a situation in
which we are experiencing a shaking, a beating, oppressing, and
again we seek out tearfully. The Great Healer chapter eight,
(32:00):
verse twenty seven says that God searches the hearts with
his X ray vision. He looks straight through us, and
he knows the meaning of those groanings unuttered. He knows
exactly what we're going through, even when we can explain
it to someone who will ask of us what is wrong.
He knows exactly where we are individually broken, and he
(32:25):
knows how to heal us.
Speaker 2 (32:27):
But if we haven't.
Speaker 1 (32:28):
Been paying attention to ourselves, if we don't understand what
is going on with us, we might find ourselves in
a place where we are either numbing or allowing something
to be numbed that needs to be addressed so that
we can be healed. We might find ourselves in a
place where we are putting band aids on issues that
(32:48):
need surgery.
Speaker 2 (32:50):
We need to be careful of this.
Speaker 1 (32:52):
We need to pay attention to ourselves and to our ministries,
because we don't want to find ourselves in a place
that Saul did, where he listened to the people's voice
over God's voice. Earlier in the instruction to pay attention
and obey, God revealed himself as Ada Nie, our Lord,
(33:13):
Master and King above and beyond the rulers of this world.
He revealed himself as Jehovah Nissi, our banner bearer, reminding
us that he will tell us the way in which
to go. And God revealed himself as Jehovah Jira, our Provider,
reminding us that he is our source and the giver
of the resources that we need. Right now in the
(33:35):
instruction to pay attention to ourselves, I feel as if
God is revealing himself to us as Jehovah Ratha, the
Great Healer.
Speaker 2 (33:43):
And God has put it.
Speaker 1 (33:44):
On my heart to share this message with you, a
message that is slightly different from what I initially expected
based on my studies. But I have to be obedient
and follow the leading of the Holy Spirit. Right now,
I have to be obedient and say what I'm being
told to speak. At this moment, the Holy Spirit has
reminded me that all of us, sick with sin that
(34:05):
we were born with, began at some point in our
lives to cry out to Jesus to help us, to
save us, to heal us, to deliver us, to free us.
Some of us are crying out even right now, in
our various trials and tribulations, in our various stresses and
health issues. We are crying out, as did blind bar
(34:28):
to Maas when he heard that Jesus was passing by,
and he cried out, Jesus, Jesus. The people around him
wanted to shut him up. They told him to be quiet.
They tried to numb his pain so that he wouldn't
cry out. But it was something about this blind man's hearing.
(34:49):
He knew what others didn't. He knew that the great
healer was coming. Now, let me stop here for a second,
because it amazes me that this blind man knew what
the lame man by the pull of bedsider didn't. Jesus
was passing by the blind man, and the blind man heard. Remember,
(35:11):
God said that today when you hear his voice, to
hearten not your heart. The blind man heard, and he
began to scream out Jesus. The people wanted to quiet him,
but he screamed out even louder. What this tells me
is that sometimes people will try to keep you in
(35:33):
your mess. They will try to medicate you to numb
you so that you won't feel the pain. Medicating the pain,
numbing the pain does not point you to the great
healer as your source for healing. It points you to man,
because you will have to keep going to man to
(35:54):
numb what God wants to heal you from. Man will
wipe your tears away and tell you to not cry.
But David said, under inspiration, when he pined the psalms
at Psalm Stands A one twenty six, verse five, those
who sow in tears show reap with shouts of joy,
and as Psalms Stands of fifty six, verse eight, he said,
(36:16):
to God, you have kept count of my tossings. Put
my tears in your bottle? Are they not in your book?
When you don't feel any pain? There is no need
for you to cry out to Jesus to heal you.
So shed those tears if you have to. But like
blind bottom mayors, we are not to allow people to
(36:38):
keep us in our mess by trying to tell us
to be quiet, by trying to numb the pain for us,
by trying to tell us to not feel Reach out
and begin to get your healing. Grab it now. Don't
let me stop you just because I'm talking. Get yours.
God said today, when you hear his voice, do not
harden your hearts. He didn't say when my servant gets
(36:59):
through talking. He said today right now, So right now,
if you are hearing God, then right where you are,
you need to begin to scream out. You need to
begin to call out Jesus like blind Bartimaeus did, and
get your healing.
Speaker 2 (37:13):
Don't let it pass you by.
Speaker 1 (37:15):
Which takes me back to that lame man sitting by
the edge of the pool. This man could see and
hear Jesus, who came and stood right in front of him.
This man didn't seek out Jesus for himself. Had Jesus
not chosen to stop in front of this man and
to speak directly to him, he would have continued to
lay in front of the pool, even though the healer
(37:37):
was right there in his presence. Jesus had to ask
him if he wanted to be healed, and the man
responded with excuses as to why he wasn't healed. As
I pondered this example of this man in comparison to
that of blind by the Maaeus, I begin to hear
the Holy spirits say to me.
Speaker 2 (37:58):
Aren't you tired? And that threw me off guard.
Speaker 1 (38:01):
So I questioned the meaning of that statement, because I
wasn't sure what I was being asked, tired of what
I wanted to say. Yet instantly I felt as if
I was standing there watching Jesus talk to the lame man,
and what I heard was this, aren't you tired of
watching everyone else around you get blessed and you are.
Speaker 2 (38:21):
Still crying out, praying.
Speaker 1 (38:23):
Begging God to answer, begging for a sign, a miracle,
a wonder, begging for your breakthrough, begging for your open door,
begging for your deliverance. Jesus said to this man, do
you want to become sound in Hell?
Speaker 3 (38:39):
Now?
Speaker 1 (38:39):
I must have had a perplexed look on my face
as all of this was being shown to me, because
of what I was seeing. There were so many different
questions running through my mind. For example, I found myself wondering,
what is it about our eyes that would cause us
to miss what is standing right before us? And instantly
I felt as if I heard Matthew chapter five, verse
(39:01):
twenty nine through thirty being spoken, and as if I
was listening in on a conversation. It says in verse
twenty nine, if your right eye causes you to stumble,
gouge it out and throw it away, and if your
right hand causes you to stumble, cut it off and
throw it away, it is better for you to lose
one part of your body than your whole body to
(39:22):
go into hell. And as I was pondering that, I
heard yet another voice speak to me of when Peter
cut off the ear of the soldier who had come
to arrest Jesus found in Luke chapter twenty two, verse
forty seven through fifty one, and how Jesus healed the
man's ear. And I guess I was getting ready to
get off track in my meditations, because I was shaken
(39:43):
back with what sounded as a loud voice saying to me,
pay constant attention to yourself and to your ministry. And
it began to occur to me that this blind man
couldn't see Jesus, but he heard him, and he began
to scream, being louder and louder until he received an answer.
He didn't allow others to stop him, and when Jesus
(40:07):
asked him, what can I do for you? He spoke
clearly and to the point what it was that he wanted,
paying attention to himself and to his ministry. He wanted
his healing bad and he was not going to let
nothing stop him. And he demonstrated that he was serious
about wanting his healing through his actions. Yet the lame
(40:29):
man who could see and hear just find took no
effort in his healing. He didn't seek out Jesus. When
asked if he wanted to be healed, he complained as
to why he wasn't healed, and paying close attention to
myself and to my ministry. I have to ask myself,
and I ask you to ask yourselves also, which one
(40:50):
of these examples is me?
Speaker 2 (40:54):
Am I radical about getting my healing?
Speaker 1 (40:57):
Or am I complacent and placing blame on others for
why signs, miracles, and wonders are not prevalent in my life.
To everyone listening to this message today, I dare you
to close your eyes to all that surrounds you, to
all the reasons why you can't have your breakthrough in
the various areas where you need a prayer answer. I
(41:19):
dare you to close your eyes so that you cannot
see the seemingly unsurmountable hurdles. And I dare you to
open your ears and begin to listen for the voice
of God spoken to you, telling you that your faith
has made you well, telling you to get up and walk,
telling you that your sins have been forgiven. I dare
(41:40):
you to begin to lift your hands to the great healer,
Jehovah Ratha. And I dare you, in that position of
prayer and waiting on the Lord in faith, to begin
to cry out to Jesus. I dare you, in the
midst of your time of silence before the Lord, in
the midst of your time of being consecrated to the Lord,
where he is setting you apart from everyone else where
(42:02):
he's causing you to be sensitive to the spirit, where
he is doing an inner work on you that is
unseen to the naked eye. I dare you to not
let people around you stop your praise and worship because
of what their eyes are showing them as they look
at you. I dare you to not allow anyone to
keep you in your mess while you are reaching out.
Speaker 2 (42:25):
For your breakthrough.
Speaker 1 (42:26):
Cry your way through if you have to as you
begin to press through. Remember Paul told Timothy in One Timothy,
chapter four, verse sixteen, when he said to Timothy to
pay constant attention to himself and to his ministry. He
said that if he stayed by these things, he would
save both himself and those who listen to him. Yes,
people are watching you. Yes, people will try to label
(42:50):
you when they don't understand what is going on with you.
Just like Eli tried to label Hannah as being a
drunk when she was crying out before the Lord, which
she was pouring out her soul before the Lord in
the midst of her area of brokenness, and all he
saw was that her lips was moving, but he didn't
know what was being said. Things are not always as
(43:12):
they appear to the mere eyes. And just like Hannah
was heard, I am told to tell you today that
you will be you are being, and you have been
heard too, God says today. When you hear his voice,
do not harden your hearts. So right here, right now,
close your eyes and begin to cry out to the
(43:32):
Lord for your healing, for your restoration, for your deliverance.
Speaker 2 (43:36):
Right here, right now, Allow God to begin his work
on you.
Speaker 1 (43:40):
Allow him to take you into a place of consecration
so that he can begin to prepare you, to mold you,
to shape you into the vessel that He has destined
you to be. Right here, right now, allow the pain
of the process to run his course, and know that
you are in the hands of the great healer who
is taking you from faith to faith, from glory to glory.
(44:03):
Begin to worship God right now, right where you are.
Don't let this opportunity pass you by. Don't be like
the man at the pool who had excuses for why
he wasn't healed. Receive your healing, receive your restoration, receive
your deliverance right now, in the name of Jesus.
Speaker 5 (44:21):
Holda, do I have the worshipers in the building.
Speaker 1 (44:24):
Hold let me hear the south of the worshipers, come on
sing new solmun to the law.
Speaker 5 (44:29):
Hame ond sa, do solven to the law.
Speaker 4 (44:31):
He's worried of a glory. He's worthy of the honor,
He's worthy.
Speaker 5 (44:35):
Of all the brain that's bless this about my home.
I wonder that's.
Speaker 3 (44:55):
Anybody come tonight looking for something from the law.
Speaker 5 (44:58):
Let's see in.
Speaker 1 (45:02):
My study at verse Timothy, Chapter four, verse sixteen. I
did not expect it to turn out like this. I
didn't expect God to deal with us in the places
where he caused us to separate, where he caused us
to be alone. I did not expect him to deal
with us in the place of our hearts, to deal
(45:22):
with us on the inside. Yet truth is that if
we are to pay attention to ourselves and to our ministries,
the work has to first be done on the inside,
and those changes will begin to manifest on the outside.
There was so much that God was and it's still
sharing with me from this verse in verse Timothy. I
(45:45):
knew when I started to study that it was going
to be a huge one and that it couldn't be
finished in one day. So I invite you to return,
and we will continue to look at and examine where
God is speaking to us through these verses where we're
being told to pay it attention to ourselves and to
our ministries. Let us pray, Father, God, in the name
(46:05):
of Jesus. Even though we're concluding this study right here,
we are choosing to stay in meditation before you on
first Timothy chapter four, verse sixteen, as your word says
in Romans chapter eleven, Oh, the depth of your riches
and wisdom and knowledge. How unsearchable are your judgments and
past tracing out are all your ways? Yet you tell
(46:26):
us in Jeremiah thirty three three to ask of you,
and you will answer us and readily tell us of
great and incomprehensible things that we have not known. You
tell us in the Book of James that if any
of us lack in wisdom, that we would ask of
you and you would give it to us generously. So, Father,
though we end the study here for now, we individually
(46:47):
stay before you, and we ask of you to continue
to have your way with this word the seed to
pay attention that is being planted and taking root in
our hearts. Continue to speak to us, continue to tea,
teach us, continue to draw us closer to you. This
is our heart's desire, and we're choosing to listen. We
are choosing to pay attention and Father, as you bring
(47:10):
us into a place of consecration, into a place where
we're being set apart for your will. As you increase
this desire in our hearts to be alone in your presence,
where we can worship and praise.
Speaker 2 (47:21):
You and be taught by you.
Speaker 1 (47:23):
We thank you for helping us to understand what is
happening with us, so that we will not struggle as
you begin and complete your work on us, breaking us,
shaping us, and molding us into the vessels that you
are predestined for us to be. We submit ourselves to you,
Lord God, and we thank you for all that you
are doing in our lives. In Jesus name, we pray Amen.
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Cardiac Cowboys
The heart was always off-limits to surgeons. Cutting into it spelled instant death for the patient. That is, until a ragtag group of doctors scattered across the Midwest and Texas decided to throw out the rule book. Working in makeshift laboratories and home garages, using medical devices made from scavenged machine parts and beer tubes, these men and women invented the field of open heart surgery. Odds are, someone you know is alive because of them. So why has history left them behind? Presented by Chris Pine, CARDIAC COWBOYS tells the gripping true story behind the birth of heart surgery, and the young, Greatest Generation doctors who made it happen. For years, they competed and feuded, racing to be the first, the best, and the most prolific. Some appeared on the cover of Time Magazine, operated on kings and advised presidents. Others ended up disgraced, penniless, and convicted of felonies. Together, they ignited a revolution in medicine, and changed the world.