Maturity in the Word; Unlocks the Flow – Part 3 || Pastor Farrah || June 1st, 2025 || Sunday AM

0:07 [Music] Hey, hey, hey. [Music] Hey,

0:53 hey, hey. [Music] Heat up here. [Music]

1:45 Hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey. [Music] Jack. Hey. Hey. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. Heat. N.

2:39 [Music] Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. [Music] N. Heat. Heat. N. [Music]

3:52 above all the earth. [Music] Thou art exalted, far above all God. For thou alone, for thou, oh Lord, art above all the earth. Thou art exalted far above. Oh

4:37 [Music] God, and I exalt thee. I exalt thee. I exalt thee, oh Lord, and I exalt thee. I exalt thee.

5:24 [Music] I exalt thee. Oh Lord, we exalt the Lord and we exalt thee. We exalt thee. We exalt thee, oh Lord, with one voice and we

6:09 exalt thee. We exalt thee. We exalt thee, oh Lord. Praise the Lord. Praise the Lord. Praise the Lord. It's good to know where you should set your eyes, right? Amen. Amen. All right. Well, as you make your way back to your seats, go ahead and flash a smile at somebody. Act like you're happy. And then you will be, right? Say hi. Say hello. Say good

6:57 morning. Make friends with the people around you. They're your brothers and sisters. Well, good morning, New Harvest Church. Good morning. Good morning. That was a cheery happy hello. How we How are we on this fine sunshiny morning? All right, we're getting it. Praise God. We're all doers of the word this morning, aren't we? Amen. Well, I just have a couple announcements I want to go over this morning before we get into ti and offerings. So, we have this is the last month of this uh term for ETBTC.

7:46 So, this is the this next couple weeks. This is your last opportunity for a little while to sit in on the classes if you're not already part of the classes. So, right now on Wednesdays, we're having fear of the Lord. No, fruit of the spirit. Fruit of the spirit. I knew it started with an F. It was close. Fruit of the spirit and communication. And then on Friday, if you want to learn how to be ethical, which is always a good thing for Christians to be, you can learn about ministerial ethics. And then since that is coming to a close, we will be beginning back into our midweek services starting this month. that will be starting on the 25th of this month. So if you are, you know,

8:32 if you are just boycotting ETBTC for some reason because you don't want to learn anything, that's, you know what, that's on you. But come on and join us for Wednesday night services that will be starting on the 25th of this month. Okay. Coming up next week, does anybody know what next week is? It's your birthday. It is my birthday. That's correct. But also it's Pentecost Sunday. So you know we celebrate Christmas as you know the birth of Jesus coming to earth. I don't know why we don't celebrate Pentecost in the same way. Right. Right. We should make it's like Christmas but for the Holy Spirit. Right. That's the day when when we got to have the Holy Spirit come down and be

9:20 our helper and our guide. I mean, he came here on this earth for us because Jesus went back. I mean, that's a good day. We should celebrate that day. So, next week, we get to celebrate that day. And just remember, next week as part of this church, what we do is we bring our best on that Sunday to give to the Lord. So, we will be participating in that next week. Um, you know, you don't have to get me a gift. Just get a gift for get a gift for God. You can go ahead and give that right to him, not to me. Okay. Except for you. Family is exempt from this. Wait, you guys are all family, so I don't know how to ignore everything I just said.

10:05 Okay, we have outreach coming up again this month. You can participate in that. That's June 14th. If you have any questions about that, go ahead and wave. Tom and Mary, hey. And while your hands are up, say hey again. life group is coming up on June 19th. You can join them for that. Again, if you have any questions, you can go ahead go ahead and talk to them about that. We also have family fun night coming up again this month. It will be June 22nd. It will be a whole lot of fun. Yay. Bring some people while you're going on the on the outreach on June 14th. Invite some people uh you know, target those people with kids because, you know, they have more fun than adults do. So, so invite them to come. If you have any families or friends that that you know that like to have fun, go ahead and bring them, too. It doesn't mean that

10:51 they're joining the church. It just means they like to have fun. And we like to have fun, right? Okay. Um and then we also have at the end of this month, believers meeting coming up on June 29th. That's the last Sunday of this month. And this month is going to be a an extra special believer's meeting because I don't know if you've noticed, but uh the most reverend Melody is back with us. She just got back this last week from Portugal. She was there for three months. So, if you haven't said hey, hi, and hello to her yet, go ahead and do that. I know that she's not hugged out yet. So, go ahead. I asked her I asked her if she was hugged out and she said she was not. So, you know what? This is your permission this one time to say hey, hi, and hello to her.

11:38 Okay. So she will be running the believers meeting at the end of this month and it's obviously going to be uh worship oriented. So I would I would already go ahead and make plans to be here for that. Okay. And one more announcement. Uh today after church today, Bishop is going to be going up to Knoxville. The address is on the screen. Um he's going to be going up to Knoxville with whoever wants to join. I know that Pastor Farah is going too, but whoever else wants to join. They're going up there and he's going to be speaking. Um I don't know how this is possible, but they did say about 15 minutes uh that he would be there to speak. I don't know, the Lord

12:24 will have to move on that one. Um so you know that it's going to be good, right? So he will be up there. they will be um adjacent from the Planned Parenthood and he will be speaking there this afternoon. It will be from 2 to 3:00. Uh you're welcome to join. I don't believe there's going to be a live stream. So if you want to see it, if you want to be there, if you want to participate it uh in it in any way, then go ahead and join with them today in that. Is there anything else you wanted me to add for that? Are you good? Okay. So those are the announcements. Say announcements over. All right. Let's go on to what do we have next? offering and we're all so excited about it. Look, you're so excited. Wow, this is great. Amen.

13:09 Pretty soon, yeah, pretty soon I'm going to be uh having to come up here with, you know, a helmet and pads because you guys are going to be tackling me to get to the offering. Okay, so I know that we've been talking about being a doer of the word, right? Does anybody know? Yes, I'm a doer. I'm a doer. I'm a doer of the word of God. Very good. I'm glad that my kids uh television entertainment has, you know, produced this wonderful thing for all of us to learn. So, what we haven't talked about though is the words do not. Oh. Oh. Okay. So, I was listening to somebody speaking

13:54 the other day and they said the words do not and then followed it up with, you know, do not do something. And I was just like, wow. Do you know that there's two ways that you can think about the words do not? There's one way, which is, you know, what we normally think about is do not touch that, do not do this, do not, you know, stop what you're about to do and don't do it. Okay? So, you know, kids about to touch a hot stove, do not do that. and they'll stop hopefully, right? In theory, they're supposed to. Okay. So there's the cease c s c s c s c s c s c s c s c s c s c s cessation of action right? So that's one way. But when I heard it the other day, what I heard was do not. It was an act or an

14:41 action of not doing. It was instead of just don't do it, it was do not meaning do the opposite. Go in the other direction. Have the action occurring. Right? Because that word do is there. It doesn't mean just stop. It means do something else. Right? So we shouldn't just simply stop the action. We have to actively pursue in the opposing direction of that action. Right? So being a doer of the word also means being a do not of the word. We do we do not do what the the what the word tells us to do not do. Right? So let's look an

15:28 example of this in Matthew. Matthew chapter 6 and verses 25 through33. It sounds like a lot but I'll read it quick. Don't worry about it. Matthew chapter 6 verses 25 through3. You've all heard it. For this reason I say to you, this is Jesus speaking. Do not be worried about your life as to what you will eat or you will drink, nor for your body as to what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air that they do not sow or reap, nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly father feeds them. Are you not worth much more than they? That tells you that you are. Okay, so if you have any problem with selfworth, this tells you that you are worth it, right?

16:17 And who of you being worried can add a single hour to his life? That means that worry gets you nowhere. So why do it? I have a sign up in my bathroom that says, "Why worry when you can pray?" Uh, I thought that was good. And why are you worried about clothing? Observe how the liies of the field grow. They do not toil, nor do they spin. Yet I say to you that not even Solomon in all his glory clothed himself like one of these. But if God so clothe the grass of the field, which is alive today and tomorrow is thrown into the furnace, will he not much more clothe you, you of little faith? Do not worry then, saying, "What will we eat? What will we drink? What will we wear for clothing? For the Gentiles eagerly seek all these things, for your heavenly Father knows that you

17:03 need all these things." But, and this is the good news for us, he does not just tell us what to do not. He tells us what to do instead. And he says, "But instead, seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you." So that's good news. He doesn't tell us not to do something and then just leave us hanging and say, "You know what? Figure it out." No, he gives us an entire instruction manual on what to do instead. Right? So if you looked at Romans, Romans chapter 12, that's all through there. Do not be conformed by the world, but be transformed. Instead of being conformed, be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Uh do not curse, but rather bless.

17:52 Um do not be overcome by the world, but overcome evil with good. Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good. So instead of the one, do the other. Don't just stop with the one. Don't just stop your action, pursue the other. Right? So, let's look at Matthew chapter 21 and verse verses 21 and 22. This I know that uh everybody knows, but you don't know that you know it because all we always look at Mark 11, but this is the Matthew version of it because it's more concise. So, and it says in Matthew 21:es 21 and 22, and Jesus answered and said to them, truly I say to you, if you have faith,

18:38 so this is the do. If you have faith and do not doubt, so we're going to run from the doubt and head toward the faith, you will not only do what was done to the fig tree, but even if you say to this mountain, be taken up and cast into the sea, it will happen. And all things that you ask in prayer, believing, you will receive. That's a good promise, isn't it? So, what is faith? How do we how do we express faith? Through our words and actions. So if we are going to be do not of the word and be doers of the word,

19:24 right? Then it will result in what you will see in our life is that through our words and our actions. That's how you're going to know whether you are being that doer of the word. It will be seen in your life and as a result of your words and actions, you will have the results of the promises that were given in the word in our instruction manual. Right? So when we are walking in faith, when we are trusting God, when we are totally relying upon God, we're doing that because we know the word, right? And when we're doing the word, we're automatically walking in faith, trust, and total reliance upon God. So when we're doing that, it shows up in our

20:10 words and actions, and we act like we believe that the word is true. Do you believe that the word is true? Then act like it, right? So, we know that if we're acting like it, that we believe that we're blessed when we give. That God loves a cheerful giver. That God provides seed to the sewer. But not just seed to the sewer, he also provides bread for the eating. Right? All of our needs are provided for. We live in perfect peace. If you're not living in perfect peace, check your doer, right? We we have the fullness of the love of God in us. If you're not walking in the fullness of love, check your doer.

20:57 Right? So, we know that if we're not seeing these things in our lives, then there's something that we need to be looking at in our lives, and it's our doing. And go through the Bible and see where it says do not. And then find out what it says to do instead. Don't just stop. If you're stopping, then nothing's happening, right? We need to pursue the opposite direction. Instead of fear, we walk in faith. Instead of doubt, we walk in faith and believing and trust and reliance upon God. Amen. So, let's go ahead. If you've prepared to give this morning, let's go ahead and stand together and let's declare some things together.

21:51 If you want to go ahead and put those declarations up on the screen, we'll all say them together. I declare that I am always and continuously pursuing a deeper and more intimate relationship with God through the help of his spirit and by the authority given to me by Jesus. I declare that I listen intently to and obey quickly each and every direction God gives me. Because of this, in faith, I declare I am prospering in every area of my life, spirit, soul, and body. I sow in faith, and I reap in joy. I will

22:39 have more than enough to meet every need, to pay every debt, and to be a big blessing to a lot of people. I am not running out. I am running over in Jesus' name. What he has done for others, he is doing for me, and greater things than these shall I see. All the glory be to my good God. I am getting my buildings, my lands, my houses, my vehicles, and my equipment. All of my debts are being reduced and eliminated. God is bringing into my hands seed, even some great big whopper chunk seed. Amen. Hallelujah.

23:27 Well, we thank you, Lord, for this opportunity to give to you this morning. We thank you that we can be doers of the word. And as we are doers of the word, we know that we have complete faith and trust and reliance upon you to fulfill your end of the bargain. Thank you, Lord, that you are faithful and just in all areas. As we give to you this morning, we give out of our love for you. We thank you Lord that you bless this and it goes out into the community into the world around that it wouldn't just stay here that this these resources would be used to further your kingdom here and around the world in Jesus name. Amen. Ashers, you can go ahead and serve the people.

24:26 Hallelujah. Praise the Lord. Praise the Lord. Praise the Lord. the lovely pulpit. Isn't it pretty? Plenty of room. Lots of lots of room. Praise God. Well, it's good to see everybody this morning. Yeah. Amen. Good to be seen. That's right. Well, we're gonna do what we always do when I'm up here. What is that? What do we do?

25:17 Oh, okay. Hey, praise God. That's good. Yeah. So, we're going to talk about the vision of New Harvest Church because it's important that we consistently keep that in front of us, right? because it's important how we answer people out there. When they ask, "What is New Harvest Church about?" You'll be able to answer them. Amen. So, our motto here is to train, equip, and send. And the vision of New Harvest Church is to present every person perfect in Christ Jesus according to Colossians 1:28. Hallelujah. And our mission and our purpose here at New Harvest Church is to

26:04 train believers to walk in the fullness of God for their lives by developing their unique gifts and callings so they can effectively go out, win souls, and disciple others. Amen. We don't stop at just winning souls. We are we are commissioned to go and make disciples, right? Amen. All right. Praise God. Well, we've uh we've we've been on a roll here. Uh we started talking about uh maturity in the word opens is a key that opens the flow of the spirit. It unlocks the flow of

26:49 the spirit. Maturity in the word. And the first day that I talked about it, I had 10 points and really thought I was going to get through all 10 of them. And well, we are on point four today. And this is three weeks into this. So, praise God. Uh, the first one we talked about was cultivating a heart that honors the word. That was the first point we talked about. And the second was to be filled daily with the Holy Spirit. I don't know about you, but I need him every day. Amen. Every day. Every single day. Don't go a day without acknowledging the Holy Spirit in your life and what he is to you. Amen. And

27:35 then last time, last week, we talked about feeding consistently on the word. Kind of hard to be a doer of the word if you don't feed on the word. Amen. So, we finally made it to point number four. Uh, and today we're going to be talking about meditate and speak the word. Uh, last week I I said that no matter what belongs to us in Christ, no matter what belongs to us, we will only partake of it to the measure that we're interested. I'm repeating this because it's going to go right along with what we're going to talk about today. You have to be interested in what God has for you. That's right. If you're not interested, he he he's already provided it to you,

28:22 but you've got to seek it out. But if you're not interested in it, you'll never partake of it. Never. Uh you have to give God's word priority in your life. Numeto uno. Priority. Don't know what priority is in Spanish, but numero uno is number one. You have to give his word number one priority in your life to be able to fully receive what he has already provided. Amen. So, uh, in you have to consistently feed on the word because it keeps your spirit strong, your mind renewed, and your heart sensitive to God. That's important that all three of those things are working in your life. Amen. Amen. So,

29:10 meditation and speaking, they go hand in hand. And they go together, right? Right. You can't separate one from the other. You can't. Biblical meditation isn't silent. Amen. Biblical meditation is not silent. It involves muttering. It involves speaking and repeating the word. Now, you're going to hear a lot of repeating today because it's important that we get this. If you don't meditate on the word and learn how to start speaking it out loud, you're never going to get to the next point, which is number five, which we will not get to today. Uh, but it's being a doer of the word.

29:55 Imagine that. That we can talk about this 10 10 weeks in a row and then start over at number one and you would still learn something new. We will always talk about the word. We will always give word first priority. We will always be teaching on the importance of what the word is in your life. Sure. Why? Because that's that's God's power. His power is his word. If you want his power to work in your life, get in his word. Amen. Amen. All right. So, you renew your mind by meditating daily on the word. You can't live a renewed life with an unrenewed mind. That's right. It's not possible. Amen. You cannot live a renewed life with an unrenewed mind.

30:41 How often are you supposed to renew your mind? Every day. All day. I would put in there all day. Every day. Always consistently be pondering and thinking and muttering and speaking that word all throughout your day. Right? Meditation is the renewal process. That's what the renewal process is. Meditation. How else are you going to be able to renew your mind? If you don't have it going around and around and around in your mind and in your heart, you're never going to be able to renew your mind, right? Meditation is spiritual training, right? Just like physical exercise, right? It builds your

31:27 inner strength and your sensitivity to hear his voice for your life. He will speak to you through his word. And when your mind is renewed to the word, you open your heart up and and give him room to speak to you. Sure. That's important. Don't you want to hear the voice of God? Right. Hallelujah. Thank you, Jesus. So when you meditate, it gives your spirit the dominion over your mind and body. That is the that is the order the way the order of things should be. Your spirit should be ruling and reigning your mind and your body. But it was totally upside down in the world. We live according to the lust and the flesh of our body. We answer to the cravings

32:14 that the desires that we have instead of allowing the spirit to take control. Allowing the spirit to take control. Do you know how you do that? You renew your mind to the word of God. You meditate on the word of God. Amen. Amen. So when you meditate, it prepares you to receive from God. Meditating is the preparation to receive from God. I don't know about you, but I want to receive from him every day. I don't want it to be a once a month experience or a once a year experience or once every 20 year experience. That's not enough for me. That's not enough for me. Amen. Uh, and if if that's enough for you, then you know that's on you, but that's

33:00 not enough for me. Right? It'll quiet your mind, open the heart, and position you to receive direction, correction, and revelation. Yes, I added correction there because he so lovingly corrects us through his word. Sure, he does. And I delight in it. Amen. I have come to delight in the correction from God because I know he loves me. I know he loves me there. You couldn't convince me otherwise. I know he loves me. So if he's telling me, Farah, that was ugly. Don't do that again. Thank you, Lord. Thank you, Father. Thank you for loving me. Thank

33:46 you for correcting me. I receive that and I'm going to change that. Hallelujah. That's what you do. You got to get to that point. You can't look at correction as something horrible or something that's not right because that's God. Praise God that he loves us enough to correct us, right? Amen. Hallelujah. So, if you would if you would get to that point where you lovingly uh where you enjoy being corrected, I wouldn't say enjoy, but you delight in it. Why? Because that's his word. And if you delight yourself in his word, he's going to bring correction to you. You don't know it all. I don't know it all. And I don't want to pretend like I do. I want to be able to learn and grow and mature

34:32 in the word each and every day. And if that means I got to crucify my flesh just a little bit, then that's okay. Then that's what it takes, right? Amen. All right. So when you rarely meditate, you create a spiritual atmosphere where God can speak clearly. So when you don't receive that correction, you don't correct the things that he corrects you for that. Then all what you're doing is you're gunking up that that as Melody puts it, pipeline. I love that. There's just no I don't know any other way to put it. that pipeline if it's clean then the direction that he gives you, the revelation that he gives to you, it

35:17 comes clearly. There's no question about it. But if it's gked up with stuff where you're not willing to let go of things, you're not willing to be corrected. Uh it's not going to get to you clearly, is it? It's going to have to go through all that mess and then you're going to get it the wrong way. You're going to perceive things wrongly. You're going to look at things wrongly. Right. Okay. So, we're going to go to Joshua. Let's put some scripture to it. Let's go to Joshua 1:8. Let's get scripture. In the Amplified Classic, it says, "This book of the law shall not depart out of your mouth, but you you shall meditate on it day and

36:03 night, that you may observe and do according to all that is written in it." Right? For then you shall make your way prosperous. And then you shall deal wisely and have good success. So what does it take to make your way prosperous? To deal wisely and have good success. Meditate. Meditating on the word day and night. Day and night. Right. Hallelujah. Um, we have a a JB Rotherham, the Emphasized Bible. Do you have that one? Did I send that over? So, it says, "Then you must talk to

36:49 yourself day and night." That's me putting my words into the thou and therein. You need to speak to yourself day and night. Not like a crazy person, but speak the word. Speak the word day and night. Uh, in the New American Bible, it says, "Recite it day by day and by night." What does recite mean? Speak. Speak. What does recite mean? Speak. You got to say the word day and night.

37:35 Uh, and then the Ronald Knox Old Testament, newly translated from the Latin B Vulgate. Uh, that's the name of it. It says, "The law you have in writing must govern every utterance." What does utterance mean? Speak the law that you have in writing. What is that? The word you have it in writing. It must govern every utterance you speak. Everything that you speak, that's got to govern it night and day. You have

38:20 to ponder over it so as to carry out all the terms of it faithfully so you'll be guided. So you will guide your steps truly and prosper. The word has to govern everything that comes out of your mouth. There you go. You have sat here in these services long enough and have been in the word with us at least on Sundays long enough that you know that if you do something or you say something and it's not according to what the word of God says, you know that the that it's not governing what you say, right? You

39:06 already know that. So, this is what we're doing. This we're trying to help you get past that. by teaching on it and show you how important it is for you to speak his word. That's usually where people get caught up at. They don't they they don't get to that point because they feel weird about it, right? You just you do when you first start doing it, you're like, "Okay, this just sounds weird." But there's there's a reason why we do that. Okay? I'm gonna get to that in just a minute. Uh so it said shall not depart out of your mouth. So if the word is not to depart

39:51 out of your mouth, what does that mean? It means it should always be on your lips, right? You should always be speaking his word. When you come across situations in your day, what do you speak? What comes out of your mouth? Do you speak the word? Does that where you go to first? Or do you speak carnally? If you're speaking carnally over situations, that means your mind just needs to be renewed. That's basically what that means. That means you haven't renewed your mind in that area. Right? So, renew your mind in what? The word of God. If you have to have scriptures to take along with you along your day, then do that. Whatever it takes. Amen.

40:39 Why? Because meditation builds revelation. And you are not going to be able to change some certain things in your life and areas in your life and mature in certain areas of your life until you get that revelation for yourself. That's right. You cannot go off somebody else's faith. You can't go off somebody else's revelation. I've learned that. I've learned to just shut everything off and get in his presence and get my own revelation. And isn't it wonderful when that happens because it will change you. Absolutely. It will absolutely change you. And then nobody can come and say anything against what you he just revealed to you and you'll be like, "Uh-uh. Nope. That ain't what God showed me." Amen. Amen. Hallelujah. All right.

41:28 Let's go to Psalms one. Let's go to Psalms 1. We're going to read verse two and three. This scripture came alive to me in my alone time with the Lord. He told me, I've I've said this to you guys before, but he told me this year I was to read John chapter 15 every single day for this year. every day along with the other other things that I'm reading in the word but John chapter 15 every day and what it has done is give me revelation in in the book of John chapter 15 but then it has opened my eyes to other parts of the Bible like I

42:13 see the John 15 the abiding I abide in him his words abide in me and and what you receive because you abide in him. I'm seeing that in scripture all over the all over the Bible. Hallelujah. And so now I'll read it and I'll be like, "Praise God. There it is. There's the abiding. Praise God." You know, and so that's what revelation will do. That's my revelation. You know, I mean, it's truth, but it's still my revelation. And now you can't convince me otherwise. You can't convince me that if there's issues going on in your life, if there's if your words are not coming out right, uh the issue is you're not abiding. You're not abiding in him and his words are not abiding in you. So, how do you fix it?

43:02 Get in his word. Get in his word. Fellowship, right? Fellowship right with him in his word and prayer time. Okay. So Psalms 1, two, and three in the Amplified Classic, it says, "But his delight and desire are in the law of the Lord." Whose delight and desire? Whose? Yours? Yours. Your delight and your desire are in the law of the Lord. And on his law, the precepts, the instructions, the teachings of God, he habitually meditates. What does habitually mean? always, all the time, always punders and studies by day and by

43:51 night. There's that by day and by night again. And he shall be like a tree firmly planted and tended by the streams of water, ready to bring forth its fruit in its season. Its leaf also shall not fade or wither. And everything he does everything he does shall prosper and come to maturity because that is our that is our ultimate goal to come to full the fullness of the maturity in Christ Jesus. Right? So I have not given this to you. So just listen up because I added these uh this morning. It's Psalms 1:2 in the Norly

44:38 translation. Okay. In the Norly translation, it says, "But whose greatest pleasure is in the law of the Lord?" Greatest pleasure is in the law of the Lord. So that day and night he recites this law to himself. you are. It's such a pleasure to you to get into his word that you can't help but speak it day and night. Right. Hallelujah. So in the James Muppet, the New Testament containing the Old and New Testaments, that's the name of the translation. It says, "He finds his joy in the Eternals law, capital E.

45:25 He finds his joy in the eternal law pouring over it day and night. Your joy is found in his word because that's Jesus. He supplies our joy. His joy is our joy. But you're not going to get that unless you're getting in the word. Amen. uh or you're not going to grow it, you're not going to cultivate it. So, uh in the message Bible, it says it this way. Instead, you thrill to God's word. Are you thrilled about God's word?

46:11 Amen. And then it says this, you chew on it. You chew on scripture day and night. Day and night. Rebecca's laughing. She knows what's happening. Um, I'm gonna I'm gonna say a couple more things before we get to that though. Don't throw it up yet. Um, so that word delight is key to understanding the heart posture of the righteous person. Your heart posture. Delight. Are you delighted in the [Music]

46:58 word? I'm not gonna answer for you. You can answer for yourself and be honest with yourself about it. But are you delighted? Do you find pleasure? Do you wake up in the morning and can't wait to get in his word and talk to him about it and find revelation for your life? Find instruction for your life? Find correction for your life because you need correction. We all need correction to help us stay on that path that he has for us. Amen. Right. I I don't want to be that person that's always getting off course and then having to be pulled back in by more dramatic ways. I I'm good with that.

47:43 I'm good with that. I've had enough of those in my life, right? I want to get in his word and find out what I need to do for my life today. Show me, Lord. show me what I need to do, what path I need to take, where I need to go, what I need to say. And I promise you, he will talk to you if you are listening. If you're in his word day and night, and you find delight, you find pleasure, you find joy in his word, right? That that's a different heart posture, right? I know this is not like the most exciting thing you've ever heard taught on, but let me explain to you how important this is that this step becomes

48:31 a part of your life. If you don't have these things operating in your life, you need to find those those areas. You need to find that joy, that delight, that that u thrilling, that pleasure of getting in his word. I'm telling you. I'm telling you why. Because it's important. It's important that you care about what he's provided for you. That you thrill about what he's provided you. That you take pleasure in what he's provided for you. He wants you to He want Okay, let's put it this way. Have you ever uh put something in a crockpot in the morning

49:18 and then you and then you smell it all day long and all you can think about that day is having it's going to be good like that meal is going to be amazing, right? And you think about that all day long. You take delight and you're going to have pleasure when you eat that, right? Amen. That's the same thing with his word. That same feeling that you have for something like that is the same feeling that he wants you to have towards his word. I'm telling you, you got to change how you're looking at the word. When you look at it as a pleasure and a delight, you know

50:04 what's going to happen? You're going to run after it. You're going to find ways. You're going to find moments during your day to get in his word, to read his word, to speak his word. You're going to look for those for those opportunities to do that. And if he tells you that day to only look at one scripture and and meditate on that all day long, speak it over and over. Speak it over and over. Not just look at it. You can't just look at it. You got to speak it. That's right. Amen. Okay. Um, it's not enough to just hear the word once. It's not. And if you have that mindset, I've

50:49 done heard this scripture. I've done heard this taught. Well, just stick around. You'll learn something. You're going to learn. Look at your neighbor and say, "You're going to learn something [Laughter] today." Because here's what you have to do. You have to turn it over, chew on it, and speak it until light comes. What do I mean by that? I mean when it just it just lights up in your in your spirit. You're when revelation comes. Absolutely. And sometimes you don't get that the first time you read it. You got to meditate on it. You got to speak it. You got to ponder on it. Right. And when that light comes, you're like,

51:34 "Oh, yeah. That's what that meant." Praise God. Get you get excited about it. I do anyway. It's like chew and cut. Anybody know what chewing cut is? Yeah. There you go. You're [Laughter] welcome. You bring it back up and you rehearse it until it becomes real and alive inside of you. Leave that picture up there for them to look at. We're going to talk about it for a minute. Found some interesting facts about chewing the cut. Interesting. I never knew these things. So, cows are ruminants, which

52:21 means they have a specialized stomach with four compartments. They have four stomachs, y'all. Four. We have one. So, um, they eat the grass or the hay and then they swallow it quickly with minimal chewing. Okay, that's the first thing that they do, which you can take that in the spiritual side and the word of God and you're reading a whole bunch of stuff and you're just glancing at it. It's still you're still you're still chewing on it. It's still going down, but it it didn't really do what it was supposed to do right the first time, right?

53:09 So, uh then number two, um it goes through a fermentation and then number three, they regurgitate it. They regurgitate it. I know it sounds gross, but that's what cows do. And it's amazing that they just know what to do. They're just, you know, God made them so special that, you know, he put that in them. You got to regurgitate this stuff back up and chew on it some more to be able to process it fully. Right? So, but the the cow regurgitates say, "Bring it back up. Bring it back up." That word that you just flew through and and read that morning. Uh, this is my

53:55 morning. This is my morning scripture. and you read it and you're in a hurry and you're going about your day and you don't even think about it the rest of the day, you're going to have to start bringing it back up. You're going to have to start regurgitating the word. Okay? You're gonna remember this because that cow is going to be implanted in your mind and it it regurgitates it back up in small amounts of the partly digested food back into its mouth. And then the cow chews it thoroughly this time. Okay. The second round of chewing breaks it down even more. And then after chewing it, it goes back down and it goes into the other two

54:41 stomachs to go through the fully the full fullness of the process of of digesting what it ate. Okay? Are you with me? Uh so it it it improves Here's a fun fact. Here's a fun fact. We're gonna talk about this for a second. If a cow stops chewing its cud, it may be a sign of illness or digestive problems. So, if you have if you have areas in your life that you you don't think that you have enough faith for, you have areas in your life where you're believing for the

55:26 manifestation of something that's not happening or you have areas in your life where there's sickness, there's disease, you know, digestive problems means clogging. It could mean extreme running. Either way is not good, right? So, you need to chew on the good. It's not that you have a faith problem. It's that you have a word problem. Why? How does faith come? And hearing by the word of God. It's not that you have a faith problem. It's that you have a word problem. You're not in the word.

56:12 Well, I read the Bible every single morning, but you're not you're not letting it get past that first process. You're swallowing it quickly, and you're moving on. You're not allowing it to come back up in your spirit. You're not chewing on it. You're not digesting it. You're not thinking on it. You're not pondering on it. You're not allowing time to be able to have revelation of that scripture for it to come alive inside of you and you be able to speak it out and have the power that comes with that revelation. Because when you have a revelation of something in your life from the word of God and you speak that out loud, I promise you the power will flow. Amen. And it will happen. Come on. Okay. So, a healthy cow can

56:59 chew cud for up to eight hours a day. So, I challenge you guys to chew the cud eight hours a [Laughter] day. Yeah. Be a healthy cow. Don't be a Don't be a sick cow. Um, I know in in the Old Testament, uh, animals that chew the cud, which is obviously more than cows, um, they were they were clean under the Old Testament law, right? He gave this physical requirement to Israel, but it also paints a spiritual picture for us today as I just painted that for you. Amen. Okay. So you want to make sure you get

57:45 all the nutrients, all the minerals, all the things that that word has. You want to make sure that you get all of that out of there. You chew on that word as long as you need to chew on it until it becomes a revelation in your life because that's where power is. That's where change happens, right? Is in the revelation. You have to get that revelation for yourself, though, okay? You can't live off somebody else's. It's good for a season. It'll work for a season, but it's not going to stand the test of time because there's going to be something that comes against you, comes your way, and because it wasn't a revelation to your life, it's

58:33 not going to stand. You're not going to fully believe it because it wasn't a revelation to you. I promise you when you have revelation about the word of God, it changes how you when something comes against it. Uh-uh. Not today. That ain't mine. You ain't bringing it this way. It's not happening. You need to go on your way. You got to answer. You got to answer those things that come against you. You have to answer it with the word of God. Just like Jesus did in Luke chapter 4. He answered. He answered with the word of God. Right. Okay. Okay, we're going to move on about chewing the cud. I thought that was pretty interesting. Maturity comes not just

59:20 from reading, but from meditation, pondering the word, letting it renew your mind. Speaking it strengthens your inner man and aligns your thoughts. That's right. Speaking strengthens your inner man and aligns your thoughts. To have your inner man strengthened is so important. You cannot rely on somebody else's prayer to pray for you that day. To have your inner man strengthened. If you're going through something, you have to strengthen your inner man by speaking the word. Amen. When you speak the word, it's completely different.

1:00:07 It's completely different. It will align your thoughts with your words. Well, it just sounds weird when I speak. Well, get over it. Get over it and just do it more. I promise you, after the first few times that you do it, you're g and you feel the difference that it that it causes you when you speak, it does something to you, right? and it strengthens you and it gives you that confidence when you speak those things. You have to speak the word. You have to start speaking the word. So it you don't have to be in a hurry. Something that he has shown me over the last this last since the first of the year is I don't have to be in a

1:00:52 hurry. I don't have to rush through uh what I'm reading. I don't have to rush through and and I just need to take my time. Especially if he's leading you to take your time. There's a reason why he's telling you to slow down. You need to go ahead and slow down and find out what he's trying to show you. It's important for your life. It's important for your life that you find out what he's trying to show you. Amen. So take time to quietly read and reread a scripture until it sinks in. Picture the word. Visualize yourself doing it,

1:01:39 acting it out, working it out. Visual. I'm a visual person. So, and and in in my when I'm reading the word, I have like a movie I have like a movie trailer going on in my head as I'm reading the word. It's just the way he works with me, right? So, as I'm reading it, I'm in I see myself doing these things as I'm reading what he what is in his word. But you know what? When you do those things, when you visualize yourself doing the word and you visualize yourself doing that, it gives you uh it personalizes it for

1:02:24 you, right? It makes it more personal instead of just looking at this as something that was done in the Old Testament, things that were done when Jesus was on the earth, the apostles were here, doesn't doesn't apply to me. Oh, but it does. So, when you personalize it and you're visualizing you doing it, not the person in there doing it. When you visualize it, it personalizes it for you. makes it more real to you. Right now, thank you for one person for saying amen. Uh, insert your name into the what you're reading. Okay. So, uh like uh

1:03:12 where it says you more than a conqueror. Pharaoh is more than a conqueror. I am more than a conqueror in Christ Jesus. Amen. insert your name into it to help personalize it. When you speak those things and you put your name or you into it, it makes it more real to you. Amen. Biblical meditation includes speaking the word to yourself over and over and over and over and over again for the rest of your life here on this earth. Right? Ask questions. Ask God. If you don't

1:03:58 understand him, what it's saying, ask him because he loves to talk about his word. He loves to. And if you're asking a question about it, that's not being disrespectful to God. It's saying, "Go, God, I don't understand. What does this mean? Help me see it. I promise you, he will show you." Um, ask ask about uh what belongs to you as you're reading a verse. So, what belongs to me as I'm reading this? What what belongs to me? Because there's things that belong to you in the word of God that you're not taking hold of or have not taken hold of for your life that you need to. And you got to seek it out like treasure. You got to seek it out like

1:04:45 you're you're digging for treasure. Anybody ever played that when you were young outside X marks a spot? I mean, I did. I was a tom boy growing up. So, anything outside, digging, whatever. We did. We had treasure maps. We made up our own treasure maps and everything. There was never no treasure, but you know, it was fun doing it. He wants you to do that in looking in the word. You have to seek after it like treasure because it is treasure. It is treasure and he's not hiding it from you. He's hiding it for you. Right? Stay with it. Stay with the word.

1:05:33 So speaking the word, you have to speak boldly and regularly. You have to you got to speak it with boldness and regularly. Okay. Confess the word out loud, not just in your mind. It's okay to con to to let it roll around in your mind, but you got to confess it. I'm telling you, it takes it up to another level when you start confessing it. If you think that you can get through the rest of your life on this earth by just thinking those things, never speaking these things out loud, never talking about them. You're g you're going to end up where you're going to have a hard time

1:06:19 because you never got to the point where a revelation was was brought to your life through the word. You're not you don't have the boldness. You don't have the authority. you don't and there and when things come against you, it's, you know, it's not going to be good. So, that's not what I want for your life, right? It's not what I want for your life. I want to see you growing and maturing in the word. And to be able to do that, you've got to learn how to start speaking, confessing the word. Okay? I know this is a popular subject, but that's okay. We're going to keep talking, aren't we? Not just today either. We're going to keep on talking about it. Just wait till I get to the being a doer of the word. She just gives you little nuggets. We're gonna have fun with that. That may be more than one Sunday thing,

1:07:06 too. Hallelujah. So, if you believe it, you'll say it, if you believe it enough in your spirit, you'll you'll say it, won't you? You voice other things you believe in, don't you? We're we're very vocal people, aren't we? There you go. This world is especially nowadays very vocal. That means that they when they are vocal about it and loud about it and go to the extreme, that means they believe in it. You should be speaking the word in the exact same way. You should believe in it so much that you'll shout it out to the world. Amen. Amen. All right.

1:07:55 Confession. Speaking in agreement with God's word, because that's what confessing the word is. You're speaking in agreement with his word. It's not just about admitting sin. It's about releasing faith, aligning your heart and words with God's truth, okay? And activating spiritual realities in your life. When you speak and confess his word, you are activating spiritual realities in your life. It's his listen, his faith is is voice activated, right? Amen. You can't just have faith and never speak it. That's right. I

1:08:41 mean, that that's a carnal faith. We all have carnal faith, right? The spiritual faith is voice activated. Anyway, God's power is voice activated. Okay? When you speak the word, you give the power of God something to work with. You give the power of God something to work with. Amen. Amen. The Greek word for confess in the New Testament, East Tennessee Bible Training Center, people, some of y'all could answer that. It's O and it means to say the same thing to say the same thing. So when you

1:09:30 confess, you are saying the same thing, okay? To agree with God, it's declaring what God has said about you, about your situation or his promises. And you should be declaring those things. If you are dealing with uh issues with identity, you better find you some in Christ scriptures and start speaking those scriptures out loud. You should start declaring those things till you get so excited about it when you say it that you just can't help but do a happy dance wherever you are. Amen. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. So, confession strengthens your hope and keeps you anchored in faith. Amen. Would

1:10:17 you like to be anchored in faith? Okay. Confess the word. It's a way of holding fast to what God has said, even when circumstances contradict it. Because I promise you, circumstances will always contradict your faith. The enemy will always put thoughts to you that contradict what you are believing for and standing for and confessing and saying. He's always going to. That's why it's important that you anchor your faith with the word of God. You've got to that way when he comes at you, you can immediately answer it with the word of God. Say, "Nuhuh, devil." Nope. You're not bringing this to me. The word of God

1:11:02 says this, so you might as well just go on your way. Uh, you ain't talking to somebody that don't know something about the word. If you don't know the word, you better get to know the word. Because you know what's going to happen when he hears that authority coming out in your voice? What's he going to do? He's going to flee because you've submitted yourself to God and his word and he has to flee. He has no choice. Amen. Hallelujah. Doesn't matter what it is. I don't care. There's nothing bigger than God. That's right. We are the ones that make mountains out of mole hills. And a lot of times we're making them bigger mountains instead of mole hills when his word says we can speak to it and tell it

1:11:47 to move. That's how it was created. By speaking it. You created it. You got to speak it. You got to speak it down. Amen. All right. Confession activates what you believe. Confession activates what you believe. Okay. Confession activates spiritual authority. Speaking to situations. We talked about that. Answering those situations with the word of God. If you have to find scriptures for every situation, for who you are in Christ Jesus, for health, for peace, for anxiety, for whatever it is, if you need to write some scriptures down to have with you during the day to be able to speak them out loud when he comes at you

1:12:34 with contradiction, as he will, then do that. Whatever it takes for you to make sure that you are speaking the word out loud, confessing his word, you are coming into agreement with his word. Amen. All right. Confession is either building or tearing down your life by what you consistently speak. You're either tearing it down or you're building it up. Hebrews 11:3 faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God framed. When we speak God's word by faith, we're cooperating with the same creative force that frame the

1:13:22 worlds. When we speak God's word by faith, we are cooperating with the same creative force that frame the worlds. Okay? bringing things into alignment, setting your life in order, and calling forth what God has already purposed for your life. He has already written your life. You and this is something I've shared with a couple of you, but our our thought process, our mind should be on the expected end. The expected end is you already are in victory, right? You are already healed. you are already prosperous. Your mind needs to stay on the expected end and trust God for the now. Amen. If you don't stay on

1:14:08 the expected end, that means you're pulling back those things from God and saying, "I know better. I can do this better than you. You're not doing it right. It's not happening fast enough for me." Right? Keep your mind on the expected end and trust God for the now. Amen. Amen. Amen. And that's how your speech should be. Should always be the expected end. Always. One of the most powerful weapons that we have is testifying of what the blood has done for us. [Laughter] Man, I'm telling you what, not only does it uh empower you to repeat what he has done through his blood that he died for

1:14:55 on the cross for us, but it testifies to other people of his goodness and his mercy and his love and and it gives them hope. That's what we're supposed to be doing anyway, right? Is giving people hope. Hallelujah. So don't keep things testify. You overcome by the blood of the lamb and the word of your testimony. You don't bring it up to boohoo about it and cry about it and it's in the past. It's under the blood. But praise God, it's going to help somebody when you testify on it. Don't stop at what you what was going on in your life. Don't stop there. move forward with what God did for you and

1:15:41 now you are right. Amen. And the what the blood did for you. Amen. I think he I think he cares about that. I think he I think when we get to heaven, he's going to ask, "What did you tell people about my blood? What did you tell people about uh the testimony? Did you did you speak on it?" You think that's important to him? If it's in his word, I think it's important, right? All right. Praise God. Faith is released through words, right? 2 Corinthians 4:13, we believe, therefore we speak. Amen. We believe, therefore we speak. and APC it says yet we have the same

1:16:29 spirit of faith as he had who wrote I have believed and therefore have I spoken we too believe and therefore we speak so if you're not speaking it's just showing you that you're not believing because if you believed it you'd be speaking it amen uh the Kenneth Reese translation says it like this. But we have the same spirit of faith as the psalmist according as it has been written and is at present on record. I believed, wherefore I spoke. And as for us, we are believing. Wherefore we are also

1:17:15 speaking. We are believing. Which means it tells me that we are continuously believing. Therefore, we should continuously be speaking. Amen. And the Living Bible says it this way. We boldly say what we believe, trusting God to care for us. Trusting God to care for us. You're not going to have trust in God if you're not fellowshipping with him. Amen. If you are not fellowshipping with him and you are not abiding in him and his words are not abiding in you, you will not have trust for him because you don't know him.

1:18:02 You don't know him. If if I were you, I'd get to know him more. Get to know him more because there's going to be transformation in your life when that happens. You You can't help but transform when you abide in him. His words abide in you. You have fellowship with him. You have revelation that comes into your life. You can't help but transform. You delight in his word. You thrill about his word. You have pleasure in his word. You can't help but transform. Amen. And it ain't got nothing to do with me. Has everything to do with my submitting myself to him. Everything. Everything. I want all of me to be gone because that

1:18:50 means more of him and all glory goes to him always. Always. You will never do any of this on your own. Just try it. It ain't going to happen. You'll fail [Laughter] miserably, right? All right. Um trusting God to care for us. I stopped right there. I can't I couldn't help it. Got to trust him. You have to learn to trust him in all things. And if there's areas in your life that you're not trusting him, that means you are not getting in his word about it, about that situation. You're going to have to get in his word. Amen. Amen. Uh just as the psalmist writer did when he said, "I believe and therefore I

1:19:36 speak." Look at your neighbor and say, "I believe." Therefore I speak. Therefore, hallelujah. You have to align your mouth with God's truth. How do you do that? Confession. Confess the word. Right? That's saying the same thing. Okay? Only speak what the word says about your situation, not what feelings say. You you have to get to a point where you are speaking his word over your feelings first. We have to. Amen. We're learning, aren't we? We're growing

1:20:22 and we're maturing in that. Hallelujah. Thank you, Jesus. So, and then you have to use the word like a sword. Oh, yeah. We got plenty of time. I only have 10 more pages. It's okay. I'm just kidding. Maybe nine. Uh let's go to Ephesians 6:17. Ephesians 6:17 in the Amplified Classic says, "And take the helmet of salvation and the sword that the spirit wields, which is the word of

1:21:10 God." The helmet of salvation, it's protection for us, right? It's part of the armor of God. is protection for our heads in the physical. What's in your head? Your mind, your thoughts. The helmet of salvation uh is is your salvation. Helmet of salvation is your salvation. You should be grounded in your salvation. You should know what belongs to you through your salvation. Sure. And when you wear the helmet of salvation, when you put that helmet on, it's keeping you safe. When you know

1:21:58 what belongs to you through your salvation, right? When you know what belongs to you and you know what you have because of it, you can stand on that and you can use it as protection. Amen. It protects the mind. Um it guards your thought life. [Music] Um because listen, where is the enemy going to come at you? He only has one place he can come at you, your mind. Or he he'll try to use people around you if he can't get to your mind. If he's realized that you are uh matured maturing and that's not going to that's not going to work for you anymore because he always comes back with the same thing. He He doesn't know anything

1:22:45 new, right? So, he always comes back with the same thing. And as long as you keep grabbing grabbing hold of it and and running with it, he's going to keep coming back with the same thing until you don't accept it. And then he's going to be like, "Wait a minute. I'm gonna have to try something different." [Music] Um, knowing you are saved and secure in Christ, it protects you from attacks of condemnation or confusion. What is it we say around here? No condo, no bondo, no condemnation, no bondage in the kingdom. So if the thoughts that are coming against you are condemning you

1:23:32 and taking you away from God and fellowship with him, then it is not of God. And you better reject it. You better say, "Nope, not this time, devil. Not this time." All right. So salvation will secure your identity in Christ, who you are in Christ Jesus. You guys have, most of you ladies have those folders that I gave you with all the scriptures of who you are in Christ Jesus. Something that I do personally is I take a scripture out of there and I meditate on it every day and I speak that over my life every day. You could literally go half a year on those

1:24:18 scriptures. There's like 140 plus scriptures. Praise God. But, you know, it's something that helps you. You're like, "Well, I'm moved past that." Well, praise God for you. I'm so so glad you have. I want to make sure that my identity in Christ is solidified and I know that I know that I know who I am in Christ Jesus because that is where transformation takes place. When you know who you are. Come on, somebody. Amen. Um, let's just read it. Romans 8 1 and 2 because that's part of the in in Christ scriptures. It says, "Therefore, there is now no condemnation." I didn't give

1:25:04 it to you, but I'm reading probably the anti-classic. Therefore, there is now no condemnation, no a judging guilty of wrong for those who are in Christ Jesus. That's exciting. who live and walk not after the dictates of their flesh, but after the dictates of the spirit. Which means when you know who you are in Christ Jesus, you will no longer walk according to the flesh. Why? Because you know that those things are displeasing to the Lord. And you're you're you all you want to do is please the Lord. what pleases him, that's what you want to do in your life. What

1:25:49 displeases him, I don't want no more. I don't care what what it requires to let go of it. I don't want it if it displeases him. I don't want it. It's not worth my time. All it does is hinder me. And I don't want hindrance in my life. Amen. So, if you don't know what pleases or displeases him, you better get in the word because in the word it'll show you. Hallelujah. And verse two says, "For the law of the spirit of life, which is where?" In Christ Jesus. Where are you at? You're in Christ Jesus. If you're saved, you right. So if you're in Christ Jesus, the law of the spirit of life has freed you from the law of sin and death, which

1:26:37 means condemnation uh condemnation and bondage are no longer a part of your life. You don't have to stay there. You can come out of there because he's already provided that for you. You just need to believe it so you can speak it and walk in it. Amen. So uh he also talks about it similarly about the hope the helmet of uh salvation in 1 Thessalonians 5'8. You don't have to go there but he calls it the helmet of the hope of salvation. Hope is not wishful thinking here. Okay? That's not what that is. It's a confident expectation. You're confident about it. You know what you have in salvation. You

1:27:25 were provided everything that you need according to life and godliness when you were saved. Amen. Right. Okay. So, uh there was uh something that I read in uh the sparkling gems u I think it's volume I think it's volume one. I'm pretty sure it's volume one. Maybe volume two. There's only two volumes, so it's in one of those. Yeah, read them both. They're great. But Rick Rener talks about um Ephesians 6:17 uh in there, and it's it's very good. You should if you need if you want to uh if you want me to send it to you,

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