The Resting Place

When The Giver Becomes The Gift We Seek

• Ben and Logan Robbins • Season 2 • Episode 6

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What if faith isn’t just belief, but a firm persuasion grounded in who God is and how He feels about you? We dive into Hebrews 11 and Luke 1 to show why every gift from heaven arrives by grace through faith, and how that changes the way we face chaos, lack, and calling. You’ll hear why God’s laughter at the raging world isn’t indifference but confidence in the answer He’s already enthroned: Jesus.

We explore the stories of Abel and Enoch, then shift to Mary’s breathtaking yes. Elizabeth’s line becomes the hinge for the entire conversation: “You are blessed because you believed the Lord would do what He said.” That clarity reframes favor as something that may feel uncomfortable, misunderstood, and beyond your résumé. Yet it’s precisely in those stretching places that grace supplies what experience cannot. We talk about walking on the turbulence that sinks others, about how honor attracts what it esteems, and how a culture of mutual honor destroys comparison while multiplying breakthrough.

Along the way, we get honest about fear, provision, and the temptation to play small. Pain teaches us to hedge our hearts, but perfect love drives out fear so faith can flourish. Expect practical encouragement on agreeing with God’s view of you, stepping before the facts line up, and letting the Holy Spirit teach you in real time. If you’ve been waiting for every prerequisite to click into place, this conversation will nudge you to move your feet and give God real estate to bless.

If this resonated, follow the show, share it with a friend who needs courage, and leave a quick review so more people can find these messages. Your yes might be the spark someone else needs.

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SPEAKER_00:

Hi everyone, I'm Ben. And I'm Hogan, and we're the Robin. Welcome to the Resting Place Podcast. If y'all are catching this on podcast or tuning in to the stream, y'all missed Lance leading us in worship, and y'all really need to be here to experience it because it's incredible. And you there's something lost in translation when you listen via either stream or podcast. We really just do that for the folks that like to catch it later, is really the primary reason we do these. Because that light that we have now is warm and it's gonna make me sweat again today. It's the light, it's gonna make me sweat again. It's the light. It's the ring light. It has to be. I'm gonna claim that. I'm gonna claim that, guys. I'm gonna claim it. I'm gonna claim that until the day that I die that the ring light was warm. Alright. Hebrews 11. We're gonna read 1 through 6. Um and then we're gonna go over to Luke 1. I want to juxtapose something from Hebrews 11 and Luke 1. Um, and we may we may glance at 2 Timothy as well. We'll see. But we're gonna be teaching on faith again today. And I want to, it's been some time now since I have uh taught on the subject of faith, and there's some context and some aspects of faith that I think get overlooked, that I think people miss or things get overlooked. And I've I want to go back to our definition of faith as well, because I have it's been some time since I've reinforced what I believe the definition of faith to be. And Vine's expository dictionary, according to Vine's exporting to Vine's expository dictionary. There we go, faith is a firm persuasion. And now I agree with that sentiment from Vines. I think that's a a strong definition of what faith is. I've heard I've heard ministers call faith trust in God. I don't think that fully explains what faith is. I think there's some nuance between faith and trust that you lose something in translation if we're going to simplify faith down to simple trust. Trust is a vital aspect of our faith life. You can't see the two feed one another. Trust feeds into faith, and faith feeds into trust. These two feed into one another, but I don't think you can simplify faith down into simply calling it trust. I think there's it loses some of its power. It wasn't through trust that the worlds were formed by the voice of God, right? By faith, he opened his own mouth and formed the worlds with his voice. Yahweh uses faith. And when the Bible encourages us to have faith, the Bible's encouraging us the old faith movement, uh, Dad Hagen, who I dearly, dearly love, he's gone to be with the Lord now some years ago, but Dad Hagen would teach just so profoundly on have the God kind of faith. That's what the Bible is teaching us to do. In the New Testament, when it says to have faith, what the word is actually telling us is to have faith, have godlike faith, have the faith that God exercises. And how does one do that? That's have the God kind of faith. That's a really great um exhortation. How do we get there? That was always my question when I'd hear have the God kind of faith. Okay, that's amazing. I love that God has faith. I love that he uses faith, and I love even more that the faith he has is available to me. I love that even more. That's astounding to me that he would make that available to me. Stop momentarily and just think about the openness of Yahweh. How open he is to humanity. That the word says that everything he has, Jesus says it in John 14. Everything the Father has is mine, and I give it to you. Everything the Father has is mine, and I give that to you. Guys, that's astounding. Literally everything that the Father has is available to us. How then do we appropriate the everything the Father has that is then available to us? Because Jesus goes on to say, I'm leaving my I'm leaving a gift with you, my peace. Not as the world gives, do I give unto you, but I give unto you peace that goes beyond understanding. My peace I leave with you. Peace I leave with you, my peace. Not as the world gives, do I give unto you, but I give you my peace. Guys, his peace is available to it. What do you think causes anxiety in the heart of Yahweh? You can read in Psalms 1 about the world's raging and the princes of the earth plotting their rebellion, and you know Yahweh's response? He laughs. It's comedy hour to him. We're sitting here creating entire broadcasts, entire news stations, entire podcasts, entire genres of churches that are based around the evilness of the time and the and the weight of the hour that we live in. And there is some weight to the hour we live in, sure. But Yahweh sits on his holy hill and laughs. And why does he laugh? Because he has enthroned his son as the answer to the world's raging. And if his son is enthroned as the answer to the world's raging, that same son who is enthroned as the answer to the raging of the culture, the raging of the world, and the plotting of the leaders of the earth, he's enthroned is the answer. Everything Yahweh has is his, and he says from his throne, I give it freely to you. Christ in you, the hope of glory. Christ in you, the hope of glory. This, guys, this means that he's setting us up to become the answers as a representative of the answer. The answer to the cultural raging of our hour is Yeshua enthroned above everything else. That's the answer. That's the simple answer. Jesus enthroned over everything. He then turns to his bride and says, Everything the Father has given me, all authority that he's vested in me, all the authority that he's vested in me, all the Jesus, all the peace he's vested into me, the love that he's vested into me, all of his goodness that has been vested into me, the pure light in him is light, and there's no darkness at all. In him is light and there's no darkness at all. All the light that is on the inside of him is given to us. And the answer turns to his answers and says, Go be the answer. This is the answer for the cultural raging. The reason I'm saying this is how does any of this get appropriated? This gets appropriated by grace through faith. Everything that we will receive from heaven comes by grace through faith. Everything. You will not receive anything from heaven outside of grace through faith. This is the process that Almighty Yahweh has chosen in his sovereignty to use in relation to humanity. My grace makes it available and sufficient for you. Then your faith rises to meet my grace, and you receive what I've made available by grace through the faith that I have given to you. Guys, faith is even a gift. All you have to do is receive it. Alright, I'm gonna read just a little bit, and then I've got some some more comments here that uh that I want to make. But Hebrews 11, 1 through 6. Faith is the confidence that what we hope for will actually happen. The confidence that what we hope for will actually happen. I don't love the NLT's um translation on everything, but I actually kind of like the way that it worded that. It's the confidence that what we hope for will actually happen. It gives us assurance about the things we cannot see. Oh, that word right there, assurance. The old church used to sing blessed assurance. Jesus is mine. Being assured of the things that you cannot see. Man. Through their faith, the people in days of old earned a good reputation. Through their faith, the people in old in days of old earned a good reputation. By faith, we understand the entire entire universe was formed at God's command. By faith, the entire universe was formed at God's command. That we now that what we now see did not come from anything that can be seen. By faith, we understand that the entire universe was formed at God's command. That what we now see did not come from anything that can be seen. Oral Roberts founded Oral Roberts University and had a had basically a television ministry before there was such a thing as television ministries. But before he did that, he was one of the most profound preachers of the gospel that the 20th century had seen up to that point. He was a profound teacher of the gospel and held healing crusades. He'd go overseas and hold healing crusades, had one of the strongest healing anointings of anyone in the in the healing revivals. And there were some cats that would do some things. You can go on YouTube and see Jack Koe pull skin cancer off people's face. You can see it on YouTube. I'll I'll watch them. I'll I'll watch those old videos. You watch A.A. Allen videos. I'll occasionally go back through when I want to stir myself up. I'd I'll go back through and get real jealous and watch those guys pull cancer off people's face and cause people that couldn't hear to hear and all the things. You can watch all it's incredible the things on YouTube. You just look it up. You just Jack Ko or A Allen. You can just A A Allen, Jack Koe. Um and then uh R W Shambok is another one, but his are mostly sermons, but they're good to listen to anyway. Just go listen to R W R W, not to get off track, but R W to me is like a like a just look up R R W Shambok. S-C-H-A-M-B-A-C-Hambok. It'll it'll fill in when you start it. But he was that's where my mom and dad, they went to his Bible school, and Bethany's dad.

unknown:

My parents were after they were very big travelers.

SPEAKER_00:

They traveled, yeah. They Mark ran sound for him, right? They got to sit. Mark told me a story one time. Her dad told me a story one time of being in New York when the first documented case of AIDS got healed. A man was in the hospital dying of HIV. RW goes to the hospital, he's there for a crusade, goes to this man's bedside, lays hands on him. I'm I feel the Holy Ghost, lays hands on him in faith, and that man received complete healing from the virus. And this was when HIV was a death sentence. You were dead in a matter of a short time, right at the beginning of the pandemic. And Mark remembers he's like, these people would come and they they were getting healed. People were getting healed of HIV, and he said they'd be sweating, porn sweat, and they'd want to come hug me. And he'd be like, he said it felt so weird. I'm like, I love you, but also I don't know if I can hug you. But the the the Lord used RW in really profound ways. Um, but yeah, she she and I share that that shared um history. Although my folks never traveled with him. I'll bet they saw some crazy things with with RW, but he kind of struts around. No, uh Brother Gray. Brother Gray was the dean. Yep. Yep. So um I don't know why I got off onto that, but I did, and it's good for you. So you can go on there and see that. Or Roberts wrote a book. That's why. Orl Roberts wrote a book called If You Can See the Invisible, you can do the impossible. And I I read that book. That's the tagline of that book all by itself, make you want to chew through a tree. But if you can see the invisible, you can do the impossible. And the thing about Yahweh is nothing's invisible to Yahweh. Yahweh creates things from nothing and gives us the same ability. So it was by faith that Abel brought a more acceptable offering to God, verse 4, than Cain, than Cain did. Abel's offering gave evidence that he was a righteous man, and God showed his approval of his gifts. Although Abel is long dead, he still speaks to us by his example of faith. It was by faith that Enoch was taken up to heaven without dying. He disappeared because God took him. For before he was taken up, he was known as a person who pleased God.

unknown:

Man.

SPEAKER_00:

Man, that story always. That story, what would this pre the flood? This is the anti-deluvian times. And he was so in the presence of God that God just snatched him. Can you imagine what taking a walk with them would have been like? And I want to say this too, just as kind of a just an insert here. We read that, and at least my heart goes to the place. What would that have been like to be there with Enoch as he's walking with Yahweh, and he so pleased the heart of God that God just took him? The pres the presence alone of Yahweh with that man would have been unreal. That same measure of grace is available to us today, and is more accessible to us today on the other side of the finished work of Jesus. Just want to throw that out there. It was by faith that Enoch was taken up without dying. He disappeared because God took him, for he was taken up. Uh for before he was taken up, he was known as a person who pleased God. And it is impossible to please God without faith. And it is impossible to please God without faith. And it is impossible to please God without faith. And it is impossible to please God without faith. Faith pleases God. Anyone who wants to come come to him must believe that God exists and that he rewards those who sincerely seek him. We have right there the playbook for accessing the presence and grace of Almighty Yahweh. You have to believe that he exists and that he is predisposed to blessing you because you seek him. This is why the current teaching of the Western Church is so damaging concerning the nature of God. Because we even subconsciously grow up believing God is a withholder of things from us, and we don't come to him with the appropriate level of faith that he is predisposed to showering gifts on us, to showering grace on us, to showering good things on those who seek him. I remember seeking him in ministry school, half believing he was waiting to smack me when I got there. Half believing that God was ready to bring the hammer down on me because I didn't have my life figured out and I'm doing things I shouldn't be doing. I'm still struggling with mindsets, I'm still struggling with behavior, I'm still struggling with some things, and I know that I'm struggling, and I'm trying to seek God, and I'm half believing that when I get there, he's gonna bring the hammer of judgment down on my head, as though that would be the way that he would cure what was ailing me. Read that again. And it is impossible to please God without faith. Anyone who wants to come to him must believe that God exists and that he rewards those who sincerely seek him, rewards those who sincerely seek him, rewards those who sincerely seek him. Guys, this is I love that he tags this. I love that the writer of Hebrews tags this verse on the back side of Enoch being taken because he pleased God, because it feeds into how Enoch pleased God to the point that God took him. Watch. It was faith that it was by faith, it was by faith that Enoch was taken up to heaven without dying. He appeared because he disappeared because God took him. For before he was taken up, he was known as a person who pleased God. And it's impossible. So watch this. It's impossible to please God without faith. So we know that Enoch was a man of great faith. And what did Enoch have faith in? This gives us the answer right here. What did Enoch have faith in that so pleased the heart of God that God took him without letting him taste death? Which was the reward for Adam's fall? Original sin is not being stained with original sin is not the reward for Adam's fall on humanity. I'm not now standing on the other side of the cross, currently guilty of original sin. I am not. What I am subject to is death. And Jesus came and redeemed even that, so that though I die, I'll live. Jesus redeems death and the oh, he so vested us with his authority on the other side of the cross that we're going to get to deal with every enemy until death is the last enemy to be dealt with. And then when all that's left to be dealt with is the enemy death, Yeshua himself will come. That's when Jesus is coming back, when the only enemy that the church hasn't dealt with left is death, and Jesus himself will come and shut the mouth of death. He's throwing money at me. He's throwing that's right. We need to go visit a Kojik church. Well, I'll be tossing money, I promise. We visited one time, we visited a church that Pop was teaching at. It was a church in Greenville, and they had that culture where people would throw money when something blessed them. And I mean, he got he got going, and everybody was just throwing their wallets up there, like, ma ha ha! I was like, I I want to throw my whole wallet and my car keys up there. You can have that too. Um it was it was fun. That was fun. Um so Enoch, what did Enoch have faith in that so pleased God that God took him? That God wanted to reward Enoch for searching for him. And what was the reward for Enoch's searching? The reward giver. The reward giver is the reward for the searching. There are things that come as a net as a secondary consequence of coming into contact with the reward giver that naturally come to you when you find him. Seek first his kingdom, and all these things will be added unto you. It should say something. Seek first the kingdom, yes. Seek first Yahweh, and all these other things will be added to you as you search for the one who is by nature a giver of reward. Search for the one who is by nature a giver of grace. Search for the one who is by nature a giver of peace. Search for the one who is by nature healer. Search for the one who is by nature one who bestows prosperity on his sons and daughters. Search for the one who by nature brings great grace and great peace, even in the midst of trouble, not necessarily just solving all your problems for you, because there's some grace that comes to you in the middle of troubles. There's some grace that comes to you in the middle of tribulation. There's some grace that comes to you when you walk through some things that are difficult to walk through that mature you in the spirit. But in the middle of it, if you'll seek him, if you'll search him, if search for him, what will then happen is the Jesus, what will then happen is he'll bring to you the necessary pieces to keep you at complete peace, to keep you at complete stillness, to keep your heart settled, to keep you connected to him, to keep your light shining bright in the middle of things trying to extinguish your light. Guys, this is the gift. This is the gift. Yahweh himself is the gift. And Enoch found out that the one who rewards those things that he gives are great, but I'd rather have him. And if he'll add to me the things that he wants to add to me, that will be fine with me. But he far surpasses his gifts even. So, what do we do then with where we are in the process of being convinced? Because that's where I think I am. I'm being convinced. And your subconscious is being convinced, your cellular level is being convinced, your genetic coding is being convinced. Your genetic coding is being convinced, and some things that you are currently predisposed to through adamic genetic coding will be transformed in the presence of Jesus. You can prove that with science. Lou's reading a book that you teaching him you can transform that through presence. You can transform genetic coding through presence. Your genes respond to joy. We know that. We know that. There's scientific evidence that says your genes respond to joy, and he was anointed with the oil of joy more than all his brethren. It says that he was a man of sorrows. I love how Jesus holds this tension together. He was a man of sorrows, acquainted with our suffering, but he's also anointed with joy beyond all of his companions, so he knew how perfectly to hold the tension of grief and grieving and sorrow. We see it when John is beheaded. Jesus withdraws. It so touched him to his core that his cousin had been murdered, that he withdraws to the wilderness to be alone because he wants to wrestle through the ramifications of a man that he loved being murdered. That's why sometimes when we have things happen, man, when we have things like the Charlie Kirk murder and things like that, it's just better to shut your mouth for a little while. I've got some friends that ran to Facebook and ran their mouths, and I'm just like, I don't see any value in what you're doing right now. Adding to the noise and confusing people and shaming people for not thinking like you, it makes no sense. Allow people to withdraw from that and wrestle through what it is to have a tragedy of that degree take place. That's what Jesus did. So he wrestles through it. He's accustomed to sorrow, he's accustomed to suffering, but he's also anointed with joy beyond all his commands. He didn't allow his sorrow to kill his joy. Oh, what a what what an unbelievable, what an unbelievable witness. And what an unbelievable like contradiction the human experience is. The human condition and the human experience is full of contradiction. It's full, it's full of things that should not be put together. And somehow we find ourselves put together in the middle of contradiction all the time. And if you find yourself put in the middle of contradiction, you have to then ask, why am I in the middle of contradiction? Because you carry the answer for the contradiction. In the Jesus, in the recesses of your spirit, man, you have Christ, the hope of glory, and he is the answer for all contradiction that you find yourselves in. So if you find yourself constantly being put in the middle of contradiction, there's a reason. Jesus wants you to bring an end to the contradiction. Enoch believed God to the point that God took him. And then it says, it's impossible to please God without faith. Faith pleases God. You want to know how to please him? You want to know how to please God? We all, I think, want to know how to please God. You wouldn't be in my living room listening to me tell bad jokes and shout at you. If we didn't want to please God. The way we please him is through faith. What is faith? Faith is a firm persuasion, but how does faith, how does faith find itself in the heart of the believer? First of all, it's a gift. Jesus gives us his faith. Jesus gives us his faith as a gift. Um, and I call firm persuasion this. My working definite the working definition that we have used for faith in the past, I think still holds. And now I'll tweak this eventually, and eventually maybe I'll even write a book about faith, and tens of people will read it. It'll be amazing. Tens of people read my book on faith. It'll bless the tens of people that do it, though, I promise.

unknown:

That's right.

SPEAKER_00:

Like holding a stick of dynamite in their hands. The working definition we have used for faith is this. Faith is the result or the marriage of, and I changed a little bit, um, being convinced concerning Yahweh's disposition or how he thinks and feels about us. So being convinced of the way that he feels about us and thinks about us, and being convinced of his personal character, being convinced of the nature of his personal character. I think that's how we find ourselves in a firm persuasion. We know that he's trustworthy and we know how he feels about us. So we are firmly convinced. We are we are firmly persuaded because of the way that he thinks about us, the nature of his thoughts and disposition towards us, and and his personal character. We've become acquainted enough with the character of the one who is trustworthy that we know that we can put all our faith in him. Okay. Now I want to just quickly, and then I'm going to turn it over to Lou because last time I did this, I got in the way, and Lou was amazing, and I should have just shut up a half a half hour before I did. So I'm going to try to shut up a half hour before I did last time this time. We're going to look at Luke 1, and we're going to start in verse 26. And there's a lot to read here, and I'm going to try not to get caught up, but I want to give some of the context surrounding how we get to the final conclusion that we're going to stop at here. 26. In the sixth month of Elizabeth's pregnancy, God sent the angel Gabriel to Nazareth, a village in Galilee, to a virgin named Mary. She was engaged to be married to a man named Joseph, a descendant of King David. I told you I wasn't going to get caught up because I want to get caught up right there on the descendant of King David thing, and I'm not going to do it. I'm not, Lucy, I'm not doing it. Gabriel appeared to her and said, Greetings, favored woman, the Lord is with you. Greetings, favored woman, the Lord is with you. In the days to come, we will be as confident that he is with us as Mary was confident that he was with her on the other side of having Gabriel having visited her. I see a conf ah, Jesus. I see a confidence coming to our people, coming to this family. I see a confidence that he's with me coming to our people that's gonna transform the way we live. Gonna transform the way that we live. There's some shifting coming to our culture and it's coming to us personally. And what's going to begin to happen, what's going to begin to happen to us is we're going to be so convinced that he's with me. And if he's with me, nothing can be against me. If he's with me, nothing can be against me. And if he's with me, nothing can stop me. So the favor of Yahweh is on my life. I see the favor of God coming to our people. I see his favor coming to us in the way of, watch this, in the way of presence, in the way of glory, and in the way of promotion in the culture. He's going to begin to promote presence bearers in the culture, to begin to be the answer to problems that no one else can solve. I'm experiencing it in my workplace. There's no reason for me, there's no reason for me to have as much favor as I have with the CEO of our company as I have. I know I know next to nothing about glass. It's embarrassing. It's embarrassing how little I know about glass. And I'm sitting in high-level meetings, finding that I'm not out of my depth in these meetings. I'm sitting in high-level meetings with people that are running. I sat in a meeting the other day, and I can't say too much about it, but I sat in a meeting the other day, and we're working on a deal with this company, but they're the largest manufacturer of industrial doors in the country. They do 17,000 a week. And I'm sitting there talking with these people, having a high-level meeting, running the meeting with them, sitting there thinking to myself, how in the world, I'm editing myself, how in the world did I end up sitting in this room with these people, and they seem to like what I'm saying. My brain, while I'm having that meeting, is is like, how did this happen? And the math doesn't math that I'm here and they're enjoying what I have to say. It does not math. What I'm telling you is the favor of the Lord is going to begin to rest on, and I want you to take this. The favor of the Lord is going to begin to rest on you, and there's going to be promotions you could not earn come to you. There's going to be favor that you could not, you could not see coming. You couldn't see coming. You're going to be walking, it's like walking around a corner and being blindsided by goodness. His goodness is going to blindside us. I'm telling you, in the year to come, his goodness is going to blindside us. And we're going to begin to see a great shift come to this culture of people. I've heard it said before, everybody needs a kingmaker. That makes sense. Colin Cowherd says that on his podcast, and I think Lou understands what I say when I say everybody needs someone that believes in them, that gives them the push they need to become successful in their field, right? Everybody, everybody needs one of those. And I hear Holy Spirit say, I'm a kingmaker, and I'm going to start making kings all around this culture. I'm a kingmaker and I'm going to start making kings all around this culture. I'm a kingmaker and I'm going to start making kings all around this culture. So buckle up because I'm going to take you on the ride of your life. You're not going to be able to, whoop, you're not going to be able to expect to receive it. But when it starts happening, if you're not convinced that he's a giver of good things and that his heart is predisposed to bless you, what you'll do is you'll derail the process of making you a king through false humility. And you'll start to believe, I don't know enough, I don't have enough strategy, I couldn't possibly do this. And then what you'll start to do is you'll start to abort the process that Holy Spirit's beginning to take you through through your own low thinking of yourself. What you're gonna have to start to do is agree with his, agree with his perspective of who you are. And we've been taught, we've been teaching it, we've been talking about it, and now it's time to practice it. We've been teaching it and talking about it, and now it's time to practice it. I actually believe what he says about me is true. I actually believe that he's predisposed to blessing me. I actually believe these things. So, because of those things, I'm gonna be put in some uncomfortable situations. See, his favor doesn't come to put you in comfortable situations, it comes to put you in uncomfortable situations because that does what? That requires you to grow. It requires growth when you're put in uncomfortable situations, and his favor is gonna get all over us to the point that we're uncomfortable with how he's putting us in these positions, and we'll be uncomfortable with it, yeah. And we're not gonna have the answers we need, yeah. And there are plenty of times that I have sat in the weight of everything that I'm doing. You know what happened to me sometimes? This is really transparent, but you know what happened to me sometimes? It doesn't happen as much now, but I'm not far from it. I just break out crying for no reason in the middle of the day. Just the weight of everything hitting me. Like, what am I even doing? What am I doing here? This is what I don't have the tools for any of this. I'm not good. I I can't possibly do any of these things and just tears because I feel totally underqualified, feel totally unable to do it, feel totally swallowed up by the weight of everything, and sitting just trying to provide for my family, let alone everything else the Lord's asking me to do. And I'm like, Lord, what are you doing? I don't, I can't do this. And the Lord's telling me, shut up, yes, you can. Sometimes the best word you can hear from Holy Spirit is shut up, yes, you can. Oh, I feel I feel it in me right now. It huh? Yeah, that's what it is. That's it's getting it's making me fiery. Well, that's right. While we were in worship, I felt the anointing of R.W. Shambok come into my house. Oh, I don't, I don't, oh geez, I shouldn't talk about this stuff, but I'm gonna talk about it anyway. Logan, you can edit it out later if you want to. Um I felt the I felt the anointing of RW Shambok come in this room, and we're gonna be a people of faith.

unknown:

Whew.

SPEAKER_00:

He used to say all the time, I don't have any trouble. All I need is faith in God. I don't have any trouble. All I need is faith in God. This is a man who bought a building in Philadelphia, bought a building, bought a huge building. He he held a crusade in Philadelphia, and genius how he set up his ministry. He'd hold crusades and then purchase the building they did the crusade in and start a church in that building.

unknown:

Wow.

SPEAKER_00:

And did that in Philadelphia, Chicago, and several other cities, and that funded his ministry. Those churches would then give offerings to him as kind of the the founder of the and that would help fund his ministry so that he did not have to be um dishonest with his offering taking at his crusades. He's not dishonest, he'd just take the offering, and whatever the whatever the Lord gave was fine because my ministry is already funded, and you're just giving Jesus. You're just giving to make this possible, but we're gonna be okay if you don't give. So I can offer this to you, and I don't have to beg you for six hours to give$600,000, or we're gonna go bankrupt. We're already taken care of because the Lord gave him strategy. The Lord gave him strategy to do it, is amazing. Um, but he bought a building in Philadelphia and offered them a pitiful amount of money for it. He offered them$70,000. He I actually asked for it for free. The the owner wasn't there, but the man who was who kind of was in charge of the uh management of the building was there. He goes to him and says, He's never bought a building before. RW hasn't. And goes to him and says, This is right after he leaves AA Allen. And because he taught faith for A.A. Allen for years, he goes to the property manager and says, Hey, I'd like to purchase that building. Well, do you have a number in mind? No. No, I don't have a number in mind. Well, you have to have a number in mind. No, I don't call the man who owns it. Calls the man who owns it. And um and while he's calling the man, the Lord says, Give him$80,000 for the building, which is a lot of money back then, but this building was worth several hundred thousand dollars, this property. And while the man is talking to the owner, he says, Well, he doesn't have a number, he hasn't made an offer, but he wants to purchase the building. We'll ask him if he wants to make an offer. And he says to the property manager, well, the Lord spoke to me while you were on the phone and he said, give him$80,000 for it. And that's so far below what it was worth. And the man says, You know what? We need a tax write-off. Accept that offer. We'll we'll mark we'll write the loss off as a tax write-off, and it'll save our business money in the long run by taking less for the building. Took the offering, so took them took the offer for the building. So he gives him$10,000 down for earnest money, because he didn't even know he needed earnest money. He's like, I need earnest money. And so he agreed how he agreed to do the payments was I'm gonna give you$10,000 a month until this thing's paid off. And so they did$10,000. They got to the point where they got to the last$10,000. But if the deal was if they didn't get it paid off in the agreed amount of time, that he'd lose everything. He'd lose all his money, he just wouldn't get the building, and he'd lose all the money that he paid into it. So he's building this church in Philadelphia, he's doing radio and he's doing other ways to kind of put marketing out for the church, and he's letting everybody know he's there and he doesn't have the$10,000. It gets down to the last week, and he still doesn't have$10,000 to give this guy, and he's given this man, you know,$70,000 at this point. I think it might have been$70,000 total for the building, but anyway, he's$10,000 from the purchase of it, can't get it, can't get it, is sitting in his office praying. It gets down to 30 minutes before this building is he's gonna lose all this money, lose he and he says, the devil was I knew the devil wasn't gonna, God wasn't gonna let the devil steal his money, but we had 15 minutes left, and I still didn't have the money. Little old woman comes walking up to his door with 15 minutes before this building is the sale falls through and he loses all his money. And he runs out of his office to her and says, Where is it? Give it to me. And she says, Well, well, brother Shambok, he says, I don't have time, I have to be at that office in 10 minutes. You have to give me that, I'll come back and talk to you. Hands him a check for$10,000 and he runs to the office and pays that building off. I don't have any trouble. All I need is faith in God. Lived it. Lived it just just a little bit further. His favor will put you in uncomfortable situations. Greetings, favored woman, the Lord is with you, and you're gonna get called a whore, and you're gonna get scandalized, and they're gonna want to stone you. Greetings, favored woman, the Lord is with you. It puts you in uncomfortable situations, but his grace sustains you in the middle of it and brings you up higher as you're going through it. You can walk, like Peter, get out of the boat. We've talked about that a thousand times. Get out of the boat. You can walk on the thing that's shaking everybody else. It's no less turbulent, you're just walking on it because his favor is with you. Oh, I gotta hurry up. I'm told Lou, I told him last time you had to share about communion. I went too long. I'm trying not to this time. I'm trying to hurry up. Confused and disturbed, Mary tried to think what the angel could mean. Don't be afraid, Mary, the angel told her, for you have found favor with God. Second time he mentions it now, you have found favor with God. You will conceive and give birth to a son, you will name him Jesus. He will be very great, and he will be called Son, the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his ancestor David, and he will reign over Israel forever. His kingdom will never end. Mary asked the angel, But how can this happen? I am a virgin. The angel replied, The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the baby so the baby to be born will be holy, and he will be called the Son of God. What's more, your relative Elizabeth has become pregnant in her old age. People used to say she was barren, but now she's in her sixth month. So Mary Oh, for nothing is impossible with God. To prove to you what I'm saying is true, a barren one is in her sixth month, for nothing is impossible with God. That woman is carrying something she couldn't carry, so you can give birth to something you're not that you don't have the prerequisite qualifications to even think about giving birth to. There had to be some things that happened in order for her to get pregnant. And those things hadn't happened. And she had to believe that the prerequisite things that were required for her to even carry a baby, she didn't need those. She could just skip to the part of giving birth to something the earth had never seen before. I'm telling you, that's what the favor of God looks like when it gets on your life. That's what his grace looks like when it gets on your life. I don't have the qualifications and I don't have the experience necessary, and I don't have all the tools that I need to do it. You don't need any of those things. You just have to believe that you're favored and that his grace is with you. And everything else his grace will supply. John wrote, You have an anointing that'll teach you all things. What if we believed it? What if we believed that we had no need that a man would teach us anything, but the Holy Spirit would teach us all things that were required for us to know in the situation we're currently in? Oh. I'm more fired up than I mean to be. I really am. I was trying to just, I'm more fired up than I meant. Nothing is impossible with God. Nothing is impossible with God. I've never been with a man. Nothing is impossible with God. I don't have the necessary ingredients for a baby to even be in my body right now, and nothing is impossible with God. You can skip needing all the necessary things. What we'll do is we'll bog ourselves down thinking we need to have all the necessary things put together before we'll actually go out and go after the thing he said was ours. If he said it's yours, it's already yours. Just start putting your feet in front of each other and give him real estate to give to you. I said last week we need to give him real estate to bless, to put his presence in. We actually need to give him real estate to give to us because everywhere the sole of our foot touches, that land will I give to you for an inheritance. And if his favor is on you, guys, you can take it to the bank. Okay, I'm done. I'm I'm closing up, I'm getting done. Nothing is impossible with God. All things are possible to him who believes, and nothing is impossible with God. Damon teaches it this way: all things are possible to him that believes, and nothing is impossible with God. We live in the same degree of restriction the Father lives in. We're just not convinced that we live in the same degree of restriction that he lives in, and the Father is. And when we catch up to his being convinced, impossibilities start becoming nothing. Okay, I'm gonna keep moving now. Mary responded, I am the Lord's servant, may everything you have said about me come true. I am the Lord's servant, may everything you have said about me come true. And then the angel left her. Watch her response. I am the Lord's servant, may everything you have said about me come true. And then the angel left her. A few days later, Mary hurried, and I'm gonna be done here. Mary, I want to get to one piece here. A few days later, Mary hurried to the hill country of Judea, to the town where Zachariah lived. She entered the house and greeted Elizabeth. At the sound of Mary's greeting, Elizabeth's child leapt within her. And this this verse has always puzzled the end of this verse has always puzzled me. And Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit. I can't, I can't. I told you I wasn't gonna get caught up. I'm I'm not. I because I could sit there for an hour, Lou, and talk about it. Elizabeth gave a glad cry and exclaimed to Mary, God has blessed you above all women, and your child is blessed. Why am I so honored that the mother of my Lord should visit me? Imagine what that was like. Knowing what was going on in that little girl's body and what she was carrying. The way Elizabeth honored what Mary was carrying is the example of how we ought to honor what we're carrying in the family. Jesus, you see what's on somebody else's life. And our tendency, because we're not convinced that his heart is to bless me, what I'll do is I'll cut away at what somebody else is carrying because I'm actually really just insecure and don't believe that Yahweh's predisposed to blessing me. And so what we do is we do comparison, or we'll cut away at somebody else, what somebody else is carrying, and we'll cut away at their confidence and not honor it appropriately. Because we don't have the confidence that what's going on on the inside of me is as big a deal as what's going on the inside of you. And we're gonna be a culture of mutual honor. One of the ways that we're going to become the culture that Yahweh has called us to become is through mutual honor. What you honor comes to you. What you honor attracts what it what you honor is attracted to you. No, no. No. That's a really good way to say that. That's a really good way to say that. Elizabeth gave a grasp a glad cry and exclaimed to Mary, God has blessed you above all women, and your child is blessed. Why am I so honored that the mother of my Lord should visit me? Oh boy. When I heard your greeting, the baby in my womb jumped for joy. You are blessed. Here we go, right here. This is the hinge of the whole thing, and I'll shut up. You are blessed because you believed that the Lord would do what he said. Why am I so honored that the mother of my Lord should visit me? You are blessed above all women. That's true, she is blessed above all women, still to this day. They're a whole billions of Christians across the earth who still honor Mary to a degree that makes me a little bit uncomfortable. Blessed above all women. Your child is blessed. Why am I so honored that the Lord, the mother of my Lord, should visit me when I when I heard you're greeting the baby in my womb, jump for joy. And this is why you're blessed, Mary. This is why. This is why you're blessed, Mary. Because you believed that the Lord would do what he said. Because you were convinced that the words that came out of his mouth were gonna come to pass. That's why you're blessed. So you can I feel the spirit of faith in a way that I haven't in some time. You're blessed because you believed everything the Lord said would happen. In our book, Beginning to Pray, that I'm beginning to read. I'm never gonna stop telling that joke. There are other ways too in which God is absent. As long as we ourselves are real, as long as we are truly ourselves, God can be present and do something with us. Watch how this marries what Elizabeth said to Mary. As long as we are real, as long as we are truly ourselves, God can be present and do something with us. But the moment we try to be what we are not, there's nothing left to say or have, we become a fictitious personality, an unreal presence, and this unreal presence cannot be approached by God. And I want to say it this way. An unreal presence in the context that we're studying is someone who believes that they don't have faith, or someone who does not have faith, because we were created as faith beings. We were created for faith and given the faith of Jesus. I give you my faith as a gift. We have the faith of Jesus on the inside of us, and when we approach the Father as someone who lacks faith, that's not who you are. And one of the reasons the promises of God are not coming to pass. Jesus. One of the reasons the promises of God may not be coming to pass is because you are approaching him as someone who you are not, and he cannot be present with you while you're pretending. And you're pretending not to have faith. You're pretending not to be, oh, you're pretending not to be qualified, you're pretending not to have all the necessary tools, you're pretending not to be smart enough. You can fill in the blank, you can fill it in. You're pretending that you haven't been given everything that pertains to life and godliness. You're pretending that you haven't been blessed with every spiritual blessing under heaven. You're pretending that the finished work of Jesus did not open up all of heaven's gates to your access. You're pretending that you're not. This is the last thing I'm gonna say. And then I'm gonna let Lou take over and do a better job than me, so get ready, Lou. One of the reasons I was as I was kind of considering this this week, and I had a busy week, so I had a lot of my pondering had to be done while I was doing things, and I was pondering um why do we struggle in this area? Why is this like a struggle? And the Lord said, people don't feel safe enough to have faith. Pain will teach you not to put all your eggs in one basket. Pain will teach you. Betrayal will teach you, hurt will teach you, things not working out the way that you thought that they should will teach you, and what will happen is you'll withhold pieces of your heart thinking you're trying to keep them safe. And we have to learn to be like Yeshua, who held perfect tension in both hands and found life there. Guys, life is found in the tension of, yeah, I've suffered pain, yeah, I've suffered loss, I've ugh, I've had things not work out, I've had bad things happen. I'm gonna share this. Man, I don't want to. I'm gonna share it. You guys need to hear I wasn't gonna share this. I don't share uh personal encounters very frequently, especially publicly. I I don't share them. Um because I don't ever want I don't I don't ever want what the Lord says to me privately to be something that I use or leverage. I don't that's I don't want that to be a thing unless it's like a corporate thing, but this was very personal and I don't often uh I don't often share those. I don't want to do it. I'm gonna ah gosh. Alright. This is me arguing with Holy Spirit out loud so everyone can hear me. I really don't want to. Would you let me not? All right. Um I was on a walk the other night, and this the way that I like to connect with the Lord is through walking. It just it works. It works for me. Movement while I pray works, it just helps me. Otherwise, I I get so tired I'll sit down and fall asleep, Lou. Tell on myself I'll fall asleep while I'm writing notes, or I'll fall asleep trying to pray all the time. So I gotta move so I don't fall asleep. Um and I'm out praying and I'm listening to an old United Pursuit album. Their simple gospel album is so good. Um, but there's a particular song on there that's always kind of blessed me, and I was in the middle of I was just getting back to my house. I'm just getting back to my house, and I had to take another, I had to take extend my walk. Um the Lord's Holy Spirit spoke to me very, very clearly. He said, I'm coming after your fear, and it hit me like a waterfall, and he began to show me, and this it's just absolutely true, how I had been terrified for the last two and a half years. Absolutely, brutally terrified for the last two years, and having to try to build something while being afraid of the thing you're building is kind of torment keeps you in the place of being terrified. And you get to the point where you don't make any decisions because you're afraid every decision that you want to make that you would make would be wrong. That happens personally, that happens corporately, it happens in your own life, or it can happen when you're trying to build something. And then he began to show me how everything. Now, I don't live in a state of fear, and a lot of the fear that I was dealing with was like it's weird. You can be in fear but not constantly afraid. Does that make sense? You can be in fear but not constantly afraid, where like you just kind of like the you live kind of on edge where the deck of cards could come tumbling down at any moment, right? And that's kind of where I was. And the Lord began to show me how everything before we left, I took stock because I I I weighed this really carefully before we left. We'd waited a long time to move, we'd waited a long time to be sent here. By our apostle to do this, and I waited out. And there were some particular things that gave me pause. And everything that gave me pause or I thought could go wrong went wrong in our first two years being here. I could go through the list of what I thought might go wrong. And if it did go wrong, I didn't know what I was gonna do. I didn't have an answer for it. If that goes wrong, I don't know what I'll do. I guess we'll just fail. That's that's where my mind was. I guess we'll just fail if that goes wrong. And every single one of those things happened to the T. Every single, every single one of them happened. And then a second realization hit me. We're still here. We're still here. And if we're still here, nothing can stop us. Everything that could have gone wrong went wrong. We lost all our money. All our money gone. And I I was diligent. I'm not saying that to make people feel bad for me. Every penny we had saved for a down payment on a house got spent, and I was diligent about searching for a job. I put out hundreds of resin, hundreds of them. I got to the final interview seven times. Seven. Got down to the point that I started my job the first month we weren't gonna be able to pay our rent. I can't count how many times. I don't know why I'm being this vulnerable. I guess somebody needs to hear it. Um I can't count how many times we've looked at the church account and been like, I don't know how we're gonna pay ourselves at all from the account this month because there's nothing there. And we'll get a notification that a$5,000 gift had been given to the church the month that we wouldn't be able to pay ourselves has happened more times than I'm than I care to share. And the last time it happened, Logan just laughed and I started crying. I was like, God, never fails. Every time it never fails. And what that's doing in me is what that's doing in me is creating a confidence that his hand is with us. And the thing that I thought would kill me can't kill me. Man, the thing that I thought could kill me can't kill me. That's one of the most powerful lessons I could ever teach someone is the thing that you think can kill you can't actually kill you. The thing that you think can take you out and destroy God's purpose for your life, he won't allow it to happen. He will not allow. Jesus, he will not allow it to happen. And uh I don't I don't even know if we'll leave that in the podcast. Maybe we will. But uh he's coming after my fear. Why is he coming after my fear? Why is he coming after my fear? Faith works by love, and perfect love casts out fear. It must be about time. Jesus. It must be about time for the spirit of faith to take root at 201 North G Street. It must be about time for the spirit of faith to take root and the building of the spiritual house that I feel it, man. The building of the spiritual house that Yahweh has desired to create here can now begin. The building of the spiritual house can now begin. The building of the spiritual house can now begin. So we're gonna begin to see the spiritual house of the resting place begin to come together in Jesus' mighty name and watch as his favor hunts you down in the days to come. It's gonna hunt you. His favor's gonna hunt you down, and it's gonna put you in places that you don't think that your ability can keep you. And that's how you'll know it's his favor. And when that happens, his grace is gonna make a way for promotion for you in Jesus' mighty name. So I bless you.