The Resting Place

Let Your Roots Run Deep

• Ben and Logan Robbins • Season 2 • Episode 10

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What if the most radical thing you could do for your faith isn’t to chase the next moment, but to grow roots where you stand? We open with a startling image of the wild prairie rose—small above ground, anchored by roots that plunge 10 to 20 feet deep—and let it reshape how we think about place, calling, and spiritual resilience. When the landscape looks gray and thin, depth adds color. Depth finds hidden aquifers. Depth makes beauty stand out where no one expects anything to grow.

From there we turn to Luke 1 and sit with Zechariah and Elizabeth—righteous, careful, and barren—under the weight of a culture that misreads lack as divine displeasure. An angel announces joy and promise and Zechariah’s question—How can I be sure?—reveals not rebellion but the collision between mercy and an inherited picture of a withholding God. We make a case that his silence wasn’t punishment; it was mercy protecting a miracle from the frequency of pain.

We track that goodness straight into John’s baptism of repentance—metanoia as a renovated mind, not a treadmill of guilt. Law can restrain, but without a theology of divine kindness, hearts wander. John points beyond water to the Lamb who takes away the sin of the world and baptizes in the Holy Spirit and fire. 

Along the way, we talk about planting family before platform, why Jesus must be the burning center, and how to test your root depth: can you say none of these things move me, live in righteousness, peace, and joy across seasons, and obey the whisper without demanding a shout?

If you’re tired of shallow soil and constant transplanting, this conversation invites you to go deep enough to outlast drought and bloom where the world expects nothing to grow. Make sure to subscribe and share with a friend!

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SPEAKER_00:

Hi everyone, I'm Ben.

SPEAKER_01:

And I'm Logan, and we're the Robins.

SPEAKER_00:

Welcome to the Resting Place podcast. We're going to go to Luke chapter one. Again, everyone is surprised. We're going back to Luke chapter one. Um, I have yet to stop feeling my heart drawn to the story of Zachariah. So we are going to stay there until my heart stops being drawn there. That might be all year. We might be there all year. I am, you know what? Apostle Ball, Apostle Aaron's spiritual father, who is Apostle Damon's spiritual father. Um, all these apostles, it gets. Yes, it's my great, great. I never got to meet him. I really wish I had. This man had some stones. I'm telling you. Yeah. Yeah, that'd be right. So he'd be our great. So not great, great. He's like uh he's like, who is it? The Shriners, and they all wear those hats. He's the Shriner with the biggest hat, is what he is. Um he uh he once taught a I want to get this right, but it was like a 62-week series on the word if. Something is something like that. It's this man was. I watched his live stream one time, and he's admonishing his people, and he's letting them know. He's like, and some of you have a hard time believing that I am greater than the apostle Paul. And then he says, Well, what am I, a fig newton? And then just continues moving along his moving along his message. He he was uh he was a character man. Well, I drew my first prophetic art whilst Lance was singing, and I'm not showing it to any of you because I'm the worst artist the world has ever seen. And so, no, I'm not doing it. Y'all can just sit there and wait and wonder and wonder what I what it was that I drew. No, I'm not gonna do it. Um, I did a little uh looking after I saw something, I saw a quick vision of what I thought were two different types of flowers blooming from the same plant. And so I started looking like what the heck looks like what I just saw. And I started doodling some really poorly drawn flowers that look like either a handicapped person or a young child have attempted to draw for the first time. And um someone whose hand has been severely mangled. Um, that's what it, that's what it looks like when I draw. It looks like I have a mangled hand that is unable to be used appropriately. Um But I started to look around to see what was it that I saw, and I did a little research, and I did find out that you cannot graft two different types of flowers. They have to be closely related if you're gonna graft them. And also I found out that most rose species are grafted into a hardier wood, to a hardier wood type of root structure than their original root structure. So roses were a little bit more delicate than they are now. Lance knows this already, apparently. Um, but what I saw, I found what I saw, and what I saw were wild roses blooming, and one of them was in bulb, not quite bloomed. And there were there was another one sitting next to it that was all the way open. And there was, you know, how flowers will do that sometimes. One's like, and bulb is not the right word, but it's not quite all the way open, and one was all the way open. And so I began to ask AI because AI is a quick way to learn some things. I began to ask AI a couple of questions about roses and about specific types of roses, and the wild prairie rose is the Iowa State flow, the Iowa State flower. I did, I did know that. So I I've looked that up and I said, Oh wow, that's what I was seeing. So I started looking and I asked AI a question. I asked AI, how tall is the wild prairie rose? And generally they're one to three feet. They can be up to four feet tall, but they're generally one to three feet. But their root system runs from 10 to 20 feet into the ground. It runs three to four feet wide and 10 to 20 feet deep. The the deepest, it's the deepest they've ever recorded from one of these flowers is 20 feet, and generally they're from 10 to 12 feet deep, which is three to four times the height of the plant. But what that does to this particular plant structure is it makes it very resistant to drought. When other flowers are wilting and fading, it's not gonna punch somebody. That's right. When other flowers are fading and wilting, this flower is very resilient because it finds an aquifer deeper than other plants, than other root systems are capable of finding. Ezekiel 47 talks about a tree. I'm gonna tie this into Ezekiel 47. Ezekiel 47 talks about a tree that bears fruit in every month because it's planted by the river of life. I want to, I'm gonna get into a little bit of Luke, but a lot of what the Lord is talking to me about today is plant is root structure and planting roots where we're at. Root structure and planting roots where we're at. But Ezekiel 47 begins to talk about a plant that bears that about a tree that bears fruit in every season. That's okay. That got really bright really fast. Ezekiel 47 talks about a tree that blooms or bears fruit in every season, and the rose I just saw in my vision, well, she is not liking what I'm saying. The rose I just saw in my vision is resistant to drought when everything else would wilt. I want to say the Lord is asking us to bring beauty to a place that has been susceptible spiritually to drought, where everything else would wilt and die. I think the Lord's asking us to do something that would bring beauty to a state that's out of the way, to a place that's unseen and out of the way. And if we will, if we will, people will come to see it. People will come to see the thing that grew where no nothing else could grow. People will come to see the beauty in a place where everything else is wilted. The interesting thing about color is that it comes off of the landscape a lot more when there's no color around it. The interesting thing about color is that when it's opaque and gray or a single kind of like blah all around it, which is how I would describe the spiritual state of Iowa. Bleh. It's very blah to put it, throw up in my mouth. Um I don't talk about this kind of thing a lot, but I feel I feel like I'm supposed to today. If we'll be the ones to let our roots run deep enough, what the Lord's saying to us is we'll add color and vibrancy to a dead area. We'll add color, vibrancy, and beauty to a place that's not known for color, vibrancy, or beauty. And what will then happen is people will be drawn, people will be drawn to the blooming of the rose in Iowa, is what will happen. People will be drawn to it. But what you're going to have to do is let your roots go deep enough in order to stop being so susceptible to drought. You're going to have to let your roots run deep enough to quit being susceptible to going into a death spiral when everyone else around you is going into a death spiral, when everyone else is losing their color, when everyone else is losing their vibrancy, when everyone else is losing the gift that the Lord crowned them with. And historically, you would too. You're going to be required by Yahweh to allow a root system to go deep enough that that no longer causes you to hide under a bush. What happens is we start to go into these times where it gets a little harder and we get into a little bit of a drought system, or we get into a little bit where the rain, we get into a time frame where the rain is less frequent. And what happens is we hold on for a little while because we have roots and plants will hold a reserve of water, but eventually that reserve of water runs out. And when that runs out, something called wilting happens, and the plant looks like it's just kind of shrinking. The Bible calls that hiding your light under a bush. And what we do when we get in those times is we hide rather than shine. And that's the I'm telling you, that's the time for the people of God, for the kingdom people of Yahweh to shine, to stand out, to begin to to begin to bring reconciliation to creation. Okay. I hope that makes any sense at all. That's I didn't I didn't plan to say any of that. I hope that makes any sense at all. Um the strongest word we have for the first two years that we've been here was the Lord spoke to Logan and said, You're not here to plant a church, you're here to plant your family. That's the strongest word we have currently. We were sent with a word from our apostle. We keep that word in front of us. I've got it saved on my phone. I can listen to it any time that I want to. And we've got several other prophetic words recorded from our apostle. We keep those. I keep those. I do a I don't do as good a job as I want to, and I'm gonna do a little better job moving forward, but I have a pretty strong memory. I can recall the words that have been spoken over what we're doing here, but the first thing the Lord's asking us to do is plant our family. Why? Because he's asking us to get roots set really, really deep. Get roots set really, really deep. The people of God are too transient. The people of God are not stable enough. One of the reasons they're not stable enough is they don't have a root system that can withstand drought. So when drought comes, they start. I don't even want to say drought, when a dry spell comes. When a dry spell comes, they can't find water where no one else can find water. And the people of God are designed by nature to find water where no one else can. Find water where no one else can find water, and others will come to you for water. That's how Jesus can say, Come to me, all who are thirsty, and I will give, come to me, all who are weary, all who are thirsty, come to me and I'll give you rest. I'll give you something to drink and I'll give you rest. If you're thirsty, come find me. Then he looks at his followers and says, I'm asking you to be able to do the same thing. Give people a drink when there's nothing to be found to drink. How do you do that? Oral Roberts wrote a really interesting book. He said, if you can see the invisible, you can do the impossible. Thanks, Oral. That's a really profound thing to say. But how in the heck do you do it? I just edited myself so good. How in the heck do you do that? See the invisible man. It's like Yoda sitting on Luke's shoulder trying to raise the the X-wing out of the swamp. How did you do it, Yoda? I try because you didn't believe Luke. That's how I was able to do it. Well, I tried. There, there is no try. There do or do not. There is no try. That's from Yoda. Um, I don't know why I'm talking about it's the ADD. It's getting me. Um the ADD is getting me. Um Levi, that was designed to lose you. You were following me too good. And I was like, I've got to, I've got to make a turn. It's like running from a cop on a back road. He's following too close. I've got to hit this right turn right here, and I've got to hit the gas right when I'm going around this turn. So that dude can't get around it. His turning radius ain't as good as mine. I'm gonna get him. That's right. That's right. Um, so that's hilarious. So the Lord speaks to us and says, I want you to plant your family. We've got Samuel in wrestling this year, and the the local wrestling club that he's a part of is called the Matt Tribe. Which thank God for that wrestling program. I love it. They're they're great. But they're they they've got shirts that they put out, and on the back of it it says our roots run deep.

SPEAKER_01:

They give shirts when you sign up.

SPEAKER_00:

Yep.

SPEAKER_01:

Part of your sign up is you get t-shirts. We I didn't even know this until they went to a the uh wrestling, a wrestling mat or a wrestling meeting, and they gave all the kids their shirts that they got when they signed up, and I saw the picture of it, and I was like, not coincidence.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, the Lord's the Lord's saying something, and I haven't felt a shift from you're here to plant your family. And I think what the Lord is doing is he's asking us to plant our roots before we do anything else. Get your roots set before you do anything else, get yourself deeply planted before you do anything else. One of the things, one of the troubling trends inside of the church is that people, not just people, leaders, don't allow their roots to go deep enough. And when times come that Jesus promised, Jesus promised only a few things, and these are things that I don't like to talk about, these are the not fun things. Tribulation will come. Thanks, Jesus. Thanks for that one. I didn't need that one, but thank you for that. Yeah, suffering will come. I don't need that one, I don't want that one. Um when the wind blows and the waves rage, you've got to have a foundation that's set so that your house will not be moved. You've got to have a root structure set so that the wind doesn't kill you and the waves can't drown you. The only way the waves can drown you is if they move you from where you're at. A lot of times people, when they're talking about root structure, are talking about a specific location. I'm not talking to you about moving to Indianola or having a specific location that your roots are planted. I'm talking to you about letting your roots, I'm talking to you about letting your roots go really, really deep in Jesus. Jesus must become central to every piece of everything that we do. He cannot be peripheral to anything that we're doing. He has to be the burning center of everything that our life revolves around. Lucy, did you have something you were waving your hand at me?

SPEAKER_01:

No, I'm stretching my hand.

SPEAKER_00:

Okay, okay. Got the carpal tunnel. Lucy's got the carpal tunnel. Um So Alright, I'm gonna get into I'm gonna get into Luke One. I've got a couple things more to share here, and hopefully I can tie all this together because I didn't plan to say any of what I've said so far. So um Bugs Bunny over there. Sounds like Bugs Bunny from the old Bugs Bunny cartoons when he's eating carrots. Um when I say our root system has to go deep in Jesus, what am I saying? I'm saying, Paul said this, in him we live and move and have our being. Somewhere else scripture says all things are held together by him, and without him does not anything exist that exists. All things are held together by him, and without him does not anything exist that exists. And what we do is we fight against that. And the reason we fight against that, there are multiple ways that we fight against that, but the reasons we fight against that, there are multiple ways we fight against it, and there are multiple reasons. Let's say it that way. There are multiple ways we fight against that, and there are multiple reasons we fight against that. Primarily, we fight against it because we are unconvinced of his nature, and the evangelical gospel that we have inherited has painted him in an ugly light that has made him a monster. We took and marred the face of God with our gospel. We marred his face to the point that it brings torment when we think when he should bring comfort. He heaps disappointment and he heaps he heaps in our minds, he heaps disappointment, he heaps uh shame, he heaps guilt, he heaps negativity on us when what he's offering us is a way out of shame, guilt, disappointment, and negativity. He's he's he's the way we escape those prison guards. But the gospel that we've created has marred his face to the point that he's the author of those things. So why would we run to the author of the thing that torments us? That's one of the primary reasons we don't allow our roots to go deeply enough into him, and we have this tentative relationship with Jesus. Even those of us that have been in this a long time, there's still pieces of our heart. At times there can be pieces of our heart that have a tentative relationship with our Savior because we're not yet fully convinced of how good he really is. He's good all the way around. He's good all the way around. The angels fly round and round and cry holy, holy, holy. They fly round, round and round, holy, holy, holy, holy, holy, holy. You know what they're saying? There's no Like you from every single angle, you don't have a bad side. You don't have a bad side. And we treat him like he's got bad sides. We treat him like he's got multiple personality disorder. When the father and Jesus get pitted against one another, they get pitted against one another like Jesus is the good cop, God is the bad cop. The cross splintered the Trinity according to most evangelical doctrine on the on the on the cross and on the atonement. The father turned his eyes from Jesus, and that would effectively splinter what has never been separate. The whole story of the gospel is that Jesus stayed in union with the Father and the Spirit the entire time he was here on earth as a man. He didn't lose union with the Father and the Spirit. He didn't lose union with the Father and the Spirit. And that didn't magically change when he was offering propitiation or he was offering atonement for us. That didn't change. The father was every bit as engaged with him. Jesus, the father was every bit as engaged with him in the atonement as he was, the opening of blind Bartimaeus' eyes. He was every bit as engaged with Jesus at the cross as he was when he offered the woman of the issue with the issue of blood salvation from her issue of blood. He was every bit as engaged with that as he was those miracles. That was the cult the cross is the culmination of those things. It's not something separate from those things. It's the culmination of the work of Jesus. It's not separate from the work of Jesus. It's not, he did all these miracles with the help of God, and then God grew angry with him, turned his back on him, and Jesus was left alone to suffer and die. That friends is error. It's wrong. The Father brought Jesus through the culmination of his finished work in union. It had to be in union. It had to be in union. All right. This is Luke 1, verse 5. We've read this, I think, 20 times now. When Herod was king of Judea, there was a Jewish priest named Zechariah. He was a member of the priestly order of Abeah. His wife Elizabeth was also from the priestly line of Aaron. Zechariah and Elizabeth were what? They were righteous in God's eyes, and they were also what? Careful to obey all of the Lord's commandments and regulations. They had no children because Elizabeth was unable to conceive, and they were both very old. They were righteous, they were scrupulous about following the Lord's commands, and they were barren. And on top of it, they were old. Four things. Hey, I'm not saying it's bad. Lou's over there looking fitter than all of us. One day Zachariah was serving God to the temple, for his order was on duty that week. His order was on duty that week. There were eight different priestly lines from Aaron, and there were so multiplied at this point that they took turns ministering at the temple. Then they would go back to their home synagogue. It was, and I've talked about this before, but it review is really good. It was, it is believed that there were so many priests at this time that each priest would get one chance, most likely one chance in their lifetime. You might get a guy who gets lucky and gets two, or maybe three, but it's like the guy who wins two power balls. It's the craziest thing that ever happened for some someone to do that, right? So they're ministering at the temple, and lots get drawn as okay. So one day Zachariah was serving God in the temple for his order was on duty that week. As was the custom of the priest, he was chosen by Lot to enter the sanctuary of the sanctuary of the Lord and burn incense. While the incense was being burned, a great crowd was out stood outside praying. While Zechariah was in the sanctuary, the angel of the Lord appeared to him, standing to the right of the incense altar. Zachariah was shaken and overwhelmed with fear when he saw him. But the angel said, Don't be afraid, Zechariah, God has heard your prayer. Your wife Elizabeth will give you a son, and you are to name him John. You will have great joy and gladness, and many will rejoice at his birth, for he will be great in the eyes of the Lord. He must never touch wine or other alcoholic drinks. He will be also, he will be filled with the Holy Spirit even before his own birth. And he will turn many Israelites to their God. He will be a man with the spirit and power of Elijah. He will prepare the people for the coming of the Lord. He will turn the hearts of fathers to their children, and he will cause those who are rebellious to accept the wisdom of the godly. That's a whole lot of good things about to happen with this little boy. Zechariah said to the angel, How can I be sure this will happen? I am an old man and my wife is also well along in years. How can I be sure this will happen? I am an old man and my wife is well along in years. Okay. You know, pause there, make a few comments. So we have examined the idea over the last four weeks. Gosh, I have been hammering y'all with the same thing for for so long. So I might change the subject next time, maybe. Maybe we have examined the last several times that we have gathered the idea or the truth that to be barren in this time would have been seen as a mark of the displeasure of Almighty Yahweh. Because they're righteous, they're careful to follow all of the Lord's commands, but they're barren. They're righteous and they're careful, but they're barren. Then they're old. So they've been righteous and they've been careful for a really long time, but they've also not had any babies for the entirety of their marriage. And that would have been seen as a black mark of the displeasure of Almighty Yahweh for some secret sin inside of their lives. Specifically, Elizabeth would have been marked as someone who the Lord was displeased with. Lord who sinned to make cause this man to be born blind, him or his parents. It was that kind of an idea. And she must have sinned, or her parents must have sinned to the point that Yahweh said, I will not allow someone to come from that line any longer. That line is disgraced, and they'll not be allowed to propagate the earth any further. This is not congruent with the announcement that Jesus is the exact revelation of who the Father is. This was the idea of the religious culture superimposing their ideas on God. This is an example of the religious culture superimposing their own ideas on Yahweh about who Yahweh is. When Yahweh had an answer and his name was Yeshua, he was going to teach them who he really was. But up until this point, all they could go on was what they had. And what they had was tradition handed down from generation to generation. And they believed God was wrathful and God was vengeful. And they believed that he gave people sickness, they believed that he caused people to become barren. They believed these things about Yahweh. Jesus gives us a different story. Jesus gives us a very different example. And Jesus is the exact representation of who the Father is. There, if you want to see who the Father is, all you have to do is read the life of Jesus and you'll understand who the Father is because replete inside of the New Testament is the truth that Jesus is the exact representation of the Father. Jesus and the Father are identical. They're identical. You know what that means? That means Holy Spirit is just like Jesus. That means the Holy Spirit is just like Jesus. He's not as hmm, oh man. He's not nearly as withholding as we think he is. Part of the issue that we struggle with inside of the especially the Midwestern culture inside of our idea of who Holy Spirit is to us is that we believe he's withholding. We ascribe to him the same sin that we ascribe to him the same personality that Eve ascribed to the Father in the garden, and it caused Eve to eat the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. And we're still eating from the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil because we believe Holy Spirit withholds from us. We have to fill ourselves up with other things. We have to give ourselves doctrinal or dead. We have to give ourselves dead, dead, and dry religion because Holy Spirit withholds, and he will withhold no good thing from those who ask him. He's just like Jesus, he's just like the Father. They don't have a personality split between them. There's not a vengeful one, there's not a withholding one, there's not a wrathful one. They're all good and they're all for us. They're all good and they're all for us. They're all good and they're all for us. They're one, they're joined, they're in union. They do not think differently about us. They don't. I don't know why I'm saying that so forcefully, Day. I did not mean to do that. Um, it's an it's an it's an accident. It's the cold weather. The cold weather made me mean today, I think. Woke up and like a polar bear coming out of hibernation. So Zechariah lives with this shame of knowing because of his upbringing, he and his wife are under the displeasure of Yahweh. He goes into the inner chamber of the Lord's holy place. An angel shows up to him and says, Hey, you're gonna have a son, and that flies in the face of everything he believes about God. So the angel comes with the announcement. You're going to have the thing that you've been praying for, Zechariah, and he's gonna be filled with the Holy Spirit before he's born. He's gonna have the spirit and power of Elijah. They have been waiting for the spirit and power of Elijah to return. They've been waiting for this. And the announcement comes that not only are you going to have the thing that you've been waiting for, your the thing that you've been waiting for is going to be the greatest man who's ever been born of a woman. That's who the that's who the answer to your prayer's gonna be, and every bit of it flies in the face of what this man believes about God. So he opens his mouth and he says, How can I be sure? I'm an old man and my wife is well along in years. Then the angel said, I am Gabriel, I stand in the presence of God. It was he who sent me to you to bring this good news. Hey, this is good news. Hey, this is good news, Zachariah. This is good news, Zachariah. He sent me here for this. But now, since you didn't believe what I said, you will be silent and unable to speak until this child is born. For my words will certainly be fulfilled at the proper time. And every time, until until the Lord started opening this passage to me, every time I read this, I felt like that was punishment from the Lord. And that's how I've always heard this taught is this is punishment from the Lord because this man did not believe. Well, I don't think it's that this man didn't believe, I think it was this man wrestling with the religious indoctrination that he'd lived under the tyranny of from the time he was a child, learning about the nature of Yahweh, and then he's finding out he's better than I ever dreamed that he was. And how can I know that he's actually better than I ever dreamed that he was? And he's not showing a lack of faith, he's wrestling with the religious indoctrination of his age that would say Yahweh's wrathful and you guys pissed him off. And because you guys pissed him off, you'll never have a baby. You made him mad, so you can't have a baby. But then he comes to him and says, Not only are you gonna have a baby, he's gonna be the greatest man ever born of a woman. And he's caught in this impossible paradox of this is the greatest news I've ever heard, and he's kind, and I never knew he was actually kind. He's the God on the mountain that only Moses can go see, and that we can't let any of the cattle get near because we'll have to stone the cattle if they get near to the mountain. He's that God. No, no, no, no, no, Zechariah. I'm teaching you something new about myself. And in the middle of learning something new about Yahweh, it touched something so personal to him that he was unable to comprehend it. And his first thing was not doubt, it was a question. How do how can how can I be sure that everything I ever learned about him is wrong? How can I be sure that everything that I was ever taught about his nature is incorrect? How, how, can you show me something to help me understand that the way that I was brought up is incorrect in this? Because we're the people who bring the light to the world in who salvation comes from the Jews. We hold the knowledge of God, and we're the only ones who hold the knowledge of God, and we're from the priestly order who holds the knowledge of God in our hands. We hold it in our hands and we deal with the knowledge of God on a daily basis, and we're indoctrinated on a daily basis. And you're trying to tell me he's different than the way that I've been taught. And I've been taught since I was able, since before I was able to speak, I've been being taught in Torah. And now you're telling me that the way I was taught in Torah about his personality is incorrect. What am I supposed to do with that information? Can you imagine the impossibility of that scenario? What am I supposed to do with he's good and he's kind and he doesn't actually withhold? That requires a radical rethinking of his nature in Zachariah's mind. And Zachariah's mind gets blown. First of all, he's in the Holy of Holies, the one time in his life he's actually gonna get to be there. Second of all, he's got bells on his skirt in case he doesn't die. Third of all, he believes he's under the dis he's under the displeasure of God. Fourth of all, the angel that's supposed to kill him shows up at the right side of the altar as soon as he gets in there. And oh my god, it's time. I'm gonna die. I knew he was mad at me, and I'm gonna die. And not only is he not gonna die, he's going to have a son, and his son is gonna have the spirit and power of Elijah rest on him. He's gonna be the greatest man ever born of a woman. Of course, his first question is, How can I be sure? My God, of course, how can I be sure? And the angel says, I've got mercy for you. This is not judgment from God to shut his mouth, this is mercy from God to shut his mouth. I'm not gonna allow your, oh my God, I'm not gonna allow your pain to impact your wife's pregnancy. She's gonna grow a miracle in her belly for the next nine months, and I'm not gonna allow that miracle to be influenced by pain. Science teaches us that babies hear from the moment they're conceived. Somewhere short, not maybe the moment, but shortly after they're conceived, in the period of gestation, they begin to hear things, and they're impacted by the things that they hear inside of their mother's womb. And what Yahweh was doing was protecting the miracle from the doubt that had been indoctrinated into his father. This man's gonna have to be able to look at someone that the priestly order was unable to recognize and tell them that's the one you're waiting on. This this miracle that's growing up in his wife's belly is gonna have to look at Jesus one day. Gonna have to be able to not only look at Jesus, but he's gonna have to so, oh my God, so understand, so be in tune with Holy Spirit that he can look at the one who brings mercy and say, This is the one who's taking away all your sins.

SPEAKER_01:

The angel was protecting yes and the child in her moon negative words coming out of the mouth of this father, which would be more hard.

SPEAKER_00:

One hundred percent, one hundred percent frequency.

SPEAKER_01:

I don't understand the words yet, but the frequency is we know words have power, words have power.

SPEAKER_00:

So what the angel was giving him was mercy. The angel offered mercy where we've been taught the angel offered judgment. Yahweh, guess watch this. Yahweh knew that would be his response. This didn't catch Yahweh by surprise. The way that I've always been taught this passage is that Yahweh's got this great news. You're gonna finally have a baby. And he's so full of doubt and unbelief that Yahweh has to bring punishment to him until he's punished enough that he agrees with Yahweh. And when he's punished enough that he agrees with Yahweh, Yahweh will stop punishing him and let him talk again. This is the farthest thing from the truth that you could ever be taught about this passage. Yahweh offered this man mercy because he was going to have to raise a son who was able to think differently about Yahweh so that he could, oh, so that he could make the announcement, so that he could prepare the way for, and then make the announcement that the light that has shined in darkness has finally come. When Zechariah gets ready to open his mouth, he starts prophesying to his son. He says, The light, Yahweh's salvation light is about to dawn upon us. Oh, and you're gonna have to prepare the way for him, and you're gonna have to be able to think differently about the nature of our God if you're going to make that announcement. And the priestly class is completely unable to make that announcement because of the way they think about his nature. This was the stumbling block, the entire ministry of Yeshua. They Stumbled over the goodness of Almighty Yahweh that Yeshua was announcing. They stumbled over his goodness, his goodness became a stumbling block to them. His goodness became an obstacle they could not get over, and his goodness was ultimately the reason Yeshua was crucified. They crucified him because he said, God's good and he's my father. They crucified him because he taught that Yahweh was good, that Yahweh was kind, that he offered mercy instead of judgment, and that yes, mercy would triumph over judgment. He offered all of these things, and they crucified him because they could not believe that Yahweh was good. And Zechariah gets confronted with the goodness of Almighty Yahweh in the inner chamber of the temple. And you know what he does? He goes into a period of silence and he gets to watch this miracle grow. And as he gets to watch this miracle grow, his interior dialogue has to work itself out with the growth of this miracle. His interior dialogue starts to come into line with the goodness of Yahweh. His interior dialogue starts to come into into come into line with the goodness of God to the point that he raises a son who inherits wealth, who inherits, who inherits wealth, who inherits property, who inherits a priestly station, who inherits an upper class lifestyle in the priestly order. And he raises a son who's so married to the idea of the goodness of God that he looks at the fruit of that priestly order and he says, if I'm gonna go into that, I'll never be able to prepare the way for the one that I'm supposed to prepare the way for. So I'm gonna live differently. I'm gonna live differently. I'm going to give myself to something other than what they're giving themselves to because they are unable to see the hour that we live in. So it says that John, this is so interesting. It says that John offered a baptism of repentance. Baptism of repentance of sins. And this hit me um while I was meditating today. I didn't actually write anything. This is all kind of just from the heart today. Um John offered a I'm gonna actually I'm gonna look at something real quick, but John offered a baptism of repentance. Here's what here's what Zechariah says, and you, my little son, will be called the prophet of the most high, because you will prepare the way for the Lord. You will tell his people how to find salvation through forgiveness of their sins, because of God's tender mercy, the morning light from heaven is about to break upon us. To give light to those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, and to guide us in the path of peace. That's Luke 2, 76 through 79. And John grew up and became strong in spirit, and he lived in the wilderness until he began his public ministry to Israel. Because of God's tender mercy, watch this, because of God's tender mercy, the morning light from heaven is about to break upon us to give light to those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death and to guide us in the path of peace. You're going to tell Israel how to find salvation by the forgiveness of their sins. Jesus said that John offered you a baptism of repentance. Okay. Why would the people who salvation came from need a baptism of repentance? I've always kind of wondered that. Why are we needing a baptism of repentance? Why is John offering a baptism of repentance? And why are they needing a baptism of repentance? And maybe it's a lack of education on my end, but I've always been curious why John was offering a baptism of repentance. Well, one of the answers is they had things they needed repenting for. If I were a if I were in a Pentecostal church, I would then hammer on the things they needed repenting for. And I promise you I'd get more amens from talking about the bad things than I would the good things. They'd start falling out in the falling out in the aisle talking about the bad things they were doing. That's how they relate to God because he only talks to them about the bad things they do. That's how they relate to God. He only talks to them about the bad things they do. He has no interest in, he has no, oh Jesus, he has no interest in talking to them about good things because they're too busy doing bad things. It's because they believe God withholds. The children of Israel believed Yahweh withheld. John offers them a baptism of repentance. I remember Damon teaching something really interesting, and I want to relate it, and then we'll take communion and be done. I've been short today, I hadn't gone too long. Um Damon taught a message in Carolina Revival one time. This is a good number of years ago, and he began to teach about the repentance of Israel inside of the Old Testament and relate it to the book of Judges. And what would happen is the children of Israel would backslide, fall away from God, start idol worship. Then, because of their backsliding and idol worship, what would happen is an enemy would come in and occupy the land and enslave the people. They would repent, go back to God, turn back to God, God would bring up, raise up a judge, a deliverer would come, drive the enemy off, and then the people would, during that judge's lifetime, the rest of that judge's lifetime, they would live wholly unto the Lord. And then after that judge died, they would fall away again, they'd go back, and the cycle repeated itself and repeated itself and repeated itself and repeated itself. So Damon began to teach this message, and he began to teach us that what happened was the children of Israel had incomplete or insufficient repentance. They had an incomplete repentance. And now I have some thoughts that I won't, oops, I dropped the monsters. I have some thoughts that I won't share about that particular piece, but they had an incomplete repentance, and this is why the constant cycle of this is why the constant cycle of repent, fall away, repent, fall away, repent, fall away, because the repentance was incomplete. They did not complete the cycle of repentance. They repented enough to make themselves right with God, but did not repent to the point that their nature changed, right? John came offering a baptism of repentance. They remained insufficiently, they brought insufficient repentance to the altar. What do I mean? They were insufficiently, they they had their minds insufficiently changed to the truth of Yahweh's goodness. And because of that, John came offering a baptism of repentance. He was baptizing, baptizing them. Yes, forgiveness of sins, yes, forgiveness of sins. But the root word of repentance is metanoia to change the way that you think. Change the we we've I won't go into the spiel on repentance, but it's to change the way that you think. And I believe this, I believe Yahweh showed me that the law could only ever offer insufficient repentance because the law did not teach them the other side of the coin, which was the goodness of Yahweh. And because the goodness of Yahweh was not married to that repentance, the children of Israel would constantly fall away because they did not have a theology of goodness. And you can only stay under the master's thumb so long before you start to wander. You can only stay under the master's thumb so long before you start to wander. And if your God is a slave driver, you're gonna find a way of escape. And John comes announcing, there's one coming after me whose sandal I am not fit to unlatch it. I baptize you in water, but he's going to baptize you in the Holy Spirit and in with the Holy Spirit and in fire. And then he says, There's the Lamb of God, he takes away the sins of the world. That's exactly right. They were missing the heart of the Lord, but I believe that if we remain under the influence of the law at any place in our heart, that place of our heart will always wander. If you remain under the influence of the law at any place of your mind, heart, life, if it's under the influence of the law and outside of the influence of the grace of God, what will happen is your heart will wander. Man. So Zechariah has to raise a son who can come make the announcement that the answer for your backsliding has come. The answer for your wandering has come. The answer for your darkness has come. And he has to be able to look at someone the religious order was going to reject and see that this is the answer. So Yahweh shuts his mouth, causes his interior, causes his interior dialogue to come into line with the goodness of God. And that man raised a boy who could prepare the way for the Lord. How does that all tie into roses having deep roots and planting our roots deep and all of those things? I'm not quite sure, to be honest with you, but I'm going to tell you this. I'm not waiting for the next thing. I'm not. To the best of my ability, there's a prophetic anticipation that I live with. I live with a prophetic anticipation because I know the move of the spirit the Lord promised us. And I will not relent until we see the move of the spirit the Lord promised us. I will not. I will not. But I'm not also waiting for the next thing to shift before I start living my life and enjoying the goodness of God. And the mistake that we make in prophetic community is that we live with prophetic anticipation, but we allow prophetic anticipation. Well, what we do is we live with what we call prophetic anticipation, but what we actually live with is anxiety. And we call anxiety prophetic anticipation. And what that does is that anxiety eventually causes us to shake loose and shake free, and we never allow our roots to go deep enough. How do we know that our roots have gone sufficiently deep? I think number one, there's a litmus test Paul gave us. None of these things move me. So there's a difference between how to say this correctly. And some of them get uprooted. But the ones whose roots are sufficiently deep and they get hit by that wind, they bounce right back. They're not moved. I think one of the ways that we know that our that our roots have gone deep enough is that we get to the place where we can say, like Paul, none of these things move me, and that's a process, obviously. There are things you I'm not talking about moments of like, holy crap, what are we gonna do? I'm talking about actually causing us to come into despair and abandon our faith and things, things of that nature. But I also want to say that Jesus said the kingdom is righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit. And can we live in righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit regardless of the season that we find our lives in? I think that's a really good litmus test test. Can we live in righteousness, peace, and joy inside of whatever season we may find ourselves in? Um, and joy looks different and different, and I don't like the word season because I have a weird thing with words, but um the prophetic camp uses it too much as one of they abuse it a little bit. Season this, season that. All right, I think you've got enough salt on whatever you're trying to say, bud. I think we could do away with the season. Um yeah, no, I think I think you've oversalted the meat, my friend. You have oversalted it. You used half the shaker. Um, well, grinder, because a grinder is superior. Um, but I think regardless of the season that we're in, can I live in righteousness, peace, and joy? That doesn't mean we don't have tough moments. That means the overarching thing is can I live in righteousness, peace, and joy? And am I moved in my interior world when wind and waves come? And I don't mean like bothered momentarily, I don't mean having to work through hard things. You I think everybody should understand what that means. Being moved, I would describe being moved as being moved from the core principles that I know to be true about Yahweh and allowing a circumstance to cause me to believe something different about Yahweh that I know not to be true about him. Yeah, that's another piece. Can we be moved by the impulses of the Holy Spirit? That's exactly right. That's where actually where I was going next was I think another, another great litmus test for have our roots gone deep enough in him is can we be moved by the impulses of the spirit? And is our heart sensitive enough? Is our heart sensitive enough to hear his impulse and then yield to his impulse when we hear it? There's this interesting thing. I was talking to Samuel the other day. Um, we were having a discussion. He didn't uh decide to yield to the grace that I was offering him on a couple of things, and I was having to correct him. And and uh I said to him, hey, buddy, just because I didn't yell it doesn't mean you don't have to obey it. The fact that I spoke softly doesn't negate your responsibility to respond to my voice just because it's not loud. And I I just refuse to yell all the time. I can't do it. It stresses me out and bothers me when there's a lot of yelling in my house, so I can't do it. I can't, I cannot. I by especially by the end of the day, I'm tired, my brain's tired. I'm like, we're not gonna yell. I'm gonna speak real quietly, and y'all are gonna listen. And then it works sometimes. You know how kids are, and especially my kids. Um, but I I spoke to him, I said, son, I'm not gonna change my volume. It's your job to listen to me, even if my volume's low. And the Lord spoke to me when I said that to him, he said, the same applies to you, bud. It's your responsibility to hear and obey regardless of the volume that I speak with. And maturity in the life of the believer looks like being able to hear his whisper and then respond to his whisper. Because what will happen, and I've I've watched, I've done it, and I've watched it, I've watched people hear whispers and completely ignore them and dismiss them because they were whispers. We want the loud, audible voice, which makes it easier. But grace is found in his whisper. And a lot of times we completely miss the blessing that he's trying to give us because we miss his whisper, or we hear his whisper and we dismiss it. And one of some of that comes back to the insecurity we've been taught about hearing his voice. You've got to know that you know that you know that you know that you know that you know that you know that you know, that you know that you know, that you know that you know that you know that you know. I've got to have 14 dreams and 15 confirmations, and I've got to know that I know that I know that I know that I know that I know. Maturity is hearing a whisper and obeying a whisper. Mature sons are moved by the impulse of the spirit. So I think those are three ways that I would answer that in part. There's probably a more nuanced answer we could get into, but I think those three are probably ways I would do that in part. And I think the piece that keeps you from getting comfortable. So we talk about getting comfortable. The piece that keeps you from getting comfortable is being moved by the impulses of the spirit. That's the piece that keeps you on your toes. That's the piece that will keep you from getting stagnant, and that's the piece that will keep you from getting uh comfortable.