Jesus Asks For A Drink

Jesus doesn’t just give promises, He gives invitations and they often cost us our blueprint. We sit with a prophetic word spoken over Iowa that it will become a citadel of revival, then challenge the reflex to build an “infrastructure” that tries to control how God must fulfill it. What if the real goal isn’t getting the promise to happen faster, but becoming like Jesus while we wait?

We also confront a grim idea we’ve heard in church culture: that the enemy is God’s primary tool to bring people to repentance. We push back with a better story rooted in Scripture, the goodness of God, and the steady work of the Holy Spirit. From there, John 4 becomes our map. Jesus sits at an existing well, asks a Samaritan woman for a drink, and turns a small offering into an encounter with living water. That exchange reframes worship, prayer, and spiritual renewal: bring Him your real life, even the parts you feel unworthy to offer.

Along the way we talk Tozer, prevenient grace, and Romans 8:29, where “conformed” means sharing the same form and standard as Christ. The presence of Jesus isn’t a side topic, it’s the gateway. If you’re hungry for revival in Des Moines, Iowa, or anywhere that feels forgotten, start here: make space for Him to rest, and let His presence do what nothing else can.

If this stirred something in you, subscribe, share the episode with a friend who needs a drink, and leave a review so more people can find the conversation.

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Transcript

Welcome And Where We’re Heading

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Hi everyone, I'm Ben. And I'm Logan, and we're the Robin. Welcome to the Resting Place podcast. Alright, now we're gonna go to Philippians 3, and we may go to Luke 1. And I know that I promised that I would be done with Luke 1 after beating Luke 1 to death for the first three months of the year in the last three months. Have I been on Luke 1 for six months? Has it been it started in October, I think. Holy cow. Alright, so I'm pulling an apostle ball, and we're gonna have a three-year series on Luke 1, apparently. And Lucy's over there, like, oh my god, he's gonna go back to Luke 1. What more is there possibly to say about Luke chapter 1? It turns out there's plenty more to say about Luke chapter 1. That's the way the Lord speaks to me, is that he'll start in something, and then I'll think it's we're done talking about this specific chapter, this specific thing that he wants to talk to me about, and then he'll just keep talking, and I'll be ready for him to be done on that and move on to something else, and he's not moving on, and he's not done with that just yet. And so I've kind of had to just determine with this Luke one thing that I'm just gonna follow this thread until he wants to connect it into something else, and then we'll move on to to another piece. But there's I think at least one more thing to be said there uh before I'm done with it, and then I'll probably circle back to it occasionally um as time goes. We're going to start um with a little writing that I have done, and then we may get into Philippians or we may just go to Luke 1. We'll see how uh the flow of things goes here. Um like I said, we've had an extended break. It's been That's okay. That's okay. Um we've had an extended break. I think it's been since it's been since the third week in March that we've met. Since March 8th. Since March 8th, and it is April the 19th. So it has been about six weeks. It's been a little while since we've met, and I've had some time to reflect and some time to think. And as I was preparing for today, I wrote just a little bit, and I'm gonna read. And it's been some time since I've felt a flow to write, so y'all bear with me as I read. And it's not much. I don't have, you know, it's not like I'm bringing eight pages of notes here. My God, please no. Um, so February 2nd, 2018, we received the word of the Lord for Iowa from Mar Apostle. So it's been February 2nd of this year would have been February 20, that would have been 2026. So that would have been eight years since we received the original word for Iowa. And one and there were many things said in that word, but one of the primary things he said was this Iowa will go from being off the map spiritually to a citadel of revival in the earth. So Iowa is going to move from being off the map, and I can attest, we are off the map spiritually. There's not, it's not like there's a great move of the spirit going on in Iowa currently. It's just, it's okay. It's just kind of true. We we the the overarching, and it's not everyone, I don't want to say everyone, but the overarching thought process of the church that I have been able to see and been able to kind of hear people talk. And it's not very extensive because I have it's not like I've been visiting a ton of churches because, well, I won't go into that, but it's not like I haven't been visiting uh like I've been visiting a ton of churches, but the small sampling that I have is that the enemy is the tool in the hand of the Lord to draw people to himself. This seems to be an overarching thought process in the church, and this may be at more at large than just the small sampling of small samples of interaction that I've had, but the primary tool of the Lord for evangelism is the enemy. We were uh a part of a Bible study that my wife signed us up for, and thank you for doing that. She's making friends and doing a good job, and I'm over here a hermit, not not making friends. So I decided to join it because she asked me to, and I said, okay, I'll I'll go. And I won't get too detailed. It's not like anybody that went to that is going to listen to this, but I will not get too detailed. But one of the individuals there asked us to pray for their spouse as they were not um not a believer. And the comment that was made from an individual there was just pray him into the hands of the devil, and that'll break them, and that'll cause them to come to God. And I sat there. I sat there and my my tongue almost bleeding from biting my tongue because I was like, this is not real. This is not a real thing, this can't be real. But this seems to be a pervasive thought, at least in this area regional to where we're located. This seems to be a prevailing thought, like this is just accepted. And I think we've lost the idea. There's let there be light. And I think we've lost the idea that it's his goodness that draws men to repentance. So rather than allowing the enemy to ravage someone's life to the point that it's almost irreparable, I can't even I can't even relate to that sort of thought process. So this is the kind this is the kind of place that we find ourselves in. The word was this Iwa will go from off the map spiritually to a citadel of revival in the earth. And I'm not going to go into like breaking down what a citadel is and all those things. I'm not gonna not gonna do that. I will say this the temptation would then be for me to come and to begin to build something aiming at becoming the thing the Lord said we would be. Make sense practically, and then would also probably what's the right word, but it would probably, I don't want to say jive because I feel like saying jive is like have to be at least 60 or older to say jive and get away with it. And I'm not quite there. I'm gonna be 40 next year, so I'm getting old and I'm getting gray. I'm getting old, man. So, so point of point of refute. Lou and Lucy never use it. So, no, don't put that on me. Don't put that on us. We don't do that. Oh, I know you want me to. I know you want me to, Deborah. I'm not gonna do it. I think it would I think building towards that and creating an infrastructure for becoming that would probably um flow with the primary prophetic teachings that I have ever heard. That you should begin to put practical things in place when you hear the word of the Lord in order to receive the promise of God. The promises of God come with a they come with a shout and they come with a with a with a sound, and then the Lord expects us to begin to put practical things into place in order to create the infrastructure for the promise to come. Okay. And I've heard well-meaning prof people in the prophetic stream teach this way, give instruction this way, and I've even seen them give instruction to individuals after they've received the word of the Lord. Okay, now it's time to start putting into putting into place some practical things so that you can receive that. Okay. And while it's true that the word of the Lord may come with instruction and will definitely require a couple of things. It will definitely require both perseverance and a greater and a greater degree of order than we are currently aligned in. It will require perseverance and order to receive the word of the Lord because glory follows order, and perseverance is a requirement of receiving anything from the Lord. Let patience have its perfect work is one of my least favorite passages in script. It's one of my least favorite passages in scripture, but it makes you whole and complete lacking nothing. I kind of like the whole and complete lacking nothing part, but the patience part I don't like. So I want part of that when I want to snag part of it out and leave the other part. But the perseverance side of that is necessary to become whole and complete lacking nothing. The perseverance side of that builds you into maturity, builds me into maturity. While it will require both perseverance and a measure of order that we are not currently aligned in, I want to make an excess, I wanna I want to deviate from I think what most people I have heard teach in the prophetic would say here. I want to deviate from that. So I'm gonna go a little bit off path. We're going, we're on the we've been on the path, I think, up to this point, and now we're going to go off the trail into an unmarked trail on this one, at least somewhat unmarked, will require perseverance and a measure of order that we are not currently aligned in. The word of the Lord normally, his word normally comes to pass in a way that is either unexpected or so far outside of our paradigm, so far outside our paradigm of how he would complete his word, that the infrastructure I would prepare to receive the promise would constrict its for fulfillment or render me completely unable to receive the promise. That requires some explanation. While it will require perseverance and a measure of order, the word of the Lord almost never comes to pass in a way, what the best way to say this, the word of the Lord almost never comes to pass in a way that is foreseeable to the human intellect. So his promises work like this He gives David a promise, he anoints David to be king, and he gives David a promise, and then he spends years acting looking like he has no interest in bringing David to the throne. David advances in Saul's court to the place that Saul is so dependent on him that every time he's tormented by that evil spirit, David is the one he calls for. David's his chief warrior, he's his chief captain, and he's his chief worshiper. He's as important and integral to the inner workings of the kingdom as anyone in the kingdom. It looks like surely this is the path that will launch him into kingship. And then the rug is pulled out from David's feet, and he spends years in the wilderness on the back side in the back side of nowhere, with Yahweh looking like he has no interest in fulfilling his promise to that man. And had David been under the prophetic instruction that we would normally give him in this hour, in this day, he'd be building infrastructure while he's in the palace to become king. He's making alliances, he's doing the necessary things in order to make the get the right people on his side so that when he's made king, it's a smooth transition. And in the middle of all of that, Yahweh says, I'm going to fulfill my word to you, but I would so much rather you become like me than receive the promise that I've given you. I'd rather you become like me and the word of the Lord coming to pass becomes a necess uh a secondary consequence of you becoming like me, as opposed to something that just lands on you. So the word of the Lord has become for me an open door or an illuminated pathway to greater transfiguration rather than a one, two, three, one-step, two-step, three-step, and I receive the promise of the Lord if I can put one thing in place, the next thing in place, and then this third thing looks like it would be a good thing to put in place. This infrastructure that I've created is perfectly situated me to receive the promise of the Lord. And that's not how the promises of the Lord work. The Lord is the best way to say this. The Lord is committed. That's that's the right word. The Lord is committed to bringing us into transfiguration or conforming us into his image. He's committed to it. And when he gives us these promises, he gives us the word of the Lord, he gives us these things. What is the point to me? What's the point? What's the whole point of what's the point of the whole matter? It's an invitation into his heart to become like him. And as we become like him, the natural secondary consequence of becoming like him is the word of the Lord comes to pass over our life just like he promised, but in a way that we would have never expected. Just like he promised, but in a way that I don't have a paradigm for when he gives us the word. So what does that have to do with the resting place and all of that? What is the primary way that we're transfigured or conformed into the image of the Lord? It's the primary way. One of the primary ways. And one of the primary ways that we're conformed or transfigured into the image of the Lord is by spending time in his presence. So what what would be the aim of this? Because I've had some time to think. What is the aim? And I feel like I lost the plot a little bit when we got here, because there's so much going on. And I immediately went into survival mode. And Lord knows it would be easy for me still to be in survival mode and all the things and all the stuff going on. What's the point? There's a couple things. There's a couple things, and this is the primary this is the primary point of the resting place. Is this a place for him to rest. This is a place for him to rest. So what do we do? We create a space where the presence of Jesus is our anchor point. It's the central thing to everything we do. It's the central piece, it's the beating heartbeat of the whole infrastructure of the entire thing that we're doing. And that will require, in the stage that we're in, that will require a couple of things. It will require that his presence become the beating heartbeat of everything we do here. And then when we go home, it must be then the central beating heartbeat of everything we do at home, everything that we do in our job. It has to be that the presence of Jesus becomes the central beating heartbeat of this family. That's how we begin to create the resting place. That's how we begin to create the resting place. It must be that his presence is the central thing. It's the beating heartbeat, the center of it all. His presence, the center of it all. This is the way I'm seeing it, and I'm gonna deviate from my plan. So y'all are welcome. I'm gonna deviate from Luke 1 right now, so bear with me. I'm calling an audible on myself in the middle of this, so just bear with me for one moment. John chapter 4, verse 1 says this. So he left Judea and returned to Galilee. He had to go through Samaria on the way. Eventually he came to the Samaritan village of Sychar near the field that Jacob gave to his son Joseph. Jacob's well was there. Jacob's well was there. Jacob's well was there. And Jesus, tired from the long walk, sat wearily beside the well about noontime. Soon a Samaritan woman came to draw water, and Jesus said, Please give me a drink. He was alone at the time because his disciples had gone into the village to buy some food. The woman was surprised for Jews refused to have anything to do with Samaritans. She said to Jesus, You are a Jew and I'm a Samaritan woman. Why are you asking me for a drink? Why are you asking me for a drink? This is just so brilliant, Jesus replied, If you only knew the gift of God, the gift God has for you, and who you are speaking to, you would ask me, and I would give you living water. So there's an exchange that takes place on a well that was already there. To me, this is such a perfect picture of what the Lord is going to do here. It's a perfect picture of what the Lord's going to do here. It's a perfect picture. The Samaritans and the Jews had nothing to do with one another. And the state of Iowa and Des Moines and the move of the Spirit have nothing to do with one another. It's almost like the Samaritan the Samaritans were fly over country. They were forgotten. There was no one that wanted to go there. And when you went there, people looked at you weird and they questioned, why in the world would you want to go and spend time there? And Jesus, tired and weary from his journey, sits down on a well that's already that's already present there. There's a well that's already present there. And Jesus sits down and asks the whore for a drink. Someone who's completely unworthy, someone who has no business giving the Savior a drink, but the Savior says, I need something from you for in order for me to receive my full reward. And there's a reward latent here that Jesus has yet to receive. There's a reward latent in this area that Jesus has yet to receive. And I am committed to seeing that he received the full reward of his suffering from me and from this area that we've been been given. Jesus is asking us for a drink. The woman says, Why would you ask me for a drink? For Jews have nothing to do with Samaritans. And Jesus turns it on her and says, If you only knew who it was and the gift of God that you are speaking to, you would ask me and I would give you living water. So there's an exchange that takes place at the place of the well. And Jesus says, I'm thirsty, would you offer me something? And if you'll offer me something, what I'll do in exchange is I'll give you living water that'll never run dry. So we offer our small gift to him. And in return for the small gift that we have to give to him, Jesus says, In response to this small thing that you've given me, I'll give you something that is not even proportional in response. In our it's like it's this beautiful thing. In our weakness, we're made perfect, right? In our weakness, his strength is made perfect. In our weakness, he's glorified in our weakness. And I'm the Apostle Paul does such a beautiful job of painting that picture. And Jesus comes to this woman and says, Hey, I'd like a drink. I don't have anything to offer you. Yeah, but I'd still like a drink. But Lord, I'm not worthy to do that for you. I'm not worthy to do that for you. But yeah, I'd still, I'd still like a drink. And there are many things we could say about that process of thought. And there's a story that I like to tell in regards to worship. I like to tell this story. There's a time when Samuel was, I think maybe two. We were still living in our house in South Carolina, had not been there real long, and I would put him to bed. I'd put him down, and what I would do is I'd and it was a process getting him to sleep. It always has kind of been a process getting him to sleep. To his mommy's eternal chagrin, it's a process getting Samuel to go to sleep. And I'm putting him down and I'm reading him stories, I'm singing him songs, and I have a terrible singing voice, but I'm singing him songs. And he finally falls asleep, and I'm I just pray for him real, real quietly. Just praying for him real, real quietly, and I'm blessing him. And I all of a sudden I hear out of I hear kind of coming out of him something. It's like I heard something, so I just kind of I said I continued to pray for him, and then I hear his little baby voice, I bless you, Dad, in response to my blessing him. And that did something to my heart that I'll never forget. It completely changed the way that I look at my interactions with the Father. What it does for his heart when we bless him, what it does for his heart when we bless him, it moves him in a way that nothing else will. It moves him in a way that nothing else will. And Jesus comes to this Samaritan village and he's looking for a drink, and he's looking for someone to give it to him. And I think what's going on here is he's come here looking for a drink and looking for someone who's just willing to offer him a drink. Give him something out of the wealth that we've been given from him. Give him something. Offer him something that would that would bless him. Offer him something that he desires, offer him something that importantly we're not comfortable giving him, but something that he would like from us. And the woman says to him, You're a Jew and I'm a Samaritan woman. Why are you asking me for a drink? Jesus replied, If you only knew the gift of God, the gift of gift God has for you, and who you are speaking to, you would ask me and I would give you living water. So there's this exchange that takes place at the place of the well, where Jesus asks for a drink and then immediately upon asking for a drink, offers something back that you can't buy. Jesus asks for a drink and immediately offers back something you can't earn. Jesus asks for a drink and immediately offers back. Hey, if you knew who it is you're speaking to, you would ask from me. There's a mutual exchange taking place where we're offering him the best that we can in our weakness. We're offering him the best that we can. And in response, he's pouring the Holy Spirit on us in a way that we have never experienced before. And I think, I think my heart for what we're doing here is really, really simple. Really, really simple. I want this family and our gatherings, and not just our gatherings. I want this family and our gatherings and then our homes. It's this really interesting thing that takes place when you gather. What's going on at home fuels the gathering, and what fuels the gathering fuels what's going on at home in our in our spiritual walk. In our spiritual walk, what's going on at home fuels our gatherings, and what's going on in the gatherings fuels our homes. So, guys, what happens is we bring what's going on at home with us wherever we go anyway. So there's the so there's this real invitation into a greater degree of presence. There's this real invitation to a greater degree of presence. And the beautiful thing about Jesus is that he's able to interact with us wherever we're at. And the beautiful thing about our Savior is he's so multidimensional and multifaceted that he can meet you there as easily as he can anywhere else. And he can lead you in the most Jesus. He meets you in pain, and he meets you in the middle of all of those things. things and he leads you into green pastures and he makes you lay down beside still waters and he still prepares a table in the presence of your enemies. He still does those things for you and it's it's as easy for him to meet you there as it is when everything's going well and everything's lining up and everything's gone perfectly. It's as easy for him to do that as it is meet you in pain. It's as easy for him to meet us in the middle of where we currently are as it is any other point in our lives because he's multidimensional, multifaceted, multidimensional and he's multifaceted. The key to experiencing the multidimensions of the savior is to allow him into the different dimensions of who you are. The key to experiencing the dimensions of our savior is to allow him to come into the different dimensions or the different depths of who we are and what happens is we'll allow him to go one place and not another. We'll allow him to touch our mind we'll allow him to get a certain to a certain extent into our soul we'll allow him body, soul and spirit, right? We're a three-dimensional being mind, body and soul, right? Mind, body and soul, we're a three-dimensional being there are dimensions of who we are that as long as they remain as long as they remain off limits to our Savior, we won't experience the dimensions of who he is and the fullness that he has intended for us. Guys, I'm so far off track and we're gonna I'm gonna close up soon here just I'm gonna close up in just a second because I don't want to go long today. You're like we hadn't met in six weeks and you're gonna talk for thirty minutes and just be done. Probably the one time that would be appropriate for me to go for two hours, I'm gonna go for less than an hour. You're welcome. Our apostle would make this declaration constantly in South Carolina and I have found it to be true. The presence of Jesus fixes everything and nothing else will. And the answer for the world around you is the world within you. Those two things were the probably the two primary things he would constantly come back to the presence of Jesus fixes everything and nothing else will and the answer for the world around you is the world within you. The answer for the chaos is the peace inside of you. The answer for the darkness is the is the light on the inside of you. Trying to decide if I should share this or not. I had a dream last night and I don't dream super frequently and I've not even had a chance to talk to Logan about this yet so you're finding out as we all are. I had a dream and I was talking to my brother in my dream and in the dream and I won't share all of it I'll just share a piece of it in my dream I said to him I have a root of rejection that I'm dealing with that I'd like for it to go away and I'm not quite sure what to do with it. And he said well of course you have that and gave me the reason why and then he said what he and he looked at me and he said what do you mean you don't know what to do with it He said Yes you do too know what to do with it and I said You're right I know and I woke up and one of the things that I have done poorly in leading this is be open about what we're doing here. And I think I think I have I don't like Logan can tell you I honestly don't care what most people think. I honestly honestly don't I care about what she thinks and like a few other people and then the rest if you misunderstand me, you misunderstand me, it's okay. I'll live if I'm misunderstood. But one of the things I have done poorly in leading this is be less open than I had ought to have been about what's going on here and inviting people into what we're doing. And I think that it's time to start to throw open the door to people that need an encounter with the presence of Jesus. Just very practically for speaking for myself I believe it's time that we begin to throw open the door and I know there are obstacles to this there are obstacles to the resting place there are obstacles to getting joined there are obstacles to getting joined to me there are obstacles getting joined to this because of the way that we operate and that's really okay I'm fine with that but I believe there are people that need a drink. Jesus is asking for a drink and it is this is the way this is the way that I envision this Jesus is sitting on the well that's already there asking for a drink. Picture a well sitting on a well and it's he's asking for a drink and it is our job to the best of our ability to offer him what we have and in response he'll pour out on us what he has. It's our job to offer him what we have so if it's grief offer him grief. It's our job to offer him what we have if it's grief offer him grief. If it's misunderstanding offer him misunderstanding if it's fill in the blank if it's joy offer him joy if it's rejoicing offer him rejoicing. If it's faith offer him faith if it's hope offer him hope. The thing that we have offer it to him the thing that we have offer it to him. The woman that this is such an interesting thing the woman that came to him while he was in the Pharisee's house and washed his feet with her tears and dried his feet with her hair and then poured expensive perfume all out all over his feet perfume she had to offer him you know what that was she was a prostitute that woman and they all knew it and it's always shocking to me how the religious know that that woman was a prostitute. I wonder how they knew so quickly that she's a prostitute first of all how do you know that Jack? Jack how'd you figure that out Jack how'd you know she was a prostitute? You how'd you know that? If you were as concerned with the law as you claim to have been you would have had no clue who that woman was but no you know exactly who she was and the perfume that she poured out on him the only offering she had to give him was the way that she attracted men into her bed. The perfume would have been very expensive and would have been an indicator that she was one of the more popular ladies in the red light district and the perfume would have been one of the ways she'd put it on and that would be the attractant to people that were looking for what she had to offer. And she offered something vile to our Savior and in offering that to him it became holy unto the Lord. That completely does away with any religious pretext that I would have to anything that I have to offer him. So if I have accusation to offer him I offer my accusation to you because I don't know where else to put it if I have confusion to offer you I offer you my confusion. If I have joy I offer you thank God I finally had something good I offer my joy but in all of the things we offer them to him and in giving him the drink of our lives he then begins to pour out us the drink of his life he we pour our life out on him and he pours his life out on us. We pour our life out on him and he pours his life out on us and this brings us into an outpouring of the spirit that cannot be stopped. The only way the flow stops is if we stop offering the only way the flow stops is if we stop offering. Tozer wrote a book Tozer wrote many books but fix it like that. Okay. Like this is that better okay um I'm so bad at this thing I'm so bad at microphones. Tozer wrote a book he wrote many books but one of the books he wrote was Man's Pursuit of God and I thought one day this is years ago I'd do this thing where I read one chapter and just stop and I have quoted I actually read chapter two of Beginning to pray while I was on an airplane and then I got halfway through chapter three and got so tired I fell asleep. Um it was a long flight. Um but uh so I did continue on in the journey of learning how to or beginning to pray I did continue on the journey finally after a year I continued the journey of beginning to learn how to pray. Yeah learning how to begin how to pray. And I read the first chapter of man's pursuit of God and have it so messed me up I just stopped the whole thing altogether and said well that's the whole point of the whole book and I'm not going to read anything else. In the first chapter of this book he begins to talk about prevenient grace and how our pursuit of him is always in response of his pursuit of us. That our pursuit of him is never initiated on our own but there's always a grace that has gone before that has provided the impetus for us to begin to even search him out. So there this is how prayer works as well prayer is never beginning on our side prayer is always a conversation that starts with him. He's the one who initiates prayer he's the one who initiates the conversation and he's the one who initiates the pursuit he offers us a grace and it's called prevenient grace. Prevenient grace according to people who are much more intelligent than I and much more scholarly than I would say this prevenient grace is simply this grace that goes before that's what prevenient means it goes before you. It's in front of you and you're walking into it. It's like something being prepared for you and you're walking into the preparations someone has made. The preparations were prevenient. The preparations for preparations for Samuel's birthday party were ready by the time we had his party they were prevenient. We took a bunch of kids to the new Mario movie and had a party over at the movie theater and there were there were candy bags and several other things that my wife did a really great job of putting together I had the idea to do candy bags and she was like awesome and I was like good though we fed them so much sugar it was that I I almost wanted to repent to the parents by the time they by the time they picked them all up I was like you all are gonna hate me before this day is over but you're welcome. Y'all probably deserve it at some degree. One of Samuel's little friends his eyes were this big and I was like oh boy buddy you uh you might want some water or something and maybe a valium or something I don't know let's let's calm you down a little bit but their their their uh diabetic coma was prepared beforehand and this is how the pursuit of God always begins as he prepares beforehand. He offers us grace beforehand that allows us to even begin to have the idea that we might pursue him because his pursuit of us began in eternity. He predestined us in eternity to be conformed into the image of his son. I looked up that word conformed from Romans eight I looked up that word conformed what's that mean you know to be conformed because I I had a couple of ideas and had a had a thought and it was different than I thought that it might be. It wasn't quite related to what I thought that it might be related to but it was something even more fascinating. That word conformed I'm gonna look it up real quick so I tell you exactly right because I don't want to I don't want to I don't want to tell you wrong. That word conformed means this and let me find it really quickly. It'll be super quick. Thank God for the blue letter Bible I can find what I need to very quickly. Romans 8 29 and the word conformed conformed okay we're gonna look at the word predestined and then we're gonna look at the word conformed and then I'm probably gonna quit talking for those it's in the old King James for those he foreknew he also predestined and the word predestined is proorido I think I even pronounced that right proorizo to predetermine to decide beforehand. In the New Testament so watch in the New Testament the word predestined means this of God decreeing from eternity of God to of God decreeing from eternity to foreordain to appoint beforehand. Now the word conformed means this and I won't try to pronounce this one sumorphos I think that's close sumorphos means this having the same form as another similar or conformed to having the same form as another similar or conformed to having the same form as another similar or conformed to so God declared from eternity that we would have the same form as Jesus we would be of the same type and confirmation as Yeshua. We would be of the same type or the same in the animal world they have confirmation shows right and there's specific breeds that ought to in the dog world there are specific breeds that have specific confirmation points. Their head ought to look like this their hip ought to be this high back ought to be this straight and their legs need to look a certain way while they run while they're running their gait should look a certain way not every dog has the same gait not every dog has the same muscular structure not every dog has the same head shape not every dog has the same hip height but they the breed standard is this and for a dog to be considered excellent an excellent type of its breed it ought to conform to the breed standard. So when the Lord is saying that he from eternity declared that we would be conformed into the image of Christ we would match the standard from eternity we would be of the same type or the same standard as Jesus there would not be deviation in the standard because we're not worthy to be like Jesus there wouldn't be any deviation because of our past there wouldn't be any deviation because of any X, Y, or Z that's gone on in our life no, from eternity he declared that we'd be made into the image of Christ and we'd be of the same type or confirmation as Jesus. We would look like Jesus looks and the gateway to that is the presence of Jesus and nothing else. And spending time in the presence of Jesus and marinating in the presence of Jesus I love to grill I love it. I know that's strange. I know none of you realize that I love to grill but I I I've got to clean that grill Lou gave me first of all I've got to clean it really bad. Second the outside of it the interior is fine. I keep the interior in good working order but the outside looks like nobody loves it. Lou I promise I love that thing. I love it so much I've used it. No I'll do it I'll do it I'm gonna get some grill cleaner I have let it get this far. I I have let it get this far I will I will take care of it. It is it makes the best food though and it might mess with it if you clean it I don't know but when you marinate something it ad it allows you to in a short amount of time to impact the quality of what you're about to what you're about to grill. In a short amount of time you can really impact the quality of something you've purchased to put on the grill just by throwing it a quick marinade. The flavor level is significantly higher. It's the same way and I'm comparing the presence of Jesus with grilling I'm I should have stopped I should have stopped 10 minutes ago I was doing so good I should have stopped. See? Now we're all hungry it's the same way with the presence of Jesus we by spending time soaking in his presence are able to in a short amount of time greatly increase the degree to which we're able to experience him and be a conduit for others to experience him through us. In a short amount of time we're able to do away with our anxiety in a short amount of time we're able to do away with our fear in a short amount of time we're able to do away with the things that are troubling us, bothering us, causing us to take our light and hide it under a bushel and it's time for this family to take the take the basket off of the candle that we have and begin to let our light shine. But the only way we're gonna be able to do that is if we prioritize spending time in the presence of Jesus. And I could go into Joshua in Exodus not leaving the tent and the whole deal but I don't feel to do that today. I feel like what I have said is probably about as far as I'm gonna go. So I think my attempt today has been to set the direction that this family will be going in for forever. There's no there's no real infrastructure in place at this point. There's no real building going on at this point. There's nothing that we can point to that would say the Lord is fulfilling his word to send a move of the Spirit to Iowa that would completely change the spiritual climate to the point that Iowa becomes a citadel of revival in the earth. We can't point to that up to this point. We there's not any building going on up to this point. But what we can do is set our hearts to see Jesus set our hearts to make this place such a resting place for him that however he chooses to fulfill his word is okay with us just as long as it means that we get more of his presence just as long as it means we get more of him I don't care how he does it. I don't care how he fulfills his promise I don't care what it looks like. I do not care what it looks like. I just want more of the presence of Jesus and I want more of the presence of Jesus in my life and I want more of the presence of Jesus in our gatherings. I want to see the glory of the Lord begin to visit us in ways that we have never experienced before. And the only way to do that is we begin to cause the whole infrastructure of what we're doing to be built around the presence of Jesus in honoring the presence of Jesus. So Lance loves it when I say like the old prophet said that's all I've got to say about that. He loves it he he encourages me to do it. So does Debbie they both encourage me to do it. They're both like don't ever stop saying that joke it never gets it never gets old and we never want you to stop that's the that's the that's the uh that's the witness I have from the family so I'll just keep using it from now until it turned out the interesting thing and this is the last thing I'm saying it's the last thing I'm saying the interesting thing about Luke one that I we haven't covered yet because we've done an in-depth I've beaten that thing to death the interesting thing about Luke one is Zachariah his name means the Lord remembers and he felt so forgotten that when the angel of the Lord came to him and said Good news, Zachariah your prayer has been heard he couldn't even recall the prayer he'd prayed. As though his prayer didn't matter anyway he felt so forgotten by the he had been he was very old and his wife was very old and unable to have children and he must have felt like the Lord had forgotten him but the one thing he did not do was stop coming to the presence Jesus. He didn't stop coming to the presence of Jesus and in doing that he set himself up to be invited into a dimension of the heart of the Lord that no man had been invited to up until that point. He was the first he was the first man to be invited into the interior of the Lord's heart that would allow him in such a way that it would allow him to raise a son who could recognize Jesus when the established priesthood couldn't. What was it that he got invited into Lou he got invited into the goodness of the Lord. He got invited into the goodness of the Lord in a way no man had been invited to I believe in those nine months of his silence I believe he got invited into the heart of the Lord and it's his goodness that draws men to repentance not his anger. Because up until that point it was the anger of the Lord that the prophets would declare the anger of the Lord ought to bring you into repentance and the anger of the Lord only ever served to temporarily turn the hearts of his people and Yahweh said I'm going to release such a flood of repentance that I'll never have to ignite my anger ever again because I'm releasing goodness