Climbing Gods Mountain Stop Three Growing

Welcome to episode 148.

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God, and the Word became flesh and dwelt among us. Spending time in the Word of God is the best way to spend time with God. Welcome to No Doubt, No Fear, Only Believe podcast, where we will encourage, inspire, and empower you to live your best life in Christ. Here's Greg.

Welcome to episode 148. Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Well, we are diving into the third stop on this mountain of God journey that we're on, and the third stop is all about growing. And so we are going to learn to grow in grace and truth. And in Luke 2:52, and Jesus increased in wisdom and stature and in favor with God and men. If you want to have favor with God and men, we need to grow. We need to grow in God's word. I guarantee you, Jesus had just come from the temple, and if you remember, he was separated from his mom and dad for 3 days. They didn't know. They ran back to Jerusalem. They couldn't find him, and he was at the temple learning and visiting with the men of God. And I guarantee you that Jesus continued this in the synagogues back home, that Jesus sat under these leaders' feet. He learned the scriptures. And it's hard to imagine because Jesus is the Word of God, but he's also man. So he's learning, he's doing the things. And I guarantee you, I wasn't there, but I promise you he stayed in the Word of God while he was growing. And in order to increase in wisdom, you increase in wisdom by the fear of God and staying in God's word. And so Jesus was in the word of God even though he was the word of God. And I don't claim to understand it all, I just know that Jesus stayed in the word, and the only word they had back then was the Old Testament. So Jesus just read the Old Testament, he listened to the synagogue leaders, and he probably interjected here and there. But stop number 3 on this mountain is you have to grow. I've heard someone say, and I can't give credit for it, but you are either green and growing or you are ripe and rotten. This whole life, I don't care how old you are, I don't care how young you are, you have to continue to learn and you have to continue to strive to get better. Again, soapbox moment, the best thing you can do for yourself is get into the word of God and have a personal relationship with the Holy Spirit. Talk to the Holy Spirit since he is the author of the book. He wrote this book. Now, there was a lot of writers, physical writers, that actually wrote what the Holy Spirit told them to write, but the Holy Spirit is the author. And if you want to know, how would you like to interview the author of your favorite book? We're not talking about the Bible, but just think about the person that wrote the book. If you're a reader, you've had to have read a book that you're just, wow, that is a great book. And how cool would it be to get to sit down with that person and talk to them about the book, your favorite book? Now take that same thought and think about that Jesus is the same yesterday, today, and forever, and the Holy Spirit is never going to leave you nor forsake you. You have the Holy Spirit with you right now. All you got to do is ask. You just got to start talking to him just like you would a friend. He's your best friend. And he will lead you into all truth. That is his job. He also comforts and he also protects. I mean, he's got a lot of cool jobs. One of his major jobs is to lead you into all truth. Remember, I am not and never have claimed to be. I make a horrible Holy Spirit. The only reason I'm here is because I do this constantly and I believe that I'm taking on the role, if you will, and there goes my air quotes, is a guide. I am just guiding you up this mountain. Remember, we've got to have somebody that's been here before. And I promise you, over the last 20-plus years— it's almost 28, 29, I don't know, math is not an exact science— back in '93 is when I accepted Jesus in January. So we're like 28 years in. So for 28 years, if we could just compact that down for you, if you've struggled with some area in your life, I'm here to continue to jump up and down and tell you, hey, Get in the Bible, get in the word of God. It's okay, no one, your head's not gonna pop off or nothing like that. And you're gonna get some opposition, but Satan's a punk. We don't care about that negative self-talk in your head. We're here to learn about God. And one of the things that we need to learn about is we need to find our place in the body of Christ. Now I know I see things differently and maybe that's why you're here, maybe that's why you roll your eyes, but it doesn't matter. I've just gotta tell you how I picture this. God places us in his body. And we're never going to be placed in a different part of the body. The way God has made us, the thing he made us for. That's why I'm just going to just enter into this teaching thing. I'm just not going to— I'm going to quit apologizing for being a teacher. God placed me in his body to be a teacher, so here I am going to teach you. What I'm trying to get you or help you picture, when you accepted Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, the Holy Spirit grabbed you and baptized you into the body of Christ. I've got to picture it. That's how I've got it pictured. I've got the Holy Spirit grabbing you when you died to self, and right as, as soon as you died, he baptized you into the body of Christ, and you came alive. Your spirit man came alive. You're in the body of Christ, and now you play a specific part in the body of Christ. So we have to find that place. We have to find that part, and that is the third stop, is trying to find where we fit into the body of Christ. And I believe the perfect segue, and my pastor Robert Morris talked about the four foundations of the church. I've talked about that in previous episodes, but I believe this is a perfect place to figure out where you belong in the body of Christ. And the four foundations, I'll link to the four foundations teaching, But the four foundations, there is the face of the man, there's the face of the lion, there's the face of the eagle, and there's the face of the ox. And it's one creature, and they're— they've got four faces and a bunch of eyes and wings. This is the living creature that's before the throne of God, and I think it represents the four foundations of the church. And one of those foundations is the face of the man, and that is the word of God. And I believe we all need to be in the word of God. If you are not in the word of God, you are being beat to death by the enemy. The world is beating you to death, Satan's beating you to death, and your flesh is beating you to death. You need to get in the word of God. I know you're tired of me saying it. I'm going to keep saying it. If you don't like me saying it, you probably don't need to keep listening to these episodes. But I'm going to jump up and down and tell you to get in the word of God because I know how the Word of God has changed my life. It has changed me, it has inspired me to be a better man, to be a better husband, to be a better father. It has changed me completely. The Word of God has that kind of power. I know who I was at 29, I know who I am at 58, and I don't even recognize the two men. I know that the reason that I am here talking to you on this microphone today is because of what the Holy Spirit did for me back in January 10th, 1993. It was an incredible thing when I became a new creation and a new creature in Christ. I became part of Jesus' body. Don't say I understand it all, but I tell people that if I was a little toe, if God gave me the microphone and I was a little toe, the only thing that I would talk about is balance. We need more balance. We need more balance. That's what we need in this church. Every time someone gave me the microphone, if an I was talking before me, I'd come up and I'd say, well, thank you, Mr. I, for talking. I understand all that vision stuff and that sounds good, but we really need more balance. If you can kind of understand what I'm saying, we all have a place in the body of Christ, and we all have a small place because the head of the church is Jesus. So Jesus is the one that is leading this thing. And Jesus is the one, and his Spirit is what's moving this around. And when we build Jesus' kingdom, that's when things really start happening. And that's why I'm here, because I used to just build my kingdom. And I, you know, and don't look at me like that, but I used to just go out and go do my thing. And I was, as I talked in a previous episode, I was probably more dating God. I did a lot in the kingdom. Every time the doors were open, I was teaching, I was helping, I was doing all these things. But when I just turned all of my focus onto God and his kingdom and started praying about how I could help his kingdom come and his will be done, that's when things started changing in my life. And I want to just encourage you, God made you for a specific purpose, and you just need to find out what that purpose is. And I think the way to do that is one of these four foundations. I believe the face of the man is grace, and it's Jesus, and it's the word. And I truly believe we all need to be in the word of God. Now, I may be saying that because I'm a teacher and I jump up and down and say you need to be in the word, but the word— if you're in the word, then all these other beasts and all these other faces, it helps come to life. So I— if you're not in the word of God, I, I mean, I can't help you. I mean, just bottom line, you're just not going to be able to grow in the grace and the truth. The roaring lion that comes to seek who he may devour— I believe that you will be devoured if you don't get in the word of God. And that's as strong as I could come to it. Satan's going to have his way with you if you're not in the word of God. The second animal is the lion, and that is the power, and that's the prayer. And we've talked about this before, but I believe that the lion is where We get the power of God and we talk to God and we command things to happen. The lion is prayer and power and authority. The eagle is praise and worship. And where two or more gathered as touching any one thing, and then God inhabits the praises of his people. When we come together and praise God, everything is elevated, everything has risen. I don't know if you've ever been in a praise service or in a worship service, or when you start worshiping God, we're or you just feel lighter, or you just feel like everything is moving up, that is the eagle. That is praise. That is soaring. That is getting after it. And I think we all need to do that. And the ox. Jesus did not come to be served, but to serve. Ox, I think, is the servant. Ox is the leader. Ox is love. I think you have love one to another. Jesus said, "They will know you are my disciples for the love you have one to another." The ox is get— taking the love of God and delivering it to other people. I think we all have to be in the Word. I think we all have the face of a man, but then we need to find our spiritual animal. And each one of us, I believe, and that's why I'm going to conclude here on this thought, but each one of us need to find and pray to God and ask him for two things. One, where am I in the body of Christ? And what is my spiritual animal? Is this guy full of garbage or is this really true? And I believe, and I'm kind of planting my flag on this thing, I believe that this is a foundational truth. I think Jesus is the cornerstone. He is the face. He is the man. He is the word, the lion, the eagle, and the ox. You're going to be a dominant either eagle lion, or ox. The thing that you just fall into, it's either leadership, servant, or loving people, or praise and worship, or any of that, the elevation, or the prayer as the lion, or the power. One of those three animals is going to speak to your spirit man, and you're going to just— and I want you to pray, I want you to ask the Holy Spirit, you know, who am I in you, in Christ? We need to find our place in the body, and and we defined our spiritual animal. Well, that's all I'm gonna say about that for now, but let's pray. God, I thank you so much for your word. I thank you for preachers that preach and teachers that teach. God, I thank you that you have shown me through these four foundations a way to help elevate our lives. Lord, that if we will take this serious and we will try to get a balance in our lives, Lord, that maybe one of these is our dominant animal, but we need all four. We need to be in all four, and as we raise our standard in all four areas, Lord, you will raise us up. Lord, that— I pray that we would just get a hold of this truth. Lord, I thank you that you've given it to me, and Lord, I pray that you would help me give it to the person listening to this podcast right now, this episode. And I pray in Jesus' name that you would just lead them, guide them, and direct them on where they need to go and what they need to be doing. Lord, we thank you. We love you. We ask it all in Jesus' name. Amen. Well, thank you for being a part of this, and I look forward to visiting with you in the next episode.

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