In episode 157 of the "No Doubt, No Fear, Only Believe" podcast, host Greg Ryan guides listeners up the third level of his spiritual "mountain" metaphor, focusing on the seventh step—living by faith. He outlines a three‑level map of spiritual growth, identifies three constant enemies (Satan the "punk," the world’s fast‑paced system, and personal doubt), and uses the Mark 4:35 storm narrative to illustrate Jesus’ calm authority and the need for faith in trials. Ryan then explains sanctification as a continual renewal of the mind (Romans 12:2), employing a computer‑programming analogy to contrast the fallen “Windows” state with the renewed “Apple” state. He emphasizes childlike, unwavering faith in God’s truth, urging listeners to wield the Word of God as a spiritual weapon against Satan’s lies. Humility is presented as the conductor that allows God’s power to flow through believers. The episode concludes with a heartfelt prayer asking for guidance, illumination, and daily surrender to Christ.
Welcome to episode 157, 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 157. Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Well, we are going to take another step up the mountain, and we're going a totally different level. We're going to the level, the third level. And again, this is not scientific. This is probably not all the way biblically accurate to having these different three levels, but this is just a way that I've put this map together so that we can determine the three different levels so that we got something to look at. And so we got something to kind of get an idea of where we're going, where we're heading. And it's really to go from point A to point B with as little twists and turns as we possibly can. But we know, you and I both know, that we're going to have struggles as we go up this mountain. God said that we were going— they were going to have some struggles. There was going to be persecutions. The world is going to fight us. But Jesus said to be of good cheer, I have overcome the world. So don't worry about any kind of struggle. Remember, there's 3 enemies that we're constantly in in battle with. We're fighting the punk, which is Satan and any of his demons. We're fighting the world system, not our biblical worldview, but the worldview that Satan wants to dump on us in this rapidly fast-paced, you got to get it now and you got to get it before someone else gets it worldview. And all of that angst and all of that nervousness and all that speed, that's not God's way. You know, God walked everywhere, just about everywhere he went And when God was in a boat, when he wasn't walking, when God is in a boat and there's a huge storm going on, God's asleep in this storm, and the disciples have got to wake him up. Now, in, in these boats, you know, it wasn't no big cruise ship where he's in a cabin underneath in this king-size bed in this big old yacht cabin thing. He is in the bottom of this boat, and if they're thinking that this water is going to take them over. There's water in this boat and all these waves and this wind, and these disciples who were mostly fishermen are scared to death that they're going to die. The Sea of Galilee, or wherever they were, and they wake Jesus up. This is just amazing to me, to where that he's just at such peace that he can sleep in this horrible thunderstorm and then wakes up, and then he doesn't just hug them and say 'Oh guys, it's okay.' No, he said, 'You men of little faith.' In fact, I've got to read that, and I don't even know why I'm chasing this rabbit, but we're gonna, we're gonna follow after. And let's go to Mark 4:35. On the same day, when evening had come, he said to them, 'Let us cross over to the other side.' Now when they left the multitude, they took him along in the boat as he was, and other little boats were also with him. And a great windstorm arose, and the waves beat into the boat, so that it was already filling. But he was in the stern, asleep on a pillow. And they awoke him, and said to him, Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing? Then he arose, and rebuked the wind, and said to the sea, Peace, be still! And the wind ceased, and there was a great calm. But he said to them, Why are you so fearful? How is it that you have no faith? And they feared exceedingly, and said to one another, 'Who can this be that even the wind and the sea obey him?' And I don't know who was supposed to hear that, but if you're going through a storm in your life, just know that Jesus is aware of it. Jesus— if Jesus told you to get in the boat, then he knows that the storm is coming, but Jesus is at peace with it. Be aware that God's not taking a nap on you. God doesn't sleep in heaven. But the, the picture that I see is that there is just such a peace of God on this man, on Jesus, the Son of God, is that he can just sleep through a storm. And if he says, look, we got to get to the other side, he's not worried about drowning. He's going to the other side. The disciples wake him up and he doesn't give them a big old hug and say, oh guys, it's okay, I know this is a pretty bad storm. No, he says, why are you so fearful? How is it that you have no faith? And I just need you to hear, he kind of gets on to him a little bit. I mean, he gets on to those disciples and say, guys, Did I not tell you to get in the boat? Do you think that this wind is going to drown me? I don't know who needs to hear this, but if you're going through a storm, just know that God's right there. And if you just want to use your faith, just use your faith. Just reach out to the word and get in the word of God. Soapbox moment, but get in the word and draw from its power and draw from its teaching and draw— ask the Holy Spirit, help me with what's going on, and he will. And that's going to move us to the next step on our voyage up the mountain, and that is to sanctification, which is constantly washing and constantly growing in the word and to clean and constantly renewing your mind. And that is in Romans 12:2, and do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is the good and acceptable and perfect will of God. And I've got this fancy-pants word on the 7th step. It's called sanctification, and it's just about renewing your mind. It's about renewing everything that you are because you have some bad programming. Since I've said programming, if you have a, say, a Windows computer and you try to run an Apple program or an ISO program— and I may be talking over everybody's head, I'm probably talking over my head— but they're two different operating systems. And you cannot, without some kind of translation, you cannot run a Windows program on an Apple computer. You have to have Apple programming on an Apple computer and a Windows program on a Windows computer. And it's two totally different operating systems. And what's happened is, if we have been— and not to say that Apple is better than Microsoft or either one, but I'm going to use the Microsoft as our fallen state, and then Apple as our renewed state. And so what we have to do is when we become a new creature, we have to get a whole new different programming. And I don't know if that's resonating, but we have to start living by faith. The just shall live by faith, and it's childlike faith. We have to become childlike. We have to just learn to accept what the Bible says. We need to learn to accept that the Holy Spirit is here to help us, that Father God loves us, that we are his favorite. We've got to accept all of that, that Father God wants the best for us, and that he is all-knowing, he's all-powerful, and he's everywhere. So why would you not want to plug into that system and start asking for answers? And somebody that is all-knowing, that's everywhere all the time, and is all-powerful. If you have any reservation about who God is and about what God is, you need to get this right. You need to know that God is for you, he's not against you. Satan hates you, God loves you. And so when Satan's gonna come against you, you're just gonna have to fight. You're just gonna have to know that the world did not like Jesus, and the world is not going to like you. So it's not going to be all peaches and cream all the time, but Jesus said, remember that he has overcome the world. So we ain't got to worry about the world, and Satan has already been defeated. Jesus has already punked Satan. He's already made him a spectacle of him, and he's paraded him through the spirit realm all whipped up and in with a ring in his nose. Back in the old day, I heard way back when Paul was writing this that when he said that they made a spectacle of these enemies, this was a Roman tradition. The kings that were terrorizing a village or a community or a territory, that these kings, they would cut off the thumbs of these kings' hands and they would cut off the big toe of their feet and they would strip them down naked and they would show that the world, that this person that was terrorizing this territory or community had no more power over them. And this is the image I want you to see of the punk, that he has absolutely no power. Or the only power he's got is the power that you give to him. And if you give him power, shame on you. You just got to renew your mind, and that is knowing the truth. And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free. That is the only way that we can get free, is by knowing the truth. And Jesus is the truth. The Word of God is the truth, so you need to get in the Word of God and you need to get to know the Word. Because when Satan comes against you— if when Satan came against Jesus in the wilderness, Jesus didn't fight him. He didn't put his hands on Satan and bind him up and throw him down the mountain. He used the Word of God. He used the sword of the Spirit and he fought him with the Word. And that's exactly how we got to fight him. When— whenever we get against something that's not physical, that is a spiritual fight. If you got a thought in your head, remember I've talked about thoughts. You have thoughts. I think Satan puts thoughts in your head, and then the only way that you can truly fight and conquer a thought that's put in your head by Satan is by putting the word of God on it. Is you got to bring something that's got more power. Your words have some power. Satan's words, the way he uses them is going to have power and it's going to be there. He's very good at what he does, so he's going to kind of try to entice you or captivate you into doing something. You've got to bring a truth from the word of God. You have to bring the word of God to fight any kind of word that tries to come from Satan. So that's just the childlike faith. You just got to know that Father God is looking out for you, but you want to grow in grace and truth. You have to trust the Bible is the truth, 'cause Satan's gonna come against the Word. He's got to, that's his only defense. He's gotta make the Holy Spirit look foolish, and he's gotta make the Word of God look like it's nothing, or that it's just an antiquated book, or whatever the words are out there. But if you don't use the Bible as a weapon, and you don't use Holy Spirit as a friend and as a powerful force, to keep him off. You got to humble yourself. You got to stay humble, and that humility is what I think is the conductor of the power of God. If you remain humble— and I think humbleness is kind of like wire— if you're going to be connected to the power of God, in order to truly use that power, you have to be humble. And if you're proud and if you're arrogant, that's kind of like having wood inside of a— inside of your wire, trying to conduct the power of God using wood. It's just not going to happen. You've got to remain humble. You've got to know it's not you, but you're trying to build God's kingdom. You're not trying to build your kingdom. And if you continue to do that and you continue to go forward and you continue to live your life and trying to help build God's kingdom, God will give you opportunity to build his kingdom, and you will see things happen in your life that it— that's incredible and that will last for eternity. And that's what I want to encourage you to do. I want to encourage you to just keep that childlike faith. This is the seventh step on the mountain, and it's all about learning— the just shall live by faith. It's learning to live by faith. And the way to do that is to believe what the Word of God says. You've got to first know that the Word of God is true and that it is for you and it's to be applied to your life and how you, how you're to live your day. Well, that's enough for now. Let's pray. God, I thank you so much for the person listening to this episode, and I thank you for your word. Holy Spirit, I thank you for never leaving us and nor forsaking us, and I thank you, Father God, for sending your son Jesus. Thank you for coming and agreeing to take that whipping and to go on the cross for me. And I thank you, Lord, and I accept you over and over again, Lord. And I die daily, and I pray that you would just continue to lead and guide and direct me. Be that lamp unto my feet and be that light to my path, Lord. Show me the next step, 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 on the next episode.
Thanks for listening to the No Doubt, No Fear, Only Believe podcast at www.nodoubtonlybelieve.com.
