Ezekiel's Wheel and your three transformations in life

Welcome to episode 288.

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.

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Well, I'm continuing to talk about Ezekiel's wheel and what that means when we're talking about Christian goals or Christian goal setting. And I want to go to one scripture real quick. I want to start it off because last episode, you know, I talked about different scriptures, but I didn't just highlight one specific scripture. And the one that I'm talking about is in 1 Thessalonians 5:23. Now may the God of peace himself sanctify you completely, and may your whole spirit, soul, and body be preserved blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. Now I've said multiple times on this podcast that I believe that Jesus Christ is one day closer to returning today than he was yesterday. I don't care when you're listening to this. I don't care when you're watching this video. Jesus Christ is one day closer today than he was yesterday. I believe that. I'm not going to set a date. I don't know when he's coming. I know it's fast approaching. Now, that may be 20 years, it may be 20 minutes, I don't know, don't care. I'm just going to continue to occupy until he gets here. And that's my modus operandi, and that's what I'm encouraging you to do. Let's just get after this thing. Let's kick Satan in the teeth. I'm sick of him. He's a punk. We just need to take back what he is stealing, or what he has stolen from us, and we need to do it using the word of God. And I want to go back to Ezekiel 1 because I want to highlight the spirit, soul, and body. I believe that's important, and we talked about that the last episode. But this wheel in the middle of the wheel, it is spirit, it is soul, and it is body represented And that center wheel, that is where God is living. And that is in the center of this wheel is God. And then it branches out. You can see that there are 4 spokes in this inner wheel. And if you use your imagination just a little bit, you can kind of picture a cross where they intersect. I think those 4 spokes make a cross, and there are 4 different points on the end of that cross. And one of them is the face of the man, One of them is the face of the lion, one of them is the face of an eagle, and one of this is the face of the ox. And those four faces, I believe, are significant. I, I don't know why it would be in the Bible if we weren't supposed to picture them and weren't supposed to use them in our lives. And let's go to Ezekiel 17. When they moved, they went toward any one of the four directions. They did not turn aside when they went. And then I want to skip to 20. Wherever the spirit wanted to go, they went, because there the spirit went, and the wheels were lifted together with them, for the spirit of the living creatures was in the wheels. And I'm going to stop there. The spirit of the living creatures was in the wheels, and this wheel in the middle of the wheel. And when we talk about walking in the spirit, and I know, I, I mean, I may be the only one, I may be the only one in the body of Christ that's thinking this, But when I'm walking around and I hear people say, man, we just need to walk in the spirit, brother, or we just need to get out of the flesh, brother, and I've got to picture everything. You know that if you're here, you know that I try my best to picture things, and then I try to translate what I'm seeing in my mind or my heart or whatever, however it is you want to describe this. What I am seeing, I try to tell you so that maybe you— it can help you see what I'm seeing. And this wheel in the middle of the wheel, and this spirit in the middle. And I wanted the spirit— if you can kind of rotate this wheel upward to where the spirit is closer to God than the bottom wheel. And so you got your spirit in the top, you got the spokes that go out from the inner wheel, and then you've got the outer wheel or the tire, if you're looking at— if you can kind of picture a bicycle tire. But that very outer wheel, that's your flesh, or that's your body. That's where the 5 senses are. When I talk about the 3 parts, 1 person, the spirit, soul, and body, I think it's important for you and I to understand that this is a representation of you or I. That when you see this wheel, I wanted you to see it, and that's why I wanted to personalize it. That's why I want to have a questionnaire so that you can dial in. Hey, I'm a 6. In my spirit walk. Hey, I'm a 2 in my physical health, but I am a 10 on my business. I am an 8 on my finances. And you can individually answer these questions and you can find what your wheel looks like. Now, the wheel in the center, we're not going to change that wheel, and I have not figured out how to adjust. And I'm going to try to get a different picture, but we're just got to deal with what I've got. Done's better than perfect. And I have got this guy working as hard as he can work, and I know I'm wearing him out, but I'm trying to get this to you as soon as I can. It's changed how I see things, and I just want you to be able to see it. This inner wheel with the little cross and the 4 spokes going out of it, this is a key to how you walk in the spirit, I believe, and where the spirit is leading you to one of these 4 different areas in your life. I just think you obey. I just think it's that simple. And you just, as you in communion with God, as you're talking to him, as you're reading the word, as you're listening to the Holy Spirit, as you're praying, as you're worshiping, or as you're helping other people, then God can direct you. The Holy Spirit can direct you where he wants you to go. And I just believe that if you kind of dial into this wheel, I think it's going to change how you go through your walk and how you read your Bible. I told you in the last episode there are 3 transformations, and I believe this to be true, and I'm going to go into these right now because the first transformation is when your spirit man is born again, and that is for every Christian. Every person has to have this one transformation, and this comes from God, and this only comes from accepting Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior. This is when you are born again, and this is what Jesus described in chapter 3 of John's Gospel to Nicodemus when he said, you must be born again. And he is talking about the spiritual rebirth. And this is key. I want to tell you, this is the absolute first and only step you need to worry about. If you haven't taken this step yet, this is what you need to dive into. You need this transformation. If you have not accepted Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, your spirit man is dead. And I'm not gonna sugarcoat it. I'm just not gonna walk around this thing anymore. Your spirit man is dead. The reason you read the Bible and you don't understand it is because your spirit man is dead. You're reading a spiritual book to a dead spirit being. It's, it's just not gonna happen. Be like you walking up to somebody in a casket and reading Huckleberry Finn to them. The person in the casket is not gonna react one way or the other. That's the same thing that happens when I read my Bible before I was saved. I would pick it up multiple times and I would read it like I'd read a book, and I'd set it down and think, I didn't get much out of that. That's step number 1. The second transformation is what the church calls sanctification, and that is a lifelong process. And I believe that is why most people just quit, or most people just throw their hands up in the air and this is too time-consuming, or this is too anything. And this is for the rest of your life. And this is what Jesus said in John 8:31, his disciples abide in his word. That means they just stay there. That means they don't just visit every now and then, that's where they're living. And again, in John 15, Jesus said that I am the vine and you are the branches. We have got to understand our place in the body of Christ. We are branches. The vine is where we get all our nourishment. If we are hooked into this vine and we abide in his word, then we can grow the fruit of the Spirit. If you're in the vine— and I just want you to think of like a grapevine— and the vine, if you've got a branch that in this main vine and this branch comes out, then the grapes are hanging on the branch. The, the grapes are not in the vine. The grapes are on the branches. And so when you are in this vine and you are a branch in the vine, then you can produce the fruit of the Spirit, which is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness, and self-control. We have got to be in the vine so that we can grow the fruit of the Spirit. And I want to remind you that the fruit of the Spirit is not grown for you and I. We don't grow fruit for ourselves so we could pluck it off and eat. 'eat of gentleness' or 'eat of kindness' or 'eat of joy' or 'eat of faithfulness.' No, we grow fruit for the world. We grow fruit for other people so that they can see the fruit that's on us. And if they are hungry and if they need— have a need, then they can come to us and go, 'Oh brother, that is exactly what I needed today.' That joy, that love, that peace, all of those things the world is starving for, you and I can feed the world. But we have got to be in the word of God. And I know you get tired of my soapbox moments, but we have got to be in the word of God and allow the word of God to get into us. And then we can start changing the world around us. And if it's just one person, so be it. God is going to say, well done, my good and faithful servant, if he sent you to help one person in this world. And if each one of us would just help one person How much would our world change? And I don't want to get on that soapbox, and I don't want to chase that rabbit, but if each one would reach one, it would change the world. Instead of trying to reach a stadium, or instead of trying to change the whole world, just start with one. Start with your family. That's why God gave you your family. Just tell your spouse you love them. Tell your spouse how important they are in your life, or just make them feel special. I told my kids, from early on, and I tell them over and over again, every person has on their forehead— you are the only one that can see it, they can't see it, but it's written in invisible ink that only you can see— and it's— every person has this on their forehead, and it says, "Make me feel special." And if you would just read that and you would make the person feel special, that would help draw them to Father God. And it's not about your kingdom. This is about God's kingdom. This is about giving glory to Father God. This is about his plan, his salvation, because eternity is forever and hell is real, and so is heaven. And we need to bring as many people with us as we possibly can. And the only way we're going to do that— faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God. So the third transformation is the final one, and that's the glorification of your body. And that's why I've told you multiple times, this body that you're living in, you have got to have it. This is your vehicle while you're here on earth. If you can just kind of picture it being your earth suit— you see all these astronauts and all that, they've got their astronaut suit, they got their helmet on, and they're walking on the moon, and they've got to have oxygen, and they've got to have protection. And when they're outside of the vehicle, because they are in a bad environment, Well, if you don't have your earth suit on here, you can't survive on earth. So that's why God gave us this flesh. It wasn't to challenge us. We need to be flesh and blood while we're here on this earth. Well, then sin came, and I'm not going to chase that rabbit, but we are in this earth suit. But this earth suit is not going to ever be redeemed. It is clear in the Bible that it is enmity against God. So you've got the soul in the middle, and you've got the Spirit of God on one side, and you've got your flesh on the other, and they are never going to agree. They are diametrically opposed against one another. The spirit man is against the flesh, but that don't mean the flesh is bad. And that takes people on a whole nother tangent. Your flesh is just your vehicle. If you can just think of your car or what— how you get through life, that is your earth suit. We're not going to cuss it, we're not going to kick it, we're not going to scream at it. We're just going to get it in line. And the way to do that is to read the Bible. You get a lot of that word, you start walking in that spirit, you start looking at what the spirit is saying to you through the word of God. Because those that worship God must worship him in spirit and in truth. And the spirit is where we're trying to head. And that's what I want you to see. And I looked up, and this is way too long, so I'm going to close on that. We're going to pick this up in the next episode, but we are trying to get a hold of this spirit realm, and we're trying to walk— learn to walk in the spirit. And I just want you to picture, we are going to stay on this inner wheel. That is where the spirit— the spirit moves this wheel, which means the spirit moves you. And so we're going to stop there. God, I thank you so much for your word. I thank you for this listener, and I pray in Jesus' name that you would just lead and guide and direct them into what you want to know. About how to walk in the Spirit. Lord, you are so wonderful, and we thank you for everything you do for us every day. 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.

Thanks for listening to the No Doubt, No Fear, Only Believe podcast at www.nodoubtonlybelieve.com.