In episode 71 of the No Doubt, No Fear, Only Believe podcast, Greg Ryan opens with John 1:1 and then delves into the biblical description of the four living creatures found in Revelation 4 and Ezekiel 1. He reads the passages, highlighting the lion, ox, man, and eagle imagery, and stresses that these creatures represent four foundational truths of the church. Ryan shares his personal experience of hearing God primarily through the Word of God, describing how Scripture prompts thoughts and guidance. He critiques the common “wheel” self‑assessment model popularized by Zig Ziglar, arguing that spiritual priority must sit at the core of any life‑balance wheel. Ryan proposes a new wheel model where the four living‑creature foundations form the hub, guiding priorities such as finances, health, relationships, and ministry. He announces plans for a multi‑episode deep‑dive into each creature, a future class, and a 5‑day challenge, and reaffirms his 2021 word “relentless.” The episode blends biblical exposition, personal testimony, practical life‑application, and promotional outlook.
Welcome to episode 71. We're going to start this episode like we do every episode, in the Gospel of John 1:1.
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 71. I want to dive right in. I want to go into Revelation, the four living creatures that I was talking about. They're in the throne room of heaven with John in Revelation 4. This is where John is called up into heaven and he sees these creatures, and I'm going to pick it up in 4:6. Before the throne there was a sea of glass like crystal, and in the midst of the throne and all around the throne were four living creatures, full of eyes in front and in back. The first living creature was like a lion, the second living creature like a calf, the third living creature had a face like a man, and the fourth living creature was like a flying eagle. The four living creatures, each having six wings, were full of eyes all around and within, And they did not rest day or night, saying, Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty, who was and is and is to come. Whenever the living creatures give glory and honor and thanks to him who sits on the throne, who lives forever and ever, the 24 elders fall down before him who sits on the throne and worship him who lives forever and ever, and cast their crowns before the throne, saying, You are worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honor and power, for you created all things, and by your will they exist and were created. Now that is a lot, and again, I'm not going to apologize because we have got to go to get a little bit more of a picture. We got to go to Ezekiel. All right, I'm going to pick it up in Ezekiel 1, verse 5. Also from within it came the likeness of four living creatures And this was their appearance: they had the likeness of a man. Each one had four faces, and each one had four wings. Their legs were straight, and the soles of their feet were like the soles of calves' feet; they sparkled like the color of burnished bronze. The hands of a man were under their wings on their four sides, and each of the four had faces and wings. Their wings touched one another; the creatures did not turn when they went. But each one went straight forward. As for the likeness of their faces, each had the face of a man. Each of the four had the face of a lion on the right side, each of the four had the face of an ox on the left side, and each of the four had the face of an eagle. Thus were their faces. Their wings stretched upward; two wings of each were touched— one touched one another, and two covered their bodies. And each went straight forward, They went wherever the Spirit wanted them to go, and they did not turn when they went. So if you, if you listen to those, those two different, totally different books, totally different writers, same author, you know, the Holy Spirit wrote this whole deal from front to back, from Genesis to Revelation. We have the same author, but we have different people that write it, if that makes sense. The, the author of the Bible is God. And so it was inspired by the Holy Spirit, and it is incredible. It is powerful. It is the most powerful thing in this world, is the Word of God. In fact, just to show you, and I think I've read this before, Psalm 138:2, "I will worship toward your holy temple and praise your name for your lovingkindness and your truth, for you have magnified your word." above all your name. And I'm certain that if I hadn't read that before, I apologize because I am constantly talking about in each episode, the Word was God and the Word was with God and the Word became flesh and dwelt among us. I just want you to hear that over and over how important the Word of God is and why we're, why it's under attack. Why it's hard for you to pull your Bible out and read it consistently day in and day out is because Satan don't want you to. You have got an enemy and he just— he is baptizing everybody in fear and doubt and unbelief. And I am here, and I'm here to help you just break his teeth. I am so sick of him. He is such a punk. But we got to quit listening to him, and we got to start listening to the Holy Spirit. And the only real way— I think probably 95 to 98% of the time, I would probably— it's probably more like 90% of the time I hear God talk to me through his word, and the other probably 9.98% of the time is through other people, pastors. Um, it may be, it may be more like 75% the word and then pastors and messages, but you get the idea. Most of the, most of when I hear God's voice, it's when I'm in his word. And he— I, I get thoughts in my head, and I, you know, and it kind of, it urges me to go to a different scripture, or it urges me to just sit for a minute and think, well, God, what is— what are you trying to tell me on that? And then it— I just get a thought in my head, you know, like, and it's, it's almost like I understand, or I guess I do understand, you know, what he's trying to tell me through his word. So to have, to have me tell you that you know, that God's talking to me like I'm talking to you on this podcast. That's never happened. But I have had thoughts in my head, and we've talked about this before, but you know, where you get thoughts and you just get ideas or thoughts, and you get these when you're in the Word of God. I get them all the time when I'm reading the Word. You know, things will come to me as I'm reading it. And I just wanna encourage you that as you're reading this word, things God is gonna quicken, for lack of a better, I don't even know how to tell you exactly how he does it, but it kinda quickens something inside of me to where I start thinking and pondering and meditating for another word as I just keep digging it around. I just keep thinking about it and thinking about it. And I don't necessarily, and I've told you this in the past, I don't necessarily try to get through the Bible every year in 365 days. I, you know, if I stop and I'm, you know, God's got me in a verse or he's got me in a chapter, I may stay in that chapter all week and I may just read that and be thinking about it and wake up in the morning and think about where he's got me. And then, you know, and I don't know who's supposed to hear that because I was not— that's not in my notes. But just kind of dig around, dig in his word, and just, just relax. Just relax and read the Bible and, and let God speak to you. But with all of that, when Pastor Morris was talking and teaching this, it kind of jumped off the page that that's it, that, that one, those four different creatures. And he, he said that these are found, these are four foundations of the church. And the first foundation in the man— you've got the man, you've got the lion, you've got the eagle, and you have the ox. And each one of those has a special meaning, and each one has a special— and I think each one of you listening will, will, you know, for, for a 2021 word, you will self-identify with one of these four creatures. And I, I already know which creature that I self-identify with, and I'll tell you probably in the next episode. But each one of these creatures represent a foundational truth of the church. Now, how I'm going to pull it all together in my wheel in the middle of the wheel— because in Ezekiel it talks about that's where the, the wheel in the middle of the wheel comes in— and the idea that God gave me for the for the goal setting and having the wheel and all of that. I've got it on a piece of paper. Again, I haven't got that piece of paper into my computer so I could get a graphic, and I probably need to— I probably need some help on that graphic. But anyway, I'm dealing with that, and I'm gonna get that to you as soon as I can. This wheel, this 4 creatures and 4 foundational truths, I are what I believe if we can't— we need to get those 4 things right before we start worrying about our finances, our health, our wealth, our relationships, all of that stuff. Not to say that none of those are important. And I'm a Zig Ziglar fan from way back. He had a wheel, and I may have already talked about, but he had a wheel with spokes, and each spoke represented a different area in your life, and you rated that from 1 to 10. If you can picture a spoke, would say there's 7 different areas, like one of them's finance, one of them's business, one of them's spiritual, one of them's relationship. And, and you know, all of these 7 or 8, I think, little spokes, you had to rate, rate how you were doing. Like if you, if you were like an 8 spiritually, you're in the word all the time, you're praising and worshiping, you're an 8, but your finances are a 2 and your family life is a 3 but your business is an 8. If you can picture that wheel as it's rolling, it's going to have some bounces and some clumps in it. Zig Ziglar said that, you know, it's better to have a 3 or 4 in every area of your life. It's a lot smoother life, and then you elevate each area. And I love that concept, but the problem that I have— and, and I didn't know I had this problem with it until just recently— but the problem that I had with that is that he put the spiritual on the same level as finances, and he put the spiritual on the same level as health. I believe in, in the Word of God. If you, if you're taking the Word of God and, and what I'm learning, and as I'm in the Word, if you take the Word of God and you— that's what you do— if you just stay on the Word of God and you apply the Word of God to your life, all this other stuff is going to be added unto you. That's Matthew 6:33. Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added unto you. So when you take the word of God, you take this wheel in the middle of the wheel, you take these four living creatures, and you put all that together, you've got something that I think is life-changing. And so that's what I'm gonna try to put together on this. I'm gonna— I think I'm gonna end up having a— I'm gonna have to do a class, a teaching thing. I'm gonna do like a 5-day challenge. I'm putting all that together too. I've got a lot going on. Remember my word for the year 2021 one is relentless, and I'm just not going to give up on this thing. I'm going to be relentless, and we're going to see where God's going to take us. And I think he's got us going someplace really good. Well, that's enough for today. You've, you've seen the four living creatures. They've got a face of a man, they've got a face of a lion, a face of an eagle, and a face of an ox. And we're going to dig into each face for in the next 4 episodes. Well, thanks for listening, 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.
