In episode 77 of the No Doubt, No Fear, Only Believe podcast, the host (Greg) delivers a concluding teaching that ties together the biblical concept of the four foundations (the Word, the Lion, the Ox, and the Eagle) with the four living creatures described in Revelation. Using 2 Timothy 1:7 as a thematic anchor—"God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power, love, and a sound mind"—Greg explains how each element corresponds to a spiritual strength: the Word (man) as the cornerstone of truth; the Lion representing power manifested through prayer; the Ox symbolizing love expressed through servanthood; and the Eagle embodying a sound mind through worship and praise. He emphasizes that believers must be rooted in the Word to resist the deceptions of the flesh, world, and Satan. Greg then introduces a personal visual model—a wheel with four corners representing the four creatures—intended to help listeners identify their spiritual strengths and weaknesses and strive for balance, allowing the Holy Spirit to lift them higher. The episode concludes with a prayer asking God to strengthen both strong and weak areas in listeners’ lives. Technical side notes about microphone issues are mentioned but are peripheral.
Welcome to episode 77, 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 77. If this is your first time here, welcome aboard. If you have listened multiple times, welcome back, you fanatic. To find the answer to the fanatic, I think it's in episode 72. But enough of that, let's get back into— we're going to do the conclusion on the four foundations and the four faces and the four living creatures. A lot of fours, but we're going to get through it. And we're going to go to 2 Timothy 1:7. For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind. And I believe that Paul— and as we tie this lesson, all these lessons together on the four foundations, I believe this specific scripture kind of brings it all home. And I just kind of want to point to each one of the four things. God has not given us a spirit of fear. That comes from Satan, and we talked about that before. In fact, the whole reason this podcast No doubt, no fear, only believe. And it's only believe the word of God. When Jesus was here on earth, he told the synagogue's leader after he heard that, you know, his daughter was dead, Jesus said immediately, as soon as he heard that, he turned to the man and said, do not fear, only believe. So when you believe, if you believe the word of God, it releases you from the fear. As soon as you believe the word of God, the word of God trumps anything the world, anything Satan has to give you, or your flesh. All those three things that we're warring against— the flesh, the world, and Satan— those three things are all defeated by the word of God. And so if you remember, the word of God was the faith. It was represented by the face, and the face of a man, that represents— it represents Jesus, but it also represents the Bible. It represents grace. It represents a lot of things. But I believe the word of God And that's where it— where Paul says God has not given us a spirit of fear, he's given us the word of God. So the word of God is the chief cornerstone, and that's where all of us, regardless of the other three animals, the other three faces— and we're going to talk about how each one of us probably, or one of those three, are going to be one of our strengths— but regardless of where our strengths lie We need to— all of us, everyone listening to this podcast needs to be in the word of God. And I know I keep beating that drum, and I know you probably get tired of hearing it, but if you are in the word of God and you are learning and, and just digging into the truth, Satan has a lot harder time deceiving you. That don't mean you're not deceived, it just makes it his job a whole lot. And we don't want to make his job any easier than it already is. We need to get in the word and we need to fight against all of his garbage and all of his deception and all of his deceit and all of his division. And I can't think of another D word, but we just need to combat him. And we do that with the word. Now, God has not given us a spirit of fear but of power. Now, that is the lion. Remember, we talked about the lion in a previous episode, and that, that's prayer, and that's the power. That's the, the Lion of Judah. And Jesus is the Lion of Judah, and he represents power. And Jesus prayed all the time. He got up early and was always praying. So prayer is so important in the, in the body of Christ. And some of us, you know, there's some of us listening, some of you listening to this right now, and if it's you that's listening and you, you can pray, then that's— you're probably a lion, and you just get in there and you just start praying, and that's, that's your strength. Paul also said that God has given us— not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love. And I believe love represents the ox. Jesus said that they would know that you are my disciples for the love you give one to another. And the love— you take your love, you give something to, you bring your love to someone. Love is an action word, and the ox is all about working. The ox is about pulling their load and that of all the others. The ox is the servant. He is the greatest of all these. He gets busy. He is not just a hearer of the word, he is a doer also. And I think the ox sometimes don't understand why everybody else is not doing. And I'm sure the lions are wondering why everyone else is not praying. And the people that just fall into the word easy, kind of like myself, I find it easy to read. Sometimes, you know, I kind of wonder why people don't read the Bible enough or a lot. The last one is the eagle, and I believe that's associated with the sound mind. And if you've ever praised and worshiped, it kind of elevates your spirits. If you think about it, it kind of clears your head. If you get into a good praise and worship service or even a song and you start singing, you know, some of the cares of the world and some of the things that you were worrying about and all of that stuff kind of just goes away if you, if you start entering in and worshiping God and you're praising and worshiping. Then that sound mind, it just kind of just, it's kind of like hitting a clear button and everything just kind of just goes away and it's just you and God and the Holy Spirit and you're just praising and worshiping and it just seems to lift you higher. And I told you in an earlier episode In fact, maybe it was the last episode where I said that this was the one that I was struggling with. Not so much that I don't like doing it, it's just I think that some— each one of us probably has an area that we are less likely to just gravitate toward, is kind of a politically correct way of saying we don't do it a lot. I got to make myself enter in. I can't tell you why, because I enjoy praise and worship when I'm doing it. It's not like I'm above it, it's just that that's not my go-to. I just don't find myself— I've got to make myself— and I know some of you probably rolling your eyes and going, I can't believe he's got to make himself sing. But I talked— I just don't sing well. And I know, God, it's a joyful noise, and I know all that. That is not my gifting. All of that said, we got— I've got my little lady building my 4 living creatures. I'm excited about the first draft. I think y'all are going to like it, but I— to get it where— and I'm going to put it on the wheel. I've got to try to figure out how to do all that. You know, it's, it's four corners inside of this wheel with God in the middle. It's going to kind of— I think it— I've kind of got it looking like a cross, and then I'm going to kind of level it up. It's going to be cool. It's hard to explain in an empty room to a microphone. This is like one of those ones you almost got to visualize. But you almost got to see it because I, I can— you, if you put your hand out kind of level and kind of go back and forth tilting your hand, you can kind of get the idea of you not being level. Like if you're, if you're stronger in the word, kind of— if to use me as an example, like the word and prayer, so my hand is, you know, I'm going up on that, but my worship and maybe my ox or my servanthood is down.. And so I need to— and what this— what, what I'm thinking this is going to tell us is where we're strong and then where we're weak. And as we strengthen some of our weaknesses and maybe go over there and kind of lean into those areas that we're not— we're not ignoring maybe, but we're, we're not giving a lot of attention to. If we will lean into those things, get balanced, and just kind of get a balanced— so when that levels out short of a UFO kind of thing, but as a, as a, you know, as a kind of a spaceship, as it gets level, it can go, it can raise higher, and then the Holy Spirit can lift us up. Not that the Holy Spirit is a spaceship. I just want to, I just want to, I was kind of using an analogy. You just kind of go up, kind of as you get level, you can go higher. And so I think that God's not going to raise us up until we can get all four of those corners level, and then he can raise us up. Then he can take us to the next step, and then the next step, and we just go higher and higher in him. Well, I don't want to— I don't want this to go on any longer. I've had some trouble with my microphone and my computer. I've switched computers, then I had to go switch back to the old computer. And I know you don't care, but it's bugging the fire out of me, and I've got to get this thing up and loaded before midnight so that if you're sitting up, wake— waking up at 12:01 wanting to hear this I want to have it available for you. I want to thank you for being a part of this podcast, and I want to ask in Jesus' name that, that God, that you would just send your Holy Spirit and comfort the person that's listening to this. If there's, if there's an area in their life, Lord, that is weak, show them that area. And Lord, help them to elevate that area. Help them to lift up the area that they're weakest in. And Lord, strengthen the area that they're strong in. Lord, strengthen our strengths and strengthen our weaknesses. Lord, you can do it all, and we thank you and we love you, and we ask it all in Jesus' name. Amen. Well, thank you for listening, and I'll catch you on the next episode.
Thanks for listening to the No Doubt, No Fear, Only Believe podcast at www.nodoubtonlybelieve.com.
