Crowned & Commissioned

Sa. Ra.

And able ain't no problem that's too high for strong and mighty God. Yes, you are able.

You're more than able.

Time I can prove I can always count on you. Feel.

Good morning. Good morning. Happy Wednesday everybody. I'm excited to be with you and I share with some of you on the prayer call. I pulled a little okie doke on Riley. I asked Riley, hey, can you step up? I gotta get Lucy to an appointment at 7:30. I'll lead prayer, you take Bible study. And he of course said yes. Riley's never said no to that no matter what his schedule has. And we just got word that Lucy's appointments pushed back. So I promise I wasn't just trying to get out of Bible study. But now I actually get to join Bible study where Riley usually when he's filling in is because I can't physically be here. So I'm pumped for that. And Riley, Sunny says she's a little sleepy this morning but she got on because she knows you're going to wake her up. Come on.

Yes, sonny.

Bring that fire.

Riley.

Good morning guys. Yeah, convenient. Well, I'm excited Christian, you get to actually sit in on this. Usually man, you're the one leading these things. So I'm excited and I got some help today actually I got the call from Christian and I was like, I think, I really do think this is all kind of just come in a timely manner because you know, some of you probably know we, we just released the third book of the Kingdom Entrepreneurs series called the Multiplication mandate that's called to increase. And we have an entire chapter, I mean really the entire book is overarching like talking about what we're going to dive into here today which is kingship. And I actually recorded the audio version of it. So if some of you don't like reading, I recorded this thing on Sunday night and man, I just like Christian, I wrote the book have you on this. But as I was just reading these words aloud there were a couple times that I just like welled up like in the spirit. It was just like man, this is just, I feel just a timely word in this season really about like what it means to walk in this God given authority of kingship that he's given and granted to all of us. But there is responsibility that comes with that and that means that we have to actually step into this authority, God given authority. This is nothing by our own means but we've been adopted as his sons. And I'll just say this, I'm in Texas Right now. Hence I'm in the. I got a sign back here that says man cave in a garage here in our Airbnb because we are about to adopt our second baby boy. Praise the Lord. And we're just waiting for him to be born. And so I think it's even just like a special meaningful time for me to what it really means to be adopted. And on today's I'm going to, I'm going to kind of open this up with what I hope will be a little bit of a challenge of just our mindset, our thinking. And then I pulled in my spiritual mentor, Brian Schwartz on here, which is a lot of you guys might not know who he is, but he's been pouring into me and a handful of us just really on man, he's just like, Brian, I love you brother. I even said this to my wife last night as we were just chatting. I'm like, it's been so great to, you know, have you a part of our lives the last couple years and it really helping just to shape my, my thoughts and, and really just disposition towards what it means to really be a king and a priest. And so I'm gonna have Brian share a little bit of just about identity as well. And, and we're gonna open up, hopefully we'll have some time for some just kind of discussions and questions for you guys on this. But the first thing that I want to want to dive into with you guys is really just what it means to be a king, right? And, and this can be, you know, this, this is like if I, if I for women on, on the today's call here, it's like understand what this means is, you know, kings and queens, if we want to call it that. But just this God given identity and authority that he has given all of us, the, the kind of grounded scriptures, if you guys did want to pull them up, if you're, if you're taking notes at all is going to be first Peter, chapter two, verse nine, which says that we are a, a royal priesthood, right? We are a chosen generation. And then in Revelation chapter one, it actually says that we are kings and priests. And I don't want to take a whole lot away from, from Brian. And I think what he's gonna hopefully dive into. We didn't get a chance to like compare notes or anything on this, but I do know that we are in alignment. And so what I was getting at earlier, it's like, I think part of why, you know, the Christian thought he had a doctor's appointment and then didn't is. I believe this is really divine, Divine word. I think that's, that's for all of us to step into, right? And to challenge it. Maybe our thinking today, because I think a lot of us have kind of maybe adopted, since that is a word that I actually did use, or maybe taken on really just a false identity of who we truly are, who we truly are, not who we think we are, who the world says we are, anything along those lines, but who God says we are. What he's called us to actually do. If you think about it, I think all of us, not sure if all of us live here in America, but He's chosen us today and now to be alive, right? 20, 26 is just. It's like an all of creation. He's chosen us to be here today and now. And I think we need to really take this seriously because how we invest our time and how we. What we're focusing on, the worries, the stress, this is something that we're all going to be held accountable to one day, right? This is that judgment seat of Christ that He's going to ask us what do we do? What did we do with what he's given us? And not just like money, but the time, the resources, the relationships, everything that we've invested into. Again, if you, if you, if you receive Christ as savior, like, that is just the door. That is just the, the entrance. And it's kind of like, I know Roger loves Disney World. Go, go Disney Roger. But it's kind of like if you just bought the ticket to Disney and you never left the entrance, right? It's like, man, you have access to all of the resources that the creator of the entire universe, actually. I mean, it's just wild if you actually just sit in that and think of like, man, we have access to God Almighty God the creator who wants relationship with us. And if you're just at the entrance and you're not going to experience Disney World, right? And everything that they provide is just like an experience, right? And again, not just for our benefit, but for his glory. And if we start to understand this, and this is why I wanted to really just cover a little bit of just our mindset and what we're thinking. In the book that Christian and I just released, we talk about four principles, and we relate a lot of these to just money principles, as it is like the kind of end cap, if we call it that, to the series of the Kingdom Entrepreneur series. We break it down into ownership, stewardship, worship, and then kingship. And ownership just means that God owns everything, right? It's just that we break that down. Lots of scripture references of like that he is the creator of all things and that he does own everything. And each of these principles stack upon each other. And some people might try to rush to this concept of kingship, but if you're not overlaying that or building upon the understanding of that he owns everything, that we are his stewards, right? He's given us again this responsibility to live here and now in 2026 and we're not actively worshiping and this is in the book, we really dive into the tithe on this and just that it is an act of worship and then ultimately kingship. But the reality is if we don't actually understand that ownership is just. It can just be a simple theory that we're. We think of, but we're not actually understanding who, who we're ruling under. Again, Jesus is king of kings, but he has created us to be kings and priests, right? I don't want this life to just be a theory. I don't want this life to just be a ritual or religion that I'm, that I'm like trying to do and act and, and have it be based upon my works. But I want my life to be a spiritual act of worship to bring him glory. And for us to step into this true identity of what it means to be a king or queen for the women on here and foundationally. Again, I want us to just think of the Bible as a whole in God's original intent, right? Genesis, which is one of my favorite books in the Bible. The original intent of, of creation in the, in the original commandment or the mandate that he gave us. In Genesis 1:28, you guys know this, right? He said, be fruitful, multiply and have dominion, right? So dominion was like our original assignment. This is before sin ever entered the earth realm here. Like it was, it was, but that was our original assignment, right? We were designed to rule and to reign, but in alignment with God. And when man stepped out of alignment, that's when everything started to break down, right? But I know you guys have heard me talk about this, but like Jesus came on the scene, he. He died and he. He resurrected and he came back in the, the main principle, the thing that he preached was the kingdom of heaven is here. It's now in kingdom again being God's rule and reign in our life from the two words king and domain. King Jesus is king and domain is a territory that we would rule and reign and so Jesus has to rule and reign in our life, number one. So we can. And again, this is what I think Brian will probably come into. So we now can enter into this back to the original intent of creation, right? For us to be kings and priests, to advance the kingdom of heaven here on earth. All right. And even just thinking about back to like, what, why Jesus came and died and then rose. John 10:10 tells us this. And a lot of people forget this part of John 10:10, right? Everybody's quick to tell you that the thief comes to steal, to kill and destroy, but then they stop at that right there and it's like, no, that verse actually continues on, you guys. Anybody know the rest of. Of that verse? Just off the top of their head come off mute if you don't or if you do.

But I have come that they would have life and have it more abundantly.

Yes, Right. Yeah. The enemy does come to steal, to kill and destroy. But Jesus has come that we may have life and have it abundantly. Right? This isn't. He doesn't say that he's come so we can barely get by this, that we can enter into heaven by escape as through flames. Which scripture tells us that that's what's going to be the case for some believers. Like, man, at least they got in, right? Like, thank God, but he came so that we can have life abundantly. Right? In 2 Corinthians 9, 8 says that God is able to bless us again, the word abundantly, so that in all things, at all times, having all that you need, you will abound in every good work. Right? And I just love this word abundantly. Like we serve a God of abundance. And this isn't. This isn't. You guys know, we're not like prosperity gospel. I believe that is a false gospel. But the gospel has a lot of prosperity in it. Not in, like, I'm going to be worldly, richly, you know, wealthy, accumulate possessions. Okay. We know we can't serve God in mammon money. Of all things. Of all things. Like, that's what God compared is. It's. We know that. But. But God is still a. It's. He's a very prosperous God and we are called to live in an abundant life here on this earth. Especially if. I mean, the fact that we're in America again is just. It's wild. God chose each and every one of us to live here. Four and a half percent of the entire world's population, it lives in America. That's it. I mean, that alone is like, wow, you are chosen. You are, you have been given the freedoms that a lot of countries don't allow for us to even do these calls, right? To worship and to really have the keys to the kingdom, right? But it takes an act of us to continue to walk this thing out, right? And this is something that I think a lot of American Christians will just, will just take for granted. Just the fact that we are so we are blessed to be a blessing. And this is something I think that we have to really understand. And it all comes back to just this identity of who we are, right? God didn't make us. And I think when it comes to the identity. I mentioned this earlier. We even. I did a sales call on Friday with our sales guys and I talked a lot about just this mindset that, that we've adopted or even what I think has been just kind of this maybe I'm gonna even just call it like a pre saved mindset, right? Because it's like we receive Christ as Savior and we, yes, maybe our heart has been transformed, but also now our minds, as Romans 12:2 tells us, it's like we are to be renewed or we need to be continually transformed by the renewal of our mind. And I think a lot of us have yet to go through that process. Or this is what I want to challenge you on today is that yes, we believe in our heart, we confess with our mouth that Jesus is Lord, but this is a continual process. This is our sanctification process, right? And when we become born again, we are a new creation that gives us then the ability to take on this new identity. But if we're still sitting at the doorstep at Disney World, right? And we're not, just to give us an understanding here. Heaven's gonna be way better in Disney World, Roger. Promise you, man. But if we're, if we're not actually fully experiencing the advantages of kingdom living, right? Or Gita, I saw you just wrote that book called Kingdom Mindset. I'm excited to be able to dive into that. It's like this is a mindset that we actually have to take on and adopt and understand. And a prime example, you guys, most of you all know just the story of the Israelites, right? Which is like this is a prime example of those. A people group that was delivered. God delivered them immediately in one night. He delivered them. Yet they wandered in the desert for 40 years, right? Which this should have been a roughly like a 12 day journey for them. Yet they continue to wander in the desert for 40 stinking years because of their stinking Thinking, right? And it's like they were grumbling and it's just like it would have been better back there in Egypt. And, and so that's a prime example of them being delivered, them having the ticket, but never actually going on the rides, never actually experiencing a kingdom mindset. That and the. Their life, you know, they never actually got to experience the promised land because of an untransformed mind. What I think a lot of us might have struggled with or we know of people like this where it's just like what I would call identity distortion. Right? Identity distortion is, I think, one of the, the greatest tactics that the enemy will use because it's never going to allow you to. It can be a stronghold on our life and it's never going to allow us to fully function within the kingdom. Right. We all have a certain amount of potential in our life and potential is simply a word that, man, I've kind of come to despise just because it's like we're all capable of doing incredible things, Incredible things. But if we don't step into this and continue to be transformed with the renewal of our mind, we're never going to live the abundance, abundant life that God has actually called us to. This, this identity distortion, it's. It's a, it's a breeding ground for strongholds in our life to, to really take on in. In or for. For us to really be shackled or chained down by what God truly has for us. Okay. And, and again, I want us to grasp this. And, and part of this is if our heart can be transformed, but our renewing of our mind is something that we have to continually do. This is why we continually be fed by the Word. We continually hop on Bible study. We get in small groups. And this is part of back to just that sanctification process. A prime example again in scripture is just, you know, Jesus in Matthew 9 says that you cannot pour new wine into old wineskins, right? And we have to be transformed by the renewing of our mind because our old mental containers can't. They're going to burst. They're going to burst if. If we don't adopt or operate in this, this true kingdom mindset that God wants us to actually take on. All right, I'm, I'm gonna, I'm gonna pause with that and then. Brian, I want to throw it over to you, man, to, to talk about. I hope this is where you're going. If not, I'm gonna. I know you can talk about anything, bro, but I would love for you to even pull up some scriptures about what our identity truly is in Christ and what it means to be like a king and a priest, if possible. And. And I think that might spark some more conversation or questions for people on this that we could probably open it up to. Will you do that, bro?

Of course. Good morning, everybody. Hope you're all doing amazing. I put up a scripture here and. Riley, let me just pause that for a second. Everything you've been saying is so, so good, so important. I wrote down here, guys, when I got. So I had this privilege in 1995, I was sitting in a one bedroom apartment out in Phoenix, Arizona with my newly married wife, Diane. And I was in this stage. I was in this liminal phase of, like now, not yet. I was on my way to go play professional football. And I'm waiting on this phone call. I'm waiting on, literally on draft day, sitting in my. That was when phones were attached to the wall, right? No mobile devices. And we're sitting there waiting on and anticipating this phone call. And when that call came, it was Tom Coughlin, who was the GM of the Jaguars and the head coach. And when that call came, they drafted me based upon my potential and based upon my performance in college. And it was such a transformative moment because I had to instantaneously move from this mindset of amateur trying to make it, striving to make it. And all of a sudden a call comes and confirms all that performance, all that potential. And they saw something in me. And the coach Coughlin was like, schwartz, are you ready to be our middle linebacker? And of course, my response was, yes, sir, what do I need to do? Where do you. When do you need me there? Right? Because my whole world had just changed, and I was suddenly drafted into an environment that was radically different from my Division 2 school where I had to buy my own shoes, I had to buy my own gloves. It wasn't. Back in the day of the nil. I was at a little liberal arts School, Little D2 School, and they paid for my education, but other than that, not much. And then I get drafted. And if I wanted a new pair of shoes on any given day, I could have just gone to the equipment guy and got them. I was 100% fully supplied, fully equipped. Everything needed to have success, they provided everything. And. And when we get born again, what we sometimes miss is that everything needed. Peter says in Second Peter, chapter two, verses one, through. I'm sorry, Second Peter, 1, 2, 4. He says, Everything needed for life and God. We've already been given through our knowledge of Jesus Christ. So the difference between my draft day and when I got born again is that Jesus wasn't drafting me based upon my performance or my potential. In fact, my performance was awful. So he was drafting me based upon his original intent that Riley talked about the original intention over my life and when I got born again, even though I didn't understand it that night, what I've come to realize all these years later is I've been born into a kingdom, and that kingdom is fully supplied. It's got an incredible king, it's got an incredible culture, it's got an incredible everything, right? Not only do we get to know what we've been freely given, like Paul talks about in First Corinthians 2, 9, 11, he says we've been given the spirit, that we might know the things that we've been freely given. But then Ephesians 3, Paul talks about he does exceedingly, abundantly, beyond what we dream, ask, think, or imagine. So we live in this crazy, amazing kingdom, but we have been stuck for years of our life before Christ. We are stuck in that Egypt mode. He pulls us out, and then the rest of our days, he's like pulling Egypt out of us. So he pulls us out of Egypt, but now he's in the process of pulling Egypt out of us so that we become renewed in the thinking of our mind, right? Romans 12:1, 2. Paul says, by the mercies of God, I encourage you guys, Give your body as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable. Don't be conformed to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. So what Riley's talking about is the. The vital importance of every day wrapping our brains around this incredible reality that I have been chosen, right? That I have been called. And I wanted to put this scripture up because I think it's. It's really important for us to understand Peter. You know, when, when Peter and Paul, the other guys wrote the Epistles, they write a lot about the riches of Christ. So before they ever get into the responsibilities of Christ, they talk a lot about the riches of Christ because they understood if we know the riches of Christ and know who we are in Christ, then we can carry the responsibilities of Christ. So they would lay this incredible foundation of the riches of Christ and who we are in Christ and what we possess in Christ, because they were convinced that if. If the people of God could understand that, then when they were given the responsibilities of Christ, like the king, part of this, to execute God's dominion in the earth. They would do it with uprightness and integrity and not misuse their authority, right? So Peter is laying this foundation, and he has this but there. And so he's been talking about a different group who rejected Jesus as the cornerstone. And he goes, but you guys, you're radically different. You are a chosen race, right? You are a royal priesthood. You are a holy nation. You are a people for his own possession, okay? That you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light, right? So you see there that beautiful scriptures have indicatives, which are statements of fact. So indicatives are statements of fact, or what is reality according to him. So according to the Lord, through Peter, the reality that God walks with us in, when he looks at us who have been born again, he sees a chosen race, he sees a royal priesthood, he sees a holy nation, he sees a people that are his possession. And then he gives an imperative which, you know, so an indicative is a statement of fact. An imperative is a command of what to do so that we can become these ambassadors, that with our lifestyle, with our understanding, we can proclaim the excellencies of him who called us out of darkness. Okay? So the riches of Christ empower us to carry the responsibilities of Christ. And if we can know. So I'm just. Let's just look at this quickly. So when Peter's using this language, he's drawing directly from Exodus 19, when. When God came to Moses on the mountain and he looked at his people who had come out of Egypt, and his desire, from the moment he brought them out, what he saw in them, even though they couldn't see him in themselves. Like when I got drafted, they saw something in me I couldn't quite see. So I had to borrow their belief.

There's.

In this process of sanctification, you're going to have to sometimes borrow God's belief in you until you catch up. But it's understanding. This is how he saw them. He said, you're a kingdom of priests. That's in Exodus 19, 5, 6. This was always God's desire, not just to save people, not just to deliver people, but to actually have a priestly government. Okay? So when Jesus came, he came as a prophet, a priest, and a king when he came into Earth. And you'll see different aspects of his ministry. When he was operating as a prophet, you'll see times he's operating as a priest. And then you'll see other times when he's standing up against authority and Roman rule and hypocrisy in Israel, he executes as a king. And so he came to not just bring a message, he came to expose humanity to a kingdom, okay, A domain, because he was convinced if that people would repent, change not just what they think, but change how they think about everything in view of the kingdom. And that people could be his ruling governmental ecclesia in the earthly realm that would take his kingdom and see it expanded in the earthly kingdom. Okay, so this is highly intentional and has a lot of assignment. But he understands we are hardwired to think like slaves and think like victims. And so he had to give us a spirit. He had to make us give us his spirit. So the Holy Spirit would begin to help us as he examines us and empowers us, he would begin to transform us. And so that whole identity thing. So let's just break this down real quick. Okay? It says you're a chosen race. That is identity by birth, not performance. You're chosen by birth. And even through the process of adoption, once Riley is adopted, this child, that child is his child. It's still by birth. He's an image bearer. This is not by performance. And Riley will tell you, an adopted child has more rights than a natural born child. You can disown your own child. You can't disown an adopted child. It's fascinating. And God has adopted us, right? And so Peter's saying, you're a new bloodline, guys. Think about it. We are a new creation. We are a new bloodline. He told Nicodemus, if you want to see the kingdom, you got to be born again. Remember that Paul says in Ephesian, the Epistle to Rome in, in Romans 8, 15, 17, he says, we're adopted and we're co heirs with Christ. That means we didn't volunteer for this. We said, yes, he chose us, but we were born into this. So your identity, it's crucial in Christ to understand you were born into this. You were adopted into this. You were sealed into this by the Holy Spirit at new birth. You changed families, you changed citizenship, you changed inheritance. Gosh, that is just crazy. Your bloodline that you came from is as amazing as it was or as bad as it was. When you came into Christ Jesus and were born again. You entered into a different bloodline, which has all kinds of implications. And this is where many believers, they miss this. Because you don't become royal by acting royal. You act royal because you're royal. I always say mindset determines your method. So if I have the mindset of a king, I'M going to build out a methodology that supports that. If I have a mindset of a victim, I'm going to build out a methodology that supports that. And the Israelites struggled with that because for 400 odd years they'd been trained in the methodology of slavery and victimhood. And so this God comes along with this crazy leader named Moses and delivers them out. They don't know who this God is. They don't even know what they've been delivered into. And so Moses tries to help them. So they're navigating through this movement from an identity of a slave into the identity of a kingdom of priests. And God knows that takes time. And he understands that. That's why he gives us the graces and the disciplines and the people in our life and the scriptures. And he is so amazing. So when a son knows he's a son, he walks differently, he speaks differently. That second part, the royal priesthood. If you think about royal priesthood, those two terms, royalty speaks of kingship. Priesthood speaks of function. Okay? So this is all about access and authority. So we are a royal priesthood. Under the old covenant, kings ruled, priests ministered, the offices were separated. If the king tried to act like a priest, remember when Saul did that, he lost his kingdom. If a priest tried to operate like a king, they would get killed by the king. They did not mingle. They relied upon each other. Well, Jesus comes and he goes. I am both king and priest and prophet. And so you look at Jesus, he's our now high priest. He's the king of kings. And through him we are a priest. We first of all have access to God. So a priest has access to God. He's been granted access. He represents God to people and he represents people to God. Right? So that's what a priest generally does. And he establishes what's common and what is holy. A priestly function. So he has access to God. He ministers to God, he represents people before God. A king exercises dominion. A king takes the assignment of the kingdom and he helps establish order in everything he does. He helps establish order in his family. He helps establish order. If he's a, if he's an employer, he helps establish order as an employee. He represents God in a whole different way. He is responsible for territory, he's responsible for advancement. Right? You put those together and you get access and authority. That is what it means to be a royal priest. Okay? Ephesians 2 says, We've been seated with Christ in heavenly places. We're not striving, we're not crawling, we're not begging, we're seated. We don't approach life trying to get heaven's attention. We wake up every day already in the kingdom. And so we take that place I. I call it living from instead of for. I live from the kingdom, not trying to live for it. I live from access to the king. And then I, as I live from that, I can exercise his rule, exercise his dominion. There's a lot of practicals that can go into that. We won't. Probably won't have time to go into that. But then he says, we're a holy nation. The cool thing about this is that even on a call like this, it's not just you or me, it's all of us. We got born into a culture, a civilization, if you will, right? We. We have a corporate identity. So it's.

It.

This speaks to, like, your chosenness, your function and your culture. That's what Peter's after right here. He's like, you actually have a culture that you can live with and live from. And you're not just individually saved. You belong to a new civilization. Philippians 3:20 says, we have our citizenship in heaven, okay? A nation has laws, economy, language, government, culture. Peter's saying, you live on Earth, but you operate from another kingdom. The Earth is your assignment, but the king is your domain, right? The kingdom has the dominion and the power and the weapons and the tools and the keys and all those, those aspects of the kingdom. He says, kings, they. They have this ability to look out at the landscape, like the hour that we're in today, guys, a king looks at the chaos that we're in today, and he has this capacity to go, okay, I'm not going to think like a normal citizen. I don't have the luxury of getting swept into affairs that don't belong to me. I'm going to look at the big picture. What is God after right now? What does he want me to execute in the earth right now? When it comes to my family, when it comes to my career, when I see what's happening in the world, I've been assigned by God to be a part of the solution, to bring order into chaos. Kings think like that and they understand. They have access to the king's mind. I know when I come before King Jesus every day and I cry out to him and I'm like, oh, Lord, search me, O Lord, know my anxious thoughts. Try me, see if there's any way in me that could be led off, stray. And then would you, in the fear of the Lord, would you give me wisdom and insight. And because I'm a part of a family that's a kingdom family. I've got Riley and I got Christian. I got other people in my life. I'm not in this thing alone. I've got other kings that I can link arms with and we can grab hold of each other's lives and assignments and do life together and go on this mission together. But it starts with a mindset. It starts with this mindset that I'm not trying to get drafted anymore. Yeah, I've already been chosen. And if the king chose me, when he looked at his disciples, remember Riley, he goes, guys, I just want to remind you, in John 15, at the end of his life, he's like, guys, I just want to remind you guys, you guys didn't choose me because I chose you. And he said, I've appointed you to bear fruit. I've appointed you to do something with the choosing. And I'll just say this and I'll be done. But when I got drafted, I went from thinking having this mindset of, I'm going to prove everybody wrong. My whole life was about getting off a little dairy farm, making it here, getting to college, doing all the. I was always overcoming, always overcoming, always having to overcome and prove everybody wrong and prove them. And when I got drafted, I didn't have that. That excuse anymore. It wasn't about proven everybody wrong. It was now proving the team that drafted me, proving them right. Right. Responding to the calling and the chosenness of what they entrusted to me. My response was, I have to bring them a return if I'm going to be on that field. I have to prove that they made the right choice. Now, that's different. I'm saved by grace, right? By no merit of my own. Saved completely by the work of Jesus Christ. I'm justified by faith. I have my peace with God through that faith. I'm in grace by that faith. But once I'm born again and I begin to walk with the king, I now move from being seated with Christ to now going, how do I execute on behalf of Christ? And that's what a king does. A king goes, I'm aware of everything. I have all the access. I'm going to steward that I'm going to be fruitful and I'm going to be faithful with that. And then I'm going to trust. As he continues to grow and develop me, he's going to give me greater levels of access and authority to be able to operate on his behalf. A king understands what's at his Disposal. And as a result, he has wisdom in knowing how to distribute those goods. His authority, his power, all of that he knows how to distribute because he isn't wrestling through. Do I, am I accepted? Right. He's not wrestling through. Does he love me? No. The king knows he's accepted, he's loved. And so he boldly goes before and begins to operate on behalf of the king of kings. So, Riley, I hope that's what you were.

Phenomenal. Yes, phenomenal. So here's what I'm hearing. And to recap for everybody, it's we are, we are. We are royalty. We are born into a. Well, let's call this John 33 says, unless we're born again, we can't see the kingdom of God, right? So we've got to be born again, right? Meaning spiritually reborn. But by doing so, we become adopted legally. This Galatians 4 says that, that we are, we are adopted into his sonship. But then Also in Romans 8, as Brian mentioned, it's like, now we're heirs to, there's like, we are adopted born, we're born again, we're adopted legally, but then we become seated, positional. That's the Ephesians 2 that, that Brian had mentioned there. And so an understanding of this is that this isn't about status for us, but this is about responsibility. And when we understand that truly knowing that kingship is more than, more than anything above else, this is about our character in, in who we're becoming, who, who God has, has desired us to become above and beyond the, the authority that he's given us. Now we do have tremendous amount of authority, but me, I think early on is I, I, I'm not very patient. God has, you know, been growing me in this in a number of ways, which is not a fun thing to ever grow through. Right. But, but I would rush to, like, cool rush to things. I'm trying to rush to this concept of kingship, but without understanding what that truly means. Right. Therefore, I would struggle, I would toil, I would stress. And it's not that I don't still have those maybe symptoms, but that's not my identity, Right. Because once I start to experience those types of symptoms, I can immediately come back to the identity of who I actually am. Right. And why this is so important for us in understanding this from a mindset standpoint. Proverbs 30. Brian, you sent this to me in an audio text last night. I think this would be so good just to talk about. Proverbs 30:22 says that the Earth trembles when a servant becomes a king. Which this is, this is why, Brian, maybe you could just pull that up for them to, to see this.

Yeah.

When a servant becomes a king. And why is this. And I, I really think this is because when we adopt a, a position like this is just me just saying, like, when we adopt like this position of like, no, I'm, I'm, I end this because I want to be this, not because God says I am this, but it. If we do that without transformation, that's when destruction actually takes place in our life.

Yeah.

Like, it's when somebody wins the lottery and they're broke within two years. Right. They haven't built the, the capab or the disciplines to sustain that authority, authoritative position that they've been called to. Right. And God has called us all to these authoritative positions. But if we don't adopt those disciplines that are required to walk in kingship, it's going to just end up in destruction in our lives. So Proverbs 30, 22.

Yeah,

go ahead, Brian.

So this is setting up. There's, there's a few things here that when these things happen, it doesn't go well with the earth. It shakes things up. And, and one of those is when a slave, when he becomes a king. Because when a slave who's been trained to think like a slave for a long time suddenly comes into power. And that's honestly what we see a lot in our geopolitical world sometimes is you see people come into authority and they have flawed character. It never goes well for the people because they're still thinking from a whole different lens. Go ahead, Riley.

Yeah, I was hoping you had more on that.

Oh, I do, I, I do. I, I, I just didn't know if you wanted to expound. So go. It's. I use Moses as an example. So Moses was born a slave, right? Born a slave by God's sovereign hand, he grows up in the palace. So even though he was born a slave and we were born into slavery, he now has been brought up in the palace. So every day he woke up, he heard the language of prince and king and master. So the servants in his household were always probably tending to him. A slave, on the other hand, who's not brought up in the palace is always waking up to the opposite. He's waking up to a whole different mindset, whole different possibility, whole different financial realm, whole different mind. So his whole mindset has been shaped by lack and shaped by bondage. And then yet Moses is this picture of, It's a Type of Christ. He's this picture. Born a slave, raised in the palace, and then he takes his calling a little too premature. He gets sent into the backside of the wilderness, and in the secret place, he develops this entire methodology of shepherding and leading. But he still is able to think like a king. And so when God brings him out at the burning bush and goes, now I'm going to do something in your life, and this is kind of the process of sanctification. I'm going to now have you stand in front of Pharaoh and you're going to be God to him. You're going to rule on my behalf. You're going to represent me. And God took him through this phase of slave raised in the palace as a prince, learned how to shepherd in secret. Growth, development, character, capacity, all that stuff Riley's talking about. So that then when I have you stand in front of other kings, you represent me well. Because a king that doesn't have a priestly heart will abuse his authority. A king that still thinks like a slave is going to misuse his finances. Right. And I think that's what you're touching on is the mindset. You could have all the wealth and power in the world and have a title. And I had coaches like that. They had a title of coach, but internally they still saw themselves as small. And guess what? They let everybody else know it, and they ruled poorly. So it is really important to keep partnering with God through this process of growth and transformation and be aware of who he says you are. A lot more than awareness of who you say you are and who everybody else says you are.

Yeah. I'm just even reminded. And then, you know, we got about 10 minutes left. We can open this up for some discussion. But even with that, I'm just reminded of the prodigal son, right, where it's like he. He had an inheritance, but he did not take on that. That king's mindset, Right? He. He asked for it early. He went and squandered it. And Bible even says that, you know, no one would even help him. And it wasn't until he humbled himself and came back to his God. Excuse me, his father. Right, his. And it's like, what's. What's so amazing about that, too, is just that when the father saw him, like, he ran to him and threw a party. And it's like, this is what God wants from. From all of us, right? So maybe some of us have been living with this false identity of. Of who you really are. This woe is me. Mentality that the enemy, that's what he's going to attack you at, right? It's just the enemy cannot block your blessing, but he can infiltrate your mind and cause you to block it yourself. And this is, this is what he's been doing since the garden. And this is how he continually causes destruction in a believer's life. And this is why one of my favorite scriptures is Romans 12:2, like, be transformed, and this is a continual process. Be continually transformed by the renewing of your mind. And we do that by coming back to, who am I? Who is it that God says I am? I am a royal priesthood, right? I am a holy nation. This is what to live. That the abundant life that God has for you, even in a world of destruction, even in a world of chaos and stress and toil, there's freedom. Right where the Spirit of the Lord is, and the spirit of the Lord is inside all of us. Once we've received him as savior and now we get to walk this thing out, this is our responsibility. And if anything, what I want us to hopefully get out of this is just what that means. Like, we are royalty, we are seated in heavenly positions. But that comes responsibility. And some of us don't want, I think I, I. This was in the second book that we wrote, the Parable of the Talents. I where I just talk about the, what it means with the, the difference between the three that when did the, the, the one who just buried his talent didn't want to be, didn't make himself available for God to be used, number one. Right. He didn't want to take on the responsibility to multiply the talent. And then ultimately he was accountable for it. So we have to make ourselves available to God to be used. We have to be responsible with those talents that he's given us. Whatever that is, whatever that is. If it's selling life insurance, if it's teaching kids, if it's raising your kids like that's the most important one, we have to be responsible with that. Because knowing, as I kind of early on said, we are going to be held accountable to everything, every idle word that we even spoke or maybe didn't speak because God prompted us to say something. But we weren't bold enough because we didn't take that authoritative position of knowing who we really are in Christ. So thoughts on this? Questions? Discussion? Let's open this thing up a little bit. Utilize Brian while he's here. This is a treat to have him with us here. Leslie. Hey.

I was gonna say like this. I love your Testimony. I took a ton of notes. So thank you, Brian, and everybody here. I just wanted to point out one thing that I circled and wrote down is you talk about proving them wrong, and then you kind of shift to proving him right. And I just realized how much that kind of goes from. And that's definitely me. Like, I. I lived a large chunk of my life trying to prove the world wrong about me. And then that's like a kind of a. You're being pushed away. You're just kind of constantly going against the world and having the wrong view. And then, you know, as you're trying to prove God right after being born again, that's pushing, pulling you towards something better. And that kind of feels a lot better. It's like I'm kind of pulling myself up by what. Who he says I am. So I just love that. But the question I have is, you know, so say you're kind of like. You're kind of walking in your kingship, right? Or your queenship. And then you're kind of start. Then you're in a valley. And I was just wondering what kind of weapons you use. I mean, I think there's many, but you're kind of walking into kingship, and you start to kind of slide into slave mindset again, you know? What's your advice there?

It's a thank you. And that's a great question. I always go back to David in Psalm 23. Again, it's a king, right? And he's in a valley. Not because something's wrong, because he's saw another mountain on the other side that looks a little bit better. So he's coming off this mountain, and even in his descent, he's heading towards a bigger. Do you see what I'm saying? So even the valleys are not a problem. They're actually something to navigate as we're on our way to another part of the calling in our lives, which causes us to have to come out of the comfort of the mountain we're on, because a valley is between two mountains. And so as a King David, if you read the Psalm, he starts off, the Lord is my shepherd. He starts talking about, hey, he's testifying. But then when he gets in the valley, he's like. It turns personal. And so when I'm going through the valley, I'm not just talking about God. I'm now in a position and a posture. Usually because he's put me in this place of humility. I'm now communicating directly with him, going, okay, your rod and your staff, they Comfort me. I'm reminding myself of the promises of God. You know, David was master at that. Psalm 103, he said, bless the Lord, O my soul. So one of the biggest things when I'm going through a valley or tough time is I have to get my soul, my mind, my will, my emotions. I have to get them back into alignment with the reality of who Jesus is, who he says he is, who he says I am. And then what are the benefits? I have to remind myself of the benefit package of walking with God. And that's hard when you're in the middle of the valley. So it takes intentionality of focus to put my thoughts back on things above. Wherever your mind is set, that determines your mindset. So I have to set my mind on things above where Christ is and remind my soul of his faithfulness when I'm going through the valley, because I know I'm on the way to something that's even greater. The valley is not torment unless you want it to be. The valley actually is a training ground to where you can develop intimacy with Him. So I don't know if I answer your question, but it's more of an explanation. My tools are a lot of crying out, reminding myself of his goodness and his promises and his benefits, like Psalm 103. Drawing near when I want to push away. When I'm going through valleys, man, I want to push away. I intentionally draw myself near to God and I use the weapons of my warfare, which is the word of God, the blood of Jesus, the name of Jesus. Because I'm also sometimes getting attacked in the valley. And so I also need to know how to fight my way through the valley. And that develops strength as well. So all of it is a benefit package. It's just we don't like those descended moments. So I have to reascend. Even though I'm descended, I have to, in my mind and my heart, reascend through my. The things we just talked about.

That's immediately what came to my mind, Brian. It's like 2nd Corinthians 10 tells us that the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, right? They're not of this world, but they're spiritual, which is like the tearing down of strongholds. And you mentioned David. I think this is in First Samuel, where it says that David. It literally says David strengthened himself in the Lord. And you mentioned what those. Those weapons are, right? The word of God declarations based upon our identity of. Of who God says we are. And, you know, the. The armor of God in EPHESIANS that, that just talks about like what we. We put on the. Like, I envision this when I get out of bed in the morning now, where it's just like I'm putting on this, this helmet of salvation, right? This breastplate, righteous. Like, before I get in step onto the battlefield, I need to be armored up in the sword of the Spirit, is by knowing scripture, being able to repeat and aligning our words with God's word. Bro, there's nothing that we can't do when we do that, but it all comes tumbling down unless we're rooted in this identity of again, who God really, truly says we are. So that's phenomenal, Jonathan. And then we'll go to Gita.

Yeah. Really appreciate you, Riley and Brian for being here. This is so, so good. But I was thinking a lot the last like two weeks, John 15, and I am the vine, you are the branch. You know, unless you abide in me, you can do nothing. And, and so I feel like when you were talking about improving, proving yourself to, like, now I gotta prove them, I was thinking, you know, like, what if the branch decided that he went back to a slave mentality and in order to bear fruit thought he had to detach himself from the vine, climb down the vine to get its own nutrients from the ground every morning to bear fruit. And that's the mentality of a slave. But the, the mentality of a son is saying, hey, I'm grafted. I'm staying in the vine. That's where I'm going to bear my fruit attached. I can't, I can't detach myself and try to prove that I'm worthy to bear fruit by climbing down and getting my own nutrients. And so that, that just came to mind when you were talking about your football analogy. And so really appreciate that. Super good stuff.

Yeah. And thank you, Jonathan. You. Actually, I'd encourage everybody to go back and do a fresh read of John 15 because it is loaded with the, the reality and dynamic of what it means to be attached to King Jesus. My goodness. We, we are attached to the vine man. And when we learn how to abide with him, you don't have to try. You don't have to go out to the backyard and speak to an apple tree and go produce fruit, produce some apples. You actually start producing naturally because you're now in union with him. And Jesus said in John 8. 31, he said, you're my disciples if you abide in my Word. And if you abide in my word, you will know the truth. And the truth will set you free. So that abiding thing is about intimate knowledge, mingling of souls together and what comes out of that is natural fruit. It's really good. Thank you for sharing that.

Yeah, I have lots of thoughts on that too. It's like the, a branch itself can't bear fruit. And you know, scripture then tells us too, unless a seed falls to the ground and dies, then it can bear fruit. And, and it's like that's when the multiplication starts to take effect, when we, when we die to ourselves.

Right.

And it can start to take root. There's a tremendous amount of fruit that can be born, but it comes from us being rooted in that truth. And yeah, I'm gonna, we'll go to get it now. I got lots of thoughts that I'm just, I'm gonna be thinking on that throughout the day. That's so good. Thank you. I'm so happy to be here. Just a question for you. So I spent a lot of time around unbelievers who, who just have hardened hearts and who, you know, don't like the Lord. So any advice to me for that on that?

Yeah, I, I mean I understand that. And I had to. When I first got saved especially and then I went back into the locker room, majority of people I had ran with were unsaved. I had been unsaved and now I had been awakened and I learned the art and the power. Especially if there are people you're around regularly where they're part of your orbit, not just random people. I really did. God gave me a grace to simultaneously live in a way that represented him well, but also didn't compromise, but also reflected to them I'm still their teammate. You know what I mean? It was, I lived something in front of them. It's kind of like even with my, my wife's family, it took time. They thought we were part of a cult. So it's. So it took time of, of just consistent fruit bearing and living hopeful and living in such a way. And then it did start happening when people and teammates and others would come to me at different times outside of that normal vacuum and go, dude, how do you help me with this? I've watched you and it's the long game. Usually with hard hearted people, it's the long game. And then Paul does talk about a certain reality though. Like we are the aroma of Christ to God the Father, he says, but to. There's one group we're going to be the aroma of death to, you know.

Yeah, what does that Mean, that means,

that means by just the nature of what we carry, being born again, new creations in the spirit, you're going to bump into people that are, that are completely not just lost, but they are given over to another whole spirit.

Yes.

And it'll be an instantaneous. You'll know instantly there's no fellowship there.

Right.

There's nothing. And so those are the ones that I go, okay, God, they're yours. But then there's others that you still smell good to, even though they're not safe and you carry the aroma of Christ, they still love being around you. And those are the ones that you're probably assigned to continue to bear fruit and give off the aroma of Christ.

Oh, thanks for that distinction. That's helpful. Thank you. Anything else?

I love these guys. Man, this is awesome.

Yes.

Hi everyone. Good to be back on. Thank you so much for sharing. And I love this topic and I actually kind of want to just, just bring some context in with like this generation and my generation, like in their 20s, 30s, and I live in Minnesota, as we all know, you know, what's been going on in Minnesota. A lot of my friends and acquaintances have grown up in church, go to church, but they're still shook by what's happening and they don't have answers and they're confused and they really want to know truth. And unfortunately the big C churches are kind of grazing over the things that's happening and really trying to basically say it's a spiritual warfare. You know, everything that you're saying is not what a lot of our young people are hearing. That literally can be the definitive moment of identity. If we could just be praying over this event March 21st. It's just like a table talk through VOTN, the voice of the Next, which is just, you know, non profit founded a year ago. And I'd love to extend an invitation to King's Council and we'll touch base about that. But really having those conversations about the very hot topics. But how do we introduce exactly what you're saying about kings and priests, of how we posture ourselves? And that's the lens that we see the world is through. That posture is through the ecclesia, the government of God coming on the earth. But you know what I'm saying? Because it's like everyone's honestly afraid and confused because the lens is painted by media or trends or fake fear, not by truly who you are. And one more thing I'd like to say is thankfully my generation is realizing there's two types of Christians, two Versions of Christians. One version is exactly what you're sharing. We're here on earth for a reason and we need Jesus. The other virgin is lukewarm or complicit or hateful of the government, hateful of everything. And anti this, anti that. But they say they're Christian, so how do we really be that definitive marker, even among other believers who may, you know, that's a hard topic to discuss, but it's just the current conversation of this generation that we're finding it's a narrow road.

It's, it's, you're, you're articulating. I've got, so I've got seven children. Four of my boys are 22, 21, 19, 17. They're smack dab and everything you're talking about. Of course we're not in Minnesota, we're down here in Florida. But I have found that as a dad, it's, it's so important to continue to invite my sons into looking through the lens of the kingdom of God and being willing. It's hard with people if they're not willing to first look through the lens of loyalty to King Jesus. You know, like Joshua when he was going into the promised land, the Lord's there with the sword drawn and Joshua goes, hey, are you with our enemies? Are you with us? He wanted, want him to pick sides. And Jesus goes, wrong question. I'm the Lord of the angel armies, you better be on my side. So it starts with helping people go back to, hey, let's, let's look first of how the kingdom of God would actually lay. Look at the current problem and how when you look through that lens, there is a way to do this and there is a way to help, but it takes people. You're going to see instantly whether they're willing to repent. Repent means just change your mind in view of a superior reality. So Jesus said, repent for the kingdom of God is here. He's going because of the superior nature of this unshakable kingdom, it's going to shake, shake everything you've been foundationally believing in. So are you ready to even go down that path? And then I would find people that are ready to look through the kingdom lens first and then look at their political stuff and the ideology side of it, if they can look through that lens first. What does loyalty to King Jesus look like in the midst of exposure and cover ups and all these things that we're seeing? How do we not panic how you do? How do we not just get scared and withdraw? How do we actually be salt and light in time like this? And there is a way to do it. It just requires first things first. Good.

Brian. All right. Lauren, Did we lose them? Oh, we don't. Sorry. You're muted. I'm muted.

It's Zach.

Yeah, I, I, I just saw a common theme between kind of Gita's question and Destiny's question and comments there and, and kind of want to expound a little bit on that, if that's okay. Yeah. So with, with where Gita was coming from, like, what does that mean? Like, we're the aroma of Christ to God, but there's still that group that we're going to smell like death to. And that's if we're living out of the spirit or if we're living out of the flesh. But if we now, when we've started to live for Christ and, and we're living with this different worldview, well, then what is happening to our flesh? We're not living out of it. It's dead and it's rotten. And if somebody gets close enough and they're living out of the flesh, that's a perspective that they're seeing from. We're not, we don't have all the same quote, unquote, fruit, it's fake fruit, but we don't have all of that. All the, all the things that they're living for, living for the weekend and partying and whatever. We don't have all of that that they're after. And so in that way that, that is, that's not attractive. But even Eve saw the fruit in the garden and, and it looked good for food. So how much, how much more true is that a real fruit? Right. That's when they see the love and the joy and the, and the peace and the patience and the fruit of the Spirit becomes attractive. And then when, when Destiny was talking is like, how do we, so, so that's going from living out of the world to now we're living as a Christian, we're following Christ, but then destiny even more specifically. Almost like the burden of somebody with, like a prophetic calling. How do we bring truth in front of people? And that it's, it's more than just living out of the world or living out of the spirit. It gets to a point where now we, we have more of a fear of God than a fear of man. So like you said, we have the keys and we can, we can enter. We have the entrance ticket. Earlier you were talking about, but, but now it's, we have to progress through where we have the fear of God and, and we have to speak this truth. Not not only that we have to, but we are so compelled and we live under this urgent of speaking it to a point where, I mean, the rejection. I mean, if you have a big church who refused to. Refuses to address specific topics, it just begs that question. That's not to say, I mean, there's a time for certain conversations. Not everything's appropriate in every situation, but. But we just have to be careful that we're not fearful of man and fearful of, of rejection because of truth. Because at the end of the day, that's more God's reputation than it is ours. And so it's like, like Jonathan was saying, where are we really getting our source from? If it's from, you know, living out of the flesh, then we, we probably

don't have to worry about it.

We don't smell bad to anybody. If you don't smell bad to anybody, then there's something else going wrong. So.

Good. Good, Zach. Yes. Yeah. And I think just an encouragement that Gita and Destiny, sometimes we. Going back to just our worldly mindset, we're all guilty of this, of just like what we think is success is, is not always seen it all the way to the finish line. Right. Paul talks about, you know, Apollos someone, you know, he planted Apollo's water or one of those. But there's. We are planting seeds and sowing seeds through the little conversations, the little acts of service, you know, things along those lines where sometimes we get. We get bogged down with just like we want that. We want to see the experience, the transformation. And one day we are going to, going to have a full picture of all of that of like, you know, man, because we did this because we were obedient to this. Like our job is simply obedience. And the outcome is God's like he gets the harvest. It's not us. We just have to be obedient to the purposes that he has on us individually. That's what we're responsible for. And coming back to, like, that's really what your call is, what your commissioning is, is to be, to be obedient to your purposes. That's what really success in life is. Was I obedient to purpose? And that's back to again what we're going to be accountable for. So really good guys, I love, love these questions and discussions. If there's nothing else, Brian, I'm going to ask you, brother, would you release a blessing over this community and for them to be the Hands and feet and continue just to wrestle with this. This identity and just this mindset, this transformation for us to grow through.

Yes. Well, guys, it's been a privilege. Father, we thank you for just our time together. Spirit of God, we're asking right now, in the mighty name of Jesus, that you give us a spirit of wisdom and revelation into a better knowledge of who you are. Got to pray for all my brothers and sisters right now that they would have a greater knowledge and insight into the hope of their calling. Just like Paul prayed for the church, the hope of their calling, that they would also understand the inheritance they have with the other saints in the kingdom and the ecclesia of you, Lord Jesus. But then also he prayed that they would know the power. The power. The same power that raised you from the dead, that inexpectable, unexpected, unincredable power, God, that raised you from the dead. That we would also know that to the highest level. God, I pray for my brothers and sisters as they wrestle, as they walk, as they win, as they go through valleys, as they go up mountaintops. Every aspect of every dimension of our existence, if we're married, our families, all of us, God, we come together right now and ask that you would pour out your grace, pour out your anointing. God, I pray for words of wisdom right now, words of knowledge, prophetic insight and prophetic utterance. God, you'd activate the. The spiritual gifting on the inside of us, but then also help us to develop the character to carry all these things out for you, Lord God, and be accurate representatives of your kingdom. Help us to be these authorized ambassadors that you say we are. Help us to do it with integrity and uprightness.

God.

Help us to take full responsibility for our calling. God, we just ask in the name of Jesus. In a season where there's division and exposure and finger pointing and name calling and all these different. Help us to remain loyal to you, King Jesus, and to stand on your side when it comes to every issue. And we're asking for that kind of insight, the knowledge, the wisdom and the discretion that comes from the fear of the Lord. Thank you for that. Speak blessing over my brothers and sisters today. Let your face shine upon them. Would you turn your countenance towards them today? Would you bless them, keep them and give them peace in Jesus name. Amen.

And amen. Excellent.

Thanks, Dry Lee.

Thanks, Brian and Roger. Yes, guys, have a great Wednesday.

See y'.

All.

Thanks, Riley.