Kingdom Alignment: From Awareness To Awakening

You are.

I have a testimony.

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Story to see this is my story this is my song.

Have a testimony Y see my testimony Rain came, wind blue My house was built Only.

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Faith with you I feel somebody's faith.

Rising this is the reason you made it. One more time. Good morning. Good morning. Happy Wednesday to you guys. First thing I see is Joseph Lee with this camera on. Praise the Lord. Good morning. Good morning. Good morning. Joe's been known like some. Some of y' all to be on consistently with the camera off. So anytime the camera's on, I appreciate it. If the lights are on this early, then the camera's on. All right, good stuff. Raj, how you doing? Are you muted?

There you go.

I'm good, I'm good.

I didn't know you were around his house.

Yeah, it came up. We're recording some podcasts today and. And we're actually going to be making a video that we've been wanting to make for some time now.

Nice.

It's regarding. I know, Rog, you've done it with us and maybe some more of you, but have participated with us or on your own. Some breath work, like Wim Hof breathing, something like that, which is phenomenal. So we are creating a. A Christian meditation, Wim Hof style video that. Because if you try to find something like that, it's. You don't really find that in the Christian space, but. And we're going to do a podcast on breathing and breath. Ruach, Holy Spirit, wind, the whole nine yards. So nice. Look out for that.

Look forward to that.

Yeah. Also, I want to make mention to you guys, starting next week, we're gonna have a new Bible study link. I'll get it out in the email that goes out on Tuesdays. It's going to be one where you have to register for the Bible study, but then once you register, you'll be able to get in whenever we. We took the registration off of this a while back because there are some people outside the United States trying to get in to be a part of this. So I think we're able to open up, have people register, even those outside the United States. But I will certainly make sure you guys get that link and I'll post it on my social media. I don't make very many social media posts usually just to promote this Bible study. So with that said, good morning. I love this. Like, half the folks have the cameras on as far as people are hopping in. I see. Brandon Stafford. What's up, man? How you doing? Is this your first Time on here it is.

Yes, sir.

All right, brother, how'd you stumble across us.

Through the TPUSA website?

Awesome, man. Welcome aboard. Where you from?

I'm in the Dallas Fort Worth area in Texas. Local business owner. Just trying to. Trying to get more of the word in me, man.

Amen, brother. Well, I'm in Minnesota right now, but I live in Plano, so.

Okay.

Yeah, I'm in Bedford, so. Right there by Dallas Fort Worth Airport.

Okay, cool. Welcome aboard, brother.

Appreciate it, man.

Yeah. Last couple weeks after we finished the Book of Revelation, we've been doing topical studies, but they. They kind of flow. And today's going to be a continuation of that topical study.

If you.

For those who are on. Two weeks ago, we really dove into Acts 1:8 and the. The disciples that were told to wait in Jerusalem for the Holy Spirit. And when the Holy Spirit came upon them and gave them power to be witnesses that were. Power is the word. We get dynamite from Dunamis. And the word witness is in the Greek. Martus is where we get the word martyr from. And I did see your video on Facebook, Leslie, where you shared that. So that was good stuff. So. And then last week, we. We talked about the four commissions of Jesus from his resurrection to his ascension. And the first one is we are sent, right? So we're not just called to be his disciples. So we could just hoard all the goodness of Jesus to ourselves. When we say yes to the Lord, we're born again. We're new creations. We have new identities. We have new assignments, new purposes in life. And he called us out of our old sinful ways. He called us out of the world so we could be sent right back into the world as new creations. And we're in the world, but we're not of the world anymore. And when we're sent on mission, we're sent to all types of people, right in that great Commission in Matthew 28, to all nations. And it's not necessarily we're all called to be missionaries, but that. That were nations there, Ethne. And it's just all types of people. So there's all types of people around us. It doesn't have to be somebody from a different country, different race, different religion, different background. It could be. But when we say yes to Jesus, usually he'll guide our steps as to what our mission field is. And then we're called to bring a message, and that's a gospel message. It as science changes and history changes, as you know, new things are revealed to us over the years. Truth Changes in the eyes of society and especially the culture really throughout the world in 2025. Everybody has their own truths. Our gospel is an everlasting gospel and there's simplicity to our gospel. And it's a gospel message of repentance. It's a gospel message of judgment as well. But it's the, the most gracious message we could share with anybody. Just the, the love of Jesus and our, our need for a Savior. And then of course, we're empowered by the Spirit to do all this. We're empowered by the Spirit. There's nothing that we lack, there's nothing that we can't do because of the power of the Holy Spirit, same Spirit that raised Jesus from the grave. The, the, the same Spirit that allowed Lazarus and his tomb to get up and walk and live again. That power, that spirit actually lives within us. So today we're going to talk as we kind of continue down this river of being witnesses, empowered by the Spirit. We're going to talk about the, the keys to the kingdom today. And we're going to get into Matthew chapter 16 a bit. I put the wrong verse on one of that thumbnail on social media because two times does Jesus make mention that of whatever we bind on earth will be bound in heaven, whatever we loose on earth will be loosed in heaven. And in my busyness of trying to create that while I was getting on a plane yesterday, I chose the verse we're not going to get into today, although he said the same thing. We're going, going to get into Matthew chapter 16. Roger, through the, the notes in the chat and ultimately the four things I want us to be aware of today are the keys of the kingdom being first, awareness, then alignment, then assignment, then awakening. And as we walk through this, that'll make more sense to you. But awareness, alignment, assignment, awakening. So to set the Scene of Matthew 16, this is Peter's confession of Christ. And this is really where it starts for all of us there. There's nothing more important than the declaration of who Jesus is. And even in our own lives that, you know, we know who Jesus is, but oftentimes we kind of just resort to that head knowledge of who Jesus is. We know he's the Christ, he's the Messiah, he's the Anointed One. We know what he's done in our past, but who is he to us right now in this moment? Right? And I think it's good for us to remember the testimonies that we have to remember what he has done in our lives. But who Is he to us right now? He's king of kings, He's Lord of lords. Is he lord of everything right now? Is he lord of every thought, every action, every deed? And this was. This is one of the more monumental passages in Scripture and in particular for Peter in his life when he made this confession of who Jesus was. So Matthew 16, starting in verse 13, says, When Jesus came into the region of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, saying, who do men say that I, the Son of man am? So they said. Some say John the Baptist, some Elijah and others Jeremiah or one of the prophets. He said to them, but who do you say that I am? Simon Peter answered and said, you are the Christ, the Son of the living God. Jesus answered and said to him, blessed are you, Simon bar Jonah, for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who's in heaven. And I also say to you that you are Peter. And on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Haiti shall not prevail against it. And I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven. And whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven. Now this passage here is. There's been much debate about it as to if this is, you know, Jesus declaring Peter to be the, the first pope. Right. I would say no, that that's not the case. Matter of fact, in the early church in Jerusalem, Peter wasn't even the, the pastor of that church. It was James of that first early church in Jerusalem. But it all starts with this confession and this awareness or this revelation of who Jesus actually is. And that's how we know our identity. We never know our identity as believers apart from knowing who Jesus is. Right. And, and there's other religions who recognize Jesus as perhaps a prophet, recognize Jesus like the, the Mormon Church, recognize Jesus as a created being. So I guess he died on the cross, but he's a created being. He's not God himself. And that, that's not the case. He is the one third of a triune God. And this declaration, this confession of who Jesus is, that's ultimately the, that's the rock that, that confession of faith, that. That's the rock that the church is built upon. And if we don't have that confession of faith of who Jesus is, and no matter how long we live, no matter how close we are to him, we could get greater revelation of who Jesus is every single day that there's no. We can't max this thing out. There, there's no ceiling to how close we could get to Jesus here on Earth. We spent a lot of time in Revelation, and despite some of the calamities we read through and some chaos and hell on earth, we, we got a pretty good depiction of what heaven will be like and that oneness and where we're just overwhelmed by his presence and his glory that we can't help but to bow down at his throne, cast all those crowns that, that we're going to receive for the good works we do here. We're just going to cast them at his feet and worship him with the angels, Daniel and day out. So when one of the things I, I want to dive into a little bit is when Jesus says, I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, Jesus is saying, I'm giving you access and authority to operate with heaven's power and principles here on earth, right? Which is something where we see the church and a lot of times we see the church being so dead, especially compared to the church in the Book of Acts, the early church, miracles, signs, wonders, we. We don't see them perhaps as often as we should, right? But it's the same Spirit, Holy Spirit that abides in us today. It's the same Spirit back then, and I think I may mention this last week, there's no JV Holy Spirit. When you have the Holy Spirit, he is the same Holy Spirit, right? There's no lesser version of the Holy Spirit. Now our job is to, as Paul tells us in Ephesians 5, to always be being filled with spirit. Pray, ask for the Holy Spirit, get that fresh filling of the Holy Spirit so we could operate in the gifts of the Spirit. And I shared this with a couple folks over the weekend. Just it. It had come to me because when you talk about the things in the spirit realm, oftentimes our, our minds and our eyes are so fixed on what they could see in the carnal, right? And obviously we know we're not to walk by sight, we're to walk by faith. And I shared this story and this is why it's good oftentimes to just go back and remember the testimonies of Jesus. There's a, a guy who, a lot of you guys know, I won't mention his name, who had texted me, it was about two years ago, and he said, man, can you pray for my son? He just broke out with this rash. We don't know what it is. Dr. Doesn't know what it is. And he sent me a picture and it was just like his son was probably 10 at the time, sent me a picture of his son with his shirt off, and it was just everywhere. And the look on his son's face was just like. Of pain and distress. And that was early in the morning. And then later in the day, Lucy tells me about a dream that she had. She said, I had this dream last night. She said, there's this little boy who.

Had.

This rash all over his body. And I. I don't know who the little boy was, but I took him to the bath, I put him in the bath. And as he was in the bath, I just started pouring water over his head and started praying over him. And as I did that, he was healed. So I was like, okay. I showed her the picture, said, that's the boy. She said, who is that? And I said, it's Kurt. Well, I'll say his name. It's Kurt Stone's son. Said, that's the little boy. Call him right now and tell him, bring him into the bath and start pouring water over him and praying. And I called Kurt. He did that. And later that night, he sent me a picture of his son where the rash started to go away with a big smile on his son's face. And it's like, man, something like that sounds impossible. Like, how does something like that happen? But this is. The things in the spirit God will give us spiritual giftings and, like, prophetic giftings. And the things in the spirit are so. Seems so impossible at times. But that's exactly what this is, right? Like, God has the ability to do the impossible. He has the ability to do the impossible. And I believe he wants us to do the impossible day in and day out. It's not God's will for us to walk around with our heads hanging, to walk around, stuck in our afflictions, to be in physical pain. And, you know, if we're in a season where we're going through something, God, yes, he will. He will take us through a journey, ultimately to teach us a lesson, to show us something greater, to strengthen us, to increase our patience, to increase our endurance, perseverance, 100%. But our. These carnal eyes oftentimes are so fixed on the things around us that we miss what's operating in spirit. So when Jesus says, I give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, we do have that authority, that access. Remember when Jesus sent out the 70 and they came back and they were like. Like even the demons, they have no authority. Your name has power over all things. And the. These keys, they give us his Believers the ability to unlock spiritual truths, opportunities and power that aligns with God's will. That aligns with God's will. And it's not us controlling heaven, but it's God giving us an opportunity to bring heaven's purposes into earthly situations. Now he goes on and says, whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven. Whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven. And the word bind simply means restrict, to forbid, to prohibit. For example, you can pray and take authority over sin, fear, sickness, or demonic influence because we know that heaven already posts them, right? For anybody who's been in a situation with somebody who's demon possessed or you just feel a demonic presence, a spiritual stronghold, it, it's, heaven backs us up when we pray and you know, declare or demand that demon to come out or, or that spiritual stronghold to break. When Jesus says whatever you loose on earth will be loose in heaven means that we can release or permit or activate what heaven approves of. So to lose is set free is to permit is to allow, when we speak life, forgive others or pray for God's will to be done. We're releasing heaven's power into that situation. It's, it's essentially our actions, our words coming into agreement with heaven, right? And let it be done. So there's so much power in our words. We, we've talked about that in the past and we know that death and life are in the power of the tongue. It's important for us to speak and declare God's word over ourselves, over our situations, over other people, even if we're not quite there believing it yet. There's power in the name of Jesus. There's power. Peter used these keys to open up the kingdom to the Jews at the day of Pentecost, Remember he preached that sermon and the church grew to 3,000. And then ultimately Cornelius, the first Gentile to be saved in Acts chapter 10. But it all started with this confession that this awareness, right? So I, I mentioned the four A's awareness, alignment, assignment, awakening. And this awareness is really just a revelation of who Jesus is. It's a revelation of Jesus Christ. It replaces religion. Revelation of Jesus Christ, yes, it comes through scripture, but it also comes through personal encounters I've shared a million times, not just with you guys, but throughout the my life since I've been saved that when I got saved and radically transformed and delivered from a 14 year drug addiction, and then I went to a rehab the next day and I'm leading people to Christ, I'm praying for folks, I Don't even know really how to pray. And it's like in Jesus name, right? Like kind of looking around, that's how you pray. But I had had this radical encounter with, with Jesus. And not only was he my Savior, but He was my redeemer, he was my deliverer, right? He was my absolute everything. He was the source of every bit of peace that I now felt. So when it comes to that awareness, Paul says in Ephesians chapter one, he says that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give to you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him, the eyes of your understanding, being enlightened, that you may know what is the hope of his calling, what are the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints, and what is the exceeding greatness of his power towards us who believe. So God, he gives us a spirit of wisdom and revelation. Not just about certain things that we're praying for. It's about who he is every single day. We could draw closer to him, have greater insight as to who he is and the, the goodness of God, the greatness of God, the, the vastness of God, the, the majesty of God, the sovereignty of God. Every single day we come to greater revelation of that. Peter's first epistle. It's only a few chapters long, but 13 times he mentions the knowledge of God. And that knowledge of God isn't just a head knowledge of God. The devil himself has a head knowledge of God, right? Believes who Jesus is. As far as head knowledge, believes that he, he's the Son of God, he died on the cross, he resurrected, and ultimately he's going to lose to Jesus Christ. He already lost when Jesus resurrected, but ultimately for all eternity it is going to be cast into the lake of fire. So there's a head knowledge, but there's not an experiential knowledge. And there's not an obedience, there's not a, a discipline to say y, be in agreement with him and to obey God's will. So that's the first step for us to operate, to take these keys to the kingdom, to, to operate, to go out, to, to be sent to all types of people with a message empowered by the Spirit. It's one, that awareness, that revelation of who Jesus actually is. And then the second is alignment. And alignment is agreement with Heaven. Our, the authority we have flows through alignment. And once we're aware of the kingdom, right, once we're in the kingdom, we must come to agreement with what the kingdom's will is, what Heaven's Will is, and after I, I go through online, I'm going to open it up a bit before I move on to the, the next tip. But ultimately this alignment, now we know Jesus says and, and when he instructs the disciples of how to pray, we pray, your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. But in Amos 3, 3 says, how can two walk together unless they agree, right? There's got to be alignment, there's got to be agreement, there's got to be a submission, full surrender of our will to the will of God. Because first of all, you know how many times you've messed up in your life. I know how many times if I'm left to my own devices, I, I could be a screw up, I, I could certainly make some poor decisions. But when we surrender our will and submit our will to Jesus, then we come into agreement and then we not only walk in the authority, but we walk in the discernment, we walk in the enlightenment for certain of what his will is. And even though like everything in me saying going this way makes more sense, it just on paper, black and white to make this decision seems logical, logical, but I know God's telling me to go that way. That must be it. And we must walk by faith, knowing that he's going to provide, he's going to supply, that we're going to be like the Israelites when they buster Jordan river into the promised land. That, that, that water didn't part until the, the priests that were on the front lines, they put the soles of their feet into the water, they started walking. They said, okay, God promised me this over here, I'm going to start walking. I don't know what's going to happen. Like, looks like I could drown. Looks like this is just maybe illogical or maybe even stupid, right? It's like, makes no sense. I'm gonna, I'm here, there's a body water there, and on the other side is where I'm trying to go. Well, God says go, I'm just gonna go see what happens. And the water parts and I don't know if any of us in our lifetimes if we're gonna actually start walking across a body of water and it's going to part. So a path could be made for us. But there's going to be things, there's going to be miracles that God performs on our behalf when we start walking by faith. It was a couple years ago, I probably shared this at the time when my son ezra was about 2. I remember he loved the water. Out here at Riley, he lives on a lake and he's got a big back lawn, and then there's like a ledge and there's a staircase that goes down to the sand and then the water. And my son Ezra, he was only two and he just saw the water and he wanted to run for it, right? And we couldn't let him play in the lawn by himself because he would just start running towards the water. Now this particular time, I had his hand and he just started running towards the water. And he was running, like, straight for this ledge, which if I just let him run, he would have fallen off. But he ran all the way up to the ledge. And I knew that he ran that far trying to get where he wanted to go because I had his hand, his father had his hand. Like I wasn't going to let anything happen to him. And when God is calling us somewhere, when we're. We're running and it looks like it doesn't make sense, I'm going into hostile territory. I'm going into the. The land of the enemy. I'm going into an area, a new job where I'm fearful. It's new territory.

I don't.

I don't know exactly what I'm meant for. If we know that we're in the hand of the Father, it's like we're good. If we know that the shepherd has already gone before us, he already sets up a table in the presence of our enemies. If we know, if we've already declared, we've come to that awareness, that revelation of who Jesus is. And by knowing who Jesus is, we know who we are as his sons and daughters, as his ambassadors. If we're going, if he gives us the green light, we go. It doesn't matter what it looks like to our carnal eye. And when it comes to this alignment, one of the. The verses that stands out to me, we want to be in alignment with. With heaven. And Paul says in 1 Corinthians 10:23, says, all things are lawful for me, but not all things are helpful. All things are lawful for me, but not all things edify. And he reminds us that that spiritual maturity is a measure by what we could get away with, but what we're willing to surrender for the sake of God's will. Freedom in Christ is not freedom to compromise, but it's an invitation to sort his authority. Well, now it is rather. I mean, they call this the upside down kingdom, right? We have to die before we could live.

We.

We're. We're always a slave, right? What? We. We're always enslaved to something. Before we came to Christ, we were enslaved to sin. And now that we're Christ, we're enslaved to Christ, right? We're. We're his servants. We're his bond servants. But the radical thing about being a slave to Christ is that that's where the ultimate freedom is, where the spirit of the Lord is. There's freedom, there's liberty, right? So we become. We. We repent from this sin, we turn to a savior, and now we're enslaved to him. He's Lord of our lives. But in being enslaved to him, the King of kings, we actually become kings and priests ourselves. We're a royal priesthood. And in that, there's ultimate power, ultimate authority, and ultimate freedom. Freedom in the Kingdom is not. License. One of the recordings Riley and I are going to do over the course of these next couple days is we're going to do an episode on Halloween, and we're going to get into this verse a bit because all things may be permissible, but they're not profitable, right? And I, for one, well, I won't share too much about it, but in our household, we don't. We don't celebrate Halloween at all.

At all.

And that was something Lucy had enforced before I came into the picture. And for me, I was, you know, I didn't grow up in a godly household, and Halloween was a fun time for the kids, right? Dressing up, lots of candy. There's actually an old picture of me. My mother was a big Michael Jackson fan. And for a white woman, my mother had rhythm. I think that's where I get my rhythm from, from my. From my mother. And there's a picture of me with the red jacket, the glove and a black face, right? She. She dressed me up as Michael Jackson. And there was no, like. I guess there's no. I think what she actually used was the. The black that I use under my eyes for baseball. I think she. If I remember, she just rubbed that all over my face. So it wasn't even, like, good. It was like, all blotchy. But there is a picture of me in blackface from when I was just a young buck, for sure. But, like, celebrating, for a Christian, celebrating Halloween. Oh, it's okay for the kids to get dressed up, they have fun and get some candy. We're going to share a podcast as to why it may be permissible some things. But is it profitable, Right? Are we aligning with God's will in heaven? And then the second thing, when it comes to alignment. The ultimate misalignment is actually sin itself. We sin it. That's what it means. It means misalignment. It means missing the mark. It was. It's an archery term. When you shoot, the goal is to hit the, the bullseye. When you miss the bullseye, you miss the mark. That's what, that's the definition of sin. And what's God's bullseye? What's God's mark? It's perfection, right? Ultimately, we, we know we all fall short of the glory of God. We know that we, we all sin. However, our goal is to hit that mark. And it's not out of legalism. It's not because when we get this revelation, awareness of who Jesus is and we get a new identity, it's about being legalistic and just doing what he says to do because we have to. That's religion. It's about doing it because that's what pleases the Father, right? And it's, it's about knowing that, hey, if I, if I aim for this bullseye to, to be holy, for he is holy, then that's his will, and I have the, the power to do that as best as I can. As best as I can. We know that nobody's perfect. Nobody will be perfect. But when we become children of God, we don't become sinless, but we do sin less 100%. So I'll pause there because I, I feel like I'm kind of fire hosing you guys right now. Got into awareness and alignment and then going to get into assignment and ultimately awakening. But I'll pause there and I could even. I wrote some questions down that aren't in the notes, but have you guys thought about that question? Like if, if Jesus came down before you right now and he said, who do you say that I am? What would you say to him? What would you actually say to God? What would you say to Jesus? He said to you right now, who do you say that I am? Because it's good to, to know what we think of God. It's even better to think about this. Do you judge people based on their words or their actions? It's usually their actions. We tend to judge ourselves based on words and others based on actions. We convince ourselves that, like, we are great people. Homeboy is not the right answer. No, Jesus is not our homeboy for sure, despite what some shirts say. But how would you, what would you say to Jesus? And I, I think when I'm in my most vulnerable state, I'm in that place of worship and adoration, reverence. It's just my everything. My everything. It doesn't have to, we don't have to get theological as to the. The Son of God or, you know, you know, the, the carpenter's son, Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified, died, rose on the third day, resurrected into heaven 40 days later. It doesn't have to get all biblical like that. But who is he? When you describe your Savior, who is he to you?

I think we, we taught this in our youth group about the I am statements. Who God says he is the bread of life, the light of the world, he's the door or the gatekeeper, the good shepherd. And the one that really resonated me was the bread of life. Like, he's the one that sustains. He's the one that gives the substance, the meaning, the purpose, but he's the one that sustains you throughout. Without his word, without seeking the Holy Spirit daily, you cannot do. You don't have the energy, the enthusiasm, the awareness, you know, the, the fogginess of life comes in if you don't have the substance, the sustenance of the bread. And so that's. That's the one that. Of the I am statements that really kind of stuck out to me of saying who he is to us, who he is to me. Someone put in the chat over here, the sustainer, and that's right. I think that's pretty accurate. That's what speaks to me.

Yeah. Amen. Amen. Honor to you, man. You get 20 extra King's Council stars for being a first timer and the first one to open up and say something. Good stuff, man. Leslie?

Yeah. I mean, right off the bat, I think of all the biblical things, you know, like, oh, you're my Lord and Redeemer, you're the one who my. My soul loves, you know, you're the, the bread of life, all that. But I think if, if he was right in front of me, it's just like my heart's been developing a relationship with him. So I'd be like, you were the one who is with me. And then I would describe a personal trial or you were the one that was with me, you know, when my kids were born. So, like, I would probably go through, like, I know you were there. Like, that would just, for me be very, like, one on one. Not those would be my words. And so I'd probably like, go with all the big picture stuff. But then I'd also want to just let him know, like, I know you were there with me. In those times, too. So just, like, just to get more personal.

Yeah. Amen. One of the things I always see Jesus as, and we know he is these things, is redeemer, right? And when the. Up until the second I got saved, I thought so little of myself. So little. Even when I was contemplating suicide, One of the things that deter me from suicide was simply that nobody would care that I had such little worth on planet Earth, such little value to anybody or anything. And then when he redeemed me, I felt loved, I felt seen, I felt heard. Who. If you're a husband on this call, remember those things for your wife. Always make sure they feel loved, seen, and heard. Just a little nugget for husbands out there. But that's how I. That's how I felt. And I was redeemed. I, I, I saw things. My. My mind shifted from what I thought about myself and what I thought the world thought about me and what the world probably did think about me to what he thought about me. And just that. That redemption, that aha. Moment. Kathleen.

Yeah, I was just gonna say it. It brings to mind the song I Can Only Imagine by Mercy Me, where the lyrics are like, will I stand for you? Or will I fall to my knees? I'm gonna totally butcher the lyrics, but it's, you know, will I be able to speak at all? Relicing. Hallelujah. And it's just that. That idea of you truly have no idea if the Lord was to show up right in front of you today, how you would ever react, and you can only imagine those things.

Yeah, that's good. That's good. Now, when Jesus took his disciples up here to Caesarea, Caesarea Philippi, it was very strategic because this was an area where there was a lot of pagan worship, right? So he took him to this area where the. The culture and the society all around was the. These are the things that you worship, these are the idols in your life. And he has this conversation with them right in the midst of that, where they could almost. They could probably feel the. The idolatry in. In the. In the atmosphere. So it was very strategic of Jesus. And if you were to dangle any one of our vices, whatever it may be, maybe something you struggle with in the past, maybe something you're struggling with now, if you were to dangle those things in front of you in the midst of Jesus, it's like he's. He's saying, no, wait a second. Of. Of all these things that you. Your flesh seeks after all these things that were once important to you or maybe are more important to you now than they really should be. Here I am, where it's everything. And. Yeah, Brandon, you mentioned those I am statements. He covers it all there, right? But yes, being the bread of life, he. He's our. He's our provision. He's our sustainer. He's our provider. He covers all the bases in that. And anything that our. Our soul is seeking after, our flesh is seeking after. Think about that. Like our soul is hungering and thirsting for something that God can only quench, right? It's only God that could quench it. But when our flesh is seeking after these things, when our. For me, drugs, right, that was my vice. I went months after getting saved and delivered where I am not a single craving. Nothing. But they came at eventually, right? And when you have that and your flesh is craving after that, your flesh is. Your flesh is remembering all the. The good highs that you had despite mostly 14 years of darkness and depression. It's like, wait a second. God could actually satisfy and fulfill even that which the flesh desires and. And give us a peace and give us this. Almost this euphoria that that drug once provided. But I have it just because I. I feel this intimacy with him, because I get a fresh filling of the Holy Spirit. It's just radical to think about, but he is absolutely everything to us. Absolutely everything. When it comes to alignment, is there anything. And if you'll be so bold as to even share it on here. Is there an example of something in your life that's permissible but not profitable? Is there something that you take part in or. Or you watch or you listen to, or you do, where it's like, yeah, this isn't one of the sins that. That God calls out, but it's just not profitable. Reuben, what do you got?

Yes, hopefully. Allow me to backtrack.

Yeah.

Where.

Who do you see God is. And brings me back to my. To the memory of a song. Somebody was, I think, Pleasant was talking about. I can only imagine. I really love that song. But here's another song, quickly. It's called so Will I. Okay. I'll just say one of the. Just the first part. God of creation there at the start, before the beginning of time, with no point of reference. So, you know, when we come before God, I think we don't know where to start. He has no point of reference. And if you can explain God in a box, then you have a very small, small God. But that's the wonder about. Sorry, I'm just breaking out. So it's Just wonderful to know that God is so bigger than our minds, and it will take eternity to know more about Him. Thank you.

Yeah. Amen. Amen. Well, we miss the mark with sin. It's not just a breaking of moral rules, but it's that breaking of relational alignment with God. And when we repent, it's not just we change our mind. We do an about face, but we realign ourselves with God, with his perspective, with his will. It's when a lot of times we mistake repentance for just kind of saying sorry. And Paul covers that in First Corinthians, where he talks about the difference between worldly sorrow and godly sorrow. Godly sorrow, is that real repentance that. That says, God, bring my. My heart, my thoughts, everything, my perspective back into agreement with yours. And he does that, right? We. We know that God will give us the desires of our heart, right, if we. We put him first, if we. If we are operating in his will. But God doesn't just say, okay, you know, Christian wants to do this, I'll let him do it. No, he actually transform our hearts into wanting the same things that he desires for us. And again, left to our own devices, we'll probably make some mistakes and make some errors when it comes to the things we think we need or things that we think we want. He transforms us into just having that. That mind like his. Leslie.

So to go into your other question about when maybe there was a time that something was permissible but not profitable. So a while back, I went to Las Vegas to see a DJ that I really like, and I was like, I'm going to Vegas, you know, Sin City. And so I was praying and asking God, like, should I cancel this trip? I really don't want to. And God was just like, kind of like, you're permitted, but watch out. And so I went, and I definitely saw what he meant. You know, it was like. It was just kind of a finer line to walk as a Christian. And then it was really hard to pray there. I don't know if you guys have experienced that when you go there, but I was trying to. I was talking to a friend about baptism, and I didn't feel like I was saying it right. So you're usually like, kind of like, pray for a minute and ask Holy Spirit, you know, what do I say here? And it was hard to, like, connect. And I kind of felt like, underwater almost, so I couldn't hear God as easily while there. So it was just like, I. And I wonder if that's why it Was permitted, but it wasn't. I mean, it was profitable in what. That. What I can share now from it, like, with that. Like. Yeah, don't, don't. I don't advise it. But it was just a. Like, it wasn't. It was minimally profitable. It was more of a. Like. Yeah, I felt permitted. If I put it that way. It just. Could I have done something better with that money that made his. His kingdom closer? Yeah. And there was part of me, but I like this dj. I want. I want to go to the show, you know?

Yeah.

But it was still like, we'll still, you know, be a Christian in there and don't be in the world, but not of it. But that. That place is very. Of the world. Sorry. Yeah. So it was just interesting to experience that firsthand.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Can you just inject something? I have a friend who lives in Las Vegas, and she prophesies always change Las Vegas name from Sin City to Gray City. And I really like that, what she said.

Yeah, yeah, for sure. But we. I. I think it's good for us to examine ourselves as to what are we doing in our daily activities where it's something where if you feel even a little conviction about it, act upon that, you know, because oftentimes when God convicts us, just a little bit, a little bit of conviction, we're very good at subduing or suppressing that conviction. And then we convince ourselves, well, God's not going to condemn me to hell for this. Leslie, like, not saying you did this, but in a situation like that, it's like I might be sitting next to somebody who needs to hear about Jesus, Right. And there might be that. That minute or two where I could share Jesus, or maybe I'll go to this concert, but I'll wear Jesus King shirt, something like that. You start to convince yourself why it could be profitable. But all in all, in the end, most likely it's not. And that personal conviction that you get from it, I think will go a long way. But I. I need help with that sometimes myself. I think we all do, of just suppressing that. That little conviction. And it's like, it's not a big deal in the end. And then I started to say, all right, well, what if the rapture happened, like, right now, like, in the midst of that, like, I'm going to go up still, but is that the way I want to go up? Like, doing something that's just like, not glorifying God? Zach.

Yeah.

What?

I'll say something that I.

We.

Lauren and I were Just talking about this a few days ago with somebody. We were talking about like different generational things. And I remember, you know, when I was I, I'd gone to school to be a minister when I was 17, 18 years old.

And.

I remember for the longest time I was like just legalistically staying away from a lot of things intentionally because I knew it was something that caused a lot of bondage in my family throughout the generations. I remember about, I, I don't think I had a sip of alcohol until I was 25 years old just out of the sake of, hey, I don't want to be enslaved to this thing. And I remember praying about that at one point because I'm like, I just, I, I was staying away from it legalistically, but. And you open this can of worms, Christian. So I didn't feel conviction about it though. And at around 25, I was like, you know what, I know who I am and whose I am. And this just, it's not really a thing for me. I know it destroys a lot of lives. But what I will say is that it doesn't line up with my identity. Like I don't care to make room in my life. Sorry if the dog is. I don't care to make room for it in my life. Like, I feel like you gotta like, you know, play well, you know, if, if I have a drink, I still don't want to be on the road, you know, I, I still don't want to be around the kid. You know, it's just like, it's not beneficial and so it's like, why do it? You know. But what I will say is, I mean Jesus drank wine with his disciples. It wasn't getting drunk with his disciples. They, they weren't sloppy and you know, whatever. But you know, it's a different time, you know, they weren't, is a slower pace of life. I feel like we're in a fast paced life and like you said, I don't, I don't necessarily care to make the room for that. There's no, there's no habit of that in my life and there's no rhythm of that in my life. And it's just not something that is beneficial. I think there's too many other things pulling on my time and attention. You know, between my kids and between ministry and between business and, and being married, you know, there's plenty of other things that it's better to spend my time and attention on. So, so yeah, I, I personally, I don't, I don't see anything wrong with it. And I say that having been credentialed through the Assemblies of God, where for them, their standards for their ministers is that you just don't drink at all. But I just, I don't feel like that's a, like a spiritual conviction. It's just more of a sense of identity, if that makes sense.

Yeah, yeah, for sure. Lucy, she's, you know, she's never had an issue with like having a glass of wine or something, but one of the things that she does and when she's like, she knows the Lord wants her and this between her and Jesus wants her to get up 3am like wake up and pray, intercede. And oftentimes that's, you know, she's very prophetic. Oftentimes that's when you know, she'll dream about something and get like revelation or interpretation of exactly what that dream meant. And there's been times where it's like she'll have that glass of wine and then not get up at 3:00am so, okay, she wasn't drunk by any means, but she knows that that 3am, 3am alone time with the Lord, that that's her fuel, that that's what it is. And I'm grateful that God didn't give me a 3am call time. That's what he gave Lucy. But it's crazy. She could get up weeks and weeks upon weeks at 3am every morning. And even if she goes to bed late, has to wake up early, but when she gets up at 3am and spends that time with the Lord, it's like she has all the rest that she needs, all the energy that she needs. Right. As opposed to if you feel yourself. She's had seasons where she's felt burnt out and not done it. And you could sleep 10 hours and you still wake up feeling drained and fatigued. Right? Because she didn't go back to a few weeks ago when we talked about that Tesla, like going to the, the charging station. Because that's her charging station right there at 3am Daily Charging Station. That's it for her. And if she doesn't get it, then doesn't matter how much physical rest she gets, doesn't matter what her diet is, doesn't matter if she's getting all the proper nutrients and vitamins on planet Earth. She's depleted. She's. She's like spiritually depleted. So, yeah, in the last few minutes, I'll go over the. These last three parts. Of course, the first one I went over is awareness. Just that awareness of who Jesus is. And it's not till then that we can know our identity. And then we have alignment, aligning with God and, and what heaven's will is. And then assignment, right? Jesus gives Peter the. The keys of the kingdom of heaven and the kingdom gives all of us our assignment. And it. There's authority to, to unlock heaven's influence for whatever that assignment is. I mentioned already in Luke 10, when Jesus sends out those 70 disciples, he says, behold, I give you the authority to trample on serpents and scorpions and over all the power of the enemy, and nothing shall by any means hurt you. You. And the, the keys to the, the kingdom are, is this authority that he has. Paul says in 2nd Corinthians 5:20. Now then, we are ambassadors for Christ. We're to represent heaven on earth, where, yes, we're, yes, we're called out of the world to go right back in. And now we're in the world, but not of the world. And we are ambassadors to represent heaven.

And.

Ultimately our faithfulness with, with. With these keys that God gives us, it gives us greater kingdom, responsibility and then finally awakening, right, that this atmosphere of heaven on earth, this shift of atmosphere. And you got Leslie mentioned and Reuben mentioned and I think somebody else mentioned Las Vegas, right. Sometimes that you just go into an atmosphere where you feel the, the oppression. You, you feel the, the heaviness, the weight of it. Literally the entire city of Newark, New Jersey, you feel that there's so much darkness over that city and a lot of people that even just fly into Newark Airport. And even if it's for like a labor layover or something, you feel it, right, that there's just something different. Not only are the people and that, you know, New Jersey pretty obnoxious. So you feel it and you see it in that regard. But there's this heaviness. And that's where I served. That's where my church was. That's where I did ministry. And literally driving from the town I was in, in Bloomfield into Newark, it's like you feel it. You could almost like. You don't need a map. You almost know where the border is because you just start to feel that.

That.

That weight and that heaviness. But if, if we as these sent ones, empowered by the Spirit, if we, if we have a true understanding of who Jesus is, true understanding of who we are, our will aligns with the will of heaven. And we, We. We get our assignment, right? Of, of what. What's my mission field said it last week. If we give God our. Yes, he's going to throw a dart at the map as to what our mission field is. And it's always going to start right in your own household. It's always going to start in your own household, for sure. But who is it? Who is it today? Right? There's somebody on your mission field today, somebody that you need to have a conversation with, somebody that you need to correct perhaps, right? Maybe draw somebody back from sin, you know, stop somebody who's stumbling to the slaughter. That, that proverb, right? Bring them to a place of repentance, and we can get caught up in the world. We could get caught up with busyness. We could go get caught up in just seeing things with our carnal eyes. But it's like, okay, in the end, we. We are spiritual beings with this. This flesh. We're spirit beings, and there's a spiritual realm operating around us that, that we can't see. Oftentimes we could feel it. We feel that heavy spiritual oppression, but we could also feel right, and, and oftentimes it may just feel like, okay, I got a fresh feeling of the Holy Spirit. But it probably, a lot of times it's God encamping his angels around us, right? How many times were we, you know, we could walk across the street a thousand times and, and not get hit by a car. But maybe one of those times like that the enemy had meant something for. For bad and just an encampment of angels just allow us to walk through that and not even know like, that car was supposed to track me down. But ultimately, this, this awakening, if we are doing what we're called to do as Christians, as followers of Christ, as disciples, as the. The called out ones and the. The sent out ones, then. Then heaven is going to come in, almost like kiss the atmosphere here, right? We're going to be able to feel heaven on earth. Jesus tells Peter, here on this rock, I will build my church, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it. And that. That rock is the confession of who Jesus is, his power, his deity, all that he is. And Isaiah 60 says, Arise, shine, for your light has come, and the glory of the Lord is risen upon you. In Acts 17, when Paul went into Thessalonica, it was said, these who have turned the world upside down have come here too. You imagine that that's your reputation, that when, Leslie, you go into Las Vegas and somebody sees you and they say, oh, my God, this is the woman who turned the world upside down in Nebraska. You're in Nebraska, right? Yeah. She turned the world upside down. In Nebraska. Now she's here. I want that to be the. The remarks and almost the. The fear of the enemy, right? And all those. Even if they're not like, you know, minions of the enemy necessarily, but those of the world be like, wait a second. That. That person, just like we talked about a few weeks ago when John and Peter were arrested. They're like, this is some stupid, uneducated man. But it's clear they spent some time with Jesus. Let it be that people see you. You're like, I don't know much about this person, but it's clear, it's evident they love Jesus. They've spent some time with him because they have this power that is just supernatural. They have this piece about them that doesn't make sense. People on planet Earth, there's too many issues that all of us have that we can have this piece, but this person has that piece, Zach.

So in my. In my personal time, I've been reading through First. First Samuel, and there's this time where Samuel leaves, and he's got this, you know, rowdy bunch of men that surround. I'm sorry, that David leaves. He's got this rowdy bunch of men that surround him, and he's leading them, and, well, he's kind of fleeing from SAW at the same time, wandering the wilderness. Shows up at the temple and he's like, hey, whatever you've got, if you got five loaves of bread, that would be great. He's like, well, I don't have any ordinary bread, but. But I've got this holy bread that we just replaced. If the men have kept themselves from women, you know, kept themselves holy, basically, is what he's saying. And he said, where is it? It says. And David answered the priest, truly, women have been kept from us always. When I go on an expedition, I think that Niv might say on mission, and it's like, how much more on a holy assignment like this. And what you had said, Leslie, where you're like. It's almost like I'm underwater. You know, Lauren and I have been in New Orleans, and it's just like that. There's like this thick cloud atmosphere. Everything smells like. Like urine and throw up, and it's just like. It's hard to hear. I mean, you're so much more spiritually heightened. But it's just that. That atmosphere and you. You sense a difference. And I. I don't know, I just feel like the Lord would say to that, you know, when you're on an uncommon assignment, or you. You choose uncommon Holiness, you know, there's uncommon food as well. There's a different sub. Sustenance for you from him when you choose to. To live to that higher standard. Right. And so just thinking about that, like being. Being sort of set apart or consecrated just like that bread, you know, there's a. There's something else that he has for you. It's just kind of choosing, you know, what do I want? There's nothing wrong with whatever's permissible, but you know that if. Whether or not it's beneficial. Anyway, sorry, I was just felt. Felt like the Lord was speaking something there. Yeah.

I accept your apology. You don't have to say sorry. We want to hear you especially. Especially when you feel something from the Lord.

I just went a little bit longer than intended and there's 905.

So it's all right. Yeah. If God wants to say something, we won't put him on a clock. All right, we're good. We're good, Reuben.

I'll make it fast and appreciate Zach sharing that, because that's the way I feel where I live here in Toronto. This part of town is so oppressive. I can feel that deep feeling spirit of oppression. And no offense, but there's a huge Indian community here with a lot. And there's a lot of very good Indians, just like what we have in our group here. But. But the ones here, they practice, serve other gods, many gods. And I can feel the oppression here in the city. So I'm planning to move out. So anyway, just want to share that. Every city has spirit assigned to him, but we have to find the city, hopefully that has less demonic spirit and more of God's spirit. Thank you.

Yeah.

Amen. Unless God calls you specifically to be the light there in that area, which I know you're. You're praying through. Reuben.

Leslie, I'm trying to remember if you were the one who mentioned, like, the definition of an ambassador. Was that on this conversation or on. On these calls? So it's kind of like a diplomatic ambassador. So, like, it's as if you think of like our ambassador to, say, Russia. You know, they're an American, they may be in Russia, but it's as if the ground under the diplomat's feet is America. So that's why they kind of have this immunity, like diplomatic immunity. And that's how kind of we are here is if we're walking in kingdom power and under his authority, you know, he gives us that, like the. The ground under us belongs to him no matter where we go. So we may be in the world. But on this earth as his ambassador, the ground under us is his because we give him us. So you know, that was kind of like the one we walk into these areas. You know, like if you're on mission, then yeah, I think he gives you more authority to have influence in that sphere. However, you know, I don't think we should ever fear. Like I didn't fear going to this place or fear going to that place. I mean you feel it. But it was just interesting when you think of like the definition of ambassador in these cases.

Yeah. Amen. Amen. Good stuff. Good stuff.

Can I speak to the opposite? Like we, we went to a mission trip to Elkins, West Virginia a couple years back and there was a canine cop who had committed suicide a couple days before we got there. But just because it's an old coal mining town, it's poor, it's filled with addiction and broken families. So when we got there, you could feel the heaviness, you could feel the darkness. And it was awesome because when we were done with our mission trip, after we had washed the cops cars that were in the procession for the cops funeral, just all the things that we had done mission wise when we left, you could feel that darkness lifted. You could feel that air, that, that light and just that ability to breathe again and not feeling so heavy. And it was probably one of the coolest things that I've ever. I've seen and I've been a part of is to be able to go and we've done these mission trips all across the country in Orlando, Louisiana, Seattle, but I guess maybe they're just too big to really feel that lifted. Whereas Elkins was a little bit smaller and you could actually feel that the presence of God was there to overcome the darkness that was surrounding it. So it's pretty cool.

Amen. There's no coincidences.

Wow. State of that Christian.

Yeah, Riley just walked in here and I just muted so I could just say something to him. So Paula, who's on here actually lives in Elkins, West Virginia. And yeah, we. We've done King's council event there. I've spoken there. Riley's spoken there. But ironic, right?

We did it with. We did it with city reach. It would have been. Was back in 2024.

Yeah. Did you meet one of those, any of those cops I know?

Yeah, we. Yeah, we. We had several. We. We met several of them. We took a picture with one of the canine unit officers. The mayor came out to us because we watched. We washed cars. I mean the presence of God was there. I mean, we were supposed to wash cars in the Hardee's, and they told us no. And there was a pastor at the First Baptist Church of Elkins that was. Happened to be in the Hardee's at the same time. It was like, hey, I've got a. I've got a. I've got a big enough parking lot for y' all to do it. Y' all want to come do it there? And I was like, y' all don't mind us handing out tracks for another church? And he's like, no, it's kingdom building. And so we were able to just wash, you know, their men's Bible study cars, their women's Bible study, all their cars. The police officers we. We watched and we do totally free car wash, which means we don't charge anything. Right. People are just amazed at the. The fact that we will do something for free and won't take a dime for it. But it's such. It's such a powerful tool. But one day at that one car wash location, you watched 110 cars. So you want to talk about having an impact, you know, and while it's not about the cars, it's about the. The souls, the. That you can. Can touch. But it was just a. An awesome event. We do that every. We try to do that every year, but going around to a different city.

Yeah, that's a lot of cars for Elkins.

We.

So I'm guessing that's Paula there. Our car wash location alone washed over 250, and I think we hit almost close to a thousand throughout the three days that we did it in different locations from within Elkins.

I like that you can be watching cars while he's washing souls.

Yeah. Yep.

Yeah. Amen. Well, Paula, let this be an encouragement to you. When Brandon said this, he said the presence of God was there. I believe the presence of God is still there in Elkins, and despite current circumstances, presence of God is there. And let that be at the forefront of everything. Presence of God is there. Hold fast to him. Hold fast to him. But that's. That's crazy. Yeah, Brandon, we'll. We'll. We'll certainly connect beyond this call, for sure. So I'll let you guys hop off and enjoy the rest of your. Your Wednesday. We're at 811 here. But just to recap briefly, the. The keys to the kingdom, right? Heaven moves when God's people move in alignment with heaven. And that question that Jesus asked his disciples, who do you say that I am? Still echoes for us today and calls us from revelation to responsibility, from believing and committing to Jesus to representing him as an ambassador like Leslie mentioned. So the process is awareness, so revelation of who he is, alignment, set agreement with heaven, assignment, set authority in action. And then finally awakening atmosphere of transformation. And may there be a transformation of atmosphere and Elkins in all of our cities. Reuben, where you are there in Ontario, may there be a transformation of atmosphere and Father God, Lord God, pour your spirit out upon us right now. Lord, may we walk in the authority and with boldness and confidence, Lord God, to shift atmospheres everywhere that we go. May we declare your blessings, your promises over the lost, over those who are on the fence, and even let it be a charge to those that you already call your own. Lord God, help us to be a blessing today. Give us guidance, discernment, wisdom and counsel, Lord, as to what our mission field is today. And thank you for, for just your providence, Lord, of how you work things. There are no coincidences, that there is no real irony. It's just you, Lord, and you're in control. We trust in you today. Thank you. Lord. Bless these folks on this call today, bless their families and may this be a great day and say, here I am, Lord. Send me in Jesus name. Amen. Love you guys. Awesome.

See you next week.

Look out for that new link. Yep.

Sam.