Awaken Podcast
“This mystery of Christ, embedded within us, becomes a heavenly treasure chest of hope filled with the riches of glory for his people, and God wants everyone to know it! Christ is our message! We preach to awaken hearts and bring every person into the full understanding of truth. It has become my inspiration and passion in ministry to labor with a tireless intensity, with his power flowing through me, to present to every believer the revelation of being his perfect one in Jesus Christ.”Colossians 1:27-29 TPT
Awaken Podcast
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Good morning and welcome to the In Throne podcast. My name is Solomon and I'm with Brother Andrew today. I'm really excited for what we're going to talk about this morning. Just had some thoughts in my head while I was in prayer this morning about just as I was praying some of the things that I was saying unto the Lord. And one of those things that I was continuously saying was that he was worthy and he was worthy and that he was holy. And it's very true in my life and it's very true in general, as it says all over the word. But I found myself kind of sitting back as I was saying it and I've stopped because I'm like, I'm I'm having to just say this out of habit, aren't I? And so I had to back up and say something different and just really start thanking him for a lot of what's happening in my life and being very specific. But that was that thing that I noticed that I just felt like the Lord pointed out to me is that he is worthy, but why what does that mean? And why am I saying it to him? And I find that me myself in my own personal life, I'll say a lot of things that that they may sound great, but I don't really know what it actually means to say it to somebody. Like, hey, have a nice day. It's so it's so natural for us to say, but what are we actually saying? Or how blessed you have have a blessed day. What does that actually mean? And and those things really kind of strike something in me to really start to think about and meditate on, especially when I go back in the word. Um, and so that's kind of what I want to talk about today. Before we jump in and get started, I just want to remind you, like last week, make sure that you watch the video from last week because it's really awesome, it's really powerful, and I believe it's gonna change your life and change your perspective on what the wilderness looks like and your purpose within the wilderness. Make sure you comment, like, and subscribe. And uh, we're gonna go ahead and grab our swords and we're gonna grab our shields, and we're going to go to war in the word. And I'm so thankful to do that with Brother Andrew today because he knows what he's talking about. So, hello, sir. How are you? I'm amazing. How are you? I'm pretty awesome. Amen. Good to see you this morning. Good to see you, buddy. Um, so uh I I really want to dive into talking about worthiness and what worthy actually means. And a verse that caught my attention, I actually ended up writing it down and and looking at it a little bit was Matthew 10, 37, and I went through 39, and I don't have to read all the way through it. But it says, The one who loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me, and the one who loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. And the one who does not take his cross and follow after me is not worthy of me. The one who has found his life will lose it, and the one who has lost his life on my account will find it. And so that word worthy really sticks out to me because it is a word I believe that a lot of believers, including myself, we say, but I guess when we say it, it just is like, yeah, that's who God is. But we don't we don't really I don't really know what it fully means to call him worthy and for it to make sense. And God knows what it means, but I don't want to just be saying it out of habit. And I think there's a lot of people, including myself, that do that. I'm not calling anybody out, I just know I do that sometimes. So I'll use words that it's like, yeah, it's then you ask me what does that word mean? I'm like, you know, I don't I don't know, it just sounds really good. So and I don't want to necessarily be that way. I want to know what I'm saying and why I'm saying it, but I also want believers to know too. Yeah, saying stuff and why they're saying it. Does that make sense? Yeah. Yes, sir. So what would you say? What is what is worthiness? What does worthy mean?
SPEAKER_01Well, I mean, it you so because you use this scripture, we've got oh we've got to talk about what it means here. Oh, okay. Um, because when you're talking about him being worthy, and this word here, this word here is axias. And the word here axias means due reward. Um, and so what he's saying here is he who loves he who loves father or mother more than me is not due reward of me. He who loves son and daughter more than me is not due reward of me. And he who does not take his cross and follow after me is not due reward of me. So I mean it it's pretty cool that you brought this up, but it it's it's it's kind of two different subjects, but at the same time, obviously he he's due reward. So he's so he is worthy. Um, but what he's actually outlying here is that he is the reward. Because it's like when we think about worthiness, a lot of times we think about what we can do, right? And we got to perform in order. But what he's saying, what he's not saying, if you love me more than your father and your mother, then you'll be rewarded. What he's saying is, and it if you actually know me, you'll love me more. And because of that, you get more of me. So in in our pursuit of him, our reward is him. So no matter how much of our getting that we get of him, we still get more of him by getting him. So when our eye becomes single, our whole body becomes pure. So if our eyes only looking at him, we're beholding the lamb. Yeah, you you when we when we hear the word like behold the lamb, it's not saying, oh, in this specific moment, look at him. That's the way we do that in church services, that's the way we do that in conferences, behold the lamb. Okay, we're gonna look at him temporarily, but then we're gonna look away. What the word behold is actually is actually saying to never look away. To to to not only gaze upon him, but to have his gaze penetrate you in such a way that his lens now becomes yours. Yeah so now you wouldn't look at anything else. And so that doesn't mean that, like, oh, well, you just gotta stare at the Lord. What nobody even really knows where he's at. We look up, he's not up there, we look down, Satan's not down there. Like it's a total nother dimension, you know. But what it means is when I look at you, Solomon, I'm supposed to see him in you.
SPEAKER_02Right.
SPEAKER_01When I when I look at the the idea behind the podcast, I'm supposed to see him in it. And where I don't see him in things, I'm not supposed to be in those things.
SPEAKER_02Okay. Amen. That's powerful. Um, because I think we can I believe that there's moments where we're following something that looks like God, but it isn't. Um, and I know that for me, that's something that I don't want to get caught up in. Yeah. And so I'm always trying to continuously look at the things of God and look for Him. There's another scripture that I didn't write down where it talks about thinking on different stuff. And one of the things that it says is thinking of things that are that are worthy, you know, and so um I think worthy of praise is specifically what it said. And so I think that that is you know something I I really want to do. How can how can people do that more? How do people go after God and say, I'm going to I'm going to continue to look at him regardless of what's going on in my life, because so much stuff happens in our life that tries to distract us and pull us away. Yeah. So how do we can how do we continue to remain with him and saying, Yes, Lord, you are worthy, like, and and nothing else really distract us.
SPEAKER_01Well, first we gotta understand why why he's worthy, what that means. Amen. And so when we when we think about his worthiness, oftentimes we go, he's worthy because. And we so we'll we'll put things in there like he's worthy because he died on the cross. He's worthy because he rose from the dead. He's worthy because he sits at the right hand of the Father. He's worthy because he healed the sick. Right?
SPEAKER_02Right.
SPEAKER_01But we cheapen it the moment we say because he's worthy. No because.
SPEAKER_02Right.
SPEAKER_01The reality is is we we actually a lot of times we think that his worthiness came from the fall in Genesis 3. Because if Adam wouldn't have done what he had done in Genesis 3, Jesus would not have come, but because humanity's greatest failure that that we think, like God's answer, like we think that God's answer to humanity's greatest failure in Genesis 3, but it is Jesus. But the reality is Jesus was Jesus before the fall. Like we actually we actually believe, Solomon, that actions of men changed who God was. Yeah, and it doesn't. That's why he's worthy. He's always been the same. He he's never changed. He's he's never loved us less, he's never loved us more, he's never been more God, he's never been less God, he's never been more capable, he's never been more incapable. He's constant, he never changes. He's the same yesterday, today, and forevermore as if we could govern him by time.
SPEAKER_02Right.
SPEAKER_01He's outside time and space. Yeah, it's what you hear when I say his is-ness.
unknownHis isness.
SPEAKER_01It's his is-ness. Well, what does that mean? It means you can't describe him.
SPEAKER_03Yeah.
SPEAKER_01Like because to try to describe him would to put him in humanly terms, which is fine that we do that, but don't ever think that wretch the measure of who he is. Hallelujah. So so he's he's worthy because every promise, every covenant, everything you see between Genesis and Revelation, it wasn't like because the way that we live is we live our life walking through and we don't know what's coming, and then things happen and we make decisions, and then someone's honorable or not honorable based on how they handle those things. God's honorable, period. He already saw everything. He already saw every promise, he ever, he saw every covenant. He see the he when when we talk about God, when we talk about God being this uh this uh this all-knowing, this this sovereign, the sovereignty of God. And and and religion has described it as anything, God, everything God wants to happen will come to pass. Right. But that's not true. Okay. Because if we say that, then now we've got to teach the the mother whose whose son shot himself because of depression, that God wanted that. The drunk driver that hit the family on the road on the way home from church on a Sunday night, God wanted that. And if I can find one area where that's not right, then we've got the wrong definition. So the way that I've the way that the Holy Spirit, I feel like, has led me in describing the sovereignty of God is God sees all possibilities at the same time. And he puts things in place to help protect and govern. Now our choices bring us out of that protection. It it it's it's in Ephesians, you know, where it says the law, the law was our tutor until Jesus came. One tutor, we think, is to teach us and and to um make us follow rules, right? Yes, sir. But if we go back and we understand the word tutor when Paul's writing this, it it means a rabbi. So a rabbi wouldn't wouldn't just teach you, he would protect you. Wow, he would house you, you would live in his home, you would eat his food, you'd sit at his table, sit on his furniture, and he would protect you. So the law was our protector until Jesus came, and now he is our protector, but he didn't destroy the law, he fulfilled it. So it's the same thing, but now it's flesh.
SPEAKER_02Wow, yeah. I I thought it came up. I don't know if I want to ask it because I don't I don't want to stray too far where we're at, but um, and I don't want to miss the context of it either. I'm gonna go back and look at it. But I wrote that down that the law was our tutor, and then in parentheses I put rabbi. And so I'm gonna kind of look at that at some point because there's some questions I have about that later on. Um, but we we all fail, we all fall short a lot of the times, and and we think that God is supposed to change his mind because of stuff that we did. Um, but sometimes the stuff that we've done or that we continuously fail and struggle with or fall short of, we feel like there's a measure of unworthiness that's or worthiness that we're losing, I guess. I don't know. A question came in, so that's why I'm kind of chopping that up. And sure. It's talking about, you know, in the state of need, how do we find ourselves worthy enough to even receive what God is trying to give us? You know, including that's that's even with our failures and going um through our lives, like just always falling short. It's like what I'm reading and seeing here is like God wants to give us his love, but we keep failing, we don't think we're worthy of it, and we need to figure out how how do we find our worthiness.
SPEAKER_01So again, the the mistake is in the question. Yeah, the mistake is in the language you say God wants to give us his love. That's wrong. God doesn't want to give us his love, God has given us his love. We love because he first loved us, not because he first wanted to love us.
SPEAKER_03Right.
SPEAKER_01So he loves us. You we we again we have made God in our image. Yeah, we have pretended like God has been invited to our birthday party, and he shows up like everybody else with a gift, and we get to choose whether or not we take it. Yeah, because he comes in with a bag and he's giving it to you, and you get to look in it and see if you want it or not. You decide if you if you like him or not, because that's the way we treat each other. You don't get to do God that way. God gives a gift without repentance. That means he doesn't take it back, and you can't give it back. The difference is not how how do we receive a gift from God? That's not the question. How do we participate in the gift that's been given?
SPEAKER_02Come on.
SPEAKER_01And that's your awakening to the reality that you're a slave to love. We are bond servants to Christ, and and the longer that we fight that existual state, the more we'll live a half-life. Yeah, and so you know, a lot of the things like I want to receive the gift that God's trying to give me, but I'm just struggling in life. You're struggling in life because you're not participating in the gift that he gave. Like our struggles exist. And it's not it's not to say that struggles don't won't exist, it's that you'll navigate them differently.
unknownYeah.
SPEAKER_01Because if I'm navigating a struggle from a gift, that that'd be like that'd be like Solomon, like you, you, you're you, right, and there's another you that's a millionaire. You're the same exact person, but you're getting to look at each other. And you walk out to your car and the tire's flat, and the other you that has millions of dollars walks out to the car and the tire's flat. You're freaking out because you don't know how you're gonna pay for it. He doesn't care, he just picks up the phone and makes a call. He's received the gift. Because we're all millionaires in the eyes of God. We we have access to all the kingdom of God. Well, brother Andrew, what do we do until we we receive that? You abide and live like that you have by making good choices and not pretending like you have money that you don't have, but at the same time living from the essence of his is-ness, understanding he's a good father, he's gonna take care of you. So the millionaire, you now we'll change that to God. The millionaire is the person that understands that they're walking as sons and daughters in full fulfillment of the law in Jesus Christ. We're seated in glory with Jesus at the right hand of the Father. And so whenever he sees a flat tire, he's not banking on his bank account, he's banking on his heaven account.
unknownYeah.
SPEAKER_01So he's going the phone call, that's the father. I got a flat tire, Lord. I need you to do something about it. And he believes that something's gonna happen, so immediately something happens. But you're over here living from situation and circumstance and how much money's in your bank account. This is how we participate in the gift, or we don't.
SPEAKER_02Right.
SPEAKER_01Because we live by what we can see instead of the unseen. So a man thinketh, so he is. You when you see a flat tire, you immediately start thinking, I can't afford that. You're right, because you're thinking it. Right. But if you immediately start thinking, I can't wait to see how God fixes this.
SPEAKER_02Yes, sir.
SPEAKER_01God's gonna fix it.
unknownCome on.
SPEAKER_01It doesn't, and it doesn't always mean immediately. It might take a couple days. You're still gonna get wherever you need to go. Maybe now you just get to call up a friend. Hey man, I've walked out outside, you're not gonna believe this. My tire's flat. And I I'm needing to ride, man. But in the meantime, I I want to share this with you as a testimony because I want you to be a part of this on how God's gonna fix this.
SPEAKER_02Wow. Yeah.
SPEAKER_01Come on, if we can just bring other people along. Yeah, you know, and now you get to ride ride wherever you're going with a buddy. Yeah, and now you're supposed to see Jesus in them. Yeah, you're supposed to see Jesus in the situation, and you're supposed to manifest him in every situation, right?
SPEAKER_02Yes, sir. That's awesome. There's some questions that came in that kind of go along with that too. Um and another one is uh, you know, somebody sent in a question, they were wanting to know, like they want to know how they can live a life that's worthy or that is worthy to him. Now, I know we may have already answered it a little bit, but maybe just kind of if you could, sir, just gotta expound a little bit on that. Um we there's a there's a place where we are doing the things and we feel like we have to receive worthiness, and they also want to know the signs that it is that we've received worthiness, that we're living from worthiness. If we're even supposed to live from worthiness. I think the heart's in the right place, and I I like the question, but maybe there's something deeper within there.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, so if I'm understanding it correctly, the qu the question is is is how do I live a life worthy of him? And what are the signs that I am living that life?
SPEAKER_02That's perfect. Yes, sir. Right? Yes, sir.
SPEAKER_01Okay. So Jesus. So all of us, all of us were in bondage at one point. And the only one that could set us free was Jesus. This is this is the story of the demoniac, right? None of us, none of us have a legion of demons inside of us, or if you do, like, praise God, we'll get that out of you. Just send a message. Come on. Have your demons send a message. I don't know. We'll get you free. I don't know. They show up to demon conferences all the time. I don't understand it, but I guess I don't know. But the the point is, is like we were all bound and no one could hold us. And and when when we read that about the demoniac, like we like they bought him, they put him in chains and they were trying to bind him, but they were trying to hold him. But it was the wrong kind of hold. He needed to be held by Jesus because being held by him is where where we understand our worthiness. And our worthiness is not defined by our nature, but it's defined by his. So our existual state, our ontological state is that he loves us. He's loved us, he's always loved us, he'll never not love us. I've been a son, I've been a daughter from the beginning. Before the foundation of the earth, he picked me. I am the head and not the tail. Right?
SPEAKER_02Right.
SPEAKER_01But when I was but yet a sinner, Christ died for me. Okay? Right. And so what we have to understand is when Jesus breaks chains, he's not breaking chains to just set you free. He's breaking chains to hold you. He's breaking what was holding you to birth you, like to awaken you into the arms of the one that was always holding you. And so our are so how how how do we live a life worthy of him? You live being held. Not trying to get held. I'm not I'm not trying to crawl up into daddy's lap. I exist from the father's lap. I'm not trying to to get a toe. Touch from Jesus, I'm already being touched by Jesus. If Christ is in me, I don't know how much closer we can get than that. Because Christ in me, the hope of glory. Well, what's the hope of glory? Me recognizing that Christ is in me. So you you've got the Israelites and the fire, you know, the fire that led them, right? Yes. The pillar, the pillar of fire that led them, now dwells in us. That that fire that showed them where to go is now in you. So how do what is what is the proof of a life lived worthy of him? Because I hate the language, and I'm sorry, whoever asked the question, I hate the language. Because it sounds like a lot of performance. How do I live a life worthy of him? So what what I hear is, Brother Andrew, what do I need to do for him to tell me that I'm worthy?
SPEAKER_02Yeah, I see that.
SPEAKER_01Nothing. The cross already declared it. And you weren't there.
unknownYeah.
SPEAKER_01You weren't even born yet. And he was screaming across the cosmos for all of eternity. Whoever you are that wrote that, he put your name and said, You are worthy. Yes. So it's already written. So how do I so the question again, how do I participate in what he's already declared? How do I participate? Come on. And it's beholding.
unknownBy beholding.
SPEAKER_01So that constant looking and and and learning to correct yourself in this language pattern that is so destroying our minds. Well, how do I I know I know that I'm worthy of him by fruit? You'll know them by their fruit because they're followers of the way. So whether whether you give life your life to Jesus or not, you were always worthy.
SPEAKER_02Come on.
SPEAKER_01You'll be you could be in the pit of hell and you were worthy. He determined that. Your actions didn't. Because worthy, worthy of what? Love. He loves you. Even in you can't get away from it. Even in the pits of hell, he loves you. So like that guy messed up. He still loved him.
unknownYeah.
SPEAKER_01Still loves him. He's still worthy. He just chose something different. He chose to not participate. You don't participate, you don't get in. Like again, I can't I can't get away from this because one of my kids was reading the Bible and they said, they said, Dad, I said, I was reading the Bible and I learned something. I said, What'd you learn? I learned that salvation wasn't about being free from sin. Salvation is about being with him.
SPEAKER_03Yeah.
SPEAKER_01Amen. Come on. This is good news. The end.
SPEAKER_03The end.
SPEAKER_01Like not being with him someday, being with him. Yes. Now. Like you want to experience salvation? Be with him. When? When do I be with him? All the time. How do I be with him all the time? Stop trying to debate whether or not you're worthy to be with him. He's already determined it. You're just believing a lie and you can't serve two masters. A house divided against itself shall fall. You either believe him or you believe the lie. And you're not supposed to be going back and forth. And that's why we live in this turmoil, chaos, depressive way, because sometimes we believe him and sometimes we believe what we feel. But if what you feel doesn't align with what he said, what you feel is a lie. It might feel real to you, but we can't stay there. I tell people that all the time in counseling. Like, look, look, I understand. What you feel is real to you. I'm not saying that it doesn't feel real to you. I'm just telling you it's not real. It feels real to you, not real. And I do this all the time too. Like, people come to me with these chaotic, you know, oh, this is going on and this is going on. And I'll just calm them down. I'll just ask them one question. So the situation that you're losing your mind over, could you personally, without God, could you fix it in five years? And they'll think. And 90, probably 99% of the time they go, Yeah.
unknownYeah. Okay.
SPEAKER_01Then why are we worried about it? Because if you could fix it in five years by yourself, but you're not by yourself, you got him. How much faster you think he's going to fix it if you just lean on him? Way faster.
unknownCome on.
SPEAKER_01And usually by the end of the day, they're calling me. You're not going to believe this, brother and Joe, but I bet I am. I bet I am. Tell me. Tell me. You remember that thing? Yeah. It's dealt with. What'd you do? I went in prayer. I sat with the Lord. And I and I don't even think sometimes it's like this. I only think I prayed right. I'm like, that's so great. Yeah. I hope you never pray right. I hope you never pray right. There's no such thing. That's a lie of religion. Need to pray right. Like, no, no, no. Come, come authentic. Come real. Come raw. I used to, I used to grow up, man, and I had, I had such a I had such a rough childhood. And my relationship with God started this way, Solomon. I would come home at the end of the day, and I would, I would just get in my bedroom, not trying to be spiritual because I was a hellion even then, but I understood God was real. And I would get in my bedroom because I got bullied and stuff growing up in elementary school. And I remember in elementary school coming in my bedroom, sitting down on my bed, crying tears because I was so upset with my life. And I would tell the Lord, I would say, God, today sucked.
unknownYeah. Come on.
SPEAKER_01I believe you're real, but you're not doing anything about it. And that was it. That was it. Because that's that was my real.
unknownYeah.
SPEAKER_01That was my raw. Today sucked. And within five years, he fixed it. He fixed it. And I was a kid.
unknownYeah.
SPEAKER_01And you know how he fixed it? It was over the summer. Because this was in this was in my fifth grade year. I was the smallest person in my elementary school, and I was getting picked on every single day by bullies. And over the summer, I grew and became six foot, 194 pounds, and had a beard over the summer. You talk about a rough summer, man. I had I had Charlie horses like you wouldn't believe.
SPEAKER_03Oh my gosh.
SPEAKER_01But I walked into middle school in sixth grade, and nobody knew who I was, and nobody wanted to pick on me anymore.
SPEAKER_02Wow.
SPEAKER_01And he just helped me grow. Wow. That's pretty awesome. Imagine if we would just grow with the Lord, how many problems wouldn't be there anymore? Come on. Yeah.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. That's real.
SPEAKER_01We got time for one more.
SPEAKER_02For one more question. Man, if I don't know. I guess I would say that if somebody was starting today, they fell upon this podcast and just started today and like, oh, worthiness. Like what how what do they do with that? Where would they go? Do they just Lord you're worthy and that's it? Where would they, where would they need to start? Oh my goodness. If somebody needed to restart, reboot, where are we gonna start with worthiness? What would they do? Leviticus.
unknownOh my gosh.
SPEAKER_01Where in Leviticus are? Just just a lot of people read Leviticus and they read all of this stuff, but what we what we don't understand, and you'll you'll actually never read Leviticus the same anymore. Come on. God in Leviticus, what he what he's actually proclaiming is I'm making holiness accessible. All the sacrifices, every priest, every drop of blood declared that sinful humanity could never climb to God. He made it accessible. So we have all these rules and laws in Leviticus. And what he's doing is he's taking these rules and laws, he's saying, holiness is available. Here's what you got to do. And then now when you understand that and you look at Jesus and all of those sacrifices and all of those priests, and all of it goes away, he says, Now you can be holy because I am. Connect yourself to me, and now you're holy.
unknownCome on.
SPEAKER_01So all of all of this stuff is is because of him. Not because of me, not because of you, not because what we can do, we rest on him. We lean not on our own understanding. And after you read Leviticus, go to John. Live in the John's. And that's like when you read Leviticus and you start reading all of this stuff, and and I I actually like that. Like, I would love for new believers to come in and just go read the book of Leviticus. Brand new. Read the book of Leviticus.
SPEAKER_02It's tough, though.
SPEAKER_01Now read it. And you hear all of these requirements and all of these sacrifices and rituals and the punishments and all this stuff. Now read all of that. Now go read John. In the beginning was the word. And the word was with God. And the word was God. And then you find out that he dwelt among us. And you read all of this stuff, and now all of a sudden, I don't have to do everything in Leviticus because Jesus fulfilled Leviticus. Not partially, not one time, fully, so we never had to do it again. He's worthy.
SPEAKER_02Won't you pray for us? I will. So Lord God, I just thank you so much for who you are, your worthiness, and how you've pointed to us and said that we're worthy because of you. Um, Lord God, I just thank you today that those minds that are maybe struggling or that are fighting to figure out if they even belong to you, Lord, that those thoughts will begin to cease in the name of Jesus and that they will begin to turn to you and believe what your word actually says and believe what you have said about them, that they are loved, that they are seen, and that they are worthy too. I thank you, Lord God, for just continuing to bring us closer and closer to you and tying us together to you almost like a knot or where we won't, we can there's no escaping, there's no letting go, Lord God. I pray that you begin to just shower us and shower every single listener with your love, Lord Jesus, to let them know that you absolutely are worthy. And we are so thankful for you. We are thankful for who you are, and Lord, may we never get tired of hearing the word and may we never get tired of hearing about how good you are. In Jesus' mighty name I pray. Amen.
SPEAKER_01Amen. Bless y'all.
SPEAKER_02We bless you guys, Jesus.