Ep 27 - Stay in Faith, Living by the Spirit

HAPPY 6 MONTHS OF THE LET'S GROW THERE PODCAST! :) 

Faith rejoices, and it is joyful. If we don’t have joy and a spirit of rejoicing, it can be an indicator that we are out of faith or out of the Spirit. 

Romans 5:1-5 ESV  

Romans 8

Jeremiah 15:18 AMP 

Proverbs 3:21-26 TPT

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:01

Speaking the truth in love, let's grow in every way. Welcome to the Let's Grow There podcast. I'm your host, Holly Star Jackson. I'm so excited to grow with you today. Are you ready? All right then, let's grow there.

SPEAKER_00 0:24

Hi there and welcome to the show today. This show marks six months on the air and doing this program every week for six months. So thank you for joining me. If you've been here for the whole six months, I'm so glad you have. And if you're just recently joining us, I'm so glad you've tuned in. Please continue to share with your friends and family and get the word out that you know, with for anybody that you know that it might help. And because, you know, the whole point of the last six months has been to help people to grow and to come to a better place in life and to grow up into all things to be like Jesus. Because, you know, once the Christians on this planet are all being like Jesus, the world will be a much, much better place. So that's the whole point. And, you know, not only that, but our own quality of living is so much better when we're constantly improving, constantly growing, constantly getting to know more and more what the Bible says for our lives and what God's will is for our lives, and getting in tune with the Holy Spirit and in tune with his plans and his purposes for us, and just growing up because, you know, that's what he wants us to do. And as we do it, our lives improve, the lives of those around us improve, and it's just it's good all around. It's a win-win for everyone, right? So thank you for joining me over the last six months, and um, we've many more to come. So today I want to continue on with what we've talked and been talking about the last couple of weeks, uh, the last two episodes. We talked about uh he restores our souls and receiving restoration and our mind, our will, and our emotions, you know, when we've been through some things in life, when we've been through situations when we've been through hurts or disappointments or just difficult situations. And then we talked about stabilizing in the love of God last week. And I just want to continue on kind of in the same vein because I feel like the work's not done yet. I feel like there's more to be done. You know, sometimes it takes longer than others to receive healing, to receive restoration, to find our place in the love of God, to find that place where we're stable, where we're receiving the love of God and we're giving it out, where we're letting him have every place in us, all of the places that need to be healed, that need to be fixed, that need to be restored and repaired and filled back up with his love. Sometimes it takes us longer than others to get there. And so, you know, sometimes we're doing, we think we're doing the things, we're trying to do the things. We want to be receiving restoration in our souls, we want to be healed, and we want to be whole, and yet somehow we feel like we're not quite getting there, we're not quite receiving. There's still something that's that's blocking joy and blocking peace in our life. And, you know, it can be, it can be that when that happens, that there's a little bit of unbelief in there, or maybe a lot, a bit of unbelief, but it could be just a little bit of unbelief because without faith, we can't receive from God what we need. So if we're not believing, if we're not in faith, then it's gonna you we can't receive. We have to be in faith to receive. And sometimes I've learned that I think that I'm in faith. I think that I'm doing all the things that I'm supposed to do, and yet I I feel like I'm not I'm not getting what I need to get, like I'm not there, like I'm still processing, even though I've tried to work it all out. I've tried to get there, I've tried to do what I'm supposed to do. And so, you know, there's there can be some unbelief. And sometimes we don't realize that. You know, when we are in faith, there's joy. We've talked about this on the show before. I did a whole uh I did several broadcasts on faith early on, and they were so good because it it helps to know when you're in faith and when you're not, because if you're not in faith, you can't receive. That's what I was just saying. So we want to always be in faith because lots of reasons, you know. If we're not in faith, we're not pleasing God, because the Bible says without faith, it's impossible to please God. If we're not in faith, then we're not gonna receive what we need. If we're not in faith, we're not gonna be in victory. And God wants us to live in victory and peace and love and joy and peace and restoration and wholeness and and all the things, but faith is the key to receive all those things. And so sometimes we think we're in faith and we we don't realize that maybe we're not, especially in situations where we get hurt, because you know, one of the indicators if you're in faith is that you have joy and you have peace. And you because, you know, in in uh Romans 15, 13 or 13, 15, I think it's 15, 13, it says that you will have joy and peace in believing. So if you don't have joy and you don't have peace, you're probably not in believing, and you probably need to make some adjustments there. So that's one of the indicators for us if we're in joy, because faith rejoices and it's joyful. So, you know, the enemy wants to use any and everything that he can to derail uh us off of the path that God has for us, to get us out of God's plans for our lives, to keep us from fulfilling our purpose, and to keep us from receiving the abundant life that Jesus came to give us. He wants to keep us from being in faith. He wants to keep us from being joyful and and having that peace that God promises us, and he will use any situation that he can. And so sometimes, you know, I've been talking the last several weeks about a situation that I went through recently and um needed that restoration in my soul, needed to stabilize in God's love and realize that I need to keep growing in in some areas and especially in love, in receiving God's love and in loving others, you know, no matter what, through through whatever, and loving like Jesus loves. So in that same situation, I found that I got I got a little out of faith. And I didn't think I was out of faith because I thought that the reason I was still sad and I was still a little down was because that it just hurt and I was just trying to heal. But the Holy Spirit showed me where I was not uh I was not quite in the faith that I thought I was, and I was not in the spirit like I thought I was to, you know, and again, I said the last several weeks, and I'll say it again. It wasn't a big situation, but it was, you know, the further you go, the less you put up with the enemy and his in his little tactics and his little things in your life, the less you put up with it, the the more you are uh vigilant to catch those little things. There's a scripture in in Song of Solomon that says to catch the little foxes that spoil the vine. So the the further along you go in life, the more diligent you'll be to catch the little foxes. And that's what I had to do in this situation to catch those little things that were they were weighing me down and they were stealing my joy and they were stealing my peace. And the reason that they were able to do that is because I wasn't fully trusting God in every situation. So I thought I just needed to receive healing, but what I needed was to trust God in that situation, that he was gonna turn it for my good, that he was still on the throne of my life, and it didn't matter what was happening in this situation because he's got it all under control and he's got my best interest in mind, and he's gonna take care of me regardless of what else goes on, regardless of what anybody else is doing, saying, getting it doesn't matter. God's taking care of me. And so I wasn't really and truly believing that, or I would have had joy and I would have had peace in spite of it. You know, last week we read Romans 5, 1 through 5, and I just want to quickly go back over that as I get into today's message. It says, Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Through him, we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, it does not disappoint, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us. So this says that we rejoice in our sufferings. I wasn't rejoicing in my sufferings. Why? Because I wasn't believing that God was working it out all out for my good. I wasn't really and truly believing that he could turn it around, that he had my best interest in mind, that he was taking care of me in spite of what I was feeling and what I was going through. And part of it was that, and part of it was that I was uh, you know, I was focused on my feelings. I was focused on my flesh, honestly, and not in the spirit in that area of life. And thank God he helps us. He was the Holy Spirit was still right here with me, helping me, you know, with all the things in life and doing the things that I do, doing the podcast, doing all the different things. But he was he was having to work with me to get me to the point that I saw what I needed to do and the change that I need to make. And um, and I did. The definition of rejoice means to feel or show great joy or delight. This verse in the verses in Romans that I just read uh tells us that Paul, I mean, Paul tells us that when that we rejoice even when we're suffering. So versus, you know, rejoicing is like, you know, it's worshiping, it's praising. It's we talked about the sacrifice of praise, and that is that's part of it, but also it's it kind of goes deeper than that because rejoicing comes up out of your spirit, and it's something that, yeah, there might be some hurt, there might be some problems in life, there might be a storm, there might be something you're going through, but deep inside, in your spirit, not in your soul, not in your mind, your will, and your emotions, but down in your spirit, you have this sense of joy, and you have the ability to rejoice because why? Because you believe that these things are working for your good, that they're producing something in your life, that God's gonna turn it for good if it needs to be turned. And it otherwise he's gonna help you see how it is in your best interest to, you know, for whatever, and how you need to change your response to whatever that thing is so that it can have the work in your life that it needs to have. It can do that work, and it can help you to endure, to have character, to have hope, and to grow up in all things to be like Jesus. So, some verses I want to share real quick on rejoicing that I was gonna share last time and didn't get to. And then I'm gonna move into uh a little, a little slightly different direction with what I wanted to share today. But Psalm 118, 24 says, This is the day the Lord has made. We will rejoice and be glad in it. So I think that's probably a very very well-known verse because, like, if you especially if you grow up in church and you're singing, this is the day the Lord has made, I will rejoice and be glad in it. This is the day, this is the day. And it was just like super well-known little chorus that we've sang in church, you know, all my life growing up. This is the day the Lord has made. I will rejoice and be glad in it. So it's a matter of your will. Your, your des your, you just choose to do it. You choose, I'm gonna rejoice. And, you know, that rejoicing is in you, and then you choose to let it out. Sometimes we don't choose to let the rejoicing out. Sometimes we set on it and we let the feelings out. So we let our soul be in charge instead of our spirit, and we live sometimes from our soul instead of our spirit. And we're gonna get to some verses in Romans that talk about being in the flesh or being in the spirit and the consequences or the rewards of whether you're gonna be in the flesh or in the spirit. And so I want to get to that in a little bit, but let's look at a few more verses on rejoicing. First Thessalonians 5, 16 through 18 says to rejoice always, pray continually, give thanks in all circumstances. Now it doesn't say that you have to give thanks for all circumstances here, but it says to give thanks in all circumstances, because this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus. That's a lot we could talk about right there by itself. Romans 12 12 says, To be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, and faithful in prayer. Now this one in Habakkuk 3, 17 and 18 says, Though the fig tree should not blossom, nor fruit be on the vines, the produce of the olive fail, and fields yield no food, the flock be cut off from the fold, and there be no hurt in the saws. Boy, that's that's bad. That's not a good situation. That's every everything's going wrong there in that in that scenario. And he says, in spite of all that, yet I will rejoice in the Lord. I will take joy in the God of my salvation. Why? Because he believes God, because he trusts that God is gonna make the way where there seems to be no way, he's going to come through, even if the fig tree doesn't, even if the fields don't, even if the flocks and the folds and the herds all fail to come through. God is not gonna fail. And so rejoicing and and rejoicing rejoicing and having joy in those times proves that you trust God, that you are in faith and you're living from your spirit, you're not living from your soul, you're not living from your flesh, you're not living by sight, by what you see, but you're living by what you know, and you know that the word of God is true, you know that God is faithful, you know that he's taking care of you, that he has good plans for you, that he's watching out for you, and he's working out the details of your life, and you can trust him to do it. And when you're in that place and when you're when you're living from that, then you rejoice. You can rejoice in the middle of any situation when you're living like that. And then Philippians 4 4 says, to rejoice in the Lord always, and again, I'll say it again, rejoice. So rejoicing is a huge yeah, I talked about the weapon of praise, and rejoicing is is right in that same vein. But rejoicing is I feel like praise is a weapon, but rejoicing is proof to me. And I'm not saying that that's like you know, hard fact, but to me, rejoicing and the spirit of rejoicing that bubbles up in your in your spirit, it is proof that you're trusting God. It's proof that you're you're right staple in the love of God. You are you are settled in the love of God, you're receiving his love, you're trusting him, you're looking to him as faithful, and you're not moved by the things around you so much because you are in faith and you're living from your spirit. Now, that doesn't mean that you're not gonna have feelings, but it just means that you know, in spite of those feelings, that you are victorious, that you are not alone, that you are loved, that God is taking care of you, and while it might look bad in the moment, he is he's working, and you can't necessarily see it, but you know that he is because you trust him and his character. And that um that causes you to to rejoice because you believe. And so whereas you can praise as a weapon and a choice and a sacrifice of praise and just an emotional thing, even rejoicing is more, it's a little different. It's that it's proof of where you're at inside. It's kind of um, it's almost like a gauge, like on your car. Like if your car is getting overheated and it's going hotter and hotter, you know, you don't have enough uh coolant in there, you don't have enough fluids in there to keep the car chill, right? So rejoicing is like that. It's an indicator, it's like a it's like a gauge that says, you know, you don't have enough faith in there to keep things chill. So you got to get more faith and you got to get back in faith if you're out of faith. And you need to uh you'll know that you are when you're rejoicing. When you have that rejoicing again, that gauge is is where it's supposed to be, and you can be quote unquote chill with whatever is going on in spite of whatever's going on in life. So sometimes we just need to do a faith check, right? Sometimes we just need to do a faith check. So I want to read to you from this book called The Strong Man of Unbelief. I want to read a couple of pages out of this. This is this is really good because faith is so important, it's so necessary, and sometimes, you know, like I said a while ago, the devil will use any and everything that he can. He's the enemy of our souls. He doesn't want us to be healed, he doesn't want us to be restored, he doesn't want us to be whole, he doesn't want us to have anything that Jesus promises us. He definitely doesn't want us living in the abundant life that Jesus came to give us. So he'll use any opportunity, any situation to stir up unbelief in you and cause you to question the character of God. And part of the reason I want to read this to you is because there is a verse in here that I did not even know about. I mean, I've read it before, but it just it didn't ever catch, I didn't ever catch it like uh like I did when I read it in this book. And it's really a surprising scripture, and it's because Jeremiah is talking to God real um honestly, inappropriately, very humanly, he's talking to God. But let me see, let's read. I'm just gonna start right here. I'm gonna read a chunk of this so that it sets the scene for for the part that I want to get to. So it says, God sees everything that's going on, and there's no creature, uh, this is Hebrews 4.13. It says, There's no creature hidden from his sight, but all things are open and laid bare to the eyes of him with whom we have to do. He sees everything. Have you ever been uh let's see, is this what I wanted to read? Hold on. Yeah, just gonna keep reading. Have you ever been to the place where you read the Bible and got nothing out of it? Have you been in that kind of a rut? The spirit of this world is working overtime to blind us and lead us into unbelief. How many of you would like to see that broken off of your life? Um, another way we're robbed from seeing and hearing God's word is the loss of hope. Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but desire fulfilled is a tree of life. That's from Proverbs 13, 12. Hope deferred is when you're believing for something and it doesn't come immediately, like the restoration of your soul, like I was talking about a while ago. Um, I want to tell you something about tribulation and persecution. First Peter 5, 8 and 9 says to be of sober spirit, be on the alert. Your adversary, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour, but resist him, firm in your faith, knowing that the same experiences of suffering are being accomplished by your brethren who are in the world. That's an interesting translation, but you get the idea. So, what is this saying? The afflictions and tribulations and persecutions that you're going through, all the family of God's kingdom are going through. Every single one. It's not those who start the race that count, but those who finish it. First Peter 5 10, the very next verse in that passage, says, After you've suffered a little while, God, the God of all grace, who called you to his eternal glory in Christ, will himself perfect, confirm, strengthen, and establish you. So this is our promise and our anchor. But who knows how long a while is. We're in a generation that expects instant and immediate things. If we ask for something, we want it right then. The devil uses that to knock us out of the past. Remember, it's after a while. What is God going to do for you after you stand? God's going to make you perfect, established, strengthened, and settle. There's my word for the year, established. Keep that seed in your heart and let it grow. We're called to be like the man in the parable of Mark 4, 26 through 29. A man goes out and sows seed in the field. Then he goes to bed and sleeps. What is he doing? He's waiting for something to happen to that seed. Now, he does not get up during the night and dig it up and check on it. Oh, he might check on it after a few weeks to see if it has sprouted, but he does not dig that seed up. Why? Because he knows something. He knows that if he sows the seed in good ground and keeps water on it, he can go to bed and sleep. And because after a while, in the fullness of time, it's going to come forth, sprout, and grow. The harvest is coming. We need to understand this principle in the kingdom of God. When we ask, we need some degree of faith in order to stand. Keep that seed in your heart. So if you're believing what the word says about restoration and healing and wholeness, you've got to stand on that word and you've got to keep that seed of the word in your heart. Proverbs 4 20 through 23 says, My son, give attention to my words, incline your ear to my sayings. Do not let them depart from your sight. Keep them in the midst of your heart, for they are life to those who find them, and they are health to all their body. Watch over your heart with all diligence, for from it flow the springs of life. So what is he saying? Keep that seed in your heart, keep it watered, keep it fed, talking about the seed of the Word of God. Do not let it out, do not let it depart from your ears, do not let it depart from your eyes. Keep it in the midst of your heart. Then what is going then what is it going to be to you? It's going to be life and health. That's what the seed of truth will be to us. We must take care of that seed. Hebrews 10, 35 through 39 says, Therefore, do not throw away your confidence, which has great reward. For you have need of endurance, so that when you have done the will of God you may receive what was promised. For yet in a very little while he who is coming will come and will not delay. But my righteous one shall live by faith. And if he shrinks back, my soul has no pleasure in him. But we are not of those who shrink back to destruction, but of those who have faith to the preserving of the soul. It's not a time to draw back, but to believe to the saving of the soul. How long shall we believe? He that endures to the end. This is the part I wanted to get to. Jeremiah was speaking to God here in Jeremiah 15, 18 through 19 in the Amplified Translation. Y'all listen to this. He says, Why is my pain perpetual and my wound incurable, refusing to be healed? He's talking to God here. He says, Will you indeed be to me like a deceitful brook, like waters that fail and are uncertain? Wow. Can you believe you talking to God like that? My goodness. Therefore, thus says the Lord to Jeremiah, God's going to set him straight here. He says, If you return and give up this mistaken tone of distrust and despair, then I will give you again a settled place of quiet and safety, and you will be my minister. And if you separate the precious from the vile, cleansing your own heart from unworthy and unwarranted suspicions concerning God's faithfulness, you shall be my mouthpiece. Wow. I mean, that's just amazing to me that first of all Jeremiah talked to him like that. But then God answered him and he just called him out. He said, Hey, there's distrust in your heart, there's despair, there is misplaced and unwarranted suspicion that I'm not going to be faithful to you. And you need to get rid of that. And when you get rid of that, then you will have that subtleness, then you will have that healing, and then you will you will be able to be effective for me again. So man, that's just so I it's so strong, but it's so good. He knew that Jeremiah could take strong correction because Jeremiah was called by God, but he allowed hurts and disappointments and people not listening and and and seeing the things that were coming against him and against the word of the Lord that he was sharing, and he was allowing that to cause him harm and to cause him to doubt God and to get into despair. And so he was not in faith, he was not in the spirit, he was in his flesh and he was in unbelief. And wow, this next part says, Phew, get rid of unbelief, get despair out of your heart, get rid of the thought that says God is unfaithful to you. You have to make a choice to get rid of that. And you know, if you've had those thoughts, the thoughts come to all of us. The devil will tell you that God's not going to take care of you. He will question God's word, he will try to bring doubt and into your mind, but you do not have to receive those thoughts. But if you have received those thoughts, if you've taken those thoughts and dwelt on them, then you've allowed unbelief to come into your heart and you've you're inviting in a spirit of unbelief to to dwell there and to settle there. And what you have to do is repent because unbelief, not believing God, not trusting God, not having faith, it's actually considered sin by God. It's actually, I I am of a firm belief that it's the biggest and worst and number one sin in God's eyes. And I have scriptures to back that up, and I think we've talked about it before, so I'm not going into that specifically today. But I truly believe that unbelief and doubting God is the worst sin because if you do not believe God, if you do not trust God, nothing else is gonna work. You're not gonna be able to walk in love, you're not gonna be able to, you're not in faith. So you're not gonna be able to walk out what God tells you to do. You're not gonna be able to receive his grace, you're not gonna it's we receive everything that we need by grace through faith. So the grace is all available to us. But if we're not in faith, we're not gonna be able to make use of that grace. We're not gonna be able to grab hold of and receive the grace that we need if we're not in faith. So it's a really, really big deal to allow any doubt and unbelief, to allow any questioning of God and his goodness, of his faithfulness. You cannot allow it. It says that he that endures to the end, the same shall be saved. This is a revelation for the end time church. And man, when I read that scripture from Jeremiah, it just really jumped out at me. I was, I was shocked at first of all, how Jeremiah was talking to God, but that God just responded to him and he just said, you know, you're the one with a problem. You're the one, the reason that your wound is not healing. You are the reason that you have not received healing and health because you are not trusting me. You are considering me to be unfaithful, and you've allowed despair and discouragement to take over, and you're living from that instead of from your spirit, from knowing that I will not fail you, I will never leave you or forsake you. And that's what God's saying to us. If you're in a place where you feel like I just can't get over this problem, I just can't get over this hurt or this pain or this situation. You know, there's nothing, nothing that we could ever go through that puts us outside of God's ability to heal and to restore. And there's nothing that we can ever do or experience that makes us unable to receive the love of God. We are always able to receive God's love. It's always available to us, but we have to believe that God is and that he is a rewarder of those who diligently seek him. That's faith. You have to believe that he's faithful. You have to believe he's who he says he is, that he is who the word of God says he is. And the word of God, we know it says that he won't leave us, he won't forsake us, he will work it all out for our good, he will restore us. That's what his word says. He will restore our souls, he will restore health to us and heal our wounds. And that's what the word of God says. And we have to believe that with everything that's in us. And we have to learn to separate our spirit and our soul. Our soul might tell us that, you know, there's evidence that that says that God's not faithful, because if God was faithful, then why is this like this? Why is this still this way? Why do I feel this way still? Why am I not healed? But that's your soul, and that's not your spirit. Your spirit knows that God is faithful, your spirit knows that God is trustworthy, that he is everything that the Bible says he is. And so you have to learn to distinguish between your soul and your spirit and choose to live by your spirit. That takes me right to where I wanted to go next. So in Romans 8, we're gonna go to Romans 8. I don't know why I started way back there. Okay, Romans 8. So I'm gonna read most of the chapter, but I'm gonna skip some verses um just to make it a little bit shorter because it will take a long time. So there is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the spirit. So I wanna I wanna stop there for a second and say, I am not trying to put condemnation on you. I'm not trying to condemn you. If you've been in that place where you are questioning and you have questioned and you have doubted God's goodness, and you've got over into despair and discouragement and depression, I'm not, I'm not judging you. I'm not condemning you. I'm I'm I'm I'm sharing life with you. I'm sharing that the answer for you to get out of that. That's that's the whole point here, not to condemn, not to not to make you feel bad about about it at all, because that's not that's not the point. The point is to make the correction. Just like with God and Jeremiah, he told him, here's the deal, you gotta make the correction. And when you do, I will, I will show you. You'll you'll see, you'll be settled, you'll be in peace, you'll be restored, you'll be healed, and you'll be able to be a minister for me again. You'll be able to be my spokesperson again. So it says the law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death. Skipping down to verse five, it says, For those who live according to the flesh, set their minds on the things of the flesh. So that's what I was just saying. If you're thinking about the hurt, you're thinking about the problem, you're thinking about how the situation affects you and how you feel about it, and then you don't what you don't like about it, and you know, all the things. If that's what you're setting your mind on, then you're in the flesh. And if you're in the flesh, you're let's see what happens if you're in the flesh. It says, but those who live according to the spirit set their minds on the things of the spirit. For to be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace. So if you're living in those feelings and those thoughts, and that's what you're thinking about, then and that's what you're setting your mind on. The thought, again, the thoughts come, you're gonna think about what's going on in life. But if you're setting your thoughts on the problem and you're setting your thoughts on your feelings, and you're setting your thoughts, and you're spending all of your time thinking about that thing that hurts you, that problem, how you feel, you know, then you are in the flesh, and the flesh is going to reap death in your life, not life. And it's going to keep you from having the abundant life that Jesus came to give you. Because the carnal mind is enmity against God, for it is not subject to the law of God, nor indeed can it be. So then those who are in the flesh cannot please God. Not not might not not uh maybe won't. It says they can't. You're not able to please God if you are in the flesh. So we don't want to be in the flesh. And and being in the flesh and being out of faith, they go hand in hand. There's some differences, but they go hand in hand because when you're in the flesh, you're not going to be in faith. Faith comes, faith is part of what your spirit does. It comes from your spirit, it's in your spirit. So if you're living by your flesh, you're not living by your spirit where your faith is. And so to be in the flesh is to be out of faith. You're not trusting God. You're thinking with your mind, you're thinking with your feelings, and you're thinking you're in your soul. You're in your in your soul and in your flesh, and not in the spirit. So verse nine, but you are not in the flesh, but in the spirit, if indeed the spirit of God dwells in you. Now, if anyone does not have the spirit of Christ, he's not his. And if Christ is in you, the body is dead because of sin, but the spirit is life because of righteousness. But if the spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his spirit who dwells in you. So to be in the spirit is life, it's health, it's joy, it's peace, it's it's faith, it's living by faith, receiving God's grace for every situation, for everything that you need. Okay. Therefore, brethren, we're we are debtors not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh, but for if you live according to the flesh, you will die. But if this if you live by the spirit, uh sorry, but if by the spirit put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. For as many as are led by the spirit of God, these are the sons of God. It says, For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us. For the earnest expectation of the creation eagerly waits for the revealing of the sons of God. You know, when you are in faith, when you're living by the Spirit, a son or a daughter of God is revealed in creation. It's revealed to those around you. When you live according to your flesh, you're living, you're not living by the spirit. And it's not, that's not who God created you to be. God created you to live from your spirit by the spirit and to bypass the the flesh, the man, the the humanity that is um fallen, you know, that that is easily bogged down in in sin and in in unrighteousness and in in in the soulish realm, in feelings, in in and all that, you know, and the world doesn't need doesn't need people, doesn't need Christians who are living by the flesh and out of faith and and acting just like the world, because that's the way the world is. The world isn't living from their spirits, they're living from their flesh, they're living from their mind, their will, and their emotions. And they're more often than not, they're living for themselves. And you know, that's in selfishness and in all the works of the flesh. None of the works of the flesh are good. They're corrupt and they lead to corruption. That's what this is what it says here in Romans 8. So if you're living from that place, then you're no better off than the people in the world are. So when we are living by the Spirit, then the glory of God is revealed in us, and it's revealed through us, and the people around us can see that God's love and his peace and his joy is on our lives. And they can even, man, it's such a witness to people in the world when you go through something and you're you they see what what you went through. They see the you know, the unfairness or the injustice or you know, just the difficulty of what of what you've what's come against you, and they see that your response is and you're in faith and you're in peace and you're in joy and and you find that healing that you need for your soul. You know, sometimes it's not anything that's anybody's fault that comes against us, sometimes life happens, but you know, when life, quote unquote, life happens to a Christian, and it happens to someone who's not a Christian, the response and the results should be completely different. It should be day and night from uh one to the other. So if this person that's in the world goes through something that um, you know, it's beyond control, it's just something in the natural that happens, and uh it uh it kind of takes them out or it takes them down and they don't recover from it, they don't have healing, they don't have health, they don't have peace and joy and life, they don't get past it. Uh but then a Christian, the same kind of situation can happen to a Christian, and they uh through it all, they they don't get in despair, they don't give up. And yes, they they feel the feelings, they go through the pain, they go through the experience, but they they still have a joy and a peace about them, they still have a life about them, and they don't give in to the despair, and they don't give in to bitterness and resentment, and it's such a difference, and it makes such a difference in when people see that it gives people hope, not just yourself. So, you know, we don't live just to ourselves and for ourselves, but we live as an example, as a light, like a lighthouse, a beacon that shines the light of God all around. And you know, it's just another reason why it's so important to stay in faith and to live by the Spirit. Okay, skipping all the way down to verse 28, and we know that all things work together for the good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to his purposes. Then verse 31 and 32 say, What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things? Jumping down to thirty-five, who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation or distress or persecution or famine or nakedness or peril or sword? As it is written, for your sake we are killed all day long, we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter. Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor death, nor any other created things shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. Man, you see how it all comes together? To be stabilized in God's love, to receive the restoration in our souls that we want to see, we can't be living by the flesh. We can't be out of faith. We have to be. Living by the Spirit in faith so that we can receive the grace that is everything. Grace is for salvation. The grace is the empowerment to do what God's called us to do. Grace is what's sufficient in us to get through any trial, any circumstance, any tribulation to receive healing, to receive wholeness. I mean, it's everything. And we have to have faith to receive it. And we have to be living from our spirits and not in the flesh to be in faith. To experience the abundant life that we started talking about back in episode 22, we have to be in faith and we have to live by the spirit. We cannot allow unbelief and mistrust of God like Jeremiah was doing in that was Jeremiah 15 and 8, uh 15, 18. We cannot allow that, we cannot, we can't allow any wound, any situation, any problem that we face to cause us to mistrust God, to distrust him, to not stay in faith. And you know, we're human and we're growing and we're learning. And so if it happens, if you if you find that you're out of faith, if you find those that you're believing the lies of the devil, that God's not faithful to you, that the word doesn't work for you, that God's not taking care of you, or that it's not going to work out for your good, that you're not, you can't receive healing in your soul, restoration in your soul, or your or whatever it is. If you, if you start believing those lies of the devil and you allow that and you start to get into despair at any time, you can stop and say, No, I'm not gonna do that, and repent. Tell God, I'm sorry. I'm sorry that I wasn't trusting you. I didn't, I didn't realize that I was not trusting you. I didn't realize I was in this place like Jeremiah was, where I was distrusting you, where I was counting you as unfaithful. You are faithful. Your word says you're faithful. And just tell God, just have a talk with him and tell him you're sorry. Repent from that and ask him to help you. You know, um, there's instances in the Bible where people weren't really in faith, and he said, Help me, help me believe. Lord, help me believe. The Holy Spirit will help you. He'll bring to mind instances and um examples of God's faithfulness in your life. He'll bring to mind things where you that you may have forgotten that that proved to you that God's faithful to you. And he'll bring that to mind and he'll help you, or maybe he'll help you in a different way. But the point is, he will help you if you will ask him for that help. He will help you. So I just want to make sure I didn't miss anything here. There's one more scripture I want to share before I I go today because I feel like it goes together with this, and it's in the Passion Translation in Proverbs chapter 3. I love Proverbs so much. I read through it every month and different translation every month. And so today I um I haven't read through Proverbs yet this month, so I started it and I decided to read the Passion Translation. I'm so glad I did because what I got out of this really um, it really went along with this, I felt like. So verse 21 through 25, it says, or through 26, it says, My child, never drift off course from these two goals for your life. To walk in wisdom and to discover your purpose. Now the footnote here says that like many Hebrew words, there's various possible translations for the word used here. So the word translated here as purpose can also mean discretion, counsel, meditation, or discernment. So um, you can you can read that multiple ways. And to me, I liked it. I like putting the discernment in there. So my child, never drift off course from these two goals for your life to walk in wisdom and discernment. Don't ever forget how they empower you, for they strengthen you inside and out and inspire you to do what's right. I want to go back to back to this and say one more thing on the discernment. The reason why that is the one that stood out to me today is because we have to discern the spirits of what's going on around us. You know, in the situations that you're dealing with, you have to discern what's going on there. And if you're in wisdom and discernment, again, by the spirit and in faith, if all those things work hand in hand together. And when you when you discern what's really going on and you realize it's not, you know, sometimes people do stuff and there's something else that's that's inspiring them to do that. And and I'm not I'm not even saying that, you know, everybody that people are demon-possessed, and that's what the problem is. I don't mean it like that, but the devil influences anywhere that he can. And just like he can influence you to mistrust God, he can influence you to believe, you know, things about other people that you shouldn't, or to to, you know, anything really, he can influence you to be selfish, to have selfish ambition, to be jealous, to, to be anything. And so when that happens and we're on the receiving end of somebody being influenced by that, and there's jealousy or there's there's whatever it is, if we have a spirit of discernment about us, if we're operating in the spirit of discernment, which is one of the gifts of the spirit, and it's something that's available to us as Christians, if we're operating in wisdom and discerning that spirit, then you know it helps us to be strong. It says that it in it empowers you, and it does. It empowers you, it strengthens you inside and out, and it inspires you to do what's right. Why? Because you see past the person who's having a moment, you see past the situation and the people that are involved in it, and you see, you see what's behind it, and that the enemy means to bring harm to you, but it doesn't matter what the enemy brings because God is your refuge, he's your strength, he's with you. And if you will stay in faith and you'll live by your spirit and you'll use the things that he's given you, like wisdom and discernment, then you will be empowered to live above the storms of life, to go higher, to rise above all of those things, and you'll stay standing. You'll stay anchored in hope, anchored in God's love, stable in his love. And these things won't move you so easily. And you'll get to the point that they don't move you at all, and you don't have to be shaken and you don't have to be moved. Just like Paul got to that place that he said, nothing moves me, nothing shakes me, because I know that nothing can separate me from the love of God. So I don't even pay attention to all of these things. I don't even give them time. I don't give them consideration. And that's the place that we want to get to, and that's what I'm that's what I'm trying to get to in this in this teaching is to to encourage you and inspire you to get to the place, to strive, to work, to do your part, to get to the place that you are living from your spirit, that you are staying in faith, that you are using wisdom and discernment from God, from the Holy Spirit to see past people and to see past situations and to see what the enemy is, that the enemy of your soul is behind those things. And when you do that, you can you're not gonna cooperate. You don't want to cooperate with the devil. And you see the situation for what it is, and you see how if you have wisdom and you're walking in wisdom, you see that if you uh cooperate with the enemy in getting in despair and getting in frustration and and you know, retaliating and getting in your flesh, that the end result of that is not life and joy and peace. It's not all the things that you want in your life. So it it it's just it empowers you, like this says, and it inspires you to do what's right. So you say, Oh, well, I that wasn't very nice. That wasn't a very pleasant thing, but you know what? As far as it depends on me, I'm gonna be at peace with everybody because the Bible says to do that. And so if it says it, I can do it. And I am, I know that God's gonna turn it around for my good. I know that God's taking care of me, and I know that that person is just having a moment or they're influenced by something else that that it's not my, it's not my, it's not really about me. It's the enemy and he is wanting to bring harm to my life, but I don't have to cooperate. I don't have to receive it. I can love anyway, just like we talked about last week. We can love no matter what. Jesus loved us in spite of the absolute worst, and he enables us to do the same thing. So if you keep these things and you walk in wisdom and discernment, then you will be energized and refreshed by the healing that they bring. Wow. So, I mean, you can have instant healing in a moment when you're living and walking that way, when you're not walking by your flesh, but you're walking by the spirit and you're walking by faith, you're walking in wisdom, and you're walking in discernment or discretion or, you know, knowing your purpose or in the counsel. That's another good one right there. When you're walking in the counsel of the Holy Spirit and things happen, you can immediately respond in such a way that it doesn't even touch you, that your soul doesn't need restoration because it didn't even touch you in the first place, because you have wisdom, because you you have a higher viewpoint, a higher perspective, and you choose to live from your spirit man and not from your flesh. They will give you living hope. There's that word again, that's been in every scripture that we've read today, to guide you. And not one of life's tests will cause you to stumble. You'll sleep like a baby, safe and sound. Your rest will be sweet and secure, and you will not be subject to terror, for it will not terrify you, nor will the disrespectful be able to push you aside, because God is your confidence in times of crisis, keeping your heart at rest in every situation. That is the end result of staying in faith and living by your spirit, not living in the flesh, not getting in despair, not doubting God's faithfulness, not allowing the enemy to drag you and pull you off course through uh through deception, through deceptive practices and deceptive thoughts to get you to think that God's not faithful to you. And man, it's good to live and stay in in rest and peace and joy, and to have that rejoicing on the inside of you that bubbles up in the middle of everything, and to have that healing and wholeness that that's promised to us. So I encourage you to go back over those scriptures and really look at them when you have time to just meditate on them and just you know, just kind of chew on them. And I'll put the references in the uh in the in the description on the videos and on the podcast platforms so that you can find them again and go back and and look at them and read them. Because anytime, if you're not going through something right now, guaranteed something will come along at some point. Um, as long as you're living on this earth, there's going to be opportunities to um to put all this to good use. So I hope that you'll do that. And I I pray that the Holy Spirit brings this to your remembrance when you face a situation like that, and and that you'll choose to walk in the spirit and stay in faith. Believe God, trust him, you rely on him. He's faithful, he's good, and you know, receive his love for you in every moment. Be stabilized in his love, continue to grow in knowing his love, continue to grow in knowing what that love means and in experiencing it and spending time in his presence, in his word, and just sitting in his presence. I am going to get to talking about that soon because it's such an important thing to be able to just sit in God's presence and just receive everything that you need from him. It strengthens you and it's it's like water to your soul so that you can grow and you can produce the fruit that um you know, the fruit of the spirit and the things that that are good and and evidence of the abundant life and the grace and the goodness of God that we've received. So hope you enjoyed the show today. I will see you next time.