Episode 27: Kingdom Realities Part 4 - Sense of Discovery

On this episode we see how God works with us in our walk of faith. Every Christian should be living a life of discovery, learning about themselves as well as recovering everything that God has laid up for us on the path He as asked us to walk. The Christian walk isn't just a walk of faith, but a walk of discovery. 

Transcript

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He has placed things of good of good quality for you to experience, for you to reap from, for you to glean from, and all you have to do is just learn how to pick it up. And it's not something that you have to try to figure out, it's not something that you have to search for. It is the stuff that is in the field that you are currently working because the Lord has told you to work there. So, over the last three episodes, we've been talking about the kingdom realities that every single Christian should be able to experience from the moment they get born again to the moment where they go on to see Jesus face to face. The emphasis of this is that these realities, these four realities that we are talking about over these episodes, they should be something that you should be experiencing, if not every day, at least throughout the week. Um, they are not a testament, they're not evidence that you are going to heaven. If you're saved, you're going to heaven. But if you are experiencing these, in my opinion, if you're experiencing these four realities, then not only are you going to heaven, but you're also experiencing heaven on earth. It's one thing when Jesus is your savior, that's every single Christian. But I believe there are some Christians that haven't made Him his made him their Lord. And so if you have really made Jesus your Christ, the guy who died for your sins, rose again on the third day, paid the ultimate price for your sins, and has made a place for you in heaven. If he has saved you, awesome. But if he but if you are experiencing these four realities, that's evidence to me that you have also made him your Lord. So the first one that we talked about is that we talked about yielding. Now, when we talk about yielding, it's not just someone shows up, gives you a directive, leaves, and then comes back to see if the job was done. When we're talking about obedience, that's what we're talking about. We're talking about someone gives you an objective, they leave, they come back to see if the objective was completed. There's no relationship, there's no connection, it's just, did you fulfill the task? When we're talking about Christ, we're talking about Jesus, that's not his directive. That's not how he operates. He does not say do this and then see if it gets accomplished. But when he tells you to do something, he sticks around and actually helps you accomplish the thing that he asks you to do. This is yielding, right? You're yielding to his instruction, you're yielding to his help, you're yielding to his assistance. There is a partner involved getting you to point A, right? Getting you through the process. And the key to yielding is just taking that step. You don't have to make it, it doesn't have to be complete, it doesn't have to be perfect, you don't have to understand every single calculation, every single scenario that could possibly happen. When we're talking about yielding, it's not about perfection, it's about just doing, just taking a step. If he asks you to fulfill a uh to become a teacher, if he asks you, if he tells you to do this, if he asks you to to uh mend a relationship, whatever he's asking you to do, your job is to just find what is that first step. You don't have to you don't have to figure out the whole process, figure out the whole vision, just figure out what is that first step, and when you take that first step, what will eventually happen is you will step in, you'll do another step, another step, another step, and you will it will culminate into that obedience of the directive that God wants you to accomplish. Okay? So yielding is just taking that first step. The second thing that we talked about, which was the last episode, was faith. Now, if you remember, when when someone does an action in faith, two things are happening. The first thing is is that um when they do an action in faith, it proves that they believe something that everyone else around them probably does not see yet. Look at Noah. God told Noah, build an ark because I'm about to send rain down from the heavens. Rain had not existed on the planet in that time. This would be the first time that rain ever shown up. So when Noah tells the people around him, hey, I'm building this ark because there's going to be a rain, a rain, they thought he was nuts. But because he did the action, he built the ark, that proved to everyone, even though they thought he was weird, that proved to everyone, hey, Noah knows something or Noah believes something that we don't comprehend, right? So the first thing is that you prove that you believe something that everyone else probably doesn't. The second thing is that you create the stage in which the glory of God to manifest. So, and we talked about this last episode. You need God needs your partnership in order for his glory to manifest. In order for his miracle, in order for the miraculous to transpire to exist in this tangible world, he needs a human that listens to his directive or based on what we've been talking about, yield to his instruction. And by doing what he asks them to do, he actually they actually set the stage for God to do what the He He's asking the humans to do. Okay? So this it happens simultaneously. So to summarize these last two episodes, well, three, to summarize these last three episodes, we hear the directive, right? We are we are we're inclining to the Lord. This is the lifestyle of a Christian from the moment they get born again to the moment they go on to see glory, the moment they go on to glory. We are constantly inquiring, we are constantly leaning our ear towards Holy Spirit, figuring out what does he want us to do? What is his plan in the earth? Not only for my life, not only for your life, but for the world. What is his directive? What is he wanting to do? Once you hear what he wants you to do, whether through the word or whether through an audible voice, which again does not contradict the word. When you receive your instruction, you yield to it, you take that first necessary step, right? And that step will be a step of faith. You do an action, whether it's speaking, whether it's applying for a job, whether it's signing, whatever. You do the action that is the first step according to what the directive is requiring. Once you do that step, that is the step of faith, and you're doing two things. You're proving to everyone you've heard from God and you believe what He's telling you to do. And then the second thing is you are setting the stage for God to partner with you to bring the miraculous to your uh for your success. Okay. Today, what we're gonna talk about is the third thing. Now, this is what's interesting, guys. I had uh I had a goal, I have all four um kingdom realities because the Lord gave them to me. But today, while I was preparing for this um for today's um podcast, the Lord gave me a portion of scripture that actually has all four realities together and a short passage. And so this was exciting because it actually goes in a line with what I'm gonna be talking about today. So it so if you have your Bibles, go with me to Genesis chapter 12, and we're gonna be reading verses 1 through 3. Now, if for those of you who don't know, this is the calling of Abraham. Now, Abraham is the father of Judaism, but he is also the father of Christianity. So he is the he is the cream of the crop, he is the backbone of the whole thing. Okay, so um Abraham is the patriarch, he starts the whole thing. So if you look at verse chapter 12, Genesis chapter 12, verse 1, it says this. Now the Lord hath said unto Abram, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred and from thy father's house, and unto a land that I will show you. And I will make thee a great nation, and I will bless thee and make the name great, and thou shalt be a blessing. And I will bless them that bless thee, and curse them that curse you, and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed. Now, I want to quickly highlight what we've been talking about over the last three episodes, because I want you to see it in this passage. First one is yielding. Well, in order to yield, you have to hear the instruction of the Lord. Notice verse one. Now the Lord had said unto Abraham, Get thee out of thy country and from thy kindred and from thy father's house, unto a land that I will show you. So in the first sentence, the first couple words of verse one, we get the first part of the reality of a Christian. We inquire, we listen to the directives of the Lord, right? And we yield, right? We take that first step. If you look in verse 4, so Abraham departed as the Lord had spoken unto him, right? So notice Abraham didn't try to figure out what where this mountain was because God didn't even tell him where the mountain was. He just basically said, I will show you where to go. So what was Abraham's uh step of faith? He took, he departed, he packed everything up and he started moving in the direction he believed the Lord was telling him. So by doing that, he told all his family, he told his family members that he was leaving. Because if you know if you look down in verse 5, he actually takes, well, if you finish verse 4, he actually takes Lot with him, which is kind of against what God told him to do. So that so his step wasn't perfect, but yet he was still successful. Um, but he departs, so he gathers all of his stuff by taking that step of faith. He shows everyone around him, hey, I heard God, so I'm taking a step, whether you agree or not, so I'm moving in this direction. Okay? And he's and by taking that step, he also set the stage for God to partner with him on his journey. And so the second, so right there in the first verse, you saw both uh him hearing the voice of the Lord, him hearing the direction, and him yielding, him taking that step of faith. So here's the third thing that we're gonna be talking about today, okay? Uh the ending of verse one. Now the Lord has said unto Abraham, get thee out of thy country and and from thy kindred and from thy father's house, unto a land that I will show you. So here's what we're gonna be talking about today. Notice that God did not tell him the um the mountain that he was going to be guiding Abraham towards. He said, This is where you're going. This is he might have told him the direction, but he didn't tell him the actual location, the actual destination of where Abraham is going. So here's the third thing that every single Christian, in my opinion, should be experiencing experiencing to show that Jesus is their Lord. They should have a sense of discovery. Now, what do I mean by that? When we're talking about discovering something, we're not talking about creating, we're not talking about building something, okay? In other words, that the creation or the existence of something starts with you, or even to a Christian, starts with what God is creating in you or uh with you. Okay, when we're talking about discovery, when you discover something, you didn't create it, someone else created it, someone else built it, you just happen to wander off onto its location and actually shame into a realization that the thing that had already been created exists. Think of a um, think about an Easter egg hunt. As a parent, when you're hiding the eggs, your children are not hiding the eggs, your children are not creating the eggs, they're not they're not developing the eggs. What are they doing? They're just searching for the eggs, and the moment they find the eggs, they technically have discovered what you have laid up for them to find, right? And this is the same thing with what this is the same thing that we do as Christians. That that there is a a destiny and destiny, there is a plan of God that God has already mapped out, he has already put people into place, he's already organized the whole thing, and that all he wants you to do is listen to what he tells you to do. That's the yielding piece. Take the step of faith that is necessary to accomplish what he has asked you to do. And as you're moving through, as you're moving, taking step by step by step, there are discoveries, there are there are moments of wonder, there are moments of awe, there are moments of of revelation that the Lord has laid out for you to help you get to the end of where He is He is leading you towards. Okay? And so this is literally the life, the the life of a Christian. It's not supposed to be boring. If you're just living life and just wandering around aimlessly, you're in my opinion, you're not living the life that God wants you to live. You should be in direct partnership, co-laboring with him in every single arena and every single facet of your existence. Why? Because he has hidden things, he has hidden things, he has laid things out in the path that are there to train you, they're there to uh give you revelation, give you understanding, that are actually equip you and empower you to keep moving forward. Now, my favorite passage of scripture to help with this is found in the book of Ruth. Now, I'm gonna read kind of a lengthy passage, but I'm gonna break it apart as I'm going through this, okay? But uh this whole thing is good and it fits exactly what we're talking about. So if you have your Bibles, look with me to the book of Ruth. It's for those of you who might not know, it's a short book and it's right after Judges. Um and we're gonna look at chapter 2, verse 4. Now, to let me set let me quickly set this up. Ruth is not a Jew, okay? She comes from the land of Mo Moab, uh, but she is related by marriage to a woman made by the name of Naomi, who is a Jew. Well, when Ruth uh when Ruth's husband dies, Naomi goes back to her homeland. Well, Ruth leaves her home and ties herself to Naomi and goes with her, okay, and tends to her and helps her. Now, to help them live, Ruth starts picking barley behind the maidservants who are reaping from this field. Now let's look at chapter 2, verse 4. Now, behold, Boaz came from Bethlehem and said to the reapers, May the Lord be with you. And they said to him, May the Lord bless you. Then Boaz said to his servant who was in charge of the reapers, Whose young woman is this? Now this field belongs to Boaz. Okay. The servant in charge of the reapers replied, She is the young Moabite woman who returned with Naomi from the land of Moab. And she said, Please let me glean. So the servant is telling Boaz, this is what Ruth asks, please let me glean and gather after the reapers among the sheaves. Thus she came and has remained from the morning until now. She has been sitting in the house for a little while. So Ruth was just basically asking, Can I have the leftovers? While the man while the reapers are reaping through the fields as they're picking up the barley, I just want the leftovers. I just want the scraps, right? Verse 7. And she said, Please, sorry, verse 8. Then Boaz said to Ruth, Listen carefully, my daughter, do not go to glean in another field. Furthermore, do not go on from this one, but stay here with my maids. Let your eyes be on the field which they reap and go after them. Indeed I have commanded the servants not to touch you. When you are thirsty, go to the water jars and drink from what from what the servants draw. Then she fell on her face, listened to the response of Ruth, bowing to the ground, and said to him, Why have I found favor in your sight that you should take notice of me since I am a foreigner? Notice why Boaz has gotten to liking to her. Look at look at look at look at his response. Boaz replied to her, All that you have done for your mother in law after the death of your husband has been fully reported to me, and how you left your father and your mother and the land of your birth, and came to a people you do not previously know. May the Lord reward your work and your wages be full from the Lord, the God of Israel, under whose wings you have come to seek refuge. Verse thirteen. Then she said, I have found favor in your sight, my lord, for you have comforted me and indeed have spoken kindly to your maidservant, though I am not like the one of your maidservant. In other words, she says, I'm a foreigner. Verse 14. At mealtime Boaz said to her, Come here that you may eat of the bread and dip your piece of bread in the vinegar. So she sat beside the reapers, and he served her roasted grain, and she ate and was satisfied and had some left. When she rose to glean, Boaz commanded his servants, listen, guys, saying, Let her glean even among the sheaves, and do not insult her. Also you shall purposefully pull out for her some grain from the bundles and leave it that she may glean and do not rebuke her. So she gleaned in the field until evening. Then she beat out what she had gleaned, and it was about an ep an ep of barley. Okay, so let's set this up. Okay, you have Ruth, who is a foreigner, and she gets and she she's post this field, and she asks Boaz, she asks the servant, the head servant that is in charge of all the reapers, can I pick up the leftovers after y'all have reaped from the harvest? Boaz hears of everything that Ruth has done to Naomi. That she's left her homeland, she's come into a land that she does not know, that she knows nobody, but she does it out of honor and respect to Naomi. Out once Boaz hears of this, notice all the tokens of favor that he bestows upon this foreigner. He allows her to eat, eat and drink with the Reapers, like she is a part of the crew. She then he then even, this is the key thing, this leads to this discovery piece, this metaphor or this picture of the discovery piece. He then even allows at one point just her to pick up the leftovers. But when we get to verse, when we get to verse 15, verse 15 and 16, especially 16, Boaz tells the servants to on purpose, while they're gleaning, while they're reaping, pick up the good stuff and drop it so that she can pick it up. Notice how I said that and when we're talking about this life of discovery, there are things that the Lord has laid up, or for the sake of the Ruth context, has dropped in your path for you to pick up. And this is not leftovers. This is not the the the the scraps, this is the good stuff, right? And this is the life of a Christian, guys, that God intentionally, because he's placed favor on you. If you are if you are a Christian, you have the favor of the Lord. If He because He has placed favor on you in your path as you're going upon the directive that He has called you to step into, He has placed things of good of good quality for you to experience, for you to reap from, for you to glean from, and all you have to do is just learn how to pick it up. And it's not something that you have to try to figure out, it's not something that you have to search for. It is the stuff that is in the field that you are currently working because the Lord has told you to work there. Notice Boaz says to Ruth, do not look at any other field. Stay here. Why is he telling you you have to stay here? Because I am going to take care of you, right? I have plans for you. I have a directive that I want you to do. I have I have steps of leveling up. I have promotions prepared for you as you rise to the caliber of living that I want you to live to. Okay, I just want you to see this, guys. This is the lifestyle of the Christian. This is what we should be experiencing. But I want you to notice, I want you to notice how is all this taken place. What is the stage, right? Okay, so we know that Boaz has released favor over Ruth. Question is, how did Ruth get this? What did she do to receive all this favor, to, to, to be, to be a candidate for all this favor, this all this attention that Boaz places on her. Again, we're gonna read again. Look at chapter 2, verse 11 and 12. Boaz replied to her, All that you have done for your mother-in-law after the death of your husband has been fully reported to me, and how you left your father and your mother and the land of your power your birth, and came to a people that you did not previously know. Verse 12, here we go. May the Lord reward your work and your wages be full from the Lord, the God of Israel, under whose wings you have come to seek refuge. Key thing, guys, the last part of verse 12. Under whose wings you have come to seek refuge. How do we know that Ruth has chosen the Lord as the individual, as the God that she is choosing to seek refuge under? Because she has left her homeland. Sounds like Abraham to me. She has left her home homeland and she has clinged to Naomi. And if you read in chapter one, he she says, Your people shall be my people and your God shall be my be my God. Here is the format, here is the stage in order for the favor of the Lord to be released over you. God has to be your God. Okay, it is literally that simple. It's not because Ruth was perfect, it was not because Ruth was excellent at tending to Tenaomi. That wasn't the reason. It was because her heart posture was your people should be my people, your God should be my God. In other words, in the words of Jesus, I am doing the thing of my father. I am going about the business of my father, right? And so this is the heartbeat of a Christian is that if your heartbeat is to do what God wants you to do, if that is your heartbeat, if that is your desire, if If you're saying I do not care what Nathan does, I do not care what Nathan thinks. My job is to my passion and my desire is to fulfill the task, to fulfill the destiny, to fulfill the purpose that God has laid out for me before the foundation of the world, before I was even born, when I was created in the womb, there is a plan, there is a purpose, there is a directive that I am to accomplish. That is the the the collection of smaller purposes, but that will bring about the ultimate purpose for my life. If that is your passion, then you will, first of all, you will yield to the Holy Spirit. You will constantly be inquiring. Hey God, what's the next step? What do you want me to do? Is it this college? Is it this? Is it this person I'm supposed to uh have a relationship with? Okay, you will constantly be inquiring of the Lord, what is your plan? What do you want me to do? And once you get the step, once you get the picture, it will most likely not be the whole picture, but it will be a direction or a step that you are to take on the grand scheme of things, right? Once you get that, then you take the step of faith. You figure out what is my first step, what is my first response. And by doing that, you're setting the stage for God to partner with you on your journey, and you're proving to everyone, hey, I believe something. I have heard the voice of the Lord either through scripture or through my prayer time or through an audible voice. I have heard the voice of the Lord. I know what I am doing. And by taking those steps, you are saying, God, you're not going to tell me to go in this direction and you have not already planned it out. You've already spoken to people. I'm trusting that that if whatever job you want me to do, then that must mean you might want me to get a degree. So if I so if you want me to get a degree, that means you already have the school that you want me to go to. And if you already have the school, that means that if once I get accepted into that school, you have already chosen the professors that they are supposed to glean to me. Once I get on the job, whoever I'm working with, I'm supposed to be gleaning from them for my destiny, and I'm supposed to be pouring into them. You see how this is the mandate, this is the pattern of the Christian that all their things, all their doings, all their activities is constantly filled with the inquiry of the Lord. What am I supposed to be doing? And every step they take, every thought that that think, it is with this posture. What have that God has purposely put this in my path to help me, to, to, to develop me, to equip me to move on to what he wants me to do. Just like Ruth gleaning in the fields of Boaz. Boaz specifically tells his reapers, take the good stuff, don't just keep it for yourself, but intentionally, on purpose, drop it so that Ruth can pick it up. And not only let her pick it up, but do not chastise her, do not rebuke her when she picks it up. This reminds me of a scripture where it says, the blessing of the Lord makes you rich and adds no sorrow with it. Okay? So I just want you, I hope that I I have I have laid out a very strong blueprint of the Christian life. You inquire what the Lord wants you to do, whether daily or for your entire life, you inquire what the Lord wants you to do, and then you're taking the steps of faith that are necessary to bring that to a bring that to pass with the Lord. And as you're moving down the journey, as you're progressing down that in that direction, the Lord is literally dropping things in your path. There's a scripture, I think it's in the in I think it's in the Psalms, where it says, It is the glory of God to hide and mire, but it's the glory of kings to search it out. That is your heartbeat, that is your nature, that God has laid things out like Easter eggs for children. He has laid things out on your path that are designed for you to locate, for you to discover. And while you're doing these discovery, okay, each discovery, each token of revelation, each relationship, each um gifting that He has He has uh orchestrated and crafted for your discovery. Once you get these things, they are designed to help you, equip you, and empower you to keep moving forward. Okay? So we inquire of the Lord, we yield to Him, take that step of faith, and as we're moving through this journey, we're discovering multiple things. Maybe not every single day, but throughout your life, you should be in this sense of discovery, discovering about yourself, discovering about God, discovering about these new, these new areas of the plan that he is revealing to you as you progress towards wherever he's wanting you to go to. Okay. So I hope this is kind of been a lot, but I hope that this has been a blessing to you, and I hope this is kind of made a roadmap or a blueprint of what it kind of is supposed to be looking like. Right? And I think by what I'm sensing right now, it might change when I dedicate this to prayer. I'm probably gonna for the next episode, I'm probably gonna show you practically how this looks through my own life. Okay? But I'm gonna I'm gonna cut it right here. I hope this has been a blessing to you. I hope this has been enlightening to you, and I hope this has been uh uh kind of like a calming. Like this is that I'm giving you a picture of what it should look like as as not only as Jesus saved you, but he is also the Lord of your life. So again, hope this has been a blessing to you, and I hope that have a good rest of your day or night. God bless you.