SPEAKER_01: Hey, I'm Pastor Steve Hole.
SPEAKER_01: I want to empower you today to walk in your true identity as a worshiper and warrior.
SPEAKER_01: Today, embrace the power of God's Word and the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_01: Welcome to the Born for War podcast.
SPEAKER_01: Okay, I know that I was gone last week.
SPEAKER_01: You know that too.
SPEAKER_01: And I thought that we would go back to Kingdom of God Health, part two.
SPEAKER_01: We started with part one, knowing today that many of you would be maybe here for the first time, or maybe you missed the first one, so I'm going to do a rehash real quickly of Kingdom Health One.
SPEAKER_01: And I also want to recognize before I start that there's kids in here.
SPEAKER_01: So we've got little kids in here that are normally in their classes, and we are so glad you're here, and we love you, and we want you to be patient, and I'll try to be very interesting, okay?
SPEAKER_01: I'll try to be interesting for you guys.
SPEAKER_01: Let me give you a little bit of background of where we are in this country.
SPEAKER_01: We are the sickest nation in the world among industrialized countries.
SPEAKER_01: We had the best health care in the world until 1986.
SPEAKER_01: In 1986, we began to drop off in health care.
SPEAKER_01: You could argue that we have sick care rather than health care.
SPEAKER_01: Now I'm not going to go into all the reasons.
SPEAKER_01: There's probably about 11 reasons that I've studied as to what happened in 1986 that began this regression, but by 2002, we were last in health care among industrialized nations in the world and have remained there now for 22 years.
SPEAKER_01: We spend more than 4.6 trillion dollars on health care, which is five times more than our military budget.
SPEAKER_01: Autoimmune disorders have grown 300% over the last decade.
SPEAKER_01: And when I was doing the research last night, we're growing in autoimmune diseases at a clip of 3 to 12% a year.
SPEAKER_01: Robert F.
SPEAKER_01: Kennedy Jr., in his speech, in which he announced that he was going to join Trump in the campaign, is a very, very important speech.
SPEAKER_01: I would encourage you to listen to it.
SPEAKER_01: I think, and I listen to all the political speeches out there.
SPEAKER_01: I would say it's the best political speech in 25 years because it's so honest, it's very authentic, and it calls out the right institutions.
SPEAKER_01: And so only Kennedy has been the one in the last, say, 10 years that's actually telling the truth about what's happening in healthcare.
SPEAKER_01: So I'd encourage you to listen to that.
SPEAKER_01: Here's two things that I know.
SPEAKER_01: Number one, people want the kingdom of God.
SPEAKER_01: You may not know it.
SPEAKER_01: Some of you in this room may not even be Jesus' disciples yet, but you're here because you're seeking the kingdom.
SPEAKER_01: You're not seeking religion, you're seeking the kingdom of God, a personal, vital, dynamic, growing relationship with God because God put that in your heart.
SPEAKER_01: The scriptures say that He's put eternity in your hearts.
SPEAKER_01: And so there's a longing for the kingdom.
SPEAKER_01: But secondly, every person in this room wants to be healthy.
SPEAKER_01: Raise your hand if you don't want to be healthy.
SPEAKER_01: Anybody like that?
SPEAKER_01: I haven't seen any hands raised, and everyone asked that question.
SPEAKER_01: Everybody wants to be healthy and everybody wants the kingdom.
SPEAKER_01: So in kingdom health, when I talk about kingdom of God health, I'm talking about integration.
SPEAKER_01: I'm talking about integration, integration of all these different areas of our lives, that you are, you are a complex being created in the image of God.
SPEAKER_01: Listen, you're not complicated, but you're complex.
SPEAKER_01: How many of you know that complexity is a beautiful thing?
SPEAKER_01: Complexity in chemistry is a beautiful thing.
SPEAKER_01: Complexity in biology is a beautiful thing.
SPEAKER_01: Complexity even in a family is a beautiful thing.
SPEAKER_01: If you have more than, if you have more than no kids, you understand complexity.
SPEAKER_01: And if you keep adding to that, you have complexity.
SPEAKER_01: And if you don't have any kids yet, you say, well, my life's pretty complex too.
SPEAKER_01: But what happens when we don't want to deal with stuff in our life, it becomes complicated.
SPEAKER_01: So complexity is a good thing.
SPEAKER_01: Being complicated is not a good thing.
SPEAKER_01: So I hope I can make this as simple as possible.
SPEAKER_01: So what I'm going to talk about, and I did this the last time, was I talked about the integration of all these things.
SPEAKER_01: And here's what's exciting is in the medical field, those doctors that are willing to do the study, and guys, there's more and more of them that are beginning to get into homeopathy, getting into natural medicine, getting into functional medicine.
SPEAKER_01: Man, I just applaud them because 90% of the med schools never cover nutrition at all.
SPEAKER_01: It's more about pharmaceuticals and subscribing pharmaceuticals and analyzing what pharmaceuticals.
SPEAKER_01: Wouldn't you use sell pharmaceuticals if they took you on an 18-hole golf course, you know, every three months to kind of win you over?
SPEAKER_01: So the reality is this is that God's doing a miraculous work in the medical field that's exciting.
SPEAKER_01: And I'll talk more the next time I speak on why, why I think we're such a sick, sick nation.
SPEAKER_01: But what I want to do is I want to hit on what I did before, and I want you to look at this Venn diagram that I spoke on before.
SPEAKER_01: And this is based off Mark 12, 29.
SPEAKER_01: So turn in your Bibles to Mark 12, 29 again.
SPEAKER_01: We're gonna look at it again if you were here before.
SPEAKER_01: And if Jesus were standing here and he had a medical garb on, and he's a great physician, and we asked Jesus, what's the key to everything?
SPEAKER_01: What is the most important thing that we as a people could do, Jesus, that would make us healthy?
SPEAKER_01: Here's what I believe he would say.
SPEAKER_01: Mark 12, 29.
SPEAKER_01: The parallel passage is Matthew 22, but Matthew, I'll look at Mark 12, because it adds one particular part to it that I like.
SPEAKER_01: So he says that the greatest commandment is love the Lord your God with all of your heart, with all of your soul, with all of your mind, and with all of your strength.
SPEAKER_01: And then just like it is to love your neighbor as yourself.
SPEAKER_01: So as you see in the Venn diagram, we're talking about these different arenas of our life.
SPEAKER_01: And what we're learning, church, is that it's not just about being healthy, it's not just about being well, it's about being fit.
SPEAKER_01: It's about being fit.
SPEAKER_01: So you, you know, if everything is about being well or sick, then when you're well, okay, I'm well, I'm not sick, I'm fine.
SPEAKER_01: If it's about being fit, physically fit, emotionally fit, spiritually fit, relationally fit, that when you're sick, because you will get sick, everybody gets sick, and by the way, getting sick's a good thing.
SPEAKER_01: Getting sick's not a bad thing.
SPEAKER_01: It's called your immune system.
SPEAKER_01: You can't develop antibodies without getting sick.
SPEAKER_01: That's why my mom and then Liz did the same thing.
SPEAKER_01: When we heard of somebody had chicken pox, we took our kids to the chicken pox house.
SPEAKER_01: Okay?
SPEAKER_01: Not the chicken house, the chicken pox house.
SPEAKER_01: And we got our kids naturally got chicken pox, and it was a good thing.
SPEAKER_01: Well, I think there's a vaccine for that now.
SPEAKER_01: How many of you know that the natural elements, I'm not talking about diseases that can kill you, but I'm talking about the natural elements of most viruses and diseases and bacteria, it's a good thing, it's actually a good thing to naturally experience that than to get, you know, an injection that's a man-made chemical.
SPEAKER_01: How many know that?
SPEAKER_01: Okay, good.
SPEAKER_01: That's what I thought.
SPEAKER_01: All of you that are streaming, I'm sure you raise your hand too.
SPEAKER_01: Now, that's important because when you're fit, when you think fitness, instead of just being thick or well, then it enables you to realize the more fit you are, the quicker you get better.
SPEAKER_01: So the more fit you are relationally, the better you get.
SPEAKER_01: All the studies have shown that.
SPEAKER_01: One of the most famous studies is in Japan.
SPEAKER_01: And in my new book, I'll cover that.
SPEAKER_01: When we go through my book, because I want to do a sermon series on that, I'll talk about that.
SPEAKER_01: But that study of a mai, that's the Japanese word, a mai, is the idea that uh doctors and scientists said these, you know, these five things are the reason you get sick.
SPEAKER_01: And it was things like pollution, smoking, water, etc.
SPEAKER_01: Had all these different things.
SPEAKER_01: I don't remember them right off the top of my head, but about five things.
SPEAKER_01: Japanese had all of them.
SPEAKER_01: And I was 10 years in Japan, so I know they have all of them, man.
SPEAKER_01: Every time I went into a coffee shop, it was filled with smoke, because everybody smoked, all the kids smoked, and yet they're the health, one of the healthiest nations in the world.
SPEAKER_01: They live the longest, they're the healthiest, and here's why.
SPEAKER_01: Because of their relational connections.
SPEAKER_01: That's what they discovered.
SPEAKER_01: It's called a Maya.
SPEAKER_01: So the relational connections that they have family and they take care of each other.
SPEAKER_01: It's called blood-stained allies.
SPEAKER_01: That's what we call it.
SPEAKER_01: But these relationships were there.
SPEAKER_01: See, do you see what I'm saying?
SPEAKER_01: So you could be off on one area, but in other areas, as you're growing, and what I'm hoping is an integration of all that, we can become physically, mentally, emotionally, spiritually, and socially fit in our lives.
SPEAKER_01: So here's my thesis.
SPEAKER_01: My thesis is the more you line up your life with the kingdom of God, spiritually, emotionally, mentally, physically, and socially, the more healthy, vibrant, and resilient your life will become.
SPEAKER_01: So the more you can see the balance of all these areas.
SPEAKER_01: And so, and why is this important?
SPEAKER_01: Because your bloodstream, your bloodstream is downstream from your emotions.
SPEAKER_01: Your bloodstream is downstream from your emotions.
SPEAKER_01: And so when you're emotionally upset and you're emotionally stressed, you release cortisol into your bloodstream that then begins to shred your immune system.
SPEAKER_01: Anybody figured out that the more you worry, the sicker you get.
SPEAKER_01: The more you worry, the sicker you get.
SPEAKER_01: Well, listen to the opposite of that.
SPEAKER_01: That the more you trust God, the more you seek the kingdom, the more you meditate in Scripture, which is what I'm gonna focus on today, then the more faith is released and the stronger your immune system.
SPEAKER_01: Isn't that exciting?
SPEAKER_01: God made it that way.
SPEAKER_01: All I'm doing is giving the material to what God's already got in Scripture.
SPEAKER_01: So we're looking at five perspectives, five perspectives on kingdom health.
SPEAKER_01: And let's go back over what I did before.
SPEAKER_01: Health perspective number one, seek the first thing first.
SPEAKER_01: Seek the first thing first.
SPEAKER_01: So seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, Jesus said, and all these things shall be added unto you.
SPEAKER_01: So the reality is that men and women, the more you know where your focus is, the more you avoid a ton of stuff.
SPEAKER_01: Hello?
SPEAKER_01: So I was talking to a police officer after the service, first service, he said, Steve, when we went through, I think it's called skid training, and they're talking about how to drive a car in icy weather, wet weather, you're in a chase, you gotta learn how to handle a car.
SPEAKER_01: The one thing they say to state police, city police, those that are in SWAT and stuff, is what you focus on is what you get.
SPEAKER_01: What you focus on is what you get.
SPEAKER_01: In other words, if you're looking at the tree and you're focused on the tree, guess what you're gonna hit?
SPEAKER_01: The tree.
SPEAKER_01: If you're focused on the car and you make your focus on the car, you're gonna hit the car.
SPEAKER_01: What you're looking for is the opening.
SPEAKER_01: So a guy's driving a car, high-speed chase, he's looking for the opening.
SPEAKER_01: And as long as the width is there, a lot of times the guy who's well trained can find that opening.
SPEAKER_01: Well, it's also true in our lives.
SPEAKER_01: God made us to get what we focus on.
SPEAKER_01: So if you're focused on how crummy your life is, or how bad your husband or your wife is, or um what a loser you are, that's what you're gonna become.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, that's what you're fixated on, that's what you'll get.
SPEAKER_01: You'll get that tree, man, you'll hit it.
SPEAKER_01: Or if you say, God, I understand what's going on.
SPEAKER_01: I know what I was told as a kid, I know that this has been the pattern of my life, but but I'm gonna start seeking your kingdom first.
SPEAKER_01: I'm gonna believe that you can do miracles in my life.
SPEAKER_01: I'm gonna believe that there is a work in the future way better than anything in the past, and things are getting better because you're inspiring me, you're filling me, you're instructing me, and you're guiding me now because I seek first the kingdom of God.
SPEAKER_01: What do you think he's gonna have?
SPEAKER_01: Well, guys up in heaven going, I don't really want to help you, because I'm really into your past rather than your future.
SPEAKER_01: No, God comes down and his eyes look to and fro for those whose hearts are completely given over to him in 2 Chronicles.
SPEAKER_01: And so the reality is that what you focus on, you get.
SPEAKER_01: So, number one, that's the point.
SPEAKER_01: You can you can eat all the best foods.
SPEAKER_01: You can you can uh not worry about stuff or try to worry about deal with stress and all that, but I'm telling you, all of that needs to be under the rubric of seeking first the kingdom.
SPEAKER_01: So that's the first perspective.
SPEAKER_01: Second perspective is new thoughts, new life.
SPEAKER_01: New thoughts, new life.
SPEAKER_01: So Romans 12, 2.
SPEAKER_01: Do not be conformed to the pattern or the copy of this world, but be transformed, and that's metamorphosu, where we get the metamorphosis by the renewing of your mind.
SPEAKER_01: Then you'll be able to test and approve what God's will is his good, pleasing, and perfect will.
SPEAKER_01: Now I want to, we ran out of time last time, so I want to just give you four transformative truths about thinking.
SPEAKER_01: Okay, so I'm focusing on the head, I'm focusing on the mind right now.
SPEAKER_01: The first three perspectives are all in your thinking.
SPEAKER_01: I feel like that's the most important.
SPEAKER_01: In my job as a pastor, the most important thing I do is teach you how to think.
SPEAKER_01: It's the hardest thing to get people to do, is to get people to think right.
SPEAKER_01: And the reason is we have patterns, right?
SPEAKER_01: We've copied this world, we've inundated ourselves with the internet, we've inundated ourselves with YouTube and all these different things, and so we have this skewed understanding God wants to transform our thinking.
SPEAKER_01: And so here, let me give you four fundamental transformative principles about your thinking.
SPEAKER_01: Number one, you're not a victim of your biology.
SPEAKER_01: Number one, you are not a victim of your biology.
SPEAKER_01: As a matter of fact, research in neuroplasticity shows that you actually can change your biology by the way you think.
SPEAKER_01: So when you hear these stories of athletes who've got, you know, no talent, small, short, whatever it is, and they do amazing things, I'll guarantee you I'll show you a person that in their mind did not let the coach or the or the uh height or the weight of that particular person weigh on them.
SPEAKER_01: They decided to change their thinking and they saw themselves as a winner.
SPEAKER_01: It can actually change your biology.
SPEAKER_01: Now, I can tell you I'm a pretty positive person most of the time, and I'm still five foot six.
SPEAKER_01: So don't take that too far.
SPEAKER_01: All right.
SPEAKER_01: Number two.
SPEAKER_01: Number two, your thinking is the real estate of your brain.
SPEAKER_01: Your thinking is the real estate of your brain.
SPEAKER_01: You can build new real estate of positivity, truth, and love if you capture, if you capture your toxic thoughts and change them.
SPEAKER_01: You got to capture your toxic thoughts and you can change.
SPEAKER_01: You have the ability to do that.
SPEAKER_01: I was with someone last week and in the week before.
SPEAKER_01: It seemed like every week I'm I'm in these situations with people in a store or somewhere in the church or whatever.
SPEAKER_01: It wasn't like they had an appointment with me or anything, but we start talking, and I said, You know what you just did?
SPEAKER_01: And they said, What?
SPEAKER_01: I said, you captured your thoughts and you turned those toxic thoughts into faith.
SPEAKER_01: Isn't that amazing?
SPEAKER_01: Oh, I never thought of that.
SPEAKER_01: No, you did that.
SPEAKER_01: You can do that.
SPEAKER_01: And I see that happening at the road all the time, especially among our young people that are very malleable and really going after God and they're starting to learn how to do that.
SPEAKER_01: Number three, you are integrated.
SPEAKER_01: You are integrated.
SPEAKER_01: You are created by God as a complex, integrated image of God.
SPEAKER_01: When you seek first the kingdom of God and renew your thoughts in a kingdom direction, God has designed your body to release chemicals and proteins that pour life into your whole being: the physical, mental, emotional, social, and spiritual.
SPEAKER_01: How many of you have had maybe something you're depressed about and you're feeling weak, maybe you're feeling sick, and then you get some kind of good news.
SPEAKER_01: Like something comes your way that you didn't expect, and or maybe it's a touchdown by, you know, Georgia football.
SPEAKER_01: You're watching Georgia football, you know, and you see it tell you, man, now that's a great team.
SPEAKER_01: You know.
SPEAKER_01: Only kidding.
SPEAKER_01: But where something positive has happened and you suddenly feel better.
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I mean, that's the way our bodies are made.
SPEAKER_01: So if you're thinking toxic thoughts, you're releasing toxicity into your bloodstream.
SPEAKER_01: You worry and you worry and you worry.
SPEAKER_01: Guess what you're doing?
SPEAKER_01: You're releasing through adrenaline, cortisol, into your bloodstream, shredding your immune system.
SPEAKER_01: Just shredding it.
SPEAKER_01: Or, faith comes by hearing, hearing by the word of God, you begin to think God's word, you can be thinking of truth that's true in your life that releases faith into your bloodstream and it's health to your bones.
SPEAKER_01: We talked about that in Proverbs 3 last week.
SPEAKER_01: And then number four, you can't control your circumstances, but you can control your responses.
SPEAKER_01: You can't control your circumstances, but you can control your responses.
SPEAKER_01: You have the power to activate your thoughts and how you respond to your circumstances.
SPEAKER_01: As you learn to think Kingdom Truth, in the midst of your circumstances, you can turn certain genes on or off, changing the neurons of your brain.
SPEAKER_01: So research shows that 75 to 98 percent of mental, physical, and behavioral illness comes from one's thought life.
SPEAKER_01: Now, guys, listen, this is really important.
SPEAKER_01: I believe, and I think our team believes, that we can have the healthiest church in America.
SPEAKER_01: I believe we can have the healthiest church in America, both in our ministry time up front praying for people, but in some cases, many of you not coming forward because you're getting better in the way you eat, the way you sleep, the way you treat each other.
SPEAKER_01: That's why these small groups are so important.
SPEAKER_01: That's the Amai principle of the Japanese, that being in a small group, having a small group.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, when we went met with Japanese, they just formed small groups.
SPEAKER_01: It was like a drop of a hat, Japanese just form small groups.
SPEAKER_01: So in our ministry in Tokyo, um, I'd reach one guy, maybe I led him to the Lord in a smoky coffee shop with a sig in his mouth, and next thing I know, I've got five more guys coming to the next meeting, all of them with SIGs in their mouth, and they're getting saved and they're getting discipled and they're getting delivered.
SPEAKER_01: But Americans are different.
SPEAKER_01: We're different.
SPEAKER_01: We're independent, we're maverick, we're gonna do our own thing.
SPEAKER_01: And so I have to challenge us to get in, get in one of our small groups.
SPEAKER_01: Get involved in a community group.
SPEAKER_01: And you're gonna get a piece of paper that shows you all the community groups that we have here at the church, be in a community group.
SPEAKER_01: Especially what's happening, what's gonna happen this fall?
SPEAKER_01: We don't know what's gonna happen this fall, right?
SPEAKER_01: I don't know.
SPEAKER_01: I don't know what's gonna happen.
SPEAKER_01: I've got some pretty good ideas of what I think's gonna happen.
SPEAKER_01: Tonight we're gonna be talking about how to prepare you by faith so that you're ready physically for whatever happens.
SPEAKER_01: But I can tell you this for sure.
SPEAKER_01: Whatever happens, if we've got friends, if we've got blood-stained allies, we're gonna be okay.
SPEAKER_01: And for some of you, you feel very vulnerable.
SPEAKER_01: You might be a you might be a single widow, a single widower, whatever, or you and we talk about these things about getting prepared.
SPEAKER_01: I don't know anything about that.
SPEAKER_01: We're gonna make it really, really simple tonight.
SPEAKER_01: Really simple tonight.
SPEAKER_01: And hopefully you don't even have to use anything of the preparation that we talk about, but you're prepared for a snowstorm.
SPEAKER_01: You're prepared for an ice storm.
SPEAKER_01: In other words, it's a win-win, either way, but you need and we need each other in our lives.
SPEAKER_01: So turn in your Bibles to Joshua 1 9.
SPEAKER_01: Joshua excuse me, let's turn to what Joshua 1 8.
SPEAKER_01: Look at Joshua 1 8.
SPEAKER_01: This was my confirmation verse that God gave me through my parents when I was confirmed in the Lutheran church.
SPEAKER_01: And now it's a very, very special passage to me, and I think.
SPEAKER_01: To all of us here today.
SPEAKER_01: I want you to get out your pen.
SPEAKER_01: If you've got a physical Bible with you, I want you to underline some words here.
SPEAKER_01: Look at verse 8 of Joshua.
SPEAKER_01: Joshua's getting ready to go into the promised land.
SPEAKER_01: Listen, everybody, God's got a promised land for you.
SPEAKER_01: God's got a river, you got a river of doubt that you have to cross over.
SPEAKER_01: And I think Joshua's afraid.
SPEAKER_01: He's concerned.
SPEAKER_01: He's a fearful person.
SPEAKER_01: He comes across to me as a fearful person.
SPEAKER_01: So God's telling him this.
SPEAKER_01: This book of the law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate in it.
SPEAKER_01: Underline, meditate.
SPEAKER_01: You shall meditate in it day and night.
SPEAKER_01: That you may observe to do.
SPEAKER_01: Underline, observe to do, according to all that is written in it.
SPEAKER_01: For then you will make your way prosperous, underline prosperous, and then you will have good success, underlined good success.
SPEAKER_01: So there is this, this is kind of a kingdom principle of how we prosper in our lives, how we find success in our lives, and it's through meditation.
SPEAKER_01: Ruan is meditating in the Word of God, chewing on the Word of God, thinking deeply on the Word of God, but also doing it.
SPEAKER_01: What you're doing with your life is a reflection of who you are.
SPEAKER_01: What you're doing in your life is a reflection of who you are.
SPEAKER_01: And you know, remember Flip Wilson?
SPEAKER_01: Does anybody hold enough to remember Flip Wilson?
SPEAKER_01: The devil made me do it.
SPEAKER_01: The devil never makes you do anything.
SPEAKER_01: You do it.
SPEAKER_01: Now the devil could tempt you, he can inspire you, he could fake you out, but the reality is it's your thoughts that make you do it.
SPEAKER_01: So here's health perspective number three meditation and obedience in truth.
SPEAKER_01: Meditation and obedience in truth.
SPEAKER_01: That's really important.
SPEAKER_01: It's really important because being informs doing.
SPEAKER_01: So it's in becoming, it's in becoming something that we do what we do.
SPEAKER_01: And listen, the other part of it is true that in doing you're becoming.
SPEAKER_01: So I don't like working out every morning, but I I mean most of the time I don't like it.
SPEAKER_01: But I I woke up this morning, I work out.
SPEAKER_01: I work out every morning except one.
SPEAKER_01: I always take one day off.
SPEAKER_01: I took yesterday off.
SPEAKER_01: I got up this morning.
SPEAKER_01: The reason I did that was because it oxygenates my brain, gets me fired up, and when I get fired up and excited, I teach better.
SPEAKER_01: Okay?
SPEAKER_01: So I know that the physical informs my spiritual, which informs my emotional.
SPEAKER_01: So I do that, right?
SPEAKER_01: But the reason I do it is because I want to grow into becoming something.
SPEAKER_01: So I do something to become something.
SPEAKER_01: So, so this is what he's saying.
SPEAKER_01: He's saying, look, this is a little formula I would say, meditation on truth plus obedience to truth is prosperity and success.
SPEAKER_01: And why?
SPEAKER_01: This is important.
SPEAKER_01: Why do we meditate on truth?
SPEAKER_01: Because we hear from God.
SPEAKER_01: When we meditate on truth, we hear from God.
SPEAKER_01: We hear God's voice.
SPEAKER_01: Now, this may sound depressing what I'm going to say to you, but take it for what it's worth.
SPEAKER_01: Some of you, you love God.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, most of us in this room, we love God.
SPEAKER_01: We're trying to do the right thing in our lives.
SPEAKER_01: We are going through the complexities of life that we have in our life, but you're not meditating in Scripture.
SPEAKER_01: You're not spending time in God's word, and your life is way over here, and God wants to speak to you.
SPEAKER_01: God wants to speak to you about something and a direction he wants you to go, but he's not going to shout it from the rooftops.
SPEAKER_01: He's not.
SPEAKER_01: It's going to be a still small voice, and it's in spending time in this book that God speaks to us.
SPEAKER_01: And when he speaks to us, when he speaks to us, he guides us into that place where he wants us to be.
SPEAKER_01: But we have to be meditating in scripture, and here's Joshua trying to figure out what to do next with the ministry as well as the military of leading Israel into the most challenging thing, the most challenging battles that they're ever going to face.
SPEAKER_01: And he says to them, he says, I want you to, I want you to sit down with your generals and I want you to come up with a strategy, and I want you to understand warfare.
SPEAKER_01: Didn't say any of that.
SPEAKER_01: There's no place in scripture where it says that.
SPEAKER_01: He said, meditate in scripture and you'll find success.
SPEAKER_01: Isn't that crazy?
SPEAKER_01: It's counterintuitive.
SPEAKER_01: That instead of worrying about all this stuff out here, would you meditate in my truth, hear my voice, and you know what?
SPEAKER_01: I'll restructure your mind.
SPEAKER_01: I'll restructure your mind with what I have for you.
SPEAKER_01: So very interesting that in Philippians, Paul says, whatever things are true, whatever things are right, whatever things are of good reputation, whatever things are pure, if you'll meditate on these things, the peace of God that surpasses all understanding will guard your heart and mind in Christ Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: So it's in meditating, well, here's what John Hopkins has discovered.
SPEAKER_01: John Hopkins has discovered that people who meditate on truth, on positive things, have better stress management and coping skills, enhance psychological health, greater resistance to the common cold, increase physical well-being, longer lifespan, lower rates of depression, reduced risk of cardiovascular disease-related death.
SPEAKER_01: Come on.
SPEAKER_01: Who doesn't want that, right?
SPEAKER_01: Men and women.
SPEAKER_01: Five minutes.
SPEAKER_01: Try it five minutes for the next 30 days and watch what God will do.
SPEAKER_01: Watch what God will do.
SPEAKER_01: You say, Well, I can't do it in the morning, get up early, okay, whatever your excuses are.
SPEAKER_01: Do it in the evening.
SPEAKER_01: Well, I can't do it in the evening because I gotta watch football.
SPEAKER_01: There's no hope for you.
SPEAKER_01: No hope for you.
SPEAKER_01: Here's what Dr.
SPEAKER_01: Caroline Leaf says poor focusing of attention, lack of quality in our thought lives is completely the opposite of how the brain is designed to work and causes a level of brain damage, like making a milkshake with your brain cells and your neurochemicals.
SPEAKER_01: So when we're multitasking, and kids do this all the time, and that's the reason we're having so many neurological problems and mental health issues with our kids, where they're, you know, they're on their phones, they're on their computers, they're on TV, you got the teacher telling them what to do, and all this stuff, all that multitasking, your brain is actually not made for that.
SPEAKER_01: You're causing brain damage versus taking time every day, slow down, no phones, no computers, open your Bible and meditate in God's word.
SPEAKER_01: You are made, listen, men and women, you are made for focused attention.
SPEAKER_01: Focused attention on truth heals your brain.
SPEAKER_01: Heal your brain, heal your body.
SPEAKER_01: Heal your body, heal your relationship.
SPEAKER_01: Heal your relationship with God because you're going to hear God's voice.
SPEAKER_01: That's the best supplement you can take.
SPEAKER_01: The best supplement, the best vitamin of the day is meditating in scripture.
SPEAKER_01: Meditating in God's word, hearing his voice.
SPEAKER_01: And that means just take a verse.
SPEAKER_01: You just start with PB and Jack.
SPEAKER_01: Biblical Christian meditation is slowing down.
SPEAKER_01: Focusing on God's truth with deep intellectual thought.
SPEAKER_01: And this is the only way to find daily soul harmony.
SPEAKER_01: Everybody listen to me.
SPEAKER_01: PB and J, we talk about it all the time.
SPEAKER_01: Prayer, Bible, and journal.
SPEAKER_01: PB and J, not peanut butter, and jelly, but PB and J, prayer Bible, and journal, PB and J.
SPEAKER_01: You become what you behold.
SPEAKER_01: If you're beholding your problems, you'll become your problems.
SPEAKER_01: If you're beholding all your anxiety, you'll become all your anxiety.
SPEAKER_01: The prayer Bible and journal is, let's start with Matthew in the New Testament.
SPEAKER_01: That's a good place to start.
SPEAKER_01: Just take that one chapter and read that.
SPEAKER_01: And then Matthew 2 the next day, and then Matthew, take five, ten minutes meditating, saying, God speak to me, and he's gonna light up something in there.
SPEAKER_01: He's gonna light up something in there.
SPEAKER_01: Write it in your journal.
SPEAKER_01: I don't have a journal, we'll go get one.
SPEAKER_01: Well, I can't afford a journal, then steal one.
SPEAKER_01: I don't care how you get one, just get a journal, okay?
SPEAKER_01: Get a journal.
SPEAKER_01: Get a spiral notebook.
SPEAKER_01: I don't care what you do, or just write in your Bible.
SPEAKER_01: But start somewhere.
SPEAKER_01: Quit making excuses.
SPEAKER_01: Have no time for your excuses.
SPEAKER_01: And then write what he's saying to you.
SPEAKER_01: Write the date.
SPEAKER_01: Write down one or two things he's saying to you.
SPEAKER_01: Meditate on that.
SPEAKER_01: Say, God.
SPEAKER_01: God, I want to hear your voice.
SPEAKER_01: I want to walk in the path that you have for me.
SPEAKER_01: I want to discover everything that you have for me in this life.
SPEAKER_01: I want to be as gifted and as talented and as much of a healer to others as I can be.
SPEAKER_01: My life's yours.
SPEAKER_01: You meditate in scripture, he'll show you.
SPEAKER_01: He'll speak to you.
SPEAKER_01: I don't care what your age is, I don't care how messed up your background is, God can come and change that.
SPEAKER_01: But you gotta believe it, man.
SPEAKER_01: You gotta believe it.
SPEAKER_01: And if you do, man, it's exciting.
SPEAKER_01: It's a joy.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you for listening to the Forn for War podcast.
SPEAKER_00: We hope today's message has empowered you to make a difference in your world.
SPEAKER_00: To connect with Pastor Steve's sermons, books, and blog, visit Steve Holtonline.org.
SPEAKER_00: God bless.