Amanda Cook // Identity In Christ

all right I'm going to try to stick to notes where we're going to just work our way through it honestly there's there's some thoughts here you guys are getting the full meal deal notes package it's like the premium notes package because usually what I'll do is give you guys more of a basic outline and then keep my notes on just my page basically because it makes me sound super smart and you guys are like where's all this revelation coming from and the fact of the matter is I'm I'm reading it no I'm just kidding it's coming from the Holy Spirit so let's just pray I want to I had a I had a I had a major encounter with the Lord yesterday as I was preparing for this and I don't even know to the extent of what he's going to do this morning but I just feel his heart and I know that he's been building upon things this whole time you know throughout all the sessions every one of them has been incredible he's building blocks he's setting a foundation for us to stand on for the rest of the school but yeah I just feel it's heart for this morning more than have a bunch of words to say so we're going to go more off of that than the notes the notes are there for your reading pleasure after as well so I just want to pray again because that's what we like to do around here pray Holy Spirit I ask that you would speak to us this morning without you these are just words on a page huh good God is you would bring wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of God this morning that you would show us who you are and who we are because of that that you would show us the significance of a human life sitting in this seat right now that you would show us the significance what you had in your heart when you created us what you had when you placed us into motion what you had when you set us in this timeline for this time and for this purpose God to be lovers of you to be after your heart and to know you better to be seeking you out every day to be pursuing the one who created us in the first place God would you show us that would you give life would you breathe life on these words these weak words God instead would you just infuse in our spirit from your Holy Spirit spirit to spirit right now that you would speak to us in our spirit in our inner man right now about the significance that you place there we just call it out prophetically I call it out right now in Jesus name the gold that you deposited when you dreamt us up when you when you set into motion when we were conceived when we when we were birthed into this world God the dream and the destiny that you have on every single life in this room we call it forth in Jesus name Amen all right well the reason that identity is so on my heart as crystal was mentioning you know whatever whatever our life message or whatever God is highlighting to us in the moment it really becomes like the most important thing right now and especially when people have this when they become like a burning message basically when it's something that consumes us it's we start to see through that lens we start to see everything through that lens so even last night when we were talking about purity and we were talking about the state of the world and pornography honestly Jacob and I will often go home and this is a message that burns on both of our hearts is people to know their identity to know their significance to know their value and we'll go home after something like that and be like man if people only knew people only knew their significance if people only knew their value they wouldn't devalue themselves and that goes for porn lords that goes for people who perpetuate this cycle if if somebody like if you look at people who have you know like the big leagues if they're people who are producing you know pornography videos and stuff they're not the enemy they're human beings who have no idea that they have any value so they have no value for the human life because they don't know that they have value and maybe their value was taken from when they were a kid too but the fact of the matter is that gold that God dreamt of when he set them in motion is still there and prophetically oh god I just asked you would reach right now into the hearts of men into the hearts of women who are stuck in pornography who are stuck in that vile disgusting cycle God that you would reach down and you would pull out would you send prophetic messengers into their lives to pull out the gold you deposited in them before time began in Jesus name Amen so this is something that obviously I burned for that we burn for it's a message that consumes my heart day in and day out I just want I just want for one thing to happen and in this session and that's for for you to get a just a grasp of the significance of your life and this isn't about turning inward and focusing on ourselves to find it that's a lie the world world has told us that we need to look inward to find our significance when in fact we need to look up to find our significance all right Genesis 1 verse 26 Jacob talked about this a little bit yesterday he talked about when God and the Holy Spirit and Jesus were dreaming up creation it said that the Holy Spirit was hovering over the waters and they dreamt up creation they decided we need to do something with all of this creative energy that's between the three of us and we need to do something about the love that's exploding between the three of us we have to create something that can relate to us the way we relate to us Jacob I'm just I'm just you know kind of reiterating what he's said because you put it so perfectly this is how we were created this is how man came to the picture God wasn't bored when you created us it wasn't out of boredom that he creates anyone who's creative in the room knows that you don't ever create out of boredom ever you create out of inspiration out of life out of color out of sound out of like I mean if I don't it's hard to define the word inspiration but you know what I'm talking about when you feel so much life in your gut that you have to spill out otherwise you're going to implode that's how we were created it wasn't out of boredom it wasn't like God was like well it's just the three of us this is getting old it's been a while I need something new no he wasn't bored when he created us it was out of an explosion of light and color and sound and love that we were created in the first place that is the foundation he is the author of life go back to my notes we have value because we are valued we have life because he is life were made in His image I love it they're talking about us guys when they say let us make man in our image according to our likeness they're talking about themselves we carry this we carry an image of God an imprint of God acts 17 verse 24 to 28 God who made the world and everything in it since he is Lord of Heaven and Earth does not dwell in temples made with hands nor is he worshipped with men's hands as though he needed anything since he gives all life breath and all things he gives all life breath and all things take a deep breath in right now let it out did you realize that was him holy spear to increase your presence right now ask for revelation on your life and your breath and Jesus name and he has made from one blood every nation of men did well in the face of the earth and has determined their pre appointed times and the boundaries of their dwellings so that they should seek the Lord in hope that they might grope for him and find him though he is not far from each one of us for in him we live and move and have our being in him we live we move and have our being this is a song that I sing over and over again and it never gets old you've probably taken about five breaths since the last one we took that was all the grace of God on your life as also some of your own poets have said for we are also his offspring so basically this morning we're just going to talk about this Scripture all the notes that I have is it's surrounding this it's surrounding the fact that he gives life breath and he also is not far from us in him in fact we live move and have our being and we are also his offspring who let her be we are significant because he released a destiny into existence in us by breathing into our lungs the breath of life I love this Genesis 2 verse 7 says and the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life and man became a living being Adam didn't just start breathing because of oxygen in the air God picked him up off of the ground he actually used his hands to create men he spoke everything else into existence but he used his hands to create you he got personal he got dirty he got down in the mud and he created you created something beautiful and then he picks you up and he actually breathes into you the life that comes only from him are you guys getting this you're not just existing by breathing oxygen he's breathing into you life every single time your lungs expand and collapse every single time man became a living being wasn't alive before that was flesh and bone had all the potential but didn't have the life breath until he breathed his life into him Romans 8 verse 11 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 I love that letter see our significance our value doesn't fluctuate with the changing seasons with our choices with our mistakes or our triumphs it is constant to the Lord don't get me wrong sin separates us from God we'll never know our value apart from him ever and in fact we'll make choices that that take away that that not take away that actually cover up the value that's hidden inside us but it doesn't fluctuate to the Lord he hasn't lost sight of it he hasn't lost track of it to people who are steeped in sin he hasn't lost sight of the fact that he actually breathed them into life and he continues to give them life and it's the grace of God on their lives that actually keeps some living and breathing and he's hoping that they're going to grow up and find him as he pursues them but our significance doesn't fluctuate we think it does but it doesn't this is something that hit me so hard yesterday is so simple but he just gave me a couple pictures I don't want to share with you this morning one of them was just a bit of a diamond ring let's say in my engagement ring if I were to take the Diamonds out of my ring and I were to throw them in the trash and I were to take them to a landfill and cover them with dirt and I were to let them sit there for years and get covered with dust and other people's junk they would still be diamonds and they would still be worth diamonds they wouldn't have lost their value just because they're not in a setting of a ring there's still a diamond right they would hold the same value it's just that there's something covering it up just because we don't know how to treat a treasure doesn't mean that a treasure is not a treasure here's another another picture if a person let's say if a person has never heard about the value of gold they've never ever heard it they don't know what it looks like they don't know what to compare it to they don't know the monetary value the NIP they don't know what gold is right if a person has never heard about the value of gold discovers a treasure chest filled with gold how will they know how to treat it as gold if they don't even know what gold is they won't have stumbled across you know a treasure chest full of gold and get excited about it because they don't know that it's valuable they don't know that it's significant they don't know that it actually holds something right a treasure is always a treasure just because it's a treasure this is so simple but it's true a treasure is always a treasure just because it's a treasure it's not based on how we treat the treasure it just is it holds its value that's the way God designed us we hold we hold value to him we hold significance to him because he breathed the life breath because he thought it was worth it to put his breath from his lungs into ours that's why we're significant that's why we have value this is why I mean we're going to talk about prophetic encouragement later on in the school but this is why a timely prophetic word of encouragement can pierce the heart of a hardest person it's because beneath all of the exterior stuff there's still that gold that's hidden there and someone someone has the love how's the carat actually asked Jesus what Jesus testimony is about that person what Jesus wants to say about that person in that moment and then go to that person and say hey you know what this is who you are no it's not yes it is it's who you are it's what God says about you this is who you are do you not know that yet well no no one's ever told me that they've always told me that I was I was just awful it's easy to point out the stuff that is on the exterior it's the stuff that we put on display for people to see it's a lot harder to pull into somebody's heart and pull the stuff that God put there to the surface but that's what Jesus does testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy that's what Jesus does with all of us he reaches into us and he pulls up when he came for mankind when he came and he went to the cross for us it's not because we were dirty sinners that he just gave up on it's because it was restoring he was restoring mankind to God he was bringing them into the fold again they've lost it they'd forgotten they'd forgotten who God wasn't what that made them they'd forgotten their significance that's why he came he came because you actually were worth it you're worth it to him people who don't understand the significance or value they carry won't be able to see this value or significance of any other human being this is something that you know people get really caught up in if somebody is mean to us or somebody is hard on us or someone is harsh to us or someone doesn't see you know who we truly are usually it's because they see themselves that way the truth of the matter is we all treat people the way that we see ourselves in the mirror in the morning that's just a law that's the way it goes if I see myself as a worthless piece of trash I'll treat everybody else like a worthless piece of trash because I don't have any value but if I look in the mirror and I see what God placed in me and I call it out on myself using the sphere to prophesy the testimony of Jesus about Amanda in the morning before I see anybody man I know how to love them better in fact Jesus commands us to love this way in the second commandment Jesus says to love our neighbor as ourselves it's not a prideful statement we're actually supposed to love ourselves as God loves us that's what truth that's what that's what the true reality of it is we don't know how to love until we encounter the God of love and we receive his love for ourselves and we see ourselves the way he sees us and then we can go out into the world and actually release that on everybody else but until that happens we don't have a clue so then the question is how do we love ourselves how do we get to that place where we look in the mirror and we actually see what God sees and we delight and we know that we bring God delight just by being just by being with him how do we get to that place the first commandment is how we get to that place the first commandment is first for a reason put things in order Jesus said to us Luke 10:27 you shall love the Lord your God with all of your heart with all of your soul with all of your strength and with all of your mind mark 12:30 also puts it this way love the Lord your God with all your heart all your soul all your mind and all your strength this is the first commandment then after that he said and love your neighbor as yourself why because you knew we would get it right if we got the first commandment in the first place let me just break it down for us I'm not giving you an impossible standard to live with the reason why Jesus tells us to love the Lord our God with all of our heart all of our soul all of our mind and all of our strength is because He loves us that way it's not an impossible standard it isn't impossible for you to love the Lord your God with all your heart soul mind and strength but first you need to know how he loves you with all of his heart all of his soul all of his mind and all of his strength think about it this way his heart okay just just break it down for one second God the infinite God the uncreated God who breathed life into you right now today as you're sitting here he loves you with all of his heart think about your heart for a second his heart is pure his heart is undivided in his devotion to you in his attention to you you say his name he's right there he's waiting for it there's never a second that you are that you're not on his mind think about it this way God loves you with all of his mind every thought that he has towards you is out of love every single thought I don't know if you've ever lived that way before lord help us right now we're just trying to we're trying to get our words right we're trying to get it at the root where we're you know holding our tongue from saying what we're thinking but God doesn't have to do that because his thoughts are always pure towards you always always his soul think about it this way the emotions of God propel his love towards you every moment of every day they pulsate towards you his emotions he is moved this is not a God who doesn't have emotions he created emotions because he has them he burns with anger at the things that keep you from him he's kind and compassionate he's moved with compassion all of his emotions are out of love for you all of them there's not one emotion in his heart it isn't stemmed from love not a single one is emotions are always in line with love always you guys getting this he loves you with all of his strength and song a song that says love that is as strong as death that's pretty final love that is as strong as death jealousy demanding as the grave and many waters cannot quench this love he loves you with all of his strength all of his strength is directed at you knowing his love for you all of it all of the movements of his heart towards us are out of love for us there's no other motive there's no there's no hidden track in there there's no catch to that it's all it's just that good he's not too good to be true he is just good and true that is who he is amazing so this is what reveals to us what were worth encountering the God who loves us with all of his heart all of his soul all of his mind and all of his strength and then secondly we respond back to him by loving him with all of our heart all of our soul all of our mind and all of our strength because once you encounter the gun like that there's nothing left to do but that and then when we then when we go out to love somebody else it's because we got this thing going on here we know we're loved we know what love is therefore we can love somebody else because when we look in the mirror we don't see a worthless piece of trash anymore we see someone that God actually fought for and died for and came back to life for and then breathes new life in every single day that's what we're meant to see every day when we look in the mirror all right I want to talk a bit about performance versus sonship letter e this is something that particularly burns on my heart because I grew up for those of you know who know me I like I do music a lot I did music a lot I traveled with it for a while and recorded you know the first time that I went into a studio I actually they couldn't get anything good out of me at all nothing worthwhile like nothing worth keeping because I was in a fishbowl and I was terrified of making a mistake and I had so much performance in me and so much fear of man still in my life that I I was looking for a lot of affirmation and when I did so we had to put the recording on hold for I think it was about five or six months that was an awkward conversation yeah we want to work with you we really do just not right now like in about a half a year or so like just give yourself some time to grow just really give is you know you ever hear people say that just give yourself some time to grow and um so I I needed deliverance more than anything it's so funny actually I've seen the progression throughout the albums that I've done because the first album you can listen to it and it's kind of funny we have lots of jokes going around it because it was basically pieced together word-for-word like you hear the line I wanna be right but in the I never sing like that I don't know why I just did that just for your listening pleasure but in this studio literally they would hit record and say okay I just want you to get the word small this time uh and then I'd be like okay smooth okay let's do daeun smooth like seriously we'd have to do that were like 40 times they'd be like I think we got it now let's move to the word I I'm not joking guys this is how bad it was guys listen to it and think oh wow totally came together just the holy spirit I like to send it on her but oh my gosh it was pieced together like literally word for word sometimes syllable for syllable it was it was really really hard and then the second album was a little bit more freedom the third album however that I got a lot of freedom in between the second and the third and I really love albums for this reason this is just a side note because it really marks a time in my life like I look back and see wow how far God has taken me praise the Lord um but the the third album it was so cool the freedom that God's given me because I had I just I was really over it I love being in the studio now I don't care you know if I belch in the microphone whatever have a laugh there's no performance in it anymore and my producer on the third album would say like let's try to hit that note and I'd be like okay then I go ah and it wouldn't come out right and we'd have a laugh and then move on until I got something but it was real and it was raw and it was it was the real thing and and I knew that God delighted in that so I was just so not concerned with trying to trying to be perfect anymore anyways that's a side note so I'm really passionate about about people understanding their identity as sons and daughters and what that means because it really obliterates performance we grew up in a performance-based culture basically you find something that you're good at you'd do it and then you get affirmation from people it's kind of what the world does it just says find your thing find the thing that you're good at even even in religion I mean that's really a lot of stuff is based on that find the thing that you're good at whatever your gift is whatever the gift is that God has given you get really really good at that and then people will will lavish their love on you and praise an affection and adoration that's that's the way the world looks at it performance however is a fear-based man-made system built out of distance from God that suggests if we do enough things right for God in ministry in life we will be able to earn his love this is I mean I've noticed this in myself too because I grew up thinking like if I made a mistake that God's love lessened for me maybe I'm the only one here who ever felt that way like felt like God was disappointed in me and and he would give me another chance but just one you know but this is a performance mindset it stems from a popper mindset it's the mindset that tells us that we are trash and we'll never be worth anything but perhaps in God's great mercy he might be able to still use us to do something functional but not glorious I hate I honestly I'm gonna be honest with you have you guys with you this whole time but I'm gonna be honest with you I hate when people talk about being used by God only because God doesn't actually desire to use us he wants to partner with us they're very different things nobody can ever say that they enjoy a friendship with a friend who uses them I've never ever said man I just love the way Jacob uses me like I just want to be used by my husband nobody ever says that because it's not true why do we have that in our vocabulary then it comes from a wrong mindset of God it comes from a mindset of God whose distant who's far off who sees us as basically only redeemable enough to be used like maybe I could do something with them maybe like we're the we're the clay right and he's the Potter and basically it's like this sometimes we look at it as though he's fashioning us into really functional toilets instead of a piece of art from his heart that he labored over anyone who's an artist knows this you labor you labor over your artwork it's out of love that you create it and then you put it on display man that is that is God's heart towards us he wants to create us into something that actually displays his glory that's what he's doing with us you're not a toilet take that with you that one was free performance robs people of intimacy this mindset robs people of intimacy because I look at it this way when I'm singing to the Lord performance would suggest that I'm performing for him I'm doing something hopefully that will make him laugh and that will make him cry and that will impress him and I'll be good enough that he'll applaud for me as performance but the fact of the matter is in Zephaniah 3:17 it says that he rejoices over us with singing he started the song before we ever knew how to sing he started the song some would even suggest that he sung creation into being song comes from the very heart of God so when I sing now I sing with him like family and to hear his songs being sung to me it's out of response we're singing back to each other all the time when I stop singing I hear him singing something over me and then I respond to him out of love and then we're singing together that is how singing goes with the Lord we worship it's not us performing for him O God I came I was it's a good like that's not that's not the way the Lord is wanting to encounter us he's saying come come sit around my piano let's sing together let's release my kingdom through song together it's exciting love obliterates performance this is the way God does it in him we are immediately accepted adopted chosen to be sons and daughters and to call him Abba Father there's no performance involved before you could do anything he loved you you came into this world as a baby you couldn't do much of anything hate to tell you guys but you couldn't do anything you ever see a newborn they can't even hold their head up like what's with that I'm just kidding it come on grow up already no I'm just kidding see that's the thing people think that that as soon as they actually do something as as soon as they are able to walk and talk oh now I actually have value but the fact of the matter is God just loved you when you're helpless and you couldn't do anything for them romans 8 verse 4 for as many as are led by the Spirit of God these are sons of God for you did not receive the spirit of bondage again to fear but you received the spirit of adoption by whom we cry out Abba Father I love that you didn't receive a spawn a spirit of bondage and spawned a combination of those two things spirit of bondage to fear but you received a spirit of adoption by whom we cry out there there is no fear and being a son or a daughter you wake up in the morning and you know who your father is it's not going to change his mind the Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God and if children then heirs heirs of God and joint-heirs with Christ so just let's just fast-forward to number three a true son knows he is accepted it's meant to be accepted or knows he his acceptance comes from his identity as a son he doesn't earn it he experiences it you can't earn it you experience it daily by being reminded of who your father is are we running out of time okay okay I want to talk a little bit about Jesus revealing the heart of the Father because a lot of us have different ideas of father whenever the word father comes to mind and we're gonna have a whole week dedicated to this about the father heart of God but I just want to touch briefly on it about our identity as sons and daughters and how we can know that the father heart is good so let's go to number four how do we know the heart of the father God we look at his son and I just wrote this because everyone always says this about sons and fathers the apple doesn't fall from far from the tree he came to reveal the will the emotions the compassion kindness goodness gentleness power authority fire and passion of his father and I love this this is what Jesus says about the father because a lot of people haven't really they have an easy time believing in Jesus but having our father figure corrected in our mind of God as a father is really hard to swallow a lot of the time but Jesus Jesus shows us that they are one in the same they carry the same DNA he came to show us that the father heart of God is good that's what he came to show mankind so he says this John 14 verse 6 to 10 anyone who has seen me has seen the father how can you say show us the father don't you believe that I am in the father and that the father is in me the words I say to you are not just my own rather it is the father living in me who is doing his work everything he did out of kindness every healing he brought was because the father wants to heal it's his will and his desire to heal so Jesus did he revealed the father heart of God then you moved down to John 5 verse 19 whatever he does the son also does in like manner for the Father loves the Son and shows him all things that he himself does ah he was walking this earth in an open dialogue an open heaven with the father talking about how do we release your heart how do we do this how do we share your heart with mankind so they get it they're communing at all times it's like when before creation happened and they were community and they were talking about how we want to create somebody in our image in our likeness it was that kind of communion all the time how do we release our heart this is our heart when Jesus was praying for us this is some of the most powerful I love this this honestly is the thing that's hitting my spirit right now this is when I started crying yesterday so I just asked for open ears and eyes of our imagination to be open right now to encounter this in Jesus name Jesus when he raised from the dead and went and went to be with the father he's seated at the right hand of the Father right now and it says in the word that he ever lives to make intercession for us he's praying for us right now Jesus is on your side and he intercedes for you day and night and on earth there's this there's this whole section of him praying right before he went to the cross for us it's some of the most powerful words in the Bible I'm convinced because they're from the their the Word made flesh praying the word giving life to it giving prophecy to it so just let it fall in your spirit I'm going to read this whole section John 17 verse 22 26 I do not pray for these alone but also for those who will believe in me through their word he was praying for us back then those who will believe guys he was thinking about you right then do you understand this he was thinking about you right then he was praying for you right then that they all may be one as you Father are in me and I in you that they also may be one in us that the world may believe that you sent me and the glory which you gave me I have given them that they may be one just as we are one I in them and you and me ah that they may be made perfect in one end of the world may know that you have sent me O God show them that it's you who sent me that it's you who sent me and it's you who created the world that it's you who delivered the Israelites said it's you who I'm the promised Messiah sent from you show them that it's you it's always been you all along it's been you show them this I want them to know you the way that I know you it's the same thing that was happening before we were created I want them to know you and relate to you the way I know you and relate to you as a son that's what he's praying for for us the Messiah is praying for us guys this is huge huh that the world may know that you have sent me and have loved them as you have loved me he loves us the way he loves Jesus father I desire that they also whom you gave me may be with me where I am it says that we are seated in Christ in heavenly places that's an answer to his prayer are you getting this this is crazy he prayed that we may be with him where he is and that is happening he answers prayer that they may behold my glory which you have given me so when we go to revelation and we study the glory of Jesus the man Jesus with eyes like fire that's an answer to prayer when God opened heaven when Jesus open heaven invited John up in Revelation to show him who he was it was an answer to his own prayer come on that they may behold my glory which you have given me for you loved me before the foundation of the world o righteous father the world has not known you but I have known you and these have known that you sent me and I have declared to them your name and will declare it that the love with which you loved me may be in them and I in them this is Jesus praying for you today that's crazy basically he's saying I do what my father does do you get it my father has always been kind always been good always been for you and not against you the things that you were hoping for that you were hoping for in God are true he is against your sin because it kept you from him he wages war on the thing that keeps you from knowing him deeper guys he wages war on it why because he loves you that is love he burns with jealousy for your spirit because he knows that every vain attempt to fill your spirit with anything other than him will only leave you longing and empty on the floor he burns with rage against the father of lies who has convinced you that he wasn't in your corner this is why Jesus came to show mankind that God the uncreated all-knowing ever-present glorious God has always been for the human heart why because he created it and gave life breath to it he always wanted to partner he always always wanted a partner and he gave us a choice because that's what love does he didn't create robots he created people who could choose because he chooses us that's what love is he voluntarily chooses us every single day that's what marriage is I choose Jacob every single day he chooses me that's what love is God has already chosen you every single day he's always been for you he delights in you he plays significance on human life by breathing his life into our lungs his soul quest his only purpose for mankind is to draw all men unto himself to pull us close and whisper into our ears his Redemption plan his restoration his story that he's writing in our midst at this very moment all while revealing to the Eternity in the human heart a bit more of his glory and his beauty for ever so because God infinitely loves us with all of his heart all of his soul all of his mind and all of his strength and because we are chosen as his children were chosen as his children he had a choice in the matter the significance of our identity is unshakable says in Ephesians 1 verse 4 to 6 just as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world he was thinking of you back then he was thinking about read the Bible differently he's thinking about you this is about you and him when he said let us make man in our own image he wasn't just talking about Adam he thought about you that we should be holy and without blame before him in love having predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to himself according to the good pleasure of his will he's the author of pleasure I don't know where that's found but it's true thanks in the Psalms it talks about him being the author of pleasure there you go so I'm 1611 write that down just real quick I'm going to give you a couple things we're going to skim through this real quick because I want to get to get to something else um it's just basically the significance of you you might I know how this goes I remember sitting in talks like this and thinking oh yeah that's really cool that's for the person over there but not really for me I really want it to hit home that it's really specific God is really really personal guys he doesn't just look at all mankind and make grand sweeping gestures you know that all men will know me and then you come up to him and say hey God remember me oh no I don't you're just one of the masses that's not how he is he knows you by name so the significant who when where why and what of you I just wrote and we'll go through this kind of quick but just really ask the Lord we're going to get to time of asking the Lord about this the who of you you have a name you're a person you have a personality and you have a fingerprint did you know that there's not a single human being in all of history and all the future of the world who will carry your fingerprint not a single one not a single one you're the only person you're the only Dana the only one who carries the DNA that you have you're the only one the only human being he's that specific the one of you I thought this is cool God isn't confined by time right we're in a time line God isn't confined by time he sees he sees it like a whole train we're on the train at a certain part in the train but he sees the whole train from beginning to end all the history of the future of the world so your timeline your birthday that was that was significant the fact that you're alive in this moment in history is significant for that exact time there's no accident to how you came into the world no matter if your parents were deciding on having you or not it really didn't have a choice in the matter conception starts with God you were purposed for this time out of the entire history of the world and the future yet to come this time was set out for you specifically it was set out the mark that you leave on the world in this 80 years or however many years that you get it's significant because you chose you for this time the ware of you you grew up in a culture a family unit however dysfunctional it may be it is a specific culture and it becomes our normal you know we all grew up in different places different things that help actually like help us sometimes help us sometimes hinder us become who we are and how we think right and the Lord can break into things and rewire things that have been we've been trained wrong in we've been taught wrong but there's also some things that are that are just wonderful about you that you grew up in a certain culture and that you carry with you and that you actually have an effect you have a prophetic effect on that culture because you are from there I have a prophetic effect on Canada because I'm from Canada I'm Canadian I can speak to Canadians like nobody else can sorry Antonio Christo I'm just kidding but there's something about that you go to your culture you release something you represent something in the heavenlies about your culture about your people in Jesus name and the why of you why are you here a lot of people asked this question many many times over why are you here why are we living you have a purpose a god-given assignment no one else is called to do exactly what you do and bring exactly what you bring to the earth in this time and place you were purposed for this generation to fulfill the purpose of God in your life for your generation and the ones ahead it says about King David in the Bible and act I'm just going to go to it acts 13 36 is that he served the purpose of God in his own generation that is a powerful testimony I want that to be my testimony I don't want to spend much time wondering why I'm here I know why I'm here it's to know the Creator to gaze upon his beauty the first commandment to love him with all of my heart all my soul all my mind all my strengthen did to release his kingdom through partnership in love to the world let's let's stop making it way more confusing than it is everyone's looking for meaning and things that they do and and hobbies and flitting around as though you know meaning in life actually comes from stuff we do it doesn't the meaning of life comes from your encounter with God it comes from knowing the significance that you carry because he breathed his life into you and then when you walked away he sent to some Jesus to come and get you and bring you back into the fold because you forgot what your father looked like I'm going to let you read about the what of you kind of just talked a little bit about it but people keep searching for the meaning of life by doing something they're good at and even in ministry this is something I find a lot of people find they're they're tripped up over their calling they're tripped up over that thing that they're meant to do right and a lot of people find it in that ministry calling that they do like if it's speaking or if it's worship leading or if it's a musician oh I'm just called to be a worship leader my calling is to be a worshiper and to be a lover of Jesus I just lead worship because it's too much fun and I just love to see people encounter him it's out of the overflow of being a daughter that I get to do it that's it if it was taken away if the platform was taken away tomorrow I wouldn't I wouldn't care it's not about that it's not in what you're going to do your calling isn't what you do honestly if you're going to burn for something just burn for the one thing Psalm 27 to behold his beauty to set your gaze on him everything else will be ironed out when you when you're sent to speak then it's not going to be a matter of picking a topic that's really relevant to the culture it's going to be because you burn with a message and you're a voice and you're seated in heavenly places with Christ in Christ you have the mind of Christ and you release that however it comes out if it's through art if it's through accounting it fits through you know law if it's through being a policeman if it's through teaching whatever it is that's just your medium that's just the thing you do to release it because it's fun music is fun for me I know that sounds kind of simple but it really is my encounters with God aren't limited to music ever man if they were that'd be really sad yesterday I didn't need I didn't need music to encounter him music is powerful don't get me wrong I could do a whole talk about that too and worship in music it's a really powerful thing but men when we commune with the Holy Spirit like Sarah was talking to us about our fellowshipping with him we're confessing with our words agreeing with the word and prophesying into our life by giving by giving voice to the word in our life and inviting life into our life it's I mean it's an encounter waiting for it to happen God doesn't encounter waiting to happen for you every moment of every single day there doesn't have to be a single second that you go by bored ever or searching for that one thing that you're called to do anymore one thing were called to one thing to be fascinated by his beauty all the days of our life to be fascinated guys he's going to open the eyes of your imagination in this internship I believe this we're going to end here he's going to open the eyes of your imagination some of you have maybe been taught that your imagination is a bad place where fantasy happens that's you know what that is true when we when we submit our imagination to sin into the flesh but when we submit our imagination to the Holy Spirit it's a beautiful place God created it he doesn't make junk he created you with an imagination to encounter him in it because he knew that our human vision would be limited we needed something that could actually commune with the Most High God and could get things in our spirit that these eyes don't get so I'm just going to pray for that right now you guys can close your eyes Holy Spirit I ask that you would open the eyes of our imagination today I ask that you would show us who you are and that you would show us who the Father heart of God is he would show us the man Jesus he's seated next to him at the right hand of the Father who intercedes for us day in and day out god I ask that you would paint pictures on our imagination right now in Jesus name of the glory of God fascinate us with your beauty we want to be taken in we want to be consumed with one thing and that is you God I also ask that today that you would paint on our imagination the significance that you've placed in a human heart the meaning that we have to you show us how you delight over us with singing show us how we bring you delight just by being your creation just by being who we were created to be show us how to love you with all of our heart soul mind and strength show us how to receive your love completely God I just pray that every heart would be open for the next two months for you to write on our heart your truth it's a blank canvas God go to town just that's just paint just paint on our hearts in Jesus name Amen thanks is because He loves us that way it's not an impossible standard it isn't impossible for you to love the Lord your God with all of your heart soul mind and strength but first you need to know how he loves you with all of his heart all of his soul all of his mind and all of his strength think about it this way his heart okay just just break it down for one second God the infinite God the uncreated God who breathed life into you right now today as you're sitting here he loves you with all of his heart think about your heart for a second his heart is pure his heart is undivided in his devotion to you in his attention to you you say his name he's right there he's waiting for it there's never a second that you are that you're not on his mind think about it this way God loves you with all of his mind every thought that he has towards you is out of love every single thought I don't know if you've ever lived that way before lord help us right now we're just trying to we're trying to get our words right we're trying to get it at the root where we're you know holding our tongue from saying what we're thinking but God doesn't have to do that because his thoughts are always pure towards you always always his soul think about it this way the emotions of God propel his love towards you every moment of every day they pulsate towards you his emotions he is moved this is not a God who doesn't have emotions he created emotions because he has them he burns with anger at the things that keep you from him he's kind and compassionate he's moved with compassion all of his emotions are out of love for you all of them there's not one emotion in his heart it isn't stemmed from love not a single one his emotions are always in line with love always you guys get in this he loves you with all of his strength and song of songs it says love that is as strong as death that's pretty final love that is as strong as death jealousy demanding as the grave and many waters cannot quench this love he loves you with all of his strength all of his strength is directed at you knowing his love for you all of it all of the movements of his heart towards us are out of love for us there's no other motive there's no there's no hidden track in there there's no catch to that it's all it's just that good he's not too good to be true he is just good and true that is who he is amazing so this is what reveals to us what were worth encountering the God who loves us with all of his heart all of his soul all of his mind and all of his strength and then secondly we respond back to him by loving him with all of our heart all of our soul all of our mind and all of our strength because once you encounter the God like that there's nothing left to do but that and then when we then when we go out to love somebody else it's because we got this thing going on here we know we're loved we know what love is therefore we can love somebody else because when we look in the mirror we don't see a worthless piece of trash anymore we see someone that God actually fought for and died for and came back to life for and then breathes new life in every single day that's what we're meant to see every day when we look in the mirror all right I want to talk a bit about performance versus sonship letter e this is something that particularly burns on my heart because I grew up for those of you know who know me I like I do music a lot I did music a lot I traveled with it for a while and recorded you know the first time that I went into a studio I actually they couldn't get anything good out of me at all nothing worthwhile like nothing worth keeping because I was in a fishbowl and I was terrified of making a mistake and I had so much performance in me and so much fear of man still in my life that I I was looking for a lot of affirmation and what I did so we had to put the recording on hold for I think it was about five or six months that was an awkward conversation yeah we want to work with you we really do just not right now like in about a half a year or so like just give yourself some time to grow just really give is you know you ever hear people say that just give yourself some time to grow and um so I I needed deliverance more than anything it's so funny actually I've seen the progression throughout the albums that I've done because the first album you can listen to it and it's kind of funny we have lots of jokes going around it because it was basically pieced together word-for-word like you hear the line I want to be right but in the I never sing like that I don't know why I just did that just for your listening pleasure but in this studio literally they would hit record and say okay I just want you to get the words small this time huh and then I'd be like okay smooth okay let's do daeun like seriously we'd have to do that were like 40 times they'd be like I think we got it now let's move to the word I am not joking guys this is how bad it was you guys listen to anything oh wow totally came together just the Holy Spirit I like to send it on her but oh my gosh it was pieced together like literally word for words sometimes syllable for syllable it was it was really really hard and then the second album was a little bit more freedom the third album however I got a lot of freedom in between the second and the third and I really love albums for this reason this is just a side note because it really marks a time in my life like I look back and see wow how far God has taken me praise the Lord um but the the third album it was so cool the freedom that God's given me because I I just I was really over it I love being in the studio now I don't care you know if I belch in the microphone whatever have a laugh there's no performance in it anymore and my producer on the third album would say like let's try to hit that note and I'd be like okay then I go and it wouldn't come out right and we'd have a laugh and then move on until I got something but it was real and it was raw and it was it was the real thing and and I knew that God delighted in that so I was just so not concerned with trying to trying to be perfect anymore anyways that's a side note so I'm really passionate about about people understanding their identity as sons and daughters and what that means because it really obliterates performance we grew up in a performance-based culture basically you find something that you're good at you do it and then you get affirmation from people it's kind of what the world does it just says find your thing find the thing that you're good at even even in religion I mean that's really a lot of stuff is based on that find the thing that you're good at whatever your gift is whatever the gift is that God has given you get really really good at that and then people will will lavish their love on you and praise and affection and adoration that's that's the way the world looks at it performance however is a fear-based man-made system built out of distance from God that suggests if we do enough things right for God in minute Street in life we will be able to earn his love this is I mean I've noticed this in myself too because I grew up thinking like if I made a mistake that God's love lessened for me maybe I'm the only one here who ever felt that way like felt like God was disappointed in me and and he would give me another chance but just one you know but this is a performance mindset it stems from a popper mindset it's the mindset that tells us that we are trash and we'll never be worth anything but perhaps in God's great mercy he might be able to still use us to do something functional but not glorious I hate I honestly I'm gonna be honest with you have you guys with you this whole time but I'm gonna be honest with you I hate when people talk about being used by God only because God doesn't actually desire to use us he wants to partner with us they're very different things nobody can ever say that they enjoy a friendship with a friend who uses them I've never ever said man I just love the way Jakob uses me like I just want to be used by my husband nobody ever says that because it's not true why do we have that in our vocabulary then it comes from a wrong mindset of God it comes from a mindset of God who's distant he's far off who sees us as basically only redeemable enough to be used like maybe I could do something with them maybe like where the where the clay right and he's the Potter and basically it's like this sometimes we look at it as though he's fashioning us into really functional toilets instead of a piece of art from his heart that he labored over anyone who's an artist knows this you labor you labor over your artwork it's out of love that you create it and then you put it on display man that is that is God's heart towards us he wants to create us into something that actually displays his glory that's what he's doing with us you're not a toilet take that with you that one was free performance robs people of intimacy this mindset robs people of intimacy because I look at it this way when I'm singing to the Lord performance would suggest that I'm performing for him I'm doing something hopefully that will make him laugh and that will make him cry and that will impress him and I'll be good enough that he'll applaud for me that's performance but the fact of the matter is in Zephaniah 3:17 it says that he rejoices over us with singing he started the song before we ever knew how to sing he started the song some would even suggest that he sung creation into being song comes from the very heart of God so when I sing now I sing with him like family and to hear his songs being sung to me it's out of response we're singing back to each other all the time when I stop singing I hear him singing something over me and then I respond to him out of love and then we're singing together that is how singing goes with the Lord we worship it's not us performing for him Oh God I can't my boys it's so good like that's not that's not the way the Lord is wanting to encounter us he's saying come come sit around my piano let's sing together let's release my kingdom through song together it's exciting love obliterates performance this is the way God does it in him we are immediately accepted adopted chosen to be sons and daughters and to call him Abba Father there's no performance involved before you could do anything he loved you you came into this world as a baby you couldn't do much of anything hate to tell you guys but you couldn't do anything you ever see a newborn they can't even hold their head up like what's with that I'm just kidding come on grow up already no I'm just kidding see that's the thing people think that that as soon as they actually do something as as soon as they are able to walk and talk oh now I actually have value but the fact of the matter is God just loved you when you're helpless and you couldn't do anything for them romans 8 verse 4 for as many as are led by the Spirit of God these are sons of God for you did not receive the spirit of bondage again to fear but you received the spirit of adoption by whom we cry out Abba Father I love that you didn't receive a spawn a spirit of bondage and it's ponded it's a combination of those two things spirit of bondage to fear but you received the spirit of adoption by whom we cry out there there is no fear and being a son or a daughter you wake up in the morning and you know who your father is it's not going to change his mind the Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God and if children then heirs heirs of God and joint-heirs with Christ so just let's just fast-forward to number 3 a true son knows he is accepted it's meant to be accepted or knows he his acceptance comes from his identity as a son he doesn't earn it he experiences it you can't earn it you experience it daily by being reminded of who your father is are we running out of time ok ok I want to talk a little bit about Jesus revealing the heart of the father because a lot of us have different ideas of father whenever the word father comes to mind and we're gonna have a whole week dedicated to this about the father heart of God but I just want to touch briefly on it about our identity as sons and daughters and how we can know that the father heart is good so let's go to number 4 how do we know the heart of the father God we look at his son and I just wrote this because everyone always says this about sons and fathers the apple doesn't fall from far from the tree he came to reveal the will the emotions the compassion kindness goodness gentleness power authority fire and passion of his father and I love this this is what Jesus says about the father because a lot of people haven't really they have an easy time believing in Jesus but having our father figure corrected in our mind of God as a father is really hard to swallow a lot of the time but Jesus Jesus shows us that they are one in the same they carry the same DNA he came to show us that the father heart of God is good that's what he came to show mankind so he says this John 14 verse 6 to 10 anyone who has seen me has seen the father how can you say show us the father don't you believe that I am in the father and that the father is in me the words I say to you are not just my own rather it is the father living in me who is doing his work everything he did out of kindness every healing he brought was because the father wants to heal it's his will and his desire to heal so Jesus did he revealed the father heart of God then you moved down to John 5 verse 19 whatever he does the son also does in like manner for the Father loves the Son and shows him all things that he himself does ah he was walking this earth in an open dialogue an open heaven with the father talking about how do we release your heart how do we do this how do we share your heart with mankind so they get it they're communing at all times it's like when before creation happened and they were community and they were talking about how we want to create somebody in our image in our likeness it was that kind of communion all the time how do we release our heart this is our heart when Jesus was praying for us this is some of the most powerful I love this this honestly is the thing that's hitting my spirit right now this is when I started crying yesterday so I just asked for open ears and eyes of our imagination to be open right now to encounter this in Jesus name Jesus when he raised from the dead and went and went to be with the father he's seated at the right hand of the Father right now and it says in the word that he ever lives to make intercession for us he's praying for us right now Jesus is on your side and he intercedes for you day and night and on earth there's there's this there's this whole section of him praying right before he went to the cross for us anyway it's some of the most powerful words in the Bible I'm convinced because they're from the their the word made flesh praying the word giving life to it giving prophecy to it so just let it fall in your spirit I'm going to read this whole section John 17 verse 22 26 I do not pray for these alone but also for those who will believe in me through their word he was praying for us back then those who will believe guys he was thinking about you right then do you understand this he was thinking about you right then he was praying for you right then that they all may be one as you Father are in me and I in you that they also may be one in us that the world may believe that you sent me and the glory which you gave me I have given them that they may be one just as we are one I in them and you and me ah that they may be made perfect in one end of the world may know that you have sent me Oh God show them that it's you who sent me that it's you who sent me and it's you who created the world that it's you who delivered the Israelites said it's you who I'm the promised Messiah sent from you show them that it's you it's always been you all along it's been you show them this I want them to know you the way that I know you it's the same thing that was happening before we were created I want them to know you and relate to you the way I know you and relate to you as a son that's what he's praying for for us all right I'm going to try to stick to notes um where we're going to just work our way through it honestly there's there's some thoughts here you guys are getting the full meal deal notes package it's like the premium notes package because usually what I'll do is give you guys more of a basic outline and then keep my notes on just my page basically because it makes me sound super smart and you guys are like where's all this revelation coming from and in fact the matter is I'm I'm reading it no I'm just kidding it's coming from the Holy Spirit so let's just pray I want to I had Eddie I had a major encounter with the Lord yesterday as I was preparing for this and I don't even know to the extent of what he's going to do this morning but I just feel his heart and I know that he's been building upon things this whole time you know throughout all the sessions every one of them has been incredible he's building blocks he's setting a foundation for us to stand on for the rest of the school but yeah I just feel it's heart for this morning more than have a bunch of words to say so we're going to go more off of that than the notes the notes are there for your reading pleasure after as well so I just want to pray again thanks that's what we like to do around here pray Holy Spirit I ask that you would speak to us this morning without you these are just words on a page huh and good God is you would bring wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of God this morning that you would show us who you are and who we are because of that that you would show us the significance of a human life sitting in this seat right now that you would show us the significance what you had in your heart when you created us what you had when you placed us into motion what you had when you set us in this timeline for this time and for this purpose God to be lovers of you to be after your heart and to know you better to be seeking you out every day to be pursuing the one who created us in the first place God would you show us that would you give life would you breathe life on these words these weak words God instead would you just infuse in our spirit from your Holy Spirit spirit to spirit right now that you would speak to us in our spirit in our inner man right now about the significance that you place there we just call it out prophetically I call it out right now in Jesus name the gold that you deposited when you dreamt us up when you when you set into motion when we were conceived when we when we were birthed into this world God the dream and the destiny that you have on every single life in this room we call it forth in Jesus name Amen all right well the reason that identity is so on my heart as crystal was mentioning you know whatever whatever our life message or whatever God is highlighting to us in the moment it really becomes like the most important thing right now and especially when people have this when they become like a burning message basically when it's something that consumes us it's we start to see through that lens we start to see everything through that lens so even last night when we were talking about purity and we were talking about the state of the world in pornography honestly Jacob and I will often go home and this is a message that burns on both of our hearts is people to know their identity to know their significance to know their value and we'll go home after something like that and be like man if people only knew people only knew their significance if people only knew their value they wouldn't devalue themselves and that goes for porn lords that goes for people who perpetuate this cycle if if somebody like if you look at people who have you know like the big leagues if they're people who are producing you know pornography videos and stuff they're not the enemy they're human beings who have no idea that they have any value so they have no value for the human life because they don't know that they have value and maybe their value was taken from when they were a kid too but the fact of the matter is that gold that God dreamt of when he set them in motion is still there and prophetically oh god I just asked you would reach right now into the hearts of men into the hearts of women who are stuck in pornography who are stuck in that vile disgusting cycle God that you would reach down and you would pull out would you send prophetic messengers into their lives to pull out the gold you deposited in them before time began in Jesus name Amen so this is something that obviously I burned for that we burn for it's a message that consumes my heart day in and day out I just want I just want for one thing to happen and in this session and that's for for you to get a just a grasp of the significance of your life and this isn't about turning inward and focusing on ourselves to find it that's a lie the world world has told us that we need to look inward to find our significance when in fact we need to look up to find our significance all right Genesis 1 verse 26 Jacob talked about this a little bit yesterday he talked about when God and the Holy Spirit and Jesus were dreaming up creation it said that the Holy Spirit was hovering over the waters and they dreamt up creation they decided we need to do something with all of this creative energy that's between the three of us and we need to do something about the love that's exploding between the three of us we have to create something that can relate to us the way we relate to us Jacob I'm just I'm just you know kind of reiterating what he's said because you put it so perfectly this is how we were created this is how man came to the picture God wasn't bored when he created us it wasn't out of boredom that he creates anyone who's creative in the room knows that you don't ever create out of boredom ever you create out of inspiration out of life out of color out of sound out of like I mean if I don't it's hard to define the word inspiration but you know what I'm talking about when you feel so much life in your gut that you have to spill out otherwise you're going to implode that's how we were created it wasn't out of boredom it wasn't like God was like well it's just the three of us this is getting old it's been a while I need something new no he wasn't bored when he created us it was out of an explosion of light and color and sound and love that we were created in the first place that is the foundation he is the author of life go back to my notes we have value because we are valued we have life because he is life were made in His image I love it they're talking about us guys when they say let us make man in our image according to our likeness they're talking about themselves we carry this we carry an image of God an imprint of God acts 17 verse 24 to 28 God who made the world and everything in it since he is lord of heaven and earth does not dwell in temples made with hands nor is he worshipped with men's hands as though he needed anything since he gives all life breath and all things he gives all life breath and all things take a deep breath in right now let it out did you realize that was him holy spirit' increase your presence right now ask for revelation on your life and your breath and Jesus name and he has made from one blood every nation of men did well in the face of the earth and has determined their pre appointed times and the boundaries of their dwellings so that they should seek the Lord in hope that they might grope for him and find him though he is not far from each one of us for in him we live and move and have our being in him we live we move and have our being this is a song that I sing over and over again and it never gets old you've probably taken about five breaths since the last one we took that was all the grace of God on your life as also some of your own poets have said for we are also his offspring so basically this morning we're just going to talk about this scripture all the notes that I have is it's surrounding this it's surrounding the fact that he gives life breath and he also is not far from us in him in fact we live move and have our being and we are also his offspring the Messiah is praying for us guys this is huge Oh that the world may know that you have sent me and have loved them as you have loved me he loves us the way he loves Jesus father I desire that they also whom you gave me may be with me where I am it says that we are seated in Christ in heavenly places that's an answer to his prayer do youare you getting this this is crazy he prayed that we may be with him where he is and that is happening he answers prayer that they may behold my glory which you have given me so when we go to revelation and we study the glory of Jesus the man Jesus with eyes like fire that's an answer to prayer when God opened heaven when Jesus open heaven invited John up in Revelation to show him who he was it was an answer to his own prayer come on that they may behold my glory which you have given me for you loved me before the foundation of the world o righteous father the world has not known you but I have known you and these have known that you sent me and I have declared to them your name and will declare it that the love with which you loved me may be in them and I in them this is Jesus praying for you today that's crazy basically he's saying I do what my father does do you get it my father has always been kind always been good always been for you and not against you the things that you were hoping for that you were hoping for in God are true he is against your sin because it kept you from him he wages war on the thing that keeps you from knowing him deeper guys he wages war on it why because he loves you that is love he burns with jealousy for your spirit because he knows that every vain attempt to fill your spirit with anything other than him will only leave you longing and empty on the floor he burns with rage against the father of lies who has convinced you that he wasn't in your corner this is why Jesus came to show mankind that God the uncreated all-knowing ever-present glorious God has always been for the human heart why because he created it and gave life breath to it he always wanted to partner he always always wanted a partner and he gave us a choice because that's what love does he didn't create robots he created people who could choose because he chooses us that's what love is he voluntarily chooses us every single day that's what marriage is I choose Jacob every single day he chooses me that's what love is God has already chosen you every single day he's always been for you he delights in you he plays significance on human life by breathing his life into our lungs his soul quest his only purpose for mankind is to draw all men unto himself to pull us close and whisper into our ears his Redemption plan his restoration his story that he's writing in our midst at this very moment all while revealing to the eternity in the human heart a bit more of his glory and his beauty for ever so because God infinitely loves us with all of his heart all of his soul all of his mind and all of his strength and because we are chosen as his children you're chosen as his children he had a choice in the matter the significance of our identity is unshakable says in Ephesians 1 verse 4 to 6 just as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world he was thinking of you back then he was thinking about read the Bible differently he's thinking about you this is about you and him when he said let us make man in our own image he wasn't just talking about Adam he thought about you that we should be holy and without blame before him in love having predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to himself according to the good pleasure of his will he's the author of pleasure I don't know where that's found but it's true thanks in the Psalms it talks about him being the author of pleasure there you go so I'm 1611 write that down just real quick I'm going to give you a couple things we're going to skim through this real quick because I want to get to get to something else um it's just basically the significance of you you might I know how this goes I remember sitting in talks like this and thinking oh yeah that's really cool that's for the person over there but not really for me I really want it to hit home that it's really specific God has really really personal guys he doesn't just look at all mankind and make grand sweeping gestures you know that all men will know me and then you come up to him and say hey God remember me oh no I don't you're just one of the masses that's not how he is he knows you by name so the significant who when where why and what of you I just wrote and we'll go through this kind of quick but just really ask the Lord we're going to get to time of asking the Lord about this the who of you you have a name you're a person you have a personality and you have a fingerprint did you know that there's not a single human being in all of history and all the future of the world who will carry your fingerprint not a single one not a single one you're the only person you're the only dana the only one who carries the DNA that you have you're the only one the only human being he's that specific the one of you i thought this is cool God isn't confined by time right we're in a timeline God isn't confined by time he sees he sees it like a whole train we're on the train at a certain part in the train but he sees the whole train from beginning to end all the history of the future of the world so your timeline your birthday that was that was significant the fact that you're alive in this moment in history is significant for that exact time there's no accident to how you came into the world no matter if your parents were deciding on having you or not it really didn't have a choice in the matter Concepcion starts with God you were purposed for this time out of the entire history of the world and the future yet to come this time was set out for you specifically it was set out the mark that you leave on the world in this 80 years or however many years that you get it's significant because you chose you for this time the where of you you grew up in a culture a family unit however dysfunctional it may be it is a specific culture and it becomes our normal you know we all grew up in different places different things that helped actually like help us sometimes help us sometimes hinder us become who we are and how we think right and the Lord can break into things and rewire things that have been we've been trained wrong in we've been taught wrong but there's also some things that are that are just wonderful about you that you grew up in a certain culture and that you carry with you and that you actually have an effect you have a prophetic effect on that culture because you are from there I have a prophetic effect on Canada because I'm from Canada I'm Canadian I can speak to Canadians like nobody else can sorry Antonio Cristo I'm just kidding but there's something about that you go to your culture you release something you represent something in the heavenlies about your culture about your people in Jesus name and the why of you why are you here a lot of people ask this question many many times over why are you here why are we living you have a purpose a god-given assignment no one else is called to do exactly what you do and bring exactly what you bring to the earth in this time and place you were purposed for this generation to fulfill the purpose of God in your life for your generation and the ones ahead it says about King David in the Bible and act I'm just going to go to it acts 13 36 is that he served the purpose of God in his own generation that is a powerful testimony I want that to be my testimony I don't who let her be we are significant because he released a destiny into existence in us by breathing into our lungs the breath of life I love this Genesis 2 verse 7 says and the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life and man became a living being Adam didn't just start breathing because of oxygen in the air God picked him up off of the ground he actually used his hands to create men he spoke everything else into existence but he used his hands to create you he got personal he got dirty he got down in the mud and he created you created something beautiful and then he picks you up and he actually breathes into you the life that comes only from him are you guys getting this you're not just existing by breathing oxygen he's breathing into you life every single time your lungs expand and collapse every single time man became a living being wasn't alive before that was flesh and bone had all the potential but didn't have the life breath until he breathed his life into him Romans 8 verse 11 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 let are see our significance our value doesn't fluctuate with the changing seasons with our choices with our mistakes or our triumphs it is constant to the Lord don't get me wrong sin separates us from God we'll never know our value apart from him ever and in fact we'll make choices that that take away that that not take away that actually cover up the value that's hidden inside us but it doesn't fluctuate to the Lord he hasn't lost sight of it he hasn't lost track of it to people who are steeped in sin he hasn't lost sight of the fact that he actually breathed them into life and he continues to give them life and it's the grace of God on their lives that actually keeps some living and breathing and he's hoping that they're going to grow up and find him as he pursues them but our significance doesn't fluctuate we think it does but it doesn't this is something that hit me so hard yesterday is so simple but he just gave me a couple pictures I don't want to share with you this morning one of them was just a bit of a diamond ring let's say in my engagement ring if I were to take the Diamonds out of my ring and I were to throw them in the trash and I were to take them to a landfill and cover them with dirt and I were to let them sit there for years and get covered with dust and other people's junk they would still be diamonds and they would still be worth diamonds they wouldn't have lost their value just because they're not in a setting of a ring there's still a diamond right they would hold the same value it's just that there's something covering it up just because we don't know how to treat a treasure doesn't mean that a treasure is not a treasure here's another another picture if a person let's say if a person has never heard about the value of gold they've never ever heard it they don't know what it looks like they don't know what to compare it to they don't know the monetary value the NIP they don't know what gold is right if a person has never heard about the value of gold discovers a treasure chest filled with gold how will they know how to treat it as gold if they don't even know what gold is they won't have stumbled across you know a treasure chest full of gold and get excited about it because they don't know that it's valuable they don't know that it's significant they don't know that it actually holds something right a treasure is always a treasure just because it's a treasure this is so simple but it's true a treasure is always a treasure just because it's a treasure it's not based on how we treat the treasure it just is it holds its value that's the way God designed us we hold we hold value to him we hold significance to him because he breathed the life breath because he thought it was worth it to put his breath from his lungs into ours that's why we're significant that's why we have value this is why I mean we're going to talk about prophetic encouragement later on in the school but this is why a timely prophetic word of encouragement can pierce the heart of a hardest person it's because beneath all of the exterior stuff there's still that gold that's hidden there and someone someone has the love how's the carat actually asked Jesus what Jesus testimony is about that person what Jesus wants to say about that person in that moment and then they go to that person and say hey you know what this is who you are no it's not yes it is it's who you are it's what God says about you this is who you are do you not know that yet well no no one's ever told me that they've always told me that I was I was just awful it's easy to point out the stuff that is on the exterior it's the stuff that we put on display for people to see it's a lot harder to pull into somebody's heart and pull the stuff that God put there to the surface but that's what Jesus does testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy that's what Jesus does with all of us he reaches into us and he pulls up when he came for mankind when he came and he went to the cross for us it's not because we were dirty sinners that he just gave up on it's because it was restoring he was restoring mankind to God he was bringing them into the fold again they've lost it they'd forgotten they'd forgotten who God wasn't what that made them they'd forgotten their significance that's why he came he came because you actually were worth it you're worth it to him people who don't understand the significance or value they carry won't be able to see this value or significance of any other human being this is something that you know people get really caught up in if somebody is mean to us or somebody is hard on us or someone is harsh to us or someone doesn't see you know who we truly are usually it's because they see themselves that way the truth of the matter is we all treat people the way that we see ourselves in the mirror in the morning that's just a law that's the way it goes if I see myself as a worthless piece of trash I'll treat everybody else like a worthless piece of trash because I don't have any value but if I look in the mirror and I see what God placed in me and I call it out on myself using the spirit of prophecy the testimony of Jesus about Amanda in the morning before I see anybody man I know how to love them better in fact Jesus commands us to love this way in the second commandment Jesus says to love our neighbor as ourselves it's not a prideful statement we're actually supposed to love ourselves as God loves us that's what truth that's what that's what the true reality of it is we don't know how to love until we encounter the God of love and we receive his love for ourselves and we see ourselves the way he sees us and then we can go out into the world and actually release that on everybody else but until that happens we don't have a clue so then the question is how do we love ourselves how do we get to that place where we look in the mirror and we actually see what God sees and we delight and we know that we bring God delight just by being just by being with him how do we get to that place the first commandment is how we get to that place the first commandment is first for a reason put things in order Jesus said to us Luke 10:27 you shall love the Lord your God with all of your heart with all of your soul with all of your strength and with all of your mind mark 12:30 also puts it this way love the Lord your God with all your heart all your soul all your mind and all your strength this is the first commandment then after that he said and love your neighbor as yourself why because you knew we would get it right if we got the first commandment in the first place let me just break it down for us I'm not giving you an impossible standard to live with the reason why Jesus tells us to love the Lord our God with all of our heart all of our soul all of our mind and all of our stress

Channel: AldenMGMT661

Views: 58,532

Rating: 4.8913479 out of 5

Keywords: Amanda Cook, Bethel Music, Bethel, Worship, 2015, 2016, Identity Christ, Spontaneous Worship

Id: o-jORtfO0oc

Length: 104min 48sec (6288 seconds)

Published: Wed Dec 14 2016