Body Language // Thrive with Dr. Dharius Daniels

us today Acts chapter number 11 verse number 27 is where we're going to begin our time of reading today it says this it says during this time some prophets came down from Jerusalem to Antioch and one of them named agabus stood up and through the spirit predicted that a severe famine would spread over the entire Roman world the text says so that we have some historical context this happened during the reign of an emperor named Claudius and it says the disciples as each one was able to um decided to provide help for the brothers and sisters living in Judea this they did the text says sending their gift to the elders by Barnabas and Saul who we know as Paul I want to teach today from this subject it's two words and the subject is body language body language family a couple of weeks ago we started a series that we've affectionately entitled called listen everyone say listen in this particular series rest on the following Revelations the quality of our life is impacted by the quality of our decisions quality of our life is impacted by the quality of our decisions Allowing God to lead our life means we allow him to influence our choices all throughout scripture we are encouraged admonished exhorted to choose for ourselves what God has already chosen for us decisions matter however we will all be faced with seasons and scenarios where the decisions we have to make are so complex at times so convoluted that these decisions are outside the realm of our own expertise and our own information and when that takes place we need some help with our decision making we need someone who has some insight we don't have someone who has some information we don't have someone who has some expertise we don't have to give us some Insider information to influence our decisions so that we choose in a way that brings God glory and advances our own life because every decision listen to me is not black and white those are the decisions that require excuse me decisions that aren't black and white are decisions that require some outside assistance because it's easy to make a decision when I'm choosing between right and wrong good and bad helpful for me unhelpful for me but what happens when the decision falls in the gray category when it's not right wrong good bad it's right door wrong door right time wrong time do I leave do I stay in those seasons and situations we need some assistance and when we're dealing with those complex scenarios we've got two options we can make what I called a couple of weeks ago dice decisions where we close our eyes pray real hard roll the dice and make a choice and hope things work out or we could follow the advice of a sage named Solomon when he said in Proverbs trust in the Lord with all your heart do not lean on your own understanding you you know what happens when you lean on something you shouldn't lean on it might break and if what you're leaning on breaks you might fall and if you fall you might hurt yourself all because you leaned upon something that wasn't strong enough to carry and withhold the weight that you put up on it and what Solomon is saying is our own understanding can't always hold the weight so he says in all your ways in all your ways whenever you get ready to make a decision that's consequential not what am I going to wear right not not non-consequential decision but but when is the decision that's about to affect your life he says acknowledge God and this is the promise one way or another God says I'll direct your path and I don't know about you but I've I've declared this consistently throughout this series I'm in a season of my life where I no longer want to make dice decisions I don't want to get to the Future and then find out a decision I made in the past was a wrong decision so Jesus if there's any way you can help me before I get started and go down the path where I've wasted time invested energy and cause injury I'd prefer for you to let me know on the front end which direction to go because I followed my own advice long enough to know it cannot be trusted am I making sense so so so so then I can say with confidence there is something that is just as important and at times more important than talking to God it's listening to him I need to listen and and throughout this series we have attempted to explore the ways we believe the scriptures reveal that God communicates with us because if we don't know the ways in which he speaks we won't know what to listen for there's a story that was told of a man who was on the top of a roof because of unprecedented flooding and so he prayed and asked God to rescue him so the Bible said I mean not about the story goes that someone drove through in a speedboat and said hey get on the boat and he said um God's Gonna Save Me then people came along rowing a boat and said hey get on the boat he said no that's all right God's Gonna Save Me then a helicopter hovered above his head and someone leaned out and said to him hey we're going to throw down the ladder get in the helicopter he said no God's Gonna Save Me so he died yeah he died went to heaven and walked up to Jesus and said you were supposed to save me and Jesus said I tried three times I sent two boats and a helicopter are you following me because if I don't know the ways in which he speaks I won't know what to listen for and on last week we we communicated the primary way in which God wants to communicate with all of us and that is through text message meaning God putting his message in written form the Bible and giving us the answers before we have the questions so even if you don't have enemies the scriptures have already revealed to us what we need to do if we run into psalm so when I run into some I don't necessarily have to wait for some Supernatural message to come my way on how to handle them because before you have the question the Bible has already given us some answers it's told us to pray for them it's told us to love them it's told us to be kind to them am I making sense family on today I want to explore and unpack another way that God speaks and is revealed right here in this text God speaks through body language he speaks through the body of Christ other people it's right here in the text here in Acts chapter number 11. it's an incredible chapter if you want to read it in its entirety at your leisure an incredible chapter in Acts chapter number 11 the disciples are experiencing the gospel expanding in amazing ways as a matter of fact Peter has just got finished dealing with people who are upset that a group of people call Gentiles are now being included in the faith he explains to them that this gospel is for all people from all walks of life and we don't get to pick and choose who is and who isn't worthy of the goodness and the grace of God he he he he communicates that masterfully and the Bible says as they settle in this town called Antioch something happens it says some prophets from Jerusalem come to Antioch and one of them named agabus stands up and here it is the text says and through the spirit it through the spirit the text says he he predicted now that that word spirit is a capital S isn't it that's not a lowercase s so when it's capitalized like that that means it's referring to God's spirit not our spirit because some people I'm not going to bother that sometimes people get confused on who's speaking so it says that this is what happened he predicted that a famine was about to hit the entire Roman world and the text says that the disciples then decided that they were going to send Aid and assistance and provide help to the brothers and sisters living in Judea here it is family this is my question all throughout acts we see the Holy Spirit talking directly to the disciples why is it in this point in the passage he decides to do something different why did he need agabus to tell him why couldn't he just tell him himself do you see it I mean God could have easily just told the disciples themselves that a famine was coming but he told agabus and then agabus told them is teaching us something is teaching us the importance of dependency on the body of Christ is teaching us that if any person operates in isolation they are cutting themselves off from the the tools the skill sets the gifts the abilities that God has placed in other people for them he's teaching us he's he's teaching us that yes we need Jesus but we also need others he's he's he's he's he's am I making sense yeah he's teaching he's teaching you and me the importance of paying attention to body language this is important family and now don't get me wrong I'm not suggesting that we should just give anybody access to our ear because whoever gets your ear gets your life are you hearing what I'm saying yeah so so no no that's that is not what I'm suggesting you know I think to properly process this we've got to understand certain things about the anatomy of an ear because when even if you look at your natural ear your natural ear has what's called an outer ear and your natural ear has what's called an inner ear somebody say outer ear inner ear come on say it again outer ear inner ear okay now the outer ear is the part of the ear you can see the inner ear is the part of the ear you can't see and what connects the outer ear to the inner ear is something called the ear canal and inside the ear canal is something that is uh that is agitating but necessary is something called ear wax and you don't like Wax but you need wax because you know what wax does wax stops some debris that gets in the outer ear from traveling down the ear canal and getting into the inner ear because there's some stuff you need to stop before it gets too deep into your ear did you hear what I said because if some stuff gets too deep into your ear it becomes embedded into your heart and it begins to affect your mood and it begins to affect your perspective you know people who are cynical and pessimistic are people who let too much stuff travel from this ear to this ear you need some spiritual earwax to catch it and say you know what that's enough I was having a good day but now I sense my whole mood shifting my disposition is changing you may not be done talking but I'm done listening because if I keep listening what you are saying in the outer ear is gonna get to my inner ear yeah I feel like having a little church right about here every believer has to discern when it is time to stop listening to the wrong voices before those voices get too deep in the ear what would have happened in numbers 13. if Israel hadn't had made a decision not to listen to the ten spies that gave them a negative report you you know what else I see with the ear I see before you get to the inner ear all right so here's the outer ear s the ear canal but before you get to the inner ear it's something right here called the eardrum yeah it's an eardrum and all of us need a spiritual eardrum because there's some stuff you gotta bounce back did you hear what I just said yeah it's some stuff that comes into your ear gate that you gotta get you gotta bounce right back out am I making sense and there's other things that we think we're hearing we need to bounce off somebody in the remember because when you I told you this last week when you're trying to discern God's leading there are three stages there's Revelation that's what's God saying there's interpretation that's what does he mean and then there's application how do I put this into practice if I'm not bouncing stuff off of somebody I can do the right thing the wrong way so so so I'm not suggesting that we allow anybody to just speak into our life you need earwax you need an eardrum right you got to be able to discern okay this is this is just negative right and this is what I've learned to do this what I've learned to do one of my mentors helped me with this what I've learned to do is you know when people come to me and they say something like and some of you may not have had these experiences but I figured it's important for me to talk about it just in case you do have them I'd rather you know what to do when you have them as opposed to not say this and this happens and you don't know how to manage it when someone says God told me to tell you that doesn't mean you need to start believing yeah see just here right imma know if it's God not when you start I don't know if it's God when you finish and if it's God you don't have to tell me it's God because when you get through talking I know that's God let me go to this side over here I said if it's God they shouldn't have to tell you is God on the front end when they get done talking or in the middle of their conversation the hair will stand up on the back of your neck and your eyes will dilate in an amazing way and you'll say oh this is God because no one could have known this unless God revealed this to you you don't have to tell me it's God say what you have to say and then I'll tell you whether it's not as him yeah am I making sense and I know we have seen and we have heard some of the most ludicrous activity being attributed to God people have said God has told them to do everything that that's true that's that's abuse I know it is unattractive it can be a turn off spiritually can it not okay but family here it is but I believe the enemy wants to use that kind of craziness to cause us to throw the baby out with the bath water right so we become so just frustrated by it we get to the point where we want nothing else to do with anything like that and we can be cutting ourselves off from a voice that we need to help us make a right decision we need to make so I don't need to I don't need to abandon I need to adjust and I want to share with you three ways that I that I see in Scripture that God communicates through the body you ready okay number one he communicates through preaching biblical preaching is not just the explanation of a passage they gave us a book in seminary um called the preaching moment and the essence of what the writer is articulating is that there is something unexplainable taking place when the gospel is being preached it's not just words from a Bible being read it is God's way of communicating with his people and communicating the right word at the right time in such a way where even though you may be sitting in a room filled with people it seems like God is talking to you as a matter of fact when you're right in the middle of a preaching moment sometimes it should cause you to look at the person that's next to you and ask them did you tell because no one could have known this God am I making sense it is the preaching moment and so God speaks through the preaching it's not just nursery rhymes and and and religious rhetoric and church colloquialisms that sometimes you can be right in the middle of a season and something in the sermon speaks specifically and directly to the season you're in in a way that is undeniably God and this is why consistency in hearing the word is important because if the enemy can disrupt our consistency he can disrupt you from the very thing that may be the answer to the questions that you're wrestling with in the book of Jeremiah God told Jeremiah he said go down to The Potter's House because there I'm going to send you my message watch this he didn't tell Jeremiah he was going to speak what Jeremiah Was he made Jeremiah go to the place he assigned for him to end up at because God sends the word where you're supposed to be and if you'll get where you're supposed to be you put yourself in position to receive from him and the enemy doesn't want you to be consistent this year he wants you just to come the first month or the first six weeks because he knows you're gonna hit some seasons and some some scenarios where you're going to need an answer but you gotta Wake up shake the cobwebs off and say like David I was glad when they said unto me let us go into the house of the Lord and if I can't get to the house I'ma get online because this week might just be my week to get an answer to a dilemma that I'm dealing with in my life does that make sense y'all he speaks through through the preaching number two he speaks through here it is write these down or type these or log them in mentally if you have a great memory prophetic words and prophetic signs prophetic words and prophetic signs prophecy prophetic words that's verbal declarations prophetic signs that's visible demonstrations prophetic words when God says something prophetic signs when God arranges for you to see something see spiritually it's weird because spiritually you can see and then hear did you hear what I just said uh so prophetic words when just like we see it in the text agabus okay if he's not a weather forecaster how would he know famine is coming to an entire region unless out of nowhere his heart and his mind had this impression that was so strong that could not be shaken that forced him to verbalize what he's feeling am I making sense and there are times when I'm not talking about spiritual paranoia but there are times when our heart may be burden call somebody and it's random it doesn't make sense and we can be dismissive of it because sometimes we're looking for the burning bush looking for God in the super and he's right in the natural there may be times where something you have to call them check on them and you may not know that the moment your heart is burdened to call is the moment they're dealing with a season of loneliness and and going down a spiral of despair not realizing that the fact that you would call even if you don't know what to say the fact that you would call is God's way of communicating to them I see you did you hear me see in Jeremiah 29 11 the Bible says God says through Jeremiah I know the plans I have for you plans to prosper you not to harm you plans to give you a hope and the future I think the profundity of that Proclamation is based on when it happened Jeremiah said that to a people who have been ripped from their Homeland their Temple had been destroyed their lives were in ruined they were in despair they were probably depressed feeling abandoned and they were in a season that they got their own sales into but in the midst of that season God speaks to them in the midst of the rubble and says to them I got plans and I know you're crying but I got plans and I know you're confused but I got plans and I know you feel like you messed up your life but I got plans and I redeem your life from destruction and I'll turn this thing all the way around when he spoke that word to Israel that was his way of telling Israel don't you die here don't you give up here because if you can make it to the next chapter of your story you're gonna be glad you didn't give up when you felt like giving up is there anybody here that knows God knows how to get the word to you right when you need it I feel like having a little charismatic church here I want all my Pentecostal members to point at somebody and tell them live you didn't do it like you believed it I said find somebody and tell them you live you get up you wipe the tears from your eyes and you live you shake the dust off and you live I feel like having a little church at the 12 o'clock service somebody shouted so that everybody can hear you say live live live live live live live live live live live live another day make it another week one foot in front of the other and if you keep walking you're gonna walk into the best season of your entire life live foreign live live weeping may I go and if you let the weirdness turn you off from the voice completely you'll miss your live word when you need it see there's a reason that Paul said in first Thessalonians there's a reason he said in Thessalonians despise not prophecies because there are things that happen that are so abusive so out of whack that will make you despise it all together Paul says don't let that cause you to cut yourself off from a voice you need when you need it makes sense prophetic words and then prophetic signs he just knows how to take random the most random events and communicate a message to you through it like we could have made a decision and felt like it was the worst decision of our life feel unworthy I'm I'm gonna have to deal with this um I think I'm gonna do a series oh that I just got this I think I'm gonna do a serious poll called Shame off you you know that's saying shame on you I think I think I think I need to do a teacher shame off you because the Holy Spirit brings conviction for correction but the enemy wants to bring shame the Bible uses the word condemnation Paul said there's no condemnation because shame paralyzes you and it suffocates you shame would have kept the prodigal son in the Hog Pen if he didn't have enough sense to say shame off me I got to go back home and get some help so you can be dealing with shame and then you can be driving and a car cut you off and you get ready to speak in tongues foreign sometimes don't you I'm not talking about Heavenly language I'm talking about natural language they cut you off but you don't say Jesus that can happen and then you can look at the plate and the plate can say grace just just just just are you hearing what I'm saying just God has these random ways of getting a message to you and if you let the craziness cause you to despise it you can miss messages you need when you need them I'm done he speaks through the preaching he speaks through prophetic words and prophetic science right and number three we're talking about body language he speaks through your pastor here it is no no let me explain to you what I mean in in Jeremiah chapter 3 verse 15 he says then I will give you Shepherds after my own heart who will lead you listen to this with knowledge and understanding now last week we talked about text message God speaking through the Bible now I don't want you to raise your hand I want you to think reflectively on this question how many times have you been encouraged like to read the Bible say get in your word and read the Bible you're like okay I'm gonna try and then you know you try and then you hear it again read your word get in your Bible and you want to say I'm trying but I don't know what I'm reading I just read Leviticus and they said cut the neck of a bird and take the blood and put it in the pan and dip it seven times and put water on it what am I supposed to do with that I'm reading Jesus Jesus said if my eye offends me pluck it out if my hand offends me cut it off uh help me oh come on is that true so what God does is he raises up people and he gifts them with a set of eyes it's not it's not just training it's not school can't give you eyes that's that's a gift from God to open the text and to have eagle eyes the eagle can see a rabbit hiding from a mile away eagle eyes can see things buried in the text that the average eye would miss and so what God will do is he will send pastors to help put it in a way that you can get it like where you actually leave see okay I don't know if I should say this this way um okay when you found the person God has joined you to as a pastor you shouldn't leave church every week confused does that make sense because the text says they'll lead you with knowledge and understanding it means that they help you understand because you can't implement it if you don't understand it and God uses pastors to help put it in a way where you can get it because if you don't get it you can't use it does that make sense and so I know it's a bunch of weird stuff out there I I trust me I know I've seen it but we can't allow the weirdness to cause us to run away from something we need and I'm telling you when I need God's help with a decision it's like it's like the old Hezekiah Walker song anyway you bless me I'll be satisfied I just need an answer I need an answer I don't want to waste any more time I need an answer I don't want to misstep I need an answer I don't want to be on the proverbial hamster's wheel I need an answer and I believe God wants to give it to us through the preaching through prophetic words and prophetic signs and through pastors who will help take the word and put it at a place where we can get it oh I gotta go and my sons were young both of them were very active and so you know if they ask you for a lot of stuff as a parent you get strategic I want some milk I want some juice I want some juice I want some my oldest son used to call it Deuce I want some deuce so we would get to the point where they were old enough to be responsible we would take it from the top shelf and put it where they can get it and that's what God that's what God wants to do many times we get bored at church we're trying to go higher and God's like I'm trying to put stuff lower we're trying to be deep he's like I'm trying to be simple we're trying to be in the third heaven he's like I'm trying to be clear makes sense y'all father give us ears to hear help us to hear you through the preaching you're the only one that can say something to all of us and say something different to each one of us at the same time help us to hear you through prophetic words and prophetic signs help us to hear you through a hug to hear that we are loved and cared for and comforted that we are not abandoned that we are not alone we'll help you to hear us through Shepherds that you give us feed us to lead us with knowledge and understanding and may this season be the season where we make the best decisions of our entire life in Christ's name it will be so and it will not be otherwise amen Clap Your Hands Family you glad you came to church today well listen thank you for watching Thrive I want you to make sure you subscribe to the channel so that you don't miss any of our teachings and remember you can watch me live at Thrive every Wednesday at 7 pm Eastern Standard time take care I'll see you soon

Channel: Dharius Daniels TV

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Id: 09Q99jCO75E

Length: 37min 34sec (2254 seconds)

Published: Wed Aug 09 2023