"Enforce the Victory" | POWER HOUR | Ep.171 - 14 Sept. 2021

[Music] [Music] [Laughter] [Music] foreign [Music] good afternoon power our people around the world youtube land and facebook land oh and i've got an echo and i'm delighted that you're here how are you all doing tell us in the comments uh how you're doing what you're up to which room in the house you're in uh are you in your pajamas actually maybe don't tell me that at all maybe that's too much information but we like to hear what you're doing in the comments and uh not just where you're from but uh are you cooking are you eating uh are you watering your plants are you cutting your toenails are you picking your nose no don't don't tell me that one either okay so and some of them are people are saying it's 5 a.m i think the 5 a.m people can very happily be in bed so uh welcome and i'm delighted to have katrina the joy of the intelligent theological powerhouse that is katrina uh she's one of our theologians and done all her seminaries and all her masters and her bachelor of honors degrees and is uh blooming her direct internet is lovely you can't see her so uh yes intelligent katrina always uh good to hear what you've got to say and of course the glory that is sam robertson with a haircut how are you doing good with a haircut we call this sort of haircut in glasgow a baldy because you get all your hair cut off in one and it feels glorious and easy and you know what getting up this morning and getting ready with amazing because i didn't have to do anything with my hair it was so good i could get up and ready in 15 minutes the joy of having um although we're glad to see you in your new house but the light bulb needs sam you need a lump shade in that light bulb well i had a disaster because i bought a lamp shade for in here but then it just looked like i was wearing a hat so i would have come on like like this because of the way the lamp trade was and this is all right [Music] can you do rewiring do you know how to do that no i could i watched my dad last night so i probably could do it now that i've seen him do it i could probably do it right don't blow yourself up or give yourself an electric shock i can do lots of things but plumbing that's the one thing i'm useless at yeah people are saying you're out of the laundry room you are out of the laundry room at night my own actual office which is your own actual office actually with an elephant on the wall yeah from south africa and there's a giraffe here you can kind of there we go we actually probably need a guided tour of your new flat we all might need you to run around with your camera and show us all of your new flat i mean how do we do that i'm like how'd that unhook everything i mean there's a door a beautiful door so you don't need to see your door but that's great katrina how are you doing uh the plant queen with your blooming t-shirt oh we're doing great me and my plants are doing lovely although sam i think i'm gonna have to get him some plants we've been going back and forth about should i get him plants should i not he keeps teasing me about it but i think i'm taking up the hint you would like some help in choosing some plants but my inner plant lady is like yes any excuse to go to dobby's any excuse to go to ikea i will be there i will help so we're doing great but i was thinking here right confession kerris and i have lived in this lot since april and we still don't have our lamp shades up on our main lights either because we don't even see them yeah we're just hiding them so we have the ikea lampshades they've just sat in the hall for like however many months only like five four so there's no chance we're going to get up on like attendance ceiling well i'll tell you what you could do a deal sam could come around and put your lump shades up have you go around to put plants in this house i think that's a good deal i think yes yeah what what are you teasing her about plants for what you're saying to her i'm just saying i would happily accept some plants as a moving in gift thanks for the offer i'm just giving her a list of what i'd like but i'm moving in guests also i do have a nickname for her i call her plantrina and that's because she is the most planned crazy person i know katrina so amber hill is saying do people take the lampshades in the uk when they move house yes we do that would be route in canada well we are culturally learning yes we take curtis we take lamp fittings sometimes even all the lug bulbs they're like bubbles yes and there's no kindness night like leaving a toilet roll for the person who would move into the house after you the whole lot goes everything's possible we take if it can be taken it will be well i have to say that that's interesting isn't it ally mcfarland saying sometimes the flooring yeah if it's expensive nice flooring some people take the carpets yeah some people do take the carpets so i think we've shocked our canadians who are clearly much more grace-filled and mercy-filled and generous in their house-moving techniques yes i don't think i've ever taken carpet with me so no i mean obviously you take your rugs you would take your rugs but you know like the carpet carpet someone's saying that some people take their roof insulation wow that is extreme i've not heard of that before but that is mental that's extreme to take refination that's a whole level of a lack of generosity oh in in canada they include the window coverings oh no we just take the whole lot with us curtains are expensive in the hallways take their kitchens in holland they take their kitchen that's what someone said in holland they moved the kitchen oh my goodness this is a whole cultural thing isn't it we didn't know you could move heist internationally and cause a fence so there we go tony thank you you are recommending spider plants or prayer plants and aloe vera uh to have in the home although my spider plant keeps going brown at the end am i showing a different plant every time i've got a really beautiful one in my room they get really long and bushy this is a spider pump but look how pathetically thin it is and some people take their baths and taps and trees [Music] where are you in the world if you're taking baths and taps and trees my dad would probably take his plants he's passionate about them in his garden yes these are really really expensive like if you were to get a japanese maple they're like i think thousands of pounds like i would probably take that with me a tree with an entire tree well she hasn't really liked the money yet see she's francina yeah yeah okay we're not going to talk about something spiritual now that we have um uh go on there uh and we're going to talk about enforcing the victory these are topics that we love warfare topics we're going to tell you what we've been hearing in this spirit realm and there's lots of actions and lots of liberation today so um i i sat down yesterday to prep i heard the lord say this the foe is vanquished and it kind of stopped me in my tracks the foe is vanquished and of course i'm thinking yeah yeah yes and then i wanted to say but you know to the voice of god the phone was anguished but you know god we're dealing with this rise of persecution we know that's coming oh but god we're dealing with the increase of secularization and we're dealing with the decline of christendom and you're telling me the foe is vanquished and the spirit of the lord says there are areas you need even in the midst of trials even in the midst of persecution even in the midst of misunderstanding even in the midst of cultural change against the church there are still places you need to enforce more victory than you are currently enforcing that's good and then all of a sudden sometimes god shows me satan it's not my favorite pursuit but sometimes i do see it and um i saw satan screaming and i don't think i've ever seen him scream before but what surprised me about his screaming was that he was bent over and he was like squirming in this debilitated way on the floor i actually looked at him and said to god he looks like he's melting i mean is he actually melting is satan actually melted that was the conversation i was having with god and the lord said this do not give him any more permission set the lines of engagement and then when i i saw what satan was looking at and satan was looking at the calendar and the lord said this satan is scared of the calendar he is scared of the diary he is fearful of the marching of time that is working against him for he knows his time is short and the lord says this though there is persecution and though there will be laws that stand against the church he has understood that nothing will fully restrain the remnant he has understood that nothing can fully contain the remnant and nothing he does in persecution or the rise of secular humanism will lock the remnant up and the spirit of the lord says it is time for you to possess and to occupy again and to come back out with a renewed a reinvigorated and a refreshed warrior mindset i mean oh that needs to be me jesus a refreshed a renewed a reinvigorated warrior mindset that you can start to set a new set of boundaries or rules for what is and is not permittable in the space where you are and sometimes we are aware that there's wars rumors of wars we're right in the end of matthew's gospel here we're we know there's false prophets we know there's false messiahs we know that there are earthquakes and all those things that jesus tells about to be on our guard about uh and i was actually reading a list this morning of every war that's ever happened on the planet and seeing how how they are speeding up um oh let me grab it um how they uh how wars are speeding up on the planet and uh uh let me just oh do i have time to read you i mean actually there's and no i don't there's hundreds but the point of those matthew uh i've got pages actually of the list of all the wars that have happened but while we look and read those matthew passages is we're looking at the speeding up of the number of wars we're looking at the speeding up of the number of famines the speeding up of the number of false prophets the speeding up the false messiahs there's almost a concertina to the measurement uh that yes you can get one or two um wars but when they are concertina together you know that you're in the days jesus was talking about and yet in the middle of that you have the rise of a remnant and the rise of an increasingly victorious church in the midst of the darkness and an increasingly victorious church has got to enforce victory more than the current mindset than you and i have sam katrina that's so good and and that there is this invite for us to mature in the area of warfare and to mature in our understanding and i actually heard the lord say and this is quite a strong word for us as particularly charismatic who love warfare that we are still immature in the area of warfare and we are still immature in the area of ruling and reigning and we are very one-dimensional so when we think about warfare i think we think back off in the name of jesus and that's almost our understanding of warfare it's very limited to a certain sort of expression and god is wanting to shift us as the people of god and to a maturity and a mature understanding of how we warfare you see our lives are meant to be warfare not just what we say and what we pray by how i live i meant to shift people shift territories shift atmospheres and my life should be an enormous statement to the powers that be that i am situated in a superior kingdom that is winning and that will always win and that has the final say and god is putting us into boot camp he is putting us into training and he's saying right come on church mature and you're understanding mature in your understanding of ruling and reigning mature in your understanding of how to shift territories shift atmospheres shift hearts and how to live as a sign that you belong to the winning kingdom that's advancing all of the time it's funny i don't think we always roll out of bed in the morning and think yay great i'm a mighty warrior here i come in forcing the victory usually we roll out of bed and go where did i leave my slippers and is there enough hot water for everybody in this house to get sharp this morning i mean that's the that is the reality of how we get up in the morning you know and how stinky are my boys you know i you know that you i wake up in my mummy head not always in who enforce the victory but i do think here's some top tips and then katrina we're going to come to you about our internal warfare i think you need to find something that you can pray that will switch on your warfare mode you need to find a single thing that you get really exercised about and for me it's praying over my children's schools and the very moment i start to say god i just bless my boys in my in their schools i bet that's my daughter in her university but the very second i start that it is like the warrior erupts within the midst of me and in the name of jesus you know and then i'm commanding uh all sorts of things over that uh environment and whenever i drive past that school which i do quite a lot because obviously it's local the warrior in me is utterly at attention and i find if i'm not feeling very warfare orientated or i'm thinking oh you know and sometimes you just forget that you're a victory enforcer you need to find a single thing that when you start to contend now you only make content for like two minutes but it will awaken something up in you to think in that warfare way so don't think oh i need to do better i need to do better i need to be more of a warrior yes you do but give yourself a break and find the thing that brings your warrior to life that's good okay so um katrina we we're going to talk about enforcing the victory out there but we're first going to talk about enforcing the victory internally so kick us off with that yeah and i heard the spirit of the lord saying end the war within yourself and the war within yourself and he took me to ephesians 6 which we love to quote when we know okay our fight isn't against flesh and blood and we see that as an external thing okay my fight isn't against my neighbor or the person that serves me that also means my fight is not against myself and the lord is saying that the days are done where you get to let insecurity rule and reign because your fight is not against yourself and we're seeing that in a lot of the shifts in culture as far as um beauty being redefined and the body positivity movement and can i say that the church needs to catch a clue and realize that that's a whisper of the kingdom of heaven saying the days are done where we are at war with ourself because when we're at war with ourself and we live in insecurity i am incapable of advancing and enforcing the kingdom of heaven because i am so insular and self-focused and that seems harsh to say but at the end of the day insecurity is a self-focus and you're you're petting that demon of insecurity and you say woe is me i hate my body i don't look good i don't fit in and the lord is saying i did not create you to meet the standard of humanity i created you to meet the standard of the heavenly realms and the lord is saying you need to see the model of jesus he walked in perfect humility but he never apologized for who he was and he never apologized for the anointing that he carried and we in the church again we need to end the war with ourselves so that we own in a healthy and righteous way i'm a prophet i am a theologian and that's okay to say publicly and it's okay to say publicly that this is who i am this is how i own it and this is my calling then and this is my specific way of advancing and enforcing the kingdom of heaven and so we need again end the war with yourself and i just say in the comments begin repenting and say lord father forgive me for the ways that i have bought into the kingdom of darkness by giving in to insecurity and i think today's conversation has to be that black and white and blunt that either your kingdom of heaven focused or its kingdom of darkness it is that split and so do not let insecurity and fear and shame rule and reign because they will rob you of the ability not only to enforce the victory within yourself but then to be out in the atmospheres of nations and cultures and enforcing the kingdom of heaven you know where you are and just on a personal note last night i was at a concert which it was really fun to be back out um doing that i noticed the shift because i've been doing the work and the private times of being in a room where you can feel the insecurity around you but suddenly i'm in a place where you're like actually jesus i don't partner with that so help me to tabernacle your presence and your glory here help me to see where the spirit is at work because i'm not coming under that heavy weight of insecurity that i can clearly see around me instead i'm enjoying myself yes at a concert but i'm seeing every opportunity as an opportunity to say jesus come alive in this space bless those who have ears to hear whereas if i have given in to the insecurity of well i'm not as skinny as her or i don't have as much makeup on as that other girl that robs me of the ability to be in tune and in step with the spirit and the same thing you know for the gym i love going to the gym that's you know part of what i do and again that's such an atmosphere of insecurity and shame yet if i break out of that i now have an opportunity to step into that atmosphere and say you don't get to own me and not only that but you don't get to own these people because i'm here to stand in the gap and say i'm bringing them from the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of light and so again keep saying it over yourself i end the war with myself i end the war with myself because otherwise i'm useless for advancing and enforcing the victory of christ because i'm not even living it in my own self and in my own daily routines and thought patterns and just to back that up with scripture we turn to first timothy 1 7 where it says that god has not given us a spirit of fear and fearfulness but power love and a sound mind or sound discipline depending on what version you have and then the partner verse that goes with that is second corinthians 10 5 we take captive we take captive every thought and make it obedient to christ and so part of what we have to do in advancing and enforcing the kingdom of heaven is taking responsibility i have to take responsibility for my thought life i have to take responsibility for my stuff and what's going on within me so that it comes under the submission and is obedient to christ so that i can really live out that first timothy verse and live in that place of power and love and self-discipline and so yeah emma and sam i don't know if you have more to add on the back those are remarkable revelations i think particularly what struck me for what you said there is i mean how often do we talk about um the ephesian scriptures of you know for our restless not against flesh and blood but principalities and powers and thrones and spiritual wickedness and we we look at that in a very outward way of um you know okay well there's demons that i need to to wage warfare i'm not supposed to be warring against that person who's irritated me i'm not supposed to be warfaring against their flesh and blood but i see the demon behind it but rarely do we say actually if i'm not a lie to war against flesh and blood i'm not a light to war against my own flesh and blood that's forbidden by god for me to war against my own flesh and blood i'm forbidden by god to partner with shame and fear and insecurity because that's a warfare and a self-hatred against me i'm not allowed to do it and it's not up well you know jesus get me and no it's an absolute forbidden thing and i find increasingly um in fact i was dealing with a a couple who'd come around to see me recently and uh oh and the conversation is like maybe we need a bit more deeper healing okay you know maybe we need you know referred to a counselor for another session and i felt this force come up within me and usually in the counseling mode i'd go into a completely different zone you'd almost i think you wouldn't i mean you guys know what i'm like in that zone it's a completely different version of me because i have to be mommy shepherd in those moments but this force came out to me you don't need deeper healing you need self-discipline you need a bit of self-control and i thought oh boy i've overstepped the mark because then look at their faces of the shock of that and actually you and i do need the self-control and we do need this this self-discipline to say i am going to stop hating myself i am going to stop warfaring against myself i am going to stop that because how can i ever have a victory anywhere else if i haven't got the self-control and the self-discipline over my own uh thought process because what scripture says is if we're advancing and forcing the victory of christ and we live in christ i can't use the excuse of i am a victim of these things i just can't help myself and i think again it maybe sounds a bit harsh and brutal but i the lord is just so over that victim mentality that's just like oh what was me i guess i'll just have to deal with it and as you said emma like ephesian six is so clear there is zero wiggle room you cannot be at war with yourself and it says in first timothy you have the holy spirit you have the spirit of power and love and self discipline and a sound mind so exercise the muscle exercise the muscle and make it strong so that you don't fall back into that pattern of well i'm just a victim i can't get out of this pit when the lord i just see it in the spirit it's like you're sitting in a pit and yet the lord has created steps to get out and you're refusing to get out because you just want some magic pill to kind of pump you out but yes there's part of this is consistency and endurance and scripture is so clear cover to cover part of our faith journey is perseverance and endurance and that's what this is it's an exercise of perseverance and endurance in taking every thought captive and yes some days that's really hard yet over time it gets easier and over time suddenly you're in a place of freedom and victory and not only yourself but you've created space for freedom and victory for others and so again exercise the muscle and take responsibility and saying this is something i can do because christ has already made the way i just need to use my legs to walk up the steps to get out very good sam i've actually now just put foam from the top of my coffee onto the inside onto the outside of my glasses so whilst i wipe the foam from my coffee off my glasses how do you think you manage that no idea listen we were on a roll talk about enforcing the victory internally well i'm dealing with this you know i think a lot of the time we are too quick to put lots of blame on being under attack when actually we're just self-sabotaging and i think so much of what goes on of limitation and of and of suffering or of feeling pressurized is because of poor decisions and poor thoughts and and wrong ideas about ourselves rather than just always the enemy you see it's really easy to give all the blame to the enemy it's harder to recognize when actually we're self sabotaging and i do think most of the time the enemy just needs to plant a small seed of cell sabotage for him to render you ineffective because once that grows and you partner with insecurity and fear and shame and doubt and confusion and and a mind that's out of control well you're limiting yourself without him having to expel much energy on you and spend much energy on you and we've got to be mature and start to see god am i self-sabotaging here god am i actually doing the enemy's job for him and rather than him throwing lots of darts at me he's planted a single seed that i've let grow and sometimes we've got to say god exposed to me where i am my own worst enemy show me where actually i am my own worst enemy and when you start to see that oh actually i recognize that maybe isn't lots of darks being thrown at me by the enemy that's i i've just not got good control over my mind then you're empowered to make decisions of discipline and decisions of self-discipline that enable you to get free i heard the lord last night speak really strongly to me and a series of brains about certain areas that limit us when we're walking in victory and one of those areas was the area of retreat the area of retreat and the lord says your partnership with retreat limits your partnership with my victory our with retreat limits your partnership with my victory and retreat it means to withdraw from battle to accept defeat it means to acknowledge the superior power of the opposing force and god is dealing with our retreat mindset and retreat to self-sabotage and retreat is a war against self as well and let me just expand on this and take it deeper because i think we can often assume that retreat is just running and hiding that retreat is just escaping and closing the door but retreat god is saying goes even deeper than that retreat is where you're so insecure so fearful that you just blend and just blend in you see here's some fundamental truths your whole life is meant to be warfare your whole life is meant to be warfare your deference is meant to be a statement to the powers that you belong to another kingdom who is the superior force yeah and when you blend in you retreat from a daily lifestyle of veteran warfare when you are insecure and you stop living differently you stop living boldly you start living with a courageous uniqueness to the kingdom of god you retreat from your call you retreat from your call of god to levy lifestyle that is constantly pushing back the forces of darkness and the forces of this world and let me tell you if the enemy can get you to blend in then he doesn't have to be concerned too much with you because you become in many regards ineffective yeah actually you become powerless that your life when i look at you should be a giant statement that says i'm from another kingdom and that's the winning kingdom i belong to another world and that world is the superior force it's not a competing force as the superior force and so we've got to pray as we're dealing with this war inside god deal with my retreat that manifests as blending in and manifest as a fear of standing out because i think the blending in is often rooted in a fear of standing out that's what it's often rooted in and god has to call that in us that we can come to a more mature place of warfare and i think it's that concept sam a city on a hill can't be easily hidden you know you don't lie a light and then push it put it under a bushel in scripture or under a bucket and actually that sense of the visibility of the kingdom of god needs to pulsate from you the visibility of the values of the kingdom of god because you become a plum line in any atmosphere that you walk into and so therefore you do have to train yourself to rip up the contract that you have spoken internally that it is better for you to blend in not cause offense not rock the boat not be too subversive you are supposed to rock the boat because you're supposed to say here is what the kingdom of god looks like here is the light of christ and if you feel like you have lost the ability to enforce victory by blending in top tip go and buy a wild item of clothing that wouldn't you would not normally buy and sometimes you actually have to dress yourself in accordance with what's happening in your spirit oh come on you're a tripartite being you are not just a spirit you are a body and a soul you are emotions and you are brain and you are flesh and so sometimes what we do on our flesh because you know that you worship better when you put your hands like this and it affects your emotions and your spirit you know when you kneel on the floor it accomplishes something in the spirit realm well let's use that principle if you put on something that is wild you're going to be training your emotions and training your spirit about the fact that i should not be one who blends in come on yeah somebody's saying i'm going to wear a superhero suit that would do it katrina yeah and i just and part of that is we need to stop labeling i feel there's such a strength in the word of stop believing introvert and extrovert and that is maybe a bit uncomfortable for me to say because i'm actually quite introverted but i'm more and more confronted with katrina are you actually introverted or is that your excuse to hide and just as sam was releasing his word i'm really having to confront are am i an introvert or is that my excuse to hide is that my excuse to then be small and voiceless and hidden you know oh i'm introverted it's just my call to serve in the background it's just my call to serve in the small ways the hidden ways the voiceless ways when the lord is saying well i didn't call you to be a prophet i didn't call you to be a theologian to be silent and voiceless and hidden and so i think we need to do business as well and the way that we label ourselves as either introvert and extrovert and i know that that's a bit controversial because you know that sits at the core of who we are but as somebody who's really in the middle of that wrestle more and more i'm beginning to kick against that label of i am an introvert and i feel convicted in myself as well to stop saying that over myself and stop labeling that because that creates a limit and that creates a capping but it also creates an accidental permission for me to excuse myself from certain situations and to excuse myself from being in the places that god has called me to be and so just i'm sorry fellow introverts you're not an introvert i just call that out in the name of jesus and we need to be careful of how we take those labels on because it does then feed into that retreat mentality and give it permission because well i'm just wired this way no you're wired as a kingdom of heaven human being you're wired as somebody who carries the most high god within you does that mean you're always loud and gregarious no it doesn't but it doesn't give you permission to hide and so i think that's something we need to address is where are all the hidden accidental ways that we've bought into the kingdom of darkness mentality and way of thinking and then labeled ourselves giving ourselves permission to run and to hide and to me that's one of the big ones that we need to tackle and confront is that ex that dichotomy of introvert extrovert and then well if i'm an introvert then i have permission to run and hide and it's it's not my wiring rather than saying holy spirit i submit my even my personality to you actually what's the kingdom of heaven personality that needs to be made manifest here and i need that to bubble up and flow through me rather than just giving into timidity and fear and running away and so um that's just a very real and vulnerable one that the lord is confronting but i feel like that carries a huge significance especially in the west where we love labeling you know we love being like well i'm this on the myers-briggs around this and the enneagram around this is an introvert extrovert but are we accidentally putting labels on ourselves that keep us small that keep us hidden and just trap us in cycles of just staying the same rather than growing and saying no i'm an image bearer of god that's who i am so holy spirit teach me what that means and teach me how that's uniquely made manifest in myself and in my life yeah i think the interesting thing to katrina is that the word of god just talks about all of us who are christians being light or being robbed in salt it doesn't say well you only have to shine brightly if you're a certain personality yeah that would be nonsense wouldn't it you know you shine according to who you are and actually if god needs to alter a lie that you've spoken over yourself let that happen now let the lies that we've spoken over ourselves now introverts tell themselves lies too you know and you know actually maybe i need to tone myself down introverts go the other way extroverts are trying to warm themselves up it's right introverts are trying to warm themselves up extroverts sometimes are trying to tone themselves dying and god gave us this mixture of personality types so that his light shines brightly right let's talk about enforcing the victory not so much in that i don't war against myself i don't focus inwardly and retreat or blend in but let's now look at how do i enforce the victory because the foe is vanquished out there so let me leave this in that direction and then you guys jump in i think we have got really this is a bit controversial i think we've got really trapped in this in the wrong thought that if i'm enforcing a victory in my nation if i'm wanting to see my nation transformed and changed if i'm uh establishing the concept or the truth that satan is a vanquished foe then i need law changes in my land that god measures righteousness we think this wrongly by enforcing righteous laws and you cannot find that in scripture righteousness or being a mini christ a christian which is a mini christ righteousness or christianity is given to those who are baptized it is given to those who have repented righteousness is given to those whose values are the same as the values of christ you cannot baptize a nation there therefore is no such thing as a christian nation it cannot exist neither can a non-christian nation exist don't confuse the nation and the church only individuals in the church or part of the kingdom of god can be christian no why do i say that because we're spending all of our times trying to enforce victory by changing the rules that govern society by changing the laws by changing the boundaries of action by changing the regulation of beliefs by trying to give correct procedure by trying to give a binding force of the law and that whole thing of god change our nation's laws is a thought process that i enforce victory by domination well yeah not that's just nonsense whereas how do nations change not by law nations change by cultural values and cultural beliefs nations change by heart priorities the ideas that we think are right past dying through generations ways of life through uh that society has by heart priorities nations change by cultural values that are lived that are experienced that are shared where i live a visible example of a value of a different kingdom so if you want to enforce victory and you want to use that to change a nation you have got to have a conversation not about let's vote for a politician to change a law but you have got to have a conversation about what values matter do we value societal responsibility do we value life and we talk publicly about kingdom of god values we talk about them so much that we wash the nation we wash the culture with the values of our king and that starts to stick and when you have values of god in a culture the nation will change and so the problem with our just thinking the law makes somebody righteous or god will judge somebody until they adhere or invoke a righteous law that that unbiblical way of thinking has so corrupted us that we have been silent about what matters to god in terms of value conversations so the world has lost our saltiness because we are not speaking about the values of the kingdom wow this is massively how you enforce victory now i mean we could talk about the law do you remember charles dickens in his work oliver twist says the law is an ass or the law is a donkey if you're a brit an ass if you're american the law is a donkey the law is an ass the law is an idiot and really what charles dickens although it's cited to another philosopher before charles dickens used it is it's saying that the law is foolish and the law is stupid and the law is obsolete when culture changes let me give you examples that which will help it is illegal it is illegal in the uk this is a law of oliver cromwell to eat mince pies on christmas day how did they how did we ever sign up to that is that yeah it's illegal to enter the house of commons wearing armor it is treason to put a postage stamp on a letter with the queen's head upside down and in the uk if a pregnant woman needs to relieve herself legally she can relieve herself anywhere she wants and not get arrested so we understand that the culture changes and laws look foolish and laws become obsolete and laws change according to where the culture is we've got to understand that the culture is the dominant force not the law not the political party and the great thinkers say that politics and law is dying river of culture culture comes first and culture dictates who gets elected and culture dictates how laws change and culture dictates what laws become obsolete so you are always praying and thinking around how do i impact culture how do you impact culture you impact culture by speaking the values of the kingdom of god because culture runs on values yes shared values if you won't speak values you will not shape culture yeah wow and so why is making disciples so hard disciple making is hard because there is already another discipler who has released his values into our culture that is satan and it is almost impossible to see anything of national transformation if everybody only hears the values of satan wow yeah [Music] this is massive do you want to add in that before i i talk about some of the values that we should be speaking yeah i mean as i think it was paul mann wearing from bethel who said the phrase culture each structure for breakfast culture each eats strategy for breakfast i think it's raised and the culture is superior and that your structure may appear right your strategy may be top tier but if the culture doesn't match it the culture will come in and eat it for breakfast the cults will come in and eliminate it by the time the morning is done and we've got to think more about culture than about laws and about strategy and structure those though those things are good we have tried to go about it the wrong way so we've tried to change culture by law we've tried to change culture by strategy we try to culture by structure whereas we change law strategy structure by culture and when we focus on culture these things are changed and what that does mean is that there is a sense of a a slower burn not not not in a bad sense but actually we change culture slowly but surely but consistently by living and speaking the values rather than it just happening over night and so you've got to think in that sort of way yes and i think what stands out to me is like you said it's it's the living and the speaking and i think that's hugely important to understand is that you can speak the values but then you if you turn around and you're rude to somebody or you're anti-kingdom of heaven you've just completely knocked yourself under the feet and i think that for me the biggest example is we are so incredibly verbal about being pro-life and yet we are not living that out by being fanatics about adoption or being fanatics about you know letting the foreigners in or you know so for me you can be you know and that that doesn't mean that i'm you know we don't we do want to talk about being pro-life however how you shift culture is that christian couples and christian families should be the first and foremost in adoption and rushing to adopt and rushing to be foster parents and shifting that law set and that structure set so that it's easier to adopt because they suddenly see these high value kingdom of heaven people saying we want to adopt and can i say that speaks to a core core kingdom of value kingdom of heaven value where the lord has always been for the orphan and the widow and the foreigner and so that's just a very practical example of how we speak it but then we have to live it and we have to are advancing the kingdom through then saying how do we shift then how adoption is done in the uk or the us or whatever and you know we know the statistics that if every christian couple adopted say one child there would be no need then for foster homes and foster care systems so where where where is the disconnect because that that seems like an easy win it's true and really what we're saying here is that our value system of the kingdom of god has got has got to be so distinctive and actually people have to experience our values they have to watch our values they have to have conversations about our values they have to see an example of our values and actually i think it's things like this that that the values that we have are they are there are they are cultural salt how do you stop the decline of society in other words how do you change a nation but how do you stop the decline of society you become salt that arrests the decay how do you become salt by living and speaking values so some of those values are totally shocking so values like this purity is rewarding yeah come on what of all our you know what if all our singles or actually even our marriage our marriage people it's not just about let's not talk law law law doesn't change things so you can't say although it's true we believe that there should be no sex before marriage now that's actually what we do teach our children okay but you can say it as it's a law and you put people off you speak that exact same truth as a value you shift that culture yeah come on i believe purity is a value that is rewarding come on yeah and i am rewarded by having the value of purity my relationships are better yes my my mind is whole and well because i have the value for purity now that works out in that from that value and that relationship with jesus i actually don't have sex before marriage yes yeah so we're understanding the power of value conversations let's push on that a little bit more i have a value for lifelong marriage covenants in fact my value is that there is joy in the unbreakableness of a lifelong bond that's the value that we have now we live it we talk it others come close to us and they experience it so what values are you talking and perhaps we lost uh the ability to be salt where jesus says salt loses its saltiness how do we lose our saltiness because we enforced domineering laws rather than understanding that what christ talks about relationship and values i mean he did away he fulfilled the mosaic law okay so what about i'm owned by god and that blesses me my possessions are not my priority you can see that oh can you can you can you see that in your life the possessions are not my priority and ownership does not own me well or are we giving a value of my debts are cancelled after seven years that's biblical that we cancel debt after seven years that's mercy over judgment am i speaking a value for forgiveness am i living a value that is not easily offended am i showing that listening to be sharpened is a value of the kingdom it's not my way is the only way these are values that we should be speaking and living and that when you wash culture with those values you enforce the victory of god come on so good no jerome was asking why the law was was fulfilled by christ and the law in the old testament the mosaic covenant got fulfilled there are five covenants in scripture and one is the mosaic and the mosaic covenant of the law got fulfilled and the law in the old testament is a sign of a holy god that you cannot get to unless you're pure i mean that's the story massively of the old testament and christ fulfills the law and we come to god not by rule-keeping but by repentance and relationship okay yeah yeah just so that we're clear on that our time's nearly gone but i do want to give you a couple of minutes each just to wrap this up because it's so important uh the concept of enforcing victory through shared cultural values i think it's key again we come back to the conversation this takes consistency and it takes time and it takes a level of vulnerability and honesty for somebody to then see that i'm living out the values not just talking the values and we so see that what's one of the greatest criticisms of the church is that we're hypocritical we say one thing but we don't live another and so we need to do better at that we need to live the values not just talk the values but there's a consistency over time and again i think you know we come to a topic like let's enforce the victory and we think it's going to be yeehaw let's deliver ourselves of the powers and principalities whereas it's more guerrilla warfare where you're consistent and you're you're investing in yourself in in the nation and you're investing by a cultural shift and cultural shifts take time and it takes persistence in showing up every day saying i'm committing to purity i'm committing to living out these values and i think we we have to understand that this isn't necessarily going to happen overnight whereas i think we love the law because that seems like a fast easy quick win when in reality to change a culture takes time and it takes investment and it takes really living this out in a way that people just you know even again going back to the conversation with my pt she just simply observed that i don't swear and suddenly she's like oh i'm trying to you know i'm trying to catch myself and i've i've even noticed it with other clients i'm trying not to swear as much i did not say anything to her i didn't even say to her i would prefer if you didn't she simply observed me living out my kingdom values and suddenly she's wanting to shift herself and i didn't have to do the bible bashing christian thing she just simply came into that atmosphere and thought actually that seems better i'd like to give it a try and so that's just a very practical quick sort of example of that so yeah yeah just just really quickly as a kind of practical top tip then to apply this ask god the question what is a kingdom of god value that is missing from my culture or community that i can begin to live out more expressively and speak more more subversively in the coming days and weeks is there a particular value you see we can start with them all at once but let's start with one that god wants to buy revelation revealed to you as an action on the back of this power hour what is a kingdom of god value that's missing from my culture that i can begin to live expressively and speak subversively because when you start to do that you know that slowly but surely there shall be change and there will be shifts so if you've got teenagers as i do my three teenagers now 19 15 and 13. the conversation is all around the sexuality i mean it's just relentless for them and the conversation is not i tell my friends don't do this because god says no no no i tell my friends that my purity is rewarding yeah god rewards me for my purity and my choices that are not screwing me up it's a totally different way that makes the gospel compelling and i feel like and i'll finish with this thought we are trying we are trying to make the nation christian which you can't do because a nation can't say or a salvation prayer and we are trying to change laws like that helps anything if the cultural values don't change first and i feel like the lord is saying to us today rather than aiming for a christian nation which isn't even a thing could you just aim for a christian church come on could you just aim for a christian church could you aim to lose your mindset of world domination through law and could you pick up the mindset of christ that is liberation through his cultural values yeah yeah wow we went a lot of places today didn't we we did we did joy joy joy joy joy right i'm gonna repot a spider plant after i was given instructions we love you guys remember that our church is now open in person half past ten if you're in the area you're very welcome half past ten and we are currently using i always call it the wrong place tory glenn church of scotland building is that what is that what it is tori glenn i've called it all the wrong names today i've got the thumbs up from katrina and sam torrey glenn church of scotland building we're in there the church of scotland have let us use that premises troy glenn parish church and half by saying you are very welcome and all the other broadcasts and people are saying i hope to be in the area one day yes it does have a leaky roof but anyway it's fine we're all in the building on sundays as we still negotiate on our forever home okay love you guys we will see you sunday morning for par church and the rest of all the broadcasts we do mwah [Music] do [Music] my [Music] foreign

Channel: Global Prophetic Alliance-Glasgow Prophetic Centre

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Id: ekm2CMAsrzA

Length: 67min 12sec (4032 seconds)

Published: Wed Sep 15 2021