Entering In To Full Faith | Shawn Bolz | Expression 58

well when I mention its Palm Sunday and I love Palm Sunday when I was in Sunday school we used to get the palm branches and little crosses and stuff but all around the world especially outside of America it's a big deal Europe and the Middle East they do Palm Sunday they do huge feasts they have like a Palm Sunday it's a holiday they for Christians all around the world just not as much here how many of you do is a holiday see like like Californians we're not like celebrating this could be a holiday you can actually cook a huge feast and bite all your friends over and do this like this is a Christian holiday for real but the thing we're celebrating is the fact that Jesus a week before he went to the cross he comes on a donkey that never been written it was in the spirit of how Kings used to come when they were showing it's gonna be a time of peace and not war if it was a wartime they would come and engage their people's face by getting on a horse a beautiful usually a white horse or a horse it had just been broken and they would come in and they would represent that they're gonna come fight but but Jesus came as a man of peace even before he gained his own heritance by going to the cross and the resurrection he he was proclaiming it was a prophetic act he was proclaiming I'm coming to bring the world peace now and there's biblical scriptures that were fulfilled on Palm Sunday when this happened and the people so recognized something that was happening that they laid down palm branches and they laid down even clothing just to let him that the donkey walk across this and it was such a prophetic act because he had full faith and what the father had promised him and so we celebrate this usually a week before Easter since it is actually even if you've never sober as a Christian in this day it's a holiday so welcome to your holiday today I'm not talking about this today but I just wanted it mention it just because of you know I think it's funny like I grew up my whole life as a Christian and barely did anything about this holiday now I'm like we can eat like a lot of food on this holiday let's do it but I want to talk today about the fullness of faith and I'm gonna I'm gonna share with you something that I think we we have to come to a realization that anything that's at war with our faith we have to overcome as quickly as we can because God has a fullness for us to walk in and live in that's the best thing you ever dreamed up my daughter celebrate her 5th birthday yesterday a little party and she kept saying I I wish this day would never had to end she's five you know she loved the celebration she loved the attention she loved the friendship she loved that everyone gathered around her that she had her big bounce house and that she had a blast you know and and she was in a moment of fullness for her little five-year-old life and it was like she didn't want to leave that moment well when you're walking in a full faith that's what life's like you're so enjoying him present and who you are and who God is and who your family relationships are that you don't want to leave that life and there's so few Christians walking and fullness of faith this way but Jesus modeled this fullness of faith he enjoyed life he enjoyed the disciples even the weird process where they were at in this three-and-a-half years of ministry on the earth he enjoyed them he enjoyed who they were and we we have to be a people who learned this we have to learn how to walk in the fullness of faith because he paid too high a price for us not to experience on this side of eternity we're supposed to experience that here so I'm gonna kind of walk us through a process because I believe my wife just texted me and said I hope it's going well I'm watching on streaming honey honey I love you little Hartley had a little bit of a sickness so she had to stay home but it distracted me in the best way possible it's great I want to walk us through this process because we want to stand in the season and God's giving us an opportunity to to live in love in our fullest version of life then this requires full faith for us to do this and I want to read Hebrews 11:1 this is the passion translation now faith brings our hopes into reality and becomes the foundation needed to acquire the things we longed for it's all the evidence required to prove what is still unseen so when we have faith we have this process in our lives that's going on where even if everything around us circumstances relationships whatever contradicts something that's a truth inside of us we still believe anyways we still believe in something that God's shown us we believe in the truth of the scripture the logos word we believe in the Rhema word the things that God spoken to us and there's this place that happens in our faith that we become unshakable Hebrews 12 talks about that where we we live in an unshakable Kingdom everything around us can be shaking and we're like I don't get it why are you moving so much I'm just I'm fine you know it's we're supposed to be an unshakable people when you live this way I love this cool to verse 67 it talked about living the spices in the same way you received Jesus our Lord Messiah by faith continue your journey of faith progressing further into your union with them so the basis must be progressively deeper and deeper you're never supposed to feel like you've arrived you're an expert you're the one you're supposed to feel like I'm still progressing no matter how mature you get you shouldn't be the one who's like oh I've been through that you should be the one saying what are you going through let's pray about it like let's engage our faith in this moment because everyone's experience is new and raw and real to God and then it says your spiritual roots is still collaging this is verse 7 your spiritual roots go deeply inside his life as you are continually infused with his strength encouraged in every way for you are established in the faith you have absorbed and enriched your devotion to him so you're established in the space and I'm going to go through one more Scripture and then we're gonna talk about this a little bit Galatians 5 we talked about the fruit of the Spirit quite a bit but I love how Brian Simmons who wrote the passion translation with a lot of help from a lot of theologians how he describes this and how he interprets this because I think this is the best interpretation I've ever seen in Galatians 5 it's verse 22 and 23 but the fruit produced by the holy spirit within you is divine love so all the fruit of the Spirit is actually divine love and then he says in all its varied expressions so it's not just the fruit of spirit it's the fruit of love it's afraid of agape love which means experience your love with God it's the love that you have to grow in and these fruits are joy the overflows piece that subdues patience that endures kindness in action a life full of virtue faith that prevails gentleness of heart and strength of the Spirit never set law above these qualities but they're meant to be limitless you know I love this so we're gonna go over just five five things that look that that cause you to see the fruit of full faith in your life and I just want to present to you some ideas because we want to live a limitless boundary-less life of love that have so much faith in it the things that are warring against our faith that we could easily address so number one is that we have abundance holistically in life not just having enough but God's power inside of us is on display in a real way so what does this look like it means that we may have one area that's undone in our life but we have such a holistic relationship with God that even if there's one or two areas that are out of our control unmanageable unless God comes through over all we feel good about life overall we're like no God is good overall we're like I even with that I can see God's full goodness and so I can enter in a full faith and what does this look like for a mature believer I was thinking of a friend of ours named West Adams who and in his teenage years he gets in an accident in playing sports I think he becomes quadriplegic yeah later on he can move a little bit of his hand so he has a electric wheelchair and instead of letting that stopping because he knew he had leadership on his life and he was going after God with his own his whole heart and he was Nazarene he ends up teaching as a doctor of theology at the Nazarene school he starts to teach out of Acts chapter 2 and at the Nazarene school which was a little cessationist Acts chapter 2 started happening so they start to have revived over a number of years and he ended up getting asked to leave especially you know very nicely asked to leave because it wasn't their doctrine and he ended up becoming a father voice of the revival knew it started to travel God so he's gonna go to the nation's he started to travel in his wheelchair even a third world developing countries because he was gonna let it limit him and so when I was around West so many times have been around people who have some big area that's undone out of their control and it's like that's what you see that's what you focus on because that's what they're focused on Wes was so not focused on his wheelchair and he was so not focused on his disability and he also had faith he's like I think I was gonna heal me as a sign of revival I've had a lot of words about it but if he doesn't on next time you know the other side of eternity I'm gonna be running I don't care like whatever happens happens but he lived holistically in full faith even though there was a great area that was undone in his life and this is so important to us that we women you have full faith you know the fruit of it because you're not distracted by the one area that you put all your attention to that's a problem but you're looking at all the things that aren't problems and you're you're measuring your faith by those things and allowing the primary to become under submission of your faith versus to dominate your attention in your focus and if Wes could do it any of us can do it I mean that's a great example my marriage when I first got married everybody told us that we're gonna have a really hard first year have you ever anybody was married had that happen to you so we had leaders and pastors and friends who told us over the first years to hell if you just press through that you'll know you're gonna make it it's gonna be really hard and really look at each time we're like this is like the worst prophetic cursing I've ever heard like you know your wedding that's gonna be terrible your first year is gonna be awful it's gonna be just you know you just gotta like it's gonna be really hard I don't know if it's like they knew we were both stubborn and very independent so they were like you guys are gonna have a hard time but we knew to stand in fullness the faith that we waited for the right person we both were virgins when we got married which is miraculous I was 37 years old that's a miracle in our generation and shree was 34 and we knew that we had waited for the right one so to go on it with an expectation was less than full faith was stupid but we were warned against by even good well-intentioned great friends that were like oh you're gonna you're gonna love marriage after a while so we had to separate ourselves from what they were saying and actually say we're not gonna let their reality define our reality our reality is we're gonna choose each other we're gonna stay humble we're gonna really work through things we're gonna learn how to not be conflict avoiders we're gonna go for this and our first year was so amazing in our marriage and we had terrible circumstances her dad died her grandpa died we had some stuff happened here that was really hard with finances and one of our members who's like a spiritual father died I would so much stuff happen in that year and yet God just gave us such a grace for each other and we just and we fell so deeply even more in love through that year we're like yeah yeah right people who told us we're gonna have a terrible year you know and it's just so funny how how the world will trying to find us it even a Christian world will try and define something out of good intention that wars against you I know some of you have had you know some of your transplants LA and you've had someone tell you like don't go to pursue your acting career your entrepreneurship your college here it's unsafe you're not called to go there it's it's gonna eat you up whatever I'm what a terrible word when you feel like God's telling you to go somewhere to do something and they're like don't do it you know my mom told us when I was in my 20s I was gonna move here but I move into my late 30s but we're mid 30s but my mom was like you'll lose your virginity in Salvation if you move to LA and I'm like we grew up in Southern California if I go walk if I haven't lost it now I'm not gonna lose it then mom I'm fine you know like what's going on but we we constantly have a barrage of spiritual opinions in our lives and someone's control so in stick Tatarstan where people think to mentor means to control your decisions so that wars against the fullness of faith of living a holistic life but I'm telling you to stay in a place of what you've heard from God and stay in the place of a health and that because that's not rebellion to listen to God when you're a grown adult it's not rebellion to listen to God it's rebellion if you have a life of crazy immorality like or a drug addiction or something and you're running away from a healthy clean process to get cleaned up to end or something else but if you're just a normal human being who's not in that phase of rehabilitation then you're in charge of you you don't have to manage something to get better you're in charge of you and so you get to make your own choices based on what you hear from God and that's actually positive and a good thing and you'll never end a full enter into fullness of faith unless you listen to God inside of yourself and sometimes God will even allow people to misunderstand that who are good friends it'll will stay good friends or family who will stay family after that process because he's allowing you to be tested in your faith room and that's a whole other subject but I just say that because if we're gonna have an abundance holistically of life and faith it's gonna be because we've listened to God and we stay in the holistic side of that where we don't let people's opinions rearrange our faith number two enjoyment not just contentment I'm not gonna go through this very long but Jesus did enjoy life and it means that we don't we're not just like life's okay I have it's just kind of just enough attitude I have just enough of life but we have enjoyment of life we have fullness of life John 10:10 we have the full life he he is measured out for us and that's one of the signs of full full faith number three favor not just significance I'm not gonna go over this one very long other than just say a lot of us in the body of Christ or a lot of us as human beings we can have charm significance we can have a place of you know being relied upon but it's different when you start to enter into the faith to what God's called you for you start to be relied upon not because of your gifts your talents your education you start to get relied upon because of God inside of you and people are attracted to you to create opportunity with you and for you because there's favor from heaven and this is a growth process that happens the more you pursue God inside of yourself and for yourself and for the world around you the more you'll get favored and have opportunities that you don't deserve and that you didn't connect and this is one of the signs of full faith is that you start to get immeasurable favor with people then it may even be hard to get favor with and we've seen this happen with Joseph and Daniel and others in the Bible this is very much with the salt conference will address in some ways too but I don't want to stay there number four there's rest and patience that's part of the fruit of full faith faith inside of you and I just want to read Hebrews four that this is how the passion translation verse one through three now God has offered to us the same promise of entering into his realm of resting and confident faith resting in confident faith that's not a virtue that's practiced our generation so it must be extremely careful to ensure that all we embrace is the fullness of the promise that and not fail to experience it so we want to embrace the promise but we don't want to fail to experience the promise and even the journey that leads to it where we have heard the good news of deliverance just as they did yet they didn't join they're faced with the word instead what they heard didn't affect them deeply for they doubted for those of us who believe faith activates the promise and we experience the realm of confident rest when you're not in full faith you don't have confidence in your rest and you start having anxiety you're driven by external fear you're you're driven by what-ifs you're driven by what you know you can tell there's conspiracy in your heart more than their space in your heart you know my wife every once mom when I go through stressed-out period she knows it cuz I'll be on YouTube looking at crypto animals and Illuminati stuff and she'd be like what do you look at what are you watching right now like look what they found on Google Images you know but I never really believed it it's just passing she's like I know you're having anxiety based day because you care about conspiracy through YouTube you know she's like this is crazy but when we're not in full phase we allow anxiety anxiety to run our measure through our emotions and our in our and we put more faith in that kind of stuff that we put in our real truth or promises from God our promise of who he'll be to us and I want to encourage you if you don't have a rhythm of rest in your face in your life to learn that place to learn that that's part of the full measure of faith is that you could be facing the the worst situations in the world and your heart still says I still trust in you God there might be a little bit of doubt but your great measure is that holistic I still trust in you God and there's a whole generation of children of Israel who didn't make it in the promised land even after the miracles so this happens to mature people not just immature people even after all the miracles where God showed I'm with you and they still didn't enter in because they they doubted and the promise and then the first generation who got they went we're here yeah hey we're safe were delivered and we're fine we could just thrive now and they look around there was like there's big giants here and they're still processed so when you enter into the fullness of faith it's not like you you you've arrived you actually just arrived on another level of entering two new faiths from what God has for you because your life is supposed to affect nation so you never give the point where all of a sudden you know I'm here I've done it all now we can just coast the rest of my life there's no coasting for Christians there's no retirement for Christians your promise line equals more work but it's a wonderful work where you're fully satisfied and you have help when you have healthy identity in that it's beautiful it's just so your life will always be fun and I love meeting older people like over 70 over 80 who are like just normal and still alive they haven't had a retirement mindset where they're like oh yeah I went to Costco today there was a lot of work I don't know if I'll go out again until Tuesday persons that people who are just normal they're just people and they're like yeah we're doing this we do not they slow down a little bit but that's not their definition of life you know just slow down there's still 25 in their heart like we're gonna go after like Caleb where we saw promises to apprehend that's the phoneless of faith that retirement mentality that just slows down and has no purpose we were never meant to be that way like that we've done a disservice to a whole generation of elderly people because we've had a model that after 30 years you stop and the reality is a phonus of faith is you never stopped you're still pressing in but you can rest and resting isn't stopping by the way anyways number 5 when you're in fullness of faith you're actually assured and what God has told you I can't tell you how many believers I had the discussion with probably the main ones because of being in the prophetic ministry it's like it's people ask me is what I think is God really God hears my story you know is this really God and when you have God really show you something about your life usually it comes attached with like if you're called to entertainment or something which is a big one here in LA usually it comes attached some sort of measure of love so I'm sort of measure of like I can't not do this because I love people there and I love what God's doing there and so I have to do this so you're not like going should I have an action and not actually direction and not direct shouldn't working camera work should and should I not you know you're not like you're not going back and forth and that's not assurance of faith that's called schizophrenia you know it's like I think I heard a voice I didn't hear a voice I think I heard you know but when you have a relationship with God there's an assurance of faith that uses accompany by the love we talked about in Galatians 2 or 5:22 and 23 we're all of a sudden you have to do what's in front of you and you're not going through a crisis of faith every week about it assurance of faith means that there's not like there may be times where you you question some things but you're not putting the whole thing on the table every every conversation with every wise advisor saying is this the direction I should go that's not how you're supposed to live you're not supposed to live with internal crisis about the direction you have called to inside your life Ephesians 6 16 I love this well let me say Matthew 21:22 first everything you pray for with the fullness of faith you will receive so when you have a confident faith what God's saying you will receive it and so there's a time frame sometimes when you feel like you've received something because sometimes you get in the spirit first and then it manifests the natural and we have to learn how to do that there's things I'm praying for what I'm saying God like the house that we bought I'm praying to be completely mortgage free at a certain period of time so I'm saying god I received that and I remember one time I said God I know you wanted this more than I did so I receive all the finances it's gonna take how what we're gonna do to our business for a ministry whatever you want to do to bring all the finances we need and to pay this completely off and I already received in the spirit so it's gonna happen I don't know how long it's gonna take but why not why not believe that the thing God gave you he'll pay off because I have to build past the thing he gave me that's that's a big mortgage of mortgage payment I don't want to pay the rest of my life so there's a place where it's like we received something in the spirit and they're there for it's established what you pray for with faith with the fullness of faith it's done already it's done and so you walk in that and then a fusion 6:16 it says in every battle take faith as your wrap around shield for it is able to extinguish the blazing arrows coming at you from the evil one I don't know if you remember Ephesians it's if this is the passion translation if he's in 616 I don't if you remember John 10:10 the first part where Jesus says the thief comes to kill steal and destroy but I want you to know that you are literally in a battle with all of the satanic forces of hell who are like man if we could just keep them from fullness they can have partial faith that's good partial faith doesn't always change the world it just keeps people in a hope hopeful state so they won't resist churches and people who are like preaching it but not really living it or just having a little measure I mean the enemy came to Jesus and said I'll give you all the kingdoms you want if you just serve me and Jesus looks at I'm like I literally have the keys my father's about to give me to all the kingdoms there is period and you're trying to give it to me illegally thinking that's enough no he was able to resist because he saw and fullness of faith with the father 1 in the first place and when the enemy comes to you and and whether it's through the voice of a controlling person or whether it's through somebody who you know takes your attention for a while or circumstance it takes your attention a while that II didn't intend I know a friend of mine they've had a care gift for their mom now she's debilitating and it's been over 10 years and so they're like do I ever get to start the things I felt like God had on my life and I'm having to live in the Midwest to do this and I feel like my whole life's on hold and will god be able to recreate the time that I've lost here and and love never loses so they had to come to a place for like you know what I'm loving well my family and this is part of what I get to do and I still I'm not trapped by this this is not a prison I actually can do this out of joy and find God in the fullness of faith in this too but there are some things that are on hold that have to wait for and tell this person passes or gets healed then I don't have to go through and it's it's hard to go through this but when you have faith as your shield that wraps around you and means when you're when you're walking out of a circumstance and you just got your butt kicked that that that there's a faith buffer so there's no sting you feel the impact but you don't feel the sting you know there's certain things that kick our butts in life but Jesus absorbs the power of the injury and how it kicks us and then he starts to work it for your good and when you understand that you can live in the fullness of faith if you don't believe that God's gonna work all things for your good you'll feel trapped and what isn't happening yet you'll feel imprisoned in areas that that are actually not your prison and you'll be a victim and a victim mentality with a little bit of faith one of my favorite stories that happen at expression it's just such a great story from years ago this is back home at the El Rey theatre and there's a woman who had a victim mentality who would always needed a lot she just took all the air out of the room she wanted she wanted us to heal her and do everything for her and live her life for she wanted me to be your surrogate husband basically every time she came to me it was a list of problems that she was just satisfied with God and I was hoping I could make wave a magic wand and fix them you know and and so this one morning she comes in and she's you know her hair's crazy and she's like oh and after she came in late and after the you know it's preaching I watched her come in and out Pharaoh's done she comes right up to me she's like I can't believe today he was just like what Danny we always does to me and I was on the freeway and I got a flat tire and the guy who came to help me he just stunk so bad and he's like look like an alcoholic at all she's like just totally judge the guy up and down and she's like and then like you know I Drive here and I'm only wanted to come for worship anyways and I was late for worship I missed worship and I'm financing I'm doing terrible right now I don't even have gas to get home and I'm just a little ax and she just kept going I'm just looking there like and the message was all about like let's be I think was about being great grateful for where your plants at or something so it was like you apparently were so emotionally driven that you'd even hear the message because you know so as she's talking to me this family comes up and interrupts me to introduce a guy and they had as a family this is like a rebel family love them they as a family hard place financially as a family they had also broken down on probably the same freeway coming to the El Rey and they're like hey we are our tire got flat and this guy because they have people who come on our freeways on or if you know if you're new here it's awesome if your tire gets flat you never have to change it just wait five minutes and someone comes up and changes it for you and so he came up to change it for them and they they shared the Gospels and they props out of him he radically like got it so hungry he ended up leaving his job for the day he was able to do that and come to church and he got saved at the service they're like it's so awesome we don't really have money to take him out to lunch but it isn't matter we're gonna go home real fast and get food at home and pack it look how beautiful it is out it's like December and we're gonna go for a picnic in the park with him and his family and it's so awesome it'll so this woman's listening to the exact same circumstance and people who are thriving do you think she heard it zero Luke 818 says that it says listen with the hearing ear to God's instruction this is a state of hearing that we have to come into where we start to listen let's see consider her carefully how to listen that's a great way to say to an NIV consider carefully how to listen this is one of our biggest responsibilities with faith because to whoever has will be given more whoever does not have even what they think they have will be taken from them and this is a mentality if today I'm listening to God I'm believing in faith but he's told me and if I'm a barista at a coffee shop but I'm a musician in my heart and I haven't had a gig for two years and I haven't been able to find a worship team because I'm new to the church and they don't have room yet and I'm a drummer and I alls I do is live to play drama to my apartment has no room for drums and somebody comes out to me and says hey we're starting a little coffee shop band and we'd love for you to play the drums as jazz and I play heavy metal if I'm listening with a hearing ear I'm like an opportunity to be a musician this is awesome thank you god this is awesome until my time I get these Spiller opportunities that remind me who I am and allow me to exercise my spiritual authority in an area that I need to but if I don't have ears to hear and if I if I do not have that then somebody comes up three angles hey you want to play drums and I'll say see god I have to play stupid drums for a stupid little band it's a stupid genre of music and I'm working as a barista in LA I hate my life that's what that scripture is and you have the choice and the power to decide if your opportunity is right or not you have the opportunity to see your life through God's filter in his lens and if you don't see it through his lens you'll see it through your disappointment you'll see it through someone else's agenda for you you'll see it through the enemy who's trying to destroy you and you become a victim to life instead of living in the fullness of faith that says even in the small things God is big I thought it was good too so those are the five things I'm gonna go over but I just want Oken of time I wanna talk about down and immaturity in the context of full faith because downton immature in the Bible is a beautiful subject that Jesus pastors versus condemns and he says it's wrong I'm not saying he doesn't say it's wrong but he pastors it instead of in the Old Testament they were killed for their doubt they would make wrong decisions and God would say this is the law walk in it or die and the New Testament and sometimes the Old Testament he still and he's God he passed her people still but a New Testament we see Jesus who literally everyone who spends time with even after he tells them do not doubt doubts rejects him and he still comes back for them so he's a good God so when you're looking at fullness of faith and you're like well I have fullness of faith and today you feel real good you go through the biggest storm in your life three years from now and go oh my gosh do I even know what faith is as a mature believer you know it's like we don't know circumstance you when things come we have to practice being rooted and grounded in what we've heard God's say in the logos word and also the brain we have to be rooted and grounded we have to know the word but the logos word but we also have to know what God said we have to hear what he said over our lives over our family so that we can be grounded the biggest display of immaturity as a Christian is watching people who shake or shake during decisions or convictions of faith and it's not just immigrants immorality but when they're making decisions to believe what God's sold them so of course when we see sometimes like I'm Chris I'm total Christian and they go off and get drunk at the same party right that's obviously you're like oh that's kind of weird I feel weird right now that's whatever but when people who are like walking with you at church you're like both going for it you're like on the track like I'm gonna do it - I'm gonna be an entrepreneur this is awesome you're not - wow you just got your first thousand dollars sale that's amazing I just got my first ten thousand dollar sale and the next week they're like I hate entrepreneuring I'm not an entrepreneur I hate it I'm gonna go back and work for my dad I'm leaving everything my whole deal fell through and you're like wait wait what just happened wait can you tell me who you are again for real like not based on the fear and the disappoint would just happen tell me who God says you are again and if they can't do that that's one of the places where it's like wait there's something that just got shaken that God never intended to allow shake it inside of us when it establishes his voice to us it becomes part of our identity I'm not saying for the sake of performing I'm saying for the sake of developing union with him is that he reveals himself in a journey all a spiritual journey also our lives and we're supposed to learn how to build from Story upon story more and more faith and I don't even ever experienced that where you're like I'm glad like when I first moved here with hone and Jen and a bunch of people there's five of the churches that start at the same time as us than zero exist today out of those five the same two months we started and we all have the same passion I was like I'm gonna be here the rest of my life they said the same thing I'm gonna be here the rest of my life and we're talking about it they're like this is great the first one died after a year and second one after two years third one after five years and the fourth one just last year and i v one died right away so like we all hung out for a little bit and I'm like going but I mean I hear them say things like God has sent me here we're gonna see we follow and they tell me although I never want to execu our building you know fell through and so we don't know where to meet they only have like 30 people I was like meet in a house oh we can't meet a house would be like a home group we can't do that this is a church I'm like me where you can like we were meeting in the house the time like me wherever God shows you we have zero funding we have no money like my budget is there budget for the whole church like that's our but we have zero dollars right now and that's not defining whether we'll mean or not and he's like oh no no we can't do it and then they were just gone and he moved away and they came and told me yeah I got offered to do whatever courses here on the East Coast I'm like you told me you were gonna die for la rubia martyr here like this is crazy like that place so good people who get really excited about good purposes can be shaking in their faith and I'm not saying that you don't go through an identity exploration journey but there is a place of exaggeration that happens many times even yourself about what you're gonna have faith in but what's good is we have the word itself to be our ultimate truth mature people who get shaken very easily in their faith are they really mature and it takes community to encourage each other in places of faith it's not just that we get together in our life groups and just talk or just pray or whatever it's that you hear someone else's spiritual journey you go that's like what God's doing with me Oh God hasn't done that with me yet oh thank god that's how it happens that I see how it happens for somebody else you start to see all the parallels of the story like those people who leave the fellowship with the believers because they're just tired or exhausted by politics and drama of being in relationship with humans which happens in every kind of relationship there is show me you know one relationship you know in your life that hasn't had drama on point it's very rare you know it's so people who leave because it might be drama it's like my feelings got hurt oh I'm like you're a wimp I had pastors tell me la is gonna do the ocean if I moved here like all right don't move there move away as fast as you can I was gonna be the ocean these are like prominent people in my life who are telling me don't move to LA I'm like I've had so many people tell me what not to do throughout my life and I don't leave the church over it the church is evil I'm so scared of the church I've plugged into the church because I love this story that we hear from each other in the context of the church and I believe a lot of the reason why people don't enter the fullness of faith is because they won't enter into the fullness of relationship which proves face well if you if you think about it that the mind itself the brain it's only developed by relationship it's the only relational organ you cannot develop your mind without relationship our spirit is patterned after our mind our spirit only develops as we have a relationship to God and others I think of like that the type of relationship I have of God now he can get me to do some pretty bizarre abstract things like I I'm shocked by what God can give me to do today at Starbucks I were into Starbucks right before the meeting and I which I don't know why I was gonna go to Alfred so I would start I don't know why I did that but because they're both by my house and I went to Starbucks it must have been a god moment and I'm walking out this guy this older guy kind of big guy was walking past me because hey and I go it was really too friendly for Studio City so I was like hi I got excited they even said hey I was like hi you know good morning and I kept walking and I heard the Lord say there's some things that are stuck with his life go talk to him so I turn around I go hey real fast you have a minute I just want to ask you something he's like yeah and I said I know this is gonna sound weird is it Sunday I'm not trying to get you to come to church but I'm a Christian and I just wanted is there some things that I could pray for you for that are stuck in your life and he goes yeah there's some real big things we're stuck right now that word stuck would describe my whole life right now and then God says I want you to ask if he has bowel blockage [Laughter] 20 years ago I would not have asked I grown man if he has doubt blockage but you know someone who has bow blockades now that I'm in my 40 is not that I've had it but it's a big deal it's painful it's awful it's like it's one of the worst experiences people get like kidney stones but I'll block it that kind of stuff and so I just think I said that this is gonna sound really weird but I I think I think God show me something and if this is God it might help you I said do you have something wrong with your bowels like bowel blockage and he acted like it was a doctor like no problem I do have bowel block I've just been so painful thank you for even noticing I said can we pray for this like for movement and she is his name so I prayed with them and then I left I didn't I didn't even think I'm so weirded out by the fact that that word knowledge I didn't even ask him to come to church or talking about Jesus anymore I just left and I was like but I know it was a god moment for him I said it was a Christian the whole thing so I like left and I sat down and my car and I'm like I should go get his I'm so tired I haven't had my coffee yet I don't even know how to talk to this guy and I just drove the church but I mean God knows after a place of relationship and connection to him that he can get me to say the word bowel blockage out of my mouth but the old me would have never said anything like that cuz it would have been too weird anyways luke 1:17 Zacharias angel how do you expect me to believe this I'm an old man and my wife is too old to give me a child what sign can you give me to prove this will happen and this is a picture of people who think they're mature but have disappointment I need one more sign God please show me another sign I love Gabriel's response he goes then the angel said I am Gabriel I stand beside God himself he sent me to announce to you this good news but now since you did not believe my words that you will be stricken silent until he's born when you're in the fullness of faith you don't get stricken silent you don't have hidden quiet times that are weird because your info paid so when God brings it the first time you're not like if that guy walks past me 10 more times I'll tell them bowel blockage but you literally like you learn how to have faith in God and you're just like okay this happened I'm gonna go with it versus I'm gonna negotiate I'm scared I have anxiety from this whatever it is you just you just go with it and there's things in your life that you might have fear in but your faith is greater than your fear so God looks at it as full faith whenever your faith is greater than your fear it's full faith heaven measures it like full faith because heaven can land on it like a landing strip doesn't matter that there's some unbelief it's like the Father in Matthew 9 where he says you know my thought my son throws himself on the water and the fire he's trying to kill himself and he's schizophrenic or demonized we don't know we don't know what he is can you do anything about this in Jesus goes can I and it means the man responds and goes oh my gosh I've seen you do all this heal my unbelief and he goes okay it's done so it doesn't matter if you have doubt Zacarias he had heard Zakaria had doubt Genesis 18 Sarah laughs at this whole thing and then the men are like this she laughs at us and she's like no I didn't laugh at anybody these are mature people John 2025 still unconvinced Thomas replied there's no way I'll believe this unless I personally see the wounds and the nails in his hands touch them with my finger and put my hand in the window side where your spirits then eight days later Jesus shows up it's a surprise hey Thomas come over here put your hand right here now here's what I love about Jesus he met him and his unbelief because Jesus isn't resisting your unbelief and resisting you because we're unbelief he'll actually meet you there because he wants you to be in full faith you could say God I need to be healed if I'm not healed I'm gonna die or I'm gonna have this thing happen or whatever or God I don't have finances to do this anymore or god I don't have the relationships our connection to do what you called me to do unless I see you do this and God's like all sin Jesus to meet you in that place because I love you but man it's blessed are you when you believe without seeing and that's where he's trying to get us there's a point where we have so much relationship that we trust new trusts meant for us not just so that you'll trust him so you'll live the happy life of what we've read earlier so you can have a full light fulfillment Jesus enjoyed himself people in the world around him you're called to do that too and when you find yourself saying these statements that these ones are saying I can't do it I'm too old it's not gonna happen for me unless I see with my own eyes I can't believe it if you find yourself saying those things there's party that's unhappy as a human being there's party that's disconnected from yourself and God because you can't believe it face value any work as something wounded you I'll use one more life example I published a book ten you know ten twelve years ago I think it was now yeah and it was a best-seller and I didn't get paid for it and so we had some problems the publishing company I was really wounded by the whole experience and so I didn't publishing him one of the things in my life since I was little was writing I'd write articles write poems write all kinds of stuff that got published from the time I was little won awards all my life and I was so discouraged when the book thing happened is my second book did really well and I was so discouraged by how I was robbed through the experience and I was robbed of joy it's just a whole hassle you know and so for years I wasn't publishing and then finally I went to like an inner healing moment you know eight or nine years into it and I got healed for my disappointment and my lack of trust for God period for that place where he wanted to give me this place and it was my fault that I didn't get healed sooner I could have just turned him in like oops I'm not believing the truth about who you are but I just I just let it be blocked and I was doing other things that were I'm striving in but I wasn't holistically thriving because there's one area that's a big area in my life which is authorship that I wasn't allowing myself to get into so for a little while after I was healed I did a lot of articles and did a lot of whatever writing and things were just blowing up was fun but then I wrote translating God it was my first book in all these years I wrote translating God and what I didn't know is that linked to those areas that the enemies trying to destroy you in link to the areas that you're supposed to have full faith in is full abundance favor connection provision for this season you're in so if it's shut down and you don't have fullness of faith for the areas in your life and apply this day it doesn't have to be business like a book it could be family marriage health whatever it is and so I repented in that time i repented I was like I'm so sorry for having a wrong belief system over this god I aligned with your right belief system over this and now I give myself since I wrote a book and the book sold 170,000 copies and which is a lot because an average bestseller in the Christian market is thirty thousand I'm not saying that to brag I'm saying that because that's what I was resisting by having a tenured quiet period and success where my books in the hands of celebrities my books in the hands of politicians my books in the hands of church leaders around the world we've had over a thousand groups go through translating got curriculum chorus to hear God's voice a love based approach this whole thing happens and I'm like going oh my gosh I've held this back and you're having to do what would have taken 10 years to do in 1 year because I have to help this back for so long but the floodgates open I'm like I love those so they were written like five books in two years that have come out I mean it's like I'm just writing I'm writing I'm writing or writing because it was part of my life and I love the joy and the fullness that I have with that one more thing that was missing now in my life and some of you have something that's not in your life right now currently because you've had a zacharias moment but I'm too old or you've had a you know a Sarah moment like I can't do this like this can't be possible in this stage of my life or Thomas moment of like I can't believe it unless I've seen with my own eyes and you have to get to a place in your faith where you say I'm gonna live in fullness or whatever it takes to get into fullness I'll go through that journey let me just land this plane Hebrews 10:19 through 25 I'm just gonna read a little bit in the middle it says Bowl II can't was read this and since we now have magnificent King priests to welcome us into God's house we come closer to God and approach him with an open heart fully convinced my faith that nothing will keep us at distance from him when you have something that's breaking your confidence with God there's a lack of faith if there's something that's like I can't fully walk in my destiny my calling for family for marriage for whatever purpose whatever and there's something blocking you it's it's a lack of faith that you can actually ask on he'll generously give you faith he'll give you a process out he'll give you a road out Jesus met everybody where they were in their unbelief he will he'll meet you he'll meet you there and so if you have that place and then it says just a couple verses down and says so we now we must cling tightly to the hope that lives within us knowing that God always keeps his promises it's hard to miss God you guys but it's it isn't easy to introduce fullness it's hard to miss him but it isn't easy to have a full life of faith because it takes a lot of relationship it takes work it takes intentionality and so I hope this is helpful today I want you all to stand then we're gonna pray I'm just gonna pray what Paul prayed over the Philippians over you as we end here today flip feelin's 1:17 I just want you to close your eyes and just focus and ask God for faith right now just ask him for another measure I ask him to complete your faith Jesus is the author and the finisher of our faith so ask him to come and give you finishing faith for areas that need to be pushed through Paul says I pray with great faith for you because I'm fully convinced that the one who began this glorious work in you will faithfully continue the promise of maturing you and will put his finishing touches to it until the unveiling of the Lord Jesus Christ God send us on a journey to enter into full faith in you send us on a journey God to be full of faith if there's areas that have knocked us down knocked the wind out of us put your shield of faith around us God surrounding us we just stand with the people here who've been had the wind knocked out of their sails the faith knocked out of their life and some area and we pray Jesus that you would come just like you did to Thomas and just meet each person here whose faith has been a week retired or exhausted or disappointed or abused but I pray you would heal our faith heal the realm that produces faith inside of our lives so we could lift such an abundant life just pray for everyone who is watching on streaming and everybody who's here Lord would you just come and do a supernatural work in us today and give us a new measure until it's full and I want to charge you like Luke 8:18 says to listen listen and hear what God's teaching you listen and hear what God's saying for you because those who have everything's given those who have not everything's taken away if you find yourself feeling robbed if you find yourself continually being robbed there's a John 10:10 life for you the enemy comes a steal kill and destroy but God comes to give you an abundant life and those who have that life keep seeing it over and over being replicated those who don't have that life were just drained all the time Lord just change our mentality today and Jesus name Amen [Applause]

Channel: Expression 58

Views: 53,253

Rating: 4.8367348 out of 5

Keywords: shawn bolz, jona toledo, jen toledo, jennifer toledo, expression 58, expression58, e58, full faith, los angeles, glendale, church, entering in, salt, be the salt

Id: ofTrFmGzL7g

Length: 46min 35sec (2795 seconds)

Published: Tue Mar 27 2018