Transformed | Part 5 | Jon Colyer | Gateway Christian Centre

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Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:04

Welcome to Gateways Weekly Service. We are so glad that you are here. We pray that this message inspires you, it encourages you, and that God speaks to you in new ways. Now, on with the message.

SPEAKER_04 0:18

Jesus, we worship you. You are the only one worthy. Thank you. You did for us what we could never do for ourselves. Lord, I do love you a lot, but it's because you first loved me. I've been forgiven much. And I love you much. Lord, we all feel that way. Jesus, we're so grateful to you. We sing it now, we'll sing it forever. Worthy is the land. Worthy, worthy, worthy, worthy, worthy is the land. Oh curios Christos, Jesus is Lord. Just a moment more.

SPEAKER_08 2:41

But I'm gonna take your worship to new places. I'm gonna take your praise to new places. There's a depth of the river that I'm bringing you into. Shamando cola bada kedekesikita baba bande. So be willing to go with me. Be willing to go with me.

SPEAKER_04 2:58

Shamando kolabada kete kasite mamanda koda kesheme. Lord, give us ears to hear your voice. Give us ears to hear your voice. Give us eyes to see you.

SPEAKER_01 3:14

There's no one like you, Lord. There's no one like you.

SPEAKER_02 3:31

Yes, no you worship you.

SPEAKER_01 4:12

Shalama solamana son never. Shalama la solamone. Shalama la sia lamone. Shalam se ne sullamore.

SPEAKER_06 4:34

As we begin to sing in the spirit, begin to worship in the spirit just for a moment.

SPEAKER_01 5:05

Shalala se la voce. Solo se lava son d'amour sous soleil. So l'amour est sole.

SPEAKER_05 5:31

God, you're so good. God, you're so good. You're so good. No wonder they cried, for the Lord is good and his mercy endures forever.

SPEAKER_04 5:52

They hadn't even met Jesus yet, and still they knew the Lord is good and his mercy endures forever. Lord, your mercy and your kindness and your goodness and your faithfulness. We stand in awe of you.

SPEAKER_01 6:14

We stand in awe of you were slain and seated on the throne. There's no one like the Lord, giving praise to him and him alone. There's no one like the Lord. We crown you king of Lord. We crown you king of Lord. We crown you king of Lord. We crown you. We crown you our word. We crown you, King of Lory. We crown you, King of Lory. We crown you, crown you a worthy, we cry you worthy. We cry you crown you you a worthy. We crown you, you a worthy. Sing it again, we crown, we cry you a worthy, we cry, you're a worthy, we crown you, you are worthy, we crown you.

SPEAKER_07 8:36

Sing it again, we crown you, you worthy.

SPEAKER_01 8:39

You are worthy. We crown you, you are worthy. We crown you, you are worthy, we crown you, worthy to laugh.

SPEAKER_07 8:53

Just a moment more, sing it with me.

SPEAKER_01 8:55

Worthy.

SPEAKER_07 9:29

Come on, horseship.

SPEAKER_01 9:32

Come on, worship him, no one like you, Jesus, there's no one like you. There's no one like you want to be what you want. You want to be what you want.

SPEAKER_07 9:55

Jesus, we are cheaper. Jesus, we want to get this we work together. And Lord, I thank you for who you are, for everything you mean to us, everything you are to us, everything you've done for us. Jesus, we give you praise in this place. And Lord, we give you praise in our hearts.

SPEAKER_08 10:39

Lord, we don't want to be those that draw near to you with our lips, but our hearts afar. No, Lord, quite the opposite. Our hearts are very, very, very much yours.

SPEAKER_04 10:50

We love you, Jesus. We worship you.

SPEAKER_08 10:56

And Lord, today would you please show us the things that we need to see? Open our eyes to your word, Lord. Bring us into liberty. In the areas that are still bound, where there's strongholds, Lord, let those strongholds be broken and cause us to see and to know the truth that will make freedom. Lord, not just for us, oh Lord, for everyone around us. Lord, I pray like Paul and Silas in prison, when our chains break, let everyone's chains break. When our prison doors open, let the people around us let their prison doors open. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Amen. Amen. Awesome worship team. Thank you so much. Is everybody still doing okay? Good. I'm glad you came today. I'm very, very glad you came today. Ricky, I'm not gonna need this one. If you could take that for me, please. Um we we're supposed to finish a series last week about being transformed and the renewing of our minds and the way we think. And and and I really felt like as I was talking about it and praying about it, that there was just a little bit more. And so I want to dig that bit further today and kind of wrap up this series. Thank you. Wrap up this series about how revelation turns into transformation. I think one of the things I see in my own life, one of the things I struggle with when I look just in the mirror and I see myself, but then also from the perspective of a pastor, I get to talk to lots of people and see lots of people. One of the things I see that we struggle with is we have a belief system which is here, but our thinking is over there. And those two need to line up. And so we're trying to pray, but we're praying through an unrenewed mind. We're trying to walk by faith, but we're walking by faith with an unrenewed mind. And I shared this in the very first message, but what kind of sparked all this in me and Angela, over a year ago, we went to a conference in Nice, France, and there was a lady minister, Pastor Nancy Dufresne, and she was talking about so her husband, as Ed Dufresne, very, very powerful prophetic minister. Angela said the most frightening service she's ever been in in her life was in one of Ed Dufresne's meetings in Tulsa many years ago. Um, frightening because just the awe of God was in that place. And he he operated in a very strong anointing. They had a church in California, but he he died uh in an airplane crash. I think it was about 13 or 14 years ago. And so obviously that's unexpected. No one saw that coming. And so she was being interviewed, and she inherited them, as it were, inherited the ministry, which they just taken on several new projects, several new buildings, and they were in a lot of debt, and and you know, and really just stepped out, and then her husband went to be with the Lord. And so she had to work through that and has worked through that in an incredible way, and God is just blessing her ministry, and financially they're now in a good and a healthy place, but in every way God's using her. And so she was being interviewed in a in a uh interview, and she was asked the question, What's the greatest crisis of your life? And she said, I knew what the interviewers wanted me to say. They were wanting me to say about my husband dying. It wasn't a gotcha interview, it's a Christian interview. She was kind of being asked a question leading into telling her story, but she said, I had to answer honestly, and I said this, I said, the greatest tragedy of my life was the unexpected death of my husband a couple of years ago. She said, But the greatest crises of my life have been facing situations and problems with an unrenewed mind. And when she said that, man, it just hit me as such truth. And I realized that there are, and she said this, she said, you know, there are things that came at me in my my life and in my ministry over the years. She said that it took me years to get past offenses or hurts or fear or anxiety or or um or uh strongholds of the mindset, it took me years to get past some of those things. And she said, Today, if I was scrolling through Facebook and had a cup of coffee in my hand and that same news came my way, or that same thing came my way, she said, I wouldn't even I wouldn't even put my coffee down. She said, I've there's a transformation in the way I think. And it really, really hit me because here's what I want to talk about today. I want to talk about how meditation turns revelation into transformation. Let me say it again. There was a little murmur of enthusiasm over there, but I'm I'm I'm fishing for more. I want to talk about how meditation turns revelation into transformation. Now, many but many believers genuinely believe God's word. We believe that God heals, we believe that God provides, we believe that God restores, we believe that God can do the impossible. But there's a gap between what we believe intellectually or theologically and what we can actually see internally. Kenyon used to call it mental ascent versus heart faith. And I really get what he was trying to say. So we say God is Jehovah Rafa, but if we're honest, many of us can imagine ourselves sick far more easily than we can imagine ourselves healed. We say God is my provider, but many of us can picture financial struggle far more than we can picture abundance if we're being honest with ourselves. We say I'm a new creation, but we see ourselves through the lens of our failures and can only imagine ourselves sinning over and over and over again. And this raises the important question. If I already believe the truth, then why am I struggling to experience the truth? I know I believe it, and we do. We genuinely believe these things. I take a bullet for these truths. Why am I struggling to experience the truth? Because here's the thing transformation happens when truth becomes sight, not when it becomes information. And many of us have stopped at the information and we haven't pressed through to where we can see it. Joshua chapter 1, verse 1 through 9. We're gonna read there. It'll be on the screen. It'll take a minute, but it'll set the scene for what I want to talk about today. After the death of Moses, the servant of the Lord, it came to pass that the Lord spoke to Joshua, the son of Nun, Moses' assistant, saying, Moses, my servant, is dead. Now therefore, arise, go over this Jordan, you and all this people, to the land which I'm giving them, the children of Israel. Every place that the sole of your foot will tread upon. I have given you, as I said to Moses, from the wilderness and this Lebanon, as far as the great river, to the river Euphrates, all the land of the Hittites, and to the great sea, toward the going down of the sun shall be your territory. Now notice God said this, He said, I've already given it to you. There is a thing in Christendom when we walk by faith of possessing what we already possess, of obtaining what we already obtained, walking in the promises. Verse 5: No one shall be able to stand before you all the days of your life. As I was with Moses, so I will be with you. I will not leave you nor forsake you. Be strong and of a good courage, for to this people you shall divide as an inheritance the land which I swore to their fathers to give them. Only be strong and very courageous, that you may observe to do according to all the law which Moses, my servant, commanded you. Do not turn from it to the right hand or to the left, that you may prosper wherever you go. He's commissioned him, now he tells him how. This book of the law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate in it day and night, that you may observe to do according to all that's written in it, for then you will make your way prosperous, then you will have good success. Have I not commanded you, be strong and have good courage, do not be afraid, nor be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go. That is a very wonderful, a very powerful uh instruction for the Lord, but seemingly very difficult. How can I meditate on it day and night? Am I supposed to just sit in my chair with soft music playing in the background and candles burning and am I supposed to do like Eastern meditation? Am I supposed to how am I supposed to work? At some point I gotta eat. How am I supposed to meditate on this day and night? The only way we can do this is when we are renewed in the spirit of our mind. In other words, when we begin to change the default setting of the way we think to where every time we think on that thing, we think a certain way. That is work. James one, when he talks about being a doer of the word, says this. The one that is a doer of the work will be blessed. Look into the word, keep looking at it. Don't be forgetful here. But a doer of the work. I want to say work and emphasize the k. It is hard work. But if you will be if you will do the work, the Bible says you'll be blessed. In your deed. There is a an unparalleled blessing that follows the person who is willing to do the work of looking and continuing to look into the word until you don't forget what you look like in Christ. And then when you when you stop forgetting, Peter did that, didn't he? When he was walking on the water, and Jesus said to him, when he got back here, Peter, where's your faith? Why do you have a little faith? One translation says, Where is what you believe? Where is what you believe? Many of us, I believe he's Jehovah Rapha. I wake up feeling rotten, and then we think, hang on, where's what you believe? I've gone straight for the nerfing, I've gone straight to Dr. Google, I've gone straight to calling an insect that day, I've gone straight to pulling out a net Where is what you believe? We forgot. We've completely forgot it. We we hear a report on the news where we get an unexpected traffic ticket. Thank the Lord. And there's another hundred pounds out the window. And you're where is what you believe in Jehovah Jared, my provider. Where is it? I believe it was don't be forgetful. God never intended his word to be read like a novel. The Bible wasn't written to be read like a novel. It was written to be meditated. The Jewish people understood this. The Hebrews understood this. It written to be meditated because God intended it to be seen. God says what he says, so you will see what he sees. So God speaks so that you will see. We do the same thing. I have a dog. In fact, we have two dogs. We have two dogs. One is black, one is gray. They are not small dogs, they are great Danes. They are big dogs. Rudy has a black collar. Rosie has a pink collar. Rosie has a short tail because she kept whacking it into the walls called Happy Tail and it wouldn't heal. So her the vet had to help her that way. Rudy's tail still has full capacity. As I'm describing these dogs, you are now able to picture what I see. If I'd have just said we have two dogs, some of you would have seen chihuahuas. Not happening, not in my hope. Some of you would have seen boxers or bulldogs or staffies or poodles. Maybe one of you, two of you might have seen a great dane, but probably not. They're not that common. So the more I talk, the more you see what I can clearly see, which is our two dogs who are right now asleep on their posteopedic mattresses, waiting for us to get home. I can picture that. You can picture it too, because I've talked about it. God spoke so that you would see. Many of us have never done the work long enough to get to the point where we can see it. Other people, all they see is God prospering them. It doesn't cross their mind that God's not going to come through for them. Doesn't even occur to them. Other people, they cannot picture their life without struggle the last week of every month. Just can't see it. God taught Joshua, you will never prosper in an area that you haven't first seen yourself doing. And meditation is the process by which revolution revelation moves from your spirit into your imagination and your thinking. As a man thinks in his heart, so is he. Now many Christians treat imagination and meditation as something dangerous. The reason being is because the world has hijacked a biblical principle. I think I told you this. I was watching an interview with one of the ladies from The Spice Girls. I'm embarrassed to say I don't know their names. I think this like Shorty Spice and Spotty Spice and Harry Spice. I'm embarrassed to say I don't know the names of the Spice Girls. One of them was Fantastic Spice. I don't know. She was being interviewed and she was saying they want a reunion. And one of the spices, presumably Grumpy Spice, doesn't want to get back together. So the other four are hindered. And so she looked in the camera and said, So I need all the fans to how does she put it to manifest this? I need all the fans to manifest a tour. And that's kind of the modern way of looking at it. So the modern way is manifesting. The ancient way is you need candles and incense and sitting cross-legged for a long time, you know, um chanting out a note. All of these are perversions of biblical meditation because what the particular person was basically saying is if we will all get behind this long enough, we can bend God to our will. Biblical meditation isn't bending God to my will, it's bending my will to his will. But the principles are similar. There's an overlap of principles. The issue is who's Lord? And I am not Lord of my meditating. Jesus is Lord. Kyrios Christos, He is Lord of all. But our imagination is one of the greatest gifts God ever gave humanity. Because everything you build externally is first built internally. Every invention, every business, every ministry, every building, every achievement, every miracle, every move of God, every outpouring of the Holy Spirit. It is it you see it inside first before you know where to go. And the question is this, my friend, not whether you are imagining, because trust me, you are. The question is, what are you imagining? You and I are imagining all the time. The question is not whether you are, it's what you are. Some of you are imagining a Big Mac. Others of you are imagining a salad. Some of you couldn't imagine imagining a salad. What are you gonna eat when you get home? Depends what you've been imagining. Moving on, because this isn't about waistlines. Number one, got three simple points there, and I won't tell you about how to meditate. Number one, so I'm gonna go through this quickly. Everyone look up at me, say, sock it to me, baby. Okay, I will. Can I just can we just throw this? Might go five minutes long today, but it it'll be worth it. Number one, you move toward the picture you hold within. You do, you move toward the picture you hold within. People rarely live beyond the image they carry internally, at least not for very long. That's why God changed Abraham, Abraham's name, to Abraham. He did something fascinating in his life. God doesn't simply promise Abraham descendants, he takes him outside. You know the account, he shows him the stars, said, Abraham, count the stars for me. Probably started, I don't know what a number he got to, maybe 40, 50, 100, maybe 200, we don't know. But at some point he said, Lord, I can't, I can't count them. And God said, That's what your descendants will be like. Then he showed him the sand on the ground. They said, now count the sand. Well, I mean, that's even harder than counting stars. And so I don't know how many Abraham got to, 20, 30, who knows? And God he said, I can't count. And God said, That's what your descendants will be like. In other words, say you will have spiritual descendants like you and I, and you will have natural descendants, the people that come out of his lineage. But God takes him outside, he shows him the stars, and he gives him the ability to see his future through words that built faith and produced an internal image. Genesis 13, verse 14 and 15 says, And the Lord said to Abraham, Abraham, it's really hard to say Abraham when you say Abraham all the time. After Lot had separated from him, lift your eyes now and look from the place where you are. Look north, look south, east, and west. For all the land which you see, I give to you and your descendants forever. And then Genesis 15, verse 5. Then he brought him outside and said, Look now toward heaven, count the stars if you're able to number them. And he said, So shall your descendants be. See, God was giving Abraham more than information. God was giving Abraham imagery, a picture, a vision, something to carry in his imagination, something he could close his eyes and see over and over again. Because you cannot consistently move toward what you cannot see. I'll talk about how to do it in a minute. Here's how this works in our day. Many believers know healing is possible, but all internally all we see is sickness. We know breakthrough is possible, but all we see is limitation. We know other people have risen in life. All we can see is the level that we're at. And in fact, can I just be honest with you? If you are basically in the same position you've been in in your life, in your career, in your finances, in your health, and you have been in that same position for five years, 10 years, let's be honest, 15, some of us 20 years, it's not going to suddenly change on the outside until you begin to change on the inside. This is why the Bible says your world and life is transformed by the renewing of your mind. You are where you see. Your life perfectly fits the image that you have on the inside, even though you know God's word promises more fruitfulness. We know breakthrough is possible, but internally we only see limitation. And here's the reality check the strongest image wins. Number two, meditation creates godly imagination. Let's read Psalm 1, verse 1 through 3 together. Blessed is the man who doesn't walk in the counsel of the ungodly, nor stands in the path of the sinners, nor sits in the seat of the scornful. But, so yet don't do the bad things, but there's more to it than that, his delight is in the law of the Lord, and in his delight he meditates day and night. He shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that brings forth fruit in its season, whose leaf also does not wither. And whatever he does shall prosper. In fact, in Philippians chapter 4, verse 8, we're not going to read all about it, but he gives a list of good things to and he says, meditate on these things, things that are pure, lovely, good report, virtuous, etc. Meditate on these things. So here's the thing you got to understand: biblical meditation, the Bible never tells us to empty our minds, it tells us to fill our minds. So what is biblical meditation? It's not reading quickly, it's not getting through five chapters in a day. Meditation isn't just studying things, looking things up, highlighting things in your Bible. Meditation is taking truth and holding it before your mind long enough that it becomes real to you. We say it again. It is taking truth and holding it before your mind until it becomes real to you. It is turning revelation over and over and over within your heart, speaking it, considering it, picturing it, seeing yourself with it. Angel speaks a word to Mary, pretty radical word. You're a virgin, you're young, all these things, and you're gonna have a baby. And the Bible says this in Luke chapter 2, verse 19. But Mary kept all these things and pondered them. Everyone say pondered, they pondered them in her heart. In other words, she didn't merely hear the word, she carried the word, she turned it over within herself, she meditated on what God had said. So let me say this, and this is a big point right here. If you're writing anything down, write this down. Meditation is revelation staying long enough to become imagination. Say that again. You're too busy writing it down to be enthusiastic. Meditation, biblical meditation, is revelation, in other words, something you see in the word, staying long enough to become imagination. This is where many of us have missed it. We don't stay looking at it long enough, we don't ponder it, we don't murmur it, we don't go over and over until it begins to superimpose over what we see. If you look out a window and you can see what's on the other side of it, but then someone comes, they put stickers on the window, and all of a sudden there's a bird and the sticker of a, I don't know, a tree, and then maybe stickers and cars and different things. Suddenly you begin to see something else. You superimpose an image over what you were seeing before. God's word, when meditated, will be in begin to will begin to form something on the inside of you. It will form an image. It doesn't make your meditating doesn't make God anything. He already is all these things. It just enables you to see who he is. Meditation doesn't move God, it doesn't change God, it doesn't bend his will, it doesn't convince him to doing anything. He is who he is. He sat down and said, It's finished. Meditation isn't about bending God at all. Meditation is about me seeing who he is and taking an image that is incorrect and that is warped, the carnal mind, which the Bible says is enmity to God, which produces death, and switching it with the to be spiritually minded, which the Bible says is life and peace. God doesn't change any more than he changes when I fast or when I pray or when I worship or when I get born again or when I give a big offering or a small offering. These things don't move God, they move me. They change me. God's not stuck. I'm not saying, oh Lord, what'd you do? No, he's done. I'm saying, Lord, help me see. Paul never prayed that God would do anything other than show us. He said, I pray you have a spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him. Number three, I've got to move through this quickly because I want to get to how to do it. Number three, light, oh, this is good. Light creates a new way of seeing. One of the great themes of scripture is light. In John chapter 1, verse 1 through 5, the Bible says, You know this verse is really well, in the beginning was the word. The word was with God, and the word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without him nothing was made that was made. In him was life, and the life was the light of men. And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it. I want to read you two other verses of scripture. Psalm 119, verse 130 says this the entrance of your words give light. And then 2 Corinthians chapter 4, verse 6. For it is the God who commanded light to shine out of darkness, who has shone into our hearts. Now that shining into our hearts, the verse before and the one before that said, it's his word. The entrance of his word gives light. It's God who commanded light to shine out of the darkness and has shone in our hearts. Can I tell you something? If your Bible is closed, the lights are off. Now light in scripture is often revelation. It's God's ability to see what you couldn't previously see. Just as natural light reveals physical realities, revelation reveals spiritual realities. If you came in here at night and all the lights were off and this chair was in the middle, you would likely walk into it and stumble over it. You wouldn't if someone switched the light on, because you see physical things when physical lights are on. There are things you were stumbling over spiritually that if the lights were turned on, you wouldn't. You step right around it. The Bible says, walk in the light as he is in the light. If you walk in the darkness, you stumble. Jesus was very clear on that. Now here's a sobering warning, and this is where many of us are at. Are you ready? This is Jesus talking. I didn't say this, Jesus said it. Matthew chapter 6, verse 22 and 23. The lamp of the body is the eye. So what you're looking at, what you're reading, what you're seeing. If therefore the eye is good, your whole body will be full of light. But if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. Look at this. If therefore the light that is in you is darkness, how great is that darkness? See, many people think that they are seeing clearly, but what they're actually seeing is fear, it's culture, it's experience, disappointment, it's worldly wisdom. In other words, the light that we are seeing is darkness. It's a sobering thought to realize that I have been thinking I was walking in light for years, only to discover the light that I'm seeing is darkness. And here's the here's the other nutshell thing. Someone comes along that is walking in genuine revolution revelation, and rather than me saying, Praise the Lord, that's what I need, we get offended by it. We get and we get huffy. Well, who do they think they are? Acting like it's oh no, opposite. We need to humble ourselves in the sight of the Lord. We're seeing with the wrong light. Many times the question is, what are you looking at? In other words, we're looking at the problem. And the deeper question really is, what are you looking through? See, the Bible teaches us in 2 Corinthians chapter 4, verse 4, that the devil blinds the minds of unbelievers, not their eyes, their minds. We don't see with our eyes, we see through our eyes, we see with our mind. Paul prayed this. I pray that God will give you a spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him. And this is where many believers stop too soon. Revelation lets you see, wisdom teaches you how to walk out what you see. You could put it like this wisdom teaches you, or wisdom will get you what revelation shows you. Revelation is when you see it in your spirit. Wisdom is when you begin to see it with your imagination. Now I know what to do. Now I know what to say. Now I know what steps to take. The thing I've seen in my spirit, I now see in my mind, I understand what needs to happen next, and wisdom will get you what revelation shows you. Wisdom teaches you how to think, how to speak, and how to live in agreement with, for example, healing. Revelation sees he's Jehovah Rapha, the Lord that heals me. Wisdom teaches me how to think that way, how to speak that way, how to live in that revelation, how to live in agreement with healing. Revelation sees freedom. Wisdom teaches you how to walk in freedom daily. Amen. Wisdom gets you what revelation has shown you. You know the light that you are seeing is from God by what it does to darkness. Do you understand what I'm saying? You know it's from God by what it, if what you're seeing is not driving back everything that is darkness, everything that isn't from the Lord, what you're seeing is not yet light. We're not gonna do a session six. This is the last one, but I really want to take this further. Are you quiet because this is sinking in? Look at me, real big, say, we love you, John. Okay, just check in. I love you too. You know it's light by what it does to darkness because the Bible says in the King James the light shone in the darkness, and the darkness couldn't comprehend it. That means couldn't overtake it, couldn't seize it, couldn't stop it. When light shines, darkness goes. In fact, you don't need to curse the darkness. We waste a lot of energy as Christians cursing the darkness. Just turn on the light, and darkness will be no longer a problem. And there are things that we have been stumbling over that we won't not stumble over anymore. So, in closing, how do I meditate on the word? You ready? I've got like a few points to this. Number one, actually, I've got a number, almost number one. I wrote this down, walking on the way in. Start with praise. Start your meditation with praise. It doesn't have to be loud on the outside if other people are sleeping, but it needs to be loud on the inside. Some of you are spending an hour trying to pray yourself into somewhere in the spirit that you could access in 10 minutes with praise. I'm telling you, you're spending an hour trying to get somewhere, 10 minutes of praise, probably five minutes will get you there. So start, we enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise, and God inhabits the praises of his people. Meditation is effective when God is in the room, he's the revealer. So start with praise. Step one. Step number two, choose one truth, not ten, choose one. I've got my my um verses I go through every day, or not all of them every day, but a number of them, and they're about different things. Choose one truth and begin to spend some time with it. For example, God is my healer, God is my provider, I am accepted in Christ, or the love of God flows out of my heart by the Holy Spirit. Most of the problems that you and I face in day-to-day life, not all of them, but most of them fall into four categories. We not in order of importance. We either have health issues, we have um money issues, we have relationship issues, or we have guilt and condemnation issues. So most of what we battle falls into those four categories. Hopefully, not all on the same day, but generally speaking, what we face fits in those four categories. We're either having problems with feeling guilty or ashamed or pest, beating ourselves up. We're having problems with people, relationship tensions and issues, we're having financial challenges, or we're having health challenges. And so spend time regularly meditating on verses that speak into those four areas. That's the main, it's not everything, but that's the main categories of life. So choose a truth in one of those categories. Read it repeatedly. I mean, slowly. So let's pick one that we know really, really well. Let's pick Philippians chapter 4, verse 19. It's short, it's simple. We know it well. But my God shall supply all my need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus. Read it repeatedly. But my God, I mean I've got my Bible in front of you, but my God shall supply all my need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus. And I don't go into the next verse. I read it again. But my God shall supply all my need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus. Now my attention is already on the Lord because I started with praise. Oh, magnify the Lord with me. God seems big to me, my problems seem small. So now your outlook is determined by what you're looking out from. I'm not looking at my problem saying, Oh God, where are you? I am looking out from the presence of the Lord at my situation, saying, But my God shall supply all my need. Already my perspective, my way of thinking about this thing has already begun to change. And I'm beginning to think from a raised and seated position, which Ephesians 1 and 2 tell me is my position, rather than a defeated position, thinking, oh God, if only you just, when's it gonna and rise? No, he sat down and said, It's finished. Then don't just read it, speak it. This is where it's really important, and it it needs to be out loud, not necessarily loud, like, but my God, no, because people might be sleeping, or you might be on a bus or whatever might be. But out loud, loud enough that you can hear yourself. But my God shall supply all my need according to his riches and glory by Christ Jesus. Joshua 1 verse says this. Joshua 1 verse 8 says, This book of the law will not depart out of your mouth. You see it first, so you know what you're reading. It's a book, and it gets in your mouth. Eye to mouth. That's the first place it goes. And you begin to meditate on it. I like to go through it slowly. The King James says, but, but my the world can say whatever it likes about wars, about the price of oil, about who's in government, about what isn't available, what isn't available, what benefits are, what benefits aren't, what's going on in the job market, what isn't, but but my God shall supply all my need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus. But my God, he's my savior. Love all these wonderful people on the front row, and I'm glad he's your God too, but he's mine, he's my God. He's I don't have to go to Ricky hoping that Ricky can take care of this for me. I don't need uh he's my God, but my God, the great I am, shall he shall supply all my need, my needs, not just the church's need, not just Mother Teresa's needs, not just the great event, my need, my needs, God. There's the He'll supply all my need according to man, it's not according to my bank account, it's not according to what's in my in my savings account, it's not according to what's going on, according to his riches in glory, and you go through it. I mean, I've done that in about a minute. I'm saying, take take a good five, look into the perfect law, keep looking at it, and out loud, emphasize each word, even that ah and it and of and the each word carries weight and it will spark something in your heart, and you begin to speak that over your situation until what will begin to happen, and this is both a work of the way that God has created us, which is the with the ability to see things and imagine things, but also it's a result of the power of the word, which is a living thing, it separates your soul and your spirit. The entrance of his word gives light and understanding, even to the simple people like you and me. You begin to picture yourself living in that reality. They say in this regard, it's easier to get the person out of a wheelchair than to get the wheelchair out of a person. It's easier to get arthritis out of your knuckles and to get arthritis out of your mind. That change needs to come on the inside, and you begin to picture yourself with like that superimposing happens where I see myself with my needs met. I see myself coming into church on the fourth Sunday of the month, not dragging myself in, not afraid about how I'm gonna get, but I mean just coming here rejoicing. I'm not fantasizing, I'm imagining. There's an image in my mind that comes from the word of God. You could say it like this: I am agreeing with God's perspective. I have cast down every imagination which doesn't submit itself to the obedience of Christ. I've brought those thoughts captive and I'm being renewed in the spirit of my mind. The Bible says that is the process of transformation. Don't be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind that you will prove and experience that good, perfect, and acceptable will of God. Number six, continue until it becomes more real than the opposing circumstance. Can I be honest with you about something? My praise is usually more real, more genuine, more exciting before the answer comes than after the answer comes. When I am seeing it in the word, I I can already see it. I know it's mine. May not have physically shown up yet, but I know it's mine. I see it. I as no doubt in my mind that that thing's gonna happen. My praise is as strong, it's as jubilant. In fact, walking by faith is is uh it's like what spinaches to Popeye. Walking by faith is to the believer, and that it's the connection between you and God. I think if God craves anything, if that's a right way to put it, and I apologize, Lord, if that's not the right way to put it, but if God craves anything, it's to be trusted. And that that moment where the thing hasn't shown up yet, but I see it so clearly, I know that what he said is true. I can see it just because he said it. I can I observe myself doing it, I know what's going on in my life. Heaven and earth could pass away, I know God's word will never fail. And I praise him in that place. See, afterwards I can give thanks, afterwards, I can share testimony. But this side of the victory, it's praise for who he is, for what he said, for what I know he's gonna do. And I I praise him until that becomes my reality. Many times I am more excited about it before it happens than after it happens. In fact, sometimes, can I be honest with you, the fulfillment of the promise can almost be anticlimatical because you thought it would be a step up from meditation, it'd be a step up from praise. Actually, really, it's I suppose it's level, many ways a step down. I say the best thing about owning a Porsche is the day before. The best thing about owning a boat is the day before you get the keys. It's down from there. So we need to ask yourself what picture dominates my thinking? What do I see when I think about my future? My health, my family, my calling? Does that picture come from God's word or from my experiences? Is the light that is in me darkness, or am I seeing what God said with my imagination? Is my spirit and my soul and my body, my praise, am I lined up in the same thing? Are I believing over here, but my thinking is over there? And we need to bring, submit our thoughts to the obedience of Christ. This is what it looks like, and this is how you meditate day and night. Every time I think about Rudy, that's our big gray, technically it's called blue, but gray, male Great Dane. Every time I think Rudy, I never picture a chihuahua. I never think of a bulldog. I don't see a poodle, I see a gray Great Dane. I don't have to work at that. I don't have to like conform my mind. That's just every time I see my future, I see myself strong and healthy. I don't picture 86-year-old me hobbling up here. I picture 86-year-old me, maybe a little less hair. Anson says I look silly if I've got this much hair when I'm 86. I picture me healthy and strong and vibrant and with a sound mind and eyes that can see and ears that can hear, and a heart that's strong, and that's what I don't see anything else. Not because everyone in my family achieved that, but because I see through the perspective of the word of God. So in this series, we've learned number one, the battle is in the mind. Number two, strongholds have to be demolished. Number three, a mindset, a renewed mindset must be built. Number four, Michael talked about this last week. Renewed thinking produces transformed living. And number five, meditation turns revelation into sight. That's what we got to do. We got to get busy. And those that will do the work, James says, will be blessed. Those that won't do the work, we will stand looking at something that could be ours, a promised land that has been given to us in the heart of God that we never possess. The children of Israel are given as our sobering example to not be like them. So let's stand up together. I want us to go out of here with a shout. Is everyone doing okay? As we're doing this altar team, go ahead and come. I thank you everybody for letting me go. I went 12 minutes longer, but I I don't want to have anyway. Thank you. That's kind. Thank you. Say this with me. Are you the only one on the altar team today, Michael? Come on, guys. On the altar tier, people are gonna come up in a minute. We need to be ready. There's wonderful things are gonna happen in this every week. Healings happen, salvation happens, deliverance happens in this little piece of planet earth every Sunday. I know who these people are and what they carry, so get ready. Everyone say this with me: say the word of God is giving me light. I see what God says. My imagination is aligning with heaven. I reject every image that contradicts God's word. I meditate on truth, I see through the light of revelation. My thinking is changing, my life is changing, I am conforming to the image of Christ, I am putting off the old man, I am putting on the new man. I walk in righteousness, peace, truth, faith, hope, love. The joy of the Lord is my strength. I am strong in the Lord and in the power of his might. Satan, start running, bite the dust in Jesus' name. Now come on, let's give the Lord thanks for all He's done. Jesus, thank you, Lord. I thank you. You're helping us to see what you've done. Hallelujah, hallelujah. You know, you rarely live beyond the picture that you carry on the inside. A meditation is God's way of replacing the pictures of earth with the pictures of heaven. Church, we know what to do. We know what to do on the way home. We know what to do this afternoon, we know what to do when we wake up in the morning, get busy doing it. We're gonna come in next Sunday and shake this place. Hallelujah. Church, I love you. Thank you so much for being.

SPEAKER_00 56:42

Thank you so much for joining us for this week's message at Gateway. We were so glad to be able to share it with you. If you would like to find out more about what is going on at Gateway or when our weekly services are, you can visit our website at www.igateway.org.uk. Thank you so much for joining us.