0:00:00 - 0:00:20 I haven't made a video in a while, so I guess I'll pop one off here. So, you know, I'm not dead although yesterday was my birthday. So I'm officially a year closer to that. Uh, so thought for today, um, my dog is outside so I can't actually show you uh what I wanted to, I'll just have to describe it 0:00:20 - 0:00:44 and, um, you know, I don't have a professional videographer or the time to do that myself. So, um, you probably just have to listen to my explanation anyways. Um So I have this husky and her name is Jess and we, we actually, we call her Fat Jess ever since she got spayed because she loves food now and 0:00:44 - 0:01:07 she doesn't know how to self regulate. So she will consume any food that is available until it's gone. And that's fun because we have other dogs. Um Anyway, so, so Jess, even before she was spayed, she had this uh very distinct personality where if she wanted to be affectionate, she would, she would 0:01:06 - 0:01:31 come to you and be affectionate and then she'd skedaddle maybe five seconds, 15 seconds later in um quite uh drastic action. She just take off like a rocket ship as if something spooked her or something hurt her or something. Um, so that's always been funny with her. Um, and she's still that way. Although 0:01:31 - 0:01:52 ever since she got spayed you, you could have up to a few minutes of, uh, time scratching her neck before she jets off. Um, she is very strong willed even for a husky. And, um, sometimes when you call her, she'll come, but most times she'll pretend like she doesn't hear you. And that's really funny to 0:01:52 - 0:02:20 watch when you can see her face while you're calling her. And uh she just kind of pretends like she can't hear you. So, um, what can we learn from Fat Jess as far as uh messengers of light go? So, uh like my dog, these people um consume everything in their path, not food but light. And because of that 0:02:20 - 0:02:48 , they tend to be fat. Uh not necessarily in a corporal way, but, um, in a spiritual way. And so if you're familiar with, uh the old Testament, fatness is usually a positive thing. It indicates prosperity and it's used symbolically in a, in a spiritual sense often. So, um these, these fat cells, uh sometimes 0:02:47 - 0:03:12 they come when you call, but most times you just have to respond to them because they will come over when they have something to say or something to do. And uh again, if you read through stories of prophets through the scriptures, you'll find that they do respond to um people's inquiries. Sometimes often 0:03:12 - 0:03:31 they are sent by God in response to people's inquiries. So for example, when Isaiah prayed, I'm sorry, when Hezekiah prayed, King of Israel, Isaiah showed up to answer his prayer and that's actually a pattern. You'll see more than once in the scriptures. Um And, and if you are wondering why that happens 0:03:30 - 0:03:51 , uh it turns out that we have the capability of asking questions that we don't have the capability to receive answers for. And so God, in His grace and compassion, he will arrange circumstances so that through the faith of other people combined with your own, you can receive answers to questions that 0:03:51 - 0:04:15 you have. And um it's very unfortunate that that's not a more common understanding, commonly understood principle because uh I for one have had the unfortunate um experience of participating in that feedback loop and uh having a person not be interested in those things when uh we both know they were 0:04:15 - 0:04:37 praying for them. So, um anyway, back to fat chess. So she actually responds to that by the way. Um It's, it's uh it's, it's a term of endearment in some places uh calling a thing, what it actually is, who would have thought that that'd be viewed positively. But in some places in South America, for instance 0:04:36 - 0:04:54 , uh it's very common to call someone fatty if they are indeed fat or skinny, if they're indeed skinny or shorty or I guess we don't have an English equivalent for someone who's tall string bean or something. I don't know. Um, but tally, if there were an English word for that and those of you who've 0:04:54 - 0:05:14 lived south of the border, you know what I'm talking about. So fat Jess. Um, when she comes to you, you take the greatest advantage you can of scratching her neck because you don't dictate those interactions. She does. She's the gatekeeper of that, right? And God is a gatekeeper of our interactions with 0:05:14 - 0:05:34 him and we can and should pray to him all the time. But we do not dictate when he comes to us or when he speaks to us. So when he does either of those things, either through his own voice or the voice of his servants, we really need to pay attention, we need to do all we can to drop whatever else it 0:05:34 - 0:05:52 is we're doing and uh extract the greatest value out of that. And in fact, it's not just a matter of responding. So with Jess, when she comes over and you, you're petting her, there's always a moment where you can tell she wants to go. And this is, this is kind of fun with the dog because it becomes 0:05:52 - 0:06:13 a game of how long you can keep her around uh past the point that she'd leave if um, if he just left her alone and um, she'll, she'll actually like wine. Huskies are funny in that they can talk, uh, somewhat, sometimes they're very willful creatures. So when they feel like it, I guess, but she'll usually 0:06:13 - 0:06:34 mouth off when she wants to go. And then, um, it's even more of the rocket ship thing. So that's funny. But in a spiritual sense, uh, it's not funny. It's very important and this is what happened with, um, Jacob and why he was named Israel, part of why he was named Israel, was that um he would not let 0:06:34 - 0:07:03 go of the Lord. When the Lord came to him, he grappled on and um became known for that. And so um you can find other examples of this principle in the scriptures when people um would say things, oh jeez, like uh they would invent reasons to keep the person around. I'll put it that way. So for example 0:07:02 - 0:07:20 , Abraham, this is a very rich story. Um when he, when the three messengers came, he kept them there and he did this because he understood the covenant. And I don't want to get into all that. Uh That's there's a lot of sacred cows that we'd have to kick along the way. And that's not something I'm trying 0:07:19 - 0:07:41 to do today. But um he kept them around as long as he could so that he could input into the principles he understood everything he could knowing full well based on the character of God, what was going to come out the other end of that. Um There are other examples too. Uh So, Gideon, I believe he, he 0:07:41 - 0:08:08 tries to offer a sacrifice to, to the angel that comes to him and um so on. So um oh Manoa Samson's dad, um when an angel comes to announce Samson's uh coming birth, Manoah tries to keep him around by asking him his name and name doesn't just mean my name is Rob. He was asking uh the person to not just 0:08:08 - 0:08:30 identify who he was in the hierarchy of heaven, but also reveal something about how he was. And it's interesting because angel's response is not fully clear in the translations we have. But if you look into the Hebrew uh and you have your eyes open, you'll see that. Uh the angel says, why should I bother 0:08:30 - 0:08:59 telling me telling you my name? You wouldn't comprehend it. And uh that's fun. And also another lesson of inter about interacting with these sorts of folks. Um You have to be prepared um to receive reactions from a level of awareness that exceeds your own. So I said that pretty carefully. But um you 0:08:58 - 0:09:20 will find as you read through the scriptures, example, after example of, I should say hint after hint of this principle. Um you know, there's this prevalence that somehow we have anything close to the full story in the scriptures. And I'm not sure where that comes from. I don't mean the fullness of the 0:09:20 - 0:09:45 gospel, which is a list of principles. What I mean is, um although that's interesting too because it's not given as a list of principles and there's actually quite a valuable secret locked into that. But uh skipping over that, um We presume that we have something approaching real life. Uh We, we have 0:09:45 - 0:10:09 a lens on the situation as if we were there and it's a, I think, an absurd position. Um So Jesus's ministry was around three years long and um and yet look at what we have in the gospels, that's not three years worth of content, folks. So if you were out preaching in the street daily or even near daily 0:10:09 - 0:10:31 or even just some of the time, you'd have way more content. If all you did was give one sermon every Sunday for three years, you'd have way more content than what we have in the New Testament. So to think that somehow we have an accurate whole picture of that, of how Jesus was conversationally. It's 0:10:31 - 0:11:01 absurd. So, um anyway, um but there are clues there. So in Luke, it says something like um Jesus says something to his disciples and they have questions, but they, it says they dared not ask him because they were afraid what he might say. And that's very interesting, isn't it? Because they knew that 0:11:00 - 0:11:20 they were not able to accurately predict when, what they were saying to Jesus was going to engender a neutral response or when it was going to engender a severe response, either positive or negative. They had no idea what he was gonna do or say next. But they knew enough about him that they knew they 0:11:20 - 0:11:39 didn't have any idea what he was gonna do or say next. And so when you read the Old Testament accounts of interacting with prophets, they do crazy things that no one's expecting. They tear their clothes, they bake bread and poop. They lay on their side for years. They shave random parts of their body 0:11:39 - 0:12:01 . They run around naked, they marry prostitutes. You never know what they're gonna do next. Right? And uh you get used to that and in the culture you see that because whenever someone did something weird in the Old Testament and even in the New Testament, people expected that this meant something. They 0:12:01 - 0:12:16 started paying attention to anything out of the norm, they pay attention. They're like credit card fraud algorithms. When you, when you uh go to a country and you're traveling, you didn't tell your credit card company. And so all of a sudden there's a charge in Spain and you don't live in Spain, they're 0:12:16 - 0:12:33 gonna call you and say is everything OK? Or they're gonna decline the transaction. You know, it's like that where uh in ancient Israel people pay attention when something was out of the norm, they'd expect that there was something meaningful in it and that they should pay attention. But uh we don't do 0:12:33 - 0:13:01 that. We say Oh, this doesn't match my expectations. It must be meaningless or bad anyway. Um, so, uh you wanna extract everything you can out of them and you want to contrive reasons to keep them on the line. So, um, you call them and then it's me or my servants, you call on God all the time and sometimes 0:13:01 - 0:13:21 he answers in ways that you perceive and sometimes you don't perceive him answering. I said that carefully on purpose. Uh The truth is every time you request anything from God with a pure heart, it's like he puts the package in the mail. And the issue is we perceive delays when in fact, one, the delay 0:13:21 - 0:13:54 is, is always on us two. It consists of specific things that have to happen to maximally prepare us to receive what we've requested. And I'll tell you specifically um two facets of this are one. Um When He sends things, he will always begin at the thing we should have asked for. And so, depending on 0:13:53 - 0:14:13 how many upward connections that thing has in the hierarchy, whatever it is that we desire, there might be something that where the true fulfillment of that desire is massively greater than anything we could have expected. And that's where he'll start. And it's only as we reject things he comes down 0:14:12 - 0:14:31 to where we are. And I've spoken about that before. It's a principle I call palliative care when you get to the bottom. And he will give you what you desire, but he'll always try to give you what you should desire first. The other thing is even when what you're asking for is a maximal blessing. Um which 0:14:30 - 0:14:51 there's really only one maximal blessing. I'll just ruin that secret for you. Um But anyway, even when you're asking for what you should ask for, um typically not having it has as much to do with not being prepared for it as it does anything else. And so in asking for it, you are actually asking for 0:14:51 - 0:15:22 a cluster of things that includes all the experiences. You need to um receive the maximum value in that thing or that person or that experience, whatever it is you're asking for and um God is not slack. He is on it. And uh any time we ask for anything, you know, if you knew how much he loved you, it 0:15:22 - 0:15:57 , it, it's heartbreaking to see so many people um use the very evidence of God's love as evidence that He doesn't love them. So I have yet to meet a person who wouldn't be overwhelmingly shocked to know how much God actually loves him. And that is just based on what I know and I don't know everything 0:15:56 - 0:16:27 . So you call out to God all the time for the things you really want. And um that's not just for yourself, it's for other people too. And then you better pay attention when they come because they're gonna come in ways you don't expect and at times you don't expect watch and pray always. If you don't 0:16:27 - 0:16:49 know the hour that your Lord comes, that's not just talking about the second coming. There are so many things in the gospel that are hierarchical chains and in a sense, the second coming, that's the end of that chain. But there's so many things before that you could pray for a better job. And if you're 0:16:49 - 0:17:13 not watching and praying, you won't see the opportunity right in front of your face. You know, and as you gain in wisdom, you look back on your own life and see an unending chain of times where God was doing everything he could to pump your life full of joy. And the, the only limit he had was he didn't 0:17:13 - 0:17:39 want to explode the balloon. I tell you the truth, there is a level of joy possible to feel in this life that if you don't undergo the necessary process, it would kill you to feel it, it would kill you. And you don't have to take my word for that. Go read the scriptures. We read about um incomprehensible 0:17:38 - 0:18:03 joy, which means joy that, that you can't quantify except through experiencing it. It is literally impossible to explain to another person that level of joy. We read about joy that overcame people. They literally collapsed because the joy they felt overwhelmed their body and the joy that the righteous 0:18:03 - 0:18:31 will experience in the resurrection is so great that it would overwhelm a mortal body to death. So God has great things to give us. So we should call out to Him to lead us to these things and then pay attention and it will come in ways that you don't expect. And at times that you don't expect. So pay 0:18:31 - 0:18:54 attention even when you're not asking for things because God knows the desires of your heart and he knows what you have need of before you ask him. And he is constantly operating. He has an army of agents that work on his behalf to bring to past the fulfillment of his character. And his chief quality 0:18:53 - 0:19:20 is love. But one of his other qualities is justice and there's a way for all things to be fulfilled. It's not magic, it's a, it's a, it's a process, it's a series of laws and you have to figure out what your role is in all of that to receive as much as you're willing to receive from him. So this has 0:19:20 - 0:19:41 already been way longer than I wanted to. And we verged off a little from the whole allegory of the dog. But um I did want to flip this around and so this will be my closing set of thoughts, who knows where this will go. But I want to bring up a I said, uh a lot of things in the gospel, they're chains 0:19:41 - 0:20:08 of increasing intensity, their hierarchical experiences. So one of these, um, is sort of the inverse of what I'm talking about with, with scratching the dog. And that is, um, instead of calling out to God and instead of recognizing the way he's sending things, typically people do the opposite and what 0:20:07 - 0:20:35 they do is they're not watching, they really think that they have a grasp on how it is that God's gonna give them what they seek and then when it comes, instead of grabbing onto it and not letting go, um, they, uh side note the other day, I said I have other dogs and other huskies and we, we had a lot 0:20:34 - 0:20:54 of bones around and uh mostly because of Fat Jess and her new obsession with food. Um, they got into a big fight and so I ran in and I separated them and luckily I didn't get bitten, but I was sprawled out on the floor and I had one dog in one hand, one dog in another hand. And somehow I don't know how 0:20:54 - 0:21:18 I was holding another dog with my foot and my wife came to the rescue to get, uh for backup. And, uh, it was, it was quite an amazing thing. Um So that is an example of holding on to things. But uh instead of instead of grappling on and holding on and doing whatever we can to extract everything there 0:21:18 - 0:21:52 is from whatever it is or whoever it is that God is sending us, this is what we do instead. Uh this is from Isaiah 5215. And people read this as an end times event and they're correct, but this is not some mysterious one time thing. It's merely the pinnacle example of um of an ever present gospel uh 0:21:52 - 0:22:25 circumstance. So um it's talking about the end time servant. It says, so shall he Sprinkle many nations? The kings shall shut their mouths at him for that which had not been told them, shall they see? And that which they had not heard, shall they consider? So, I was not raised in Jewish culture. Um But 0:22:25 - 0:22:52 I have spent a lot of time. Um uh Well, I, I want to say studying things that Isaiah talks about but any other profits but experiencing a great deal of them. And it's been interesting to have 1 ft in um a modern American experience and another foot in something that transcends even ancient Israel and 0:22:52 - 0:23:25 goes back uh far sooner. Um And so from that vantage point, looking in on this, um I, I tend to see things that maybe aren't so obvious to others to some others, at least. So this is a um an interesting verse to me because like a lot of what Isaiah says, it's um a very high priority of his phrasing is 0:23:25 - 0:23:50 , is poetic um to an impressive degree in fact, but there are so many different senses in Hebrew and these things principally were translated by people from a linguistic standpoint, not a superior knowledge of the gospel standpoint. And what I mean by superior is if you really want to understand what 0:23:49 - 0:24:16 um what a scriptural author is trying was trying to say your gospel understanding has to be at least equal to theirs in that thing. And so to think that King James scholars or whoever else, uh we're able to do that. I think a lot of people give latitude to these folks thinking that well, the spirit can 0:24:16 - 0:24:37 just inspire them to say the right thing, even if they don't understand what they're saying. I don't have any problems with that idea. Uh I don't think it precludes a better, more correct interpretation though. Um I'm shocked at how good a job they did do. Um But there's a lot of it that could be a lot 0:24:37 - 0:25:02 better. And it's kind of surprising to me that so many people think that what is in the Bible, particularly how it is phrased cannot be improved upon. And at the same time, those people will argue with others about which translation they're using. So that's interesting. Uh Anyway, um the second portion 0:25:01 - 0:00:00 of this verse where it starts where the king shall shut their mouths at him for that, which had not been told them, shall they see and that which they had not heard they shall consider. Uh You should go in the Bible hub and look that up in Hebrew and search through all the senses of the words there. 0:00:00 - 0:25:43 Um Because I think that there's a lot there that isn't in the text. Um So a lot of Isaiah in particular leans on this idea that uh you'll be familiar with these idioms or um ways of phrasing things. Like what does it mean when you say something and then say it again in a slightly different way, you'll 0:25:43 - 0:26:11 have these couplets in a lot of verses and uh there are people who have um done an impressive amount of work with this sort of thing. But um I've experienced at least the second half of this verse and um having experienced it, I'd like to explain it to you um from my perspective. So there are a great 0:26:10 - 0:26:34 number of people who go through this life in self delusion specifically in the sense that they know more than they do, they know better than what they do. And um it's an almost universal thing and even when you have someone who tries to do what's right. Air quotes, most of the time, air quotes, a great 0:26:33 - 0:26:55 number of a great percentage of the time they're willingly doing what they know is not right. And this is not my theory. There are statistics on this if you want to look something up called the Ash Experiments. I, I'm going into detail in one of my books, maybe a few of my books on this, but you can 0:26:55 - 0:27:20 look it up now and that's spelled a sch and so Ash actually quantified how often people willingly do what they know is wrong. Not even in a moral sense and not even in a uh dealing with the complexities of IQ and not even really dealing with social pressures, just very simple question asked in front 0:27:20 - 0:27:43 of other people and those other people give the clearly wrong answer. So what do you do? And to, to jump to the moral of the story, almost everyone will do what they know to be wrong almost all the time. That's crazy. That's crazy. And that's human nature. It's the facts. Um I think one thing that's 0:27:43 - 0:28:05 uh that one topic that I speak on that's highly resisted is human nature. And even people who know the scriptures and it is very clear how humans are by nature since the fall, they'll fight on this and they don't want to believe it. They want to believe people are intrinsically good or that they have 0:28:05 - 0:28:24 tendencies towards good or they have good hearts. And uh if you really want to know how people are, I'll give you a real simple way to find out. You don't have to do research. You don't even have to read the scriptures, just light a candle and hold it up and wait for the bullets because they'll come 0:28:24 - 0:28:48 and it won't take very long. And the thing is, is you don't even have to take a moral position just saying what is obviously true. And things are bad enough today that I would be surprised if you still have a job if you still have friends. And if you still have family like you do today, just do that 0:28:47 - 0:29:12 . If you, if you insist on saying what you seriously believe to be true, not about religion, not even about politics, about basic reality, just objective reality. The sky is blue, the sun is shining type stuff all the time. And especially when someone says something that you know, they know is obviously 0:29:12 - 0:29:38 not objective reality and let me know how that goes. And if you get through that, if you can do that for a month straight, no exceptions and not get fired, get marked for a layoff. Next time one comes around, get marked for not being promoted. Um Lose friends, get terrible things said about you in public 0:29:37 - 0:29:58 . Uh have family members hate you whatever ghost you, if you can get through that for a month without those things happening, you let me know and I will gladly revise my position and if you're not willing to do that or if you do that and what I'm telling you is exactly what happens to you. Maybe you 0:29:58 - 0:30:26 shouldn't disagree with me on that point because you don't have a reason to, you haven't proven me wrong. So um could go further on that. I won't, let's stick to the point. Isaiah 52. This is the pinnacle of a chain of uh examples of a principle. And why it's the pinnacle is because the person who is 0:30:25 - 0:30:48 Isaiah is speaking about here will have more truth than anyone else. And so they will experience this to the greatest degree, very simple idea. But the principle applies to everyone at every level. It's just the outcome will come uh commensurate with the input it scales and it scales exponentially as 0:30:48 - 0:31:14 most things do in reality. Actually, it turns out certainly with truth and with the gospel. So what does this actually mean? Kings shall shut their mouths at him. So who are kings? Um So you could get into this big topic of kings of the gentiles and other people have said fine things about this. Um I 0:31:14 - 0:31:43 will just say people who think they know something will shut up. Why that's the next part that, which had not been told them, shall they see? It's not a good translation. Um We could get one step closer by saying something like that, which they saw but refused to perceive will be made undeniably obvious 0:31:43 - 0:32:08 to them. That's closer to the original meaning, the intended meaning I should say, OK. Um And why that is, has to do with the sprinkling of nations which I won't get into right now and I know I've talked about this before, but I'll probably say things here. I haven't before and it's relevant to this 0:32:08 - 0:32:40 thing and people aren't listening. So, hey, it doesn't hurt to repeat yourself, right? Um And that, which they had not heard shall they consider? So we talked about seeing, there's a difference between um visually detecting something, mentally recognizing it and then doing the right thing about it, the 0:32:40 - 0:33:00 appropriate response. So like if a baseball bat is coming for your face, your eyes can get the signals of a baseball bat moving without your brain reacting and, and you ducking. Those are all three separate things. So you might see the bat and be like, well, it's just normal, whatever sunshiny day or 0:33:00 - 0:33:23 you might see the bat and say this is bat and I should lean into it or do some kung fu move, right? And that would be a bad move because you'll end up with a busted face or broken arm or you could say duck and that's the right answer, right? So you have three levels of reaction there. Um with, with hearing 0:33:22 - 0:33:48 it's the same, you can get the signal and ignore it or not. Well, it's different, not perceive it, you could perceive it and ignore it, you can perceive it, uh recognize it and then you get to choose how to react to it. Right? So, um I think a lot of times we think about gospel teaching as revelation 0:33:47 - 0:34:09 of new things and it can be that for sure. And it's valuable when it is, but most often it's actually just hearing something you already know or at least should know but you didn't respond to it the first time or the second time or the 100th time. And so maybe it's explained in a slightly different way 0:34:08 - 0:34:33 . Sorry, my screen just turned off or maybe it's explained, um, just another time or maybe it comes in a way that's more, um, acceptable to you. So, for example, parents really don't like hearing things from their kids. They don't like getting corrected by their kids even when their kids are right. I 0:34:33 - 0:34:55 should say most parents, um I'm sure there's some parents out there who love the truth more than they love, uh, unrighteous Dominion because that's what it is. Um, but that I'd say that's less than 50% of the time. So maybe your kid tells you something and you don't want to hear and so you ignore them 0:34:54 - 0:35:15 but then someone, some, some, uh, stranger on the street comes up to you and says, uh, oh, this, that or the other. And you say, well, I'm willing to listen to you because, uh, uh, maybe you heard from a friend first and, uh, like that, that old song, heard it from f, heard it from a friend who heard 0:35:15 - 0:35:33 it from a friend anyway. Um, so you hear it from a friend. Um, and you say, well, maybe what this person is saying is true but I know them to be a flawed individual cause I know them well and who they think they are, they're not better than me. They can't be right. Or if they are right. I don't care 0:35:32 - 0:35:54 because they're not perfect. So, I'm not listening but then a stranger comes up and you say, well, I don't know this person, I have no basis to ignore them. And plus if they know something about me without knowing me, maybe they're right. And maybe you listen. So that's an example. Um, but anyway, so 0:35:53 - 0:36:13 , um, when you do this sort of thing, what you do is you take what they've been ignoring because it all starts in your conscience. And, um, it's real possible to dull that it's easy and people are good at it and then it has to come from outside because you're not listening to the inside anymore. And 0:36:13 - 0:36:34 it's not just a matter of if that little voice is annoying, you, you just shut it in the basement, you can't put it in the basement without weakening it in volume and frequency. And uh typically it takes the interaction from the external stimulus from another person to jumpstart that again, it's kind 0:36:34 - 0:36:49 of like a dead battery and, uh, like a dead battery, it doesn't die all at once. There might be a little juice in there where you can turn the engine once or twice. Um, and, and you're like, well, I'm good because the engine turns when I turn the key, I just don't turn the key very often, but it's there 0:36:49 - 0:37:07 when I need it. But you've never started the engine in six months or six years or 60 years. And, uh, maybe you need to get a trickle charger on that. Right. Or a quick jumpstart is probably a better analogy. Uh, if you want to restore it to how it was, you got to trickle charge it. That takes time. But 0:37:07 - 0:37:25 usually messengers come with quick and fast and, uh, like the dog, they come by when they want to be pet and then they skiddle. So, and they don't always come when you call and, and typically people wait till they're in trouble to call on God. And what does he say? There's a scripture on this. He, he 0:37:25 - 0:37:46 says, you're slow to listen to me when I was speaking to you. So I'll be slow to answer you when you call on me. And it's not because he's mean, everything God does is because He loves you. And there are many ways in which if he acted, how we would want him to not knowing him, it would hurt us more than 0:37:46 - 0:38:06 what he does. Instead, he always does what's best always. And so if you want to know what's best, look at what God does. That's what's best. It's not what you think is best. It's what He does. So anyway, maybe we'll get to the point here before this is an hour long. I, I, all these things are very valuable 0:38:06 - 0:38:36 . So I don't mind saying them, but I have things to do and I don't have an hour to take away from what I need to do. So, um, when you come in the name of the Lord to tell someone something, um, it's one thing for them to ignore you. Um, it's another for them to fully comprehend what you're saying for 0:38:36 - 0:39:04 that baseball bat to connect to their face and, um, they respond by, um, going dark and I mean that in more ways than one, what they should do so is what the lady did at the, well, in Samaria, when Jesus said um that she had, she had been with a whole bunch of guys. So, so that's an interesting way of 0:39:04 - 0:39:25 framing that conversation because I think, I think most people would frame it differently. But that's, that's really what happened is he said, well, you, you met a really promiscuous lady and instead of getting crazy or mad or um I don't know, inventing some false accusation against him, which is probably 0:39:25 - 0:39:46 what most people would do today. Um in that situation, uh she said, wow, here's a guy that somehow knows, she said everything about her and I really hope there was more to her than how many guys she had slept with. But that's what she said. Um she said, here's a guy who knows my whole life story. And 0:39:46 - 0:40:08 so she responded by going into town and telling everyone who had listened to her that she had found the Messiah and they should come listen to him too. What a crazy response. What an unusual response, what people do instead when they receive evidence that they're in the presence of someone who knows 0:40:08 - 0:40:39 way more than they do about God and way more than they do about themselves. They just shut down and they turn off most of the time, most of the time and they'll take a day or a week or a month or a year or three years to come back to the person if they ever do it all and say you're right about this and 0:40:39 - 0:41:04 that. What do you think about this other thing or? Uh, yeah, I, I've yet to hear. What do you think about anything? But, you know, that's, that's, uh, a super rare thing. What else do you have? What else do you have? Now? Fat Jess got fat by eating too much food. If you put more food in front of her 0:41:04 - 0:00:00 face, she's gonna eat it right. If you wanna be like fat Jess, it's very easy. Eat all the food that's put in front of your face and go look for more. And when she cleans out a dog food bowl, she scours the house for little treats that, uh, kids dropped or, um, little crumbs that other dogs dropped. 0:00:00 - 0:41:52 It's very easy if you want, you know, God is no respecter of persons. And if you want to be like fat Jess, go do what fat Jess does gobble up any food you find. So, um this is what this means. Kings shall shut their mouths and et cetera, what they never heard. They'll, they'll consider it means that 0:41:51 - 0:42:15 things are explained so clearly that not only are you forced to face what you willingly denied before, even though you knew it, you may have forgotten it in the meantime, but at some point, you knew it. Not only that, but you get doused in evidence that this person knows more than you on other things 0:42:15 - 0:42:42 too. And it's undeniable. So what are you going to do about it? And most people react by ghosting, that's what they do. Some people react by turning on the person and trying to squish them down by saying nasty things about them that they know are lies usually publicly to soothe their conscience. And 0:42:42 - 0:43:07 I have a good picture of that and I'll do a slideshow at some point. But basically when something better than you manifests, the natural man will try to get out of that situation and you can do that by turning away if you can or you can do that by squishing that person down. And so you criticize them 0:43:06 - 0:43:30 falsely. Um And if you're really sly, I'll give you a trick. You don't criticize them falsely, you just criticize them on some unrelated thing, right? So if I say um you neglect your c your kids and I know this, I'm not guessing like we spent time together and I even know I'm not the only person that's 0:43:30 - 0:43:59 told you this and, um, and you react by saying, um, I don't know, you have bad breath, right. Maybe, maybe I do. And, and if I do, I'll thank you for that and go brush my teeth. But, um, it's irrelevant. That doesn't change the situation. You're still a no neglectful parent. Right. So, um, people are 0:43:59 - 0:44:19 funny and we ought to be careful about human nature. And, uh, because most humans actually act quite a bit like animals could probably learn a lot by opening our eyes to the examples of the animals around us, even Fat Jess. So I'll leave it at that. Uh, I've probably given you enough to be offended on 0:44:18 - 0:00:00 for the next week or two. I'm trying not to make these videos very often because I have to write books instead. But sometimes I'll check in from time to time when I feel like that's what I'm supposed to do. So I hope this helps somebody somewhere. Please don't respond by shutting your mouth. If you, 0:00:00 - 0:00:20 I haven't made a video in a while, so I guess I'll pop one off here. So, you know, I'm not dead although yesterday was my birthday. So I'm officially a year closer to that. Uh, so thought for today, um, my dog is outside so I can't actually show you uh what I wanted to, I'll just have to describe it 0:00:20 - 0:00:44 and, um, you know, I don't have a professional videographer or the time to do that myself. So, um, you probably just have to listen to my explanation anyways. Um So I have this husky and her name is Jess and we, we actually, we call her Fat Jess ever since she got spayed because she loves food now and 0:00:44 - 0:01:07 she doesn't know how to self regulate. So she will consume any food that is available until it's gone. And that's fun because we have other dogs. Um Anyway, so, so Jess, even before she was spayed, she had this uh very distinct personality where if she wanted to be affectionate, she would, she would 0:01:06 - 0:01:31 come to you and be affectionate and then she'd skedaddle maybe five seconds, 15 seconds later in um quite uh drastic action. She just take off like a rocket ship as if something spooked her or something hurt her or something. Um, so that's always been funny with her. Um, and she's still that way. Although 0:01:31 - 0:01:52 ever since she got spayed you, you could have up to a few minutes of, uh, time scratching her neck before she jets off. Um, she is very strong willed even for a husky. And, um, sometimes when you call her, she'll come, but most times she'll pretend like she doesn't hear you. And that's really funny to 0:01:52 - 0:02:20 watch when you can see her face while you're calling her. And uh she just kind of pretends like she can't hear you. So, um, what can we learn from Fat Jess as far as uh messengers of light go? So, uh like my dog, these people um consume everything in their path, not food but light. And because of that 0:02:20 - 0:02:48 , they tend to be fat. Uh not necessarily in a corporal way, but, um, in a spiritual way. And so if you're familiar with, uh the old Testament, fatness is usually a positive thing. It indicates prosperity and it's used symbolically in a, in a spiritual sense often. So, um these, these fat cells, uh sometimes 0:02:47 - 0:03:12 they come when you call, but most times you just have to respond to them because they will come over when they have something to say or something to do. And uh again, if you read through stories of prophets through the scriptures, you'll find that they do respond to um people's inquiries. Sometimes often 0:03:12 - 0:03:31 they are sent by God in response to people's inquiries. So for example, when Isaiah prayed, I'm sorry, when Hezekiah prayed, King of Israel, Isaiah showed up to answer his prayer and that's actually a pattern. You'll see more than once in the scriptures. Um And, and if you are wondering why that happens 0:03:30 - 0:03:51 , uh it turns out that we have the capability of asking questions that we don't have the capability to receive answers for. And so God, in His grace and compassion, he will arrange circumstances so that through the faith of other people combined with your own, you can receive answers to questions that 0:03:51 - 0:04:15 you have. And um it's very unfortunate that that's not a more common understanding, commonly understood principle because uh I for one have had the unfortunate um experience of participating in that feedback loop and uh having a person not be interested in those things when uh we both know they were 0:04:15 - 0:04:37 praying for them. So, um anyway, back to fat chess. So she actually responds to that by the way. Um It's, it's uh it's, it's a term of endearment in some places uh calling a thing, what it actually is, who would have thought that that'd be viewed positively. But in some places in South America, for instance 0:04:36 - 0:04:54 , uh it's very common to call someone fatty if they are indeed fat or skinny, if they're indeed skinny or shorty or I guess we don't have an English equivalent for someone who's tall string bean or something. I don't know. Um, but tally, if there were an English word for that and those of you who've 0:04:54 - 0:05:14 lived south of the border, you know what I'm talking about. So fat Jess. Um, when she comes to you, you take the greatest advantage you can of scratching her neck because you don't dictate those interactions. She does. She's the gatekeeper of that, right? And God is a gatekeeper of our interactions with 0:05:14 - 0:05:34 him and we can and should pray to him all the time. But we do not dictate when he comes to us or when he speaks to us. So when he does either of those things, either through his own voice or the voice of his servants, we really need to pay attention, we need to do all we can to drop whatever else it 0:05:34 - 0:05:52 is we're doing and uh extract the greatest value out of that. And in fact, it's not just a matter of responding. So with Jess, when she comes over and you, you're petting her, there's always a moment where you can tell she wants to go. And this is, this is kind of fun with the dog because it becomes 0:05:52 - 0:06:13 a game of how long you can keep her around uh past the point that she'd leave if um, if he just left her alone and um, she'll, she'll actually like wine. Huskies are funny in that they can talk, uh, somewhat, sometimes they're very willful creatures. So when they feel like it, I guess, but she'll usually 0:06:13 - 0:06:34 mouth off when she wants to go. And then, um, it's even more of the rocket ship thing. So that's funny. But in a spiritual sense, uh, it's not funny. It's very important and this is what happened with, um, Jacob and why he was named Israel, part of why he was named Israel, was that um he would not let 0:06:34 - 0:07:03 go of the Lord. When the Lord came to him, he grappled on and um became known for that. And so um you can find other examples of this principle in the scriptures when people um would say things, oh jeez, like uh they would invent reasons to keep the person around. I'll put it that way. So for example 0:07:02 - 0:07:20 , Abraham, this is a very rich story. Um when he, when the three messengers came, he kept them there and he did this because he understood the covenant. And I don't want to get into all that. Uh That's there's a lot of sacred cows that we'd have to kick along the way. And that's not something I'm trying 0:07:19 - 0:07:41 to do today. But um he kept them around as long as he could so that he could input into the principles he understood everything he could knowing full well based on the character of God, what was going to come out the other end of that. Um There are other examples too. Uh So, Gideon, I believe he, he 0:07:41 - 0:08:08 tries to offer a sacrifice to, to the angel that comes to him and um so on. So um oh Manoa Samson's dad, um when an angel comes to announce Samson's uh coming birth, Manoah tries to keep him around by asking him his name and name doesn't just mean my name is Rob. He was asking uh the person to not just 0:08:08 - 0:08:30 identify who he was in the hierarchy of heaven, but also reveal something about how he was. And it's interesting because angel's response is not fully clear in the translations we have. But if you look into the Hebrew uh and you have your eyes open, you'll see that. Uh the angel says, why should I bother 0:08:30 - 0:08:59 telling me telling you my name? You wouldn't comprehend it. And uh that's fun. And also another lesson of inter about interacting with these sorts of folks. Um You have to be prepared um to receive reactions from a level of awareness that exceeds your own. So I said that pretty carefully. But um you 0:08:58 - 0:09:20 will find as you read through the scriptures, example, after example of, I should say hint after hint of this principle. Um you know, there's this prevalence that somehow we have anything close to the full story in the scriptures. And I'm not sure where that comes from. I don't mean the fullness of the 0:09:20 - 0:09:45 gospel, which is a list of principles. What I mean is, um although that's interesting too because it's not given as a list of principles and there's actually quite a valuable secret locked into that. But uh skipping over that, um We presume that we have something approaching real life. Uh We, we have 0:09:45 - 0:10:09 a lens on the situation as if we were there and it's a, I think, an absurd position. Um So Jesus's ministry was around three years long and um and yet look at what we have in the gospels, that's not three years worth of content, folks. So if you were out preaching in the street daily or even near daily 0:10:09 - 0:10:31 or even just some of the time, you'd have way more content. If all you did was give one sermon every Sunday for three years, you'd have way more content than what we have in the New Testament. So to think that somehow we have an accurate whole picture of that, of how Jesus was conversationally. It's 0:10:31 - 0:11:01 absurd. So, um anyway, um but there are clues there. So in Luke, it says something like um Jesus says something to his disciples and they have questions, but they, it says they dared not ask him because they were afraid what he might say. And that's very interesting, isn't it? Because they knew that 0:11:00 - 0:11:20 they were not able to accurately predict when, what they were saying to Jesus was going to engender a neutral response or when it was going to engender a severe response, either positive or negative. They had no idea what he was gonna do or say next. But they knew enough about him that they knew they 0:11:20 - 0:11:39 didn't have any idea what he was gonna do or say next. And so when you read the Old Testament accounts of interacting with prophets, they do crazy things that no one's expecting. They tear their clothes, they bake bread and poop. They lay on their side for years. They shave random parts of their body 0:11:39 - 0:12:01 . They run around naked, they marry prostitutes. You never know what they're gonna do next. Right? And uh you get used to that and in the culture you see that because whenever someone did something weird in the Old Testament and even in the New Testament, people expected that this meant something. They 0:12:01 - 0:12:16 started paying attention to anything out of the norm, they pay attention. They're like credit card fraud algorithms. When you, when you uh go to a country and you're traveling, you didn't tell your credit card company. And so all of a sudden there's a charge in Spain and you don't live in Spain, they're 0:12:16 - 0:12:33 gonna call you and say is everything OK? Or they're gonna decline the transaction. You know, it's like that where uh in ancient Israel people pay attention when something was out of the norm, they'd expect that there was something meaningful in it and that they should pay attention. But uh we don't do 0:12:33 - 0:13:01 that. We say Oh, this doesn't match my expectations. It must be meaningless or bad anyway. Um, so, uh you wanna extract everything you can out of them and you want to contrive reasons to keep them on the line. So, um, you call them and then it's me or my servants, you call on God all the time and sometimes 0:13:01 - 0:13:21 he answers in ways that you perceive and sometimes you don't perceive him answering. I said that carefully on purpose. Uh The truth is every time you request anything from God with a pure heart, it's like he puts the package in the mail. And the issue is we perceive delays when in fact, one, the delay 0:13:21 - 0:13:54 is, is always on us two. It consists of specific things that have to happen to maximally prepare us to receive what we've requested. And I'll tell you specifically um two facets of this are one. Um When He sends things, he will always begin at the thing we should have asked for. And so, depending on 0:13:53 - 0:14:13 how many upward connections that thing has in the hierarchy, whatever it is that we desire, there might be something that where the true fulfillment of that desire is massively greater than anything we could have expected. And that's where he'll start. And it's only as we reject things he comes down 0:14:12 - 0:14:31 to where we are. And I've spoken about that before. It's a principle I call palliative care when you get to the bottom. And he will give you what you desire, but he'll always try to give you what you should desire first. The other thing is even when what you're asking for is a maximal blessing. Um which 0:14:30 - 0:14:51 there's really only one maximal blessing. I'll just ruin that secret for you. Um But anyway, even when you're asking for what you should ask for, um typically not having it has as much to do with not being prepared for it as it does anything else. And so in asking for it, you are actually asking for 0:14:51 - 0:15:22 a cluster of things that includes all the experiences. You need to um receive the maximum value in that thing or that person or that experience, whatever it is you're asking for and um God is not slack. He is on it. And uh any time we ask for anything, you know, if you knew how much he loved you, it 0:15:22 - 0:15:57 , it, it's heartbreaking to see so many people um use the very evidence of God's love as evidence that He doesn't love them. So I have yet to meet a person who wouldn't be overwhelmingly shocked to know how much God actually loves him. And that is just based on what I know and I don't know everything 0:15:56 - 0:16:27 . So you call out to God all the time for the things you really want. And um that's not just for yourself, it's for other people too. And then you better pay attention when they come because they're gonna come in ways you don't expect and at times you don't expect watch and pray always. If you don't 0:16:27 - 0:16:49 know the hour that your Lord comes, that's not just talking about the second coming. There are so many things in the gospel that are hierarchical chains and in a sense, the second coming, that's the end of that chain. But there's so many things before that you could pray for a better job. And if you're 0:16:49 - 0:17:13 not watching and praying, you won't see the opportunity right in front of your face. You know, and as you gain in wisdom, you look back on your own life and see an unending chain of times where God was doing everything he could to pump your life full of joy. And the, the only limit he had was he didn't 0:17:13 - 0:17:39 want to explode the balloon. I tell you the truth, there is a level of joy possible to feel in this life that if you don't undergo the necessary process, it would kill you to feel it, it would kill you. And you don't have to take my word for that. Go read the scriptures. We read about um incomprehensible 0:17:38 - 0:18:03 joy, which means joy that, that you can't quantify except through experiencing it. It is literally impossible to explain to another person that level of joy. We read about joy that overcame people. They literally collapsed because the joy they felt overwhelmed their body and the joy that the righteous 0:18:03 - 0:18:31 will experience in the resurrection is so great that it would overwhelm a mortal body to death. So God has great things to give us. So we should call out to Him to lead us to these things and then pay attention and it will come in ways that you don't expect. And at times that you don't expect. So pay 0:18:31 - 0:18:54 attention even when you're not asking for things because God knows the desires of your heart and he knows what you have need of before you ask him. And he is constantly operating. He has an army of agents that work on his behalf to bring to past the fulfillment of his character. And his chief quality 0:18:53 - 0:19:20 is love. But one of his other qualities is justice and there's a way for all things to be fulfilled. It's not magic, it's a, it's a, it's a process, it's a series of laws and you have to figure out what your role is in all of that to receive as much as you're willing to receive from him. So this has 0:19:20 - 0:19:41 already been way longer than I wanted to. And we verged off a little from the whole allegory of the dog. But um I did want to flip this around and so this will be my closing set of thoughts, who knows where this will go. But I want to bring up a I said, uh a lot of things in the gospel, they're chains 0:19:41 - 0:20:08 of increasing intensity, their hierarchical experiences. So one of these, um, is sort of the inverse of what I'm talking about with, with scratching the dog. And that is, um, instead of calling out to God and instead of recognizing the way he's sending things, typically people do the opposite and what 0:20:07 - 0:20:35 they do is they're not watching, they really think that they have a grasp on how it is that God's gonna give them what they seek and then when it comes, instead of grabbing onto it and not letting go, um, they, uh side note the other day, I said I have other dogs and other huskies and we, we had a lot 0:20:34 - 0:20:54 of bones around and uh mostly because of Fat Jess and her new obsession with food. Um, they got into a big fight and so I ran in and I separated them and luckily I didn't get bitten, but I was sprawled out on the floor and I had one dog in one hand, one dog in another hand. And somehow I don't know how 0:20:54 - 0:21:18 I was holding another dog with my foot and my wife came to the rescue to get, uh for backup. And, uh, it was, it was quite an amazing thing. Um So that is an example of holding on to things. But uh instead of instead of grappling on and holding on and doing whatever we can to extract everything there 0:21:18 - 0:21:52 is from whatever it is or whoever it is that God is sending us, this is what we do instead. Uh this is from Isaiah 5215. And people read this as an end times event and they're correct, but this is not some mysterious one time thing. It's merely the pinnacle example of um of an ever present gospel uh 0:21:52 - 0:22:25 circumstance. So um it's talking about the end time servant. It says, so shall he Sprinkle many nations? The kings shall shut their mouths at him for that which had not been told them, shall they see? And that which they had not heard, shall they consider? So, I was not raised in Jewish culture. Um But 0:22:25 - 0:22:52 I have spent a lot of time. Um uh Well, I, I want to say studying things that Isaiah talks about but any other profits but experiencing a great deal of them. And it's been interesting to have 1 ft in um a modern American experience and another foot in something that transcends even ancient Israel and 0:22:52 - 0:23:25 goes back uh far sooner. Um And so from that vantage point, looking in on this, um I, I tend to see things that maybe aren't so obvious to others to some others, at least. So this is a um an interesting verse to me because like a lot of what Isaiah says, it's um a very high priority of his phrasing is 0:23:25 - 0:23:50 , is poetic um to an impressive degree in fact, but there are so many different senses in Hebrew and these things principally were translated by people from a linguistic standpoint, not a superior knowledge of the gospel standpoint. And what I mean by superior is if you really want to understand what 0:23:49 - 0:24:16 um what a scriptural author is trying was trying to say your gospel understanding has to be at least equal to theirs in that thing. And so to think that King James scholars or whoever else, uh we're able to do that. I think a lot of people give latitude to these folks thinking that well, the spirit can 0:24:16 - 0:24:37 just inspire them to say the right thing, even if they don't understand what they're saying. I don't have any problems with that idea. Uh I don't think it precludes a better, more correct interpretation though. Um I'm shocked at how good a job they did do. Um But there's a lot of it that could be a lot 0:24:37 - 0:25:02 better. And it's kind of surprising to me that so many people think that what is in the Bible, particularly how it is phrased cannot be improved upon. And at the same time, those people will argue with others about which translation they're using. So that's interesting. Uh Anyway, um the second portion 0:25:01 - 0:00:00 of this verse where it starts where the king shall shut their mouths at him for that, which had not been told them, shall they see and that which they had not heard they shall consider. Uh You should go in the Bible hub and look that up in Hebrew and search through all the senses of the words there. 0:00:00 - 0:25:43 Um Because I think that there's a lot there that isn't in the text. Um So a lot of Isaiah in particular leans on this idea that uh you'll be familiar with these idioms or um ways of phrasing things. Like what does it mean when you say something and then say it again in a slightly different way, you'll 0:25:43 - 0:26:11 have these couplets in a lot of verses and uh there are people who have um done an impressive amount of work with this sort of thing. But um I've experienced at least the second half of this verse and um having experienced it, I'd like to explain it to you um from my perspective. So there are a great 0:26:10 - 0:26:34 number of people who go through this life in self delusion specifically in the sense that they know more than they do, they know better than what they do. And um it's an almost universal thing and even when you have someone who tries to do what's right. Air quotes, most of the time, air quotes, a great 0:26:33 - 0:26:55 number of a great percentage of the time they're willingly doing what they know is not right. And this is not my theory. There are statistics on this if you want to look something up called the Ash Experiments. I, I'm going into detail in one of my books, maybe a few of my books on this, but you can 0:26:55 - 0:27:20 look it up now and that's spelled a sch and so Ash actually quantified how often people willingly do what they know is wrong. Not even in a moral sense and not even in a uh dealing with the complexities of IQ and not even really dealing with social pressures, just very simple question asked in front 0:27:20 - 0:27:43 of other people and those other people give the clearly wrong answer. So what do you do? And to, to jump to the moral of the story, almost everyone will do what they know to be wrong almost all the time. That's crazy. That's crazy. And that's human nature. It's the facts. Um I think one thing that's 0:27:43 - 0:28:05 uh that one topic that I speak on that's highly resisted is human nature. And even people who know the scriptures and it is very clear how humans are by nature since the fall, they'll fight on this and they don't want to believe it. They want to believe people are intrinsically good or that they have 0:28:05 - 0:28:24 tendencies towards good or they have good hearts. And uh if you really want to know how people are, I'll give you a real simple way to find out. You don't have to do research. You don't even have to read the scriptures, just light a candle and hold it up and wait for the bullets because they'll come 0:28:24 - 0:28:48 and it won't take very long. And the thing is, is you don't even have to take a moral position just saying what is obviously true. And things are bad enough today that I would be surprised if you still have a job if you still have friends. And if you still have family like you do today, just do that 0:28:47 - 0:29:12 . If you, if you insist on saying what you seriously believe to be true, not about religion, not even about politics, about basic reality, just objective reality. The sky is blue, the sun is shining type stuff all the time. And especially when someone says something that you know, they know is obviously 0:29:12 - 0:29:38 not objective reality and let me know how that goes. And if you get through that, if you can do that for a month straight, no exceptions and not get fired, get marked for a layoff. Next time one comes around, get marked for not being promoted. Um Lose friends, get terrible things said about you in public 0:29:37 - 0:29:58 . Uh have family members hate you whatever ghost you, if you can get through that for a month without those things happening, you let me know and I will gladly revise my position and if you're not willing to do that or if you do that and what I'm telling you is exactly what happens to you. Maybe you 0:29:58 - 0:30:26 shouldn't disagree with me on that point because you don't have a reason to, you haven't proven me wrong. So um could go further on that. I won't, let's stick to the point. Isaiah 52. This is the pinnacle of a chain of uh examples of a principle. And why it's the pinnacle is because the person who is 0:30:25 - 0:30:48 Isaiah is speaking about here will have more truth than anyone else. And so they will experience this to the greatest degree, very simple idea. But the principle applies to everyone at every level. It's just the outcome will come uh commensurate with the input it scales and it scales exponentially as 0:30:48 - 0:31:14 most things do in reality. Actually, it turns out certainly with truth and with the gospel. So what does this actually mean? Kings shall shut their mouths at him. So who are kings? Um So you could get into this big topic of kings of the gentiles and other people have said fine things about this. Um I 0:31:14 - 0:31:43 will just say people who think they know something will shut up. Why that's the next part that, which had not been told them, shall they see? It's not a good translation. Um We could get one step closer by saying something like that, which they saw but refused to perceive will be made undeniably obvious 0:31:43 - 0:32:08 to them. That's closer to the original meaning, the intended meaning I should say, OK. Um And why that is, has to do with the sprinkling of nations which I won't get into right now and I know I've talked about this before, but I'll probably say things here. I haven't before and it's relevant to this 0:32:08 - 0:32:40 thing and people aren't listening. So, hey, it doesn't hurt to repeat yourself, right? Um And that, which they had not heard shall they consider? So we talked about seeing, there's a difference between um visually detecting something, mentally recognizing it and then doing the right thing about it, the 0:32:40 - 0:33:00 appropriate response. So like if a baseball bat is coming for your face, your eyes can get the signals of a baseball bat moving without your brain reacting and, and you ducking. Those are all three separate things. So you might see the bat and be like, well, it's just normal, whatever sunshiny day or 0:33:00 - 0:33:23 you might see the bat and say this is bat and I should lean into it or do some kung fu move, right? And that would be a bad move because you'll end up with a busted face or broken arm or you could say duck and that's the right answer, right? So you have three levels of reaction there. Um with, with hearing 0:33:22 - 0:33:48 it's the same, you can get the signal and ignore it or not. Well, it's different, not perceive it, you could perceive it and ignore it, you can perceive it, uh recognize it and then you get to choose how to react to it. Right? So, um I think a lot of times we think about gospel teaching as revelation 0:33:47 - 0:34:09 of new things and it can be that for sure. And it's valuable when it is, but most often it's actually just hearing something you already know or at least should know but you didn't respond to it the first time or the second time or the 100th time. And so maybe it's explained in a slightly different way 0:34:08 - 0:34:33 . Sorry, my screen just turned off or maybe it's explained, um, just another time or maybe it comes in a way that's more, um, acceptable to you. So, for example, parents really don't like hearing things from their kids. They don't like getting corrected by their kids even when their kids are right. I 0:34:33 - 0:34:55 should say most parents, um I'm sure there's some parents out there who love the truth more than they love, uh, unrighteous Dominion because that's what it is. Um, but that I'd say that's less than 50% of the time. So maybe your kid tells you something and you don't want to hear and so you ignore them 0:34:54 - 0:35:15 but then someone, some, some, uh, stranger on the street comes up to you and says, uh, oh, this, that or the other. And you say, well, I'm willing to listen to you because, uh, uh, maybe you heard from a friend first and, uh, like that, that old song, heard it from f, heard it from a friend who heard 0:35:15 - 0:35:33 it from a friend anyway. Um, so you hear it from a friend. Um, and you say, well, maybe what this person is saying is true but I know them to be a flawed individual cause I know them well and who they think they are, they're not better than me. They can't be right. Or if they are right. I don't care 0:35:32 - 0:35:54 because they're not perfect. So, I'm not listening but then a stranger comes up and you say, well, I don't know this person, I have no basis to ignore them. And plus if they know something about me without knowing me, maybe they're right. And maybe you listen. So that's an example. Um, but anyway, so 0:35:53 - 0:36:13 , um, when you do this sort of thing, what you do is you take what they've been ignoring because it all starts in your conscience. And, um, it's real possible to dull that it's easy and people are good at it and then it has to come from outside because you're not listening to the inside anymore. And 0:36:13 - 0:36:34 it's not just a matter of if that little voice is annoying, you, you just shut it in the basement, you can't put it in the basement without weakening it in volume and frequency. And uh typically it takes the interaction from the external stimulus from another person to jumpstart that again, it's kind 0:36:34 - 0:36:49 of like a dead battery and, uh, like a dead battery, it doesn't die all at once. There might be a little juice in there where you can turn the engine once or twice. Um, and, and you're like, well, I'm good because the engine turns when I turn the key, I just don't turn the key very often, but it's there 0:36:49 - 0:37:07 when I need it. But you've never started the engine in six months or six years or 60 years. And, uh, maybe you need to get a trickle charger on that. Right. Or a quick jumpstart is probably a better analogy. Uh, if you want to restore it to how it was, you got to trickle charge it. That takes time. But 0:37:07 - 0:37:25 usually messengers come with quick and fast and, uh, like the dog, they come by when they want to be pet and then they skiddle. So, and they don't always come when you call and, and typically people wait till they're in trouble to call on God. And what does he say? There's a scripture on this. He, he 0:37:25 - 0:37:46 says, you're slow to listen to me when I was speaking to you. So I'll be slow to answer you when you call on me. And it's not because he's mean, everything God does is because He loves you. And there are many ways in which if he acted, how we would want him to not knowing him, it would hurt us more than 0:37:46 - 0:38:06 what he does. Instead, he always does what's best always. And so if you want to know what's best, look at what God does. That's what's best. It's not what you think is best. It's what He does. So anyway, maybe we'll get to the point here before this is an hour long. I, I, all these things are very valuable 0:38:06 - 0:38:36 . So I don't mind saying them, but I have things to do and I don't have an hour to take away from what I need to do. So, um, when you come in the name of the Lord to tell someone something, um, it's one thing for them to ignore you. Um, it's another for them to fully comprehend what you're saying for 0:38:36 - 0:39:04 that baseball bat to connect to their face and, um, they respond by, um, going dark and I mean that in more ways than one, what they should do so is what the lady did at the, well, in Samaria, when Jesus said um that she had, she had been with a whole bunch of guys. So, so that's an interesting way of 0:39:04 - 0:39:25 framing that conversation because I think, I think most people would frame it differently. But that's, that's really what happened is he said, well, you, you met a really promiscuous lady and instead of getting crazy or mad or um I don't know, inventing some false accusation against him, which is probably 0:39:25 - 0:39:46 what most people would do today. Um in that situation, uh she said, wow, here's a guy that somehow knows, she said everything about her and I really hope there was more to her than how many guys she had slept with. But that's what she said. Um she said, here's a guy who knows my whole life story. And 0:39:46 - 0:40:08 so she responded by going into town and telling everyone who had listened to her that she had found the Messiah and they should come listen to him too. What a crazy response. What an unusual response, what people do instead when they receive evidence that they're in the presence of someone who knows 0:40:08 - 0:40:39 way more than they do about God and way more than they do about themselves. They just shut down and they turn off most of the time, most of the time and they'll take a day or a week or a month or a year or three years to come back to the person if they ever do it all and say you're right about this and 0:40:39 - 0:41:04 that. What do you think about this other thing or? Uh, yeah, I, I've yet to hear. What do you think about anything? But, you know, that's, that's, uh, a super rare thing. What else do you have? What else do you have? Now? Fat Jess got fat by eating too much food. If you put more food in front of her 0:41:04 - 0:00:00 face, she's gonna eat it right. If you wanna be like fat Jess, it's very easy. Eat all the food that's put in front of your face and go look for more. And when she cleans out a dog food bowl, she scours the house for little treats that, uh, kids dropped or, um, little crumbs that other dogs dropped. 0:00:00 - 0:41:52 It's very easy if you want, you know, God is no respecter of persons. And if you want to be like fat Jess, go do what fat Jess does gobble up any food you find. So, um this is what this means. Kings shall shut their mouths and et cetera, what they never heard. They'll, they'll consider it means that 0:41:51 - 0:42:15 things are explained so clearly that not only are you forced to face what you willingly denied before, even though you knew it, you may have forgotten it in the meantime, but at some point, you knew it. Not only that, but you get doused in evidence that this person knows more than you on other things 0:42:15 - 0:42:42 too. And it's undeniable. So what are you going to do about it? And most people react by ghosting, that's what they do. Some people react by turning on the person and trying to squish them down by saying nasty things about them that they know are lies usually publicly to soothe their conscience. And 0:42:42 - 0:43:07 I have a good picture of that and I'll do a slideshow at some point. But basically when something better than you manifests, the natural man will try to get out of that situation and you can do that by turning away if you can or you can do that by squishing that person down. And so you criticize them 0:43:06 - 0:43:30 falsely. Um And if you're really sly, I'll give you a trick. You don't criticize them falsely, you just criticize them on some unrelated thing, right? So if I say um you neglect your c your kids and I know this, I'm not guessing like we spent time together and I even know I'm not the only person that's 0:43:30 - 0:43:59 told you this and, um, and you react by saying, um, I don't know, you have bad breath, right. Maybe, maybe I do. And, and if I do, I'll thank you for that and go brush my teeth. But, um, it's irrelevant. That doesn't change the situation. You're still a no neglectful parent. Right. So, um, people are 0:43:59 - 0:44:19 funny and we ought to be careful about human nature. And, uh, because most humans actually act quite a bit like animals could probably learn a lot by opening our eyes to the examples of the animals around us, even Fat Jess. So I'll leave it at that. Uh, I've probably given you enough to be offended on 0:44:18 - 0:00:00 for the next week or two. I'm trying not to make these videos very often because I have to write books instead. But sometimes I'll check in from time to time when I feel like that's what I'm supposed to do. So I hope this helps somebody somewhere. Please don't respond by shutting your mouth. If you, 0:00:00 - 0:44:57 if you see the manifestation of greater light, the only appropriate response is to press into it whatever that means. So when God watch him pray always, and when he gets closer to you, the only appropriate response is to get closer to him.