0:00:00 - 0:00:00 So we're talking about uh Jacob crawling towards God. And so Jacob lurches and he grabs the feet of Jesus and he just holds them and Jesus is so patient and he just stood there and he let him do that for a long time. And then he said, I have to go and then Jacob still didn't give up. But anyway, um, 0:00:00 - 0:01:00 so this is a very unusual reaction, right? And you ask yourself, well, why are there some people who experience more of God than others? This is why because they do more to experience God than other people do. And while it's true that some of the differences carry over from before birth, the vast majority 0:00:59 - 0:01:19 of them can be experienced by anyone. It's just that, you know, everything is cause and effect. You just have to discover the causes to get the same effects. Very few of those causes are in our decisions before we were born. They're very significant and the things they unlock are extremely important 0:01:19 - 0:01:42 , but that is not the difference between you and Jacob in this story. And it's not the difference between you and Moses in this story. Sort of I mean that there's limits of that because Moses was able to stand there and look at the bush because of who he was before he was born. But, um, Jacob could crawl 0:01:42 - 0:02:07 towards the Lord. Uh, that, that if you did a pie chart of this experience, there's a lot you can work on before you hit the things you can't work on. It's like looking at a bodybuilder and, and saying like, uh, oh, well, you know, he's got great genetics. It's like, OK. Sure. Right. Sure. But before 0:02:06 - 0:02:28 you ascribe the differences between you and him to something you can do nothing about. Have you first considered the things you can do something about? And what of those things have you done something about? And so if you're a couch potato and every day you eat more than you should and the last weight 0:02:28 - 0:02:55 you lifted was a bag of Cheetos then. Um there's probably a whole lot you can do about that before you start just writing it off to genetics, right? All right. So, um and this is what I wanted to focus on the, the first chunk uh is how do you react when you see a burning bush? Uh If you look down at 0:02:55 - 0:03:18 the ground like I did the first time I saw the Lord, I should say the first time the Lord appeared to me, uh I did see him at that time, but at the end of the experience, um the only thing I could see was his hands. I still wouldn't look up. He was at a table, he was breaking bread and, um, just deeply 0:03:18 - 0:03:46 meaningful, but I won't go into that right now. What it was all about. Um, so if you can't look up then that's a worthiness issue. And the problem is that you've deviated from your understanding of what is right. I should say in present tense, you deviate any past sins you can be forgiven of. And um 0:03:45 - 0:04:06 , Jesus has paid the price. It's one of his favorite things to do is forgive people sins, but he cannot change you so that you don't do that thing again because what caused you to do the thing wasn't his fault either. It was your choice. And as long as your character is such that you desire things you 0:04:06 - 0:04:35 should not desire and you do things you should not do or you do not do things you need to do that's on you and you need to fix that. So, um, again, read Repentance. You really should. So, um, or listen to it, it's Cindy did an audio book. You can listen to it for free, um, on this, on this channel. So 0:04:34 - 0:05:00 , um, if you can't look, look up, that's one thing, right? But, but suppose you see the fire, what do you do? Cause I'll tell you what most people do and I don't have to guess, right? Um, most people, well, one thing they do is they ignore. So we have this phrase, a modern parlance of ghosting people 0:05:00 - 0:05:32 . I'm not sure you have any clue how much of modern culture is specific, strategic moves by Satan to inject into common usage, things, behaviors, that behaviors and ideas that terminally block you from God. And it's not in some magical way. Like if you watch rated R movies, you blah, blah. No, it's not 0:05:32 - 0:06:01 anything like that. Folks. It shuts down your ability to consider greater things. When you're comfortable with ghosting people, he's going to use that for, to cause you to be comfortable with ghosting blasts of light and the people that carry them. So almost everything I'm about to tell you could be 0:06:01 - 0:06:23 an answer to the question. Why haven't angels visited me? If they have not visited you, they have visited me, but if they have not visited you, God works by the same laws. He always has. They're written into the scriptures if you wanna know who angels visit and why there are principles that if you follow 0:06:23 - 0:06:48 those principles, you live, the kind of life angels will visit you too and they probably already have because remember that angels aren't always just uh beings of glory that come in supernatural experiences. The same spirits of angels are the spirits of men. And Moses Moses is one of the governing angels 0:06:47 - 0:07:09 in heaven. He's one who can say I stand in the presence of God like Gabriel said um but when he was in the flesh, his, his flesh veiled that and gave a way for him to interact with people that could not comfortably approach him otherwise. So there's a lot there, there's tremendous value in the Ministry 0:07:09 - 0:07:36 of Men. God uses that tool extensively and it's a wonderful, wonderful way to bridge limitations in humanity anyway. So, um ghosting is a big deal. So people ghost to Jesus, let's read about that and, and let me just say why this is bad when you ghost someone, you're avoiding the duty of providing reasons 0:07:35 - 0:07:53 for how you're about to treat them. You're completely sidestepping anything they've shown you or anything they are. And you're not saying why? Now suppose that person, there's no such thing as good people and bad people. OK? But this is an oversimplification we can step into to make it easier to explain 0:07:53 - 0:08:15 things. Let's suppose that's a bad person you say, well, I just don't want to deal with them. Do you realize what things of eternal worth you are casting aside by shrugging your duty to testify of what you know, to that person? I don't mean in an explicit gospel sense necessarily, if you have a toxic 0:08:15 - 0:08:39 so-called person in your life, you might be the person best equipped in the whole world to help them, to just give them a chunk of truth that they have disqualified themselves from having with them. Without you, your very presence quickens the light inside of them and boosts the strength of the signal 0:08:39 - 0:09:00 of their conscience so that God can reach them. It's called conviction, but that's not the best word. It's, it, it's a scriptural word, but um it, it, it boosts the volume of the signal so that they can hear it again and they're not hearing it because of themselves or the light that's within them because 0:09:00 - 0:09:18 they've dimmed it by turning away from what they know. You're boosting the volume and they have the choice of hearing it because of what you're adding to it. And if you walk away from that, there will come a day where you are filled with guilt and remorse because you will be accountable for the good 0:09:18 - 0:09:43 that you could have done. If you did what disciples of Christ covenant to do to stand as witnesses or demonstrations of him at all times and in all places till they die. So don't ghost people. What about good people? If you ghost a good person, you've done the sin, you've commended the sin that Jesus 0:09:43 - 0:10:06 describes. In John chapter three, the light was apparent, it was shined right in front of you and you chose darkness, right? Then you chose darkness because when you ghost someone, a good person, you step away from the need to uh it's not the best word to reckon to justify yourself to that. It's, it's 0:10:06 - 0:10:34 to reconcile yourself to the signal that was just presented to you because if you are not guilty of that deficit in light between you two, then you will not feel compelled to leave their presence, to dissociate with them. You will feel perfectly comfortable in their presence. Adam and Eve felt perfectly 0:00:00 - 0:00:00 So we're talking about uh Jacob crawling towards God. And so Jacob lurches and he grabs the feet of Jesus and he just holds them and Jesus is so patient and he just stood there and he let him do that for a long time. And then he said, I have to go and then Jacob still didn't give up. But anyway, um, 0:00:00 - 0:01:00 so this is a very unusual reaction, right? And you ask yourself, well, why are there some people who experience more of God than others? This is why because they do more to experience God than other people do. And while it's true that some of the differences carry over from before birth, the vast majority 0:00:59 - 0:01:19 of them can be experienced by anyone. It's just that, you know, everything is cause and effect. You just have to discover the causes to get the same effects. Very few of those causes are in our decisions before we were born. They're very significant and the things they unlock are extremely important 0:01:19 - 0:01:42 , but that is not the difference between you and Jacob in this story. And it's not the difference between you and Moses in this story. Sort of I mean that there's limits of that because Moses was able to stand there and look at the bush because of who he was before he was born. But, um, Jacob could crawl 0:01:42 - 0:02:07 towards the Lord. Uh, that, that if you did a pie chart of this experience, there's a lot you can work on before you hit the things you can't work on. It's like looking at a bodybuilder and, and saying like, uh, oh, well, you know, he's got great genetics. It's like, OK. Sure. Right. Sure. But before 0:02:06 - 0:02:28 you ascribe the differences between you and him to something you can do nothing about. Have you first considered the things you can do something about? And what of those things have you done something about? And so if you're a couch potato and every day you eat more than you should and the last weight 0:02:28 - 0:02:55 you lifted was a bag of Cheetos then. Um there's probably a whole lot you can do about that before you start just writing it off to genetics, right? All right. So, um and this is what I wanted to focus on the, the first chunk uh is how do you react when you see a burning bush? Uh If you look down at 0:02:55 - 0:03:18 the ground like I did the first time I saw the Lord, I should say the first time the Lord appeared to me, uh I did see him at that time, but at the end of the experience, um the only thing I could see was his hands. I still wouldn't look up. He was at a table, he was breaking bread and, um, just deeply 0:03:18 - 0:03:46 meaningful, but I won't go into that right now. What it was all about. Um, so if you can't look up then that's a worthiness issue. And the problem is that you've deviated from your understanding of what is right. I should say in present tense, you deviate any past sins you can be forgiven of. And um 0:03:45 - 0:04:06 , Jesus has paid the price. It's one of his favorite things to do is forgive people sins, but he cannot change you so that you don't do that thing again because what caused you to do the thing wasn't his fault either. It was your choice. And as long as your character is such that you desire things you 0:04:06 - 0:04:35 should not desire and you do things you should not do or you do not do things you need to do that's on you and you need to fix that. So, um, again, read Repentance. You really should. So, um, or listen to it, it's Cindy did an audio book. You can listen to it for free, um, on this, on this channel. So 0:04:34 - 0:05:00 , um, if you can't look, look up, that's one thing, right? But, but suppose you see the fire, what do you do? Cause I'll tell you what most people do and I don't have to guess, right? Um, most people, well, one thing they do is they ignore. So we have this phrase, a modern parlance of ghosting people 0:05:00 - 0:05:32 . I'm not sure you have any clue how much of modern culture is specific, strategic moves by Satan to inject into common usage, things, behaviors, that behaviors and ideas that terminally block you from God. And it's not in some magical way. Like if you watch rated R movies, you blah, blah. No, it's not 0:05:32 - 0:06:01 anything like that. Folks. It shuts down your ability to consider greater things. When you're comfortable with ghosting people, he's going to use that for, to cause you to be comfortable with ghosting blasts of light and the people that carry them. So almost everything I'm about to tell you could be 0:06:01 - 0:06:23 an answer to the question. Why haven't angels visited me? If they have not visited you, they have visited me, but if they have not visited you, God works by the same laws. He always has. They're written into the scriptures if you wanna know who angels visit and why there are principles that if you follow 0:06:23 - 0:06:48 those principles, you live, the kind of life angels will visit you too and they probably already have because remember that angels aren't always just uh beings of glory that come in supernatural experiences. The same spirits of angels are the spirits of men. And Moses Moses is one of the governing angels 0:06:47 - 0:07:09 in heaven. He's one who can say I stand in the presence of God like Gabriel said um but when he was in the flesh, his, his flesh veiled that and gave a way for him to interact with people that could not comfortably approach him otherwise. So there's a lot there, there's tremendous value in the Ministry 0:07:09 - 0:07:36 of Men. God uses that tool extensively and it's a wonderful, wonderful way to bridge limitations in humanity anyway. So, um ghosting is a big deal. So people ghost to Jesus, let's read about that and, and let me just say why this is bad when you ghost someone, you're avoiding the duty of providing reasons 0:07:35 - 0:07:53 for how you're about to treat them. You're completely sidestepping anything they've shown you or anything they are. And you're not saying why? Now suppose that person, there's no such thing as good people and bad people. OK? But this is an oversimplification we can step into to make it easier to explain 0:07:53 - 0:08:15 things. Let's suppose that's a bad person you say, well, I just don't want to deal with them. Do you realize what things of eternal worth you are casting aside by shrugging your duty to testify of what you know, to that person? I don't mean in an explicit gospel sense necessarily, if you have a toxic 0:08:15 - 0:08:39 so-called person in your life, you might be the person best equipped in the whole world to help them, to just give them a chunk of truth that they have disqualified themselves from having with them. Without you, your very presence quickens the light inside of them and boosts the strength of the signal 0:08:39 - 0:09:00 of their conscience so that God can reach them. It's called conviction, but that's not the best word. It's, it, it's a scriptural word, but um it, it, it boosts the volume of the signal so that they can hear it again and they're not hearing it because of themselves or the light that's within them because 0:09:00 - 0:09:18 they've dimmed it by turning away from what they know. You're boosting the volume and they have the choice of hearing it because of what you're adding to it. And if you walk away from that, there will come a day where you are filled with guilt and remorse because you will be accountable for the good 0:09:18 - 0:09:43 that you could have done. If you did what disciples of Christ covenant to do to stand as witnesses or demonstrations of him at all times and in all places till they die. So don't ghost people. What about good people? If you ghost a good person, you've done the sin, you've commended the sin that Jesus 0:09:43 - 0:10:06 describes. In John chapter three, the light was apparent, it was shined right in front of you and you chose darkness, right? Then you chose darkness because when you ghost someone, a good person, you step away from the need to uh it's not the best word to reckon to justify yourself to that. It's, it's 0:10:06 - 0:10:34 to reconcile yourself to the signal that was just presented to you because if you are not guilty of that deficit in light between you two, then you will not feel compelled to leave their presence, to dissociate with them. You will feel perfectly comfortable in their presence. Adam and Eve felt perfectly 0:10:33 - 0:10:54 comfortable in the presence of God before the fall, even though they were naked. And this is, this is what we're talking about here. You can't say this doesn't apply to me. Oh, get lost. You have to reconcile and you can know you're reconciled because it won't hurt you to be associated with them.