0:00:00 - 0:00:24 All right. Um I'm gonna hit you hard and fast with some things that you've never, probably never thought about and if you thought about them before, maybe some things I'm gonna say are gonna aggregate to them. And uh I want you to watch this video a couple of times. Um Hopefully with gaps in between 0:00:23 - 0:00:53 . So you give uh the Lord the greatest chance to take from it, add to it and teach you what you need to know. So, um these things will be elaborated on in books that aren't out yet, but um it's really important. So the more time you have to fold it into your understanding and uh being the better. So 0:00:52 - 0:01:16 there's this concept of highway of righteousness. It's an end times theme. You'll see it. If you search for it, it's all over the scriptures, it's all over Isaiah and um in many other places. So um with a lot of things, it's, this is uh this jacks into what I call God's sense of humor, although that's 0:01:15 - 0:01:44 uh certainly not the best way of putting it. Um God represents things in different ways. There's a physical, there's a textual, there's a literal. There's a symbolic and he just hits us again and again and again, hoping somehow some little piece of it is gonna make it through our thick skulls and thick 0:01:43 - 0:02:06 hearts and the hearts are the bigger problem of the two of those. So highway of righteousness is one of those themes and um God will use whatever it is, you understand, to help you better understand whatever it is you don't understand. And this is hard for me because I've had a weird life with exposure 0:02:06 - 0:02:33 to weird things and a lot of things. And so like just as a really thin slice of this, Vocationally, I've done like 50 things for money, uh roofing, construction, plumbing, uh insurance. I sold candy in high school. They thought I was a drug dealer and I was just selling pixie sticks. Um anyway, on and 0:02:33 - 0:02:55 on and on. And uh uh I, you know, obviously I, I currently, I make money as a well, I shouldn't say obviously, but currently I make money uh programming and running a business and uh doing science. And um up until a year ago, I was a professor of computer science. And so he uses a lot of these things 0:02:55 - 0:03:12 to teach me that probably wouldn't make sense to anyone who's had different experiences. And this is tricky because I have to transform those things from the way I receive them into the way other people will understand them. But this is how everyone has to do it and everything. Um, hardly anything on 0:03:12 - 0:03:33 this planet receives the energy from the sun. Exactly how it's transmitted. All of God's works are transformers. Uh, and not the more than meets the eye kind, the electrical kind anyway. Um, so highways of righteousness, the way I understand this is, uh, I'll just throw a couple of analogies, uh, to 0:03:32 - 0:03:52 , I should say to help you understand this. So, the first thing I'm gonna talk about is, um, a knife. So typically you don't wanna get cut by a knife, right? Um So you, if you're gonna grab a really sharp blade, use its handle and if someone's attacking you with a knife and you're gonna do some ninja 0:03:52 - 0:04:15 move, you're gonna grab the sides of the blade, not the blade, right? So with like a slap, I don't have free hands, but that's anyway. Um So if you set that edge upright like like this and then you drop something on it, nothing is just gonna sit on that edge. Everything will roll away from it, probably 0:04:15 - 0:04:38 getting cut in the process. Now, unfortunately, almost all of our interactions are like that with God where he gives us a touch and we come away from it cut and most people don't even bother to go back. So, um the goal in life is actually I call the inverse knife edge because um we want to find a way 0:04:37 - 0:05:06 to get up on that edge and stay there and it's just as hard and weird to do as it sounds with a knife. Um, now let's transition to another way of presenting this, um, in a lot of yards, there's some kind of drainage slope. Right. And, um, let's say you have a big snowstorm and that sudden hot day and 0:05:06 - 0:05:27 all that water, all that, all that frozen water melts. It usually doesn't have enough places to go. But what you'll find is that, um, in a lot of yards you'll get a bunch of puddles because there isn't a uniform contiguous slope. Uh, a monotonic slope in math terms. I'm sorry, people are probably eating 0:05:27 - 0:05:52 breakfast and they just puked, uh, because I pulled out the math. Um, but these, uh, math isn't hard. It's just math teachers are bad. That's the truth of the matter. But people who, um, well, sorry said, no, I was about to rant. Um, so the, the yard slopes, right? Well, on a, on a well designed yard 0:05:51 - 0:06:15 that water will all slope into something that drains really well, whether it's an explicit drain or it's just an area of ground that's relatively porous. Um, so if you were to like, drop a soccer ball on such a yard, it would roll on its own accord down to the lowest point. And, um, again, if we invert 0:06:15 - 0:06:36 that idea, the opposite of that would be a yard that has one high point and it would be such that no matter where you started in the yard, if, if you were a robot or, or something or a little kid, and you could only understand very simple instructions. The instruction go higher from wherever you are 0:06:35 - 0:07:01 until you can't go higher anymore, would lead you to the high point in the yard, right? Ok. So maybe you're putting this together, the highway of righteousness is not a single point A to point B and it is not a straight line. However, here are some properties of this highway no matter where you are and 0:07:01 - 0:07:32 where you started or where you end up on this landscape. If you go higher from where you are, you can keep doing that without stopping and it will take you to the highest point there is. Um OK, that's all you need to know. There will be a physical representation of this highway in the last days and we're 0:07:32 - 0:08:02 in the last days, but this physical representation hasn't come yet. There will also be an ideological representation and I've already explained that to you. It's in the book called Repentance Making Straight The Way of God. This is the way. Um So those are very big picture ideas, but let's flip this 0:08:02 - 0:08:19 around because the big picture is made up of lots of little pictures. And if you start at the big picture, you can go to the little pictures and see them more clearly. If you start at the little pictures, you can flip those around and see the big picture more clearly and knew how to do both all the time 0:08:18 - 0:08:51 for the clearest picture. So, um the idea of sacrifice is not something most people get excited about because they regard it as loss. And I wanna tell you something right here right now. There's no such thing as loss with God. It doesn't exist. The only thing that exists that we confuse for loss is trading 0:08:51 - 0:09:18 up. There's a massive amount of trading up in God's kingdom, but there is no loss. There's never ever, ever, any time when God will ever ask you to sacrifice anything unless and accept it is the only way to receive something far better. It's a swap. You never ever lose anything. The reason it seems like 0:09:18 - 0:09:42 we lose things is because one, we get hung up on the invitation and we never actually do it to see the outcome or um two, we just get confused because we don't see all the mechanics and connections on the other side or time confuses us or whatever, just the constraints of our environment that are necessary 0:09:41 - 0:10:03 to enable faith. They uh slip us up a bit, but that's the way it works. God never asked for anything unless he's immediately giving you or, or at least ordaining for you to receive something far better in return. And that sounds transactional and it leaves out the biggest component, which is his um his 0:10:02 - 0:10:32 uh his, his, his loving kindness, which, um, is a huge topic on its own anyway. So, how does this relate to the highway of righteousness or, uh, making straight the way of God? Well, um, that fine edge, um, it is really easy to fall off of and it's really hard to find. So it's hard to find. It's hard 0:10:32 - 0:10:59 to stay on. It's not because it's confusing once it's laid out to you, it's extremely, uh, simple but it's not easy. And one of the ways we can get sidetracked um in either direction is one not being willing to sacrifice or two misunderstanding sacrifice and making it the end instead of the means to 0:10:58 - 0:11:18 the end. All right, let me try to unpack that one. I would try to do this as fast as I can. So, um when someone is introduced to the gospel for the first time, and let's say that they weren't raised in that environment or they were raised in an environment that had the look but not the feel. And so they're 0:11:18 - 0:11:37 , they're exposed to real thing for the first time or some semblance of it. Probably the principal component of that experience for the person is I have to give up all these things in my life. I can't do this anymore. I have to do this instead, whatever. Um So that's uh you could call that sacrifice 0:11:37 - 0:11:57 , right? Um I think a better way of looking at that is I have to get used to the idea of learning and doing God's will above my own in all things that's not always taught or practiced, but I think that's better. Um, but let's just go with the traditional, I have to stop doing this or never do this or 0:11:57 - 0:12:24 whatever. Well, um, there is immense value in reconciling yourself to a set of external standards. It's really important and I'm not gonna go into this right now. We could talk about this for hours and hours and hours and bust out the law of Moses and all sorts of things. But that is not the end, the 0:12:24 - 0:12:55 end is not in what you give or what you do. The end is what you become and if you become, you will do, but you do from within not to align to something without does that make sense? You could watch this again. Um Again, this is just cliff notes trying to cede the ground. Um So, um we'll kick off a process 0:12:54 - 0:13:25 in you and then when the details come later, you'll be more perceptive and receiving of it. Um So, uh in, in trying to get on to this highway of righteousness, you absolutely have to sacrifice all things. Um What that looks like for a particular person depends a whole lot on a whole lot of things. It 0:13:25 - 0:13:57 is not a uniform thing. But um you really know it when you do it, whatever the details consist of, but here's how someone going in that path correctly can get hung up is if they hold on to this idea that everything is already processed for them. Um, I made a video about priests and chopping things and 0:13:57 - 0:14:26 who's the high priest? It's Jesus. Does he ever get done chopping? Well, not until we're like him. And, uh, I don't see tons of people lining up to say they've, um, they've made it already. So, um, we ought to expect that the standards that we have to sacrifice to hold in the beginning, we ought to expect 0:14:25 - 0:14:47 that those are refined and divided and changed and replaced over time. And what it's like is like zooming into a fractal. It's still the same exact thing, but when it comes in much higher resolution, the details change, it's still the same thing. The same equation drew, the thing that's how they're drawn 0:14:47 - 0:15:06 , but we're just seeing it in a much higher detail and those details shift our understanding in our application. And so, um, if you see somebody clinging tightly to the same exact standards they had in the beginning, odds are they've missed the boat, maybe they haven't missed the boat. They just, they're 0:15:06 - 0:00:00 stuck at the dock, they haven't set it out to sea yet and really done what they're supposed to do with it. Um Then there's the other way which we really have to talk about and I have to warn you about because this is really dangerous is you come the other way. I guess the first way is dangerous too. 0:00:00 - 0:15:45 Right. It's what killed Jesus. What caused people to kill Jesus the second way, um, is to think that somehow you can not go into the gate, which is sacrifice of all things among many other ways that could be described. Um, but you don't go into the gate and instead of reconciling yourself to exactly 0:15:45 - 0:16:08 how you think God is according to your present understanding, you try to jump over the gate and claim that you live according to the spirit of the law, even though there's a whole pile of stuff or maybe just really specific situations where you willingly do exactly what you know is wrong according to 0:16:08 - 0:16:37 your present understanding. And that's the danger of um everything that God reveals has consequences. And um one aspect of that dichotomy is that when God reveals more information, it can be used to help yourself or it can be used to harm yourself. It's like this with everything. And so, um this is why 0:16:36 - 0:16:57 if you know, people have a tendency to abuse this idea of a highway of righteousness and they'll say, oh, I'm living the spirit of the law. Um But I would never sell everything I have and give to the poor, even if God explicitly popped out of heaven and told me to do it because um uh whatever I, you 0:16:57 - 0:17:17 know, I'm better than that or whatever, who knows, who cares but the point is that, uh, people do this all the time, it's a really strong tendency. It's actually, it's harder for someone I think to go in the, the, to, to, um, I, I don't, I'm not gonna go there. I don't know if, what I was about to say 0:17:16 - 0:17:36 is actually right. But it's, they're both hard, I guess. But I just, I would imagine that people would be more likely to make this mistake because it's cheaper to make like you, you can't abuse, sacrificing all things without sacrificing all things. Right? And who's gonna do that? Very few people? And 0:17:36 - 0:00:00 , and just because they've done that doesn't mean they're on their highway of righteousness that they're gonna stay there. It just means that they actually have spent so to speak a lot more than anyone who has not yet done that. But, um, but a, a person can very easily say, oh, yeah. Well, you know, 0:00:00 - 0:18:16 I'm just, I'm living the spirit of the law and I follow everything that God tells me and whatever when they're lying to themselves and everyone else because the truth is that they've held back massive amounts in their heart and as God pours out more and more light and truth unto the world and more of 0:18:16 - 0:18:39 these consequences roll forth. Uh, we will approach a situation with, uh, Anias and Sahara, I think were their names who, um, who both died because they were lying about what it is. They were doing and why? And, uh, no one killed them except for God. Um, so, um, this is really serious and I guess the 0:18:39 - 0:19:10 final thing I'll say about this is, um, that, um, oh, I've almost lost the thought if you, oh, ok. So, um, yeah, one of the potential illusions about this is that you ever stop making the sacrifice of all things. Um, there's a big topic and I talk about it in the Justice book, which isn't out yet. Um 0:19:09 - 0:19:31 , even though it's done, uh, it's not a one time thing, it's an attitude that never stops. And, um, so those people who I described as making this on ramp of the sacrifice to all things to get onto this highway of righteousness, it's not that they stop doing that. They don't let go of their zeal or their 0:19:30 - 0:19:52 , uh, intensity or their, um, uh, the completeness of their attitude, their integrity of their approach. It's just that it shifts in what it looks like and feels like and the shift doesn't make it easier. By the way, it is much harder to, uh, truly live by the law of the spirit than it is to keep some 0:19:52 - 0:20:20 prescribed set of rules. Um, I, I was, uh, I lived a very prescriptive set of rules for many years without fail, without any fail. Um, and it seems like a lot of people struggled with that and for me it's just needed to be done. I don't think it was easier but I didn't struggle with that. Um, and I'll 0:20:20 - 0:20:40 tell you that there was never a time where I had to do that, uh, out of, you know, in any great peril to myself or others or my reputation or whatever. I mean, it was all really lightweight stuff compared to actually doing whatever it is that God tells you whenever it is. He tells you to do it. Um, And 0:20:40 - 0:20:59 , and not doing the things that don't fit that. So anyway, over 20 minutes, this is really, really important. So I hope that you hit the scriptures and look these things up, learn more about them, pray about them and most importantly, live them and prepare yourself for the things that the Lord is going 0:20:59 - 0:21:01 to send you because it's big.