0:00:00 - 0:00:32 So uh one idea that I've shared from time to time is that language is a ladder rung up, but it's also limited and that any language has the wherewithal to bring you higher, but only so high. And once you ascend to that height, it's always a limit. And so just like monkey bars, the next bar is both the 0:00:31 - 0:01:00 , the very thing you need to keep going and exactly what will keep you from from continuing on once you've used it. So that's true of language, but it's, it's actually true of any light and truth, any information, let's say. And so when you share information, you're providing the next step, but you're 0:01:00 - 0:01:24 also providing a limit to what lies beyond a barrier, an obstacle to what lies beyond. So interestingly, this, this property carries through so many things including love. Love is your willingness to suffer for the benefit of another. And it turns out that you can't love someone without providing them 0:01:24 - 0:01:58 with a trial. Trials are something that are poorly misunderstood. But um a trial is not a trial is not some negative thing that you have to just deal with what is provided in a trial always exceeds, exceeds that. The the goal of a trial is never just tolerance. It's improvement. A trial is an opportunity 0:01:57 - 0:02:30 to overcome a challenge that you were not previously aware of or to which you did not previously have access. So how is love from someone? How is receiving love from someone? A trial? Well, um it imposes a new standard where much is given much is required and love is an invitation to become more than 0:02:30 - 0:02:56 you are. If nothing else in carrying forward to others, the same love that you have received. Jesus said, love one another as I have loved you, he said, this will be how everyone will recognize you as my disciples. In other words, it's a universal property of people who are actually disciples of Christ 0:02:55 - 0:03:29 that they act towards others as he acts towards them up to their perception of how he acts towards them. And so an example of this limitation is one that, that I've wrestled with. I've tried to optimally handle, which is the sharing of spiritual experiences because on the one hand, by sharing them, I'm 0:03:28 - 0:03:58 giving you something that you can aim for and reach up to. And I'm also protecting you from false um from counterfeits of the real thing by giving you descriptions that you can use as keys to compare. So when Moses was taken into heaven and communed with the Lord after he returned, Satan came to him 0:03:58 - 0:04:37 and because he had the contrast, he was able to see the difference and to avoid being tricked by Satan. So, in sharing these spiritual experiences, um it's, it's difficult because in sharing them all, all I can do. Uh uh Let's see, I'm limited in how, how much I can um calibrate my description of these 0:04:36 - 0:05:07 things to fit your understanding and those limitations are going to create challenges for you because you're going to incorrectly contrast them to your own experience in some ways and capability. And I'll explain all this and then in other ways, the challenge is going to be to bring down. So in some 0:05:07 - 0:05:37 ways, you will artificially distance yourself from my experience and in other ways, you're going to artificially draw nearer to my experiences and both of those will cause challenges for you. So let's handle each of these. And again, so we came into this through a general approach and you can take everything 0:05:36 - 0:06:07 we're going to discuss and carry it back out to the general application to, to derive some very useful principles. Uh Maybe the chief of one of, of which are or is the fact that the gospel is a puzzle of information transmission? It's, it's the answer. It's the simple answer to the most important question 0:06:07 - 0:06:43 which is impossibly difficult to convey one answer to what is the purpose of creation is to explain what love really is. So there are many other ways you could frame that but but the gospel is the answer uh to a question. And it's a very, very difficult answer to convey so spiritual experiences. Um If 0:06:42 - 0:07:13 I were to relate to you these experiences in the way that you would see them, if you had them, you would dismiss them as meaningless without value and potentially even products of my imagination. On the other hand, and that, that should be intriguing and I'll delve into that a little deeper. Uh On the 0:07:13 - 0:07:52 other hand, if I explain to you the most accurate perception of them, if I explain them in a way that would cause you to feel and think about them like I do to the limits of how possible that is for where you stand, you would probably stop trying it all to have them because they would seem so distant 0:07:51 - 0:08:25 and so much further than anything we've experienced. Sorry. The dogs just got woken up. I don't know by who or what it's about 3 a.m. Um So that's, that's really distracting. Sorry. Uh So what do I mean by you dismiss them as meaningless and potentially products of my imagination in so many ways, the 0:08:25 - 0:08:59 spirit is so subtle that it's incredibly easy to put it out of your mind or heart and to give you a fair balance of what I mean by all of this. I'm, I'm really trying my best here to unfold something that's pretty tricky. I have known a shocking number of people. This is a very unfortunate effect of 0:08:58 - 0:09:20 getting older as the list keeps growing bigger. And then I could go through a bunch of properties of humans that I've noticed. Um, it, that, that are like this, that the list just keeps getting longer to the point where I feel like it's a universal quality. Um, people who have had the most tremendous 0:09:19 - 0:09:50 spiritual experiences in my view, when they tell me about them, I'm floored. I cannot believe the amount of light that they've been gifted with this experience and their reaction to it is so dismissive in minimizing that it causes me pain that I can't, I can't describe, I mean, I don't know how hard 0:09:50 - 0:10:07 you've ever worked on something like what's the biggest sacrifice you've ever made? Um Have you ever worked like, like for years on something just poured out your soul on something for years. Hopefully, if you have Children, this is an easy thing to think about because that's hopefully at least that 0:10:07 - 0:10:27 you've poured out your soul on your kids for all the years that you've known them. But maybe not, I don't know, but whatever it is, it doesn't matter, think of the, the greatest dedication you've ever applied to something. And imagine now that, that something was a gift to someone else, someone who you 0:10:27 - 0:10:51 loved with all of your heart, just whatever your max idea of love is. I imagine you felt that for this person and you gave them this gift, whatever your, your dedication over your greatest dedication over years has been. And they took it and didn't even look at it and just sort of threw it on the ground 0:10:51 - 0:11:17 and kept doing whatever it was they were doing. And that's how I feel when I see these people do this because I know a little bit just a little about what it cost God to give us these things and what it costs his servants who were involved in it because these spiritual experiences, they involve angels 0:11:16 - 0:11:57 even if you don't see them, but we don't need to get into all that. So, um I'm gonna correct these dogs as we're talking, I'm gonna apologize for that. I walk through the hall here. I can't pause this video. It is nine night time quiet. No, lay down. What manner of man is this that even the Huskies obey 0:11:56 - 0:12:21 him? All right. Um We can have fun with the truth sometimes. OK. So we were talking about spiritual experiences and taking things lightly. And so it's, it causes great pain to see people throw these gifts on, on the ground and oh man, the tremendous things that people have been shown. I'm not just talking 0:12:21 - 0:12:45 about heavenly things like, hey, one day paradise is like this or you know, even even things that I don't even wanna talk about because I, I don't know how to talk about them without diminishing them beyond what I'm comfortable with but you know, speaking with the Lord interacting with him or angels 0:12:44 - 0:13:18 or, but um accurate depictions of future events, very temporal things, very important things that then happened. You know, I, I know of a lady who was, this is an atheist. She was told by a voice, she heard a voice that she'd never heard before. They told her don't get the COVID shot. And it was so convicting 0:13:17 - 0:13:39 that she was telling other people she was just mind blown by this because it was such a, a, it was an, it was an experience that cut through. Uh, it was more real than reality and those of you who have had a taste of these sorts of things, you know what I'm talking about, but I don't know how else to 0:13:39 - 0:14:06 describe these, these sorts of things. It's more real than reality. And when you're exposed to that for the first time, it's, it depletes the validity of everything that you thought was important, valid or real. So, um, that's something, it resets your scales. So, um, like, you know, when you put something 0:14:06 - 0:14:31 on a, on a scale and you hit the zero function, it's like that. I imagine that's what it's like to have a baby if you're a woman. But, uh, I wouldn't know. So, but that's what I've heard. So sure enough, you know, she got the shot and she had atrocious complications, uh immediately thereafter and then 0:14:30 - 0:14:56 things got a lot worse. And basically she almost died. Well, legally, actually she did die. She died on the opera. It's a long story, but she's still alive. Um So her heart stopped more than once and she was dead for, I don't remember how many minutes twice anyway. But people, it, it's shocking. And 0:14:56 - 0:15:27 then you ask yourself, how many barriers do we create between us and God? You know, all these people are running around saying uh very presumptuous things about how can God love us if and maybe it would be useful to put that around and say, what narrow windows do we provide for God? Because we constrain 0:15:26 - 0:15:48 Him so much in what we're willing to receive and listen to and consider. I could go through many more stories of things. I've heard experiences that I've heard from other people that they've had with God that they just throw on the ground, they just throw it on the ground and so on the one hand, these 0:15:47 - 0:16:18 things are tremendous, but they come through stair step experiences that can be and usually are so subtle that any normal person would just throw them away. And I mean, some of the foundational pieces to, to these sorts of experiences could be something as little as a voice that says, put your keys in 0:16:18 - 0:16:37 your pocket right now. And you start saying like, well, why do I have to do that? I don't understand why would I? And then five minutes later, you realize you actually needed your keys or something or you lock your keys in your car or something. And you think, man, if I had listened to that voice, this 0:16:37 - 0:16:59 wouldn't have happened. Well, that's a training experience to get you on to bigger things. And if you routinely ignore this sort of thing, now, that that's sort of an involuntary prompting, much more important are the, the, I mean, those are all important, but it's much more important and a more continuous 0:16:58 - 0:17:28 experience to think about and live according to reason, you, you really have to be honing your, your ability to process information all the time, all the time. It has to be develop to the point that it's unconscious and it's refined at that state, it's fluid and effective without even thinking about 0:17:28 - 0:17:51 it. And then when you do think about it, it's supercharged beyond that, it's just the afterburner, but the engine's always running and it takes time and effort to do that. And so every time you opt against that, either through passivity or through neglecting the opportunities to develop it and refine 0:17:50 - 0:18:10 it further, you're stepping away from what you would regard as the greater experiences. I put it that way because it's all important. The tendency is to think I have to do these little things that don't matter so that I can do the big things that do or I have to, I have to do these little things so I 0:18:10 - 0:18:35 can get the big things that actually have value. Well, that's a really childish perspective. Think about it. That's exactly the conversation we have to have with little kids to coax them into being responsible, mature and integrated people who you are is who you are all the time. And you can't be a doofus 0:18:35 - 0:19:02 some of the time and be a wise person at other times. God wants us to walk in the light and to be baptized in his name. So how do you become immersed in light? Well, you have to walk in the light all the time and you don't have to, you get to, it's a gift because it's not our light. I mean, do you realize 0:19:01 - 0:19:27 what we are? All sacks of garbage? And Jesus freely gives us all these better things to replace our garbage with? He's like, yeah, just empty out the bag. Here's a giant pile of stuff that's better. You can have as much as you want now, maybe it's just because I grew up poor. But I'll tell you a story 0:19:26 - 0:19:49 . Actually, this is funny. It's true story. And if my kids are watching this, please don't do this. Um So there was a grocery store, I moved around a lot as a kid, but one of the places I lived, there's a grocery store, uh maybe like a mile from where my house was. And so sometimes on Saturday, there 0:19:49 - 0:20:05 was a little shopping center we'd walk through there and it was a mile of just straight suburbs till you got there. But I went there with my brother one time. I don't remember how old I was. I was, uh, maybe 10 or something. And, uh, we went into the grocery store and, I mean, we might have like, two 0:20:05 - 0:20:24 bucks or something on one of these trips and we just sort of wander around the little shopping center and usually end up at mcdonald's or something and buy a little cheeseburger. But, uh, anyway, we went in the grocery stores and, and one thing we'd always do on this trip is we check, there's a little 0:20:23 - 0:20:39 stand with the gumball machines and we check to see if there's any candy left at the bottom because sometimes people would leave the can, you know, you put the quarter in and turn it and candy comes out the bottom and sometimes people would leave candy in the tray. So we check all through and take whatever 0:20:39 - 0:20:58 candy was there and then leave. And, um, I don't know why, but one day we checked or noticed, I don't know if we noticed or we checked. It seems like a weird thing to check. I don't remember. But we checked the lids because they had those lock lids on the candy dispensers and one of the lids was open 0:20:57 - 0:21:19 . And so we opened the lid and filled our pockets with candy and ran out of there as fast as we could Right. Which is terrible. I'm laughing at it now. I mean, it's really important to condemn your past self. It's a separate issue. But once you do, you're free, you're free. Ok. And so I totally, I totally 0:21:19 - 0:21:50 stole that candy and it was a horrible thing to do. Um, but you know, God redeems us. He redeems, he, he extracts the good out of the evil and he overcomes evil by, by putting into it extra light in order to convert the whole thing over into something good. And uh to do that in this story, um we need 0:21:49 - 0:22:14 to be like hungry, desperate, poor kids. I'm not saying we stole candy because we were starving, we stole candy because we didn't have any money and we wanted candy. Um but uh we need to be like that when it comes to this pile of light that he freely offers, we need to fill up our pockets. And I mean 0:22:14 - 0:22:41 , we had so much candy in our pockets that you couldn't have fit one more piece. We filled our pockets and then we ran off and um that's how we need to be with God's light, but we don't have to steal anything. Well, you can't steal it. In fact, it's all freely given. So, you know, maybe a better example 0:22:40 - 0:23:05 of this is if you are starving and someone pays the price for you to go into a buffet, you should eat everything you can and you should pick the best things because you can only eat so much before you're full. So go look across the buffet and pick the best things and take them anyway. So with, with the 0:23:05 - 0:23:40 spiritual gifts, you know what you fail to receive that you seek is almost always because you fail to receive what you don't seek, that's required to get it. And so the little things end up being the big things. So I want to say all this because one, I don't want to limit your hope that these sorts of 0:23:40 - 0:24:03 things are in reach for you. Two, I want to shed some light on the path from where you are to where they are. The good news is you're probably already having them, at least the beginnings and that's also bad news. Uh, because it's something you need to repent of, you need to take things seriously when 0:24:02 - 0:24:28 , when, uh, they're worth taking seriously. And then I don't know what number we're on now, I think for, um, fourth, I hope that no one ever says, well, Rob says to do this and it's nice or don't do that. And it's nice for him to say that because he has all these experiences. And if I had them, I could 0:24:28 - 0:25:11 do that too, you're inverting the order of those things. So one day, one day, many more things will be known for all of us. And in that day, a lot of expectations are going to be permanently changed because um corrected, permanently corrected. It's much more often the case that things we would like to 0:25:11 - 0:25:39 follow the example of are actually more difficult for the person who provides the example. The chief example in this, in all things is Jesus. And of course, it'd be absurd to think that it was easier for him. And yet most of Christianity does this and they make up false ideas about what he came to earth 0:25:39 - 0:26:02 with. And without in order to distance themselves from him and say, yeah, well, he did all this but it was different for him. That's true. It was different for him, but it wasn't different because it was easier. It's different because it was harder. It's essential to the way that God's plan works that 0:26:02 - 0:26:37 everyone who stands as your judge had a harder time to live the example that you're judged against than you in its pure sense. I promise you that in every way Jesus had it harder than you and his accomplishment of what he did in spite of that is rock solid proof that you can too. The main difference 0:26:36 - 0:27:18 is that he cared more. That's how he did. It is that he loved more so often. Uh I hear, well, I don't hear from anyone often but so often when I do, someone will say something like repentance is so hard. What's the secret? John has some interesting things to say about that in his letters, in the New 0:27:17 - 0:28:04 Testament in one place. He says, when we love the Lord, keeping his commandments is not grievous, love is a willingness to suffer for the benefit of another. If you love, it's impossible to see a cost for benefiting another as a negative thing, it means that every additional cost required to provide 0:28:03 - 0:28:46 a benefit or affect a benefit to another just increases the thing that you're after. So to translate this a little to an analogy, if you worked at a perfectly just job where you're paid for, the value that you create and what you're after is money than anything you do to increase the value that you create 0:28:45 - 0:29:16 would be the fulfillment of the thing that you're after because it directly translates into more money. If what you're after is the greatest love to give the greatest love that can only be done through the greatest suffering. As long as that suffering leads to the greatest benefit. What you're after 0:29:16 - 0:29:56 is the greatest benefit. It turns out that value and suffering are inseparably linked anyway. If you love God, then the difficulty so called of keeping His commandments is a good thing. Not a bad thing. It's something that you would run to not flee from. It's something that you would joyfully overcome 0:29:56 - 0:30:17 because we've been promised. It's possible. It's not the Lord doesn't give commandments that he doesn't give us the power to keep. He controls our conscience. There's a governor on this thing, you know, like a governor on an engine. If you drive a golf cart, it can only go so fast. Some corporate vehicles 0:30:17 - 0:30:37 have a governor as well and it just won't go over a certain speed. You can push on the pedal as much as you want. It won't go faster. And that's how, that's the promise God has given us about temptation. And so it's impossible to be tempted beyond what you're able. It's not possible you won't allow it 0:30:37 - 0:30:59 . And so anything you face is possible to do the Lord's will in as far as you understand the Lord's will. So the question is why, why not, why haven't you done it or why do you keep doing it? If it's not what the Lord wants, if it's not what you think, it's what the Lord wants. And the only answer is 0:30:59 - 0:31:24 you care about something more, there's something that you care about more than him. And that's a sad thing. It's not me saying I'm sad or I think you're sad. That's not what I'm saying. I'm sad for you, but it, it should make you sad that you care more about something else than you care about him. But 0:31:24 - 0:31:56 anyway, so I hope this helps with, with thinking about all of that. I, I will just tell you in, in totally plain terms when the curtain is pulled back, if and when you come to see exactly what I'm operating under and what I have operated under, in the full picture in which these experiences occur. And 0:31:55 - 0:32:30 maybe more about those experiences, I'll tell you what you would conclude, you would conclude. You would, you would be absolutely astonished, just completely overwhelmed by what I did with how little I received that. That's probably the, the long and short of it. And in applying that example of faith 0:32:30 - 0:33:03 to your own life, you, you would be overwhelmingly ashamed at how little you accomplished in life and it would, it would fill you with regret forever. Not, not because of what, you know, not as a straight comparison to what what I did, but the ratio of what I received from the Lord in the terms of supernatural 0:33:02 - 0:33:34 assistance or whatever else you might think is some exceptional situation. The ratio of that to what I did, you would apply that ratio to your life and you'd see that you have overflowing gifts from God in your life, but you have not translated those into anything close to the abundance. That's possible 0:33:33 - 0:34:00 . You're waiting for him to give you even more supernatural outflow. We'll say, I don't know how else to describe this or grace maybe and saying, well, if that comes, then I will outperform and not even outperform, then I'll just do what I should. But you know, then I'll be more impressive than I am 0:34:00 - 0:34:24 . It doesn't work that way. And here's a very important principle that I don't have time to go into right now, but you can take it and take it through the scriptures and you'll see enormous evidence for this. You don't receive a promised land and then start living the law that defines it. Every Kingdom 0:34:24 - 0:34:48 has a law. Every promised land has a law. Kingdom, promised land is, aren't the same, but a kingdom, the Kingdom of God is a place and a law that's also a person. But let's forget the person for a second and talk about the place and the law. You can't be in the place. You can't come into the place until 0:34:48 - 0:35:15 you live the law. I don't care if we're talking about Moses, we're talking about Lehigh, we're talking about it doesn't matter. You can't go to the place until you've obtained and lived the law. Those of us in North America are in a really tricky situation because we are living on a promised land that 0:35:15 - 0:35:45 has a law. And last time I checked, I can't find anyone who lives that law. So we're on borrowed time to get our butts and gear and reconcile to the law. You probably don't even know what the law is that makes it kind of difficult. So we start from where we are and you need to start from where you are 0:35:45 - 0:36:06 and fix your life. And part of that, the subject of this video is to pay closer attention to the things that you dismiss and to live your life according to what you see, because the things that come from God are not gonna necessarily seem like the biggest flashiest, most important things in your life 0:36:06 - 0:36:31 , even though they are the most important things in your life. So I invite you to take a closer look at that and to think more about it and please do not dismiss anything that I try to provide an example in by thinking that it's easier for me because it's not. I, I could, I would gladly sit down with 0:36:31 - 0:36:59 you and lay out all the reasons it isn't and I'm pretty sure I would win that argument. So I hope that that brings you hope and strength. Uh, for some, it will lift you up to aspire to greater things and for others, this might feel like I'm pushing you down a bit and maybe that's helpful too. So take 0:36:59 - 0:36:59 care.