Growing In God Podcast

Program Number: GIG #224 (2)

Title: Thanksgiving—A Time of Gratitude

Web Description: Thanksgiving is a wonderful time set aside for giving thanks to the Lord. But the scriptural example of thanksgiving is not something that is done only on specific days. It is a continual practice of giving thanks and praise to the Lord every day. The pattern in our lives should not be thanking the Lord whenever we feel He has blessed us. We should have an attitude, a mindset, and an intentional emotion of gratitude for everything God is and does. Let this Thanksgiving be the beginning of a new lifestyle of overflowing gratitude before the Lord.

Email Subject Line: Thanksgiving—A Time of Gratitude

Show Notes: In the transition from the Tabernacle to the Temple, David commanded the Levites to thank and praise the Lord every morning and evening. This concept of giving continual thanks and praise to the Lord goes deeper than our concept of giving thanks. When someone gives us something, we say, "Thank you." And so our definition of thanksgiving still has this idea of thanking God after He blesses us. A better word for the scriptural concept of continual thanks to God is gratitude.

The Scriptures show us that we can develop a mindset, an attitude, and especially an emotion of gratitude before the Lord. Even when we face difficulties and negative situations, we can still have this emotion of gratitude because it is not dependent on our circumstances. We do not have to deny what may be happening to us, but we can continually focus on the Lord and develop within ourselves the sense of wonder and gratitude for all that God is and all that He does.

Therefore, let us celebrate Thanksgiving this year with gratitude. Let it be an expression of our continual thanks and praise to the Lord and not isolated to one specific gift or answer to prayer that He has given us. Let our gratitude become something that we develop within the depths of our being as part of our relationship with God, whereby we say daily, "Lord, we are not thankful for one or two things that You did for us. We are overflowing with gratitude for all things that You are to us and have provided for us."

Key Verses:

• 1 Chronicles 23:30. "They are to stand every morning to thank and to praise the LORD, and likewise at evening."

• Psalm 92:1–5. "It is good to give thanks to the LORD and to sing praises to Your name, O Most High."

• 2 Peter 1:3. "His divine power has granted to us everything pertaining to life and godliness."

• Colossians 2:6–7. "As you have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him, … overflowing with gratitude."

Quotes:

• "We don't just want to say 'thank you' for something. We want to develop in our hearts an attitude of gratitude."

• "When we talk about gratitude, it's not just an action; it's an emotion that is being expressed from within the depth of our being."

• "There is an unending list and an unending focus of what we should be giving praise and thanks to the Lord for."

Takeaways:

1. David introduced a new responsibility and ministry for the Levites. They were to stand every morning and evening to thank and praise the Lord. It is also important for us to find a new expression in our giving of thanks and worship to the Lord.

2. It is good to set aside one day at Thanksgiving to express our thanks to the Lord. But we need more than just a practice of thanking the Lord on one day and afterwards reverting to a life of ungratefulness. We need the Levitical pattern of thanking and praising the Lord continually.

3. Giving thanks when we are blessed is still a limited emotion in response to our circumstances. We need to develop an intentional emotion of gratitude that is a continual expression of praise and thanks to the Lord.

Growing In God Podcast

Program Number: GIG #277

Title: Love Is the Antidote

Web Description: The world is experiencing an increase in lawlessness and a corresponding decrease in people's love. As a byproduct, anger and hatred are spreading like infectious diseases. We need an antidote. And that antidote is the Father's love in Christ. As believers in Christ, we have the ability and the responsibility to deliver this antidote to the world.

Show Notes: When describing the end times, Yeshua (Jesus) said that the increase in lawlessness would cause people's love to grow cold. Yet also during these times the gospel of the Kingdom will be preached in the whole world. And what is the very foundation of the gospel of the Kingdom? It is the love of Christ. The love of Christ is the antidote for the sickness in the world that is draining love from people's hearts. How is this antidote delivered? As believers in Christ, we need to wake up to the fact that we are the ones to do that.

Only the love of God, which we have received in Christ, can be effective in fighting the anger and hatred that is spreading like a virus in this age. This virus has even infected the Church. We have seen division, anger, and hatred infecting the hearts of believers. Now more than ever Christians must be loving one another because our oneness is the sign that the Father sent Christ into the world. In these days when darkness is spreading, we have to let our light shine. And our light is the love of God that is manifested in us.

Not only should we be expressing our love among ourselves, but we should also love everyone around us, even our enemies, as the Lord commanded. In this day when Judeo-Christian values are being attacked and the persecution of Christians is increasing, we cannot draw back or hide our light. We are to love even our enemies as Christ did and show that we are sons of our Father. It may seem like everything in the world is becoming darker. But that means God is giving us an even greater light to shine. If the world is getting sicker, then we have an even greater antidote. Let us minister the antidote of God's love freely to everyone and spread the gospel of love throughout the world.

Key Verses:

• Matthew 24:12–14. "Because lawlessness is increased, most people's love will grow cold."

• Matthew 5:14–16. "Let your light shine before men."

• Proverbs 4:18–19. "The path of the righteous is like the light of dawn."

• John 8:12. "I am the Light of the world."

• 1 John 3:11. "This is the message which you have heard from the beginning, that we should love one another."

• Romans 13:8–12. "Let us lay aside the deeds of darkness and put on the armor of light."

• Peter 1:22. "Fervently love one another from the heart."

• John 13:34–35. "By this all men will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another."

• Matthew 5:43–48. "Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of your Father."

• Luke 6:27. "Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you."

• Luke 6:35. "Love your enemies … and you will be sons of the Most High."

Quotes:

• "The world is dark and darkness is coming. The world is sick. It's upside down. Good is bad and bad is good. And it doesn't seem like necessarily there's an answer. But there is an answer, and the answer is God's love."

• "This love that we have is being compared to a light, and it shines brighter and brighter. And we should expect to see more and more the love of God manifested in us and being able to be conveyed and imparted to this age."

• "It is the time for us as believers to wake up to the need and to wake up to the reality that within our hearts we hold the antidote to the wickedness, to the evil, to the hatred that is so widespread in this age."

Takeaways:

1. The love manifested in us and through us to the world repels the darkness from us personally. And it is the antidote that people in bondage to the darkness are needing.

2. People will know that we are Christ's disciples because we love one another. Our oneness is a sign to the world that the Father sent Christ into the world.

3. Our love cannot be just for fellow believers. It must also be for those who hate us, who are our enemies, and who persecute us. That is what shows that we are sons of the Father.

4. It is not so much what we preach. It is what we express and minister as light in the darkness, showing God's love to all His creation.

Growing In God Podcast

Program Number: GIG #276

Title: Renewing Our Minds

Web Description: When we get into spiritual warfare, we tend to become focused on things outside of us. But it is actually an internal battle that takes place in our minds. We are fighting a battle against mental speculations that attack the knowledge of God and draw our focus away from Him. Let us bring our focus back on Christ the King and enforce His victory with the divinely powered weapons He has given us.

Show Notes: The practice of building a booth, or sukkah, at the Feast of Tabernacles (Sukkoth) involves leaving the roof open. And we can draw a lesson from the fact that in our sukkah, we are not looking out; we are looking up. Instead of a focus that looks out on everything happening in the world, we are to be training our minds to focus on the Lord. This principle applies directly to our concept of spiritual warfare. The battle for our focus is not happening outside of ourselves. It is taking place in our own minds.

According to 2 Corinthians, the weapons of our warfare are powerful to the pulling down of strongholds. We are destroying speculations and taking every thought captive in obedience to Christ. We are warring against strongholds. But those strongholds are not separate from us. They are strongholds built from the speculations and thought processes of our minds. These speculations of the human mind are what raise themselves up against the knowledge of God, against the truth of God, and against Christ. Our warfare is with the thoughts of our own minds and the things within ourselves on a human level.

In our society today we see many who are embracing twisted ideologies and belief systems that literally claim that truth is a lie, and the lie is truth. These belief systems have become a stronghold like a fortress or a walled city that seems impossible to break through. We need to believe and exercise our powerful and effective spiritual weapons that are able to destroy these speculations that war against the knowledge of God within us. These weapons are divinely powerful because they come from God, and we fight this war effectively by keeping our minds focused on Him.

Key Verses:

• 2 Corinthians 10:3–7. "We are destroying speculations and every lofty thing raised up against the knowledge of God."

• Romans 12:2. "Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind."

• 1 Corinthians 2:16. "We have the mind of Christ."

• 2 Corinthians 5:17. "If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come."

• Hebrews 11:10. "He was looking for the city which has foundations, whose architect and builder is God."

• Psalm 2:1–8. "As for Me, I have installed My King upon Zion."

• Psalm 96:10–11. "Say among the nations, 'The LORD reigns.'"

Quotes:

• "When our minds develop these speculations and then coalesce those speculations into a belief system, all of a sudden we realize that these things are fortresses that are absolutely against what God is trying to say."

• "I don't need to argue with you about all of your morality and all of your philosophy and all of your theology. I just need to tell you one thing: Christ reigns. He reigns as Lord Supreme. He reigns as King of kings and Lord of lords."

• "We can either be aware of the battle, or we can be aware of the fact that the battle is already won."

Takeaways:

1. The weapons of our warfare are for destroying speculations and every lofty thing raised up against the knowledge of God. A speculation is a thought process, and we need to see that spiritual warfare is a battle that takes place in our minds.

2. Speculations and belief systems of the fleshly mind become a fortress, and we cannot fight that on a fleshly level. We must use the spiritual weapons that are divinely powerful for the destruction of fortresses.

3. We need to change our focus. We need to take our focus off the world and put it back on the Lord so that our minds are stayed in Him, and we are bringing His divine presence constantly in our thoughts.

Growing In God Podcast

Program Number: GIG #275

Title: Christ the King

Web Description: Why are the nations in an uproar? Because God has established Christ as King and has given all the nations to Him. God is not moved by their uproar, and neither should we be as believers in Christ. He is our refuge, He is our focus, and His unshakable Kingdom is the reality of our lives right now.

Show Notes: We read in Psalm 2 that the nations are in an uproar, and today we see how true that is. It is difficult to find a nation where positive things are happening. Every nation is facing negative consequences as people devise a vain thing. Like no other time in history, whole populations all over the globe are embracing vain and ridiculous ideas to believe in. Meanwhile, governments and rulers take their stand against the Lord, His will, His Kingdom, and His people. They counsel together against Israel and against Judaism and Christianity everywhere.

It seems like the world is spinning out of control. And as much as we pray for things to change, they just seem to go from bad to worse. That should come as no surprise to us as Christians. The Scriptures make clear that things will be difficult in the days before the Kingdom of God is established. And we are to be focused as believers on His Kingdom coming. So do not be focused on whatever is happening in the world. Instead, keep looking to the Father, to Christ, and to His Kingdom, knowing that God is in charge.

How is God responding to all the ridiculous ways the nations are acting in their defiance of Him? According to Psalm 2 He is laughing. In other words, He is not bothered. He is not losing control. He is not moved off His throne. God is securely planted as the One who is in charge. And He has installed His King on Zion, His holy mountain. That is where we stand in Christ. We can live today in His Kingdom, taking refuge in Him, seated with Him in the heavenly places, and proclaiming that He is ruling over every situation.

Key Verses:

• Psalm 2:1–5. "The kings of the earth take their stand … against the LORD and against His Anointed."

• Psalm 2:6–8. "But as for Me, I have installed My King upon Zion, My holy mountain."

• Psalm 2:9–12. "How blessed are all who take refuge in Him!"

• Psalm 24:1. "The earth is the LORD'S, and all it contains."

• Ephesians 2:4–6. "God, being rich in mercy … seated us with Him in the heavenly places."

Quotes:

• "This is the scream of people who are refusing the Lordship of Christ, the Lordship of the Scriptures, the Word of God in their life: 'The Word of God is not going to be our moral compass. It's not going to rule over our life and how we live it and how we act one towards another.'"

• "There is going to be a moment where God begins to respond to each and every one of these that He's dealing with, each and every one of these ones that think they are bringing about their will on the earth and their kingdom on the earth, including satan himself. They are going to be addressed personally by the Lord, and they are going to be terrified at His response."

• "Whatever you're experiencing, whatever we're going through, whatever will happen around us in this uproar of the nations, take refuge in Him. Keep your focus upon Him. Keep absolutely in the front of your mind and heart that He has installed Christ the King upon Mount Zion."

Takeaways:

1. The nations are in an uproar. But they are in an uproar because the Father has granted the ownership of those nations to Christ.

2. God is not shaken, and Christ the King is not shaken by whatever is going on in this world. He is laughing at the plans of the world because they are already thwarted by His Word as the God of all creation.

3. We tell of the decree of the Lord that He is the King. We take refuge in Him personally. And we are those who proclaim that the nations are His, and He has installed His King upon His Holy Mountain.

Growing In God Podcast

Program Number: GIG #274

Title: The Bronze Serpent

Web Description: Do you feel like you are being bitten to death by your circumstances and problems? Get your focus back on Christ. Renew and deepen your relationship with Him because He Himself is the answer. He Himself is the victory and the overcoming of any situation that we are in. And by believing in Him, we will not perish in our circumstances but instead have eternal life.

Show Notes: When the children of Israel complained against the Lord and Moses in the wilderness, the Lord sent them poisonous serpents. So the people repented and asked the Lord to remove the serpents. That however is not what God did. Instead, He told Moses to make a bronze serpent and lift it up on a standard. And if anyone looked at the serpent, that person would live. That story has great meaning for us today.

The children of Israel had become entirely focused on the material world rather than on the presence of God who was with them day and night. They were entirely focused on what they were unhappy about and what they did not have, ignoring all that God was providing them. As Christians we too tend to lose our focus on the Lord. We start to focus on what we are lacking and what we wish we had in the material world. We sometimes forget that we have the Holy Spirit to lead us and guiAde us, that Christ is in us, and that we can be filled with all the fullness of God.

Just like in the wilderness, we may be asking God to remove our problems that are like poisonous snakes biting us. But we should not be surprised if those problems do not go away. We should expect that God will give us something else to focus on. He may even be using our problems to get our focus back on Him. He is looking to bring us to Himself, to a life in Him, to a life in His Word, to a faith and a walking in Him that we may not be doing at the moment. Christ was lifted up just like that bronze serpent in the wilderness so that in Him we can have eternal life. He is our answer. And we need to live in Him more than we need to try to solve our problems.

Key Verses:

• Numbers 21:4–11. "If a serpent bit any man, when he looked to the bronze serpent, he lived."

• 2 Peter 1:3. "His divine power has granted to us everything pertaining to life and godliness."

• Psalm 103:2. "Bless the LORD, O my soul, and forget none of His benefits."

• Luke 21:28. "When these things begin to take place, straighten up and lift up your heads."

• John 3:12–21. "As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up."

Quotes:

• "It seems almost impossible to think that we would get tired of having the Lord's presence with us day and night. But I think in all honesty, we do lose our focus on the Lord, and we tend to bring our focus back into the lower level or lower realm of the natural world."

• "Instead of taking away our problems, many times what He does is He gives us an answer that brings our focus and our relationship back to Him. Because ultimately, He's the answer."

• "You're going to get tired of this journey that we're on in these end times if you are focused only on what's going on around you. But if we can keep our focus looking up, looking upon the Lord and what He's provided, then these other things are not going to destroy us."

Takeaways:

1. The children of Israel magnified their unhappiness about the wilderness to the point that they despised God's provision. And we need to realize how we can get so focused on what we dislike about our circumstances that we forget the Lord's benefits.

2. God's answer to the serpents in the wilderness was not to remove the serpents but to get the people's focus back on Him. And God may not be answering your prayer by removing your circumstances but by getting your focus back on Him.

3. When you see all the things beginning to happen in the end-time, raise your eyes above the material world and focus on Him and His Kingdom. Make Him your focus and make Him what you are journeying to.

Faith Experiences the Invisible Now

Growing In God Podcast

Program Number: GIG #273

Web Description: It is with the heart that we believe, and the heart is the center of our emotions and feelings. That means faith is not actually a mental process. You are not trying to believe with your thoughts that something will happen. Instead, you are knowing in your heart, by the joy and love and emotions that come by the Spirit, that you already have fulfillment.

Show Notes: How do we measure our faith? It seems that the only gauge we use is a negative one. We measure how much faith we do not have when something we believe for does not happen. But there is a better way. In a message titled, "Living Faith in Action," John Stevens said of the promises of God that "we were to rejoice in them with faith. We were to lay hold upon them as though we already possessed them." The greatest measure of our faith is the joy we experience in knowing that we have what God has promised.

We associate believing with the mind. But according to the Scriptures, we believe in our heart. And scripturally the heart is the center of our emotions. The heart is where faith really comes from, and the heart is also at the root of what we feel. Our feelings then impact our physical bodies, our thoughts, and our behavior. So faith from the heart is expressed in emotions. If you want faith to heal someone, then the most effective way is not to mentally strive to believe but to feel the joy of the deliverance in your heart.

We know that the fruit of the Spirit consists of emotions like love, joy, and peace. These emotions are spiritually imparted, meaning we do not get them from the material realm but from the spirit realm. This is the principle that Yeshua (Jesus) taught us in the simplest of terms. He said to pray, "Your kingdom come. Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven." In other words, the answer exists right now in heaven. And you want it to also exist in your life right now. So do not pray for it to happen in the future. Pray with the knowledge that you have it now, and your faith is bringing it into the earth.

Key Verses:

• Matthew 6:10. "Your kingdom come. Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven."

• Hebrews 11:3. "What is seen was not made out of things which are visible."

• Romans 10:10. "With the heart a person believes."

• 1 Samuel 13:14. "The LORD has sought out for Himself a man after His own heart."

• John 10:10. "I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly."

• Romans 4:17–20. "With respect to the promise of God, he did not waver in unbelief but grew strong in faith."

• Hebrews 11:1. "Faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen."

• 1 John 5:4. "This is the victory that has overcome the world—our faith."

Quotes:

• "On the Sabbath, God finished His creation; He finished his works. His works are finished and now they exist. What we are learning to do is to reach into what exists and to find the ways to bring that out of the invisible into the visible, into an effective function within the material world."

• "We don't hope that there's the restoration of Israel. We don't hope for the Jews to be brought back into the land. We feel the joy. We should be dancing like David in the street at the return of the Ark of the Covenant because we are dancing over the return of the people, the return of all the wealth that they have and all the blessings that are theirs. We're living in it right now."

• "Your faith is the substance of the thing hoped for. It's the evidence of the thing not seen. That is not wishful thinking. That's God's faith given to you to believe Him and to rejoice with Him."

Takeaways:

1. How do you measure how much faith you have? Look to what you are feeling in your heart.

2. Having faith for something means that you have already embraced it in your heart. You are not praying with hope that it will happen. You pray knowing that you have it right now.

3. Our emotions are something tangible. Study your heart and the emotions that are there. Emotions trigger thoughts and then the thoughts come out of your mouth. And that is what is creative.

Growing In God Podcast

Program Number: GIG #272

Title: From Generation to Generation

Web Description: In the wilderness the children of Israel learned the consequences of not following the Word of God. And they set themselves to rehearse the Word repeatedly so that they and future generations would not fail to follow that Word. As Christians today we cannot expect that we will have the faith and success we need if we are not following what God has made real to us. And we must have the same determination to rehearse His Word.

Show Notes: Sukkot, the Feast of Tabernacles, remembers the time when Israel lived in tents for forty years in the wilderness. This was a time when one generation died off because of their disobedience and a new generation was taught the Word of God. They had learned from the wilderness that they lived by the Word of God, and therefore every new generation must be taught to live in the Word. This is why a special day is observed at the end of Sukkot each year. This day is called Simchat Torah, which means "the joy of the Torah."

Every year the Torah is read in the synagogue from beginning to end. And every year at Simchat Torah, this annual cycle repeats. It is a continual reminder of what Moses told the people before they entered the land: "Will you make the same mistake the previous generation made, which cost them forty years in the wilderness? Or have you learned your lesson? And if you have learned your lesson, will you be able to keep that lesson alive for yourself and for your children?"

We see then the importance that Judaism places on rehearsing the Word. Do we as Christians realize that it is just as important for us? We face challenges that seem too big for us, just as the giants in the land seemed too big for the generation that failed in the wilderness. But those giants were not too big for God then, and our challenges are not too big for Him today. We need to believe what God has spoken to us and believe in His power to accomplish what He said. It is all there in His Word. And we need to make rehearsing His Word a major focus of our times together and in our daily lives.

Key Verses:

• Deuteronomy 8:1–6. "You shall remember all the way which the LORD your God has led you."

• Deuteronomy 6:1–3. "This is the commandment … that you and your son and your grandson might fear the LORD."

• Hebrews 12:5–9. "God deals with you as with sons; for what son is there whom his father does not discipline?"

• Romans 10:17. "Faith comes from hearing, and hearing by the word of Christ."

• Deuteronomy 6:4–9. "You shall teach them diligently to your sons."

• Deuteronomy 11:18–21. "You shall teach them to your sons."

• Deuteronomy 31:10–13. "Their children, who have not known, will hear and learn to fear the LORD."

Quotes:

• "We should come away from the celebration of Sukkot refreshed in the memory that God is all powerful, that He is able to give us what He's promised."

• "When we get together to fellowship, there should be a focus on worship and the Word. We can still barbecue and have fun and have other conversations. But what is the focus of it? What is the purpose of fellowship? The true purpose of fellowship is to get together surrounding the Word and the worship so that we're creating faith within ourselves."

• "Even as aliens we had the right to come and stand at the gate during Sukkot and hear the Word of God so that we could learn, and we could understand, and we could fear the Lord our God. And we could walk with Him and have long life and prosperity and blessings."

Takeaways:

1. The battle is against forgetting. If we are reminding ourselves, then faith comes by hearing. If we hear it, then we can have faith to do it.

2. We need to find the things that are foundational to our faith—who we are and what God has spoken to us—and we need the faith right now to walk in them.

3. Let us not leave the Feast of Tabernacles. Let us enter a year of hearing the Word of God.

Growing In God Podcast

Program Number: GIG #271

Title: The Feast of Tabernacles

Web Description: As we celebrate Sukkot, the Feast of Tabernacles, we worship in thankfulness for all that God has done for us in the season that we have just completed, and we prepare our hearts during the feast for the new season that is now beginning. So it is very important that we learn about the Feast of Tabernacles and think about what we are expecting God to do for us during this time.

Show Notes: Celebrating the Feast of Tabernacles puts us in a place of seeking God. We experience a new relationship with the Word of God as we celebrate this feast. In His Word we find instructions and direction for our lives in the coming year. Our cry before the Lord is that His Word will break our hearts and cause us to repent so that we will see the manifestation of the Word of God coming alive to the Body of Christ and coming alive to Israel in a new and greater way.

During the Feast of Tabernacles, we must "build our booths"—construct our lives—with a focus on God and His provision and not on the desolate wilderness. Because when we dwell in the shelter of the Most High, we will have a focus on God that will bring us to a place of trust and deliverance from everything that could come against us in the dark days that we may face in the coming year.

As we celebrate the Feast of Tabernacles, we also find the Lordship of Christ coming alive. We know that His Kingdom is established in heaven, but there will come a time when the age of Messiah will begin to reign in the earth, even as the Lordship of Christ reigns in our hearts. In this feast we find ourselves contending together in prayer to see the manifestation of the Kingdom of God in the earth now.

Key Verses:

• Nehemiah 8:13–18. "The LORD had commanded through Moses that the sons of Israel should live in booths during the feast."

• Numbers 9:15–23. "So it was continuously; the cloud would cover it by day, and the appearance of fire by night."

• Psalm 91:1–16. "No evil will befall you."

• 2 Corinthians 3:16–18. "Transformed into the same image from glory to glory."

Quotes:

• "I believe this can be a transitional time for Israel and for the Body of Christ both, as we experience something tremendous in these days of Tabernacles."

• "The Lord tells us where to live, but how we live is something that we construct as part of this Tabernacle experience."

• "We're going to be living in maybe some very dark days during this coming year, but what we focus on is what God is doing for us."

• "We don't know what we face or what we're going to go through, just as they didn't in the wilderness know exactly what they would face day to day, but they knew one thing—the glory and the presence in the light of God was with them."

Takeaways:

1. Prepare yourself as you think about the Feast of Tabernacles and what you expect God to do for you during this time.

2. Build your booth—your life, your family, your community—in a way that they house us in His presence and create a constant focus on His glory.

3. Abide in the shadow of the Almighty and let Him become your dwelling place so that the glory of His presence will begin to manifest around you.

4. Focus on the Lord's presence so that you might be changed from glory to glory into that same Presence, but also that you might reflect that glory to others as it radiates from you.

Growing In God Podcast

Program Number: GIG #270

Title: Atonement and Our Purification

Web Description: We are coming to the Day of Atonement, which has great significance for us as Christians. It is about the forgiveness of our sins, something we understand well. But it is also about something we need a greater revelation and appropriation of, and that is our purification and the removal of our sins. Let this be our experience as we celebrate the Day of Atonement this year.

Show Notes: We read in Leviticus 16 that the Day of Atonement is about cleansing the people of their sins. It was a solemn assembly, a time for the people to humble themselves and repent of their sins. Then the first goat was sacrificed as a sin offering, speaking to the forgiveness of their sins. But there was also a second sacrifice. The goat of removal was sent into the wilderness to take away all the iniquity of the people.

Most Christians relate to Christ who is our Atonement in the context of the forgiveness of sins. But the Day of Atonement is about being cleansed of our sins. And cleansing is more than external washing. It is about our purification. The prophecy of the Messiah in Malachi tells us that He comes for the very purpose of purification. Yeshua (Jesus) HaMashiach, the Messiah, came for our purification, which along with forgiveness is the cleansing and removal of our sins.

Therefore, we absolutely should celebrate the Day of Atonement this year. And as we celebrate it, we should remember that our atonement is not only about the forgiveness of sin. It is also about the purification of the believer, enabling us to truly enter the presence of the Father. With great thankfulness we reach in during this time to humble ourselves before Him and appropriate all that He has provided for us on this Day of Atonement.

Key Verses:

• Leviticus 16:29–31. "It is on this day that atonement shall be made for you to cleanse you."

• Leviticus 16:18–22. "The goat shall bear on itself all their iniquities to a solitary land."

• Malachi 3:1–3. "He will purify the sons of Levi."

• Hebrews 10:1–2. "The worshipers, having once been cleansed, would no longer have had consciousness of sins."

• Psalm 103:12. "As far as the east is from the west, so far has He removed our transgressions from us."

• Hebrews 10:14–23. "Let us draw near with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled clean."

Quotes:

• "The Lord through the blood of Christ forgives us. But again, there's something more that the Day of Atonement is pointing to that we want to receive. And that is this removing out of us the iniquity and the sin so that we don't continue going through the same process of sinning."

• "We as believers are not just to live lives having been forgiven of our sin. We are to live lives that are more represented by this event in the Day of Atonement that we are forgiven but also cleansed and purified."

• "When God forgives, He does forget. He remembers our sin no more. But He goes beyond that because in the purification He is then able to put His law upon our heart and upon our mind."

Takeaways:

1. On the Day of Atonement two sacrifices were made. The first sacrifice was to forgive the sins of the people. The second sacrifice was to remove the sins of the people. We understand the forgiveness of our sins in Christ but not so much the removal of our sins.

2. Atonement is for our cleansing. And that is not just cleansing as we relate to cleansing ourselves by taking a bath or cleaning something by wiping the surface of it. It is talking about purification.

3. Malachi tells us that when Messiah comes, He is like a refiner's fire and fullers' soap and will sit as a smelter. The sacrifice of Christ forgives our sins but also puts us through the process of purification that is like the refining and purifying of gold or silver.

Growing In God Podcast

Program Number: GIG #269

Title: The Feast of Trumpets

Web Description: The Feast of Trumpets was a holy convocation, a day of celebration and rest, when all of Israel came up to Jerusalem to meet with God in anticipation that He was going to do something. This is now called Rosh Hashanah, and it is celebrated as the Jewish New Year's Day. This appointed time has yet to be fulfilled in Christ, leaving the world to wonder what it will mean when the divine trumpet blows.

Show Notes: What God is doing in most of the feasts is clear. For example, Passover commemorates the blood of the lamb on the doorposts in Egypt that saved the Hebrew people from the death angel. What God is doing in the Feast of Trumpets is less clear. It is a holy convocation. It is a Sabbath rest. It is a day when trumpets are blown. But why?

The Feast of Trumpets is a day of celebration—the Hebrew word is zikkaron—which means a "memorial" as well as a "remembrance" or "reminder." Each year this celebration memorializes God coming to earth on Mount Sinai where He announced His presence with the blast of a trumpet. We also remember God's promise that He will once again return to the earth with the sound of a trumpet.

Today we look forward to that trumpet which has not yet sounded, but no one knows the day or the hour. So our response is to be prepared. The trumpet blast alerts us to the promise of Messiah's return. May this prophetic cry be always on our lips: "Come, Yeshua. Your kingdom come. Your will be done, on this earth as it is in heaven."

Key Verses:

• Leviticus 23:23–25. "You shall have a rest, a reminder by blowing of trumpets, a holy convocation."

• Leviticus 23:24. "A holy convocation … a reminder by blowing of trumpets."

• Numbers 29:1. "It will be a day to you for blowing trumpets."

• Exodus 19:19. "When the sound of the trumpet grew louder and louder, Moses spoke, and God answered him with thunder."

• 1 Thessalonians 4:16. "For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet of God."

• Matthew 24:29-42. "And He will send forth His angels with a great trumpet."

• Revelation 22:20. "Yes, I come quickly!"

Quotes:

• "So when we look at most of the appointed times or the feasts, the fasts, the celebrations that God appointed, it's very clear what it is that Israel was celebrating. Not so with the Feast of Trumpets.

• "That's what a trumpet blast is for: to get your attention."

• "Now to me those are two very distinct things, and I think in the Feast of Trumpets both are taking place. We are to have a memorial and a reminder. A memorial is a celebration of something that took place historically. You build a monument; you memorialize an event in history. A reminder to me is more of something you are looking forward to. I have to remind myself of my to-do list, something I am supposed to do. So both of these really take place during Trumpets."

Takeaways:

1. We anticipate the Feast of Trumpets because its fulfillment in Christ has not yet transpired.

2. The Feast of Trumpets is to get our attention and keep us alert.

3. Our response is to always be on the alert. Watch!

4. We should cry out, "Come, Lord Jesus!"