Relentless Pursuit
Our relentless pursuit after God as He pursues after us.
Relentless Pursuit
Guided by the Unseen Voice
Have you ever felt a whisper in your soul and wondered if it was more than just a fleeting thought? Today's episode is a deep dive into the ethereal experience of hearing God's voice, a journey that transcends the boundaries of the audible and taps directly into our spirits. We unravel the beautiful complexities of discernment, where I share anecdotes from my own spiritual quest, revealing how God's subtle communication has guided my path. Through the lens of biblical scripture, especially John 10:3-4, we explore the nuances of distinguishing divine direction from personal desires and how a consistent walk of faith can amplify our ability to perceive His guidance.
Our heartfelt conversation then pivots to the timely understanding of God's presence in our lives, critiquing common misconceptions about prosperity and the fixation on end-times. We dissect the true essence of prosperity in Christ and how it goes beyond material wealth, urging listeners to seek a deeper anointing through God's presence rather than pursuing blessings as transactions. Reflecting on the lessons from Isaiah, we appreciate the refinement of our words and the representation of obedience and intimacy found in the metaphor of being "sheep" within God's flock. As we conclude, we underscore the significance of repentance and God's relentless pursuit of us, setting the stage for you to join us next time when we'll be joined by a special guest whose insights promise to enrich this conversation even further.
What's up RP family? I'm so excited for another episode of Relentless Pursuit. Here we go, let's dive right in. There's a real cool scripture that I'm going to be reading today. It's John 10, verse 3 through 4. It says the doorkeeper opens the gate for this man and the sheep hear his voice and pay attention to it and, knowing that they listen, he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out to the pasture. When he has brought all his own sheep outside, he walks on ahead of them and the sheep follow him because they know his voice and recognize his call. And recognize his call Episode.
Speaker 1:The reason why this scripture I wanted this to be the episode is because I want to talk about God's voice. Hearing God's voice, understanding what it means when we say when you pray, listen because he speaks. And I know that people, certain people, some people expect this audible voice to come from the heavens and the heavens are going to open up and then you'll see the saith, the spirit of God. But really it's more of a heart posture that's prepared to receive a word, meaning that God speaks to our heart, god speaks to our spirit, our spirit, and it may not be the audible voices as we like to imagine it, but almost think of it as our spirit man speaks, just as our physical man speaks. We don't see our spirit speaking, but he's constantly speaking to God. Now, we have to understand that, just because we can't see it happening, just because we can't have the five senses to hear God's voice, to feel God's voice or whatever the case may be, we have to understand that God is speaking to our spirit man, speaking to our heart. He's dropping words into our consciousness and even our subconsciousness, understanding that we are not going to, for the most part, hear an audible voice, but we are going to receive a word through our spirit, and I want you to understand that. And then, not only that is because I want to have a conversation with you.
Speaker 1:My week, this week, has been a mission, a journey, don't get me wrong. I was tempted to push this episode. I didn't really want to do it and I was struggling in that idea of not wanting to do it. And the thing I could remember most is something my dad would say the way to success is through consistency. And so if I'm not consistent with recording, if I'm not consistent with the podcast, then how am I going to allow God's spirit to move through it, so it could be blessed, so it could expand. If this is the year of expansion, then I have to understand that I must release everything that I can do to God, and once I withhold everything that I can do, then I limit what he can do, because that's me still staying in control.
Speaker 1:And so one thing that God has been speaking to me as of recent is stepping out in faith, stepping out in belief, stepping out in the rambunctious I like that word the really just a bold, courageous faith. It's when reality is saying no, reality is saying you can't do this. Reality is saying this door has been shut to you, is saying this door has been shut to you. God says, yes, you can. Yes, you can conquer that land. Yes, you are more than just grasshoppers, you are mighty men and women of valor who fight for me. Yes, you can get that promotion. Yes, you can get that opportunity. Yes, you can.
Speaker 1:And that's the battle I believe that a lot of us are in is understanding when it's God's voice or when it's our voice. Because a lot of times we step out in faith, believing in what God is saying, but really it's what we're saying and it's because it's a desire that we have, and so now we have to get into the discernment of what voice is which voice? Then that scripture that we read says sheep will know his voice, and the only way to know his voice is to know him, and so that's in diving deeper with him. The Bible says the faith comes by hearing and hearing the word of God. That scripture is no, no, my goodness, I use it a lot. Anyways, it's no secret in this podcast.
Speaker 1:Hearing God's word, it produces faith, and so that's no secret. That's not some hidden, hidden scripture. It is being known, that is on the forefront of our mind, that now hearing God's word, now what is God's word? Saying that he is the God that is a provider, he is the God that is the guider, he is the God that is the leader, he is the miracle working God, the way making God. He is the gate, he is the door, he is the bread of life, he is the way, the truth and life. We have to understand and grasp the full revelation of who God is in order to understand the words that he's speaking to us, because if we don't know who he is, we can think our voice is his voice, and so there comes into that, and if the voice that we hear is not in the Bible, then it's not God, it's ours.
Speaker 1:One thing that I know that really spoke to me. I don't know if I heard it somewhere, I don't know if it was God's. This was a while ago and I was writing some notes down and I popped in on this note and I seen it says the scripture, where the 99 sheep are there and then the one goes astray and then the shepherd goes after the one, and a lot of people saying that these 99 sheep are the righteous ones, the ones that are the self-righteous ones, I should say the religious ones, the ones that are spiritual but not spirit-filled. It's these types of people, pharisees, the ones that are the religious type. But I don't believe that these 99 are that.
Speaker 1:One thing as we mature in Christianity, god will begin to make his presence absent, make the feeling of his presence absent. What do I mean by that? I mean that you will almost feel like he's not there, even though you have to rely on who his nature is and know that he is there. Let me say that. Let me say that so it will feel like he's not there, but you have to rely on who he is and his nature. Knowing that he is there, that's faith. Understanding this is that those 99, they may not have seen the shepherd, they may not have felt the shepherd, they may not have heard the shepherd, but understand, because they were trained so well by the shepherd. They knew that there are borders and parameters to where they could go, and so they knew that they needed to stay where they were, could go, and so they knew that they needed to stay where they were. And so the one that was lost because the 99 were so trained, were so spirit filled, were so mature in their faith, they were able to be trusted in obedience.
Speaker 1:Sometimes we forget that the story it doesn't just have more than the one that the shepherd went to go get. The 99 is also main character in that story, and something that I think is downplayed so much is that these 99, what if they are spirit filled? What if they are mature? What if they aren't religious people? What if they just want to do what God says? What if they want to be obedient to the voice of the Lord? And that's why they stayed where they were.
Speaker 1:The voice of God is not meant to be a spot in your head with the opinion of listening. But the voice of God is meant to inspire, encourage, convict and direct. To hear the voice of God, he requires a level of focus. We have to understand that in order for a sheep to hear their shepherd, they cannot be observing the pasture to the right, they cannot be observing their food to the left. They have to be focused on what the shepherd is saying and doing.
Speaker 1:This parable that God is providing for us is something very specific, because he says that he is the good shepherd. He is referring to himself as the shepherd and we are the fleek. The Bible says I am the shepherd who wait, hold on, hold on. The Bible says in Psalm 23, the Lord is my shepherd to feed, to guide and to shield me. I shall not want and that's really where our heart posture has to be, in the scripture and what we're saying right now, because if we don't believe that he is the good shepherd, he is the shepherd, then we are relying in our own strength at the end of the day. I just really feel like let's talk about something.
Speaker 1:So there's a lot of people this past week that believe that the eclipse, lord Jesus. Let me tell you something about the eclipse. See, just because there's a major event in the astronomy or there's a there's earthquakes, doesn't mean Jesus coming back that next day. We have the earth, the world, the universe has the right to do things like we could be doing the most simple things. Just because there are earthquakes does not mean Jesus come back at that moment. Just because there are rumors of wars, and wars doesn't mean Jesus coming back at that moment.
Speaker 1:The Bible says from the day of Pentecost, the day of it says these are the last days. Peter says these are the last days. So if we've been in the last days I heard a preacher say it like this If we're in the last days since then we should understand that there's a new hour, that days are broken into hours and so what hour are we in the last day? And so we have to understand that, just because the Bible says no man know when the bridegroom is coming, we're so caught up on when is Jesus coming that we forget that the whole mission of what he said is to go out and make disciples and become fishers of men and go out and to preach the gospel. We forget. We rely too much on what is happening outside of the world and we allow distractions. And really, maybe it's God saying yo, this is a wake up call that I'm willing to do the extreme so that my church, my baby, my bride could get right. You feel me and I just anyways.
Speaker 1:So yeah, this eclipse happened and everybody thought it was going to be the end of the world. They used, they brought up the mayan calendar, they brought up the bible and everybody was saying all these conspiracy theories I really enjoy reading because it almost is. It's David went after Bathsheba, after he sinned, after the baby, he had his baby and he's fasting for a week, he's crying out to the Lord for a week, but what he wanted didn't come to pass. Now you would think that that is fasting for, praying, for believing, for having faith, for is good, right. You would think that the Lord would answer these cries, these. And that's what the problem with people painting this prosperity gospel is because you are painting a picture incorrectly, because the gospel is prosperity, but not prosperity so much in the sense of financial prosperity. Prosperity Now, financial prosperity, physical prosperity, marital prosperity, familial prosperity, all these health being, peace, joy, all fall under this category of prosperity, because prosperity is Jesus and we're jumping all over the board right now, because we have to understand that.
Speaker 1:What does God say? Yes, he is our father, who owns every cattle on a thousand hills. Yes, he has called us to be the lender and not the borrower. Yes, he lives in a palace, uh, where the streets are gold and the gates are pearls. Yeah, we have to understand. Yes, he is the supplier of all our needs, according to his riches and glory. Yes, yes, he is. He is all this. He will give us a bunch. He is the. He will do greater, he will do exceedingly, abundantly. Above all we could ever ask, think or imagine. Yes, all of these are true.
Speaker 1:Yes, you can read your private jet into the Bible, but and you can take some stuff out to justify your purchase of a private jet. Praise God, don't get me wrong. I have nothing against private jets. Lord, if you want to bless me with a private jet, I receive it in the name of Jesus. Okay, but my point is that God isn't so much caring for the material desires as he's caring for his kingdom needs. So if giving you a million dollars would take you out of his presence and out of his will, then why would he give you a million dollars, and so you can't just declare a million dollars, as if he's going to answer it. What his answer will be is seek my presence, pursue me all the days of your life, and then the blessing will come. Not saying that I will bless you because you're pursuing me, saying that your pursuit of me will draw blessing to you. And we like to think of God as a transactional being. But he's not. He's given his grace, he's made his grace available to you, and so we must fully surrender to God so that his voice can be made known to us.
Speaker 1:One thing that's really changed my life is diving into the book of Isaiah. Isaiah is insane. So he went from chapter 1 to chapter 5 without seeing God. He heard God, but he never seen God. In chapter 6, he said, I lifted up, I saw the Lord. This train of his robe filled the temple, and what happened next in that moment was something so transforming, something so life-changing, something breathtaking was he said. Then I saw my sin and I am not worthy. So I bowed my face and an angel took the tongs of heaven, grabbed a coal, placed it on his tongue and it burned.
Speaker 1:Now take this in the spiritual, because we have to understand that this is applicable to us today. What is God trying to do? He's trying to refine our words. Why? Because our words have to reflect his words. Are we going to speak life? Are we going to speak faith? Are we going to speak faith? Are we going to be positive? Are we going to speak and prophesy what God is speaking to us? Are we going to open our heart so that we can receive what he's giving us, in order for us to display and project what he wants for his people?
Speaker 1:We have to understand that there is no gift that comes without repentance. There is no talent that God doesn't give. But, at the same token, there is no anointing without the presence of God. You may be gifted, you may be talented, you may have been disciplined enough to do certain things on your own, but let me tell you this all three of those will fall short without the anointing. And the only way to understand the anointing is first, you have to get into the presence of God. And what will the presence of God lead you? To understand and know more of him. What will that lead you to do? To hear and understand his voice. So what does that make you? It makes you a sheep. There is so many culture depictions that sheep are negative, that being a sheep is a negative thing, but really, when it comes down to the basic truth of Christianity, being a sheep is the best thing that you could be, because that means you are a sheep and he is your shepherd. You are not supposed to follow the status quo, you're not supposed to follow the world or culture. Yes, you're not a sheep in the world, but you are a sheep in the kingdom. God is so good. God is so good, amen.
Speaker 1:One thing I want to encourage you guys about, as we come to somewhat a close Sin. Let me tell you what sin is. So sin separates. Let me rephrase that Sin opens the door to the enemy. Sin opens the door to the desires of the flesh. Sin opens the door to the world and to flesh. Sin opens the door to the world and to culture. Now, what does that mean? No, you do not fall out of standing. You're standing with God by sin.
Speaker 1:The Bible says and I believe in Romans while you were still sinners. Let me pull that up While you were. Let me pull that up While you were. Let's pull this up Because we're about to get Bible on you. Okay, here we go.
Speaker 1:But God demonstrates his own love for us in this. While we were still sinners, christ died for us. Christ died for us. Christ died for us while we said so. If we are sinners, then his love is still, still abounds. While we are still sinners, his grace still empowers us. While we are still sinners, his mercies are new every morning. But because we are sinners, we need him. In order to be with him, we must repent and be in his presence, pursuing him in Jesus' name. Thank you guys for joining this week's episode of Relentless Pursuit. We would love for your feedback. So in order for you to do that, follow, share and subscribe to all our social media platforms. Dm us, send us a message. We would love to hear back from you, and we are having a special guest next week, so stay tuned. See you guys soon.
