Growing In God with Gary Hargrave

Growing In God Podcast
Program Number: GIG #296
Title: Passover Is a Choice
 
Web Description: The Israelites had to choose to participate in the Passover. And that required choosing to think according to God's instructions through Moses rather than according to their past conditioning. Today we deal with a world that is constantly trying to condition our minds to think in opposition to God. But as divine beings created by God, we are not our minds, and we can determine that our thinking will be according to His instructions for our lives.
 
Show Notes: At the Passover every family and every individual in Israel was instructed by Moses to put the blood of a lamb on the doorpost of their homes. Those who did escaped the judgment on the firstborn and walked out of Israel a free people. There are many things to say about this great deliverance. But this podcast focuses on one point: keeping the Passover was a choice. It was not a law. Everyone had to choose whether to do what Moses said or not. Even when the Law came, it was still their choice to walk in it or not.
 
Essentially, the Israelites had to choose how to think. They had to wrestle with their own thoughts to make the choice of putting the lamb's blood on their doorposts that night. They could probably think of many reasons why not to do it. At the time they were still suffering under the whip of the taskmaster. Their people had four hundred thirty years of never seeing God move. Now they had to control their minds to choose the promise of deliverance through Moses. Their need to do that continued. All their failings in the wilderness were because they did not control their thoughts to follow the Lord.
 
It is the same for us in our walk with God. We choose what we allow our minds to think. This is the battle that is going on now. People in our world are letting their minds be controlled by speculations that are opposed to the will of God. But the weapons of our warfare are divinely powerful for the destruction of this fortress of speculations. And we continue to take every thought captive in obedience to Christ. We are the ones who renew our own minds and bring our own thoughts into alignment with who we are as eternal beings created in God for His purpose in the earth.
 
Key Verses:
 
•       Exodus 12:3–4. "According to what each man should eat, you are to divide the lamb."
•       Exodus 12:13. "When I see the blood I will pass over you."
•       Exodus 12:18–20. "Whoever eats what is leavened, that person shall be cut off."
•       Hebrews 11:28. "By faith he kept the Passover."
•       Deuteronomy 30:19–20. "Choose life in order that you may live, you and your descendants."
•       Joshua 24:15. "Choose for yourselves today whom you will serve."
•       1 Kings 18:21. "How long will you hesitate between two opinions?"
•       2 Corinthians 10:4–5. "We are taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ."
•       Philippians 4:8–9. "If there is any excellence and if anything worthy of praise, dwell on these things."
•       Romans 12:1–3. "Think so as to have sound judgment."
•       Romans 10:6–10. "With the heart a person believes … and with the mouth he confesses."
 
Quotes:
 
•       "Our deliverance, our release, is a simple experience of faith that we choose to participate in."
•       "We are divine beings having a human experience. And so nothing about our humanity do we want in charge and controlling how we're living and what we're doing."
•       "I choose to do what the knowledge of God is telling me to do because that is my salvation, that is my deliverance, that is my release, and that is what we should be doing as God's people. We should be absolutely, positively focused on every Word that God has given us."
 
Takeaways:
 
1.    The Passover was a choice the Israelites made as individuals, as families, and with their neighbors.
2.    Their deliverance at Passover and their life in the wilderness required continually choosing how to think.
3.    Choice is essentially choosing how we will think—what we allow our minds to do.
4.    We choose to renew our minds and bring every thought captive to the obedience of Christ.

Growing In God Podcast
Program Number: GIG #295
 
Web Description: As we read the Scriptures, it is not long before we realize that God is serious about what He wants us to do and to be. But a Scripture that confronts us with this reality can make us uncomfortable and make us try to lessen its impact in some way. We should stop doing that. The Word of God has the power to transform us. And we should let it confront us, let it impact us, and let its power come through with full force.
 
Show Notes: Some Scriptures in the Bible are so confronting that we read them and say, "Did God really mean that?" These are Scriptures we tend to avoid or try to interpret in some way that lessens their impact. We know we should believe them, but because we struggle with our flesh, we have trouble accepting verses about God's love for us or His power within us. We need to change our response to the Word and realize that God means what He says when He tells us what He wants us to become and what He wants us to walk in.
 
Rather than downplaying these Scriptures, we need to let them confront us. Rather than avoiding them, we should meditate on those Scriptures that impact us the most. There is power in the Word of God. If we receive His Word, ååthen He empowers us to walk in that Word. The fact that we cannot do it in ourselves is the very reason we need to let His Word work in us. If God says it, He means it, and He intends for us to get it. We should do nothing less than let the full force of His Word penetrate our hearts and begin to change us.
 
The Word of God is the greatest power in existence. It is literally the power of God that transforms us into new creatures. It is not by any work of our own. Have you been struggling in yourself to walk with God and break through into His promises? Simply receive a Word from God with the same force it had when He spoke it. Receive the full power of that Word and let it transform you. When you do that, you enter His rest because you are not trying anymore. We all need this, and we reach in together for a greater faith in God's Word.
 
Key Verses:
 
•       Galatians 5:14. "LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR AS YOURSELF."
•       John 17:20–21. "That they may all be one; even as You, Father, are in Me and I in You, that they also may be in Us."
•       John 17:23. "That the world may know that You sent Me, and loved them, even as You have loved Me."
•       Colossians 2:9. "In Him all the fullness of Deity dwells in bodily form."
•       John 20:21. "As the Father has sent Me, I also send you."
•       Ephesians 3:13–19. "Know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled up to all the fullness of God."
•       2 Corinthians 5:17. "If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature."
•       Romans 8:11. "He who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies."
•       Hebrews 4:1–11. "There remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God."
•       Hebrews 4:12–16. "The word of God is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword."
 
Quotes:
 
•       "The Father is in Christ and Christ is in the Father and they are in us. How can I live a normal life if I believe that the Creator of the universe lives in me?"
•       "Why are we to understand and know the love that Christ has for us? Because if we know that love, we will be filled up to all the fullness of God. We have to take this at absolute face value. This is not a parable. This is not Paul teaching us through parables or through some other type of literary context. He is saying what he means, and he is meaning what he says."
•       "When we read these verses, we see that they are in us now. And we see that this Word is powerful to create everything that has been spoken. And we see that it is the Sabbath. These things are finished. They're not for a future day."
 
Takeaways:
 
1.    We recognize that the Scriptures can be very confronting. But the reason is that God wants to confront us with the reality of what He is telling us to be.
2.    We need to crack the shell around us that does not let the Word impact us to the extent that we say, "God is saying this, and I must become it now!"
3.    God does not tell us to do something that we cannot do. If He says something, then He empowers us to do it.

Growing In God Podcast
Program Number: GIG #294
Title: Our Gratitude for Christ in Us
 
Web Description: It is a tradition in Christianity to recite a confession of faith. But our greatest confession of faith is our expression of gratitude for all that Christ is in us. We can only be grateful for something we have received. And we have received Christ, in whom we are rooted and grounded and growing up in everything God has for us. What greater reason is there to be overflowing with gratitude?
 
Show Notes: Gratitude is an emotion that is foundational to our walk with God. According to Colossians, we should be overflowing with gratitude. But do we really understand what gratitude is and why we need it? Gratitude by definition is a feeling you have after you receive something. You are grateful for what you have already received. You are not grateful because you are hoping or believing to receive something. And the reason we are overflowing with gratitude is because we have received Christ and He is in us.
 
We have received the One in whom the fullness of Deity dwells in bodily form. We have received the resurrected Christ who, by the removal of the flesh in a circumcision made without hands, has raised us up with Him. We have received Him who is the head over all rule and authority and who has made us complete in Him. Is it any wonder that we would be overflowing with gratitude? Yet in the process of walking with God, we are easily distracted from what a walk with God is all about.
 
The reason we walk with Him is because He is living in us. As a result, our growth and maturity are about walking with Him into greater and greater manifestations of the fullness of Christ. The very purpose and drive of the Father in reconciling us to Himself through Christ is to dwell in His people. And He is always leading us toward that goal. What gratitude we should live in that God daily is working and growing and dwelling in our hearts! We should be overflowing with gratitude, finding ways to express that every day, because that is what connects us with the power of Christ living in us.
 
Key Verses:
 
•       Colossians 2:6–12. "As you have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him … overflowing with gratitude."
•       John 14:17–23. "My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our abode with him."
•       Galatians 2:20. "It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me."
•       Philippians 2:8–11. "I count all things to be loss … that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection."
•       Ephesians 3:14–19. "Know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled up to all the fullness of God."
 
Quotes:
 
•       "We have received Christ Jesus our Lord into our lives, and we are to walk in Him because He is living in us."
•       "We are overflowing with gratitude because Christ is in us and He is established in us and we are being built up in Him."
•       "I think many times it really escapes us that God is driven to dwell in us. Christ came to reconcile us to the Father, and Christ said that He would dwell in us and that He and the Father would come and take up Their abode with us."
 
Takeaways:
 
1.    Christ is in us, and we need to live in gratitude because as we express that gratitude, we confess and believe that we have received all that He is.
2.    Living daily in a state of overflowing gratitude connects us with all the power and authority of Christ living in us.
3.    We should be overwhelmed by the reality that God is driven to dwell in and among His people, and He is always moving us toward that goal.

Growing In God Podcast
Program Number: GIG #293
Title: Faith Is Spiritual Gravity
 
Web Description: When you wake up in the morning, you do not expect to lose the force of gravity and float off into space. Gravity is always there and always working. Likewise, you should not think of faith as something that you lose and try to get back. Just like gravity, faith should always be there. Do not pump up your faith at times when you need it. Just keep growing your faith at all times.
 
Show Notes: We tend to think of faith as something we apply in the moment if we want to see something happen or need an answer to prayer. A better concept of faith is illustrated by the force of gravity. Gravity does not turn on or off according to momentary needs. It is always active as a permanent part of our lives. And that is what our faith should be. Of course, faith can trigger a miracle. But that will not happen because you build up your faith at that moment. It happens because you have grown to a level of faith in your walk with God.
 
Faith grows. It is tested and tried. It is something dwelling in you because you have exercised it consistently in your walk with God. Faith is that which makes the unseen visible. Faith is what God moved in when He spoke the Word that created the universe, making things that are seen out of that which is invisible. God is invisible, and yet Christ visibly manifested the Father into the earth on a continual basis. He did not pump up some faith when someone needed a healing. He simply let the Father impact the physical realm through Him. And people were healed by their own faith in Christ.
 
If we want to measure our faith, then Christ is our example. His faith was in the Father dwelling in Him, and He manifested the works of the Father. And so our faith is not what we manage to pump up now and then, but rather it is the faith that Christ and the Father are dwelling in us by the Holy Spirit. Faith is a state of being that is constantly manifesting in the world the works of the Holy Spirit. Faith is what we keep appropriating until we are filled up to all the fullness of God, and out of that fullness the Kingdom of God will become more and more visible.
 
Key Verses:
 
•       Matthew 9:27–29. "It shall be done to you according to your faith."
•       Hebrews 11:1–3. "What is seen was not made out of things which are visible."
•       Hebrews 11:1 (KJV). "Faith is the substance of things hoped for."
•       John 14:16–21. "You will know that I am in My Father, and you in Me, and I in you."
•       Romans 8:11. "If the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He … will also give life to your mortal bodies."
•       Ephesians 3:13–19. "Know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled up to all the fullness of God."
 
Quotes:
 
•       "When we see the created world around us, we see the result of faith—the faith that God moved in when He spoke the Word that created all things throughout the universe."
•       "We need to have a faith that the Kingdom of God surrounds us, is in us, and is to manifest before us on a visible level. And the emanation of that faith must be constant."
•       "We need to build our faith and grow our faith surrounding what the Word of God has said already is. In other words, it is a reality in the realm of spirit, but we need to see it manifest in this visible world."
 
Takeaways:
 
1.    Faith is not something temporary that we exercise only at the moment we need it. Faith is actually like gravity, which is manifesting in our lives all day long.
2.    Faith is not something we pump up because it has gone flat. It is something we build and grow in a consistent walk with God.
3.    Faith is that which makes the unseen visible. And for the Kingdom to manifest daily in our world from the invisible realm requires a faith that is daily manifesting in our lives.

Growing In God Podcast
Program Number: GIG #292
Web Description: With AI there will be new levels of deception and persecution directed against the people of God. That is why we as Christians need to grow into new levels of maturity, wisdom, and understanding by the Holy Spirit. We must have the mind of Christ that does not judge by what our eyes see and our ears hear in the natural realm. Instead, we are to see and hear in the spirit realm what Christ is disclosing to us from the Father. 
 
Show Notes: Artificial Intelligence (AI), like any other technology, is controlled by humans, meaning it has the potential to be used for good and the same potential to be used for evil. AI is already being helpful in many areas. But its greatest negative impact will come from its ability to affect our perception in ways that were never possible before. It will be increasingly difficult to know if what we are watching is real or not.
 
Using AI, individuals can be made to appear to be doing things and say things they would never do or say in real life. This would be a powerful means of persecution against Christians if they are realistically portrayed as saying things they never said. So the power of AI to distort our perception is very real. And we are faced with the fact that our natural senses will not give us the true understanding of what is happening in the world. We need to reach into a spiritual maturity that allows us to judge, make decisions, and understand things from a different perspective.
 
Yeshua (Jesus) did not judge by what His eyes saw or His ears heard. Now more than ever we need to grow up in Christ and have those same attributes. We can no longer afford to be children who are carried away by the trickery of men in craftiness and deceitful scheming. There must be a maturing of the Body of Christ until believers begin to know and understand and see by the Spirit of God. We cannot passively walk with God today. We need to leave our infancy and partake of the solid food of the Word that will mature us into what God wants us to be to this generation.
 
Key Verses:
 
•       Isaiah 11:1–3. "He will not judge by what His eyes see."
•       Malachi 3:14–18. "You will again distinguish between the righteous and the wicked."
•       Isaiah 5:20. "Woe to those who call evil good, and good evil."
•       1 Corinthians 2:14–16. "A natural man does not accept the things of the Spirit of God."
•       John 5:19. "Whatever the Father does, these things the Son also does in like manner."
•       John 8:26. "The things which I heard from Him, these I speak to the world."
•       Hebrews 5:12–14. "Solid food is for the mature, who … have their senses trained to discern good and evil."
•       John 8:31–32. "If you continue in My word, then … you will know the truth."
•       John 16:12–15. "When He, the Spirit of truth, comes, He will guide you into all the truth."
•       John 14:16–21. "In that day you will know that I am in My Father, and you in Me, and I in you."
•       Ephesians 4:10–14. "We are no longer to be children … carried about by … the trickery of men."
•       Ephesians 4:17–25. "No longer just as the Gentiles also walk … being darkened in their understanding."
 
Quotes:
 
•       "It's time for us as believers to know how to walk in the Spirit, be taught by the Spirit, and receive the impartation of the mind of Christ from the Spirit so that we might be those who do His will and are free from the lies and deception of this age."
•       "There must be the solid food that begins to be given to the Body of Christ to mature them. And through the practice of their walk in the Spirit, they're going to be trained again to discern good and evil."
•       "People are realizing they must take a stand. They must stand up. They must speak up. And that is important for us to do. When God sees this move of His people, it says that He is going to spare them as a man spares his own son who serves him."
 
Takeaways:
 
1.    AI is a technology that has great power to deceive. That is why we need the maturity that is not moved by the craftiness and deceitful scheming of men.
2.    Satan's great determination is to bring all humanity into deception and drive them away from God. And so we need to reach into the Holy Spirit for a greater impartation of the mind of Christ.
3.    Let us stand up and speak the truth in love, trusting in the covering, protection, and salvation promised for those who fear the Lord in this day.