Growing In God with Gary Hargrave

Growing In God Podcast
Program Number: GIG #319
 
Title: The Day of Atonement – Yom Kippur
 
Web Description: If you are in Christ, you are a new creature and old things have passed away. So have the old things passed away from you? Has your old Adamic nature passed away, and you no longer struggle with sin? Is that an experience you have had? I think, for the most part, people do not believe that that experience even exists. Yet that experience is what the Day of Atonement is about. And as we celebrate it this year, I think we should appropriate that experience to be the reality in our lives.
 
Show Notes: Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, is observed as a time of fasting and repentance. It was a day appointed by God to make atonement for the people and to cleanse them of their sins. That involved animal sacrifice. But an important aspect of that day was that one goat was not sacrificed but sent out alive to remove the sins of the people. Christ did this for us on a permanent basis. Yet as Christians we emphasize the forgiveness of sin, and this aspect of permanently removing our sin is something we have difficulty believing.
 
Regardless, this is something God emphasized for the Day of Atonement. Our understanding of forgiveness is rooted in Passover. As the Passover lamb covered the children of Israel and protected them from judgment, so the blood of Christ covers us and protects us from judgment. This covering is generally what we refer to as forgiveness of sins. But the cleansing and removal of sin was not at Passover; it was on the Day of Atonement.
 
There is a difference between having our sins forgiven and having our sins removed. You can be forgiven of your sins and still have the nature of sin in you. And it is clear that we Christians still have that sin nature. Therefore, just as Passover is an important part of our deliverance, so the Day of Atonement is a time when we look to the Lord—not just for the forgiveness of our sin but for the removal of the nature of sin. Can we believe for that? I think we can.
 
Key Verses:
 
•       1 Corinthians 5:7. "Christ our Passover also has been sacrificed."
•       Leviticus 23:26–28. "It is a day of atonement, to make atonement on your behalf before the LORD."
•       Leviticus 16:1–34. Read about Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement.
•       Leviticus 16:11. "Aaron shall offer the bull of the sin offering which is for himself … and for his household."
•       Leviticus 16:15. "He shall slaughter the goat of the sin offering which is for the people."
•       Leviticus 16:22. "The goat shall bear on itself all their iniquities to a solitary land."
•       Leviticus 16:30. "It is on this day that atonement shall be made for you to cleanse you."
•       Hebrews 9:18–28. "Christ … will appear a second time for salvation without reference to sin."
•       2 Corinthians 5:15–17. "If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature."
•       John 3:1–13. "That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit."
•       Romans 6:1–13. "Our old self was crucified with Him, in order that our body of sin might be done away with."
•       Ephesians 4:22–24. "Be renewed in the spirit of your mind, and put on the new self."
•       Colossians 3:9–10. "You laid aside the old self with its evil practices, and have put on the new self."
•       Romans 12:1–2. "Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind."
 
Quotes:
 
•       "Every Sunday you receive Communion, the Lord's Supper, and the purpose of that is to remember the sacrifice that was made. And most people use it in applying the blood once again and looking for forgiveness of the sins that have transpired since last Sunday."
•       "I think we should humble ourselves and reach for a level of experience that we have not yet received, which is this new creature that is freed from the conditionings and the nature of the past."
•       "There is a process where we transcend through the good, the acceptable, and the perfect into a renewal of our mind, which transforms us into His likeness and His image. And I believe this is the purpose of the Day of Atonement."
 
Takeaways:
 
1.    It is one thing to be forgiven of sin, but we cannot dwell with God in His presence with sin still dwelling within us. Atonement involves the removal of that sin.
2.    We understand that through forgiveness we receive eternal life, and we are accepted into the family of God. But we should not continue to live—and feel like it is acceptable to live—with this nature of sin still dominating or at least existing within us.
3.    Yes, we need to be forgiven of our sins, but likewise, we need to lay aside the old self and put on the new self, "which in the likeness of God has been created in righteousness and holiness."

Growing In God Podcast
Program Number: GIG #318
Title: The Day of Trumpets – Yom Teruah
 
Web Description: The Day of Trumpets is a day appointed for the sounding of trumpets. And it is important to understand its significance to the time in which we live. The Hebrew word for blowing trumpets is teruah, which can mean to sound an alarm. And that is what we need right now. We need an alarm clock to wake us up from our dullness, our lack of awareness, and our passivity. We must wake up and be alert to hear what the Lord is speaking to us for the coming year.
 
Show Notes: When enacting the Day of Trumpets, the Lord spoke to Moses, "You shall have … a reminder by blowing of trumpets." And in Hebrew, "blowing of trumpets" is teruah. By understanding the meanings of the word teruah, we can understand how the Day of Trumpets is not just a historical observance that involved people blowing into physical trumpets or rams' horns. It is a specific time that God appointed to meet His people and is very applicable to us today.
 
Teruah can be a signal to announce an important day or the arrival of a king. Teruah can be a shout, making a noise before the Lord. It can be praise and worship of the Lord. It can be an alarm to alert people to attack or to be alert in battle. These are all ways we can celebrate the Day of Trumpets. We can shout to remind the Lord of His promises; we can announce the fulfillment of His Kingdom; we can praise and worship Him; we can sound the alarm in spiritual warfare.
 
This year especially, our teruah needs to be an alarm like an alarm clock next to our bed to wake us up. We need to wake up to what is happening around us. We need to wake up to the day we are living in. We need to wake up and take account of our own personal walk with the Lord and make sure that we are doing what He is directing us to do. We need to be aware of the battle in these last days and cry out before the Lord that He remember us and fulfill His Word over His people.
 
Key Verses:
 
•       Leviticus 23:24–25. "You shall have a rest, a reminder by blowing of trumpets."
•       Isaiah 55:6–7. "Seek the LORD while He may be found."
   Numbers 29:1. "It will be to you a day for blowing trumpets [teruah]."
•       Leviticus 25:9. "On the day of atonement you shall sound a horn all through your land."
•       Jeremiah 4:19. "You have heard, O my soul, the sound of the trumpet, the alarm of war."
•       Amos 2:2. "Moab will die amid tumult, with war cries and the sound of a trumpet."
•       Psalms 150:3. "Praise Him with trumpet sound; praise Him with harp and lyre."
•       Numbers 10:8–10. "The priestly sons of Aaron, moreover, shall blow the trumpets."
•       Psalm 100:1 (KJV). "Make a joyful noise unto the LORD."
•       Luke 21:28. "When these things begin to take place, straighten up and lift up your heads."
•       Isaiah 55:11. "My word … will not return to Me empty, without accomplishing what I desire."
•       Romans 13:10–14. "It is already the hour for you to awaken from sleep."
•       Ephesians 5:14–19. "Awake, sleeper, and arise from the dead."
•       Isaiah 52:1–11. "Awake, awake, clothe yourself in your strength, O Zion."
•       Isaiah 60:1–5. "Lift up your eyes round about and see."
Isaiah 51:17, 22–23. "Rouse yourself! Rouse yourself! Arise, O Jerusalem."
 
 
Quotes:
 
•       "This is a day of reminder. Lord, we remind You of the promises. We remind You of the prophecies that You've spoken. We remind You about Your Kingdom."
•       "It's time for us to take stock of how we are walking. We wake up, lay aside the deeds of darkness, put aside our walk with God from yesterday, and put on the armor of light."
•       "He will remember His people, He will remember His Word, and He will come down to fulfill it. He will comfort His people, and He will redeem Jerusalem. All that He has spoken will be fulfilled."
 
Takeaways:
 
1.    The Hebrew word teruah, translated as "blowing of trumpets," can mean shouting unto the Lord. It can mean sounding an alarm. It can mean announcing the warning of battle that is coming. It can mean praising God and making a joyful noise unto the Lord.
2.    The Day of Trumpets will be a day of crying to the Lord, waking up in our walk with God, purifying ourselves, coming into a righteousness before God, and God responding and remembering us, and remembering His Word and fulfilling it.
3.    The alarm is being sounded just like it goes off in the morning next to your bed and shocks you out of your sleep. God wants us to be awake now. The time for sleeping is over. He wants us to get right with Him as we wait on Him, cry out to Him, and live in His Word, believing for the fulfillment of all that He has spoken.

Growing In God Podcast
Program Number: GIG #317
Title: Our Giving During the Biblical Feasts
 
Web Description: The Lord commands us to comfort His people and speak kindly to Jerusalem. And a perfect time to follow that commandment is during the upcoming feast season. Take this time to give to the people of Israel, who have suffered greatly since October 7, 2023. Please consider supporting Israel through Hargrave Ministries, where all your donations for Israel go directly to organizations that assist the people there, combat anti-Semitism, and educate Christians on our Jewish heritage. 
 
Show Notes: Hargrave Ministries is committed to following the command of the Lord to comfort His people. We consistently give to projects in Israel that provide not only financial support but also physical and emotional support to the people. And Israel needs our support today even more than when we started our ministry of giving. Ever since the horrific attacks of October 7, 2023, and the wars that followed, the people of Israel have experienced great trauma and difficulty. Now is the time to minister comfort to Israel.
 
Whoever blesses Israel will be blessed. And Christians need to be blessing Israel. When we give to Israel, something comes through to the people there, letting them know that people from all over the world are with them, comforting them, standing with them, and believing with them to see all the prophecies and the promises of the Word of God come true over the Jewish people and over the land of Israel. The coming feast times are a wonderful opportunity to express our faith for the fulfillment of God's blessings on Israel.
 
The projects supported by Hargrave Ministries are an excellent way to express this faith. Listen to this podcast and visit www.hargraveministries.org/israel-projects to learn about these organizations and the tremendous work they do to bring healing and material aid to those who have suffered greatly in this time. These are all nonprofit entities in Israel that we have worked closely with for more than eight years and affirm their integrity. And 100% of your donations for Israel through Hargrave Ministries goes to these organizations.
 
Key Verses:
 
•       Isaiah 40:1–2. "'Comfort, O comfort My people,' says your God. 'Speak kindly to Jerusalem.'"
•       Genesis 12:1–3. "I will bless those who bless you, and the one who curses you I will curse."
•       Matthew 25:31–40. "Come, you who are blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you."
•       Luke 6:38. "Give, and it will be given to you ... a good measure—pressed down, shaken together, and running over."
•       James 1:27. "Pure and undefiled religion … is this: to visit orphans and widows in their distress."
•       Jeremiah 32:41. "I will … faithfully plant them in this land with all My heart and with all My soul."
 
Quotes:
 
•       "God blesses and will continue to bless Israel. And when you really see the motivation of God behind it, it is through Israel that God does intend to bless all the families of the earth."
•       "How are we blessed? Because we first have blessed Abraham and the seed of Abraham and all of God's Word and promises for Israel and the Jewish people."
•       "God Himself is saying this is what He is doing with His whole heart and His whole soul. He is bringing His people back to the land and planting them once again in Israel. And we want to be part of helping that happen."
 
Takeaways:
 
1.    During this season of the fall feasts, we can be a blessing to Israel through our prayers, our finances, and our faith. We can speak kindly to Jerusalem, and we can comfort His people in this time of great tragedy that they have faced since the October 7 attacks.
2.    If we can sweep away the lies of satan about Israel that come through anti-Semitism, we will see God's love and purpose in choosing Israel.
3.    In all the celebration and rejoicing of the feast season, let us also find a place in our hearts to give to Israel and bless the seed of Abraham according to the Word of God in Genesis 12: "I will bless those who bless you and curse those who curse you."

Growing In God Podcast
Program Number: GIG #316
Title: A House Divided Will Not Stand
 
Web Description: No nation will stand if its people are divided. And we have to be honest with the fact that this nation is in trouble because of the divisiveness that is happening in our society. Competing ideologies that want to reshape our society are dividing people into groups that function as separate countries within this country. We as Christians need to repent of our own divisiveness, make our voices heard, and pray for His heavenly Kingdom to come here on this earth.
 
Show Notes: It should be a great concern to everyone that this country has become so fractured and divided. Division weakens us and prevents us from moving forward. We read in the Scriptures how nations are destroyed because "every man's sword will be against his brother." Daniel also describes the last earthly kingdom as iron mixed with clay, elements that do not adhere together. We see this happening as fractional groups unite so they can achieve their separate goals. For example, LGBTQ activists and Islamists come together to push their agendas. But like iron and clay, their agendas are completely incompatible.
 
Our country has had truly effective unity under our Constitution. But Islamists in this country do not want to be under the Constitution of the United States. They want a separate government with their own set of laws and their own jurisprudence. And their stated goal is to bring everyone under Islam. Similarly, Socialists and Communists are aggressively campaigning for seats of power in government with the goal of changing the Constitution and imposing a different system of government. All these ideologies use the freedoms offered by the Constitution to tear apart our society.
 
Of all people, Christians should know that a house divided itself against itself cannot stand. Christ directed us to pray for His Kingdom to come in the earth, and we have the spiritual weapons to bring down strongholds. We should be bringing down this stronghold of division. But sadly, Christians are part of the problem rather than the solution when it comes to division. There are churches who focus on LGBTQ activism. There are churches who promote abortion. There are churches who want the destruction of Israel. We should get out of being churches separated by agendas and focus on being the spiritual Body of Christ that God can use to accomplish His purpose in the earth.
 
Key Verses:
 
•       Daniel 9:25. "He will intend to make alterations in times and in law."
•       Matthew 6:10. "Your kingdom come. Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven."
•       John 18:36. "Jesus answered, 'My kingdom is not of this world.'"
•       Mark 3:25. "If a house is divided against itself, that house will not be able to stand."
•       2 Corinthians 10:4. "The weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh, but divinely powerful for the destruction of fortresses."
•       Ezekiel 38:21–22. "Every man's sword will be against his brother."
•       2 Chronicles 20:22–23. "They helped to destroy one another."
•       Daniel 2:40–44. "They will not adhere to one another, even as iron does not combine with pottery."
 
Quotes:
 
•       "When what is being done—and what is being demanded to have the freedom to do—is to have a society that exists alongside another society, that's not freedom of religion."
•       "In the Constitution, there's nothing that provides for the right of a country to establish a simultaneous country within the borders of the United States."
•       "It's not a matter of fighting flesh and blood. It's a matter of the power of God's Kingdom coming to earth. And that's what we're praying for."
•       "What we're looking for—what we're initiating—may be initiated in the Spirit, but we cannot forget that what we're crying out to God for is the manifestation in the physical plane of this world."
 
Takeaways:
 
1.    We must be bold to speak the truth concerning Islam and other ideologies that seek to undermine our Constitution and divide us into separate forms of government or into a society that is opposed to God's Kingdom.
2.    Division in Christianity weakens us and limits the effectiveness of our agreement and authority in intercession for God's Kingdom in the earth.
3.    We are not here as merely earthly people engaged in worldly ideologies. Neither are we just heavenly people with no concern for the earth. But we are here to pray for the heavenly Kingdom of God to be manifested in the physical earth.

Growing In God Podcast
Program Number: GIG #315
Air Date: 8/19/2026
Title: Our Maturity Triggers the Harvest
 
Web Description: In the end-time, how will evil be exposed and uprooted from the earth? Will it happen because we are focused on what satan is doing and fighting what he is bringing forth? Not according to Christ's parables of the end-time. The tares planted by satan are removed when the wheat planted by God matures. Evil is removed when we, who were born by the seed of God's Word, grow into our maturity as sons of God.
 
Show Notes: Islam is expanding and exerting control in Europe, with many areas under Sharia law. But this has been happening in the United States as well. Using our constitutional freedom of religion, Islamic centers continue to expand their influence in regions, working to impose rules of society that are contrary to the liberties assured by our constitution and to our Judeo-Christan values. This and the many woke agendas that are undermining our society operate behind a smokescreen of satanic deception. We must not be clouded and confused by the smokescreen but instead be those who bring the evil to light so God can judge it.
 
How do we do that? The answer is in the parable of the wheat and the tares. According to this parable, evil is exposed when the sons of God bear fruit. We are the good seed that God has sown in the earth, and we begin to grow. And the evil seed sown by the enemy is growing alongside us. But there is no clear distinction between us and the evil in the world until we become fruitful. And so our focus should be on our growing, maturing in God, taking on the fullness of His likeness, and moving in the things of God. This is what brings real solutions because it is the only thing that exposes evil and initiates the removal of that evil by the Lord.
 
The maturity we need is explained in another parable. The Parable of the Sower describes the Word of God as the seed sown on various types of soil. The good soil that bears fruit is compared to the one who hears the Word and understands it. We are to grow in understanding until we can cut through the confusion that is currently clouding people's ability to make the right decisions for their lives. God is not confused, and the Scriptures tell us that He will give understanding to His people, so they can walk in a clarity of knowing what to do and how to do it. When we possess this understanding in our full maturity as sons of God, the tares will be removed, and wickedness will be pulled from the earth.
 
Key Verses:
 
•       Matthew 13:24–30. "When the wheat sprouted and bore grain, then the tares became evident also."
•       Genesis 1:31. "God saw all that He had made, and behold, it was very good."
•       John 4:35. "Lift up your eyes and look on the fields, that they are white for harvest."
•       Matthew 13:18–23. "This is the man who hears the word and understands it; who indeed bears fruit."
•       Ephesians 4:13. "Until we all attain … to the measure of the stature which belongs to the fullness of Christ."
•       Daniel 12:8–10. "None of the wicked will understand, but those who have insight will understand."
•       Ephesians 5:17. "Do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is."
•       Proverbs 2:1–11. "The LORD gives wisdom; from His mouth come knowledge and understanding."
•       Proverbs 4:5. "Acquire wisdom! Acquire understanding!"
•       Psalm 33:15. "He who fashions the hearts of them all … understands all their works."
•       1 Corinthians 14:33. "God is not a God of confusion."
 
Quotes:
 
•       "We in our hearts are oriented to a purpose to see God's Kingdom come into this physical earth where Christ rules and reigns as King and sits on the throne of David to accomplish that."
•       "I want to have us come into a clarity, out of the fog, out of the confusion, and be able to move in what God wants us to do."
•       "We need to be praying for the Body of Christ to come to this fullness of what we're supposed to do. We're supposed to grow up in all ways into the likeness of Christ."
 
Takeaways:
 
1.    Satan likes to hide what he is doing in a fog, clouding the issues to bring confusion. But we are not to be confused about what our focus should be and how we should intercede.
2.    Evil needs to be exposed. But that does not happen because we focus on the negative. The tares are removed when the wheat matures. And as the wheat that was planted by the Lord, our focus must be on our maturing in Christ.
3.    One of the most important things we need in our maturity is understanding. We need the understanding of the Word that brings clarity and direction for our prayers and for the things we are to act on.