Growing In God with Gary Hargrave

• GIG277 Love Is the Antidote

  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.

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• GIG276 Renewing Our Minds

  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.

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• GIG275 Christ the King

  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.

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• GIG274 The Bronze Serpent

  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.

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• GIG273 Faith Experiences the Invisible Now

  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.

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