Growing In God with Gary Hargrave

Growing In God Podcast
Program Number: GIG #305
Title: Set a Guard, Lord, Over My Mouth
 
Web Description: The Lord has freed us from sin so that we can worship Him. But if we have murmuring and complaining in our lives, then the things we voice about ourselves, about others, and about our circumstances work in opposition to the worship God is seeking. We ask the Lord, therefore, to set a guard over our mouths and to free us from the sin of murmuring that keeps us from worshipping Him as we should.
 
Show Notes: God had a clear, simple agenda when He delivered the children of Israel from slavery in Egypt. He delivered them so that they could worship Him. But we know what happened after that deliverance. As soon as they entered the wilderness, they began to murmur and complain, which is the opposite of worship. This is an important lesson for us because God's plan today is no different than it was for them. God wants a people who will worship Him. And our murmuring and complaining is in direct opposition to that plan.
 
In our human state, we are conditioned to complain about things. It is easy to fall into complaining about our health, our circumstances, our finances, our relationships, and so forth. These responses slow us down more than we realize. Have you been unable to pinpoint the source of certain defeats in your life? Have you been robbed of blessings just as soon as they began in your life? Look at a time when you grumbled, complained, and criticized. This is a sin that works directly against our worship of God.
 
In the midst of terrible circumstances, pressures, and dangers, David prayed, "Set a guard, O Lord, over my mouth." He had much to complain about, but he knew that murmuring and complaining would prevent his worship from rising like incense before the Lord. We need to make the same prayer: "Lord, by Your grace, by the power of Your Spirit, refrain my mouth from murmuring." If we want to move forward, then we first need to go back to God's original plan for our deliverance. He delivers us so that we can worship Him. Let us free ourselves from anything that would still be working against that purpose.
 
Key Verses:
 
•       Numbers 9:10–11. "If any one … becomes unclean … he may … observe the Passover … in the second month."
•       Exodus 7:16. "Let My people go, that they may serve Me in the wilderness."
•       Psalm 119:71. "It is good for me that I was afflicted, that I may learn Your statutes."
•       Acts 3:18–21. "Repent and return … in order that times of refreshing may come."
•       Psalm 141:1–3. "Set a guard, O LORD, over my mouth."
•       Proverbs 18:21. "Death and life are in the power of the tongue."
 
Quotes:
 
•       "The opposite of worship is murmuring."
•       "We are not going to do anything before going back to the basic foundational reason for God to deliver us. And I want to be delivered from the addiction to murmuring."
•       "Don't feel like you cannot worship Him because you are not in a huge congregation. You are the temple of the Lord. In your temple, in your personal life, there must be worship to God."
 
Takeaways:
 
1.    God delivered His people at the Passover so that they could be His worshippers. But their murmuring and complaining was the opposite of worship. God's plan is to deliver us so that we can worship Him. But our murmuring and complaining opposes that plan.
2.    God made provision for a second Passover, called Pesach Sheni, for those who had not been prepared for the original Passover. We tap into this provision to let God deliver us from our murmuring and complaining.
3.    Like David, we ask the Lord to refrain our mouths from murmuring and to keep us from voicing those things that work against God's plan and purpose for our lives.

Growing In God Podcast
Program Number: GIG #304
Title: The Mind vs. the Spirit
 
Web Description: There are many wars and rumors of wars. But the greatest war that humanity fights is the war between the fleshly mind and the Spirit. As Christians we still find ourselves in that war. But God has given us His Holy Spirit to help us win the war. He has the power to free us from the old mindsets that keep us from receiving the life that God wants us to have in Christ. By His power we can set our minds on the Spirit and be filled with His life and peace.
 
Show Notes: God has given us a wonderful physical body in which He intends to dwell. And our brain is a part of that physical body. So when we read, "the mind set on the flesh is death, but the mind set on the Spirit is life and peace," we are not talking about the physical brain itself. We are talking about the mental processes that we use our brains for. These mental processes are what the Scriptures refer to as the mind. And the scriptural understanding of the mind speaks to our ability to fix or set our mind on something. A term for this in English is "mindset."
 
The Gospels show us how much our mindset can resist what God it trying to show us. People's mindsets rejected what Christ was saying to such extent that He became their enemy. He became someone who had to be done away with because He was challenging everything that to them was the truth. The disciples of Christ had the same mindsets rooted in their upbringing and traditions. But on the Day of Pentecost, 120 of them received power when the Holy Spirit came upon them. And the power of the Holy Spirit broke the mindsets that had held them in bondage.
 
It is a simple fact that our past conditioning produces mindsets that resist change. But we do not want to resist what God is speaking to us by the Spirit. Yeshua (Jesus) said, "My Words are Spirit and life." And the people who were resisting His Words were also resisting the life that God was imparting. It is the Spirit that gives life. The flesh accomplishes nothing. And we believe for the power of the Holy Spirit to overcome any areas where we are still resisting Him because our own minds have been set on the flesh. Lord, empower us to set our minds on the Spirit where our life comes from.
 
Key Verses:
 
•       Galatians 5:17–18. "The flesh sets its desire against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh."
•       John 6:55–63. "It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing."
•       John 14:6. "I am the way, and the truth, and the life."
•       John 14:25. "The Holy Spirit … will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all that I said."
•       2 Corinthians 10:5. "We are taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ."
•       1 Corinthians 2:8–10. "God revealed them through the Spirit; for the Spirit searches all things, even the depths of God."
•       Isaiah 43:19. Behold, I will do something new, now it will spring forth; will you not be aware of it?
•       Acts 1:8. "You will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you."
•       Romans 8:6–14. "The mind set on the flesh is death, but the mind set on the Spirit is life and peace."
•       1 Corinthians 2:16. "We have the mind of Christ."
 
Quotes:
 
•       "It is possible for the mind to be conformed to the Spirit instead of being conformed to an old way of thinking that is battling against the Spirit."
•       "What is God trying to do? He is trying to take us completely out of the past. He is trying to take us into something new."
•       "We have the mind of Christ. And if we have the mind of Christ, then we are filled with the life of Christ and we know His ways. And we are going to move as the Christ in the Earth."
 
Takeaways:
 
1.    There is a distinction between the physical brain and the mind that the Scriptures speak of, which is the way the brain is thinking, the mindset that has developed.
2.    Science uses the mind to try to extend life. But Christ makes it very clear: It is the Spirit that gives life. Life does not come through the efforts of the mind. Life comes to us through the Spirit.
3.    The mind set on the flesh is death. We face the fact that we have a mindset that resists God, resulting in death. But the mind set on the Spirit is life and peace. God has given us His Holy Spirit to break us out of our old mindset and enable us to set our mind on the Spirit, resulting in life.

Growing In God Podcast
Program Number: GIG #303
 
Title: Impelled by the Spirit
 
Web Description: We often think of the infilling of the Holy Spirit as a means of experiencing His gifts. While it is absolutely true that He gives us gifts—and we should use those gifts—there is a greater purpose. Christ has given us the Holy Spirit to indwell us and impel us. We belong to Christ, and we are not here to direct our own lives. We are here to be the temple of the Holy Spirit in which He continually dwells. And He is in us to be the controlling force in our lives from now on.
 
Show Notes: The book of Acts records the experiences the disciples had when they were baptized in the Holy Spirit on the Day of Pentecost. But the Holy Spirit came to them that day for a greater purpose than to give them experiences, as great as those were. To understand God's purpose in bringing the Holy Spirit at Pentecost, we should look at the life of Christ. When Yeshua (Jesus) was baptized with the Holy Spirit, the Spirit descended on Him and remained. Then He was driven by the Holy Spirit into the wilderness.
 
The Holy Spirit dwelled upon and within Yeshua from that time forward and was the driving force in His life. And this is exactly why the Holy Spirit descended on Yeshua's disciples—to remain with them, to dwell in them, and to be the driving force in their lives. We should have the same expectation when we receive the Holy Spirit. He does not come to us to give us temporary experiences. He comes to us to abide with us, dwell in us, lead us, drive us, and guide us from that point on.
 
We need to repent of this idea that we can turn the Holy Spirit on or off at our convenience. When we receive the Holy Spirit, the reality is that we are giving ourselves to be His housing, His temple, the ones in whom the Spirit of God abides continually. The reality is that we have been bought with a price and we are not our own. We are not supposed to direct our lives for our own desires. We are to be led by God. And we open our hearts wide to the complete and total purpose of God in giving us the Holy Spirit, which is to dwell in us and be the controlling force in our lives.
 
Key Verses:
 
•       Mark 1:9–13. "Immediately the Spirit impelled Him to go out into the wilderness."
•       Luke 4:1. "Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, … was led around by the Spirit in the wilderness."
•       Matthew 4:1. "Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil."
•       John 1:32. "I have seen the Spirit descending as a dove out of heaven, and He remained upon Him."
•       1 Corinthians 3:16. "Do you not know that you are a temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you?"
•       1 Corinthians 6:19–20. "Your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit. … You are not your own."
•       2 Corinthians 6:16–18. What agreement has the temple of God with idols? For we are the temple of the living God.
•       2 Corinthians 5:14–20. "The love of Christ controls us."
 
Quotes:
 
•       "Is there a baptism of the Holy Spirit, speaking in tongues, miracles, gifts of the Holy Spirit? Is that all reality? Yes, it is reality. But let's not get lost in the weeds. A greater sense of that is this constant abiding and constant leading, guiding, directing, and I would say control of the Holy Spirit in our lives."
•       "The Holy Spirit is a vehicle of God fathering us as children, teaching us, directing us, guiding us. And that is what we should be driven for and want for the spiritual experience of being filled with the Holy Spirit."
•       "'We beg you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God.' That is the cry of the book of Acts, and it was a result of the Holy Spirit descending and remaining and indwelling those who received Him."
 
Takeaways:
 
1.    The Holy Spirit descended on Yeshua and remained permanently abiding in Him and directing His life. If we want an experience in the Holy Spirit, then that is what we should believe for as well.
2.    The Holy Spirit comes to dwell in us as His temple, as His permanent housing in the earth. We are not our own. We are to give ourselves to the Lord so that the Holy Spirit becomes the driving force in our lives.
3.    We are new creatures in Christ because we are no longer driven by our own ideas, lusts, and desires. Instead, we are driven and led by the Holy Spirit. The old things pass away, and new things come because the Holy Spirit leads us and guides us into everything God has for us.

Growing In God Podcast
Program Number: GIG #302
Categories: Kingdom of God
Air Date: 5/20/2026
 
Title: The Colony From Heaven
 
Web Description: If you feel like your world has been turned upside down, then you are just like the disciples of Yeshua (Jesus). After the Passover, everything they thought they knew was gone. But by Pentecost they understood what the Lord had actually spoken to them, and they were prepared to be that to the world. And God will remove your past conditioning to prepare you to move forward as His ambassadors to this world.
 
Show Notes: Between Passover and Pentecost, the disciples of Yeshua (Jesus) went through a time of deep preparation. They were thrown into turmoil and confusion as their concepts about Yeshua's purpose were turned upside down. Yeshua had told them plainly what would happen, but they had to go through a time of transition until they were able to understand and move in what the Lord had shown them. We too have been in a transition where we are coming to understand and move in what God has shown us.
 
For the disciples, Pentecost was a completion of the old things and a launching pad into a whole new day. And we have the same experience in Christ. We go through a transition that seems like turmoil and confusion. But we come out of that with an understanding of God's Word and an ability to move forward. Pentecost means that the past is not something we are stuck in but something that has prepared us to be God's representatives to the earth. We have a purpose to fulfill. The Lord has placed us here for a reason. We are His ambassadors.
 
We may live here on earth, but our citizenship is in heaven. We have been transplanted here from heaven; we are a colony of the Kingdom. As ambassadors of Christ, we still reside in the Kingdom that we represent. As a colony from the Kingdom of Heaven, we are an exact replica of that Kingdom on the earth. We are a manifestation of the Lord's government, ways, thoughts, morality, miracles, and everything else about His Kingdom. Therefore, we leave the past behind and press on toward the goal of our high calling in Christ.
 
Key Verses:
 
•       Philippians 3:1–14. "Forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal."
•       Philippians 3:15–21. "Our citizenship is in heaven."
•       Ephesians 3:19. "Be filled up to all the fullness of God."
•       2 Corinthians 5:20. "We are ambassadors for Christ."
•       John 18:36. "Jesus answered, 'My kingdom is not of this world.'"
•       John 15:18–19. "If the world hates you, you know that it has hated Me before it hated you."
•       John 17:14–15. "They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. … Keep them from the evil one."
 
Quotes:
 
•       "You can't go back and make everything right that was wrong. You just rejoice in God and know that He's moving you forward. So let's all start by just rejoicing in the Lord."
•       "Don't confuse the future with the past. Don't try to recreate what we had in the past, what we did in the past, who you were in the past, what we were in the past together."
•       "We are to have the experience of the life of Christ filling us. We are to be filled, as Christ was, to all the fullness of God in this day, in this life. And we're to have that so living in us that we're able to impart it to others."
 
Takeaways:
 
1.    The process of God taking us out of everything we have known in the past seems difficult. But He does that so we can understand and walk in what we were unable to understand or walk in before.
2.    Let us be like Paul and say that all we gained in the past is loss in comparison to the fullness that God has called us to walk in. We leave everything of the past in the past and keep moving forward.
3.    You are a colony of the Kingdom of Heaven. You are the picture of the Kingdom that God is wanting to bring forth on this earth. You are the ambassadors of that Kingdom and the ones who impart that Kingdom to the people of this world.

Growing In God Podcast
Program Number: GIG #301
Categories: Discipleship
Title: Prepare to Receive the Holy Spirit
 
Web Description: The Day of Pentecost was not just a single moment in time when the disciples experienced a great outpouring of the Holy Spirit. They had prepared before that event to receive the Holy Spirit, and the Holy Spirit continued to be in them after that event. Pentecost for us should be more than a remembrance of a historical event. It is a time to prepare our hearts to receive the Holy Spirit to be in us and direct our lives from that moment on.
 
Show Notes: For Christians, Pentecost represents the beginning of the Church, and many Christians celebrate it as a remembrance of that event. But there is more to Pentecost than a one-day event. And our celebration of Pentecost should be more than remembering what happened with the apostles back then. What happened at Pentecost is something we should anticipate walking in and experiencing in our own lives today. And that requires preparation, just as it was required then.
 
Before He ascended Yeshua (Jesus) told His disciples to stay in Jerusalem and prepare for the Holy Spirit to come upon them. When that happened, it changed their lives. We think of Pentecost as a single manifestation of the Holy Spirit. But it was just the first day of the Spirit being with them and in them as He empowered them to be Christ's witnesses in all the earth. What happened with the disciples is what happened with Christ when the Holy Spirit came on Him and remained. And this is what we are to have as temples of the Holy Spirit.
 
We absolutely want to see the outpourings of the Holy Spirit on all mankind. But that means more than having some wonderful experiences on one day and then going back to our regular lives the next day with no awareness of Him. We are looking for a life-changing event like the Day of Pentecost. We are looking for the Holy Spirit to be poured out on us and permanently reside in us as His temple. It means we do not go back to living our own lives according to our own desires and passions. The Holy Spirit, who is from God, has come to dwell within us to lead us, guide us, and direct our lives. This is what we prepare ourselves for.
 
Key Verses:
 
•       Acts 1:2–8. "He commanded them not to leave Jerusalem, but to wait for what the Father had promised."
•       1 Corinthians 6:19–20. "Your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you."
•       John 1:33. "He upon whom you see the Spirit descending and remaining upon Him, this is the One."
•       Galatians 2:20–21. "I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me."
•       John 14:17–23. "You know Him because He abides with you and will be in you."
•       1 Corinthians 3:16–17. "Do you not know that you are a temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you?"
•       Romans 8:10–16. "You have not received a spirit of slavery … but you have received a spirit of adoption as sons."
 
Quotes:
 
•       "It's important to me that we take the Bible with the attitude that we're always looking for what God has opened the door to. And have that be an experience that we walk in."
•       "Our salvation experience, our walk with God, our revelation of Christ, our revelation of the Father is to be something that changes our way of life, how we think, what we do. We are to be led now by the Spirit, not led by our own thoughts and will and desires."
•       "It's worth taking a few days and really going before the Lord to find out, 'Is there any resistance in me? Is there any way in which I'm not really opening my heart to the completeness, the thorough reality of what it is to be the temple of the Holy Spirit and to have the Holy Spirit dwelling in me so that I am no longer my own person?'"
 
Takeaways:
 
1.    Pentecost is more than a time to celebrate a historic event. It is a time to prepare our hearts, just as the disciples prepared, for the outpouring of the Holy Spirit.
2.    The Holy Spirit did not come at Pentecost to give the disciples a one-day experience. He came to remain with them and be in them just as He did with Christ. We should expect the same.
3.    He comes to dwell in us as His temple. We are no longer our own person living for our own desires, but He is in us to guide us and direct our lives.