Josh Yoder read a word that the Lord gave him, and then he expounded on it. God wants intimacy with us. There should be a longing, a passion, a desire in us for Him. We might learn and perform good “dance steps”, but if we don’t have the passion with joy, it is just like good works. God’s heart is for His people to be as free as He is. Let ever increasing revelation come to each Scripture. A revelation makes you vulnerable to it. Read John 3:16, 17. Give yourself as Jesus gave Himself. Don’t jump off the altar when the fire gets hot. You can come out with victory. God will lead us through the valley of the shadow of death. We are to help and give water to those in the dry places and help those in the wilderness. When you plateau, you wither and are thrown in the fire (John 15). Judgment is grace. God judged Jesus so we can have grace. Judge yourself. Prune off the dead. Are you and do you stay fired up? Dry times are your fault, not God’s. If entertainment is filling you, it’s wrong. Relaxation is from the Lord. You can get dry if you’re putting other things in. It’s like giving salt to an already thirsty person. We are only fed by the Word of God. Do something to keep yourself awake. Get the Word into you. The Word must be in quality, along with love and works. James 2:17 says that faith without works is dead. A good dancer may have good steps, but an elite dancer does the steps with passion. In James 2:18-26 Abraham’s faith was backed up with good works. What you connect to, you act with and build on. 2 Corinthians 3:6 says that the letter of the law kills. You must have the Spirit and the Word. You need intimacy with God. Don’t allow questions to ruin your foundation. Seek God and the result will be the revealed Word. You attraction is based on your desires. What do you desire? Delight in the Lord. Bend yourself toward Him. Stretching is painful. Getting in the Word can be like stretching. Get closer to the Lord. How do we flex the Word when we are in tragedy? Moving in love in the dance is love. We know in part. We are beginning to know who we are in Christ. It comes through intimacy. The Holy Spirit guides us through the things of God. What are ears to hear? Our spiritual ears work only in an atmosphere of love.

Your faith can cause someone who is in unbelief to receive from God. You are the church. Do not let others’ unbelief stop you, but be bold and step out. You do not need a word from the Lord to pray and lay hands on someone. Have compassion. There is a world that needs Jesus. To fight for freedom is to fight to serve. Christ came to set you free. If you are free, you will not allow Satan to get to you. We are to re-present true love. Everything Jesus did was done in love. Homosexuality is a deceptive spirit. It comes out of wanting attention, rejection, as well as from other things. Our mission is to bring heaven to people. Jesus came to manifest glory to God. You fulfill God and are messengers of deliverance, love, and the gospel of Jesus Christ. Live a life of love. To not rest is a sin. Jesus only did what God told Him to do. Be effective by having a relationship with the Father. He did the Father’s agenda. Do not be a slave to works, but spend time with the Father, loving Him above loving the work of the kingdom. Homosexuals do not know who they are but have a spirit of confusion. Matthew 5:11 tells us that living out the Beatitudes is persecution. If someone does not hate you, you are probably not representing Jesus. Satan tries to get you into self-pity. Loving Jesus strongly will bring persecution. Deliverance for the homosexual is a one-step process: JESUS! Matthew 5 leads to Matthew 6, which instructs us to pray, give, and fast in love. Treasure Jesus, and do not treasure the work of the kingdom, which is a works mentality and will not cause people to change. Walk in love and get yourself out of the way. Your needs are already met.

(Notes in addition to Saturday’s notes.) Revelation of the Word sets us free. We sow the Word into our lives continually, or death will try to come in. Even if you do not understand the Word, obey it, and you will get the fruit of it. When you give, pray, and fast means that you do those things. You will lose to darkness if you fight in your own strength, but if you push against a trial with the Word, you will be strengthened and victorious. What you put in will come out when you are tested. Fight from a position of victory. The soil determines the aftermath of the seed. The power comes through doing the Word. Josh told the story of a little boy trying in his own strength to move a large stone out of his sandbox. The father watched and when the stone was wedged against the wooden frame, his father said that the little boy did not use all the strength he had, because he did not ask him (his father) to help. We need to ask for the Father’s help. Sometimes we take in a false gospel. The false gospel involves “I” focus, and not the complete Word and love focus. “I” needs to die. The love of God needs to be above the “I”. Get into the Word. Have God-time. Just as an animal will take poison if it is wrapped in food, watch that you do not “eat” Satan’s poison (lies) by believing part-truths. Be hearers and doers of the Word. You know how much of the love of the Father you have by how hard it is to lay something down. The number one thing is to stay in relationship (fellowship) with the Father. Do not wonder around in the trials. Let the Word push against the trial. You will know if you are letting the Word work by your resting in the Lord. Sow the Word in your life. Be people of the Word consistently. 

Texts: 1 Corinthians 13:1-3,12; Matthew 6:1-18; James 1:1-7; Mark 4:3-7, 18,19. The Word is what makes us free. The Word was with God and was God (John 1:1). The seed is the Word. Sowing the Word into your heart is sowing the life of God. How do we apply the Word? We apply it by giving, praying, and fasting. Do we schedule time to be with the Father? Separate yourself from what distracts you from being with the Lord. Renew your mind. We get “dirty” when we are in the darkness of the world. The Word washes off the “dirt”. Try fasting and see how it changes you. Obey the Word, and your flesh will line up with your spirit. You will have trials and testings. Consider it joyful with endurance and patience. Patience means constant and consistent. Be ready for trials or temptations by being built up in the Word. Ask God for strength. Sowing the Word is how we build ourselves up to get free. Keep in the Word. What does a false gospel look like? A false gospel is about “I”, “me”, or “my” desires. Jesus had no “I” in Him. Galatians 2:20 tells us that we have been crucified with Christ. The “I’ comes up when we are not in the Word. Sowing the Word keeps down the “I”. We can enter into His rest when the gospel is mixed with faith. Stay constant in the Word.

In Matthew 6:1-8 we are told what to do when we give, when we pray, and when we fast. These are three attributes/principles of a Christian life. God asked us to give (Luke 6:38; 2 Corinthians 9:7). It pleases the Lord and is a matter of the heart (Genesis 8:21; Malachi 3:10). How are we to give? We are to give directed by the Lord (2 Corinthians 9:6-7), out of love (1 Corinthians 13:3), and in humility (Matthew 6:1-3). What are we told to pray? Matthew 9:38 says to pray the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into the harvest. There are laborers waiting for you to pray to send them out. Why do we pray? We pray to receive our requests from the Lord (Mark 11:24-25), to send out laborers into the harvest (Luke 10:2), and if Jesus needed to pray, we certainly need to (Isaiah 50:4). How do we pray? The Model, Lord’s Prayer shows that we are to have a personal relationship with the Father, keep Him first, pray in line with the Word, repent, and ask for direction. What is fasting? Jesus needed to fast. He fasted for forty days in God’s presence. Food is the life source for my flesh. When my spirit gets filled, my flesh also gets filled. Denying the flesh enhances the spirit. Seek first the kingdom of God. Give, pray, and fast.

Offering message by Karen Burrows: God wants us to prosper (3 John 2) – spirit, soul, body, family, finances. Decide to agree with what He says about you (Joshua 1:8). Hear and do what He says. Giving is a principle of prospering. God increases and multiplies (2 Corinthians 9:6-11). Sermon: Lucifer (the devil, Satan) could not be like God (Isaiah14:12). He was a worshiper of God, but he brought sin into the earth (Ezekiel 28:12). He is a liar and a murderer (John 8:44). Satan is sin. God is love. Satan has no love in him. He is death. In Genesis 1:24-26, we see that God created everything according to its kind. When He created man, He made man after His image, according to their (God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit’s) likeness. Genesis 3:1-7 tells us that the serpent (the devil) was cunning, and Eve was not where she was supposed to be. When she and Adam sinned, love drained out of them. Sin and death came through one man (Romans 5:12) and has spread to all men. The ungodly are estranged in their spirit, go astray, and speak lies (Psalm 58:3). After they sinned, Adam and Eve hid, and God’s heart was broken. Their fellowship and covenant with God was broken, but they could have repented (Genesis 3:8-13). We did not fall into the pit of hell (Psalm 9:17) because Jesus went there for us. God told His people that He would give them a heart of flesh and would put His Spirit in them (Ezekiel 36:25). This is possible by covenant. The first covenant made was when God made tunics of skins and clothed Adam and Eve. Jonathan and David made a covenant, which was for future families. Their covenant was based on God. David showed kindness to Jonathan’s kin, Mephibosheth, because of his covenant (1 Samuel 18:1-4; 20:13-17, 42; 2 Samuel 9:1-8). Covenant representatives must be related. Jesus came as a man. Covenant-makers walked through a split animal, representing living for the other person. What is mine is yours and vice versa. We used to be crippled with sin and fear. Through the Word we were led to salvation. Covenant is the strength of our righteousness. We are at the table with the Father. Coming before the throne of God was sure death, but God sees the blood of Jesus on us. God made Jesus to be sin for us, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him (2 Corinthians 5:21). (Josh read a revelation God gave him about the light of Jesus Christ.) Tell others your testimony. You are the righteousness of Jesus Christ. Believe you are love, and you are loved.

Loyalty is an act of binding yourself intellectually or emotionally to a course of action; an alliance; a commitment. You choose to be loyal. Proverbs 3:3, 5 says to bind mercy (loyalty) and truth around your neck and trust in the Lord. We can do that because God’s love and mercy made us alive with Christ (Ephesians 2:1-9). Loyalty to God demands discomfort, testing our faith as we go through rough times. Loyalty is birthed out of love. We need to be selfless to move immediately at God’s direction. Loyalty is taught (Ephesians 6:1-4). Children learn loyalty from the father showing his love to them, and then they can obey and be loyal to their Heavenly Father, too. Obedience comes before loyalty (Colossians 3:18-21). The church needs loyal “pillars”. The apostle Paul learned obedience and became loyal to the point of being willing to die for the Gospel (Acts 9:1-9, 16-30; 1 Corinthians 15:8). Are you willing to suffer persecution for the Lord? We must be able to stand forever, because loyalty is a lifestyle of abiding in His love (John 15:9). Help one another first and be loyal in your giving and living (2 Corinthians 9:1-2, 8).

Knowing that God is with you means that all heaven is backing you. God in you is power and victory. Rom. 8:31 asks if God is for us, who can be against us? Samson was a man who did great things when the Spirit of the Lord moved upon him (Judges 13-16). God’s strength was on him when he killed the lion and when he killed 30 men and when he killed 1,000 mighty men with a donkey jawbone. He allowed himself to be vulnerable when he was sinfully involved with Delilah and didn’t realize that the Lord had departed from him. His strength was from the Lord; it was not his own strength. At the end of his life God strengthened him to bring down the temple of a false god and to kill more of the enemy then than he had in his life. Remember, God is in you. What you can’t do, God can and will do, if it’s what He has called you to do. Also remember that the Greater One is in you (1 John 4:4).

Joy is not happiness. Happiness is grounded on the world and on the flesh, whereas joy is a condition of the spirit. The joy of the Lord is physical, spiritual, and emotional. It is a stronghold (done so repeatedly that you can’t get out of it) and gives you strength (Neh. 8:9-11). If you aren’t in joy, and you don’t speak up, the devil will take everything away from you. Joy works with faith. We start with expectancy, and then we can progress to hope, and then onto faith. Faith connects the natural with the supernatural. Faith is the perceiving as real fact what is not revealed to the senses (Heb. 11:1-2). The joy of the Lord moves circumstances by faith such as in the life of Abraham (Rom. 4:17-21) and will cause you to walk in victory. Faith sees the end result. Rejoice in the Lord always (Phil. 4:4-7). Gentleness is strength and peace, which supplies understanding will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Josh shares a testimony of joy and faith in his personal life and the victory over several serious diseases.