← ONE | A Potter's House Church
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Hey, good people, this is Torre Roberts. Blessings to you, and welcome to the ONE Podcast. I'm excited that you're here. ONE is a community of dynamic and vibrant thought leaders, preachers, teachers, and just a community of wonderful people all together. And we're excited to bring you this weekly podcast from our services from One in la. If you haven't been to one, I encourage you to check it out. You can go to one the Word one O N E online and find out all about the service times and all about the teachers and all the philanthropic things that we have going. I believe you're going to be blessed to be a part of it. And speaking of being blessed, we're getting ready to get into a teaching right now that I believe is going to bless you. So tune in, enjoy, and I'll be back with you at the end.
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Well, I'm gonna read a verse or two, as I am accustomed to doing, and then I'll let y' all sit down for the rest. Isaiah 55. Now, let me tell you this first real quick. When I got landed on sound for this month, now y' all know me, I was excited about that. I went to the Word, and then I was like, sound, Sound. I said, you know what? Wait, I know God's gonna show me something scientific that's gonna be amazing. I'm like, so excited. I'm like, I'm googling stuff about sound. I'm going to research papers. I'm like, I cannot wait. What has it got? What has it got? And God was like, I'm like, okay, let me go deeper. Let me look at this thing. Maybe it's a new study. Maybe it's like, there's got to be something in here, because I love that you guys know. I love to see how science shows us who God is. So I went running, looking for what I wanted to see. And when I couldn't find anything that made my spirit go that, I was like, thank God. What is it? What's going on? He said, you're looking for what you want to see instead of listening for what you need to hear. And then he sent me to Isaiah 55, verse 8. For my thoughts are not your thoughts, no matter how good your intentions are, no matter if he showed it to you that way before. Nor are your ways my ways, says the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts. For as the rain comes down and the snow from heaven, and do not return there, but water the Earth and make it bring forth and bud, that it may give seed to the sower and bread to the eater. So shall my word that goes forth from my mouth. Are you listening for the sound of his voice? It shall not return to me void, but it shall accomplish what I please, and it shall prosper in the thing for which I sent it. Hallelujah. Grab your seats. Amen. Man. I was looking for something I've seen before and almost miss listening for what I needed to hear. We can get into a rhythm in our walk with God. We can get into a rhythm in our prayer life. We can get into a rhythm in our worship. We can have our song, our go to worship playlist that we've been listening to for the last five years, because that's the one. We have become accustomed to seeing what we see. But we have to always be ready to hear what we haven't heard. And when I went to look at. Where is Isaiah at? What is he talking about here? Cause context matters. Of course. The word is relevant to us in this moment, but we begin with what it was being spoken about at the time. And so I went to say, let me make sure I understand what Isaiah is saying and who he's talking to. And I found out that Isaiah chapters 40 through 66 are kind of considered like part two of the book of Isaiah. They're called. It's called the book of comfort because those chapters are comforting for the people of Israel. And the reason that they need the comfort is because he is prophesying that they will be taken into exile in Babylon. And here we are. For the third Sunday in a row in Babylon, Devon came and talked about faith and what it meant for him to come to Los Angeles, the city that is declared Babylon, and that the people from his church. You will never make it. You can't do it out there. That place is not for you. Don't go. But he had the faith to step out on what God told him. And so he came and God did what he said he would do. His word to Devon did not return void. Even in Babylon, where he was restricted in ways at times, God made a way. And then Pastor Phil, Uncle Phil came last week, took us to Babylon. He quoted that favorite scripture of ours, Jeremiah 29:11. For I know the plans I have for you. Plans to prosper, you, good plans. We love that verse. Until we found out that Jeremiah was talking to Israel when they were in exile in Babylon. And he preached to us about remembering our DNA as a part of this movement. If you are A part of one, whether you're in the room, whether you're watching online, if this is what you call home, and it should be, because it's a good home, that if you recognize it, that you pull on the DNA of this house, the spiritual legacy, the foundation that Pastor Torre poured in response to obedience to God, that it is part of our DNA to. Even in Babylon, where the church was founded and whose mission is about kingdom intersections in our entertainment and profession industries, professional industries, he told us that even in Babylon, Jeremiah prophesied that we should buy houses, get married, have children, plant gardens. In other words, start businesses, go ahead and live. You are exiled in a space, but God is going to prosper you in the space in such a way that it will speak to them about who I am. And so some of you ended up here, some of you grew up here, some of you got sent here. And he reminded us, don't get small in Babylon. Don't shut down, don't, don't, don't. Just get your small circle and try to wall everything out because you can't figure out how to get in and out. Or don't be so far outside that you lose track of the house of God and your walk with God. He said, prosper in this land and let it be seen. And now our third anniversary Sunday. A word that was spoken for the moments of exile in Babylon, except Isaiah was lived about 150 years before Israel ever went to Babylon. And so God had already acknowledged what was going to happen, but also made his plan to bring us out. And so he said, israel will be delivered and my word will not return void. He gave them a word to stand on 150 plus years before the situation ever came out. I hear the Lord saying, some of you need to go back into that last journal. Some of you need to go back and call your mother and ask her that prayer she used to pray over you. Let me hear it again. Because a word was spoken over you decades ago for some of you before your birthday that you need right now. It didn't come to pass. No, it just wasn't time yet. But the time is upon us to remember the word he spoke will not return void. I say maybe two months ago, God brought back a word to me that he gave me in 2003, 2003. And I know he spoke it. I know God's voice. And at the time I was like, okay. About four years later, I felt like, well, this kind of applies to this and did sort of have some application, but I had not seen the full manifestation of it. And I have not worried about it. I have not labored over it. Because I learned a long time ago, as a prophet myself, that the further out the word that has been spoken over me is, the further out God has spoken over my life. And if God is that far down the line, he loves me that much, I fall in love with him every day that is delayed, because that means he loved me enough to be 10 years, 20 years, 30 years down the line. And he brought it back to me just a couple months ago. And now I start to see what he was talking about. Do not leave a word behind. I never doubted the word. Even when I didn't understand it, I didn't doubt it. I have what I call my Holy Ghost file. I file them. Just put that word in the file. That's fine. And the Holy Ghost has a way of opening up the file and handing it to me right on the right day. But if I had thrown it away, because when I didn't understand what was on this paper, I don't need this one anymore. You know, I've moved several times in the last five years, and every time I move, I throw away more stuff because it's like, I didn't need this. I didn't need this. I never unpacked this. I don't even need this box. I don't even know what's in this box. I got boxes now in my apartment. Not gonna lie. I've been living there two years. I don't even know what's in there. Obviously, I don't need it. And so every time we move, a lot of us, we get rid of more things. But be careful. Do not throw away your confidence in what God has spoken to you. If you don't understand it now, it'll just be more fun when he shows you what he meant. Hold on to that word. Amen. That was free. So we are in Babylon now. Babylonian exile was not the same as Egyptian enslavement. In Egypt, they were slaves, and so they were enslaved. And so they were forced to work. They were forced to breed when they wanted them to, kill off family members when they wanted them to. They kept them in a state of servitude. They had no volition, no free will. They were physically abused, murdered with impunity. We know something about chattel slavery, but exile in Babylon was not that. Exxon in Babylon was different. They took over the children of Israel and wanted to engraft them into their cultural space. And so they brought them in to benefit from their gifts, but to restrict their worship and the customs. So Babylon took. Listen to this. Israel's leadership, their priests, they're skilled workers. Bronze and gold, metalwork, fabrics. They're skilled workers and they're artists. It will be tempting to let your leadership call your ministry, call your skills and your art to be taken captive by Babylon. See, Babylon recognized how skilled they were, how creative they were, how brilliant they were, how strong their leadership was. And we want to absorb that and use that. We want to leech off of that. We're going to take that and use that for our strength, but restrict their source until they make their source us. This is not me. Listen, I'm hearing this word for the first time. And it's good they got them to take. They wanted captivity of their souls, their hearts, their minds. And that's what we're constantly fighting against. Babel means. Babylon means confusion. And so not only was it a literal place where they were going to be restricted and used, but it was about being confused. The word Babylon is based on the word Babel. Let's go to Genesis chapter 11, where the word Babel first comes into scripture. Some of you know this story, Genesis 11. 1. Now, the whole earth had one language and one speech. Nobody was confused. They all understood each other. And it came to pass. As they journeyed from the east, they found a plain in the land of Shinar, and they dwelt there. And they said to one another, come, let us make bricks and bake them thoroughly. They had brick for stone and they had asphalt for mortar. And they said to them, and they said, come, let us build ourselves a city and a tower whose top is in the heavens. And let us make a name for ourselves, lest we be scattered abroad over the face of the whole earth. Now, here's the concern here, because it's easy for children of God to come up with an idea that they believe is godly. And because they label it godly, they think it's okay. So everybody gets together and we're going to start this. We're going to start this production company, or we're going to start this theater, or we're going to start this writer's room, or going to start this business. And we're going to name it, you know, Heavenly Ideas, whatever you want to do. And we're going to do this for God to show that the kingdom. But you haven't asked God nothing. But you're gifted your leadership, your skills, your artistic nature, your creativity, your spiritual nature. And yes, we have dominion and we get to make some decisions. But they were taking on a massive project that they wanted to somehow use to connect the earth to the heavens when it is our goal as Christians to bring heaven. Yeah, they was moving in the wrong direction. They wanted to go from where they knew to what they could understand to what they thought was wise. If you weren't in Bible study, you'd miss that. But they needed to have started with his wisdom and come down from there. Check the podcast. All right, back in it. Verse 5. But the Lord came down to see the city and the tower which the sons of men had built. And the Lord said, indeed, the people are one and they all have one language. And this is what they begin to do. Now, nothing they propose to do will be withheld from them. They could have done it. Don't let success be your marker for whether you did what God told you to do, because he said they could do it. Because there was no confusion. They all spoke the same exact language. They all had the same intentions. They were of one heart, one mind, one language. And nothing will stop them. Unity will get you anywhere you choose, but that doesn't mean it's God's road. And so God got upset. Mmm, mmm. Many cults are running around here because unity will get you somewhere. Oh, Jesus. Anyway, verse seven, and this is an important this is God talking. The Lord, he said, come, let us go down and there confuse their language that they may not understand one another's speech. That word us is capitalized for a reason. This ain't just you and your posse. This is not your cousin and them. This is the big us. This is the same us that said, let us make man in our image. There's only two times in scripture where God refers to himself as us. When he made humanity and when he showed up in Babel to confuse their language. That's the only two things times that it was necessary for us, the divine us, to move. Why? Because when he created us in the garden, he gave us something that no other creature had, a language capacity that would allow us to talk with Him. No other creature on earth has the language capacity to converse with God. Yes, dogs can learn and understand about 180 words. And dolphins have a very complex system of whistles and clicks that they understand one another, but only us were made in his image. And one of the major markers of that is our capacity to speak the language of God, to converse with Him. And so when he saw that thing that was most valuable about his image, most powerful, the Word. Because His Word can't return void and you have creative power in your words. This is a reflection of him. When we began to abuse the things that was so central to being made in his image, us came down and broke it up. And so it says he confused everyone and changed their language. So now suddenly I'm talking to you and you're talking to me, and we understand each other. And now all of a sudden you're speaking a different language and I'm speaking a different language. And we just used to understand each other and now we don't. Don't be confused when suddenly you are confused because maybe the circle you've been working in is not for you, and maybe the place you've unified yourself is not for you. And it was working. And the place plan was going. And now it seems like everything's falling apart. We were on the same page. Now we're not on the same page. Don't rebuke the enemy. Let God confuse a situation that you didn't have no business being in anyway. Pack your little bags and go. That wasn't the team for you. He scattered them. Verse 8. So the Lord scattered them abroad from there over the face of all the earth. And they ceased building the city. Therefore its name is called Babel. Because there the Lord confused the language of all the earth. Now they didn't learn their lesson well enough from that. And so all these years later, now they're in captivity, in confusion. I tried to show you how to work on these things. Stay focused on me. Walk in line with me, Ask me what you should be doing. And so I confused you. And now you got into some space where y' all kind of caught your balance again and you started sinning. Now you out here golden casting it and everything. Oh, Holy Ghost, don't do this to me. I had went to a show, please don't do this to me. And it didn't seem like a big deal to go to a show. Oh, it was a cultural moment. And I wanted to go, please don't do this to me. And I had. I had grew up real old school. I grew up old school. I grew up on Sold out. I grew up on. I grew up on that. We wasn't allowed to listen to no music at our house. We were only allowed to listen to listen to gospel music. If my father came in the room and he heard Jackson 5 because the Jackson 5 cartoon was out back then, so I would have to turn it down. Don't let New Edition, honey. And it wasn't even bad. We talk about Candy Girl, Candy girl, let me tell you, the next thing you would hear after that note from Candy girl was the buckle of the belt. So I didn't. And I'm. I'm not. I'm not. I'm not. I'm not a wrist taker. I had a sister who was. But I'm not a risk taker child. So I was in there singing the Winans because there is no reason for me to be injured. That's just my trauma. I don't know about any of y', all, but my father did not play. He could. My father still scares me, and he is 84, but if he say Nita, I'm like, huh? Yes. And I am 51. And so we weren't allowed to do it. And so it was put in. It was put in me. Me. A certain separation. But, you know, I'm not bound by legalism. And I certainly do listen to some music now that's not gospel. And so I wanted to go to the show, and I was enjoying the show, and then I looked up and there were. I'm not saying what show it was. I'm just saying there were golden calves all over the. And I gathered my things, and that was the end of the show for me. I'm not out here. I'm not talking about none of y'. All. I'm just saying that was the end of the show for me. I had to get my little bag and my hat, and I went to. Okay. Because when we're in Babylon, we can get sloppy, we can get confused. And yes, there's nuances in lines, but because of that, sometimes we miss it. Confusion is a state of mental or situational disorder where things are mixed together without clear distinction, leaving understanding uncertain or unsettled. It comes from the Latin. I'm going to be educated today. Confounder. C O n con. Together. Like with. If you speak Spanish, you know that means with. And the second part of the word means to pour. So confuse actually means to pour things together, mix them together so that it's difficult to pull them apart. And so when Israel got to Babylon, they weren't enslaved, they weren't being beaten. They could buy land and start businesses and get married and have children. And they should. The prophet said they should. But also when you're day in and day out, not in your anchored place, your leadership and your ministry and your artistry and your skill set can stand start to draw creativity from other sources. You see, it's not the product, it's the source. And in the environment, Where I grew up, they tried to divide the product. So that song is not saying Jesus. It's a no, but it's the source. Now you can know a source by fruit because seed produces fruit. And you. If you. The fruit is obvious, that's a separate situation. But, but source, where are you drawing it from? Yes, I may read a book on leadership written. It might be the best selling leadership book in all of corporate America. But before I decide to lead a ministry on those rules, and so I don't go draw that, and then I find a scripture that seems to match it. And so now that makes it okay. You may see some ideas in here that. But when you play that matching game with scripture, that's how you get messed up. That's where you get messed up because you're like, well, that sounds like it. I dealt with this as a, as a therapist. We have a type of therapy called cognitive behavioral therapy. And people love cognitive behavioral therapy because it's like using your mind to fix stuff. And they'll say, well, the Bible says, as a man, think, if so is he. So this must be okay, because they said thinking. And you found a scripture that said thinking, and now it's okay. Whatever you find out there, you must sanctify on the altar in here. Because if it survives the fire of God's sanctification, you might be able to use it, but it might burn up. So be careful. Because some stuff just seems like facts. It's just medicine. It's just business. It's just this. It doesn't have to be something that is saying, worship the devil. You know better than that. But if it seems neutral, that's the danger. It's just closed. The key of C is the key of C. It's the key of C at night, it's the key of C on Sunday morning. Yes. And also. But God, let everything that I do glorify you. So, yes, you can write a song that don't say Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus. But when I hear it, there's, look, it's a young woman in here. I saw her on stage this today, and she has a song that they used on a popular reality show, a love song. And I saw her name, so I listened to it. But when I listened to it, I was like, this is about Jesus. I can tell. I felt like worshiping just listening to it, even though it didn't stage it. So I know the source was, are you with me? Because in Babylon you have access to so many sources. And that's how the children of Israel got in trouble. Confusion disrupts clarity of thought. It makes you struggle to make distinctions, and it makes it hard to know what is the cause and what is the effect. And you'll start calling the effect the cause and the cause the effect because you're confused. It can range from mild uncertainty to complete disorientation. And spiritually, it leaves us feeling a sense of shame, confusion, loss, lack of alignment with truth that I know. I feel like I'm doing what God told me to do, but it don't feel quite right. Confusion. And I wondered, when I was studying confusion, it was being described as a state of mind. And I thought, is confusion actually an emotion? Because, you know, I love emotion. But when I dug deeper into the structure, I don't have time for all of that. It is, in fact, a state of mind, but there are strong emotions that go with it. And that's why people often say, I feel confused. It is a type of emotion that's called an epistemic emotion. Let me think of school a minute. Epistemology. Epistemology is the study of knowing. So it's how you know what you know. And the confusion is linked because it's a mindset, but it has this emotional sense to it because it's linked to knowing. And so when you know something new that's exciting, you have a sense of wonder or awe. So that's an epistemic emotion. But when you are confused, it's attached to. Epistemic. Emotions like that are frustrating because you're like, I don't know why. I don't know what I should know when I need to know it. And then that confusion adds anxiety because now you're trying to solve a future problem that you don't know how to work out. And so don't confuse confusion with anxiety. That may be another message. But those emotions, that anxiousness, that wondering who's right and what to do, that is the signal that there's some gap in your understanding because different sources of knowledge are mingling in your mind and you don't know who to listen to. Is this my body and my trauma telling me to walk away? Or am I just scared? Or is this God you're trying to find? Figure out who sent me the information, and it's all mixed in there together. And so we have to avoid that. So how then do we get clarity? Because that's what we want. The word of God. Go back to what the word said. It's so simple. But it doesn't feel that way when you're in the grip of confusion, what is the last word you got from God? What did he promise you? What did he tell you to do when you what does it say on the pages of that book? Because there are so many spiritual gifts loose in the world and available to us, sometimes we seek a word of wisdom or knowledge or prophecy more than the pages of the book. And you are not going to get a word from the Lord, from me, a prophet, a dream, nothing that contradicts what's on the pages of the book. And the enemy loves to confuse us so much that he has a searching for what truth is true everywhere but the Bible. If you would just get back to your basic 10 commandments and some obedience, anchor yourself there because then anything that contradicts that, it can fall away. Now, once you have clarity from the Word, things will start to match. Confusion is the opposite, not just just of clarity. It's the opposite of coherence. Coherence means everything matches. It makes sense. So if you're trying to make it make sense, you confused. But when it all easily makes sense, coherence, my word will not return void. It will accomplish what it was sent to do. And we get confused when we feel like the words accomplishment is being delayed and we start trying to check up other sources of knowledge in order to give ourselves a reason to keep believing. We have good intentions, but just stand on the Word of God. That is the sound of this house. We are the echo of the Word of God in every single thing that we do. Our worship echoes His Word. Our leadership echoes His Word. If I stop echoing His Word, if Pastor F stops echoing His Word, run out the door. Don't sit underneath people who are not echoing the word of God. And not because I said it was the Word, but because I gave you chapter and verse that it was the Word. You can't find it for yourself. Come and talk to one of us. If we can't show it to you, we are in error. It will not contradict His Word. I promise you the Word of God will clear confusion. Anxiety is a separate issue because we can have clarity in the moment and want to know what happens next. You with me? Clarity in the moment requires often that I just have my daily bread. That's why I said Jesus said pray like this. Give us this day our just today God. If you would lay down tomorrow, if you would lay down next year, if you would lay down next week, just today, God, I know what I can do today. I have the Word for this moment. It is enough for me to be present with you, and you present with me. Because if you continue to lean into the anxiety around the future, it will eat the clarity that you just had. Because anxiety asks you to search for other information, other truths that might make a future you haven't seen yet possible or not possible. And so in order for me to run my scenarios about the future, I have to bring different knowledge into the present. And now I start mixing that knowledge with what God said in His Word, and I'm confused again. It ain't worth it. When you get the clarity, stay right there. Be willing to say, I don't know how, I don't know when, I don't know what. But his word cannot return void. It will accomplish everything that he said it would do. And that is all that I'm asking. And that's all I'm believing. I'm almost finished, but I want to show you what it looks like to remain clear. Daniel, chapter one, verse three. Here are some men in this chapter who was never confused. Daniel, chapter one, verse three. I'm reading this in the King James because it has a word in it that I love that the other one doesn't have. So, and the king spake unto Ashpenaz, the master of his eunuchs, that he should bring certain of the children of Israel. This is them coming into Babylon, and of the king seed and of the princes, children in whom was no blemish, but well favored and skillful in all wisdom and cunning in knowledge and understanding. Science, that's my favorite. And as such, they had an ability in them to stand in the king's palace and whom they might teach the learning and the tongue of the Chaldeans. This is the Babylonian leadership calling the smartest, wisest, best looking. Do you hear what's happening here? The ones with the most knowledge, the most understanding, who can do science, who are good looking. So they're going to be the models and the influencers. They calling the artists. They calling everybody. They said, bring us their best people. This room we are is full of God's best. You are gifted. You are talented. You are phenomenal. You are pioneers, trailblazers, inventors. Honey, the beat ain't been made that you about to hear in the middle of the night. You are first. You are first. This room is so bright, I gotta wear shapes. You are the best. You are the best. You are the best. And so Babylon calls them and opened the door because they wanted the benefit of the best. So they will call you. They will. And go. I ain't saying don't go. When I did my application for my postdoctoral fellowship at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, which is the number one public health school on the planet, when I did my application, I wrote a research question that I derived directly from Jesus experience in the wilderness. I didn't say that's where it came from, but the servants know where the wine come from. But it was directly from revelation in Jesus in the Wilderness. I looked at Jesus emotional struggles there, his physical struggles there. And I made up a decision making theory that show how Jesus made his decisions the right way. And then I turned it into a decisional theory about how we make decisions about our health. And then I did the application and the National Institutes of Health gave me a fellowship and paid me to do it. But I got it all from Scripture because they opened the door for the best from the kingdom in that area. I'm the best. And you better know that you are the best. You don't have to act like you're not. The humility is not saying, oh, I don't know, God's just trying to help me, baby, you know what you got. You know what God gave you, you know what you can do. So square your shoulders. We've been taught in Christianity to shrink. And I went to a Christian university for my PhD and they beat me down so bad about not wanting me to declare what I knew I had found in Scripture. Well, you should be more humble. You should be more humble that when I first went to Hopkins, I interviewed a professor there so she could give me information about the program before I applied. And she said, why do you keep apologizing? I didn't even know. She said, this is Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. We only want people who are about to change the world and they know it. And you're sitting here telling me you might have an idea that might work. That sister wore me out. She said, sit up in that chair and tell me what you gonna do. And I had to shake off religious humility and look her in the eye and, and say, absolutely, because I didn't know. But I let religious people tell me that I wasn't allowed to declare that I know what I got, but a woman from the world had to straighten my back, but I ain't bent it no more. And so I want you like that out here. You're the best. When they call, you go, but remember your source. Remember your source. If you skip down. I didn't give them this verse, but I'm gonna read it anyway. Skip down, Daniel verse Chapter one, verse eight, it says, but Daniel. Well, first of all, let me go to verse seven, because he was with some other people. Now, among these, verse 6, were of the children of Judah, Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah. Do you know who Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah are? Shadrach. Shadrach. Don't forget your name. Don't forget your name. See, in Babylon, they gave them names after their language so they would recognize them. So they called me a public health disparity researcher. Yes, but I know my name. Do not forget your name. Yes. NIH Fellowship fund recipient. But that's not my name. Okay, I got. I'm sorry. So he was with them. But Daniel purposed in his heart, verse 8, that he would not defile himself with the portion of the king's meat, nor with wine which he drank. Therefore, he requested of the prince of the eunuchs that he might not defile himself. He didn't want to eat what they were giving him to eat, even though they were offering the best of what they had. And he said, I can't take that kind of nourishment. That's not going to help me. No, I don't need to go to your weekend. Weird thing in the desert to make a networking connection. I would like to meet you, but I'm not going to do it in the middle of your seance. I'm sorry. Kyle. You got the car? Can you get my car started? Because they might run me out. I just. You heard Devon standing here. He said. He told him, I don't work on the Sabbath. Do you know how hard that is? Daniel purposed in his heart, I would not defile myself. And then he told the same thing to those set over the other three brothers known as Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. And we know what happens. They all get tested. Daniel's in the lion's den. Shadrach, Meshach, and Abingo. Fiery furnace. But when Daniel found himself in that lion's den, he did not recant. He did not repent. He didn't say, king, I changed my mind. I will do the prayers you asked me to do. He went down there with those lions, and it was ready. He was ready to die on that hill. Physically die. Because he would not defile himself. And so don't you get. Yes. They will threaten you if you don't do it this way. You're going to be fired. If you don't do it this way. You're going to be Demoted. You're going to be stuck in this rack and you're just going to be reading scripts in the background. You ain't going to be out here writing nothing. If you don't defile yourself, you will not be allowed to move up and then they might kick you down. But baby, when you see the lions, no, God is getting ready to do something. When they open the door of fiery furnace and put you in there, look for the fourth man. Because God will not allow you to be burned up in front of them when you have made a decision to stand on him. They are never seen pushing their God on the Babylonians. They only lived the way they see. You think you're being persecuted because you're wearing your Jesus is Lord T shirt every day. And sometimes it's not wisdom. If I had done that application talking about, well, when Jesus refused the bread from the stones, he was in physical pain from hunger. And I believe physical pain that Jesus had is a decision making factor. No fellowship for me. This woman is crazy. But someone in that environment told me, it don't matter where a good idea comes from, just show me that it's good. And so it's not all about you being out there yelling Jesus and speaking in tongues at the staff meeting that's not there persecuting you. You deserve that. They got in trouble because they were seen living on their terms. It wasn't what they did, it was what they refused to do. It wasn't there yes that got them in trouble. It was their no. Do you got a no? Do you have a holy no? My God, this is how you stay coherent. They did not allow confusion to creep in so that their actions didn't match their previous words, didn't match the law, didn't match God, didn't match their gut. They didn't allow confusion to creep in and divide their their actions from their belief set. They stayed coherent. Everything matching, sticking together, they made sense in every environment. And because they stood that way, it was Daniel himself who prayed near the end of exile in Babel. God forgive us for the sins of our forefathers that got us in this mess in the first place. See, they were in Babel because the some grandma and grandpa was acting up. And now 70 years later, there's people who were born in Babylon who never did anything wrong, but they were born into the mess because of the thing. So he said, forgive them and forgive us and make a way. We want to see your word come to pass. Read it in Daniel chapter 9. Later he prayed that forgive us and open the door and let your word come to pass. And what word had been spoken 150plus years earlier that I will deliver you from Babylon and my word will not return unto me void. And so he stood on that. And my last thing, let me tell you how to close that cycle. God gave me a little science after all the end. Isaiah 55 said, Verse 10. For as the rain comes down and the snow from heaven and does not return there, but waters the earth and makes it bring forth in bud, that it may give seed to the sower and bread to the eater, so shall my word be. And I asked God a question about this. I said, God, I know that rain and snow don't go back up like rain and snow. But we do know there's something called the water cycle, so that all the water that does come down does actually return. And so I was like, God, I understand it doesn't return as rain as snow, but how does it return? Because if it does return, it can't return void, so it does somehow return with life. How does it return? And God told me this to tell you when the fruit of that word comes to pass. Testify. Because every time you exhale, water vapor comes out of your mouth and it rises back to the heavens where at some point it will become rain and snow again. Come down to this earth and water, a new thing for you. It returns to him on your lips, in your praise, in your testimony, in your worship, when you say, this is the thing that he said he would do. And it has happened and now I'm going to return it to him. But not lifelessly with the life of what it was. Thank you God, you opened the door. Thank you God, I got the fellowship. Thank you God, you sent the husband, you sent the wife, you showed me which business to start, which house to buy. Thank you God, you delivered me from Babylon. Thank you God, you delivered me from confusion. And I give you glory. I return it to you, not void, but full of life. Because what you spoke over me came to pass. Stand to your feet. I gotta go. Oh my God. I am gonna spend my afternoon returning some things to him today. As a matter of fact, just take a moment right now and thank him for what you have seen him do that he said he would do. Return life. Return a life filled word to him. Let what came down as rain float back up as water vapor out of your breath. Thank you, Father God, you did what you said you would do over and over. You've done it and I know you'll do it again. Thank you for life. The only sound we need is what God is speaking. Let everything you do echo it. The sound of one is the echo of what God said. We preach it, we sing it, we create it, we write it, we act it out. We buy and sell businesses that make differences in the world. They echo God's word over us. We're the best go forth and echo a word that changes cultures from this city that was built to do it. The world is shaking like crazy right now and some people are being silenced. But we who echo God's voice cannot afford to be silenced. The sound of one is the word he has spoken to go out in this earth. The spiritual movement that's happening in the city right now that I believe is going to catch fire from here. The industry that you were called to change. Echo what God told you to do and not what you planned. If you will be the sound of the echo of his word, everything will change in your life and you will not be confused again. Hallelujah. Amen. Hallelujah. Thank you, Father, for delivering us from confusion today that we have so much clarity that what we speak is only an echo of what you have spoken. Let them hear you when we speak, when we sing, when we write, when we work. Let us echo you. I thank you, God, for those whose echo is at such a high frequency that it's not even audible to our ears, but it's moving in the space that you have called them to bring kingdom impact. I don't have to see it to know it. I just have to have heard it to echo it. Father, open their eyes in little moments all week long that they are standing in an echo moment. Echo moments. Holy Spirit, bring to their remembrance the scriptures you've placed in their hearts for this moment in their life. Bring to remembrance the prayers that have heard prayed over them, the prophetic words that have been spoken over them, the promises that you've given them, that you've shown them in dreams. Father, bring it back to them this week that they will have an echo moment. This is it. Let it echo. That's our sound that we can shake a world when our faith. Thank you, God and our love becomes audible as an echo of you. In Jesus name. Amen. Amen. Amen.
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B
Hey, family. Well, I pray that you were just as blessed by this teaching as I was. I'm just so grateful again to be a part of a dynamic, dynamic community full of love, full of revelation and wisdom. One has been a movement that's been blessing people for over two decades. And I'm so glad that you got an opportunity to experience it. I also have a podcast called the called it's right here on wherever you're listening to this Spotify or Apple or wherever you're listening to this podcast, you can just look up the call T H E C A L L E D with myself, Terre Roberts. This is designed for entrepreneurs, leaders and business people. It's a weekly podcast and it will bless you. But hey, I enjoyed having you here. Meet us here next week. Check out the call. Much blessings to you. We'll catch you next time.