The Power of the Rear View - Bishop Dale C. Bronner
Transcript
00:00 This is Bishop Dale Broder. Thank you so much for joining our YouTube channel today.
00:05 If this is a blessing to you, I want to encourage you to like it and then click the subscribe button
00:12 and then turn on notification. Hit that little notification bell so that you never ever miss another one of our videos.
00:19 And then if you're in the metro Atlanta area on a Sunday, check out one of our exhilarating services at 830 a.m., 11 a.m. or 6 o'clock p.m.
00:29 Our scriptural text today is coming from the book of Exodus chapter 33 verse 18 through verse 23, reading from the NIV version of the scriptures.
00:39 Notice there are these words. Then Moses said, Now show me your glory.
00:47 And the Lord said, I will cause my goodness to pass in front of you.
00:52 And I will proclaim my name, the Lord, in your presence.
00:57 And I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion.
01:03 But he said, you cannot see my face for no one may see me and live.
01:10 And then the Lord said, there is a place near me where you may stand on a rock.
01:16 And when my glory passes by, I will put you in a cleft in the rock and cover you with my hand until I have passed by.
01:26 And then I will remove my hand and you will see my back.
01:30 But my face must not be seen.
01:34 We're talking today from the subject, the power of the rear view.
01:39 The power of the rear view, the power of the rear view.
01:44 It is interesting that the rear view is his story, not really ours.
01:52 I want you to think about that. The rear view, it is his story, his story.
01:58 His story is, this is the story of God.
02:01 This is the story of Jesus coming down through history.
02:05 It's his story, not ours.
02:08 So when God has done something in your life, it's really not about you.
02:12 We're disposable. It's so that we can point to the one that really matters.
02:18 This is about his story. And God moves oftentimes in such a surreptitious and clandestine way
02:27 that you cannot even piece it together that this was God until you get a rear view.
02:34 And you realize that the Lord was with me, he was leading me, he was guiding me, he was protecting me
02:41 when I was out here wilding out and doing crazy stuff.
02:44 You know that it was God. I mean, there are some of you, you know,
02:47 I meant back when you were in school.
02:50 And by the grace of God, by the mercy of God, I mean, in the rear view,
02:55 when you had no clue about what you would become, about your future, but yet God had a plan.
03:01 And he didn't even let you and all of your craziness make it to where you were totally disqualified
03:07 about where God would wind up and bring you in your life.
03:11 And it's not until you actually take a rear view that you've been able to see that God was with you
03:18 long before you were aware of him.
03:20 That he was leading you, guiding, ordering your steps, that he had his hand of divine protection over you.
03:26 Anybody know what I'm talking about today?
03:28 That you can be honest as you look back over your life and see that God has been with you
03:34 and God has been good to you for a long, long time.
03:37 And you were on his mind when he was not on yours.
03:42 It's amazing.
03:44 One of the reasons that I'm talking about the power of the rear view,
03:49 as you know, this text comes from Exodus that was written by Moses,
03:55 but Moses also is the author of Genesis.
03:59 Moses wrote the first five books of the Bible, Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy, the Pentateuch.
04:05 And how in the world, how in the world, had it not been for Moses taking a rear view,
04:11 we never would have had the creation story.
04:14 I want you to think about that.
04:16 This didn't happen during the lifetime of Moses.
04:19 This happened before Moses got there.
04:22 It is when God invited Moses, because Moses had a deep hunger on the inside of him,
04:28 saying, "Show me your glory.
04:30 Lord, that I might see you, that I might know you.
04:33 I want to understand something about you."
04:36 And it was as though, I want you to just picture, as this thing was a divine veil,
04:42 just like in the tabernacle, there's a veil that separates the inner court from the Holy of Holies.
04:49 And when you cross through that curtain, that veil,
04:53 then that's where the glory of God resides.
04:56 The glory of God abides, sitting above the Ark of the Covenant, over the mercy seat.
05:02 Thank God that it's not the judgment seat.
05:05 How many of you all are glad that it's a mercy seat and not a judgment seat?
05:09 But that's where the glory resides.
05:12 And it was as though God gave Moses an opportunity to put his head through the curtain
05:18 and take a look and see the glory.
05:21 He said, "Show me your glory.
05:23 Lord, I want to see the glory of what you have in the story of my own history.
05:28 Let me see, even before I got here, things that were happening in the world that I didn't understand."
05:34 And so it was when he took a look there that he began to see that in the beginning,
05:39 God created the heavens and the earth.
05:42 God gave him a rear view all the way back to the beginning.
05:45 And when darkness was upon the face of the deep, Moses wrote about that.
05:50 Because he was taking a rear view, he didn't see that because he had read a historian's book.
05:55 The only reason that we have the story now of Adam and Eve and then their children and all of that, Noah,
06:02 we have that because Moses had a rear view.
06:06 He took a rear view. There's a power of a rear view that brought things into perspective.
06:12 You know that we didn't get here by ourselves.
06:15 And if you ever see a turtle up on a post, you'll know he didn't get there by himself.
06:22 When you get to a place in life that is elevated, you know you didn't get there by yourself.
06:28 But Moses saw the creation story.
06:31 I love the words of Sorion Kierkegaard that said that life can only be lived forward but understood backwards.
06:39 That's where we are. We're in a place where life can only be lived forward but it can only be understood backwards.
06:45 That's why the rear view is so important because you get an understanding of what God was doing back then
06:53 when you weren't even aware that God's hand was moving.
06:57 So God hid Moses in the cleft of the rock.
07:00 But it wouldn't allow him to see his face, but he allowed him to see his hinder part, his back part.
07:06 It allowed him to see the rear view.
07:09 It gave him an understanding of what was back there that he never was privy to.
07:14 God now gives him a picture of that in glory.
07:19 You see, the glory of God is revealed in his power.
07:24 The power of God reveals God's glory.
07:26 Whenever God... I mean, when you're talking about splitting the Red Sea, my God, that's the glory of God in manifestation.
07:31 The glory of God is revealed in his power, it is revealed in his presence, manifested to his people.
07:37 In fact, that's what we call the glory, is the manifest presence of God.
07:41 And it's also as his principles.
07:43 God's glory is in the principles of his word and God's glory is manifested in the person of Jesus Christ.
07:49 It's manifested in power, in presence, in principle, and in person.
07:54 That's how the glory manifests to us in various things throughout the scriptures.
07:59 In the volume of the book, he comes in the full volume of the book.
08:03 And it is interesting that as he was saying that I will cause my goodness to pass in front of you, Moses,
08:10 and he says, "I will proclaim my name."
08:14 God told him, "I'm going to pass by you, I'm going to put you in the cleft of the rock, and I'm going to pass by you."
08:19 And he said, "I'm going to proclaim my name," because Moses, remember, didn't even know God's name.
08:24 He says, "Who shall I tell him," said he, "I am that I am."
08:29 But he says, "When I pass by you in glory here, I'm going to give you a review, and I'm going to proclaim my name."
08:36 Why would God proclaim his name?
08:38 It is because the Bible says in Proverbs chapter 18 that the name of the Lord is a strong tower.
08:46 The righteous run into it and they are safe.
08:50 Because back during the times when there was trouble, they would always run to the strong tower, to the high tower,
08:56 as a place of safety when there was war, when there was a threat against their community.
09:00 They ran to that place, and so God says, "I'm getting ready now to proclaim as I pass by you, I'm going to proclaim my name."
09:08 Because you need to see more than what happened, you need to understand my name.
09:12 You need to understand that I am Jehovah Jireh.
09:16 How did we know about Jehovah Jireh?
09:18 Because Moses saw that whole situation that went down between Abraham when he had to sacrifice his only son Isaac.
09:27 Moses wasn't born then.
09:29 This is before Moses.
09:31 But when he got the rear view, he wrote about it in Genesis.
09:35 That's how we know about it, and that's where God revealed his name, Jehovah Jireh, the Lord my provider, I'll provide for you.
09:44 We understand him as Jehovah Shammah, the Lord who's always there.
09:48 Jehovah Sitkanu, the Lord my righteousness.
09:50 Jehovah Rohi, the Lord my shepherd.
09:52 We began to see him, Jehovah Rapha, the Lord my healer.
09:55 We began, he said, "I'm going to pass by you, and I'm going to show you, I'm going to proclaim my name."
10:01 My name, I'm going to proclaim my name.
10:04 So he gave us an incredible rear view that began to help us.
10:10 And that began to show us some things that we didn't understand.
10:14 Sometimes you may wonder when you go through life, "Why do I have to go through this?
10:20 Why did I have to go through that sickness? Why did I have to lose a parent at an early age?
10:24 Why did I have to lose a child? Why did I have to lose a sibling?
10:28 Why did I deal with this? Why was my body born with this weakness?
10:33 Why have I dealt with this sickness, this struggle all of my life?"
10:37 If you ever get a rear view, God will show you some things.
10:40 I love the words of Viktor Frankl. He says that in some ways, suffering ceases to be suffering at the moment that it finds meaning,
10:48 such as meaning of a sacrifice.
10:51 When you begin to understand that your suffering has meaning,
10:55 it begins to bring a peace into you, God, that I see that you were doing something now.
10:59 And yeah, yeah, I dealt with bullying. Yeah, yeah, I dealt with people laughing at me, but it toughened me.
11:06 It strengthened something on the inside of me.
11:08 That's why Maya Angelou would say that I wouldn't take nothing from a journey.
11:13 That all of the stuff that had happened to me,
11:16 the Apostle Paul said, "The things that have happened to me,"
11:21 as he was speaking to the church at Philippi, he says, "They have fallen out for the furtherance of the gospel, that God had a plan in it."
11:30 There's a reason that God let this happen to me.
11:34 If it didn't kill you, it made you stronger.
11:37 If it didn't kill you, it gave you a deeper compassion for other hurting people.
11:42 You have to understand that you may not understand it at the time,
11:45 but it is in the rear view that you have to understand that this...
11:50 Why did I have to... so hard growing up? It's because it built a work ethic in you,
11:54 so that you weren't having your hand out, asking people to give you stuff with a sense of entitlement.
12:00 You better thank God that you had parents that made you work for what you got.
12:04 You better thank God.
12:10 I want you to realize that it is interesting that God's people would go through things and God would be there for them.
12:19 And I want you to notice what God said to his people, Jerusalem,
12:22 as he was talking to the people of Jerusalem through the prophet Isaiah.
12:27 He was letting them know that you're going to suffer, but he said you're going to learn in the process.
12:32 You're going to suffer, but you're going to learn in the process.
12:35 There's a reason to your suffering.
12:37 In Isaiah chapter 30, verse 20 through 22, notice this.
12:41 "Although the Lord gives you the bread of adversity..."
12:44 Who gives it to you?
12:46 The Lord gives you the bread of adversity.
12:48 And then he says, "Wash it down with the water of affliction."
12:52 Affliction is suffering.
12:54 He says, "Your teachers will be hidden no more.
12:57 With your own eyes you will see them."
13:01 God is going to open up your eyes to see your teachers.
13:03 He says, "Whether you turn to the right or to the left, your ears will hear a voice..."
13:08 Where?
13:09 "Behind you."
13:10 That's the rear view saying, "This is the way. Walk in it."
13:15 I want you to notice that.
13:16 Then notice verse 22.
13:18 "Then you will desecrate your idols overlaid with silver and your images covered with gold...
13:25 and you will throw them away like a minstrel cloth and say to them, 'Away with you.'"
13:29 God says that everything that has been idolatrous, everything that has been away from my will and my purpose...
13:34 everything that's been a counterfeit and a substitute for me...
13:37 I'm going to give you a disdain for it so that you'll get it out of your life.
13:41 You're going to tear up your tarot cards.
13:44 You're going to throw out your crystals.
13:46 You're going to get rid of your sage.
13:48 He says, "Hey!"
13:49 He says, "I'm getting ready to do something now."
13:51 And that everything that has been a false idolatry, whether it is abnormal loyalty to a political party...
14:01 He says, "Listen, I'm going to bring the focus back.
14:03 You're going to throw this stuff out and you're going to get your eyes back on me.
14:06 I'm getting ready to give you a thing."
14:08 He says, "You're getting ready to see your teachers."
14:10 He says, "You're going to hear a voice.
14:12 The voice that's behind you saying, 'This is the way. Walk in it.'"
14:15 Have you ever been in a place of confusion in your life, not knowing what to do?
14:20 And all of a sudden, a familiar voice from the past...
14:24 It could be a grandmother, a grandfather.
14:26 It could be a mother or a daddy that's in glory now.
14:28 And you'll hear their voice speaking to you, giving you guidance.
14:31 He says, "A voice from behind saying, 'This is the way. Walk in it.'"
14:35 "This is the way. God's going to use this thing. That's why you can't throw the past away."
14:39 "The greatest value of the past, of history, is as a teacher."
14:43 And I'm here to tell you that God will use suffering and affliction.
14:47 He serves the bread of adversity and washes it down with the water of affliction.
14:52 It says God gave it to them. A hard time.
14:55 God gave them a hard time so that they might come to know Him.
14:59 May I say this to you?
15:03 Learning is a gift even when pain is the teacher.
15:06 Learning is a gift even when pain is the teacher.
15:12 And this is why he says you'll hear a voice from behind you saying, "This is the way. Walk in it."
15:17 How often do we simply have to be more reminded than actually instructed?
15:23 You know the way. You have to be reminded of it.
15:26 And that's why the voice comes from behind you saying, "This is the way. Walk in it."
15:31 We have a greater need to be reminded than we do actually to be instructed.
15:35 So he says, "Go back. Go back and listen to it."
15:39 And you'll discover that it is through eating the bread of adversity
15:45 and washing it down with the water of affliction where you learn resilience.
15:51 Resilience does not come from success. Resilience comes from failure.
15:58 You don't become resilient because you've had an easy life.
16:02 You become resilient because you had something that tried to knock you out
16:08 and you got back up.
16:11 I mean it was there to mess you up, but God got you back up.
16:18 Don't give up. Get up. That's what resilience says.
16:22 Don't give up. Get up. Get up. Get up.
16:27 It comes from being knocked down and choosing to get up.
16:32 Choosing to go to battle. Choosing to press on.
16:36 So don't avoid the struggle that God brings into your life.
16:39 Lean into it. Learn from it and get stronger because of it.
16:44 That's the story of resilience.
16:48 And may I say this to you, that when life doesn't make sense,
16:53 you can be sure that God is in the process of giving you a mission
16:58 and a message to give you a deep sense of purpose.
17:02 Let me say that again. When life doesn't make sense,
17:07 you can be sure that God is in the process of giving you a mission
17:10 and a message to give you a deep sense of purpose.
17:18 And one of the reasons that God gives dreams
17:22 and one of the reasons that God gives us vision
17:26 is because he's trying to bring us to an understanding
17:30 of what he desires for us
17:33 so that we can then be guided by that vision as we look back at it.
17:39 Notice the word of the Lord in Habakkuk chapter 2 and verse 2.
17:43 "And the Lord answered me, 'Write the vision and make it plain.'"
17:50 Not confusing, but bring clarity to it.
17:53 "Make it plain on tablets, that he who reads it may run."
17:59 Write the vision and make it plain on tablets.
18:02 Put your vision in writing. If God has given you the vision, put it in writing.
18:05 Put it in writing very clearly of what God is saying.
18:09 And then the next verse, verse 3 in the New Living Translation,
18:13 I like the way it says it. It says, "This vision is for a future time."
18:17 That's why you have to write it so you can look back at it
18:20 because this vision is for a future time.
18:22 It describes the end and it will be fulfilled
18:26 if it seems slow in coming, wait patiently.
18:29 For it will surely take place. It will not be delayed.
18:34 It will not be delayed. The vision is for a particular time.
18:39 And I want you to realize this.
18:42 There is a time to forget former things that have happened,
18:46 but there's also a time to remember things that God has done.
18:50 You should never forget everything.
18:52 I mean, the Lord told them, Isaiah chapter 46, notice verse 9 and 10,
18:57 "Remember the things that I have done in the past."
19:00 You see that? "Remember the things that I have done in the past."
19:05 Don't ever forget what God has done for you in your past.
19:08 He says, "For I alone am God. I am God and there's none like me."
19:12 Notice what he says in verse 10.
19:14 "Only I can tell you the future before it even happens.
19:18 Everything I plan will come to pass for I do whatever I wish."
19:27 God says, "I know," he says, "but don't forget about what I've already done."
19:31 He says, "You better remember when I preserved you in that car accident.
19:34 You better remember the last time that you got sick and I healed you
19:37 and I raised you back up when you thought you were going to die,
19:40 when you thought this is it."
19:42 I mean, when you couldn't see a way and God somehow brought you through a tragedy,
19:47 when you felt like you couldn't go on,
19:49 "This thing devastated me and Lord, how could they, how could he, how could she?"
19:54 And you're wondering, "Can I go on?"
19:56 And yet here you are.
20:03 May I say to you that what happens, what happens, what happens
20:07 when a people and what happens when a culture has no vision from God,
20:13 where they can't see what God has been doing
20:16 and you start smelling yourself because you start thinking,
20:19 "You know, yeah, I've dotted all of my I's and I crossed all of my T's.
20:22 I was smart. I started planning really early in life and I charted out my things.
20:27 I created my vision board and...
20:33 Yeah, right. God is saying, "Yeah, right."
20:36 Because if you really, when you're rooted in reality,
20:38 you realize things don't always go according to your plan.
20:43 It'll rock your world.
20:45 I know when you fell in love with him, you thought that, "Oh, Lord, yes.
20:51 We're going to be, that's my boo. We're going to be together forever.
20:54 Psych!"
20:59 See, you have to have a vision from God.
21:01 Proverbs 29, verse 18 reminds of that and they amplify it.
21:04 It says, "Where there is no vision, no revelation of God and His Word,
21:09 no open revelation, the people are unrestrained."
21:13 Let me break that down for you. Unrestrained means they're but wow.
21:17 They're just wow because they don't have a vision.
21:20 They're not working on anything.
21:21 "But happy and blessed is he who keeps the law of God."
21:25 Listen, the law of God is not a bondage.
21:28 It's not that it, it's like putting you in bondage a bunch of do not, thou shall not, thou shall not.
21:35 You think that it's bondage.
21:37 It is protection for what God loves.
21:41 Parents don't tell their children, "Don't go out into the street and play,"
21:44 because they're trying to punish them.
21:46 He's trying to protect them.
21:48 And so when, when God has some thou shall nots,
21:51 He's not trying to restrict your fun, make it where you can't enjoy yourself.
21:56 You're going to be happy and blessed because He's saying,
21:58 "I'm trying to give you the laws to define for you the areas of safety so you don't get run over,
22:04 so you don't get destroyed and die before your time."
22:07 He says, "I'm trying to do this out of my love for you, not because I'm trying to spoil your fun."
22:14 But I would say this to you, if you don't have any open revelation from God,
22:18 if you don't have a vision, get around somebody who does.
22:22 Vision happens to be contagious.
22:24 If you get around somebody else who's working on something, it'll make you start wanting to work on something.
22:29 If you don't have vision, get around somebody who has vision.
22:33 If you don't have any revelation, get around somebody who has revelation,
22:37 because revelation begets revelation.
22:40 Revelation begets revelation.
22:42 Prophetic people produce other prophetic people.
22:46 So if you can get around it, you'd be surprised how it can get on you.
22:52 And I told you that learning is a gift even when pain is a teacher.
22:57 Many of you may have heard this saying that when the student is ready, the teacher will appear, by Tao Te Ching.
23:03 When the student is ready, the teacher will appear.
23:08 But let me say this to you, that's not the full story, that's not the full quote.
23:12 Here's the full quote.
23:14 When the student is ready, the teacher will appear.
23:18 And when the student is truly ready, the teacher will disappear.
23:23 You know why?
23:30 Because by the time the teacher disappears, tag, you're it.
23:35 Yeah, yeah, yeah, that's why your mom and daddy died, because tag, at some point you're going to become big mama.
23:43 You're going to be it.
23:47 You've had others that were there teaching you.
23:50 Yes, your mentors will die the older that you get.
23:53 Your mentors start dying off. Tag, you're it.
23:56 You're it.
23:59 It is history's testimony saying that I've given you enough time now.
24:05 And you've got enough now.
24:07 And now you start mentoring others.
24:09 Now you'll start coaching others because your coaches will die, your teachers will die.
24:14 They will leave you.
24:16 But when the student is truly ready, the teacher will disappear.
24:22 They will disappear because you become it.
24:25 And you've got to be able to find your audience.
24:28 Who is my audience? Where are my students?
24:31 Who am I supposed to teach now?
24:34 Now the wisdom, the revelation, the understanding that I have, who do I now give it to?
24:40 Now the older that I've gotten, the more gray that I've gotten, the more of my mentors have checked out and have gone on to glory.
24:50 And I'm not just sitting here crying my eyeballs out because the student is truly ready.
24:59 And now I get to have my classroom.
25:04 Thanks for coming to class today.
25:13 We will always need great teachers.
25:16 And if you can read today, thank a teacher.
25:18 Thank a teacher.
25:21 Thank a teacher.
25:22 My goodness, and I just salute teachers today that are in the school systems.
25:28 My God, God bless you.
25:31 You need the Holy Ghost.
25:33 You need wisdom.
25:34 You need a pistol.
25:35 You need a razor blade.
25:37 Thank you, teachers.
25:38 Thank you.
25:40 Please, you are loved and appreciated.
25:42 You are deeply valued.
25:45 I don't know whether you realize how important and how desperately needed that you were until COVID came and they had their bad children at home by themselves.
25:55 They couldn't wait to get them back to you.
25:58 Thank you, teachers.
25:59 Thank you.
26:00 Thank you.
26:01 Thank you.
26:02 Thank you, teachers.
26:04 We celebrate you today.
26:06 All of those of you that are in our educational system, thank you.
26:09 Thank you.
26:10 Thank you for all of those of you that work and serve in education, equipping and capacitating our young people.
26:17 Thank you.
26:18 It's a sacrifice.
26:19 It takes a lot of love, a lot of dedication.
26:21 Listen, people, they're not there for the money.
26:28 You can't even pay me to deal with attitudes.
26:35 But I love something that Pope Francis said.
26:37 He said, "You must not only teach content, but the values and customs of life."
26:45 He says, "There are three things that you must pass on.
26:48 A computer can teach content, but to understand how to love, to understand values and customs which create harmony in society, it takes a good teacher."
27:05 It takes a good teacher.
27:07 I just want to remind you today that where you sit determines what you see and how you think.
27:18 Where you sit determines what you see and how you think.
27:25 Your outlook determines your outcome.
27:29 And that's why I hate to find people that are so negative in their outlook, that everybody is blaming everybody else for how your life is.
27:39 Whoever you blame, you empower.
27:43 Your outlook does determine your outcome.
27:46 Rumi said that where there is ruin, wherever there is ruin, R-U-I-N, there is hope for treasure.
27:56 In every tragedy, there's treasure.
27:58 Have you ever thought about the fact that every time that a ship sinks, there's generally some treasure on that ship?
28:06 Wherever there is ruin, there is also treasure.
28:11 Don't leave the tragedy without the treasure.
28:14 Don't leave the tragedy without the treasure.
28:17 And sometimes the treasure is the lesson that you learn.
28:21 Even if it's hooking up with the wrong person, they taught you the treasure that you bring out of that is that I don't want your kind ever again.
28:36 As you look back over your life, don't leave the tragedies without mining for the treasures that they hold.
28:46 Remember that perspective is what you see as your viewpoint, perspective, but perception is how you interpret what you see, perception.
28:56 The different perspective is what you see.
28:59 Perception is how you interpret what you see.
29:05 And if you ever asked me, how can you elevate your perspective?
29:10 Here's what I would tell you.
29:12 Ephesians chapter 2 and verse 6, for he raised us up.
29:17 He raised us from the dead along with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realm because we are united with Christ Jesus.
29:26 You see, you have to you have to get into that spiritual place of where he has raised us.
29:31 We are raised to sit with him in heavenly places, not for the big head.
29:37 We are raised to sit with him in heavenly places for perspective.
29:42 It is for perspective so that you see things the way that Christ sees them.
29:47 You see it the way that he sees them.
29:49 And so we've got to get in the spirit in order to be lifted up with Christ to be able to see things from his perspective.
29:58 Have you ever heard of people who have had what's called a near death experience?
30:06 Have you ever heard them talk about that near death experience?
30:10 And one of the things that they always talk about is that they see their entire life flash before them in a matter of seconds.
30:18 Their entire life. I always wondered how in the world does that work?
30:22 But they they get a rear view of their life.
30:26 People that have these near death experiences, somehow they get a fast reel showing their life from birth to the point of where they they are.
30:40 And I've often wanted to know how that happens.
30:44 But it's just a rear view of their life that somehow leaves them changed.
30:50 And when they when they come back, they have different priorities and they are restored and then they're able to move forward.
30:58 But it makes them better people because they took that rear view look.
31:03 They had the look from the rear view to see things that have happened in their life that they had perhaps taken for granted.
31:11 And I want you to understand this this principle.
31:14 God is good even when life is not.
31:19 God is good even when life is not.
31:21 When you say that with me, God is good even when life is not.
31:26 Because life has some ugly tragedies.
31:29 Life has some terrible atrocities.
31:31 There are some brutal things of people being molested and raped and and hooked on substance abuse, drugs and alcohol and and incest and all kinds of terrible things that are really ugly.
31:43 But God is good even when life is not.
31:47 God is good even when life is not.
31:52 He's good.
31:54 And so.
31:57 God extends goodness to people who don't deserve it.
32:01 Romans chapter two and verse four. Notice what it says.
32:04 It says, Don't you see how wonderfully kind, tolerant and patient God is with you?
32:11 Does this mean nothing to you?
32:13 Can't you see that his kindness is intended to turn you from your sin?
32:19 It's to lead you to repentance.
32:22 That's why God is good.
32:24 It's not to send you to hell.
32:26 It's to inspire you to turn to him.
32:29 So he's good to people who don't even deserve him.
32:32 God is good to people who don't deserve him.
32:36 He overwhelms them with his kindness and with his patience.
32:40 He's just kind. The goodness of God.
32:44 God does good because he is good.
32:47 It's his nature.
32:49 It's the nature of God.
32:51 And I want you to notice in first John chapter three and verse two.
32:54 Beloved, we are God's children now.
32:57 Now, right now we're his children.
32:59 And what we will be has not yet appeared.
33:01 But we know that when he appears that we shall be like him because we shall see him as he is.
33:07 Here's the principle. You become what you behold.
33:11 You become what you behold.
33:13 And the more we behold Jesus, the more we will be whole.
33:18 The more we behold Jesus, the more we will be whole.
33:24 The more we behold Jesus, the more we will be whole.
33:33 And my question to you is what you are beholding wholesome?
33:39 Is what you are beholding wholesome?
33:42 Beholding includes what you read.
33:45 I mean the blogs, the articles, the books, the commentaries.
33:48 It includes what you look at.
33:51 The movies, the miniseries, the sitcoms, the talk shows.
33:56 Who you are around.
33:59 That's beholding because you see people that are around you.
34:01 Who you are around because you adapt the habits of people that they have.
34:06 You behold them, you see them all tatted up and pierced up.
34:09 There you go. Their hair is blue and pink and yellow and green.
34:12 There you go.
34:13 Who you are around. No, no, it's just, it's not a good or bad thing.
34:17 It's just that you become what you behold.
34:19 Beholding includes what you read, what you look at, who you are around and what you listen to.
34:25 You behold things with your ears.
34:27 Your music, the podcast, the news that you have piping into you, radio program.
34:31 Whatever you are listening to, that's a part of beholding.
34:34 Because it creates a viewpoint.
34:38 And here's what I would say to you.
34:40 That every time you look at the news or a movie or a documentary or a cartoon or a miniseries or a podcast or any TV or internet program.
34:49 You are receiving someone else's perspective or worldview.
34:55 And how does that worldview align with the biblical worldview?
35:00 How does that align with how God sees the world?
35:04 Because everything that you expose yourself to is creating somebody's worldview.
35:10 And it will shift your moods, your attitudes and your values.
35:14 And that's why you have to guard your gates of what you listen to.
35:18 And what you look at.
35:19 And who you are around and what you expose yourself to.
35:22 And what you behold.
35:23 Because if you're going to behold Jesus in a regular pattern, it will help you to behold.
35:32 W-H-O-L-E
35:33 In a wonderful way.
35:35 You know when Jesus was teaching about not worrying about your life and clothes and food and shelter and those kinds of things.
35:43 He told us what to seek instead.
35:47 Matthew chapter 6 verse 33. "But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness."
35:55 And notice this. "And all these things shall be given to you."
36:00 Let me paraphrase that to say it this way.
36:03 That if you seek God and His righteousness, you'll automatically get the other stuff that you wanted.
36:11 It's like asking for the right thing the same way that Solomon did.
36:15 It's almost like, you know how you can get like a basic package and then you can get the bronze and then the silver and then the gold or the premium deluxe.
36:28 Well, when you seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, that's the premium deluxe package.
36:38 And it has all of the things that the basic has, all of the things that the bronze and the silver have.
36:45 All of that's in the super deluxe package.
36:48 So if you get the higher, everything that's underneath that is also included.
36:56 So he's saying ask for the right thing. Seek first the kingdom of God.
36:59 Aim in the right perspective because you'll have to be able to understand that everything is about some kind of viewpoint one way or another.
37:09 It's about a viewpoint. And I want you to think about this.
37:13 Here's the thing I want you to think about.
37:16 Think about the difference in the viewpoint between a giraffe and a turtle.
37:24 They can be in the same world, but the giraffe with his long neck, he's designed to hold his neck up.
37:35 Do you know that if the giraffe spends his time bending down, too much of the blood will rush to its brain, causing him to have some serious physical maladies?
37:48 And when he tries to raise back up, he'll be dizzy and nearly fall out. You know, we get that way when we get a certain age.
37:57 But the giraffe is not designed to be bent over, picking up stuff off the ground.
38:02 In fact, that long necks helped it with some female adaptation over a long period of time because they were foraging for food in the trees and tall, tall bushes where other things couldn't get.
38:15 So they keep their heads in a heavenward position because their blood would rush when you get a low vision.
38:21 And some of you are designed to be giraffes. You weren't designed to be like a turtle who walks around.
38:29 And the only thing that they are seeing is different blades of grass, the little tiny thing.
38:33 Everything looks dirty for them. But the giraffe, they got they got the top.
38:38 They got a penthouse view. They got a panoramic view. They can turn and and they're looking.
38:45 And so they begin to see some stuff over there that you can't even see.
38:49 And here you are complaining about how hard life is. The giraffe is already able to see that this is just a little rough patch right here.
38:56 And if we walk through this and trust them, I can get over there because there's a food that's over there because they've got they've got a perspective.
39:04 Their perspective is different. They're both got to eat. But based on their perspective and where their head space is, they keep their head in a good space.
39:15 And so as we are seated with him in heavenly places in Christ Jesus, he allows us to be able to see not only the good times, but also the bad times.
39:25 And then we realize this light affliction is but for a moment.
39:30 I know it feels like it's forever, but see, that's based on a divine, heavenly perspective.
39:35 That's the giraffe's perspective that if you just get over this little rough patch, because if you've ever been out on a trail, if you've ever been hiking and you're going up a hill, it feels like this hill will never end.
39:46 And I mean, I'm just pulling a heel for 30 minutes and I'm like, dog, shoot, I ought to be going downhill where I can catch my breath now.
39:53 But if I've got the perspective and I understand that if I just go because I keep trying to ask myself, how much more do I have to keep climbing before I can go on a decline and catch my breath?
40:05 I want to be able to see, am I going to get to the zenith of this thing, to the apex of this mountain?
40:10 I'm hungry for the perspective that this is about to give me.
40:14 And I just want you to understand that he has seated us in heavenly places in Christ Jesus, and he wants us to get a rear view.
40:22 Because what God gave Moses was a unique opportunity that he's never given another human being, which was to stick his head through the veil and to see the God who was, who is, and who is to come.
40:39 And sometimes that's what the prophet does. I've been privileged to be able to put my head through the veil and see things that are to come that other people don't understand anything about.
40:50 But because he allows me to step into that God is eternal, and so there is no past, present, and future.
40:58 All of it is God. He's the God who was, is, and is to come. He's got all of it wrapped up.
41:03 And so while you're crying over this, God says, "I already see that over there." And the perspective shifts how I feel. It shifts my emotion.
41:11 It shifts my faith. It shifts my believing. It shifts my encouragement.
41:16 It empowers my hope because I'm able to see something that others can't see.
41:21 But here he allowed Moses to put his head through the curtain and take a look back and see God creating the beauty of the glory of the earth.
41:32 And aligning the moon to be 186,000 miles away from the earth and having the stars to be flung out there and to separate the waters above from the waters beneath where he spat out the seven seas.
41:45 Moses has a different view of this. He wasn't alive during that time to see it, but God gave him a rear view.
41:52 And when you walk with God, God will give you an understanding about stuff that happened before you got here.
41:58 You might wonder why your mama was this way or your daddy was this way. It is because you don't understand what happened to them.
42:05 But there's a story behind it, and I'm declaring to you that if you will trust God that there is an incredible story.
42:12 It's not your story. It is his story. It is the goodness of the grace of God of what God has done in my life.
42:19 It's not look at where I am right now. Look at where I am right now. No, no, no.
42:24 It's look at what God has done in me. Look at the grace that he's brought in me.
42:28 Look at the compassion that he's developed in me. Look at the love that he developed in me.
42:33 Look at the patience that he developed in me. Look at the understanding that he had developed in me.
42:37 Look at his what he birthed in me, the ability to see the very thing that hurt my life and that almost destroyed me
42:44 so that I can be a guiding light and become a teacher to somebody else.
42:48 He says, listen, I want you to understand that I was working on something and I was building a consciousness and a mindset in you
42:57 so that you would understand your mission and your message. This is about look at what the Lord has done.
43:04 It is marvelous in our eyes. And unless you have a review, you won't know what he has already done.
43:13 He's already equipped you for every challenge that you'll ever face in your future.
43:17 He's already built you for the journey that is ahead. He's built you for the coldness.
43:22 He's built you for the heat. He's built you for the mountain.
43:25 He's built you for everything that you have to deal with in this life.
43:30 If you just look back, by God, something will begin to explode on the inside of you.
43:36 And you will realize I am built for this. I am engineered for excellence.
43:42 His hand is upon me and I can make it. I can make it. I can make it.
43:56 I hope you got something out of the word of the Lord today. I really do.
44:02 I hope you got a little something out of it.
44:05 And I pray that God will hide you in the cleft of the rock and give you an understanding about why you had to go through what you went through.
44:17 Because it is only Shafr-e-Begoska that's Itrivisko Shafrades Mansh-e-Liviko-Basa.
44:26 When you look back, you'll be able to connect the dots that only look like random spots.
44:34 But when you see the spots in an order and connect it to purpose, you will see and know what I was doing.
44:42 And peace will come into your soul and you'll rise up with strength and be able to teach others and say this is the way.
44:51 Walk in it, says the Lord.
44:54 Hallelujah to the Lamb. Hallelujah to the Lamb of God.
44:59 Hallelujah to the Lamb. Hallelujah to the Lamb.
45:03 God's gonna connect the dots. God is gonna connect the dots.
45:07 He's gonna connect the dots for you. I declare to you, He's gonna connect the dots.
45:12 Every time that you had a failure, it was sharpening your discernment.
45:16 Every time you got with the wrong person, your discernment was sharpening, sharpening, sharpening.
45:23 It was showing you what you didn't want. It was showing you what you did want.
45:27 It was showing you what you really value and what you really appreciate.
45:30 God was up to something.
45:32 It was to say it wasn't about you.
45:35 Take God's glory off of you.
45:38 If you take God's grace away from you, we're just like anybody else.
45:43 We're hopeless and helpless without the hand of God in our life.
45:47 My God, where would we be without His goodness?
45:51 But God had a purpose.
45:54 Nothing ever surprises God.
45:56 He sees it and He looks down and says, "I can trust them with this struggle."
46:03 It'll hurt them but it won't destroy them.
46:06 It'll bring a tenderness in them and a compassion and a mercy.
46:10 And I'm gonna use them to be able to heal what hurt them.
46:15 I'll use them. Their story will bring healing to others.
46:19 And it's not really your story, it's His story in your life.
46:22 It's just His story in your life.
46:26 Your story is for His glory.
46:29 The His story, His story, it is seeing where the hand of God
46:35 covets you through stuff that could have ruined you.
46:40 It could have destroyed you with disease and prison and poverty.
46:47 He could have destroyed you but the hand of God.
46:50 But God! But God! But God! But God! But God!
47:01 Where would you be? How would your family have been?
47:04 But God! But God! But God! But God! But God! But God!
47:11 I pray that there comes a hunger in the people of God
47:14 where God's people will begin to have a deep longing on the inside of me
47:18 and once again crying out and saying, "God, show me your glory!"
47:23 "Show me your glory!" "Show me your glory!" "Show me your glory!"
47:27 Because no matter how bad it looks, no matter how difficult the journey,
47:33 no matter how steep the mountain, there's glory in the journey.
47:38 No matter how much attack you've dealt with, there is glory in the journey.
47:43 No matter how much of the bread of adversity and the water of affliction
47:46 that you've dealt with, there's glory in the journey.
47:49 No matter how long you've been delayed on this journey, there is glory.
47:53 He says, "Write the vision." It is for an appointed time.
47:56 Though it tarry, though it's delaying, He says, "Wait for it. Wait for it."
48:01 God says, "I'm working on something. I'm working on something. I'm working on something."
48:06 I don't know about you but I believe that I'll run on and see what the end is going to be.
48:10 Yerre babashikan. I'm just here to remind you today that the latter end is going to be better than the earlier day.
48:17 He's going to cause you to be finishing up.
48:19 Moses finished on a mountain. He didn't finish in the valley.
48:23 God didn't leave him in a low place.
48:25 And I'm just here to tell you today that He's trying to get you into position
48:29 to put you in a high place so that you're not left broke, busted, and disgusted.
48:35 He's going to leave you with a mountain view so you'll be able to look back over your life
48:41 and think about the goodness of Jesus and everything that He has done for you
48:46 and celebrate Him and give Him glory and honor and majesty and dominion.
48:53 If you will give Him the glory, can He trust you with the glory in your life?
49:01 [music]
49:03 I don't know about you but I'm glad I came to the house of the Lord today.
49:16 But more importantly, I am glad that He is here.
49:19 I'm glad that He said His word.
49:22 This is not something that came out of my imagination.
49:26 There's glory, there's glory, there's glory. No matter how bad it looks, there is glory.
49:31 Don't you dare stop until you get to the glory.
49:34 The glory is there. Let Him connect the dots for you.
49:38 I know that there are some things that you're dealing with and you don't understand
49:41 why I've gone through this and why this and why don't I understand,
49:45 why doesn't this make sense to me yet? Just hang on, hang on.
49:48 Hang on, God's up to something.
49:51 All is just one line from one dot to another and all of a sudden,
49:55 voila, the image emerges.
49:59 Now you will see why I had to go through this.
50:03 Now you'll understand why this had to happen and why I had to close that door so that I could open this one.
50:09 And why I had to get you off of this rope so you could grab hold of this one
50:14 to propel you to the next thing because life is a journey.
50:17 You can't go and propel yourself forward if you've fallen in love with your history.
50:23 And you're holding on to the handlebars, the monkey bars that were behind you.
50:27 There's one before you, reaching before so I can let go of this,
50:32 to grab hold of this, to manifest the glory that God has.
50:36 Because He's got a mountain that you're supposed to end up on.
50:41 Everything that God does, He does from a mountain.
50:45 Jesus left from a mountain and it is the Mount of Olives where the Bible says
50:51 says that he will set his foot to return he started on a mountain and he's coming
50:56 back to a mountain and I just remind you today that if you're in a low place hold
51:01 on
51:03 it's not what it looks like and it's not going in like this God's got a story
51:11 God's got a story God's got a story God's got a story some of you are
51:20 upset because your children didn't turn out right
51:25 do you know that male ants have no father the mother lays an egg a male ant
51:39 is the result of an unfertilized seed all of the fertilized ones are female so
51:50 ants don't have a daddy but yet ants though they have no son they can have
51:59 grandsons I can't explain it to you science tells us that the same is true
52:09 with bees and wasps they have no father but yet they can be grandfathers because
52:17 the male only has one set of chromosomes one set the female has two so the male
52:25 can release fertilize an egg that becomes a female and she can give birth
52:32 to a son and yet had no husband there was no father so he can be a granddad
52:40 and not even having a dad it speaks a bit of the mystery of God of how
52:49 something that may not have panned out through your son or daughter then God
52:54 says I'll do it through your grandchild if I have to skip a generation in which
52:59 he has done in history don't think that God will allow a foolish son or a
53:04 foolish daughter to stop the handiwork of God in the earth I pray that you hear
53:10 me and there's only because I've lived long enough sometimes to see generations
53:15 and what happened in one generation that wasn't fulfilled and they thought they
53:21 would disgust it and they were angry with God but it's because they didn't
53:25 have the perspective of time and they couldn't see that God had a plan and
53:32 he's got something in the seed that'll come down through the vista of time
53:40 and be able to touch and sometimes your seed happens because you share what you
53:46 know with people that don't even share your DNA and that's why the mother of
53:54 the desolate has more children than the natural mothers that give birth to their
53:59 own I'm just here to tell you God's up to something sometimes he's trying to
54:07 expand your world when you think that he has narrowed you and restricted you
54:11 restriction causes creativity and there's something that God is working in
54:18 and I just dare you to just ask God God show me your glory show me your glory
54:26 you don't have to ask to see heaven if you just ask for glory God will show
54:31 glory he prophesied in Isaiah and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed and
54:39 all flesh shall see it together for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it it's my
54:48 heart's cry God show us your glory I've been in an atmosphere I was in
54:55 Montgomery Alabama in Birmingham Alabama a few years ago
55:01 it was an arena filled with 11,000 people there were probably 25 wheelchairs
55:08 that were there and I saw the glory of God come in like a cloud manifested
55:13 rolled in the building the cloud rolled over the wheelchair section and I watched
55:20 17 people get up and walk out of their wheelchairs and nobody prayed for them
55:23 nobody laid hands on them
55:26 if you ever see the glory I thought I was the only one seeing the glory and I
55:37 heard a lady scream out from across the arena she screamed at the top of her
55:42 lungs and said I see the glory the glory is the manifest presence of God if we
55:51 can ever get God's glory back in our homes in our school systems if we can
55:57 get God's glory in our workplace if we can ever see the glory of God things
56:03 begin to shift and to change just by beholding his glory and I want you to
56:11 understand that we are carriers of his glory and producers of his glory because
56:16 he's Christ in you the hope of glory God show me your glory I just pray that that
56:26 becomes a cry of your own heart God show me your glory we hope that you enjoyed
56:36 that message don't forget to Like and subscribe and then press the notification
56:42 bell so that you don't miss another one of our videos and if you want to
56:45 partner with us click the give now button thank you for what you do