One of my favourite verses is found in Deuteronomy, where the Holy Ghost declares concerning Israel that he brought them out, in order to bring them in.

“And he brought us out from thence, that he might bring us in” (Deuteronomy 6:23 KJV)

Yes, He brought them out, but the purpose was not just to deliver them from bondage and futility, it was in order to BRING THEM IN.

Sometimes we can focus so much on the desert that we forget to look and remember that we were made for the promise.

We will generally move towards the things that are biggest in the frame of our imagination.

https://davidleemartin.com/from-and-for/

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Well, praise God a little later today, trying to do too many things well, not trying, actually doing and maybe not even too many things, just necessary things. So I’m here with, like, a whole day’s work kind of piling up. But, you know, having committed to do something, having committed I mean, like you can even see the shave is undone, etc, etc., but Jesus is still on the throne. And, you know, this morning, as I was, I actually we’ve got a cross trainer here at home.

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So I spent some time on the cross trainer this morning. And as I was doing that, I was dictating a an article around some thoughts that I had. And I, to be honest, dictating it was maybe a mistake on the cross trainer, because by the time I actually got the transcription back from the dictation programme, it was a bit of a confused mess. So I would have probably been better off just waiting and sitting down, typing this thing out.

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But I was reminded of a quote I heard by Thomas Edison and he said that genius is one percent inspiration and 99 percent perspiration. And sometimes it can feel like that, I think. But I’m not sure I entirely agree with them. I know a lot of people who are perspiring a lot, but still seeing kind of negligible results. They’re working really hard, but really it’s not bearing the kind of fruit that they’d hoped. I’ve been there. I’ve been there.

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I know what it feels like, you know, and just, you know, hard work alone. Yeah. Without an infusion of grace can feel like such a grind. We need both, you know, Grace and works, work together to produce wonder to produce something wonderful. You know, you can’t really you can’t really take one without the other. You know, the Book of James is such a great book to me. And it talks about the importance of really putting feet to your faith, not just saying, oh, we’ve got this grace that we talk about Grace, realistically, you know, and scripturally talks about being empowered to fulfil what God has called you to do.

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Okay. And today I want to talk about from and for, you know, real sweat and labour and striving apart from faith and grace really came as a result of the fall. And so we need to understand that, you know, this idea that just working harder and harder and doing more and more is not really the answer that we’re seeking. It’s there’s something to be found in this connexion that we have with Christ that begins to bear fruit, that’s something, you know, that that that productivity that we desire, the results that we’re looking for, the the satisfaction that we’re seeking is going to be found when we’re rooted in him, when we discover the depth that the deeper places of our relationship with him and kind of step away from hustle and step toward hearing.

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Not just Hussle, but hearing hearing him speak and direct us. But having said all of that, some people kind of get the balance, like, totally out of whack on the other side of things, because the Bible does say he declares that we are saved from dead works, dead fruitless works that really kind of yield no lasting satisfaction. But it doesn’t stop there. It says that we were saved for good works. We were safe from for us.

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Save from for you were saved before you. Are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus for good work, said he is preordained, planned and set forth for you to walk in such a powerful, powerful truth and such a powerful reality. And those works are going to be comfortable for you. You know, they’re created for you. They’re not you’re not stepping into somebody else’s mould and having to then figure out how do I operate in this? You know, the works of God are going to fit like a glove.

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They’re custom made for you. And I believe that that’s the kind of comfort and rest that he wants to walking not not by earthly standards, not according to earthly measure. But there is a spiritual place where we cease from our own works and we step into the works that he is prepared and and planned and set out for us to walk in. And those good works are going to look different for each one of us. You know, that’s why we can’t just go chasing after everything everyone else is doing.

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And although we can learn from others, although we can glean from others, although we can grow from our relationship with others, and I believe we should be we should be lifelong learners. And the truth is, at the end of the day, as the scriptures say in one, John, you do not need that any man teach you because you have an unction from the holy one and he dwells in you. You know, you’ve got that this open invitation to move into a deeper place of communion with the Holy Spirit, where he will lead you both in your personal life, your spiritual life, your your family life, your business life.

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He is there to help you and infuse you and imbibe you with a wisdom not of this world. And, you know, one of the most profitable ways, I think, to look at the scriptures and the promise of this, the promises in the scriptures is to understand that we don’t is not to get so hooked on what we are saved from, but to concentrate on what we are saved for. You know, some people like out by the cross, and I can understand it.

00:06:58.930]
The cross is a great mystery. The cross is the pivotal moment in all of history. I get that. You know, I don’t want to displace. It’s important, it’s importance. But let’s face it, Jesus did not stay on the cross, nor did he stay in the grave. He rose again and ascended to sit at the right hand of the father so he could be the the the steward and the high priest of our confession. He he wants to be the high priest, the one who brings the offering of your lips before the father so the father can accomplish what you declare.

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Now, there is a powerful statement for you. You know, and the interesting thing is, even with Jesus and he had every reason to look at what he was going to the cross to save the world from, he bled like he sweated blood in with with the sheer thought of it. But what we read in scriptures in Hebrews 12 US two is that. Oh, let me just pull this in here. That we are to look into Jesus, the author and the finisher of our faith, who, for the joy that was set before him, endured the cross, he was looking at the joy that was beyond the shame he was looking at, the joy that was beyond the labour.

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He was looking at the joy beyond the finished work every day emption. He was looking at the joy that was set before him. And you were part of that joy. He looked toward he looked toward the promise, he looked toward the reason for what he why he was doing it and he looked toward the result. You know, there’s a similar verse that we find in Deuteronomy. This is actually another one. You can you’re kind of guessing now.

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I’ve got a lot lots of favourites. Yeah. This is such a great verse and and has so much to to bring to us. It says of Israel. It says he brought us out from there or in good old King James. He brought us out from sense that he might bring us in. And, you know, he brought them out. To bring them in, that he might bring them in and he has done the same for us, he’s brought us out to bring us in, his focus was not so much on delivering them from the bondage and futility of the desert and slavery, his eye, his focus, his what he had framed and was looking at and what was filling the vista of his imagination, was that what he was bringing them into?

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What he is bringing you into. You know, sometimes we can focus so much on the desert, sometimes we can focus so much on the problem, sometimes we can focus so much on the mountain that kind of blots out the horizon. We don’t see anything else. But you know, Jesus, even there, speaking of being the high priest of confession, speaking of utilising the authority of a faithful hard and it connected mouth, told us how to deal with those things that stand as obstacles in the way toward fulfilment and fullness and satisfaction.

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And he said. And speaking from there in the context of faith, he said, speak to the mountain, be that removed. He didn’t say speak about the mountain. He didn’t say get with your friends or call your friends up or jump on a Zoome call and talk for an hour about the mountain. He said, speak to the mountain and tell it what to do. Tell it where to go in in like savoury terms. Just just tell it where to go.

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Speak to it, not about it. And then again, you know, sometimes we have these problems or obstacles that we see in the road to us walking in fullness, out ahead of us, outside of us, but then we encounter and I think that this is probably even more challenging at times, certainly for me, is that we encounter inward obstacles, all of the all of those big boulders of self-doubt and insecurity and fear and confusion and whatever else wants to weigh you down.

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You know, all of that shame that sometimes tries to clothe us and and that we carry on our back. Man, I’m telling you, Jesus told us how to deal with that as well. And he said he said and it’s really the same picture as as he when he spoke about the mountain. But this time he spoke about it like a tree that’s rooted into the ground. And sometimes these things that that afflict us inwardly can feel like they’re rooted in.

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They’ve taken root within us rejection, fear, insecurity, shame or whatever, rooted into our emotional makeup, rooted into our hard rooted into our soul. And he said, speak to that thing, tell it to be pulled up by the roots and thrown into the deepest ocean, never to be seen again. Your mouth. Is an instrument. Your mouth is the instrument of your own deliverance. Jesus, again, speaking of words, he speaks about them all the time, I mean, if you have not done a thorough study on the power of your words, you must read, it is absolutely fundamental to the life of faith.

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And he in Matthew, Chapter 12, he said, from the abundance of the heart, the mouth will speak. From the abundance, from what fills the heart, the mouth will speak and from a good heart, a good heart and good words bring forth good things. They actually birth things. And like an evil heart, a heart filled with with darkness is going to bring forth after its own kind. And I often think of the words that come from our mouths being like a magnet and but but the picture doesn’t quite work because we’re the natural magnet.

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The positive and negative attract each other. It’s the opposite in this in this this world of words, positive words are act like a magnet to bring positive things to your life. The good mouth brings forth good things, the good mouth cause for good to come and be manifest in your in your life, in your family, in your business. And bad words, negative words when they come up from the inner man and and and spill forth from the mouth and go out there in the atmosphere, they’re like they’re like little drones that go out, the words that come out of your mouth, like little drones that go out and seek out the very thing that you have spoken for, good or for evil, for good or for bad.

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You know, the principal. I have faith the principle of how words work in the spirit world, man, they are in many ways, you know, that they just do their job. They will go out and they will do a service to you according to what you request. And I just want to encourage you men request the right things. If you’re putting in an order, yeah, order the right thing. Order the right thing. And in the conversation this morning.

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With the Holy Spirit, he jumped in the driving seat and just began to speak to me afresh about some fundamentals, one of which was words. And the other, I mean, honestly, I honestly think I must have that, like the memory of a goldfish, because it seems that God has to come like time and again and remind me of the the like the elementary basics of this life of faith that we have chosen to embark upon. That’s like a like I’ve been in it for decades now.

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And still these these fundamentals just never cease to excite my heart. And I never and I find myself never in a place where I don’t need to hear them afresh. And he spoke to me and continued to speak to me about the incredible love that he has for us. You know, the chief, the first the fundamental the absolute basis of everything that we do think that we are. The inception of every creative endeavour and project and and mission that we have in life is love.

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Because God is love, it’s not something he has, it’s not something he does, it’s not something he gives to all of those are true, but it goes beyond that. He is love. And this discovery, this I see like like were pioneer people, like just pressing of constantly day after day, pressing into the frontiers of this beautiful, amazing relationship that we’ve been invited into. You’ve been invited in to a relationship with a God who himself has declared that he is love.

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It is limitless. There’s no boundary to it, there’s no frontier to it, you will never, ever come to the end of it. I mean, like like that there’s a love man. You can discover something like yesterday, today, this very second, a week from now, 10 years from now, ten millennia from now, you will still be discovering more of the love of God. And the Bible says he’s the beginning in the end and everything in between.

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And wherever we go, we will discover him, we will discover more of him if we will allow him. To lead us. We’re told that the Holy Spirit has been sent to teach us to abide in this love. To abide in this anointing this to abide in the person. Of Christ, I mean, like Paul. Like, if there is a like a mind blowing emoji that probably is there, now is the time to, like, hit mind blown emoji.

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And my encouragement to you today. Is to just take this wonderful word of identity, because the scriptures say that you are his beloved. And there’s only one response. To that declaration that God has made over you, that you are his beloved, there’s only one response you can make and that is to be loved. Well, thanks for listening, hopefully it’s been an encouragement to you today, if you want to connect any further, you can do so through my website at Davidleemartin.com.

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Have a great day.