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So I did a video on Benny Hen, um, a very strong worded, uh, exposure of Benny Hen. And that this is going to be an update on that. I don't actually plan on talking about this very much, um, but I'm going to do it a little bit today to give you guys a quick update because I need to clear the air on something. Let me grab my little clicker. So the first question for today is kind of what's the update on this Benny Hinn situation? Um, let me give you guys the details, if you don't know. In fact, I'll link it down below later. But I did a video on Binny Hinn. It's a four hour video. It's an exposure of 30 years of spiritual deception. It's very serious, it's very real. It is not entertainment. It is meant to expose what I believe is some pretty, pretty bad, really super duper bad stuff. Like how do I use, uh, you know, the right words here to explain it? You guys should just watch the video. If you haven't seen it yet, at least I would suggest you watch it if you want to not only deal with Benny Hinn and his continuing influence, massive influence in the world right now, but also to help others.

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Because what happens is this, you'll watch this Benny Hinn video and then you'll be, hopefully if I did a good job with it, you'll be equipped to deal with the same shenanigans that you might see in any other preacher, teacher or leader who is doing things that they should not be doing in the name of Christ. Alright, so here's the first piece of the update. Um, on this video that came out Monday, I got immediately a copyright claim. And this copyright claim was sent in from, ah, the Jesus image church, which is, and the church that is run by Benny Hinn, son in law and daughter. So Michael and Jessica Kulianos, I believe their name is pronounced and they didn't personally file the claim. Most likely what happened is they put up a lot of their, their YouTube channel which has like well over a million subscribers. They put out a lot of content that's music related. So they, it looks like they hire a service to automatically copyright claim anything that matches their content. Well, I had used a clip, 30 ah, 5 seconds is what they claimed of my video, my four hour video. I used a clip from a conference type thing that they did. There's no music in it. In the copyright claim they, they imply that this was music and they were taking claim of it. And I would have let it slide. But here's why I didn't. Um, this happened with the Joel Osteen video. Joel Osteen did a copyright claim. His organization did a copyright claim on a video I did on Joel Osteen. And they claimed it and said, we just want the money from it. And I thought that was funny, so I let it go and I said, yeah, that's, that's funny. You can have it. That's exactly the problem. You can have the money. Um, I don't care. Uh, so any, any monetization that came in, it went to them for seven months. And then after seven months, I had let this copyright claim sit uncontested for all those months. And then they, they go onto the back end of YouTube. And for reasons I won't explain on a live stream, somebody, let's just say somebody in Joel Osteen's ministry got bothered by my video, and they went in and they changed the copyright claim from claiming monetization to claiming, we own this content, he can't use it. And the video went down off the Internet. And that caused a bunch of stuff to happen. Long, uh, story short, I had to basically lose that video on the Internet and then create this chopped up, messed up version of it. At any rate, I didn't want that to happen with this claim. So I fought it immediately fought it, and I didn't get a response right away from them. And so I reached out to them. I called the Jesus image church, and nobody called me back. I also, that same day, I posted on social media that they had filed a copyright claim because I thought, I'm not going to, like, let this just slide. At any point, they could pull the video down, and I would consider that an abuse of a copyright system. But I'm not trying to dodge YouTube's copyright stuff, abusing the copyright system to avoid legally protected fair use. Because what I did, unlike with the Osteen video, where I use so much of his one sermon, I used, like 90% of it. I'm using just clips, right? I'm very, very much safely within fair use here.

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But here's the reason why I'm updating you. Um, a few days have gone by and I just got word. I think it was yesterday morning they dropped the copyright claim. So the, the Benny Hinn video is currently has no claims against it. That could happen in the future. I really don't know. I mean, I use a lot of their footage from different places, and Benny Hinn could file a false copyright claim. He could. The way that YouTube's copyright system is set up. You can file false claims and it can be a headache for people. So that may happen in the future. Um, but Jesus, image that particular group without still, they haven't contacted me or reached out to me, responded to me, but they did drop the claim. So that's good. I'm happy to, I'm happy to see that. Um, I hope that this helps them. My hope long term for people like in Benny Hinn's family, uh, who feel like they really love Benny Hinn, who look up to him as a mentor, my hope is that even though they get mad at me in the short term, that in the long term they'll be like, you know, he had some pretty valid points and at least they won't allow his issues to keep spilling over into their own ministries, that they can sort of cut off the mold before it keeps growing. I don't know how else to describe it. So that copyright claim stuff, it's going great, okay, it's been resolved, I don't have to deal with that and I'll move on to, the next thing I'll say is, here's how it's going. Since I did the Binihan video, um, I'm surprised at how big the response has been. You never really know for sure when you're putting up content. Um, in hindsight you're always like, of course it would be that response, but when you're doing it, you just don't really know for sure. It's, it's done really, really well. In like a few days. It's got well over a 300,000, 300,000 views, uh, reach, which is fantastic for helping influence people. And here's, here's what excites me. There's people in Africa and Vietnam who I see messaging and saying that this is opening their eyes, helping them and their worry because he, he's having, Benny has, having this massive impact in Africa and these other countries and that's part of who I was really worried about and caring about. And I know I have a significant number of people who watch my content in South Africa. So I thought if I made this video, it would hopefully reach people and spread to those who need it. So that seems to be happening and I'm very grateful for that. Other people are making video content response to it and that's awesome because, and um, I'm not going to file copyright claims on anybody who uses my content to help spread the message if it's with good motives. I'm not going to ever have a problem with that. Um.

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Uh, the other thing is that there's so much more that I haven't covered with Benny Hinn. I didn't talk about the alleged, uh, affair with Paula White. I didn't get into any of that, nor did I look into it enough to talk about it. I didn't talk about, for instance, Benny Hinn predicting that Jesus would return, the second coming would happen in 2048. He predicted that just a few years ago, in 2020, he said it. Um, I have a link down below to a video where he does that. I've never heard anybody talk about that. It's just something I discovered in my research, didn't include it in my video. There's all kinds of stuff like that. Here's the reason why I'm saying this. I hope others will continue carrying forward these issues by either sharing the content or cutting clips of the video that I made. Stuff that you find useful, sharing that, sharing, um, the original video, of course, and perhaps finding other things. Not because I want to create like an all out war against spinning Hint, rather, here's the two reasons. There are people that he's victimizing. I want to protect them and keep the next victim from happening. And also there are non believers who are looking on and they think that Benny Hinn's the face of Christianity, especially in other countries outside the US, where he's. Because in the US, people thought that in the nineties, right, in the early two thousands, maybe not as much now, but in other countries, that that's what they're thinking, right. He was invited by the president of, uh, Kenya to head out there and do this big thing. They put billboards of him, government sponsored and paid for the stadium and the event and billboards to go up. So Benny Hinn could be up everywhere. Yeah, that's a big deal. This just happened, so. And they're looking to make it happen more. So I want to help spread the word. The reason why I say all this is because I don't intend to be the guy continuing to spread the word. Uh, my ministry is not like the anti bini Hin ministry. I did this because of all the reasons I stated in my original video I made about it. But I don't intend to keep doing over and over content on this. If you're asking me like, Mike, who are you going to do next? Is it creflo dollar? Are you going to do, uh, tD Jakes? Are you going to do a thing on, you know, you name it, fill in the blank. I don't intend anything. Right now I have a whole workload of things I need to get to. I'm doing a bunch of research and study on theology and the theology in relation to Jesus and his teachings and his mission and all that. That's, it's not exciting, like a Benny Hinn expose, but it's way more important and more relevant for people's actual lives. So I'm going to be focusing on that stuff. I hope others will carry it forward. I think the one video I did, I put enough work into it that it can have a life of its own. Hopefully that's my intention. Um, so who will I do next? Nobody. That's not my main focus. Not that that's always wrong. There are ministries who do. They just pick a teacher who's really problematic, they do a video on them, then they do another one. And that is not inherently wrong. I'm not one of those who thinks that if you have a discernment ministry, you can call it that. That. That's inherently wrong. But I, so I don't come against all discernment ministries, and I don't think that we, I don't think I have a warrant for doing that. I think that discernment ministry is just what it says it can be. Discernment ministry. Right. When, when you do like, for instance, a ministry that fights cults and that's their main focus, is they just deal with Mormonism and they deal with Jehovah's Witnesses. That's beautiful ministry. What if they fight somebody who's a false teacher, who doesn't have the label of cult, but they are in fact, a false teacher and they're within sort of mainstream, evangelical, at least adjacent views? Um, then I think that that is, in fact, a ministry. There's nothing wrong with that. But it's not my ministry, it's not my focus. However, I'll say this. Here's part of the update. Um, I find myself being in a tug of war, unintentionally, between those who want, um, to do, like, discernment ministry stuff, and that's their main focus. And then those on the other end who think that all those people are basically just problem causers. And I don't really want to be in that tug of war where I have to sort of like, pick sides here. I think that it's great if you have a ministry and all you ever do is teach the word and you never name names, and that's fine. Maybe that's not your thing. Maybe that's all you do is name names, and that's fine. But whatever you do, I hope you do it well. I hope you do it well, because there is such a thing as discernment ministry that is not discerning at all. That just labels everybody a heretic, and everybody's an example of this. And I'm gonna be. I'm gonna be honest, or I'll name a name. Here is a guy. Ah, real talk with Jordan Reilly. Like, there's an example of a discernment ministry that lacks discernment. Um, you can see some of his content. I don't even have to spell it out for you. He'll probably make a video about me now, again.

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But his accusations towards me personally, they're not true. They're actually. It's not like I would defend myself. I just say, like, you're just saying things that aren't true about me, so I can't defend myself because it's just not true. Right? The, um, Bible thumping wing nut group, they did the same thing to me as well. I'm not really looking to defend myself here. Um, you guys can watch. Those of you who know my content, you'll watch their stuff and be like, this is bogus. You're not representing him accurately. If they do it to me, they probably do it to others is what I'm suggesting. There's probably times where these guys I've just named make a video, and it's spot on. And it's like, that was totally right on. You have correctly identified problems with a bad teacher. And there's other times where it's like, oh, you really threw that guy into the bus, and you totally distorted what he actually teaches, and you're just not that discerning. That's the problem with your discernment ministry. It's not too much discernment. It's too little. It's possible to do discernment ministry wrong, okay? And there are people who do this, and some of them are just really out there, weird. Others are just a mixed bag. You know, maybe I'd click on a, uh, Jordan Riley video and go, wow, that was great. He really brought justice there. That was right. And the next time I click and go, oh, man, you just. You totally. You totally just misled your audience about this teacher because you just have a beef with them. I guess. I don't really know what your motive is, but you're inaccurate. So we do have to be wise. We do have to be careful. Those who have discernment ministry or do discernment ministry must always discern themselves first. The most Jesus warning is we should not take it lightly at all. Where he says, first pull the plank out of your own eye. Then you'll see clearly to remove the speck from your brother's eye. Where Galatians, it tells us in Galatians six. Six. Before you go to correct your brother, consider yourself, lest you also be tempted. Do it. Do it with the right spirit, the right attitude. Um, there are times to call out danger, uh, wolf. But there's also times to simply say, hey, here's an area where I think this person needs growth, or this ministry needs growth, or I just disagree, and we have to have all those nuances and figure it out. If you're going to do discernment ministry, you've got to be aware of that kind of stuff. Um, so, yeah, like, I get those. Before I go to your guys questions here, I'll just say this. Finally, I get those who are bothered by the idea of discernment ministry. I am a target of that, of the negative side of that as well. So I fully understand it. But we can't just throw it out whole hog. We can't just toss the whole thing out, because there is a need for dealing with these issues. Jeremiah, in the book of Jeremiah, he totally, completely confronted specific false prophets.

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There's times where Jesus, he like to the faces of these guys, these false teachers, he calls out their false teaching and embarrasses them in front of everybody. There's times where that happens in the scriptures. It's not like naming names or giving details is inherently wrong. It just takes wisdom. It just takes wisdom. Jesus says wisdom is justified by all her children. There is a time to say it this way and that way. I'm not the guy that always knows what that is, but I need to know what it is for me, at least, so that I can stand before the Lord and not, hopefully, be ashamed of the ministry that I've done. So, yeah, let's, uh. That's pretty much the update on Benny Hinn. Benny Hinn. Um, I hope this stuff gets carried forward. I hope others find out more stuff. I hope somebody out there, you guys, someone who does like, does their, like, due diligence, like journalistic diligence, actually, maybe he does some more interviews of former Benny Hinn insiders that can talk about what really happened there. These types of things. And here's the justification in scripture. Um, the elders who are sinning to rebuke in the presence of all that, the others may also be warned. I'm quoting scripture here. To you paraphrasing, at least I think I got it pretty accurate there. The elders who are sinning, right. Don't receive an accusation against an elder. Less is probably two or three witnesses. But those who are sinning. Let me just show it to you. Um, let me just show it to you because I think it'd be worth looking at.

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Oh, uh, it's one Timothy 519.

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Do not admit a charge against an elder except on the evidence of two or three witnesses. Okay. With the Benny hymn video, I think I brought many, many witnesses. Okay. You might be like Mike. You're the only one making the video. Yeah, I brought lots of evidence. That's what witnesses are, is evidence. As for those who persist in sin, rebuke them in the presence of all so that the rest may stand in fear. If your ministry is in a local church, to a small group of people, the presence of all the people you get rebuked in front of is just that small group of people, that local ministry.

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But if you're pushing yourself out there as like an apostle to the nations the way that Bini hin does, what does rebuking in the presence of all even mean?

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I think it means try to have the rebuke be as big as the ministry was. I think that's what it means. Why that the rest also may stand in fear. Just as Benny Hinn has a negative leavening impact on the ministries he touches, so the rebuke of Benny Hinn will have a positive cleansing impact on the ministries that he's touched. If we can get that word out there. So I hope it spreads. I hope you share the video content. Not for me to have money. I've received some accusations. Um, Mike, you're doing this for money. That's not true. The way my ministry is actually set up, for those of you who want to know, is that, um, no matter what ad revenue comes in to, it doesn't go to my bank account. All the ad revenue from YouTube, it does not go to my bank account. It goes directly to the ministry. And it going up or down has no impact on my wage. And we set that up on purpose. And we set that up partly as a way of watching out for the very real temptation that I can have to try to just make myself filthy rich through YouTube or through. Through this kind of stuff. Um, I hope that that's a good example. I hope that that's right. You know, it's good to pay people and pay them a good wage. But anyway, trying to, trying to walk in wisdom there. So yeah, uh, did I make this for clicks and money? No. Did I even appeal for donations in the video? Identity in? No. If you go to my website and look and read what I write my disclaimer before anybody gives, then I think those accusations would not, would not land. Um, others would say, mike, you're just doing this to criticize and tear down. And then again I would just remind you, um, um. You think this is about Benny Hinn?

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It's not. It's about his victims. I'm trying to heal the broken hearted and lift them up and you just, you just are confused. You think it's about Benny Hinn? It's really not. All right, well, let's go to the first question from you guys today. Question two, since the first one was just about the Benny Hinn update from DC who says people often use revelation 20 218 to 19 referring to the whole bible. When I read it, this is the verse that says like don't add or take away from the words of this book. He says when I read it, I see it only referring to revelation. Since the New Testament wasn't formed yet, could you provide some clarity? Let's look at the verse. And I have thought the same thing as you. Okay, I'm not, I'm not. The pop view of this amongst christians is different than my own view. Let me explain why. So here's the verse on screen.

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Revelation 20 218 says, I warn everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this book. If anyone adds to them, God will add to him the plagues described in this book. And if anyone takes away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God will take away his share in the tree of life and in the holy city which are described in this book.

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What is the this book? Now a lot of people think, well, this is at the end of the Bible. The word of the Bible just means the book. It's like the ultimate book. And this is here at the end, it's the close of the book. They just maybe intuitively think it refers to the entire Bible.

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However, when it refers to not just the book but also you recognize that when revelation was written, it was written as one standalone document later brought together because all scripture was brought together, but it was written as a standalone document and it was then sent to these different churches who when reading it would have read it by itself, would have probably read the phrase this book in reference to just the 22 chapters of the book of Revelation. This was a, uh, command. Don't mess with don't, don't add to, don't take away. This could adding and taking away. Could be adding text or taking away text, like you're editing the book of Revelation. It could also be teaching contrary to the stuff that you find in this book, in revelation. So we often hear it, though quoted, like it's a warning about not adding to or taking away from the Bible. So someone says, well, the Bible says, and then they claim something the Bible doesn't say, and you go, don't add to or take away. Does that mean then that it's okay?

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And this is where I say, don't overreact to this. Yes. This is probably just about the book of Revelation, right? You have the context of it being this book, not scripture. It doesn't say scripture in general, but this book. We also have descriptions of, um, the holy city described in this book that's in the book of Revelation. Specifically the plagues, uh, described in this book that's in the book of Revelation. It's all very specific. Does that mean, however, that it's okay to add to and take away from the word of God? Um, let me share with you another verse that might help. Help you with this. Proverbs 35 and six.

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Well, before I read this to you, though, I'll say, in principle, if God will do all this to you, if you add or take away from the book of Revelation, should we think that you will then be totally in the clear? If you add or take away from something else? He said?

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Probably not. Probably not. Um, when you add or take away from God's words, you're not only lying, you're lying in the name of God, because you're trying to edit and change the things that he has said. But here's what proverbs chapter 30 says. Every word of God is pure. He is a shield to those who put their trust in him. Do not add to his words, lest he rebuke you and you be found a liar. If you need a verse that sort of sweepingly suggests that you don't, that God's word is as he delivers it is right and good, and you shouldn't change it, then this is probably your blanket statement right here in proverbs chapter 30. Revelation would have direct application to the book of Revelation, secondary application to all of God's word, just basically saying, if he feels this way about revelation, it's logical that he also is not okay with you changing other things he says. Not that common sense wouldn't tell you the same thing. Um, but here we are in proverbs, the same kind of thing. We have other scriptures that suggest this as well. God, uh, saying that if a prophet comes to you and he disagrees with the things that I've already said, what's already written in this book, so to speak, speaking there ultimately of, like, the mosaic books, um, the Pentateuch, that you shouldn't listen to that guy. Don't even consider him, uh, Jesus saying, the scripture cannot be broken. Jesus saying, have you not read? And as it is written. And all of we have just so much scripture affirming the idea that you don't, you don't, uh, add to or take away from scripture. You honor and respect what God has said.

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But, yeah, I agree with you. Revelation is directly, primarily about that book when it says that, and is frequently used outside that context.

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Question number three.

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This is from Kyle Grinstead. Kyle Grinstead says, there's a lot of debate in missions right now about methodologies, church planting movements versus more slow paced approaches. How should we think through both sides biblically?

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Um, I can't really weigh in with, like, a great deal of confidence about methodologies of church planting.

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It's a little outside my wheelhouse, I'll put it that way.

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What I will do is I'll share a couple thoughts I have about how I handle these types of issues and how these debates. I think sometimes we.

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We lack categories for the way we're thinking, so maybe something here will be helpful for you. Um, what I mean by lacking categories is this. There's categories like, scripture tells us to do this. That's, like, prescriptive. Then there's categories like scripture examples this, or models this, and that's a little bit more descriptive. So prescriptive and descriptive statements in scripture are handled differently. For instance, uh, in the New Testament, in the book of acts, we see that the apostles, they had people come, they sold houses and lands, and they laid them at the apostles feet, and they had communal living there. In the book of acts in the early church, is that descriptive or prescriptive?

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Well, it's descriptive because we have no teaching anywhere in scripture that they were supposed to do it. And if you then zoom, um, out and you, like, other people are supposed to do it, if you zoom out and you look at other places, you go. Wait, when the gospel went outside of Jerusalem to other locations, did they also bring what they had to the apostles feet? No, they did not. Did they also do communal living in Ephesus or in Corinth, in Laodicea or Thessalonica or any other places? No, none of them to my knowledge, not a single one. So we actually have one descriptive event of communal living and a bunch of descriptive events of not communal living. Ah. Uh, so now we're starting to get more details. And you go, okay, if I'm. If I'm asking why did it happen in the one event? I know this isn't what the question is about, but it's an interesting example. Then I go, oh, people from around the world were gathered around the local world, were gathered into Jerusalem for passover. They get saved, right? As Pentecost happens, a bunch of people get saved. They don't want to go home. So what do they do? Instead of going home, where their jobs are and their land is, they sell it so they can stay in Jerusalem, at least for a season, and learn from the disciples.

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This was about having, um, commuted to Jerusalem temporarily. They wanted to stay there longer to sit at the disciples feet. Eventually, probably, they ended up going back home when the persecution arose. Acts four. And later we see people fleeing. They probably went back towards their respective places of origin. So it ended up being like, okay, so communal living is not something that's instructive. Now, imagine someone goes, hey, as a church planter, I think that you guys should do communal living. Now, I don't know many church planters are suggesting this, but the problem would be that they were not observing the difference between descriptive and prescriptive. And also they made another category issue problem, or whatever you want to call it, where they took one example, a description of one example, and they ignored that. It only happened that one time. It's not described in other places. They ignored why and all. Anyway, ignore lots of things when it comes to, say, church planting methodologies.

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I, um, think that scripture seems to be relatively open to different ways of doing church planting, but that there are certain things like acts 242 is a good example of probably what is not only descriptive, but seems to be moving towards prescriptive. Let me get there. Acts 242. A lot of people would bring this one up, I think, in that kind of debate. This early church continued steadfastly in the apostles doctrine and fellowship in the breaking of bread. This is probably communion. Was a whole meal at the time. Um, and in prayers, or some translations will say, in the prayers here. That's new King James. Let me go to ESV. I'll bet it says the prayers. Yeah, the prayers. Which is a whole interesting little debate. What is the prayers?

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Okay, here's things that I can then back up with other prescriptive teachings in scripture. When in the epistles uh, he says, Paul says to Timothy to give attention to the reading of scripture. That's like a direct teaching about what is to happen in the local church. We know that elders were appointed in every church, and that one of their jobs, one of their important, essential jobs, was teaching the scripture, teaching the gospel, as well as just the Bible in general. They were to be teaching, and this is something that was going on very early on. Fellowship is something that has to happen. We see in ephesians the way that the church functions. The body has all these gifts and they integrate and they minister to one another. So that a church where, here's an example. A church where the pastor does his gift thing, but the people don't have any outlet for doing their gift stuff to each other.

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Any outlet, I'm saying here, any outlet. There's none. There's just show up, do the church thing, leave. Maybe it's a satellite thing where you just watch on camera, but there's no body to body ministry. That would not fit this fellowship thing. It wouldn't fit the description of ephesians as to how God's made and designed the church. So you'd have to incorporate that into your church. Planting, the breaking of bread, that communion thing. And this connects to fellowship, but also the communion thing. That's a very important thing to happen on a regular basis in churches. I won't say how often, because scripture doesn't say. So a debater who's like, well, church, uh, planting, you should do communion this many times, and on these days, well, this is where you are. Maybe that's a good idea, but I can't make a rule like that and put it on everybody. Scripture doesn't give me that as a rule, so I don't want to go beyond that. Um, and then the prayers, um, time spent in prayer. Time spent praying. So these are things you want to see in a local church.

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Um, church planting. One of the debates is, how many elders do you want in a local church?

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Um, that's an interesting thing. I've been looking into that a little bit recently, too, because there are churches where there's just one pastor. Maybe there's 50 people or 80 people in the church, and there's one pastor who's serving all of them. Maybe there's even 200 people. There's one pastor, and other people are kind of like, they help out, they serve, but nobody else is a pastor or an elder.

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And there's a debate over, like, how many elders you need in a church, and then you want to go to scripture and be like, gosh, is there anything here specifically? And I think the implication is multiple elders. Multiple elders. Um, one verse for this that I don't usually hear people bring up, at least not when I've looked into it, is in James. Where in James he says, is any among you sick? Let him call for the elders of the church. And he uses the word elders, plural.

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James five, think about this for a second. If you're sick and you're calling for the elders, you're not calling for the elders of, like, eight different house churches, probably. You're probably calling for elders that, you know, because of the fellowship you're at, implying that there were multiple elders, that there was an assumption there would be multiple elders in a local church. That's just soft evidence, but I think it's an interesting verse for that.

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Um, so all this to say, the reason why I bring up categories and, uh, descriptive versus prescriptive and all that is, you may have a plan that is based on descriptive. This is what they did. But I would hold everything a little bit looser. Unless it's prescriptive, I would say, yeah, I think this is what I see as church government here. But I'm not gonna, like, going to, like, beat people up debate wise. I'm not gonna go and just make a huge thing about it. I think that we can let the church express itself in different ways. Yeah. About church planting in more detail. There's a lot that I would have questions about and wouldn't be able to tell you how to do all your church planting. Just recognize the difference between prescriptive, descriptive. How often is it described? Does it seem as though it came from a, uh, standard practice, or was it an event that happened for a particular reason and have some grace on each other? A lot of church planting is also based upon what works. Um, one of the things I really respect about the church I am part of now, grace, evfree, and Lamorata, is that they care a lot less about what works. Church planting tactics that work from, like, this is proven. We did a study. They did this exam. They surveyed 500 churches, and they care more about what is the church supposed to look like now? Let's try to put that in play. Maybe we won't be as big because of it. To me, I'm, like, excited by that. Okay, that's. That's beautiful. That's wonderful. That's healthy. Because there's different kinds of growth, right? Think of Jesus's parable, uh, of the soils and how there was one that grew up really fast, real tall and real fast. But it lacked root, so it withered and died. I think that kind of stuff can happen with churches. So church growth isn't always the same as church health.

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Anyway, all that being said, um, pray God gives you wisdom on that one. All right, number four jumps. Hoops said. Is it a biblical idea that it's blasphemy to say that Satan has any power?

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Um, so my gut reaction is to tell you, no, uh, that's not a biblical idea, but I'm trying to think, where would somebody get this from? Like, I wonder if someone's told you that Satan has no power and it's blasphemous to say that he does have power.

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I don't know where they would even point to in scripture.

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Is it perhaps like their eschatology, there might be people who view Satan as being bound right now. Maybe they're like, um, amillennial or they're post mill and maybe they're leaning in association with that. They're saying like, hey, Satan's bound right now. Jesus is reigning right now in some sense. And so then they would say, you shouldn't say Satan has any power.

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Um, I don't think that we have any biblical case for that.

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Yeah. Um, there are other verses that suggest that he does have power.

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When he attacks job in the book of Job, Satan is given the ability to do it. He is granted the permission to do something that he has the power to do, but not the permission. But he's granted that permission to, uh, do it. When, when Satan tempts Jesus, he says, like, hey, all of these nations are under my control. Bow down and worship me. And that, I don't think that that was a lie. I think that those nations were under his control. Much of what he says is a lie, but scripture calls him the God of this age. Right? In two corinthians four. Four.

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Um, it says in their case, the God of this world has blinded the minds of unbelievers to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is in the image of God. That would imply Satan. I mean, if he's the God of this world, lowercase g, false God of this world, then he has some power, significant power there, right?

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Jesus says, talks about people, he delivered a woman and he was like Satan had bound her for all this time.

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These are clearly there's like, um, a spiritual warfare that's going on amongst powers. In fact, that's the word Paul uses in Ephesians. He says, we don't wrestle against flesh and blood, but against spiritual principalities and powers in the high places. Our enemy is powerful.

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Uh, greater is he who's in you than he who's in the world. His power is nothing compared to God's. The Holy Spirit is infinitely more powerful than Satan. But yet Satan definitely has power.

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In revelation, we read about future, the unleashing of Satan and the use of his power in the world. But even currently, Paul says he's the God of this age. So in many ways, Satan has a lot of power. Um, we have to be on guard against the, uh, deceptions and the tricks of Satan, and we're not ignorant of his devices. But all of those things don't make sense if he's completely powerless. Yeah, I hope that helps. There's lots of scripture I've shared with you there. There's a lot more we can probably get into, but, yeah. Question number five.

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Um, this one's an anonymous question.

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It says here, uh, how does one get set free from nicotine addiction when current medications do not work?

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I'm gonna get a lot of flack for this. Um, but you're asking for my opinion, and I ask for those who have their own very strong opinions on what I am. And I'm not allowed to say right now that you relax. People are allowed to talk.

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Here's my opinion, is that sometimes, um, addiction is used as a word to describe the incredibly strong pull and sense that somebody has and desire. Someone has to keep doing something that they don't, in another sense, don't want to do. And that addiction there, in that sense, is appropriate and accurate and real.

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At, uh, other times, addiction is used as an excuse for why they will continue to do that thing. And it's something that is out of their power to control.

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That, to me, is a dangerous use of the word addiction. Even though the pull towards a sin can be so strong that you can feel very much feel powerless to say no to it. That doesn't mean you are so. The verse that I have for you on this is one corinthians 1013.

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No temptation has overtaken you. That is not common to man. You know how many people deal with this same thing? How many ex smokers there are who felt the same degree of temptation as you? No, not me. No. No. I'm wired different. I'm more tempted than anybody or than all those people that have quit. I'm in a special category. I think that these are things we tell ourselves so we can feel better about our sins, but they're the things that keep us in our sins.

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No, temptation's overtaking you. That is not common to man. God is faithful and will not let you be tempted beyond your ability. But with the temptation, he will also provide the way of escape that you may be able to endure it. Escape doesn't mean you're not tempted. Escape means you don't sin. So that you can endure the temptation, but not sin.

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This is a sobering word I have to tell myself to. Okay. I give myself the same tough advice I'm giving you is you do not have to do the thing that you say you're addicted to. Though the. The temptation is incredibly strong, though the habits that you formed are very ingrained and built in, and they're very challenging to overcome, though you still may sometimes give into it, yield to it, fail and commit the sin. At no point did you have to where it was literally. You had no will to make another decision. If you are, especially in Christ, greater is he who's in you. Like, that is true. And part of the battle that you're facing right now with. With nicotine or whatever is the belief that you cannot overcome this thing.

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But you're the one controlling your muscles. You're the one controlling your hands and your body. You physically are in control. You've got to remind yourself of this, like, you're doing it. So I say all this the same way I'd say it to you. God gives you grace for your sins. Don't dwell and live in the place of condemnation. But he also gives you power to overcome. Do not dwell and live in the. In the place of powerlessness. These are two places you don't want to live. You want to, you want to yield, say no, walk in freedom. There's so many people who've quit way harder things, um, than what you're going through.

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They have. And no, you don't understand, like, mind thing is. No, you just, like, really expand your mind and think about, like, people who've quit some pretty crazy, crazy stuff. And I know it's not easy. Um, so if this is something that is a problem for you, I don't think even all use of nicotine is inherently sinful either. I don't think that. But there is a wrongful use of it. And if that's what's going on, then I do think God enables you with the ability to say no. And you've got to remind yourself of that and believe that that's what scripture teaches.

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Doesn't mean it's easy, doesn't mean it isn't really, really, really tough. It just means there's hope for you. You're not hopeless in it. So, um, all that being said, I know that you have. All the work is still ahead of you, and you probably should talk to other believers you respect and not just get advice from a stranger on the Internet. I hope that what I've shared with you has been helpful. Please seek out godly brothers, somebody or a sister. You know, talk to them and ask them, hey, can you give me some help here? Uh, I need some. Some advice. I need some encouragement. I need maybe some specific plans for when I'm tempted and how I'll deal with this in my life and then move forward. Because you really can't overcome. That's the good news. Some. They'll think I'm beating you up. I'm offering you a lifeline. This is good news. This is good news.

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All right, let's go to question number six.

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Caleb Hammond says, if we don't believe that God determines, slash causes everything, do we believe in some form of luck? For example, when you hit all green lights on your way to work, man, that was good luck. Or when you stub your toe? Bad luck.

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Yeah. So, um, there is a nuance to this that I believe and I think is biblical, which is to say that there are things which God directly causes and there are things which God simply, um, orchestrates in the course of allowing stuff to happen. Um, how do I illustrate this?

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Um. Do you hear my cat clawing on the cat board? Um, there's. Okay, cs Lewis. Not Cs Lewis, sorry, junior tolkien, uh, in his silmarillion, which is a weird book. I'm not really recommending. You guys read it. You can if you want. I'm just saying it's not. It's not fun reading. It's weird. But he writes there a strange. I admit it, strange story of, uh, the creation of the world of middle earth. Okay. It's a very poetic account, and here's how he describes it. I think I can draw an illustration from this that might help you answer your question. Um, so there is, like, the God being in his story, in this fantasy world. And the God being is, like, sort of singing. I think it was singing a musical song. And this melody, or this song is actually creating the world. And then there's these other beings. Think of them as, like, angelic type beings, would be the parallel. Um, here you have, like, the beings like Sauron, uh, and stuff like that. Forgive me, guys. I'm a nerd in some ways. Just a couple. Anyway, so you have, like, these angelic type beings, and they start singing harmonies and melodies along with the main song, and it's all weaving into the creation event, having a causal effect in the world. Then you have this dissonant song that comes in, and this is like a bad guy. In, uh, in, um, Tolkien's work, morgoth was it? I can't remember. It was many years ago. Many, many years ago when I read it. So then you have this dissonance song that comes in, and this dissonant song starts having bad effects in the world, causing harm, causing corruption. But the. The sort of God figure starts singing slightly differently to weave this dissonant song into the overall plan for the universe. And I think that that's, like, a really interesting story. I don't think it's an accurate representation of creation. Okay. It's not meant to be a theological. This is how God made the world. No, that's not God. That's a fantasy character. But I think it was an interesting illustration of how there can be the allowance of free will, the allowance of the effects of someone's free decisions, but there is still a sovereign being who is guiding, directing, and controlling. How does this play out?

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Um, there's times where people do things, and God's like, don't do this. And then when they do it, he uses it.

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Does that mean God determined everything? Am I a determinist that every single thing that happens is because God. Purely because God says, I'm going to have this happen right now, and cause that to happen right now? No, I think he creates an environment, a world where it's an incredibly interconnected world, where when one thing happens here, it ripples over and affects other things, and it's all happening according to simply a couple things. Uh, design. So that God created the world where there's this domino effect of physics, where one thing happens and it causes something else? Causes something else, yet there's billions of those things happening all the time, all over the place. God's allowing all of that to happen, including you stubbing your toe, including that car accident right there. Including that baby being born right there. And he has an ultimate sovereign plan. Is he meticulously determining each event, the stubbing of the toe, the car accident?

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No, I think he's determining, um, the physics, the environment, all of the things that are happening in the world around us as a whole.

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And then within that overall plan, where he's weaving his will and he's working all things together for good, there is yet the free will of man. And there is just the action of physics. Know you stubbing your toe if you don't ever, like, let's say God stops you from stubbing your toe, and you never stub your toe because God's going to protect you from that.

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This would, of course, mean that we no longer live in a predictable, reliable world where we could have things like combustible engines, because that depends upon physics just happening the same way every time. Like a system that functions as a consistent, law driven universe, like that would require that this is what causes, this is what allows for you to have just stub your toe.

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But God is sovereign in it all. He's working it all together for good. In Genesis, when, uh, we have the Israelites going into Egypt, we have Jacob, who rises up and he gets into Pharaoh's household because put into prison. And then he gets back up, and now he's saving people. He says, hey, what you meant for evil, God intended for good. Here we have man's free will, and yet God's sovereignty working at the same time.

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I hope that that helps. Feel like I could give a better explanation. But here's a thought.

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You're like, hey, is it luck or is it God?

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Um, sometimes it's neither. It's not a direct action of God where it's like God caused this to happen in a direct sense. It's rather the world that God made.

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This is what ended up happening. There's a bunch of causal factors involved. God is sovereign overall and will use it for good in the end. But I wouldn't say he directly caused that to happen. It's more like he caused an ensemble, an ensemble of the whole world to exist in such a state where this is what ended up happening. That incorporates using free will, that incorporates man honestly making choices. I decided to make a stream today. I could have just not done it. God would have allowed me to make that choice, but yet knew it ahead of time and had a plan for it. Do we use the word luck? Um, I sometimes say, luckily, I used to have a problem with it personally as a Christian, because it implied, like a supernatural force. Like, oh, you had good luck, like, almost good karma. And I realized that, um, most people don't mean it that way, and certainly I don't mean it that way, and that there's an innocuous use of the word luck. So I still don't use it very much. But personally, I will use it sometimes. I use it in the innocuous sense. I just mean that was fortunate or that was a positive thing that happened versus a unfortunate or negative thing that happened. You can even say the word fortunate refers to, like, fortunes and the fates and the weaving of your. You know, all that.

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Yeah. Um, no event, though, in that regard is truly and completely random, because there is. There is God's creation of all things. So everything that happens can be traced back to an act of God's will.

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But within that, it's not that he's equally determining every event. Some things, probably God allows that to happen because he's determining some other thing that he wants to take place, and that was why he created things this way. How does it all play out? Uh, I'm not inside God's head. Neither are you, but that's my perspective of it. I think that that's consistent with scripture, where people are held accountable as though they've made a free will choice, yet God has determined something ahead of time.

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The crucifixion of Jesus is an example where the different motives and the desires of different people. Satan, Judas, Pilate, the Pharisees, the different groups, they're all, like, actively involved, doing what they want to do at those times, and yet the end result is orchestrated by God, is planned by God.

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Um, I hope that helps. I'll just move on to the next question. All right. Number seven. Foggy says, why should we not ordain homosexuals in church, although it is a sin, when other people with less visible sins, hate, anger, etcetera, are serving. What is the biblical view on this?

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Um, so, yeah, like, I think we should have consistent views, I won't ordain homosexual in the same way I would not ordain somebody who was openly approving of being a hateful person and making it their identity.

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Catch the difference there?

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If somebody says, um, I am tempted with same sex attraction, they can be ordained.

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If someone says, my identity is homosexual, and that's something that I think is okay, and I'm going to approve of and I'm going to stand for, like, you can't just, like, if I said my identity is being an alcoholic, my identity is being an adulterer, my identity is being a hateful, angry person. No, you can't be ordained. Let's. Let's be. Let's be biblical on that. Like, you're not qualified for ordination. But there are ministers who are tempted with same sex desires, but they treat it biblically and they go, yeah, it's a temptation that I refuse to yield to. It's just like, there are ministers who are tempted with anger, who are tempted with other things.

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Um, that doesn't disqualify them. We're all tempted.

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So, yeah, that would be my view. I think that's a consistent biblical view that we do have these qualifications in one Timothy, chapter two, and Titus, chapter one, for what elders are supposed to be above reproach. Right. And if you're living a lifestyle of sin, like, that's, that is your lifestyle is a sinful lifestyle, as habit, you're not qualified.

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But if you're dealing, you deal with temptation, you deal with irritation, anger, those types of things. Yeah. At some point, it becomes too much. Too much of a character flaw where you, you couldn't be involved. Someone who says, I'm an active homosexual, that's too much. Is that because I treat homosexuality like its own special sin? No.

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Um, but nor do I treat it like every sin is identical. So a guy who occasionally gets upset and says mean things is not the same as someone who's an ongoing sexual sin.

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Those are not the same thing.

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Um, neither of them are. Okay, but they're not identical. And there are those who do believe that all sins are the same. I have a video on this. I'll link it below about how, please, please, christians, stop saying all sins are the same. You don't really believe that. Um, you don't really believe that. I don't think you do. For instance, if I was to say, hey, all sins are the same, right? And you go, yeah, they're all the same. I, uh, go, okay, I'm gonna either do one or the other. Pick a or b. I'm gonna steal a pencil, right? And then I'm gonna punch a stranger in the arm. Or that's two sins, right? Those are both sins. We agree. Yes, they're both sins. Or I'm gonna murder some random person. That's just one sin versus two. Which one do you want me to do?

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You know which one you want me to do. If you had to pick now, some of you will reject. I reject the hypothetical. That's fine. But you're just rejecting thinking about, this is all you're really doing. If you had to pick between these two options, you would clearly be like, oh, yeah, steal a pencil, punch someone in the arm. Don't murder somebody. Uh, we all know sins are not the same when we're the ones who are victims of those sins, we understand, like, I'd much rather you do this to me than that to me. They're not the same. Scripture doesn't treat them as the same either. Jesus didn't treat them as the same. I'll link a video down below where it talks about that. So sexual sin in particular is as a category. All sexual sin is worse than many other types of sins. Okay. Sexual sin as a category is, uh, a really intense thing. Why? Because. Not because christians are prude or because we're opposed to sex. Rather, sex is so wonderful, sex is so important, it's so sacred that violating it is a really big deal. Let me give you another example. If somebody, uh, like a teenager, attacks another teenager, that's bad, right? How about if that teenager attacks a three year old child? Isn't that worse? Right. Why? Because we don't like children. Because we think children are gross, right? Uh, just like they say. Think the christians think sex is gross or something? No, because children are to be protected. There's something wonderful and pure about them, and it can easily be harmed and ruined. And they're. And they're defenseless. Sexual relations are like that. It's a beautiful and wonderful thing. It's sacred in its proper context, and it has to be protected.

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Anyway, I'm just rambling now, so I'll move on. Um. Um, number eight, Jamie says, second Samuel, 1210. Why has the sword to. Why, uh, was the sword to never depart from David's house if our sins aren't supposed to carry over? Why was his family punished for his sin, not just his son with Bathsheba, but ammon, et cetera? Let's look at that verse.

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Second Samuel, chapter twelve, verse ten.

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Here we go. It says, but they forgot the Lord their God and he sold him into the hand of Sisera. Commander, I'm backing up a little bit to get some context.

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Commander, uh, of the army of hazor and into the hand of the Philistines and into the hand of the king of Moab. And they fought against them and they cried out to the Lord and said, oh, I'm in the wrong. I knew it. I thought, something's not right about this. I think you said second Samuel. I mean, it's interesting stuff, but it's not the right book. Here's second Samuel. All right. Um, I'll back up to verse seven. This is where Nathan says to David, you're the man you committed. Remember, David had committed adultery with Bathsheba. Then he murdered Uriah. And how did he murder him? He had a conspiracy with his general, his chief military officer, um, and they worked together to kill Uriah, Bathsheba's husband. So this was just huge. It wasn't just the adultery, the murder, the blood guilt of murder, which is worse, actually, between the two, they're both very bad. At any rate. That's why when psalm. In psalm 51, where he repents, he's like, you know, I'm guilty of bloodshed. So, uh, Nathan said to David, you are the man. Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel. I anointed you king over Israel, and I delivered you out of the. Out of the hand of Saul. Who was Saul? He was a guy who was using his political power to pursue and try to kill David. Wrongly, that's what David did to Uriah.

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Wow. And I gave you your master's house and your master's wives into your arms. He didn't sleep with them, but he did take authority over them. It's a political issue. And gave you the house of Israel and of Judah. And if this were too little, I would add to you as much more. Why have you despised the word of the lord? To what is evil, to do what is evil in his sight? You have struck down Uriah the Hittite with the sword, and have taken his wife to be your wife, and have killed him with the sword of the Ammonites. Notice that even though he contracted the death through somebody else, like, the ammonites didn't even know about this, what happened is uriah. They go out to battle, and then Joab's like, hey, uriah, we're going to go fight. And then he instructed quietly, everybody to pull back. Like they had a signal, they'd pull back. And then Uriah would be alone fighting the ammonites, and they would kill him.

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So who's guilty? Well, the primary guilt was actually David who orchestrated it, who planned it out, who called for it. Interesting.

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The morality there, the ethical dilemma of who is chiefly at fault here is interesting.

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So you've struck down Uriah the Hittite with the sword, and have taken his wife to be your wife and have killed him with the sword of the Ammonites. Now, therefore, the sword shall never depart from your house, because you have despised me and have taken the wife of Uriah the Hittite to be your wife. Thus says the Lord, behold, I will raise up evil against you out of your own house, and I will take your wives before your eyes and give them to your neighbor, and he shall lie with your wives in the sight of the son. Doesn't mean that was a good thing. This is all judgment. Just like when people die. It's not good, but it is judgment. For you did it secretly. But I will do this thing before all Israel and before the son. So this is going to be a judgment where the sore won't depart from his house. There's going to be conflict in his home. His, um, own kid is going to rise up against him. Even, even partnering with Joab, of all people.

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The same guy who you use as your confidant when you're betraying someone else, he's likely to betray you, too. Anyway, it's all just sin comes back, it rebounds back upon us. Now, let me read your question again and make sure I'm understanding it. You say, uh, why was the sword never to depart from David's house if our sins aren't supposed to carry over? What does that mean? Not supposed to carry over?

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Hmm hm. Are our sins not supposed to carry over?

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Or are they eternally forgiven in Christ, but yet we still may suffer for the things we've done in this life?

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There are some people who have a view of forgiveness that would actually exclude using, say, a police officer to arrest somebody who's committed a crime against you. Imagine if I had stolen from you and then you called the cops, and before they arrived, I was like, dude, I'm really sorry.

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I believe in Jesus. Can I just be forgiven? Please don't make my sins carry over.

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Part of this would strike you as uncomfortable. You'd be torn. You'd be like, as a christian, I want to offer you forgiveness, but at the same time, it seems wrong to not have you arrested and have you dealt with.

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So did. Was David forgiven? Yes, but he still was going to be chastised as visible difficulties would enter into his own family. And this would be before Israel. There's probably a number of reasons for this. God is showing his goodness, he's showing his justice, he's showing visible disapproval for David. So he can't just do this kind of thing and then get away with it. And God does nothing to this selected king, where he picked David, but rather there's something visible that happens. There's a few different reasons there. Um, was David going to be forgiven? Isaiah says he'd be forgiven.

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Not, uh, isaiah, sorry. Uh, psalm 51 says he's going to be forgiven. And he declares it and he's rejoicing over it. He's calling out for it. But he even says this.

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May the bones you have broken rejoice.

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That's in psalm 51. May the bones you have broken rejoice. That verse always stands out to me because I think of it as, like, these aren't just bones that are broken as a result of my sin. He says, let the bones you have broken, rejoice.

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Part of the, uh. What brought the awareness of how Bad David's sin was is the difficulties he would have in his home, because as he has JOaB betray him. He knows what it was like for Uriah to be betrayed, as he has someone in his own home turn against him. He knows what it was like for Uriah to have BathSHeba turn against him. As he has people he looks to. To trust do that to him.

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He knows better what his own sin has done. There's good things coming out of this, even though it's hardship. Um, so, yeah, the statement in Hebrews that he chastens those he loves and every son he accepts is to say that even as a Christian, you will suffer hardship for the things that you do wrong. And that's not bad. That's a good thing. It won't be eternal suffering. It won't be judgment eternally, because in Christ, you are forgiven. But it's still appropriate for you to call the cops on the guy who did the thing to you, to even press charges. That can be appropriate and right as a Christian, because forgiveness doesn't just mean, um, no consequences for my sins in this life.

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So, uh, why was his family punished for his sin? Um, I don't know if his family was punished as much as David wasn't protected. Like, Absalom turns against him, right? Big time. Joab turns against him big time. But when this happens, God didn't, like, force them to do that. But what he didn't do is he didn't protect David from it. You catch that?

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The implication, I think, is, had David been faithful, God would have protected him even from people in his own family doing this stuff. But David was not protected because he didn't protect those under his, um, authority and in his keep.

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So in this case, his family, absalom, Joab, they're not punished. They're actually part of the problem when that happens. I hope that it's just. It's. Life is complicated, right? Life is complicated.

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All right. Number nine, braden 5397, not to be confused with braden 0714, says, hey, mike, love your videos and how God works in you. Thanks, Braden. Uh, will we see the Father and the Holy Spirit in heaven also, can you explain Ezekiel's vision of God and how it relates to Jesus and the Father?

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Um, I probably can't explain the second one, Ezekiel's vision of God. That would take us some time where we would all just sort of sit down and read through. When Ezekiel talks about seeing God and he talks about all these different crystalline structures and things like that. That's probably too big for a q and a, um, to assess that and go into it in detail without me having to spend some time working on it ahead of time. I don't have that all loaded in my mind. So my own shortcoming there, Braden. Um. Um.

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But the, um, um.

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But I wouldn't think that we need to, just in principle, that we need to find every time there's, say, a vision of God or representation of God that we need to pick out, that's the Father here, and then that's the Holy Spirit and that's the son. I don't think we need to do that, because the unity of who God is is such that it's not always expected to be able to do that. So when Moses sees the burning bush and it's identified as Yahweh, yet scripture also gives us really strong implication that that was Jesus.

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In a real sense, that was Jesus. And so you're not really looking and looking at the bush going, which one's the father? Where's the son? Where's the Holy Spirit? Here, you're not so much trying to separate the two or the three, rather, um, as just sort of see what's there and take it in. Maybe you're just getting God in the general sense. Maybe you're getting something more specific, like the Father, the Son, or the spirit.

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Okay, now, your first question, though. Will we see the Father and the Holy Spirit in heaven? Um, the scripture does have these vision moments where people, they see the one who is seated on the throne. In revelation, John talks about it. Even he says, I saw him on the throne. There's these amazing moments where there's this revelation of God. Isaiah. I saw the Lord seated on the throne. The train of his robe filled the temple. That beautiful passage, uh, of scripture.

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Should I expect to see that? Um, I'm certainly open to it. Right? Like. But when you say expect, it's kind of like, okay, well, expect's a little different than being open to it.

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I don't fully know the difference between when I'm reading the Old Testament or reading these moments, how much of that is vision, and how much of that is going to be my lived experience in detail.

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And I just don't know the answers to those questions. So I don't have an expectation there. Maybe somebody else does know. That's fine. I just don't have that answer for you. In revelation, though, there is a statement that talks about our future experience. It doesn't just say you will be, uh, near God. But it talks about something in more detail. So the new Jerusalem comes down from heaven out of God, and we dwell with God, and God is right there with us. He will be with us. He'll be our God and all that. And it says, there's no need for light in that place because God himself will be the light.

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Now, that kind of experience of seeing God blows my mind.

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God himself will be the light.

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Meaning, everywhere I look, when I see anything, I'm always seeing light.

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I mean, I'm seeing this microphone. You guys can't see, but I'm seeing light, is how I'm seeing it. God is so present in this description of this heaven and earth meeting, this final place, the new heaven and new earth. Right? This is my eternal future right here. God is so present that he is the light by which I see all things. Um, so in a sense, I'm always seeing God. That's how close I am to God in eternity. I'm always seeing God. That would be my interpretation of that. You can think about it yourself.

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But we also have, in one John, it says, we don't know what we'll be like, but we know we'll be like him because we'll see him as he is.

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Let me bring that verse up to you here for you to check out. So, one, John three, two.

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It says, beloved, now we are children of God, and it has not yet been revealed what we shall be. But we know that when he is revealed, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is.

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There's a sense in which I'm going to see God, not like Moses did. Show me your glory. And God sort of gave him partial revelation, but not a full revelation. We're going to see God as he is. All I know is this, Brayden. We're going to have an experience of seeing God with such fullness that I don't have words to describe it to you.

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I know that throughout church history the term has been beatific vision. There's a whole theology about it. What is the beatific vision or this experience of seeing God? Really fully seeing God. And I like the longing that I hear in people when they discuss the beatific vision, this sense of just seeing God in his fullness and his purity and his love and his power. And this has got to be the greatest, most satisfying, joy filled experience you can have. And, uh, it would be. It would be terror if you were apart from the blood of Christ. Anybody who's watching and you don't know Jesus, man, you need to be washed of your sins by faith in Jesus Christ. That is the only way you can stand before God and be pure and cleansed and holy is because Jesus died for your sins. He rose from the dead. He is God himself, taking your sins on himself and paying your sin debt so that you can have the thing you were ultimately made for, to know God all. Ah, right, let's go to question number ten. Hi, Mike. This is an anonymous question. Thank you for your ministry. You're very welcome. I'm very, very blessed and have God's grace happy on me that I even get to do ministry at all. Um, very happy about that. Does God still communicate through dreams? Is there any new Testament examples of God doing so apart from Mary and Joseph? Um, good question.

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There is. In the book of acts, there's an example of God using a dream with the apostle Paul. They're trying to go into Asia, and it says, the spirit forbids them to go to Asia. And you get the sense, okay, this is my impression here, is that they're a little bit like, what are we supposed to be doing? Like we keep trying to do, you know, Paul would plan his outreaches. He didn't always have a direct word from God about where to go, but he would probably just focus on big cities. Let's take the gospel here. Let's go here. Let's go here. Well, he was sort of blocked from Asia. Then he has a dream where he has an old man that he sees in this dream who's asking for help, come over here and help. I think it was like, was it Miletus or something? And this guy needs help, and then Paul's like, all right, we're going to Miletus, or whichever city it was. So there's an example in the new Testament of God using a dream to guide and direct an apostle. Um, that's a pretty big deal, isn't it? Um, some would say, though, that ceased. Maybe that won't happen.

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I feel like even a lot of cessationists would be open to God giving you a dream, but I'm not really sure always what the cessationists think about these things, because I haven't been in those circles that much.

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Um, but I would say I'm completely open to it. There's no reason why God can't use a dream.

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There's the verse in Hebrews. In times past, God spoke to the fathers in various ways, but now he's spoken through his son. I don't think that this is like saying here's a cutoff. Maybe I'll talk about that whenever I get to the book of Hebrews. Hopefully later this year, God willing. Sorry, guys, I'm not trying to stall on you. I'll get to it when I can.

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It's going to be a long wait, though.

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Um, so, yeah, there's those verses, but, yeah, New Testament example there. We also have, you know, Peter, when he sort of is there at the inauguration of the. Of the. Of the Holy Spirit filled church, right in the book of acts, they do tongues. He talks about how your old men shall dream dreams, your young men shall see visions, your old men dream dreams. Um, I think we can be quite open and hopeful about that. I will offer a word of caution, though, and that is that I have seen, uh, even though I know some people who may have had real dreams from the Lord, I've seen probably more frequently, at least in the circles I've been in, where people had a normal dream and they tried to read something into it. And I know people who act like every. Who is it? Brian Simmons says his wife has, like, seven dreams from God every night. I think it's seven is the number he gives every night. Seven dreams. Now, I don't believe him because of a bunch of other stuff he said in the past, but I do think that sometimes we can get so excited about these things that we start getting false positives, right? Like, maybe that was the Lord. Maybe that was the Lord. Maybe that was the Lord. And I don't want to quench what the spirit might be doing and giving someone a dream, but I also don't want to get overexcited and getting a bunch of false positives because those are dangerous. People make life decisions based upon these things. So my own view is like, hey, if I have a dream and I don't know if it's from God or not, then I don't. I assume it's not because I know I have dreams. Naturally, if God reveals something to me, may he make it clear enough that I can follow him with confidence and not be using guesswork. I hope that helps you out, buddy. Okay, um, here's a little bonus question number eleven. Here's anonymous question. Um, could you pray for my youth leader? He collapsed one day and has been in the hospital ever since. He was supposed to be leading a youth camp. I was going to. Asking for your prayers, for his healing. Thanks. Yeah, let's. Let's pray for this youth leader, God. We. We all agree right now, um, in several things that we believe in Jesus Christ, those of us praying that, uh, we believe that you have the power to heal and you have all the goodwill and love and care for this youth leader to provide healing. Lord, so we pray that you would heal. We ask that you would bring healing, that you bring him out of the hospital, that we could hear a report of good news. Lord, we trust you. I don't know your will. I don't know if you desire healing, but we know that you hear our prayers and that if it is according to your will, then you're going to do it. Lord, we ask that you would bring comfort and wisdom to the families, the people involved and that you protect this youth leaders health. In Jesus name, amen. Um, you guys, the last thing I'll mention is this thing about, have you guys heard about this eclipse thing? People are predicting that these eclipse and this crossing over the earth in a special way, like it's making an x on America and that means all this stuff.

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Um, if you've been hearing that sort of talk, I would like to make one request.

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Write down anytime that you hear this talk, write down the names of the people who make predictions based on this eclipse.

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Write down the predictions they make and if they end up right, go back to them. Be like, wow, you were right. That was amazing. And if they end up being wrong, don't trust them in the future. Here's my counsel to you. That's all you got to do. Half the time you write down what the predictions are and they're so vague you don't know what to do with them. And if people are making wrong predictions, they should be held accountable for that. That is something that I think is quite biblical. You all can let me know what happens next. Um, thank you guys for this. I will be with you next Friday for the next Q and A. I've got a lot of stuff I'm working on behind the scenes. I don't intend to keep pursuing Benny Hinn stuff. I'm going to post a few videos. In fact, one just went live like twelve minutes ago. I'm going to some short videos, little videos just meant to be shareable content so we can help spread the word on this false teacher, false prophet Benny Hinn, to help protect people, to deliver the church from his influence and to tell the world he is not what represents Jesus. So I hope you guys will share that content. Um, if you find it useful, Lord bless.