Sid Roth

AUDIENCE:     (LAUGHTER)   Uh huh! C’mon preach it!

JIM:  I mean, I mean really. I, I mean we’re just constantly intellectually trying to drive our life to protect our ego so we won’t fail again. Because our ego really is who we think we are. That’s why when we come to Jesus we’re supposed to believe about the resurrection in our heart! Because your mind protects your ego. Your heart protects your identity. And you see if I believe the truth about the resurrection… now you know, you know this. You’re… We, we are saved. We have been saved. And we’re being saved. You, you understand what I’m saying? We are born again. I mean you know that’s, that’s a done deal. But this whole salvation experience it, it progressively grows in our life. I mean spirit, our spirit man is born again and is righteousness and is as saved as we’re ever going to get. It’s not that we get something new from God but to the degree that we believe these truths in our heart they begin manifesting in our, in our life. And, and the way we tell that they’re, that we’re growing in these things is not because we can quote more scripture. You know? It’s not even necessary…  I mean yes, you want to live more godly but it’s not just because you live more godly, it’s because you do these things effortlessly. Because you see when I start believing in my heart that God raised Jesus from the dead, if it’s a heart thing then I can’t separate His resurrection from my resurrection. I can’t see myself being any different than, than He is in a certain sense. You know what I mean? And the Bible does say “as He is, so are we.” Now man it’s, it’s hard to get your head around that. In some circles if you say that, then you’re a heretic, you know you’re… there’s something wrong with you. No, but that’s what the Bible says. Because see the reality of it is Jesus was raised from the dead. And when I got born again I got baptized IN TO Him. And what should have happened is then some, somebody should have pulled us off to the side and said now we’re going to baptize you, but, but, but we want you to know that this can be something that transforms your life or it can just be getting wet. And if you’re just going to get wet, bring some soap! You know what I’m saying? But you see what they should have said to us is that: Now listen. You’re a new believer. Even though you don’t realize it, everything that you were has died and the resurrection power of Jesus is working in you. And so, when, when, when, when they dunk you down in that water, however you do it, as much as you know how, I want you to see, feel, imagine, picture, think, whatever you do bring it alive inside of you that you are buried with Jesus because you died with him. And when they snatch you back up out of that water, however you do it, I mean everybody does it different, but however you do it so that you experience it as being real, you see, feel, experience imagine, whatever, however you do it, that you are raised up in Him. Now see that should have been the way it started. And you know every time we have communion, I’ll tell you nearly everything we’re taught about communion is unscriptural. The whole purpose of communion is to keep renewing ourselves to that fact that I died with Him. You know? I’ve been washed in the blood. His body was broken for ya. I’m raised up with Him. That, that should be what communion is about. Because that word “communion” comes from an interesting word “communion,” “koinonia,” and we think about fellowship and you know if you’re been a Christian long you’re thinking about fellowship and you’re thinking about hot dogs and hamburgers you know on Friday night or something you know, after the service, you know of course and not in the sanctuary. Uh, hahah. But that word “koinonia” literally means to share something in common. Now what is it we share in common with Jesus? If our fellowship is with Him, what is it I share in common with Jesus? Well I’ll tell you what I share in common with Him. I died with Him. I was buried with Him. And when I was raised… when He was raised from the dead, I was raised from the dead. And when He cast Satan out of heaven I was in Him. And when He sat down at the right hand of God and received an inheritance I am seated with Him in the heavenly places and I’m sharing in that inheritance. That’s what I share with Jesus! Now influence in our heart. You know you can go through the Bible and you can, you can see, you can see phrases like “write this on your heart.” You can see phrases like “guard your heart.” You can see phrases like “establish your heart,” “guide your heart.” All of these… and you start realizing something. Other than God writing His word on that aspect of my heart… and then the Greek you know that it’s the deep part of your being. It’s, it’s just deep, and, and when it talks about even the thoughts that emerges, it’s a Greek word that means subconscious thoughts or deep thoughts. Other than God writing that word on my heart and His Spirit, you know, bringing me to life inwardly, after that I am the only person that has the capability to influence my heart. Nobody else can! God made us that way. Nobody can guard your… can influence your heart. Now you can take what other people say and think about it and ponder on it and these things. And here, here’s the way you write something on your hearts. Pretty simple but it, it comes down to this. Emotion plus information. The Hebrew word for meditate is “to mutter over and over again” or “to frame up” or even “to complain.” You know because you know what you do when you’re complaining? You’re thinking about something that’s wrong. And you’re, you start thinking about it and you start talking about it until you create those emotions again. And so now it comes back alive to ya. So Biblical meditation, which is the key, you know is the one key… Jesus even told us in… you know I call it the “heart physics parable,” Jesus, uh, uh, called it “the sower,” or, or we call it “the sower,” you know the, the whole point of that parable is there’s only one way to get the word of God to grow in your heart. The measure you meet that’s the measure that’s met unto you.  In other words the degree of thought, study, meditation, considering, pondering, reflection that you give to the word of God that, and that alone, determines the amount of life that’s going to manifest in you from that word that you hear. Now so, you know, and it’s… there, there are several Hebrew words by the way for “meditate” that we don’t… that are not translated as meditate. As a matter of fact did you know that the word “sanctification” is actually a Hebrew word that has more to do with, with a meditative process? See we think about it as a ritualistic process or a getting everything right about ourselves. The word sanctification not only means to set yourself apart FROM something but to set yourself apart UNTO something. And it’s not just the fact that you do it physically, you know that you geographically remove yourself, but you internally set your heart, your mind, your thoughts apart unto the Lord. And did you know that there’s three particular Hebrew words that every time you see the words worship, praise, prayer, pray, vision, prophesy, did you know that one of those three Hebrew words is almost always going to be somewhere in that passage. And, and you know what that’s telling us? That’s telling us that the difference between singing and worshipping is whether or not I’m, I’m taking myself into this, setting my heart apart, you know directing all of this to God inwardly. The difference between praying and “jibber jabbering” is, is the heart engaged. Am I engaging myself internally? Am I, I bringing all that I am to bear to connect with God in this? Now two most important factors. One: all of our faith has to be based on what we believe about the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus. Two: I’ve got to believe it in my heart, not just mentally. Now one of my favorite passages of scripture that changed me… I tell you when I heard this passage of scripture in 1975 I was, I was in a meeting in 1975, biggest names in the world were speaking in this meeting. And there was this one old, country redneck preacher there. He looked so out of sorts that you’re just looking at this guy thinking what in the world are you even doing here? You know? I mean he was as count… as a matter of fact he was from Walhalla South Carolina. That’s country right there! You know what I’m saying? Now I’m from Alabama. I know what country is. You know I’m a recovering redneck myself. I, I, I go to the meetings and everything. You know?