Saints‘ Hill Church Podcast

Life of the Church: On Pilgrimage

This last Sunday one of our good friends Kenny Snyder shared with us what it means to pilgrimage with the Lord. We are all on a pilgrimage in this life towards our true self in Christ. It is a journey for the love of Christ. 

 

Pilgrimage teaches us to stay connected to God in every season, so that we grow in dependence on Him. Like the Scriptures say, “whoever seeks to preserve his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life will keep it” (Luke 17v33). Give God your yes before you know what it is He’s called you to. Know that your pilgrimage will be different from your neighbor’s - we don’t measure ourselves by one another. Remember His promise to you, that He will always be with you. You have everything you need because you have Him.

The King is Here: Everyday Mission

This last Sunday, one of our Saints’ Hill missionaries, Mariah, took us through Luke 9v1-12 and shared testimonies with us from her time in Barcelona.

 

In this passage of Scripture we get a template for how Christ sends us on mission. Mission should always be initiated by intimacy with God. Just like In Acts 2, we are to urgently wait on the Lord, and go in the power of His Spirit. We are instructed to travel light. God gave us everything we needed when he gave us His authority - to rely on anything else is to dilute the power of God. 

 

When we do these things, not only will people be saved, healed and delivered, but others will become curious about the power of God demonstrated through your life. This is what it means to live on mission with God, whether it’s in a  foreign country or at your place of work, God has prepared in advance good works for you to carry out by the power of His Spirit.

Life of the Church: Unoffendable

On Sunday, we got to hear from Austin and Breanna Smith on what it means to be unoffendable. 

The reality is there’s no shortage of ways to be offended in life. We live in a world with human beings, so the potential to be offended will always exist. But Jesus has more for us, He is the solution and the one we must turn to if we want to see this cycle of offense end.

How we choose to think when our emotions are agitated by someone else is the key. We can either dwell on it, simmer, and let offense grow, OR stop, look to Jesus, and let Him soften our heart toward that person.

Our feelings of offense must be held up against the cross so that we see how Jesus would respond, and then we ask and believe for the power to respond how He would respond. 

Jesus was able to endure the ultimate offense because he was fully secure in the Father’s love for Him. Devote yourself to understanding how much God loves you, and your identity as His child, and you will build a firm, unoffendable foundation for your life.

The King is Here: Doing The Stuff

This last Sunday we were joined by a guest speaker, Rev. Beau Brumley. Beau picked up where we left off, in Luke 8. 

 

Up until this point in Luke’s account, we’ve seen Jesus demonstrate His power over nature and over the demonic. In Luke 8v40-56 Jesus demonstrates His power over sickness and death by healing the woman who touched the fringe of His garment, and raising Jairus’ daughter from the dead. 

 

Do you believe that Jesus has authority over nature, the demonic, sickness, and even death? Immediately after these stories, we read about Jesus sending out the twelve disciples with that same authority, to do the same things He had been doing. 

 

We can’t avoid this as disciples of Jesus. He showed us how to do the stuff and then told us to go do it. When we exercise the authority that we’ve been given, people encounter God and His glory gets magnified. May we be attentive to His prompting for this reason! 

The King is Here: Confronting Demons

In Luke 8v26-39 Jesus exhibits another aspect of His authority as the Creator, this time over the demonic. This story certainly validates Jesus’ divinity, but the story itself is also a kingdom description, with beliefs attached to it that we are supposed to acquire through reading.

 

On Sunday, we focused in on what the demonic does to a person, and what Jesus will do about it.

 

The Bible recognizes that we live in a spiritual world with gods and demons whose primary aim is to uncreate and reverse the order and design that God intended from the beginning. The truth is that these lesser gods are nothing compared to Yahweh, but people have the ability to make them something through worship and sacrifice.

 

The level of agreement and worship given to these gods or demons, will determine their influence in our lives. Whether it’s the demonized man in the story we read or it’s a parent who sacrifices time with their family on the altar of money…both of these people are under the influence of demonic ways of seeing themselves, God, and the world. 

 

The good news of Jesus is that He will heal you of your demons and use you to do the same. In our repentance from lies we are set free and we get infused with hope!

The King is Here: Where is Your Faith?

This last Sunday, Alex taught on the famous passage in Luke 8v22-25 where Jesus calms the storm on the boat.

 

There’s so many ways one can draw meaning from this passage, and you’ve probably heard most of them. On Sunday, we focused in on Jesus’ question to the disciples after He calms the storm, “Where is your faith?” When Jesus asks this question, He isn’t asking what sort of ideas you believe, He is asking, who do you trust?

 

If you had to boil the entire message of the Bible down to one idea, it could very well be trust God. Practically, this looks like viewing the issues of this life through the lens of God’s ability, not viewing God through the lens of trials in this life.

 

So how do we grow in trust? We experience the face of the trustworthy one. Encountering His Presence and hearing His Voice is how you build trust. The peace and the victory that come with knowing Him and loving Him is the only thing that enables you to weather the storms of life. 

 

God is raising a people to carry the next renewal, and great trust is required.

The King is Here: The Real-Deal Disciple

This last Sunday we jumped back into our Luke series. Alex taught on Luke 8v19-21 and what it means to be a disciple in God’s family.

 

From Jesus’ words in this passage we glean that we are not disciples in mind only, rather, what we believe will be seen by what we do. The only way to really know if the words of God have been heard is if they are acted upon. Someone whose actions are in congruence with their professed beliefs is a real-deal disciple.

 

So why do we experience a gap between what we hear and what we do?

 

We misunderstand the gospel, we get lulled into neutral living, and we begin to play God. These things inevitably lead to a powerless life full of fear. The truth is that we need God. Living with Him as our source is the only way to really live. May God make us courageous hearers and doers of His Word!

Life of the Church: The Fathers Love

How much of your life do spend living out of insecurity? Think of how you’d be freed up to live for the kingdom if you weren’t constantly stumbling over who you’re not...

 

On Sunday we got to hear from our Worship Director, Jake Vigil, on the love of the Father. 

 

God is looking for a church that is free because He has things He wants to do and release on the earth through us - and the love of the Father is the only thing that can truly set you free and provide a secure identity.

 

We cannot afford to graduate from being God’s children. Dependence on Him is what you were made for. Only the Father can tell you why you were designed, He will correct you and encourage you as you go.

 

Our flesh will try to find love and security in the things of this world, but everything you’re looking for is found in HIm. There’s one cup and if you drink from it you will never be thirsty again. 

 

Jesus came to reveal the Father, that we might be reconciled to Him, restoring intimacy that we were designed for. The love of the Father changes everything!

Pentecost: The Spirit’s Voice

This last Sunday we wrapped up our Pentecost series with a teaching on prophecy. In 1 Corinthians 14 Paul says that we should eagerly desire the gifts of the Spirit, especially prophecy. So what is prophecy?

Prophecy is speaking saved. It’s looking at a world full of mess and choosing to see it the way God sees it.

We are made in the image of someone who spoke and a whole world came into existence…when we speak, worlds come into being. Our words have the power to either speak life and re-create or speak death and uncreate. Paul also says in 1 Corinthians 2v16 that we have the mind of Christ, His Spirit lives in us and allows us to discern His thoughts! That’s in your Bible!

When you begin to think on earth as it is in heaven, and you share what you hear, you are prophesying. Prophecy isn’t a crystal ball, tarot cards, or end times speculating; prophecy at its core is sharing the heart of God into a world without hope. It strengthens, encourages and comforts. It recreates.

God made you, and He intends to use what He made. Create space to listen, ask God to mingle His thoughts with yours, interpret everything you hear through the gospel, then take a risk and humbly share it in faith. This is how we follow the way of love.

Pentecost: The Spirit’s Gifts

The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of Jesus and it’s up to the same stuff that Jesus was up to: spiritually saving, physically healing, and demonically delivering.

This last Sunday Alex taught on the gifts of the Spirit, as primarily mentioned in 1 Corinthians 12. In this passage Paul describes the many gifts that come from the Holy Spirit. These gifts will always lead to Jesus and His lordship, while the manifestations of other spirits will always lead to the worship of self and lesser things.

If the Bible is true and livable, we should encourage and foster a place for all the gifts. We should have intelligibility publicly. The Sunday gathering is a place we come to be used by the Spirit for unity, and to build up others. Your identity does not come from the gifts, but from the Spirit. We do not need people with power who do not love, and we will not chase the gifts. We will follow God wherever He may be going. If you want to move in the Holy Spirit’s power, then receive first, because love is what motivates all the gifts.