The I Love CVille Show With Jerry Miller! - Brian Carter Joined Nate Kibler Live On “The White Mountain Ministries Show”

Episode Date: July 23, 2024

Brian Carter of Take It by Force Ministries joined Nate Kibler live on The White Mountain Ministries Show! The White Mountain Ministries Show airs live Tuesday from 2:30 pm – 3:15 pm on The I Love CVille Network. Watch and listen to The White Mountain Ministries Show on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, iTunes, Apple Podcast, YouTube, Spotify, Fountain, Amazon Music, Audible and iLoveCVille.com.

Welcome to the White Mountain Ministry Show. I am your host, Nate Kibler. Thank you for watching, listening, and praying with us today, and for being a part of what the Lord is going to do through our show today. Hey, this ain't church, y'all, but it is all about the kingdom of God. We are excited for the show and everything the Lord is going to do today. We are about to introduce our guest, Brian Carter. He's coming on from Southern Maryland. Amazing man of God, amazing heart. It's going to be a fun show and we are looking forward to everything that Brian is bringing with us today. You know, I don't, the beautiful thing about this show, it is a Holy Spirit led show. So that basically means to me that

just about every show is going to be different. Sometimes, you know, the Lord will give me a word. Sometimes he'll give me a testimony to start today. And today what he put on my heart is that we were going to get our guest on pretty much right away. And one little thing that, you know, he did put on my heart to share at the start of the show today. Guys, this show is not about religion. When I say it's not about Churchill or it ain't Churchill, it's all about the kingdom of God. We are going to bring the kingdom of God, you know, for you today. And people sometimes will say, oh, well, Nate's religious, Nate's religious. When people say that, they actually don't even actually know what they're saying. And, you know, their offense is not of the kingdom of God.

But it's almost like the biggest insult for me for someone to say that I'm religious. Because, again, this is not about religion. Jesus did not come to bring religion. He came to bring to the kingdom of God. And so much of my personal ministry, so much of this show is literally about to bring religion. He came to bring to the kingdom of God. And so much of my personal ministry, so much of this show is literally about abolishing religion and just being disciples, being followers of Jesus Christ and that the kingdom is near. So I'm going to introduce my next guest, Mr. Brian Carter. Let me know when he is on the set, Judah. Judah, I'm going to go ahead

and thank you for navigating today brian is joining us from skype so sometimes that can make things a little more challenging but we are rolling so good job judah thank you brian you are alive and we can see you so say hello to our guests yeah yeah amen and uh listen um i am so elated to be on with you. Brother Nate couldn't wait for this opportunity just to have this moment of fellowship with you on this platform here with the body of Christ. Come on. I mean, listen, how much better can we get right now? I'm on. Listen, I'm on white bottle right now. Come on.

And so, yeah, man, it doesn't get any better than this. The interesting thing is I always like to share about when we start the show because you are what I call our kingdom connection of the day. And so how did, you know, Brian Carter and Nate Kibler meet? And the truth is, we have a lot of mutual friends in the kingdom of God when we're talking about people like Sean Hurley, who's already been on this show, John Martin, who's already been on this show, our late brother, Reggie Crisp, that I used to evangelize with on the streets of Charlottesville that you go way back with. And we have spent numerous conversations on the phone over the years.

We've actually never met in person, so this is really the first time we've had a chance, let's just call it, to minister together. So I'm honored and looking forward to that. And why don't you just tell everybody, I know you're going to have your own people that you're friends with that support your ministry that are watching as well. But tell the people who are watching the show, who is Brian Carter? Well, who is Brian Carter? Listen, I am a function in an apostle,

pastoral role down here near the Southern Maryland area, taken by Forrest's ministry. But even more so than that, more so than any title, more so than any calling, listen, I am proudly a husband, proudly a father of two, and I am, listen, I'm a son of God. And my whole desire, my whole goal in life, if anyone wants to know me, wants to know what my heart is, wants to know what my desire is, my desire is pretty simple.

It doesn't change. My desire is to function, to live in the fullest manifestation of the Son of God, of Jesus Christ that I can. To be a full expression of Him in every single way. If I had to let somebody to know who I am, that's been my desire from the day that Jesus met me, that he came and got me in the corner of a little small church in Maryland. And from that moment on, my life has never been the same. So at the risk of this sounding like

a cliche, but very authentic, if anybody wants to know exactly who I am, trust me, no one would have to, you wouldn't have to ask too many questions. My sole desire, my heart is to daily be everything that God has called me to be and be the fullest manifestation of the son of God that I can be in any day. So if anybody wants to know who I am, I'm a son. That was almost probably a loaded question to ask a man who's so confident in who he is in Christ and an identity teacher to say that you're a son of God because that's exactly who you are. You're right. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And listen,

I don't, you know, you know, when I go to work, when I'm out in the streets, no one knows me as Pastor Brian. Nobody knows me as pastor brian nobody knows me as apostle carter so then how how if if if my identity if my function is solely based upon any really i love the fact that you talked about you know uh about religion in the opening of the of the broadcast because religion always sort of wants to relegate us to an institution or or to titles or you know any of these things that are so familiar with the institution but

the real question is if the institution wasn't around if the physical institution wasn't around who would you be? If who you are decides your function, come on, we're teaching already. If who you are decides your function, and it does, then who would you be without the acknowledgement of the institution?

Amen. Go ahead. See, regardless of whether I'm acknowledged by the institution and don't get me wrong, the institution of church was set up by God, not in the same way that we see it today. Yeah, exactly. Right. This is why I had to create the caveat, right? Not in the way that we see it today. The institution that God set up was an equestrian.

It was a governmental function in the earth, and we were to function as God's government in the earth, his governing bodies. Yeah, instituting his laws, his ways, his culture. The culture of the kingdom here in the planet that we're in. If our function is based upon our identity, then how would we function if there were no institution around to identify, if there were no modern-day institution to call us pastor or to call us teacher,

these modern-day ideas of what these things are. When we talk about the church, too, because, look, we say this ain't church y'all, and it's fun, but it's true. And when we look at the early church and the model that Jesus gave it, because so much of today, it's like, we bring people in the church to keep them in the church, but the model that Jesus gave us, we bring people into the church to raise them up to equip them to send them out for the kingdom of god that's a very big distinction there yeah yeah yeah it's a very big distinction because um because the actual model that was given to us uh by is to actually equip people, to train the sons and daughters of God out to actually

establish and extend the kingdom of God out throughout listen, all of creation throughout our current existence here on planet planet earth you know to uh to take territory you know and to establish his government to establish the kingdom culture whatever wherever it is that we wherever it is that we in the jurisdictions that we existed so yeah you're at you're absolutely right you, one of the things that I always say is that no church is called, I want you all to hear me, no church, no church in particular is called per se to be any different than any other church. Let me give you an example. Let me give an example of what I mean. Because of course I have to add some caveats to this.

Every last church, every last ecclesia that God has called into functioning in the body of Christ are all supposed to be functioning under the Great Commission. Every last one of us. None of us have a different call. Freely you have received, freely give.

Go out, cleanse the lepers, heal the sick. Yeah. That's right. Preach this gospel of the kingdom until the ends of the earth, to every nation. And lo, I shall be with you even always until the end of the age and so that is the commission of every single called out body in the body of Christ you know today we have this system where you know someone might have the church

of the prophets or church of this and then the church of that and and then what happens is everybody thinks now that they're called to have some sort of special calling when the truth is that we all only have one calling now we may have we may have certain things that we may specialize in in the midst midst of what Jesus has called us to do. But every single church only has one calling, and that's to fulfill what Christ commissioned us to do. So, yeah, amen. Well, we weren't even really planning on talking about that today, so I have to believe that is the Lord. And, you know, so much of this show is based around testimony.

Hey, really quickly, too, I just want to thank everybody for watching. Please share the show, guys. Something very supernatural in the last 24 hours happened, you know, just because someone shared the show, someone that is able to watch the show who would have never been able to have seen it. So we're not this massive platform. So share it. If you're one of Brian's friends, if you're one of Brian's supporters, share this show because there's going to be all kinds of people that can get fed from what the Lord is doing today that would have never been able to see or heard this. So comment, show it, tell us where you're watching from.

Please put that on because today a lot of our shows are not really interactive. But today at some point on the show, Brian and I are going to be praying for people. We're going to be praying for healing and bodies. We'll just see what the Lord does. So we encourage you to write and tell us where you're coming from. And then when the time comes, we will ask for your questions for a specific prayer. So anyways, I hear something like, Judas, something going on in my ear. It's like after I'm speaking. So that was me. I think it was the feedback from my Facebook. Oh, well, hey, so Brian, I want you to share just a little bit like the quick version, because you don't, most people don't just wake up one day and

start seeing signs and wonders and really walking in the kingdom of God. So can you talk a little bit about where you came from to where you are today as a, as a kingdom man and what, you know, part of that transformation looked like for you? Amen. So, so yeah, it all started for me back in 1993, 1994. I came to a point in my life, and I want to give you all the quickest version that I can. I came to a point in my life where I really had to question whether God was real. I knew that he, listen, I believed that everyone around me knew that he was real for them. Unless it's your experience

that he isn't real for you. And I came to a point where I was questioning whether God was real. And I'm going to give you a short story of this. I was actually sitting in the church and I asked God, almost kind of flippantly, I asked the Lord,

I said, Lord, today, if you're real, show me. And I said, Jesus, this is your opportunity to show me that you are real. And when I said it, I don't know if I was like really expecting anything because here's my background. My mom took us to church when we were young, but the church that we went to was

not a spirit-filled church. It was a church that was just basically kind of dry. Very, very dry. If I had to describe to you what we, what our, what it was like, it was not only dry, but most of the time

when we, whenever we taught or whenever there was any teaching, it was always teaching about the law. Yeah. About the law. Trying to gain righteousness through the law. Yeah. We were almost the equivalent of what you would call like Seventh Day Adventist mixed with a little bit of jehovah witness there's so many denominations man i can't keep them all straight yeah yeah and so that's why i'm trying to give

you all like the short version of this because me even trying to name what we were would we would just be all over the place but just to kind of give you sort of an idea of the background that I came from, there was definitely no gifts of the Spirit being known and shown. Very little mention of the Holy Spirit, maybe about Jesus every now and then, as it was opposed to the law so to speak and so by the time I actually became a teenager you know life happens I go my own way I'm here in the inner city in DC I become all a part of that environment and And so naturally, I began to question whether, you know, who God was and if God was real. I actually happened, my uncle invited me to this little white church up on the hill. Fond memories, but invited me to this little white church up on the hill. Far memories, but invited me to this little white church up on the hill. And for the first time in my life, what I know now, I'm using it as a reference point now. Listen, I saw the power of God move in a service. Now, I didn't know that it was the power of God. Actually, my first thought when I actually got there, as someone who was late in my teens and began to look around, I actually thought everybody there was crazy because that wasn't my reference.

People get scared of the Holy Spirit. It's really interesting. Oh, man, scared of the holy spirit listen i just so happen to sit beside the most holy spirit filled woman in any service i would say we fear we fear what we don't understand right yeah for sure uh for sure and it scared me I knew nothing about speaking in tongues. I knew nothing about it because that wasn't, in all honesty, that wasn't the environment that I came from. I came from an environment where they barely sang. I mean, we sang, but everything that we sang, like I said, it was pretty dry. It was pretty, you know, so I didn't have any reference for what the Holy Spirit should look like or does look like when it begins to when it began, when he begins to function through a person. I'm sitting I'm sitting beside someone in church and this woman gets filled to the brim with the Holy Spirit and she begins to she begins to speak in tongues. And so naturally, I'm thinking everybody here has lost their mind. I didn't know what was going on, but I did know

that this was different. And I did know I was smart enough to understand that the atmosphere the feeling, the atmosphere the move of the spirit there was just different and it it did it did not scare me to the point uh where where it didn't intrigue me it didn't scare me beyond my intrigue in other words i didn't think they were strange i thought it was peculiar. And anything, listen, what's strange you don't want to investigate.

What's peculiar you do. And so later I began to understand that this feeling, this movement that I was seeing was actually the spirit of God. And that led me to a moment where I asked God I said God is this is this real is this just is this just a realist some sort of religious function that I'm seeing everybody doing God is this real or not and I said Jesus I said I sat in the corner and I said Jesus if if you're real today then show me and here's what I literally said brother Nate I closed my eyes and I said, Jesus, I said, this is your opportunity to show me. Now, at the time, I was 20 going on 21. I said, this is your opportunity to show me. And I said, Lord, whatever happens, I'm not going to

run. And listen, I might be uncomfortable, but I'm not going to run. And listen, I might be uncomfortable, but I'm not going to run. I don't know if I'm going to fall out like I see people doing here. I don't know about any of the things, but I said, whatever happens, I'm not going to run. Jesus, if you're real, this is your opportunity. Show me. And at that moment, Brother Nate, as I stayed there, someone put their hand on my shoulder. I didn't pray out loud.

I didn't. I didn't. Now, contact like that, I would usually run from because I'm a guy from the streets. There's nothing, you know, I don't want anything, you know, I don't want to associate with anything solved or anything that could seem as being weak. Somebody praying for anything, you know, I don't want to associate with anything solved or anything that gets seen as being weak. I got somebody praying for me, you know, come on. Right. Right. But I said, no, Lord, I'm going to stay here. Whatever happens, happens. And at that moment, the power of God hit the tip of my toes. It hit the tip of my toes. And it began to creep slowly up my whole body. And it scared me.

It scared me because the truth was, Brother Nate, I actually thought I was dying. I actually thought, here's what I actually thought. I actually thought God was killing me. I actually thought he was killing me. I actually thought he was killing me. Now, here is why. Because you guys, like, we, today, we have the benefit of hearing, like, a full range of the gospel being preached. But back in 94, you know, it was, hey, it was hellfire and brimstone. Right. fire and brimstone and it and it was hey hey listen don't get caught outside of the arc of

safety hey don't play with god and hey you know so it was all of this type of preaching and teaching and so i actually thought to myself like man god is actually killing me and i was actually i was actually terrified because the only thing I could think in my mind was man I didn't they were right I didn't play for this so long that God is actually killing me now here's the question if you believe that God is killing you where can you actually run to they're like once you know it's God like I can't get up and run anywhere right like God is killing me so So in that moment, as I found myself just kind of relegating and surrendering myself to that moment, I realized that this feeling,

this power, this energy that was overtaking my whole body, that instead of me while i was having this fear that god was killing me i never felt so alive in my life praise god i never felt so alive in my life and uh i just remember having this totally being overwhelmed by this supernatural experience and the power of god the spirit of god just literally filled my whole being and i remember when the power of god began to exude out of my hands and up to the top of my head uh i didn't know anything about i didn't know anything about quote unquote brother nate what we would call like a sinner's prayer or confessing the Lord as Savior. I didn't know anything about any of these things, but when the power of God just got to the top of my head and I was completely filled

by the power of God, I jumped up out of my seat in this little small church back in 93 and 94. I come up out of my seat totally filled with the power of god and out of my mouth i began to say this i began to say jesus yeshua you are lord you are savior you're my mother you're my father i received you're my all in all this is this is coming from a 20 year old who doesn't know anything about receiving them like i didn't nobody ever told me like i never had read one scripture about accepting him into my heart or about receiving them or about any sort of spiritual protocols or whatever but what i did

say is lord i receive you you are mine because you've been my mother. You've been my father. You are my all in all in Jesus. Yeshua, I receive you right now. And from that point, my life was never the same. And I began to open my Bible and automatically Brother Nate, the words that were in the scripture became alive to me. And I remember, I remember like very early, the Holy Spirit himself directed me on where to go and what to read. And he actually turned me to the New Testament. Here's what he turned me to, Brother Nate.

He turned me to the book of John. And once I read the book of John, then he also turned me and I understood Jesus. Right. And I understood the sacrifice. He led me to the book of Mark. And you ask the question, you said, where did like signs and wonders and all of these things begin for you? I read the book of Mark, and when I got to Mark the 16th chapter, that these signs shall follow them that believe that in my name they shall cast out demons, they shall speak with new tongues, they shall take up service. And if they drink any deadly thing, no harm shall come to them. They shall lay hands on the sick and they shall recover. And I remember

that as I read that, that I innately understood by the Spirit of God that I qualified. It's called revelation. That I qualified. I don't know who's out there today, but if you're out there and you're listening today, I want you to know you qualify. You know, it's amazing what you say. Once you had an encounter with Jesus, everything in your life changed. And the interesting thing you said, it was almost exactly how it happened for me. And I've heard so many people share this,

that after they had an encounter with Jesus, and there's so much controversy over the Bible. But when you get into that word after you've encountered him, like it comes alive and it's transformative. And we get into different translations and this and that. But when you are reading that Bible being led by the Holy Spirit, it's amazing what it will do for your life. And so, look, I'm going to look. You are an amazing teacher and I want people to, I mean, your story is awesome, but I also want people to be able to, to get fed by you when you're teaching, because you are an awesome identity teacher. We talked about a couple of things on the phone and

something I found really interesting. I was in a prayer group today and there was people that were talking and asking for prayer for family members and friends. And almost every time it was, you know, so-and-so thinks God is punishing them. So-and-so thinks that God is mad at them, that God is causing sickness, or he's using it for this and using it for that. And the unfortunate reality is that when you start thinking those things, it shows that you don't know him. You don't know his heart.

You don't know his character. And, you know, that's his desire. Eternal life, John 17, is to know Jesus Christ and so you know we take these scriptures because of our experience and what we think about God then we read them and then we use certain scriptures as an example to why he's causing sickness or okay with sickness or allowing sickness and look you are going to talk about the thorn and Paul's side and I believe this is a kingdom perspective. So I just encourage people, when you listen to this, when you've heard this one way your whole life by the pastor, look, open up the eyes of your heart to hear a different perspective, because some of these perspectives ask yourself,

okay, is this a scripture that makes me weak? Is this a scripture that puts me in bondage? Or is this a scripture that gives strength and authority to me and a scripture that provides freedom? Because you are going to share this perspective from this scripture that provides freedom and strength, I do believe. So can you share? Yeah, so oftentimes, you know, as you stated, there are contrary to the will of God that it must be God's will for them to carry this thing or that thing because God wants to use this thing to actually teach them some lessons or to give

them a certain amount of wisdom concerning the area. And they erroneously believe that if they somehow had not had the condition, that they wouldn't have been able to learn the lessons that they learned. God taking all things and turning them for good does not mean he's okay with you being sick. Come on, can you say it again? What did I say? No, I'm just telling you to say it. That just came.

Yeah. No, I'm saying God being able to take all things and turn it for good does not mean that he's OK with you being sick. Absolutely. Absolutely. Listen, God does not need to listen to use sickness or setbacks to teach you a lesson. How about this? How about God is so God that he needs nothing but the spirit of God himself on the inside of you to teach you everything that he wants to teach you. How about that's the very reason

why he placed himself on the inside of you as the helper. So that lessons would not be restricted to difficulty. So that wisdom would not be predicated upon setbacks or pain. What if God loved us so much that he provided

the answer already? What if he loved us so much that he actually became the very answer that he provided? And that answer is in Jesus. In 2 Corinthians the 11th chapter and the 12th chapter Paul chapter, in the 12th chapter, Paul begins to talk about the consistent

difficulties that he's experiencing in life. And Paul begins to say, listen, I was beaten five times. I was given this many strikes this many times. I was shipwrecked. I was left for dead. I was persecuted. I was forsaken by friends.

I was thrown in jail more than any other apostle. But yet I have more revelation than them all. And Paul began to get annoyed. He began to get frustrated because of the difficulty that he was facing on a consistent basis. And Paul says in chapter 11 and in chapter 12, he says, I cannot understand why I am the one having the most difficulty when I carry the most revelation and I do more work than any other apostle. Why am I beaten the most? Why am I thrown in jail the most? Why am I shipwrecked the most?

Why am I persecuted the most? Why am I left for dead the most? God, I cannot understand why I do the most, why I carry the most revelation, but yet I have the most opposition. And Paul says, I'm frustrated about these things. If we were to read chapter 11 and chapter 12, just as one whole chapter, we would understand that Paul came into a place where he was annoyed, where he was frustrated by the difficulty. And he said, because I was annoyed, because I was frustrated, because I was a little angry, come on, read chapter 11 and chapter 12, I got angry because I was comparing myself

to others. And I could not understand why the other apostles seemed to have it on easy street. And I don't. And he says about this one particular thing, I sought God three times about this. Because I'm upset about it. And Paul says this, if we read the text correctly in between chapter 11 and chapter 12

he says on the third time something happened on the third time whether I was in my body or out of my body, I don't know. He says, but I was taken up to the third heavens. when I got there, I heard things that is a lawful detail. And I saw things that it wouldn't even be expedient for me to talk

about. Because the things that I heard and the things that I saw are beyond all natural human comprehension. I saw the angels worshiping. I heard them speaking from the throne room. I understood things that it would be impossible to understand with the natural human mind. And then once I experienced all of these things

God placed me back in my body and when I came to my own physical awareness I said this one thing God now I understand now everything has come full circle and your grace what Jesus did for me on the cross

is sufficient for me I don't have another complaint. I'm not annoyed anymore. I'm not angry at you, and I'm not angry at them. Because I realize that where you took me was to the place where you seated me. Come on, I want you all to hear me. And where you seated me was in heavenly places. I need you all to hear this because if you don't hear it, you won't get it. I realize that you

did nothing, but let me experience where I was seated. And where you seated me is where you already previously told me I was seated when I wrote the book of Ephesians. In Christ Jesus, in heavenly places, well, here's my question. Come on, Brother Nate, I'm going to help them. Here's my question. Where is Christ Jesus seated? I need some answers. Whoever out there in the comment section, where is Christ Jesus seated? Come on,

where is Christ seated? Let me look here. Let me see if anybody's writing down. Come on. Come on. Where is Christ seated? Come on. I need y'all to answer quickly so we can move on. Because today we're going to share with you. We're going to give you some answers concerning the difficulty that you've been facing. I don't see anybody writing in where he's seated, but I believe he's seated at the right

hand of the Father, correct? Somebody just said at the right hand of the Father and somebody said the throne. They might be a little delayed, but it's coming through. Right hand of God, it's coming through now. Here we go. Here we go. So if Jesus is seated at the right hand of the Father, and the Father placed you in Christ Jesus

and set you in heavenly places with Christ Jesus, where are you seated? Where are you seated? Where are you seated? Are you seated apart from Christ? Or are you seated in Christ? Where are you seated? Listen, listen, listen. Here we go. We're going to go any further. Can I take them there, brother Nate? Can I take them there? Are we seated apart from christ jesus or are we seated

in christ jesus we're seated in christ jesus if we come on come on brother nate they scared to go there they scared to go there they're scared they're scared to go y'all gotta come if he's sitting at the right hand of god and god placed you in Jesus, where are you seated? Brother Nate, they're scared to say it. They're scared to say it. So I'm going to have to say it for them for time's sake. For time's sake. If Christ is seated at the right hand of God, and God placed you in Christ Jesus and you're seated in heavenly places

in Christ Jesus, then not only is Jesus seated at the right hand of God, but you're seated at the right hand of God because God himself placed you in Christ Jesus and you share the same seat. So here is what Paul realized. Paul realized that God simply gave him a full revelation of where he was actually seated in Christ Jesus. And Paul now, while he, listen, and Paul now was able to see all life, all of creation from the perspective of where he was seated, both heaven and earth, the third heavens, the second heaven, and the third heaven, Paul was now realizing that he was seated far above all of those things

because he was seated in the same seat as Christ Jesus. And he heard everything from Jesus' perspective. He saw all life from Jesus' perspective. He saw all life from Jesus' perspective. And when Paul came into this revelation, came into this fullness, and was then placed back in his body, Paul said this one thing, Brother Nate. He said

God, now I realize that your grace what you accomplished on the cross is sufficient for every difficulty that I've faced. And so what was a problem now ceases to be a problem in the face of the revelation

of where I'm seated that you just caused me to exist in. See, Paul had had questions before this revelation. And if we are to read in chapter 12 where Paul is actually talking about the thorn in his flesh. Paul says this in one

particular verse. He says, this thorn in my flesh was given to me, listen to this because of the abundance of revelation that I was given. So my question to you is why was the thorn, listen, I'm going to ask this question and then I'm going to clear up what the thorn was and what it wasn't.

Because many say the thorn is sickness. Many say the thorn is disease. Some have even said, Brother Nate, that the thorn in Paul's flesh was like, you know, he was dealing with lust. And they point back to Romans 7 and say, you know, Paul was dealing with lust in the flesh and he was dealing with covetousness. And what they don't understand is that Romans the 7th chapter is not even talking about us. Right. Romans the 7th chapter, Paul starts it out between verse 4 and 6 by saying, for when we were in the flesh romans 8 starts out in the first in the first six verses says that we're no longer in the flesh we're in the spirit so the moment we get born again we're no longer in the flesh we're in the spirit because to be in the flesh means to be in Adam, but you and I are no longer in Adam.

We're in Christ. So tell me what the thorn was. And so, and so in, in second Corinthians, Paul talks about this thorn in the flesh and he said, it was given unto me because of the abundance of revelation. So, so why was the thorn given unto him the answer is because of the abundance of revelation and then here's what he

says next we're going to add context to it he says this thorn wasn't given by God. So whatever was happening to Paul was not the will of God for it to happen. Come on, I need y'all to hear it. So the thorn in the flesh cannot be associated with the will of God because here's what Paul says in chapter 12. That the messenger of Satan was sent to me to buffet me because of the abundance of

revelation lest by any means I should be exalted above measure. Are y'all ready for this? The thorn in the flesh was not sickness. It was not disease. It wasn't Paul having trouble with lust in the flesh. The thorn in the flesh

that Paul was alluding to in chapter 12, he spoke about in chapter 11. What was the thorn in the flesh? The thorn in the flesh was the persecution. The thorn in the flesh was the difficulty the thorn in the flesh was the trial and the difficulties that

he was having because the abundance of revelation that he was given in the word of God. So it was not sickness. It was not the disease. The thorn in the flesh was Paul being whipped. The thorn in the flesh was Paul being shipwrecked. The thorn in the flesh was the resistance that Paul was constantly having to walk through.

The difficulty that he was consistently being found in as a result of the revelation of the gospel that he was given. And to go back to the Old Testament, the thorn in the flesh, I believe, is referred to a couple of times, which literally does mean what the messenger of Satan or something, right? So the thorn in the flesh, one of the first references is in Numbers 33 and verses 55. And in Numbers 33, we see the opposition coming up against the nation of

Israel and what we see here is what we call in the Bible the law of first mention. And when the law of first mention, the law of first mention acts as a reference point for the usage of a certain word, of a certain phrase, or of a certain thought. And in Numbers 33 and 55, okay, they began to talk about how the surrounding nations have become what? A thorn in his flesh, he is using the law of first mention. In other words, he's simply using something that's already being used as a reference point that actually refers to

the context of what something may mean. And so the thorn in the flesh that's being spoken about in Scripture is always the opposition of someone, okay, or something. It is always as a resistance. If we can think of it like this, imagine someone comes to you with a briar from a briar tree. And while you are attempting to do something,

imagine them just keep poking you in your arm while you're trying to speak or while you're trying to concentrate. Well, what does that briar serve to do? At some point, it's going to serve to distract you. It's going to serve to frustrate you. It's going to serve to annoy you. But the question is why? Why? What's the goal? The goal of the annoyance, the goal is

to, listen, the goal is to not only to distract you, but to also stop you from doing the very thing that you've been called to do. And so what the enemy had determined that he was going to do, he had determined that he, listen, that unless, I want y'all to hear it, that unless he could create enough distractions, unless he could create enough opposition, more than James, more than John, more than any other apostle, the enemy knew that unless he created distractions and annoyances, that he wouldn't be able to get Paul, listen, to function out of the flesh. The enemy's goal was to get Paul to have to so consistently

acknowledge the discomfort of his own flesh that he would not be able, listen, to give or to live in the revelations that he was given. Why? Because the enemy understood that, listen, that if he did not create the opposition, that there would be nothing in the way of Paul operating in the fullness of who Paul was in Christ. So because of the abundance of revelation that Paul got. The opposition came. You know, it even makes reference to this brother Nate and Matthew

when Jesus talks about how persecution and opposition arises for what? For the word's sake. When he begins to talk about, when Jesus himself begins to actually talk about how the sower soweth the work, and how some seeds fell by the wayside, some seeds fell on stony ground. And then, you know, other seeds fell among shallow ground and other seeds fell on good ground. And as he began to explain that parable to his disciples, he says, you know, the seed that actually fell by the wayside is those who when they have heard the word, but because they did not understand it, Satan came immediately to snatch away the word that was stoned in their heart. So when persecution arose to those people, immediately they were offended.

That word offended doesn't mean, it doesn't mean the same thing that we think it means today. Like if somebody speaks against you and then you're offended, you take it personally. No, it means you have been off ended. It means you have been thrown off course because you have allowed the opposition. You have allowed persecution to cause you to function out of the flesh, and now it has thrown you off of your goal. It has deterred you from your purpose, and now you've been off-ended. Well, the question is, why did the persecution come? It came for the word's sake that Jesus stated. And so we see here Paul is operating in a level

of revelation that the enemy, the messenger of Satan has to immediately come to try and cause Paul to be offended. And we thank God that Paul wasn't offended because if he was, if he was all ended, we wouldn't have three quarters of the new Testament, uh,

uh, written today. So the thorn in the flesh guys was not a sickness. It was not a disease. It was not lust. It was not any of these things that we tend to attribute to. And God is not God wasn't using God wasn't using this persecution to teach Paul a lesson because Paul was dealing with pride. Oftentimes we look at this scripture, brother Nate, we say, you know, well, well, Paul was dealing with dealing, dealing with pride, and because Paul was dealing with pride, God used this opposition.

Think about this. We say God used this opposition to humble Paul. I want y'all to think about that. Hey, last point. Last point. Make this point. We got to move on. I think this is good what you're going to say, but make that point real quick. Yeah, yeah. When, in fact, God was not using the opposition to humble Paul. God was not using opposition to humble Paul. Paul was not having an issue with pride. Here is what the word said, and we're going to bring this home here.

He said that the messenger of Satan was sent to buffet me, lest I should be exalted above measure. So it was the messenger of Satan who wanted to stop Paul from being exalted above measure. Because God saw that it was the messenger of Satan that wanted to stop Paul being exalted above measure, God said, Paul, here's what I'm going to do. I'm going to take you out of your body, let you see where you currently exist so that you can see

that you exist in everything that the enemy is currently trying to deter you from. Paul, the enemy wants you to be humbled in the flesh but what I actually want you to see Paul is how I've already exalted you above measure here's what I want to say guys here's my point guys God has already exalted each and every one of us above measure.

And it's not an issue of pride. It's only the enemy that wants to stop you from seeing where you're already seated in Christ and dwelling in that reality. You've been raised far above all principalities and powers and dominion and might. And this is the place that God wants us not only to exist in, but to function from. Hey, thank you, brother. That's definitely an awesome perspective. And I pray that that will open some eyes

yeah hey hey um we have some people watching so i promised that we would do this i can see from my feed that it's at least probably 30 seconds behind where we are live so i'm gonna open it up for anybody watching right now, because unfortunately this is our show and I would love for us to be able to talk on this all day. I mean, my gosh, we barely even touched the surface. But if you need prayer, if you have, you know, sickness or something going on in your body, maybe you've even believed because of this scripture that we're talking about, that God has been okay with you being sick. And maybe there's some freedom coming from that.

Write to us. Or if you have questions for Brian about that teaching in general, we would love to hear from you. So I'll give it a minute to come in because I know it's behind. But if there's something on your heart, please ask. So we're going to sit here. I'm going to wait and see if any prayer requests or questions come in on that. But something I did wake up on my heart this morning to ask you, because we've had last week, my friend from India, Francis was on the show. We've had a man from South Africa. We've had women on the show. You are our first African-American brother

on the show. And I just felt to ask you how, because we see in the world, we see color, we see black and white, we see left and right. How does God, as a kingdom man, I want to hear your perspective. How does God see color in the kingdom? How does God see color in the kingdom? Listen, the first word that came to my mind was just variety Just variety That's how he sees color in the kingdom God has beautified all of creation

With variety And that's what he's done all of creation with variety. And that's what he's done. He just simply added variety in the kingdom of God. Listen, here's the truth. And the truth is the Bible talks about how in Christ Jesus Christ has broken down the middle wall of partition that separates anybody. That separates any nation, creed, or color. Because here's the truth. When we're all in Christ

the Bible says this. That he's made I love love what it says, by the way, it says when it comes to Jews and Gentiles and cultures and any of these things that we actually think actually separate us, but in the eyes of God, it does nothing but provide variety, right? He says, in Christ Jesus, does nothing but provide variety right right he says in christ jesus he is made to one he's more he's made jew and gentile he's made you know uh uh african-americans caucasian america and all of this he he he's he's made us all one judge no man according to his flesh right yeah yeah yeah judge no man

according to his flesh and uh in the book of ephesians i believe the third chapter he tells us this he says that we're heaven and in earth are in all actuality they're one family if they're in Christ and because they're in Christ so in the eyes of God there is no difference between the two families because all of those families have been made one in Christ There is no difference between the two families. Because all of those families have been made one in Christ Jesus.

And we're only named by one name. So when it comes to skin color, when it comes to culture, when it comes to background, God just, he did nothing but add variety to the body but in christ jesus we're all we're all one so yeah hey i appreciate you being on the show brother um i i got a couple people writing in but it looks like i think on on our youtube we haven't really done the uh we've we've done the prayer on the show for people a couple times, but a couple of people wrote me and said it's not letting them. Their text is not working, so I'm not sure what's going on with that. But do you have anything for the show, anything for the city of Charlottesville before we let you go?

For the city of Charlottesville. Thank you, Lord Jesus. Thank you, Lord. Thank you, Lord. Thank you, Lord. There is, thank you, Jesus. God is doing something in Charlottesville. You guys are a hub for the spread of the glory of God in Charlottesville. And he's actually doing it in a way that's never been done before. By causing

others to see the need not just for unification, thank you, Lord Jesus, but the necessity Of Christ being made Known And shown in that area He's causing ministries

In that area To be aware There's something happening in Charlottesville where ministries and individuals are actually becoming aware of the need for discipleship. God is causing such a stirring in Charlottesville where people are not now only able to recognize what religion is, because to tell you the truth, you know, all of us, all of us say at some point, well, you know, I'm not religious, I'm spiritual. What does that mean? Right? People have said that you've heard people, I'm not religious, I'm spiritual.

Well, it's always taking God to reveal more of himself to us to see how actually religious we were. And had God shown himself to us in Christ, we wouldn't have known how actually religious we were. But God is raising up people who are seeing the need in ministries, who see the need for discipleship. And unlike before, thank you, Lord Jesus,

especially in the next six months, I want you all to hear me. You're going to see more people surrender to and submit to discipleship in Christ like never before. Amen. There's also a place I'm seeing in Charlottesesville i don't know what it is but i'm seeing a statue right now i don't know what this statue is but it seems to be like in the center

of charlottesville it seems to like be like some sort of hub like where people go maybe it's a monument or sometime where people go but i'm seeing this statue and I'm seeing this hug. But I'm also seeing ministry being birthed out from this central location in Charlottesville. And what that means is this. It's not that the statue means anything in particular. It's only a reference point. But what it actually means is that this is becoming a central hub

for the glory of God to be revealed in the Charlottesville area that's going to bring many different people, many different backgrounds together because they'll all see the value of actually being one family and one unit in Christ. Thank you, Lord Jesus. Hey, Brian, there's a young lady, Emily, who asked if you would pray for the spirit of infirmity to leave her. Okay. Yes, Lord Jesus. So here's what we're going to do.

We're going to pray that real Real simple Right now Leave Now In Jesus name Amen It can be that simple sister Emily I want you to pay attention to your body

you may start to feel an electricity a buzzing sensation I want you to pay attention to what's going on or you may feel nothing at all But right now Get up and walk Do something that you couldn't do Test your body out And see what the lord has done come on who else we got on here today thank you jesus hey my brother so we we gotta go unfortunately we have a time limit this is not a traditional podcast that we can stay on here as long as we want so the show that must go on until

next week and they have other shows they'll have to film. But you've been awesome. We thank you for being on here. Thank you for all the revelation and for sharing your heart. And yeah, so guys, thank you for watching. Thank you for listening.

Thank you for praying with us. Thank you for sowing in to this ministry. And next week we are gonna have Jaqueline Pennyman, who Brian may also know, I'm not sure, but an amazing man of God and signs, wonders, miracles. He's a very young man. So we're excited for that show. And yeah, we speak life and love and healing over your bodies

in the name of Jesus. We thank you for being with us and we'll see you next week. Bless you guys. Bless you.