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ááááááááááá GWEN: Another day! Thank you God! Thank you God! Thank you God!
Thank you God for another day! Praise God! Praise God! Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!
I want to thank the audience for coming and always revving me up and praising God for
just getting me up so early today! I cannot tell you how much I love waking up, and getting
up, and finding out what God wants, and just getting anything from God. It just completely
blows me away! And so I love it. And I love these days. I love these TV shows. This is
episode four for this fall and it is on reverence, and it is about God, and it is about fasting.
I want to start with a quick shout out to Europe and to Isadora, Scott, Raphael, and
Julian. But all of Europe. All of you guys. Bless your hearts over there. And I hope that
you are, even though the hours are different, that you are joining in with us on this forty
day journey to the heart of the Father. And a part of that is this weekend, this Sabbath,
which is going to be at a later time, will be about three or three-thirty or something
like that in the afternoon. Join us because it is going to be more on the Day of Atonement,
and the end of this forty day journey, and also the Tabernacle. We have talked about
it some, but this whole journey is a shadow of the journey that the Israelites took to
the presence of God. And so the whole thing is about this year long calendar of being
with God, and learning to love Him with all your heart, and getting everything out of
your heart. And a key to this isůreverence. And learning to be more reverent. We talked
about that last week...about the trumpets and people repenting and bowing down. There
is not as much of it. But the definition of reverence is first of all a feeling of profound
awe, and respect, and of course from love. It is worship and adoration of God. And it
is an act of showing respect. Especially like learning how to bow or curtsy or toůin this
country it is about all you can get out of somebody. But in some certain parts of the
world there would be bowing of head. And definitely this sign of reverence to each other, but
especially learning to go back and bow again. Our children are learning to get down...get
low. And we are getting down there with them and it is beautiful.
Now the word reverend (you have heard that and that is kind of how Americans have taken
the word reverence and turned it into that) is used in a form of address for certain members
of Christian clergy and this form really to me (and I don't want to be offensive or anything)
in some ways robs the meaning of reverence to me. Because in Jesus' day they had people
that would call peopleůthey would not use the word reverend but certain sects of people
would refer to church leaders as rabbi, which means teacher, or they would call them father.
And Jesus said when they called him rabbi or father he goes, "Do not refer to anyone
as teacher or father except God." In the scriptures it says not toůI am going to read you that
exact scripture here if I can find it. It says,
But you are not to be called ĹRabbi,ĺ for you have only one Master and you are all brothers.
áAnd do not call anyone on earth Ĺfather,ĺ for you have one Father, and he is in heaven.
áNor are you to be called Ĺteacher,ĺ for you have one Teacherů (And he goes on to
say which I think is beautiful,) The greatest among you will be your servant. áFor whoever
exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted.
(Matthew 23:8-12)
So Jesus taught the people also that no one is goodůexcept the Father alone. He was talking
to the rich young ruler who called him good. He goes, "No. God is good." (Mark 10:18) Letting
you know that Jesus never considered equality with God and was always giving the credit
where credit belongs and that is a form of just being respectful and reverent to anybody
in the world. And so it is for us. God is this Tabernacle is His home so the scriptures
talk about observing the Sabbath and the Sanctuary. It says in Leviticus 19:30,áôĹObserve my
Sabbaths and have reverence for my sanctuary. I am the LORD. ĺö
God is also though going back to being respectful to people. The Tabernacle now is in the heart
of man. And learning whenůyou've got Saints that are God-fearing and that adore God and
you know that God is with them or whatever. That is a beautiful thing for us to show respect
for one another. There is a difference in worshipping someone versus showing respect
because God is there. And that is why we are to be taking care of our bodies. This is God's
Tabernacle. And you cannot just do whatever you want to do in that Tabernacle. You do
not even do that in your own homes. You turn the lights out. You take care of it. Make
sure there is not too much electricity being used or whatever. We have God's Spirit living
here and we need to learn how to respect anything where there is the presence of God. And you
need humility to have reverence. Jeremiah 44:10, ôTo this day they have not humbled
themselves or shown reverence, nor have they followed my law and the decrees I set before
you and your fathers.ö How do you know you are not reverent? You
are not obeying. And you are not humbling yourself. You are not obeying the commands
of God. And so we need reverence. If you have a hard time obeying with this food, you need
some of this reverence I am talking about. And again it is not something that we are
loaded with in this country. It was not unusual, back in Jesus' day and in a lot of parts of
the world, for people to show reverence by bowing and falling prostrate before God. And
even to people sometimesů.but let me tell you whyůlike in Joshua's day. ôůThen Joshua
fell facedown to the ground in reverence, and asked him, ôWhat message does my Lord
have for his servant?ö (Joshua 5:14) When you believe someone is coming as a spokesperson
for God, somebody has a word for God. And still this day it is not uncommon for people
to bow low as that would be for God not that person, but it would be for the word or the
message. It says in Acts 10:25, ôAs Peter entered the house, Cornelius met him and fell
at his feet in reverence.ö He is looking for the word of God through this man but not
that person. When people would bow down Paul was saying do not have any idols and then
the people started bowing down for him and he ripped his shirt and goes, "Don't bow down
to me! Bow down to God!" So it must always be with God on your mind or you are totally
missing it. This is a great verse here. It says in 2 Corinthians
7:1, "Since we have these promises, dear friends, let us purify ourselves from everything that
contaminates body and spirit, perfecting holiness out of reverence for God." So that is how
we are going to do it. That is what we are going to talk about today. Let us purify ourselves
from everything that contaminates the body and the spirit and perfecting holiness out
of reverence to God. So now we have a little bit of feel for this reverence and so I praise
God for that. Before I bring up Candace, I have a few little
special fellows that are going to come up and say "Hello" to all of y'all. Every season
it seems like either once or twice I am bringing on up some little sweethearts of mine that
are learning how to worship God. Come on up! It's Gracie, and Gweneth, and Gabriele, and
Garland, and here is Gloria! Can you say "Hi?" Say "Hi!" to the camera. And I've got one
more. I hope you got that on camera. This is our happy one. This is Gates. This is Michael
and Erin's youngest one. Can you say "Hi?" Can you say "Praise God?" Praise God! Praise
God! Praise God! They are growing up in the Lord and they are learning Bible verses and
they are learning to love each other and they are basically learning how to bow down to
God and this reverence. But I wanted them to come up here to let you know how muchůit
is worth living. Your life is worth living as you are passing down something that is
totally needed for this world to the next generation and these little ones give me hope.
So can y'all say goodbye to everybody? Goodbye! Okay. Ducks in a row. Grace lead them off.
Follow the leader. Follow the leader. There you go! Say "Bye-Bye!" Oh my goodness! Now
welcome Candace Anger my cohost! Yahoo! Yahoo! Yahoo! I need to be curtsying before you!
CANDACE: I need to show reverence. Curtsy for you!
GWEN: I would love to bring that back. I was telling that to Elizabeth the other day. I
was watching Pride and Prejudice. I adored how the girls every time they would come into
the presence of anyone that they respected or each other and they would just bow their
heads and I just think what a way to start a conversation. What a way to greet somebody.
CANDACE: I love that! GWEN: I do too!
CANDACE: You mentioning that you were talking about how much more respect you wanted all
of us to have for each other and I will never forget it. It was very moving.
GWEN: Well that is awesome. Before we sit down, let us bring up our guest today and
do you want to announce her? CANDACE: Well, she is someone very loved.
I am sure most of you know her from the videos. She is on Weigh Down Advanced. She is on all
sorts of classes. And one of our most popular YouTube You Can Overcome shows from last season
when she is on there about marriage. She is our Remnant sweetheart, Jennifer Martin.
GWEN: Yahoo! Jennifer! Yay! Have a seat. We are excited about this subject and talking
about it. And there is some hubbub that is going on Facebook about fasting so we want
to cover all of that. Let us start with Miss Jennifer here and I just want to let you know
that as Candace was saying, she and her husband are very beloved here, but also when I think
of reverence and respect to God, her husband, to church leadership, to individuals and even
to the children the way that she approaches any and every one lets you know that she understands
God in someone and understands the value of people and the love of God. The way she worships
is very beautiful. There are some pictures here of her and her husband lighting the candles
from the Day of Atonement last year and that is when the family gets together. That's this
Sabbath. If you are joining us, get a candle and get with your family. They are bowing
down before God there. Lighting that candle meaning that, "God, we have laid down all
of our idols and we worship you alone." So that is the Martin family.
JENNIFER: Praise God. GWEN: I was going to ask you just a general
question. Have you felt yourself growing in this reverence over the years as we continue
to get more into the Word and more into what God wants us to do?
JENNIFER: Oh my goodness! Yes. Definitely. I have been so moved since the message on
Saturday to even have evenůI feel like I have taken up even another several notches
in reverence before God. First and foremost, I would never even know what reverence was
before God if it wasn't for Weigh Down, the seminars, the Exodus, to The Last Exodus,
Strongholdsůeach time I go through any of those, my reverence for God just goes up higher.
I would never have known that, first of all, if it was not for that and the message and
everything you have written. GWEN: Well, I give that all credit goes right
back. No one good but God. All that credit right back to God because even when Jennifer
you have been here you and Candace have been here long enough to know me going in there
going I cannot believe this when I am getting this stuff. I feel God's hand right before
me and I love it when Jesus is just basically saying, "Okay everybody! All credit goes to
God." There is nothing down here. There are instruments. There are people that are used,
but it is a gift. Even that gift is coming from God to be used for the glory of God and
so the credit cannot go to an individual. I think that there is something beautiful
about the way that you willůeven your hugs to people or whatever. It is just so honoring
and so sincere. Real but respectful. You have this gift of building people up. It comes
fromůlike you sayůwe are learning it more and more and God is sending it out. I mean
He has not stopped. It has been a pipeline. It has been a pipeline. And as long as it
is continuing to come we are going to keep bringing this message out. It is changing
us. I agree with you. This last Saturday affected my life. It affected my life just this being
so quiet before God. JENNIFER: I always think of the greatest command
is love God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength. Then the second is to love each
other. So I just want that. I want that to be in my heart. I want to show God's love
first and foremost to Him and then to other people. I want it to draw others back to God.
And one thing that has been so big for me with just finding that reverence is when I
got to sit in a counsel meeting with you and somebody was asking about respectůabout have
to have respect towards her husband and you said, "You have got to have a fear of the
Lord. That is respect." And so I was like, "Oh my goodness. Okay! Okay! I am going to
go backů" And I started searching all the scriptures on the fear of the Lord. I just
could not get over how many of them there were.
GWEN: It is amazing. JENNIFER: In the Treasure series you mentioned
that it is the key to the treasure. I want a greater fear of the Lord. You told me, "You
want that? Then you just repent and you just keep obeying with everything. Then you will
get the fear." I want that fear. I want that respect and ever since then, I guess that
is why I keep having more of that reverence. GWEN: It is the obedience. It feeds the reverence
and the adoration and the worship. Is that not the wildest?
JENNIFER: It is! GWEN: You think thatůit is hard to see how
there is a connection there. But there is a connection between doing it, and then if
you disobey, you have no respect. You had no respect because you did disobey, but it
feeds irreverence. When you are disobeying andůthey say that the people that hurt you
the worst, that use you, abuse you, they despise you in the end. Like if a parent does not
teach that child to respect them, that child winds up despising them. If you teach him
obedience, then he will respect you. So everybody is so confused because they think if I just
let them have their own way and let them express themselves and let them just go, then they
will find this respect for me their own way. They are making up a rule or a law that does
not exist. It does not work. Do you want your children to respect you? Then you hold the
line. You teach them that you have to show respect because God commands it. You insist
upon it. Then the next thing you know, they are respecting you more. I think a lot of
people lay low. They want their children's attention so much. They are so scared they
are going to break that tie or lose that child that they, bottom line, spoil them instead
of teaching them that respect because they don't know that rule. It is a big rule. Candace,
you have grown in the years more reverent. I see it.
CANDACE: Well, I had a lot of pride and control to lay down. Those are the antithesis of reverence.
GWEN: Your parents did not teach you maybe? CANDACE: No. I moved around from a lot of
differentůfamily to family to family. So there really was no authority. You just kind
of jumped. GWEN: You made your own way.
CANDACE: Yeah, you just tried to blend in with the families and not stick out. You were
changing a lot. When I came here and started listening to this message, you do have to
find that Truth within yourself. Who you are and what you are doing is real and you are
not one way out in public and a different way at home. I love it now because if my husbandůusually,
if a test comes if it is super busy or we are going five hundred different directions.
You are on this path and you have got a plan. And then he comes in and it just goes in a
different direction. Just learning from this message to be quiet with those moments and
let all the dust settle and then God just works it out. Just change it up.
GWEN: Being willing to not have an agenda. Do not have an agenda. That is the wisest
thing that you are taught in this world ironically. Also, get up and have an agenda. And it is
okay to make out a plan. And then go, "God, please bless it or what would you want me
to do. God please give me the plan." But, the plan is going to come through that authority,
so you have to just be willing to bend and if He is wanting to go that way and then if
you feel like it is against the will of God like doing something totally wrong. But it
is not. It is usually a test for you but then that was His plan for you that day for you
to pass that test. So you pass that test and then you move on and it can be the men with
the boss. It can be anything that comes your way. But if you will stop and show that reverence,
show that respect for the person on earth then that means you are doing it for those
in Heaven. When those people fell prostrate, then they were doing that as unto the Father.
It was looking for that word. Showing that reverence. You are looking for God's guidance.
God's words. That is really what you live on. Man does not live on bread alone but on
every word that comes from the mouth of God. So you are always looking for the word of
God. And it is living. One of the biggest disappointments that Satan has gotten in is
that there is no ability to find the living prophets of the day or some of the ones deceased
but it all stopped. It is still out there. You are to listen for it. It can come out
of the mouth of babes but your heart will know it if you can find it. And then you get
that answered prayer and you just go, "No one knows but God." Patty and I were talking
about that before the show - that feeling you get when you get an answered prayer and
it is no one could have known it is between you and God and you know that He just did
something. You are just like "Ahhh." And you just want to fall on the floor. Fall on your
knees. "Oh God! I want to go further. I want to do more. I can't believe you would do this
for me!" So it's Him showing all this love and relieving you and then you are wanting
to give back. It is the reverence. JENNIFER: It is beautiful.
GWEN: It is! JENNIFER: It brings me to tears. This Sabbath.
The pain of God. I think more when you start finding that reverence for Him. You are so
off yourself. That is what I want. I am off myself onto Him and then when you hear about
His painů. GWEN: It is beautiful to keep your mind in
that direction and onto others' needs. It will fill up your life. That is a great segue
to fasting because people are going okay so the end of this journeyůthis purificationůlike
I was reading from second Corinthians. Let us put that verse back up. 2 Corinthians 7:1,
"Since we have these promises, dear friends, let us purify ourselves from everything that
contaminates body and spirit, perfecting holiness out of reverence for God."
On the Day of Atonement these people were to consecrate themselves. Clean linen. Fasting
was always a part of the lives of these Israelites. So people nowadays do not know how to fast
anymore. We have gone to the other end. We have been indulging ourselves so much that
we are trying to learn how to deny ourselves. But a true fast would be all the way, liquids
and food, if you want to know the true definition of fast. However, when people are learning
what I teach them to do...some of the questions on Facebook, "How do we do this? How far do
we go? When does it end?" If you've never done it before at all, then you probably will
be doing good to go a half day. But then you work it up. When you get ready, you work it
up to a whole day. People will say, "How long will I fast?" That's something you try to
make it like, "God help me." It is a goal for yourself. If you cannot do it but for
an hour, then you do it for an hour. But if you skip one meal, then you skip two. Then
it is the snack and the other meal or whatever. You are going all the way. Then you start
working on liquids because what people will do in a fast is they are hand to mouth, hand
to mouth. The whole thing is purifying yourself right now from just anything on earth. Any
idols or any food. It is just you and God. Your food is to listen to God. People will
drink all day long. When you get more solid in this, then you will be able to deny yourself
more and for longer periods of time and that type thing. I have never seen God ask for
anything that goes to harming someone or excessive or ridiculous or show-offy. You are not even
supposed to be letting people know, okay? Jesus said we are not even supposed to let
people know what we are giving or if you are fasting do not go around and be mourning and
letting everybody know that you are doing that. This is between you and God. The point
is between you and God. It is not about anybody else. You are missing all of it if you are
doing any of this weight loss, any of denying yourself, any trying to let go of tobacco,
or any of these thingsůthis is all for God. This is idolatry. Thou shalt have no other
idols before God. So that is what that is about. I know that when I first started doing
it, it was a challenge and then it gets easier as time goes by. You become accustomed to
knowing what that feeling is going to feel like and then you know it is going to go away.
It will growl for a while and then it will go away. Then it will come back. But you learn
that you can keep busy or thinking about others' needs or whatever. It is a good time to maybe
do something for someone else. JENNIFER: I know it got easier for me when
I totally quit thinking about the physical part of it. And every time you said there
is a growl you just immediately start praying to God, praying for somebody, praying for
His church, praying for how He can be glorified that day. The motive of why I was fasting
to begin with and then that just made it evenůlike a weight lifted. You just fly! You just get
to practice God's control. I love it! I look forward to it.
GWEN: It is funny how it goes from something you dread to something thatůI love that challenge.
I love that challenge of denial. I love turning the other cheek or loving more or giving more
money to God or whatever it may be. Giving more time to God. It is like "Okay! I can
do this!" God teaches little ones all the way up how to grow up. There is a way of growing
up. And the little onesůif someone is in a condition where you are not supposed to
be fasting. You are with child or you are ill or whatever it may be that you know that
you cannot do this or if you are too young. Little ones we do not...what age do we even
make it? I made a suggestion years ago and I cannot remember what year it was. But seems
likeů JENNIFER: Twelve?
GWEN: Something like that. There are going to be children that ask can I try it. Absolutely!
You can try this. I know Elizabeth tells of a story when Gweneth and Grace both said,
"We want to fast!" And then just a little while later they said, "Can we eat a peanut
butter sandwich?" Elizabeth said, "I thought you were going to fast." "We did! We fasted
until lunch!" So they do not have quite the understanding of it at that age. They are
too little to be doing that. They can learn to give something away that they really love.
They are learning that denial. JENNIFER: I remember you saying that about
TV. They can fast from TV that day or video games or just whatever you can tell pulls
them. GWEN: Whatever pulls themůyes. In fact, there
will be an announcement of something I wrote in the night last nightůyou are going to
be lighting your candles for God hopefully with your family starting tonight the sanctuary
will be open. What you are trying to do is get with your family. You know what lights
the eyes up of each child. It is all different. And you know what lights your eyes up. It's
the thing that you most like. If someone walked up to you and started talking to you about
it you would go "Yes!" and you would just start talking and going and going. So you
know down deep what lights you upůwhat gets you excited. And you want to teach them how
to transfer that and it is in the Weigh Down Diet book how to transfer over that passion
and the pages will be listed on this announcement. But teaching that child, "Okay! You see how
excited you are? This is the way I want you to be about God! And obeying Him! And getting
answered prayers. And having this relationship with Him." You get them all excited about
it. If you are excited about it, they will be excited about it. If you are not excited
about it, they will not be excited about it. And that is about as simple as you can get
it for this next generation. They will be excited and love and adore what you adore.
If you just keep adoring God, and then when they start talking about it, you get all excited
and they want to see your smile. They will just do about anything to get you to laugh
at them or smile. They love it! They love that favor. They are just as hungry for that
as anything. You just teach them how toůonce you give it to them and then you can tell
them why you are getting it. This is why I am laughing. This is why. That is why you
do not want to laugh at bad behavior. Because it reinforces it. You try when they are being
too silly or whatever and you are trying not to laugh. Some of them are just complete clowns.
That is a gift from God. You have got to have at least one court jester in your house. He
keeps it going at your house. It is fun. It is fun. Okay. Are y'all getting excited about
this fast? CANDACE: Yes. Very much. Very much so. We
are going to start on Friday right at twilight. Anyone who wants to join in with us. And we
go until Saturday. Then we meet for church at three-thirty and we stay for church and
then we break the fast after church at twilight for anybody who wants to join with us.
GWEN: Oh, please join us. You have got to do it! You have got to do it! You can do it.
About the time you think you cannot do it, if you just wait on your watch just ten more
minutes and then that hunger goes away and you just go, "I just feel like I ate a big
meal! I feel like I just ate a steak dinner!" And basically you did, because all the fat
stores get mobilized and are dumped into the bloodstream. So you are eating some leftover
nachos and queso and whatever. It is just in a different form now. In a storage form.
CANDACE: I love the way you always talk about the motive of the fast. Right before you did
the Breakthrough series, you talked a lot about the motive of that. You did talk about
fasting in that series, which we are doing in the Facebook class. I remember that was
a life changer for me because I had gone into the wrong motives of fasting. I had started
to use it to control my weight. If I overdid it, then I would fast to get it off. And then
Breakthrough just took me back to the basicsůback to hunger and fullness. And then now when
we have these fasts that are for the right motivesůfor what you were saying earlier
for atonement, and for reverence, and for forgiveness, for repentance...it is just an
amazing experience. GWEN: That is beautiful. One of the last questions
I was going to go overůI am afraid of fasting. I am afraid I am going to fall back into my
old habits. Because that is what people did before. They would go to extremes because
it was so hard to get away from their idols. They used their own self-will to motivate
themselves to get away from that idol. They did not understand the concept of adoring
God to giving moreůmaking it easier and easier. For the person that is in love, it is not
any trouble to serve whoever they are fixing to marry or listen to them or talk about them
or gaze at them or whatever. They are in love. It is just a love thing. Isaiah fifty-eight
says, Shout it aloud, do not hold back. Raise your
voice like a trumpet. Declare to my people their rebellionáand to the house of Jacob
their sins. áFor day after day they seek me out; they seem eager to know my ways, as
if they were a nation that does what is right and has not forsaken the commands of its God.
They ask me for just decisions and seem eager for God to come near them.
ĹWhy have we fasted,ĺ they say, Ĺand you have not seen it? Why have we humbled ourselves,
and you have not noticed? ĺ Yet on the day of your fasting, you do as you pleaseů.
(Isaiah 58:1-3) On the day of your fasting you do as you please.
You still never got it. You seem eager to know me. You seem like you want to know all
this stuff and you want the commands but you never obey the commands. And this person is
even fastingůyet while they are fasting, they do as they please and in this particular
example it says you exploit your employees or you do somethingůit could be anything.
So you have notůif you really, really want true religion, you are going to have to please
God. The one true God. Find out what He wants and please the one true God. And that is what
this is all about. And when you do that, then you can overcome. You can overcome. While
we are in these final days of trumpets, this has been a pleasure being with everybody and
I want to thank my guests for being on today. It is amazing what God is teaching us. We
can do this. Because all these days of trumpetsůthat sound of the trumpet that is a warning sound
can turn into a sound of praise. That is what we are going to be doing this Sabbath. Please
join us in all of it! Not just observingůnot eager to find outůbut eager to do it. Eager
to put it into practice and if that is what you are after, then you are in the right place
and when you keep this up, you too are going to have this same thing. Answered prayers,
reverence, awe, and all of it. Thank you for joining us on the forty days journey and thank
you for joining us on the You Can Overcome show! See
you next week.
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