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Welcome to One Brushstroke at a Time. I’m Jenny Pfister, and I will be leading you through an amazing Bible study for the next
half an hour. I am going to be doing a study today out of one of my books. I am having four devotionals that are being
published that should be out the last week of June or first of July. And I am going to be teaching out of those for the next
few weeks out of those books, out of those devotions. Today, I am going to do a study called “The Placatory Factory”. Now
phylactery, P-h-y-l actory, that’s phylactery factory. Now a phylactery is a little leather case that God tells the Israelites
or the Jews to wear in a certain place, at a certain time, filled with a certain thing and we’ll get there. But I want to
take you back to the book of Exodus for this study. Exodus is not only a book, it’s a promise. It’s a promise from the Lord
to the nation of Israel that he is going to set up a kingdom through them on this earth. The children of Israel have just come
through the ten plagues, the manifestation of God’s power and his presence, of his authority. They had come through the ten
plagues, the Red Sea parting and they are about to enter the Promise Land. God is about to set up his law, his government
among the people on the earth. But it all begins with his word. In Exodus Chapter 13 Verse 9, this verse reads like this
“So it shall be, and it shall serve as a sign to you, that you put on your hand and as phylacteries on your forehead. For
with a powerful hand, the Lord brought us up out of Egypt”. What God directed Moses was to have the people of Israel fashion a
phylactery. Again, a phylactery is a leather boxes, just small little boxes. In them, they were to place four specific
scriptures that Jews still wear and have with them today. They were to place them on their forehead by a leather strap around
their head and around their arm right near the elbow. The phylacteries were to be a sign of remembrance of God’s word in their
lives. They were filled with four very specific strips of paper that had these scriptures on them. The first scripture was
Deuteronomy Chapter 6 Verses 4 through 9. And it says. It’s the great “Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God is one” and it goes on
to say “you should love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength.” That was the set
of verses for the first strip. The second strip was Deuteronomy 11, 12-21. This is “if you obey my commandments” scriptures, a
group of scriptures about if you obey my commandments and if you will lay up these words upon your heart. That is the second
piece of paper in the phylactery. The third one was Exodus 13 verses 1 through 10. This was the revelation of the Feast of
Unleavened Bread. How they were to eat unleavened bread for seven straight days. And those sets of scriptures are in the
phylactery. And the final strip of paper, the final scripture was Exodus 13: 11-16. This was a rehearsal or remembrance of
the story of Moses bringing them out of Egypt, the children of Israel out of Egypt. Those are the four pieces of paper that are
in the phylactery, the leather box that goes on your forehead by a leather cord and on your arm. They were to be held in place
and to be worn all the time. They were there to serve as a reminder of how God wanted Israel to live by the Word. We have kind
of lost that today. We know the Word, we speak the Word. Of course there are so many songs that sing the word and so many
posters that say the word. We see little pictures of them on Facebook and on social media outlets. We see scripture all the
time, but I wonder if we really have it fastened to our bodies, to our minds, to our souls, to our spirits. I wonder if we
really understand the necessity of having the word ever ready, ever present right before our eyes. We are a people of a new
life with Him. The church has been sanctified. It’s been set apart. And the Word must be a very present part of the modern day
church. In today’s church. We are to speak the Word, walk the Word, study the Word, be the Word, wear the Word. Wait? Wear the
Word? Wear the Word? Are we supposed to have phylacteries on our heads on our foreheads as we walk around in this world today?
Are we supposed to have little boxes on our elbows? I do not believe that is what God meant. But we are to wear the Word all on
us. All over us. We are to wear the Word on different parts of our lives, our bodies, our families. Let me show you. The fact
is that scriptures tell us that we are to put on the Word. How do we put on the Word? Do you wear a Bible over your head?
Do you put a scripture necklace on, we could do that? Do we have to wear t-shirts with scriptures? Let me show you some
scriptures and talk about what it means to wear the Word. How we can become a phylactery factory. How we can wear His Word in
every part of our lives. It’s very simple, easy, beautiful ways. Well, in Deuteronomy Chapter 12, verse 6 through 8 says “we
are to bind the Word, His Word on our hands.” We put on the Word while we work. We use our hands to work And God says to wear
the Word on your hands. How do I wear the Word on my hands? I can wear the Word by being a worker of integrity, where I am an
honest laborer. Where I work for what I am earning. I don’t steal, I don’t waste time, I don’t use time for my own enjoyment
or benefit. I am a good laborer. My hands are constructively working for the one who employs me. Because remember God says
“do everything as unto the Lord”. I am really working for God. My employer or my boss is simply the vessel for accomplishing
that. So, when God says bind the words on your hands, what He is saying is be a worker of integrity and honesty and loyalty.
Be a worker whose hands represent God in every aspect. Honest and true, good and of good word. That I do not tear down my
coworkers, that I am an encourager in the work place. God wants me to wear the word when I am working. He wants me to be a
beautiful sign, a phylactery of His Word in the workplace. Exodus 13 verse 16 says “we are supposed to wear the Word on our
foreheads”. On our foreheads. That’s when we think. We are supposed to have the Word apart of us when we think. We are supposed
to put on the helmet of salvation. We know that “what a man thinketh in his heart, so he is”. We know that we are transformed
by the renewing of our minds. The way we think has a lot to do with the way that we act. If I think about the Word, if the Word
is in my mind. If I am ever meditating on the Word, then whatever comes out of my heart and out of my mouth will be Word
oriented. It may not be the scripture itself, but it would be a pure, good, wholesome thought. Pure things, good things, right
things, beneficial things. That’s what Philippians says to think on these things. So when we wear the Word on our foreheads,
it is a reminder that we need to think in accordance with the Word. If I think that I am sick, and I don’tthink that I will be
healed than I will be sick. If I think that I can’t do something, I won’t be able to do it. But if I think with the Word in
mind, I can accomplish anything in Christ. Deuteronomy 11:18 says “to lay up these Words of mine” now that’s God speaking,
“lay up these words of mine on your heart”. We lay up his Words when we love. In other words, I cannot love without the Word
being alive in me. The Word is alive and sharper than any two edge sword. So when I have the Word in my heart, the Psalmist
says to hide the Word in thy heart, that you may not sin against God. I need to hide that Word, we need to hide that Word in
our hearts that we might not sin and when we love than we love beautifully, perfectly, and holy and rightly. Love with an agape
love in which God loves us. So if I put the Word on my hands when I work, I will work with integrity, and loyalty, and
perseverance and might. When I put the Word in my mind, what I think I become. I think I am his, I am beautiful,. I am worthy.
I think that I am full of the fruit of the spirit. Then what I think comes out of my heart and out of my mouth. Then if I bind
them on my heart, I love the way God wants me to love. But it also says in Deuteronomy Chapter 11 verse 8, to bind these words
on our souls. What’s our soul? Our soul is the way that we think, feel, our emotions, our personalities, our desires, our
passions, our zeal. All of that is in our soul. God says that I need to bind the word on my soul. I don’t think that is anymore
truer than what we need for today. We are soul driven creatures. We go after passions, and lusts, and desires and what we want.
It’s a me generation. It’s not a me generation it’s a Him generation. So if I apply that Word in my soul, then I begin to feel
the way God wants me to feel. Think the way he wants me to think. It makes me act the way God wants me to act. My personality
can become conformed into His image when I begin to put the Word on my soul. I begin to react the way God wants me to react. I
have a passion for good and right things. I leave behind the lustful pleasures of youth that we are told to flee from because
they no longer line up with what God wants from us. Exodus 13, verse 9 also says this “it will be a sign that the Lord’s law
will be in your mouth.” We need the Word when we speak. We need the Word in our hands when we work. We need the Word on our
foreheads when we think. We need the Word on our hearts when we love. We need the Word in our souls as we feel, act and react
throughout the day. Then it says that we need to have the Word on our mouths. In our mouths as we speak. I can be hung by my
tongue more often than I care to admit. I get hung up by my tongue more and more, no I get hung up on my tongue less and less
as I grow closer to Christ. But I am finding more and more that my tongue really is. Remember the Bible says that life and
death is in the power of the tongue. I can speak life into me or I can speak death into me. I can speak life into a situation
or I can speak death into a situation. James says it’s like a rudder of a boat that can turn an entire boat. Or the tongue can
be like a flame that sets ablaze everything before it. We need to have the Word emblazoned on our tongue and planted in our
mouths so what we say lines up with the Word. So what we speak will be what Ephesians 4:29 says “let no unwholesome
communication proceed from your mouth unless it blesses, edifies, encourages and lifts up. If I can keep His Word in my mouth
than I can do what Ephesians 4:29 says to do. Then I won’t set the world ablaze, I won’t devastate. I won’t hurt somebody with
my tongue. I will edify them, build them up, encourage them, and bless them. But not only are we supposed to have it in our
mouths, in Proverbs Chapter 3 verse 3 says this “let not truth forsake you, bind them around your neck”. Now we wear necklaces
for adornment. We wear neckties for adornment. The things around our neck have no real significance in our physical well-being.
But how we look to other people or the way we think we look to other people. So when I am wearing the Word around my neck, what
God is saying is you need to look like the Word. You need to be adorned with the Word. Now, John Chapter 1 says
“In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God..” In other words, God wants us to look like
Jesus. To be adorned with His Word, to look like Him. I am a walking reflection of His holy Word. So that when people need a
Word, I look like it. I look different than everyone else in the world. We look different from the world because we are
adorned by his Word. It doesn’t mean that I have to advertise and put scriptures all over my body. It just means that we are to
reflect His Word and to look like the Word whom we know to be Jesus. So we have the Word in our hands when we work. We have the
Word on our heads when we think. We have the Word on our hearts when we love. We have it in our soul when we feel. We have it
in our mouth when we speak. We have it adorned around our neck to reflect His beauty. But it also says we are to diligently
teach the Word and put it on to our children, to our offspring. That is in Deuteronomy 6, 6-7. We are supposed to be vessels of
holiness. Sanctified by the Word. Having the Word implanted in us, just indwelling us. Then we in turn pass it off to our
children. We are supposed to adorn our children and fill our children’s mouth, their mind, their hands, their hearts and their
souls with the Word. That is our legacy to leave behind us. People are working to leave financial legacies behind them.
Inheritances for their children. But how great would it be to leave the blessing for a love for His Word as a legacy to your
children and your grandchildren. That is what it is all about. Leaving that legacy of the Word to our children. It also says in
Deuteronomy Chapter 6 verse 9 that we are to put the Word on our door frames and on our gates. In fact it says,
“you shall write them on the doorposts and on your gates.” We are supposed to make our homes, Word homes. “As for me and my
house, we will serve the Lord”. We see that a lot. But serving the Lord and people of His Word can sometimes be two different
things. Vastly oppositional to one another. Because we can serve Him in Sunday school or in the choirs, or teaching or
preaching or being on tv or writing books, but if we do not have the Word, if we’re not living the Word, what are we?
We are just servers. We are just servants with just real reflection of His glory in us. If we put the Word on our doorposts,
that means that every time we walk in, you see the Word in action. I do not mean written, I mean in action. One of my closest
friends just put on an addition to their house, before they painted all the walls they wrote scriptures all over the drywall.
Scriptures in the children’s room, and the children got to pick whatever they wanted. They put it everywhere in the house that
was being redone then they painted over the scriptures. But they were surrounded by the Word. Those children go to bed every
night believing that they are being surrounded by the Word. Then she put little scriptures on the walls, on the door frames
above it, or above a mirror in a room. Her home is the door frame home, the word home that God requires and commands us to do.
To put Word on our homes in our houses, in our living rooms. That means if the Word is there you will not want nor can you
watch anything filthy or vile on TV because the Word convicts you of that thing on TV. How much better would we be if we didn’t
watch half the junk that’s on TV. If we did not allow our children to watch what they watch or to listen to the music that they
listen to or play the video games that they play that are offensive to God, because our home has the Word on its doorposts and
within our every room. The world needs to see the life changing power of the Word of God. But Jesus warns us to not be like the
Pharisees. Here’s what He says in Matthew 23 verse 5 “He says do not be like the Pharisees that want to be noticed by men”. We
want to be so world dominated in order to be seen by men. To say “look how wonderful I am” “I have the Word in me” or “I can
quote this word”. Or “I can speak forth this word”. That’s not what God wants. He does not want us to be pious and
sanctimonious in our lives. There is a humility that comes with the Word. It’s a humbleness that goes (ohh) the living Word is
inside of me. The living Word has his dwelling inside of me. The living Word is alive and active. That is so humbling, that’s
not a proud thing. That’s recognizing that on my own I am nothing without the Word. I am nothing without the life changing
power of the Word of God. We do not want to be noticed by men, we only want to be noticed by God. Our mission is to show the
world, to show them Jesus, not to show them up, with Jesus. Let me say that again. Our job is to show the world Jesus, not to
show them up with Jesus. And sorrowfully, that is what happens sometimes. We show off Jesus, instead of showing up for him and
just being his love in this world. Isaiah tells us the true purpose of having the Word in us. I have a computer desk at home
where I do all of my studying. My computer is here, my books and notebooks. Right above here, there’s a lamp here is the
scripture out of Isaiah chapter 50 verse 4. I look at it every day. I try to live by this every day. It is a verse that God
gave me that is my purpose that I strive for. The purpose that I want to live in this world. And it says this “the sovereign
Lord has given me an instructed tongue” I don’t have my own instructed tongue, the sovereign Lord gave me the tongue that I
have to teach you today, that’s not Jenny Pfister, that’s Jesus Christ. “The sovereign Lord has given me an instructed tongue
to know the word that sustains the weary ones. He awakes me morning by morning. Wakens my ear to listen like one being taught.”
Isaiah 50 verse 4. I want to have the Word, to know the Word that sustains the weary. That’s what God wants from us. When we
have the Word on our hands, or on our forehead, or on our hearts, or on our souls, whether we have it adorned around our necks
or in our mouths or when we pass it on to our children, or when we write them on our doorposts, God says here’s the purpose
why I want you to have the Word. Yes, it will help you and yes, the Word is powerful, and active and will change your life by
having the Word.. But when you have the Word and you hide the Word, we can have that promise and truth to give away to someone
who is weary. We have the life sustaining, life changing Word that can sustain the weary one. Isn’t that what we want? I look
at this weary world, tired and sorrowful and dark, and we have the life breathed Word in us to give away to someone who is
weary. That is the noblest call. That’s why we need to be Phylactery Factories. I want to manufacture Word in my life over and
over and over again. I want to be and I encourage you to be a Phylactery Factory. I want to share some upcoming things that
Brushstroke is going to be doing. If you don’t know we have a ministry called Brushstroke Ministries. It’s a threefold ministry
of Bible Study, Worship and Prayer. We have four devotional books that will be out the last of June the beginning of July and
they’re called IN MOMENTS LIKE THESE. And each one has a series of words: praise, strife, sorrow, joy, peace, abandonment,
strife. Each one of these words has a devotion that goes along with it. Instead of trying to find a devotional that will speak,
you know you go through, go through, go through to try to find one that will speak to you, this is set up that you can just
find a word and you can open up the book and there will be a devotion there that will minister to you in that moment of strife,
or that moment of sorrow, or that moment of crisis or abandonment or peace or joy or a great moment. They are called IN MOMENTS
LIKE THESE. I am very excited about them and we have worked very *** them. There will be four volumes 2 through 5. One of
them is about special days and holidays that has different days or special days like Mother’s Day or Father’s Day, Christmas,
Thanksgiving, even like 9-11 and April Fools Day. I am going to be teaching over the next few weeks out of those books just to
give you an opportunity to let that saturate you and sink into your spirit. We are very excited at Brushstroke Ministries
because God is opening up amazing doors for us. Having two TV shows, having four books, teaching CDs, God is just opening the
world for us and we are excited to be able to share that word because we know that we have the Word to give to this weary place.
I just want to thank you for watching. I hope that this spoke to your heart. And I just want to remind you that God is painting
a beautiful picture of your life with His One Brushstroke at a Time. God Bless You.
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