The Rock San Diego – 8/2/09 – Bubbles – Part 6, Jesus Answers

1. Praying in Jesus name implies that you have a biblical relationship with Him.
   • In a biblical relationship with Jesus, you acknowledge that everything good about you is from Him.
2. Praying in Jesus’ name acknowledges Jesus as your only access to God.
   • You have access to God only because Jesus, the Son of God, died on the cross to forgive your sins and give you that access.
3. Praying in Jesus’ name means that you acknowledge the unique value of the Father’s wealth.
   • You go to the Father in Jesus’ name because you realize there is no where else you can go to get what you are looking for.
   • There are things that only God can give you.
4. Praying in Jesus’ name acknowledges your right to blessings assigned to you.
   • You are praying in Jesus’ name to say, “God, I am really only asking for what You have assigned to me. I would love to have this, this, and this, but in Jesus’ name, if You don’t want me to have it, that’s okay.”
   • You don’t want to walk through doors that God hasn’t prepared for you
5. Praying in Jesus’ name assumes you have credible identification.
   • To have the Lord acknowledge you, you must understand and accept who He really is, have a biblical relationship with Him, have access to Him, acknowledge His value, and accept His will for you

The Rock San Diego – 7/26/09 – Bubbles – Part 5, Answer Bubbles

1. No
   • Turning your ear away from hearing God will turn your prayer into an abomination to God
2. Wait
   • Don’t impose your timetable on God
   • His blessings are on His timetable
   • God speaks to us in a small still voice
   • He wants you to stop and wait – slow your life down
3. Yes, it is on its way
   • Many times the blessing is on its way, it just hasn’t arrived yet
   • The goal of prayer is not about getting God to say yes
   • The goal of prayer is for God to mold you into His image – making you holy
   • It’s about Him communicating with you, your response, and Him shaping you
4. Wrong prayer
   • It’s not about what you want, it’s about what God wants
   • When you are most dependent upon God, you are most strong
   • Surrender your intelligence to God
     • I have an idea, but what do you want?
5. Keep praying
   • How much is your prayer worth to you?
   • I wonder what miracles would happen in your life if you really spent time in prayer
   • You can’t get to know God with a minute here and a minute there
   • God wants to hang out with you, He wants you to know Him
   • Time makes a difference in prayer
   • You getting what you want is not the goal
   • How bad are you going to obey Him
   • Are you really pursuing God and what He wants?
   • How diligent do you pursue God?
6. Done
   • Already did it – past tense – you may not realize it yet
   • You’re already happy and don’t even know it – you may have an idea of happiness or what you want that isn’t real
   • Riches give you the opportunity to be more of who you really are
7. Why are you asking me that?
   • You want to be real careful that you don’t pray for something that you can’t swallow
     • Owning a business is nothing like what people think who haven’t done it
     • Owning a house
8. Get your life right
   • There is sin in your life that you need to deal with – you can’t keep living the way you’re living

The Rock San Diego – 7/12/09 – Bubbles – Part 4, Bubble Poppers

There are barriers to blessings and answered prayer

1. You have a rebellious heart
   • Most successful ventures start with a strategic and tactical plan
   • “Lord, purify my heart”
   • Proverbs 15:29
   • God is not obligated to answer
   • God’s answer to our prayers is through his grace – you never ever deserve it, and you can never ever pay it back
2. You ask with selfish motives
   • James 4:1
   • Anger and frustration come from your wants and desires within you and you’re not getting what you want
   • There are many things you may want, but you don’t need
   • You want to make sure you are desiring the right thing
   • Your wants may be irrelevant to God’s plan for you and others
3. You treat people disrespectfully
   • There’s someone in your life that you’re gossiping about
   • Other sin
   • People you have “issues” with
   • Man is supposed to sacrifice for the bride, the bride is supposed to submit to the man – the model of Christ and his church
   • Loving God is obeying God – it has nothing to do with emotion
   • What do you do in anticipation and preparation for God’s answer to your prayer – if you’re asking for a date, at least brush your teeth
   • Wisdom by definition is the correct use of knowledge

If you want God’s blessing:

1. Decide that you’re going to live by the Bible, and you’re going to learn it
2. Decide you’re going to align your relationships with the word of God
3. Start believing and put yourself in the position to receive the answers to your prayers

The Rock San Diego – 7/5/09 – Bubbles – Part 3, God Wants to Answer

My notes:

• You don’t have to do anything.  God just loves you.
• A prophet is a mouthpiece for God – “Thus sayith the Lord”
• God is glorified by answering your prayer and you giving Him the credit
• Answered prayer causes unbelievers to honor God
• Pray BIG prayers – don’t pray for a job, pray for a job that is fulfilling
  • Don’t insult God and underestimate what He is capable of or what He wants to do for you
  • Pray for stuff that only God can do
  • Use me somehow for your kingdom
• There are things that you can never do without prayer and fasting
• There are things that if you don’t pray for them, they’ll implode
• There are blessings behind a wall of doubt or lack of faith or lack of repentance
• Lord I want to remove this wall, and receive the blessings you have in store for me

The Rock’s notes:
Many parents will say that they just love to watch their children sleeping. The child isn’t doing anything, yet the parent loves him or her so deeply. Love for a child is like no other love we have ever experienced. That is how God loves you; God has an agape love for you that you can’t even fathom. Because of that great love, God wants to answer your prayers.

In today’s passage, through Elijah the prophet, the Lord instructs King Ahab to gather the Israelites and all the pagan prophets. To prove that Elijah was a true prophet of the one living God, a sacrifice is to be made and the gods are to be called to light the fire. God does answer Elijah’s prayer, miraculously proving Himself before all the people, but before this happens, the pagan prophets call out to Baal, receiving no answer. (v. 26)

So many people will claim that earthly things make them happy – money, sex, etc., but when it really comes down to it, they are not really fulfilled. Do you have a source of joy in your heart? How scared of you of life or death and the unknown? You’ve been crying out to your god, whatever it may be, but has it ever answered you? The devil cannot give you what he doesn’t have. Our souls crave for that which God created for them, and only the one true God can fulfill them.

One of the reasons God wants to answer your prayer is so that people will see the answer and He will be glorified. You have so many blessings in your life (provision, ideas, work, money, relationships, etc.), but how often do you give God the credit for those things? Answered prayer is supposed to glorify Him, not you.
One of the reasons God wants to answer your prayer is so that people will see the answer and He will be glorified.
And whatever you ask in My name, that I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. John 14:13
If you pray according to God’s will and you are obedient, your prayer will be answered with precision. God wants to prove Himself faithful and strong.

The Rock San Diego – 6/28/09 – Bubbles – Part 2, Got Bubbles?

• God is not obligated to answer your prayers
• God has more answers to prayers than ‘yes’ or ‘no’
• God wants to answer your prayer

• God can follow your prayer, but can you?  Are you jumping all over the place, and will not recognize His answer when it comes?
• Write down whatever you feel God saying to you

• How do you know when God is speaking to you?
  • It’s a small, still voice and it’s Biblical

• Think about one big miracle in your life
  • Not self-serving, something you can’t do, and in alignment with God’s call in your life (quitting smoking, etc)

• When God answers your prayer, He glorifies Himself

• A – Admire God
  • Thank Him for everything – don’t take your blessings for granted – life, clear water, clothes, food
• W – Wait
  • Imagine you’re sitting in front of a river, calm – release thoughts like they’re floating away down the river
  • Can say “Thank you Jesus” to let go of those thoughts
• C – Confess
  • Agree with God about your sin
  • Here’s what I did, and here’s why I did it
  • God, create in me a clean heart – help me understand my sin
  • There’s stuff you need to pay for in your life – you will pay for it in one way or another
• I – Intercede
  • Pray for other people, anyone
  • Love your enemies – reveal your holiness to them, bring their life in alignment with the your Word – bless them
  • The mouth speaks from the overflow of the heart
• P – Petition
  • God wants to bless me – doesn’t mean He wants to give you want you think you want – God’s love is based on truth
  • Ask for anything – ask for a miracle
• A – Admire

• While praying, I pictured [my daughter] sitting with me at the river in the W step, with our bare feet dangling in the water, just hanging out admiring the nature around us.
• While praying at C step, I realized that lust may be a symptom of my lack of intimacy with [my wife].  I pray that God would help me build more intimacy with [my wife].
• While praying at I step, I prayed for Angelo, that God would reveal His holiness and provide His peace to him.  I realized that praying for someone who I instinctually feel has ‘more’ than me is liberating in a way, because it helps me relate to that person as human and needing Jesus.  He’s not foreign just because he’s a powerful leader.

• Prayer is work, it can be difficult – praying for others, confession, submission

The Rock San Diego – 6/21/09 – Bubbles – Part 1, What is Prayer?

• A hypocrite is someone who believes one thing and does the opposite.
• Repetition is not prayer
  • How would your dad feel if you said “Happy Fathers Day” seven times because you thought that’s how you thought you could be heard?
• He wants you to talk to Him – from your heart – every time
• He’s a person, not an object – speak to Him – He understands your pain, desires
• Be real with your emotions, fears, etc
• The Lord’s prayer is the model for prayer
• Be specific in your prayer
• There are hinderances to your prayers being answered / addressed
• God wants to bless you – and He has them waiting just for you

• Communication is the exchange of ideas or information
• God’s bubbles are waaaay better than your bubbles – we send up junk (and He wants your junk)
• Prayer is your faith reaching out to God
• God’s voice is a small still voice
• Wait for God to respond
• It is absolutely expected that prayer is two-way – it’s communication (I have been feeling lately that it was presumptuous of me to think that God would talk to me every time I prayed)
• Jacob said “I’m not letting you go until you bless me”
  • Wrestling with the Lord is prayer
  • Don’t “punk out” with God and give up your wrestle (prayer) before you are blessed by God – He delights in blessing you
  • God’s telling you “come on.. come get it”
• God may let you suffer with pain to allow the lesson to be learned (for your own good)
• God’s not in the business of making us happy – He’s in the business of making us holy

• Jeremiah 33:3 – Call to me and I will answer you and tell you great and mighty things that you do not know
• Call Him on His promise – but remember God’s ways are not our ways – He will do for you what He knows you need in His way
• You may ask Him a Yes or No question and He may give you a completely different answer
• “Lord give me wisdom about…”
• Psalms 119: 169 – Let my cry come before you Lord.  Give me understanding according to your word.”
• He will help you make decisions about your life according to the Bible.
• It’s not enough to ask for ‘happiness’ or for ‘a blessing’ – He wants you to be specific about a unique challenge, decision, issue, confession, etc
• If you tell God, He can clean out the junk in your heart

• He changes the way you think, process information, and how you feel
• He changes your desires
• Psalms 51: 10 – Create in me a clean heart, oh God.
• Your heart wants to be wicked – you don’t even realize how wicked your heart is – you want to think you’re “not that bad”
• Lord, change my heart – give me a desire to be holy
• Holy desires come from God – not you
• Romans 12:1 – … present your body a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable…
• Sometimes we ask God for something that we wouldn’t ask if our heart were clean
• When you ask the questions He wants, He will bless

• Power = Ability, authority, and freedom to do, or to act
• What God can do, man cannot do, ever
• There’s no question God has power, there’s no question He loves you, there’s no question he’s telling you to pray, there’s no question He’s going to put you in a position where you need His power, so He’s going to put you in a corner where you either self-destruct or you trust Him
• He has power to make you strong – He’s looking for you to trust Him
• Get on your knees and ask for God to clean your heart
• Moses had to wait 80 years before his ministry (40 years of education, 40 years of tenderizing his heart, then 40 years of ministry)

The Rock San Diego – 5/31/09 – The Invisible Man Initiation: Baptism in the Holy Spirit

The Rock San Diego – 5/24/09 – The Invisible Man Software

God has amazing potential planned for you – more than we can ever ask or imagine. He wants us to ask Him for everything!

Lord, I want it all – everything that you intend for my life – I want it all!  God, please push me to the next level.  Every challenge you have in store for me, I want it.

Stand before God every morning and pray to God and tell Him you want it all.  If God is telling you to do something, go ahead and do it.

Supplements help your body do what it’s already supposed to do:

• B12 and folic acid help your DNA repair itself
• 2 oz of pomegranite juice per day cuts down your arterial plaque by 35% in one year
• Omega 3 fatty acids (fish oil) helps neurotransmitter production (brain function / memory)
• Vitamin D (the sun)
• Antioxidents
• Licopene

Our bodies have so much potential.
God created our bodies with incredible potential to heal themselves and thrive, but in order for them to function to their potential, we have to feed our bodies with the right nutrients and get rid of toxic exposure. Our souls are the same way. The Holy Spirit gives us unique and incredible gifts that we can’t get anywhere else – like a computer has software to perform its functions – but we need to care for our souls and nurture them properly so that we can live up to God’s potential for us.

God enhances abilities you already have. Romans 12:3-8

You may be great at many different things, but God can enhance your talents and make them even better and more effective for His kingdom:

• Prophecy
• Ministry
• Teacher – The way you know you can teach is if people learn.
• Exhorter – sharing complements and encouragement
• Giver
• Leader – only way you can know is if someone is following you, otherwise you’re just going for a walk.  The definition of leadership is influence
• Mercy – compassion

God gives us special abilities that we can’t get anywhere else. 1 Corinthians 12:4-11, 28-31

• Word of wisdom – how to use information
• Word of knowledge
• Faith
• Healings/Miracles
• Prophecy
• Tongues
• Tongue Interpretation
• Discerning Spirits

God gives special people as gifts to the church ministry. Ephesians 4:11-12

• Apostle – church planter or pastor of pastors
• Prophet – someone who receives a fresh word from God for today
• Evangelist – leads people to the Lord
• Pastor – shepard
• Teacher

God also graciously gives us other gifts. Ephesians 4:11-12

• Love – 1 Corinthians 13:4-8
• Salvation – Roman 5:15-16, 6:23
• Righteousness

God grants us all of these things in His gracious generosity. In return, our responsibility is to:
1. Create an environment for the gifts to operate.
Ezra 7:10, Romans 12:1-2, 1 Corinthians 3:5-8

• Ezra prepared his heart to seek the Lord, just as we have to prepare our hearts to seek Him. When we read the Bible and pray, we nurture ourselves and give the Holy Spirit a fertile environment in which to plant the gifts He wants to give us.
• A tree with a crowded root system, surrounded by rocks and other plant roots, will not grow nearly as strongly or as quickly as a tree in good, spacious soil. So we also must cleanse our hearts of sin and replace it with the Word. Do you ever feel jealous? Act immaturely? Sin gets in the way of God’s gifts working to their potential, but we can thrive if we forsake our sinful desires and feed our hearts with the Word and prayer
• Yield to Him – surrender to Him as moldable
• Imagine what God would do if you only seek Him and then wait on Him
• Create an environment for God in your heart – prepare your heart

• Know your spiritual gifts, create an environment where they can flourish, and then put yourself in a position where your gifts may be used. If you are an encourager, make yourself available to encourage and seek out opportunities to encourage others. Whatever your gifts, make yourself available to be used however He ordains.
• God has a picture of you that is your full potential. As Paul says, we press on toward that goal, letting the Holy Spirit do whatever He wants to do in our lives. The Lord opens up opportunities because He doesn’t want to waste you! We simply need to be available and respond when the moments arise.

Lord, put me where I can glorify you with the gifts you’ve given me – whatever that is.

Someday we’re going to understand the magnificance of God and wonder why we didn’t trust Him more.  And we’re going to see how puny the devil is and wonder how we were so scared of him and his lies.

Being scared is ok.  It doesn’t mean He’s wrong, it just means I don’t ‘get it’ yet.

DO Something! Find your gifts; take the Spiritual Gift Test. Visit www.therocksandiego.org/giftstest/

The Rock San Diego – 5/17/09 – The Invisible Man Tools

Miles started off this week’s message with an announcement, asking everyone to pray for Miss California, Carrie Prejean. As many of you are aware, she is being attacked in a variety of ways for standing up for her beliefs.

For several weeks we have been covering the Invisible Man, or the Holy Spirit, and His purpose in the Trinity and in our lives. This week, Miles taught about how the Invisible Man empowers us for the spiritual work that He has assigned us to do. This empowerment comes in the form of supernatural tools, gifts, abilities, and talents.

Software empowers a computer to do something very specific.  When you accept Christ, God empowers you to do things that you could not do without him – very specific skills.  You may have spiritual gifts and abilities which you don’t know how they work.

What are spiritual gifts?

1. Spiritual gifts are the supernatural manifestation of the Holy Spirit in our lives to empower us to serve the kingdom of God.

• I have power that comes from somewhere else
• We don’t develop these gifts, we simply have them from the beginning. As Miles put it, trying to attain these gifts would be like staying in the garage for a long time so that one could become a car. It can’t happen!

2. We must become aware of our gifts and know what they are. 1 Corinthians 12:1.

• If your gift is one of leadership and not of speaking in tongues, you will have a hard time trying to speak in tongues. God gave us gifts to use to do magnificent things, but we won’t be able to do these things until we know what our gifts are.

God gave us gifts to use to do magnificent things, but we won’t be able to do these things until we know what our gifts are.

3. Gifts are bestowed upon the body of Christ for the purpose of serving the church and accomplishing God’s purposes in the world.

• The gifts are not for me – they’re for the church
• 1 Corinthians 12:7 says, But the manifestation of the Spirit is given to each one for the profit of all.
• Does one hide Beethoven’s music? Does one bury a priceless painting? No! Just as these artists shared their talents with the world, we are supposed to share our gifts.

4. The Holy Spirit gives as He wills.

• You have natural talent and spiritual gifts
• He’s equipping you for a purpose
• He doesn’t waste gifts – they are for specific purpose
• If you’re not using your gifts – you will have restlessness in your life
• Doesn’t mean you can’t do your job – it means you’re not doing what you were created for – you’re not firing on all cylindars – DON’T DO IT – get another job – ask God can I get another job and ask for him to show you what he has in store for you – it might not be immediate
• But one and the same Spirit works all these things, distributing to each one individually as He wills. 1 Corinthians 12:11
• The Spirit gives us the appropriate gifts to serve His purposes, not ours.

5. No one person has all the gifts.

• People are the most dependent creatures
• Need to appreciate each other’s gifts – just because the person is different, doesn’t mean they (or their gift) are any less important
• We need each other and each other’s gifts. By nature, Humans are the most needy creatures on the planet. There are animals that are independent from their parents at birth, but we are not. Humans raise their young – sometimes forever. By giving each person different gifts, God reminds us to be inter-dependent, needing and appreciating one another.

The Spirit gives us the appropriate gifts to serve His purposes, not ours.

6. All gifts are important.

• If God has given you a gift that’s not being used for His Kingdom – the church is missing out
• The devil wants your spiritual gifts to be unknown or unused, and the best thing for him would be for you to be happy / comfortable in spite of it
• The church is also called “the body of Christ,” and for good reason. All parts are important! Some parts are used daily, while others are used infrequently. Though a pinky might not seem important, it sure comes in handy while typing. And many body parts we cannot even see, such as the lungs or the liver, yet we cannot live without their vital function. 1 Corinthians 12: 22-26 reminds us that all the parts are important, just as all the parts of the church are important. Therefore, we should respect each other’s gifts.

Lord, I want to be doing exactly what you want me to do, using the gifts you have bestowed upon me, now.  Help me understand what my gifts are.  Put me in a position to use them.

7. The activities of the Holy Spirit are mysterious

• Being born again is like the wind, you don’t know where it comes from, you don’t know where it goes
• The Holy Spirit guides in the moments – be open to His guidance

• Negative stress (out of control type) in your job is also a sign of not doing what you are gifted to do.
• Doing what God has called you to do is a form of obedience – display of love
• There are things you know God is calling you to do – take a step of faith and do them
• Don’t try to do everything – do what God has called you to do – live within your gifts
• Whatever God empowers you to do – that’s what you need to do – that’s when your life and your Christian walk will go to the next level
• When you ask God for opportunities to use your gift, He will show you opportunities
• Once you start operating in your gifts, miracles happen
• One of the reasons God answers prayer is so that you’ll pray more

Lord, my whole life is in open hands – wherever you can use me, please do it

What is the difference between spiritual gifts and natural talents?

8. Natural talents depend on the flesh – spiritual gifts depend solely on the Spirit

• You know you’re a leader when someone is following you – if not, you’re just going for a walk
• God wants to empower your gifts with His strength
• Natural talents glorify man, while spiritual gifts depend solely on the Spirit and glorify Jesus. Both are good and given by God, but they are different. Remember the story of Joseph? He had a natural talent for organizing, which helped him in prison and then later as Pharaoh’s right-hand man, but his spiritual gift was interpreting dreams.

You can find out what your gifts are by visiting the Rock’s website. Once you know, you can use these gifts to enrich your life and enrich God’s kingdom.

The Rock San Diego – 4/19/09 – The Invisible Man Provides God Access

• The Human body represents staggering genius.
• There are certain things of God that only the Holy Spirit gives you access to.
• If the Holy Spirit is not part of your life, either change that or check to make sure you really are saved
• Praying, going to church and reading your Bible doesn’t mean you’re saved
• God requires a full-on 100% commitment

1 – Holy Spirit gives access to God himself

• He knows you better than you know yourself
• The Holy Spirit lives in your ‘heart’
• The Holy Spirit is the one interacting with you on a daily basis
• The love of a child is a whole different quality of love from every other kind of love
• When the Holy Spirit comes upon you, it’s a whole different level again – there’s nothing else that can replicate it
• Romans 5:3-5
• The Holy Spirit comes with a certain kind of love that makes you do strange stuff (forgiving people, doing things, etc, you never would have before)
• Everything in the natural is just the foundation for what God reveals in the supernatural
• His love is adequate for everything he wants you to do

2 – Holy Spirit gives access to God’s power

• Power = ability, authority and freedom to do something
• When man threatens you, you can stand strong with God’s power
• He gives you God’s power for one purpose: to be a witness to him
• If you don’t use the power that way, it will be taken away
• Don’t be presumptuous about God’s blessing – he may let you deal with your situation alone if you don’t consult and invite him in to your decisions and work
• The power is not automatic – don’t take him for granted
• When his power is in your life, people will see it – your life ‘components’ will be unexplainable
  • Where did I get this ability? Or this desire?
  • The more you live with him, the more you will be able to attribute to his power

3 – Holy Spirit gives you access to God’s insight

• Natural power is taken – Spiritual power is received
• Let God elevate / promote you
• You will never be passed over for a promotion that God didn’t want you to have
• Don’t sacrifice your relationship with God for saving face in the world – you do not want to go to bed at night knowing you and God aren’t ‘cool’
• The Holy Spirit will tell you what gifts he has in store for you.  He’ll tell you how to get it and how to use it.  That’s what he wants.  You don’t have access without the Holy Spirit.  You’ve been given the Holy Spirit, so that you may know these things.
• Blessings: wisdom, relationships, opportunity, insight, power, patience, love, grace
• There are things that you can never learn from a man – that’s the stuff the Spirit wants to tell you – you can’t get it in a book
• You could look like you’re out of your mind, but as long as God is in it, what you’re doing is right – don’t bet against God
• Don’t require from God more information than he is willing to give – the rest is trust
• The quicker and more thoroughly you can obey him, the quicker and more thoroughly he will use you

4 – Holy Spirit gives access to God’s freedom

• To say Jesus Christ is lord
• Is Jesus God in the flesh or not?  Holy Spirit will not skirt this issue

5 – Holy Spirit secures our eternal access to God

• Romans 8:15 – spirit of adoption, daddy, heirs
• Salvation cannot be lost, but it has to be given in the first place (you will bear fruit based on what’s in your heart)
• 2 Cor 1:21-22, Eph 1:13-14 – sealed, guarantee, promise
• Is there a super-natural-ness to your life?  Who cares whether you do religious things

Lord, empty me.  Fill me with your Holy Spirit.  Lead me in each moment.  In Jesus’ name.