God Gave Me a Vision of Events in Revelation.

Hey y'all, this is Troy Black. I've got a word from the Lord to share with you today, and I'm feeling very tired, so please bear with me in case that shows, and I will probably be revealing part of the reason why a little later on the stream. A couple things. The content in this video is going to apply heavily to a lot of the issues and topics that I talk about in my new book, Mystery of the New Babylon, so if you want to grab a copy, those links are going to be below in the description. It's available on Amazon. There's a Kindle ebook, and there's a physical copy, and this is not a short book necessarily, and there's a lot of good stuff in here. If you're asking that question, like, what are we seeing in the culture right now as far as it relates to some of the biblical narrative and what we see in the book of Revelation, I think a lot of those questions, not all of them obviously, you know, but a lot of questions about what we're seeing happen right now in the culture can be potentially answered here, but obviously, if you don't have time to read anything else, read the Word of God. I just realized this, too. I moved my books over on my shelf, so I've got both of them, and I realized this. If I scroll, this is what happens when I'm tired. If I, like, roll my chair back, then they actually go into focus, so there we go. That was my fun realization for today, but this vision that I saw has to do with wild events in Revelation. It also has to do with, I got a prophetic word where the Lord specifically mentioned 2030 and some of the things after that, so I'm going to be sharing that today. I'm submitting this to you as prophecy. Prophecy needs to be tested in accordance with the Scripture. 1 Corinthians 14, 1 Thessalonians 5, both tell us to take new covenant prophecy, which we're under today. We're no longer under the old covenant. We're under the new. Take it to the Lord in prayer or take it to the Scriptures and compare and see, does it line up with what the Word is saying? Does it line up with what the Holy Spirit is saying? Does it line up with how the church generally is interpreting the Scripture? Even a community of believers can be very helpful when you say, hey, here's what I heard. Does that sound like it's from God or not? You have a community of trusted believers around you. Sometimes all it takes is one person to say, um, no, or yeah, you know, I think that that sounds like what I've been hearing too, or whatever it may be, so that can be very helpful. So please pray about it. You know, we have a prophecy archive on my website. If you're new to this channel, it's TroyBlackVideos.com, and we have an extensive archive where we have done a ton of research, and we show how the predictive words that I've shared are actually coming to pass, and there's consistent accuracy in the content that we're sharing on this channel. Now, I'm not claiming to be perfect. I don't believe anybody is, but the Holy Spirit's perfect, y'all, and when the gift of prophecy is truly being used and the Holy Spirit's truly behind it, and there's some sort of predictive nature to it, there should be accuracy to it. You should be able to follow up on that and test it through, did this actually come to pass or not? Okay, so let's jump in. This is something I saw on April 13th, and then I also heard a word from the Lord two nights ago, on May 3rd, that I want to share as well that's related, and I was going to live stream yesterday. I typically live stream on Mondays. This is a Tuesday, but I did not because we are going through some hard stuff right now, and I may get into a little of that, but they'll be praying for us, me and my family and this ministry and the things that I believe that God has called me to do, I believe are under attack right now, and so I highly appreciate the prayers, highly appreciate the encouragement, the encouraging messages, and just those that are standing with us. It means a lot, so thank you so much, and I know the Lord is good. He's faithful, and I'm not worried, but that doesn't mean it's not hard. This is what I saw. I saw what looked to be a scene from Revelation, and when I saw it, I got this sense that that is what I was seeing, and I saw many kings of the earth, and now they looked, you know, it was very symbolic, so they look like kings from like the ancient days, right? Like ancient cultures, but I knew that what I was seeing was events ahead, and I saw the cities that they ruled. Again, this was all symbolic, and then I saw as the strongest, a downfall began to happen of the strongest, most densely populated places upon the earth. It was almost like a, you know, people talk about evolution, right? Things evolving, but this was like a devolving of the most populated areas, and almost like a collapse or a chaos that was ensuing, and I heard this, and the Holy Spirit started to speak, and this is what I heard. I heard the events from Revelation are starting to happen, some that people have been waiting on for a long time, and then I heard this is the setup process you are in at the moment, not an end level, only a beginning one, but still the same. They are occurring, and I heard little by little, one by one, you will start to see more and more of the timeline playing out and making sense as you look and see the things which take place upon the earth, and so I know many people have tried to pinpoint, you know, well, this thing in Revelation was this, or this thing in Revelation was this, and I believe many of those, you know, throughout church history have been proven to be inaccurate interpretations, because we look back and we go, well, you know, no, like, you know, World War II was not the Great Tribulation, it was not the last seven years, you know, it's like, you can look back and say, no, that prediction was not accurate, although it probably felt accurate at the time, right? But, you know, what does Jesus say? He says, you can see the signs of, you know, this in the sky, but you don't realize what what age you're in, right? So we are going to recognize the birth pangs on the earth. We're going to recognize those things, and they're going to continue ramping up, and there are going to be ebbs and flows to that, but this is Revelation 17. I want to read this, and then I'm going to jump back into this vision and this prophetic word I got, but I want to read part of this, because I believe that this is connected, and it says in verse 15, he said to me, the waters which you saw where the where the prostitute sits are peoples and multitudes and nations and languages, and the ten horns which you saw and the beasts, these will hate the prostitute and will make her desolate and naked and will eat her flesh and will burn her up with fires. Obviously, gruesome, you know, it's a lot of symbolism, though, and the prostitute here is actually talking about mystery Babylon in the book of Revelation, and it's referring to the great city above all the earth, but it's actually talking about, it's a metaphor for the system that the devil uses in order to rebel against God. Now, in the end times, it's probably going to be a mix of a religious system, a government system, and potentially technology, right? It's going to be a mixed system. He's going to use a lot of different aspects of life in order to control people, but it is going to be systematic rebellion against God, and then, but here's what we see here, is it says the beast, these, and the people, the ten horns, which were ten kings of the earth, says they will hate the prostitute and make her desolate, and so the devil's rulers are literally going to turn against his own system at some point. Why? Because he doesn't want a, he doesn't want people to be separated from him, worshiping him, through a system, right? He wants to be out in the open, and so eventually he's going to say, okay, enough is enough. I was controlling all the people with this system, but now we're going to take all, you know, just like in the Wizard of Oz, where the curtains get removed and you see who's really behind the curtain. He's going to remove the curtains and say, okay, now, no more facade. This is it, right? Like, I want to be at the center of this. It says, for God has put it in their hearts to execute his purpose by having a common purpose and by giving their kingdom to the beast until the words of God will be fulfilled. The woman whom you saw is the great city which reigns over the kings of the earth. So this woman, she's already reigning right now, and she's the great prostitute. She's Mystery Babylon, right? She is the system, and obviously I talk a lot about this in my book, but what that actually looks like and how you can trace it back through history, but she's the system the devil's using that is growing and expanding literally before us today, and that the devil is going to use as, that he's going to ride to the top, and it's going to be the pinnacle of his ruling. And then obviously right here, we see that there's going to be a moment where he literally turns on his own system and shuts it down. But here's what we also see, and this is amazing. Sorry, I accidentally scrolled down. For God has put it in their hearts to execute his purpose. So this is crazy to me that, you know, you look at Revelation, you look at, you know, if you've ever seen some of those old, like, 90s, like, End Times films or something like that, like, it's like the devil has perfectly played his hand, and there's all these crafty schemes, and all these things he's doing, and all this stuff, and you're like, man, he's winning, right? That's how it feels through that lens. But the truth and the reality of it is, God is still in control, even through the events in Revelation, even today, and he's the one that's playing his hand underneath everything, and he's going to pull the rug out from underneath the devil and his system and all those who oppose the Lord at some point. And so there's truly nothing to worry about. Like, that's what is so amazing about this, even here in Revelation 17. So it's like, you read it, and you're like, Lord, this feels heavy, but right there in the middle of it, he says, no, it's actually, I'm the one that put that into their hearts because I'm using that in order to fulfill my own will eventually, which is just amazing to see. You know, and we see right now, we're seeing the warnings of Christ, you know, where he said, you're going to see different things happening on the earth, wars, rumors of wars, famine, like all these different things that are taking place, earthquakes that are ramping up, and obviously we're seeing a ramping up of that. The last several decades, I've only been alive for 36 years, 37 in a week, so I haven't been alive that long yet, but life is short. So it's one of those things where you look at it and you go, is it really as crazy as it feels sometimes, right? Especially living through COVID and stuff like that. And yes, it is. There are some wild things happening in today's world, right? But here's what we see is that we can be here as Christians, but we don't have to take part in the ways of the world. And even the great prostitute, you know, in this passage, you know, God is referring to Babylon or the system of the devil as this great prostitute. The times when, you know, I think a lot of us, we're looking at that and we're thinking, there's some sort of crazy, like, technological or supernatural force or something that defines that, right? But how does God define that in Scripture? If you look at the Old Testament, you look at Israel and the kings of Israel, what were the times when God used that term prostitute to describe his own people, his own nation? Well, you know, he talks about, you know, their idolatry. Like he uses that phrase to describe the times when our hearts wander away from him and we go to something else to get what only God can give us. And so what's the most important thing to keep at the forefront of our minds in the day and age in which we live? It's not, okay, I have to stay away from this piece of technology. I have to stay away from that. Now, we should practically follow the leading of the Lord. And there's going to be a moment where we recognize, okay, that's not good and let's not do that, right? But that is not the thing that should take that first priority in our hearts. The priority in our hearts should be, Lord, is there something in my heart that's Have I gone to something else? Like money, like influence, like career, even good things, you know, like those aren't all bad things, like family, like accomplishment, like other people recognizing me or not rejecting me or whatever it is. Have I gone to something else to get what only you can give me? And we see this pattern throughout the New Testament of the Lord reminding his people of things that were very physical in the Old Testament under the Old Covenant, but through a spiritual lens under the New Covenant. And so what applied to Abraham in a very physical way applies to us in a very spiritual way. Now, it does have physical benefits and implications as well, but it's a very, you know, Abraham left his city. He was called by God out of a city into a place that he didn't know where he's going. We are spiritually called out of Egypt, you know, we're spiritually called out of our sin and our old nature into a new nature, which is the nature of Christ. And it's uncomfortable sometimes. It's a walk of faith. We don't always get to see the next step, but the Lord gives us a step and we say, okay, we take it. And that's called walking with the Lord. The word says the righteous will live by faith. So we're called to live like Abraham, but God does not call us all physically to leave our city and go to another city, right? Sometimes he does. There's a spiritual reality that is defined in Scripture in the Old Testament or is mirrored in Scripture in the Old Testament through a physical manifestation oftentimes. So this is what we see. Here's the reality for us. There's a twofold reality is that we have a citizenship in heaven. It's not here. And we have a sonship in heaven with the Lord. That's not found here. We have a citizenship and we have a sonship. And so let me show you this and then I'm going to get right back into this prophetic word. This is Galatians 4.26. It says, but the Jerusalem above is free. She is our mother. Okay. Revelation 17 talks about the great prostitute, which is Babylon, which is this system of rebellion against God as a she. And it describes it as the mother of the prostitutes. So they were learning from her. They were learning her ways, right? Doing life in her house, learning how to be like her. But we live in a different house. That's what Scripture is saying here. The Jerusalem above is free. She is our mother. Now this is describing the two covenants, the old covenant and the new covenant. If you actually read Galatians chapter four and under the new covenant, we are free in Christ Jesus and our home is not here. It's actually a heavenly home. We're looking for a city whose builder is God, just like Abraham was. And when we realize this, we don't get caught up in the ways and the systems of this world in a way that makes us like the system, like the world. Instead, we're able to live here in the midst of Babylon, wherever you live, without becoming like it, right? And so our citizenship is not here. Our citizenship is found in heaven, but our sonship is not here either. And this one, I think, cuts deeper because you can endure a lot if you know who you are. You can endure a lot if you know who you are, but if you don't know who you are or if you're confused about who you are, then you can very quickly and easily get on the wrong path. And especially when the hardship comes. This is Galatians 4.3. So we too, when we were children, were held in bondage under the elementary principles of the world. But when the fullness of the time came, God sent his son born of a woman, born under the law, so that he might redeem those who are under the law, that we might receive the adoption as sons and daughters. Because you are sons, God has sent the spirit of a son into our hearts, crying out, Abba Father. Therefore, you are no longer a slave, but a son. And if a son, then an heir, through God. See, there is an element of the slave or the servant that is always trying to fight for a better position, a better place. There's an element of being a son or daughter. When it's talking about sonship here, obviously, it says sons and daughters, but when it's talking about it, it's talking about in the sense of, I'm God's child now. I'm not a servant. I'm not on the outside of the house. I'm inside, right? And it's in that framework, not talking about males and females. But then there's an element where if we know who we are and we realize I'm not just out here trying to please God, you know, and trying to make things work. I'm on the inside and I'm not getting kicked out. Then we are able to actually rest, knowing that my father knows what I need before I ask. And that's when we don't bow to the pressure. So when the pressure of the system around us, just like when Daniel was pressured to bow, to bow his knee, you know, like he could have said, well, God, it's the only option. The system around me is not giving me another option. They're telling me to worship this false idol, this false image, and I've got to because there's no other option, right? And you don't want me to be thrown into the lion's den. That's not your plan for me. But see, that would have been Daniel interpreting God's plan through the lens of a servant instead of a son, the lens of his own ability, his own will, like what he thought was right, his own nature. But as sons, we have the Holy Spirit and the Holy Spirit cries out, Abba, Father, and we're able to endure so much more. Why? Because we have our Father who's with us through the power of the Holy Spirit. We have Jesus. He said, I'll be with you to the end of the age. He's with us through the power and presence and voice of the Holy Spirit. And every day, this is where our strength comes from. And this is where our ability to endure comes from. And this is, and it's the joy of the Lord. You know, the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience. So I'm just going to be, there's a lot that I can't share right now. Okay. Let y'all know what's been going on though. My wife's been sick for about five days now. So y'all be praying for her. You know, she's feeling a little better today, but it's, it's been rough. She's been in bed and I've been with the kids, you know, and it's been good. A few of them have been sick too. But while that's been going on, our transmission on our van also went out. And so it's just, it's, it's crazy. It's felt like one thing after another, right? And so I'm trying to find a new vehicle, trying to sort through that while, you know, taking care of the kids. And at the same time, there's other stuff happening behind the scenes that I'm not allowed to share. I'm not able to share right now. But it's a big hurdle for us as a ministry and it's, you know, something the Lord's allowing me to walk through and that's fine. Right. But the last couple of days have been pretty stressful, right? Emotionally, they've been pretty rough. You know, it's not been necessarily easy. And I'm here to tell you this, and this is not, you know, I'm not saying this so anybody will pity me or whatever. It's not about that. And this is, my life is not that bad, right? It's not the worst. Like, I'm sure people could share much worse things than that. But I'm here to tell you, like, on the bad days, this works. And there is not one system in this world that works like God's system. God's plan for His people is that we wake up in the morning and we know the Holy Spirit's with us. And we know because He's with us, we're going to be okay. And because He's with us, we have joy. And His joy is our strength through the good times and through the bad. And He's a friend that sticks closer than a brother. And that's what Jesus wanted. You know, when it says for, you know, the joy set before Him, He endured the cross, He wanted friends. Not just, like, on earth. He didn't just come, you know, Judas was His friend, technically. But that's not what He wanted. He wanted friends for eternity. And He picked you and He picked me. He picked everybody. He said, you can all come in. You see the parable of the wedding feasts. He says, go out and invite everyone, right? There was no partiality. He says, go out and invite everybody, whoever's willing to come. And that's what He wants. And that friendship starts today. It doesn't start then. It starts now when we choose to believe in Him and when we actually put our hope in Him. And this same truth works whether we are a year from the end, 50 years from the end, or whether we lived in the medieval times, and every day was a bad day, right? Or whatever part in history. You know, like, there have been some very challenging eras of history that people have lived through, and this still worked. Because the Holy Spirit is just as good today as He was on the day of Pentecost, when He entered the hearts of believers. And so, when we see ourselves as, I'm a son, I'm an heir, I'm an heir, then I don't have to grasp what I can get here in this life, in this world, even in my own life. I don't have to protect myself in every way that I normally would. Instead, I'm looking to Him. I'm saying, God, what are you allowing? Now, what do I need to fight? And what do I need to flee from? What do I need to stand firm on? And what things are you allowing, actually, for my good, ultimately? And if that's what I'm walking through, then I'm going to stand with you, and I'm just going to stay with you. I know your presence is the best place I could be. This is what I heard next on April 13th, I believe. This was after I saw these visions of Revelation and the cities, right? I heard the Lord say, don't quake or shake. Don't rumble when the earth does. Just stay steady and shout the name of Jesus. And then He said, rest in the finished work of Christ at that cross. Stand upon the victory won for you that day. Shout and rejoice. Exalt the name of the one who is worthy of praise. Praise His name and rejoice, and see the victory of the Lord. So we can have victory. I believe the Lord's talking about, yes, victory in eternity, but we can also have victory here and now. Now, God does not promise that we are going to see everything our flesh wants this side of heaven, you know, like everything we want. That's not what He promises in the Word. Jesus said that in this world you will have trouble, but take heart, I've already overcome the world. So He's saying you can live victorious. That doesn't mean you get what you want, but you can have the victory nonetheless. It means you get what God wants when we're walking in His will, and God is a good Father. But this is what I heard next. I heard the Lord say, something is coming that is going to rupture the heart structure of the massive city environment. And I was reminded, I got this impression of like, you know, COVID and how it changed big city life a lot more than country life, you know, and that was like a reminder. And then I heard this, the Holy Spirit say, it will be like that but different. It will start to emerge in 2030 and after. A changing of the quote-unquote environment in a severe way. The big city environment, and I don't know if the Lord's talking about environment there as in like natural environment or more like in like the culture or atmosphere of, you know, of the city or whatever. Then I heard the big city environment, a merging of cultures, cultural events coming into one. You will see it as this part will start to happen first. And I heard first the cultural aspect, then the environmental one. A shift is coming, and it's touching every large city upon the planet to an extent. A melting of two environments into one. Again, not sure exactly what that means, but that's what I heard. And all of a sudden I saw a vision, and I knew when I saw it, it was all of the cities in the world in one. And so y'all, while I'm seeing this, while I'm hearing these things, this was late at night, and I was spending time in the Lord's presence. I was just worshiping the Lord. I had worship music going, and I'm seeing these things, and I'm writing them down. And it's like the Lord kept giving me knowledge about it. I could see, and I saw this insanely large cityscape. It looked like New York City but bigger, and there was just skyscrapers going off in every direction. And I knew that what I was seeing was symbolic of all the cities of the world. It was a symbol. And then I saw some smoke and some flames lifted behind it and from parts of it, and it was like the Lord was showing me all of it at once. And then I saw immediately after, and this is weird, but I saw the statue of Walt Disney holding Mickey Mouse's hand. There's like a statue of Walt Disney and then Mickey Mouse, and I think it's somewhere at Disney World or something. I've seen pictures of it online, and I went to Disney World when I was a kid, so I've probably seen it in person too. But suddenly I saw that, and I saw that, and I knew the Lord was talking about the legacy that people try to leave behind, and the two things. They're trying to build those two things. Citizenship, like trying to keep citizenship there, and then also the sonship, like the identity. I have an identity, and I'm going to let people know, you and future generations, that it's still there, and it doesn't work. In Babylon's system, it doesn't work. This is what the Lord said. He said, you can't take it with you. None of it will last, but people try to take things with them through legacy and controlling what happens to their stuff after they die. And then I heard, but you are more than what you produce or own. You are more than a good name. You are an eternal being, and that matters much more than the temporary. And then I heard this, and this is strange, but I heard they're going to start talking about tearing cities down, entire metropolises, for a very eerie reason in the end. I don't know what that's about. Maybe that has to do with the 2030 thing and what comes after that. So the Lord could be talking about that timeline there, something happening after that. Then I heard a cultural shift is happening, and I believe this is more of what's happening now, right? That was the sense I got. A cultural shift is happening. People are starting to wake up to the big city paradise, quote-unquote, life. They're starting to understand there's more to life than lights, cars, and action. This is occurring in many places on earth, even here in the States. But eventually the cities themselves, and then I got an impression some of the big cities, you know, like the really big ones, will become so controlled that people won't necessarily want to live there anyway. There will always be a group that, quote-unquote, thrives there, but that message is changing. A cultural revolution when it comes to city life is happening now. A shift is starting to surface. And then I heard, yet I see them, the hubs bringing people to Christ. Many will be found in major population areas, so don't give up on me working in those spaces. Some people are called to witness to the lost in major cities. Some people are called to live in cities like New York City, Dallas, Texas, Los Angeles, California, Dubai, London, England, like the different places around the world. Hong Kong, you know, people are called to live in major cities and to reach the lost there. And so I think it's interesting that the Lord is pointing me to Abraham leaving the place where he was comfortable, the place of his family's house, and going to a city that God was going to show him, which ultimately became the promised land itself. But here's the reality of it, is that God is going to call us as believers in this life to do things that are uncomfortable, to leave what we wanted so that we can get what's better, to leave what we want so that we can get what's better. And what's better? Well, ultimately, if you read all of the Bible, the true promised land is Christ himself. And no matter where we go in this life, we can be in the promised land when we are with him, whether it's an easy place to live or a hard place to exist, whether it's an easy time that we're going through or a difficult time that we're living in. And then I heard the Lord say this. He said, however, I want you to take a serious look at the space in which you are supposed to be. What people are you called to reach? What space have you been placed in? Plant yourself there and grow fruit. Be productive for the kingdom. Don't give up even when it's hard, next to impossible sometimes to reach the people in proximity to you. And he said, trust me, I'm working even in the dark, the dark spaces and the dark times. I'm with you as you speak the name of Jesus and release the light of God's world into darkness. Then I heard, do not fear what is to come. Do not be afraid. Just receive the strength, the fire I have for you every day. Receive me and find peace that lasts, that you can carry with you no matter where you go. And I just sense the presence of the Holy Spirit right now. There's nothing like the friendship and the presence of the Holy Spirit. If you don't have the Holy Spirit working in your life, just ask. Jesus said in Luke 11, 9-13, said, ask, seek, knock. Whoever asks, receives. Whoever seeks will find. Whoever knocks, the door will be opened to him. He said, if you, though you're evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask? So he's talking about, when he says ask, seek, and knock, he's talking about receiving the Holy Spirit or being more aware of the work and the presence of the Holy Spirit and the voice of the Holy Spirit in your life. And if you don't have the Holy Spirit today as a believer, it's almost impossible. It's almost impossible to do what God's calling you to do. Like I believe it actually is because Jesus said, apart from me, you can do nothing. And how did he send himself? He sent the Holy Spirit to help us. We've got to have the Holy Spirit in order to do what God is calling us to do. So man, if you need more of the Holy Spirit, just ask. The easiest way is for us just to humble ourselves and say, Lord, apart from you, I can't do this. I believe that Jesus died for me. I believe he paid the price for my sin on that cross. I believe based on what he did, my sins are forgiven, and I'm going to spend eternity with him. But also, I have confident access to you, Holy Spirit, through what Jesus did. We receive the Spirit. Galatians 3 says, did you receive the Spirit by the works of the law or by hearing with faith? We receive the Spirit by hearing the gospel and believing it, choosing to believe it. That gives me access. It's giving me a new location, right? I have citizenship in heaven. I'm seated with Christ in heavenly places. It's giving me a new identity. I'm his son. Of course, he's going to give me what I ask for in faith that he's promised to give me, and that is the gift of the Holy Spirit. There's some people that would say, well, I've never prayed in tongues, so maybe I don't have the Holy Spirit, or maybe I'm missing something. Don't worry about that. I do believe that the gift of tongues is evidence of the Holy Spirit. Some fruit shows right away, and other fruit, it takes time for it to show. Sometimes you plant, and there are some plants that come up right away. There are others that they lay dormant under the ground for a long period of time. That doesn't mean that God's not working just because you're not seeing the full manifestation of the evidence yet. You don't have to worry. That's not you. You don't make that happen. That's the Holy Spirit's job, but if you have put your hope in what Christ has done for you on the cross, you do have the Holy Spirit, and he does want to work through you, and he is moving in your life. And Jesus says, ask, seek, and knock. That's what he's asking us to do. Ask, seek, and knock. Just because we've been standing at the door for a while, and they haven't come to the door yet, that doesn't mean we stop knocking. We keep knocking. We know that he's there. We know that he's a rewarder of those who diligently seek him. This is what I heard May 3rd. The Lord said, the stone which the builders rejected became the chief cornerstone. The Lord asked me to talk about this, and I just sensed that he's asking me to ask this question. And this is Matthew 21-42, obviously, that the Holy Spirit is quoting, but what are we building with, and what are we building on? And everything that we build is constructed on a foundation of some sort, whether that's sand, whether that's a rock. Jesus told that story about building on the sand versus building on the rock. What does that look like? Well, it's acting on the words of Christ, not what we wish he would have said or think he said. It's acting on what he actually said, right? But it's more than that. It's acting based on what he did. So it comes down to the heart motivation, what we're building on. Am I building to try to still please God and get something from him? That's the old covenant. That's the law. Or have I come over to the new covenant? Am I building based on what he's already freely given me at the cross? And when we do that, we build with joy because we realize, I'm resting in the finished work of Christ, but we also build with the help of the Holy Spirit because the Spirit works now through the new covenant, not the old, because the glory of the old covenant is fading, but the glory of the new surpasses the glory of the old. That's what the says. So if you're wondering why, well, the glory of God is not, there's no glory in my life. You know, where, where's the hand of God come out from under the legalistic mindset, come out from under the old covenant and thinking that you're somehow pleasing God and come into the new and just begin to be grateful. Instead of working and toiling hard to try to impress God, we can just be grateful. And it'd be better if we just spent our time worshiping and saying, thank you, Jesus, for dying for me, because out of that, a relationship is going to go so deep and the, the, the wells of the Holy Spirit, you know, that the, the living water of Christ is going to flow up and out of us. And we're not going to be able to stop the Lord from working through us. It's going to be, it's going to become like, that is where we work from out of the overflow. We work from the secret place. We work from the filling of the Holy Spirit. Jesus even told his disciples, you know, they had three years of ministry training with him. And yet he said, you're not ready to go. Don't do it yet. He said, wait until you receive power from on high and the Holy Spirit comes upon you. So if they needed it, we need it today, right? This is what Jesus says. Did you never read in the scriptures, a stone, which the builders rejected, this has become the chief cornerstone. This came about from the Lord and it is marvelous in our eyes. And so it's this idea of those that were the religious leaders of the time, they had the titles, they had the degrees, they had the positions. All the people would have thought, well, they're the ones that have the most access to God. And yet their hearts were far away from the Lord. And they missed the son of God when he came, they missed the glory that stood right before him, before them. And yet the people received Christ. The people who received him and believed in him, they were filled with the spirit. And they had a beautiful friendship with God that the religious leaders never had. And what do we see? Well, none of the Pharisees and Sadducees came to see the baby Jesus. It was the shepherds and it was kings from a foreign land. It was the wise men from a foreign land. They came to see him. And then when he's dedicated at the temple, the Pharisees and Sadducees and religious leaders ignored him, just another baby. Yet we see the prophetess Anna and we see Simeon coming to the temple in the power of the Holy Spirit based on God's grace. And they recognize him and they prophesy over the baby Jesus. They got to see the glory of the Lord. The glory of God now under the new covenant is found in the most simple of truths. Are we building upon the foundation stone, which is Christ, his finished work. This is actually prophesied from, and Jesus is referring to a prophecy from Psalms 118. Now I want to show you this. This was not prophesied when things were going good. This was prophesied when the writer was going through something very difficult. Psalms 118 10, all nations surrounded me in the name of the Lord. I will certainly fend them off. Being surrounded. Look at verse 15. The sound of joyful shouting and salvation is in the tents of the righteous. The right hand of the Lord performs valiantly. So there is a joy and an expectant hope in the Lord's salvation and it's found in the tents of the righteous. And so they are putting themselves in a location of citizenship and in a heavenly kingdom, right? I'm in the tent of the righteous. Why? Because of what God has done. Because what I know he's going to do. Look at verse 22. The stone, a stone which the builders rejected has become the chief cornerstone. This came about from the Lord. It wasn't his doing. The Lord did it. It is marvelous in our eyes. And then it says, this is the day which the Lord has made. Let's rejoice and be glad in it. So this is a very popular scripture, right? This is the day the Lord has made. Let's rejoice and be glad in it. And you would think, well, that was written during a time where somebody was going through something great. But it wasn't. He's saying, this is the day, this hard day where all these things are coming in around me, right? And I'm having to remind myself that God is the one, he's the builder. And whatever stone he's laid, I'm going to stand firmly on that. And probably didn't realize he was prophesying about the coming Christ, who is the stone that we stand on today. And in the middle of that, the writer says, this is the day, this hard day is the day which the Lord has made. Let's rejoice and be glad in it. And they have the joy of the Lord, which is their strength through a difficult time. And then verse 25 says, please, oh Lord, do save us. Please, oh Lord, do send prosperity. So they're not saying everything's fine. They're crying out to the Lord, but they're also standing on a firm foundation. Isn't this amazing? This is amazing to me. Look at verse 19 and 20. I'm going to finish with this. Oh, and then I'm going to read the rest of what the Lord said, but open the gates of righteousness to me. I will enter through them. I will give thanks to the Lord. This is the gate of the Lord. The righteous will enter through it. Christ today is the gate of the Lord. We go in, we come out and we find pasture, but we have a choice to make. Am I going to listen to his voice today? Am I going to go in through that gate? Am I going to rest in his finished work? Or am I going to try to go through a different gate? And there are so many different gateways in the system of the world today that try to offer us peace or offer us hope or offer us something that we can put our hope for fulfillment in. But if we're planning and we're building on that foundation, we're planting seeds that are going to die and they're going to dry up in that soil. And we're building things that are not going to last. They're going to crumble. But Jesus is the gate that always leads to life, that always leads to fulfillment. This is what I heard the Lord say. He said, builders. Talking about this, the Lord quoted Matthew 21, 42. He said, the stone which the builders rejected became the chief cornerstone. Then I heard the Holy Spirit say, builders imply people who put in hard work and help to give the next generation a leg up. Yet at some point along the way, they let it become about something other than Jesus, other than Christ and Christ crucified. So you can, it's easy to ask that question. Well, isn't what they're doing good, right? Aren't they doing something good for the world? Because they're making this change, they're making this effort. They're even in the church doing this thing and talking about the Bible and doing, you know, and but the question should be, yes, people can do good things. But if it's really, if we're really building on the right foundation, the question should be, what are they doing with Jesus? And I hear the Holy Spirit saying that from the Father's perspective. What have they done with my son? What have they done with him? That's what ultimately matters. And this is the question we have to answer for ourselves. And I heard this phrase from the Lord, but it's like a prayer from our perspective. What I heard was, deliver us from bad building. I don't want my life to have to be reconstructed after I've allowed somebody who's a bad builder to tell me what to do and to go down a path that the Lord is not leading me down. Is it built on the solid foundation, which is Christ? And if not, it's not good for us. But if it is, even when it's hard, God is right there with us and he has joy. And he's the strength. His presence is the strength that's going to help us to weather the storm, the winds, the rain. Nothing's going to knock that house over because the Lord is the one holding it together. And we're resting in his presence. We're resting under the shelter, the shadow of his wings. And even during the storm, we can praise him. We can worship him. We can sense his joy. We can sense his nearness. We can sense his presence. We don't have to be afraid because Jesus is the goal. And when we've believed in what he's done for us on the cross, we already have him. We already have the victory. He is the victory. He is the prize. He is the reward. And we have him. He's with us. So that's all I felt led to share with y'all today. I hope that's okay. I hope that's encouraging. Y'all be praying for us. Be praying for me and my family. I love y'all so much. I'll see you next time.