Ken: I think it's really significant about how we change. We come into this relationship being delivered out of our Egypt to come into the relationship with God, to walk where He leads us. And it's interesting because there are times when there's a refreshing, and the water flows out of the rock, and we stand still and we enjoy the presence of God.
And then there's a time when He says, “Move on,” because you have to go into another phase of what I'm bringing you into. I think there was a new dedication. God’s serious about His directing us in the way that we should go. And it's very important that we listen very carefully and hear what He's speaking.
And I think a lot of times people think it can be a real casual thing to have a relationship and a walk with God.
Mike: Here we are in this day at the timing of the Lord, where we've had the Holy Spirit, we have the Lord Jesus, and now we're coming into the time where God comes into His people.
He's looking for that inheritance of His. What an opportunity we have to be a part of something. This is why we were sent here. This is our destiny.
Ken: The significance of the Old Testament — the Word says it was an example for us to follow. And if it was an example for us to follow, then we need to really understand what God is speaking, how people were led, and the consequences and everything that happened in their journey, because all of it has to do with us in this day.
Ron: For a long time I felt that was the way the Lord was then, but now He's not as exacting because Christ came in. There's grace and mercy. God's still exacting in His Word, and He will deal with you when you don't follow what He's trying to say.
Or there's a lot of greasy grace. There's a lot of greasy grace out there that's not really a walk with God or it's not really knowing the Lord in the way He is. In fact, we know someone that said, “Ship Zion is a tighter ship than you've ever been on.”
Ken: It's a whole new lifestyle. That's what it is. It's a lifestyle, and if you're not a part of the lifestyle and outside of it looking in, you're not there.
I know a lot of people out there would love to be in, but are they willing to pay the price to be in? Because there is a price to pay, but once that price is paid, the joy that we have in the Lord in this relationship is so great that you don't wanna leave it.
There has to be that dedication to this relationship with God and this walk with God. It's a rewarding thing as well. It's like this relationship that we have with each other and this dedication with each other. In a sense, we're like the Jewish people that were traveling, but we're doing it together.
If you look at God's plan, He never just chose a group of people that were all going to be the ones who were gonna walk with Him and be dedicated. There were some that He set aside. He called into a different place because of their dedication, because of what they had their focus on.
Like you were talking about, there is a separation that God brings, because He's gonna have a remnant. He's gonna have a bride that's looking for the Bridegroom and not looking at anything else.
Debbie: Where's your heart? Are you set to walk with the Lord no matter what? No matter what He does, what He says, what He requires of you?
Ken: We're calling out to those out there that are looking to fill the hole in their heart and find a relationship with something that's real. Right? Right.
God is a reality, and I think that's why the young people are turning to the Lord. It's becoming something that's real, tangible, something they can experience.
I tell you, the importance of living in the new day and going on with the Lord into the next level is so important.
Ron: He wants to move through everyone so that He has full expression.
God is so unbelievably creative and diverse. You just look at flowers or just look at bees or just look at butterflies or just look at birds or us, and they're just so different.
But yet He wants to move. He wants to manifest Himself through us in a special way. I just lose the excitement of that — the real, like hitting in our hearts — the excitement of going, “I get to be with all these people of God that God has worked on, and He's moving through and manifesting Himself through.
I get to be partakers of that. I get to go there and be part of that.” That is an amazing, amazing inheritance. That's an amazing thing.
The parousia, the presence of the Lord, is unveiling Himself more and more to the point where He will be more real to us than the physical. His presence with us will be more real than each other.
Ken: Christ is not coming back to be crucified afresh, but to be glorified in His saints.
I think we've yet to understand totally exactly what that means, but I think we're coming into that knowledge because the glory of the Lord does appear. We're experiencing it a lot more than we understand.
That joy is just unbelievable sometimes, and it's like what Jesus talked about — you don't see the wind. It blows from this way to that way. You don't see where it's coming from, and all of a sudden it's there and you experience it.
