Can you feel the void, America? A sense of emptiness that no amount of self-help books or prosperity can fill? Today, we’re venturing into unchartered territories, taking a deep look into America’s societal ailments. We’re not talking about the usual culprits – mental health or financial instability. Our focus is on something more profound, more ethereal – God’s DNA. A divine essence that, although not explicitly mentioned in the Bible, might be the key to filling this gaping hole in our lives. We’re analyzing the state of our nation, discussing the pervasiveness of crime, corruption, and economic struggles. But there’s more. Ever thought about what it would be like to be adopted by God? To experience unconditional acceptance and love? We’re exploring this transformative concept, seeing how it could potentially liberate us from the clutches of fear, anxiety, and negativity. We’re urging you to embrace the values and principles of God’s family, as outlined in the Bible. This could well be the solution we’ve been seeking. And, as a bonus, we’re offering you a glimpse into our soon-to-be-paid e-book, “A Guide to the Clueless Generation.” So join us as we attempt to uncover the path to healing and change. Don’t just be a spectator, be a part of the change. Tune in now.
Key Takeaways:
- America is plagued by a sickness that manifests in violence, crime, and a lack of direction and fulfillment.
- Each individual has a spiritual adoption waiting for them, as God has chosen and predestined us to be part of His family.
- Embracing our adoption by God allows us to tap into the resources and power of the heavenly family.
- Developing a relationship with God and seeking guidance from Him can bring about a positive transformation in our lives.
- Reading and believing in the promises of God can strengthen our faith and provide a foundation for a fulfilling life.
Where To Dive In:
0:00:01 Finding a cure for emptiness and directionlessness in life
0:00:32 Introducing the concept of “God’s DNA” as a cure for the sickness in America
0:01:28 Discussing the prevalent sickness in America, including shootings, theft, and corruption
0:03:41 Exploring the lack of fulfillment, direction, and security in people’s lives
0:04:54 Proposing that the cure lies in understanding and embracing God’s calling and adoption
0:06:27 The limited success of current approaches and the need for a different direction
0:08:00 Reading a scripture from Ephesians about being chosen and predestined by God
0:09:38 The importance of recognizing one’s adoption by God and finding identity in Him
0:10:42 Common struggles and mistakes people make about their adoption by God
0:11:46 God’s adoption is not based on behavior or record, but on His love and desire for people
0:12:16 The importance of understanding adoption and being part of God’s family
0:13:48 The missing link is not knowing how to be adopted
0:14:44 People who commit crimes are missing something in life
0:15:17 We need a spiritual voice to guide us
0:16:19 Learn how to think and act as a part of God’s family
0:18:01 Start with being adopted and develop a relationship with God
0:19:52 Use your faith and believe in the promises of God
0:21:45 The importance of reading the Bible and knowing God’s promises
0:22:19 Get the e-book “If You Only Knew” for free
0:23:19 America is sick and we need to get well
About the host:
Steve Gray is the founding and senior pastor of Revive Church KC. He has been in the full time ministry for over 40 years and was launched into national and international recognition in the late 1990’s as the leader of the historic Smithton Outpouring, and again in 2009 when he lead the Kansas City Revival which was televised nationally on the Daystar television network. Steve is also a veteran musician, songwriter, recording artist and published author. His books include When The Kingdom Comes, Follow The Fire, and My Absurd Religion.
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Transcript:
0:00:01
What if I could tell you how to get rid of the emptiness, the directionless, the feeling I’m not loved. I don’t know what I’m doing with my life. What if I could tell you how to get rid of that in one podcast? Well, that’s what I’m going to do in the next more faith, more life. Hey, hello everyone to another more faith, more life podcast. What if I could tell you how to get rid of that emptiness or that directionless, or just that feeling that you’re missing something in life or restore some peace to your life, some joy, maybe joy that’s your happiness. We can use that word that you had as a child or as a teenager or whatever.
0:00:32
What if we could fix that in this podcast? Well, you listen carefully because I got something to tell you may have never heard before. All right, I want to talk about what I’m going to call God’s DNA. God’s DNA. Now, God’s DNA, it’s not a scripture. It’s not in the Bible. It’s a phrase I’m just making up for an example to tell you about God’s DNA or a God gene. I heard somebody call that once. Some people have a God gene and DNA.
0:01:03
And this is what I’m trying to say. But before I tell you how to get these answers, let’s diagnose us a little bit, because America is sick. Did you know that? America is sick. And we kind of know there’s a sickness because even just recently there was another shooting. Some guy goes in with a gun and shoots up, and a guy got in a car or somebody got in a car, drove into a parade just recently, too.
0:01:28
That’s sick. And we get so used to it that we forget how sick it is. I was listening to the news yesterday about storekeepers in Washington, DC. This guy is spending $4,000 a month for security. Now he’s got more than one store, he’s got a number of stores. So it’s not just one $4,000 a month for security because of robs and stealing and all that. And he says, I can’t keep this up. And so people just walk in and steal. Teenagers walk into stores, they steal, run out, nobody knows what’s to do.
0:02:01
But there’s a sickness that people don’t care. People steal, they carjack, they shoot, whatever. And we kind of get so used to it, we forget that’s a sickness. And we’d like to say, as somebody always says, somebody needs to do something. We need to do something. Somebody. Okay, right, let’s do something. But nobody knows what to do. And it never gets better. I don’t know how many years I’ve heard that and how many years we’ve had school shootings now, and it doesn’t get better. They keep happening all kinds of shootings, not just school, all kinds of crime, all kinds of outlandish things, corruption in government.
0:02:38
And it’s just across the board. Okay, so what do we do about it? And I haven’t heard anybody know what to do about it and anybody that’s tried to do anything about it. If there’s any success, it’s very, very limited most of the time. It’s zero success with gangs and all the things going on. Okay, and let’s back up one more time to wait. Even our economy is being affected by the sickness of America because there’s corruption.
0:03:07
And so that affects our economy, affects our money, affects what the government’s doing to benefit certain individuals. Okay, so there’s the problem. America is sick, and nobody knows how to get the cure. And I want to propose it to you, and it’ll help you personally, too, with the cure. Okay? So in this podcast we talk about, our podcast is more faith, which produces more life. And that’s the lack, right? It’s a sickness because we lack God’s kind of life or just life, just the kind of life God would like for us to have, at least.
0:03:41
And so there’s emptiness, there’s directionalists, there’s feeling we’re not loved. We need community so bad. We need it. And there’s all these people trying to fill community, and yet people aren’t feeling community, right? There’s divorce going on in multiple family situations. It’s just a lot of hurt, right? A lot of hurt, a little bit of fear. A little bit of fear because of what’s going on in the country and the fear of I’m going to get sick with this Covid or whatever or flu that’s going on. And then money fears. So there’s a big, big problem.
0:04:18
So there’s a sickness in America that’s causing people to respond in negative and poor ways and violent ways. And who wouldn’t want to cure that? The problem is the cure is not in the vocabulary of most people. It’s not in the minds of most people. People in America, the majority say they believe in God. That’s good. But when it comes to getting a God movement, some kind of God activity, that changes us because we have mental health, people trying to change us and help us, those that need. Okay, that’s great.
0:04:54
We have legislation and funding and help for the poor and all that, and that helps, but it doesn’t change the sickness that’s still ongoing in us. So we can get help, we can get mental health, we can get financial help, but there’s still an emptiness, a directionalness. What’s wrong with me? I don’t feel happy. I’m not secure. I’m not fulfilled. And all those words that come up and I’m a victim of everybody and it’s not my fault.
0:05:23
Okay, so what if we could cure that? What if we could cure the sickness in America and cure it? If you’re part of that, maybe you’re not, but the majority of America is directionless, insecure, not sure what’s going to happen in the world, not sure if there’s going to be a war, a world war, government collapse, financial collapse. All right, what if you are at least part of that, or you know, someone you’re married to, someone you got kids or your mom’s like that, whatever.
0:05:49
Okay. What can we do about it? All right, I want to read this because here’s what I think is wrong, and you’re not going to hear it from very, I don’t know of anybody because it just is not in their thinking to turn this direction that would cause the sickness to be cured. Now, I’ve seen it cured in thousands and thousands and thousands of people around the world because I’ve traveled all the world and done this and taught it, but mostly it’s been in churches. And so if people, church folks, got better and they needed to get better, got better, but it sort of confined itself to churches.
0:06:27
And even now there’s so many churches that are satisfied with what they’re doing that they know the people are that way, but they’d rather keep up their progress because it attracts people, it attracts money, it gives them success. And to change course, like I’m about to say, would change their whole direction of their church. I’d like them to do that. I think for the people, they need to do that. But right now everybody needs to wake up and say, there is a cure.
0:06:53
America is sick, and what can we do to get that cure? All right, so I want to talk about it. Even though it’s not a biblical term, God’s dna. I want to read a scripture from Ephesians. This is Bible. So listen, if we’re going to get more faith, we have to listen to the word of God, right? Faith comes by hearing the word of God. For he chose us in him before the creation of the world, to be holy and blameless in his sight.
0:07:19
Now, don’t get off on the holy and blameless yet. That comes later. We’ll work on that later. But what we start with the revelation. He chose us in him before the creation of the world. So that means there’s a calling, a choosing. There’s something that God has done, or Jesus has done in us, that before the creation of the world, he chose us. Now, that choosing doesn’t just lay dormant, it gets in us as we are born then before the creation of the world. That’s a long time, right? That’s way before you came about in love. Get this, he predestined us.
0:08:00
Predestined. That’s before everything else happened to you. Predestined us for adoption to sonship. Okay, adoption. Now, if you’ve been predestined, that means you’ve been chosen to be adopted by God, all right? So that’s all out there. So before the creation of the world, God was choosing you. And before even that, as that was happening, you were predestined to be adopted by God. Now, that pulls you into a different realm. That doesn’t mean you don’t keep your regular parents or anything like that. That means there’s a spiritual adoption out there and it’s gotten into you. When you were born, before you were born, God knew you.
0:08:50
God knew about you. God knew that there was a calling or a choosing in your life, all right? And God knew that he had predestined you to be adopted. Now, the reason that’s important, while you’re being born, God knew as you’re being born, as you’re entering into life, that adoption calling from God, it’s in you. It’s in you. You may not know it’s in you. Like, it’s very, very apparent. But still, growing up, for everybody, there’s a certain God knowledge, right? You believe in God, and most people do in our country, some don’t, but most people do. Now, they don’t have an active God, and it’s not a great relationship, but it’s there.
0:09:38
And what I believe is causing possibly you to go through life aimless. I don’t know what direction. I don’t know who I am. I don’t know what I want to do. And there’s lots and lots of people getting out of college and going in. And the degree they got, they’re not even working in. The degree they got, they don’t know what they want to do. So we say it. They can’t find themselves, so to speak. People say, I don’t love that term a little bit, but I understand it. People looking for. To find who they are and their identity.
0:10:11
Man, that is big today. People looking for their identity. Well, let me tell you something. God is real and God is big, and his kingdom is big and is powerful. And if God sent a message into you, got something into you, like God’s DNA, like God’s adoption power, because he wants to adopt you, right? He wants to adopt. He wants you to feel adopted by God, all right? You may be adopted in real life. You may have a regular parent, but that’s not it.
0:10:42
What’s missing is we’ve got something going on between us and God even before we were born. And then we miss it, and we’re going through life and we get rebellious. We turn to this, we turn to that. We follow through with that. We make mistakes. We’re trying to find. We’re trying, trying. We’re trying to do the right thing. And we don’t even know who we are. And just something’s missing. And then some of us get along in life a little bit more midlife, and we sort of just give up, right? Or we have a midlife crisis, right? And we get a divorce and buy a sports car. Okay?
0:11:15
So we do stuff, and it’s all because we don’t know what we don’t know. And I want to tell you what it is. There is an adoption in the works for you, by God. It doesn’t mean you have to. He already predestined people to be adopted, all right? So if you’ve been predestined to be adopted, that means he’s not going to look at your record. He’s not going to look at your behavior. If you want to adopt a kid, you adopt a kid.
0:11:46
They’re not perfect. They’ve got some problems, maybe, and they’ve had some rough times. And now you’re going to adopt them, okay? But you’re going to adopt them anyway, right? And you’re going to take on those things. And so as a parent, and when you adopt somebody, you take on the person, the good and the bad, everything going on and all their hurts, all their joy. And so God is wanting to adopt you, and you have to want them to be adopted. You have to know that that’s out there. And that’s my point. America is sick because God is.
0:12:16
We have a God, something in us. I don’t know. God Gene, God DNA, God pull God predestination, a God adoption, a God calling, a God choosing. And we have that in us, but we haven’t had people tell us about it. And the churches have failed because they don’t tell us about it. And they’re more just trying to. And I get it. I don’t want to be critical because they’re just trying to help us through our crisis. Okay.
0:12:41
Okay, great. But somebody’s got to get us out of the crisis and say, this is how you get out. That you have been adopted, called at least predestined to be adopted by God into his family. And when you get into his family, you know what? You get what his family has. That means your past and your crisis and your feelings and all the things that go with who you are don’t count so much because now you’re in the kingdom of God, which in the kingdom of God, fear is not pulling people.
0:13:18
Anxiety, disappointments, all that goes away because we have now a new family. You still have your earthly family, but you’ve got a heavenly family. And this heavenly family is pulling you in and allowing you to be a child. Now we say a child of God loosely in church, but nobody believes it makes any difference. I’m a child of God and then that’s it. No, this is, you’re adopted and you get, everything that’s in the kingdom that your father has is now part of your life.
0:13:48
You can call upon it, you can experience it, you can learn about it and it can happen in your life. I’m not saying this is not to be perfect. This is not going to be the most perfect spirit. Now you’re going to be spiritual and you’re going to have visions and dreams and be telling people their future. No, this is, you are now adopted and you get what the parent has operating in your life. And I think this is the missing link.
0:14:19
This is the missing link is we don’t know how to do it. We don’t know we can do it. We don’t know we should do it. And we don’t know why we are like we are now. Most of you leading pretty good lives, you’re not committing, you’re not out there carjacking, okay, but what do you do with those people? Those people are the same. They’re doing it out of something’s missing. It’s not normal. That’s not normal.
0:14:44
But they don’t know how else to get along. Some people do it, some people steal or whatever, or Rob because they don’t know what else to do. To get money, they just don’t know. But when it turns violent, now we’re way off. That’s really sick. And you don’t have to do that. And so I’m telling you something here, to get more faith, more life, to get that sickness out of you, but to get it out of America that we need a voice, we need a spiritual voice to tell us how to do this, that it can be done.
0:15:17
How do we get this? How do we get this? Well, first of all, adoption is easy. Now, walking in holy and blameless, okay? But that’s way down the line. Don’t even worry about that. He called us to that. But we’ll get there later. First you got to be adopted. My advice to you and everybody else is to take this seriously and realize if you don’t have a dad, you don’t have a mom, you don’t have parents, you do have a dad, you do have a mom, but they’re not active or you’re just lonely and you’re missing life and you don’t know what to do with anything, trying to make good decisions. Okay?
0:15:56
You need to be adopted. And how do you get adopted? Well, God’s already determined he’ll adopt you. You have to want to be adopted. You have to want to enter and be a part of his family. Are there things in his family that are different from earthly families and regular families and fighting families and bicker? Yeah, it’s different. It’s different. You’re going to have to read the Bible a little bit to find out what his family is like.
0:16:19
There’s lots of great scriptures that you can find about just personality things, how we act, how we think, and the reason we can do that, sometimes we feel like we’re supposed to be super religious and so we’re supposed to think like this, super religious if we’re going to act like that. It’s not like that at all. It tells us how to be a part of this family and what works. I think a certain way because it works.
0:16:46
I keep certain things out. I don’t allow my mind to go too far one direction. I keep balance in my life. I keep faith in my life. I keep trust in my life to give me a foundation. Okay, you know what? Because I’m not alone. I’m adopted. I have a father in heaven. I have recourse. I can go to him and I do go to him and I talk to him as a father, just like if you never got to talk to your father that way, like you would have liked to you go, you open up, you talk to him as a father, you explain to him, you ask what you should do, ask for wisdom, you ask for help, you ask for relationship with him. Say, I’m adopted, I feel adopted. Maybe I want to be adopted. I want to get closer to you, right? Just like if it was earthly.
0:17:37
You have no parents, let’s say, and you go to get adopted, right? Well, now you’re going to make them appearance. You got to get to know them. They got to get to know you. You’re going to have to learn to trust them. You’re going to have to learn to know that they’ll provide for you, and they need to know that you’re going to receive and that you’re going to love back and back and forth. It’s just take it into the real realm of adoption. Think what it’d be like and respond accordingly to God.
0:18:01
I’m telling you, this is as simple as simple can be. Now it gets maybe a little more complicated if we’re going to start in the holy blameless life and all that stuff, but holy sounds kind of up there like, oh, I don’t know how I can be holy blameless. That’s pretty good because you’re not going to go around feeling guilty if you’re blameless. Hey, that’s a good thing. So both are there. He’s going to help you with that. So I just want to tell you simple, simple thing. Today I’m pleading with people everywhere.
0:18:32
Start there. We want to get America well. Now this podcast is not big enough to make America well, so this needs to be said lots and lots of places, but that’s the start. I can get at least to you and you can tell others, just figure out, go to God, talk to him about adoption. What would you do if you were really being adopted? What questions would you ask? What would you want to know? And who are you supposed to be?
0:18:55
And then what about God? Okay, I want to be adopted. What does that mean to me? And if you don’t know your bible very well, you may have to get into some scriptures about, and you can google scriptures about the fruit of the spirit or how is a Christian supposed to act? What does God say about how to think? Right? What does God say? How to think? It’ll all come up, right? How do I get peace with God? How do I get peace in my life? It’ll all come up and ask for scriptures that go along with it.
0:19:24
But just get a relationship. Start with being adopted, okay? And just believe it. So when you get out there in the world and you’re living in the world, you’re going to work or you’re going to school or whatever you do, you stay at home with kids. Whatever you do, you have that backup. Whatever happens, you have a backup. Wait a minute. I am not an orphan. I am adopted. I have a spiritual father who happens to be the God of the universe, right?
0:19:52
And I can ask things and I hope you’ll get Jesus in your life because he’s also a son. He’s the son of God. He’s not adopted, right? He’s not adopted, but you can be right into the same family. Would you think about trying this? Would you think about, pray about it, try it, go after it. You don’t have to tell anybody else. You have to tell anybody else. Just walk it yourself. Other people may understand, they may not understand, but if you get it and you get that foundation below your feet, I’m adopted.
0:20:26
Above your head, I’m adopted. Now I’m going to put this adoption into motion because I have spiritual sources, I’ve got heavenly sources. I’ve got things that God has. There’s things, heavenly things that I can have in my life that other people won’t have. They could, they could. But you are adopted and that’s legal. You accept your legal adoption because God predestined it, he said it in a motion, right?
0:20:58
A long time ago, even before the creation of the world, he chose us. And we can say he chose you. Not just you, but he chose you before you were born, before the creation, before you were born, God was sending stuff your way, God was calling you, God was choosing you. If you’ll accept it and say, wow, maybe I should really include and get a heavenly father and really make it a real father, a real adoption and a real calling and choosing, what would that mean to you? And act on it, believe on it, use your faith. When you read a promise in the Bible about God takes care of his people or you’re not going to run out, you’re not going to want, the Lord is my shepherd, I shall not be in want, I shall not be in need.
0:21:45
Use your faith. He’s your father. Come on, God. Yeah, he doesn’t mind that. Well, there’s much more I can talk to you about. Using your faith to believe the promises of God. Some of you don’t read your bible enough to get the promises of God. Google the promises of God or the New Testament promises of God and start reading some of them and how good God really is. Okay, so that’s my speech to you today. That’s my more faith, more life. You’ll get. It is get the adoption going. I think it’s missing in your life, it’s missing in others life. And it’s why America remains sick.
0:22:19
We’re spirit, we’re soul, we’re body. So you’re a body. You have a soul, mind, will and emotions. But you have a spirit that needs to be adopted by God and it’s going to fill a hole in your life. That’s about the best I can do in a short amount of time. So today could be the last day that you can get, if you only knew. A guide to the clueless generation. Absolutely free. Okay, it’s a download, but now we have printed copies. We’re going to start talking about printed copies and they’re going to cost, we’re going to charge a little something for those.
0:22:50
And then the free may stop after this week or next week. So you need to go morefaithmorelife.com. You’ll see the banner at the top. Click on that and hit the barcode and you get the book. Download the e-book absolutely free. And one of the first words in it is, America is sick. You can read more about it and you can find out how to get yourself well and how we can get America well so we can have a safer, stronger America. Will you do that for me? I hope so.
0:23:19
It was just a joy sharing this truth with you today. I hope you got it. Till next time. Bye-bye.