(237) “One of Heaven’s Best-Kept Secrets—The Joy of Serving” with Dean Braxton

0:00 Think about this, Sharon. Just think about this. Here it is. God's telling you to do something, lay hands on somebody. All right? You're thinking, do I have the faith to do it? Doesn't matter if you have the faith to do it or not, if you're a servant. Beautiful. Beautiful. All of a sudden, you have the faith in the one that told you to do it. Yes. And because he told you to do it, then you get the results. Yes. Because you're serving. God promises in Joel 2, 28 to pour out his Spirit on all humanity. Welcome to Global Outpouring, where we contend for that promise outpouring. We equip for that outpouring so that we may engage in that very outpouring. I'm Philip Bus.

0:51 And I'm Sharon Bus. Welcome to the podcast today. We have with us one of our very favorite guests, Dean Braxton. And we're going to talk about his experience in heaven. And he's going to share with us one of the best kept secrets of heaven, the joy of serving. Thanks so much for joining us today. Before we get started with this really exciting podcast, we want to make sure that you have gone to our website, globaloutpouring.net and that you have clicked on that subscribe button so that we can stay in touch with you. And we want to hear from you. Please give us some feedback about these podcasts. It's so encouraging to us and it gives us something to go on for continuing. And you know, if you're being blessed by these podcasts, would you consider giving a donation so that you can help us fund this project? We consider this a missions project. It's going out to the nations. And if you're listening to us from one of the nations, we would love nations other than United States, even in United States, we want to hear from you. We want to hear where you're listening from. But let us know what's going on in your heart and how we can help you. We want to serve you with this ministry and with this podcast.

2:07 Oh, Dean, it's so good to have you back with us again. We are just delighted that we get to do this a little more often in the days that are coming ahead. And, you know, we've kind of hung out on the subject that we that we did the last podcast we had with you. And we'll put a link in the show notes to that podcast in case people didn't get a chance to hear it. But you were talking about the importance of rest being a significant part of your authority and walking in that and about how the Lord spoke to you to give your body to him that you hadn't done that you'd given your spirit to him. You were working on your soul realm, giving him that by praying and by reading the word and, and lining up your soul with him, but you hadn't ever given your body to him. So we've since then done two podcasts on give your body to God. And then we did one on the feasts. And then we did another one on does Jesus dine with you and about how to take care of your body in terms of what to eat and letting Jesus show you, let the Holy Spirit teach you how to eat. So I want to just go back to Romans chapter 12 and verse one, and just kind of review that before we do a springboard into the next topic. Sure. I'm reading from the, from the Amplified Classic. I appeal to you therefore brethren and beg of you in view of all the mercies of God

3:41 to make a decisive dedication of your bodies, presenting all your members and faculties as a living sacrifice, holy, devoted, consecrated and well pleasing to God, which is your reasonable, rational, intelligent service and spiritual worship. Yes. So the question I want to ask you is what about service? Is there something that you learned in heaven about our reasonable service? I love your book, Deep Worship in Heaven, and I really highly recommend everybody read that one and your other books as well. But that one I'm just soaking in that it's our reasonable service to worship, but there's something about service that I feel like the Lord wants to open up to us today. Would you just take us there? Well, I can't take you there and thank you Sharon and Phil for having me. It's been great to be able to share like this. So as I emphasized, I think the last few times I'm an evangelist. And so my major goal is to go out and share the gospel so people come to know Jesus Christ as the Lord and Savior. Amen. But with you guys, I get to go a little bit in a different direction, deeper in the sense of teaching some of the things that I experienced with the Father and Jesus in heaven. And so I really thank God to have this opportunity. That's not that I get to do it everywhere. Just recently I was just telling you, the Lord was re-emphasizing

5:11 I'm an evangelist first, heaven is second. Talking about heaven is second. So my major goal was to go out and get people to know Jesus. And then recently I even said, because I love to pray, and I spend a lot of time in prayer, He said, you know, you're an intercessor. And I love to spend time praying and interceding for people. I just can't even, maybe someday we'll get into that. I have so much joy when I'm praying for people and interceding for people. You know, it just brings a joy in me like I can't even describe. And some of the people out there that are listening to this, it's probably the same thing. So I have this intercession, evangelistic, and then heaven.

5:57 You know what I mean? Where some people want it to be the other way around. No, those are the things that I get to do for the kingdom of God. But one of the things that hit me when I got to heaven was I always thought that when it said we would rule and reign with Him, that literally we would have parts of heaven that we would be in charge of. Oh my. And that I would literally have that crown that I was going to be given. And I would be like a king in my sense, and you would be the queen in your sense. And we would rule a section of heaven. And heaven is huge. So it isn't that people would not have a place that they would rule or not.

6:37 Right? And it's expanding every moment. You know, I always tell people it's larger now than it was when I was there years ago. Because God is life and life expands. It doesn't stay stale or shrink. It grows and it grows and it grows. And we see that even on the planet because that nature or that ingredient was put here on the planet. When things are alive and they get what they need to live, they expand. They just do it. They just get bigger and bigger and bigger. And then, yeah, because of the planet deterioration and all that stuff, then they die. But in heaven, nothing is dying. So everything is expanding and expanding in such a way in order, not out of order.

7:20 Right. It's like chaos there. It's in order. But saying that to you, here I am in heaven and I'm coming to the grass that serving good is the tops. And everything, serving each other there is the tops. I won't say it's more important than anything because there are so many things that you don't think that this is more important than this and this is more important. There's no rating of those type of things in heaven. It just is. And serving is highly quality in heaven that I try to express here on the planet many times. Years ago, I used to have this DVD that I put together called Serving Hood in Heaven. It was kind of funny because I put it on the table with other things that I had and one was consuming fire worship, which now is deep worship. But back in the day, I called it consuming fire worship. And I remember having that on the table with Serving Hood in Heaven and I had a stack of them on there and stack of everything else would go. That Serving Hood in Heaven would stay stacked. Maybe someone picked it up and put one down. That's about it.

8:37 But in the reality of it, people don't want to know you go to heaven and serve. We're going to be a servant. People want to know that if you got to heaven, you were going to be served. That type of thing. It's not going to rule in rain. Yeah, if you're going to rule rain, you're going to want to be in charge of things. And then you think about the mansions. And if you think about a mansion, you got to have servants. And so all this stuff. And here I am in heaven. It's not that way. And I come to understand, just like Jesus said, if you want to be a servant in his kingdom, that is the best. That is the toms. Even when pastors are out there, they're called shepherds. And shepherds are what? Servants.

9:19 Exactly. They're the under shepherd. We got Jesus Christ, which is the shepherd. And he serves us. And not in the sense of we command him or those type of things, but in the sense that he wants to see the best for us all the time. The Bible said he came that we may have life and life more abundantly. What is that? He's serving us more life. Is that cool? Is that cool? Oh, yes. When you think about it. Beautifully. Serving us more life. So here I am in heaven. And this what really got me was when I come up to somebody, the way we would greet somebody, here on the planet, we greet how you're doing now today and all this type of stuff. In heaven, the greeting was, how can I serve you? That was what came out.

10:08 And it wasn't so much you could talk if you wanted to, but it was thought to thought. If we were in heaven, Phil, and you came to me, my first communication would be, how can I serve you? And you would say, how can I serve you? That would be the bottom line of everything. And so that really got me because I'm thinking, you know, no one really talks. We talk about it. It's part of the body that we're supposed to serve each other. But a lot of times we talk about body in the sense of I want my part and I want to do my part. And it's not looking at how do I serve in this part. You know what I mean? It's I'm going to do my part, you know, that type of thing. And here it is in heaven. No, you are serving each other all the time, every moment. And not only are you serving each other, you know how it says, we were rule of rain. I came to rule this. It's going to get some people. It's going to go against the grain. People are looking forward to having their crowds and their jewels and you know, all that type of stuff. And yet I came to understand true reigning and lording over people is not like you think it is. It is serving people. You're going to have places in heaven that you're going to be serving. And that's how you rule in your reign. It's through servanthood. I know that doesn't even sound right. You understand? But that's what Jesus did.

11:36 He put on the towel so that he could wash his disciples feet and demonstrate for them servant leadership. And Peter reacted. So one of the scriptures when I came back to the planet, I was laying in the hospital room and I was thinking that came to me was found in Luke, the 17th chapter, the fifth through the 10th verse. And I'm going to read it to you. I'm reading it out of the, I think it's the new English translation, but I just want to read this to you. So the apostle said, I'm going to start here because this is such a key. And when I say it, some of you are going to grab what I'm getting ready to say right off the bat. Some people are going to, I'm going to have to go into it and explain it a little bit more, but some of you're going to grab what I should get ready to say. The apostle said to the Lord increase our faith.

12:29 Remember that. That's what they were asking for, increasing their faith. So the Lord replied, if you had faith, the size of a mustard seed, you could say to this black mulberry tree, be pulled out by the roots and planted in the sea and it would obey you. Okay. Listen to that. Okay. Here it is. Then look what he says right after that. Now that's interesting. This is still part of answering that question that people don't realize. Yeah. Would anyone of you say to your slave who comes in from the field after plowing or shepherding sheep, come at once and sit down for a meal. Won't the master instead say to him, get my dinner ready and make yourself ready to serve me while I eat and drink. Then you may eat and drink. He wouldn't thank the servant because he did what he was told. Will he? Listen to this. So you too, when you have done everything you were commanded to do, it should say, we are slaves, undeserving of special praise.

13:47 We have only done what was our duty. How does this link in with faith and authority? Okay. Come on. How does this link in with faith and authority? It is a key to faith and authority that we don't even realize. Servanthood is such a power gaining substance in the kingdom of God that most people pass it by. I was recently listening to William Braniff, the guy that went out and did the miracles and everything like that. He said he would listen to the angel and the angel would tell him what to say and who to say it to and who to lay hands on. I don't know what people think about Braniff or not because sometimes people look at the Braniff Knights and yes, he got off on some things he probably shouldn't have. But in reality, that angel was serving him and he was serving the angel. Oh, that's good. That's good. Come on.

14:45 Because the angel was directing him what to do. Right. Right. Okay. And a lot of times we don't realize it that when God is directing us to do something, lay hands on somebody, talk to somebody, say a certain word to somebody, we are in the servant mode at the moment. We are serving the other person. You know what I mean? We're serving God also by serving the other person. Oh, you got to grab what he said there. Very, very true. You know what I mean? So it got me that servanthood was huge. And when people say to me, sometimes I would go out and I minister and people with lives would be changed. You guys know what I mean? Their lives are going to be changed. Sure. If you bring Jesus, people's lives are going to be changed. And then they would come up to me and they would thank me or shake my hand or something like that. And I would think, I am not deserving of this. I just did what the master told me to do.

15:41 Amen. That was my duty. It was my reasonable duty. Why would I get praise for my reasonable duty? Right. You understand what I mean? Right. And that's what really got me was here it is in the sense of this servanthood, it was huge. You know, I'm going on, I think, 19 years of ministering now. You guys are a lot longer than me in that area. You know, but one of the things that I try to do wherever I go is be a servant. You know, I know people love to serve me. I've even gotten in trouble because people want to serve me so bad and I'm doing everything to serve them. You understand what I mean? But the reality of it, I believe that releases the power that God gives me to be able to move and how he wants me to move because now I am serving instead of being served. I had an incident happen to me one time. I don't know if I shared it with people on this podcast before, but I must share it this time and it was in New York, upstate New York.

16:42 And I was at a church and I was getting ready to minister. And I always think, guys, I don't know about you guys, but when you have a lot of things that happen in the kingdom of God, people start putting you on a pedestal. They start lifting you up and making you, and you know who you are and how you think and all that type of stuff. And I've never done well with trying to be on the pedestal. Sometimes I think maybe I should be on the pedestal because people put me on the pedestal. But the reality of it, I've never done well on the pedestal. And I like to be that person that just shakes your hand or give you a big hug or just very personal, just that type of thing. One of the things I had to tell the Lord recently was I like doing this because I like meeting people.

17:31 It's not because it gets me something. It's because it adds to me just being nice and kind and learning about people and those types of things. I really like it. And so here I am in this church in upstate New York and this person named Pamela Bolton, you guys are going to meet her someday and some of you out there listening may know. She opens up the door for me to minister in upstate New York and also Vermont. I've done hundreds and hundreds of churches because of her in that area. And so she's sitting right next to me and she comes to me and the service has started and they're doing the music. And she comes to me and she says, the pastor wants you to stop in between your message and open it up for her to offer. And I'm thinking that just ruins the beat. I got a beat that I'm going on and that just ruins the beat. And if he does that, if I do that, it's going to be harder to get back up and do what I'm supposed to be doing because God has a plan.

18:31 I know some of you hear me says, yeah, that sounds really good. So here I am. She tells me that. I look at her and say, well, I may do it. I may not do it. And I hear the Holy Spirit says, who put you in charge? I had moved out of the servant hood. You hear what I'm talking about? And I had moved into you were my servant hood. And that's what happens a lot of times with lots of people because we think we got it figured out the way and God is a God of life and he's going to change how we do things because he's going to get the most bang out of whatever's going on. You understand I'm talking about? And so then after I said, I looked at her, I said, Pamela, forgive me. I was wrong.

19:21 And the service went well and a lot of people came to know Jesus. A lot of lives were changed. But what if I had forged my way into that instead of being the servant of God that I was called to be? That's my reasonable service is to do it his way. There's a scripture I want to share here that I think is really cool on this. It's found in Romans, the first chapter, listen to what Paul said, Paul, a bond servant of Christ Jesus called as an apostle. Remember he couldn't be an apostle unless he was a servant, set apart for the gospel God. All right. He couldn't even be set apart unless he was a servant. You guys gotta grab this. I think one of the examples I try to give people is to be that servant. Here we are reading in Romans, the 12th chapter says, we're to present our body as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable unto God, which is our reasonable service.

20:26 So this body is, if I'm going to utilize it the best way I can, it's going to present to you, it's going to be presented to Phil, it's going to be presented to anybody out there as a servant. And God, because of that, because some people, they come up to me and they probably have done you guys this too. They say, oh, you're so humble. You're so humble. I'm saying, I don't even know what that is. All I know is I'm serving. I'm being honest. I just know I'm serving. That's what I'm doing. My goal is to go anywhere and be a servant. And as I am serving, God can use me.

21:06 I'm serving others. I'm serving Him and He can use that. And that's one of the things that really, really got me. So have the power of God, the faith of God. Think about it. Think about this, Sharon. Just think about this. Here it is. God's telling you to do something, lay hands on somebody. All right. You're thinking, do I have the faith to do it? It doesn't matter if you have the faith to do it or not, if you're a servant. Beautiful. Beautiful. All of a sudden you have the faith in the one that told you to do it. Yes. And because He told you to do it, then you get the results. Yes. Yes. Because you're serving. Yes. You know, if you think that way, you know, I think it links back into why the enemy of God wants to deteriorate us. Do you know what I mean by that? He wants us to become weaker physically because I cannot serve when my body is physically weak. If it's got things going on, most of the time, I'm wanting people to serve me. Because I'm the one that needs the help and everything like that. But I'm not saying that that shouldn't happen with some people.

22:24 My wife is a great server. She serves me greatly. She always tells me, I'm your helpmate. That's what she tells me. I think we say that to each other now and then. We do. Yeah. Well, that's cool because she says it to me. I'm going to do it. She says, no, I'm your helpmate. Yeah. Yes. Yes. Which is really what? Serving. Right. If you think about it. Right. Serving each other. Yeah. Here's another one that just came to me. You know how we're to be subject unto each other? Yes. By serving each other. By serving. Exactly. Exactly. You know, and so in saying all that to you, you know, one of the scriptures that I also want to bring out is Romans the 8th chapter, the 16th through the 17th verse. Now, if you've got anything you want to ask me, go ahead because I'm on this projectory of really pointing out this servanthood so that people out there, I really believe this, that somebody needs to start serving more and that physical healing that they want will come. Beautiful. You know? Yeah. I remember having to pray for somebody one time, and I think I said it on this podcast before, but I'm going to say it again, but I'm going to bring it from a different view. I remember a person coming up to me and saying to me, I need prayer for my hearing because they couldn't hear. And the person behind them got up to catch them if I laid hands on them. And as that person I was praying for about the hearing,

24:00 okay, all of a sudden was, you know, getting their hearing back, the person behind them had a hearing problem also. And because the person got up behind them to serve, listen to what I get ready to say, God healed them. Wow. He healed them in such a way that I remember the guy said, I can hear, I can hear. And I said, wait, wait, wait, wait, I'm praying for her right now. We'll talk about you later, but I'm praying for her right now. But he got healed because he got up to serve. Beautiful, beautiful. This is talking to somebody right now. Somebody you say, oh, I got to do this. I can't do this. And one of the ways that you can serve it by just praying, you know, intercession is the foundation for me. I don't know about anybody else out there, but for me, for me to move forward in the kingdom of God, I have to have prayer.

24:58 It just, I believe in that. Now I believe that's where everybody that's going to do something in the kingdom of God, but that's servanthood. That's servanthood. It's such servanthood that most people don't get recognized for it. Oh yeah. You know, unless somebody brings it up and says, this person, this person, unless they get to pray out in public and they usually have beautiful prayers when they do pray out in public, but the reality of it is it's servanthood, you know, and it's your reasonable service. Oh, somebody very proud of what I just said there. It's your reasonable service. But let me read this scripture here to you. It's Romans 8, 16 and 17. The spirit itself bears witness with our spirit that we are the children of God. And if children, we are heirs, heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ. If so, be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified. Somebody very proud of what I just said. Together. I know a lot of people going after glorification and what glorification. And I'm telling you the way to get there is to be servants. Beautiful. It's to be servants. It's fun, you guys.

26:16 Serving others is fun. It really is. It's to joy the Lord. The Lord, see, because I know we think of God as almighty and all powerful, which he is, and he can do so many things and all this, but all that he has and he serves us. Because all blessing is, is him serving us. It's that simple. You know how the Bible, I say it and the Bible says it, it says we're completing him. You know, how are we completing him by serving each other? Beautiful. Beautiful. You've got certain gifts that he's given you. I have certain gifts that he's given me. Phil has certain gifts that he's given him. And when we come together, we serve each other with the gifts we have and we are complete. Beautiful. Is that cool? Is that cool?

27:05 Yes. It's tremendous. I know you want me to talk about that authority sometimes, but servanthood is a foundation for the authority we have with Christ. Servanthood is a foundation for we're airs with Christ. Servanthood, literally serving each other. And if you think about it, it is to not everybody, but a lot of people don't want to be served, especially those that want to be in the eyes of others and everybody people look at them and lift them up. You know what I mean? And then they're very self-centered, you know, and they want to be served. And it's, you know, I think you guys tell me what you think about this. I think a person that is seeking for people to serve them are after that, which service we can give you. Wow. Think about it.

27:58 Yeah. They don't realize the path to authority or path to greatness is through servanthood. If you want to be- Yeah, Jesus said, if you want to be great in the kingdom of God, be the servant of all. But they're trying to get people to serve them. They get what they only can get if they serve. Is that interesting? It just came to me. They're going backwards, but that would be like the enemy. He would do that. He would say, oh, you want that joy that you get from servanthood, then you have to have all these people serve you, you know, look up to you, make you. And then, and what happens to a lot of the people when that happens?

28:39 Most of them cannot handle it. And then they fall apart and they become evil people. They just become evil people. You think about all these people that become famous over time, Frank, you know what I mean? And their lives just are tore apart because of the arrogance that they have and thinking they're better there. And in servanthood, we don't think we're better than, we think that I should be able to serve you. And God wants us to look at it as that's my child, you know, that you're the serve that person. So that was one of the things that I really got from heaven, as you could see. And if I can give anything to anybody out there when it comes to ministry, it would be go into it as a servant. And I don't mean as a servant just for God, but where you go, you know, when I get to go to these different churches, I walk into that building and I think into myself, now, how can I serve them? You know, and I think sometimes how can I out serve them? And that may be me sitting in the back of the church and talking to the people back there.

29:55 Mm hmm. I have so much fun going into a church and they don't know I'm the speaker. Oh yeah. And I'm sitting in the back and I'm just communicating with them, having a great time with them. And then I get to go up front and speak. You know what I mean? That's a surprise. But to me, I get to serve at that moment. Yeah. You know what I mean? I get to be able to just be who God has called me to be at the moment to serve the person that I'm serving with. And I enjoy that so much. You know, Sharon, I found out Jesus is the only one that gets you into heaven. Nobody else. Yeah. You know, and once you really realize that Jesus is the only one that gets you in there, you can be free to be who he wants you to be. Yeah. You know, yesterday I was I was in Wal-Mart and I was just leaving and and there's this guy sitting there. He's got a veteran's hat on. You know, he joined the army and I looked, he had had an operation on his knee and all that. And so I'm talking to him and yes, I do know Jesus, you know, and he was so convinced that his works will get him into heaven. Oh, my. I've never encountered anyone like that. And he has a pastor that he talks to. And so I prayed, I think I'll keep praying for you and I just thank you that you have a pastor that keeps talking to you. But he just believes his works.

31:24 Wow. You know, serving. Well, he's serving others is what he's doing by doing works, but but he doesn't know Jesus as his Lord and Savior. And I thought, Lord, please reveal yourself. Yes. He needs to know you. Yeah. You know, so it's all about Jesus. Absolutely. Phil, and I think what you just said is, it's not just serving others, it's serving God. We get the opportunity to serve him. You know, in that book, Deep Worship in Heaven, I talk about the inward praise and the outward praise. You know what I mean? And that when we're praising the Lord, our praise is going outward to the atmosphere, you know, but it's also going inward to where we are.

32:05 And both are in up in eternity. Well, it's the same thing with servanthood. There's the outward serving of others that we can do, but at the same time, we're serving God. You know what I mean? That's where the authority and the power come from, by my serving the Lord. And that tree or the faith as a mustard seed. You know why I could have faith as a mustard seed and literally this tree would be uprooted and thrown into the sea is because if that's what the Lord told me to do, and he said, do that, then literally I can go ahead and be the servant that God wants me to do, to be rather, to get the results of the tree getting into the ocean.

32:50 I think a lot of times we want to see the tree go in the ocean and then we want to serve. Serve God first. And I think, John the Baptist, this reminds me of John the Baptist. Here comes John the Baptist and Jesus said he was the greatest prophet there was. There wasn't a prophet that was greater than John the Baptist, but we don't see him doing like Elijah, our Elijah. We don't see any of those miracles. We don't see like a lot of the miracles that the prophets did. Oh, you know, and yet he was the greatest. Why? Because he was a servant. He did what his father told him to do. And we could say, well, he was announcing that Jesus was coming. Why was he announcing that Jesus was coming? Because his father, his heavenly father told him to do it.

33:37 Yes, exactly. Exactly. I know this is a key for some of you out there right now that are searching in your ministry. What should we do or where should we go? I'm saying just go after being a servant. God, how can I serve? How can I serve more? Yes. You know, Sharon, you had brought up about me in the schools in California. I have more high schools that opened up for me this next year and I'm looking forward to going, you know. Glory to God. Praise God. Tell the story of how you got there. Yeah. What did the Lord say? Well, what happened was I want to start, my dad was leaving the planet going to be with Jesus. And this was in California and I would happen, I didn't happen. I was there to take care of him by the grace of God. And so he was in one room and I was in another room. And I thought I heard him call me or say something. So I was running down a hallway. And as I was running down the hallway to be there, you know, I heard the Lord say this in an audible voice, I want California. I remember stopping in that hallway, because it was a pretty long hallway, stopping in that hallway, looking up, putting my hands out like, you know, like you would praise the Lord or something like that and saying, how can I help? That's what I said. How can I help?

34:54 And there was no answer at the time. There was nothing that literally came to me and said, I want you to do this. I want you to do that. I kind of just threw myself and said, how can I help? Almost like you would say, I just said, I'm the servant Lord. Tell me what you want me to do. And sometimes I want to use this as an example, people that could sing so great, they have a beautiful voice. And when God tells them to do something, the first thing they have an answer for, oh, you must want to use my voice. You hear what I'm just saying? Okay. Or someone has this, oh, you must want to do this. Instead of going to them and saying, how can I help? Yes. You know, and he didn't come to me and say, I want you to do this. I want you to do that.

35:40 I'm doing this. He just says, I want California. And when he said, I want California, all I could answer was, how can I help? Yes. You know, and I can't tell you, I could pat myself on the back and say, oh, that's a great way to answer God. It just came out. Yes. That was Holy Spirit operating in your spirit. Yeah. It just came out, you know? And when it came out, I was satisfied and I felt like he was satisfied. Not knowing the next weekend, I was going somewhere else in California to minister. I'm down there, this guy named Ralph Hernandez and Kathleen Hernandez want to meet me.

36:21 And because of that servant hood attitude, I said, okay, you know, that's why I'm here for, why am I here? I'm here to serve. If these people want me to do something, I need to find out what it is. So I meet with them and they said, I remember them asking me, do you think you could come into school and talk to the kids? That's how they asked me. Like, I'm thinking, why wouldn't I want to go into this school and talk to the kids? Public schools, if you please. Public schools, you're right. No Pomo High School, you know, in California. It was the first school I went into. And he was like, what you think about coming into the schools? And I'm thinking, why wouldn't I? Okay. I just got this audible voice from God that said, you know, that he went to California. I'm in California and all of a sudden this door opens up and all I said was, how can I help? How can I serve you? That's really what, how can I serve you Lord? That's really what's coming out of my mouth. And here I go and this door opens and then I get to go to the Pomo High School and they had me in an auditorium and the auditorium is packed with kids because kids want to hear about this man that died. Okay. I didn't know how we were going to do this at the time. And so we show the video and the Lord said, I just want you to answer questions. Okay. I love it. People say, well,

37:55 what do you mean answer questions? They ask questions. I don't know what the questions are going to be. I don't have all the answers to everything in the universe. I don't know all this stuff, but you know what God did? Well, it's the tree. It's the tree. It's about taking the tree and saying, move into the ocean. It's the tree. The reason I say this is because all I did was do what he said. And the next thing I know, I'm up there and he's giving me the answers to answer these kids. I'm just a servant. I'm serving the kids by answering the questions. I'm serving God by being there and being used in that way. And I just remember, and that just led to the next year I went there. Then I went to two more schools. Then I went to a junior high that had over 300 kids show up. And then I went to 300 kids, I should say 300 kids, two services. So it was a 300 kids, one service. It was at lunchtime, 300 kids, one service and then 300 kids, another service. Okay. And then I got to go to what they call their boot camp where all their kids that are in trouble in that area. And they go to the boot camp. I got the minister to the men and the women there because they have women in there, the soldier type of thing. I've done that a number of years. And so I go back and I do it. And now we, in one of the schools I'm in, we have to go into the gym because it gets packed out in the gym.

39:24 Wow. You know, one side of the bleachers, we haven't hit the other side yet, but we've got one side of the bleachers, you know, and all of it's volunteer. Most people don't realize. It's not me going in there and it's an assembly and they're asking all the kids to show up. This is if you want to come. And because of that, then we get to do a couple of things. Number one, we get to ask people to know Jesus Christ as Lord Savior. So we get all these hands of people coming to know Jesus. Second that we get to do is that we get to hand out Bibles because I have people that donate Bibles and we get to hand out all these Bibles. And sometimes some of these kids, this is their first Bible ever. Their first Bible ever. And then here we go again, you know, I get to hand out the book in heaven and we give them the book if they want it, you know, none of this is forced on them, but they take it. Okay. Now here is a caveat that no one knows that I get to do at these schools that I'm going to share with you. Not only do I get to meet them, not only do I get to minister to the kids, but I get to go to the principals and pray for them. Oh, glory to God. I go in their offices, we shut the door and I pray for them. I get to minister to the teachers. So there's more that's going on and it's me talking to the kids. I get to serve, you guys get this? I get to serve the school there. Yeah, it's beautiful. Yes. I get to serve the school there. And so this next year I get to go back and I'm going into the same

40:55 schools that I went in and then I get three new schools and I'm thinking, God, you're good. And that's opened up for me to do Florida. And I've done Illinois and West Virginia and some other schools around, but I'm just saying in California, I just remember he's saying to me, I want to go to California and all I could do is say, how can I help? And I've done, I mean, I can't tell you, there's so much, you know, and what are the places I love to go to as a school right outside of Sacramento? Really it's in Sacramento area, which is the capital of California, you know? And here are these kids going to this school and I get to minister to those kids and share. And I've done a number of schools in that area and it all comes down to how can I help? How can I serve you Lord? How can I serve you Lord? So to go back to all that we talked about in heaven, I just feel like I want to wrap it up here in this area. In heaven, when we come and we meet each other, we just don't say, hey, how you doing going on that stuff? We first, everybody, even your relatives say, when you get there, you're going to say, how can I serve you?

42:11 And they're going to say to you, how can I serve you? And it's going to be the ultimate language of love. That is so beautiful. It's going to be serving each other. Beautiful. You know? Amen. So Sharon and Phil, that's, you know, getting close to our time here and. Well, I just want to make a couple of comments. Yeah, go ahead. So the scripture that you brought in, well, actually all of them that use this word servant, the first scripture that you read from a different translation, use the word slave. Yeah. Yeah. And the word in Greek there is doulos, which, which literally means slave. Okay. Paul talks about himself as being a slave of the Lord.

42:54 Okay. Where he says, Paul called to be an apostle separated unto God. But he first, he says, first thing he says, Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ and this word doulos, the reason I'm bringing it up is that it not only means slave, but the word comes from a word that means to bind. Yes. Or to tie, or to fasten. Yeah. Okay. To fashion with chains and to bind, to put under obligation, duty. Okay. Duty. So it's our duty. It's our duty. But what I'm reminded of is that in the Old Testament, in Exodus chapter 21, it talks about if a Hebrew person sells himself into slavery or is sold into slavery, he can only serve for six years. And then he goes out in the seventh year free. But if his master has given him a wife and he has children, he gets to go out free, but they stay slaves.

43:58 Yeah. That's right. So he has a choice if he wants to stay with his wife and children, because he loves them. And if he loves his master, he can say, I don't want to go out free. I'm going to serve the rest of my life. Yeah. And the idea of serving, what I was seeing is that we think about bondage as being a negative thing. But when we are bound to the Lord, we're bound to him with cords of love. And it's the love slave that we're talking about in Exodus 21. It's the love slave. He says, okay, I'm going to serve you the rest of my life. I'm going to put my ear up to the door. And he uses an all, puts a hole in the ear that shows this is my master.

44:47 We used to sing that song. Yeah. Put my ear up to the door. I don't want to leave here anymore. Make me a love slave to Jesus, my Lord. Put my ear into the door. I don't want to leave here anymore. Make me a love slave forever to my Lord. Yeah. And so, so the idea of being bound by love, and I think that's really what you're seeing in heaven is you're not serving just because it's the thing that we do. You're serving because you are living in this place of love that is all about the love of God flowing through you, flowing into you. And you're, there's nothing outside of love, right? On the planet here, we have negative issues that cause us to get our backup about serving.

45:29 But the environment of love that binds, we're bound by his love. Yeah. That's good. You know, it's something you said that because I had the meanings here of bond servant. Okay. And I remember reading this years ago on that scripture that Romans 1, 1, which it says slave, and then it also says bond servant. And it says the most accurate translation is bond servant, sometimes found in the American standard versions, okay, as slave. And then it says, in that it is often indicate one who sells himself into slavery to another. Yes. And I thought about that, you know, we, if we want to have the authority, listen to what I'm saying. If we want to have that authority and that faith that God wants us to have, we have to sell ourselves into slavery to him. Beautiful. Beautiful. And you're right. It's love. Do you understand what I mean?

46:31 Yes. You know, and I think about, you know, that scripture says that his burns are light. My yoke is easy and my yoke is light. My yoke is easy and my, you know, and I remember that scripture and I never knew that that's what I desired. Until after I got to heaven and then I experienced, oh, this is what you really mean by serving you. Yeah. Yeah. And it is love. Yes. It is love. Yes. And that's why when we're married to each other and we love each other, it's so easy to serve each other. Yes. Yeah. Yeah. But we're married to Jesus too. We're married to Jesus. He gave his all for us. We should, we should only want to give our all for him. Yes. Amen. One more scripture that came to mind and you guys know it's found in Philippians second chapter, starting at the fifth verse. I don't know if Phil, you could find it before me.

47:24 We'll see. This is King James. Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus, who being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God, but made himself of no reputation and took upon him the form of the servant and was made in the likeness of man. Being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient onto death, even the death of the cross. Or for God also hath highly exalted him and gave him a name, which is above every name that at the name of Jesus, every knee should bow of things in heaven and things in earth and things under the earth. And that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God, the father. Amen. Amen. There's that authority again. Yeah.

48:19 Beautiful. Because he humbled himself to become a servant. Yeah. Yeah. Well, Sharon, that's, that's what I wanted to talk about this session, you know, in the sense of servanthood, because I just want that to get out there. And if anybody is ministry, please start putting yourself as a servant. Start doing it the way God wants you to do it with the people that God wants. And remember, there's certain people just honor people in such a way that you're serving them. Doesn't mean you always agree with them. Doesn't mean you even like some of the things they're doing. But if you're serving them, you know, it's almost like when he said, there's someone asked you to take a cloak, a mile, take it two miles. Yeah. Yeah, exactly. Exactly.

49:06 He knows what he's doing. Yes. Would you pray for us to have that grace to serve? Well, father, in the name of Jesus, I thank you right now. I thank you for opening up our eyes to be able to see the importance of, um, first of all, coming to you. You know, I, I said something to you the other day about my body. And I said, Lord, you know, I give you my body, but it's not just giving you my body in the sense of just a physical, but also give me my body in the sense of serving to be able to use it to serve others, Lord. So I pray that others out there as they are listening to this would say, I give you my body, not only just in the physical aspect of eating healthy and doing, taking care of it, but also in the sense of serving others, that they would really look at using their body in that form of serving other people on this planet and serving you, Lord, in both areas. I thank you father right now. There's some people today were just, they were freed up things just all of a sudden changed in them. And they've been praying, they've been asking and they've been looking and you opened up their purpose father, you know, as my pastor said, where there's a purpose, there's a need. And so there must be a need for you, them to have the purpose that they have. So father, in the name of Jesus, I just pray that they use the purpose that they have right now to serve others. In Jesus name, I pray. Amen.

50:39 Amen. If you enjoyed today's podcast, please subscribe, rate and review this podcast on Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to podcasts. Your review helps the podcasting platform suggest this podcast to other listeners who are also looking for a great move of the Holy Spirit. Check out our website at globaloutpouring.org to find out more information, read our blogs, connect with us and donate. You can also browse our web store for life changing anointed books. Until next time, this is Sharon Buss. And I'm Philip Buss. God bless you with this overwhelming loving presence.