– [Amanda] As a quick disclaimer, this video is made for
educational purposes only. And if you have further
questions or concerns about ADHD, please consult with your doctor first. With that said, let’s start. I’m sure you’ve heard of attention deficit hyperactivity
disorder, or ADHD before. It’s a neurodevelopmental disorder marked by an ongoing
pattern of inattention or hyperactivity that interferes with your functioning and development. Though ADHD is most commonly
diagnosed in childhood, it can also affect adults. Unfortunately, there’s a
significant lack of research into adults with ADHD. Many scientists believe that since ADHD is a
developmental disorder, it can not develop in adults
without demonstrating any signs during their early childhood. But, signs and symptoms of ADHD often persist into
adolescence and adulthood. According to the NHS, by age 25, 15% of those diagnosed will
still present symptoms. Of those diagnosed, 65% will have symptoms
that affect their lives. Here are six signs and symptoms of ADHD to look out for it if you
think it’s affecting your life or the life of someone you know. Number one is inattentiveness. One of the hallmark signs
of ADHD is inattentiveness. It goes beyond simply not
being able to pay attention. It can also look like the
inability to focus on a task, finding it hard to pay
attention to others, or overlooking details. Know these symptoms can
also be caused by stress. Pay special attention if you
find your focus shifting often. Number two, hyperfocus. On the opposite side of the spectrum, you can also experience
hyperfocus with ADHD. Hyperfocus can cause a person with ADHD to become so engrossed in a task that they forget about everything
else going on around them. It’s important to differentiate
between hyperfocus versus when you’re in a state of flow. Flow emerges from a state
of deep concentration or engagement in something, and being in flow produces
a positive feeling, like a sense of accomplishment. Hyperfocus, on the other hand, is a result of an inability to
regulate your attention span. With hyperfocus, you can’t
always choose what you focus on. You might be doing something
important like homework or hyper-focused
on scrolling endlessly through Kylie Jenner’s Instagram Feed. Hyperfocus can lead to setbacks in your relationships
with friends or partners, or hurdles at work and school. To help with this, you
could prioritize your tasks and accomplish them one by one, or ask your family and friends
to text you at specific times to help you shift your focus
onto more important tasks. Number three is impulsivity. Do you speak out of turn, or
do you regularly get yourself into socially inappropriate situations? Do you rush through tasks? And these all are signs
of impulsivity in ADHD. It runs a lot deeper than just making split-second decisions. ADHD impulsivity can
disrupt your life, and can potentially get you in trouble. You might others during conversations, making them less inclined
to talk to you again, or you can act without much or any consideration of
the possible consequences, and this can land you in hot water. Number four is disorganization. We all have hectic lives,
but for someone with ADHD, things may feel a bit
more chaotic than usual. If you have ADHD, you may have trouble
establishing order in your life, and it can be difficult to keep everything in the right place. And adults with ADHD may struggle with these
organizational skills. This can include, problems
keeping track of tasks, and trouble logically prioritizing them. Number five is mood swings. Because this symptom is present
in many other disorders, it’s not an inherent sign of ADHD, but if you’re someone with ADHD you may experience mood
swings or irritability. There may be days you
feel good and grounded, and other days when you’re
in the emotional gutter. You can try writing your emotions down, which can help you keep track
of your emotional patterns, and prepare you for the next mood swing. Setting a schedule will
help you establish a routine and avoid the possible
stress from disorganization. And number six, lack of motivation. Does it seem like you’re
doing everything at once, but feel unmotivated
to go about your tasks? Lack of motivation is a
common symptom of ADHD. A lack of motivation combined
with other symptoms like poor organizational skills is problematic when it
comes to accomplishing tasks or being engaged at work. There are many ways to help fight a lack
of motivation, though. For example, you could
break down your chores into manageable tasks, or write down the positive feelings you’re experiencing throughout the day. These techniques can help
you find the motivation to finish your tasks. Do you think you might have ADHD, or does someone you know
think they could have ADHD? Do you think these signs
will help you or a loved one? Go ahead and like and share
this video if it helped you, and you think it could
help someone else too. The studies and references used are listed in the description below. And don’t forget to hit
the subscribe button for more Psych2Go videos. Thank you for watching, and
we’ll see you next time.As found on YouTubeHUMAN SYNTHESYS STUDIO 👀🗯 Attention: Have Real Human Spokespeople In Your Videos Saying Exactly What You Want In MINUTES! REAL Humans, REAL Voices, With A NEW Technology That Gives STUNNING Results Choose Your Human + Voice Type What You Want Them To Say Render your “Humatar” What You Are About To See Is Unbelievable…
From the get-go it was God's plan to dwell among us. And as you travel through the Scriptures, you, you see it's not, this tabernacle wasn't really a new thought. It may have been a new way in expressing God's prescribed method with man, but not new in the concept of dwelling among Him. ♪ ♪ ♪ We are investigating and going through the tabernacle and I probably may even go back to a couple of areas that I was very generic on, because I'm now seeing that more people are catching on when I've told you to go back and read how it changes the reading.
When you're looking at, instead of looking at very bland instructions of constructing or materials, and you start seeing all of this, it tells you God had a plan. There were shadows and types prefiguring and pointing to Christ. Exodus 25:8 basically says, “Build me a tabernacle that I may dwell among them.” So I want you to stop there for a minute, because this is all familiar territory and I really want you to think about this. And I'm even going to go so far as to say to my Jewish listeners, please listen to what I'm saying, because I think there are people out there in the sound of my voice that know what I'm saying is true, but your traditions, Jew or Christian, make void the word of God. So it's pretty staggering when you start to think that God from the beginning wanted to dwell with man. Just kind of pretend you just are not going to think about anything else except the concept that God from the beginning; I'm not talking about the beginning of building a tabernacle, I'm talking about from the beginning when He said, “Let us make Adam.” And Genesis 3:8 and 24, Genesis 3:8 and 24 both express that God was with Adam in the Garden.
So from the get-go it was God's plan to dwell among us. And as you travel through the Scriptures, you, you see it's not, this tabernacle wasn't really a new thought. It may have been a new way in expressing God's prescribed method with man, but not new in the concept of dwelling among Him. The same is true of Noah, the same is true of Abram, the same is true of Isaac, the same is true of Jacob. When we see the close proximity, you know, we, we tend to read God spoke to these patriarchs, but think about it. Whether it was a voice that came from wherever or whether it was an appearance of Christophanies or Theophanies, pre-incarnate, sometimes referred to as the “angel of the LORD,” which is a hard thing to pin down because some people believe that could be Michael or Gabriel, or that could be Christ Himself pre-incarnate, as I said, a Christophany.
Nevertheless, God was repeatedly manifesting Himself to these people. So the plan of dwelling among the people, we read it in Exodus, but it's not new. And in fact, think about this. This is what's so heartbreaking. You start to look at the Bible. If you're going to investigate this book, God starts out wanting to dwell among man, knowing, by the way, giving man the free will to make his own decisions, to not listen, to disobey. And what you end up with, eventually, the proximity that was designed, the space goes and increases more. As sin increases, the greater the distance between God and man and the dwelling portion, if you will. So it's kind of sad, but in this, there's this beautiful concept that God is saying, if you read and study the tabernacle, you'll see that God was always saying, “I want to dwell with My creation, but My creation now is so stained with sin that there must be a prescribed way to approach that we may be able to reconcile and still be together.” The revelation to Moses takes up many chapters in the book of Exodus.
You've got, and by the way, you have that same pattern right there with God speaking to Moses; think about this, at the burning bush and then repeatedly up in the mount. If that doesn't tell you that God still desired to dwell among His people, you see the same thing later with David, but here's the interesting thing. God says to David when David desires to build a house for the Lord, He says basically, “No.” But David, who's called a man after God's own heart, He says, rather, “I will be with thee wherever thou goest.” To Solomon who has the idea to build the temple, we have the glory of the Lord that settles in. And then, of course, after that, we'll call it prophecy of the divided kingdom, we see no more of this for a time. But the point, the clarity is when you start reading the New Testament and you realize over and over again, but specifically the opening portions of John make it clear that God had to come; God was in Christ, taking up a tent of human flesh.
Again, the Greek word there in John's Gospel when it says the eternal word or “The word was, or became, flesh and dwelt,” more specifically, that Greek word eske-, eskenosen, which if you look that up, Strong's 4637, “to have one's tent,” or “to tabernacle,” God was in Christ tabernacling among us. So we have what was being alluded to, prefiguring, being pointed to, now realized, made in the flesh in Christ in the New Testament. So it's important when I say study the tabernacle, because not only do you see God's design, you can really find yourself.
As I've said, the way of approach, if, if we were being honest, if I think about my real eyes-open approach some, how many years ago; 25, 30, more than 30 years ago, really in reality trying to understand God, it made me see the white boards, the holiness of God, and made me almost say, “How could I approach?” The same thing is true by these people as they were living around the tabernacle, camped around the tabernacle, constantly reminded of God's holiness by those outward walls that basically were a constant reminder of what was inside. So just to recap, I made a list here; of course, on my list I have chapter and verse, so this one just has a list somewhat in order. But you can see kind of the order that God gives for the things that were important to Him, as I said before.
And if you think about that, He starts with offerings and materials to be brought by the people. And that is directly said in the opening of Exodus 25, “Speak to the people.” He doesn't say, “Demand it; manipulate them, make them feel bad.” God says to the ones that will “bring it with a willing heart,” and God has not changed that. But here's the interesting thing. I just, before I get too far into this, I want you to think about this. God being God could have created all of this tabernacle without the resources, without anyone bringing, without anyone lifting a finger. I'm not saying that God's a magician per se, but if He had created the heavens and the earth and all the creatures and everything that's in it, He could have surely made a tabernacle without the help of human hands, without the help of human resources.
You think? (Yes ma'am.) So it's interesting that He didn't, and that's the starting point. And I'm going to keep repeating this, because I think there are some people just waking up to this fact. So it bears; it's a worthy endeavor for me to keep repeating this. You can, you can rationalize or justify however you want your approach to God, but when God says, “This is the way of approach,” and He starts with this, “Speak to the children of Israel, that they bring me an offering.” And interestingly enough, if you really think carefully about this, those words read in the Hebrew can only be translated one way, “My offering,” God's offering; never anyone else's offering, nothing that the people actually possessed.
If you think about it, as they came out of Egypt, they possessed nothing. It was what they took along the way that became their possessions. And so it's, these are the things that I think are very important, God giving these instructions, a necessary step to begin building. And then from there, God goes immediately, the first place, if you look on that list right there, to the ark of the covenant and the mercy seat. He doesn't say, “Build Me a door, or make Me a curtain, or make boards.” He says: ark and mercy seat.
Why? Because that was going to be the place where God would make His presence known and dwell among the people. So it's kind of very interesting. You go down the list and you, you can kind of see a level of importance, and then bookends because God starts with where He's going to dwell and the final reading in; between Exodus and Numbers is that God's glory settles down to reside. So, “Build Me a tabernacle where I may dwell; mercy seat, ark of the covenant,” and the final place is God's glory, chapter 40, I believe, in the book of Exodus.
So it, it is relative to the study to understand this. There's nothing that is accidental. And when man would approach what, I've said this before, what God started with, that was, think about this, the last thing that, except for the, by the way, only the high priest would get to go into the Holy of Holies. But think about where God started; ark of the covenant, only the high priest would get to go in. So think of it this way, what He started with that was most important to Him would be the least likely to be seen by the congregation; they couldn't.
So that's kind of interesting. Now when we start, as I say, we start in the outer area looking at the white boards. So God is gracious to show us what's important to Him first. And then, when He lets us approach, He knows our frame and He gives us basically the furthest point away to start our journey inward. There's a very interesting imagery that one could draw upon, which I'm sure I'll, I will maybe go to in the next message or two, but it's interesting to see that if you really see the whole tabernacle in a bird's-eye view, it is the way of salvation in its entirety.
It spells it out from start to finish. So what we're going to look at today will be mostly around the ark of the covenant and the mercy seat. The designated high priest would approach the ark of the covenant as God's representative. The special area called the Holy of Holies basically curtained off another partition to keep it separate. And so when you are inside the tabernacle, now you've come in the door, you would actually not even see the ark of the covenant, because it was behind a curtain.
So if you were even allowed to come in and do service, only the high priest would go behind that special veil. That special veil has a particular Hebrew name, pârôketh, “separation” or “partition,” only used for this particular veil, because you'll see reading the King James sometimes can be a little bit confusing. You'll have references to actually two different veils, but in the Hebrew they are two distinct words. One should be properly more translated, “curtain,” the other one, “veil.” And this veil, actually the concept of the veil and the Holy of Holies becomes very important to understand as we, future perhaps, may look at the temple, because in the New Testament it describes that the temple veil was torn from top to bottom.
And that has a very important representation, which in the tabernacle is still represented but could not have the same application. There is a reason for this that I may again get to. But everything within that pârôketh, within that special veil required blood, and without the blood no one entered in, or if the high priest did so, he entered at peril of death, which was certain. The veil that partitioned off the Holy of Holies basically was the ultimate symbol of God's holiness and the inability of any person, not cleansed by the blood, consecrated and cleansed by the blood, to be able to even approach. I want you to think about that because every step of this message and all of these messages keep saying the same thing. How can you approach Christ if you're not willing to look at what happened at Calvary and the shed blood that He spilled? The writer of Hebrew spells it out so eloquently, but you'll see people who are, they don't want to talk about the blood of Christ, it repulses them.
Well I'm sorry, friend, if it repulses you, then you're not interested in God's prescribed way which is the, the picture is here, it's graphic, it's terrible to see animals being slaughtered and death, but this is the way God was painting a picture to say, “This is the way of salvation,” which will ultimately end in the final sacrifice of the Lamb of God, who as the book of John says, “taketh away the sin of the world.” So the, the writer of Hebrew says, “Having therefore, brethren, the boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way, which he hath consecrated for us, through the veil, that is, his flesh.” So understanding the veil, even as I said, even though it is not 100 percent the perfect type, which it will be in the temple, signifies something about Christ's finished work, so just kind of note to self, the body of Jesus, if you want to put it this way, was a veil that hid the inner glory of His deity, because He was all-man and all-God.
For it was the Father's good pleasure for all fullness of the deity to dwell in Him. At a later time, as I've referenced already, how the veil was torn symbolizes something about the flesh body of Christ completing its ultimate and final work here on earth for the time prescribed. I'm not talking about future return, I'm talking about in the work that was needed at that particular time that He came to do. So the veil we would say is symbolic of the incarnate life of Christ, but more specifically the flesh body, the tearing of the veil, His death on the cross. His death opened up a new and living way, as I just quoted from Hebrews. And what is important for us is that we no longer need a veil or a cloaking or a way of approach, because He provided it. This is a difficult thing I'm going to say, but I'm going to keep repeating it, because people misconstrue, and they selectively hear what I've been saying.
If you really; Jew or Christian, if you're really reading this book, you're going to see something with great clarity: God brought an end to the old dispensation. And you can say, “Well, there, there are people still celebrating.” I have many friends who still celebrate their Jewish faith. And that is, I mean, no disrespect, but the reality is if, if this is the pattern and the prototype, then it's like saying people are still going out to slay saber tooth tigers when they're extinct. You've heard that before, right? Yeah. So just to put that in perspective- and it becomes important, not, you know, people say, “Well, yeah, are you a person who is anti-Jewish or anti-whatever?” No, I'm a person looking at this and understanding that even people that came before me. I was reminded by something that the staff handed to me a week or two ago concerning this particular subject of the tabernacle, because I've been saying Old and New, you can't understand one without the other, nor could you actually live in the mindset of simply the Old Testament.
It lacks every fulfillment. It's like saying, “Yeah, I'm only going to wear the right shoe today.” Go out there and walk, brother. So, back on the inside, the veil itself, five cubits in height, five if you remember, the number of grace, and also speaks of the fullness of Christ. So at some point I'll, we'll prepare a chart of the numbers for those of you that are not familiar with the numbers and the dimensions, because I think that becomes important as a study tool.
But the area of this enclosure, we're talking about the Holy of Holies and what is in the Holy of Holies today, ten by ten by ten; I know that's a strange number, but a thousand cubits more or less. And I, I have absolutely no doubt in my mind that that concept of a thousand cubits is represented in a thousand-year millennial, if you want, reign of Christ. There is something connected, which we'll see, but obviously the foursquare concept that is presented in not only Ezekiel, but Revelation is presented right there in the Holy of Holies. It's kind of another important piece that we would want to look at. You cannot study this without seeing God did not leave any details out. So I've already talked briefly about the ark, box if you will. The Hebrew word is 'ârôwn, meaning “chest” or “ark.” And there are different arks mentioned, of course, in the Bible.
The most, we'll call them the most common, well-known, obviously Noah's ark, different from the basket that carried the Moses child, which is also referred to in some translations as “ark.” But the box, or I'm sorry, the basket for Moses was called têbâh, in Hebrew; not the same as the word I just referenced, meaning the “ark of the covenant.” But they all served a purpose, a same or similar purpose to save or to preserve.
And some people may not understand that just yet because you'll hear me reference later that at a later time the lid being moved off of the ark seems to kill people, because people who don't understand why will go, “Wow, God was really sadistic. He just killed people.” No, it's called; it's like a traffic law out there, you know, the speed limit says 35, you want to go 75 in a 35, you're probably going to have a consequence attached to that. It may not be death. In some cases it might be. You might kill somebody, okay? But there's a reason for prescribed things, and God's way was no different. He said this was how it's going to be. So of course, let me go back a little bit. God tells Noah to build an ark that he and his family would live and they would find safety in the ark. Moses, the same thing, was preserved in that ark. So we know what was placed inside the ark, which I've referenced before.
The ark itself made of shittim wood, acacia wood overlaid with gold. And again, the number four appears everywhere on that ark. I reference the number four as meaning the four corners of the earth; the whole earth being covered. The items placed inside: the unbroken tables of stone, and it's important to repeat this part, “upon which the Ten Commandments were written,” representing God's truth; the pot of manna showing us the way; and Aaron's rod that budded overnight showing us the life. So if you want to call it “the truth, the way, and the life” right there, preserved within that ark. No matter what fallen man would do, these things would be safe and preserved within the ark.
So there's again that attachment. We see the ark to preserve life. This would actually preserve our lives if we understand how these are all in Christ. So let's look at the covering that would, the lid that would cover the ark of the covenant called the mercy seat. On the mercy seat, the blood of the sacrificed bullock would be sprinkled. Leviticus 16, “The LORD spake unto Moses after the death of the two sons of Aaron, when they offered before the LORD, and died. The LORD said unto Moses, Speak unto Aaron thy brother, that he come not at all times into the holy place within the vail before the mercy seat, which is upon the ark; that he die not: for I will appear in the cloud upon the mercy seat.” Again, you know, how many of you feel this way? You read something and you're familiar with it, but when you really start to try and put all the pictorial sense and bring it to life, it has such a deeper meaning, because now you're looking at this in a sense like I just explained.
God is speaking, which means He's amongst men, He's giving the instruction, and He says basically to “not come at all times into the holy place within the vail before the mercy seat, which is upon the ark; that he die not: for I will appear in the cloud upon the mercy seat. Thus shall Aaron come into the holy place: with a young bullock for a sin offering, and a ram for a burnt offering.” And I will probably go through the offerings at a future time, but right now, just stay with what's being said here.
“He shall put on the holy linen coat, he shall have the fine linen breeches upon his flesh, shall be girded with a linen girdle, a linen miter,” he shall be attired this way, “these are holy garments; therefore shall he wash his flesh in water, put them on. He shall take of the congregation of the children of Israel two kids of the goats for a sin offering, one ram for a burnt offering. Aaron shall offer his bullock of the sin offering, which is for himself, to make an atonement for himself, and for his house.” So before he could even deal with the rest of the congregation, he had to deal with his sin and the sin of his household.
And this is why I categorically reject all of these people who do not read and understand, don't just go, “Oh, that's Old Testament.” Every priest, every pastor, every minister is no different than any parishioner. We have all sinned. There isn't a one, I don't care if you're wearing a white suit with a white beanie on your head. You are as much a sinner as I am, brother or sister, whatever you are, whatever your pronoun is. And don't try and make it otherwise. It's, it, these are the things that I look at. People say, “Oh, well, you know, a person of God.” Still sinning flesh, not perfect. I make mistakes, they make mistakes; sinning is part of every person's lot. Put a period there. So I like the fact that God includes this, that he has to make an atonement for himself first, for his house, before he can even deal with the great Day of Atonement for the congregation and the camp.
“He shall take two goats, present them before the LORD at the door of the tabernacle of the congregation. And Aaron shall cast lots upon the two goats, one lot for the LORD, the other for the scapegoat. Aaron shall bring the goat which the LORD'S lot fell upon, bring him as the sin offering. But the goat, which the lot fell on to be the scapegoat, shall be presented alive before the LORD, to make an atonement with him, and let him go for a scapegoat in the wilderness.” And I leave that there because there's a whole bunch of other instructions here, but the one that probably needs to be repeated so that it's abundantly clear, because you can keep reading down, but there's a mention of the blood, and it's repeated over and over again.
“And he shall take of the blood of the bullock, and sprinkle it with his finger upon the mercy seat eastward; and before the mercy seat he shall sprinkle the blood with his finger seven times.” Again, numbers have value and have reason, not just because, “Because seven is my lucky number today.” No, there was reason, okay? It's a perfect completed act. “Then,” he goes on to say, “he shall kill the goat of the sin offering. That's for the people.” So if he's dealt now with himself and his house, now we're going to deal with the people; it's for the people, “and bring his blood within the vail, and do that,” which he did with the other blood, basically the same thing.
“And he shall make an atonement for the holy place.” Again, everything that is touching the things of the Lord and His people will be covered or sprinkled by the blood, and there's no escaping that. And anybody who says, “Well, I just can't deal with that,” I don't think you really want to deal with what God's saying here that is the prescribed method, which again brings you right back to our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Now in Leviticus 17, the blood is then called “sacred.” And a particular verse there, which unfortunately over time has been misquoted, which is 17:11, “For the life of the flesh is in the blood: and I have given it to you upon the altar to make atonement for your souls: for it is the blood that maketh an atonement for the soul.” So it's very important to see God's method with man, the approach, the blood, the mercy seat.
So the mercy seat then, we're talking about how it fit and covered the ark. And I'm going to come back to the blood and some other aspects, but this at least gives you the, the bullet points that are needed for this. The mercy seat that covered the ark was the same length and breadth as, we'll call it the box. But the top lid or covering was made of pure gold; there was no wood in the lid at all. And I love this. You've got the two cherubims at each end, basically facing each other, wings folded inward, almost like everything's pointing to, like two fingers going “This way,” right? And what I think is important here is you can always look for symbolism and numbers. Here you've got the two cherubim, which is adequate witness of God's presence, and their faces basically looking down towards the lid itself, which is important, because these are not, like some have said, “Whoa, are the angels on the lid to be; were they meant to be worshiped?” No, they were guardians and heralders, and they've always been that in the Bible.
So, you know, people say, “Well, how do you make a distinguish; how do you distinguish between Aaron building or making the golden calf and God prescribing this on the lid?” They were two very different things. One was at the behest of the people's impatience to wait on Moses to worship something they made with their hands versus something God said, “You make this, and I'm going to be there, and you will worship Me there.” So, you know, don't, don't homogenize or mix things up. But I love the fact that if you go and you read through Scripture, once more, you go back to Genesis, and you find when God basically gets them, first parents, Adam and Eve out of the Garden, He puts a cherub there with a flaming sword to, to guide the way, to protect the way. And again, there are different ways to understand this, if you want to look at and say, “One that stood watch,” but it is definitely progressive revelation as you go through the Scripture that you can see these cherubim, these angelic beings.
And some of them are called cherubims, regular wings, some of them are seraphims with multiple wings, some of them are called “angelic ones,” “messengers of the LORD”" But what's important is they are usually heralding or announcing. Sometimes it's good news; sometimes it's not such good news, right? If you remember in Genesis 19, they were dispatched to get Lot out of Sodom. And I'm not sure that I'd call that good news or not because, if you know the story, maybe Lot should have stayed there. Leave that one alone. In Genesis 28, you've got them, the angelic beings are communicating to Jacob as he slept. So messengers with purpose, sometimes guardians of the way, and I think on the ark itself, I think they were doing double duty there, guarding the way, if you will, as a symbolic meaning.
Remember there was also cherubim on the veil itself, embroidered into the veil itself. So it's almost like we're going to keep repeating this. You're, if you were approaching maybe the, the design of the cherubim on the curtain would, was the heralding announcement, if you needed one: “You're approaching God's presence,” or “You're approaching something sacred and holy,” but certainly definitely guarding the way that no ordinary person would enter in. All right, so some other things that are interesting here. Moses had gone into the tabernacle of the congregation to speak with God. It is then that he hears the voice of one speaking to him off the mercy seat, I think that's equally interesting, that was upon the ark of the testimony from between the two cherubim. Sounds strange, unless we know the original promise: “Build Me a tabernacle that I may dwell among you.” So if you didn't read that part, you'd say, “Well, that's strange that God's only going to be heard in that little area.” But God's prescription was that He would meet him there, and commune with him there.
That is also part of Exodus 25:22: “I will meet you there, commune, commune with thee from above the mercy seat, from between the two cherubim which are upon the ark of the testimony.” And put a period right there. It, it's not like God said, “And if you don't meet Me there, I'll catch up with you over here,” right? These are the things we tend to do, we like to kind of fudge things and maybe, maybe, you know; no. This is what God said. A similar thing is stated, by the way, in Psalm 99, “The LORD reigneth: sitteth between the cherubim.” And what I would like you to just take note of is we, sometimes in the New Testament, we mention something called “the throne of God; to approach the throne of God boldly.” I want you to think about this because God said He would speak to Moses there from that particular place, which is called the mercy seat, for which no man ever sat upon. Yet when we read the New Testament, we talk about the throne of God. This is the depiction, the shadow, if you will, of the reality of God's throne.
Again, I don't care how you do this, you're going to be confronted with every picture here points back to the same place. That's why I love it. And it's important to study these. The dimensions, by the way, of this furniture, and I'm now talking about the base, two and a half by one and a half cubits; again, the numbers, and they're repeated on both sides, basically 5 and 3. If you're taking the numbers and making them whole, 5 and 3; again 5, the number of grace and the fullness of Christ, and 3, the number of divine manifestation, which is what you would get if you were to be able to approach and see or hear God speaking. So I think there's a beautiful design right there. If you remember, three items placed inside, as I just referenced them. So think about this, and then the lid is placed on there, and no human eye is to basically see these items again; that kind of sounds strange. They would be discerned in a spiritual way.
Now the people, the children of Israel would not have that capacity, but we do, knowing what these embody. Remember Christ said that He came to fulfill the law, and the law was fulfilled in Him. But prior to Christ coming in the flesh, and this is what's really important, there's a story, if you remember in the Old Testament, after the death of Eli, which happens in 1 Samuel, I believe the fourth chapter, where we read how the Philistines took the ark, and they took it from Ebenezer, which is being translated “the stone” or “the rock of help” unto Ashdod to bring it into the home of Dagan, the heathen idol worshiped, carved, little whatever it was made with hands.
1 Samuel 5:7; let's see if we can find that passage. It might be a little bit more helpful if I can read it to you or show it to you. So 1 Samuel, I think it's 5:7; yep. So it's, I'm going to pick up here to show you something. People often talk about this incident that happened. It says, I'll start in verse 6, “The hand of the LORD was heavy upon them of Ashdod, and he destroyed them, and smote them with emerods, even Ashdod and the coasts thereof. And when the men of Ashdod saw that it was so, they said, The ark of the God of Israel shall not abide with us,” and get this thing away from us, right? “For his hand is sore upon us, and upon Dagan our god.” Because if you remember, if you go back and read that, that little carved god keeps somehow falling on the floor.
If it was me, I would have just been pushing it off, but it just kept falling on the floor, right? Hey, at least I'm honest. That's what I would have done. “They sent therefore and gathered all the lords of the Philistines unto them, and said, What shall we do with the ark of the God of Israel? And they answered, Let the ark of the God of Israel be carried unto Gath.
They carried the ark of God of Israel about thither. And it was so, after they had carried it about, the hand of the LORD was against the city with a very great destruction: he smote the men of the city, both great; small and great, they had emerods in their secret parts,” whatever that means. "Therefore they sent the ark of God to Ekron. It came to pass, as the ark of God came to Ekron, that the Ekronites cried out, saying, They have brought about the ark of God, of the God of Israel to slay us and our people.” They recognized that. Now, if you remember, there is the passage. Ultimately these people, they want to “Send the ark back to the children of Israel, get it away,” because it, there was destruction everywhere.
But you remember, they had it in their possession. If you read this whole story, they had it in their possession for seven months, and they decide to send it back towards Beth-shemesh. If you remember that, they lifted the lid. And that's probably the most important thing that people get wrong, because they say, “Well, God's sadistic. He wiped these people out for lifting the lid”" or they caricature it like Raiders of the Lost Ark.
There was a purpose, do not look inside the box. And that purpose is so abundantly clear, the law, the tables of unbroken law, that we know no human being could keep, not a one. What does the New Testament say? The New Testament says, “For sin comes death.” So someone not covered by the blood already and then looking to the law: death, “For the wages of sin is death.” The law acted directly upon them. Don't think that because they just merely glanced in; the consequences of being exposed to the law brought death. And this is what Paul explains, by the way, so brilliantly in Galatians. The law could never bring life. It could only bring death. So when people say, “Oh, well, God's pretty sadistic; He wiped those people out for looking inside.” Yep. But think of the purpose and really go, don't look at the pot of manna or those are secondary items, the most important one, because the rod that budded was an emblem of the resurrected life. But it was the law and that exposure to the law, direct exposure to the law would bring death.
And still to this day, if you think about it, the tables of stone do not make up the whole law as we know it. The whole law is 316 do's and don'ts. But if you split the Ten Commandments in half and the relationship between man and man, and God and man, I'd say there is a very good likelihood that no one in the sound of my voice, including yours truly, could live if that's all we had, could stay alive if that's all we had. And now, you might say, “Well, how could something like 'Honor thy mother and thy father' or, well” think about what's on those stones, but then translate them into everyday life, and then you'll realize, if that's all you had, we'd all be dead. So don't be too harsh on God wiping these people out.
And I often think this one story in the Old Testament helps clean up and clarify what most people do not understand about God. The apostle Paul said, “I through the law am dead to the law, that I might live unto God.” Even he understood that. Now, why is it? Talk to people who don't understand these concepts. I remember talking to somebody who said, “Oh, I, I love the law. The law is good.” Well, you may love the law, but that's like saying, “I like to have a noose around my neck,” because that's what it, if you really understand it, that's what it means because no one can live to those standards. Even the most simplistic man-man or God-man relation, no one can live to those standards, not a one.
And as I've said repeatedly over the years, Jesus raised the bar. So let's talk about “Thou shalt not kill, which some people want to parse and say, “Well, is it kill? Or is it murder? Or how would you describe that?” Jesus said, “If you hate in your heart, you're as guilty as a murderer.” So don't parse the words of killing or murdering. Just put a period on that. And then Jesus says, “And if you hate,” okay, I hate to do this. Don't put a camera on anybody. How many of you have ever hated somebody? Okay? So that's what I'm saying to you. And that's the importance of studying this to see if you really, really understand it the Old Testament could not ever be a complete book to follow.
You want the canonized version of it. If you understand what I'm saying, the prescribed method could not have represented the fullness of God's desire for humankind ever. So it would take the shed blood sprinkled upon the mercy seat to change what was judgment towards man and upon man into grace. And even there, this is the remarkable thing, people say, “Oh, well, the God of the Old Testament – there's no grace there.” Of course there is. Just in that one act of letting the priest go in and sprinkle the blood that would cover the whole congregation, that's an act of grace in and of itself, because, if you think about it, without that blood being applied, they would have died.
In fact, you've got the same application. You don't like this one? Go back to the children of Israel in Egypt's bondage. And God says, “Apply the blood and my avenging angel, when he sees the blood, he shall pass over.” But failure to apply that blood meant death; pretty simple. So God's holiness and mankind's sinfulness could not meet unless the blood was authenticated, validated in that sacrificial death that had to take place, and then God's wrath ceased. People don't even like to talk about the wrath of God. And that's another disturbing thing. Again, you have ever heard people say, “Oh, I just can't read the Old Testament. You know, God, God's an angry God. I like the God of the New Testament.” Like somehow God said, “Excuse me, bear with Me”" I; bear with me, I don't mean to be blasphemous, “but I'm, I'm going to be trans-testamental.” (Laughter.) I'm just going to slip into something a little bit more comfortable for you all in the New so that you can all appreciate it.
God has not changed. Just God has not changed. So it's no different in type, as I've said, if you cover to cover, see what God did, whether it is the Passover, where, whether it is the slaying of animals to clothe Adam and Eve, or through and through even, as I've mentioned, the cord that Rahab hung out the window to save her and her family. Through, cover to cover, you find this concept of blood and God's way with fallen man. So to reconcile man back to God, we read of the effects: the finished work of Christ. Therefore, let us come boldly unto the throne of grace. We can now approach! The veil is now open. We can approach. There's no more fear that if we approach without covering, we shall surely die. And so it's kind of interesting. Covered in Christ's sacrifice, we no longer fear the wrath of God. I think, try and make the application now to a Scripture, again, I've quoted abundantly over the years, Romans 8, “There is therefore now no ultimate condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus.” Think of “ultimate condemnatio”" as judgment, wrath; all the things that would have been poured out, now covered in the finished work of Christ.
There is no more. There are remaineth no more. So what the Old Testament could not accomplish in full, we see it in the New. So again, every concept is going to come back to one thing here, Exodus 25 where God says, “And there I will meet thee and commune with thee.” If that's been God's intent since day one; this is why I feel sorry for some people who are stuck in an old dispensation and don't understand this. If that was God's desire for man from day one, and basically Adam and Eve messed it up, and along the way God is showing us it's still His desire, think about what God gave us in this new dispensation to, to basically commune with Him, to be at one with Him.
Not only first and foremost the death of Christ, the death and Resurrection of Jesus Christ, but remember when Jesus said, “It's expedient that I go away. If I go another way, I cannot send you the Holy Spirit.” So the Holy Spirit has sent to us for all the reasons I've said, but also to dwell with us, part payment. So it's like God's saying, “I'm no longer going to dwell with the people as I originally proposed. I'm going to dwell with them all in fullness as they come to Me in faith.” So I'm going to ask this question again, because I, I'm repeating it, but I'm trying to nail something down here. If you only had the Old Testament, could you actually understand God's desire for humankind? With, (no ma'am) right, without Christ and without the finished work of Christ, you'd be left with half of a picture and honestly quite confusing one at that.
Not that the words themselves or the book is confusing, but the fact that you're left with an incomplete picture, and it's incomplete in so many ways. Even if you want to go down to, as I said, materials, the numerology, everything here speaks and points in the direction that I've been pointing to you. And so it's, it's very clear what was made possible by God through the blood is the gateway, if you will. The picture is clear. As I said earlier, this is why Jesus is called “the Lamb of God who taketh away the sins of the”- this is mind boggling.
Think of now everything I've said and pretend for a second you never heard this book. You never heard anything about this except for the descriptions I've given you regarding the tabernacle. And here are these people early on in the first and second chapter of John, Jesus doesn't say, “I am the Lamb of God.” They say, “Behold the Lamb of God who taketh away the sin”" It's kind of, if you really think about it, it was God's prescribed way.
These people in Christ's time were Jews, knew the Old Testament, which was the only Testament. So even that declaration, see, we're familiar with it so it doesn't have the same impact, but if you, if you really could try and not be so familiar you'd realize that even that in itself, that declaration is pretty staggering. That somebody did not recognize this in the flesh by themselves. God had to open up the eyes and give the declaration to be uttered to say, “That's Him. No longer the blood of bulls and goats, but that's Him. That's the one that's going to do it.” And all the names of God even that we've covered over the years, the “with us God,” the “all sufficient God”; these all are tied up in Him. So I just feel really terrible when I hear people say, “Well, but you know,” and I, as I said, I have a lot of Jewish friends.
“You know, I, I just can't, can't read the New Testament.” Well, I feel sorry for you because you're missing out. Like I said, you're only wearing one shoe. Go run a marathon. So the other thing that becomes clear is that not only how Paul declares in Romans 3:25 and 1 John about the word “propitiation.” He was not only our Reconciler and Propitiation and Propitiatory, both the essence of what was needed to reconcile, the Reconciler and actually the place of reconciliation all in one, which is again back to the mercy seat, so every detail in this work that we're looking at to try and figure this out, it keeps revealing over and over again concepts, and they all are materialized in Christ.
Then you've got passages, for example, like Luke 18:13, where you've got the publican saying, “Be merciful to me, a sinner.” And if you read that again, it would be very easy to see the publican saying, “Be mercy seated to me,” the way it is written in the Greek. All of these, again, we're, we're reading a New Testament where they were still primarily a Jewish community. So even these words to them would have been staggering to hear somebody say, “Be mercy seated to me,” but this is exactly what we see. So last but not least here, let me just say it this way, the most oft repeated Scripture. You go to these big gatherings, sometimes I'll see it on the back of a truck somewhere, John 3:16, “God so loved the world,” and you know the verse of Scripture. When it says “he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth on him should not perish, but have everlasting life,” what should be understood by that as well is that had God not given His only begotten Son, where exactly, I want you to think about this, because this is why Paul wrote a certain thing about “if Christ be not risen, our faith is vain.” I want you to think about what that would mean living in a world where there was no ultimate sacrifice.
And the ongoing sacrifices, at some point, I said this to you, ceased. Why did the, why did the old way cease? Now people say, “Well, because they; Jerusalem was destroyed. The people were expelled, or they were put, they were deported.” But if this was so that they believed that this was the only way of salvation, even if they didn't have a high priest, but they believed this was the only way of salvation, don't you think they would have still been practicing it? (Yes ma'am.) Right. So it leads me to some conclusion about something, and I know when I say this, people will take what I'm saying out of context.
So if you do, that's your problem because the spirit in which I intend to be meant. There is no way that God intended this ceremony, sacrificing, and the rituals to continue. No, there's no possible way. And in fact, a closer examination of some of the Hebrew words, and in the New Testament, some of the Greek words really hit that home to the point of asking the question. So how could people still be steeped in something that technically no longer was meant to exist? And this is why I use all these Scriptures frequently, but they all tie together.
This is why when it says, “They will look upon Him whom they have pierced,” because it's the same people perpetuating the same customs, the same traditions that make void the word of God, who also perpetuate that Christ did not live or that He was a mere prophet or that He was not the Messiah. And these will be the same people where it says, “They will look upon Him whom they have pierced, and they will mourn,” because they will recognize that the whole time that they were perpetuating ceremonial concepts, no longer carried out and actually slaughtering animals and applying the blood, but in conceptual concepts, but the whole time they were doing that, God was here, Emmanuel, God, the with us God, showing us that that dispensation came to a close and is no more. Now, why build that temple for the future? Why? Because that temple in the future will teach people who Christ is who did not know Christ.
That temple in the future to be built will point in every dimension. You know, I, I've talked about this both here and on Festival, about the red heifer, about all these special tools that they're trying to make, but the bigger point is being missed which will be revealed, but it will not be revealed until Christ reveals Himself. And that's the part that I just want to kind of pause here right now to bring this all to a close to say, you and I may not live perfect lives, and we don't, and we can't, but we look unto Him who is the Author and Finisher of faith.
He's shown us the way. He's shown us as I taught last week and spoke about the resurrected life, that all of that is encompassed in the finished work and that there is no need to go down this ceremonial trail. And to people in other, we'll call them dimensions of the quasi-Christian faith who, who are insistent on ceremony plus Christ, people who are still, by the way, eating the body of Christ or drinking Christ's blood, again, you've made void the word of God; these traditions, or if they are religious traditions or traditions of man. And I do challenge some of my listeners out there who may be, you be in total disagreement with me, that's fine. I'm not asking you to just nod your head and go along with me. I'm asking you to go back and reread the passages that we've looked at so far, and you tell me how they could ever be complete; complete for the person of that day, complete in this day and age or at any other time because I go back to one thing that still looms large over this whole populace that insists on those traditions: the law.
You want to live by the law? You're going to die by the law. You want to live by faith, you'll have eternal life in Christ. And these two, I'm sorry, you say, “Well, but the law is good.” Yes, but what does Paul say? The law was a schoolmaster to bring us to Christ. That comes out of the mouth of the most zealous Jew that ever lived: the law was a schoolmaster to bring us to Christ. So if you understand that and every other thing that Paul wrote about, saying, “Cursed is anyone who hangs on a tree.” Well, the curse fell on, the curse being the curse of the law, fell on Him, and because of what He did, we pass out. We are no longer exposed, lid open, looking at the law. The law, the curse fell on Him, we get to walk out from under it, and because of His work, we live. And we don't just live in the now, we have eternal life. So to all of my listeners and particularly people out there that say, “This is, it's very simple.” It's also very complicated, because if you're not willing to leave your baggage and your traditions at the door, none of this is going to make sense even though it's so simple.
Furthermore, as I've said, and I appreciate the messages that you've communicated with me, to go back and to reread, even just portions of the mercy seat, portions of Leviticus 16 and 17 now, with Christ in mind and with all of these various depictions in mind, and see that God was always saying one thing, “I want to commune with you. I want to dwell with you, and I want us,” that's what Christ said in His high priestly prayer, “to be one.” Well, that oneness will not occur at the moment, but the part payment has, the deposit of the Spirit has, and we will be one with Him in eternity.
So the messages will, we'll see if we continue on in the tabernacle, but I hope this is helping people fill out some of the areas and recognize you are incomplete with just one Testament, but you put the two together and you see the big picture. And the big picture is pretty incredible, because God from the beginning was saying, “I want to be with My creation”" Now sin, sinning man and free will messed that up, but God said, “I'm going to give you the door. I'm going to give you the way and the truth.
And it's no longer the truth that is the law that kills, but the truth that's in Christ. And I'm going to give you the way, which is the manna, the bread from heaven, no longer gathering it up daily, but basically, if you want feasting on it, 'Taste and see that the LORD is good.' And I'm going to give you the life. Aaron's rod that budded, symbolizing the resurrected life; I'm going to give you that too, in My Son Jesus Christ, who is the First Goer.” And if you call yourself a Christian, you're a follower of Christ; you follow after Him in that same way. So I can't see how anyone would not want to look at the whole picture and say, “That's where I'm going to stand, the complete picture, all fulfilled in Christ.” For right now, that's my message, possibly to be continued, but that's my message. (Applause.) You have been watching me, Pastor Melissa Scott, live from Glendale, California at Faith Center.
If you would like to attend the service with us, Sunday morning at 11am, simply call 1-800-338-3030 to receive your pass. If you'd like more teaching and you'd like to go straight to our website, the address is www.PastorMelissaScott.com.
I reject religion that has ceremonial processes to it strict we'll call them rules and regulations you cannot partake of the communion unless you've confessed your sins and done the little Hokey Pokey dance over here and uh you know I'm sorry it was never like that it was not designed to be a ceremonial process that has all been done away with.
Part of understanding how His Resurrection affects you life is what God was doing the day after Adam and Eve fell from grace. It didn't just start with your birth or with the coming of Christ. It started way back there and it's a whole history of redemptive process until God said, “This is the final way.” ♪ ♪ If we're going to talk about Easter, the first thing we have to talk about is that Jesus lived.
We shouldn't stop at the information in the Bible. I know a lot of people are reluctant. They read the Bible and say, “Oh, it's, it's a collection of good stories written, and we can't really”━save that for somebody who hasn't done the years of studying. But for the benefit of those people who are suspicious that this is just a mere collection of things, I step outside of the Bible for a minute to say you've got a first century Jewish historian, Josephus, who writes about Jesus. He does not say too much, but he does indeed admit that Jesus lived. You have evidence from the Babylonian Talmud, which was written between 70 A.D. and 200 A.D., although there, there is a continuation that takes you all the way up to 500 A.D., but the specific portions I'm interested in actually come around 80 A.D. and do indeed mention Jesus that He lived. He was not a figment of the people's imagination. And if you really want to go to the extremes, even the prophet Muhammad, who lived some 600 years, more or less, after Christ's death, in the early-600s when he was writing the Quran, he spoke of Jesus, although Jesus, in his version lived, Jesus was a mere prophet.
Nonetheless, even Muhammad acknowledged Jesus lived. And if you want to go even beyond that, you've got the writings of a Roman, non-Christian source in Tacitus recording Jesus and the life of Jesus. Pliny the Younger, who was the Roman governor of Bithynia Asia Minor, who wrote to the emperor Trajan in 112 A.D., asking what was the proper legal conduct, “What should we do about these followers of this one Jesus Christ?” And we know from these writings obviously that are outside the Bible, they are all talking about a living━a person who lived, not a figment or an invented persona. Also Lucian, the Greek satirist who wrote about second century A.D. as well, so there is abundant evidence outside the Bible for Jesus' living, being an actual person and not some made-up fabrication as some would tell you. The next bullet point is that Jesus was crucified. That's not difficult to believe, because crucifixion, and anybody studying, just even go beyond the Roman period, we've, actually here we've taken a look at crucifixion in a historical way to see that it existed long before the Romans took it up as punishment.
So there's no doubt in my mind if somebody says, “Well, could it be possible that this man was crucified?” Beyond, beyond plausible, as that was the punishment of that day. So two things: that Jesus lived and that He was crucified. If you start there, you're starting at a good place. You know, don't, if you, if you're not even willing to consider that He lived, don't even bother studying this, let alone that He was crucified. That He died on a cross, this is an important one, because there are many people who doubt━good Lord and Lord help us━that this methodology could kill anyone. Okay, well, I highly urge those people who are doubting of that to actually do some research to understand that the whole premise of this type of death was to be slow and painful, and that the victims didn't usually die because they were nailed to a cross.
But they usually would die from collapsed lungs or other things, not necessarily the first but second and tertiary events that would occur in the body to bring about death; and slow and painful usually. So we've got to put that there. But of course, there are many theories that people have propagated over time. For example, that He really didn't die on the cross, but He fainted, and when they took Him down from off the cross He resuscitated in, in the coolness of the tomb. Or that this is all made up. There, there's so many theories as to what really happened on the cross. In fact, if you google, “Did Jesus die on the cross?” you will find a lot of fantastic ideas. They're all fantastic, but if one actually understands the science, and there is a science behind crucifixion, the likelihood that any individual could actually survive crucifixion is slim and none.
So let's just put that there that Jesus did indeed die on a cross. All right, the fact that He was buried in the tomb of Joseph of Arimathaea, a high-ranking person in Jesus' day and this is important, because the controversy still goes to this day. There are two tombs in the Holy Land that people visit and people argue about which tomb. Let me help you out with this. We know from the Scriptures that Joseph of Arimathaea went to beg, went to Pilate to beg for the body of Christ. And the question must be asked: why Joseph of Arimathaea? See, there are a lot of minutia in Jewish law that most people don't know about, and one of them is that only next of kin could go and ask for a person's body.
That was basically according to actually both Roman and Jewish law. They both had their intricacies. We know that Joseph of Arimathaea was uncle to Mary, mother of Jesus. So put that down as one not so odd if you consider that. The greater oddity is that Joseph of Arimathaea was a high-ranking person in the Sanhedrin, and it is the body of the Sanhedrin, the 71 elders, that had the influence to crucify Jesus at the behest, by the way, of the Jewish leaders. Do not say all Jews, because His disciples, many of them were Jews, so at the behest of the Jewish leaders. So what's important here is we know Joseph of Arimathaea, much like Nicodemus was a secret follower or an underground follower of Christ. And something written in Mark 15:43, it says he was waiting expectantly for the kingdom of God. It didn't say he was devastated at the death of Christ, but he was waiting expectantly. That tells you that Joseph of Arimathaea believed what Jesus was saying about Himself. So put that as a one-second pause right there. Now, the other thing that's important to recognize is when we talk about the tomb.
As I said, I'm not going to argue about which tomb, but I am going to point out a few things that are of interest. As you know, there were Roman guards posted outside of the tomb. The tomb was closed with a large stone rolled in front of it and sealed with a Roman seal. Now let me give you the small details of that. The Roman guard would have been a detail of 16 guards, each guard responsible for a 6-square-foot area. And this is what people don't talk about. If you were a Roman guard and you fell asleep there was punishment. You would be beaten and you'd be burned in your clothes.
But not only that, the entire unit of guards would also be put to death. So it would behoove each guard to be keeping watch not only on the tomb, but on each other. You get my point? Hmm, okay, good. The stone, the stone weighing anywhere from one to two tons, and here's the, the magnificent thing. The stone would have been on a track somehow, grooved, but it would have been on a decline. That means that the stone would be easy or easier; two men could have, two men, two strong men could have facilitated rolling the stone to close it.
But because if was on a slant, two men could not push up to two tons up a hill. So the likelihood of somebody tampering, once it was closed, is very unlikely. Furthermore, the Roman seal put on the tomb itself; that seal, the breaking of that seal, which represented the authority of the Romans, breaking that seal was the death penalty. So you've got a whole, what we'll call it a conundrum of how do you explain all of this? You know, were the guards on the take? Did they accept a bribe? Come on, even if that happened, they all would have been put to death.
So when people talk about this, the tomb, it's important to understand this is not some cartoon version of what you think. There were a lot of details. And those details need not be excluded from a close examination. The tomb that Jesus was buried in was indeed, after the fact, after He rose, empty. And this is another interesting thing that we should discuss. The followers returned to find the stone rolled away and the body is not there, and in fact, at least in one or two records we have angelic beings saying, “He is not here; He is risen,” basically “go find where He is, you'll see Him.” If you go and read Matthew 28, it says that the Jews were saying that the disciples had stolen the body. Just by those words alone, they were acknowledging that the tomb was empty. Sorry, but you did it to yourself. And I could go on, but I'm trying to do this in a very quick fashion. The leaders who instigated the crucifixion had an agenda to try and disprove the Resurrection. Theories to deny or disprove the Resurrection were being circulated because, think of it this way and this is probably the most important thing I could say, if the Resurrection actually happened, who would have greatest problem on their hands? The Jewish leaders, why, because if it was true, if it was actually true and could be verified as true, let's just say that you were all part of this Jewish leader community and you had heard that this man rose from the dead and He was seen amongst His followers preaching, what would you do? I know what I'd do.
I'd jump ship from that conglomerate of people and I'd go follow the One that came out of the grave, as He said He would. So food for thought, this would have endangered the future of Judaism. And if you think about it, the Gospel starts in John with, “He came to his own, and his own received him not.” The idea that they could have acknowledged Him; now some did, as I said Joseph of Arimathaea is one, Nicodemus is another. And I'm sure we've got a catalog of many more, but the bulk and the vast majority, it would have injured their religious careers in the future, so their best interest is to disprove and put out as many ridiculous stories as possible. The disciples preached what they had seen: Christ was raised from the dead. The record tells me that Jesus called forth Lazarus. Now Lazarus had to die anyway to eventually live a resurrected life, but calling him forth was a sample in kind. And this is why the apostle Paul talks about “If Christ is not risen our faith is vain”; we're all gathered for naught.
But the fact of the matter is that if you want to talk about this, actually this book cover to cover has more people being raised from the dead. And I would say pre-Christ's incarnation, proof of God's ability to raise people up from the dead, then God sent His only begotten Son, tented in human flesh, and still continued to do the same thing that was being done in the Old Testament. You just have to read and wonder, why would such things be written? To give us false hope? Or did they actually happen? And in Lazarus' case, I believe it actually happened. The more important thing is as they were preaching that Christ raised from the dead, they also preached that He would be coming back, that He would ascend and that He was coming back. Now, we cannot relate to this, because 2,000 years ago something happened, but put yourself closer to the event and they were all waiting for His immediate return.
And that's what stoked the fire under the early church: “Christ is coming back!” “Christ is coming back!” So we have to kind of be mindful. They were all basically saying, the disciples were all saying the same thing: He is alive. He was crucified for our sins. That He was raised up just as He Himself had said He would. And that brings me to the next thing. How do you explain the birth and growth of the church? There is no logical explanation.
If you start from the day of Pentecost, there is no logical explanation for the testimony of hundreds of thousands that have been radically changed, but specifically the Scripture says so many thousands were brought into the church in one singular day. How does one explain that? Except the power of God, the speech that was coming forth that was so powerful, not the words themselves nor the speaker, but the power of God coming through that individual that moved the hearers. So you can say, “Well, if this is not true, these poor, delusional followers, they were making up a lie, they built a church on a lie,” but you still have some problems explaining how. Remember, these are just regular people, how did they remember? How did they come up with? Why is it that people were gravitating towards these people and expressing things like the belief that these individuals had “super powers”? And I use that term, they thought it of Peter, they thought it of Paul, except that they had been endued by the Holy Spirit, which Jesus said, “If I go not away, I can't send the One basically who will do this for you.” Now you're either reading the most fantastic woven tale or you're reading an absolute chronicle of what happened.
And I get it. I, I understand people would say, perhaps they were just protecting the memory of their dead leader that they loved so much that they'd do anything to keep perpetuating a lie to protect this poor, dead Jew. You think about it. The problem is if you would think about how they all dispersed, Jesus told them before He left and ascended, He said, “Go into all the corners of the earth and make learners basically of all that I've told you.” And that would only be made possible, by the way, by the power of the Holy Spirit. And we know they all took off in far-flung corners of the earth.
They all, they all went in different directions and they all started repeating the same message: Jesus was raised from the dead, just as He said He would after a set period of time, three days, three nights, just as Jesus, He Himself had said, “There will be no other sign but the sign of Jonah.” And interestingly enough, you've got perhaps the most doubting person of them all, Thomas, who by the way, had the exposure, he was with all the other disciples, and yet he's the only one that would not actually believe that Jesus was risen, until the Lord appeared in front of him and he could touch the nail-pierced part of His body, look at where He was pierced on His side. And that brought about the exclamation or his declaration, “My Lord, my God,” the reality, “Oh my God, this is true.” Now I think there are a lot more Thomases than anything else.
And a lot of people, who can be following in the church, who can be going along with this great, “Let's just gather and waste an hour's time every Sunday,” much like Thomas. But here's where the rubber meets the road. At some point exposure to all this is going to produce something. It's not for, it's not just for entertainment value, it's not an educational purpose, if you will. Thomas, the most doubting one goes off to the most philosophical part of the world, India, think about that, to preach and proclaim Christ. We still have Thomas; basically they're called Thomas, Indian Thomas. There's different denominations, but they all have “Thomas” in them to this day.
So you think about that. What would it take to make you pick up, let's just put ourselves in modern times, pick up from California, although for me it wouldn't take much, but what would it take for you to pick up from California and, say, go to Turkey and start teaching people over there. You don't even speak their language, and start talking to them about everything that you've learned from this book. And you'd have to say, “You're out of your mind.” Well, that's what I'm saying to you. These people were either out of their mind or what they were telling was the absolute truth. But on top of all that, as I've repeated year after year, they all died terrible martyrs' death, all but John, and John probably would have died.
They dipped him in hot oil, burnt his body and somehow he was spared. And I believe the reason he was spared is to be exiled to Patmos that God would give him the final Revelation, the book of Revelation. I believe that's why he was spared, like God was saying, “Wait, wait, wait! I've got to save this one because this one I'm going to use to write the last chapter of the book.” But all the others died a terrible death. And it was very simple. They all could have said, “Oh, we're lying! We made it up!” to be spared, but none of them changed their tune.
None of them stopped preaching. In fact, they all went their death saying, “He rose, He ascended, He's coming back.” Think about that. And I don't know about you, but at some point even the most hardened criminals will usually roll, and they'll usually to spare, to save themselves. So there's a lot to put into this. And then, of course, as I've pointed out we can talk about the disciples, and we can talk about Christ, but as I introduced to you probably a couple of years ago the most important factor for me is one who was not part of the disciples.
He was a zealous Jew, Saul of Tarsus who became the apostle Paul. He was not part of the close band of followers. In fact, he persecuted the church; he persecuted Christians. And you tell me why a man who had everything going for him; he's a member of a high religious council, he's highly respected, he's doing his own commission, which is to go and persecute and stone and kill Christians. What is the interest or the value for him to make up a story that he had an encounter with Christ? And Christ said, “Why are you doing this?” What is the; what's the benefit? You're going to be ostracized from your community, you will become persona non grata, no one is ever going to let you back into that circle, because you're a traitor for━in their eyes you're a traitor, you deserve to die; an infidel. So what was the benefit of the apostle Paul to make up this story? There is none, except that he had an encounter that changed his life and the consequences for him, it was more important for him to preach Christ than to revert back or to, excuse me, cover his derrière about anything.
He could have gone back and said, “Yeah, I met the guy; nothing to it,” and kept on doing what he was doing, but he didn't; a complete life change, radically changed. In fact, all of the disciples were transformed. There isn't one of them that wasn't changed or touched by an encounter and time with Christ. Peter, from the impetuous, fast-talking big mouth, to the man who stands up and collected and in measured, we'll call it eloquent oration, preaches the sermon on the day of Pentecost.
The two brothers, but specifically John, they were known as “the sons of thunder,” and in the Bible, John is known as the disciple of love. And we could probably catalog even, by the way, Judas. Although I said he wasn't affected, he had to be somewhat transformed, because at the very end he does end up repenting and feeling bad for the deed he did. See, when you actually are exposed to the evidence, the Resurrection of Christ, if you study it, believe it, have analyzed it, it should change the way you think, your mindset.
That's the first one. Write it down if you will, because someday somebody is going to ask you, “What? What is the purpose of all this?” Once a person has truly looked at the evidence with an open mind, I believe it changes the way you think about almost everything. The apostle Paul wrote something, which you've heard me reference many times over, but put it in the context of this message. He said that those that basically live in the flesh do mind the things of the flesh, and those that live in the Spirit mind the things of the Spirit. People who are unaffected by this message are still living in the flesh. They heard it, many people will hear it, but they don't know what it is to live in the Spirit.
And let me dial this back a little bit. The conversation that was had between Jesus and Nicodemus, and He says clearly to Nicodemus, because Nicodemus is asking the question, “Well, how? How am I saved?” “You must be born again from above.” Do not use the expression “I'm a born-again Christian” unless you understand what that is. All Christians are born again from above, that is the Greek word: to be born again from above; the second birth. The first one is when you came out of the womb, so put that down as correct verbiage. And Jesus says basically the Spirit goes where it wills. Someone who is born from above, the Spirit will come and inhabit them.
Don't think that it's going to make you speak in tongues, roll on the ground, jump up and down, and do crazy stuff. I've said to you before the Spirit of God is given for service. And service is not limited to the pastorate. Service is across the board. It empowers people, it helps you to remember the Scripture, it keeps us guided, directed; there's a whole host of things. If you, especially reading the book of John, you can see how this actually would affect yours and my life. Now I'm standing in front of you. And if somebody said to me, “Well, I, I don't know how it could change the mindset,” then listen to me, because I came into the church, you've heard me say this before and this is not personal testimony; this is a fact. I came in the church in the mid-'90s, the early-, mid-'90s. I did not know one verse of Scripture, not one. Now, do I just have a good memory? No, that's just not true. But Christ's words say, “If you abide in My word, My word will abide in you.” That's the essence of John 15.
Think about that. You don't need to be━I've met people who are writing down verses of Scripture, trying to remember them. That's not going to help you. That's like what you do in the flesh. But mining the Spirit is being in here, and let this word, as the apostle Paul said, “Dwell richly in you.” That is the first marker of the Resurrected life: you have interest in the word of God.
You don't just read it on Sunday, and it's living in you, it's guiding you, it's giving you direction. So what about the people who read this and are still unaffected? I'm going to tell you that that's a big problem, because I believe there are people who hear, they've heard the message, but nothing else has penetrated. There's no word dwelling in them. No, I'm not your judge.
I can't know like the person who criticized me and said, “I don't even know if she's saved.” I can't tell you who's saved and who's not. That's God's job. That's God's responsibility, but I can tell you change of mindset is at the top of the list. Now, why does the Resurrection matter? We're still sinners. We are covered by the blood of Jesus, washed and forgiven by the blood, but I still sin every day. I'm not going to stand here and lie and say, “Well, I don't sin anymore.” We're all sinners, every single one of us. 1 John says, anyone who says they don't sin is a liar, and the truth is not in you. And there's way too many pastors and parishioners, who think once they've come to the Lord, they sin no more. Good luck, because you're still wearing your Adam attire, surprise. Don't run out with some perfectionist ideology that somehow because you came to the faith you're perfect. There's only one perfect One, that's Christ.
But learning about Him, His word, and His way is part of our life. So the Resurrection matters on so many levels. This is probably the biggest one and the one every time I talk about this I have people that just, they do this. One day we're all going to be dead. Period. I will be dead too. Everybody has a time. I don't care what science is coming up with. So somebody who doesn't want to talk about death, and I've met people like that, “Oh, I can't talk about that.” It means the resurrected life; an understanding of the resurrected life has not penetrated into your soul.
“What do you mean?” I'm saying exactly what I mean. Here, go back to the disciples, their beloved Master, who foretold of His death multiple times over, and of course, while He was alive, “No, no, no! Be it far from You! No, no, this can't happen,” right. They didn't understand. But how is it that after He died, rose, and ascended, they were able to go out and talk about His death? They talked about His death in light of the Resurrection, the ascension, and His return. And the Scripture is abundantly clear. Jesus was the First Goer, the first of His kind, which means anyone who calls themselves a Christian following Christ will follow in His footsteps, which means when we read, “Death has no more sting” over the believer, that's what it means. It doesn't mean that losing a loved one is not going to hurt; it will, but that's the flesh part. And trust me; I know there are a lot of widowers in the sound of my voice.
It does not take away the sting, it does not take away the absence or the void, it does not. But what it does do is it lets you look at the reality. That person devoted to Christ; Christ is not a liar, if Christ said basically, “I am the First Goer,” and you're following Him, you too shall follow as He did. That means that you too will enjoy the resurrected life.
Now, somebody who has not got the mindset, I don't care what you think. There isn't some playing tiddlywinks when the end comes. Let me show you something. I know I haven't opened up the Scripture very much, but let me show you something that has an impact for me. In Luke 16 the passage about the rich man and Lazarus, and, and if you read this with the eyes I'm speaking about it will really make sense to you, “A certain rich man, clothed in purple, fine linen, fared sumptuously every day: and there was a certain beggar named Lazarus, which was laid at his gate, full of sores, desiring to be fed with the crumbs which fell from the rich man's table: moreover the dogs came and licked his sores.
And it came to pass, that the beggar died, and was carried by the angels into Abraham's bosom: the rich man also died, and was buried; and in hell he lifted up his eyes, being in torments, and seeth Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in his bosom. He cried, saying, Father Abraham, have mercy on me, send Lazarus, that he may dip the tip of his finger in water, and cool my tongue; for I am in torment in this flame. But Abraham said, Son, remember that thou in thy lifetime receivedst thy good things, and likewise Lazarus evil things,” just for a little footnote, Lazarus received evil things.
What does that mean? It means probably that he suffered. He probably didn't have money. He probably grappled with a lot of the things that we grapple with; that's “evil things,” whatever that is, “but now he is comforted, and thou art tormented.” In other words, you spent your time here on earth pleasuring yourself with the pleasures of this good earth, but not paying attention to God. And what comes next is what I want you to focus on: “And besides all this, between us and you there is a great gulf fixed: so they, so that they which would pass from hence to you cannot; neither can they pass from us,” basically, if you understand this and all the other things that are said about heaven and hell, there is a great divide, there is a chasm. The resurrected mindset fixed on Christ, understanding we too shall rise that there are sometimes, we'll call them mild or light afflictions, which Paul talked about, which are only for a time.
Don't think that because something is happening to you that God isn't with you. Actually, usually it might be a sign that God is with you, that He's letting certain things buffet you, just like He did to many of the people in the book. But it drives home the point. There is a great divide between those who have a changed mindset towards death, dying, and the Resurrection versus those who may have heard it but are indifferent, don't care, couldn't be bothered by it; a great gulf fixed. So you know, you might say, “Well, that's pretty terrible.” But if you think about it, and if you believe the proofs, Jesus is the tangible proof, and so many times in the book, it says, “to him that overcometh death.” So you know, I'm thinking to myself there is something to be said there in our understanding.
You are either fearful of that, it brings about fear, it brings about the shiverings; that's the flesh. The Spirit says, “When it's my time, I'm going to go be with the Lord.” I don't exactly know 100 percent what exactly that's going to look like, but that's what I'm told multiple times over. That makes for good doctrine. That makes me stand on that rock to say, “That's that”" Now, you might say, “Well, how are you dividing this?” Let me show you from Christ's own words. People came to Him and said, “Lord, Lord, Lord! We did this in Your name and we did that.” What did He say to them? “Depart from Me.” Why? “I never knew you.” Do you think all these things are written so that we can just read a good story, or are they given to us as instruction? “I never knew you” means you never spent the time to know who He is to get acquainted with Him to even have a relationship: “Depart from Me; I never knew you.” I want you to think about that, because that changed mindset would bring about somebody who says, “I need to know everything I can know about Christ,” and not just as a onetime deal like you read an article in the newspaper.
I need to know everything I can know about the One who said these words. And I'll tell you for me, I, I would pray I never hear, “Depart from Me, I never knew you,” but rather I'm hoping it will be, “Enter in; well done, good and faithful servant.” The idea here, a lot of people come, even in Jesus' day, with lip service. Now we just kind of discount that in today's world, because you know, there, there's different levels of people in the church. They have different levels of faith, different levels of all kinds of things, but we all have one thing united that binds us all together. That is you do not have an excuse for not taking the time to learn and to know about Christ; again, a changed mindset would bring about that frame of reference. And as I said, many of us start off like Thomas, doubting. We're exposed to it, “Yeah, I don't know.” But let me tell you what happens when you spend time in this book. You come as close as humanly possible to touching the nail, the nail holes or the scars, if you will, of Christ as Thomas did when you spend time in this book learning about Him.
That's as close as you're going to come in this lifetime. Don't think there's going go be some other thing to come and show you; there isn't. So you may start off as a Thomas, and that's fine, but eventually, as I said, spending time in this book is going to reveal certain things to you that may actually make you just like Thomas say, “Oh, my God; this is all true!” I, I hope and I pray for that. I, I don't know if anything I can say can bring that about because I know it's not possible. Only God can do that. We call that prevenient grace; God is the Initiator. Okay, what else happens if I am focused on this resurrected life? What other things will be impacted in my life if I understand; I've looked at the Resurrection, I've looked at all the proofs? Okay, it all happened, what else? Tell me honestly; don't put cameras on anybody.
Tell me honestly; is there anybody here in the sound of my voice that still grapples with forgiveness or being forgiven? Okay, that's a lot of you. That's actually most people. When I traveled, here's the best place to find out, into the institutions, into the jails, into the prisons, even with inmates that had really been, you could tell they were in the word, not just passing time reading. They were in the word. They still grappled with something, whether it was guilt of the event or many times over we'd hear the expression, “But I can't forgive myself.” Do you remember that? “I can't forgive myself.” And the idea is you don't have to be a hardened criminal or be incarcerated for that to be your mindset. See, what happens is what regrets or mistakes we make, Jesus offers forgiveness to each and every one of us, because the Bible says, “While we were yet sinners, Christ died.” Again, you'd have to believe all that. You'd have to believe that that was the purpose of teaching the disciples to forgive one another, because in a microcosm how those instructions affect our lives also affect our relationship with God.
You may not see it that way, but that is the truth. Holding something in is a blockade, not letting go of it is a blockade between you and God. So the resurrected mindset says, “I'm going to work at this until I can figure out what it actually means.” You're looking at the evidence of that. I've told you the story many times, but hear it again in this particular message. The wrongs that were done to me in the first few years of ministry, the attempt to try and violate, tear down, rip apart, from some of the closest people; by the way, most of, a good chunk of these people are now dead. And I'm not going to say where they are, because I don't know. I really don't. I can have speculation, but I don't know. The very people that were trusted, insiders even, who tried to rip apart this ministry and told lies and you know, I'll just say it.
Here's a man who was even let in the most personal space, got to sit on Festival and talk to you all, who was in the room when Dr. Scott gave the final orders. They were, they were in writing already, but gave the final orders and spoke them out in this person's ear just before he had fallen into a stroke. Actually, it was, it was before he was in the hospital. This person turned around and said, “Oh, I, I don't know of any orders. I think she just usurped the position.” That spawned a whole bunch of people who listened to that person saying, “Well, she's a usurper,” that spawned other people making up lies. And it just became an implosion of people trying to attack. And I understood. It took me a while to process this; I don't even know how, because I am not wired this way. I was never wired this way. I was never good at forgiving; never. But I remember sitting in what was our old library, on the floor with my Bible praying and asking God to help me, because it was weighing so hard on me, “How could all these people be believers, followers of Christ, instructed in the word,” and yet they were hell-bent on destroying me and this ministry.
And I sat and I prayed, and I started reading the Scriptures and it dawned on me: I have to let all that go and release them. Not, I don't have to tell it to their face, I don't even have to ever see them again, shake their hand, do nothing. I have to release that. I have to forgive them before God, and theirs is the problem, not mine. I didn't commit the wrong.
Now sins against fellowman we forgive, we can forgive each other. Sins against God and the body of Christ, that's not for me to forgive. So I forgave the part that I could. The rest of it I left with God, because there was a lot of stuff against God and His work that, I'm not God, I'm not put in that position to do. Guess what happened? It happened in front of your eyes. I went from being so weighed down it was almost crippling that I couldn't even talk to you to one day after many months of processing the Scriptures and praying about it the clarity came to me. And it was like some heavy weight had been lifted off my back. And no, God didn't speak me in audible terms, but it became clear to me from Scripture that that is God's way. That's why He told Peter when Peter asked, “How many times should I forgive, Lord?” And basically Jesus' answer is “Indefinitely.” Well, in the flesh I can't do that.
That's right, but in the Spirit it's possible. So you think about these things how it changes everything, but forgiveness, I must digress back to that. If you read the Scriptures, how many times did Jesus say, “Your sins are forgiven; go and sin no more”? And we always take that out of context, but idea is that the Lord Himself looked upon people and forgave them. And remember what, what somebody said to Jesus, “Only God can forgive sins,” well, there you go. Forgiveness happened fully and completely on the cross to reconcile fallen man back to God, not to be put in the state of original Adam, but to be put back in the state to be able at some point to be eternally with God. So all I can tell you is part of understanding how His Resurrection affects you life is what God was doing the day after Adam and Eve fell from grace. It didn't just start with your birth or with the coming of Christ. It started way back there and it's a whole history of redemptive process until God said, “This is the final way.” I've been teaching on the tabernacle trying to show you that even there God was saying, “Christ is the way,” except Christ hadn't come in the flesh yet.
So by different shadows and types the depiction of Christ, His vicarious sacrifice; you can list all of them, they're all there. Don't think I'm preaching on the tabernacle because I want to talk about furniture. He knows our frame. I wish I could say this colloquially, because it would hit home for some of you. He knows how messed up we all are. Don't think; you're not fooling me and you're not fooling God and I'm not going to fool you; we're all messed up. There is no person in the sound of my voice that isn't a little messed up in the head, and God knows that. Only some delusional person would say, “Well, some of you are and some of you aren't”━you're all messed up! I'm messed up! And that's part of forgiveness is understanding our frame. You can be the most; you could be a strong person on the outside. You can give all the verbiage of strength, but inside, I don't care if you're a man or a woman, you are as frail and as weak in the frame that God knows that.
Not designed to be a stoic. This is my grievance with some people. They think somehow, “I can't possibly show any weakness at all.” Try that with God, because God knows the façade, He knows the games and the charades we play. That is, by the way, a changed mind before God through the Resurrection will change that. The next one is hope; hope is a part of the future as in life and death, hope through the resurrected Christ offers something else, the ability to see how He is able to help you when everything else is lost, bleak, and gone. Now, that's not battlefield prayers. That's hope that's always been there. That's the knowledge that, and don't misinterpret this, we spend our entire lives messing things up. We do. Even with good intentions, even with the best of intentions. He doesn't somehow with a magic wand fix everything, but it is through the things we mess up. If you're willing to see the direction that He gives, there's hope in watching how God will use certain things to help shape and form and give us direction.
That can give great hope, when you understand that not everything is a disaster. Let me give you a perfect case in point. Look at this crazy world. It looks like it's gone off the rails completely. Would you agree? (Yes, ma'am) But hope, for me, is looking at this crazy world and understanding something that for some people these current events are going to drive people who would never pray and never ask God, “Help me,” that gives me hope that not all is lost, because you know, God has a way of bringing the ones that He wants to their knees. And that may come sometimes through sickness, it may come through loss, poverty; you name it, but God has a way, knowing exactly what it is that will bring me to my knees; same for you. That gives me hope.
And you might say, “Well, what kind of hope is that?” It's the hope that I'm not alone in this world, even when I feel like it. It's the hope that through all of this, I know this sounds like a really cheesy statement, but I have a singular most important Friend, who will never leave me. So when everybody else is running because they're scared, I know the One who not abandon me. That gives me hope. What else will this do? Well, it will definitely change your heart. And by that I mean, and I hope this one hits home, how many people will listen and not have a change of heart? And by that I mean they will never make an attempt to understand what being part of the kingdom of God and being a child of God is. That means I'm part of, I'm actually part of a community of believers. I belong somewhere.
I am not some outsider. Do you know how many people I've heard say, “Well, I come to church, but”━you don't have to come to church to be a Christian. But a changed heart says, “I actually long to be amongst people that are likeminded.” Just think on that. A change of heart can also bring about a change of mind when it comes to things like giving. I know people that are so greedy or so cheap or so tightwad, the idea of actually giving every single week or month to the work of the ministry is absurd, “Oh, no.
I've got to keep the money in my bank account. I might need it. I've got to buy myself something,” fill in the blanks. But I, I'm sure about this; you have a medical emergency, you'll, you'll find the money for that. You have something dire, you've got life or death, you'll find the money for that. And don't tell me that understanding about God isn't life and death either.
See, that change of heart changes everything. Now some people come into the church, and let me talk about this for a minute. Some people come into the church and they are not generous, they are not givers, they have no understanding; they just come. They're happy to just be. And I get that. But at some point there's a nagging that starts to happen, “What can I do? How can I help? What is there more than just sitting in a seat and listening? What is it?” That is the genesis, and I've seen it; trust me, with a lot of new people that have come, “What? What more can I do? How can I help?” And it's not because they believe their help is an embodiment of works; they want to put their hand to the plow and participate, because anybody who understands the work of God and the work of the ministry and doesn't make it into a caricature, you can't help yourself.
And with the resurrected mind you cannot stop yourself, you are going to be, in fact, I've had this problem of telling people don't be here so much. Now you think, “Oh, okay, this person's got problems at home, that's why they don't want to be here, right?” Wrong. You've got husbands and wives coming to fulfill commitments together. That's not because there's a problem in the home. I can give you all kinds of scenarios, but I can also give you the people who give excuses, “Somebody else is doing it. Oh, I'm not really needed.” That's not the mind of Christ. The mind of Christ says, “How can I participate?” Like the disciples who were called, maybe initially they didn't understand what Jesus meant when He said, “I'll make you fishers of men from mere fishermen.” But you come in contact with the resurrected Christ and you take in that evidence and the change occurs, you might actually see it's not going to be some change from A to Z, but the context, the frame of reference, your focus will be different; it will be changed.
Or you'll be like I said the one who's indifferent and decides, “No, not my problem.” That's the flesh talking, by the way, not the Spirit. So I will say one last thing on this, on this particular sub-header here, and that is when I look at some of the most famous converts, which I would highly urge some of you if you are still not hearing down to the core, read the story of the most reluctant convert, C. S. Lewis and how his friends, like J. R. Tolkien, who I believe was a Catholic, but influenced in his inimitable way. But C. S. Lewis didn't come to the faith because of Tolkien. He came to the faith because of God. And there's a whole list of these, but you know what is amazing? From a man who discounted and said, “This is all mere rubbish,” and he goes on to write what I would call one of the most genius books that children and adults alike can read and enjoy, The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, which is cloaked in Christian symbolism all the way through.
And you read that book and it has to make you shake your head for a minute that this was written by someone who absolutely discounted the faith, let alone reading the Bible. There's something to this that somehow if we are really looking at the evidence and we're really looking at everything what comes after that is a change. And as I said, it may not happen instantaneously, it may happen over time. Some people will frustrate the grace of God because they say, “Well, maybe I'm turning soft, or maybe I'm becoming this.” But the greatest thing that I can tell you that I have seen with my own eyes, I have watched people, not just for 18 years, but for all the time I've been with this ministry I have watched people that were living a certain way, and not under the, the coercion of anybody else, but they came to a conclusion: this has to stop, this has to change.
And not just words, with my own eyes I've seen. And I'm not going to stand here and take the time to calculate and enumerate how many. That's not the point. The point is exposure to the evidence should produce a change, a change in heart, a change in mind, a change in attitude; a change, by the way, that starts with I'm interested in learning more, tell me more. And maybe like many people who tune in, they say, “I'm not sure that I understand everything you said.” That's okay, because I didn't understand everything at the first. And most people; tell the truth, so that the world can hear. When you came in and you first started listening, did it all make sense to you? (No, Ma'am.) So don't think out there that you're somehow unique because you don't understand. It's called tenacity to stay with the stuff until something clicks, the lights come on, and you actually say, “Oh, my God! Why didn't I see this sooner?” How many, that's, that was my experience, why didn't I see this sooner.
How unfair is that that God didn't open my eyes sooner? But thank God He did. And that's the attitude we have to summarize and, and stay with. So, yes, maybe sometimes your pastor gets a little analytical or she gets a little parsing and things, but I wanted to keep this as simple as possible for the people out there that say, “What am I supposed to do?” I've given you enough in this to tell you there should be something that happens, and don't expect it to be something radical, something overnight; things that happen over time.
And I, I urge you to just consider this one thing. The disciples were with Christ for over three years. Did they change in three years? No. What changed them? The Resurrection, that single event, not just analyzing it, not just being a witness to it; that singular event just radically changed everything. And that same process, don't think that that event stopped and there was a terminus. You know, the terminus will be when God says, “I have enough souls. The number of souls that I desire to have with Me in My eternal kingdom has been met,” whatever that is. I have no idea. And when that number is fulfilled and God says, “Okay, the time is up here on earth.” But that shouldn't scare anyone who has this mind, because it opens the door to something else.
You know, this age we live in where people want to live forever and it's chasing after the fountain of youth, and “How can I keep this? And how can I hold onto it?” instead of thinking this old thing is going to rot. I'm more interested in the eternal clothing I'm going to get that I get to wear forever that I don't have to think about disease, I don't have to think about wrinkles, dying, disease, what I, whatever I just said in multiply it by a million, because everything will be magnified in the positive with Christ, with Him forever. That is really if you take; the takeaway from all this is about the kingdom of God. And the kingdom of God starts the moment a person's eyes are opened. And I don't just mean because you heard, but the words have sunk down, taken root, and somehow that change is happening. My prayer today is for all those people who have not even understood what the application is, that your eyes may be opened and that something starts to click with you that this is not some exercise like a checkbook that you just check off that “I've done that,” but rather, a process that will last until you depart from this earth.
And the process is a beautiful one; pain along the way, there's some tumult along the way, there's some suffering along the way, but all the while you recognize there's a purpose in all of this. My purpose I understand, your purpose I understand, is to be a child of God in the kingdom with Him forever. That can only be understood in the Spirit. And I can't make somebody have the Spirit, but somebody who's desiring, somebody who earnestly wants, they will come to that conclusion and understand that's God's job and He is still doing. What He did back here in the book He's still doing today. So you say to me, “Well, change hasn't happened to me yet.” Be patient, my friends. Stay in the word and keep looking unto Him who is able to accomplish all in your life. That's my message. You have been watching me, Pastor Melissa Scott, live from Glendale, California at Faith Center. If you would like to attend the service with us, Sunday morning at 11am, simply call 1-800-338-3030 to receive your pass.
If you'd like more teaching and you would like to go straight to our website, the address is www.PastorMelissaScott.com.
foreign [Music] for people who do not understand biblical numerology seven I'll give you examples you can understand seven days makes a complete week does it not thank God all right so seven if you're reading the book of Revelation that's a number that keeps reappearing why because in the Book of Revelation It's the final basically outflow of God's message to humanity and seven is a number that keeps reappearing over and over to say this is a complete Perfection fulfillment of what God has laid out as his plan speaking for Humanity on Earth until something else happens so you look at it that way as I said seven and four are not added they are multiplied and there is a reason for that and I'm going to explain this this may not make sense to all but try and bear with me if you remember the passage where Christ is being tempted the Temptation Of Christ and Satan comes and several times tries to twist scripture it's important to see that while Christ was being tempted he did not succumb he still remained within the Temptation he remained perfect now when you try to look at this as how we're going to do math all right and these in all of these it's almost like saying he was tempted but he was still perfect he remained sinless he did not succumb when we're looking at adding the numbers up it's not this plus this plus that it's almost an intensification which brings about multiplication so many times when we reference for example there are passages in the Bible that talk about punishment punishment that's upcoming in weeks in terms of weeks it's usually multiplied so when we count in Bible Concepts it's usually multiplication it's not Plus and I'm probably sure I lost a couple of people with the Temptation Of Christ but the idea is it's intensified in it's not added on to [Music] you [Music] so Tuesday coming to this house
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I think it's safe to say when we talk about prayer and pray without ceasing in the context of the altar, the same concepts, I don't think it necessarily means that you are to pray in the sense of, you know, I'm going to lock myself in a room and for, for ten hours I'm just going to not stop praying. If you want to do that that's your business, but the idea is that it is perpetual, it's continual. That means whatever I might have prayed for yesterday, I may come back again tomorrow and do the same thing and likewise and so on. And I think that's where people get a little bit nutty. They think taking it literally, which is I will, I will pray without ceasing, I will pray at all times. No one can pray at all times, okay. Just get, get that idea out of your head. ♪ ♪ So we've been studying the tabernacle in the wilderness, its particular; its dimensions, its material, colors, the structure itself, and the furniture therein. And today I want us to turn our attention to the table of showbread, the showbread, and if times permits, we will move onto the golden altar.
But here is what's important. So this table, which you'll find in a diversity of places, but in Exodus, specifically the mention for the building of the table, which is sometimes called “the table of showbread,” sometimes called “the pure table,” when eventually when we get to Solomon's temple it will be called the temple of; “the table of gold,” but again, made of acacia wood. If you remember I said to you there's a translation from the Septuagint, which is the Greek version of the Old Testament, and if you read the Septuagint version of these verses and passages, they call the translation of the acacia wood is “incorruptible wood.” And I think that's really pretty cool.
Always overlaid with pure gold; and the dimensions of the table, two cubits in length, and if you heard me explain the cubit, from the elbow approximately to the length of the, we'll call it the middle finger would have been a cubit, so two cubits in length and one cubit in breadth and one-and-a-half cubits in height. And as I've said, the numbers always mean something. And I've done enough on the numbers that you could probably go back into the other messages and see what those, if you don't know them, what the numbers symbolize. I've already explained the gold, referring to Christ's divinity and the acacia wood referring to His humanity, which He was both all at once. So I love that these pieces of furniture, except for the candlestick, which we saw, which was pure gold, I like that everything in here points to a description. Which, by the way, think about this: God could have just said, “Make everything out of gold.” They had enough, by the way. Don't think they didn't have enough; they had enough. Remember, at some point God says, “Tell them to stop bringing; we have too much.” Remember that? So it's not as though they couldn't have done it some other way.
This was God's design and this is why you read in the New Testament, “See to it that you build it exactly according to the pattern.” Why, because there was built into that pattern, we'll call them the shadows and types that reveal and point to Christ. So this table had two, what are referred to as crowns, separated by a border and four golden rings, one at each corner through which poles or “staves” would be put through in order to carry that table when it was time to move. I also want you to keep in mind; obviously they wandered in the wilderness for forty years, so I want you to keep in mind that everything that God did here, pretty interesting that God saw this is going to be a moving event, perpetually. So the fact that everything is incorporated into the design is, is pretty interesting, because you know, if you think about it, we humans would go, “Okay, let's build a table,” but we wouldn't think maybe of putting the rings on for the staves, because we don't; it would be an afterthought. God included all this in the design.
So what I like about this is if you're reading about the table itself, when it says it has two crowns, there are three pieces of furniture mentioned with crowns, and I think this is not an accident either. The ark of the covenant has what's referred to as “crowns” on it, the table of showbread, and the golden altar. And I need to say something here, because I hope I haven't confused people, who don't maybe have this down pat. The brasen altar, which is outside versus the golden altar of incense, which is what we're talking about; I'm moving towards that, which would have been on the, in the same realm, if you will, of the candlestick, in that same area. So three pieces of furniture that had crowns on them, and what's interesting about this is these three pieces of furniture at some point we might take a bird's-eye view, but having these crowns, I thought it interesting that the table, in fact, has what I would call a double crown on it. And I don't think it's an accident.
Obviously crowns in this case, at this point in time, can only have two references. One would be to the miter that the high priest would wear, which was referred to as a “holy crown,” and that obviously of a king. And if you think about it, Jesus fulfilled both the high priest and kingly role, so when you read about, for example, two crowns on one piece of furniture, it, to me, fulfills both of those roles. This is a lot of, as I said, type. We're looking at types, but you know, if you look at all the furniture it is not a mistake.
As I said, the numbers, for example, we're talking about four corners in this case of the table, which I've already said in numbers, four corners of the earth, like we have four seasons or four quarters. These numbers are incredibly important. The same thing, this table is described as having four feet. Luckily it has four and not two. You'll get that one later. Again, balance, representing what will be presented to the whole earth or what's available to the whole earth. So I love all of these examples in type. But the table itself would have twelve loaves of bread weekly, basically. So these twelve loaves would be baked and placed on the table every week, and at a certain set time during the week these loaves would be replaced. And we know from different parts of the Bible there's an explanation that once this bread basically has been replaced, the old bread can be consumed by the priests.
So it's almost as though everything in the tabernacle has a purpose. There's really no waste. And as I said, kind of interesting, if you go to the book of Leviticus; Leviticus, for example, explains in just a few verses about the showbread. Leviticus 24 says, “Thou shalt take the fine flour, bake twelve cakes thereof: two tenths deals shall be in one cake.” And you see, even that you might think, “Well, why is that important: 'two tenths deals shall be in one cake'?” I'll tell you in a minute. “Thou shalt set them in two rows, six on a row, upon the pure table before the LORD,” there it is. It's not called “the table of showbread,” but “the pure table,” right there. “Thou shalt put pure frankincense upon each row, that it may be on the bread for a memorial, even an offering made by fire unto the LORD. And every sabbath he shall set in order before the LORD continually, being taken from the children of Israel by an everlasting covenant. And it shall be Aaron's and his sons'; and they shall eat it in the holy place: for it is most holy unto him of the offerings of the LORD made by fire by a perpetual statute.” So it's kind of interesting this bread, baked every week, but the two tenths deal kind of got my attention, and why is that? Because if you read some of the other places where you find this “two tenth deal” for, for example the meal offering in the feast day of the sheaf of the firstfruits was to be two tenths deal of fine flour.
The wave offering, for example in the feast of Pentecost, the same thing: two tenths deal of flour. But the manna that was to be gathered on the sixth day of the week, you would actually end up with a double portion, because you had to gather twice as much, because you were not allowed to gather on a set day that was set aside where no gathering could occur. So I want you to think about this. It's equally interesting that the twelve loaves, inside each loaf basically would contain a double portion.
And that might not hit you right away, because the loaves are a little bit tricky to explain in their type, in their meaning, but I'll, hopefully I'll get to it. And then you come back to the understanding of the manna. And the manna has, I think, kind of baffled a lot of people. And I say that because, think it, think of it this way. God rains down this light bread, which the people, after they murmured that they were hungry, right, God rains down this light bread, the “what-cha-ma-call-it,” right, gives them instruction on how to gather, what basically what to do with it, and so forth. And one of the stranger things is when the instructions are given to gather up manna and put it in a pot that will be placed inside the ark, along with Aaron's rod that budded and the unbroken tables of stone, but what's strange is those, that manna that's placed inside the ark is, it's called something, we'll call it continuous or perpetually contained in the ark. And we'll say once the lid or the mercy seat was placed upon the ark, covered and not seen anymore.
And I've said this for many weeks now, with people asking, “Where's the ark?” When you read in the book of Revelation, and I believe it's in the second chapter, it talks about “To him that overcomes I will give to; to him I will give to eat of the hidden manna.” That's why I said to you be very careful to not exclude Scriptures that tell you that God had a purpose in taking away the ark. So think about that. While all of these mystery hunters out there think they're going to solve the problem and it will be an “Aha moment,” uh, okay. Knock yourselves out. So with that being said, I also read here about this frankincense that would be placed upon the loaves. And then of course, these loaves would be replenished weekly. Now, frankincense, there's kind of this shades of meaning. It can be representing holiness, righteousness, truth, even deity.
But if you recall of the gifts that were brought to the Christ child, it was gold, frankincense, and myrrh. And we know that there in those offerings we see a type again. The gold obviously was representing His divinity or His deity, the myrrh in preparation for His death, and the frankincense we can kind of ambiguously say either sweet savor, sweet aroma to God, but also His righteousness. There's a whole━there's kind of that. So applied to the bread it becomes, well, what would be the purpose if the bread, by the way, is going to be consumed by the priests? But it's, it is consecrated bread, in some places called “consecrated bread,” other places called “hallowed bread.” So why would God have them put this frankincense on there? And I think a lot of times there's, there's all these little nifty things we can read about, but the frankincense could also serve as a form of preservative.
So imagine, you know what happens when you leave something out, especially bread. What happens after a week of it being exposed? It's nice and hard, right. So I'm assuming that the frankincense actually had a preservative-type action with the bread. There's something else that's equally interesting about the bread. We read that the bread was pierced. And I think that's interesting, because the bread had to be pierced in order for it to rise.
Do I need to explain that one? That's pretty━okay, but I'm going to do it for the sake of the people that say, “Okay, well what? What the hell did she just say?” So if the bread, remember this I said it's tricky, because the bread is actually an offering out of God's provision from, basically from God, the people take it, and then the people bring it back as an offering to God, right. But so it has multiple, we'll call it, it could have at least two or three meanings or two or three interpretations.
So the bread being pieced, as I said, if we call Christ, as He referred to Himself as “the bread from heaven,” or “the bread of life”" that Bread of life also had to be pierced so it could rise. I love these little━they're very simple, but they're very clear. It's almost like God's saying, “Can you hear Me now?” right. All right, the measurements of the table, as I've already said, the height is one-and-a-half cubits tall, the same as the ark of the covenant. And this is important because the table being the same height as the ark, where the bread would be placed, puts it on the same level, if you will, as the mercy seat.
So the redemptive act where the blood would be sprinkled and applied would carry the same value in height as the bread placed upon the table. And this kind of is important to understand, because the bread may also be considered representing communion or fellowship with God. So if you think about it, the redemptive work of Christ and communion with Christ kind of go on the same level as the measurements depict. It's one of those things that if you're moving around you see that every detail here points to something. God didn't waste a crumb; pardon the pun. All right, there is I said, I mentioned a crown around the table; two crowns, in fact. And I love this, but be very careful about how you interpret what I'm about to say, because I know a lot of people will go far with this one. The crown around the table may have had a practical purpose, and that practical purpose may have been from keeping the bread from slipping off the table. Now if you go back to what I said about our two crowns and the full fulfillment of high priest and king being fulfilled in Christ, then Christ does help us, but unlike the bread that doesn't have free will, we do.
So we can slip and fall, if you will, off of God's table. All right, don't make the mistake. This is, again, one of those things denominationally speaking that some believe “once saved, always saved.” I do not preach that and do not believe that. I have seen more people in my lifetime, some very impressive, brilliant minds for the Lord, they were incredible, they made incredible contributions in ministry that fell away.
And then the people that believe in the doctrine of eternal salvation, “once saved, always saved” will say, “Well, they were never saved in the first place.” That's pretty hard to actually remedy when you look at some of the writings of some of these people who spent thirty and forty years of their life studying the book, preaching the word, and for whatever the events that happened fell away. So I, I don't think that this crown around the table, we can't go too far, as I said, because I don't believe in “once saved, always saved,” but it did have a purpose. And I'd say if you want to take this and make it something that could be applied, looking to the crowns, the high priest and king, can help you.
It doesn't mean it's going to stop you from slipping, but it can help you, and I, I'm just going to leave that there. The bread, sometimes called “the bread of faces,” the bread that would be placed before God, bread, lechem, and pânîym, so it's interesting. The bread of faces, if you translate the word “showbread,” just the word “show” from our English going back into the Hebrew is “to say,” or “to declare.” So it's, it's kind of a strange thing.
I'm not even sure why or how that came to be, but that's what it is. Sometimes also, as I said, referred to as “the continual bread,” and I like that. Remember that each one of these in proper context, the continual bread, which would mean the bread never ceases, even though the manna stopped the bread never ceased. If the bread for us is Christ, He is everlasting and ever liveth, so you can take that how you want. If you remember, there is a passage where David is fleeing for his live and runs in. He finds the priest and he's asking for two things: food and weapons.
Do you remember that? Okay, when he asks the priest, the priest says, “I only have hallowed bread here; not common bread.” And I like the fact that just in that one distinction it lets us know this is no ordinary bread. The priest did not see it as ordinary. Even though it was bread, it was not considered common or ordinary. And again, if you're going to keep going back to these references of Christ, who is the bread of life, no ordinary situation here in Christ either. So all of these, as I said, have great meaning if you're going to comb through the furniture here. The bread, as I said, represents both an offering; and this is where it get complicated and I'm going to try and do this as clearly as I can, but it's difficult, because the bread is, yes, an offering from the people to God, but let me take a little pause right here.
There are too many places specifically in the first five books of the Bible that talk about offerings and giving that explain something that if we all just kind of took a minute to process this, there would be no confusion here. Even that offering from the people to God came out of God's provision to the people, and if you think about it, every single offering that God along the way asked, whether; it didn't matter, it all came out of the provisions that God provided. This is what is frustrating to me as, as a preacher, but also as a person of God. I don't understand this.
And maybe someday, someone will come and argue and enlighten me on this, but I don't understand. If it's as clear as day here that God multiple times over gave to the people, in order that they could give back and participate in worship. What does that tell you about our response? I don't care what you've been taught; what does that tell you about our responsibility, first in recognizing who the Provider is, where the provisions come from, and why we need to be givers? It really kind of; you know, think about this. Have you ever given something to somebody, and we're just human flesh pots, but have you ever given something to somebody and they don't even say, “Thank you.” They don't even━it's like someone who's entitled.
They don't even recognize the gift that was just given to them. And you don't do it because you're expecting “Thank you” or recognition. Now put that on steroids. God, who has given us our faculties, our abilities, the breath in our lung, and yet; lungs, and yet people will still make this an argument. And I think probably this year for me has been the most crystal clear on this subject. It's not discussable. It never was discussable. For all the people out there, for all of you out there who still play this game of “Well, I don't think it's necessary,” or whatever it is, you're just deceiving yourself, because if I'm showing you the patterns that God put down here, not just the patterns of Christ and everything that points to Christ, but also how we are to relate to God. And even, remember I told you a couple of weeks ago, the approach to the tabernacle, those white curtains, right; think about this. Before you came into the church you might have been thinking, you might have been, you know, wondering about God, but then if you're like me, I stayed away from the church.
And I stayed away from the church, A) because I left the church long ago and out of, from a myriad number of reasons. But I also in my mind thought I couldn't possibly be accepted into the mix. So those white curtains still exist today. They're for any person who hasn't come to know the door that you must go through or the sacrifice that was made or the laver of cleansing; all of these things help us, including the structure in which God organized it. See, too many people focus on this idea of the tithe, and not enough focus is given here on who gave to be able to make you a giver. Think about that. Cain and Abel; who, who provided the offering for them? Who? And you keep going and you recognize all the way through it, every juncture it's the same thing. So what happens when we come before God? And I'm just going to say it like this, because the Bible talks about coming before God empty-handed.
What does it say? It says, “I completely deny that You ever provided for me in the first place.” Sorry, but if you can't see that you may not have the Spirit of God in you, because that's exactly, without telling somebody how much you need to give, but rather what's underneath it all. What is in the person's heart? Failure to recognize that, you can't━it doesn't matter what you take out of your pockets afterwards, it's all going to be works of the flesh, an endeavor to check a box and not see how God has laid this out crystal clear. So just put a little period right there, because that tells you my take.
Again, every week I'm going to maybe hammer on this. My take on giving is not some optional ideology or let's describe a percentage. Let's start with the right first place here. Every place here we're looking at, so the, the bread placed on the table, as I said, the oil in the lamps. And yes, there are two distinct types of oil; it doesn't matter. Again, the people had to gather it and bring it and produce it. So you've got enough there, all of the material that was required to build the tabernacle: all the threads, all the gold, all the silver; all of it, where did it come from? You could say, “Well, they came out of Egypt and they basically looted the Egyptians as God told them to do.” That's a good obedience right there. I mean, you know, we, we got people thinking they're coming out of Egypt in San Francisco and Sacramento all day long. That might; you'll get that one later.
No. All right, I was meaning in the looting part there, okay. So don't say, “Oh, well, it's biblical! I just went into whatever place to rip it off because it's biblical.” No, this is━but I'm, what I'm trying to show you is even there God made a provision and said, “Go get it from these people,” and there was a reason for them. Obviously, God didn't━think about this. God said, “Go get it from these people and take it from them as you go.” Why? If God wasn't planning to have this, all of what they took be a part of a pattern to build, then they'd just be a bunch of rich, heavy laden wanderers in the desert and with no point.
So again, this kind━I, I hope I've killed that one and it's clear. So I said the bread is complicated, because the bread, as I said, as an offering the bread can also be a representation, as I said, of Christ as I described that the bread being pierced in order for it to rise. So there, there could be multiple ways to interpret this, and I'm not going to get dogmatic over which one to go with.
They both embody the concept that I'm trying to convey. Twelve: the number of loaves that would be placed there every week, and replaced weekly; this number, as I've pointed out reoccurs over and over again. You've got the twelve tribes, you've got the, the twelve disciples. So twelve in this case, the number of divine government, which kind of is the pattern we're going to see spread throughout. Some people have labeled twelve as apostolic fulfill-ness or fullness, if you will. I, I'm just going to say I prefer to say divine government. It, it takes care of everything here. The number twelve also is carried into the heavenly city with its gates, if you think about it, twelve is everywhere in the Bible; twelve foundations, twelve precious stones, so not an accident in terms of the number.
I love the fact, by the way, that if you look at some of the references of twelve, like the twelve stones that Joshua took where the waters were basically arrested so that they could cross over, or the twelve stones of Elijah. Again, probably more of a mystery to me, the twelve stones of Elijah, because we're dealing with 1 Kings 17 or 18, where we're just starting to see the fracture that is beginning to occur within the kingdoms, and yet God didn't say, “Pick up two and ten.” He said, “Twelve”" there were twelve stones.
So again, with all of the separation we know that will occur, God's language is always going to be united; multiple parts, but united within. And I like that too. There's a mention in the table that might not make sense, and it says that there was a “border of a handbreadth between.” So I want you to think about this. Think about the table itself, and then almost a table within a table, so that you can understand what the border might be. And that border of a handbreadth, this is a tricky one, because no one is quite sure. And trust me; I went to some of my Hebrew sources. No one is quite sure what to make of the proper interpretation of this word, because it's so ambiguous. But I'm going to go for how I understand it, almost as the word connotes “fortress, safe place, enclosure,” a “handbreadth.” So I'm going to say that that concept basically separates. In other words, there is a ledge that is probably designed for the placing of utensils.
The table came with spoons and bowls and other things, so probably that area might have been to put some of those items on. That would have been enough space for it. But I'd like to say that the interior, what we'd call the interior border or that interior walled-off section was a way of separating. And I like this because it, it reminds me of a very strange, it's a very strange analogy I'm going to tell you right away. But if you remember, in the book of Ezekiel, God's describing the city, and He's taking Ezekiel through every part, and He says once He's finished in one area He takes him outside, and He mentions, in the Hebrew━you won't see it in English, but it's the same concept of a hand, hand's breadth to denote separation from other things coming in contact with other things.
So I think that's interesting that God put that there on the table. And whether that is to suggest the bread, if that is possible, being separated out, which it was, it wasn't common bread, or whether that is to represent those people who could approach the table, who were separated out, the high priests. But in any case, it denotes a form of separation, which I think it's like saying this bread is specific and not everyone is invited to partake and to touch, okay. And you might say, “Well, that's kind of unfair.” Well, whoever said it was fair? All right, I think I've probably covered enough on that to talk about, so why I say the separation of the bread is because within all of these pieces of furniture you're also going to find different concepts theologically that we talk about in the New Testament.
So I believe that part of the design of the table, you know, I just used the word “separation” or to keep out would represent what we would call in the New Testament “sanctification,” a separating apart. So kind of just put that as an important thing. And then I love this. In the realm of the tabernacle God basically says, I read it to you that Aaron and his sons, they shall eat it in the holy place. So God made a provision for the people who would be serving and doing the work of basically everything that was contained within that holy place.
Now we don't have a designated place anymore, but I love the fact that right there it basically says God provided. You know, bread is always interpreted as “the staff of life.” God provided for those serving Him the ability to partake. Now take yourselves right into the New Testament. We are a royal priesthood. There is no priests; Jesus is our high priest. But again, this comes back to provision.
And I believe this wholeheartedly. Someone who serves the Lord; and don't just say, “Oh, are you talking about being a pastor?” No, I'm talking about anyone who serves the Lord; you are a servant in your own home. You are a servant unto the Lord when you come here and you do whatever you do, if you do it in the name of the Lord that the Lord provides. And this is another one of these built-in messages that says to me when it says, “And Aaron and his sons, they shall eat it in the holy place,” as if to explain to us that anyone who's going to be committed. You know, there's another Scripture that says, “I have never seen his righteous ones begging bread.” Well, I've seen people begging for bread, hungry, okay. And that doesn't mean, no, they didn't serve. But I'm talking about I have yet to see God abandon the hand or the mouth of someone who is committed to serving, why, because God knows what's in your heart.
That's not to say that God's going to put out fillet mignon for you every night, but it's simply along the same lines of the Lord knows exactly what we need. And if bread is the staff of life, I'm going to go beyond the provisions of food to talk about the provisions of the total person, which come to us in the form of Christ. Again, everywhere you turn it's like mirrors that keep reflecting Christ throughout this whole tabernacle.
It's inescapable. And that's what I love about these studies. You cannot, if you're reading the same Bible I'm reading you cannot escape these types. And they tell me something. They over and over and even deeply or deeper every single week tell me God did not make━there were no accidents here like, “Oops, you know, I just, I decided I wanted this.” No, they're very deliberate. When I talk about these things, and I just mentioned the vessels that would be used in accompaniment with the table, the vessels were set apart for a specific purpose. You'd never see the flagons or the covers or the spoons being used for something else. They were specifically used for service at that table and nowhere else. And that tells me just like each and every one of us as vessels, we have a unique purpose.
That doesn't mean that we can't do multiple things or multitask, but we have a unique purpose in God's plan. And again, I, I think the concept, the question that's asked, you know, “Could God set a table in the wilderness?” Well, of course He did. And this paints the picture rather clearly, not only was this a table of fellowship and communion, but if you think about it, from the very beginning where they would have to go and gather the manna, I want you to imagine what that must have been like, all right, because God gives a specific command for how much they can gather and when they can gather and how they can gather it. So from start to finish God provided opportunities for the people of God to participate. Now I'm going to stop right there and ask you a question. Why is it that, fast forward into the New Testament church world and people think, “There's nothing for me to do”? I'm not talking about works.
I'm just saying that if you look even at the pattern of how everybody participated, each had their own. I said this last week. Some people were responsible for gathering the olives to make the oil, some people were charged with gathering the manna, some people were charged with the craftsmanship, but everybody did something that brought the whole camp to be involved. So think about these things, because I think it's pretty important. Now, when it came time to move the table, like other pieces of furniture, God provided the covering. And it's the same covering that I described, more or less. You've got the table that would be covered with a blue cloth that would be underneath it all. And of course, I've already blue, the color of eternity. The dishes, spoons, and bowls had a scarlet covering on them or red covering on them.
And the final covering would be badger skin. And I always like this because even the last time I mentioned this, people were like, “What the hell is that?” But think of it as the ugliest nondescript covering that you could have; nothing to look at. And this is what I love. To the natural eye, to the person in the flesh, if they saw the badger skin it, it would almost probably be repulsive. They would say, “What? What? How could that be holy?” because, you think about it, look at the complete opposite here. The complete opposite when people think of “holy” they think of opulence and they think of grandiose.
They think of the Catholic Church with its pomp and splendor and all the ornate-ness, right? You don't think badger skin. Badger skin is like, “Yuck, that's repulsive” to the natural man, to the natural eye. But someone who can look at this and really understand the meanings of these coverings, you're seeing what we'd call the, the, what the Bible refers to in Isaiah, speaking of Christ: there was no beauty in Him. So one has to look at the covering, and if it is with the eyes of the Spirit, you can see beyond the badger skin down to the blue and see the eternal purpose. But someone who doesn't have the Spirit is going to look at this and say, “What is this? This is like a junkyard with all kinds of stuff being transported, covered up with all kinds of”━it's like going to Grandma's house with all these different coverings on everything, right? What the heck? All right, so I think I've, I've given you enough of the picture of this table and its, its purpose.
I'm going to move on to the golden altar of incense, which was also in the holy place, as I realize if I keep going at this speed we will never get out of the tabernacle. So this piece once more, acacia wood overlaid with pure gold, sometimes called “the altar of gold before the throne.” There is that reference, by the way, in Revelation 8:3. I want you to ask yourself the question, why are there references to articles of furniture or concepts that were in the Pentateuch that appear in the book of Revelation if it's not because God is saying, “That was a shadow; I'm showing you what the actual substance, the tangible substance is now”? That's what will be revealed, the real thing.
So as I said, the altar before the Lord, also called “the altar of sweet incense,” it's dimensions, one cubit square and two cubits high. And I think this is pretty interesting myself, because that right there, one cubit square, means it was a square. It was square square. And I don't, again, I don't think this is an accident. If this golden altar, being probably the tallest or greatest in height of the table, of the ark of the covenant, or whatnot, the interesting thing here is that you have the shape. The shape brings me back to something pretty important, the, the city that is described as foursquare, the city that's yet to be, the heavenly city of Jerusalem described as foursquare. And again, the interesting relationship to the other pieces of furniture, what this particular altar, we call it the altar of incense; incense would be burned upon it, if you will. That altar represents for us what we would call another form of communion, prayers ascending to God, in the New Testament form if you will.
This golden altar had horns on each corner, a crown molding of sorts, gold around the edges with two rings of gold underneath what I'm calling the “crown molding,” which would kind of be a decorative something that goes around the exterior square. This altar would be found just before the veil. And I want to make sure that I make this really, really clear, because I know there'll be people that will be confused about this. So the difference between the brasen altar, which is further back, go back towards the entrance, all right. And sometimes I think people confuse the brasen altar with the golden altar. So the brasen altar is where the sacrifice for the sinner was offered. We call that judgment, we'd call that everything that you want to look at in terms of the act required to redeem or to forgive the sins of the sinner.
And you cannot, you would not be able to approach the altar of incense without having made or seen the sacrifice. So in translation for us, you come through the door to see the sacrificial and finished work of Christ, and when you are able to see, understand, recognize, no, and it doesn't have to be perfectly, but with that focus, then you approach and the incense of prayers can ascend. You know, people say, “Well, can I just pray?” Well, who are you praying to? So there, there is a pattern with purpose here. It's not just simply, “Okay, I'm going to go through the motions and check the box.” There was actually a method to this. Also, once a year on the great Day of Atonement, Yom Kippur, they'd also apply blood onto this altar as well. In fact, I think everything got blood-covered. The blood obviously being a picture of this sacrifice accomplished, and so the foundation of worship therefore and praise was going back behind what was already done, the shed blood that was already shed.
So again, none of this would have━do you realize if I wasn't giving you the other side, which is showing you Christ, it just kind of sounds like, “Well, what's the purpose?” because you'd have to repeat this every year, and some of this you'd have to repeat every day or every week. What's the point? So again, that's why I said to you, you cannot read this without seeing that God actually had a vision to carry out the fullness of His Son, but these all point in that direction. The incense, this is another interesting one, made of four sweet spices in equal amounts would be blended and burned, produced fragrant odors or perfume.
One of these spices, the Hebrew word nâtâph, “to drop,” or “to distill,” a balm, which suggests fragrant outpouring of a life yielded. It's kind of interesting if you look up that word. The second one is a little bit more strange, because the second ingredient would be, would come from a shell or a scale that would be ground down into a fine powder. They'd find this shell around the Red Sea. It sounds a little bit weird to grind down a shell, but when finely ground it would produce a very fragrant perfume. Some scholars have equated the, this kind of incense, the full compound of the incense with a complete dedication or devotion. I'm not sure that I want to go that far, but it all has meaning. The next ingredient was a sap-like substance called, “galbanum,” which is purported to have medicinal properties. And finally frankincense, which you can see frankincense would have a place almost, almost throughout the whole tabernacle.
Our English word refers to its fast and free-burning qualities. Frankincense as a medicine or antidote to poison in some cases, equally like that, it's kind of interesting, but it could also be used if you remember I talked about it being put on the bread as preservative. It could also be used in the context of purity. So remember that this consecration would also be like the memorial of the meat offering. So all of these ingredients, they are, it's not just one time that they appear. They appear in different places and I believe they all have a part, an important in; we'll call it the recipe and the formulation that God put together. So you put all these ingredients together; they're blended for one singular purpose to be put on the altar of incense, and then obviously it is something that ascends.
Now we are not burning incense, but that altar does represent our place of prayer, the prayers going up. And Christ, who is our high priest, would pass into the holiest place of all to obtain that eternal redemption for us. So it's, again, nothing can be done, it's weird, like everything is connected. You can't even start understanding all of the furniture, unless you come through the door; sorry, okay. And once you come through the door, that one singular door that brings you in from, from being outside of those white curtains, once you come through the door and you begin to see this furniture there must be an understanding of the purpose of the why.
And for example, if one was just going to stand at the laver of cleansing, we'd say, “Well,” as I pointed this out, we're washed and cleansed by the word of God. Each one of these has a connection. And the more you look at this━I'm just giving you a very generic picture. You want to knock yourself out, if you can read Hebrew or you have access to a Hebrew Old Testament, look up some of these that words I've talked about just in reference and you see, wow, there, there are deeper meanings to these words.
I'm trying to keep this generic, because I realize that I'm describing furniture, which you might say, “Well, a message on furniture; okay, interesting.” As I mentioned earlier, I believe the coals that came off of the altar of burnt offering were used on the golden altar as well. And God was very particular about this. If you remember the episode that happened with Aaron's sons Nadab and Abihu, remember where they took false fire, right. God basically warned them, by the way, it wasn't like they just stumbled upon and said, “Oh, let's try this.” God said, “Do not use strange fire,” meaning if there was a fire that was perpetually burning, that is from where you get the coals or whatever for whatever you need; you don't go and get it elsewhere. So I like the fact that God's very specific, even right done to the fire, when He says, “This is what I want you to do and this is how I want you to do it.” Of course, their disobedience and their blatant disregard for God's instructions and God's ways obviously cost them their life.
You have a similar scenario that plays out with Korah and the rebellion of Korah; not so much over fire, but the idea is still there, direct denial of God's chosen way, direct denial of God's way of approach. And of course, the same thing with Korah and Korah's band, it cost them their life. And my only lament is why God is not opening the earth up nowadays and swallowing people up, I don't know, but 250 men that followed Korah were consumed, completely consumed. So I think it's safe to say with God obedience is better than sacrifice. Let's leave that one alone. But what's unmistakable here about this altar is if, as I said, if the brasen altar was where satisfaction was made to the holiness of God for the sake of the sinner, then the prayers being offered by the saint are what are seen essentially in the golden altar of incense, accepted, by the way, because of the sacrifice that was already done. So I like to put it this way. If the first altar, the brasen altar flesh is sacrificed, here at the golden altar of incense you have basically the soul; if the flesh has been sacrificed the soul is communing with God.
So those are the two pictures that I like to use as a New Testament appropriation. I have one final thought here on, on the altar, on the golden altar, which is Aaron was instructed to offer a perpetual incense upon it. In the New Testament we are told by Paul to “pray without ceasing.” And this becomes a stumbling block for a lot of people, because the idea I think a lot of people think is, “What does that mean? Should I lock myself in a room and I, I pray and I pray and I pray and I pray and I pray, and I keep praying? Or I pray redundantly? Or I pray from a card? Or”━no, it doesn't mean that. The picture that has been depicted here, and I want you to think about this, if the offeror, in this case Aaron, was told to offer perpetual incense, then think about this.
What he brought, whatever those four ingredients were, had to be basically consumed before he would bring and replenish more. So I think it's safe to say when we talk about prayer and pray without ceasing in the context of the altar, the same concepts, I don't think it necessarily means that you are to pray in the sense of, you know, I'm going to lock myself in a room and for, for ten hours I'm just going to not stop praying. If you want to do that that's your business, but the idea is that is perpetual, it's continual. That means whatever I might have prayed for yesterday, I may come back again tomorrow and do the same thing and likewise and so on. And I think that's where people get a little bit nutty.
They think taking it literally, which is I will, I will pray without ceasing, I will pray at all times. No one can pray at all times, okay. Just get, get that idea out of your head. Not even the people who profess to pray all the time pray all the time. At some point you've got stop for some bodily functions here, okay, and I don't think that while you stop for that you're equally praying at the same time. Just save it for somebody who might believe you. All right, so I just want to say this about everything, because I've kind of done a very more generic approach here.
But these concepts, the table of showbread and the golden altar of incense, they do represent something to me that I think is desperately needed in this particular time, and that's called communion with God. And this got me to thinking a little bit, especially with Easter coming up, and I'll just tell you straightway in advance, because I was having a conversation with somebody last week, and I said, “You know, we have enough Resurrection, proofs of the Resurrection, different approaches to the Resurrection, many, many years of, of these messages.” But the application, it dawned on me; I think a lot of people don't actually know how to apply the resurrected life into their lives.
And that actually requires communion and fellowship with God to understand that. So when we look at these items you don't look at the table of showbread and the altar of incense without, as I just finished mentioning without all that came before. And recognizing just even how you came into the tabernacle, how the way of approach explains that without recognizing and understanding; you don't have to be a mathematician and understand formulas, but you do have to look at the big picture to recognize your standing of who you are before God, which as a sinner. We're all sinners, there's not one person in the sound of my voice who isn't.
We are sinners being basically washed and cleansed by the final and finished sacrifice of Christ, washed and cleansed by the word as He described in John 15. But all of this kind of comes down to a bigger picture, which is how do we understand this in fellowship and communion? Because it is in the fellowship and communion that the relationship is developed or built, it is a relationship. And you can't have the relationship just simply built on what I just described, the table and the altar of incense without recognizing the sacrifice, the way of approach, the way in, what walled you out, what kept you away.
And that that wall of partition has been broken down. But all of that is to say that when I do get around to, I believe next week is Easter, it may not be a traditional proofs of the Resurrection, because it dawned on me in all the years, my 18 going on 19 and probably 30 years of Dr. Scott's ministry here, I don't think I've heard a message on why it matters to understand about that resurrected life and how to apply it, because there begins the concept. See, I think a lot of people come in and it becomes it's an obligation for one day, “Okay, I've got to go because I know this is kind of a commemorative thing.
I go because, and here's all the reasons.” But there all the wrong reasons, because if you come to understand the proofs, and the proofs properly applied to your life bring something incredible to the believer that without that you may just say, “Well, it's enough for me to know, because Christ resurrected sits at the center.” But the lack of understanding, in my opinion, brings about a lack of communion, a lack of fellowship, and a lack of worship. And those things that are lacking keep the distance, in my opinion, between the believer and God. So hopefully we will, I'll get to that next week and I'll talk to you about that next week, but what I want to say in wrapping up; I'm not done in the tabernacle by any means. But I wanted to keep this simple because, as I said, showing each measurement or each color or each dimension is it, it's there, so you can go back and read the descriptions of the table and read it for yourself or the descriptions of the altar of incense and read it for yourself.
And understand now with the understanding of what is, what is a cubit and what the numbers mean or that the materials mean. But go back and read it, as I've said for many weeks now, looking at through the eyes of God in Christ, looking at how amazing God is to paint this picture. And the picture as I said, wasn't painted for a few people. That's why, again the numbers matter.
This four corners of the earth, to all ends of the earth; it wasn't designed for a singular people. This is the mistake that people get into when they say, “Well, this was given,” and I've heard people say this, “This, this was given to the Jewish people.” No, the Jewish people didn't exist at this time. I've already gone through that, and please, if you haven't listened to my message do not argue with me, do not post on my social media page. If you have not listened that means you are still ignorant as to what this book; not me, not my opinions; what this book says about what I just said. This was given as a pattern of what God would do for the whole earth. And when you come to see that it just makes God and His plan of salvation all the more amazing, because He said, “I don't need for people to keep coming to the door perpetually and slaughtering an animal anymore. I chose My only begotten Son,” and He gave His life that you and I may have life eternal.
And that life eternal is something so powerful in, especially in this day and age where people are vacillating in fear and confusion and everything else. This resurrected life says, “No matter what's going on, God has a plan.” He had it here, He had it here, He had it here, He has it here at the end of the book, and He's got it here and He's got it there. And if you just look it will bring something else to your life: peace. And without that I don't know how you're going to get along in this world, in this crazy lunatic world right now. So with all that being said, I hope that you can take what I've said today and without it being too detailed, very generic, to say there is definitely reason to go back, reread and study, and see the beauty of Christ in the Old Testament. That's my message. You have been watching me, Pastor Melissa Scott, live from Glendale, California at Faith Center. If you would like to attend the service with us, Sunday morning at 11am, simply call 1-800-338-3030 to receive your pass.
If you'd like more teaching and you would like to go straight to our website, the address is www.PastorMelissaScott.com.
Hello everyone Today we will discuss how to stop palpitation immediately without any medicine , and equipment Now first of all what is Palpitation unpleasant sensation of own heart beat In some types arrhythmia neck vein pulsations also seen clearly with palpitations There are many causes for palpitation Most of cause are simple Like anemia or low hemoglobin Anxiety, stress, these conditions released adrenaline Which causes palpitation Or overactive thyroid and pregnancy If you take heavy caffeine, coffee, alcohol and smoking Or taking some drugs like cocaine and marijuana all increased palpitations Some palpitations have serious causes Like Heart related factors which increased palpitations Heart failure, valvular heart disease, mitral valve prolapse and cardiomyopathy palpitation is serious 4 easy ways/methods to stop palpitation immediately anywhere, anytime First is valsalva Maneuver It stimulates vagus nerve Vagus nerve is connected to heart and brain And as soon as vagus nerve stimulates it decreased heart rate and palpitation finger and thumb Then close your mouth also Then forcefully exhale outside, means breath out while your nose and mouth both closed This Maneuver you do for 10-30 second This valsalva Maneuver increased your intrathoracic pressure Which stimulates the vagus nerve and your heart rate will come down Second method is coughing You do forcefully coughing, As you do forcefully coughing it increased your intrathoracic pressure And bring down your heart rate and palpitation Third method is Deep breathing Deep breathing is simple method to break or stop heart palpitation It also decreased your anxiety and panic attacks And increased oxygen supply to brain To perform Deep breathing you sit comfortably at one place Then take deep and shallow breathing through your nose Then exhale slowly slowly through mouth This procedure do continue for some couple of minutes till your heart rate become normal Fourth method is cold water When you feel palpitations wash your face with cold water Or splash cold water on your face Or take shower or bath in cold water Very simple is to keep ice cubes in towel and Apply on your face, it stimulates your vagus nerve and decreased your heart rate and palpitation So these four are very simple method by which you can break your palpitations In these maneuvers no need any medicine or equipment Thanks As found on YouTubeThis solution reverses kidney disease! Guaranteed to be effective or your money back: Beat kidney disease. Just by following a simple treatment plan, you can reverse kidney disease. No matter how old you are! Just listen to what people who have tried this solution have to say. “Thank God I came across your solution by accident! Dad’s kidney function decreased from 36% to 73% in just two months. He’s 90 years old! His doctor said people his age shouldn’t have kidneys that efficient!” Graeme Asham, QLD, Australia, And this… “No more dizzy spells! My creatinine has gone down from a staggering 1800 to 1100. My blood count has greatly improved and I’ve been taken off my blood pressure medication. Your solution really works! ” Joe Taliana, 55, Malta Simply follow the scientifically backed solution and restore your kidneys, fast! => This solution reverses kidney disease! ← https://www.facebook.com/100000332115031/videos/590895892954739/ яαℓρн ℓєαмαи
this episode was pre-recorded
as part of a live continuing education webinar on-demand CEUs are
still available for this presentation through all CEUs registered at all
CEUs comm slash counselor toolbox I’d like to welcome everybody to today’s
presentation on common co-occurring issues exploring the interaction between mental health
physical health and addiction so we’re kind of putting together the stuff that we’ve been
talking about for a couple of sessions now we’re going to start by talking about some
questions and then reviewing what a healthy person needs and then going through and talking
about how different addictions may cause or be caused by mood disorders and physical health
issues and we’re going to talk about things that you may see in private practice or the
a facility that you’re working in just real quickly for those of you who are here how many people if
you would just type in the chat window if you’re a mental health counselor type mhm if you are a
addictions counselor type SI or whatever so just kind of so and know who I’m talking to you okay
so mostly mental health ok cool so what we’re going to look at is what you may
see in private practice or a mental health setting because these clients a lot of clients
that have substance abuse or addiction issues and I use the term addiction because we’re
talking about behavioral addictions too many times they don’t meet the criteria for admission
for substance abuse because they don’t meet that threshold of a substance use disorder tolerance
withdrawal yay yay so substance abuse agencies can’t get funding to provide the treatment so
they end up in a mental health facility or a mental health counselor’s office and they may
be dealing with some of these addiction issues and wanting to address them or they may not be
but those issues are out there and exist so we want to know how they interact so told you
we’re gonna have a couple of questions to think about and I’m just asking you to ponder these for
right now and you can add throughout the class if you want but we’re gonna talk about it more at
the end how can we and why is it important to address chronic illness and disabilities
that result from or that cause mood disorders or addictions so thinking about you know like
HIV or hepatitis are two of the big one’s cirrhosis of the liver chronic obstructive
pulmonary disease from smoking so these are things that can result from addiction why or how
is it important for us as clinicians mental health clinicians mainly to think about addressing these
how can we address depression and/or anxiety kind of our mood disorder genre and hopelessness that
results from or causes depression and anxiety so we know that thinking back affects acceptance
and commitment therapy there’s clean discomfort which is what he calls your initial emotion
when you feel something if you feel depressed if you feel anxious that’s how you feel and
it’s uncomfortable but it’s clean it is it is what it is and then he calls dirty discomfort
the feelings that we have about those feelings so we can get angry that we are depressed we can
get depressed that we’re still depressed and he calls that dirty discomfort because we’re kind of
layering on and piling in think about just kind of throwing somebody into a hole and piling more
dirt on top of them so we want to think about how can we address these issues that result from
depression or anxiety or sleeping eating or energy changes so if you’ve got somebody who is dealing
with a chronic illness or something else has happened or they’re they’ve got some sort of
an addiction and they are not eating well not sleeping well it could trigger depression or
anxiety so we’re going to talk about that how can we address sleeping eating and energy changes
seems like we’re getting repetitive we’re looking at how each one interface and how can we address
these things that are caused by or cause mood disorders or addictions because we know when we
look at the diagnostic criteria for depression for example sleeping eating and energy changes
primary in there and how can we address guilt and regret which may accompany addiction recovery
or the diagnosis of the disease as the result of addiction such as lung cancer or HIV or cirrhosis
of the liver and people who have liver disorders cirrhosis of the liver and hepatitis are at a
greater risk of liver cancer so that can they can have some additional anxiety that is related
to that so they may look back and go I wish I hadn’t well you have so how can we help you deal
with that and come to some level of acceptance so my little editorialized soapbox when we’re talking
about addictions I mean sometimes we don’t want to think that they exist we want to pretend that our
clients are coming in their mental health clients otherwise their perfectly healthy things are
going great well that may not be the trick the case a lot of people begin to use and I mean
think about ourselves when we’re when we were in high school and college or you know even later
some people use it for recreation you know they want to go out have a few beers do whatever cool you
know that’s fine some people drink or use it for relaxation my son has a love of we will use that
word videogames and he will get on his videogames and we’ll kind of get lost in it it helps him
escape from you know life as we know it for a little bit of time some people use
because of peer pressure you know it’s everybody’s doing it or you know you’re at a football party
or something and everybody’s having a beer and somebody offers you one and you don’t want to be
rude things like that can happen and some people begin to use straight up for self-medication
they’re like I feel crappy I need something to help me feel better or numb the pain so there’s
a lot of reasons people begin to use so then you might say well why don’t they just say no because
it’s easy to say no well it’s not some people start to use it because they’re bored and
they want something to bring some excitement some euphoria to their life and we’re talking about
everything from sex addiction to internet addiction to cocaine use I mean we’re running the gamut here
they may lack the awareness of the dangers or how quickly you can become addicted I know when I was
working in the facility in Florida there was the sort of knowledge if you will and knowledge is not
the right word rule I guess that with crack cocaine for some people, it was a one-hit wonder
you did it once and you were hooked and several drugs can be highly addicting
quickly especially if they’re taken either through injection or inhalation but we’ve talked
before about the fact that our bodies can start developing tolerance to opiates within 3 to 5
days so you know people may not a lot of people don’t realize when they go in and their doctor
writes him a script for two weeks of opiates and they take it as prescribed that they’re actually
becoming somewhat addicted to those opiates if they take the whole prescription so they may not
understand that some people don’t say no because they have low self-esteem so they’re looking for
comfort to help them relax to help them loosen up so they can be more fun at the party and or
to peer pressure somebody tells them why don’t use or why don’t come out and go drinking
with us or whatever the case may be so to fit in they may try to use it to fit in to feel
part of a crowd and part of it can also be you know with that peer pressure just generally the
culture promoting this kind of behavior going it’s ok I think I’ve shared with you before at
At the beginning of some of the original Beverly Hillbillies episodes they still advertised Winston
cigarettes, like they are the greatest thing and cool people, have them and that’s the thing to
do so if that message gets out people may start believing it and not do their research so to
speak on what the true problems or risks may be and then again self-medication some people may
be struggling just to get by from day to day and this helps them survive the best they can with the
tools they have until we give them some new tools so just saying you know I had I grown up
during the era of Nancy Reagan and you know God loves her she was trying to help and for a certain
small percentage she probably did but for a larger percentage just saying no is not that easy we need
to give people the tools so they can say no so they don’t so they aren’t relying on these drugs
for some reason because when people start using it for recreation and relaxation some people may not
have a big big issue with it other people may start throwing their neurotransmitters kind of out
of whack depending on how much how often they use what combinations if they’re on any medication so
people may inadvertently start messing with their neurotransmitters and creating and we’ll talk
about this creating depression or anxiety that they end up trying to self-medicate so that
that is my soapbox for it is not that easy to just say no we as a culture not just as clinicians
have some work to do so what do we need to do to help people be able to just say no
they need to have access to healthy nutrition and knowledge of what that means my son and it’s
still like drawing fingernails on a blackboard to me today this week, I told his sister that you
no, he didn’t understand why she was so concerned with the nutrition he’s a guy he doesn’t need to pay
attention to nutrition it’s just whatever and I was just like oh my gosh you know everything I’ve
said has fallen on deaf ears but okay we’ll back up and figure out a way they need access to
it and then they also need to eat it you know if we have healthy foods available but people are
still eating peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for every single meal it’s not going to help so we
need to make sure people understand what a healthy diet looks like and how to do it in a way that’s not
painful you know we’re not asking you to just eat rabbit food as my daddy used to say but so what
does it look like to eat a diet or nutrition that makes you feel good that’s happy that makes you
feel happily fulfilled you like it tastes good whatever you want to say but that’s also
healthy you know it’s not just pizza or just peanut butter we need to educate people and a
lot of adults that I work with have no clue about sleep hygiene you know they know they’re supposed
to try to go to sleep but they don’t know anything about turning off the blue turning on blue light
filters so the blue lights are not keeping them up so we need to do some education here ideally in
elementary schools but if we can get it out to the community so they can pass it on to their little
minions we’ll be on a good path to pain control we need people to start having pain control but
we need to also have them have alternatives to pain control besides opiates and there are a lot
of them out there again people don’t know about so we must educate and we’re not
prescribing pain control that’s not our job but if we have a client who’s in chronic pain we can
suggest that they work with their doctor that they look into options for pain control you can google
it and find a lot of different alternatives now if they don’t want to go to the doctor but you
know there are a lot of different things from acupressure it attends units to things that are
nonpharmacological that can help people manage their pain so they can sleep which will help
the rest and rebalance to deal with fatigue and be able to deal with life kind of on life’s terms
because they won’t be in this constant state of stress people need access to regular medical care
to prevent problems so you know we want to prevent this thing on your face from becoming skin cancer
we want to prevent anything else that that might trigger problems and early intervention so like
with Lyme disease, if people get early intervention mentioned they don’t end up with the chronic
problems with HIV the earlier the intervention the better same thing with hepatitis you know
the list goes on so we want to make sure that if people have some sort of issue that’s disrupting
their ability to get enough sleep process nutrition go to work do any of these things that
they have access to some method whatever method they need to address it so sometimes it’s medical
sometimes it’s mental health it’s social services they need safe housing so we’re on to
social services now and that includes a roof over their head that they’re not worried when
they go to sleep at night but also being safe from domestic violence and things like that safety
and this kind of goes with safe housing and I put internal and external because you know the first
part is external safety we want to be able to know that our patients can relax wherever they’re at
they have enough money to keep a roof over their head in a safe place and you know typically that’s
not something that we think about as mental health counselors we think about helping them deal with
their anxiety but if they can’t get enough sleep and they never feel safe when they’re at home
they’re not going to be able to rest and they’re at best their recovery is going to be impeded at
worst you know it’s going to contribute to the issue that they’re seeing us for so safe housing
is important we’re not going to get it for them but we can point them in the right direction your
local United Way which is 2-1-1 and most places generally has a listing of different resources
for accessing safe housing if you don’t work in a facility that’s used to dealing with that
and then internal safety that’s shutting up that internal critic that’s being able to go through
a day without being derogatory to yourself and that’s something that we definitely can
help with we can help people shut down that internal critic or that internal person that
is always calling gloom and doom and you know waiting for the other shoe to drop or whatever
the case maybe we can help clients change their cognitions so it’s safe inside their head
and then people need love and acceptance and this should sound pretty familiar are you
know Maslow’s hierarchy here kind of in Reverse but people need love and acceptance but in order
for love to have love and acceptance in many cases they also need to love and accept themselves so
we’re gonna work on self-esteem we’re gonna help people develop relationship skills hopefully there
are some people in their life that have provided some level of love and acceptance maybe not the
unconditional positive regard we’ve hoped for but they’re there so these are things that the healthy
happy person needs and these are things in large part we can do through education referral and direct
services help people get so why do we care about co-occurring issues as mental health counselors
well 35 percent of people with anxiety disorders have according to one of these studies abused
opiates so that’s a lot if you’ve got somebody with an anxiety disorder this isn’t just panic
this isn’t just something you know severe this is you know any of your anxiety disorders
one in three roughly have abused opiates they’ve used some sort of opiate drug to help them kind of
chill out of opiate or alcohol dependent patients 20% have major depressive disorder so of that
35% you know there’s going to be a percentage of them who may be opiate or alcohol dependent
and there are a lot of our clients that we see in mental health treatment who are not willing to be
truthful about how much they really drink or how often they drink because they might be
suspecting it’s a little bit of a problem but they’re not wanting to go there yet they’re in
what we call pre-contemplation okay so let’s just go with this in mind that there may be some
underlying other stuff that they haven’t told us about opiate or alcohol-dependent patients 20%
have major depressive disorder so you know we’re taking them and we may be seeing them in the clinic
for depression and we do want to be suspect of whether there’s either some opiate or alcohol
issues there depression and opioid-dependent patients including pain management patients so
those who are opiate-dependent by prescription have been associated with poorer physical health
decreased quality of life increased risk-taking behaviors and suicidality am I saying that pain
management clinics are bad no but what I’m saying is those who are in pain management clinics for a
variety of reasons are at a high in a higher risk category I mean think about it if your pain is
bad enough that you need to be going to a pain management clinic think about how much that must
hurt think about how much that must impair your daily life think about the impact of the drugs
that you’re taking on your mood your energy levels and the stigma in some cases associated with it
some people here suboxone and they’re like yeah whatever my neighbor takes that other person here
suboxone and they’re like ah you can’t be taking that so there is still a lot of social stigmas that
goes along with medication-assisted therapies so there are a lot of things that may contribute
to depression in opioid-dependent patients the prevalence and severity of depression tend to
decline within the first few weeks after treatment initiation so if they are trying to get off of
you know ideally their detox and they’re trying to you know remain sober the prevalence
and the severity of depression tends to decline so we need to get them off of it first and get them through
that acute withdrawal from a depressant including alcohol and I know this slide is boring
but we’re gonna be through in a second withdrawal from depressants including alcohol opioids and
even stimulants invariably include potent anxiety symptoms so it’s important to pay attention and
withdrawal from stimulants can also include potent depressive symptoms if they’ve been on a crack
binge for you know five days that won’t sleep for a while many people with substance use disorders
may exhibit symptoms of depression that fade over time and are related to acute with drawl well we
talk about acute withdrawal we’re talking about the first three months we’re not talking about
the detox period which is generally three days so encourage people who’ve gone through detox and
maybe they’re seeing you on an outpatient basis encourage people to you know be patient and work with
the treatment team if they need to but the first three months is always the hardest so chicken or
the egg you know did the person start using and become depressed or was the person depressed so they self
medicated does it matter depression and anxiety are associated with addiction because because
if you have stimulant withdrawal or recovery that period after you quit using that’s maybe
a week maybe two weeks where your body is going whew that was a run people may feel depressed
fatigued have difficulty concentrating which can impact how well they eat it’ll impact
their sleep they’re gonna sleep a lot more but the quality of sleep may be poor so they can mess
up their circadian rhythms and you know they may not have access to the social support that
they wanted they may but really with stimulant withdrawal we’re looking at nutrition
and sleep so we want to educate patients if they decide to stop taking stimulants what they need
to look at stimulant use can also be associated with depression and anxiety because many people
not you know the majority but a lot of people out there will self-medicate depression with
stimulants from anything from caffeine which you know maybe like mild dysthymia but if you
abuse enough caffeine you know it starts getting into your system you become dependent on it but if
you start combining caffeine and nicotine plus oh let’s add in some workout supplements or you know
the occasional Ritalin or something not suggesting it then it’s these things can wear the body down
which can lead to additional depression but people may use these things to try to feel better because
think depression is related for some people they may not feel like they can wake up they’re
fatigued they’re lethargic all the time and they’re feeling blue so if they take stimulants
they get that dopamine rush they’re starting to feel good and they’re awake stimulant
use can cause anxiety well the so if you’ve got somebody who already has maybe they are depressed
but they’ve also got some anxiety and they start using stimulants which may make the anxiety way worse
alcohol or opiate use some people use these things to numb or to forget and that’s just your
the standard used the depressant some people will use either one of these but especially opiates to
deal with physical pain to medicate depression or anxiety remember there are a lot of trials not
several trials right now that are looking at using opiates to treat intractable depression
but a lot of people also use opiates off-label illegally to address anxiety so if you’ve got a
client with depression or anxiety just kind of be alert for how they’re behaving if they’ve
got pinpoint pupils or if they’re itching and picking all the time I mean not the occasional
are winter and the heat just turned on I’ve got dry skin itch but constantly itching and picking
and you know where you’re like please just settle down detox from opiates can all often produce
depression produces a lot of flu-like symptoms which can make people feel crappy and the
flu-like symptoms I won’t get graphic impaired nutrient absorption impaired sleep you know
they’re sleeping a lot because they feel like crap but they’re also having to get up every
10 minutes to go to the bathroom sometimes so this first week or so during the initial if they
go cold turkey so to speak can be rough detox from alcohol as I’ve talked about before
can produce anxiety symptoms so understanding that when people are going through detox whether
they are alcohol dependent and have been drinking a whole lot which needs to be medically monitored
I can’t say this enough and I’ll say it a lot more tomorrow when we talk about where Nikki Korsakoff
syndrome but people who are detoxing from alcohol will have anxiety symptoms and a period of high
blood pressure and sometimes depression and anxiety are associated with addiction just because they
sober up one morning and they look at their life and they’re like what the hell have I done so
you know and you’re looking at them going yeah I don’t blame you for feeling that way now let’s
see what we can do to improve the next moment so make sure that we understand that these
things are going to go hand in hand and to be on the lookout because like I said a lot of people
aren’t forthcoming even about alcohol use which is legal but if they’re using something illegally
or using maybe their kid’s Ritalin or something they’re pretty much almost guaranteed not to tell
you so we want to be on the lookout for signs and symptoms bipolar disorder can be triggered by drug
use so we just know that we can the person could get worn down mess with the neurotransmitters
enough they’re not exactly sure how it happens but we have seen the initial acute episode of
bipolar disorder-triggered mania triggered by drug use it is more common for people with bipolar
to use stimulants when they’re depressed and just about anything when they’re manic now if you’re
working with somebody with bipolar you know you’re probably already having these discussions
about how you stay safe when you’re in a manic episode people with ADHD may use to self-medicate
and we’re talking cannabis is a big one for ADHD to help people feel like they’ve got more focus
and not feel like they’ve got so much coming in and so much stimulation all the time which can be
exhausting and after the use of any of the substances of abuse the disruption and neurotransmitters
can make people feel like they’ve got ADHD-type symptoms faculty concentrating difficulty
following through with things etc so understanding that even if things don’t meet the threshold for
DSM-5 diagnosis we want to look at what symptoms are there and how can we help people manage them
so they’re getting adequate sleep nutrition pain control social support and safety borderline and
antisocial personality just kind of threw those in there because we see those a lot when we’re
working in dual diagnosis facilities more people are more likely to use addictions to cope with a
lack of sense of self and their emotional lability if they’re borderline so I mean their world is so
chaotic many people with borderline personality disorder are likely to use to try to get some calm
in the storm now I will put out my other soapbox here with both of these personality disorders
when you see somebody in active addiction or early recovery they probably have symptoms that
would meet diagnosis you know their symptoms are pervasive in multiple areas of life their
symptoms would meet the diagnosis for one of these two personality disorders during this period
but it resolves as recovery becomes the norm as the neurotransmitter stabilizes they develop
interpersonal skills so you know giving people a little bit of time before we say it’s borderline
personality disorder versus borderline personality characteristics if you will be helpful because
both of these diagnoses can block people from getting into certain treatment centers and getting
some of the services they need okay so we’re going to move on to some of our more common addictions
alcoholism is associated with eating disorders there’s a really strong Association and it usually
flip-flops between bulimia and alcoholism so if somebody’s symptomatic for bulimia they may not
be drinking a lot of alcohol but they may during periods of remission from the bulimia drink a lot
more alcohol become alcohol dependent so there’s a lot of research out there that shows there’s
a strong correlation between these two things and it’s also associated with binge eating disorder
but especially bulimia nutritional deficiencies from alcoholism can cause mood disorders so
even if somebody is not and I use the term I should have put alcohol instead of alcoholism
because even the term heavy use without physical dependence can cause nutritional deficiencies that
can cause ulcers it can cause physical problems physical exhaustion which can disrupt sleep
alcohol impairs sleep quality alcohol makes apnea worse so if you’ve got a client who has
sleep apnea they’re drinking they’re probably gonna sleep even worse than they normally do
depression is the result of using well alcohol as a depressant so what do people expect well most
people expect to relax they don’t think about the rest of the stuff that’s going on in neurochemical
imbalances because the alcohol exits our system a lot faster than our brain can catch up and go okay
it’s not in there anymore so I need to adjust the temperature and in sleep disruption anxiety can
also, be triggered as a result of use I’ve said before say it again after that initial period
where people feel the depressant or relaxing effects of alcohol there is an upsurge in anxiety
so a lot of people have another drink to kind of quell that anxiety feeling but you know people
with anxiety disorders are gonna feel it more prominently and the neurochemical imbalances
that alcohol use causes can worsen pre-existing anxiety conditions or trigger anxiety conditions
nicotine is another one that we see a lot even in just straight-up mental health clinics not
co-occurring so what effect does nicotine have well anxiety and depression are 70% more likely in
smokers so that’s one of those statistics we want to look at nicotine triggers dopamine release okay
so nicotine is one of the most addictive drugs on the planet and you’re thinking I thought that was
opiates well opiates are in there but nicotine not only is nicotine legal but it’s also one of
the most addictive drugs on the planet so that’s another important point to think about people are
using their trigger and dopamine release their brain gets used to being flooded with dopamine so
their receptors on the other end start sensitizing so we’re creating an artificial environment
basically when people are smoking blood vessel changes when people smoke it causes blood vessel
changes that can cause high blood pressure as well as depression and fatigue and confusion in the blood
vessels narrow and get stiffer so the oxygenated blood has a harder time getting to where it needs
to be so people start feeling blah and that can cause them to think that they’re starting to feel
depressed can also cause those cause loss of energy people with severe and persistent mental
illnesses are two to three times more likely than the general population to use nicotine so that’s
just an interesting little fact to have out there if you work with people with SP MI and people
with ADHD may smoke because it increases their concentration and attention for about five minutes
literally, for about five minutes but during that five minutes they’re like oh my gosh it’s a relief
I can like focus for half a second so we want to look at what else is going on whether the
a person has adult ADHD for example physical health mental nicotine is linked with COPD and emphysema
and lung cancer so you know all kinds of lung and cardiopulmonary stuff well when that happens
you know we have less oxygenated blood efficient efficiently getting through the system we’re going
to have increased fatigue increased confusion some grief that may go along with that especially if
people are starting to have to carry an oxygen tank around with them or something you know we may
have to help them deal with disability acceptance and depression and stroke because smoking like
I said increases blood pressure and reduces circulation so cutting off or greatly reducing
circulation to the brain they have shown that people who smoke especially heavy smokers are at a
much greater risk of stroke and addiction nicotine is strongly correlated with other addictions a
a lot of people when they’re in the bar well not so much anymore since smoking is not allowed in
public places but used to be when they were in the bar they would also be smoking but a lot of
people associate alcohol and nicotine or nicotine and other drugs so if somebody is using other
drugs likely they’re smoking now it doesn’t work the other way around just because they’re smoking
doesn’t mean they’re likely using other drugs the reason this is more important is that people
who continue to smoke after they have gone into recovery for their drug of choice have a relapse
rates as high as 68 percent higher than for people who quit smoking so we start thinking about that
and we say well why is that well because nicotine is a mood-altering substance you know we don’t
think of it as such because it’s not a woohoo it’s Marva hey okay it’s not as prominent
of interaction as maybe cocaine or something but it does change the balance and people still
do use smoking to cope with life when things get stressful they smoke well if things get stressful
and you know they’re too stressed for smoking to handle then they may start going back to what
else can I take use or do that will make this feeling go away right now we know also that was
smoking and that repeated release of dopamine they’re messing with the neurochemical balances
in their brain, so it makes sense that eventually just like tolerance to other drugs happens it may
not be enough at a certain point and they may fall back into other habits nicotine has been known to
suppress appetite and but whether it keeps weight off or not they haven’t shown alcohol
and nicotine both are appetite suppressants which is another reason people with bulimia tend to
drink and one of the reasons why people quit smoking they tend to be hungrier so helping
them get through that period now whether it helps them keep weight off the party that deals with
the reason that they eat it’s not really that it’s suppressing their or increasing their metabolism
so much its nicotine suppresses the anxiety and sometimes the desire the hunger but if people
are still eating out of anxiety if they’re still eating under stress eating then you know when they stop
smoking and they don’t have a cigarette to put in their mouth when they’re stressed they tend to
go for other things and so we need to help people figure out when they stop smoking are you
eating because you’re hungry or are you eating because you’re stressed if they’re eating
because they’re hungry and they’re getting heavier than they want to be they need to talk with their
doctor about you know thyroid tests and also let their doctor educate them on biological setpoint
theory of you know not everybody’s going to be a zero so you know that may be something we can
help them deal with body acceptance issues if you know maybe they’re programmed genetically to
be you know a size X whatever that is and they’re not happy because they want to be a zero which our
culture does tell us to do as clinicians we can help them look at you know the costs and
benefits of continuing to smoke and what being you know a size zero means for them to opiate
abuse there’s a lot of physical stuff and we’re just gonna run through it real quick because
you’re not as concerned with it the physical stuff the doctors are gonna see but we need to be
aware of from a clinical point because it can keep people from getting their basic needs met blood
and injection site infections you know that’s probably going to lay them up for a while but if
they have repeated infections and are repeatedly out of work they can lose their job they can lose
their housing they can you know get some sort of MRSA or something else which can be really
expensive it can be life-threatening ya-ya collapsed veins and this is more common obviously
this is only for injection drug users but collapsed veins just as you would expect keep the
oxygenated blood from getting where it needs to be so people are more likely to experience strokes
and may have certain forms of vascular dementia because of the strokes dementia we’re familiar
with endocarditis is the inflammation around the heart so again this is only for needle
drug users but if you’ve got a client who is using needles to inject any kind of drug be aware
of that and what they get and what they inject is rarely pure so knowing what else they’re injecting
into their system if they’re you know crushing pills from the pharmacy you’re a little bit more
sure about what they’re getting as opposed to if it’s from the corner dealer and sometimes
they’re cut with really nasty things like you know comic bathroom cleaner and stuff HIV if
people get HIV from injection or some other risky behavior they’re probably going to experience
some depression and a lot of times HIV from opiate abuse they’re gonna experience depression
remorse regret all that kind of stuff anxiety about how long they’re going to live what’s
going to happen and oh those medication side effects those the antiretroviral medications that
they have to take are doozies I’ve seen people go through the induction weeks on their medications
and it is a rough time so helping people get through it so they are medication compliance
so they can continue to live we need to help them maintain hope and self-efficacy and all that kind
of stuff to maintain that forward movement to get through the induction period liver damage from
acetaminophen can set people up for you know physical pain among other things and it decreased
pain tolerance now this generally the decreased pain tolerance goes away after the
the body starts producing its endorphins and natural painkillers again but that initial period if somebody quits using and maybe you know you are seeing them as a mental health client and
they had an accident or had surgery or something they started using pills they got a couple of
refills then the doctor said no I’m cutting you off and now they’re going through a detox period
detox from opiates is unpleasant but it is rarely life-threatening unless somebody becomes their
electrolytes get imbalanced because of the flu symptoms but we still may see this in private
practice in mental health practice because of the scenario I just told you people can start
taking painkillers as prescribed for something they may get addicted you know take them for
a month or so then when they get off of them not only do they feel like you know really bad
but their pain is also back and it may be they had their wisdom teeth out that pain may be gone
but other aches and pains and everything you feel is probably going to be intensified until the
body kicks back in so educating clients about this is what happens you know it’s not uncommon
if you think it’s too bad go see your doctor helping them make sure they’re getting
good nutrition you know it’s hard if you’ve got flu symptoms to feel like you want to eat or
hold anything down so what can you do to make sure your body has the building blocks to make the
stuff that it needs to help you feel better what can you do to improve your sleep and a lot of our
clients and you know where I used to work we had a methadone clinic and we also had a mother
baby unit and as soon as the mothers would give birth then the doctor would start them on
their detox from methadone and he didn’t believe in the kinder gentler taper he was just like okay
baby’s gone threats gone because you can’t detox from somebody from opiates when they are pregnant
because it can cause the baby to die anyway so as soon as they would stop or as soon as
they weren’t pregnant anymore he would just D see them and they would feel really bad I mean
not only did they just push an 8-pound something out of their body but they also are experiencing
a decreased pain tolerance because they’re not on the opiates anymore and all they want to do is
sleep it’s just like please so understanding that is important in helping people get through
that period even though they may want to sleep all the time helping them understand that it’s
important to maintain their circadian rhythms if they have to take two or three ten-minute
power naps throughout the day to get through the day you know more power to them but if they
can practice good sleep hygiene they’re gonna be way better off in the long run OPD opiate
abuse is also or opiate use is also associated with the treatment of depression but it can cause
depressive symptoms due to its pharmacological properties I mean it slows everything down from
you’re gastrointestinal to your heart rate to your respiration you’re not breathing as much you’re
not getting as much oxygen in you’re gonna have more fatigue you’re gonna have more confusion
you’re going to have more of those symptoms of depression for some people they find it is and
certain opiates they find it is a powerful way to reduce anxiety it makes them feel like they’ve
got a ton of energy because they’re not stressed out anymore and this last one is one of the
The main reason that I find people don’t want to give up opiates is that they finally feel better when
they’re on the eating disorders commonly a coat co-occur with depression and anxiety which can
be caused by nutritional deficiencies you know you’re not giving your body the building blocks
so it can’t make the neurotransmitters it needs and it also probably disrupts your sleep some
and depression anxiety can cause or trigger or whatever you want to say eating disorders because
people with eating disorders may fear becoming fat have low self-esteem have a sense of lack of
self-control or have body dysmorphic disorder so we also want to be aware that there are mental
health stuff that can trigger dysfunctional eating patterns there’s about a 24% prevalence of PTSD
among people with eating disorders so if you’ve got a client with eating disorders especially
bulimia be on the lookout for depression anxiety body dysmorphic disorder alcoholism and PTSD they
maybe smoking too but of the things, I just listed that’s probably the least of their worries it’s
all eating disorders are also associated with alcoholism and smoking I said physical health
issues now you’re seeing somebody with an eating disorder it’s a mild eating disorder you’re seeing
them once a week outpatient so you’re not and you have you know you have training and
working with eating disorders or maybe it’s mild enough that you’re just getting supervision
on treating this issue whatever being aware that people with eating disorders anorexia or bulimia
can have irregular heartbeats and cardiac arrest due to potassium imbalances and electrolyte
imbalances so if they’re not eating or if they are binging and purging in some way shape or
form and that includes excessive exercise which can trigger a lot of heart problems they may have
loss of bone mass and osteoporosis so they may break bones a little bit easier going back up to
the heartbeat not to belabor the point but again heart problems mean a lack of available oxygen
mean confusion fatigue potential difficulty sleeping depressive symptoms and you know cardiac
arrest in and of itself is bad kidney damage from Doretta caboose and low potassium can also
potentially drain damaged the adrenals which are on the kidneys and so it’s important to be
aware of what people are using a lot of people with eating disorders are going to creatively
use stimulants to suppress their appetite think about any of your diet drugs your enter mean I
think it’s one of them the ones they give to help people lose weight they’re stimulants
they’re intense stimulants so people who are struggling with eating disorders are likely to go
towards abusing stimulants or at least using them which can drain the adrenals it can in some
cases have been linked to the development of Addison’s disease liver damage from not eating
or binging and purging causing toxin buildup and possibly pain we can help people deal with it
as much as we can anemia which can cause symptoms of depression in and of itself so goes back to
that nutrition making sure they’re getting enough infertility which in and of itself can be
devastating for young women if they can’t have children anymore or can’t have children
ever that may be a grief issue that we need to help them deal with cathartic: and this is
an important one to be aware of because you don’t have to have somebody who uses laxatives
all the time but people who regularly use or abuse laxatives can become dependent on them so
when they don’t use them they have a feeling of bloating feeling full and abdominal pain which
especially in people with eating disorders or body morphic disorders surrounding just general
body fit bad back body fat can greatly increase anxiety depression hopelessness and in some
cases of suicidality so again educating people is the first step to helping them understand what’s
going on and how dangerous laxatives can be but also if somebody is trying to cut back on their
use of laxatives or just recently stopped using laxatives like when people stopped using
opiates it takes the body a while to get back online but for most people it eventually does
people with eating disorders also have chronic ulcers which are painful and can keep you up at night
As you know gastric reflux and pancreatitis which can flare up at a moment’s notice will is
extraordinarily painful and can cause people to lose time from school or work social activities
feel bad about themselves and also pancreatitis causes a lot of bloating
which in eating disorders is a huge trigger for anxiety and depression pathological gambling
is associated with stimulant abuse especially cocaine methamphetamine and Ritalin to stay
focused disrupted sleep and rebound depression when they quit taking that stuff they wake up and
they’re like oh wow what did I just do alcoholism is also associated with pathological gambling
some people drink to calm their nerves some people drink because it’s the culture if you go
to any of the casinos you know their hand-and-out drinks, they’re trying to get you drunk so you
keep gambling more and there’s as we spoke about earlier rebound depression or anxiety smoking
may help people increase their focus or make them think they can increase their focus so if
you can’t smoke in public places this is more of an issue if you have somebody who does a lot of
online gambling or they gamble at their friend’s house or somebody’s house where there’s poker
games and stuff smoking has some anti-anxiety anti-anxiety properties and may be part of the
the culture I know when my daddy used to have his poker games everybody would smoke cigars and even
the one woman who went there would be smoking a cigar with everybody else and it was just the
culture of being there so there are a lot of different reasons that people may use substances
in addition to gambling mental health issues from gambling anxiety from the stimulant use or from
the tension and release of am I going to you know I’m down $20,000 am I going to make it back ADHD
is also strongly associated with pathological gambling bipolar disorder, especially during manic
phases are associated with pathological gambling generally you see them co-occurring it’s not
like gambling causes it it’s you will see co-occur depression can occur due to losses and
gambling can start because somebody’s depressed because of their financial situation and their
trying to figure out a way to you know borrow from Peter to pay Paul and get ahead you also see
pathological gambling is more strongly associated with people who have obsessive-compulsive
disorder if you’ve got clients with these diagnoses just kind of you know be attentive to
the fact that they are more likely to engage in pathological gambling or if they start gambling
it’s more likely to become a problem than for people who don’t have these issues internet
an addiction that is diagnoseable so you know I’m not just making something up
depending on your resource affects eight point two percent to thirty-eight percent of the
general population now obviously we were looking at you know like games versus you know games plus
Facebook plus shopping or something so depending on the study you looked at their parameters
were a little bit different but either way up to 38 percent of the population has sacrificed
significant personal recreational activities to engage in some sort of internet
behavior Internet addiction can cause anxiety or depression due to eyestrain and chronic headaches
you know if you’re hurting all the time it can make you feel wonky it can also interrupt your
sleep can cause circadian rhythm disorder which can trigger depression fatigue reduced stress
tolerance this is a condition when your body doesn’t know whether it’s supposed to be awake
or asleep because a lot of people who engage in internet-addictive behaviors do so in the dark or
you know they don’t pay attention to whether the lights are on or not they may just sit there kind of
in their cave carpal tunnel contributes to pain and sleep disruption because carpal tunnel does
wake you up at night back ache again may disrupt your sleep and can cause chronic pain during the
a day which can interrupt your daily activities poor nutrition I know a lot of gamers that will sit
there for an entire weekend and not get up to go eat so if it’s not brought to them they don’t eat
they’ll even wear adult diapers so they don’t have to get up to go to the bathroom reduced immunity
due to exhaustion from not sleeping and job or relationship problems I know uh several people
whose marriages ended over a world of warcraft’ so internet addiction is a real thing and it’s
something that we need to be cognizant of because it does cause a lot of problems and a lot of
relationships and it may be one of many problems but it’s something to look at sex addiction
can cause hepatitis and a variety of different STDs which if not treated can cause systemic problems
it’s related to anxiety and depression because sex addiction may begin in order because somebody
wants to feel loved or connected maybe after a breakup or because they never felt loved you’re
connected and then they feel that rush and they’re like oh I like that I want to do that again part
of it could be engaging in that behavior which is so thrilling you know depends on the person
psychological withdrawal from sex addiction people who have been engaging in sex addiction
type behaviors and I include pornography addiction in it for this presentation if they’re not able to
access that may start feeling anxious or depressed they can’t get to that they can’t get to the
the thing that’s gonna cause the dopamine rush and reflection on behaviors that they’ve engaged in
as a part of their sex addiction can also prompt anxiety about a spouse finding out you know am I
going to develop an STD and am I you know how I feel about what I’ve been doing so as clinicians
if we’re working with somebody who has compulsive sexual behaviors even if you know anywhere about that
the spectrum we need to be aware that these things may exist and figure out or help them figure out
how they feel about it and what they need to do to make sure that they’re getting good sleep
that they’re dealing with their depression and their anxiety so that they can have a safe internal
and external environment so back to that global perspective how can we and why is it important
to address chronic illness and disabilities that result from or cause mood disorders or
addictions how can we address depression anxiety and hopelessness that results from or causes
depression anxiety or physical problems how can we address physical problems that are caused
by mood or addictions and how can we address guilt or regret which may accompany addiction
recovery or the realization of a diagnosis of a disease caused by the addiction so while you kind
of ponder those there was a question that came in so question what about robbing Peter to
pay Paul in association with trauma specifically childhood trauma so if you could clarify that
for me a little bit I had mentioned robbing Peter to pay Paul in terms of gambling so I’m just so
mental health issues can be caused by or trigger addictions or physical health issues addictions
can cause or trigger mental health issues or physical health issues that can
be caused by addictions or mental health issues so again chicken-or-egg we don’t necessarily know
which one came first when you have any one of these it’s probably going to or likely impact
each other person or each other area common issues are seen in all three changes in sleeping
changes in nutrition fatigue and grief effective treatment requires addressing the underlying
causes as well as the ripple effects you know so yes after childhood trauma or trauma
of any sort, some people may spend a lot of time feeding the addiction as you put it or
engaging in addictive behaviors to avoid some of the PTSD symptoms to avoid thinking about it
to deal with the grief to deal with the shame so they may engage in something that makes them
feel better or helps them forget to cope with the trauma that happened until they
have other tools so they can come to some sort of terms with it and you know as I
say close that chapter in their book already if there are no other questions tomorrow’s
the presentation I learned a lot creating is on alcohol-related dementia and vascular dementia
and fetal alcohol spectrum disorders all three of which are issues that are caused by substance
use and specifically alcoholism and then I’ll give you a hint about where an acute Korsakoff a
a lot of clients who abuse alcohol but they’re not alcohol dependent who decide to stop drinking can
trigger where Nikki Korsakoff syndrome and causes alcohol-related dementia-type symptoms
so again in mental health, we need to be on the lookout for it if we hear that our clients
are trying to cut down on their alcohol use alrighty everybody and so tomorrow is that
presentation and then Thursday we’re going to look at different models of new bottles of
treatment if you enjoy this podcast please like and subscribe either in your podcast player
or on YouTube, you can attend and participate in our live webinars with doctor Snipes by
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– Hey, Psych2Goers. Do you have trouble paying attention? For example, zoning out
while watching this video? Do you think you have
ADHD because of this? Oftentimes, people mistake
symptoms of anxiety for ADHD because of some of the
similar traits they share. According to the Centers
for Disease Control and Prevention data, about 3 in 10 children
with ADHD have anxiety. So to help you get a better understanding of the difference
between ADHD and anxiety, here are six signs to look out for. Number one, you have poor focus because of worrying thoughts.
Are you always distracted by your worries, so much so that you’re unable to focus on the things you’re doing? When fear and apprehension
dominate your thoughts, it may cause you to become restless, and have trouble sitting
still, paying attention, or staying focused in class. According to John Waldrop, MD from Weill Cornell Medical College, when you experience anxiety, your prefrontal cortex, the part of the brain which is essential for thinking, learning, and
remembering, is shut down. Your brain is concentrated
on staying safe.In contrast with ADHD, you aren’t consumed by worrying thoughts. Instead, it has more
to do with an imbalance in your hormones: dopamine
and norepinephrine, which causes you to be distracted. Number two, you don’t tend to have as many problems with impulsivity. Do you often find yourself
speaking out loud in class without raising your hand? Perhaps you were even labeled
as the troublemaker in school because of the way you
can never sit still. According to Dr. John, a
person with ADHD may feel as if there are dozens of controllers trying to control their
brains at the same time without checking in with each other first. So if you find that you
don’t appear to have as many problems with impulsivity but just struggle to speak up or stand up because of your nerves, then you may have anxiety rather than ADHD. Number three, you have trouble
completing your schoolwork because of perfectionism. Do you have trouble
completing your schoolwork? Perhaps you find yourself procrastinating even if you only have just
one assignment to you.This struggle could be because
you have so many points you wanna make in so many
ways to phrase the words that leave you wanting
to throw up your hands and ignore them. You’re avoiding starting your assignments because you can’t have
it is less than perfect. If you can relate to this, then it’s more likely you’re struggling with anxiety and not ADHD. Dr. John stated that
while people with ADHD may experience difficulty
completing their schoolwork or performing tasks, it’s often due to trouble
with concentration rather than perfectionism.Number four, you are
generally more sensitive to social cues. Are you very sensitive to how you come across to other people? Do you find yourself often uncomfortable with your social environment? Perhaps you find it challenging to eat in front of other people, or tend to avoid speaking in public because of an overwhelming fear that people will judge you negatively. According to Dr. John,
if your answers are yes to the above questions, it’s more likely that you
have anxiety rather than ADHD. This is because people
with ADHD usually struggle with understanding or missing social cues rather than being hypersensitive to them. Number five, you experience
a racing heart, clamminess, tense muscles, headaches,
nausea, or dizziness. Do you often experience
headaches, nausea, or dizziness? These are just some of
the symptoms of anxiety. Dr. John stated that anxiety comes from a tiny almond-shaped part at the back of your brain
called the amygdala.As a watchman for your brain, it is constantly watching out for danger. And whenever it detects danger, it triggers a fight or flight response. However, for anxious people, the amygdala is large and hypersensitive. Because of this, it ends up sending out
a lot of false alarms. You can think of it as a watchman
who cries wolf too often. As a result, your brain may sense threats even in non-threatening situations. And number six, you are unlikely
to show problem behaviors when you’re feeling calm, safe,
and doing things you enjoy.How do you act when you’re having fun? Whether it’s listening
to your favorite music or playing video games, you
may find yourself feeling calm and safe while doing the things
that you genuinely enjoy. You are neither restless nor feel like you need
to catch your breath. According to Dr. John, anxious
individuals are unlikely to display any problem behaviors
when feeling calm and safe and doing something they enjoy. On the contrary, people with ADHD will experience problem behaviors even when they engage in a particular fun or exciting activity. For example, a person with ADHD may become so engrossed
with painting a picture that they tune out or completely
ignore everything else. This behavior is known as hyperfocus. Did you relate to any of
the signs we’ve mentioned? Let us know in the comments below. If you found this video helpful, be sure to like, subscribe,
and share this video with those who might benefit from it. And don’t forget to hit
the notification bell icon to get notified whenever
Psych2Go posts a new video. As always, the references and
studies used in this video are added in the description below.Thanks so much for watching
and see you in our next video. (light music).As found on YouTubeAnimated Video Maker – Create Amazing Explainer Videos | VidToon™ #1 Top Video Animation Software To Make Explainer, Marketing, Animated Videos Online It’s EASIER, PRODUCTIVE, FASTER Get Commercial Rights INCLUDED when you act NOW Get Vidtoon™
You might others during conversations, making them less inclined
to talk to you again, or you can act without much or any consideration of
the possible consequences, and this can land you in hot water. Number four is disorganization. We all have hectic lives,
but for someone with ADHD, things may feel a bit
more chaotic than usual. If you have ADHD, you may have trouble
establishing order in your life, and it can be difficult to keep everything in the right place. And adults with ADHD may struggle with these
organizational skills. This can include, problems
keeping track of tasks, and trouble logically prioritizing them. Number five is mood swings. Because this symptom is present
in many other disorders, it’s not an inherent sign of ADHD, but if you’re someone with ADHD you may experience mood
swings or irritability. There may be days you
feel good and grounded, and other days when you’re
in the emotional gutter. You can try writing your emotions down, which can help you keep track
of your emotional patterns, and prepare you for the next mood swing. Setting a schedule will
help you establish a routine and avoid the possible
stress from disorganization. And number six, lack of motivation. Does it seem like you’re
doing everything at once, but feel unmotivated
to go about your tasks? Lack of motivation is a
common symptom of ADHD. A lack of motivation combined
with other symptoms like poor organizational skills is problematic when it
comes to accomplishing tasks or being engaged at work. There are many ways to help fight a lack
of motivation, though. For example, you could
break down your chores into manageable tasks, or write down the positive feelings you’re experiencing throughout the day. These techniques can help
you find the motivation to finish your tasks. Do you think you might have ADHD, or does someone you know
think they could have ADHD? Do you think these signs
will help you or a loved one? Go ahead and like and share
this video if it helped you, and you think it could
help someone else too. The studies and references used are listed in the description below. And don’t forget to hit
the subscribe button for more Psych2Go videos. Thank you for watching, and
we’ll see you next time.As found on YouTubeHUMAN SYNTHESYS STUDIO 👀🗯 Attention: Have Real Human Spokespeople In Your Videos Saying Exactly What You Want In MINUTES! REAL Humans, REAL Voices, With A NEW Technology That Gives STUNNING Results Choose Your Human + Voice Type What You Want Them To Say Render your “Humatar” What You Are About To See Is Unbelievable…
Number four, you are
generally more sensitive to social cues. Are you very sensitive to how you come across to other people? Do you find yourself often uncomfortable with your social environment? Perhaps you find it challenging to eat in front of other people, or tend to avoid speaking in public because of an overwhelming fear that people will judge you negatively. According to Dr. John,
if your answers are yes to the above questions, it’s more likely that you
have anxiety rather than ADHD. This is because people
with ADHD usually struggle with understanding or missing social cues rather than being hypersensitive to them. Number five, you experience
a racing heart, clamminess, tense muscles, headaches,
nausea, or dizziness. Do you often experience
headaches, nausea, or dizziness? These are just some of
the symptoms of anxiety. Dr. John stated that anxiety comes from a tiny almond-shaped part at the back of your brain
called the amygdala.As a watchman for your brain, it is constantly watching out for danger. And whenever it detects danger, it triggers a fight or flight response. However, for anxious people, the amygdala is large and hypersensitive. Because of this, it ends up sending out
a lot of false alarms. You can think of it as a watchman
who cries wolf too often. As a result, your brain may sense threats even in non-threatening situations. And number six, you are unlikely
to show problem behaviors when you’re feeling calm, safe,
and doing things you enjoy.How do you act when you’re having fun? Whether it’s listening
to your favorite music or playing video games, you
may find yourself feeling calm and safe while doing the things
that you genuinely enjoy. You are neither restless nor feel like you need
to catch your breath. According to Dr. John, anxious
individuals are unlikely to display any problem behaviors
when feeling calm and safe and doing something they enjoy. On the contrary, people with ADHD will experience problem behaviors even when they engage in a particular fun or exciting activity. For example, a person with ADHD may become so engrossed
with painting a picture that they tune out or completely
ignore everything else. This behavior is known as hyperfocus. Did you relate to any of
the signs we’ve mentioned? Let us know in the comments below. If you found this video helpful, be sure to like, subscribe,
and share this video with those who might benefit from it. And don’t forget to hit
the notification bell icon to get notified whenever
Psych2Go posts a new video. As always, the references and
studies used in this video are added in the description below.Thanks so much for watching
and see you in our next video. (light music).