GIG252 The Leaven of the Kingdom
Growing In God with Gary Hargrave
Growing In God Podcast Web Description: In a message to faithful believers in Monterrey, Mexico, Gary shares with them the answer for Mexico. The answer is the leaven of the Kingdom of Heaven that was implanted within them. This leaven will grow until it influences all of Mexico. And it will not stop until it fills the whole earth. Show Notes: At the Feast of Unleavened Bread, all leaven is removed from the house and unleavened bread is eaten for seven days. In 1 Corinthians Paul compares this process to what happens within us. During this feast we are to clean out the old leaven...
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GIG251 Take Every Thought Captive
Growing In God with Gary Hargrave
Growing In God Podcast Web Description: As Christians, are we conformed to this age? Do people look at us and see no difference between us and the world? The Lord does not want us to be conformed to this world but transformed by the renewing of our minds. By the authority of Christ through the Holy Spirit, we destroy the speculations that are conforming us to this world. And we take every thought captive in obedience to Christ. Show Notes: As Paul explained in 2 Corinthians, spiritual warfare involves destroying speculations and bringing every thought captive in...
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GIG250 Israel Solidarity Trip
Growing In God with Gary Hargrave
Growing In God Podcast Web Description: God commanded us to comfort His people. And that is what we intend to do, not just by our prayers but by our actions. That is what this Israel solidarity trip is all about. We are going to Israel to be the hands, feet, and voices of comfort to the Israeli people. We are going there to help them spiritually and physically during this time when so much is coming against them. Show Notes: At Hargrave Ministries we are on our latest solidarity trip to Israel. The purpose of our trip, as the name states, is to show solidarity with the...
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GIG249 The Ministry of Bethesda
Growing In God with Gary Hargrave
Growing In God Podcast Web Description: How do we bring the healing that we need and that the world today needs so desperately? The example of healing at Bethesda is a lesson for all of us to apply. When Christ asks us, “Do you wish to be healed?” Our answer needs to be an emphatic, “Yes!” And not, “We are waiting for someone to carry us.” Christ is the source of our healing. He is always willing. And we pick up our own bed and walk in what He has provided. Show Notes: During the first church service of Bethesda Ministries and the ordination of Silas as pastor, a...
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GIG248 Remembering our Dear Brother, Pope Francis
Growing In God with Gary Hargrave
Growing In God Podcast Web Description: On the death of Pope Francis, we must do more than reflect on his legacy. We must be in intercession for the selection of the new Pope because this will impact how the entire Body of Christ moves forward. Let us pray by the Spirit to create the Pope who will not only continue what Pope Francis started, but will break new ground in our oneness, our functioning by the Spirit, and our connection with the Jewish people. Show Notes: As the Catholic Church remembers Pope Francis, we also remember our connection with him and with Catholics...
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GIG247 Christ Given His Kingdom, Daniel 7:14
Growing In God with Gary Hargrave
Growing In God Podcast Web Description: After a vision of men turning away from evil because of the force of the Kingdom of God in the spirit realm, Gary laid out a burden for greater effectiveness in our prayers to see real change happen in the earth. Our meditation should be something that connects with the Kingdom of God that we have already received and then manifests the power of God in the earth from within us. Show Notes: Daniel saw the Son of Man come up to God from where He was given “dominion, glory, and a kingdom.” He saw this before Christ ascended to the...
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GIG246 This Is the Day
Growing In God with Gary Hargrave
Growing In God Podcast Web Description: The book of Zechariah records the specific day on which Zechariah’s prophecy was voiced. This emphasizes the significance of this prophecy and how much we should be expecting God to fulfill His Word in our day. We look eagerly for the fulfillment of these promises of God’s blessings on Judah, Israel, and Jerusalem. This is the day they come to pass. Show Notes: The prophecy of Zechariah is one of the greatest messianic prophecies that we have. And in Zechariah 1:7, we are given the exact day when that prophecy came. The significance...
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GIG245 I Stand at the Door and Knock
Growing In God with Gary Hargrave
Growing In God Podcast Web Description: The Lord begged the church in Laodicea to open the door to Him, so He could dine with them. This need to dine with God does not make sense to our Christian thinking. But it makes total sense in the Hebraic context of making a covenant over a meal. God is knocking on the door of the Church in this day. And regardless of how far removed we are from Him, if we open the door, He will make a covenant with us to bring us into everything He has promised. Show Notes: The Laodicean church was a lost church, having fallen away from God. Yet...
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GIG244 The Difficulties of Deliverance
Growing In God with Gary Hargrave
Web Description: At the Passover God delivered the children of Israel out of Egypt to bring them into the land He had promised their fathers. But their focus was on the difficulties that this deliverance meant to the life they had adapted to. Moving from our present age into God’s Kingdom can also feel like a disruption to the life we are comfortable with in this world. Our focus must be on His Kingdom and not on the difficulties of deliverance. Show Notes: Passover celebrates the deliverance of Israel from their slavery in Egypt. When they first heard that the Lord had come...
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GIG243 Christian Persecution
Growing In God with Gary Hargrave
Web Description: Christianity is suffering tribulation today even if we as individuals feel unaffected by it. We need to be one with our fellow Christians who are suffering and be praying for them. Let us not be fearful of what satan might do to us because Christ defeated him at the cross. Even if we must face death ourselves, we overcome satan by simply exercising Christ’s victory. Show Notes: The Lord said to the church in Smyrna, “I know your tribulation and your poverty.” Just as God knew then what the Christians in Smyrna were suffering, He is aware of what Christians...
info_outlineWeb Description: In Christianity there is a strong emphasis on individual ministry. However, the Scriptures show God’s emphasis moving from one individual to many. Then the beginning of the Church showed us the many becoming one. With the Lord’s help, let us follow His leading from our own individuality to real body ministry to the oneness of Christ.
Show Notes: When God met Abraham, the entire focus was on Abraham as an individual fulfilling God’s plan. When his descendants multiplied and moved forward in the plan of God, the focus on an individual transitioned to a focus on the many. Likewise, when Yeshua (Jesus) was on the earth, the focus was on Him as an individual. But when His disciples were baptized in the Holy Spirit, the great anointing that was on Christ was transferred to them, and the plan of God began to happen through the many.
Abraham as an individual did not possess and fill the Promised Land. His descendants did. And Christ as an individual had to ascend to the Father so that the Holy Spirit could fill a people to become the many-membered Body of Christ. God has always transitioned from an individual to a people. Yet it is difficult for us to get out of focusing on the singular individual. Even within the Church today we tend to emphasize individual ministries rather than really getting into body ministry.
Our focus needs to be on body ministry because God wants to lead us into the next step, which is the transition from many individuals into oneness. Christ’s prayer to the Father was that we as His Body would be one. And we have to see that this is the conclusion that everything He did for us is leading to. The revelation of Christ to the world happens as we become one just as the Father and Christ are one. Let this be imparted to our spirits as we pray for His Kingdom today.
Key Verses:
• Genesis 22:17. “I will greatly multiply your seed … as the sand which is on the seashore.”
• Leviticus 23:5–11. “You shall bring in the sheaf of the first fruits of your harvest to the priest.”
• John 12:24. “Unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit.”
• Leviticus 23:15–17. “You shall bring in from your dwelling places two loaves of bread for a wave offering.”
• Acts 1:1–11. “You will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be My witnesses.”
• Acts 1:14–15. “A gathering of about one hundred and twenty persons was there together.”
• Acts 2:1–4. “And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit.”
• Acts 4:23–25. “They lifted their voices to God with one accord.”
• Acts 4:31. “They were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak the word of God with boldness.”
• Ephesians 4:13–16. “The head, even Christ, … causes the growth of the body for the building up of itself in love.”
• John 17:11–21. “They may all be one … so that the world may believe that You sent Me.”
Quotes:
• “In the plan of God, we go from one—a focus on one individual or one ministry—and that transitions into many. Then the many must transition back into one.”
• “All that has transpired in the story of God is coming to this conclusion: there must be a body of people. That body must be fitted and held together by that which every joint is supplying.”
• “What's happening to the many? They are becoming one. And that is what the purpose all of this was about in the mind of Christ.”
Takeaways:
1. We emphasize individual achievement and individual ministry. But it is important for us to see that God’s plan has always been to transition from one to many.
2. The Feast of Weeks shows the transition from the singular first fruits of grain to the two loaves of bread made from many grains. Christ was the singular first fruits who pleased God and did His will completely. At Pentecost His followers received power when the Holy Spirit came upon them, signifying the transferring of anointing from Christ as a singular ministry to His many-membered Body.
3. This transition resulted in a great congregation of people who were serving the Lord. Then there was another transition as this congregation was together in one place, in one accord, in one mind and heart. When they prayed together, the power of God was released by that oneness.
4. The next step is that the many become one. The Body of Christ cannot continue on as a multitude of individuals. It must become one for the purpose of God to be finalized.