Growing In God with Gary Hargrave Gary Hargrave

Web Description: As we observe Holocaust Memorial Day this year with Israel, we must acknowledge the miserable failure of the United Nations to fulfill the goal of its own Holocaust Remembrance Day, which was to prevent the very thing that happened on October 7, 2023. We wake up to the fact that the determination to annihilate the Jews is not gone. And we raise our voices to the nations and declare our determination that the Holocaust will never be forgotten and that nothing like it will ever happen again.
 
Show Notes: On May 6, 2024, Israel will observe their annual Holocaust Memorial Day. It is important to understand that this aspect of remembrance is something that God has imparted to the heart of the Jewish people. Remembering their history and teaching the lessons of that history from generation to generation is a focal point during the annual fasts and feasts in observance of the Sabbath and in the daily prayers. The Holocaust Remembrance Day, established by United Nations Resolution 60/7, was to have this same focus: to remember the Holocaust and to teach future generations so that something like the Holocaust will never happen again.
 
Yet the attack by Hamas on October 7, 2023, has exposed the absolute failure of the U.N. to implement the very resolution it established. The horrors inflicted on innocent Israelis on October 7 proved the stated purpose of Hamas and other Islamic jihadist forces, which is the total annihilation of all Jews and Israel—the exact same purpose the Nazis had during WWII with the Holocaust. Not only did the U.N. fail in educating people to prevent this attack, but U.N. personnel actually educated the new generation of Gazan children to hate and annihilate the Jews. Furthermore, facilities and employees financed by the U.N. actively joined Hamas in committing the atrocities of October 7.
 
We need to recognize this if we are to have an effective time of remembrance of the Holocaust and October 7, 2023. For this year’s memorial, please stand with the Jews throughout the world and with the State of Israel to remember the horrors of the Holocaust, to remember the horrors of October 7, and to honor the memory of those brutally murdered in these and other anti-Semitic attempts of annihilation. So please let your voice be heard in any way you can and in every way you can. Let it be heard clearly by your neighbors and by the nations. Let the cry ring out, “Never forget and never again!”
 
Key Verses:
 
•       Exodus 20:8. “Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy.”
•       Exodus 20:11. “The LORD … rested on the seventh day.”
•       Deuteronomy 5:15. “You shall remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and the LORD your God redeemed you.”
 
Quotes: 
•       “When you’re remembering these events like the days of slavery in Egypt and the way God delivered them out of Egypt, it’s filled with lessons. And these lessons are to be remembered; they’re to be learned, and they’re to be taught and imparted generation after generation to all of Israel.”
•       “We must apply the lessons of the Holocaust to today. The reason we remember is because we want to do something about it today. We want to never forget what God has been teaching, and we want to do something about it.”
•       “As Israel prepares to remember the Holocaust Remembrance Day in Israel this year, sadly it is marred by the anti-Semitic protests that are transpiring in many nations. And these again are happening because of the failure of not only the United Nations as an organization, but also the nations themselves—the failure to educate the children.”
 
Takeaways:
1.    The observances of the Jewish people all have an emphasis on remembrance. The people are to remember what God did, act on what they remember, and teach the lessons of that memory to their children from generation to generat

Web Description: The Passover is a reminder of how God can move with signs and wonders by His great power. And we must continue to remind ourselves lest we forget God and turn away from Him after a period of preparation. Let this Passover be a time of remembering, a time of expectation in our faith to see God move.
 
Show Notes: By the time the Lord sent Moses to deliver them, the children of Israel had never seen God move. Maybe they had heard about Him in stories handed down from their fathers. But after four hundred years of slavery and oppression, they had a hard time believing the words of Moses that this God they had never known was about to deliver them. Yet God did deliver them exactly as He had promised Abraham He would.
 
Then after God delivered them by a mighty hand and signs and wonders, His presence continued to be with them, miraculously protecting them and sustaining them for forty years in the wilderness. So when the children of Israel were about to take the land as God had promised, Moses gave them a warning. After living in the land for a long time, it would again be easy for them to forget all that God had done for them. So they must continually tell the story from generation to generation and not lose their faith in Him.
 
This telling of the story is an important aspect of the Passover that we need today. I think we are too much like those Israelites, who after waiting a long time could not believe in God, or they even abandoned His ways. We too can say that we have heard the stories about God and Yeshua (Jesus). But is He our God or just the God of our fathers? And this Passover I hope that we can remind ourselves. We may be in a time of preparation when God does not seem to be moving. But He is never without His great power, and He will move when He is ready. Will we be ready?
 
Key Verses:
 
•       Genesis 46:2–4. “Go down to Egypt, for I will make you a great nation there.”
•       Genesis 15:12–16. “Your descendants will be strangers in a land. … Then in the fourth generation they will return here.”
•       Exodus 12:41. “At the end of four hundred and thirty years, to the very day, all the hosts of the Lord went out from the land of Egypt.”
•       Deuteronomy 10:20–22. “Now the LORD your God has made you as numerous as the stars of heaven.”
•       Deuteronomy 4:24–34. “He will not fail you nor destroy you nor forget the covenant with your fathers which He swore to them.”
•       Deuteronomy 4:35–40. “Know that the LORD, He is God; there is no other besides Him.”
 
Quotes:
 
•       “Maybe it’s been a long time since we’ve seen God really overtly move on the earth or in the heavens through His power, through His determination to fulfill His Word. But He is going to move again, and we must be prepared for it.”
•       “One of the reasons God wants us to remember is so that we in our hearts can stay faithful and prepared.”
•       “Passover is preparing you for tomorrow. It’s not just talking to you about a story of yesterday.”
 
Takeaways:
 
1.    God is always working to prepare the material world for His moving. That may take time, but that does not mean He is not a God of power and might. He will move in signs and wonders when it comes time to bring about the fulfillment of His Word in the earth.
2.    Moses came with signs and wonders when he matured and the time had come for Israel’s deliverance. Yeshua came with signs and wonders at the time that He matured and everything was ready for Him to manifest as the Messiah.
3.    Passover teaches us that our hearts must always be prepared and be anticipating the power of God to move in our midst to fulfill His Word, His covenants, and His promises with Israel and with us as believers in Christ.

Web Description: This podcast is a call to prayer in response to a clear attempt by the current US administration to replace the duly elected democratic government of Israel. We need to bind our hearts together and unite our spirits as Christians to pray that the United States of America will not be moved into a place of being cursed by God.
 
Show Notes: Psalm 83 talks about the countries who conspire together to wipe Israel out as a nation. Many believe that this psalm refers to a specific war that must take place in the end-time. Yet there have been many times in history when countries have come against Israel to destroy it. And we can easily apply this psalm to the fact that many nations are aligning themselves against Israel in this current conflict with Hamas. What is very concerning is that the Biden administration is positioning the United States of America to be one of those countries trying to destroy Israel.
 
On the floor of the US Senate, Chuck Schumer called for new elections in Israel and the ousting of Netanyahu. This attempt to undermine the elected leader of an ally who has the support of the Israeli people underscored the shocking fact that the US government is plotting to overthrow the government of Israel. This comes at a time when there truly is an existential threat against Israel, and the Israeli people need our support more than ever.
 
The reviling of Israel by Schumer and by others in the US government falls into the category of cursing God’s people and positions the US to be cursed by God. And we know that the prophecies about Israel in the end-time always address how God will call to account every nation that comes against Israel. The fact that the US is involved in coming against Israel right now is a wakeup call for all Americans. We need to pray for Americans to wake up and speak up and be the blessing to Israel that this country was raised up by God to be.
 
Key Verses:
 
•       Psalm 83:1–5. “They have said, ‘Come, and let us wipe them out as a nation.’”
•       Psalm 83:13–18. “Let them be humiliated and perish.”
•       Genesis 12:1–3. “The one who curses you I will curse.”
 
Quotes:
 
•       “I feel an ominous thing in my spirit about this. And again, the ominous concern is what are we facing as the United States of America as a result of God saying, ‘I’m going to curse the person or the nation that curses you’”?
•       “This is not an issue about the upcoming elections in November. It’s not about Biden and Trump. This is about the coming future of this country and where we stand in the plan of God.”
•       “I believe we’re called to change the darkness of this age into light. And I think we better start flipping the switches and making it happen now.”
 
Takeaways:
 
1.    Psalm 83 is not necessarily about a future war. There have been many times in history when people have tried to wipe out Israel as a nation. And that is happening now.
2.    It is clear that the US is reviling Israel and undermining its ability to defend itself from being wiped out. According to Genesis 12:3, this is equivalent to cursing Israel and puts us in danger of being cursed by God.
3.    The current US administration is trying to unilaterally impose a government on a democratic country that is our closest ally in the region. It is doing this against the will of the Israeli people and against the will of the majority of Americans who support Israel.
 
 

Web Description: It is difficult to see the Lord’s description of Laodicea in the book of Revelation in a positive light. But the lesson we need to take away from it is how great a love the Lord has for us. No matter how much we may have damaged our relationship with Him, He is always knocking on the door of our hearts. And we need to open that door and let Him in, honestly evaluating ourselves as we commune with Him, and let Him make a personal covenant with us.
 
Show Notes: I think we resist learning the lessons of Laodicea in the book of Revelation because no one wants to be associated with the lukewarm church that the Lord spews out of His mouth. But we need to read the example of Laodicea with a new understanding. First of all the Laodiceans did not get to their state of lukewarmness overnight. They had been refusing the Lord for a long time. And we must end the pattern of refusing the Lord in our own lives. Next, we must see that the picture of the Laodicean church in Revelation is a picture of God’s deep love for us.
 
Even though the Laodiceans had continually refused Him, the Lord was always knocking on their door, always pleading with them to let Him in. That means that no matter how separated from the Lord we have become, we can always open the door to Him and let Him back into our hearts. The Lord said, “If anyone opens the door ….” He is not addressing the Church in general. He is speaking to each one of us individually. If you open the door to the Lord, He will come in and dine with you personally.
 
As we read in the Hebrew Scriptures, people ate together to make a covenant, and the Lord wants to make a personal covenant with each one of us. But for that to happen we must first take the initiative to open the door of our heart to let Him in. Then by seeing Him we will be like Job who said, “I have heard about the Lord before, but now my eyes see You. Therefore, I retract and repent in dust and ashes.” There will be a brokenness, but there will also be the joy of experiencing His love, of having a personal covenant with Him in His blood that is so necessary in these times.
 
Key Verses:
 
•       Revelation 3:14–22. “If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and will dine with him.”
•       Jeremiah 31:31. “I will make a new covenant.”
•       Matthew 23:37–39. “How often I wanted to gather your children together.”
•       Hebrews 12:18–24. “You have come to … Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant.”
•       Hebrews 12:25–29. “See to it that you do not refuse Him who is speaking.”
•       Job 42:1–6. “Now my eye sees You; therefore I retract, and I repent.”
•       1 Corinthians 11:23–32. “A man must examine himself, and in so doing he is to eat of the bread and drink of the cup.”
•       Isaiah 1:18. “Come now, and let us reason together.”
 
Quotes:
 
•       “No matter how many times we may have refused Him in the past, He’s looking for us to open our hearts, to sit down with Him, and to, in essence, negotiate a new covenant.”
•       “He’s looking for something to happen on a level that is beyond what we as believers have ever known or ever understood before. And as this happens, we will find ourselves being very humble, very much in repentance before the Lord and opening our hearts in a way that maybe we were not able to open our hearts before.”
•       “Let us find that place of brokenness in our heart where there can be true repentance and true hunger to relate to Him in a new way.”
 
Takeaways:
 
1.    We have refused the Lord many times in our relationship with Him. But it is time to stop doing that. I feel like we are coming to a place in the timing of the Lord in these days when we need to be far more cautious about saying “No” to Him.
2.    No m

Growing In God Podcast
Web Description: Paul wrote that in everything he had gone through he had but one cry: “that I may know Him.” We have that same cry. Whatever we have gone through has been for the single purpose that we may know the Lord, that we may behold Him and be transformed into His image. As we have been celebrating the Feast of Purim, let us believe for the instant change that comes for us as we stand in the presence of the King today.
 
Show Notes: I think most people avoid the book of Job because they do not want to read about all the suffering that God allowed satan to inflict on Job. But we also know from the book of Job that God allowed it to teach Job and bring him to a place of greater blessing in his life. It also may seem to us that satan is behind much of the suffering we go through. Yet we know that nothing happens to us without God allowing it. And He is allowing it to teach us, to impart to us, and to bring us out of something old into something new.
 
At the end of his experience, Job said, “I have heard of You by the hearing of the ear; but now my eye sees You.” When I read this, it just came so alive to me that everything we have gone through has been allowed by God to bring us to the place where our eye sees Him. Like Job, we have heard about the Lord. We have had amazing teaching about God. We have heard and spoken a living Word. But there is a new level of beholding the Lord that I believe is available to us.
 
Moses was someone who heard the voice of the Lord, who moved in miracles of God, but everything changed for him when he beheld the Lord and spoke with Him face to face. Everything changed for Esther and for the Jewish people when she stood face to face with the king. This instant change is what we celebrate at the Feast of Purim. Let us believe to behold the Lord, to stand before the Lord and speak with Him face to face. Everything can change as a result.
 
Key Verses:
 
•       Job 42:1–6. “I have heard of You by the hearing of the ear; but now my eye sees You.”
•       Exodus 33:9–11. “Whenever Moses entered the tent, … the LORD used to speak to Moses face to face.”
•       Esther 4:14. “Who knows whether you have not attained royalty for such a time as this?”
•       2 Corinthians 3:18. “We all … beholding … the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image.”
•       Philippians 3:7–10. “I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them but rubbish … that I may know Him.”
 
Quotes:
 
•       “It’s too real to go through these experiences knowing that maybe they’re even satanically initiated. But they’re allowed by God, and in God’s allowance He is teaching us.”
•       “Up to this point we’ve known about Him, we’ve spoken about Him, but it hasn’t taken away the cry to really behold Him and see Him and know Him on another level.”
•       “I’m glad for the loss. I’m glad for what God has taken me through because I count all these other things now as rubbish that I might gain Christ.”
 
Takeaways:
 
1.    We have heard the Word of the Lord spoken to us. We have heard many things about the Lord. We have been taught many things about the Lord. But I feel like there is an experience for us where we behold the Lord.
2.    Paul wrote that everything he had known in the past was rubbish compared with knowing the Lord. And everything that we have known, no matter how important it was to us, no matter how difficult it was, has been to bring us to this place of beholding the Lord in a new way.
3.    God has been dealing with our hearts and preparing us for such a time as this, just as Mordecai told Esther. And we know that what initiated the events of Purim was Esther going in and standing before the king. We too cry for this experience of standing before the Lord and kno

Web Description: Who is going to minister God’s great new covenant of forgiveness to the world? The Body of Christ is to do that. But how can we minister God’s forgiveness if we ourselves are unable to forgive others? First we must realize how much we need the ability to forgive. Then we must realize that our ability to forgive is based on having God’s nature of forgiveness within us. Let us appropriate His divine nature and be the forgivers He has enabled us to be.
 
Show Notes: When Nelson Mandela became president of the Republic of South Africa, many Black citizens were seeking to take revenge on the White population because of apartheid, and a bloodbath seemed unavoidable. But Mandela turned the tide of the inevitable violence and changed a nation. What he accomplished was a miracle. And the reason that miracle occurred is because he tapped into the divine nature of God. As someone whose own nature had been violent and unforgiving, Mandela took upon himself God’s nature of forgiveness.
 
We know from Christ’s teachings that God expects us to forgive others to the same extent that He has forgiven us. And God’s forgiveness of us through Christ was an intense, dramatic, proactive event. God’s forgiveness literally removes from us all the guilt for our sins against Him. I think we have to admit that we do not forgive others with that same determination, and we need to understand how much our inability to forgive others limits our effectiveness as the Body of Christ.
 
We should not be discouraged by that. God has provided for us that we might become partakers of His divine nature. Christ was able to forgive because He had the divine nature of the Father within Himself, and Christ is here to impart His nature to us. Let us hunger after His nature. Let us ask and seek and knock until the nature of God is imparted to us because then forgiveness will flow from us. If a single individual like Mandela could change a nation by laying hold of forgiveness, what could the Body of Christ do in this day?
 
Key Verses:
 
•       John 3:16. “God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son.”
•       Luke 23:34. “Jesus was saying, ‘Father, forgive them.’”
•       2 Peter 1:2–4. “By them you may become partakers of the divine nature.”
•       Matthew 6:12–15. “If you do not forgive others, then your Father will not forgive your transgressions.”
•       Mark 11:20–26. “Whenever you stand praying, forgive.”
•       Jeremiah 31:31–34. “I will put My law within them. … I will forgive their iniquity.”
•       Hebrews 10:16–18. “I WILL PUT MY LAWS UPON THEIR HEART, … AND THEIR SINS AND THEIR LAWLESS DEEDS I WILL REMEMBER NO MORE.”
•       Matthew 19:26. “With people this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.”
•       Matthew 26:39. “My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from Me; yet not as I will, but as You will.”
•       John 10:17–18. “I lay down My life. … No one has taken it away from Me.”
 
Quotes:
 
•       “Where is the power of our prayer and our prophetic proclamation? Where is the power that we should move in as true sons of God? Is it possible that it’s tied up in this whole thing of forgiveness?”
•       “Everything that God did in Christ was about forgiveness. And forgiveness is something that is tremendously proactive.”
•       “God wants you to take on His nature. What is His nature? His nature is forgiveness.”
•       “Don’t start by trying to forgive. Start by seeking His nature.”
 
Takeaways:
 
1.    Without the ability to forgive, I believe that our effectiveness in prayer and in speaking the Words of the Lord are thwarted.
2.    Forgiveness is truly an aspect of the nature of God. As believers we should not re