The God Who Never Changes

0:00What if the God we're relating to is far more steady than we've ever been told? Hello friends, welcome back to the Brilliant Perspectives podcast. Before jumping today, if you're tired of relating to God through pressure and performance and you're ready for something more relational, we would love to have you join us March 27th through 29th for Brilliant Spring. A three-day virtual event with Graham, Dion and Team Brilliant, designed to help you trade pressure and performance for a relational way of growing in God. Each day builds on the last, guiding you into a lifestyle of presence, partnership and peace. With your new to Brilliant, or you've been with us for years, this event is designed to meet you exactly where you are. You can register at brilliance26.com slash brilliance spring. Now, today we're exploring what it means that God has a totally undivided heart, that

1:01on our best days and our worst days, he is exactly the same towards us. Graham shares something personal, a word from Isaiah 46 he received in a hard season and an open invitation to borrow it. Let's jump in with Graham Cook. I want to talk to you this evening about a subject that's become really dear to my own heart, which is the fact that God has a totally undivided heart. And key number one is we change when we see God's unchanging heart. We change the most when we see God's unchanging heart. Many of us sadly have grown up in a religious system that almost perpetrates the idea that God is bipolar. You know that he loves us but he's angry with us, what's that about?

2:03That God looks at our behavior and if it's not good, he turns away from us. If you're hearing stuff like that in your local church, you need to know that it's a religious spirit that's talking to you. It's one of the biggest problems I think in the Western church is false doctrine and poor teacher, but you know, things are changing. Things are changing. There is a spirit, a wonderful, majestic spirit of wisdom and revelation that's doing the rounds around the world right now. And God is opening us up to kingdom truth, which I think is a higher version than some of the church truth that we've been listening to. There is a kingdom truth that takes into account everything that God is and everything that we are not and blends the two together because God does not have an undivided heart

3:08about any of us. There is a full heart and because he has a full heart towards us, we can have a full assurance of understanding. If who we are in him, how we connect with him, how we fit with him, it's marvellous stuff. Jesus is the same yesterday, today and forever. Hebrews 138. And the Lord says, in Malachi 3.6, he says, I am the Lord and I change not. I don't think he was talking about diapers. I change not. He just saying, this is the one that you're dealing with. You're dealing with the one person in the universe who never, ever changes. So you always know where you are with him. On your best day and on your worst day, he's exactly the same.

4:08He never changes. And I think he likes that about himself, that he never changes. James put it this way, every good and perfect gift comes down from the father of lights, with whom there is no shifting shadow or variation. God doesn't switch things up on you. He lets you know exactly, hey, this is who I am, just so you know, and I'll always be like this, just so you know, and you can become confident in who I am towards you, because I won't change on you. So what we see in the nature of God gives us confidence in all our dealings with him. And I love the fact that because his character doesn't change, his promises, his word to us is also eternally sacred.

5:09So in Numbers chapter 23, verses 19 and 20, it says, God is not a man that he should lie, nor a son of man that he should repent. He doesn't do anything that he's sorry for. Has he said and will he not do it? Has he spoken and will he not make it good? Behold, I have received a commandment to bless. And when he has blessed, he cannot be revoked. And that's amazing. His word is absolutely true and sure. In Isaiah 55, 11, Isaiah put it this way, he said, this is the word he received from the Lord. So will my word be that goes out from my presence, from my mouth. It will not return to me empty. It will without accomplishing what I desire and without succeeding in the matter for which I center. There are words coming to us from heaven in these days.

6:13And the whole point of God prophetically communicating to us, whether he's using the prophecy of Scripture or whether he's using the prophetic gift. The whole point is that we should succeed with the words that he's giving us that we take those words and they become a focal point for us success in the arenas of life on the battlefields of life anywhere they work and they work perfectly because God doesn't lie and he never changes. The word of the Lord stands for ever. And in Isaiah 45, nearly this year, verse 23, I have sworn by myself, the word has gone forth from my mouth in righteousness and will not turn back that to me every knee will

7:14bow and every tongue will swear allegiance. I love that my word is not going to turn back. So the fascinating thing about the word of the Lord is it depends on his character, not yours. It depends on who he is, not who you are. And the fact that we can come and find the place of shelter in who God is, we can hide under the shadow of his wing and that counts for everything with him. It's not about you being brilliant, it's about him being amazing and you will not become brilliant because you get your act together. You will become brilliant when you realize how amazing he is and how he never changes and how he includes you in him.

8:16So if one of his names is wonderful, then wonderful has to be your name. We get to be who he is and we have all the help in the world for that to happen. He swears by himself and one of my current, for the last few years, favorite promises because I have a life threatening health condition, Yahoo. I am not a sink man trying to get well, I'm a whole man fighting off sickness. But you know, my doctors are concerned and all that kind of stuff, which is really sweet of them. I appreciate it. But this is my promise from the Father. So this for me is sacred to me and I'm going to read it out because I just have a sense that there are people here who are in a similar situation and this might want to be a promise that you borrow.

9:17Yeah. And it's from Isaiah 46 and this is his promise to me. Number three, you who've been born by me from birth and have been carried from the womb even to your old age, I will be the same. And even to your graying hairs, I will bear you. I have done it and I will carry you and I will bear you and I will deliver you. Your promise is everything to God and therefore it's everything to us. Promise from God is often like the difference between life and death. But a promise is something that God gives us because he doesn't change. Therefore when you come and rest and stand on that promise, then all the confidence that God has in his word comes to you. I like that.

10:20His word will not return empty and his love for us is not subject to our performance. If this teaching is reshaping how you see God's undivided heart for you, please subscribe and leave a rating. It helps others find these teachings. And if today's teaching stirred something in you, brilliant spring is the place to go deeper. March 27th through 29th, join Graham, Dion and team brilliant for three days of transformation, trading fresher and performance for a genuinely relational way of growing in God. You'll walk away with a personal kingdom routine, fresh encounters with God's nature and a community of believers on the same journey. Register at brilliant26.com slash brilliant spring. Thank you so much for listening. We'll see you next time on the brilliant perspectives podcast.