Welcome to another episode of “Coffee with Phil”! Phil kicks off the podcast by indulging in the joy of coffee, thanks to a special Advent Christmas gift from his kids. Delving into the main topic, “What are you standing on?” Phil explores the significance of a strong foundation as the year approaches its end. Drawing inspiration from the biblical narrative of Joshua and Caleb, he urges listeners to align with God’s seasons and seek personal prophecies for the upcoming year. Phil emphasizes the need to discern God’s voice, actively engage with personal words, and stand firm on received promises. The episode concludes with four vital action steps: preparing the heart for the new, tuning into God’s guidance, seeking personal prophetic words, and cultivating conviction to strengthen faith. Join Phil for an insightful and inspiring conversation that blends the love of coffee with practical wisdom for a purposeful life of faith.
BONUS CONTENT
- Previous Episode: Episode 53
- Bible Reference: 1 Tim 1: 18 | 1 Tim 4: 14 | Jer 1: 12
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Introduction
Well, hi and welcome to the podcast this afternoon. Welcome. My name’s Phil. Welcome to coffee with Phil. And right at the outset, I am just going to geek out on my coffee this afternoon. But if you don’t like coffee and you don’t like me talking about it then I guess you’re not going to be listening for long. But listen to this. My kids gave me a box of coffee as part of an Advent Christmas celebration and I just cupped the first lot of beans, there’s 24 different flasks of beans for the 24 days leading up to Christmas.
I guess that’s what an Advent calendar is, but this bean, oh my gosh, it’s a let me read it to you. It’s captivating with care, a rich profile with stoned fruit flavours and a sweet floral complexity. comes from Ethiopia and was absolutely remarkable on my palette. I ground it in a very coarse grind, put it into my V60, which is a drip filter for a single cup with the paper filter which allowed the coffee to bloom by pouring water on it approximately 85 to 90° you allow the coffee to open and expand, and then you use the water to then drip through the coffee and it produces the soft, complex, rich coffee that was just, well, is delightful on my palette.
I’m looking near the bottom of the cup and I’m thinking well, the good news for me is I’ve got 23 more flasks to go. Unique beans, so shout out to the kids. Wow, what a blessing. And now you get to enjoy it too. You’re listening and you’re enjoying coffee with Phil, even if it’s just Phil drinking the coffee, I’m not sure where you are. But look, this conversation is about faith made real. It’s about living a life of faith on purpose, for purpose, and today coffee with Phil episode 54. The headline is what are you standing on and the timestamp for this is we’re nearing the end of the calendar year. And at the end of the calendar year, for me, always intentionally, diligently searching for how the Lord wants me to position myself in the new year and for the new calendar year.
Get In Tune with the Season
I’m very much focused on seasons and I believe the Lord would have us focused on seasons, the Bible, the festivals, the patterns and scripture are all based on seasons patterns that God wants us to live our life by. And so when I say what are you standing on, what I mean by that is what are you standing on as a firm foundation coming into a new year that you might have a positive expectancy about the new year that you might be walking in step with God into the new year, that you might be carrying in faith, something of a seed of promise that God has for you. And that is what I mean by what are you standing on?
Think about standing on a firm foundation. The man that puts his feet on a secure foundation will surely not fall. I would say this to you also, don’t be the person who wavers in the breeze of uncertainty, or the fool who moves. with the majority. Friends, we must understand that God speaks to us personally and uniquely as part of a larger body, and I’ll talk about that in a minute, because I’ve just got a couple of thoughts, I want to give you. And I’m going to talk about how you get in tune. I’m going to talk about your personal walk. I’m going to talk about how we, (me and you) what we do to stand firm. And to close, I’m going to share some key action steps that I think are vital.
I’m just going to apologise because you may also note a change in my voice. It’s not because I’m wearing the wrong underwear. It’s not because I’m undergoing hormone treatment. That’s literally, I’ve just had this. Dog of a throat since late last week. And I don’t even know what I’m going to sound like when I wake up in the morning and also depends on the time of day and what I’ve had. So just this fresh coffee is either helping or not, but the voice is the voice. So, I hope you get through this, and I hope you can persevere because truly, friends today we’re going to look at what is it that we’re standing on to make the next year.
A brilliant one for us and I don’t want you to be someone that waivers. I don’t want you to be someone that wavers and the breathers, breaths of uncertainty or the fool who moves with the majority. What I want to say is, I want you to be like Joshua and Caleb. Now Joshua and Caleb were part of the crew selected by Moses to represent the 12 tribes of Israel to go into the promised land and scouted out and they went, and they said look, it’s amazing.
And they spent 40 days and 40 nights walking through the promised land. They brought back our grapes the size of. Of well, I’m going to say basketballs in those days. They didn’t have a basketball, but massive as grapes and fruit and they said. Look, this place is Amazing. But the Giants are big. We cannot go in 10 of the 12 men were filled with fear at the opposition that they might face.
And then it says this in numbers chapter 14. Joshua and Caleb. Who were among those who had spied out the land tore their clothes at the negativity, and they spoke to the Congregation of Israel, saying the land we passed through to spy out is exceedingly good land. If the Lord delights in us, he will bring us into this land and he will give it to us. And then they quote a promise which God had been saying for generations. They quote and they say the Lord will give us this land and the quote is this, a land which flows with milk and honey. And now they say this “Only do not rebel against the Lord. Nor fear the people of the land, for they are our bread. Their protection is departed from them, and the Lord is with us.
What’s my point? They latched on to the promise that God had given, that he would lead his people into the land which flows with milk and honey, and Josh and Caleb saying this is it. This is the land. It’s flowing with milk and honey. It’s got to be the land that’s part of the promise. And my point is they were standing on the promise of God, confident that he would deliver them into the promise. And so that’s what I mean when I say, let’s be careful what we’re standing on. We’ve got to stand on the promise of God and not be wavering in the breeze of uncertainty or the fool who moves with the majority. So, three things I want to share with you. Let’s get into them.
So, the first thing that I would say the first section here is get in tune with the season. I’m going to talk about your personal journey in a minute, but you’ve got to understand that is the law that determines seasons. It’s the law that determines when the sun comes up and the sun goes down when the wind blows and when the seasons change.
And so, whilst you might be doing awesome on your journey. If you’re living outside of the season that God has determined, then you’re going to look like a fool. You’re going to end up in the wrong place. You know, if you are in New Zealand and it’s the height of summer and everyone’s at the beach or at the lake and you’re trying to go skiing on the mountain top. Then you’re going to be disappointed because there’s no snow because it’s the wrong season.
So, let’s get in tune with the season. You know, there’s a time for everything under the Sun, Solomon wrote. And that means that there’s a season for everything the Lord said in Genesis. These things will never change. Summer and Winter, spring and autumn. They will always come. We’ve got to get in tune with the season, so I’m just going to give you a freebie right at the start, and I’m going to share with you what I reckon is going on with regards to the seasons and I would say that the transition season that we’ve been in is coming to an end.
And so, when a season comes to an end, we need to change the way we think. We need to change our expectations; we need to even change the way we behave as we see the closing out of a season, so a transition season is very confusing because change is confusing, and we might be uncertain, and we might not know what’s coming and we’re grieving or we’re struggling with change because what we’ve known what we’re comfortable with has in fact started to wind down and close, and I’m saying this to you because I’ve been feeling really unsettled in the last six months and I feel like it’s because there’s a closing of this season now. The Lord gets to tell me what that season looks like as it closes and what the new season looks like. I’ll talk about that in a minute. But the point I’m making is you’ve got to recognise what’s happening and when a season closes, we can’t try and keep it open because the Lord is the one that determines that.
So, I’m sensing a lot of people struggling at the moment because things are changing. I’ve got people in my world, friends, family members that are just noticing shifts and changes and some have got property on the market, and some have got job changes happening and some are going through transitions and health and relationships with their kids. Look, transition is normal we’ve just got to learn how to manage it. The point I’m making is, that season that God’s leading us through right now, the season of transition, where we’ve been uncertain and preparing for change, it is coming. Now that means something else that means getting in tune with the season means recognising that the Lord is clearly about to do a new thing, and one of the things that I always latch on to is scripture is prophecies to our world.
And so, for me and my circle of friends and the people I hang out with and the people I pray with, with absolutely latching on to the scripture from Isaiah 43, verse 19, when the Lord says Behold, I will do a new thing. Now shall it spring forth. And this is God saying guys, guys, guys. Get the memo, get the. Memo I am doing this. I’m doing the new thing and if we’re still trying to stay in the old season, we’re going to completely miss the point that God is doing a new thing.
Now there’s a very key part of this. 1st that we want to make sure we get as well, and it says do you not perceive it? So, what’s the point of that? I would say to you, get in tune with the season. The transition is closing, the Lord is doing something new and he’s inviting you in to perceive it, to comprehend it, to get step by step with God, in step with God, that you might walk with God from the old into the new, to perceive the new means, to start to recognise it, and I’ll talk about that in a minuet.
It means to begin to comprehend, to grasp, to understand, and to move into accepting that God was doing something new. You go back to the story in the book of numbers when the spies walked into the promised land. There’s a bunch of them that just didn’t recognise that God was going to do something completely new, and you could see Joshua and Caleb are guys, though the Giants are present, they will be our bread, meaning we will consume them because the Lord himself will do something new. And everybody missed it. You know one of the worst things for us in the church. As we walk in, faith is to walk in faith and confidence in the old and miss that God’s calling us to have faith and confidence in the new thing he’s doing.
So, get in tune with the season. Because God is drawing a close to the season that you’ve been in of transition, and I’m saying Hallelujah. I’m really, really glad that’s finishing and I’m excited that the Lord’s doing something new. My responsibility and all of that is to position myself. So that I might perceive it and I invite you now to think about how we might perceive it.
And that’s the second part of the conversation that I want to chat to you about. So, the second question I’ve got for you here is what Is the word of the Lord for the coming season? what is the word of the Lord, the personal word for you for your coming season? So firstly, we got to understand that we got to get in tune with the seasons of God and what he’s actually doing. And then once we recognise that there’s a season, things are changing and we’re getting in step with God now, we’ve got to make it personal. We’ve got to say, OK, my part in this, my position in the new season, I’ve got to understand that God has a fresh word for me, and I need to know what it is.
You know, I think too many people, they wonder around allowing the wind to blow them wherever the wind blows them, and they don’t actually have any clue about what God’s doing, and they just… almost like ambivalent, ignorant and carry no responsibility and I don’t believe the Lord works like that. I mean, if he wanted puppets or grains of dust with no personality or self-will, then you know, he certainly wouldn’t have created humans the way he did.
What Is the Word of The Lord
But I mean the Lord, calls us and invites us into this journey because he wants us to partner with him and that’s what Joshua and Caleb certainly understood in the story in the Book of Numbers. So, I’d say this to you. One of the things that I’ve really learned. Is to covet personal prophecy. I believe the Lord has spoken to us through Scripture. I think the Lord has words over our life that are lifetime words, and I believe the Lord is always speaking to us in moments, and this is what I call personal prophecy.
Personal prophecy is just getting in tune with what God is saying to us now. And you can do that you know Paul teaches us in the booking Corinthians. That we should especially desire the gift of prophecy, in order that we would get in step with God, you know. If we’re going to pray in agreement with God and say thy will be done, Lord. On Earth, as it is in. Heaven, we should know what the will is, so we can agree with it so we can pray in line with it. So covert personal. Prophecy.
And to do this, I think we actually need to actively seek the voice of God to seek his voice, to seek him out. What I love about a Moses, and you could say Joshua in this case, who was the personal assistant of Moses. Is Moses was invited to climb the mountain. To commune with God, and in that he was privledge, in that he had a personal face to face encounter with God, and he had conversations with God, and he got these prophetic words that’s what we would call them. Now you call them downloads, you can call them insights and revelations call it what you like. Moses was communing with God and hearing from God. For the people of God. But we know that Jesus made a way for every single person who has faith in his name to access God in the same way Moses did no longer. Do you need to rely on the priest You know, it’s good to stand with a friend and I encourage you to do that, but we can seek the voice of the Lord ourselves.
So, we covet personal prophecy, which means we earnestly desire it, and then we actively seek it. And we say God would you speak to me. I had a time just recently where I was with a bunch of ministers. And look I suppose I’m in a little bit of a privileged position. And I get to hang out with people who love to do this, and we get in the room we go guys let’s just see what God wants to say. Let’s pray for each other.
And so, when it was my turn, I stood in the middle of a circle. I made sure, my phone was recording the prayer and for the next 6 or 8 minutes, these people just blessed me and prayed and spoke over me as led by the Holy Spirit. And what they shared was life giving and a flaming challenging. And, you know, just one little inside of that, one of the words was very strong that I must climb that mountain like Moses and press my face down before the Lord and then in order that I would be positioned to receive the revelation that God has not only for me, but for a large group of people, and I was going to say a nation. It sounds a little bit strong. I’m going to check that, but I really feel like the Lords invited me to deeper revelation at a higher place for a greater audience. And I don’t. But I don’t mean a big church or speaking to a crowd what I mean is that revelation is going to influence a number of people.
And I’m being honest and open about that. And I and I hold myself accountable for the law to be obedient to his invitation. But then it comes because I’m seeking it out. And I want to just remind you of the encouragement that Paul the Apostle gave to his spiritual son, Timothy. This just inspires me. In first Timothy. One verse 18. Paul says Timothy, “my son. Here my instructions for you based on the prophetic words spoken about you earlier, may they, the prophetic word spoken help you to fight the good fight of faith in the Lord’s battles. So, these prophetic words were actually weapons in the hand of Timothy to continue the fight of faith.
So, I’m saying to you need to have those prophetic words, you need to get a fresh word of the Lord. You need to walk with the Lord, in order that with him, you would have the necessary things to walk into the new season. Just flick the page in my Bible when I get to first Timothy Chapter 4 and verse 14 and Paul says this. “Do not neglect the spiritual gift you received through the prophecy spoken over you when the elders of the church laid their hands on you. Give your complete attention to these matters. Throw yourself into your tasks so everyone will see your progress.” What’s Paul saying is like. Dude, you already got the clues you already got it. Now take hold of it. And don’t neglect these gifts because the prophecy was giving you what you need for the season to come.
What And How Do You Stand on This?
And then lastly, look, I don’t want to beat you up with the Bible, but this is inspiring me. I turn the page to Timothy, chapter one, verse 6. Paul says. “This is why I remind you to fan and to flames the spiritual gift God gave you when I laid my hands on you. For God has not given us a spirit of fear and timidity. But of power, love and self-discipline.” What’s my point? Getting the word of the Lord gives you something to stand on. If you’ve got no foundation, if you’ve got nothing to stand on. Maybe you’ve just lost touch of the word of the Lord, or you need a fresh word of the Lord. For your coming season, and I would encourage you that God is always willing to speak to us, it’s in his heart. It’s in his nature. It’s who he is. He’s not active, he’s alert, and he’s attentive, watching over our lives, and I’m personally encouraged by the recent ministry that I’ve received and the blessing of people praying for me even just last week.
I’m having catch up with my friends and I’m sharing my journey and they’re like, hey, hey, hey, before we go anywhere, man, we’re going to pray with you over the phone and just scratching out notes as they’re praying, just gleaning what God is saying. So, covet those opportunities and if you don’t have them, then find a way to get in a community of faith that believes in that and can help you in that and, well, that’s just how I roll. That’s why I love it. So, I’m encouraging you wherever you are, to be in that space.
So firstly, I said get in tune with the season. Secondly, I said you know, what Is the word of the Lord, for you in the coming season? Thirdly and finally, I’d say what and how do you stand on this? To stand in faith, let me let me just give you this explanation right here, right now to stand in faith is to be unwavering, regardless of external circumstances. So, to stand in faith means to stand and sometimes guys, we just need to, we need to… I mean, I’ve got this picture, right? We’re standing on our high point and the wind is buffering us. It’s just life or it’s the voice of the devil and. We’ve just got to stand in the face of it and look the wind in the face and say you will not move me.
And that’s how we stand firm. So firstly, we’ve got to know what those words are and then secondly, what I did recently with those prophetic ministry times that I’ve received, you heard me say this. I scratched down those words or in the case of the recording, I literally typed out in bullet point form the key phrases, the exact words we use, because I believe these people were speaking under the anointing of the Holy Spirit.
Key Action Steps That Are Vital
So, the exact wording is very important because I’m looking for patterns. I’m looking for themes. I’m looking for emphasis on being a good steward of what God has given me. So that’s the first thing you got to do is you got to capture it. And you got to preserve it so that you can be a good steward of it. And then I’ve been playing the recording and I’ve been reading it and sharing it with some of my prayer partners. For me, I recently was about sharing it with my board and asking them to support me in it and to pray with me and that helps me to stand firm on the foundation, so to stand in faith as to the unwavering, so that when my circumstances around me don’t look like the promise, I can keep my attention off the circumstances and point my attention on God and say. Well, look, look. This is what you said to me.
And I just reminded myself I just looked it up here, the word of the Lord in Jeremiah chapter one. And he says, what do you see? And I see a branch of an almond tree. And the Lord says in Jeremiah one verse 12. “You have seen well for I am ready to perform my word says the Lord.” and if we look at a different translation then the message the Lord says I’m sticking with you. I’ll make every word I give you come true. And we know from other stories the Lord is alert and he’s active and he’s hovering over his word, and he’s willing to see it fully fulfilled and that’s how we stand in faith. We’ve got to base our confidence, not on our strength, but on the faithfulness of God.
So, look, look, I’ve got plenty of things going on in my life. I’m like, God, I know you’re good and I know you’re working, but I just can’t see evidence of. It but let not the lack of evidence in my natural sight Take away my confidence and faith that what you’ve said is true and you’re working to see it fulfilled and you know better than I do. So, I base my confidence. I choose to stand on the confidence and the firm foundation that you’re good, you’re faithful and you’ll do what you’ve promised. And that’s what I’m standing on.
And then the storm can’t push me over. They might try and beat me up, but it certainly can’t push me over. So how do you stand on a firm foundation for this coming year? You want to hold on to the faithfulness of God and trust him that he is faithful and that’s how you stand on it. As I bring this podcast to a close, I want to give you the key action steps. But before I do, I just want to remind you that we’re just so thankful for all the people that are subscribers and the people that share the podcast with their friends and just on the weekends, someone came running up to me to tell me that they’d talk to their friend about some of the journeys that I’ve been sharing. Their friend is in a different country, but now they’re consuming the podcast, so if you’re a new listener out there, welcome, welcome, welcome and Make Sure you Catch some of the past episodes. They’re always less than half an hour, but there’s a journey we’re on together. And so, catching some of those or bingeing some of them is probably going to help you get up to speed. This gives a lot of context for what I’m talking about, so make sure you subscribe to the podcast and make sure you share it with your friends. Share the love because we want to be having this conversation with many people because we’re all on the journey where faith is made real, and it changes our lives.
So, as I promised, I’m going to close with a summary, some key action steps that are vital. What are the key action steps that are vital? There’s four of them here and you make sure that they are highlighted in the show notes beneath. You can find the show notes. You can download them. You can process this carefully. Here are the four key action steps that are vital for me. To make sure that I stand firm on the promises of God for the coming year.
Prepare Your Heart
Firstly, prepare your heart and mind for the new. It means I’ve got to let go of the old. I’ve got to give thanks for it. But I’ve got also say goodbye to it so that I can be ready for the new thing that God’s got for me.
Tune Into the New
Secondly, I’ve got to tune into the new, which means I’ve got to discern what God is saying. I’ve got to search out what Godis saying, because I’ve got to be prepared to receive it. You know, sometimes we’ve got to be in the in the right framework, in our heart. So, Lord, is there anything that’s stopping me from receiving what you’ve got for me? Because I want to tune in to the new.
Get A Personal Word
Thirdly, see here is get a personal word. There’s a key step here. Search out. Find someone that can help you get a prayer partner. Get a personal word from the Lord that just lands on you with a weight of God’s glory. And you will know when the Lord has spoken to you when it happens, trust me, friends, you’re not going to have any doubt. Because when the Lord speaks, you will know it I can assure you of that.
Seek Conviction That Builds Faith
So firstly, prepare your heart and mind for the new. Secondly, tune into the new. Make sure you hear it. Thirdly, get that personal word so that when it comes, you’re willing to and able to receive it. And finally, fourthly find conviction that builds faith. Find conviction. How do I find conviction? I just spend time with God. I spend time with God, and I lay it out before me. I said Lord this is where I believe what you have given me, and I thank you for it and I trust you to it. And help me with conviction, because conviction will lead to faith. And faith will give you the strength to stand no matter what life throws at you.
Well, I hope that’s been really helpful today. I’m feeling charged up at the end of that. To be honest, I’m like, we’re going to go another round because this is giving me strength to stand in confidence. What God is doing in the new season to come and look forward to joining it with you. I’ll look forward to spending time with you well soon. Until then, God bless you. Have an amazing weekend. Don’t forget to come back and have some coffee with Phil. Take care.