First Love

Guest (Male): Welcome to First Love with Dr. Robyn Kassas and Dr. Nathan Kassas, where faith meets real life. In this week's broadcast, you'll discover practical and spiritual keys to reclaim God's story in your life, deepen your relationship with Jesus, and encounter him as your first love, whether for the first time or all over again. No topic is off-limits as we make Jesus real, relevant, and relational. Stay with us. Your journey back to first love starts now.

Dr. Nathan Kassas: Hello everybody and welcome back to First Love. My name is Dr. Nathan Kassas and I have the privilege of sitting with Dr. Robyn Kassas. Dr. Robyn, how are you doing today?

Dr. Robyn Kassas: I have been feeling better, but I'm getting better now.

Dr. Nathan Kassas: Yes, we want to give God the glory because we both have been fighting some sickness in the last weekend and it's been a bit of a struggle, but God is faithful to pull us through. Which is ironic because we're talking about healing, Dr. Robyn, and we need to experience a physical healing ourselves.

Dr. Robyn Kassas: I think we've got to get up and walk.

Dr. Nathan Kassas: That's what we are discussing today. We're coming to the end of the Pool of Bethesda. We have really dived deep into this pool. But you made a comment, Dr. Robyn, that some people will enter the water...

Dr. Robyn Kassas: ...but they won't get healed.

Dr. Nathan Kassas: Can you expound on that? That is powerful.

Dr. Robyn Kassas: Many got into the pool, but the water had to be stirred. And when it was stirred, that's when you jumped in, or that's when you made a move to show what you wanted.

Dr. Nathan Kassas: I think it's important to emphasize that we said last week in the previous broadcast, which I think was revolutionary, healing is not about activity, it's about identity. One of the comments that was made, which I really was moved by, was that Jesus didn't wait for the water. He was the water.

Dr. Robyn Kassas: He was the water. He created the water.

Dr. Nathan Kassas: And he moved upon the water.

Dr. Robyn Kassas: He moved upon the water and he stirred the water.

Dr. Nathan Kassas: It's funny because sometimes we think that we have to wait for healing and we have to go through the process—and I'm all about process, I'm all about not skipping—but sometimes when the desire to change, when you want a new way and you are sick of your old way, Jesus comes to you.

Dr. Robyn Kassas: He did. He came and stood in front of that man.

Dr. Nathan Kassas: I think that we need to explore, and if you're listening, I think that's a very important thing that we need to emphasize again. Sometimes we are not sick of our old way. We like the sympathy that the old way gives. There's a feeding, a supply. I believe as I've studied in my own courses and study to do with the body, I believe that until we fully get to the position that we are absolutely tired of sitting on a mat for 38 years.

Dr. Robyn Kassas: We get so comfortable on the mat, don't we?

Dr. Nathan Kassas: Yes. I think it's important because we're going to talk about this as we come to an end of the Pool of Bethesda. If you've been listening, this is actually our last broadcast with you on Monday nights. Fortunately for us, but unfortunately for you if you've been used to listening to us at this time slot, we're moving to when, Dr. Robyn?

Dr. Robyn Kassas: I think it's around 5:00, 5:00 p.m. to 5:30 p.m., which is the main hour of the whole day.

Dr. Nathan Kassas: Exactly. We have loved being with you at this time and giving you a final thought on what God has done for the day or starting your day depending on when you listen. God has moved mightily and we will be Monday to Friday, 5:00 to 5:30 on WMCA.

What a great privilege it is. We're going to be talking to you every day giving you a real, relevant, relational gospel, helping you hopefully change the way you've done your relationship with God.

Dr. Robyn Kassas: I think the important thing is that the man had to not only get healed, but he had to change his thinking, he had to change his attitude. All that had to be healed. And that was a process that was beginning.

Dr. Nathan Kassas: It's important because, Dr. Robyn, why did Jesus come to the man? Why didn't he just say, "There's a pool there"? I believe something in the man had transitioned. It had triggered Jesus's heart. Like a heart field. We talk about God and his heart field, but Jesus came into that man's heart field because something in his heart had changed. And that was that he wanted to be made well.

Dr. Robyn Kassas: But he also knew something about this man inside him. He wasn't just a man. There was something he recognized in him that he could have that conversation with him about saying, "Everyone gets there before I do." That was a conversation that he was having and that moved the heart of God.

Dr. Nathan Kassas: That's powerful what you just said because even though the man might have wanted to be made well, it shows how the brain still brings up the reasoning, the logic of the comfortability of the mat. "I've got no one to put me in the water and every time I go to the water, someone else beats me."

Jesus is like, "I'm standing in front of you. Let's get beyond the security blanket of the last 38 years. Are you ready to let go of your security blanket?"

Dr. Robyn Kassas: Pick up your mat.

Dr. Nathan Kassas: That's essentially what he's saying. He's saying, "This has been a security blanket for you and if you want to be made well and made whole, then I've got to determine in your heart where your heart is at. Are you ready to let go of your security blanket?"

Dr. Robyn Kassas: And do all that you can to get into that water.

Dr. Nathan Kassas: We can't actually experience a real testimony of healing when we still have our way. You've talked about a testimony and we're going to bring that out in our new series as we go Monday to Friday. We're going to talk about neuroplasticity when we come back from the break. But leading up to it, it's more important that this man learned to walk differently.

Dr. Robyn Kassas: This man had to still walk. He was healed, but he still had to walk. You could be healed and not walk.

Dr. Nathan Kassas: My God in heaven.

Dr. Robyn Kassas: You can. The situation has to be, "Get up and walk. Take up your mat and walk. Walk out of your wheelchair."

Dr. Nathan Kassas: Walk out of your wilderness.

Dr. Robyn Kassas: It's all a process, an active process.

Dr. Nathan Kassas: As we come into the power of neuroplasticity, God is not giving you a miracle without changing the way you walk. This is so important. A lot of Christians want a change of circumstance, they don't want a change of walk. They don't want a change of way.

Dr. Robyn Kassas: His body was so used to lying down. This was a great step of faith for him because if anything, he would have even had to wiggle to get into the water. It had to be active faith here.

Dr. Nathan Kassas: Not passive faith.

Dr. Robyn Kassas: No, it had to be active. When you are in that position and you wiggle your way into that water, then you are showing a faith in what is being said.

Dr. Nathan Kassas: Sometimes discomfort does not necessarily mean that God is doing something to punish us. Sometimes discomfort means the water is finally reaching a place or the man stirring the water has finally let you reach a place that something's touching what's remained untouched.

Dr. Robyn Kassas: He was always in a position of lying down. Now he was healed and he needed to be in an upright movement from that time on.

Dr. Nathan Kassas: So much faith. Don't rebuke every disturbance because some of those disturbances that are happening in your life are Bethesda. Let's go to a break and we'll come back and discuss even more.

Guest (Male): You're listening to First Love with Dr. Robyn and Dr. Nathan Kassas. The story isn't finished yet and neither is what Jesus wants to reveal to your heart today. Let's jump back in and pick up right where we left off.

Dr. Nathan Kassas: All right, Dr. Robyn, we're back from the break. I'm walking into this next section with you because you've just explained the importance of the man having to walk. Let me throw it to you because you were saying something really important before we went to the break.

Dr. Robyn Kassas: I was saying that he had to put his faith into action, even if it meant wiggling into the water with every ounce of energy he had. It goes beyond even the pool.

Dr. Nathan Kassas: At the word creates the possibility.

Dr. Robyn Kassas: His walk embodied it.

Dr. Nathan Kassas: Explain what you mean by that.

Dr. Robyn Kassas: When you get challenged with such an impossible situation, you have to hold on to that word and make that word come alive to cause you to see there's possibility in there.

Dr. Nathan Kassas: Let's backtrack because there's a process to that word coming alive. Jesus gives you a word. He says, "Get up, rise, walk, take your mat." There's the possibility that you've just mentioned. But there's a step in between the rise and the get up and take your mat and that is called neuroplasticity.

Dr. Robyn Kassas: Here we go.

Dr. Nathan Kassas: Neuroplasticity is what we keep talking about. I've heard so many people talk about it on YouTube. It's literally the buzzphrase today because everybody's understanding that how we've done Christianity where we've just told people to do things and expected them to do it without giving them the understanding or the process behind it, it's really debilitated people and it's made them frustrated.

Neuroplasticity is basically the nervous system's ability to change and adapt. One thing I love about the brain, studying it, is that every organ in the body is changeable. The heart, unfortunately, is the only organ that cannot change.

That's why the Lord says to Ezekiel, "I'll take out your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh," because he can't change your heart. He has to give you a new heart. But with your brain, he can change your brain.

Dr. Robyn Kassas: By renewing it.

Dr. Nathan Kassas: Neuroplasticity says that even if I'm 95 years old—they say you can't teach an old dog new tricks, but that's a misnomer, you can.

Dr. Robyn Kassas: I think you can.

Dr. Nathan Kassas: What probably goes with that saying is there would be a lot of pain in teaching the old dog new tricks. Why? Because that person has to unlearn what they've put security in for 95 years.

This is what this man is doing. Jesus is challenging: what have you learned in the last 38 years of you being paralyzed? Because if I'm going to give you wholeness, it requires you walking differently.

Let me bring some science in here. With the walk that's different, it's like Jacob. When we get injured in our legs or when we have a paralyzed feeling in our legs and we get that sensation restored, the brain goes through such a traumatic shake that it feels like the person is literally being born again.

What happens is the brain says, "Whoa, this is a lot. I've got to learn life over completely. Not just learn how to get up and walk, but I've got to learn everything because the hips coordinate that movement where we shift our weight back and forth." If you injure your hips, you injure your legs, you injure that area and you really can't function at all. That's a parallel to what happened with Jacob. But here, the Lord is challenging him, "Get up and walk."

Dr. Robyn Kassas: It's really important that we know renewing is not merely receiving a new idea.

Dr. Nathan Kassas: Say that again, please.

Dr. Robyn Kassas: I said renewing is not merely receiving a new idea. Renewing is something bigger than that.

Dr. Nathan Kassas: Renewing neuroplasticity means new patterns being strengthened as old patterns are deconstructed. It means I'm deliberately emphasizing energy into the old pattern to destroy it. If I go left as my default, when I come to that situation, I deliberately mark with my brain, "I'm going right." My brain is determined over the 38 years using this man's story of always going left.

Dr. Robyn Kassas: So the renewing is not getting a new idea. It's a renewal in your mind.

Dr. Nathan Kassas: Yes, it's new, but it's not an idea.

Dr. Robyn Kassas: It's not an old well dug again.

Dr. Nathan Kassas: No. That's an important distinction because the word renew, it's a chance for new. But it's not a regurgitation of something that hasn't been new.

Dr. Robyn Kassas: Regurgitation is bringing up again a new idea. That is not renewal.

Dr. Nathan Kassas: Renewal means repeatedly practicing agreement with truth until truth becomes the pathway that your life travels most naturally.

Dr. Robyn Kassas: That's the way it is.

Dr. Nathan Kassas: Here's an example. We talk about a lot of emotional stressors. Here's an emotional stressor: "I can't trust people. I can't trust that person." How do I renew my mind? First you have to apply a statement of truth. You say, "Okay, let me do Proverbs 3:5." That's how I would do it as a brain coach. Trust in the Lord and lean not on your own understanding.

Your own understanding of the last 38 years is because you're using your reference in your brain. Your brain is a referencing organ. You're using your reference, your comparison, all the past. That is telling you you can't trust. How do I renew? I have to apply a statement of truth: Trust in the Lord and lean not on your own understanding. I'm leaning on my own understanding if I rely on the situation of the past to guide this decision. I have to deconstruct that pathway.

Dr. Robyn Kassas: You have to be careful because when you're leaning on your own understanding, you will be leaning on possibilities of new ideas.

Dr. Nathan Kassas: The man at Bethesda received healing instantly. We see this happening all over church on Sundays, during the week, when God heals people. But here's the key: once the miracle is over, he still had to learn to walk.

Dr. Robyn Kassas: He still had to walk life, had to travel life naturally.

Dr. Nathan Kassas: This is what I want to say about the healing. It wasn't going to be a brand new thing. He still had to travel that journey that he couldn't do the first time. A lot of people tell me, "Why won't God just heal me instantly and remove the memory?" Because you can't have healing without remembering. You have to be able to remember where you were to know where you are now and the difference. Otherwise, your brain doesn't register progress or healing.

Dr. Robyn Kassas: I would just say with that statement, then why do you need faith? Why do you need anything if God does it all for you? Why do you need relationship if God does it all for you? Why do you need communication if God does it all for you? That is not relationship.

Dr. Nathan Kassas: This man every time he put a foot forward, he took a step after Jesus said, "Get up and walk." Every time it reinforced a reality that was contradicting his previous 38 years of experience.

Dr. Robyn Kassas: When you actually get up and walk—and I will tell you my testimony in the new series—when you get up and you walk, you're walking because he's told you to get up and walk and you've got all faith in that. Then as you walk, whatever is not operating properly begins to operate. Feelings in your legs come back.

Dr. Nathan Kassas: As you walk.

Dr. Robyn Kassas: As you walk.

Dr. Nathan Kassas: That's the key, Dr. Robyn. A lot of people get a bit of healing, they get themselves upright, they position themselves upright, but that's not walking. They move their arm, but that's not walking.

I want to tie it back into what I said scientifically. Until you start walking, the nervous system doesn't recognize it as being a rebirth. Jacob was touched in his hip socket—same trauma. The Lord was not retraining him in how to walk, he was retraining him in how to think. By getting him to walk a different path, he was giving his mind a chance at thinking differently.

Dr. Robyn Kassas: His mind became renewed. Not with a new idea, but renewed. Something came alive. Not just a good idea. A good idea doesn't come alive, it's a thought. But he got his mind renewed and it came alive.

Dr. Nathan Kassas: Dr. Robyn, it's so important because Jesus is standing in front of the man and he demands that he leave his mat. This is so powerful for us because we cannot let the Lord touch or heal...

Dr. Robyn Kassas: ...can't touch the old, it has to be new.

Dr. Nathan Kassas: He will not renew what we refuse to expose.

Dr. Robyn Kassas: And he won't renew the old because he's giving you a new thing. "Behold, I give you a new thing."

Dr. Nathan Kassas: My allowing the Lord to wash what I've continually called my 38-year identity, it distorts the water. Those still waters I can look into myself—and we said this in a two episodes ago—I can look into those waters and see my own reflection.

Dr. Robyn Kassas: And that's why dangerous it is to have still waters. Jesus said, "beside still waters," not "in still waters."

Dr. Nathan Kassas: Very important here that we cannot allow the Lord to give us the ability to leave the mat until we're ready to live without the mat.

Dr. Robyn Kassas: That's the one.

Dr. Nathan Kassas: That's challenging me because sometimes the mat, even though it's painful, it's also pleasurable. It gives you a security.

Dr. Robyn Kassas: It's very comfortable.

Dr. Nathan Kassas: It's very, very comfortable. Jesus tells him you have to leave that behind. You cannot have the renewal of the mind with the old way of, as you would say, of stinking thinking.

Dr. Robyn Kassas: You can't.

Dr. Nathan Kassas: This is powerful, Dr. Robyn, because as we're bringing this to a close and we're going to continue with the Fish Gate in our new series at our new time slot, what do you believe the Holy Spirit is really emphasizing to those that have been listening to this series and as we make this transition?

Dr. Robyn Kassas: I think that if I was to talk about it, I would say our testimony is not merely a moment of the old life dying. Our testimony is what Christ builds where the old life once lived. The testimony is not only, "I stopped being bitter." It is, "He taught me how to love without fear."

Dr. Nathan Kassas: In saying that, this is the end of this journey that we've been on with the time slot we have.

Dr. Robyn Kassas: We've actually been on this time slot for 12 months. We hope we touched many hearts in this and that you will come and join us in our other time slot. Thank you for listening and we hope we helped you.

Dr. Nathan Kassas: Amen. It's been an honor and a privilege to be able to speak into your relationship with Jesus wherever it's at, whatever stage it's at. Before I throw it to you for your final word, Dr. Robyn, I think it's so powerful that you've allowed us to come into your homes, come into your cars, wherever you're at.

I know that the Holy Spirit has been using all the series—the Tabernacle, the Jairus series, Learning Jesus and Real Relevant Relational and this now, first part of the Gate series—to really show you it's not about activity, it's about identity. God wants to form the new in you as you allow him to touch those places because we're experiencing that touch in our own lives as we let him in to wash and to cleanse and to heal and touch those unseen places. Thank you. Dr. Robyn, I'm now throwing it to you for your final, final word. Go for it.

Dr. Robyn Kassas: I think that the word renew is so important. We think that good ideas is renewing. It is not. Renewing is all about new life in something. That's why God said to renew our mind. You said that we can't renew our heart because it's too stony. But when your mind is renewed, life comes in.

Dr. Nathan Kassas: Dr. Robyn, that was the best final word you could have finished with. We want to leave you with one important reminder: always remember that the one who loved you first is still loving you best.