First Love

Guest (Female): Welcome to First Love with Dr. Robin Cassis and Dr. Nathan Cassis, where faith meets real life. And this weekly broadcast, you'll discover practical and spiritual keys to reclaim God's story in your life, deep in 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: Happy Friday everybody and welcome back to First Love. My name is Dr. Nathan Cassis.

Dr. Robyn Kassas: And mine's Dr. Robin Cassis. I'm telling you, this is really, really, really stirring me up and I'm forgetting to even introduce myself.

Dr. Nathan Kassas: Sometimes it does that, the spirit moving and you just getting that revelation.

Dr. Robyn Kassas: It's It's the subject.

Dr. Nathan Kassas: Yeah, it's really, really hitting home with both of us. Pastor, yesterday I began to talk about the journey calling timeline. And we went through quite extensively. And I think it's a really important thing for every believer to really, you know, understand that God is a God of timing and seasons. And sometimes you want something in the season that you are not in.

Dr. Robyn Kassas: Yeah, and you get it in that season that you're not in and you are wasted away.

Dr. Nathan Kassas: Or it corrupts you.

Dr. Robyn Kassas: Or it becomes a novelty waiting for the next thing to happen.

Dr. Nathan Kassas: Oh Lord, my God in heaven. Well, before you go into the weekend, we just wanted to round this off. We're going to do some neuroscience a little bit and then we'll get into some real detailed neuroscience about reward um recalibration next week. But you know what, Dr. Robin, I was thinking Jesus two statements, ready? Jesus only lived till 33.

Dr. Robyn Kassas: Yeah.

Dr. Nathan Kassas: But he went through all those stages and never delayed.

Dr. Robyn Kassas: Never delayed one little bit. He went through them at the timeline of God.

Dr. Nathan Kassas: But here's a stage that he didn't go through. Fulfillment. He's waiting.

Dr. Robyn Kassas: He's waiting.

Dr. Nathan Kassas: Oh my Lord. He got to releasing, which is what he did on the cross for us. It all was all about us. Hang on, this is hitting me. I got to say this. So he's yet to be fulfilled.

Dr. Robyn Kassas: He's waiting.

Dr. Nathan Kassas: But yet I want him to fulfill me. But he's not yet fulfilled.

Dr. Robyn Kassas: There we go.

Dr. Nathan Kassas: He's not yet got his bride by his side in the new Jerusalem with his father.

Dr. Robyn Kassas: Which he was which he was promised.

Dr. Nathan Kassas: Oh.

Dr. Robyn Kassas: So his promise hasn't been fulfilled yet.

Dr. Nathan Kassas: Oh my Lord, and he's still waiting. He's still waiting. Oh, I hit the table. He's still waiting, Dr. Robin.

Dr. Robyn Kassas: Is he in the valley of Oh my Lord. But look at us. We have the audacity to say I should have it.

Dr. Nathan Kassas: Because maybe he is because we talking about the three day gathering. Three days in the ground. Three days.

Dr. Robyn Kassas: That really just convicted me. I want things that yet he has not experienced.

Dr. Nathan Kassas: So in those three days, he went to hell.

Dr. Robyn Kassas: That's it.

Dr. Nathan Kassas: And he finished to start the time of his fulfillment. Not the end of it, but the beginning of his fulfillment.

Dr. Robyn Kassas: Another three days, Dr. Robin. Lazarus.

Dr. Nathan Kassas: Yes.

Dr. Robyn Kassas: But fourth day, he had to wait till so that the fulfillment could come so that people could see he's the resurrection and the life, not just raising someone from the dead. He's the resurrection and the life.

Dr. Nathan Kassas: The fourth day of blessing.

Dr. Robyn Kassas: And this goes back to Jehoshaphat because Jehoshaphat and the children of Judah, they gathered for three days, but then on the fourth day, they transitioned from gathering to coming back to bless the Lord. It was on the fourth day that the valley gets its name because on the fourth day, they literally said this is the valley of blessing, not because we got blessed, but because we're going to bless God on the fourth day.

Dr. Nathan Kassas: Wow.

Dr. Robyn Kassas: And I'm just getting this. It's landing on me even as I'm sitting here on this desk. He's not yet fulfilled.

Dr. Nathan Kassas: No, he's not. He's only at the beginning of his fulfillment.

Dr. Robyn Kassas: He's released.

Dr. Nathan Kassas: And he's entering into his fulfillment.

Dr. Robyn Kassas: If that doesn't hit you, ladies and gentlemen, it needs to because we are expecting something that he's not yet received.

Dr. Nathan Kassas: No, he had to go to the father, remember? And present the blood.

Dr. Robyn Kassas: Mhm. Mhm.

Dr. Nathan Kassas: So there are a timeline for him with God. Just like there's a timeline for blessing with God.

Dr. Robyn Kassas: And the father's telling him right now, it's not time, son. I know you want to go get them, but they're not ready. They're still in preparation. Oh Lord, I don't even know where we are as the body of Christ. Have we moved out of preparation? Are we in releasing?

Dr. Nathan Kassas: Wow. That's a big question and we need to think about this session. We really do because this is one of the biggest eye openers of changing the atmosphere for fall the allowing the blessing to fall.

Dr. Robyn Kassas: Wow. And the blessing does something according to the account in 2 Chronicles 20, this biblical account is so important. For three days, God lets the people gather the spoil, right? But on the fourth day, they assemble in the valley of Beraka or blessing for what? They move from being a collection of blessing to a congregation.

Dr. Nathan Kassas: Of giving.

Dr. Robyn Kassas: Oh, that's landing. Are you still at collection or have you moved out of collection and and become a congregation?

Dr. Nathan Kassas: Ready to fulfill.

Dr. Robyn Kassas: Oh my Lord. Oh my Lord.

Dr. Nathan Kassas: God's will in a way.

Dr. Robyn Kassas: So because you moved into his heart field. Oh my Lord. So again, in the Hebrew, okay, this word here established and connected is kahal. And it means to assemble, gather, or convene. In 2 Chronicles 20, the people did not simply give thanks privately. They assembled together. The community together acknowledged what God had accomplished. And this is significant because blessing can often lead people towards independence. Oh my Lord. Here we go. We just said it. They begin building their own lives after they've been blessed. That's what we do. We go back to building our own life.

God bless me. Are you I I got the blessing through the church of the prayers of the church and the faithfulness of the church. But now I've gone back to building my own life, protecting my own increase, developing my own resource.

Dr. Nathan Kassas: And believing you were given the blessing for that very reason. That's a lie.

Dr. Robyn Kassas: Oh my Lord.

Dr. Nathan Kassas: It was ever only for the kingdom of God.

Dr. Robyn Kassas: And independent in your blessing will lead you to organize your own future.

Dr. Nathan Kassas: And that's when you become restless.

Dr. Robyn Kassas: Oh.

Dr. Nathan Kassas: Because you're moving out of God's timeline.

Dr. Robyn Kassas: This is deep stuff, ladies and gentlemen. So a couple of key statements to tie this part of Jehoshaphat's account. The blessing was gathered individually, but the Thanksgiving had to be expressed corporately. They moved from individual collection to all one accord congregation. Wow.

Dr. Nathan Kassas: And if you are independent, I'm telling you, with God's blessing, you just build your own. You'll protect your own. Develop your own resources. Organize your own future.

Dr. Robyn Kassas: Convicting me.

Dr. Nathan Kassas: Jehoshaphat brought the people together not to do that.

Dr. Robyn Kassas: Yeah. And Dr. Robin, the three days of spoil, it increased their possessions, but here's the key. It was them assembling together, breaking the bubble of independence. My collection, this is mine, this is mine, this is mine. And when they came back together, what was, you know, enhanced their relationship with God. So I can say no more than that except tell some of the key statements, read them out while I get my breath back.

Dr. Nathan Kassas: Well, here's one that's very challenging. If every day is spent acquiring, when does your heart ever stop to acknowledge?

Dr. Robyn Kassas: Wow. That's big. Wow, wow, wow, wow.

Dr. Nathan Kassas: Another one. The danger is not having too much. It's becoming so occupied with what you have that you forget why you have it.

Dr. Robyn Kassas: This is the key, guys. This is the key.

Dr. Nathan Kassas: Read this last one. Increase should never isolate you from the relationships that God gave you to sustain you before the increase even came.

Dr. Robyn Kassas: So remember, it's a moment when you are gathering and giving gratitude on the fourth day.

Guest (Female): Looking for a real relationship with Jesus, join Dr. Robin Cassis and Dr. Nathan Cassis every weekday for First Love, where prophetic insight meets real theology. Learn how God's voice activates your mind, body, soul, and spirit, helping you renew your mind, transform your life, and return to the one who loved you first. Catch First Love Monday through Friday 5 to 5:30 p.m. Learn more at torcc.org.

Dr. Nathan Kassas: The one who loved you first is still loving you best.

Dr. Robyn Kassas: All right, Dr. Robin, we are back. And that was a power power hit session.

Dr. Nathan Kassas: Yes, it really was and boy has it brought some insight.

Dr. Robyn Kassas: Yeah. And so on the end of this week, on this Friday, we're going to round this out. We'll hit you with some neuroscience next week, so don't go away. Make sure you come back and listen. Actually, speaking of come back, this is what this whole valley is about. Do you come back after the blessing to return to the blesser?

Dr. Nathan Kassas: And give thanks to God.

Dr. Robyn Kassas: So last part of this, we're going to hit you with our favorite thing to do, some powerful prophetic key statements. And here's the first one. If you never stop gathering, blessing will become consumption. You'll never move from being a consumer to a contributor.

Dr. Nathan Kassas: Yeah, I I think that that is a statement and a half really. You know, in this valley, it teaches us to stop counting and receiving and remembering who gave it.

Dr. Robyn Kassas: Yeah, who gave it in the first place?

Dr. Nathan Kassas: Stop counting and looking at that and start to remember who gave it to you in the first place.

Dr. Robyn Kassas: Jehoshaphat knew when to fight, when to gather, and when to stop gathering and worship. This is so important. You know, I just want to give a little example. My daughter received some really, really good news. I'm not going to say it because I I don't know, but I'm going to I'm just going to say she received really good news. She did an audition and she got through and it was a very significant audition. But you know what, that was a blessing. It was and we were really excited for her. But here's the key. Before she even found out that night, she returned and she worshipped.

Dr. Nathan Kassas: But she was actually worshipping before.

Dr. Robyn Kassas: Absolutely. Before

Dr. Nathan Kassas: And then she returned and worshipped again and gave back all the honor and glory to God. You know, worship will reconnect the gift to the giver.

Dr. Robyn Kassas: Yes.

Dr. Nathan Kassas: And that was what we saw.

Dr. Robyn Kassas: And that was what literally blessed me the most because she received this, you know, in crazy news. But then she's singing Jesus be the name. When that news came in, she's not even aware that the news is there. It's waiting in my inbox, but she doesn't know if she's got it yet or not. And she's singing Jesus be the name and she's lifting up the name of Jesus and she's getting her heart postured because I said to her, Karen, I said worship is always your true north. You always come back to recalibrate by getting your heart and your voice aligned.

Dr. Nathan Kassas: And so blessing is not supposed to compete with the blesser for your attention.

Dr. Robyn Kassas: That's got to hurt. Lord, do it in me. Sometimes the blessing can compete with the attention and remembering, acknowledging who gave it. I forget the blesser, Dr. Robin. I do. I do and I concentrate on the blessing. Wow. Another one. Here we go. Your greatest victory should not end with what you gained, but who you acknowledged.

Dr. Nathan Kassas: Yes. And the greatest evidence of your gratitude may be what you choose to return to after you have received.

Dr. Robyn Kassas: Oh my Lord. It dropping dropping from heaven with fire. The blessing is not supposed to compete with the blesser for your attention. You've said that, but I wanted to say it again because it just landed in me.

Dr. Nathan Kassas: So important that one.

Dr. Robyn Kassas: It landed in me. And here's the good one. Jehoshaphat gathered the spoil, but he did not allow the spoil to become the center of the story.

Dr. Nathan Kassas: The story. And please, the one about the three days is so important to remember. People gathered what was valuable for three days. Then gathered the honor for the one who valued that measure that couldn't be measured.

Dr. Robyn Kassas: Wow. Wow. The honor they were pouring in to the blessing

Dr. Nathan Kassas: could not be measured.

Dr. Robyn Kassas: was not the same that they were giving to the blesser.

Dr. Nathan Kassas: No, the blesser his measure could not be measured. But we gather valuable things and measure it by that.

Dr. Robyn Kassas: My Lord. My Lord in heaven. Another big big one that will lead us into a little bit of neuroscience that I'll tie in and then we'll continue next week. The mind can learn to expect provision without losing the ability to acknowledge its significance.

Dr. Nathan Kassas: Wow. That's big. That's big.

Dr. Robyn Kassas: I want my mind to learn to expect provision and not lose the ability to acknowledge the significance of the one who gave it.

Dr. Nathan Kassas: So so I can understand, can you share a little bit about the mind?

Dr. Robyn Kassas: Yeah. So something I want to touch on quickly before we end this broadcast and give you the weekend to chew it over. When we go through the valley at the old gate, okay, or excuse me, when we go through the old gate, we dealt with something specific. We dealt with schemas, okay? And then we went into the valley of Beraka, okay, where God specifically said the tears, I want to deal with your coping mechanisms.

Dr. Nathan Kassas: Mechanisms.

Dr. Robyn Kassas: But now that we're at the valley of Beraka, blessing, what are we dealing with? Well, we're dealing with something called reward recalibration. God has to recalibrate what reward means, represents, and produces in our nervous system. Okay? So when we talk about reward from a neuroscience perspective, we always got to talk about dopamine. So I'm going to mention a couple of neurotransmitters here that play a very important part. Because the brain is constantly predicting what is going to happen, when an outcome is significantly better than what we've expected, the brain experiences what neuroscience calls a positive reward prediction error.

Okay? So in simple terms broken down, it actually goes like this. Wow. I got more than I expected. You know, you go to a fast food restaurant and then you order like fries and then you always expect to get, you know, a measly a portion of fries. But then on this day, all of a sudden, you got a bag full of fries, hot fries. And your brain goes through like this little jolt. Wow, I got more than I expected. So here's something important about that. Unexpected rewards generate strong phasic signaling from the midbrain dopamine neurons.

Dr. Nathan Kassas: So something like uh you didn't expect it. You got healed.

Dr. Robyn Kassas: Yeah, you can make the spiritual. I'll bring the fast food.

Dr. Nathan Kassas: Yeah. I think promotion came, relationship came, money came, ministry expanded, influence increases, and opportunity appears. But you didn't expect these. These were these were extra things.

Dr. Robyn Kassas: Surprises. Absolutely.

Dr. Nathan Kassas: How do you handle that?

Dr. Robyn Kassas: Well, because the brain is recognizing that the reality of the situation has exceeded your prediction of the situation, it begins updating its expectation. Now what does this mean? Well, I didn't expect to get full fries the first time, but now I expect to get full fries

Dr. Nathan Kassas: Every time.

Dr. Robyn Kassas: There it is.

Dr. Nathan Kassas: She said it. She's so now reward begins to become normal.

Dr. Robyn Kassas: This is so dangerous, guys. This is when novelty enters in.

Dr. Nathan Kassas: This is it.

Dr. Robyn Kassas: So if the reward continues, the brain begins to learn it. And it says this is not a surprise anymore.

Dr. Nathan Kassas: And that becomes familiar.

Dr. Robyn Kassas: And the familiar sets in. So what was once unexpected automatically becomes

Dr. Nathan Kassas: expected all the time and that's not satisfying anymore.

Dr. Robyn Kassas: And the thing with dopamine is that it's the neurotransmitter that's released from the nucleus accumbens and it is tied to pleasure. So when we have dopamine release, that neurotransmitter, our body goes through euphoria and pleasure. But here's the thing with dopamine. Your body can only handle a certain amount of it because then you will build intolerance.

Dr. Nathan Kassas: To it. Yes, yes.

Dr. Robyn Kassas: And this is what happens with alcoholics. This is what happens with drug addicts. They're getting such a rush of dopamine in that moment. Even, you know, people that fall into sex addiction, food addiction, grief addiction, they get a dopamine rush. They go, wow, the body goes, wow, this is so good. I need more of it. I need more of it. But then it normalizes and it builds a baseline from what was just released. So now in order to feel the elation that you felt in the first place, you have to have more.

Dr. Nathan Kassas: More. And then that doesn't satisfy.

Dr. Robyn Kassas: Nope.

Dr. Nathan Kassas: I've got the idea of what the brains do. It's not satisfied. And so if you don't give it more, it gets, you know, what you did get gets smaller smaller.

Dr. Robyn Kassas: Yes.

Dr. Nathan Kassas: And you start to predict.

Dr. Robyn Kassas: Yes.

Dr. Nathan Kassas: And you start to update your prediction.

Dr. Robyn Kassas: Yes. And this is the key, Dr. Robin. When you don't get the same amount, you'll either decide that you'll cope and you'll be angry and hangry inside. But then you'll do something on the other end of the spectrum. You'll look to have deeper amounts in greater amounts. And so

Dr. Nathan Kassas: And that won't satisfy you.

Dr. Robyn Kassas: When this applies to addiction, you'll look for more drink, darker drink, deeper drink. You look for deeper pornography. You'll look for even more ways to deepen the pleasure release.

Dr. Nathan Kassas: But then you also look more to the house wasn't enough, the car wasn't enough, the children wasn't enough, the wife wasn't enough.

Dr. Robyn Kassas: The healing from cancer wasn't enough.

Dr. Nathan Kassas: That wasn't enough. Yesterday's miracle became today's normal.

Dr. Robyn Kassas: I got to take a breath. I'm getting dopamine from this, but I'm not getting used to it. Lord, have mercy. This is what we do because the human brain contains the interconnected network of structures responsible for what this is called reward learning, motivation, behavioral adaption, and decision making. Okay? These all work in connection. Now I just want you to take that phrase that I just said, reward learning. Reward, you have to learn what reward is. You have to learn how it works. You can't just expect it. This is so powerful, okay? So these structures interact rather than functioning as separate switches in the brain.

So you can't turn off in your reward learning. You can't turn off motivation. You can't say, oh yeah, well, my motivation is different than my reward learning. No, motivated towards, you will automatically expect a reward for. Wait, did you get that?

Dr. Nathan Kassas: Yes.

Dr. Robyn Kassas: If you're motivated towards fame, you will expect a reward. If you're motivated towards, you know, influence, you will expect a reward. They don't turn off independent from one another. Another key. Your behavioral adaption and your decision making are all based on what you consider a reward. See, to you, it might be different than what it is to me.

Dr. Nathan Kassas: So it in you if you wanted to, you could change that word reward to blessing.

Dr. Robyn Kassas: Very good. So here, okay, the three reward prediction conditions. Condition one, you get greater than you expected. You expected nothing, but you receive something extraordinary. Condition two, you get exactly what you expected. You begin receiving the same blessing repeatedly and now the reward has become predictable. Condition three, you got less than what you expected. You were expecting the same blessing, but this time it didn't even arrive. And here is the Beraka connection. The thing you once celebrated receiving can eventually become the thing you are disappointed about not receiving. It's quiet.

Dr. Nathan Kassas: Wow. I I'm I'm blown away by it. I'm telling you right now. Never knew my brain worked like this and now I'm starting to see scattered brain thinking, you know, that I got to have to cry out to the Lord to take this brain of mine and give me the mind of Christ.

Dr. Robyn Kassas: Yeah.

Dr. Nathan Kassas: Because it just makes so much sense what you're saying and how many times I go and everybody goes through these trials because we won't work with the Holy Spirit in the way God created us to be.

Dr. Robyn Kassas: This is the key, Dr. Robin. Okay? The danger is not that our brain is learning the blessing. The danger is that your heart has forgotten the blesser.

Dr. Nathan Kassas: Yes. And I'm telling you, just to end this, familiarity will always make the miracle your baseline of what you expect from God.

Dr. Robyn Kassas: I've got to take a breath.

Guest (Female): Thanks for spending time with us today on First Love. If today's message spoke to you, share it with someone. And if you're looking for more teachings, visit www.torcc.org. That's torcc.org for more. And as you go, don't forget the one who loved you first is still loving you best.