First Love

Guest (Male): Welcome to First Love with Dr. Robyn Kassas and Dr. Nathan Kassas, where faith meets real life. In this weekly 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.

Nathan Kassas: Hello everybody, and welcome back to First Love. My name is Dr. Nathan Kassas, and I am sitting with the one and only Dr. Robyn Kassas. Dr. Robyn, how are you tonight?

Robyn Kassas: Yes, well, it was a very busy weekend. It was very exciting, and I'm a bit tired, but I'm there.

Nathan Kassas: Praise God. He's energizing us for this year ahead, and we're so excited to continue coming to the final stage of our journey through the Tabernacle. We had a very powerful episode last week on the mercy seat, the manna, and also the beginning stages of what was in the Ark of the Covenant to do with the Ten Commandments.

We're going to actually transition now into the third article that was in the ark and its importance, its prophetic significance, and even its psychological significance through neuroscience and how it affects our behavior and our walk today with Jesus. Why don't I go to you to bring us into this next article, and then we'll see where the Spirit takes us?

Robyn Kassas: I think I liked what you just said, and that is making us aware of our behavior and the way we even behave as Christians in the church. I think this article that was in there, the rod of Aaron, which we will talk about, is going to be talking all about authority and divine authority.

God's people have authority. Leadership have authority. They don't have control; they have authority. That authority is a choice of God through the image of the rod of Aaron. It's that image. It's very, very important, and it has to be the last one we speak about because all of it puts us in the presence of God.

The Ark of the Covenant has these articles in it, and they all represent something very important that God has chosen to be His image. This one is the rod of Aaron, so this is the authority—divine authority. That authority is all about the authority that's carried by God's people. If you're in the presence of God, there has to be authority. You've been lifted up into His presence, and now you stand before Him, or you kneel before Him, and you know you're standing in the presence of authority.

Nathan Kassas: It's funny, Dr. Robyn, because we were talking last week about the importance of these articles being inside the ark. Remember the mercy seat on top, which covers all of these three articles—the manna, the Ten Commandments, and the budding rod of Aaron—it actually is the governing thing that transforms from a seat of judgment to a seat of mercy.

By all account, God's looking down and He's saying to the children of Israel, "You rebelled against My choice, so I have every right to wipe you out. But because of the blood, I will allow My choice to speak love instead of death into your life." I have a little saying here: we have the commandments, so that's truth. Truth prepares us for what is right. Then we have the manna, which is provision, and provision sustains us along the way.

Robyn Kassas: Yes, and all the time providing. God is providing all the time. That was important that it had to be manna. It had to be manna so there could be associating with what God had done in the wilderness.

Nathan Kassas: Then we've got Aaron's staff that budded first. We have truth telling us what is right, provision sustaining us along the way, but authority is what breaks cycles of rebellion and death. Only the authority of God can remove that cyclical trend that our life has been caught in.

Robyn Kassas: I think why the authority is so important is because people sense the authority, not control. They sense the authority in someone's life.

Nathan Kassas: Something important that you've mentioned just then is Aaron's bud. Let's give a scriptural background. This was when the tribes all were basically saying, "Well, why is Aaron the choice? Why can't we be the priesthood? Why's it got to be Aaron and his sons?" Moses was told by the Lord to get Aaron's staff and get a staff from all the tribes and their leaders of the twelve tribes. Overnight, let's see whose staff buds first. It just so happened that Aaron's rod was the one that budded first with an almond bud.

It literally is the choice of God. It's revealing that Aaron's staff is validated by life. What's that saying? God's choice for His authority is not validated by opinion, but it's validated by life. Who God chooses is the person that He chooses to bring life to our lives.

Robyn Kassas: The symbol of that and also the image of that is His choice. His choice budded. That was God's choice; it wasn't man's choice. People sense that authority. They do. When you're in the presence of God, people will know you've been in His presence because they can sense that authority.

Nathan Kassas: What's also really powerful is that there's a term here that I want to introduce. It was God's answer to what we call chronic contention. Chronic contention is the endless argument against divine order. If someone is listening and they feel like their life is in chronic contention, there needs to be an authoritative voice of God chosen to break that chronic contention.

Robyn Kassas: When you've been in the presence of God, people will sense that authority. You will speak with that authority. It can cut down the gainsayers; it can cut down all the debating and such. That had to be that final image, a visual image, so that it could be seen that this was the final authority. It was God's authority.

Nathan Kassas: With God's authority, literally, He didn't argue. Can I introduce this in a neuroscience way? He didn't argue.

Robyn Kassas: Before you do, let me just add to this because I want to hear all that. When we are in authority, we speak with authority. We carry authority in our personality, and people can sense that. That authority can break depression because they sense that we've been in the presence of God and are speaking with that authority.

Nathan Kassas: The authority that God chooses ends the winter. Let me bring this in. Almond: the almond branch is the first type that blossoms after the winter season. It's the first blossoming of any sign of life. It's very important to understand when God chooses a voice to speak that life into our lives, it ends the winter of our life, meaning the cycle of depression, the cycle of going through the mill of the same thoughts over and over again.

The Hebrew word for almond is "shaqed," which means to watch, awaken, and be alert. Prophetically, this means God's authority awakens before circumstances in our lives change. That means life can appear through His choice even while we're in our condition and we still look dead. It was an overnight blossoming. I want people to get this: overnight, not gradual. That's the power.

Robyn Kassas: That's the authority. That rod was the authority, and it also was God's choice. It was His choice. That's what they sense when you've been chosen to carry that authority. People sense it in your personality and they sense it in your speech. It's attested. That's what it is.

Nathan Kassas: Attested is referring to an attestation of a will. This is like a clause that someone is signing off with their own personal signature. So the Lord is saying, "I'm signing off on the choice," and He signed off on the rod of Aaron. His choice was Aaron. You've got to know that. You cannot come against God's choice. I think we need to go to a break.

Robyn Kassas: Let's.

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.

Nathan Kassas: All right, Dr. Robyn, we're back after the break. What a powerful first segment that was—the importance of God's choice. That's what you've been sharing with the listeners. Now I want to dive into a couple more things that are important to bring out, including the science.

Aaron is the shadow. Aaron's rod is the shadow because Jesus is actually the firstborn among many brethren. He is the almond branch. He is the first blossoming after the winter. Winter represents death, and Jesus is resurrection life. Romans 8:29 says He is the firstborn among many brethren. 1 Corinthians 15:20 says the firstfruits from the dead. Isaiah 53:2 says the root out of dry ground.

Jesus emerged from what looked lifeless. We have wood here. Wood doesn't blossom, but yet the budding on the wood took place. This was God's final interruption of the argument against His Son. Aaron's rod being put into the ark as a shadow of "I'm choosing who I will work through because ultimately, I'm going to choose My Son to work through to bring humanity back to Myself." Here's an important thing: Jesus did not win by debate; He won by resurrection life. When God's authority is on someone, it's resurrection life that shuts down the opinions. It's resurrection life that backs up everything that person has been touched with by the Lord because that person's word produces life.

If we could tie in some neuroscience, authority is so important. We get into this default mode network in our brain. When we live a certain way and we create habitual patterns and cycles, our brain goes into what's called default mode network, or DMN. If left unattended, this default mode network produces mental fatigue, emotional numbness, loss of agency over our abilities, and learned helplessness.

What is required to break default mode network? It is actually the sound of an authoritative voice in our life. I'll give you an example: a criminal who is in chronic criminal activity. They can fall into default mode network. Yes, it's their choice, but their brain kicks into, "Oh, this is my default." But the authoritative word of the police officer or the judge is so important to have those forces in place because that can break default mode network of the criminal to believe that they will always be a criminal.

What does that voice do? It requires consequence for action, it requires accountability, and it brings the person out of those entrenched neural cycles thinking that their reality is what it is. This is literally what God was doing by saying, "Aaron is My choice. I'm going to use him and all of his descendants to bring you out of default mode network."

Robyn Kassas: When you think about this and you think about Aaron and Moses and the parts they had to play in God's story, it really gives you such a visual.

Nathan Kassas: If we don't get that default mode network interrupted, we're trapped in what we call recursive loops. That's endless fatigue, endless self-accusation, endless rumination of death thoughts, and endless "why" without resolution. Authority not only helps us to locate where we're off, but it helps to bring the resolution to our life.

You've always talked about the importance of an interrupting argument and how you love this. In neuroscience, pattern interruption is one of the fastest ways to break entrenched neural circuits. It comes in a couple of different ways. It comes in through sudden sensory input. When we feel a sensory input that's different from our default mode network, that could be a bit of a loud conversation or a forceful tone. It can also be clear, decisive commands. They break this default mode network: embodied action and strong meaning signals. Our brain reads these signals as breaking us out of that entrenched pattern that we've been living in. Here's an important thing: authority does not reason with disorder; it interrupts it.

Robyn Kassas: It's not control and it's not overpowering someone, but it's needed and people sense it. That personality, they sense it there. It's an authority that has been given and chosen by God to operate in. When you're chosen to carry that authority, people sense it in your personality and they sense it in your speech. It's attested.

Nathan Kassas: There is a great example of this interruption of neural circuitry in the Bible. It's in Mary of Bethany when she comes with this alabaster box to lay it at Jesus' feet, and she has to break that box. What that represents is she recognizes that she can't hold herself together. She can't self-diagnose. She doesn't have the authority to love herself the way that she needs to be loved.

Robyn Kassas: She recognized His authority through His personality and through His speech. That's what God gave Him—the authority. That's what we need to recognize: that very image of the cross and Jesus. We have to let go of the self-diagnosis and the ability to hold ourselves together, and we have to break, like the alabaster box, to submit ourselves to a greater authority: God's choice. We want to let you hear that through our daughter and granddaughter with that beautiful anointing that she has.

Nathan Kassas: This is Karen Kassas with the cover version of "Alabaster Box" by CeCe Winans. Let it minister to you and let it break you so that you can come into a greater love by a greater authority.

Karen Kassas: (Singing)

The room grew still

As she made her way to Jesus

She stumbled through the tears

That made her blind

She felt such pain

Some spoke in anger

Heard folks whisper

There's no place here for her kind

Still on she came

Through the shame that flushed her face

Until at last she knelt before His feet

And though she spoke no words

Everything she said was heard

As she poured her love for the Master

From her box of alabaster

I've come to pour

My praise on Him like oil

From Mary's alabaster box

So don't be angry

If I wash His feet with my tears

And I dry them with my hair

'Cause you weren't there

The night He found me

You did not feel what I felt

When He wrapped His loving arms around me

And you don't know the cost

Not of this oil in my alabaster box

I can't forget the way life used to be

I was a prisoner to the sin that had me bound

I spent my days, I poured my life without measure

Into a little treasure box I thought I'd found

Until the day when Jesus came to me

And healed my soul with the wonder of His touch

So now I'm giving back to Him

All the praise He's worthy of

I've been forgiven and that's why I love You so much

I've come to pour

My praise on Him like oil

From Mary's alabaster box

So don't be angry

If I wash His feet with my tears

And I dry them with my hair

'Cause you weren't there

The night Jesus found me

You did not feel what I felt

When He wrapped His loving arms around me

And you don't know the cost

Not of this oil

You don't know the cost

Of my praise

You don't know the cost

Of my oil

In my alabaster box