First Love

Voiceover: 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 to First Love. My name is Dr. Nathan Kassas, and I am privileged to have with me Dr. Robyn Kassas. Dr. Robyn, how are you today?

Dr. Robyn Kassas: A lot better than I was last week.

Dr. Nathan Kassas: Praise God. Coming through, we know the change of season has presented a lot of challenges. This weather has been a little bit schizophrenic.

Dr. Robyn Kassas: It sort of makes the body go a bit schizophrenic in symptoms.

Dr. Nathan Kassas: Already jumping into what we're going to talk about today. So, last week, Dr. Robyn, we were privileged to hear a replay of your seminar, which I assisted with, Reclaiming God’s Story in Your Life. We've pulled from this seminar for quite a bit in this series because that's what we're talking about, reclaiming God's story.

Dr. Robyn Kassas: Well, today we are definitely reclaiming God's story on Resurrection Sunday.

Dr. Nathan Kassas: That's right. You would have just celebrated Resurrection Sunday yesterday as you're listening to this broadcast, which is bringing us to a very timely subject: the power of transformation.

Dr. Robyn Kassas: And that's important now because we've led up to all the different steps in it. But we really need to examine and see what resurrection is all about now.

Dr. Nathan Kassas: Amen. Pertaining to resurrection, which is really transformation, because it's transforming from dead to life. And so, very important as you've said, we've gone through a journey of discovering all the different factors and elements that are involved in God's story. If we were to thematically put it out so someone could comprehend it and chew it, we went through the T of trauma, which was a big one.

We also went through the T of tension, which I found really helpful. The tension is where God trains you in that ability to hear His voice, as well as the tension is creating space for you to be able to handle—

Dr. Robyn Kassas: I think it's a good thing that we leave with this one situation to do with this topic, and that is tension is not stretching. Stretching seems to be very negative. Tension is the result of that stretch that has happened in our lives, and we maintain the tension as the Lord does what He needs to do in that tension.

Dr. Nathan Kassas: And even the stretching, as someone who works out frequently and is involved in a lot of physical activity, in the past career dancing, I know that when you're stretching, it feels painful, but it's also to create greater capacity for movement, greater capacity for function. Sometimes when we're not able to have that function, it's because we're too tight. So, God even in life, He stretches us because He wants to give us and release to us, unlock the greater function that's already there, but the stretch is what unlocks it.

Dr. Robyn Kassas: Yes. But then you come to the tension, which actually brings a form of security because it's holding you in a position.

Dr. Nathan Kassas: Actually, in my gymnastics experience and being a past gymnast, I had a great ability to stretch, but I never had the ability to hold it. And so, when I came to New York and I was moved into ballet and dancing, I had very great flexibility, but I didn't have the security of being able to hold that tension. And so, what you've just said actually helps me because God had to train me, my teachers had to train me, in holding the stretch, not just stretching the stretch. And sometimes that's what the Lord is doing with us. We think the stretch is enough, but we have to be trained in holding the stretch.

Dr. Robyn Kassas: And we also think the stretch is a form of discipline or judgment, punishment. Very much so, punishment.

Dr. Nathan Kassas: And then we went into again, last week, the tension of limitations. Limitations are tension in our life. They create tension.

Dr. Robyn Kassas: And there's a great area where we get great security being limited.

Dr. Nathan Kassas: And you said this to me during the week, which I responded to. When people listen to that part of the episode, I don't want them to walk away feeling depleted. God never limits His strength in your life; He just limits your strength. His strength is unlimited. So, that really landed on me. If I allow the Lord to limit my self-effort from the go, as you've said, from the creating the moment, not just having to go back and own the moment, there's unlimited strength available because His strength is unlimited.

Dr. Robyn Kassas: And because it's such a security knowing He's creating the moment, and you can rest back in that. And all the panic and all the insecurities can go. It can go.

Dr. Nathan Kassas: And I realized that as I was listening back to that part of First Love and just feeding off it myself, I have felt limited because I have felt that my strength is enough. You only feel limited when you're concentrating on your own strength. If you're focusing on God's story and Him creating the moment from the go, and I like to coin that term "from the go"—from conception, not just birth—like, okay, Lord, now it's birth, I'll give it over to you. But it's not my strength that brought it to birth.

Dr. Robyn Kassas: "And now I can't do any more with it, Lord." Now you can own it.

Dr. Nathan Kassas: I've done what I can do, I've added my DNA to it, we'll see where the baby goes from here.

Dr. Robyn Kassas: This is what we have to come back to if we're going to enter into resurrection life, then it's the one that was resurrected in us. Christ in us is the resurrected one. So, relax and stop trying to resurrect yourself because all you're doing is if you allow Christ to come forward, then you'll experience the resurrection life.

Dr. Nathan Kassas: And Dr. Robyn, that kind of connects to what we've been learning about; it's already here. We don't have to get it. The vav, the actual perspective of 5786, I have come down. It's that abiding reality of you're not getting it; it's here.

Dr. Robyn Kassas: And it's not going to be tomorrow. Somebody needs to hear that. It's now. Connect, seeing the connection between heaven and earth because it's happened because Christ is in us, and God sees things that aren't as if they are. And if we just get that reality, then resurrection life will cause a transformed life.

Dr. Nathan Kassas: I see what you did there. Good build-up. You know, what you've said is very important. It's already here. And I think that this whole year God has been speaking about it's just connecting with what's already been done.

Dr. Robyn Kassas: I think the reality is if we just think about it, and the Lord is quickening this to me, if we just think about it right now, that when we say things like "tomorrow it'll happen," we're opening up the door for something to interfere with tomorrow. I just got that.

And then if we say, okay, we get it now, it's here, we need to talk to the Lord about how we can operate in it and see it. That's the thing He wants to talk about, not you hoping and wishing and praying for tomorrow. He wants you to start attending to what is happening now.

Dr. Nathan Kassas: What's that famous song that my daughter so wonderfully sings? "The sun'll come out tomorrow." Not if the sun lives in you. If the sun is living in you, the sun comes out right now.

Dr. Robyn Kassas: Well, every time she sings that, I always see the sun coming out now. And the person that she's singing it to will manifest it tomorrow because they don't have the faith for today. And that is a dysfunction.

Dr. Nathan Kassas: Which brings us as we go into our break, a good recap, a good warm-up: Transformation does not begin with the removal of disease. It begins with the identification of dysfunction.

Dr. Robyn Kassas: Correct. Let's go to a break.

Voiceover: 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: Well, everybody, that was an amazing warm-up, and some gems were dropped. But they weren't dropped tomorrow; they're here today. They were dropped right down. I love it. Let's move into the next part of this important journey, which is transformation.

Dr. Robyn Kassas: It is time we touch this now. It's been a big build-up.

Dr. Nathan Kassas: So, we said before the break, transformation begins with the identification or the reality of dysfunction. And I just want to premise this by saying, you know, I've been getting my—I'm currently pursuing a doctorate in functional medicine. And so, I just did my foundational course, finished it, which was about functional medicine and how it operates from a different mindset of allopathic or conventional medicine.

And so, something that really struck me, which I saw the Lord bringing into my own spiritual walk with Him, is functional medicine's core tenet is, to treat the whole person, so not just the symptom because symptomology never heals anybody.

And then number two, another core tenet is that we use this term, "remove the obstacle." So, remove the obstacle to dysfunction. Now that comes back to the idea that the body is created optimally to function. It's functioning optimally, but it's something of dysfunction that stops optimal functioning.

And so, it was really helpful to me because, for an example, just clinically, a normal doctor sees a headache, sweating, high fever, and maybe another symptom of like lethargy or insomnia, and then they just get those symptoms in a collective, because that's what symptomology does, it just tells us to look at what's going on on the outside.

So, they get those symptoms and they go, oh, okay, well you're suffering from depression. You know, you have these thoughts, you've got a headache, you can't sleep, you're sweating, you're nervous, and all of these things. And so, automatically the person is probably prescribed antidepressants, which makes their life even worse.

Now, don't get me wrong, antidepressants help people in some circumstances that have genuine biological depression. But most of the time, depression is misdiagnosed. And so, from a functional medicine perspective, I don't just look at a symptom and go, oh you've got a headache, you've got this, you've got that. I look at what is the dysfunction in your system.

Okay, so your neurological system is showing dysfunction through headaches, migraines. Your metabolic system is showing dysfunction. What is your emotional dysfunction? And then it's my job to take those dots and draw a picture and go, ah, okay, there is the root dysfunction. Exactly, see the pattern.

So, disease is actually the label, but dysfunction is the root. And so, when God wants to begin transformation in our lives, we always go to symptom. We always think He wants to transform the symptom.

Dr. Robyn Kassas: Yes, that's correct.

Dr. Nathan Kassas: And we never actually allow Him to see that dysfunction is only symptom speaking out loud.

Dr. Robyn Kassas: That's correct.

Dr. Nathan Kassas: So, again here, I just want to give a couple of scriptural foundations. Remember everything that God created in the beginning, He said was good. Genesis 1:31, He says it's good. So, it was very good, actually. And so, you were not created in dysfunction. We have to remember this.

Dr. Robyn Kassas: No, we were created whole. We were created whole. When God said that we were made in His image, that meant whole because He's not half; He's whole. And we have an original plan, and this is what it's all about, coming back to that original plan, that wholeness.

Dr. Nathan Kassas: And Dr. Robyn, even in Ecclesiastes 7:29, another scripture that really re-emphasizes this to me is it says God made man upright. So, what it means is that dysfunction was introduced; it was never designed. God never designed you with dysfunction. Either trauma, pain, outside—in the medical term, we call that xenobiotics, which is environment, pathogens—

Dr. Robyn Kassas: Or disease.

Dr. Nathan Kassas: Disease, infection, something bacterial has been introduced. Now, we know overall that was sin. But we know that 2 Corinthians 5:17 says the old has passed away and the new has come. And that verb there is "is coming," present active daily. So, there's a new every day that I can step into.

Dr. Robyn Kassas: That's already there. That's exactly what I want to say. That new is not once and for all; that new is continually manifesting every single day. Christ in me is the hope of glory.

Dr. Nathan Kassas: And that is stopped when we introduce or we continue to facilitate—being a good word—dysfunction in our lives. He never stops being the hope of glory, but your dysfunction stops you from connecting with the hope of glory.

Dr. Robyn Kassas: Yes. And there's something to do with Christ here. He never dysfunctioned. But He was tested. But that test to me just allowed Him to show how to function.

Dr. Nathan Kassas: And essentially, that's what He did when He came to earth. He came to remove 3,000 to 4,000 years plus of dysfunction in the Jewish people, and that was them, number one, thinking that they could do it via their own self-righteousness.

Dr. Robyn Kassas: Definitely that one.

Dr. Nathan Kassas: And the other one that you mentioned was them thinking, "I don't need it."

Dr. Robyn Kassas: "I can handle it. I got this."

Dr. Nathan Kassas: Yes, as you taught so wisely, it wasn't when they said they couldn't do it.

Dr. Robyn Kassas: It was when they said they could. I think that's the biggest dysfunction in our lives. And I think that word "they"—when they said they could do it.

Dr. Nathan Kassas: And so it's very appropriate that we just come into the season of the Feast of Unleavened Bread. We're in that right now if you're following the Hebraic calendar, right? Because leaven represents fermentation. And fermentation, bringing it into a functional medicine perspective, is inflammation. So, again, when God is looking to remove the disease of our life, He doesn't start by attacking the bacteria. He finds where are you inflamed. Where are you fermented?

Dr. Robyn Kassas: Yes. And He locates it. And that's what brings the body able to function from any disease once the dysfunction is located.

Dr. Nathan Kassas: And so, I know we're getting—we probably continue this next week because it's a very important and wide-varying topic. But we've got to see that transformation begins with locating dysfunction, not attacking disease.

Because what is the dysfunction? Well, maybe from a functional medicine perspective, I would ask you, is your diet on point? Are you exercising? Are you sleeping enough? Do you have good emotional regulation? Are you an angry person? These are all systems that contribute to the underlying dysfunction.

Dr. Robyn Kassas: And also, are you activating faith?

Dr. Nathan Kassas: There it is. There it is. So, faith is actually learning to think in systems, not symptoms.

Dr. Robyn Kassas: Good, good statement. Very good statement.

Dr. Nathan Kassas: See, we think in symptoms and we think that is what God is trying to change in our lives. "Oh, I said that, He's just trying to change—" No, He's trying to change the system of how you entirely communicate.

Dr. Robyn Kassas: And how you think. Not just one little thought. No, plural, how you think. Because you can't just do it one time and stop and not do it all the time because Christ in you is there all the time. That's what you have to operate in. That's what you have to locate in you.

Dr. Nathan Kassas: He never stopped functioning. I hope we can get this reality. He's there all the time, even in sin. When you sin, He's there living in you, abiding, never stopped functioning.

Dr. Robyn Kassas: And so, like we said in the beginning, we said the sun will come out. No, it's already out. It's behind the clouds and, you know what? You need to ask God to lift the cloud.

Dr. Nathan Kassas: That's the key. And so what stopped you from seeing the sun? The dysfunction of concentrating on the clouds. On the wrong thing. My Lord, my Lord. Before we go to your final words, I have a couple of statements here that I just want to add, which I think will help to build what we're bringing here.

Seven prophetic power statements, here we go:

1. Disease is the face, but dysfunction is the root.

Dr. Robyn Kassas: Definitely, that's what I saw. It is definitely the face.

Dr. Nathan Kassas: And disease manifests like the mindset you were talking about. The neuro-side of this is: "This is just how I am. I don't need more prayer. I don't want to look deeper. I'm functioning fine." Avoidance protects dysfunction.

Dr. Robyn Kassas: "And I can handle it." You cannot. And neither can your body. But neither can your spirit.

Dr. Nathan Kassas: Number two: You cannot cast out what you have not located.

Dr. Robyn Kassas: You must locate it. Must. Everything is caught up in that with the Holy Spirit. You have to locate His working all the time.

Dr. Nathan Kassas: And locate that He's working systematically, not symptomly—if that's a word. Number three: God does not heal labels; He restores systems. Number four: Leaven hidden becomes dysfunction manifested.

Dr. Robyn Kassas: Correct. Have you got any more to add, please?

Dr. Nathan Kassas: The new life is present, number five, but dysfunction blocks its expression.

Dr. Robyn Kassas: Yes, and dysfunction is something that is not God. Because He never ever created something to dysfunction.

Dr. Nathan Kassas: Which goes to my next statement, number six: You were created optimally; dysfunction was introduced.

Dr. Robyn Kassas: That's the most important thing I can say tonight. It was introduced. It was never in the original design.

Dr. Nathan Kassas: Never in His story.

Dr. Robyn Kassas: Never in His story. And that is what He is trying to bring us back to, to remove the dysfunction because it's not part of God's plan.

Dr. Nathan Kassas: And the final statement, which I know is going to stir you to have the final words, is: Transformation begins with the removal of dysfunction, as it is not the removal of disease, but the restoration of design.

Dr. Robyn Kassas: Wonderful. And that's what it's all about. It is that wonderful divine plan of God. What you've already said many times in our courses and seminars: that predestined design of His story in each and every one of us.

Dr. Nathan Kassas: And dysfunction is what, like you said, it's the cloud that stops us daily in connecting with that design. That design never stopped functioning. I'm learning this as a functional practitioner: your body never stopped functioning.

Dr. Robyn Kassas: But what was introduced has contributed to its stopped function. Amen.

Dr. Nathan Kassas: Wow. I think we could build on this next week and go more. But we have to begin here with transformation because we have to start at the right foundation. So, Dr. Robyn, throwing it to you for your final words.

Dr. Robyn Kassas: Well, the right way to function is to see what God sees. Things that aren't as if they are, and possibly things that are—they're not really those things.

Dr. Nathan Kassas: Like the clouds.

Dr. Robyn Kassas: Yeah. And so, as I've said in the beginning, I said the cloud is lifted. You have to allow the cloud to lift because this is not just something to think about. God literally lifted the cloud for them to move on. So to get transformed, allow the cloud to lift, then you can move on.

Dr. Nathan Kassas: And maybe then you'll see that the sun was always shining.

Dr. Robyn Kassas: Today.

Dr. Nathan Kassas: Today. It never stopped. It's always been shining, and it'll keep shining.

Dr. Robyn Kassas: It's there to get rid of what's clouding it or what's covering it. And that's maybe doubt, unbelief.

Dr. Nathan Kassas: Wow. So it's not "the sun'll come out tomorrow." It's "the sun is out today." Don't have to wait till tomorrow.

Dr. Robyn Kassas: That's it. Don't wait till tomorrow.

Voiceover: 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 T-O-R-C-C dot org for more. We'll be back next week, same time, same truth. And as you go, don't forget: the one who loved you first is still loving you best.