Bill Vanderbush

Discerning the Times - Live at Bethel Austin by Bill Vanderbush

God's face imparts blessing (Numbers), calls us to focus deeply (Psalms/Mark), is modeled in Jesus Christ (Luke), and is unveiled through the Holy Spirit's outpouring (Ezekiel/Acts). Life and identity flow from beholding Him. Psalm 27 is a roadmap from fear to fearless intimacy. Fear God alone, seek His face continually, and wait in confident hope.

Jesus Christ wasn't limited like you and me, or at least like we feel. While he was in a body, he was filling all things, sustaining everything, and while living as a man, he was sustaining and upholding all things. This is the wonder of the incarnation, the unlimited one entered limitation without ceasing to be unlimited.

The modern church faces a critical moment regarding prophetic ministry. In many charismatic and Spirit-filled circles, the gift of prophecy (as described in 1 Corinthians 14:3) has been marred by misuse, exaggeration, and outright fabrication. High-profile controversies, failed predictions, and cases of moral failure tied to those claiming prophetic authority have shaken trust. People rightly question what they've seen when they hear words don't come to pass, personal agendas masquerading as divine revelation, and a lack of accountability. The solution isn't to abandon prophecy but to restore prophetic integrity where we learn how to test words and prophets alike. We need to return to God's Word as the unchanging standard, where true prophecy aligns with Scripture, builds up the church, glorifies Christ, and comes under humble accountability.

News flash. Not every prophetic word that claims to be from God actually is. The Bible is full of warnings because false prophecy has always been a danger. Jesus Himself warned us about this repeatedly, and the apostles echoed it. So today, we're going to lean into Scripture to equip you to learn to discern.

Are you ministering to the Lord or just about him? Have you moved beyond religious activity to a place of personal intimacy with God? I would say that children raised in godly homes still need their own Samuel moment, a personal call and a personal response. Faith has to be personal between you and God.

Faith is not just believing "in" Jesus as an object of our conviction. Faith is participating in "His" faith, the unshakeable confidence of the Son toward the Father. This is the subjective reality, where Christ's own faithfulness becomes ours, not as something we manufacture, but as a gift of union.

Dead faith agrees but stays unchanged. Living faith transforms. As you truly believe, the Holy Spirit renews your mind (Romans 12:2). Old habits fall away and the new creation emerges (2 Corinthians 5:17). But the transformation doesn't stop (2 Corinthians 3:18). Even in our most glorious seasons, there's greater glory ahead! Beholding Jesus changes us progressively to be more like Him each day.

Learn the art of harvesting sweet vintage wine from the bitter grapes of isolation. Jesus’ solitude was never escape. It was communion. In his humanity, he recieved the replenishing touch of the Father’s love and the anointing of the Spirit. He returned to the fellowship he had known from eternity, now lived out in human flesh. And because we are now in Him, adopted into His Sonship, baptized into His life, His solitude becomes the pattern for ours. In this podcast you will learn how our alone times can become doorways into the same embrace.

The incarnation didn’t end at the manger. Every single step Jesus took on this earth was redemptive. Every temptation He faced in the wilderness, every tear He shed at Lazarus’ tomb, every time He reached out and touched a leper, He was living the perfect human life we never could. Where Adam rebelled, Jesus obeyed. Where we hid, He revealed. Where we said no to the Father, He said yes all the way to the cross. He learned obedience through suffering, not because He needed to grow, but because He was carrying us in Himself, rewriting our story with His own blood, sweat, grace, and love.

Glory to God in the highest, and on earth, peace, goodwill toward men, is not just a slogan to be confined to December. It is the most radical display of angelic intervention documented in Scripture. Apart from Christ Himself it is the single greatest announcement of God‘s intention and heart as a Father over humanity through Jesus. In Short, it is the gospel.

Every one of us has been given three powerful servants. You can ignore them but you can't get rid of them entirely. They were never meant to be our masters. They were meant to minister to you and serve you. Yet in many Christian lives they have staged a rebellion and now sit on the throne that belongs to Christ alone. In this podcast you'll learn three key areas of life that we all must learn to govern well.

God spends all of history chasing us with the balloon of grace and the styrofoam baseball bat of a vindicating judgment. If you really grab ahold of the grace of God, you'll discover that he really ruins all of our religious trauma with joy. And so he refuses to let our fear define him anywhere else than in our own twisted imaginations.

David’s life, worship, and tabernacle all point to Jesus—the greater David who brings the Ark (God’s presence) into human hearts through His cross, opening Zion’s eternal glory to all who trust Him.

The greatest mystery of the gospel isn’t just that Jesus died for you. It’s that He lives in you. You’re not running after a God who's avoiding you. He’s made His home in you. Paul’s not pointing to a distant heaven. He’s revealing that heaven’s reality is already inside you because of the cross. This is why Paul’s so important today. He shows us that union with God isn’t a future hope. Iit’s your now reality.

The incarnation is the time and place in all of eternity where God and man meet, and find union in Christ. Jesus reveals God as Father, and unveils the truth of not only who God is, but the truth of who we are as his sons and daughters. So the revelation of God as Father unveils our identity. If you don't see God as Father, you'll never truly know your identity. So now, when we come to God, do we come in the law-based ideology of approaching God, in the style of the Levitical priesthood of the Old Covenant? I think a lot of people do, but the invitation is for us to know God through the mediation of our great high priest, who is Jesus Christ, according to a completely different order than the Old Covenant.

In the Christic Covenant God's relationship with humanity shifts from law-based performance to grace-based intimacy. This covenant emphasizes that our identity and worth are not earned but freely given through faith in Jesus Christ. We are not striving to be noticed or accepted by God. Instead, we live in reconciled rest in the reality that God already sees us fully, knows us intimately, loves us unconditionally, and has chosen us purposefully. This study explores these four aspects through the Scriptures and shows how being seen, known, loved, and chosen flow from God's grace, not our merit.

In Christ, we're not distant admirers but intimate participants. "In Him we live and move and have our being." Our faithlessness doesn't sever this bond because He cannot deny Himself, and if you're in Christ, you're part of that unbreakable Self. This is grace unbound. It transforms doubt into assurance, brokenness into wholeness. No matter the chaos around or within, His faithfulness sustains, His presence envelops, and His grace redeems.

Don't settle for a wonderless faith. The new covenant invites you into complete, perpetual awe, gazing at a father who is wildly for you. So dive in, rest deep, and watch wonders unfold from His finished work.

Meditate on this word, vicarious. It's a living proxy, a stand-in whose actions ripple eternally. Adam embodied humanity vicariously, not by vote or consent, but by divine design. His choice resulted in a "free gift" of sin imputed to us all, unasked, unearned (Romans 5:12-19). Did anyone poll you? Invite you to inherit Adam's sin? No. yet here we stand, heirs to the fall. But oh, the counterpoint! Jesus Christ, our true Vicar, steps into the chaos as humanity's Champion. In Him, the Trinity's redemptive council unfolds. The Father sends the Son (John 3:16), the Son lays down His life (Philippians 2:8), the Spirit seals the victory (Ephesians 1:13-14).