DO NOT FEAR LITTLE FLOCK

Table of Contents

1. Welcome and the Purpose of This Additional Teaching
2. Beginning Prayer with Praise and the Father’s Love
3. Feelings, Faith, and the Good God Designed for the Body
4. “Thy Kingdom Come” and the Rule and Reign of God
5. Miracles, Unanswered Prayer, and the Call to Keep Praying
6. The Woman Who Rose on the Airplane
7. Kingdom Living Without Worry
8. Delivered from Darkness and Transferred into the Kingdom
9. “Worry About No Thing”: Resting in the Father’s Care
10. “Fear Not, Little Flock”: The Father’s Good Pleasure
11. Gratitude, Giving, and Being God’s Hand Extended

Welcome and the Purpose of This Additional Teaching

Pastor Leonard opens warmly beside his wife, Pastor Lori, calling her wonderful, beautiful, and amazing. Pastor Lori responds that this is her favorite part of the introduction. Together they express how excited they are to be with the audience again and how sincerely they hope these teaching sessions are bringing blessing. They invite viewers to visit the ministry website or YouTube channel and leave comments so they can hear how the messages are helping people. Their stated intention is to bless those who listen.

Pastor Leonard explains that this will be a brief teaching. It is an addition to the previous Sunday’s message and a further follow-up to the message given on Tuesday. The Sunday teaching began a short series built around a portion of the Lord’s Prayer, and he expects to spend one more Sunday addressing that passage. This session focuses especially on what the prayer reveals about kingdom living.

Beginning Prayer with Praise and the Father’s Love

Pastor Leonard recalls that Jesus taught His disciples how to pray by beginning with the Father in heaven and honoring His name.

Matthew 6:9: “After this manner therefore pray ye: Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name.”

He says that although he had not consciously been thinking of the Lord’s Prayer, he realized that this is naturally how he begins his own prayers. He starts by exalting, praising, glorifying, and worshiping his heavenly Father. He thanks the Father for His goodness, love, compassion, mercy, salvation, and for Jesus.

Pastor Leonard emphasizes that things happen when a believer praises God. As the Father is elevated in a person’s awareness, the situations and circumstances that confront that person begin to shrink. At the same time, the power already within the believer begins to rise in expression, and faith grows. With faith energized and released from within, the believer becomes able to command and speak to the mountains standing in the way.

He repeats a principle taught previously: when love is realized, faith is energized. When believers praise and worship the Father for His love, their awareness of that love energizes their faith. Worship is therefore not an empty religious exercise. It turns the heart toward the Father, magnifies His goodness, and helps the believer respond to circumstances from faith rather than from fear.

Pastor Lori adds that worship also does something inside a person. She describes a feeling that is difficult to explain, perhaps a lightness, that comes while worshiping. Pastor Leonard connects that experience to faith being energized and acknowledges that there is a work of the Holy Spirit and a spiritual reality involved.

Feelings, Faith, and the Good God Designed for the Body

Pastor Leonard carefully explains that believers are not supposed to base their lives on feelings, but this does not mean feelings themselves are bad. Good feelings can be beneficial. Pastor Lori’s observation leads them into a brief discussion of how the human body responds when a person feels well. They mention the body releasing hormones and producing new cells as part of the way it was created to function.

Their point is that the spiritual and physical dimensions of a person can work together. Praise, worship, awareness of the Father’s love, energized faith, and healthy feelings are not presented as enemies. Although feelings must not become the foundation upon which a believer lives, good feelings are welcomed as part of the good for which the body was designed. Pastor Leonard and Pastor Lori repeatedly affirm that the body is meant for good.

“Thy Kingdom Come

Pastor Leonard moves to the next part of Jesus’ prayer:
Matthew 6:10: “Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done on earth, as it is in heaven.”

He asks why Jesus would teach people to pray for the Father’s will to be done on earth as it is in heaven if that were not possible. Pastor Lori calls the thought deep, and Pastor Leonard urges listeners to think carefully about the words “on earth, as it is in heaven.”

This possibility is connected to the believer’s identity. Those who have said yes to Jesus Christ are children of God, belong to Him, and belong to the kingdom realm. Pastor Leonard defines the kingdom of God as the rule and reign of God. When believers receive Christ, they submit themselves to that divine rule and reign.

The pastors then consider what the kingdom looks like in practical expression. Jesus preached the gospel—the good news—of the kingdom and instructed His disciples to proclaim that the kingdom of God was present and at hand. That proclamation was accompanied by miracles, healings, deliverances, and even people being raised from the dead. These supernatural works demonstrate the life and power associated with God’s kingdom.

Miracles, Unanswered Prayer, and the Call to Keep Praying

Pastor Leonard shares that he has prayed for two people to be raised from the dead. One rose, and one did not. The instance in which the person did not rise affected him deeply. He wept and cried because he had prayed with expectation and believed it was supposed to happen.

Through that painful experience, however, the Lord showed him that the outcome is not always solely up to him. He does not attempt to explain every factor involved, but he makes clear the greatest lesson he learned: do not stop praying. People can be tempted to stop because they prayed for something that did not happen, even though they believed it should have happened. Pastor Leonard and Pastor Lori firmly encourage the audience to keep praying rather than allowing disappointment to silence their faith.

The Woman Who Rose on the Airplane

Pastor Leonard then recounts the occasion when he saw a person rise. He was aboard an airplane traveling on a missionary journey to Nicaragua with third-year students from their Bible school. A woman who appeared physically fit was walking up the aisle when she suddenly collapsed near his seat.

The flight attendants gathered around her and appeared uncertain about what to do. One said that the woman was not breathing, and another said there was no heart rate. Pastor Lori initially remembers a different event involving a man, and Pastor Leonard clarifies that this was another occasion and that the person in this account was a woman.

Pastor Leonard says that he became bold in that moment, but he did not want to step out of line. He asked the flight attendants for permission to pray for the woman. They looked at him and told him to do something. He placed his hands on her and prayed that she would rise in Jesus’ name, for the Father’s glory and for her good. Within seconds after he finished praying, the woman sat up. She had been unresponsive with her eyes closed, but when she rose, she looked directly at Pastor Leonard and thanked him. He describes this first experience of seeing someone rise in response to prayer as amazing. The testimony supports the message that believers should not stop praying or believing and should not permit fear, anxiety, or worry to rule their lives.

Kingdom Living Without Worry

Pastor Leonard explains that immediately after teaching the disciples to pray, Jesus also showed them what kingdom living looks like. Pastor Lori reads Luke 12:22–32, noting that similar teaching appears in Matthew and that it follows the Lord’s Prayer there. They use the New Living Translation during the spoken teaching because Pastor Leonard appreciates the way Luke’s account is expressed in that translation. For this article, the complete passage is presented as requested in the King James Version:

Luke 12:22-32: “And he said unto his disciples, Therefore I say unto you, Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat; neither for the body, what ye shall put on. The life is more than meat, and the body is more than raiment. Consider the ravens: for they neither sow nor reap; which neither have storehouse nor barn; and God feedeth them: how much more are ye better than the fowls? And which of you with taking thought can add to his stature one cubit? If ye then be not able to do that thing which is least, why take ye thought for the rest? Consider the lilies, how they grow: they toil not, they spin not; and yet I say unto you, that Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. If then God so clothe the grass, which is to day in the field, and to morrow is cast into the oven; how much more will he clothe you, O ye of little faith? And seek not ye what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink, neither be ye of doubtful mind. For all these things do the nations of the world seek after: and your Father knoweth that ye need these things. But rather seek ye the kingdom of God; and all these things shall be added unto you. Fear not, little flock; for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom.”

As the passage begins, Pastor Leonard reacts strongly to Jesus’ instruction not to worry about everyday life. Pastor Lori expresses the principle in a memorable way: “Worry about nothing.” They identify this freedom from worry as kingdom living. Jesus tells His disciples not to worry about having enough food to eat or clothing to wear because life is more than food and the body is more than clothing. The ravens provide Jesus’ first picture of the Father’s care. They neither plant nor harvest, nor do they store food in barns, yet God feeds them. Human beings are far more valuable to the Father than birds. Worry cannot add anything meaningful to a person’s life, so if it cannot accomplish even a little thing, it has no power to solve larger matters.

Jesus then points to the lilies. They do not labor to make clothing, yet even Solomon in all his glory was not dressed with their beauty. If God cares so wonderfully for flowers that are present today and later cast into the fire, He will certainly care for His children. The answer to daily needs is therefore not anxious striving but faith in the Father’s loving attention.

Jesus tells His disciples not to remain concerned about what they will eat or drink and not to let such matters control their minds. Pastor Leonard highlights the statement that these concerns dominate the thoughts of unbelievers throughout the world. Believers are not unbelievers, and their thought life should reflect their relationship with the Father. The Father already knows every need. The believer is called to seek God’s kingdom above everything else and trust Him to supply what is needed. Pastor Leonard links this teaching again to the prayer for the Father’s kingdom to come and His will to be done on earth as it is in heaven.

Matthew 6:10: “Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done on earth, as it is in heaven.”

He explains that a life free from domination by fear, worry, and anxiety is part of what kingdom-realm living looks like, alongside the miraculous and supernatural works associated with the kingdom.

Delivered from Darkness and Transferred into the Kingdom

Pastor Leonard recalls the Apostle Paul’s teaching, which they had discussed on Sunday, that believers have been delivered from the domain or rule of darkness and transferred into the kingdom of the Son of the Father’s love:

Colossians 1:13: “Who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son.”

He uses a passport illustration to explain the role of belief. When a believer yields to worry, fear, or anxiety, it is as though that person is leaving one kingdom and attempting to return to the former kingdom of darkness. The individual holds the passport, and that passport represents belief. By embracing worry, the person effectively says, “I’m going back to the other kingdom”—what Pastor Lori calls the “worry kingdom.”

Pastor Leonard warns that God’s miraculous and supernatural power cannot operate freely through a person who chooses to live from that opposing kingdom of fear and worry. His emphasis is not that the believer has ceased to belong to God, but that the believer is acting contrary to the kingdom into which God has already transferred him or her. He again draws attention to Jesus’ statement that anxiety over food, drink, clothing, and daily provision dominates the thoughts of the world’s unbelievers:

Luke 12:29-31: “And seek not ye what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink, neither be ye of doubtful mind. For all these things do the nations of the world seek after: and your Father knoweth that ye need these things. But rather seek ye the kingdom of God; and all these things shall be added unto you.”

Pastor Leonard directly asks the listener, “Are you a believer?” He hopes the answer is yes. Because believers are not unbelievers, fear, worry, and anxiety should not dominate their thoughts. Jesus’ teaching reveals a different manner of life under the Father’s rule and reign.

“Worry About No Thing

When Pastor Leonard invites Pastor Lori to respond, she says she is thankful that the Father loves her so much that He does not want her to worry about anything. She can rest because He is taking care of her and all her needs. The passage assures her that He already knows everything she needs:

Luke 12:30-31: “For all these things do the nations of the world seek after: and your Father knoweth that ye need these things. But rather seek ye the kingdom of God; and all these things shall be added unto you.”

Pastor Leonard agrees that the Father already knows and has everything under control. He returns to Jesus’ question about whether worry accomplishes anything:

Luke 12:25-26: “And which of you with taking thought can add to his stature one cubit? If ye then be not able to do that thing which is least, why take ye thought for the rest?”

Their answer is simple: worrying helps nothing. Pastor Leonard points to Pastor Lori as a personal example, saying that peace dominates her life. Her phrase is “Worry about nothing.” He humorously describes how, when they go to bed at night, she hits the bed and is immediately asleep. Their laughter underscores the practical rest that comes from refusing to carry anxiety. They identify this peaceful rest as kingdom living.

“Fear Not, Little Flock

As the final central thought, Pastor Leonard returns to Jesus’ words in verse 32 and asks Pastor Lori to read them again:

Luke 12:32: “Fear not, little flock; for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom.”

Pastor Leonard gathers the entire teaching into a direct appeal: do not worry, do not be afraid, do not live in fear, and do not live in anxiety. In the kingdom realm, believers experience the Father supplying everything they need. The foundation of this confidence is not merely the believer’s determination; it is the Father’s character and pleasure. He delights to give the kingdom to His little flock.

Pastor Lori closes the main teaching by saying that she is excited to experience His kingdom right here and right now. Pastor Leonard agrees and reminds the audience that the kingdom is meant to affect present life on earth, just as Jesus taught His disciples to pray:

Matthew 6:10: “Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done on earth, as it is in heaven.”

Gratitude, Giving, and Being God’s Hand Extended

Pastor Leonard concludes by thanking the audience for all they do for the ministry and says that he looks forward to seeing them again on Sunday. He candidly shares that the summer has been somewhat difficult financially. People go on vacation during the summer, as the pastors themselves also do, but giving often seems to go on vacation at the same time. As a result, the ministry is feeling a financial crunch.

Rather than pressuring anyone, Pastor Leonard asks listeners to pray, seek the Father, and ask whether there is anything He would like them to do. Pastor Lori often thanks supporters for being “God’s hand extended,” and Pastor Leonard explains that God extends His hand to the ministry through their giving.

They sincerely thank those who already give and express appreciation to those considering giving. Pastor Leonard directs interested viewers to the ministry website, where the menu contains a giving link explaining the available methods. The website also provides a mailing address for those who prefer to send gifts and offerings by mail. They thank the audience in advance, express their love, and promise to return in a couple of days.

We hope this article blessed you and strengthened your confidence in the Father’s love and care. Share this teaching with someone who needs freedom from fear, worry, or anxiety, and the assurance that it is the Father’s good pleasure to give His little flock the kingdom.