Participants: Shelley Quinn (Host), Jerry and Janet Page
Series Code: IAA
Program Code: IAA000283
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00:28 Hello, I'm Shelley Quinn and welcome again to Issues and
00:34 Answers. Today the issue is going to be how to get to know 00:38 God better. The answer is we're going to offering you some 00:42 practical helps how to develop an intimate devotional life with 00:46 the Lord. Let me share one of my favorite scriptures with 00:49 you. This is something that David wrote and it comes from 00:52 Psalm 63 beginning with verse 1. Listen to David's heart. He said 00:58 Oh God, you are my God. Earnestly will I seek you. My 01:03 flesh thirsts for you and longs for you in a dry and weary 01:07 land where there is no water. Do you ever feel like you're in 01:10 a dry and weary land where there is no water. He said, So I have 01:14 looked upon you in the sanctuary to see your power and your 01:19 glory. Because your love is better than life, my lips shall 01:23 praise you. So I will bless you while I live and I will 01:28 lift up my hands in your name. When I read what David's 01:33 thoughts were toward the Lord, his love is so intimate the only 01:38 word that I can think to describe it, and this sounds 01:42 somehow askew, but it's almost like David had a romantic love 01:47 for the Lord, because it was so intimate. What we are going to 01:51 do today is talk with a couple who know how to share this type 01:56 of intimacy with the Lord. God has led them into a devotional 02:01 life where they really came to know their loving Father for 02:06 the magnificent Father that he is. Let me introduce to you 02:11 again Janet Page and Jerry Page. They come to us from the Central 02:15 California Conference. Jerry what do you do? 02:18 Well, I'm president of the Central California Conference 02:23 and the el hephae, the chief. Janet, I know that you are the 02:27 director of Women's Ministries, but you also play a very 02:30 important part in the conference when it comes to prayer. 02:33 What do you do there. Oh, the same thing, Prayer Ministries, 02:37 trying to encourage that throughout the conference. 02:39 You know, you are a marvelous director of prayer ministries 02:43 because I have been, and I just have to share this with the 02:47 audience, I have spoken in California at the Soquel 02:51 camp meeting. I think that's one of the largest isn't it? Yes. 02:54 and then at the Women's Retreat, I did a couple of Women's 02:58 Retreats. I've never been so prayed up in my life. I mean, 03:02 you have really taught the people how to be prayer 03:06 warriors. Now what is the difference between having a 03:10 real living, dynamic, breathing devotional life with God and one 03:16 that's just dry, everyday ordinary? 03:18 Well, Shelley, Janet and I sure don't think we have it all 03:21 together, but God has just been teaching us some things along 03:25 the way that make it different for us. A friend of my named 03:27 Gordon has a little routine. He tells about a story every 03:30 day with his cat, Slippers. He'd come sleepy in his bathrobe 03:33 to feed his cat in the garage and Slippers would see him 03:36 out of one eye like cats do and sort of not be interested. 03:39 He'd pick up the dry cat food, pour it in the bowl. Finally 03:42 about the time he'd leave Slippers would get up and go 03:44 over and start eating. Then he said one day when he came out 03:47 same routine, dry cat food, Slippers not interested, but as 03:51 he was pouring the food out of the bag, out tumbled a living 03:55 mouse. And he said suddenly Slippers was alert, at attention 03:59 and the words great taste and fresh on the bag meant a lot 04:01 more than they had before. So devotional life is kind of like 04:04 that. I find many times it's pretty dry for me. It's like 04:07 studying an old history book or something, but at other times 04:10 when I really ask God to help me and I begin to focus on him 04:13 instead of myself and my sins and really go to the Word and 04:17 say, Speak to me out or it, it becomes alive. It's God's 04:20 presence there, you know, and so today we would like to share 04:22 a few things that have helped us even though we sure don't have 04:24 it together. One little story maybe just gives an example. 04:27 You know I am an administrator and I have to work with a lot 04:30 of people. I got back from a trip and this guy was doing it 04:33 again. He just loved to have a juicy little tid bit of gossip. 04:37 I know nobody around 3ABN ever does that. But anyway, it upset 04:40 me, annoyed me because I had talked to him about it before. 04:43 He was going around behind this couple's back and saying things 04:46 about them that was hurting their reputation. So I made an 04:49 appointment with him for the next Tuesday and I made my 04:51 little list, a legal brief, of the things he had been doing. 04:54 My plan was to sit down with him and kind of go over that 04:57 list and watch him squirm and then change his behavior. But 05:00 that morning I did what is so important; I decided I'd spend 05:03 some time with God and that's the first principle obviously 05:06 is just doing it, spend time, take the time in a busy life 05:09 to do it, and I did. As I went I said, God, you know, my 05:12 devotions have really been getting boring and dry lately. 05:14 It's like trying to draw something out of an old textbook 05:17 I said, Please, will you speak to me today. You know, there is 05:21 a lot of evidence in the word and other places that says when 05:24 we go to God's word, it is his voice really speaking to us 05:27 just as though we've heard it with our ears. You teach that 05:30 and know it. So anyway, that day I happened to be reading through 05:33 Proverbs. When I got to Proverbs 12, I was reading down through 05:35 it, the Lord started speaking to me. These texts began to 05:38 jump off the page there in Proverbs 12 and we won't look 05:41 them up now, but a fool shows his annoyance at once. 05:44 Yeah, I was annoyed with this guy all right. I wasn't thinking 05:47 about him but God was speaking to me. Then it goes on, 05:50 reckless words pierce like a sword, but the tongue of the 05:52 wise brings healing. I began to hear God was rebuking me about 05:56 how I was going to deal with this man. A prudent man keeps 05:59 his knowledge to himself; and I was going to pour the whole 06:02 load on his that day. A righteous man is cautious in his 06:05 friendships. When I got done I said, Okay, Lord, I hear you. 06:09 Ah, you're speaking to me. And you know, even thought he was 06:12 rebuking me I was so glad he was there and he was speaking to me. 06:15 It was real and I felt like he led me to Galatians 6:1 06:18 that morning, which says, Brothers, if any man is 06:22 overtaken in a trespass, you who are spiritual restore such 06:26 a one in a spirit of gentleness, remembering yourself lest you 06:30 also be tempted and it goes on talking about bearing each 06:31 other's burdens. I thought, Okay God, I'm right about the facts, 06:36 but I'm so wrong in spirit. You know, I have another friend 06:38 who says I do my best sinning when I'm right. That's been my 06:41 problem, too. Anyway that day when I went to meet with that 06:44 man I started by reading Galatians 6:1 and I said, 06:47 You know, friend, I have a problem; I say negative things 06:50 about people behind their back sometimes. I said, Would you 06:52 pray for me that I'll be more like Jesus. Then I told him a 06:56 little bit of what I knew. He got the point. We ended up with 06:59 our arms around each other, Shelley, praying for each other 07:01 that we'd be more like Christ. That was much better ending 07:03 to that meeting. You know, I could tell you lots of stories 07:07 that didn't turn out so good, but that's one that did and I'm 07:10 thankful. But, you know, that night when I got home... this 07:12 is what's so good about God and which excites me is... 07:14 there was a pastor on the phone to me. He was really upset 07:17 because some of his members was going around behind his 07:19 back and saying things about him that weren't true. He said 07:21 tomorrow I'm going to sit them down and I'm really going 07:23 to straighten them out. Isn't God wonderful. He got me up 07:28 early and worked me over so I would have a better meeting with 07:30 my man at the office and then got me ready to speak a word 07:33 as you say out of Isaiah 50, a word to the one who needed it 07:37 later that night to help him have a better experience. 07:39 So to me a living experience is when I ask God to really say 07:42 something to me. Then I journal those things, write them down, 07:45 so that I won't forget them and then I come back and I think, 07:48 God, that was wonderful how you spoke to me that day. 07:50 I want to go to his word every day realizing that it's an 07:53 audience with him and he will literally take verses written 07:55 1000s of years ago and make them real for the day for me. 07:58 That's what I need. That's what I was just getting ready to say; 08:01 ready to say; here's those verses from Proverbs, Solomon 08:04 wrote them 1000s of years ago, yet this word is alive, active, 08:09 sharper than any two-edged sword isn't it. Praise the Lord! 08:15 Janet, in this life we talked the last time you were here 08:20 about how busy things can become and how it's one of the 08:25 devil's tactics just to keep us going at this helter-skelter 08:28 pace, which we all do now days. It seems this is the common 08:32 complaint. We're all time starved. What are some 08:36 practical ways that we can make time for God? 08:39 Practical way we can make time? Well, I ask God to wake me up. 08:44 I let him know that I have to begin my day at six or seven, 08:47 whatever time it is I need to get in the shower and start 08:51 getting ready for work. So it is up to God how much time he 08:55 wants before that, so I let him wake me up. For a while I fought 08:59 against that, I saying if I get up now, I'll have a headache 09:02 or I'll be irritable and kept fighting against it, but God, 09:05 if I'd ask, would keep trying to wake me up. I finally decided 09:09 okay I'm going to do it, but if I'm irritable, I'm going to tell 09:12 everybody its God's fault if I've got a headache or whatever. 09:15 But what I found was I was way less irritable, had way less 09:19 headaches when I'd get up when God wanted me to and spend that 09:22 time with him. I don't know how it is for your or our 09:27 audience, but that are some times that life is in such 09:31 turmoil, so much going on, I cannot concentrate on reading 09:36 God's word. It's like moving, moving across country, when we 09:40 moved to California, just that trip across country it was just 09:43 my little boy and I driving across because Jerry was 09:46 already out there. I was so anxious about it all. I just 09:49 couldn't concentrate. There have been other times when just 09:53 everything is coming at me. The thing I found that I used to do 09:57 was I'd take one verse and say Lord, just help me get something 10:00 out of this verse, and I'd just keep saying it over and over 10:04 out loud and asking God to speak to me through it and just keep 10:08 trying to focus on that. The thing that has really helped 10:11 me in the last year or so now that I've learned it is your 10:15 book, "Exalting God's Word" because I can take those life 10:18 affirmations in the back and just start speaking them out 10:22 loud. A lot of times I can't sit still because there is so 10:25 much coming at me, so I'll go out and walk, walk outdoors, 10:29 and I'll take those and just keep saying them out loud over 10:32 my life. I pray first for God to bless me, for the Holy Spirit 10:35 to speak to me through it and just keep doing them. 10:38 And I'll feel like I'm not getting a thing out of it, but 10:41 when it's all done with, I have such a joy and a peace and it's 10:44 just like I'm renewed in God when I take time to do that. 10:48 You know, my experience has been much the same in exalting his 10:53 word. Someone said to me at a camp meeting that they had read 10:56 the book through twice and I'm on the third time. Well I said 10:59 I've already read it over 20 times and it still ministers 11:02 to me and I give God all the glory for that. But when you 11:06 are taking his scriptures... One thing I always do is I pray 11:09 before I come to the word and open it and I always pray and 11:15 claim John 17:17: Lord sanctify me by this word. Set me apart 11:21 from evil by this word and ask God to speak to you and he 11:24 really, really does. So praise the Lord for that. 11:26 Well, I want to be sure that our audience realizes we're 11:30 talking about God's word when I talk about your book "Exalting 11:34 God's Word" because what I'm talking about is in the last 11:36 pages of it are all these scriptures and just taking 11:39 God's word, but I just like the order that they're in because 11:42 they each deal with a certain subject, certain area of my 11:47 life. The other thing is, the last time we met and I talked 11:52 about how I started getting into spending that time every day 11:54 with God and how God just started speaking to me through 11:59 his word. It was so exciting to me that I loved to share with 12:02 people how he'd spoken to me that day. Then it stopped and 12:07 I started saying, God why don't you talk to me. Again, I'm not 12:10 hearing voices; it's his word. 12:13 Let me set this straight. It's I Kings 19:12 that talks about 12:17 the still small voice of the Lord and that's when the Holy 12:21 Spirit impresses God's thought upon your mind and I believe 12:25 most Christians have heard the voice of the Lord that thought 12:29 that's being impressed upon you. 12:30 Once in a while when I talk to her I wish she'd think it 12:32 was coming from the Lord. 12:33 Well, it's like your heart is quickened as you read it and 12:38 it just applies to just what you need right now. But it stopped 12:43 and I started praying and asking God, Why aren't you talking me 12:47 through your word like you did? I loved it and it took me a few 12:51 days before God finally answered me. It was just that quiet 12:54 faint thought was, You don't care about what I show you. 12:57 I said, What do you mean I don't care. Of course I care, I get 13:00 all excited about it and I share it with others. He said, You 13:04 forget, you forget what I've said to you, you forget what I 13:07 told you to do. Because a lot of times it's something he's 13:10 wanting me to do and I'll go, Oh, yeah, yeah, I need to do. 13:12 that, but then I don't ever do it. I forget about it. What he 13:17 started showing me in the Old Testament over and over again 13:19 what Israel's biggest problem was they forgot, they 13:23 forgot what God had said, they forgot what God had done in 13:27 their lives and because of that they ended up going away from 13:30 him. I found it's really important to God that I write 13:34 down what he has said to me or what it is he wants me to do, to 13:39 write down the things he's saying. If I want him to keep 13:41 speaking to me, if I really value it I'll write it down. 13:45 As Jerry mentioned before, journaling; I found it's a 13:49 really important part to try to write down things God saying to 13:51 me through his word. You know, I have journaled since 13:55 1999 every day. I shouldn't say every day this year because 14:00 there have been some gaps there unfortunately. But as you were 14:04 saying, there's a time or two that the Lord has come to me 14:07 and I realize that what is saying is, You're forgetting 14:10 what I've told you, but I can go back through 1999 and see how 14:15 the Lord has led and what he said and it's so meaningful. 14:19 Sometimes even though we do journal it, it's just good to go 14:22 back and review occasionally. 14:24 My personality and schedule are not such that I journal every 14:26 day. I think if I had to do that I may quit. But I journal those 14:30 times that it's something very special or I'm going through a 14:32 crisis or things are coming at me in my church business that 14:35 I can't handle especially and so those are the times that I 14:39 want to remember and then I go back on January 1 every year 14:42 I go over my whole journal for the year and I'm amazed again 14:45 at what God has done for me and all the things I've forgotten: 14:48 the little answers to prayer and the little providences and 14:50 all those things and it just pumps me up and I'm ready for 14:53 the year. That's a great way to start 14:55 the new year off. That's a good New Year's tradition. 14:58 Better than a football game. One time we were asked to speak 15:00 somewhere where we had been before and Jerry says what are 15:02 we going to do? We have a whole hour. I said, Well, why don't 15:05 you go read your journal over the last year to see what God's 15:08 done. Let's talk about what God's done. He said, Janet we 15:10 have a whole hour. He said there's no way. I said, Well 15:13 just go read your journal. So he did and he comes back later 15:16 and he says, Wow! God did so many things this last year. 15:19 And we have only got an hour to talk about it. 15:22 That's right! Exactly. I said I've got to share it with 15:24 you. He said, I've got to split the 15:26 hour with you. But we forget what God has done. I don't 15:29 journal every day. There isn't always that time or God doesn't 15:33 lead to do that. But I try to do it pretty regularly to keep 15:38 track of all he's done. Because it makes such a difference; 15:40 it builds your faith. Amen, praise the Lord. 15:42 Now, you all also talked about a type... and we're not trying 15:48 to give you a formula for prayer because there are so many ways 15:52 to pray. There's not a wrong way to pray, if you pray with a 15:56 believing, repentant heart, that's the most important thing. 15:59 But you have a format that you call ACTS. Would you tell us 16:03 about that. Well, there are a number of 16:04 formats: There's the Lord's prayer and things and like you 16:06 said, Shelley, it's not that we have to do it "right" or a 16:09 certain way; we just pour out our hearts. But lots of times 16:11 I find my mind wandering in prayer and thinking about my 16:13 work and thinking about this or that and that may be okay to 16:16 pray about that too, but sometimes I follow the format 16:19 just to keep me going down through. Maybe we could just 16:21 read several scriptures. The ACTS prayer is one that many 16:25 have talked about and adoration is the first step. I like to 16:28 focus on God first. If I start thinking about me, my sins and 16:31 my needs, I get depressed. So I think about God and all he can 16:34 do for me and his promises. I get excited and actually if we 16:38 praise, things happen in our brain, endorphins are shot out 16:41 and we actually change our attitude. So I want to start 16:43 focusing on him. Of course Psalm 100, David said that as 16:46 well. He said enter into his gates how? With thanksgiving 16:49 and enter into his courts with praise. So I believe we go in 16:53 first with praise and adoration. So the A is adoration. 16:56 Then, of course, I John 1:9 and if you're thinking of even going 16:59 into the sanctuary the next thing was the altar sacrifice. 17:01 So confession, repentance. So I do then ask God to show me 17:06 things. I John 1:9: If we confess he is faithful and just 17:10 to forgive us but also to cleanse us. See you have the 17:13 altar of sacrifice and the laver there. So that is something 17:17 that I also want to do. But then of course thirdly 17:20 thanksgiving, that's the T, thanksgiving. I think of 17:23 Philippians 4 there when you are thinking of that 17:26 Philippians 4:6: He says be anxious about nothing. I'd like 17:29 to learn that one. But in everything by prayer and 17:32 supplication with what? Thanksgiving; let your requests 17:35 be made known to God. Then the peace of God... 17:37 That's J.D.'s favorite scripture I mean that's just his very 17:42 favorite. So thanksgiving. Thanksgiving 17:44 and praise are different in that praise talks about God and 17:47 his characteristics, his names, who he is. Thanksgiving thanks 17:49 him for the specific things he's done for me. Then lastly, of 17:52 course is S or supplication, petitions and I like 1 John 4 17:56 on that one, or 1 John 5:14, 15. It says, Now this is the 18:03 confidence that we have in him that if we ask anything 18:06 according to his will he hears us and if we know that he hears 18:09 us whatever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that 18:12 we've asked of him. Then, you know, we'll share in other 18:15 programs and all the ways it's so changed our lives to pray 18:18 together, to pray as a family and just see God doing his 18:20 mighty miracles in our ministry. You know he's there and it's 18:25 very specific, but putting the hand on the promise just like 18:27 my parents did when they were praying for me to come back to 18:29 him, claiming a specific promise and then watching him work in a 18:32 specific way gives me great faith. So if I pray through 18:36 those four things... And you'll find the Lord's prayer 18:38 has the same components. Daniel 9 is another example. If you 18:40 look Daniel starts out praising, then he goes to confessing, he 18:44 says we've sinned. Daniel 9 is a powerful example of the ACTS 18:48 prayer if we have time. Daniel says in verse 3, I set my face 18:57 toward God to make requests by prayer and supplications with 19:00 fasting, sackcloth and ashes. You see, Daniel had been 19:03 thinking about the prophecy, verse 2, of Jeremiah the prophet 19:06 that they'd be delivered in 70 years. He goes to God and he 19:09 says, You know God, you got this prophecy; you should be 19:11 acting, you should do something for Jerusalem, you should set us 19:14 free here. He prayed to the Lord into 19:16 remembrance of his word. Then he says, I prayed to the 19:19 Lord and made confession, but he starts out praising: O Lord 19:22 great and awesome God who keeps his covenant and mercy to those 19:25 who love him and with those who keep his commandments. 19:27 The confession: We have sinned and committed iniquity, we have 19:30 done wickedly. With Daniel, you never see any rebuke of Daniel 19:34 in the scripture, but he says, We have sinned, we have done 19:37 wickedly, we have departed from your precepts and verse 6, 19:40 neither have we heeded your servants the prophets. 19:44 So it goes on, praise, confession and then, of course, 19:47 throughout the verses, especially over in verse 14, he 19:51 starts giving specific thanksgiving for things God has 19:55 done for them. Then he comes to petition in verse 16 and he 19:58 says, Lord according to all your righteousness, I pray 20:01 let your anger and your fury be turned away from your city 20:04 Jerusalem, your holy mountain, and he goes into very specific 20:07 prayer there for the deliverance of Jerusalem based on the 20:11 promise of Jeremiah that God would do it. So you see the ACTS 20:14 in a beautiful way and then, of course, God had already sent 20:17 Gabriel to come and answer the prayer and then you follow the 20:20 prophecies and you see what happens. 20:21 So the ACTS, you went through that. You're from New York, 20:26 you went through that quite rapidly. So that's Adoration, 20:31 that's the A, C is for confession, T is for 20:35 Thanksgiving and S is for supplication. 20:38 It's interesting because and you're familiar, I've done this 20:42 teaching in your conference, that it's so similar. You see 20:46 these different formats the Lord gives us. When I asked the Lord 20:50 to teach me how to pray, I didn't even realize as I was 20:53 journaling my prayer, writing my prayer out like it was a 20:58 letter to God. I would label, just being my personality, I'd 21:01 say okay Lord teach me how to pray and the first thing was 21:04 praise, it was thanksgiving and praise and I labeled it praise. 21:09 Then the next he led me into repentance, I labeled it 21:13 repentance. Then affirmation, getting into the word, praying 21:16 it back to him. Then intercession, then supplication. 21:21 So I had PRAISE and then I thought I was ready to say in 21:25 Jesus name, Amen, and he said Be still and know that I am God. 21:30 Exalt my by listening. So that was PRAISE. It's all very 21:38 familiar. You see that the Lord leads in a similar way. I do 21:42 think that what you said is critical that we get our eyes.. 21:46 You know this, in the beginning when you prayed, Janet, wasn't 21:50 it like you were going to God for his hand, you were seeking 21:54 his hands, not his face. You were seeking what God could do 21:58 for you. But we go to the Lord to seek his face and to know 22:02 who he is. When we start of by praise and thanksgiving and 22:06 and adoration, you can be down in the dumps and come to the 22:10 Lord and start praying like that and by the time you get around 22:13 to asking him, what you're asking is to be more like him. 22:17 The beautiful to me though about God that I've learned is in the 22:22 past, years ago, I would try to spend time with God and I'd 22:25 give up and I'd say what's the use. The only reason I'm doing 22:28 it is because I want to go to heaven, I don't really love you. 22:31 Actually, did you say this to the Lord? 22:34 Yeah. But what I found is it does not matter what our motives 22:39 are in seeking God, he wants so much to spend time with each 22:44 one of us to show us that he loves us. He'll take us no 22:48 matter what the reason is. It's just amazing to me the 22:51 difference the Holy Spirit makes in helping you to understand 22:54 all that and to understand his word, because I used to get 22:57 discouraged reading scriptures where it talks about the 23:00 righteous, the righteous, the righteous prayer, the prayer of 23:03 the righteous man and that's not me because I'm not 23:07 righteous. But I came to realize is, and I believe it was because 23:11 people were praying for the Holy Spirit in my life, was I am the 23:15 righteous because of the blood of Jesus, I am the righteous. 23:19 Praying every day for the baptism of the Holy Spirit is so 23:23 important. We've seen it make such a difference in our kids' 23:27 lives, in our lives, because it just opens up your eyes to a 23:31 new experience with God and how much he loves us. 23:33 You know, when we think about the fact that God loved us so 23:37 much that he sent his son to die for us while we are yet 23:41 sinners, I mean, it's so amazing and the Bible tells us that he 23:45 made him who knew no sin to be sin for us that we might become 23:51 the righteous of God in Christ Jesus. So what is your day like? 23:56 We talked about your answers to finding time. One of them was 24:01 to just pray and ask the Lord to get you up earlier. Have you 24:05 every found it necessary, and I'm going to ask you both this 24:08 because you both hold conference positions, have you ever found 24:11 it necessary that you just look at your schedule and think okay 24:16 I need to follow Matthew 6:33 to seek the Lord first and I'm 24:21 just getting overwhelmed, overburdened. Have you ever 24:26 just had to go through and cull out your schedule and say, 24:29 you know, I'm into too many things? 24:31 Yes. You know and I really try to prioritize that. You look at 24:35 Jesus' life. He was the busiest one that ever lived. He was 24:39 just whole nights in prayer. Martin Luther, you know the 24:43 story of him spending more time in prayer because he was going 24:45 to be busier. It's hard sometimes. You miss or get late 24:48 to a meeting or something and people wonder why you aren't 24:51 there, but I've found that if I will really prioritize that 24:55 time then I can be in the fruit of the Spirit instead in the 24:58 fruit of Jerry Page which is not very pleasant to live with. 25:02 So for me, I don't do it well all the time, but when I do I'm 25:06 far ahead. Amen. How about you Janet? 25:11 Well Mark 1:35 to me is the answer. Everybody I've talked 25:15 to say how are you doing? I'm busy, I'm so busy, I'm so 25:18 overwhelmed. And I'm that way too. I think it's something that 25:22 the evil one is trying to do to all of us, to get us so busy. 25:26 But I found Mark 1:35 is becoming an answer for me. 25:30 It says, Very early in the morning, while it was still 25:33 dark, Jesus got up, left the house and went off to a solitary 25:37 place where he prayed. Then on down in verse 37 you know the 25:41 disciples are looking for him in verse 36. In verse 37 it says, 25:45 They found him and they said you've got to come, everyone is 25:49 looking for you. It's like they are coming and saying, hey 25:52 people are dying over here, they need to be healed. You got to 25:55 come over to this village right now. But what does Jesus say 25:59 in verse 38. He replies and he says let us go somewhere else 26:02 to the nearby villages so I can preach there also. That is why 26:06 I have come. Now if you were Jesus and your disciples came to 26:09 you and said, You've got to come here right now because 26:12 these people are dying, they need you, could you tell them 26:15 no? The only way Jesus could tell them no is because he had 26:18 been with the father and he knew. So I have to take my list 26:21 all these things I have to do before God every day and say, 26:25 God, what do I do today? I can't do all of this and I know what 26:28 I think is important, but what's really important? I've literally 26:32 had him take me through the list and say don't do this one 26:35 today. Get somebody to do this one and on down through the 26:39 list. He'll bring somebody, he will have somebody call me who 26:42 will offer. But that's all coming out of my being willing 26:45 to grit my teeth, literally sometimes, and say I'm going to 26:48 spend this time with you no matter what even if I don't get 26:51 anything out of it, I'm going to do it. 26:54 We have come to really believe like John 15 without him we can 26:58 to nothing, with him we can do all things. If we really believe 27:01 the fruit comes from tapping in we'll stop trying to do so much 27:03 without him and realize we can't do anything valuable for him. 27:06 That is the secret. Our time is already gone, I can't believe 27:11 it. I just want to thank you all so much for coming again today. 27:16 It's been a joy having you both. Now for the rest of you at home, 27:20 I hope that you will remember the ACTS if nothing else for a 27:24 format for prayer: There's adoration, confession, 27:28 thanksgiving and supplication. If you just come to the Lord and 27:33 focus in the beginning of your prayer on who God is, it will 27:38 lift your spirits. Praise does something in us, it changes us. 27:42 And then you can really press into the presence of the Lord. 27:46 Now may the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the love of the 27:50 father and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit 27:52 be with you today and always. |
Revised 2014-12-17