Participants: Jason Bradley (Host), Dr Nadine Joseph-Collins
Series Code: TMP
Program Code: TMP000001A
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00:33 Hello, and welcome to The Missing Peace.
00:36 My name is Jason Bradley. 00:37 Our primary host for this program 00:39 is Dr. Nadine Joseph Collins. 00:41 Dr. Nadine hails from the Island of St. Lucia. 00:44 She holds a Ph.D in Educational Administration 00:47 from the Adventist International Institute 00:50 of Advanced Studies in the Philippines 00:52 but has dedicated herself to full time ministry. 00:55 She has been empowering the prayer lives of others 00:58 in the Caribbean, Asia, Canada, the UK, 01:01 and right here in the US as a presenter on prayer 01:04 for women's ministry weekends and women's days of prayer. 01:09 She is committed to making your prayer life go wow. 01:12 Dr. Nadine is an author and presenter, 01:15 but most importantly a worshiper 01:17 of the most high God. 01:19 Grab a pen and some paper because you probably want 01:22 to take notes on what you're about to learn. 01:24 I'm excited to hear about how you're gonna make 01:28 our prayer lives go wow? 01:30 What are we gonna learn today? 01:32 So today we're gonna talk about 01:34 prayer as communication with God 01:36 or communicating with God 01:39 because it's one of the fundamentals 01:41 of building blocks and actually making 01:43 our prayer life go wow. 01:45 It's that little missing peace sometimes that we have, 01:47 you know. 01:49 So we'll like to talk to them so seriously. 01:51 Other than crazy people, I don't know. 01:53 You see the thing is sometimes, 01:55 you know, I believe nobody likes 01:58 to have conversations with themselves 02:00 like full conversations, you know, 02:02 like questions and answers, rational and defenses, 02:06 and you said like crazy people, right? 02:08 But one time when I worked at the Bank of St. Lucia, 02:10 one of my coworkers said it was okay 02:12 to talk to yourself 02:13 because she was like the banquette industry 02:15 is really stressful. 02:17 Just don't respond to yourself. 02:19 But the truth is I talk to myself quite a bit. 02:21 Do you respond to yourself is the question? 02:23 The thing is I don't, right, 'cause I remember her advice 02:26 but many people view prayer as just that. 02:29 They see prayer as... 02:31 As talking to themselves? Just talking to themselves. 02:32 But not responding to themselves. 02:34 Yeah, that's the thing. 02:35 So this is like, you're on your knees 02:37 or you're lying there and talking to somebody 02:39 that you cannot see or you cannot hear. 02:41 So one of the questions that I frequently ask people 02:44 is praying easy. 02:46 No, it's not. 02:48 It's not something that comes naturally. 02:50 I mean, I feel like I'm talking to myself sometimes. 02:53 Like I used to feel like that a lot, 02:56 but sometimes having a prayer journal helps that 02:59 because you can write down your prayer request, 03:02 what you're praying about. 03:03 I mean you're jumping ahead like episodes ahead of us. 03:06 Oh, really? Yes. 03:08 Look at that... 03:09 So the thing is praying to most people is not easy. 03:13 Most people will actually say it's not easy 03:15 because it's like we spoke about a while ago, 03:17 you cannot answer yourself, or they're saying 03:20 you cannot hear God answering you. 03:22 But the view that we have of prayers 03:25 is what makes it a bit difficult 03:27 because our view of communicating with God 03:30 is usually one way communication. 03:33 It's us just going and talking to him. 03:35 So break it down how it's two way? 03:37 So we're gonna get there, we're gonna get there. 03:40 Oh, I'm rushing it, I'm rushing it? 03:41 Yes, you see the thing is you see, 03:43 we have that one way approach to prayer. 03:45 Where we go to God and ask for our needs. 03:47 Or we go to lay out the things that we actually want. 03:50 We sort of have an ATM approach type communication with him. 03:55 So we go to the ATM and we probably just try to get 03:58 something out of there. 04:00 Or we go to the supermarket to shop. 04:01 So our prayer lives are usually about 04:03 just going and just talking to God. 04:05 So we have that one way kind of thing. 04:07 Now a while ago you mentioned about it not being natural. 04:11 And the truth is many people believe that prayer is natural. 04:14 It's probably not innate. 04:16 But I would like to think it probably is innate 04:19 because the one thing that we do a lot in life is talking, 04:24 and prayer is simply talking to God, 04:28 communicating with Him. 04:30 Now you see on an average psychologists have said 04:33 that women use about 20,000 words a day, 04:37 and men use about 7. 04:38 That sounds about right 'cause at the end of my day, 04:41 I don't feel like talking to anybody. 04:44 So the thing is, I tell women all the time, 04:45 we don't have to feel bad about the fact 04:48 that we use 20,000 words a day. 04:50 We don't have to be embarrassed about it. 04:52 Because the mere fact that we like to talk so much, 04:54 it mean we know how to pray. 04:56 So that's a good thing. 04:58 Ellen White in the book 05:02 Privilege of Prayer in Chapter 11, 05:04 she actually spoke about prayer as talking to God. 05:07 She says, "It's a way for us to pour out our heart to Him, 05:11 that we should meditate on His works," and so on. 05:14 But she said in order for us to commune with God, 05:16 we must first have something to say to Him 05:19 concerning our lives. 05:21 Now think about your friendships. 05:24 When you are talking to your friends, 05:26 you are talking to them about things pertaining to your life. 05:28 Absolutely. 05:30 That's we call that communication. 05:32 Prayer is really that approach that God wants us to have 05:35 where we see prayer as communicating with God, 05:38 talking to God about our lives, pouring our hearts to Him. 05:41 I'm sure if you may have been hurt about something 05:44 or something exciting happens in your life, 05:46 you'd go and say to a good friend of yours. 05:49 And that's really what praying is about. 05:51 That's what prayer as communication is about. 05:54 I see a lot of people they'll say, 05:55 "Well, God knows everything, He sees everything, 05:58 He knew it was gonna happen before it happened, 06:00 but He still likes to hear from us. 06:02 He wants to hear from us." 06:04 He really wants to hear from us 06:05 because He wants to have a relationship with us. 06:08 If our approach to God or our approach to prayer 06:11 is simply going to Him 06:12 when we want to use an ATM machine, 06:14 or we want to go to Him only when we need to shop. 06:16 There's no relationship there. 06:18 So in other words, people trying to use God like 06:21 He is a genie very much. 06:22 Yes, and that's not what He's really after. 06:24 He wants that relationships. 06:26 And as we continue to develop that relationship with Him 06:29 through prayer, 06:31 where we are talking to Him all of the time, 06:32 that is where our prayer lives will improve. 06:34 That is how, we're trying to get it to go wow. 06:36 Right? Yes, yes. 06:38 So we want to make it effective 06:39 and that's what prayer as communication is about. 06:42 Or communicating with God through prayer, 06:45 and so I remember when I went to Asia to school. 06:51 My dad, I never knew that he was a tech savvy person. 06:55 All I knew is that we used to speak 06:57 to each other on the phone, 06:59 but by the time I got over to the Philippines, 07:01 my dad downloaded ooVoo, he had Skype, 07:05 he was on Facebook, he joined Linkedin. 07:08 He had everything to the extent that I didn't even know 07:13 when Skype introduced video recordings 07:16 until I got my first video recording call from him. 07:20 Wow, and he was, he used, he wasn't savvy. 07:23 He wasn't savvy before that. 07:25 Then when Facebook introduced audio calling, 07:27 I didn't know about it 07:29 until I got my first call from him. 07:31 So the thing is when are interested in someone 07:34 or when we love someone or we want to continue 07:36 to establish a good relationship, 07:38 we will do anything and go out of our way 07:41 to ensure that we do 07:42 whatever it takes to maintain that relationship. 07:45 So we're interested in somebody, 07:46 we follow them on Facebook, we download any app 07:50 that we can use that would help us 07:51 to be able to text like WhatsApp anything at all. 07:55 We will get their phone numbers, 07:58 we will do whatever it takes to have their email address 08:00 anything just to ensure that we maintain 08:03 constant communication with that person 08:06 because we are interested in them. 08:07 And we carve out time from our day 08:10 no matter what's going on, 08:12 we can make time when we're interested. 08:14 Exactly, and we are gonna get there. 08:16 The thing about it is that prayer is that avenue 08:19 that we have with God, 08:20 where we could actually talk to Him anytime. 08:23 We don't need to download any app, 08:25 we don't need a WiFi signal, 08:26 we don't need internet connection, 08:28 we don't need an email. 08:29 We need nothing but it's the relationship 08:31 that we usually give less time. 08:34 Because we are viewing communicating with Him 08:36 differently to how we communicate 08:38 with other people. 08:40 Not recognizing that even though God is who He is, 08:44 He still wants a personal relationship with us. 08:47 He still wants us to talk to Him. 08:49 He still wants us to come to Him 08:50 and pour out our hearts to Him. 08:52 He still wants us to come to say, 08:54 "Lord, I need this, or I need that, 08:56 or I need Your protection or whatever the case may be 08:58 because the focus of prayer 08:59 is not always about asking God for things. 09:02 Yes. And we will get to that. 09:04 So how can we take advantage of the avenue of prayer 09:07 as I like to say two way communication? 09:10 Well, one other things that I mentioned earlier 09:13 with praying and keeping the journal 09:15 on your prayers, 09:17 so you see how God's been answering your prayers. 09:20 And sometimes His no is an answer 09:23 or not getting the answer that you think 09:28 that you're gonna get as an answer to your prayer. 09:31 So you're seeing that, you are taking part 09:34 in that communication process. 09:35 And that's the thing. 09:37 When I did office procedures in school, 09:38 the definition of communication that we learned 09:41 was communication is transferring ideas 09:45 from one person to another, 09:46 to convey information or to initiate action. 09:50 So it's the transmission of ideas 09:52 from one person to another. 09:54 So there's a listener, there's a receiver. 09:58 So in our prayer life is like this, 10:01 we speak and God listens, 10:03 and that's the usual approach that we have one way. 10:06 But an effective prayer life needs two. 10:10 It's God speaks, we listen. 10:13 So many of us are too rushed to be able to hear Him speak, 10:18 so we go to Him and we rattle off our prayers, 10:21 we don't pause to wait to hear what God has to say to us. 10:25 And so any relationship really that's one sided 10:30 where one person does all the talking 10:32 is a frustrating relationship. 10:34 Yes, yes, it is. 10:36 It's a frustrating relationship I think for both parties. 10:38 Now, I am not talking about somebody who is there for dumb, 10:41 where one person could actually speak 10:43 and the other cannot because that way you will do 10:45 whatever it takes to still communicate. 10:47 But most of us just want to have that 10:49 one type relationship with Him. 10:51 One of my friends spent an entire two weeks with a lady 10:55 who spoke Creole, that's French Creole. 10:59 And she only speaks English. 11:01 And I was saying to her, "How did you two communicate?" 11:03 because at the end of her vacation, 11:05 she was like, I had a really good time. 11:07 I was like, "How come? 11:08 What did you all say to each other?" 11:10 They would touch things, point at things, 11:13 they would give some gesticulations, 11:15 actions and so on, 11:17 and they were able to communicate 11:18 effectively for two weeks when neither of them 11:21 spoke the language of the other. 11:23 So when we are communicating two way, 11:25 we will do whatever it takes to speak to that person 11:28 and pause and wait to hear what that person has to say. 11:31 So any relationship at all 11:33 where we just go to one person talking, 11:36 and I've heard people over and over again talk about, 11:38 you know, texting somebody and then you wait hours, 11:41 sometimes days, no response. 11:44 It's a frustrating relationship. 11:45 Yes. 11:47 You're the only one expressing your feelings 11:48 and everything like that, it's frustrating. 11:50 You want to hear something back from the other person. 11:53 In our prayer lives, 11:54 we need to look at it as talking to God 11:57 and as God talking back to us. 12:00 And I think one of the stories I'd really highlight the fact 12:03 that God wants to really talk back to us 12:05 is the story of Job. 12:07 Remember when Job had lost everything. 12:11 His friends came to him, and his friends said to him, 12:13 you know, you should curse God and die, 12:15 and they began to accuse Job of sinning. 12:19 You must have done something wrong in your life for God 12:23 to actually allow this to happen to you. 12:25 And Job is saying to his friends, 12:26 "Guys, I didn't do anything, I've been faithful to God," 12:29 and they're saying, "No, it's not, 12:30 that cannot be the case, why would you lose everything?" 12:34 And God, and as I read the story, 12:37 it really like, it really shook me a bit. 12:39 God stood there silently for 35 chapters in Job's story. 12:44 He didn't say anything that Job's friends 12:46 would believe that, 12:48 "Hey, Job really didn't do anything." 12:50 He didn't speak for Job, He didn't speak against Job, 12:53 35 chapters. 12:55 And in chapter 38 of the Book of Job, 12:57 God came out and began to lash out 13:00 in a sense at both Job and his friends, 13:02 asking them a bunch of questions 13:05 and it highlights the fact that God actually wants 13:09 to have something to say now a story, 13:11 and sometimes when we are going 13:12 through things like Job went through 13:14 and we are not hearing Him and He's silent, 13:15 we believe that He's not there. 13:17 But He actually has something to say 13:19 because after 35 chapters with Job, 13:21 He came out and He began to tell Job, 13:24 "Where were you when I did this 13:25 and where were you when I did that." 13:27 At the end of the day, God wants to have 13:29 something to say in our experience. 13:31 And if we examined the Bible in general 13:35 and the idea of prayer as two way communication, 13:37 we will see that between God and man 13:40 there is clear evidence 13:41 that God wants us to hear from Him. 13:43 Absolutely. 13:45 Now, with the story of Job, 13:47 and with any trial and tribulation 13:49 that we're going through, 13:51 we have to sit down and think and ask God, 13:55 "What lesson are You trying to teach me? 13:57 What would you have me learn 13:58 from this trial and tribulation?" 13:59 Because oftentimes there is a blessing 14:01 at the end of the trial. 14:04 It refines our character. 14:05 We go through things for a purpose, for a reason. 14:09 That's true. 14:10 And in our prayer lives, part of the reason 14:13 why sometime God allows us 14:15 to go through things is that in the silence 14:17 we still learn that He's there. 14:21 Now, if two way communication wasn't important, 14:24 you can imagine the story of Noah. 14:27 He and his entire family would have drowned 14:29 because he would not have gotten the instructions 14:30 that God gave in Genesis 6:13. 14:33 Then if we look at the story of Abraham, 14:35 he would have killed Isaac if he was not tuned to hearing 14:38 from God in Genesis 12:1-3. 14:42 Then if we look at the story of Moses in Exodus 3:2, 14:46 he would have gotten his feet wet 14:48 and maybe he and the entire clan 14:49 of the children of Israel would have been killed 14:53 because he would not have been able to hear from God. 14:58 And then we look at Elijah when he was stuck in the cave, 15:00 that's in 1 Kings 17:2-3. 15:04 Elijah would have died in that cave 15:05 if he wasn't tune to knowing what the voice of God was like 15:08 'cause remember God visited him there. 15:10 And we have different stories in the Bible, 15:12 even Paul's story in Acts 9:4-6. 15:17 Even though it was said at the time 15:20 that Paul was a persecutor of the children of God. 15:23 When God spoke to Paul, Paul heard, 15:26 and that is how Paul was able to be converted 15:29 and became the person 15:31 who formally established Christianity. 15:33 So let me ask you this question because you are naming 15:35 a bunch of people that heard from God, 15:37 that recognized His voice. 15:39 How do you get to know God's voice? 15:42 How do you know what you're listening for? 15:45 You see the thing is in order to hear God's voice, 15:47 we need to be in frequent communication with Him. 15:51 Because just imagine when we met, 15:53 I gave you my phone number, you gave me yours 15:55 and either of us called the other. 15:57 At first when I called you, 15:59 maybe I'll have to identify myself. 16:00 Let's say forgetting caller id, I'd have to say, 16:03 "Hey, Jason, this is Nadine." 16:05 But if we continue speaking for a few months, 16:07 a few years and so on, 16:08 after a while when I call 16:10 even though you don't have caller id 16:12 or have my number saved, 16:14 when I call, you'll recognize my voice. 16:17 And so, big part of communicating with God 16:20 is having that frequent communication. 16:23 That is the only way 16:24 you can know the voice of somebody, 16:26 if you speak to them very often. 16:28 And with God it's the same thing 16:30 because the truth is there are many noises in life. 16:34 There are many other voices 16:35 that will tend to want to speak to us. 16:37 But if we want to be able to be, 16:40 you know, decipher that voice. 16:42 Be able to know the difference between God's voice 16:44 and the voice of anybody else 16:46 or anything else we will need to be 16:48 in constant communication with God, 16:50 and that brings us to a text I really love. 16:53 And what's that? 16:54 John 10:27, where it says, "My sheep hear my voice, 17:00 I know them and they follow me." 17:03 You see the thing is in past times... 17:06 I want to touch on that too. 17:07 Before you go on, I got something for that. 17:10 I saw a video, I think it was on Facebook 17:13 of they had a shepherd 17:15 and they had some of his friends 17:17 that came over, 17:18 and the friends started calling the sheep. 17:21 No response. 17:22 The other friend called the sheep. 17:24 No response. 17:25 But then the shepherd called the sheep, 17:27 and all other sheep started going crazy 17:29 and running to the shepherd. 17:31 Yes. That is amazing. 17:33 And I like where you're going with that. 17:36 You see the thing is, you see in times past let... 17:39 There was something called a sheepfold. 17:43 So it would be a set of stones stacked on top of the other 17:48 making somewhat like a rectangular shape 17:50 and it had an opening. 17:52 That opening would be 17:54 where a shepherd would stay at night. 17:57 So that illustration that you just gave. 18:00 These shepherds, let's say 10 shepherds 18:02 would bring in a hundred sheep every night. 18:05 One of these shepherds would stay 18:07 and lie in that door all night. 18:09 So if the wolf or any other wild animal 18:12 or stranger wanted to get in there, 18:14 they would have to cross over that shepherd. 18:17 In the morning time, the other shepherds 18:20 would come for their sheep. 18:22 That shepherd who was guarding the door, 18:24 the porter, would led them in, and they would go in there 18:28 and call out to their sheep. 18:29 So out of 1,000 sheep, a shepherd will go in there 18:32 and his 100 will follow him 18:35 because these 100 sheep know the voice of their shepherd. 18:39 Wow! 18:41 And they would have only known the voice of their shepherd 18:43 because they would have spent time 18:45 with their shepherd over a period of time. 18:49 And so they will be able to distinguish 18:50 the voice of their shepherd 18:52 versus the other nine shepherds and so on. 18:55 And so, "My sheep hear My voice, 18:58 I know them and they follow Me." 19:00 This really is what God wants with us 19:04 when it comes to our communication with Him. 19:06 He wants to be able to see that of all of us that My sheep, 19:09 each of us hear My voice, 19:11 I know them and they want to follow Me 19:13 because in order for us though to know His voice, 19:16 we need to spend that time with Him, 19:19 we need to know the voice of our shepherd. 19:21 We need to be able to distinguish His voice 19:23 from the voice of a stranger. 19:25 And so that is why the 100 sheep 19:27 could go after their master because they know his voice. 19:31 They know the sound of his voice. 19:32 They know the intonations of his voice, 19:34 and they could distinguish that from any other voice. 19:40 The thing about our prayer life is that the purpose 19:43 or really of talking to God is to know His voice, 19:46 but it goes deeper than that. 19:48 It's not just to know His voice, 19:50 but it's to know His Spirit. 19:54 And so how does that come about? 19:55 How do you get to know God's Spirit, 19:57 break that down for us? 19:58 The purpose of knowing His Spirit 20:00 is really to be obedient. 20:01 The thing is, "My sheep hear My voice, 20:04 I know them, they follow Me." 20:06 So when we know His voice 20:08 or rather we talk to Him 20:09 to know His voice, we want to know His voice 20:12 because we want to know His Spirit 20:14 is because we need to know 20:15 when the Spirit is speaking so we can follow Him. 20:19 That's why He said, "They know My voice and they follow Me." 20:24 So the purpose of knowing the Spirit 20:25 is really to bring us to that point of obedience. 20:29 So it's not just a matter of going to Him 20:31 and ask Him things and He blesses us 20:33 which is part of the equation of our prayer life, 20:36 but the larger part of it is to know God's voice so much 20:40 that when the Spirit of God speaks to us, 20:41 we are able to follow Him, 20:43 which is really obedient aspect of our prayer lives. 20:47 Okay. 20:48 So this is really where God want to take us. 20:50 When we follow Him, we are obeying Him 20:53 or we are obeying to that call. 20:55 So the purpose of our prayer lives 20:57 in the big picture is really to be obedient to God. 21:01 Knowing the voice of God, 21:03 being able to listen to the voice of God, 21:05 and obeying the voice of God. 21:08 Which means we also have to spend time in God's Word 21:11 and studying His Word. 21:14 And I know that we are gonna get to this at a later point, 21:17 so I'll just mention it briefly. 21:21 But when we look at Jesus and we see how much He prayed, 21:25 that just shows how much more we need to be praying. 21:29 We have a program just for that, 21:32 looking at the life of Jesus as our primary prayer example. 21:35 You see Paul. 21:37 Paul's story in Acts really kind of like shakes a bit, 21:41 because Paul heard the voice of God 21:45 even when it wasn't clear that he was seeking God, 21:47 but rather persecuting the people of God. 21:50 But he heard the voice of God and he obeyed. 21:54 So just imagine, he was not on the journey seeking God 21:57 but he heard God's voice speaking to him, 21:59 "Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Me?" 22:02 And he actually says, "Lord, mind you, Lord, 22:07 what are you talking about and so on." 22:09 And God says to him, "Stop persecuting My people." 22:12 And the Bible says, "He turned around 22:15 and for the next three decades or so, 22:17 all Paul did was to travel to preach about that Jesus, 22:21 that Jesus' voice that he heard become what his life's mission. 22:27 So even then it demonstrates again 22:29 the purpose of our prayer life 22:31 really is not just to hear His voice 22:34 but to actually obey His voice. 22:37 It's so important that we obey His voice, 22:39 and it's frustrating when people ask you for advice 22:42 or ask your opinion on something 22:44 and then they do the exact opposite. 22:45 And I see sometimes in people's prayer life 22:50 and my prayer life. 22:51 and other people's prayer life where we can pray 22:54 and ask God for His will to be done, 22:57 or Him to reveal His will to us. 23:00 And then He reveals it to us and we are like, 23:01 "Well, I don't quite want to do that, 23:03 I think I'm gonna go do this." 23:05 That's frustrating, you know, 23:07 why ask if you're not gonna do it. 23:10 It's really true, you know. 23:11 This is a serious point that you've brought up there. 23:14 I have a little spin on it. I remember for sure. 23:16 One time a friend of mine calling me, 23:18 asking me to pray for her 23:21 because she wanted to get a house. 23:25 I ask her, "What was the area that you wanted to live in." 23:28 She told me the area. 23:30 What was the range of rent that she wanted to pay, 23:33 and we went through her specifics. 23:36 I like specificity in praying. 23:38 So we went through the specifics, 23:40 ask what date you wanted God to answer your prayer by 23:43 and we had a date. 23:45 Thankfully God answered. 23:46 She sent me a picture of the house 23:48 in the area and said, 23:50 "None of her friends could actually believe." 23:52 She got the house in that area for that price. 23:56 Guess what? She didn't move. 23:59 Wow! 24:01 What was the reason then for not moving? 24:02 I don't know, maybe she got cold feet or something 24:05 'cause sometimes people are like you said, 24:06 asking God for direction in certain things. 24:09 He answers us, but we're not willing to obey. 24:11 And that is why prayer is really the ultimate goal 24:14 of which is really about obedience to God. 24:16 We had a second incidence as well. 24:18 God answered that prayer on more personal thing. 24:22 God answered it 24:23 and she also backed out as well. 24:25 So I remember saying to her, 24:26 "When you are ready for God to answer prayers, 24:28 then you come and ask me about praying for you 24:30 because I do not want to spend time 24:32 and energy doing that 24:34 and then you do not obey Gods voice." 24:36 Another problem that we have though 24:37 when it comes to that obedient aspect of it, 24:40 is that we first of all do not spend time 24:43 talking to God for ourselves. 24:46 So that's one of the problems that we have. 24:47 We do not want to invest time in our relationship with God. 24:52 So instead there is something I called passing notes. 24:55 We'll just say, "Hey, can you pray for me?" 24:58 We ask somebody else, "Can you pray for me? 24:59 Can you pray for me?" 25:01 To me that's passing notes to God. 25:02 Because I'm sure if the president of America 25:07 or the Queen of England or any world leader would say, 25:11 "Hey, I'm opening my doors every Tuesday, 25:14 you don't need an appointment to come. 25:16 You can come and ask any requests. 25:18 I'm here for the public 25:20 and I am going to go to them for myself." 25:22 Would you give me a note to give to them, 25:25 or will you go and make your request yourself. 25:27 What would you do? 25:28 I go and make it myself, you see, and that's the thing. 25:31 We all have direct access and we have through Christ 25:35 and we have equal access. 25:39 Yeah. And we need to utilize it more. 25:42 So most of us don't do that. 25:44 So we prefer to pass the note to God, 25:47 but we'd not pass the note to our leader. 25:50 We will not pass the note 25:51 to our parliamentary representatives 25:53 because we want to be the ones who bring our case to them. 25:56 But with God we feel very comfortable doing that, 25:59 and so we pass those notes to Him through people. 26:01 Now, the problem with that is, 26:03 if you ask five different people to pray for you 26:06 and each person come with a different report, 26:09 you do not know which of these reports 26:11 are really from God 26:13 because you have not invested time 26:15 getting to know what He has to say to you for yourself. 26:17 You don't know what the voice had to say to you for himself. 26:21 So that's why many reports continue to conclude that, 26:25 you know, poor communication or lack of communication 26:28 is what really destroys many relationships. 26:32 And when we look at our relationship with God, 26:34 poor communication 26:36 or lack of communication with Him is still the thing 26:38 that continues to hinder our prayer lives, 26:41 it's still the thing that continues 26:42 to hinder our growth sometimes as Christians. 26:46 So what I want us to really take away today 26:48 is that prayer is talking to God 26:50 as you talk to a friend. 26:53 You do not need to do all the talking 26:55 because God actually wants to talk back to you. 26:58 Something we need to remember. 27:00 And a purpose of knowing God's voice 27:02 is to know His Spirit and ultimately to obey. 27:07 So I'd like to just say a prayer with us as we close. 27:09 Okay. 27:11 Father, we thank You for the access, opportunity, 27:14 and freedom that You have given us 27:15 to be able to talk to You. 27:18 We thank You for always being there 27:19 and ready to listen to us, 27:21 to hear our cries and to answer our calls. 27:24 We thank You for Your willingness 27:26 to talk to us sinful beings 27:28 and for Your desire to want 27:29 to have a personal relationship with each of us. 27:32 Give us the desire to respond it 27:34 to Your advances toward us, 27:37 so that our prayer lives can take a different flight. 27:40 We pray in the name of Jesus. 27:42 Amen. Amen. Amen. 27:45 Thank you so much for that valuable piece of information. 27:50 You know, honestly my prayer life 27:52 could stand to get better, 27:53 and I believe that everybody's prayer life 27:56 can stand to get better. 27:58 Make sure that you take time to communicate with God 28:02 and make sure you listen to His will for you. |
Revised 2018-02-07