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Grow Your Relationship with God Through Prayer Pt. 2 · Time with God with John North

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  Speaker 1: Good morning. As we take time each weekday morning to
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  Speaker 1: spend time with God, we find God speaking so practically
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  Speaker 1: into our lives. And this week we're talking about growing
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  Speaker 1: our relationship with God through prayer. Yesterday we saw the
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  Speaker 1: huge priority of your prayer times with God.
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  Speaker 1: And how they need to be put in your life
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  Speaker 1: first and let the other things in your life group
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  Speaker 1: around them. And we've seen that that's exactly what Jesus did. Today,
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  Speaker 1: we want to learn the lesson.
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  Speaker 1: Learn to speak with God, not just to God.
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  Speaker 1: Normally when we come to God, we've got things to say, right?
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  Speaker 1: We want to praise Him for things he's done, we
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  Speaker 1: want to thank Him for his work in our lives,
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  Speaker 1: we want to ask him to get involved in situations
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  Speaker 1: that we're aware of, we want his help with circumstances
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  Speaker 1: that we're facing, even for our schedule for today. In
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  Speaker 1: all of these we come to speak to God, but
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  Speaker 1: speaking with God is different because it means there's a
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  Speaker 1: conversation happening, doesn't it?
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  Speaker 1: Whenever Jesus prays, it's like we're just hearing him speak
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  Speaker 1: out loud in the middle of an ongoing conversation he
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  Speaker 1: has with the Father. He just starts talking, Father, and
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  Speaker 1: then he goes on with his prayer.
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  Speaker 1: Jesus' prayers are conversational in their tone. How would you
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  Speaker 1: describe a conversation? What makes for a good conversation? Well,
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  Speaker 1: for sure, several things come to mind, don't they? It
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  Speaker 1: means both people are talking, for one thing, not just
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  Speaker 1: one person. It means both people are also listening to
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  Speaker 1: one another.
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  Speaker 1: Also, both people take an interest in each other and
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  Speaker 1: care about each other's concerns.
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  Speaker 1: Those make for a good conversation. So let me ask
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  Speaker 1: you this, what would conversation look like in your relationship
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  Speaker 1: with God?
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  Speaker 1: Think about it. How does it work in prayer for
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  Speaker 1: both people to be talking, not just you? Both people listening,
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  Speaker 1: not just God, both people taking an interest in each other,
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  Speaker 1: caring about each other's concerns.
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  Speaker 1: Well, here's how it works in my life.
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  Speaker 1: I start my prayer times by opening my Bible and
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  Speaker 1: reading something, and as I read, I'm letting God know
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  Speaker 1: that I'm listening for what He might be saying to me.
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  Speaker 1: Here's an example.
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  Speaker 1: I was reading through the book of Isaiah in my
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  Speaker 1: daily times with God, or a chapter each day and
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  Speaker 1: asking God what He is saying to me. I came
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  Speaker 1: to Isaiah chapter 6.
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  Speaker 1: And I started reading these words in the year that
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  Speaker 1: King Uzziah died. I saw the Lord.
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  Speaker 1: High and exalted
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  Speaker 1: With the train of his robe filling the temple, and
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  Speaker 1: the passage goes on, but as I read that, I
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  Speaker 1: just sensed God wanted me to listen to him.
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  Speaker 1: So I stopped trying to read the whole chapter, and
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  Speaker 1: I just started thinking very deeply about those words.
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  Speaker 1: Isaiah said, I saw the Lord. I just turned those
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  Speaker 1: words over in my mind. I
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  Speaker 1: So the Lord
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  Speaker 1: What did it mean for Isaiah to see the Lord?
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  Speaker 1: How did that impact him?
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  Speaker 1: I, I thought about times when I'd had very deep
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  Speaker 1: Encounters with God in prayer, and I pondered, I thought
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  Speaker 1: about what was it that led to those deep exposure
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  Speaker 1: to God, that those times when God revealed Himself so
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  Speaker 1: deeply to me. I saw the Lord. What does it
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  Speaker 1: mean to see God today? We don't see Him physically.
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  Speaker 1: Jesus said God is spirit, right? So how do we
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  Speaker 1: see Him? I started thinking deeply about that. The Lord.
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  Speaker 1: He's the one that Isaiah saw. I want you to
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  Speaker 1: know that in those 1st 5 or 6 verses of
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  Speaker 1: Isaiah I spent several months every morning just pondering deeply
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  Speaker 1: over each word and the things in there God spoke
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  Speaker 1: to me, and the very end of that time of
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  Speaker 1: thinking through those verses was me talking back to God
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  Speaker 1: about my response to what he was saying to me.
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  Speaker 1: You can do that too. Why don't you start each
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  Speaker 1: day this week by choosing a paragraph or even one
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  Speaker 1: verse from the Bible, listening to God and then responding
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  Speaker 1: to Him. I'm John North.
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  Speaker 2: To go deeper in your faith, visit AFCI.com.au.