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334. How to Know If It's God's Voice Or Your Own · The Impossible Life

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Speaker 1: That's impossible. Let me tell you what I believe. It's
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Speaker 1: your weakness, it's not your technique. Don't think you know
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Speaker 1: The Impossible Life Podcast and yes, sitting on a winning lottery. Second,
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Speaker 1: an idea that is fully formed, fully understood, that sticks.
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Speaker 2: This is the Impossible Life Podcast because Nick and I
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Speaker 2: are attempting to live impossible lives. What we know is
0:30
Speaker 2: that nothing is impossible. So instead of using impossible as
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Speaker 2: an excuse to not try, we'll use the pursuit of
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Speaker 2: impossible as an accelerant for greatness. If something's never been
0:42
Speaker 2: done before, that just means it's unexplored. If they tell
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Speaker 2: you it's too hard, it's just waiting to be simplified.
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Speaker 2: Impossible as a default label used by uncourageous people unwilling
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Speaker 2: to take a risk.
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Speaker 3: The real truth is this.
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Speaker 2: The solution to any impossible task starts with this question,
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Speaker 2: If I had to what would it take?
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Speaker 1: What would it take? Welcome to another episode of the
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Speaker 1: Impossible Life Podcast. I'm your co host, Nick Surface, and
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Speaker 1: I'm looking across the The man who recently took a blood
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Speaker 1: test and was found to have unusually high levels of
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Speaker 1: the rare enzyme gamma alpha kills a lot. That's right. Friends,
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Speaker 1: the Phoob Garrett, uncle back, a man who's very blood
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Speaker 1: produces the giant killing compound. Didn't know that you could
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Speaker 1: test for that, the old Gak, the Ghak sciences. I
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Speaker 1: discovering new things all the time, new things all the time.
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Speaker 1: I was inspired by a conversation we were having with somebody.
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Speaker 1: I don't even remember how it came about, but I
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Speaker 1: was like, I think that'd be hilarious intro. And there
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Speaker 1: we go. But gee, I don't want to spend time
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Speaker 1: talking about the intro, because today is one of those ones. Man,
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Speaker 1: I'm actually surprised for tools and tactics. It took us
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Speaker 1: this long, But how to know if it's God's voice
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Speaker 1: or my own? When I was in my early twenties,
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Speaker 1: this this was something that I like really struggled with
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Speaker 1: and wondered about as I was kind of like, you know,
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Speaker 1: stepping out in my faith on my own, Like you know,
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Speaker 1: I was at that point. You're not alone in that,
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Speaker 1: I mean, yeah.
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Speaker 3: I'm pretty sure everyone who's trying to hear from the
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Speaker 3: Lord deals with this and has dealt with us. So
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Speaker 3: it's a fantastic question for us.
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Speaker 1: To take to answer and not just when you're younger.
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Speaker 1: I think it's I think that's the thing that that
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Speaker 1: is a caveat, it's you will. This is one that yeah,
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Speaker 1: like you said, for all levels of faith, whether you're mature,
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Speaker 1: whether you're first like learning to walk with the Lord,
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Speaker 1: this is one that's that is absolutely key because you know,
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Speaker 1: I think people always talk about it's not a religion,
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Speaker 1: it's a relationship, and that sounds really cool. It's like
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Speaker 1: it's true, It's one hundred percent true, and it sounds cool.
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Speaker 1: But it's like, if I want to relate with my
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Speaker 1: friend Garrett, I just you know, we start hanging out.
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Speaker 1: I don't have to like learn how to how to
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Speaker 1: like know if you're there or not. It's pretty clear
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Speaker 1: if you're there. And so like, because God is spirit,
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Speaker 1: we're learning a whole different You have to be trained
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Speaker 1: and learn how you communicate and relate to God. And
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Speaker 1: communication is obviously a massive point. So gee, let's get
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Speaker 1: a little I remember when I was twenty one years old,
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Speaker 1: I believe, and this is the longest I've ever fasted
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Speaker 1: because there was a girl, of course, And still I
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Speaker 1: am very blessed that I have not had an extensive
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Speaker 1: dating background. This was my only real girlfriend besides my wife,
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Speaker 1: who I eventually married, obviously and man like of any
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Speaker 1: significant time period, I should say, and so like, anyways,
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Speaker 1: we kind of dated when I wasn't serving God. We
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Speaker 1: broke up, and then of course I came back hard
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Speaker 1: to the Lord, and like found the Lord was right
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Speaker 1: back in church in the youth group. And then what
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Speaker 1: do you know, this girl that I broke up with
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Speaker 1: found the Lord as well, which of course made her
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Speaker 1: like I still found her attractive, but we were just
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Speaker 1: not good for each other. And so like we were
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Speaker 1: kind of talking about getting back together again, and I
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Speaker 1: was like, man, I need to make sure about this.
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Speaker 1: So what did I do. I got down on my
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Speaker 1: knees for seven days, bro, And I was already shredded
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Speaker 1: at this point because I was twenty one and didn't
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Speaker 1: have a lot of commitments, so I was at the
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Speaker 1: gym all the time. And then I lost like an
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Speaker 1: additional ten pounds or something. I think I got down
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Speaker 1: to one sixty eight at six foot two, so it's
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Speaker 1: pretty lean. And for seven days I fasted to find
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Speaker 1: out whether or not it was okay to get back
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Speaker 1: together with this girl. Sure enough, at the end of
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Speaker 1: the seven days, I felt very confident that we should
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Speaker 1: get back together. And as you guys all know, I
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Speaker 1: did not marry this girl, so it was not the
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Speaker 1: right decision. I heard completely wrong. And I think that
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Speaker 1: that's like I think a lot of people can relate
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Speaker 1: to that, when you're like, you're really seeking God for
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Speaker 1: something specific and you come out of it and you're like, man,
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Speaker 1: I was so sure, Like how many times have you
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Speaker 1: talked somebody they're like, man, we both had peace, or
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Speaker 1: I was so sure or insert whatever. And that is
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Speaker 1: the real of what people are walking through. And you
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Speaker 1: read scripture and you try to find God's voice, and
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Speaker 1: I think it's so crazy because I think about the
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Speaker 1: prophets who would always be like thus says the Lord,
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Speaker 1: and they would deliver these incredible things that would come
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Speaker 1: out and they would come true. Like one of the
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Speaker 1: major prophets, Jeremiah twenty verse nine. Think about this. He said,
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Speaker 1: if I say I will not mention him or speak
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Speaker 1: any more in his name, he's talking about God. He says,
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Speaker 1: there is in my heart, as it were, a burning
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Speaker 1: fire shut up in my bones. I am weary with
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Speaker 1: holding it in, and I cannot so like Jeremiah had
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Speaker 1: the voice of God in him, like exploding out that
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Speaker 1: if he didn't speak it, it would just like eat
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Speaker 1: him up. Then, on the other hand, in Jeremiah fourteen fourteen,
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Speaker 1: it says, then the Lord said to me, the prophets
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Speaker 1: are prophesying the lies in my name. I've not sent
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Speaker 1: them or appointed them, or spoken to them. They're prophesying
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Speaker 1: to you false visions, divinations, idolatries, and the delusions of
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Speaker 1: their own minds. And that's where we're like, oh my gosh.
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Speaker 1: So on the one hand, you've got Jeremiah who's burning
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Speaker 1: on his bones. On the other hand, you've got these
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Speaker 1: people who are prophesying based on basically what they want
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Speaker 1: to hear, which was what happened with me. I fasted
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Speaker 1: for seven days, and you know what I missed you.
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Speaker 1: I never talked to anybody else. I just sat there
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Speaker 1: and just read all the reasons of trying to find
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Speaker 1: justification is what I is. Ultimately what it was. I
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Speaker 1: was trying to find justification to do what I wanted
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Speaker 1: to do. Anyways, that's there you go. Fasting is supposed
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Speaker 1: to be. But let's just you know, pear that up.
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Speaker 1: For some folks for a moment fascinating. The point of
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Speaker 1: fasting is to put you in a place similar to it,
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Speaker 1: And we're going to talk about a lot different things
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Speaker 1: as relates to prayer today, but some are some of
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Speaker 1: the things. We're going to talk about how Jesus did.
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Speaker 1: But what fasting is supposed to do is remove barriers,
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Speaker 1: help give you clarity, make it easier for you to
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Speaker 1: hear from the Lord because all these things like food.
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Speaker 1: You know, we have a million distractions today, but food
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Speaker 1: is one of those things that we're worth seeking sustenance, right,
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Speaker 1: something to fill us that takes our attention off of God.
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Speaker 3: What fasting is supposed to do is saying I don't
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Speaker 3: need anything else, accept the voice of the Lord. So
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Speaker 3: fasting will create clarity for you. But if you go
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Speaker 3: into fasting with a I already know what I want
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Speaker 3: to hear, it's going to be hard for you to
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Speaker 3: get clarity.
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Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean you've got to want it. You've got
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Speaker 1: to want the Lord more than you want the answer
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Speaker 1: when you're going into a fast in order for it
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Speaker 1: to be effective. And well said, is what I missed. Yeah,
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Speaker 1: that's what I missed. So we're gonna we're going to
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Speaker 1: dive into what we can do to help us here better,
7:06
Speaker 1: what we can do to hinder it, the most common
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Speaker 1: ways God speaks that you can truly know how to
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Speaker 1: know if it's God voice or your own. I just
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Speaker 1: want to say up front, if you're looking for a formula,
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Speaker 1: like if I do these three things, I can guarantee
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Speaker 1: like there's not a magic eight ball for the Lord.
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Speaker 1: He's not the genie in the land that you get
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Speaker 1: to rub. So I just I want to make it really,
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Speaker 1: I just want to say that up front, there's not
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Speaker 1: a formula, like our God is not a God that's
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Speaker 1: trapped into a box of being controlled or dictated. But
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Speaker 1: but it's always a case of what is He already
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Speaker 1: saying that we can be obedient to and that we
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Speaker 1: can follow, And that's where we're going to dive in.
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Speaker 1: So there's two prerequisites that you need to have and
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Speaker 1: these are These are really just beliefs and truths that
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Speaker 1: you need to know. Number one, God is a better
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Speaker 1: communicator than we are listeners. He's a better communicator than
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Speaker 1: we are listeners. I hope that gives you peace and
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Speaker 1: helps you to relax, because I think people can take this.
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Speaker 1: I need to hear the voice of the Lord to
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Speaker 1: an extreme, and they're like, oh, what if he says
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Speaker 1: something I don't hear him? Oh Man, was that God?
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Speaker 1: And like you can become anxious about, oh is this
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Speaker 1: God's voice or not? If God wants to speak to you,
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Speaker 1: you'll know, Like, look at the level of ways that
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Speaker 1: He spoke to people in the Bible. If you just
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Speaker 1: look at he spoke through a donkey, He spoke through
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Speaker 1: a gentle wind, a burning bush, angelic appearance, a bright light,
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Speaker 1: and a voice is what Paul heard. He actually was
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Speaker 1: the umim and theurhim. I may be saying that wrong.
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Speaker 1: This was basically you cast lots and you ask yes
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Speaker 1: or no questions when you read like Saul was selected
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Speaker 1: by lot to be the first king. Like imagine having
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Speaker 1: you could just roll dice and ask God yes or
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Speaker 1: no questions like God, But this is what I'm saying
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Speaker 1: God wants.
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Speaker 3: He was.
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Speaker 1: He was interested in communicating with his people and gave
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Speaker 1: access and means for people to be communicated to communicated with.
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Speaker 1: But once again, all those things, is it varies throughout time.
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Speaker 1: It wasn't like he was always just like we're gonna
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Speaker 1: do the donkey every time or we're gonna So that's
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Speaker 1: why we say there's not a formula. But what you
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Speaker 1: need to know is when he wants to speak to you,
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Speaker 1: you will know without a shadow of a doubt he is.
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Speaker 1: He can get the message to you. Think about whenever
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Speaker 1: I felt like I had a megaphone when I wasn't
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Speaker 1: even seeking ganji, and I heard like in my voice
9:15
Speaker 1: in my head, it was like the loudest thought I
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Speaker 1: could ever describe, and it was like, my ways are better.
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Speaker 3: And that's what that's what Scripture says. Scripture says that
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Speaker 3: God is speaking all the time. Psalms nineteen, verse one
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Speaker 3: through four. The heavens declare the glory of the Lord.
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Speaker 3: The skies proclaim, proclaim the work of his hands. Day
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Speaker 3: after day, they pour forth speech, night after night, they
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Speaker 3: reveal knowledge. They have no speech, they use no words,
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Speaker 3: no sound is heard from them. Yet their voice goes
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Speaker 3: into all the earth, their words into the ends of
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Speaker 3: the world. The heavens declare the glory of God. The
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Speaker 3: skies proclaim the work of his hands. God's always speaking
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Speaker 3: to us and wants us to hear from him. And
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Speaker 3: that's old tes and it's also all throughout the New
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Speaker 3: Testament as well, not just Christ's words, but from the
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Speaker 3: apostles saying how God has a plan for all of us.
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Speaker 3: God wants to speak to every single one of us.
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Speaker 3: God wants to have a relationship with us. If you're
10:13
Speaker 3: going to have a relationship with somebody, you know a
10:16
Speaker 3: lot of I wouldn't say all of that is going
10:18
Speaker 3: to include language. But if you're gonna have a relationship
10:20
Speaker 3: with somebody, you're going to learn how to communicate with them.
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Speaker 3: Let me give you an example as well. This is
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Speaker 3: something I always tell the people when who are looking
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Speaker 3: for just an ounce of comfort when their dog dies.
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Speaker 3: Is there's I think there's some lessons that you learn
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Speaker 3: in your life when your dog dies. One is how
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Speaker 3: much comfort your dog provided to you and he never
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Speaker 3: spoke to you.
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Speaker 1: Right.
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Speaker 3: It's the value of someone who can just be there
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Speaker 3: for you, right, never said, never told you how nice
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Speaker 3: you looked, you know, never gave you confidence, was just there.
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Speaker 3: That's one of the values you can have in a relationship.
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Speaker 3: But all so, I would say, maybe your dog never
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Speaker 3: spoke to you, but you can't say your dog never
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Speaker 3: communicated with you.
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Speaker 1: Yeah, that's it. That's it, you know, that's interesting, man,
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Speaker 1: I didn't know you were going to say that, And
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Speaker 1: I didn't know you actually cared enough to give people
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Speaker 1: comfort when their dog died. So you know, there's two
11:15
Speaker 1: revelations right there. But ma'n bile love that so so
11:18
Speaker 1: just to restate that God is a better communicator than
11:21
Speaker 1: we are listeners, and God is speaking all the time
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Speaker 1: and wants to communicate with us when you understand, and
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Speaker 1: you know that, I hope that gives you so much encouragement.
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Speaker 1: I think it's the way to look at this, you know,
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Speaker 1: I say, like this, g you know how you hear
11:35
Speaker 1: those stories of someone who they lost their eyesight and
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Speaker 1: so their sense of smell and they're here became hearing
11:40
Speaker 1: became way better. We have spiritual senses that need to
11:43
Speaker 1: be developed the same way like if everything in the
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Speaker 1: natural is a picture of if it was spirit first,
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Speaker 1: and God spoke from who he was and created a
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Speaker 1: world that's reflective of who he is. I've always thought
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Speaker 1: it's interesting that we have five senses with which to
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Speaker 1: perceive the world around us, and and then I go, well,
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Speaker 1: why would God give us physical senses to perceive world?
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Speaker 1: And I start to go, man, we have spiritual senses
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Speaker 1: as well. When you hear Jesus say things that like
12:05
Speaker 1: those scene, they won't understand and though hearing they won't listen.
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Speaker 1: He's talking about spiritual years and spiritualizes, so you can
12:11
Speaker 1: so when you're sitting there, don't.
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Speaker 3: That's why Jesus was talking about the kingdom. He's like that, yeah,
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Speaker 3: see the kingdom.
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Speaker 1: Yeah, So so you understand you have spiritual senses that
12:21
Speaker 1: need to be developed in the same way. So if
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Speaker 1: you're feeling like man, I don't know God's voice, you'll
12:25
Speaker 1: develop the senses the same way you would develop any senses,
12:27
Speaker 1: by by starting to learn how to use them and
12:29
Speaker 1: by using them often. So we're going to get ways that. Yeah,
12:33
Speaker 1: we're gon we're going to talk about how God speaks.
12:36
Speaker 1: We're going to talk about how to hear him better.
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Speaker 1: That's what a lot of people want to know. It's like,
12:40
Speaker 1: how do I hear him better? How do I make
12:41
Speaker 1: sure I'm hearing the voice of the Lord. But before we.
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Speaker 3: Do that, we do this a lot where we say,
12:47
Speaker 3: you know, if this is what you want, here's how
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Speaker 3: to not get that. And so before before we get
12:52
Speaker 3: into how God speaks and how we can hear him better.
12:54
Speaker 3: Let's just quickly cover And this is a reminder. I
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Speaker 3: think we know these things, but let's just quickly cover
13:00
Speaker 3: these are the things that we do that hinder.
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Speaker 1: Us from hearing from the word. Get a started, Nick, Yeah,
13:06
Speaker 1: this is the old inverse thinking. Shout out to Charlie Munger, right, Like,
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Speaker 1: what would I do if I didn't want to hear
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Speaker 1: from God? Well, the first thing you would do is
13:12
Speaker 1: you would not read scripture and you would replace scripture
13:15
Speaker 1: or your daily inputs with whatever you enjoy. This could be,
13:19
Speaker 1: you know, on the positive side, it'd be like, well,
13:22
Speaker 1: I only listen to podcasts, like don't just listen to
13:24
Speaker 1: our podcast or John Vivie or whatever your favorite Christian
13:27
Speaker 1: podcast is. There's no substitute for the word of God.
13:31
Speaker 1: On the downside of this, like the extreme version would
13:34
Speaker 1: be I listened to nothing but awful music that's full
13:37
Speaker 1: of trash, and then I watch Netflix and then you know,
13:40
Speaker 1: I can't believe I don't hear the voice of God. Like,
13:42
Speaker 1: if you're just putting inputs into your mind all the
13:45
Speaker 1: time that are random and are just whatever you enjoy,
13:49
Speaker 1: chances are you're developing the wrong kind of senses, like
13:52
Speaker 1: especially on social media, if social media is a massive input,
13:55
Speaker 1: you're developing the fear sense, you're developing the outrage sense,
13:58
Speaker 1: you're developing the lack of attention sense. And that's not
14:02
Speaker 1: a natural sense. But you have to be aware of
14:04
Speaker 1: what's being developed in you.
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Speaker 3: The second thing, the environment that you put yourself in
14:09
Speaker 3: absolutely creates adaptation. And a great example of this is hunting,
14:17
Speaker 3: at least for me, right you it's you know, I
14:20
Speaker 3: could give other examples, but when you go spend time
14:23
Speaker 3: in the woods, you begin to adapt a different set
14:27
Speaker 3: of senses. Yes, And when you spend time when you
14:30
Speaker 3: are seeking to grow spiritually, you will adapt spiritual senses.
14:35
Speaker 3: Whatever environment you're in and whatever you're pursuing, you will
14:39
Speaker 3: adapt to be able to pursue that.
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Speaker 1: Thing that's so good when when you talk about that,
14:45
Speaker 1: like just for those that don't you didn't get that.
14:47
Speaker 1: You told me it's like you got to develop your
14:50
Speaker 1: hunter eyes because you would spot a deer before I
14:52
Speaker 1: did when we first started going hunting together.
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Speaker 3: Again to look, yeah, you look for different you have
14:57
Speaker 3: different pattern recognition, right, yes, Oh, your eyes are also
15:01
Speaker 3: looking out further away. You're hearing operates differently, you learn
15:05
Speaker 3: to walk differently, you learn how to pause and listen
15:09
Speaker 3: versus someone who's just strolling through the woods. All these again,
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Speaker 3: something my body changed, But the pattern of my movements
15:17
Speaker 3: and what I'm looking for and trying to hear or
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Speaker 3: see changes based upon what I'm pursuing.
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Speaker 1: Yeah, so good. What's number two?
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Speaker 3: G Number two? This is the obvious one is sin.
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Speaker 3: Every time we miss the mark, and we miss the
15:31
Speaker 3: mark often it is an opportunity for us to stop
15:36
Speaker 3: hearing from the Lord, to step away from the Lord,
15:38
Speaker 3: which is for one, right, there's I mean, there's sin
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Speaker 3: sometimes that we're not even super mindful of, and that
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Speaker 3: really is just the mutedness of our spirit at times.
15:49
Speaker 3: And that doesn't matter how spiritual you are. None of
15:52
Speaker 3: us are anywhere near perfection. But I will say that's
15:55
Speaker 3: part of the reason why I start every day by saying, Lord,
15:57
Speaker 3: forgive me and my sins. I want more of you
16:00
Speaker 3: and less of me. Right, that's part of it. But
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Speaker 3: also when we make conscious sin, you're turning off your
16:06
Speaker 3: ears for the Lord. Like literally, when you choose to
16:08
Speaker 3: sin that I'm not making like it's a like or
16:11
Speaker 3: an analogy. When you choose to sin. You are saying,
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Speaker 3: I don't want to hear that voice anymore.
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Speaker 1: Yeah, I think that's a great differentiation the wilful sins
16:21
Speaker 1: because I think, you know, like I said, we are
16:22
Speaker 1: not the narrow way, like there's no you know, you're
16:26
Speaker 1: on a type. We're not the tight rope podcast like
16:28
Speaker 1: walking with God's not a tight rope, but there's for sure,
16:31
Speaker 1: there's for sure guardrails. And if you're making wilful, sinful decisions,
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Speaker 1: it's just it's just the way. It's just the truth.
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Speaker 1: Like it's the same way that the high priests couldn't
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Speaker 1: enter into the presence of God unless he had purified
16:42
Speaker 1: himself first. That's a picture for us, right, Like you
16:45
Speaker 1: want to be in the presence of God, you have
16:47
Speaker 1: to be pure. Now, thankfully Jesus made the way for us.
16:49
Speaker 1: So it's not like what the high priest used to
16:51
Speaker 1: have to do, where he would offer all his sacrifices
16:54
Speaker 1: and then he would go in with a bell attached
16:56
Speaker 1: to him once a year to present for the whole
16:58
Speaker 1: of the community. And the reason he had the bell
17:00
Speaker 1: on us because if he was found unworthy, he would
17:01
Speaker 1: be he would drop dead and they'd have to drag
17:03
Speaker 1: him out so they would listen for the bell. So
17:06
Speaker 1: that's a picture for us. And then number three, which
17:08
Speaker 1: I think is such an interesting one. We put it
17:12
Speaker 1: down as covet fear and anxiety. I would say, is like,
17:14
Speaker 1: have your heart compromised. If you're the person that's always
17:18
Speaker 1: like super desirous and you're full of fear, you're full
17:21
Speaker 1: of anxiety, you're full of wear, worry, and focus on
17:24
Speaker 1: the wrong things, you will struggle. This was me with
17:27
Speaker 1: that girl. I wanted so badly just to like get
17:30
Speaker 1: the hey, it's okay, go with her, and guess what,
17:32
Speaker 1: that's what I got. But it's because my heart was
17:34
Speaker 1: completely compromised. It's a y'all. It's an ungroundedness. Right.
17:38
Speaker 3: Covens is chasing the wind, and fear and anxiety is
17:42
Speaker 3: being moved by the wind. Right, you've got to be
17:44
Speaker 3: able to truly be founded in the word, be still
17:49
Speaker 3: in the word, and then be able to hear from
17:51
Speaker 3: the Lord. And when you are moved by you know,
17:54
Speaker 3: your desires or the things that scare you, you're not
17:57
Speaker 3: going to be in a grounded place where you can
17:59
Speaker 3: hear from the way.
18:00
Speaker 1: Yeah, very very good. And then the last one gee,
18:03
Speaker 1: the old, the old fantastic isolation, right, you know, like
18:07
Speaker 1: if you are the person that's off on your own.
18:11
Speaker 1: Proverbs eighteen to one says, whoever isolates himself seeks his
18:14
Speaker 1: own desire, he breaks out against all sound judgment. You know,
18:19
Speaker 1: this is where it's so easy in America, I think
18:22
Speaker 1: more than a lot of other countries because of the
18:24
Speaker 1: size that we have in the convenience that you can
18:26
Speaker 1: just live in your own little bubble and before you
18:28
Speaker 1: know it, like whatever you think to be true is
18:30
Speaker 1: true because you've got an echo chamber. You don't have
18:33
Speaker 1: anybody that can actually like check you on things, or
18:35
Speaker 1: anybody you're submitted to, and you can. It's kind of
18:38
Speaker 1: wild what the mind is capable of whenever it's isolated
18:42
Speaker 1: and allowed to just run crazy. So if you want
18:45
Speaker 1: to hinder yourself, like don't go to church, just be
18:48
Speaker 1: on your own, go ahead and just do your own
18:50
Speaker 1: thing and don't walk closely with anybody.
18:53
Speaker 3: And understand that isolate isn't just like where it's like
18:57
Speaker 3: having your quiet prayer time.
18:59
Speaker 1: That's different. Isolation.
19:01
Speaker 3: Isolation is where you've chosen a lifestyle of being separated
19:05
Speaker 3: from the group or you know, just being your you
19:08
Speaker 3: live your life entirely unto yourself.
19:10
Speaker 1: Right, very good? All right, So that's what that that's
19:13
Speaker 1: that's the old what to do to hinder you. So
19:15
Speaker 1: if you want to hinder it, replace scripture with whatever
19:17
Speaker 1: you enjoy. Go ahead and willfully sin fill your heart
19:20
Speaker 1: with covid, you know, covet after things, be full of fear,
19:23
Speaker 1: be full of anxiety, and then isolate yourself. And like
19:26
Speaker 1: you know, like Art said, those sound obvious, but but
19:29
Speaker 1: just know, all those things are deceptive, you know. It's
19:31
Speaker 1: it never is like, hey, you don't want to hear God.
19:33
Speaker 1: It's always going to seem like a good thing that's
19:36
Speaker 1: actually not. It's disguising itself. So the most common ways
19:39
Speaker 1: that God speaks, gee, let's let's get into that, because
19:42
Speaker 1: there's a few different ways and top a top of
19:45
Speaker 1: the list. You know, hopefully if you're following after God,
19:49
Speaker 1: you could at least list point number one. And the
19:52
Speaker 1: most common way that God speaks is through his work.
19:57
Speaker 1: One of the one of the analogies I try to
19:59
Speaker 1: give people as it relates to hearing God's voice. And
20:02
Speaker 1: we're going to really get into this, but this is
20:04
Speaker 1: an easy takeaway for you to have because people ask
20:07
Speaker 1: me sometimes like, how do you know if.
20:08
Speaker 3: You're hearing from the Lord. Well, if you are a
20:10
Speaker 3: Christian person, you've probably heard of John Maxwell. And it
20:13
Speaker 3: doesn't mean you're not a Christian if you haven't heard
20:15
Speaker 3: of John Maxwell. It's just that he's a very common
20:17
Speaker 3: Christian leadership author. And I like John Maxwell. I've read
20:21
Speaker 3: plenty of his books. The first leadership development books I
20:25
Speaker 3: read as a young teenager were John Maxwell books. This
20:28
Speaker 3: is not a knock on John Maxwell, but I will
20:30
Speaker 3: say a lot of John Maxwell's books, He's written like
20:33
Speaker 3: thirty or forty books, there's a lot of them. If
20:35
Speaker 3: you've read, you know, tanted his books, I feel like
20:38
Speaker 3: you've read a lot of his books because the way
20:42
Speaker 3: that he speaks, and really like his approach to leadership.
20:46
Speaker 3: It's very John Maxwell like. He has his clearly his
20:49
Speaker 3: own style and his way of doing things. And I
20:52
Speaker 3: would say if you had read every single one of
20:54
Speaker 3: John Maxwell's books, you might not know what he looks like,
20:57
Speaker 3: you might not know what he sounds like. But if
21:00
Speaker 3: you were just at a conference and John Maxwell was speaking,
21:03
Speaker 3: you would go, oh, that's John Maxwell.
21:06
Speaker 1: Right.
21:06
Speaker 3: Anyone who's read many of his books, you know exactly
21:08
Speaker 3: what I'm talking about. If you'd read his books, you
21:11
Speaker 3: didn't know the sound of his voice or what he
21:13
Speaker 3: looked like, but you saw him speaking at a conference,
21:15
Speaker 3: you would very quickly say, oh, that's John Maxwell, and
21:19
Speaker 3: this is exactly what hearing God's voice is like. If
21:22
Speaker 3: we have the Bible, which is what God's word and
21:25
Speaker 3: God's voice sounds like. And until you understand what God's
21:29
Speaker 3: word is, if you've read his word, you know what
21:31
Speaker 3: his voice sounds like, then when God speaks to you,
21:33
Speaker 3: it's going to be very clearly, very clear for you
21:36
Speaker 3: to say, like, oh, that's God speaking to me. But
21:39
Speaker 3: if you don't, and that's where, when you've read the Word,
21:42
Speaker 3: you're going to be able to affirm what you're hearing.
21:45
Speaker 1: What is I mean? When God speaks to you, it
21:47
Speaker 1: can just be like a thought that pops into your mind.
21:50
Speaker 1: But if you don't know what his voice sounds like,
21:52
Speaker 1: you don't know if that's you?
21:54
Speaker 3: Is that you know? Is that another person who put
21:56
Speaker 3: a thought in my head? Is that Satan?
21:58
Speaker 1: Like? What is going on right now? Well, when you
22:00
Speaker 1: know what God's voice sounds like, you're going to have
22:02
Speaker 1: something to compare that to let me ask you a
22:05
Speaker 1: question here, gee, because I think I agree obviously, of
22:08
Speaker 1: course I agree. I mean, like, it's amazing that we
22:10
Speaker 1: have the written word of God, and I would you know,
22:14
Speaker 1: just the fact that we have it is so fascinating
22:16
Speaker 1: if you understand the lengths that people went to to
22:18
Speaker 1: copy and recopy scrolls that we're expiring. I mean, it's
22:21
Speaker 1: a miracle that we have His word, and it's the
22:23
Speaker 1: genius of God that he chose to give it to
22:25
Speaker 1: us in written form like that. I think there's that
22:28
Speaker 1: in itself as of a story. But to that point,
22:30
Speaker 1: so I'm reading the Word of God. I know I
22:32
Speaker 1: shouldn't use bad language. I know I shouldn't be sexually impure,
22:35
Speaker 1: But how does God's word answer like nonspecific questions? Right?
22:39
Speaker 1: Because that's where people fall down.
22:41
Speaker 3: It's a fantastic question, and I will give I can
22:45
Speaker 3: only give you a non specific answer, But let me
22:48
Speaker 3: tell you how it works. Okay, you may be praying
22:50
Speaker 3: and saying, God, how many hours should I let my
22:54
Speaker 3: kids watch screens per day? Okay, you're not going to
22:57
Speaker 3: find a specific answer for that in the Bible, but
23:00
Speaker 3: I will tell you if you're seeking to hear from
23:02
Speaker 3: the Lord as you're reading scripture, like this is this
23:06
Speaker 3: is proverbs for me, and this is all the Bible.
23:08
Speaker 3: This is proverbs for me. I've been reading a proverb
23:10
Speaker 3: a day for over twenty years now, and I'm not
23:13
Speaker 3: going to say I have a perfect record in that,
23:15
Speaker 3: but I've been I have a high batting average at
23:17
Speaker 3: reading a proverb of the day every single day at
23:20
Speaker 3: this point for over twenty years in my life. And
23:22
Speaker 3: when you do that, like, how is it possible that
23:27
Speaker 3: I can read just this simple proverb and it speaks
23:30
Speaker 3: to what's happening in my day. And that's because God
23:33
Speaker 3: speaks to you through his word through the Bible. And
23:37
Speaker 3: so you can have a question that you know the
23:40
Speaker 3: answer is not in the Bible, but God can speak
23:42
Speaker 3: to you through his word. So and that's why I'm
23:45
Speaker 3: using that example of a question like how many hours
23:47
Speaker 3: am I supposed to let my kids watch screens per day?
23:49
Speaker 3: You will not find the specific answer to that question
23:51
Speaker 3: of the word, but that doesn't mean that God can't
23:53
Speaker 3: speak to you through his word. Yeah, very good, okay,
23:57
Speaker 3: And the number two obvious, but the Holy Spirit. Now,
24:01
Speaker 3: there are few interesting scriptures here. John fourteen twenty six
24:05
Speaker 3: is a great scripture says but the advocate the Holy Spirit,
24:08
Speaker 3: whom the Father will send in my name, will teach
24:11
Speaker 3: you all things and will remind you of everything I
24:14
Speaker 3: have said to you. Now, that in itself is what
24:18
Speaker 3: we're talking about. Where you need to have your spiritual
24:20
Speaker 3: senses developed.
24:22
Speaker 1: And number two of the voice of the Holy Spirit
24:25
Speaker 1: is going to tie very closely with number one. And
24:28
Speaker 1: let me tell you what you need to pay attention
24:31
Speaker 1: as this gets developed in you. Sometimes you'll read scripture
24:34
Speaker 1: and it's like you're like, I can't, like it's the
24:36
Speaker 1: tenth time you've read it, but suddenly it just like
24:39
Speaker 1: jumped off the page at you. When that happens, pay
24:43
Speaker 1: attention because that's you beginning to be trained. Because if
24:46
Speaker 1: like Jesus said, it will send in my name, teach
24:49
Speaker 1: you all things and will remind you of everything I've
24:52
Speaker 1: said to you. So when that happens, that's the Holy
24:54
Speaker 1: Spirit teaching you. And the way I would describe it,
24:57
Speaker 1: sometimes sound it feels like it's you know, your own thoughts.
25:01
Speaker 1: Other times it feels like it's almost coming from your spirit.
25:03
Speaker 1: If you're not watching the video, I'm kind of almost
25:05
Speaker 1: pointing down towards my stomach. It feels like it's coming
25:07
Speaker 1: from a different place, and there's this revelation of like Aha.
25:11
Speaker 1: Pay attention, because the more you get to recognize those
25:14
Speaker 1: aha moments, that's when you'll hear people say something like, man,
25:17
Speaker 1: I was out at the grocery store and the Holy
25:18
Speaker 1: Spirit prompted me to talk to this person. It's like,
25:21
Speaker 1: what do you mean he prompted you? You know, it's
25:23
Speaker 1: not that you heard go talk to the woman on
25:25
Speaker 1: Aisle six. You know, maybe that is a thought, but
25:27
Speaker 1: oftentimes what it is you just have like this intuition
25:30
Speaker 1: knowing that you begin to recognize because of reading scripture
25:34
Speaker 1: and having it jump off the page, that you begin
25:35
Speaker 1: to recognize the voice of the Holy Spirit. And that's
25:38
Speaker 1: that's what I mean about paying attention, being to being
25:40
Speaker 1: trained like that will happen more and more the more
25:43
Speaker 1: you're in the word, and pretty soon you'll be like, Okay,
25:45
Speaker 1: I know this voice. I recognize this, this prompting, this feeling,
25:48
Speaker 1: this intuitive knowing.
25:50
Speaker 3: The Holy Spirit. It's not going to say the Holy
25:52
Speaker 3: Spirit's not going to say anything to you that is
25:53
Speaker 3: counter to scripture. Okay, right, and understand that I like
25:57
Speaker 3: to use this verse a lot John fourteen twenty six
26:00
Speaker 3: because there's two parts to it. Okay, So the Holy
26:03
Speaker 3: Spirit will teach you all things and will remind you
26:07
Speaker 3: of everything I have said to you, and this is
26:11
Speaker 3: true for our lives today. The way that I think
26:13
Speaker 3: about this is the Holy Spirit's memory is better than mine,
26:17
Speaker 3: and where I have digested the word, maybe it's not
26:21
Speaker 3: in my mind in the same way that you know
26:23
Speaker 3: you can remember things that if you've studied something, you
26:27
Speaker 3: remember it. I have studied scripture, and so I do
26:29
Speaker 3: know a lot of it. But there's also there's a
26:31
Speaker 3: difference between scripture that's in your mind and there's scripture
26:34
Speaker 3: that's in your heart. And what the Holy Spirit will
26:36
Speaker 3: do is remind you of what the Word says. Right,
26:39
Speaker 3: There's like if you ask me, if you ask me,
26:42
Speaker 3: like write down all the scriptures that you know, that's
26:44
Speaker 3: not all the scriptures that I know. Because there are
26:46
Speaker 3: times where someone asked me a question, I get prompted
26:49
Speaker 3: by something and scripture just leaps back into my mind.
26:52
Speaker 3: It's like I've read that scripture, but it's like I
26:54
Speaker 3: wasn't even thinking about that. I didn't remember that, right,
26:56
Speaker 3: But it's there the Holy Spirit will remind you of
26:59
Speaker 3: everything I've seen said to you. That's one part. But
27:01
Speaker 3: then the other is to teach you and guide and
27:03
Speaker 3: other translations to say, guide you in all things. And
27:06
Speaker 3: this is where the Holy Spirit is there that we
27:07
Speaker 3: have a relationship with to listen to. Okay, but you've
27:11
Speaker 3: got to understand the way that relationship with the Holy
27:13
Speaker 3: Spirit works. Holy Spirit wants to teach you and guide you,
27:16
Speaker 3: but the Holy Spirit is sensitive and if you can't
27:19
Speaker 3: listen to the basic instructions of the Holy Spirit right
27:24
Speaker 3: Like I've used this example before that where I was
27:28
Speaker 3: seeking the Lord for answers like what am I supposed
27:30
Speaker 3: to do with this business? And what I kept hearing
27:32
Speaker 3: from the Lord is you need to forgive this person.
27:34
Speaker 3: It's like, that's not what I'm asking you some you know,
27:37
Speaker 3: you know as a you know, I'll use you as
27:40
Speaker 3: an example, Nick, if you know brand new hunter. Nick,
27:44
Speaker 3: Nick is you know, hey, where the deer at? How
27:46
Speaker 3: do we go kill a deer? And I'm going to say, well,
27:49
Speaker 3: what you need to do right now is you know,
27:51
Speaker 3: come down here in this creek bottom with me.
27:52
Speaker 1: That's not what I didn't ask you. That I as
27:55
Speaker 1: where now. I said, what I needed to do right
27:58
Speaker 1: now is come down here in this place with me,
27:59
Speaker 1: and that's where we're going to go. Get ready to
28:01
Speaker 1: see what you're looking for. The Holy Spirit is there
28:04
Speaker 1: to teach us, some guide us. And if you can't
28:06
Speaker 1: listen to what it's telling you, you're never going to
28:08
Speaker 1: hear what you would like to hear. Yeah, And I
28:11
Speaker 1: think that's such a key point, Geez, to understand the
28:13
Speaker 1: Holy Spirit is a person. And so you talked a
28:15
Speaker 1: little bit about how you didn't use the term grieve,
28:18
Speaker 1: But I will just recommend The Holy Spirit and Introduction
28:21
Speaker 1: by John Vivere is by far the best book I've
28:23
Speaker 1: ever read on the Holy Spirit. I read it three times.
28:26
Speaker 1: It completely refreshed my relationship with God. I told John
28:30
Speaker 1: that when he came on the podcast, and he was like, oh,
28:31
Speaker 1: I wrote that ten years ago, So I'm talking about
28:33
Speaker 1: something that for him was a long time ago, that
28:35
Speaker 1: for me was just such a blessing in the past
28:38
Speaker 1: few years. I couldn't can't recommend that book enough because
28:40
Speaker 1: we could spend the whole episode talking about the Holy Spirit,
28:43
Speaker 1: and but we're not going to do that. If you want,
28:46
Speaker 1: like just know, the Holy Spirit is a person. He's
28:47
Speaker 1: not in it, He's not in a blong force. And
28:50
Speaker 1: when you understand that, you realize that you relate to
28:52
Speaker 1: him the same way that you would relate to a person.
28:53
Speaker 1: You can grieve him. He has thoughts, he has emotions,
28:56
Speaker 1: he has a will like it. So anyways, John goes
28:58
Speaker 1: into it so much deeper. I would highly recommend that book.
29:01
Speaker 1: So number two is the Holy Spirit, Number one is
29:03
Speaker 1: his Word, and number three, g unsurprisingly is prayer. Prayer.
29:07
Speaker 3: You've got to have a prayer practice in your life.
29:12
Speaker 3: And this is not this is it's not perfectly this way,
29:15
Speaker 3: but I would say in the way that most people,
29:18
Speaker 3: there's different types of tendencies that we have. Some people
29:20
Speaker 3: are more prayer leaning, some people are more scripture leaning.
29:24
Speaker 3: And I would just tell you have to be strong
29:25
Speaker 3: in a practice of growth. It's like waits and cardio.
29:28
Speaker 3: It is better for you that you have a strong
29:30
Speaker 3: practice of both. And you need to have a strong
29:32
Speaker 3: practice of both actively like I've got to read the Word,
29:36
Speaker 3: I've got to get scripture in me, and then also
29:38
Speaker 3: taking time and saying I'm going to you know, obviously,
29:41
Speaker 3: the Bible says pray at all times, pray without ceasing,
29:44
Speaker 3: and that is a mindset and a posture of prayer
29:47
Speaker 3: in your life. You also need to take time to
29:49
Speaker 3: just step aside and pray. And this is Luke chapter five,
29:54
Speaker 3: verse sixteen, and it says that talking about Christ, that
29:58
Speaker 3: he withdrew himself into the wilderness and prayed right. Jesus
30:02
Speaker 3: withdrew from everybody else. Different than isolation, I talked about
30:05
Speaker 3: that isolation is really about a lifestyle more than it
30:08
Speaker 3: is a momentary thing. You do need to have your
30:11
Speaker 3: momentary occurrences where you pull away from your situation, from
30:16
Speaker 3: everything else in your life, where you separate from your phone,
30:18
Speaker 3: where you separate from other people. It's like I'm going
30:20
Speaker 3: to go to a quiet place in pray. That is
30:24
Speaker 3: where you're going to hear from the Lord.
30:25
Speaker 1: One hundred percent. Because the actual definition of prayer, I
30:28
Speaker 1: think oftentimes we think of it as just like laying
30:30
Speaker 1: up our requests. It's actually exchanging our wishes for God's.
30:34
Speaker 1: That's the actual definition of the word prayer if you
30:36
Speaker 1: dive into it in Hebrew. And I think that is
30:38
Speaker 1: such a perfect description of what actually happens. We come
30:42
Speaker 1: with our ideas and when we sit quietly with the
30:44
Speaker 1: Lord and we just allow him to speak back to us,
30:47
Speaker 1: we find that we begin to see his perspective on
30:48
Speaker 1: the situation and we pray his will. So top ways
30:51
Speaker 1: that God speaks are his word, the Holy Spirit, prayer,
30:54
Speaker 1: and then lastly other people. Here's a type. There's a
30:57
Speaker 1: couple of ways with other people. There's gifts of prophecy,
31:00
Speaker 1: words of knowledge. There's you know, I think it's wise
31:03
Speaker 1: to weigh up if you feel like you're doing something.
31:05
Speaker 1: Proverbs eleven fourteen says, where there's no guidance of people fails,
31:08
Speaker 1: but in an abundance of counselors there's safety. So there's
31:11
Speaker 1: the wisdom of like weighing up a word and having
31:14
Speaker 1: a word from other people. And then there's also these
31:16
Speaker 1: fun words gee, which I think you've done to me,
31:18
Speaker 1: you know, more times than I can count. Galatians two eleven.
31:21
Speaker 1: When Cephus came to Antioch, I opposed him to his
31:24
Speaker 1: face because he stood condemned. And that's the kind of
31:27
Speaker 1: like you need brothers and other people to show you
31:30
Speaker 1: when you're perhaps missing it. And I will say it
31:33
Speaker 1: doesn't feel good, but man, thank God, because you know
31:35
Speaker 1: what feels even worse is plunging over the cliff on
31:38
Speaker 1: your own to your demise without anybody saying, hey, you
31:41
Speaker 1: don't like this, but where you're going is going to
31:44
Speaker 1: hurt you. So so understand other people are a massive
31:47
Speaker 1: part of this. Once got in the reference John Vivie
31:49
Speaker 1: because he told this story when he was on the
31:51
Speaker 1: podcast if you haven't listened to that episode three hundred,
31:53
Speaker 1: but he talked about like oftentimes if he gets a
31:56
Speaker 1: word from other people, like whenever he got the word
31:58
Speaker 1: to become an author, it was two separate women that
32:01
Speaker 1: were telling him, and it was like he ended up
32:04
Speaker 1: realizing he had been missing what God because God told
32:06
Speaker 1: him you're going to be an author, and he kind
32:07
Speaker 1: of like laughed him off. So God sent other people
32:10
Speaker 1: to tell him. And you know, he said, he wants
32:12
Speaker 1: to be like an arm that's attached, Like I don't
32:15
Speaker 1: have to tell my arm to go get water. If
32:17
Speaker 1: I want to reach for a sip of whatever I
32:18
Speaker 1: have near me, it just does it because it's so connected.
32:21
Speaker 1: And so he says, oftentimes when he gets a word
32:23
Speaker 1: from someone else, he feels like it's because he missed it.
32:25
Speaker 1: When God spoke to him the first time. So other
32:28
Speaker 1: people are definitely a way that God speaks. Like I said,
32:30
Speaker 1: there's the one side of laying up a word or
32:32
Speaker 1: somebody having a word from the Lord for you, and
32:34
Speaker 1: then there's the other side of somebody coming in to
32:37
Speaker 1: reemphasize something you've missed or bring correction. Both are valuable
32:41
Speaker 1: and both are ways that God speaks. So just to
32:43
Speaker 1: put a bow on that through His word, the Holy Spirit,
32:45
Speaker 1: prayer and other people and so gee, we talked about
32:48
Speaker 1: what we can do to hinder God. I think it's obvious,
32:51
Speaker 1: but let's let's just give the five quick things of
32:54
Speaker 1: what we can do to help us hear better from
32:56
Speaker 1: the Lord. Number one is obvious.
32:58
Speaker 3: We talked about talked about how to mess it up.
33:01
Speaker 3: We talked about how God speaks. Now how do we
33:04
Speaker 3: lean into this? Okay, we know how God speaks to us,
33:08
Speaker 3: but you're asking, how do I know his voice and
33:10
Speaker 3: how do I.
33:10
Speaker 1: Hear more of his voice? Number one?
33:14
Speaker 3: Right, if God speaks to us through his word and
33:17
Speaker 3: you want to hear him more, this should seem obvious.
33:20
Speaker 3: You've got to get more scripture in you. And I
33:22
Speaker 3: would tell you it is a daily scripture practice. It
33:25
Speaker 3: does not have to be a big daily scripture practice,
33:28
Speaker 3: but it needs to be a daily scripture practice. This
33:31
Speaker 3: is how you get a as I use the hunting analogy,
33:35
Speaker 3: whatever it is, right. If you want to learn the
33:37
Speaker 3: language of a specific industry, if you want to learn
33:40
Speaker 3: the language of a sport, you get in there. Or
33:42
Speaker 3: even to learn a specific language, you need immersion. You
33:46
Speaker 3: get in that all the time, and it's going to
33:47
Speaker 3: be very easy for you learn how to speak that language.
33:50
Speaker 3: If you want to hear God's voice, you need to
33:52
Speaker 3: listen to his voice daily. And when we're saying we
33:55
Speaker 3: want to hear what people are you know, the Bible
33:57
Speaker 3: is there and that is God's voice. What people are saying.
33:59
Speaker 3: I want to hear from the Lord. You want to
34:01
Speaker 3: hear an active word, you want to hear a new word.
34:03
Speaker 3: The only way you're ever going to hear that is
34:05
Speaker 3: when you learn how to hear his voice. And so
34:07
Speaker 3: you've got to get in the daily practice of man.
34:09
Speaker 3: I know what God's words sounds like. I know what
34:12
Speaker 3: God's voice sounds like. So I would tell you one
34:15
Speaker 3: of my daily practices has just been reading a prophet
34:17
Speaker 3: of the day. It's a few minutes, it's an easy
34:20
Speaker 3: commitment that you can make. You've just got to have
34:22
Speaker 3: consistency in that commitment. And the more you read the
34:24
Speaker 3: Word and develop that relationship with scripture, the more you're
34:27
Speaker 3: going to have a desire. It's like, man, if I
34:29
Speaker 3: can get this from five minutes a day with scripture,
34:32
Speaker 3: well you know, I want to hear this, I want
34:34
Speaker 3: to understand this.
34:35
Speaker 1: It'll draw you in deeper. Yeah, very good. And of
34:38
Speaker 1: course the obvious number two is prayer, very very clearly,
34:42
Speaker 1: like what we talked about that you know I pray.
34:44
Speaker 1: I'll just say for myself, I pray every single day,
34:47
Speaker 1: multiple times. I mean, the Bible says to pray without ceasing.
34:49
Speaker 1: I'll invite God into my work. I'll just like I'll
34:52
Speaker 1: just constantly be talking to the Lord. I have worship
34:55
Speaker 1: music on all the time, just to kind of set
34:57
Speaker 1: the atmosphere and keep my mind that God is never
34:59
Speaker 1: far from my thoughts, as Brother Lawrence talked about in
35:01
Speaker 1: the practice of the Presence of God. But there's also
35:04
Speaker 1: times where I'll have very intense like like you said,
35:07
Speaker 1: I put my phone away, there's no distractions. I'm completely
35:10
Speaker 1: just pressed in. I'll just pray in tongues and just
35:12
Speaker 1: sit there with the Lord. It's so important. We touched
35:15
Speaker 1: on the fact that Jesus did that daily. And if
35:18
Speaker 1: Jesus did it daily and he's literally God in the flesh,
35:22
Speaker 1: how often do we need to do it? I shouldn't
35:24
Speaker 1: say daily. It said that he would go to a
35:26
Speaker 1: private place to pray as was his practice. AKA, he
35:29
Speaker 1: did it regularly, so it's not pretty obvious. But it's
35:33
Speaker 1: amazing to me that we miss the first two so
35:37
Speaker 1: regularly of scripture and prayer and just know it's always
35:41
Speaker 1: to know God, because I think that these men can
35:43
Speaker 1: become burdens. I'm like, oh, man, one more thing to do.
35:46
Speaker 1: If it's with a heart to know God. Man, it
35:48
Speaker 1: just changes it. It's so fresh.
35:50
Speaker 3: Yeah, I would say the same way that you know,
35:53
Speaker 3: you lean into having a daily scripture practice. I have
35:56
Speaker 3: a like I get it. I read my proverb first
36:00
Speaker 3: in the morning, my prayer like my prayer quiet times.
36:04
Speaker 3: Bible says pray without ceasing, so I mean that, and
36:07
Speaker 3: then I intentionally try to be in a state of
36:09
Speaker 3: prayerfulness at all times. But in the middle of my
36:11
Speaker 3: day it's like, you know, before lunch or I'm in
36:13
Speaker 3: my office obviously, you know what, I'm gonna take a
36:15
Speaker 3: few minutes to just be quiet, right, just you don't
36:18
Speaker 3: don't I don't go in with any intention other than Lord.
36:22
Speaker 1: I'm going to dedicate this time to you. Right, That's what.
36:25
Speaker 1: So that's that's as simple as prayer can be. Number three,
36:29
Speaker 1: what's going to help us hear better? This is a
36:31
Speaker 1: big one, right, so you know the first two, This
36:34
Speaker 1: is a big one. Number three here I would call this,
36:38
Speaker 1: you know, there's two different labels I could put on it.
36:40
Speaker 3: I would say this is purity and this is having
36:43
Speaker 3: a neutral heart. Okay, let me give you really what.
36:47
Speaker 3: This is a huge impact on what your relationship with
36:50
Speaker 3: the Holy Spirit is. Like we talked about this a
36:52
Speaker 3: little bit on Hey, you've got to listen to them.
36:54
Speaker 3: You've got to have a relationship with the Holy Spirit.
36:56
Speaker 3: Let me tell you what's going to have a huge
36:57
Speaker 3: impact on your relationship with the Holy sp Spirit. The
37:00
Speaker 3: Holy Spirit is sensitive. It's like a dove. If you
37:05
Speaker 3: show it off. If you say, you know, every time
37:07
Speaker 3: you intentionally sin, you're telling the Holy Spirit. I don't
37:10
Speaker 3: want to listen to you. I know it's you know,
37:12
Speaker 3: like jiminy Kirk, you're saying I don't want to hear
37:13
Speaker 3: what you got to say, get out of here. And
37:15
Speaker 3: if you do that, like when you want to hear
37:17
Speaker 3: the deep wisdom of the Lord, you want direct answers
37:21
Speaker 3: to your questions. You can't get that if you can
37:24
Speaker 3: even listen to the basic instruction that the Holy Spirit.
37:27
Speaker 1: Is giving you.
37:29
Speaker 3: One of the things that I tell people all the
37:31
Speaker 3: time this relates to like understanding your purpose in life,
37:34
Speaker 3: because that's a question that people ask on Hey, am
37:36
Speaker 3: I supposed to do this? Door on the left, doing
37:39
Speaker 3: on the right? This job, that job, live here, live there.
37:42
Speaker 3: It's one of the questions that people add, like what's
37:44
Speaker 3: the purpose for my life? And if you want to
37:47
Speaker 3: know the answer to that, well, what I would tell
37:50
Speaker 3: people is do you know if something is a sin
37:53
Speaker 3: or not?
37:54
Speaker 1: Right? When I when I ask Christians this question, they said, well, yeah, right,
37:59
Speaker 1: I said, you know something as a sin or not?
38:01
Speaker 1: How do you know that? Have you memorized a thousand laws?
38:05
Speaker 1: Do you know every single list of well this is
38:08
Speaker 1: wrong or that's wrong? They're like, no, be.
38:10
Speaker 3: Right, because we haven't. So how do you know? This
38:13
Speaker 3: is through your heart? This is the Holy Spirit speaking
38:15
Speaker 3: to you through your heart on what is right and
38:17
Speaker 3: what is wrong as it relates to sin. Until you
38:21
Speaker 3: can learn I'm not saying you have to be perfect,
38:23
Speaker 3: because we aren't, but until you can learn to listen
38:25
Speaker 3: to that voice and really develop a desire that It's like, man,
38:29
Speaker 3: that's the person I'm want to listen to. That's the
38:32
Speaker 3: voice that I want to hear. And if you have
38:34
Speaker 3: a desire to grow relationship with the Holy Spirit, who's
38:36
Speaker 3: the one that's helping speak to you of like, don't
38:38
Speaker 3: do that, don't go in that direction. You know what
38:40
Speaker 3: you're supposed to say here, don't say that other thing.
38:43
Speaker 3: The more you lean into that relationship, the greater you're
38:46
Speaker 3: going to be able to hear the voice of the Lord.
38:49
Speaker 3: And that's when I say purity. That's what this is.
38:52
Speaker 3: It's a desire to separate from all this other nonsense.
38:55
Speaker 3: I want to separate from myself from sin. It's having
38:57
Speaker 3: a fear of the Lord, of saying, Lord, my greatest
38:59
Speaker 3: fear to be away from you. I want to be
39:02
Speaker 3: with you. I want to be in your presence. And
39:04
Speaker 3: that's what draws you into a deep relationship with the
39:07
Speaker 3: Holy Spirit. So when I'm saying this, this is a reminder.
39:10
Speaker 3: When you say you can't hear from the Lord, that's
39:12
Speaker 3: not true. What you mean is you're not hearing what
39:14
Speaker 3: you want to hear yet. And just like a relationship
39:17
Speaker 3: with anybody else, if the relationship is not where you
39:20
Speaker 3: want it to be, you've got to lean into that relationship.
39:22
Speaker 3: You've got to go deeper. And the way that we
39:24
Speaker 3: go deeper is very similar to any other relationship. You've
39:27
Speaker 3: got to honor it, you've got to respect it, you've
39:29
Speaker 3: got to acknowledge it. And I would say, in the
39:31
Speaker 3: context of God and the Holy Spirit, you've got to
39:33
Speaker 3: be obedient to it.
39:35
Speaker 1: Yeah. So good. And I'll just take a very practical
39:38
Speaker 1: that I learned from ug You say, and I just
39:40
Speaker 1: it was like a highlighter in my mind. You say,
39:42
Speaker 1: every day you get on your knees and you say, Lord,
39:44
Speaker 1: if this is if what's in my heart isn't from you,
39:46
Speaker 1: I don't want it. And that can's that's honestly so powerful.
39:51
Speaker 1: I think the way to keep a neutral heart to
39:53
Speaker 1: really hear from God is you. I'll go back to
39:56
Speaker 1: my example. I was so attached to wanting to get
39:58
Speaker 1: back together with that girl that I did not hear
40:00
Speaker 1: right from God. And so what I ended up hearing
40:01
Speaker 1: was what was in my own mind. When you can
40:04
Speaker 1: actually be okay with either outcome. And this gets hard
40:07
Speaker 1: when it's like, man, we've really been praying for a baby,
40:09
Speaker 1: or man, you know I don't want I'll just earlier
40:12
Speaker 1: in the year, I didn't want my wife to die.
40:14
Speaker 1: But what I knew is that if I was only
40:15
Speaker 1: like clinging to one thing, and I couldn't sit there
40:17
Speaker 1: and be like, Lord, whatever you decide, like, whatever outcome happens,
40:20
Speaker 1: I trust you keeping your heart in neutral. Did I
40:23
Speaker 1: petition for what I wanted one hundred percent? Lord, please
40:26
Speaker 1: save my wife keep her healthy. I don't. But at
40:29
Speaker 1: the same time I knew in my heart that I
40:32
Speaker 1: was not going to like only be okay if I
40:34
Speaker 1: got a certain thing that and you'll know when you're
40:37
Speaker 1: in neutral, you'll know when you've released it. And that
40:39
Speaker 1: keeps you in a place to hear from God. So scripture,
40:41
Speaker 1: daily prayer, purity and neutral heart. And then Gee, we
40:44
Speaker 1: talked about if you don't want to hear from God
40:46
Speaker 1: to isolate, Well, the obvious thing is if you do
40:48
Speaker 1: want to hear from God, be in relationship, have brotherhood,
40:51
Speaker 1: be part a committed part of the church family that people,
40:54
Speaker 1: as your brother in law has said, know the color
40:57
Speaker 1: of the rug that's in your living room. That's how
40:59
Speaker 1: you know if you actually have a brothers because they've
41:01
Speaker 1: been over to your house enough to actually know the
41:03
Speaker 1: color of the rug in your living room. When you
41:05
Speaker 1: have that kind of relationship and what you've referred to
41:07
Speaker 1: as intrusive accountability, that is, whenever you actually have people
41:10
Speaker 1: in your life that can safeguard you, that can bring
41:13
Speaker 1: you a word, that will actually know what's going on
41:15
Speaker 1: and can can help be the voice of God in
41:18
Speaker 1: your life. So valuable. Thank you very much for listening. Guys,
41:23
Speaker 1: remember to share, like subscribe. If you think that this
41:27
Speaker 1: would be something that someone would enjoy, please send it
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Speaker 1: to them. We appreciate it all. If you want to
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Speaker 1: get in touch, you can follow us on Instagram at
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Speaker 1: the Impossible Life. You'll find us on there. You can
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Speaker 1: also email at Impossible Life Podcasts at gmail dot com
41:41
Speaker 1: if you have any questions. If you want to get
41:42
Speaker 1: in touch and find out about Carrot's personal or business coaching,
41:45
Speaker 1: that's the way to do it. Thank you again for listening.
41:48
Speaker 1: Go out there, think better and live the impossible. You
41:51
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