Latest / The OneCry Podcast / #150 The Presence Centered Life (2 - The Significance of Sacred Places)

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#150 The Presence Centered Life (2 - The Significance of Sacred Places) · The OneCry Podcast

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  Music.
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  Your life, but you've got to listen for Him, and you've got to turn aside,
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  and you've got to meet Him in the sacred places He's designed for you.
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  Welcome to the One Cry Podcast, a nationwide call for spiritual awakening.
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  The goal, accelerating the movement of God through sharing revival truth, stories, and reports.
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  Well, welcome back to the OneCry Podcast.
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  I am Jordan Bowen, and of course, I am with your normal host,
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  the Bill Eliff. The Bill Eliff.
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  Bill is such a great friend of mine, and I'm honored to be walking through this
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  series with him about the essential presence, the daily presence of God in our
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  lives and how we can have that.
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  We were talking earlier, Bill, about places.
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  You know, what are places? And maybe our listeners even right now,
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  I want to ask you this question, but they can be thinking of their answer.
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  What is a place in your life that just is significant?
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  One of the greatest places you've ever been that just stands out throughout your days?
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  You know, I got a lot of those. We all do. Yeah. You know, but.
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  If I take five minutes to think about that, I immediately think about a mountain
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  above Colorado Springs.
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  Wow. Where years ago, when I had gone to an 18-month battle for the soul of
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  a church, and I mean, it was an intense battle to turn that church,
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  and God took us there by his grace.
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  But I was so weary, man. man, I was just spent. I wanted to go sell shoes somewhere.
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  And some men said, you need to get away.
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  In fact, I told them, I said, if I could do something stupid right now, I'm just so tired.
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  And they said, we want to give you a little sabbatical. And one guy said, go to the beach.
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  And another guy said, no, no, no, no, don't go to the beach.
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  You need to go to the mountains.
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  And he had access to this little A-frame cabin.
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  It was just big enough for me and my, At the time, my five kids,
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  and I mean, that sounds big, but it was just two rooms, an A-frame.
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  And they were little, our kids were little. One of our youngest babies slept
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  in the car top carrier that we propped open.
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  And that A-frame was sitting up about probably 2,000 or 3,000,
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  maybe 4,000 feet above Colorado Springs. Springs, and every night we'd watch
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  the lights in Colorado Springs come up. Wow.
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  And then during the days, I would hike up in those mountains,
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  and I don't have time to tell the story, but the Lord restored my soul.
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  I don't know where I would be if it wasn't for that spot, that place.
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  And, you know, it was the beauty of God's creation combined with the glory of
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  his very personal ministry to me and his presence. It was just a powerful.
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  So we're going to talk about that.
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  We're talking about how do we experience the presence of God,
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  the essential presence of God.
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  And one of the fascinating things we kind of outlined last week,
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  if you didn't hear the podcast,
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  I really encourage you to go back because it'll give you a foundation for how
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  God has manifested his presence throughout the Bible and through human history
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  and that he wants to be with us, but he knows us.
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  And so he meets us in places.
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  He just meets us in places. I read a little quote, Jordan, that is pretty fascinating.
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  It said, places matter.
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  We are surrounded by places. We walk over and through them. We live in places.
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  We relate to others in them. We die in them.
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  Nothing we do is unplaced. Wow.
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  It's all, our whole life is in this context of places.
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  And so I want you to think about this for a moment just biblically.
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  Now, first of all, we begin in a place, right?
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  Right. And that place is in eternity with God, but our first human place was the garden.
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  And God created this place. It was designed in a specific way for Adam and Eve, for his creation.
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  And so that it was designed as a place where the triune God and Adam and Eve
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  could walk together in the cool of the day.
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  Right. They experienced his presence right there.
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  Now, we know they were cast out of that because of their sin and their rebellion.
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  And they left that place. But then you just start finding all through the rest
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  of the Old Testament, God meeting them in places. Think about this, Jordan.
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  He met them in an ark, right? Yeah. Think if they hadn't had that place.
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  Wow. And who made that? Well, God used Noah, but it was in God's mind.
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  Right. To create that place that was a place of safety, a place of protection, a place of salvation.
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  Yeah. It's a place of his presence.
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  And then we see God meeting Abraham out of the stars.
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  Yeah. And how beautiful this is that God came to Abraham and gave him promises, right? Right.
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  And in very specific places, we see Joseph getting thrown into a pit and then
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  thrown into and Potiphar's house into prison and then exalted to a palace.
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  You know, and in all these places, God manifested himself.
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  Then we see Moses and the whole story. story, but Moses is on the backside of
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  the desert, and one day he looks up and there's a bush that is not consumed.
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  And don't you know that Moses forever remembered that spot?
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  That was a spot where God came to me. That was a spot at 80 years old when I
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  thought I would never be used again. Hmm.
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  That God came to me and called me back into service and really showed me that
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  everything in my life had been just preparation.
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  But it was his presence. Nothing spectacular about that spot in the desert,
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  but God's presence made that spot spectacular.
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  We go on in the life of Moses, and we see him one day, as he led the children
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  of Israel out, going up to Mount Sinai.
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  My, what a place. And I'm sure that Moses probably thought there's nothing special
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  about this mountain until the Lord led him there.
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  And what made it special was his presence and God giving with his hand,
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  giving his commandments, telling them how they are to live.
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  And up on that mountain, him saying, Lord, I want to see your glory.
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  And God said, well, you can't see
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  my face, but I'm just going to hide you here. And I'm going to pass by.
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  You'll see the back of me. And he saw the glory of God. It was so sacred,
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  it didn't even record the end of that story.
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  Try to describe it, what his presence was, the fullness of his presence was like.
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  So in all of these places, Jacob at Peniel, Moses at Sinai, right?
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  David on the Valley of Elah fighting Goliath. Don't you know?
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  He never rode by that place again.
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  Without thinking of God. Here's the point.
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  We need places, but we need places that are filled with the presence of God,
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  that are made memorable by the presence of God. So how does that happen?
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  Well, it happens in two ways. One, it happens because of God's relentless pursuit.
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  I mean, you look at all these places, Abraham's place, Jacob's place, right?
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  David's place, Moses's place. You think of God showing up to Mary in the garden tomb.
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  You think of Peter at the side of the Sea of Galilee after he had miserably
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  denied the Lord and God restored him and loved on him there.
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  And just all of these spots were because he first loved us. He first pursued us.
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  But also, there are spots where man cooperated.
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  You know, the Bible says about Moses, for instance, that when he looked over
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  and he saw the burning bush, that he turned aside. side.
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  I've often thought, well, what if he hadn't turned aside? What if he'd just
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  gotten scared and afraid and just run away?
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  Or what if he knew it was the Lord and he had just run?
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  But man made this choice.
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  Moses made this choice to turn aside and to take off his shoes and to enter
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  into the presence of God.
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  So God has places that he wants to meet you.
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  Now, secondly, I want you to realize that we see in human history that any place
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  can become a sacred place.
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  I mean, it doesn't have to be something spectacular.
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  You know, we go to great lengths to create things in the kingdom of God and
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  in a church, and we make really beautiful sanctuaries and all of that. That's fine.
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  You know, there's nothing wrong with that. In fact,
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  God went to extraordinary lengths to create a tabernacle and to create a temple
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  because it was to communicate something and to be the house of his presence, right?
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  So that's fine, but God can make the side of the road his temple.
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  His place of his presence, humble heart his presence.
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  Presence i mean here's mary and and here's
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  an angel coming and saying behold favored
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  one you know i'm i'm gonna you're gonna conceive a
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  child and i guarantee you she knew exactly
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  she could tell us if we were here exactly where she
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  was sitting when that happened and that became such a
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  sanctuary of the presence of god god wants
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  you to turn aside now what
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  does that mean what are are some of the ways that that could
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  happen well it means turning aside every
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  day doesn't it i mean it means when
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  the lord wakes you up in the morning getting up i
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  tell you i this is so simple but so profound so i said to me brother bill i
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  know you meet with the lord every day and you read your bible and you pray and
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  and i and i've always said that's the key to my experience of So the presence of God is,
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  but how do you do that? Well, I get up.
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  You don't hit the alarm button. You don't hit the snooze button.
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  You don't say, man, I'm really tired. God doesn't apparently know how much sleep I need.
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  No, you just get up. If it's 3 o'clock in the morning, you get up.
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  If it's 5 o'clock in the morning, you just get up because God is there.
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  And I promise you, if he's prompting your heart to get up, he has something
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  to say to you. And time doesn't mean anything to him.
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  He knows that what you need is his presence, his voice, his instruction,
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  his comfort, his encouragement, his promises.
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  So you've got to turn aside.
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  It's like Moses. You've got to just turn aside and go and be in the presence of God. Amen.
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  And I want to say one more thing to us here about these places.
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  Places of God's presence become great testimonies, right?
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  I mean, I could walk you to the spot up on the mountain above Colorado Springs
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  where I met with the Lord, and it restored my life.
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  Honestly, I don't know where I would be today if it hadn't been for those hours and those days, really.
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  Several weeks in the presence of God that just restored me and confirmed what
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  had happened and where I was and whose I was.
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  And I can take you to many, many places like that in my life,
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  and they become testimonies of the grace and the power of God.
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  Years ago, I went through a very hard thing. And I really got angry at the Lord.
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  And I went out walking and I literally shook my fist at the Lord.
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  Long story, it would be understandable to you if I told you the whole story.
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  But I was upset that the Lord was allowing a very hard, hardest thing that ever
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  happened in my life before or since.
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  And under a big cottonwood tree,
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  the Lord began to minister to me by His Spirit and just took the anger out of my soul,
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  let me unclasp my hands and receive what was happening as if it was from Him.
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  And He showed me that He was going to take care of me and that He He was all that I needed.
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  Years later, probably a decade later, I took all my kids there.
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  And I got them out of the car, and we stood in front of that cottonwood tree,
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  and I told them that story.
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  And that the Lord was here and been here and had met me right here.
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  And so this, just an old cottonwood tree, had become a very sacred place to me.
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  It was a tabernacle. It was a temple.
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  Because the presence of God was there and God wants to give you those places in your life.
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  But you've got to listen for him and you've got to turn aside and you've got
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  to meet him in the sacred places he's designed for you.
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  Jordan, I know you have places like that. Yeah, I do. I do. Yeah.
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  Yeah. There's one not far from here out by the river where I would run,
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  run by there when I'm running, but a park bench that I would stop to pray at.
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  And about two years ago, the Lord told me, you need to come out here and sit until I talk.
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  And he radically changed me in that moment.
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  And it's a place. I have a picture that I look at and I go there often.
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  My wife and I go out there to pray.
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  It's different. It's significant in our hearts and in our minds.
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  And I tell my boys, like you, look at that place. God talked to me there.
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  Wouldn't it be interesting to think that you go through battlegrounds or a state
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  park or something, and there are the little markers.
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  Right. You know, here's where this battle fought.
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  Yeah. Here's where this victory was won. Yeah. And wouldn't it be interesting
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  to see from heaven's perspective.
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  Right. All those little markers all over the earth. Yeah.
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  Where God has met with people. Yeah. We're going to pray together,
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  and we want to pray for the places of your life and where God wants to make
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  that place special because of his presence.
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  And that's the key. It's not just a special place. Right.
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  What makes it special is that we turn aside and God chooses to meet us there,
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  and we cooperate with him.
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  Those two things. things God's pursuit, but our pursuit of him.
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  And he's got places for you. He may have a place for you this afternoon.
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  He may have a park bench beside a river this week.
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  And I think there are many more places like that than we can imagine if we would
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  just give God time and if we would listen up and we would meet him and it would change our lives.
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  So let me pray for us, and then, Jordan, you close.
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  And we want to invite you, as always, to pray with us, okay? Just pray with us.
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  So, Father, we're so grateful that...
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  You meet us in places. Lord, you just have spots that become sacred because you're there.
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  And you can make any spot like that.
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  And, Lord, I pray that we would recognize that. I pray that we would have our antenna up.
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  I pray when you wake us up, we'd get up. I pray when you say,
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  stop right here and place your hand on the shoulder of someone who's hurting and pray for them.
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  I want to make this a special place for them.
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  I want this to be a memorable place of my presence.
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  And lord help us to recognize the
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  places that you have ordained to see
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  and experience both for us and others the presence of god yes lord and i i long
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  for for more places with you and lord just bill was sharing and i know our listeners
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  have to agree lord when you when you wake me up what i I want to get up and
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  that might not be when I'm sleeping even,
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  but just in my day, when you say, Jordan,
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  I got a word for you. I need you to stop.
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  I need you to go to this place. I need you to sit still and listen.
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  Lord, would we do that? Teach us to be obedient to that, stir our hearts.
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  And even right now, as we unite in a cry together for us to have a better understanding
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  of the opportunity we have every day to encounter you in your presence,
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  Lord, I pray that we would recognize and acknowledge the places in our lives,
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  Lord, where we have heard from you and Lord, the places that you're calling
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  us to, to sit and learn and hear from you more.
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  So Lord, I ask you to do this in each one of our lives and the listeners today
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  in Jesus name. And I want to add one more.
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  Thought to this, Lord, and that is, I think of the places of great movements of revival.
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  Yeah. I think of Fulton Street in the 1857 revival. I think of Asbury.
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  I think of church at Longore, Wales, where you came and began the Welsh revival.
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  And Father, we thank you for your stirring right now around our nation,
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  but we pray that you would manifest Manifest yourself in places.
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  Yes. We pray for college campuses. Yes, Lord. We pray for high school and middle school campuses.
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  We pray that you would manifest yourself in homes.
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  We pray, Father, that you would come in power to your churches.
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  Yes, Lord. And we would make room for you, Lord.
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  Lord, we would prepare a highway for our God, and we would pull down the high
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  places and lift up the low places and prepare a highway for our God so the King
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  of glory could come in and manifest himself.
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  So, Lord, would you make our nation once again a place of nationwide revival
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  and spiritual awakening?
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  Not so, Lord, we can just have things a little better, but so that the great
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  purposes of your kingdom can come and your will be done.
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  And the missionary advance would accelerate.
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  The evangelism would accelerate, Lord.
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  And you would be more greatly glorified. We join together in that prayer.
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  Yes, sir. And we pray it in your name. Amen. Amen. Amen.
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  Well, thanks so much. Jordan for joining me
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  today and thank you for joining us and and
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  we pray that you'll join us each week
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  in this series and and don't forget we're offering a
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  new not new but a a book that we've written
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  called the essential presence a 40-day book you can get that at onecry.com or
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  or on amazon any places but we have it at one cry and you can get a little cheaper
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  at one cry and so we hope you'll get that to supplement what you're learning
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  and you're pursuing as we all.
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  Music.