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Transcript

The Friendship · Rick Manis Ministries Podcast

• 0:12
  SPEAKER_00: I spent many years trying to be more and more obedient to Christ.
• 0:16
  SPEAKER_00: And I was doing as much as I could and failing in some areas.
• 0:22
  SPEAKER_00: But still I'm asking God for more things that I can obey.
• 0:26
  SPEAKER_00: And if you look up the word obedience, it's not about things that you are supposed to fulfill.
• 0:31
  SPEAKER_00: The word obedience is a word hoop how's it pronounced?
• 0:36
  SPEAKER_00: Hoopa, hoopa, hoopa, hoop arco, hoop arco a.
• 0:42
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you.
• 0:43
  SPEAKER_00: Hoopa hoop arco a.
• 0:45
  SPEAKER_00: Hoopa meaning under, and arco meaning to hear.
• 0:51
  SPEAKER_00: And it literally means to hear under or to listen attentively or to hearken.
• 0:56
  SPEAKER_00: That's the word obedience.
• 0:59
  SPEAKER_00: It has more to do with hearing.
• 1:01
  SPEAKER_00: It means to hear, to hearken, to listen attentively.
• 1:05
  SPEAKER_00: And you're hearing as one who's like submitting to what they hear.
• 1:09
  SPEAKER_00: So when the sheep hear the shepherd's voice, they call because of what they hear.
• 1:15
  SPEAKER_00: And that call makes them want to come because they know the good shepherd's voice.
• 1:21
  SPEAKER_00: Today, obviously, I want to talk about the friendship.
• 1:26
  SPEAKER_00: And we're talking about the friendship with God.
• 1:28
  SPEAKER_00: We're talking about the friendship with the Good Shepherd.
• 1:30
  SPEAKER_00: And the reason I'm I'm I'm looking at it this way is because when we're talking about listening to the shepherd, listening to the voice, listening to God, I'm not, I think a lot of us have the idea that we're kind of trying to tune in to some heavenly radio station.
• 1:47
  SPEAKER_00: And it's like, I'm trying, you know, I want to hear God.
• 1:51
  SPEAKER_00: How do I hear God?
• 1:52
  SPEAKER_00: And I I even looked it up, I even looked up some things this week about uh what people say about listening to God, what are teaching, and they're, and most of it is is about steps, you know, steps that you can do, and it's more read your Bible more, um, um set aside more time to do this, that, and the other.
• 2:08
  SPEAKER_00: And those are all not bad things at all, those are all good things, but but we're talking about a person, we're not talking about getting our our fine-tuner trying to catch the waves of God's voice there.
• 2:21
  SPEAKER_00: Think of it more as a friend that's with you.
• 2:24
  SPEAKER_00: And because there's a friend that's with you, um, there is something, there is something to hear.
• 2:30
  SPEAKER_00: And if the friend that's with you just wants good for you and knows how to do it and cares about you a lot, then he's going to be speaking to you words of care, words of goodness, words of power that empower your life.
• 2:44
  SPEAKER_00: And uh so I want to start this this morning by looking at 1 Thessalonians chapter 5, uh beginning in verse 16.
• 2:53
  SPEAKER_00: And it's these three little lines here.
• 2:56
  SPEAKER_00: Verses 16, 17, and 18.
• 3:00
  SPEAKER_00: Most of you are familiar with this.
• 3:02
  SPEAKER_00: Uh the writer says, Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, and in everything give thanks, for this is the will of God.
• 3:10
  SPEAKER_00: Three little things here.
• 3:12
  SPEAKER_00: This is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you.
• 3:16
  SPEAKER_00: Now, these these don't look to me like to be really.
• 3:24
  SPEAKER_00: They're not sad things.
• 3:26
  SPEAKER_00: They're not, they sh they don't look like they're too hard, I don't think.
• 3:29
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, rejoicing.
• 3:30
  SPEAKER_00: He says rejoice.
• 3:32
  SPEAKER_00: He doesn't say go around and be sad all the time because this is the will of God, this is what will please me, this is what I want for you.
• 3:38
  SPEAKER_00: He says, I want you to be happy, rejoice all the time.
• 3:40
  SPEAKER_00: Pray without ceasing.
• 3:41
  SPEAKER_00: Now that's a that's one that we might misunderstand, but we'll look at that a little bit uh this morning.
• 3:46
  SPEAKER_00: Uh that one sort of looked like a burden to me at first, because I thought, pray without ceasing.
• 3:52
  SPEAKER_00: It it you know, one time it's hard to do five minutes.
• 3:55
  SPEAKER_00: Um I used to go for an hour.
• 3:58
  SPEAKER_00: I would actually set my clock and and and determine that I wanted to pray for one hour in the morning, and I would succeed.
• 4:05
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know if I was always focused the whole time, but I would do that whole hour.
• 4:08
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, but pray without ceasing is like it sounds like locking yourself in a prayer closet and just pray and pray and pray, oh God, oh Father, God, I just this, and oh Father, I I this, and I love you for this, and God, I want that, and just pray and pray and pray and pray.
• 4:22
  SPEAKER_00: And then uh, and and that's not what it's talking about uh at all.
• 4:26
  SPEAKER_00: But we'll look at that.
• 4:27
  SPEAKER_00: And in everything, give thanks.
• 4:29
  SPEAKER_00: So three things.
• 4:30
  SPEAKER_00: This is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you.
• 4:32
  SPEAKER_00: Now, these things all have to do with the friendship of God.
• 4:36
  SPEAKER_00: Now, when I'm talking about the good shepherd and now the friendship with God, we're really talking about intimacy here.
• 4:43
  SPEAKER_00: We're talking about being really close with somebody.
• 4:46
  SPEAKER_00: And and and and and if you don't know this yet, I really, really want you to find this out really, really soon.
• 4:54
  SPEAKER_00: That the power of this Christian life is in knowing the person of God.
• 4:58
  SPEAKER_00: Knowing the person who knows you and wants you to know him as well as he knows you.
• 5:05
  SPEAKER_00: Um, the more we know him, the more it benefits our life, and the more it brings the inner heaven to our life.
• 5:13
  SPEAKER_00: And that's what this is about this morning.
• 5:15
  SPEAKER_00: Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, and everything you think.
• 5:18
  SPEAKER_00: So, first I want to deal with the rejoicing evermore, or rejoicing always.
• 5:22
  SPEAKER_00: So, what is what is it to be rejoicing all the time?
• 5:28
  SPEAKER_00: All the time having this rejoicing.
• 5:30
  SPEAKER_00: Well, God wants it.
• 5:33
  SPEAKER_00: What is this rejoicing?
• 5:34
  SPEAKER_00: Well, we're with rejoicing, we're talking about having a joy that expresses itself.
• 5:40
  SPEAKER_00: Joy is a deep-rooted inspired happiness.
• 5:44
  SPEAKER_00: Now get this.
• 5:44
  SPEAKER_00: Joy is deep-rooted.
• 5:47
  SPEAKER_00: It's not just what we know as just normal happiness, which doesn't have to be that deep-rooted.
• 5:54
  SPEAKER_00: To have normal happiness, something good just has to happen.
• 5:57
  SPEAKER_00: You just see something you like, or you know, some you get some good news, and you'll it'll make you happy, but it's not necessarily deep-rooted because there's a lot of people that get happy by good things happening, but they're not happy people.
• 6:11
  SPEAKER_00: They don't carry inside them this deep-rooted thing that seems to be a joy that's unspeakable, as the Bible says, a joy that's indescribable, that even when happy things aren't happening, they're carrying something.
• 6:23
  SPEAKER_00: Of course, we know that Nehemiah 8.12 says the joy of the Lord is our strength.
• 6:29
  SPEAKER_00: It makes us strong.
• 6:30
  SPEAKER_00: Having that joy is something that makes you strong.
• 6:32
  SPEAKER_00: So you can see why God wants you to have that all the time.
• 6:35
  SPEAKER_00: Joy is a deep-rooted inspired happiness.
• 6:38
  SPEAKER_00: Now, let's look at where these things come from.
• 6:40
  SPEAKER_00: First of all, the joy.
• 6:41
  SPEAKER_00: Look at the book of John, chapter 5, verse 9.
• 6:48
  SPEAKER_00: And I want to read a few verses, skip around and read about five verses here.
• 6:52
  SPEAKER_00: Verse 9, he says, As the Father has loved me, I also have loved you.
• 6:58
  SPEAKER_00: Abide in my love.
• 7:00
  SPEAKER_00: What we're looking at here, and we're going to see in these next few verses, is that Jesus is giving us reasons to love him.
• 7:08
  SPEAKER_00: He's telling us about himself.
• 7:10
  SPEAKER_00: He's telling, he's giving us reasons to have a uh a joy all the time.
• 7:14
  SPEAKER_00: He's giving us, he's gonna show you how close he wanted to be and how close he is to us.
• 7:21
  SPEAKER_00: As the Father loved me, so also I love you.
• 7:25
  SPEAKER_00: Abide in my love.
• 7:27
  SPEAKER_00: So we see the will of God here.
• 7:29
  SPEAKER_00: He wants us to abide in his love all the time.
• 7:31
  SPEAKER_00: I say it so often, it's it's more true to me than ever before, that you have to know, you've got to, if you haven't yet find out how good God is, because when you find out how good he is, you will love him, and when you're loving him back because he first loved you, you're really having a relationship that's going on between you and the person of God.
• 7:53
  SPEAKER_00: And the person of God talks to us.
• 7:56
  SPEAKER_00: The person of God talks to us.
• 7:58
  SPEAKER_00: Verse 11, he says, These things have I spoken to you so that my joy can remain in you, or be constant, or always always be there.
• 8:10
  SPEAKER_00: My joy can remain in you so that your joy will always be full.
• 8:15
  SPEAKER_00: Why is he saying that that I have loved you as the Father has loved me?
• 8:20
  SPEAKER_00: Because knowing that will make your joy full.
• 8:24
  SPEAKER_00: There is something about when I found out that that God loved me unconditionally, it started to change everything.
• 8:31
  SPEAKER_00: It did something that that that that that that really changed so much about me.
• 8:39
  SPEAKER_00: People that that know me now and didn't know me for very haven't known me very long, they they have an assumption that I'm I just kind of have a positive outlook on life.
• 8:48
  SPEAKER_00: Not knowing that I was the total opposite of that one time.
• 8:51
  SPEAKER_00: What happened?
• 8:52
  SPEAKER_00: Somebody.
• 8:55
  SPEAKER_00: It just didn't just happen from study.
• 8:57
  SPEAKER_00: Now we now I I tell people study, I w I wish everybody knew the Bible really, really, really, really well.
• 9:03
  SPEAKER_00: Because if you don't, you get confused about things.
• 9:06
  SPEAKER_00: The Bible is the inspired word of God.
• 9:09
  SPEAKER_00: The word of God is true.
• 9:10
  SPEAKER_00: It tells us all these things about God, but it but so many people, there are atheists that can give you a good debate because they know that Bible really well.
• 9:21
  SPEAKER_00: They don't have revelation on who Jesus is personally to them, but they know what that Bible says in a lot of, in all the areas.
• 9:29
  SPEAKER_00: So you can know the book, but not know the person that the book is written about.
• 9:34
  SPEAKER_00: And when we and and and when we find out that he loves us, he says, I've loved you, so abide in my love.
• 9:40
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm telling you, if you'll abide in my love, your joy will be full.
• 9:44
  SPEAKER_00: We don't preach in the body of Christ, we have we do not preach too much about the love of God.
• 9:49
  SPEAKER_00: We do not preach too much about the goodness and the grace of God.
• 9:53
  SPEAKER_00: In my experience and my travels and the people I deal with, the vast majority do not know how much God loves them.
• 10:02
  SPEAKER_00: But he wants us to know.
• 10:03
  SPEAKER_00: And he helps us to know by being a friend to us that talks to us.
• 10:07
  SPEAKER_00: He says, I'm telling you so these things so that your joy may be full.
• 10:10
  SPEAKER_00: In verse 13, he says something else about it.
• 10:14
  SPEAKER_00: He says, Greater love has no man than this, than to lay down one's life for his friends.
• 10:21
  SPEAKER_00: We're talking about the friendship.
• 10:23
  SPEAKER_00: A friend of God.
• 10:24
  SPEAKER_00: Don't be please don't be scared of that.
• 10:26
  SPEAKER_00: He said this himself.
• 10:28
  SPEAKER_00: He wants you to be his friend.
• 10:29
  SPEAKER_00: Yes, he's the creator.
• 10:30
  SPEAKER_00: Yes, he's awesome, yes, he's powerful, yes, he's almighty, yes, he's holy, yes, he's your father, yes, he's your Lord, yes, you can call him master, you can call him all but in all these things, Jesus wanted you to know we're friends.
• 10:45
  SPEAKER_00: In fact, uh the word when you talk about Lord and Master, you even want to be careful about it because you don't want to let that term make it look like you're a servant.
• 10:56
  SPEAKER_00: Because Jesus actually, look at verse 15.
• 11:00
  SPEAKER_00: He says, No longer do I call you servants.
• 11:03
  SPEAKER_00: Ooh.
• 11:07
  SPEAKER_00: That makes you think twice about certain things when you say, I just want to serve God.
• 11:12
  SPEAKER_00: Well, we do in a sense.
• 11:15
  SPEAKER_00: We were talking this morning about serving him like you know, waiting, like a waiter waits.
• 11:20
  SPEAKER_00: We we we end up, we find out we want to do for God.
• 11:24
  SPEAKER_00: We want to praise him, we want to worship him, we want to, we want to obey him.
• 11:29
  SPEAKER_00: We just we want to do whatever he says, we just want to do it, but we we we do it not because we're compelled as a slave, but because of this friendship that we have with God.
• 11:39
  SPEAKER_00: He says, I no longer call you servants.
• 11:42
  SPEAKER_00: So think of it differently.
• 11:43
  SPEAKER_00: Think of intimacy here.
• 11:45
  SPEAKER_00: He says, because a servant doesn't know what his master is doing.
• 11:48
  SPEAKER_00: They don't know each other well.
• 11:51
  SPEAKER_00: One has a job and the other has a job.
• 11:53
  SPEAKER_00: But he says, I don't call you servants because the servant and the master don't have the relationship that I'm talking about.
• 11:59
  SPEAKER_00: He didn't come to make us servants and him be a master.
• 12:03
  SPEAKER_00: He says, they don't, he says, I wanted the relationship.
• 12:05
  SPEAKER_00: The servant doesn't know his master, but I have called you friends.
• 12:10
  SPEAKER_00: One thing you can say about friends is they know each other.
• 12:13
  SPEAKER_00: Somebody asked me, Do you know, do you know so and so?
• 12:16
  SPEAKER_00: I'll either say, I know them, or I'll say, I know of them, or I've never heard of them, or I'll say, Yes, that's my friend.
• 12:28
  SPEAKER_00: And you go to that level, and that level goes all beyond the other ones because there's a deeper connection, there's a deeper intimacy, there's a deeper knowledge of each other than just knowing somebody or just knowing about somebody.
• 12:42
  SPEAKER_00: When you go to the point where you say, that's my friend, it's because you know a lot about them and they know a lot about you.
• 12:49
  SPEAKER_00: There has been a lot of interaction here.
• 12:52
  SPEAKER_00: When we're talking about listening, when we're talking about the voice, when we're talking about listening to God in 2021, this is the way to be happy this year.
• 13:01
  SPEAKER_00: Your joy will be full.
• 13:04
  SPEAKER_00: When we're talking about listening to God, we're talking about being aware of a friend that we have that speaks to us in this wonderful, wonderful voice.
• 13:18
  SPEAKER_00: And we'll talk about that in just a moment.
• 13:20
  SPEAKER_00: He says, I've heard, he says, verse 15, no longer do I call you servants, for a servant doesn't know what his master is doing, but I've called you friends, because everything that I heard from my father, I've made known to you.
• 13:33
  SPEAKER_00: Verse 16.
• 13:35
  SPEAKER_00: You did not choose me, but I chose you.
• 13:37
  SPEAKER_00: What a friend.
• 13:40
  SPEAKER_00: He chose you.
• 13:43
  SPEAKER_00: He wanted you.
• 13:46
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, get this.
• 13:47
  SPEAKER_00: Now think of this.
• 13:48
  SPEAKER_00: Who are you in this?
• 13:50
  SPEAKER_00: Who are you in the eyes of God?
• 13:53
  SPEAKER_00: Now, if you hear this, if you hear with with hearing ears, this goes beyond theology.
• 14:02
  SPEAKER_00: Because most people in theology will say, yes, God chose me, yes, God loves me, yes, God is good.
• 14:09
  SPEAKER_00: You know, somebody can tell you that that so-and-so loves you.
• 14:15
  SPEAKER_00: And maybe you even believe it, believe it intellectually when you hear it.
• 14:20
  SPEAKER_00: But, you know, let's say uh there's somebody named Fred Jones in the next town over, and they say, you know, Fred Jones really loves you, and you know who Fred Jones is.
• 14:32
  SPEAKER_00: And and you think, well, that's great.
• 14:34
  SPEAKER_00: I'm glad he does.
• 14:36
  SPEAKER_00: But if you never talk to Fred Jones, you know, much, you never, you don't get to experience that love.
• 14:42
  SPEAKER_00: You don't get to feel that love.
• 14:44
  SPEAKER_00: You don't get to enjoy the love of the person that's doing the loving if all you have done is heard that they love you.
• 14:51
  SPEAKER_00: And I think a lot of times, a lot of people they they they they hear and hear and hear that God loves you.
• 14:56
  SPEAKER_00: I know I did for a long time.
• 14:58
  SPEAKER_00: A long time, and I believed it.
• 15:00
  SPEAKER_00: If anybody would have asked me, does God love you?
• 15:02
  SPEAKER_00: I would have said yes.
• 15:03
  SPEAKER_00: I would have said yes, he loves us all.
• 15:04
  SPEAKER_00: He loves everybody.
• 15:05
  SPEAKER_00: I would have said yes, for God so loved the world that he gave.
• 15:10
  SPEAKER_00: I could have given you all the scriptures.
• 15:13
  SPEAKER_00: But for a good many years of my belief in him, I didn't feel that love.
• 15:22
  SPEAKER_00: I didn't experience that love.
• 15:24
  SPEAKER_00: And because I didn't experience that love, I had this feeling of never being able to rise up, never quite being enough, never quite knowing enough, never quite, it was always this sense of lack where I just needed more.
• 15:39
  SPEAKER_00: I would go to places where they would, where they were all crying out for more of God, more of God, more of God, because I always felt inadequate.
• 15:50
  SPEAKER_00: And something happened when I found out that God loved me, I came into an intimacy, I came into a a relationship that I got just by knowing that.
• 16:02
  SPEAKER_00: Now listen to me.
• 16:04
  SPEAKER_00: I spent I I would spend so much time in the years before that pressing in, having these, locking myself in a room, trying to get close to God.
• 16:17
  SPEAKER_00: Trying to break through the veil, getting close to God, approaching God, wanting to know God, wanting to get close to God, trying to push into that holy of holies and get into that secret place of the Most High, that was a secret place as if I were on the outside and not still trying to press in.
• 16:36
  SPEAKER_00: And it seemed so hard.
• 16:38
  SPEAKER_00: Because it felt like this God that I wanted to know more, this God I wanted to experience more, it's like He was leaving most of it on me and saying, Come on, Rick, press harder.
• 16:49
  SPEAKER_00: Keep trying.
• 16:51
  SPEAKER_00: It's been 10 years now, try another 10 years, and then after 10 years, try another, and just keep on trying, Rick.
• 16:58
  SPEAKER_00: Come on, Rick, cry out some more.
• 17:01
  SPEAKER_00: Shout a little louder, jump a little higher, give a little more, do something more, more, more, more, and more.
• 17:08
  SPEAKER_00: And I was willing to do all those things because biblically I wanted to do the right things.
• 17:14
  SPEAKER_00: And I did want to know him.
• 17:16
  SPEAKER_00: I did want to love him more.
• 17:18
  SPEAKER_00: I did want to be more obedient.
• 17:20
  SPEAKER_00: I did want to experience God more.
• 17:26
  SPEAKER_00: And in our religion, we have, we do have many, many experiences.
• 17:31
  SPEAKER_00: But it was it was it was never lasting because at the core of my feeling, I didn't have that deep-rooted, deep-rooted happiness that only comes from what Jesus said right here, knowing that as the Father loved him, he loves us.
• 17:51
  SPEAKER_00: And when I found out he loved me, I got everything that all my pressing and pushing and and crying out and and and seeking, all that that could not quite accomplish, I got it just by seeing.
• 18:12
  SPEAKER_00: Just by seeing that he loved me, cared about me, loved me, loved me.
• 18:22
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, loved me.
• 18:23
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, he found, I mean, it went beyond that.
• 18:25
  SPEAKER_00: I I had this sense.
• 18:27
  SPEAKER_00: I couldn't help it.
• 18:28
  SPEAKER_00: I was afraid to say it for a while, but I felt like he doesn't just love me, he likes me.
• 18:35
  SPEAKER_00: He really gets a kick out of me, you know.
• 18:40
  SPEAKER_00: And I don't know any person that does that does that, but he really, I mean, where did you get that?
• 18:46
  SPEAKER_00: Rick, where's that in the Bible?
• 18:47
  SPEAKER_00: I was feeling it.
• 18:49
  SPEAKER_00: I was hearing it from him, I was expect I was getting it, and it was it was filling my heart in a way that was giving me this deep-rooted inspired happiness inside me that gave me a sense of fullness, and it moved me into these other things, such as praying without ceasing.
• 19:17
  SPEAKER_00: So let's talk about praying without ceasing.
• 19:20
  SPEAKER_00: Praying without ceasing really comes from what we've just been talking about.
• 19:28
  SPEAKER_00: I've told you, I've tried praying without ceasing.
• 19:31
  SPEAKER_00: Have you ever tried it?
• 19:32
  SPEAKER_00: Probably if somebody's just said, I already know where my limitations are.
• 19:35
  SPEAKER_00: I don't even I can't even imagine praying without stopping.
• 19:39
  SPEAKER_00: How does that happen?
• 19:40
  SPEAKER_00: When God is a friend who is always with you, there is a constant communication.
• 19:50
  SPEAKER_00: Now, some of you guys, I see you just I see I see you just once in a while.
• 19:54
  SPEAKER_00: If I go to Geneva's house, there's gonna be communication.
• 19:57
  SPEAKER_00: We're gonna sit there, we're gonna be talking about things because we're because we're there.
• 20:01
  SPEAKER_00: We're with each other.
• 20:05
  SPEAKER_00: And we can still love each other and be friends, but if I'm in another town, there's probably not gonna be a lot of constant communication.
• 20:11
  SPEAKER_00: But as long as I'm there, as long as I'm close, if I'm coming to your house, we're probably gonna do some talking.
• 20:15
  SPEAKER_00: We're probably gonna be doing some back and forth.
• 20:17
  SPEAKER_00: There will be some communication if I'm near you.
• 20:23
  SPEAKER_00: When you know and see, and instead of us trying, we are trying to draw close to God.
• 20:30
  SPEAKER_00: He, the Bible tells us he has made us near because of the cross.
• 20:34
  SPEAKER_00: And God is near.
• 20:36
  SPEAKER_00: God is a friend, and he's always, always, always with you.
• 20:41
  SPEAKER_00: You will you're never alone, never without help.
• 20:44
  SPEAKER_00: And this is good in your times of trouble, in 2021, in times of trouble, stress, anxiety, fear, anger, whatever.
• 20:52
  SPEAKER_00: Remember, you got a friend.
• 20:54
  SPEAKER_00: You're not in this by yourself.
• 20:56
  SPEAKER_00: You've got a friend right here, and there is communication there.
• 20:59
  SPEAKER_00: Now, when I found out how much God loved me, it filled me with this deep-seated inspired happiness.
• 21:06
  SPEAKER_00: And that inspired happiness opened me up to the realization of being close to God, and I found out there was this talking going on, and some things started changing.
• 21:24
  SPEAKER_00: Instead of me approaching God and and and and this bothered me at first because I didn't know if I was if if if it was okay for me to be like this.
• 21:32
  SPEAKER_00: But instead of approaching God and like, oh dear father, oh dear Lord, you know, and just and praying in a way, sometimes even praying a little King James, who knows?
• 21:44
  SPEAKER_00: I don't, but but but praying in a in a in a in a more formal way, we'll say.
• 21:49
  SPEAKER_00: That started to stop because I felt close.
• 21:53
  SPEAKER_00: And I started talking to my father, and that's how I relate to him mostly, to Me, for me personally, as my my heavenly father, but he's a friend to me.
• 22:04
  SPEAKER_00: He's somebody that I know.
• 22:07
  SPEAKER_00: And I started relating to him that way, and I started talking that way.
• 22:11
  SPEAKER_00: And sometimes I'd call him dad or daddy.
• 22:15
  SPEAKER_00: And it seemed like he would always talk to me and call me son.
• 22:20
  SPEAKER_00: And there was this communication going on.
• 22:23
  SPEAKER_00: And I remember after this change started happening.
• 22:26
  SPEAKER_00: This happened with the revelation of how good God is, that he loves me, and that his grace was sufficient and he took care of everything, and it wasn't all on me, it was all on him, and he did it all, and he did all this stuff because he loved me so much, not in theological terms, but he really, really did.
• 22:41
  SPEAKER_00: And I noticed that I was talking like that, and I wasn't.
• 22:45
  SPEAKER_00: Now I'm not saying don't set aside time time for prayer.
• 22:49
  SPEAKER_00: That's a good thing to do, but I hadn't found myself, I I wasn't doing that so much.
• 22:53
  SPEAKER_00: And I talked to God and I said, I feel bad.
• 22:55
  SPEAKER_00: I said, God, one thing about this, I'm loving this revelation.
• 22:58
  SPEAKER_00: I'm feeling so close to you.
• 22:59
  SPEAKER_00: My heart is filled with joy.
• 23:01
  SPEAKER_00: I'm feeling the love, and I feel love for people, and and and this is the most wonderful thing that's happened, but I'm concerned about some things.
• 23:09
  SPEAKER_00: I find out that I'm that I'm I don't really feel like like starting my day with an hour in the prayer closet.
• 23:15
  SPEAKER_00: I don't I don't feel like I like I set aside time to do these things anymore.
• 23:19
  SPEAKER_00: And I I you know I don't I know that I should be praying, and I feel bad because I'm not praying like I was.
• 23:25
  SPEAKER_00: And and and I heard the Lord speak to me because he's right there.
• 23:29
  SPEAKER_00: And my heart was open to him by knowing that love.
• 23:32
  SPEAKER_00: And he said, What are you doing right now?
• 23:34
  SPEAKER_00: Well, right now I'm talking to you.
• 23:37
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, I'm praying.
• 23:40
  SPEAKER_00: He says, How often do you talk to me?
• 23:42
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm like, it seems like just kind of like all the time, you know, just you're just always there.
• 23:48
  SPEAKER_00: So whenever I want to say something, you're I just say it, and whenever I want to ask something, I just ask it.
• 23:54
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, I'm praying without ceasing and didn't even know it.
• 23:57
  SPEAKER_00: Why?
• 23:58
  SPEAKER_00: Because I was aware that somebody was right there.
• 24:01
  SPEAKER_00: I didn't have to go into the closet and find him.
• 24:05
  SPEAKER_00: I didn't have to go to get on my knees and break the heavens so that God could do something.
• 24:12
  SPEAKER_00: He said, What do you do?
• 24:13
  SPEAKER_00: And he said, I said, well, I'm talking to you.
• 24:16
  SPEAKER_00: How often do you do it?
• 24:17
  SPEAKER_00: I do it all day long.
• 24:23
  SPEAKER_00: What are you telling me most of the time?
• 24:25
  SPEAKER_00: I said, Well, mostly I'm just kind of like thanking you for stuff because I'm really happy right now.
• 24:31
  SPEAKER_00: We'll get into that next.
• 24:32
  SPEAKER_00: Here's something about your friend's voice, your father's voice, your shepherd's voice.
• 24:38
  SPEAKER_00: His voice is always kind, it is it always inspires you toward love, and that's where you experience the inner heaven.
• 24:51
  SPEAKER_00: The heaven in your heart, the love, joy, peace, and so on.
• 24:55
  SPEAKER_00: If you're mad at somebody, stop and listen to your best friend.
• 25:00
  SPEAKER_00: Say, I'm having a hard time here.
• 25:02
  SPEAKER_00: Tell me something.
• 25:02
  SPEAKER_00: Heard Trita talking about that.
• 25:04
  SPEAKER_00: What do you say?
• 25:08
  SPEAKER_00: And I don't I have never ever, when I've done that, I've never heard God say, You're right, stand your ground and tell him so.
• 25:16
  SPEAKER_00: He never told me that.
• 25:20
  SPEAKER_00: Somebody says, Well, maybe it's because you never are right, Rick.
• 25:22
  SPEAKER_00: Well, I think I am always right.
• 25:25
  SPEAKER_00: But anyway, it doesn't matter.
• 25:26
  SPEAKER_00: God doesn't care.
• 25:27
  SPEAKER_00: He always leads towards love, humility, grace, giving, not getting.
• 25:35
  SPEAKER_00: And as you listen to that, you find out that's where the power's at.
• 25:39
  SPEAKER_00: And there's a key to joy.
• 25:40
  SPEAKER_00: That's how you keep stay in the joy.
• 25:42
  SPEAKER_00: That voice, that friend, you got somebody that cares.
• 25:45
  SPEAKER_00: How do you get?
• 25:46
  SPEAKER_00: How do you get where you are from where you were?
• 25:48
  SPEAKER_00: Somebody loved you, somebody cared for you, somebody was patient with you, somebody was kind to you.
• 25:53
  SPEAKER_00: It was God.
• 25:55
  SPEAKER_00: It was God nurturing you from the inside.
• 25:58
  SPEAKER_00: That voice speaking to you, teaching you things.
• 26:00
  SPEAKER_00: When you fell on your face, he said, That's okay, son, that's okay, daughter.
• 26:04
  SPEAKER_00: Come on, get up.
• 26:05
  SPEAKER_00: I'm with you.
• 26:06
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, God, I really blew it.
• 26:08
  SPEAKER_00: I'm sorry, I'm sorry.
• 26:09
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, please forgive me.
• 26:10
  SPEAKER_00: And he's like, It's okay.
• 26:12
  SPEAKER_00: I'm your friend here.
• 26:14
  SPEAKER_00: I love you.
• 26:15
  SPEAKER_00: I'm with you.
• 26:16
  SPEAKER_00: I'll help you with this.
• 26:18
  SPEAKER_00: Not saying that what you did was a good thing.
• 26:21
  SPEAKER_00: He didn't say that, but it's okay that you blew it.
• 26:27
  SPEAKER_00: You can always go forward.
• 26:29
  SPEAKER_00: By that I mean there is no condemnation in it.
• 26:32
  SPEAKER_00: There's always nurturing.
• 26:35
  SPEAKER_00: And it tends you, and his leading tends you more towards love, which is perfection and which is absolute holiness.
• 26:42
  SPEAKER_00: And as he's leading you in those things of graciousness, forgiveness, peace, joy, all the things of God.
• 26:51
  SPEAKER_00: It's always the things of God.
• 26:53
  SPEAKER_00: That's what you want and what you need.
• 26:54
  SPEAKER_00: Anyway, that's where your inner heaven comes from.
• 26:56
  SPEAKER_00: It gives you a deep-seated joy.
• 27:03
  SPEAKER_00: And it results in finally what I said in everything giving thanks.
• 27:09
  SPEAKER_00: This is gratitude.
• 27:11
  SPEAKER_00: Thanksgiving.
• 27:14
  SPEAKER_00: Gratitude is the appreciation of kindness.
• 27:22
  SPEAKER_00: Appreciation of kindness.
• 27:26
  SPEAKER_00: The appreciation comes because you have experienced how kind He is.
• 27:32
  SPEAKER_00: You experienced how kind He speaks to you as your friend.
• 27:36
  SPEAKER_00: You've experienced just how kind and gently he leads you.
• 27:40
  SPEAKER_00: You've experienced how kind he is in giving you so much, inwardly and outwardly.
• 27:47
  SPEAKER_00: And because your eyes are open this way, you are more aware of the goodness and blessing of God in your life than a few of these bad, hard things that are going on.
• 27:59
  SPEAKER_00: So there's a lot more expression of gratitude.
• 28:03
  SPEAKER_00: Your main prayer becomes Thanksgiving, Thanksgiving.
• 28:06
  SPEAKER_00: I I think I would guess that probably it just seems like.
• 28:10
  SPEAKER_00: And I don't do this, I don't have to do this on purpose.
• 28:13
  SPEAKER_00: I don't make a list, I don't make a point, but it just seems like at least 90% of my prayer and talking to God, would you say, is thank you, Jesus.
• 28:24
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you, Father.
• 28:25
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you, God.
• 28:26
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you.
• 28:27
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, God, you're so good.
• 28:28
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, God, you're so good.
• 28:29
  SPEAKER_00: Where does that come from?
• 28:30
  SPEAKER_00: Sometime I'll get a little bit of that Holy Ghost jerk, a little, you know, almost where it's just like, just like you get this feeling inside you.
• 28:37
  SPEAKER_00: You're just going along about your business, driving down the road or signing a check or something.
• 28:41
  SPEAKER_00: You're just whatever.
• 28:42
  SPEAKER_00: And you get this, oh God, you're so good.
• 28:44
  SPEAKER_00: Where does that come from?
• 28:45
  SPEAKER_00: You have this awareness, this deep-seated joy, because you know his love and you know his kindness, and the expression just comes out because you have a gratitude and appreciation for the kindness of God.
• 29:00
  SPEAKER_00: Would y'all stand up?
• 29:02
  SPEAKER_00: Rejoice always.
• 29:05
  SPEAKER_00: Pray without ceasing, and rejoice, and in everything giving thanks simply comes from knowing your friend.
• 29:13
  SPEAKER_00: And then all these things we talked about, what are we doing here?
• 29:17
  SPEAKER_00: We're hearing his expression, we're hearing his voice, we're hearing the shepherd's voice, and it's bringing us to rejoicing, to communication, and thanksgiving.
• 29:27
  SPEAKER_00: Father, thank you for a new year, a new adventure, new, new, a new, a new time for us to navigate this thing we call life on earth.
• 29:45
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you for being with us.
• 29:47
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you that we always will have a shepherd.
• 29:49
  SPEAKER_00: We always have you.
• 29:51
  SPEAKER_00: And because you are with us, we shall not fear.
• 29:54
  SPEAKER_00: We thank you for your goodness.
• 29:56
  SPEAKER_00: We thank you, Father, for healing people's bodies right now in the name of Jesus.
• 29:59
  SPEAKER_00: For those that need healing, they got sickness, pain, or disease in their body.
• 30:03
  SPEAKER_00: We thank you, Father, that your goodness is ministering to that right now in Jesus' name.
• 30:08
  SPEAKER_00: We thank you for quickening those mortal bodies.
• 30:12
  SPEAKER_00: Pain going away, symptoms being made well, deep things being uprooted.
• 30:22
  SPEAKER_00: We thank you for the blessing on everyone here, for you are with us.
• 30:25
  SPEAKER_00: Amen.