How can I prepare myself?

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Transcript

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Welcome to the Be and Become Podcast, featuring Francois Carr, a hard following and collected life ministry. Francois's international ministry equips and encourages pastors, ministry leaders, and fellow Christians as they discover what it means to truly be and become the followers they were meant to be. Thank you for joining Francois today as he offers a few words of encouragement from God's Word.

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They were two men that came to the temple with the intention to pray, to seek the face of the Lord, and to hear from him. But Jesus said only one of them walk away blessed. And God wants us to be blessed as we spend some time with him, but also as we prepare and to encounter with him at a meeting place. And so how can we prepare ourselves to meet with the Lord? And I think it's so important that we need to ready ourselves for that moment because we want the Lord to speak to us, to meet with us, and to encounter us. Remember, the Pharisees in the day of the Lord Jesus had all the right tools to understand the Scripture, except this one most important tool. The relationship to God is the key to unlock the scriptures. Jesus said in John chapter 5, verses 39, you search the scriptures, for in them you think that you have eternal life. And these are they which testify of me, but you are not willing to come to me that you may have life. In other words, you can look at the scriptures, but you will not have eternal life. But eternal life comes through me and then to understand the scriptures. It is clear if we teach people how to study the Bible without the relationship, we will produce Pharisees and not disciples. If we teach people to pray and to seek the relationship without Bible study, we will produce shallow believers who will be tossed around by every wind of doctrine, and therefore there needs to be a balance between the reading of God's Word, spending some time in prayer, but based on the foundation of a relationship with God which is available through Jesus Christ and intimacy with Him. So as I prepare myself to spend some time in the Word or go to a meeting on a Sunday morning, I ask myself some questions. And the first question is, is my heart clean before God? When I come to the Bible with the intention of meeting with God, I prepare myself for entering a holy place. This is a holy moment as we spend some time with him in the reading of his word or as we go to a place of meeting. In Psalm 24, the Bible says, Who may ascend into the hill of the Lord, who may stand in his holy place, who has clean hands and a pure heart, who has not lift up his soul to an idol, nor swoorn deceitfully. He shall receive a blessing from the Lord and righteousness from the God of His salvation. And therefore, cleansing must happen before God will take us by the hand and walks through with us through the most holy place. David says in Psalm 139, Search me, O God, and know my way, and try me and know my anxieties and see if there's any wicked way in me and lead me in the way everlasting. So therefore we have to allow the Lord to search our hearts and bring cleansing, the cleansing of sin, that He may that He may lead us in the way of everlasting life. And this is the first question I'm always asking the Lord. We cannot really skip this when we try to understand the scriptures, because it is the key, it is the door that will lead us into the holy place where God can show us the great things of His kingdom. There's a wonderful promise for us if we do ask Him to cleanse us. In 1 John chapter 1 verse 9, the Bible says, If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. The second question is, is there any evidence of the Holy Spirit working in my life at the moment? In John chapter 16, verse 13, the Bible speaks about this. He said, When the Spirit of truth has come, he will guide us in all truth, for he will not speak on his own authority. But whatever he hears, he will speak, and he will tell you things to come. The role of the Holy Spirit is so important when we try to meet the Lord and to have an encounter or understand the Bible as we are reading the scriptures. And so the question is not today, are you saved and born again? Because we know that the Holy Spirit is the one that brings us to a place that we can have an experience of intimacy and know the Lord Jesus Christ as our personal Savior. But He is the one that will lead us and guide us and control us. And so the question is we need to ask the question for you and for I to just to take a moment and to let the Holy Spirit search our hearts and see if your life and my life, but from his perspective, easy in control, easy making a visible difference. Are you filled with the Spirit of God? If you don't have any confidence in this area of your life, ask him to fill you. Just don't take it for granted, but keep asking to do it in your life what you cannot do on your own. Because we have to start to live with the activity of the Holy Spirit in our hearts and life. And so the question for me is, is the Holy Spirit actively in control, leading and guiding, convicting, sharing, revealing more of Christ to me in this moment, or is nothing happening in my life at the moment? And then I'm watching to see as the Holy Spirit will reveal more of Christ through the scriptures and guide me in all truth. The third question is, what has God recently said to me? The Bible says in John chapter 14, is that Jesus the Holy Spirit said, when he sends him in the name of his Father, in his name, he will teach us all things and bring to remembrance all the things that Christ has said to us. And so the question for me in my own life is, what is God being saying to me? Did I hear the voice of God? We know that God's plan and purpose is to change us and to transform us. And he always speaks to us with a purpose and with a reason. But why don't we hear the voice of God? And as I as I reflect upon this, I realize sometimes I don't find myself at the right place to be able to hear what God is saying to me, because he know that I will not respond in obedience because I don't find myself at a good place in my spiritual life. Or God has spoken already, but I have just not responded in obedience yet. Or God have spoken, but I did not recognize his voice when he spoke to me. Or I did not hear when God was answering me because he did not answer the way that I wanted him to answer me. And so I want to encourage you to take a moment and ask the Holy Spirit to bring to your mind what you have already heard from God in the Bible. Meditate for a moment as you regain your awareness of his activity in your life. Then look around you and allow the Holy Spirit to help you to understand your circumstances in terms of what God is doing in your life in this moment. The fourth question is Am I obeying the last thing that God has said? In other words, God will not say something new to me today if I haven't responded to Him that He told me to do yesterday. Jesus said in Luke chapter 6, why do you call me Lord, Lord, do the things that I say? To see, to calling the Lord Jesus Christ as Lord does not mean that he's the Lord of your life and my life. And therefore we have to obey what he has told us to do. And so I ask myself, have I responded in obedience already when God spoke to me the previous time when I spent some time with him? And the last question is, Am I ready to say yes, Lord, even before I encounter the Lord? Because the heart of obedience is critical when it comes to hearing what God is saying to us through his word. And we must be able to answer God even before we start our study of the Bible, our quiet time in the morning, or come to a meeting place with the Lord, to say yes, Lord, even before we are meeting with him. And so I want to encourage you to take a moment and to recognize that God has a right on your life and let him know that your answer is yes, Lord, no matter what he says or asking you to do. And so remember, Christianity is not a legal relationship, it's not just tradition, it's a love relationship. And Jesus said, if you love me and you obey me, me and my father will come and reveal ourselves more and more unto you, and even will dwell with you. And so when I come to a place of meeting in my quiet time in the morning, or as I prepare myself for a Sunday morning session, I always take a moment just to reflect upon God's activity in my life. Is my heart clean and pure, my hands? Is God actively at work in my life? Is God speaking to me? As I have I responded to the last thing God has asked me to do, and am I willing to say yes, Lord, even before I start to meet with Him again? May God bless you.

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Thank you for listening to this Be and Become episode with Francois Carr. For more information about the ministry, visit the website at ConnectedLifeministries.com. We hope you'll join Francois next time as he continues the conversation on what it means to be and become the follower you are meant to be.