The Prayer Culture Podcast
This is the new and improved prayer culture podcast with all the latest episodes. In this podcast we talk about different types of prayer, stories about how God has done powerful things in prayer, and practical ways to engage with the Lord and pray with others. If you love prayer and the word of God this is the podcast for you.
The Prayer Culture Podcast
How do I give God 100% of my Attention?
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Is it important for me to have set aside time with the Lord or can I pray as I go? Is this important to the Lord? How do I practically give 100% attention to the Lord? We will cover these and more in this episode of The Prayer Culture Podcast.
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Like I said, doing things with the Lord while I'm at the grocery store, while I'm at work, while I'm at school, while I'm at those things, I'm I'm attentive to what he wants to say. Um, but he's not getting 100%. This is the Pair Culture Podcast. All right. Thanks for joining us at the Paraculture Podcast. Uh well, hang on. Uh someone sitting down. Who is it? Hasty it's on I came in, I came in late. Um I I don't have a word. I don't have a word. Um the established Jonathan Brown. Is that what he is now? Maybe yes. Established. The rock solid.
SPEAKER_07Rock solid.
SPEAKER_08The rooted one. The rooted one. The one who grounds uh this podcast in reality. No, actually. Oh my gosh.
SPEAKER_07You know what's so funny? I feel like when it saying someone's established is almost like saying that, oh, this person's like a professional thing. Like um uh you usually like in sports, whenever somebody says, Oh, you know, he's like a professional quarterback. That means he's like he's not a terrible quarterback, but he's not like super great either.
SPEAKER_05This is the worst the journeyman. The journeyman wants to be the journeyman in sports. So you're good enough to be here, but not good enough to stay anywhere. Oh wow. Someone's always good enough to replace you. Yeah, exactly.
SPEAKER_07Push somewhere else and it's traded, you get used in trades. Yeah.
SPEAKER_08It's like uh what's it, Fitzpatrick, the the house? Yeah, he's like one of those guys. Yeah, such a journeyman. Yeah. Uh awesome. Okay. Well, we didn't come on here today to talk about quarterbacks. We came to talk about prayer because this is the prayer culture podcast. Okay, so today's topic I think is um really, really practical. It's praying on the go versus stopping to pray and praying in the secret place. And so um, I think this issue I mean, I think it's really interesting. Um because culturally we do a lot of stuff on the run.
SPEAKER_05Yeah.
SPEAKER_08We do so much on the run. Our whole lives, it feels like, are on the run, and always jumping from one thought to the next and one uh thing on the phone screen to the next, scrolling has exasperated this. It's just very fast. Our culture is very attention deficit. Yes. Yeah, yes. So we all have a form of ADD uh culturally, yeah. And so I I think the first thing to establish here is first, do we all agree that prayer is not just a ritual, it is a relational conversation connection? Yeah, of course. Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_07Yeah, I would say I agree with that, yeah, for sure.
SPEAKER_08So, and I I want to just establish some biblical grounds for this, not so because it's not our authority that says this. Um, I mean, Jesus was an example of dialogue in the garden, right, with the father. Um, you got Ananias in Acts chapter nine. He talks with God about Paul and and God talks to him, you know, and so it's it's this dialogue relationship style that goes into it. Um, that's not to say there's no place for a ritual, there's no place for like repeated prayers or things like that, also. Um, but prayer generally is a a dialogue with God.
SPEAKER_05Did I just hear John Beadle screaming in the distance?
SPEAKER_08Father John Beadle, listen to this episode.
SPEAKER_05He just somewhere John Beadle just went. Yes. If you're in someplace, there's a place for it.
SPEAKER_08That's why we have every moment holy books here. They're uh they're uh they're red prayers. Yeah, um, hopefully hopefully you're reading them and then you're listening to God with them too. It's it's really it should be a dialogue.
SPEAKER_05So and you wait, just to stop you, that came to mind. You're what you're not trying to set up here is that either praying on the go is better than the kind of you know, praying in the secret place, yeah, or vice versa. We're not trying to set up a you have to choose one. Right. But it's like what how do we the Bible teaches both, so you need to do both.
SPEAKER_07And I think the thing that's gonna be the overlap as we're talking about this, because when I think about the more real ritualistic, um, like like praying or like call and response kind of things, it really comes down to like intentionality. I think that's gonna be kind of the overlap between both, it's just being intentional and knowing the purpose of it.
SPEAKER_08That's good. Yeah, well, and the truth is, okay, so if we're talking about relational dialogue here um with the Lord, uh when you have relational dialogue with another person, um, it does take different forms. Uh sometimes you're talking on the phone. Okay, great. You're talking on the phone to somebody and you're going to something. There's nothing wrong with that. But let's say with your wife, you you only talk to her on the go. You only talk to her while you're on the phone, you only talk to her while you're going somewhere. When you're talking to her at home, you're scrolling. Multitasking, you're multitasking. Um, and so if you're only doing that, you're going to have a problem relationally. Strained. Yeah. Yeah, it's gonna be strained inevitably. Uh, and and if you always do that, it's most certainly gonna break. Um, if you don't ever give full attention.
SPEAKER_09Yeah.
SPEAKER_08And I think that's what we're ultimately talking about here is you need to designate a place for full attention, as hard as that is.
SPEAKER_09Yeah.
SPEAKER_08Um, you can't just say, okay, my relationship with God is always on the go. It should be on the go because the Bible says that pray without ceasing, right? Pray without ceasing is I'm in constant communication with God. When I'm out and walking, uh, and when I'm at the grocery store, the Lord shows me, Hey, talk to that person. Okay, Lord, what do I say to him? You know, like have that constant contact. The other is not bad, but it can't be exclusive.
SPEAKER_05Yeah. Yeah. So uh, you know, a friend of ours who uh is a really respected pastor in the community, Jeff Wells, he always uh encourages uh their church to spend unhurried time with God. And that's his phrase, unhurried time with God. And he's always, you know, he's a gracious guy and he's not trying to be legalistic, so it's like, you know, uh we're not saying you have to spend hours a day. Uh he's not saying you shouldn't, but if it's not hours, but he always goes, but it's not ten minutes. And I'm always like, well that sounds a little legalistic. No, no, not really. But you know, he's he's not trying to put some kind of minimal time on what it looks like to be unhurried, but he always does throw in there, you know, it's not ten minutes. Because it's like you can squeeze ten minutes in anywhere. Yeah. You could be very hurried and spend ten minutes on something. So it the point is, like you said, to have intentional, uh decided on kind of time with the Lord. Yeah. Yeah.
SPEAKER_08Well, and even if it starts with 10 minutes, I will say this um as a little pushback, just just on the timing, the amount of time when he comes on, we'll talk about it. So um it's for 10 minutes for some people without the phone, without scrolling, yeah, because the the screens are an addiction. Yeah, and it fills all the empty space in your life right now if you're not intentional. Like John said, be intentional.
SPEAKER_07Yeah.
SPEAKER_08So like even 10 minutes to just stop, no screen, only Jesus, it's very challenging. It can feel like an hour. It can feel like a very long time.
SPEAKER_09Yeah.
SPEAKER_08So the point is, the heart of it is, and yes, it should become more than 10 minutes for sure. Um, but the point is, even starting somewhere, even if it were 10 minutes, being intentional to set aside everything and make space. Yeah. And and and develop that, absolutely. So um, like I said, there's a lot of there's a lot of scriptural examples of both. So, like, for example, Jesus says, um, talks, you know, in in terms of the setting aside specific time, a dedicated time, a place. Yeah. And Matthew 6, 6, but when you pray, go into your room, close the door, and pray to your father who is is unseen. Then your father who sees what is done in secret will reward you. I don't think you can get more clear than that. Who's who's hurried and distracted in their closet? Right. Yeah. Like that's that he's just saying that's what you should do. Yeah. Very clearly. Um, and then he did it. He was an example of it continuously. So there's several passages. One is Mark 135. But when you pray, go into your room, close the door, and pray. And I'm sorry, that's what I put before. Ah man, I pasted the same one on my notes. Oh. The point is, Mark, Mark 135 actually is a story about Jesus separating himself to go and pray. He did it so many times. Yeah. And if it was important to him, it should be important to us.
SPEAKER_05Yeah. And and, you know, on the other end of it, he also prayed in the street in the middle of crowds. Yeah. Because something was happening right there, and he's going, okay, father, you know. Yeah. Uh so yeah, he definitely modeled both.
SPEAKER_07And I would say, like, another layer to it, and I call it another layer just because I feel like some people might like see it as a different interpretation, but I just see it as a whole nother layer. Another layer to it is I think what he's also talking about here is that what you do in what you do in secret and on your own, what you actually dedicate time to personally, is gonna be that's the thing that's going to show where your actual relationship with the Lord is. Because when you're on the go and you're interacting with other people and you're praying and stuff like that, that's a good way to kind of be out and be like, oh yeah, I gotta, I gotta do this, or even showing other people. Because I think one of the things that Jesus always kind of battled back then too was people that kind of just prayed out in public because it's like, oh, hey, everyone, look, I'm praying and I do all these things. But if you're able to dedicate actually that the time in the secret place where you have the this real time with the Lord, you know, on your own, I think that that says a lot about where your relationship is with him too. And that's like, and that's what it like when he says, then your father who sees what is done in secret will reward you. Like he's the father that sees what's done in secret. He knows what you're doing behind closed doors. Are you spending that time with him or are you ignoring him? You know, yeah. That's good.
SPEAKER_08Yeah, that that secret place prayer life will um empower your your prayer life in public. Um and we we were talking to somebody who said that their their, I think it was their brother had um like has a really powerful prayer ministry and God does healing and stuff around him and stuff, but he prays eight hours a day by himself in his room all day. Wow.
SPEAKER_09Yeah.
SPEAKER_08Um and so, which sounds great, but here's the thing not everybody is can be a monk, you know. You have kids, you have a life, and so you're like, okay. So um I I will say this. One of the great things with my my wife, Sarah, is she figured out pretty early on when she's talking to me on the phone, there's a good chance I'm working while she's talking to me on the phone. Maybe I'm, you know, it's uh during the work day, and so I'm working on something on my computer and talking. So she and so she realizes she's not getting 100% of my attention.
SPEAKER_05Yeah.
SPEAKER_08She started to realize that. And so she started asking me, she's like, okay, how much attention am I getting percentage-wise right now? And so I tell her honestly, I'm like, just like that. She'll ask me that. Yeah.
SPEAKER_05Give me a percentage.
SPEAKER_08Yeah, she doesn't every time. Sometimes she can kind of just discern it, but so but a lot of times she'll say, Michael, how much percentage am I giving right now? And I tell her honestly, that 10%. About 50%. You getting 70 right now because the task I'm doing is not super mind intensive. Or babe, you're gonna get like maybe 30 right now at best. And uh and she decides if she can live with that, with what she's talking about. If it's like I just need to process something. Um and she knows I'm pretty good about picking up the summer summarization, even when the percentage is lower. I can pick up at least a bit of the the summarized portion. Yeah, yeah. So she understands that I am listening, but I'm not giving all of it. And so when we're on the go, I think it's similar with God. I don't think God's saying 24-7 a hundred percent of the time or 100% attention, because we he did design us to have jobs, work, provide for our family, do those things. He commands us to do that. Commands us to do that.
SPEAKER_07Just pray.
SPEAKER_08Yeah, yeah. So, so he's, you know, and there's a few exceptions where the Lord is calling somebody to some exceptional season or exceptional thing that he's doing. Yeah, but 99.9% of the time he's saying, Hey, don't pray, giving me 100% uh uh the the attention 24-7. Okay, I've got other things for you to do. So when you are on the go though, fellowship is part of, should be part in intertwined in all of our life and all our daily activities. Fellowship should be part of it. And so I'm going out and like I said, doing things with the Lord while I'm at the grocery store, I'm at work, while I'm at school, while I'm at those things, I'm I'm attentive to what he wants to say. Um, but he's not getting a hundred percent. And so if I only do that and I don't dedicate a separate thing, then um he he actually does need to get a hundred percent attention. He needs I need to give him a space to get a hundred percent attention regularly.
SPEAKER_05Yeah, yeah. You know, we talk about like ten minutes, um, and it you know, it's just a number, it's it's not actually meant to have some magical significance or something, but I have noticed um well actually I was it was during a season under Jeff's leadership. So I'm hearing this all the time about unhurried, unhurried time. And I started incorporating genuinely unhurried time where I don't have another plan. I'm unavailable. You know, I mean if my wife calls, I'll probably answer, you know, because she knows she but she knows where I am and she knows what I'm doing. And I started realizing I didn't really feel like I was hearing anything, understanding anything. My mind was just have you you guys ever seen those like like a game show or something like that where somebody goes into a phone booth and it's full of cash and the wind starts blowing and there's cash just flying out of it to grab it? That's my brain. That's my brain when I sit down to try to be quiet. I'm just like and it was usually 10, 15 minutes after sitting there that all of a sudden I would realize whoa, my brain is quiet. And then I would start talking to the Lord a little bit, I would start feeling like I was understanding something from him, he was putting things on my mind that were actually coming through. So I I've experienced that it really is so critical. If you want to commune with God, hear from God, you have to be willing to stop everything else and have devoted time, hundred percent attention given toward Him. And it needs to be long enough that your body and your brain can calm down because you're so used to living like that, you know? Used to living so busy and taking in so much information and stimuli. You've got to be able to calm down. So I think it's you know God knows us, He knows what we're like. Yeah. So He knows we need to stop.
SPEAKER_08It is easy to give up and pick up the phone within five or ten minutes.
SPEAKER_05I guess he's not gonna say anything.
SPEAKER_08I guess we're done here and you're you you're gonna miss so much if you if you don't do it. I had this beautiful encounter with the Lord um last night, and I was I was at a a prayer meeting with a few people, but like I had set aside like I was going before the Lord and I was really distracted, and I'm just like, God, like what do I need to ask for? What do I need to say? What do I need to do here with you? I don't know what to do. And I think that's a good question. Yeah, uh He's like, You don't need to do anything, like I'd I'd like to just walk with you for a bit. So just you know, I pace a little bit and and uh and we were actually listening to a worship song uh a charity go worship song where she says, I can't wait for eternity, and I just like God gave me a picture of heaven and me walking with Jesus. I'm like, man, Jesus, what do I say? And he's like, let's just walk so we just walk. And uh and I just get all this rest and joy and peace that fled my heart and my mind at that moment. And uh he ended up saying, because then I some doubt entered and the Lord calmed it in a really good way about treasure in heaven and stuff. So there's more to it. I don't want to share the whole thing. But basically, um, if I had not waited longer than five or ten minutes and dedicated that space for it, I would not have experienced that.
SPEAKER_04Right.
SPEAKER_08Right. So come on. That's true. That's why look at Jesus. Absolutely. Do what he does. Um, I mean, I've got some real practical ideas about how we can can do this, but I'd love to if John hasn't said much, so that's unsettling for me.
SPEAKER_07Unsettling. Uh no, I mean, I think that just even in my own life, I can, I think um, it's so crazy. I'm always making these fitness references.
SPEAKER_08But your wife is a personal trainer. Of course you're making fitness references.
SPEAKER_07That's what happens. But like I think to myself, like, when when you're it's like, yeah, it's like when you're eating bad, you you feel it, right? Like, and when you start eating good and you spend that time with the Lord, then you can tell when, oh wow, I'm actually feeling better. Like my body's actually functioning better. Um, you know, mentally and spiritually, I'm actually healthier right now. Um, and that time, and and really you get that from the time in the secret place. You get that during your quiet time, you get that when you're actually spending that intentional time with the Lord. Um, because once again, like, you know, he's the vine, we're the branches. The way that plants work is that the root pulls the nutrients and the moisture and all the stuff from the ground and feeds it to the rest of the plants. If any of the branches aren't connected to the source, then they're gonna wither away and die. So if we continue, if we like if like I in my own life, if I know that I'm not spending enough time with the Lord, I'm not pulling enough nutrients from the vine. And then that reflects in other parts of my life, that that reflects in my day. And it's so funny how how that how that routine and that and and that spiritual health then affects like it manifests physically, like like in like for me mentally, and like, you know, um where um I can just tell, like, you know, where I get, you know, I get I get more frustrated. I'm less at peace about things because now instead of seeing things and interacting with the world in the way that is more in line and in harmony with who Christ is, I'm leaning more on myself now, right? Because that's what happens when you start running out of gas. You um you begin leaning on yourself if you're on the go, on the go, on the go, on the go. Um and um say uh say like, okay, so this is a not a fit, not quite a fitness reference, but me and my son, we do karate, and our karate instructor basically tells us, you know, a black belt is a white belt when they're tired, right? So it's like if we if we interesting, if we like don't allow ourselves to have that that time to then pull from the source and and can really, really replenish ourselves, then we're running on E. You know. And then so, you know, that that's gonna then pour out and reflect. So all that to say, like for anybody who's like, oh man, but I have this to do, I have this in my schedule. Look, all those things that you're worried about getting done in your schedule, you know, all those things are gonna get be done probably better if you actually take the it's like that old saying, like, slow is fast. You know, sometimes if you actually take away that time that you spend doing all the other stuff you think you need to get done, and you spend it actually spending time with the Lord, you'll find when you do get to those things, you'll actually those things will you'll perform better. Like you have more clarity, yeah, exactly. Yeah, yeah. More energy for it.
SPEAKER_05I think it was was it Jonathan Edwards that has the famous quote that's like, if I don't spend my morning in prayer, there's no way I'll have enough time to get everything done.
SPEAKER_08That's Martin Luther.
SPEAKER_05Martin Luther, was that him? Yeah. Uh that's so counterintuitive, you know. But it's exactly what you're talking about. It's like getting that the getting energized and getting receiving wisdom and counsel from the Lord so that when you do go engage in these things, you actually kind of know what you're doing. Yeah. You know. You're not just kind of like a leaf blowing in the wind.
SPEAKER_08Yeah. Yeah. All that stuff you're hurrying to and you don't have time for the Lord for is gonna suffer because you didn't spend time with the Lord. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. Right. Yeah. Um, okay. So so like we said before, mm most people are not full time monks. Okay. So they have life.
SPEAKER_09Yeah.
SPEAKER_08And and life is busy. And so what are some practical things that I can do to like just set aside dedicated space? So I'm gonna share some and you guys have some ideas. I'd love to hear them. So um I'd say find an uninterruptible space. Like make it a sacred zone. And it doesn't have to be the closet. Like um, Sarah goes usually out to the back porch and sits there. Um, if the weather's nice enough, that's her closet. That's her closet, or we close the room door and it's like, okay, no kids in here right now. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. Uh, she'll turn on ambient worship music, and I do this a lot of times too. It's like, okay, you turn on some ambient worship instrument.
SPEAKER_05You're saying that ambient music. Ambient. Ambient.
SPEAKER_08Not ambient. Ambient. Ambient. Okay. Okay. So now, of course, that's not necessary for holiness or something. It's not gonna take like the early church didn't have you know speakers, so you're not having that. But they also didn't have smartphones, they didn't have smartphones. Like, I I think it can be very helpful to have worship music. Um, like I said, I got a cool encounter with God and it it started with a a lyric from a worship song, or have ambient worship music that just helps you stay focused. Um I think leaving your phone somewhere else is a huge win if you can. Um, if for some reason it's like, oh, well, I'm gonna play my worship music on it, or I use it to look up scriptures when God brings it to me, okay, but you gotta be, you just you can't do anything else on it, or you gotta leave it somewhere else. Like if you can't help but pick it up and get on Facebook or whatever, you gotta leave it somewhere else because you're always gonna revert to that.
SPEAKER_05And an addict can't trust himself. Yeah, you know, and and we have to admit we have an addiction to our cell phones. Sure, everybody, so yeah, they're dangerous.
SPEAKER_08Scientifically, we are addicted to them, yes. Yeah, yeah, absolutely. Um I think having questions to ask God is helpful, especially when you're starting out, and like you said, in that phase where you're like, Man, I'm just so distracted, and my mind is running it. It takes time to get there with the Lord. Just start asking him questions. Um, you know, I we've got in our two or more materials, if you go to the website, two or more.org, we've got a prayer guide that has like a list of questions you can ask God and scriptural backup for those questions. Um, but just an example is what do you think of me? What do you think of me, Lord? And then have your Bible with you and be ready to like think of a lot of times. What I think is most helpful is God fledging my with scripture, even if you don't have it memorized, so just like scripture, scripture. This is what I think of you.
SPEAKER_09Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_08And then you you think of that, and he'll share things with you that are consistent with scripture. I love you. Like, or I like you. You don't think I like you, but I actually like being around you.
SPEAKER_07Yeah, and calls you your friend.
SPEAKER_08Yeah, he's a friend. Yeah, yeah. So I think having questions um to ask God. Um, if you have a list that you regularly go through, that's fine. Or if you just like you come to God and okay, I'm gonna ask a question. What question am I gonna ask? Yeah, what should I do? Uh and sometimes he'll derail those questions. Yeah, like I told you, I said, Hey, God, what do we need to do? And he's like, nothing.
SPEAKER_05Yeah, yeah. Just be quiet. Yeah, yeah. Yeah.
SPEAKER_08Um, or sometimes like it's that doesn't mean it's bad to have an agenda in the sense that, like, hey, God, I have this question for you about this thing. Because he'll answer those things too. Um, but a lot of times he will say, Okay, wait, like, let's just let's just be. I want to, you know, I want you to experience my glory. I want you to experience who I am first before we do those things. Yeah. You know, and that's good. Um having a theme scripture, which this gets a little bit more liturgical, but I think having a theme scripture is really helpful. Me and my family for the last uh few years have uh uh on New Year's we'll uh have a scripture that we dedicate the year to, like a verse. Yeah, uh, and we memorize that verse. And this last year we we kind of turned it into a prayer thing. And so the verse for this year is um Psalm 86, 11, Teach me your way, O Lord, that I may walk in your truth, unite my heart to fear your name. And so I've started praying that each morning when I first go into prayer. Um not that I hit it every morning, I don't want anybody to think that I'm not perfect. But uh, but I I try to do it as much as possible. And um and that's been really powerful, just to have a baseline verse that I'm praying over my family, my wife, my kids, the people in my life. Um and I do it in different ways each morning. Sometimes I pray it by each name, sometimes it's the whole family. If you're in a hurry in the morning, okay. But pray pray that scripture over everybody and and then go, you know, if if that's that's what you need to do that morning. Um but I I found that's a really powerful thing to have kind of a baseline scripture, a theme of some kind.
SPEAKER_09Yeah.
SPEAKER_08Um, maybe that you change regularly, but that you're praying into. Yeah.
SPEAKER_05So that's good.
SPEAKER_08Um I like singing prayers. I also like singing, and you know, I think that I'm good at it, but Patrick can tell you otherwise because I I worship lead at his church, and you know.
SPEAKER_05I'm not saying otherwise, don't put that on me.
SPEAKER_08I'm saying if it is the case, I won't, I'm gonna try to not get my feelings hurt. You sing to be honest.
SPEAKER_05You sing well.
SPEAKER_08Okay, I sing well. Um, John sings uh angelically, he is gifted. He sings weller. He sounds he seems so so amazing. No, John's a gifted worship leader. And so um for me, I I like to sing spontaneous songs, and so I'll sing scripture or sing something to the Lord sometimes. And I don't, I I don't have that many inhibitions about people hearing me do it, but if you do, okay. If you like to sing, do it in the secret place where nobody's gonna hear it anyway. But God and He's gonna love the heart behind it if it's it's for the Lord. Yeah, yeah. So my last one is prayer journaling has been so, so helpful for me. I'd say that's like the number one thing that keeps me undistracted is writing things down. Okay. When I'm praying something to God, um, I don't always do this, but a lot of times I'll write down what I'm praying. Or as I'm waiting for him, he'll say things and I write those things down. Um, especially if he gives me something for somebody else. I almost always write that down because I'm inevitably gonna forget what it is. You'll forget.
SPEAKER_05And you'll be like, the Lord gave me a really important word to you, but I forgot it.
SPEAKER_08So I feel like he's giving me a picture, I'll draw a picture in my prayer journal and write the thoughts I think he's giving me about that. I'll evaluate those thoughts based on scripture. Um, please don't hear me say that you're coming up with some authoritative prophetic word. Um, I think that it's it's a a lot of it's a maturity thing, and just saying, not that I'm super mature. Man, I come off really prideful. I come off immature. So mature.
SPEAKER_05Wow, it sings well and is mature.
SPEAKER_08You know, it's it's ambient. Um it's so true. I sing amazingly, I'm mature. I just got it all together. You're British sometimes. It's not British. You should hear me read Narnia, man. I do the whole thing in British and Scottish accents.
SPEAKER_07Uh so ambient, so mature.
SPEAKER_08Ambiently mature. Let's remove the word mature and let's say you have to have good theology of what um New Testament prophecy is and the Bible is.
SPEAKER_09Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_08Um, because so many people have bad theology in that on both more charismatic and or more spirit-centric and more Bible-centric circles, where it's like words are basically both extremes are saying words are authoritative and prophetic words. Yeah, yeah. And it's like, no, they're New Testament prophetic words are not authoritative in any way, shape, or form. They're under the authority and authoritative scripture and Bible.
SPEAKER_05So and they're meant to be weighed to be weighed judged by the by the church. Yeah. No, they're just not just autonomously deciding that this word's definitely from God and everybody else just has to receive it as authority. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_08But even if the Lord shares something with you that's just you and him and it's in the secret place, um, you can judge it by scripture and go, this is something God would say, or this is something God probably wouldn't say, or it doesn't really make any sense. So I don't need this. Um, but I find because I have the Holy Spirit in me, and the mind of Christ as as First Uh Corinthians 2 says, it talks a lot about God reveals mysteries, um, things to a mature believer. He actually says maturity is important there. Yeah. Um that he reveals mysteries because you have the mind of Christ. And so I find most of my thoughts when I'm seeking the Lord are biblical thoughts. They're like all biblical thoughts. I very rarely have it where it's like, okay, that's off. That's the enemy messing with me. It's happened uh very few times because I have the mind of Christ. So if I set down the doubt for a little bit and just go, God wants to say something to me, he says something, I say, is that biblical? Yeah, here's a bunch of scripture that like affirm that is true.
SPEAKER_09Yeah.
SPEAKER_08Um, write those things down and that will help you stay focused with the Lord. Um, if you're if you're journaling things. So anyway, that's that's my list of stuff. Yeah, that's good.
SPEAKER_07You you inhaled, just like how we looked at each other. You're ready.
SPEAKER_05Yeah, but you already went so I knew you were poised.
SPEAKER_07Just because I was thinking about what I was gonna say. But um, I think for me, I think Michael covered a lot of the ones that I would say, like from a like mechanical standpoint. I think for me, one of the things comes to my mind, I guess practically, when you're talking about going into the secret place, I think I think that's the time. Uh, I guess to put it in a short, like little phrase, I would say, like, get personal. You know, and what I mean by that is, you know, you want to, because especially if you're praying to the Lord in the secret place, like that is this the place where you can be just a hundred percent honest. Like, I would say, like, when you're in a group, um, I don't know, there may be things that you don't feel that you're like, oh, it's not gonna be productive if I share this, oh, I don't wanna like it or whatever. But with God, if it's just if it's just you and God, there should be nothing that you're like, oh, I'm not going to say you know, to the Lord. And I think it's because I think being honest in that way, like like there have been times in my life where there were things going on and I was like straight up angry at God and I was like, God, I feel like you, I feel like you don't like me. I feel like you're just a big jerk. And then, but it's like, if I hadn't just been honest with the Lord and actually said that, because the thing is, the thing is, God knows. We have it in our heart. We like, if we're feeling, if he knows, you're not shocking him, yeah, exactly. But the reason that we're praying to him is because the reason we pray is is is for us so that he can minister to us and that if we admit these things and bring these things to him, then that means that we're willing to actually take them and allow him to sanctify them, we can grow from them. If I'm sitting here and I'm feeling this way and I'm not actually verbally like communicating this with the Lord, then what does that say about my heart? Oh, it says that I'm just I just want to keep feeling this way and I don't want to address it. I just want to kind of keep going as if things are fine. And then it just it gets worse. Yeah. So I think getting personal, like literally sharing like the deepest, darkest details of like what you have going on in your heart with the Lord because He's the one that's gonna actually be able to fix them. Um, and um, you know, and and that because I think that was the one of the biggest things for me that was always because you know, I remember like when I first started out just praying on my own, I would almost kind of do it just like you would in a group where you're like, all right, let's pray. Oh, all right. Is anybody going to think? Oh, well, Lord, thank you for this and all this different kind of thing, so things like that. All right, well, you know, uh cool. See you later.
SPEAKER_05Thank you for coming.
SPEAKER_07Yeah, yeah, yeah. All by yourself. And then, but like actually when it became like, no, Lord, like I need you to actually fix this thing in my heart because this is what I'm noticing. This is what, this is not just what um, because that's the thing, right? Like the Lord reveals, as Mike was saying, the Lord reveals things to us um from scripture, from from the Holy Spirit that is meant to um encourage us, but I think also he's gonna reveal things about ourselves, you know, that like, hey, you this is where you're weak, but and there's always that but, and that's the thing that's so beautiful about it, is that oh hey, you're weak in this, but I am made strong even in this weakness, and this is how I can then walk with you in this and allow you to be sanctified and grow from this so that you can become more mature, so that you can be able to experience even more of what the Lord has to offer and the Lord has for you.
SPEAKER_05So yeah, that's good. Yeah. If I was gonna say anything, I would say um when it comes to that secret place kind of prayer, that uh part of your plan is that the other people in your life know this is part of your plan. So you're not just disappearing awkwardly, you know, and then trying to avoid people or whatever. It's but if it's like if you're part of a family, everybody else in the family knows your routine and you worked it out with them. So it's like this is a protected time that's really important, and you should have your protected time and you should have yours. And we all understand that and respect that so that you know, no we don't feel like you don't feel like that if you have time that's just you and the Lord, that you are like having to avoid people, steal time from people. Steal time from yeah, yeah, none of that stuff. It's just like, no, this is just what we do. The other thing I would say And it's good for your kids to see that. Yeah, sure.
SPEAKER_08Your spouse and stuff, it's actually good for them to see that you do that.
SPEAKER_05Right. The other thing that that comes in my mind is and I I'm not trying to be controversial, but this might be a little bit. Come on, I know you love it. Come on, oh fend them. Oh man. Okay.
SPEAKER_07So you wanted to cue this up. You just cue it. I'm gonna put it in too. All right, good.
SPEAKER_05There it was. Uh okay. If you're a person with we live in a big city, if you're a person in a big city and you have a long commute, a long drive, I don't think your drive should be your secret place. Okay. Why is that? Because you're driving a 2,000-pound machine, two or three thousand pound machine. Especially in Houston. Yeah, three feet from a bunch of other, you know, two-ton machines or whatever. It just you're inevitably gonna be distracted. Trevor Burrus, Jr.
SPEAKER_07That would be considered on the go.
SPEAKER_05That wouldn't be like a I think we should categorize that as on the go. And you absolutely should make the most of that. Like worship and talk to the Lord and spend turn everything off and be quiet on your way to work and ask the Lord questions, like use it like that, of course.
SPEAKER_07But I don't Silent Drive. I don't think I've had one of those in the case.
SPEAKER_08But if you have a Tesla driving the car, it's it's automated. I don't know how safe that is. How's your insurance doing? Uh we're not recommending anybody stop driving their car or take their hands off the wheel.
SPEAKER_05But that's the point, right? Is if you're driving a car, you have to be careful, you have to be paying attention. Yes, sure. Whatever. So you're not, even if you feel like, oh, there's nothing going on, it's just me. Well, you can speak privately with the Lord in that moment, but it's gonna be hard to to give a hundred percent of your attention. So that's why I say I don't think we should use our commute as our this is my this is my secret place time, 100% attention devoted to the Lord. I don't think we should do that because I don't think we can. Um But there are there are other times and places that you can do it. It just may take it's gonna feel more sacrificial because that time is like, well, I can't do anything but drive this car.
SPEAKER_08Uh okay, pushback. I disagree. I can listen to a podcast. I expect a million things I could do besides listen to podcasting.
SPEAKER_05What I'm saying is you're trapped in that car. That's true. You can't go anywhere else. If you're by yourself, there's nobody to talk to, you know. So it's like it's a convenient way of maybe being quiet. Yeah. And and that kind of stuff. But I think it would it takes more, it's gonna cost you something a little more to carve out a different part of your life. Um and and it's just worth it. That's what I'm saying.
SPEAKER_08I I would agree with a caveat. I would say that I'm not sure I'll allow your caveat. I'm I'm caveating anyway. Fair Culture Podcast started by Michael Green. Oh, I guess okay. That was very aggressive. I was gonna say the scales are typically apologize. Apologize. Smash that like button, enjoy the controversy, stay tuned. Uh we're gonna go for a smack down again. We're actually gonna fight on the next episode. We're gonna get more views than any other episode.
SPEAKER_07A charity boxing, the next two charity boxing match.
SPEAKER_08Um I do agree. I just say don't put a tremendous amount of pressure on yourself to say, if I don't do a set-aside secret place every single day and and instead on on days when it's like I have to drive to Pasadena from Tomball, it's like two-hour drive commute to work. If I spend that time listening to worship music, singing to Jesus, listening to him while I'm driving, and I still have a teacher on the road. I say that's like uh it's almost a it's a half hour, like you're you're you are invested and you you don't have anybody else in the car to distract you. Let's say that's the case.
SPEAKER_09Yeah.
SPEAKER_08Um, I do think there is a really good, powerful investment in the Lord in that, and it does take a form of sacrifice. So if you're not at all saying every day, and it's like, okay, when you get to work, you must now have a real secret place, or before you left for work, you must really have a real secret place before you get in the car.
SPEAKER_09Yeah.
SPEAKER_08Just know, like, okay, let's say you have that commute every day, and then you get home from work and you have the kids immediately, and it's just impossible for you to have that dedicated time every single day. Um, dedicate that time during your commute, and then on the weekend, um, s set aside a time or something every week. Like, just don't have that as your only like seeker place time, but it can add a lot of value.
SPEAKER_05Is that I am I am not at all saying it's not valuable. Okay. Or that you shouldn't do it. Yeah. Uh no, definitely, definitely do it. I'm saying if you're thinking, okay, yeah, I I need to have set aside 100% attention devoted to the Lord planned into my life. That that I'm, you know, whether or not it's every single day or whatever, you know, we're not trying to make rules for everybody's lives. But if you're if you know that it should be a regular part of your life to spend that unhurried, quiet, 100% attention toward the Lord time, I don't think we should view our commute as the way we accomplish that. Okay. That's all I'm saying. Agreed. Find find another time where you know you can do that. Agreed. But also do that. Agreed. Agreed. See? I win. I just won the fight. This is now my podcast. Welcome. Whoa. Welcome to two more.
SPEAKER_07The Privilege Podcast. Brought to you by Hosted by Patrick Rowe, produced by John. Yeah, we just need to put all of our names on it. That's what we need to do. Produced by, created by, hosted.
SPEAKER_06Oh, then the power struggle continues.
SPEAKER_01Czar approves.
SPEAKER_08Here, I'm just John is John is an all-star. He is the podcasting goat. Oh my gosh, no. Uh the uh but yeah.
SPEAKER_07No, I didn't have anything else. You have anything else to say?
SPEAKER_08Okay, well, I have one more thing to say here. Um, we all struggle with this. This is not easy to do, or everybody would be doing it. And so just to be clear, um this takes discipline. Yeah, and discipline is a fruit of the Holy Spirit, right? It says uh in in Galatians 5, the lit's the fruit of the spirit and one is self-control or discipline, right? And so this takes discipline. So don't get discouraged if it's like, man, I struggle with this and stuff. It's actually has to be empowered by God.
SPEAKER_05Yeah, raise your hand at this desk if you struggle with this. Okay, there we go.
SPEAKER_08Yeah. So um pray about it. If you're really struggling with it, it's like, man, it's just hard to find time, and I'm so busy, and but I want to, but then I I try to start and then I get distracted again, and um then start praying. About it now and ask the Holy Spirit to really help you say, Lord, I want this, help me. Uh and if if you're you're willing to set aside some time and do it, and then you ask the Lord for help, he will do it in you. He will, because he loves to.
SPEAKER_05He wants to help you. Because he knows it's good for you and he wants to bless you. Yeah. And he wants the time with you. So yeah. And for some people, I mean, it comes more naturally to be more disciplined, more ordered, uh, to carve out time like that. And but for a lot of us, including myself, it's not natural at all. It's a real uphill battle to do something consistent like that. And I and I struggle with distraction, you know. When I was a little kid, they literally, I think it was in first grade, they had to put like poster boards around my desk so that whenever we were doing work at the desk. Oh, I was that kid. If it was any noise, I was like, huh? Huh? Yeah, who's over there? Who said that? Yeah. So yeah, I mean, I kind of it's hard for me. I'm glad you said that. Because uh, yeah, we're all sitting here going, This is not easy, but it it takes spiritual uh discipline and power from the Lord, not just personality type. Yeah. So if you're not the personality type for this, that's okay. That's not what you're leaning on anyway, right? For this to be really good. It's supposed to be led by and empowered by the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_08It's like uh it's like my friend friend uh James French, we've had him on before, but he um he's an evangelist and just shares with everybody, everybody in his path. And it's like, you must be an extrovert. No, he's an introvert.
SPEAKER_07Yeah.
SPEAKER_08You know, it's it's nothing in him screams do this in his flesh. But the spirit empowers him to do it. And it actually sometimes there's there's more power in that. Like it's just like hey, I'm going against everything in me to do this thing.
SPEAKER_04Yeah.
SPEAKER_08Um and I would even I would even venture to say that even the people who who have more of a personality bent towards that, they still struggle with that. They struggle in the same way, but with a different from a different angle. Yeah. You know, somebody who's maybe likes quiet more and and is more uh generally focused, the the enemy wants them to be focused on something other than God. So they'll just get them zeroed in on something that's not about God at all. Right. Uh and so all of us struggle with this, uh, but the Holy Spirit, if you're a follower of Jesus, you have the Holy Spirit in you, he will empower you because you have to ask him. Ask him and like uh Colossians 4 says, uh Colossians 4 2 says, devote yourself to prayer. Be devoted to to a time with the Lord in the personal level, and then be devoted to walking with him throughout the day on the go also. And I think you're gonna be blessed.
SPEAKER_05So yeah, and it and it also I think it's important for us to say that we're not saying that the on the go is easy and secret place is hard. For some people, the secret place is the easy part, and the listening and staying connected to the Lord throughout the day as they go, that's the hard part, you know. But what we're saying is we should if you're devoted to prayer in obedience to Colossians 4 2, that's gonna look like both. Yeah. It's gonna be like sometimes I need to be quiet with the Lord. And as I'm going, I need to be listening to the Lord. And we know that's true because that's what Jesus did. Just read read his life and his pattern of living. He was definitely separating himself to go be alone with the Father, and he was talking to the Father in the midst of huge crowds with people all around him and busyness and everything. He was going, Father, what are you trying to do here? You know? Father, what do you want from this? So they're both very important, and different people have a harder time with different ones. We're not trying to say one is vital and the other is an accessory.
SPEAKER_08Which one do you think is easier for you, Patrick?
SPEAKER_05On the go. On the go.
SPEAKER_07Yeah, for sure, on the go.
SPEAKER_08John?
SPEAKER_07Yeah, on the go. Yeah. That's just because we're always doing something. Three out of three on the go. Yeah. On the go.
SPEAKER_08Yeah. But what that says about about us or you guys and everything is that um if you are doing it on the go, you are walking with the Lord in your regular everyday life. That's really important and valuable. And it's like when I'm walking, I'm thinking, Lord, what what do you want to do in this situation? Are you giving me an opportunity to fulfill the Great Commission? Like at the end of the day, okay, the Great Commission is um is our our directive, our task on the earth, right? It's our our umbrella task at the church. Okay, Lord, while I'm out, hey, who do I share with? And Lord, give me a spiritual conversation with this person that's in my life. And Lord, like looking for opportunity to share the gospel, that's one example of where it's like the Holy Spirit, okay, now, or oh, he just asked that. That's it right there. Uh me and John had that with a mutual friend recently that we've been praying for for years. And it's like he says, Yeah, I just you know, I've started doing some work with this church, uh, video work, and uh me and me and my wife visited this last week, and we don't know anything. But I want to know some stuff.
SPEAKER_05So he said disciple me.
SPEAKER_08Yeah, yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_05That's what he said.
SPEAKER_07He said disciple me. Yeah, essentially. And I was like, wow. That's huge.
SPEAKER_05So both are abiding. To spend quiet, unhurried time with the Lord, 100% attention is abiding, and listening and communing with the Lord and speaking to the Lord as you go is abiding. It's all abiding.
SPEAKER_08Yeah, that's it.
SPEAKER_05Well, awesome.
SPEAKER_08Well, don't forget to subscribe, smash our like button, prayer culture podcast. Do it. Or just tap it. Or just tap it for the less aggressive. Yeah, don't break your screen, please. We're asking you not to actually smash it. Lightly brush it, and maybe the click will register. Ever so gentle. Uh um also, um, just a heads up, our show is um run by people who dedicate time and and their lives to making these things happen for uh our podcast, for our prayer ministry, for um, we're gonna be coming out with an animated training series that we're working on. That's gonna be, I think, really powerful. Um, all these things are done really by people just pouring into the ministry in prayers and giving. So if the Lord leads you, check it out. Uh twoormore.org. There's a giving page there. You can give to the podcast so we can keep doing this. Um and all we ask is you ask the Lord and do whatever he says. So if he says to one dollar, um, that's great. If he says, hey, don't give anything yet, you don't got it right now, that's fine. Like, we love that you listen and we love that you're praying for us. I do, I I hope you're praying for us. And um and if the Lord says give you know ten thousand dollars or a hundred thousand dollars or a million dollars, that's great too, you know. Like you just do whatever he tells you to do, and we're we're just here as vessels. So um, if if the Lord wants to do that, check it out, two more.org um slash give. So yeah, love you guys. Peace. I was discipled up in a wonderful church that was very Bible-centric, which just means, you know, they love the Bible, love studying the Bible, and there was a great emphasis on evangelism, but we didn't have much emphasis on corporate prayer, and so I I just didn't really understand how to approach God.
SPEAKER_02A lot of people are in the same boat that I'm in, where we value prayer, we know it's important, we value gifts of the spirit, but we just don't know how.
SPEAKER_06I can recall when we had uh just two minutes of silence at our church just to stop everything and focus on God and how unsettling that was just to be still for two minutes.
SPEAKER_05Prayer is like this suitcase that's filled with a lot of things. These things can be daunting, hard to measure, hard to control. It can feel less like a suitcase and more like Pandora's box for a lot of churches, you know? Like what if we really press in here, what's gonna happen? What kind of church are we gonna become?
SPEAKER_08I mean, God's throne of grace is not just this simple thing that we just go into like a like a store. I mean, we are talking about a holy, majestic, wonderful God, but he welcomes his children with open arms. One day in Africa I was praying, and I felt like the Lord was encouraging me that I would be part of a prayer movement among Bible-centric churches like the one I came out of. The Lord brought that word back to me with Matthew 18, 20, where two or three are gathered in my name, there I'm among them. Two or more can actually come alongside and help give people a framework for prayer that's biblical, a framework for relationship with God that is biblical, and just help people go, hey, let's actually make space for the Spirit of God to do things he did in the Bible.
SPEAKER_00When you're praying with two or more, there's an agreement there with God's word and with God Himself, and there's power in that.
SPEAKER_04First of all, he tells us we need to pray. It's all on him, and that is a double blessing, a double glory to God. Unless God truly does move, nothing will happen. You know, Jesus says, apart from me, you can do nothing. That is very true, you know.
SPEAKER_05Whether a church is already a praying church or struggling to become a praying church, and I don't mean there's a prayer meeting every so often, but there's a culture of prayer, of dependence on the Lord, of expectancy. Two or more is just so helpful, so practical. Just through the leadership of the scriptures, really, bringing what the scriptures say all together with faith and with obedience to just kind of break through a bit and get us into a different place where we really know we're sitting at the feet of Jesus and He's listening closely and He's speaking.
SPEAKER_03It is a good tool for encouraging the practice of prayer among the members of your church, giving them an outlet, giving them a tool to reach out and connect with other believers on a regular basis to pray together.
SPEAKER_01Groups of men that pray together come from multiple different churches when you really begin to pray. Full heartfelt prayers. I think there's just a fellowship of the Holy Spirit that happens in that place that really brings a unity.
SPEAKER_08So we have a number of ways to get involved. If it's like, hey, you're in a Bible centric church, you hear this, and you're like, oh, we need that. We need more prayer in our church, I want to try this. Get connected with me and we'd love to start a prayer meeting at your church.
SPEAKER_06Is there anything more valuable that your congregation could be doing than praying? You know, if we've got if we've got time for Sunday school, and if we have time for youth group, and if we have time for all the other ancillary activities that take place in a local congregation, we ought to have time, a dedicated time for prayer.
SPEAKER_05The God who created everything listens to us. Jesus died for us so that we could be cleansed and made righteous, and we could approach the throne of grace with confidence to find mercy in our time of need. He wants to partner with us. And do we want to partner with him? Is the question.