The Family Disciple Me Podcast // Discipleship Starts With a Conversation
In a world filled with a lot of talk, we want to have meaningful, biblical conversations with those God has entrusted to us. Join Tosha Williams and the Family Disciple Me ministry for Devotion Driven Discipleship conversation starters that will encourage you to "Seek Him Speak Him" in your own life.
Family Disciple Me is a nonprofit 501(c)(3) Christian ministry dedicated to catalyzing Devotion Driven Discipleship in our own lives and homes as well as around the world.
For more information, visit familydiscipleme.org
The Family Disciple Me Podcast // Discipleship Starts With a Conversation
May You Pray to Know Jesus Better Today! Convo #3 in our annual "May You Pray" series!
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What do YOU keep asking God for? I'll admit, there are a few things I keep asking Him for in my life. However, there was one really special thing that the Apostle Paul kept asking God for when he prayed for his friends. He said: "I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better.” (Ephesians 1:17 NIV)
If we follow Paul's amazing example, we will keep asking God for this, too! We can ask God for wisdom and revelation for ourselves and for those people we love and care about.
This podcast episode is an introduction into the accompanying conversation guide: "May You Pray to Know Jesus Better Today" which you can find at familydiscipleme.org
Out of all the things that we can pray for ourselves and others, let's keep praying to know Jesus better!!!
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The Family Disciple Me ministry exists to catalyze devotion driven discipleship in our homes and around the world. We believe that discipleship starts with a conversation, and FDM provides free, easily-accessible, biblical resources to encourage these meaningful conversations along life's way. Sign up through our website to be "the first to know" about upcoming releases and resources (including the FDM App - coming soon!!!) You can also follow Family Disciple Me on social media.
Family Disciple Me is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit ministry, and all donations are tax deductible. More information, blogs, statement of faith and contact info can be found at familydiscipleme.org
Praying to Know Jesus Better
Speaker 1What do you want to know better? I'd like to know how to garden in high altitude Colorado Springs, because such seems impossible to me. I'd also like to know how to make a beautiful loaf of homemade sourdough bread, like my friend Jenny. I'd like to know how to remember all the facts of some of the amazing books I've read this past year. I'd also like to know how to better design verse images, how to better write SEO and how to better run a social media campaign. There are all sorts of things I would like to know and things that I would like to know better. Let me give you my list, and well, I'm sure you can give me yours. There are so many things that we can know and want to know better, but of all the things in the world that I want to know and know better, there is one that is the most important and stands out the clearest, and that is that I want to know Christ better and, what's more, I want the people entrusted to me to know Jesus better too. As we continue through our May you Pray emphasis today, we're going to find a prayer in Ephesians 1 that I believe is pivotal in knowing Jesus better. This is a prayer request that God wants us to ask and keep asking for. As I play the introduction, I encourage you right now to ask God to speak to your heart and show you what he wants to say to you through His Word and this conversation guide that we're calling. May you Pray to Know Jesus Better Today.
Speaker 1Welcome to the Family Disciple Me podcast. Our goal is to catalyze devotion-driven discipleship in our own lives and relationships and then around the world. We do this through easily accessible biblical resources that help us meet with God and make Him known. We call this Seek Him, speak Him. You can find out more about this, our ministry and our resources at familydisciplemeorg. Hi, my name is Tasha Williams. I'm delighted to be on this journey with you, so let's spend this moment together, seeking God in His Word about what he first has to say to us.
Speaker 1Way back in the day, when I was a teenager, a Christian artist named Larnell Harris sang a song that became like an anthem in my life. Now, I know that many of you will not recognize the name Larnell Harris, but you can Google him. He's still alive. Anyway, back in the day, with his deep gospel voice, he belted out these stirring lyrics that well, even now, decades later, still bring a tear to my eyes and still cause a gulp in my throat. Larnell sang this I want to know Christ. I keep him before me, I lift up my eyes, I drink in his glory. I press toward the goal. His goodness unfolds in his glory. I press toward the goal. His goodness unfolds. March on, o my soul. I want to know. I want to know Christ. Even now I can hear the strains of this inspiring song Still, even now, today, this song still motivates me onward.
Speaker 1Maybe I'll try to include the link for it somewhere in the show notes or in the conversation guide. And well, to some of you young ones, it may sound antiquated, but the lyrics encapsulated the desire of my heart. And the thing is, I had a really soft heart for Jesus. I wanted to know Christ better and after all these years I still want to know him better and, what's more, I want you to know him better too. That's why this next conversation in our May you Pray series matters so much to me. We've talked about may you pray and start with praise, and then we talked about may you pray for people each day, and now we have another conversation, and it is this May you pray to know Jesus better today.
Speaker 1In his letter to Ephesians that we've been talking about in this series, the Apostle Paul wrote in Ephesians 117, I keep asking that the God of our Lord, jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the spirit of wisdom and revelation so that you may know him better. I'm sure that the Apostle Paul prayed all sorts of things for his friends in Ephesus, but his greatest desire was that they would know Jesus better. Paul's prayer that they would know Jesus better was an echo of a prayer that Jesus himself prayed for us. Yes, jesus prayed this for you and for me Just before his crucifixion. John chapter 17 says he looked toward heaven and prayed this is eternal life that they know you, the only true God in Jesus Christ whom you have sent. Jesus wanted us to know him and he wanted us to continually know him better. Paul wanted his friends to know Jesus better as well. So for his friends to experience this better knowing Jesus, paul asked God to give them not one, but two supernatural gifts, and those are the gifts of wisdom and revelation. And as with all his prayers, paul said he didn't just pray this once, but he kept asking God for these gifts, for his friends, asking God for these gifts for his friends.
Speaker 1So then, what's wisdom and what's revelation? How do these help us? I like to think of it this way Wisdom helps us see life from God's perspective, while revelation gives us clarity and discernment about what we cannot see, about what we cannot see. Who in your life needs these things? Well, what if we start with ourselves? If we want to know and understand God, the Father, jesus, the Son and the Holy Spirit better, we're going to have to have more than just our human minds. Right? You and I both need the spirit of wisdom and revelation in order to know God better. Let's specifically pray for this, let's ask him for this and then, as we're praying this for ourselves, let's go back to may.
Speaker 1You pray for people each day, right? What if, as we pray for other people in our lives, we specifically ask God to give them the spirit of wisdom and revelation? What if we pray this for the people we're mentoring and discipling? What if we pray this for our children, our small group members, our roommates, our spouses, our spiritual leaders, anybody and everybody who matters to us? What an amazing, amazing prayer to pray over them. But then what if we pray this for the unbelievers and the prodigals in our lives. What if we ask God to help them know him better? What if we ask God to give them wisdom and revelation so that they can really know who he is, so that either they return to him, come back to him, or come to him in the first place?
Speaker 1The Apostle Paul said I want to know Christ. And well, that verse, found in Philippians 3.10, is surely the basis of Lardell Harris's old song from back in the 80s. Thing is, there's a huge difference between knowing the facts about Jesus in our heads and really knowing him with our hearts. There's a world full of people who don't want to experience God's wisdom and revelation because they don't want to know Christ. They don't want to know him. They don't want to know him better. However, since he matters to us and I'm assuming he matters to you, since you're still listening to this podcast episode well then, let's pray for these gifts, these blessings for ourselves and for those that we care about. God's supernatural gifts of wisdom and revelation are what helped the facts about Jesus become faith in him.
Speaker 1So, how much Do you want to know Christ? What are you willing to invest in knowing Him more? What do you keep asking God for? And who do you want to know Him better as well? How about today, as we pray, that we up the ante, instead of settling for smaller and lesser prayers? Not that those aren't important, but what if we pray bigger and higher and lesser prayers? Not that those aren't important, but what if we pray bigger and higher and more meaningful? What if you and I pray for something extraordinary like wisdom and revelation, so that we can better comprehend and understand and walk in relationship with the God of the universe? That sounds like something pretty incredible to pray for, and, while thinking of all the things that we want to know and know better, I don't think there's anything greater and more amazing than knowing God. So, as we close today, that's what I want to pray about for you.
Speaker 1From Colossians, chapter 1, the word says this blessing that I want to pray a prayer over all of us. Today, therefore, we are asking God to fill you with the knowledge of his will, in all wisdom and all understanding which the Spirit gives, so that you may live lives worthy of the Lord and entirely pleasing to Him, being fruitful in every good work and multiplying in the full knowledge of God. That is a prayer to ask God for and to keep asking him for Now as you go. I encourage you to spend some time with the accompanying conversation guide that goes along with this podcast episode. Spend time with Jesus and seek him in his word about our theme verse and the other scriptures along the way.
Speaker 1Talk to him about the questions. God, what are you saying to me through your word? Why do these scriptures matter? How do you want me to respond to this truth? And as we always say with Family, disciple Me, seek him always leads to speak him. So, as you hear God's voice, as you're seeking him, as he speaks into your life, then I encourage you and challenge you to turn around and to speak him into the life of someone else that he has entrusted to you. So now go with God, friend, may you pray to know Jesus better today. God bless you.