Sept. 17, 2026
An Invitation to Intimacy with God
Key Takeaways
- Brandy Williams and Rochelle Benton explore the beckoning of the Holy Spirit, urging believers to move past comfort and step into a deeper, more intimate relationship with God.
- Drawing near to God changes our perspective; just like physical distance makes objects appear smaller, distancing ourselves from God makes our problems look bigger than He is.
- True surrender requires a daily exchange of our own will, plans, and desires for the perfect and pleasing will of God.
- Examining our priorities and altars helps us identify whether we are serving self, work, or ministry rather than consuming God's presence.
- The hosts issue a bold 30-day challenge to spend one distraction-free hour a day alone with God to experience true spiritual transformation.
In this episode of the iRefresh Podcast, Brandy Williams and Rochelle Benton have a conversation about recognizing the "beckoning" of the Holy Spirit and learning to respond, even when it means stepping out of comfort and into the unknown.
Together, they unpack what it means to truly draw near to God — comparing it to looking at something from a distance versus up close, and how the things we're far from always look smaller than they really are. They talk honestly about distraction, surrender, identity in Christ, and the discipline of consistency, sharing personal stories along the way, including a powerful moment when God spoke directly into a season of deep hardship.
The episode closes with a bold challenge: spend one hour a day with God, distraction-free, for the next 30 days. Whether you've never heard God's voice clearly or you're in a season of hungering for more, this conversation will encourage you to draw closer — because He promises to draw close in return.
00:00 Introduction: The Beckoning of the Holy Spirit
01:16 The Lonely Place: Answering God's Call to Go Deeper
03:57 Draw Nigh to Me: Experiencing God's Closeness
06:26 Intentional Intimacy: Commanding Your Soul to Praise
09:08 Pay Attention to the Attention God Pays to You
11:11 Present Your Body: The Great Exchange of Surrender
14:42 What Altar Are You Building: Examining Our Priorities
16:56 Back to Basics: Living Like Jesus
20:12 What About Me: God's Heart in Our Busyness
23:33 The One Hour Challenge: An Invitation to Transformation
Website: https://www.irefresh.net/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/irefresh
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/irefreshministry/
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the iRefresh podcast about?
The iRefresh podcast features conversations centered around the life-changing power of God's living Word, encouraging listeners to pursue God and be refreshed in their daily lives.
Who hosts the iRefresh episode 'An Invitation to Intimacy with God'?
This episode is hosted by Brandy Williams and Rochelle Benton, who have a heartfelt conversation about recognizing the Holy Spirit's call to deeper intimacy.
What is the 30-day challenge mentioned in the episode?
Brandy Williams and Rochelle Benton challenge listeners to spend one full hour every day with God, completely free of distractions, for 30 days.
Why does God beckon us into a deeper relationship?
God beckons us because He deeply desires closeness and intimacy with us, wanting us to experience His bigness and love rather than feeling distant from Him.
Transcript
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The deeper you go and the more consistent you are with your time with the Lord, your identity is in Him.
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Welcome to the iRefresh podcast where every conversation points to the life-changing power of God's living Word.
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Let's pursue God together one conversation at a time.
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Well, tonight we're going to have pretty much a little casual talk here, and we're going to be kind of gleaning from each other's field.
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And as the Lord leads us, we're going to share with you tonight what the Lord has placed on our heart.
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And, you know, we go through different seasons in life and different changes in life.
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But the beautiful thing about it is no matter what changes we go through or what seasons,
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that we go through, God is with us every step of the way.
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He never leaves us, nor does he forsake us.
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So I just tonight want to ask Brandy, what does the season of your life look like tonight or for you?
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What is the Lord ministering to your heart?
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What has he spoken expressly to you?
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For me, um,
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There is a sound in the spirit that we tend to ignore.
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It's not always loud or audible or crazy, but it's the beckoning of the Holy Spirit calling us into a deeper relationship with Him.
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And so for this season in my life, the past year, year and a half, is where He's had me.
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Just really seeking Him.
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earnestly and deeper than ever before.
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And that can be a lonely place.
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Yeah.
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Yeah, for sure.
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For sure.
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So now, why do you think?
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That place is so lonely at that time when he's beckoning and calling.
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And it's him that's calling you to him.
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So you're going to be entering into his presence right there alone with him.
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So why do you think it just...
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I think for me it was a different facet of him, if that makes sense.
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Yeah.
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Taking me a little deeper to a different facet.
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And oftentimes, you know, I felt like Samuel, you know, the Lord calling him, you know, and him not understanding quite or recognizing the voice because he hadn't heard from him before.
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So it was, for me, most of my life has been like that.
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And so digging into prayer and just a deeper level, you know, in my walk with him and in my prayer life with him, he's just been taking me deeper.
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And I feel like almost a separation during this time.
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from what was comfortable.
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Oh wow, wow.
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And that's kinda scary.
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Whenever we're called out of a place of comfortable, it can tend to be a little scary because we like comfortable.
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Anybody in here like comfortable?
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I know I like comfortable.
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And when we're called away from that place of comfort, it's challenging.
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It challenges us.
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And even as Brandy was saying, the beckoning, how God is calling her to him, and that is because he so desires closeness with us.
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You know, in James 4, 8, the word of God lets us know, draw nigh unto me.
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and I will draw nigh unto you, because he wants to be so close to us.
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And his word lets us know that he will never leave us, nor will he ever forsake us.
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And so because he'll never do that, he wants us to perceive and sense that closeness.
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Oh my.
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And when we see his closeness or experience his closeness, y'all, we experience his bigness.
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Wow.
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You know, I just flew in from Boston this week, and as I sat on the plane looking out of the window, there was another plane in the sky, and we know how big planes are, right?
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Well, it didn't look big.
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And when I looked on the ground, the houses looked like I could just squeeze them between my fingers.
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And I said, Lord,
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I know those houses are huge and I could not grab them up in my hand.
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And I know that plane is huge and I could not grab it up in my hand, but it looks so small.
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And the Lord began to minister to me.
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He said, it's because you're far away from it.
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And whenever you're distant and far away, whatever you're far away from looks small.
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And that's why God beckons us because he does not want us to be far away from him.
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And he will never be far away from us as long as we position ourselves and posture ourselves to be close to him.
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Because the more distant we get from God, the smaller he'll look to us and the bigger the problem will look.
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So draw nigh unto him and he will draw nigh unto you.
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And you will experience his presence.
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You will experience his bigness.
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And you will know that there is no separation between you and him.
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Isn't that good?
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That's how much he loves us.
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Think about that.
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The almighty sovereign God wants to be close to you.
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I just heard a song come up, but it's not spiritual, so I better not sing it.
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But the words say just to be close to you.
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And I'm going to leave it right there.
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He wants to be close to us, and He wants us to be close to Him.
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But we take the initiative, draw nigh unto me.
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It has to be with great intention.
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We have to be intentional about drawing nigh unto God.
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That's so good, because the intentionality of it, even when you don't feel like it,
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David commanded his soul to praise the Lord.
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And so in the mornings when I don't feel like it, I'm gonna command my soul.
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Yes.
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You're gonna praise the Lord.
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Yes.
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And once you get into that, get past the awkwardness of hearing yourself pray or the awkwardness of, you know, whatever, however you pray or, cause there is, there's an awkward spot to it, for me anyway.
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But you get pushed past that and you go in, you know, like it's hard to explain, just deeper with the Holy Spirit.
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The rivers of the living water just flow over you.
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And that's where the healing is.
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That's where your deliverance is.
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You know, that's where, you know, the blueprints of life come is with that, you know, personal relationship.
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You don't need somebody to lay hands on you when you're with the Father.
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Mm-hmm.
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You don't need that deliverance minister when you're with the Father.
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There's a season, a place for all that.
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But he's your healer.
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He's your El Roy.
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He sees you.
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And so when you build that foundation, that relationship with him, he's just the oil...
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the olive tree just yeah that's so good he sees us how many of you all know that he sees you his eyes are up on you he's the l roy or the l roy e the god who sees so no matter what we experience
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He sees and he knows.
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And again, he's right there with us.
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And, you know, in Jeremiah 29, 11, when it talks about the plans that God has for us, how they're good plans.
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And when Jeremiah prophesied that to the Israelites.
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You know, they kind of did not want to hear what Jeremiah had to say because there was another prophet that just came and told them that they were going to be released from captivity.
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But Jeremiah said, oh, no, you're going to be here longer.
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You're going to be here for 70 years.
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And God said, look, so...
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You need to go ahead and build some houses.
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You need to go ahead and have some babies.
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You need to go ahead and do whatever you would do if you were not in captivity.
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Live like you would live if you were not in captivity right here in this place.
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Because I'm right here in this place with you.
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And my plan that I have for you is good.
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Whether it's in captivity or out of captivity.
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So get married.
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Get some jobs.
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Build some houses.
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Have some babies.
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Because the plan I have for you is good.
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where it looks like it's not good.
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We have to remember that God is good and that God, in Romans 8, 28, it lets us know and we know that all things work together for the good to those of us who love the Lord and are called according to his purpose.
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So let me tell you something.
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When you love the Lord and you know God,
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that you are called according to his purpose, you have to expect that no matter what, and no matter what's transpiring, it will work for your good.
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Because God, the word says it.
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So expect the good regardless.
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to what's transpiring in your life.
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And this little tidbit right here I wanna leave with you because it's just so beautiful to me because there was a time in my life when I was having a moment and it was rough.
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And I was like, Lord, if you wanna come today, you can come and get me.
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That's how rough it was.
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But God is so beautiful.
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And he, because he never leaves us, because he never forsakes us, because he wants us to know that I see you right in the midst of what you're going through.
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So he said something to me that I never will forget.
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And this was about almost 20 years ago when he told me this.
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And he said, my daughter,
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I want you in the midst of the hardship, in the midst of the trial, in the midst of the opposition, in the midst of the adversity.
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He said, I want you to pay attention to the attention I'm paying to you.
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And that's what we have to do regardless.
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Pay attention to him because he's paying attention to us.
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Have you ever received a gift?
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Has anybody in here ever received a present, a gift?
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I have.
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Have you ever received a gift you don't like?
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Don't say it.
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But you received gifts that you like, right?
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So when I look at present my body a living sacrifice, I look at it as me presenting.
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Present, present my body.
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Give my body to the Lord as a gift.
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For him to open and do with it as he pleases.
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Because while he's beckoning, right?
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He's calling me.
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He's calling you.
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He's calling us.
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And as we present our bodies as a gift, we get to surrender it, submit it, yield it, subject it to God, and allow him to do, yeah.
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Go ahead.
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Surrender.
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It's a daily thing.
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Surrendering your plans, your will,
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all for His will.
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And as you do that, your identity, you become more comfortable in who you are in Christ as a daughter of the King.
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And we're so conditioned on how we grew up or how we were treated in the past that it's hard for us to accept the unconditional love.
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But the deeper you go and the more consistent you are with your time with the Lord, your identity is in Him.
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And you start to realize that and see that.
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And then slowly but surely you're able to accept that unconditional love.
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But, you know, it takes consistency.
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It takes, you know...
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Surrender, daily surrender, not my will, Lord, but your will.
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The great exchange, exchanging my will for his.
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Wow.
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Just think about that for a moment.
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Really think about that.
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How differently would our lives look if we literally did that great exchange?
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If we gave up our will and took on his will, we surrender our will to him.
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Picture your life, picture yourself going all in for God, surrendering everything unto him.
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Your will, your desires, and just giving it over to him and letting him have free reign in your life.
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Oh my gosh.
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If we really let the Lord have free reign in our life, if every Christian in the world let the Lord have free reign in their life, how different would our world even look?
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God, you just do whatever you want to do in me and through me in this world that I'm in but not of.
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I...
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Selah.
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Yeah.
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Think about that.
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You know, and I was thinking again about that beckoning, Brandy, because you were saying, what did you say about how we, sometimes we don't hear it or we don't listen to it.
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Ignore it sometimes.
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We ignore it.
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I mean, there's times I've ignored it.
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I'm going to be real.
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Yeah, but, yeah.
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But, you know, it's,
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it's when you ignore it, where's your focus at?
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Where's your priority at?
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What altar did you build?
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Is it an altar to the Lord?
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Oh, my word.
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Or is it altar to self, to ministry, to work, kids?
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Yeah.
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What you consume the most will draw you.
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Mm-hmm.
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I want to consume him.
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You know, I want to know him.
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I want him to know me.
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I want to be that wise virgin.
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That's good.
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You know, I don't want to be an unwise virgin wandering around, you know.
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Yeah.
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Still holding a lamp that's not lit.
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Mm-hmm.
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But I'm here, Lord, you know.
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Yeah.
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I read my devotional, you know, but that's not enough.
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He's calling us to go deeper in His Word, to know Him, for us to know Him and Him to know us.
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It's, you know, getting in there daily, memorizing Scripture, which...
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I'm still doing.
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Yeah.
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Yeah.
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It's, it's just, it's a beautiful thing to, to just dive deep in, let him work within you from the inside out.
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There's times where it's painful.
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There's times where it's sweet.
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There's times where it's, you know, great.
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It's just, it's just,
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Like it says, we're the clay.
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He's the, what is the scripture?
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Yes.
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It's just letting him, sorry, do that.
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Because we're so inclined, it goes back to conditioning, I'm in control.
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You know, you can have this part of me, but not over here.
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Not that part, yeah.
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You know, finances.
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Lord, I'm tied, but I want to just control this over here.
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We can't.
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That's right.
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You know, and it's time to take the word for what it says and not sugarcoat it, not take things out of context, which it's easy to do for some.
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It's just getting back to the basics.
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Simple.
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Yeah, it really is.
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Getting back to the basics.
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I tell you what, and that reminds me, getting back to the basics.
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I am a U.S. Army veteran, and when you enter into the military, after you go through the processing center and get assigned to a company,
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Then you go through what's called either boot camp or basic training.
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And basic training lays the foundation for what you will be doing in the military, basically.
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So you're building up, and as you progress through the years and get promotions and excel in the military, you're building up on that foundation of basic training, but you always have to refer back to it
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before even moving forward.
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So thinking about the Lord, we always have to refer back to him, going back to the basic, returning to our first love.
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Because if we find ourselves getting distant and we find ourselves feeling...
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what, maybe rejected or ignored.
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It's not a good feeling to feel ignored.
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So think about, I know God is supernatural and sovereign and all that.
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He doesn't, he's not in human emotions like we are, but just imagine the almighty
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Randy said, given this part of our lives to the Lord and not that part, but Jesus gave it all, his whole self.
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He took on a full body wound for us in order that we will be set free and delivered from sin.
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He gave him his whole self.
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He gave his whole self.
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So we are to give our whole self because Jesus is our prime example.
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He's the one that paved the way for the lifestyle that we are to live.
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He lived it here on earth as an example to us as to how we should live for God.
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How many of us?
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You don't have to raise your hand.
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You don't even have to shake your head.
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You can just answer on the inside of you.
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But how many of us are actually doing?
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How many of us are trekking Jesus?
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Patterning our life after his lifestyle.
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Living like Jesus.
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Living like Jesus.
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And in order to live like Jesus, we have to know how Jesus lived.
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In order to know how Jesus lived, we have to delve into the word and study his life.
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And then once we study his life and become knowledgeable of how he lives, then now we allow this to become applicable to life.
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And we apply his word to our life.
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Not having a form of godliness and denying the power thereof or just speaking the word but not doing it.
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James tells us about that.
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Be doers of the word and not hearers only or else you're going to be deceiving yourself.
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Nobody wants to be deceived.
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So it's really vital to life and important to us that when we hear the Lord beckoning, calling, come away with me.
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Because sometimes we're too busy.
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And, you know, sometimes I wonder.
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I had this thought this morning.
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Because, you know, we do a lot.
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We're born-again believers.
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Some of us are in ministry.
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We have prayer groups.
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We have Bible studies.
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We have time at our local assembly church.
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We feed the hungry.
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We do this and that.
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And it's all in the name of Jesus.
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But I wonder sometime in our activity, is God saying, what about me?
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Yeah.
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Out of all that you're doing, that you say that you're doing for me, while I'm beckoning you to just come and spend some time, just spend some quality time with me while you're here, there, and everywhere.
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What about me?
289
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Can you come away with me?
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Can you answer when I call?
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When I'm beckoning, will you come?
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Will you enter into my presence?
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For there is fullness of joy.
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There is no way that we can enter into God's presence for real, for real.
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And come out the same.
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Yeah.
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100%.
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Because in that presence where there's fullness of joy, there's communication, revelation, transformation, reconciliation, all kind of shuns.
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So when we just enter into God's presence.
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So I'm gonna put a challenge out here for us.
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Because the beautiful thing about the Lord is we can enter into his presence anywhere.
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Praise God, amen.
303
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We just enter in.
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So I'm gonna challenge us that on some of our hardest, most challenging days,
305
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When we feel like, what is this all about?
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Just take that moment right there and just draw into God.
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Just enter into his presence.
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And sup with him.
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Spend time with him.
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Soak in his presence.
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Be saturated with his presence.
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And sometimes we don't have to say anything because sometimes we do talk a little too much.
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And we can listen.
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It'll pay to just listen sometimes when we enter in so the Lord can just reveal his heart to us.
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Do we ever ask God what's on his heart?
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Do we ever take time to say, Lord, what's on your mind?
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What's on your mind?
318
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What would you like?
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What do you want today, Lord?
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What can I do for you today, Lord?
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Where can I go for you today, Lord?
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I'm going to put another challenge out there.
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Are you all up for that challenge?
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The one I just gave.
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Are you all up for that challenge?
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Okay, so here comes another one.
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This one is a doozy.
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I'm going to challenge us to, for the next 30 days, this is a big one, spend an hour with God.
329
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One hour.
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Remember, he asked his disciples, will you not tarry?
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How long did he say, Brandy?
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One hour.
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One hour.
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And we know what happened there.
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So I'm asking us tonight.
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With no distractions.
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Exactly.
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No distractions.
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Just him.
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And us.
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Well, it'll be y'all individually with him.
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Don't come to my house.
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No, I'm just kidding.
344
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But it's just our individual selves.
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Y'all, seriously.
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And just take an hour.
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Because if for one instant anybody in her think that they're too busy to spend one hour out of 24 hours with God,
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something's probably off kilter.
349
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But then I would have to give up my scrolling on my social media or my Facebook.
350
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I don't know.
351
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Who gave you your finger to scroll in the first place?
352
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Right?
353
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So when you spend your time with the Lord, part of the challenge, leave yourself somewhere else.
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Get your paper Bible out instead.
355
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Because then you won't be inclined to check, okay, what time is it?
356
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Am I almost done praying?
357
00:25:02.423 --> 00:25:03.103
That's so true.
358
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Yeah.
359
00:25:05.845 --> 00:25:07.066
And it's so refreshing.
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Yeah.
361
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And you get lost in it.
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Once you get into that routine and he sees how faithful you are and your persistence towards him, you desire that more and more.
363
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And then you start becoming faithful.
364
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like he created you to be.
365
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You wanna be more like him, you know?
366
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Yeah, seriously.
367
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Even the people that you once hung out with, you don't hang out with anymore.
368
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Like, no, I can't go clubbing.
369
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That's not who I am anymore.
370
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Not that I was a clubbing girl anyway, that wasn't me.
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Well, I sure enough was, but.
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We're not going to talk about that.
373
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But you're alive.
374
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You see the patterns in your life start changing.
375
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I don't have time for that.
376
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I don't, you know.
377
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I have a date with the Lord at 5 o'clock every morning.
378
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That is my time with the Lord.
379
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Set your alarm.
380
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Set a time.
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Whatever works for you.
382
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But I encourage you to do it first thing in the morning.
383
00:26:10.045 --> 00:26:11.585
I jotted this down.
384
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And I put God is my schedule.
385
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And...
386
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I put, we shouldn't center God around our stuff, but allow our stuff to be centered around God.
387
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So we do everything that we believe is important or needed or we're obligated to do, and then...
388
00:26:35.595 --> 00:26:40.579
Maybe there's God or maybe we're too tired because we're worn out from all that activity.
389
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And then we don't spend quality time with him.
390
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And he's the most important person in our lives.
391
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He's the one that can supply every need.
392
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He's the one that will never leave us nor forsake us.
393
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He's the one...
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That's a constant in our lives.
395
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And he's consistent always.
396
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And we need him.
397
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We need him.
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And as Brandy was saying, the more we spend time with God, the more we're going to want to spend time with God.
399
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Because stuff's going to start just falling away.
400
00:27:17.385 --> 00:27:43.924
falling off those things that we thought we needed or thought we desired man we're not going to even have an interest in those things because guess what we see how beautiful God is how refreshing and freeing and loving oh my goodness that time with God is and it's like the presence is so thick it becomes so tangible and
401
00:27:45.192 --> 00:27:50.579
when we enter into God's presence and just allow him to be God in our lives.
402
00:27:51.560 --> 00:27:53.242
And he surrounds us with that presence.
403
00:27:53.523 --> 00:27:57.408
And I was thinking about that beckoning and drawing nigh to God.
404
00:27:57.448 --> 00:27:59.851
So Brandy, draw nigh to me.
405
00:28:02.393 --> 00:28:03.695
Come on, get a little closer.
406
00:28:03.875 --> 00:28:05.197
I have to do that.
407
00:28:05.337 --> 00:28:06.378
Okay, no, just come on, draw a night.
408
00:28:06.578 --> 00:28:07.840
So she's drawing a night to me.
409
00:28:08.060 --> 00:28:09.582
She's me, and here I am.
410
00:28:09.903 --> 00:28:10.944
I'm drawing a night to her.
411
00:28:11.705 --> 00:28:12.626
So I'm getting close.
412
00:28:13.087 --> 00:28:15.670
So I picture it this way.
413
00:28:17.547 --> 00:28:18.587
You drew nigh to me.
414
00:28:18.968 --> 00:28:19.868
I'm drawing nigh to God.
415
00:28:19.948 --> 00:28:20.768
He draws nigh to me.
416
00:28:21.328 --> 00:28:23.409
And there is a level of intimacy there.
417
00:28:24.169 --> 00:28:37.955
There is a level of where he can communicate to me in very close proximity and allow me to know even hidden things, mysterious things, secret things, and he can whisper in my ear.
418
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Remember you were talking about sometimes we ignore the beckoning, but remember Elijah when he was...
419
00:28:44.737 --> 00:28:50.200
on the mountain and the wind and all that, the fire and all that came, but it wasn't God.
420
00:28:50.540 --> 00:28:54.202
And he came with that still, small voice, the whisper.
421
00:28:54.542 --> 00:28:58.164
And in order to hear a whisper, you have to be close.
422
00:28:59.887 --> 00:29:17.934
So when we draw nigh to God and he draws nigh to us, I believe we can feel him or hear him whispering things to us, intimate details about our lives, maybe our families, maybe situations in this present day we're living in.
423
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Because we've taken time out to listen.
424
00:29:22.356 --> 00:29:26.278
Because we become intentional to listen to God.
425
00:29:28.155 --> 00:29:30.777
And sometimes we say, I don't know God's voice.
426
00:29:31.258 --> 00:29:32.559
I can't hear from God.
427
00:29:32.639 --> 00:29:33.880
God doesn't speak to me.
428
00:29:34.581 --> 00:29:36.642
God speaks and he talks.
429
00:29:37.323 --> 00:29:40.486
But sometimes we're not listening because we what?
430
00:29:40.846 --> 00:29:41.346
Ignore.
431
00:29:42.967 --> 00:29:45.708
Or you don't know his voice yet.
432
00:29:46.328 --> 00:29:46.649
Because.
433
00:29:46.689 --> 00:29:47.409
Just like Samuel.
434
00:29:47.709 --> 00:29:47.949
Yeah.
435
00:29:48.509 --> 00:29:49.570
You haven't heard it yet.
436
00:29:49.810 --> 00:29:54.852
You haven't taken the time or you're still learning to listen.
437
00:29:55.752 --> 00:29:56.072
Mm-hmm.
438
00:29:56.353 --> 00:29:58.133
To quiet your mind and listen.
439
00:29:58.794 --> 00:29:58.994
So.
440
00:29:59.534 --> 00:29:59.734
Yeah.
441
00:29:59.854 --> 00:30:00.934
Thank you for the challenge.
442
00:30:01.235 --> 00:30:02.755
I'm going to take her up on that.
443
00:30:02.775 --> 00:30:04.156
Who's going to take that challenge?
444
00:30:04.216 --> 00:30:07.077
Spending one hour with God for the next 30 days.
445
00:30:07.537 --> 00:30:10.400
If this episode encouraged you, don't let it end here.
446
00:30:10.921 --> 00:30:16.828
Open your Bible, seek God's heart, and discover the life-changing power of His promises for yourself.
447
00:30:17.228 --> 00:30:21.373
Until next time, keep pursuing the God who changes everything.
1
00:00:00.591 --> 00:00:07.477
The deeper you go and the more consistent you are with your time with the Lord, your identity is in Him.
2
00:00:08.118 --> 00:00:14.724
Welcome to the iRefresh podcast where every conversation points to the life-changing power of God's living Word.
3
00:00:15.224 --> 00:00:18.407
Let's pursue God together one conversation at a time.
4
00:00:19.173 --> 00:00:28.797
Well, tonight we're going to have pretty much a little casual talk here, and we're going to be kind of gleaning from each other's field.
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And as the Lord leads us, we're going to share with you tonight what the Lord has placed on our heart.
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And, you know, we go through different seasons in life and different changes in life.
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But the beautiful thing about it is no matter what changes we go through or what seasons,
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that we go through, God is with us every step of the way.
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He never leaves us, nor does he forsake us.
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So I just tonight want to ask Brandy, what does the season of your life look like tonight or for you?
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What is the Lord ministering to your heart?
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What has he spoken expressly to you?
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For me, um,
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There is a sound in the spirit that we tend to ignore.
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It's not always loud or audible or crazy, but it's the beckoning of the Holy Spirit calling us into a deeper relationship with Him.
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And so for this season in my life, the past year, year and a half, is where He's had me.
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Just really seeking Him.
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earnestly and deeper than ever before.
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And that can be a lonely place.
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Yeah.
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Yeah, for sure.
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For sure.
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So now, why do you think?
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That place is so lonely at that time when he's beckoning and calling.
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And it's him that's calling you to him.
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So you're going to be entering into his presence right there alone with him.
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So why do you think it just...
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I think for me it was a different facet of him, if that makes sense.
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Yeah.
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Taking me a little deeper to a different facet.
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And oftentimes, you know, I felt like Samuel, you know, the Lord calling him, you know, and him not understanding quite or recognizing the voice because he hadn't heard from him before.
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So it was, for me, most of my life has been like that.
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And so digging into prayer and just a deeper level, you know, in my walk with him and in my prayer life with him, he's just been taking me deeper.
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And I feel like almost a separation during this time.
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from what was comfortable.
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Oh wow, wow.
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And that's kinda scary.
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Whenever we're called out of a place of comfortable, it can tend to be a little scary because we like comfortable.
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Anybody in here like comfortable?
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I know I like comfortable.
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And when we're called away from that place of comfort, it's challenging.
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It challenges us.
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And even as Brandy was saying, the beckoning, how God is calling her to him, and that is because he so desires closeness with us.
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You know, in James 4, 8, the word of God lets us know, draw nigh unto me.
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and I will draw nigh unto you, because he wants to be so close to us.
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And his word lets us know that he will never leave us, nor will he ever forsake us.
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And so because he'll never do that, he wants us to perceive and sense that closeness.
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Oh my.
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And when we see his closeness or experience his closeness, y'all, we experience his bigness.
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Wow.
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You know, I just flew in from Boston this week, and as I sat on the plane looking out of the window, there was another plane in the sky, and we know how big planes are, right?
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Well, it didn't look big.
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And when I looked on the ground, the houses looked like I could just squeeze them between my fingers.
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And I said, Lord,
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I know those houses are huge and I could not grab them up in my hand.
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And I know that plane is huge and I could not grab it up in my hand, but it looks so small.
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And the Lord began to minister to me.
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He said, it's because you're far away from it.
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And whenever you're distant and far away, whatever you're far away from looks small.
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And that's why God beckons us because he does not want us to be far away from him.
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And he will never be far away from us as long as we position ourselves and posture ourselves to be close to him.
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Because the more distant we get from God, the smaller he'll look to us and the bigger the problem will look.
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So draw nigh unto him and he will draw nigh unto you.
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And you will experience his presence.
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You will experience his bigness.
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And you will know that there is no separation between you and him.
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Isn't that good?
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That's how much he loves us.
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Think about that.
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The almighty sovereign God wants to be close to you.
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I just heard a song come up, but it's not spiritual, so I better not sing it.
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But the words say just to be close to you.
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And I'm going to leave it right there.
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He wants to be close to us, and He wants us to be close to Him.
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But we take the initiative, draw nigh unto me.
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It has to be with great intention.
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We have to be intentional about drawing nigh unto God.
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That's so good, because the intentionality of it, even when you don't feel like it,
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David commanded his soul to praise the Lord.
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And so in the mornings when I don't feel like it, I'm gonna command my soul.
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Yes.
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You're gonna praise the Lord.
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Yes.
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And once you get into that, get past the awkwardness of hearing yourself pray or the awkwardness of, you know, whatever, however you pray or, cause there is, there's an awkward spot to it, for me anyway.
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But you get pushed past that and you go in, you know, like it's hard to explain, just deeper with the Holy Spirit.
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The rivers of the living water just flow over you.
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And that's where the healing is.
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That's where your deliverance is.
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You know, that's where, you know, the blueprints of life come is with that, you know, personal relationship.
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You don't need somebody to lay hands on you when you're with the Father.
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Mm-hmm.
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You don't need that deliverance minister when you're with the Father.
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There's a season, a place for all that.
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But he's your healer.
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He's your El Roy.
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He sees you.
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And so when you build that foundation, that relationship with him, he's just the oil...
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the olive tree just yeah that's so good he sees us how many of you all know that he sees you his eyes are up on you he's the l roy or the l roy e the god who sees so no matter what we experience
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He sees and he knows.
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And again, he's right there with us.
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And, you know, in Jeremiah 29, 11, when it talks about the plans that God has for us, how they're good plans.
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And when Jeremiah prophesied that to the Israelites.
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You know, they kind of did not want to hear what Jeremiah had to say because there was another prophet that just came and told them that they were going to be released from captivity.
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But Jeremiah said, oh, no, you're going to be here longer.
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You're going to be here for 70 years.
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And God said, look, so...
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You need to go ahead and build some houses.
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You need to go ahead and have some babies.
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You need to go ahead and do whatever you would do if you were not in captivity.
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Live like you would live if you were not in captivity right here in this place.
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Because I'm right here in this place with you.
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And my plan that I have for you is good.
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Whether it's in captivity or out of captivity.
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So get married.
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Get some jobs.
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Build some houses.
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Have some babies.
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Because the plan I have for you is good.
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where it looks like it's not good.
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We have to remember that God is good and that God, in Romans 8, 28, it lets us know and we know that all things work together for the good to those of us who love the Lord and are called according to his purpose.
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So let me tell you something.
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When you love the Lord and you know God,
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that you are called according to his purpose, you have to expect that no matter what, and no matter what's transpiring, it will work for your good.
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Because God, the word says it.
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So expect the good regardless.
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to what's transpiring in your life.
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And this little tidbit right here I wanna leave with you because it's just so beautiful to me because there was a time in my life when I was having a moment and it was rough.
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And I was like, Lord, if you wanna come today, you can come and get me.
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That's how rough it was.
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But God is so beautiful.
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And he, because he never leaves us, because he never forsakes us, because he wants us to know that I see you right in the midst of what you're going through.
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So he said something to me that I never will forget.
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And this was about almost 20 years ago when he told me this.
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And he said, my daughter,
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I want you in the midst of the hardship, in the midst of the trial, in the midst of the opposition, in the midst of the adversity.
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He said, I want you to pay attention to the attention I'm paying to you.
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And that's what we have to do regardless.
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Pay attention to him because he's paying attention to us.
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Have you ever received a gift?
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Has anybody in here ever received a present, a gift?
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I have.
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Have you ever received a gift you don't like?
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Don't say it.
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But you received gifts that you like, right?
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So when I look at present my body a living sacrifice, I look at it as me presenting.
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Present, present my body.
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Give my body to the Lord as a gift.
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For him to open and do with it as he pleases.
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Because while he's beckoning, right?
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He's calling me.
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He's calling you.
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He's calling us.
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And as we present our bodies as a gift, we get to surrender it, submit it, yield it, subject it to God, and allow him to do, yeah.
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Go ahead.
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Surrender.
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It's a daily thing.
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Surrendering your plans, your will,
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all for His will.
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And as you do that, your identity, you become more comfortable in who you are in Christ as a daughter of the King.
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And we're so conditioned on how we grew up or how we were treated in the past that it's hard for us to accept the unconditional love.
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But the deeper you go and the more consistent you are with your time with the Lord, your identity is in Him.
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And you start to realize that and see that.
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And then slowly but surely you're able to accept that unconditional love.
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But, you know, it takes consistency.
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It takes, you know...
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Surrender, daily surrender, not my will, Lord, but your will.
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The great exchange, exchanging my will for his.
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Wow.
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Just think about that for a moment.
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Really think about that.
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How differently would our lives look if we literally did that great exchange?
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If we gave up our will and took on his will, we surrender our will to him.
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Picture your life, picture yourself going all in for God, surrendering everything unto him.
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Your will, your desires, and just giving it over to him and letting him have free reign in your life.
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Oh my gosh.
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If we really let the Lord have free reign in our life, if every Christian in the world let the Lord have free reign in their life, how different would our world even look?
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God, you just do whatever you want to do in me and through me in this world that I'm in but not of.
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I...
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Selah.
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Yeah.
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Think about that.
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You know, and I was thinking again about that beckoning, Brandy, because you were saying, what did you say about how we, sometimes we don't hear it or we don't listen to it.
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Ignore it sometimes.
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We ignore it.
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I mean, there's times I've ignored it.
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I'm going to be real.
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Yeah, but, yeah.
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But, you know, it's,
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it's when you ignore it, where's your focus at?
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Where's your priority at?
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What altar did you build?
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Is it an altar to the Lord?
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Oh, my word.
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Or is it altar to self, to ministry, to work, kids?
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Yeah.
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What you consume the most will draw you.
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Mm-hmm.
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I want to consume him.
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You know, I want to know him.
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I want him to know me.
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I want to be that wise virgin.
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That's good.
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You know, I don't want to be an unwise virgin wandering around, you know.
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Yeah.
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Still holding a lamp that's not lit.
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Mm-hmm.
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But I'm here, Lord, you know.
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Yeah.
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I read my devotional, you know, but that's not enough.
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He's calling us to go deeper in His Word, to know Him, for us to know Him and Him to know us.
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It's, you know, getting in there daily, memorizing Scripture, which...
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I'm still doing.
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Yeah.
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Yeah.
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It's, it's just, it's a beautiful thing to, to just dive deep in, let him work within you from the inside out.
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There's times where it's painful.
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There's times where it's sweet.
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There's times where it's, you know, great.
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It's just, it's just,
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Like it says, we're the clay.
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He's the, what is the scripture?
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Yes.
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It's just letting him, sorry, do that.
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Because we're so inclined, it goes back to conditioning, I'm in control.
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You know, you can have this part of me, but not over here.
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Not that part, yeah.
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You know, finances.
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Lord, I'm tied, but I want to just control this over here.
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We can't.
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That's right.
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You know, and it's time to take the word for what it says and not sugarcoat it, not take things out of context, which it's easy to do for some.
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It's just getting back to the basics.
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Simple.
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Yeah, it really is.
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Getting back to the basics.
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I tell you what, and that reminds me, getting back to the basics.
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I am a U.S. Army veteran, and when you enter into the military, after you go through the processing center and get assigned to a company,
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Then you go through what's called either boot camp or basic training.
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And basic training lays the foundation for what you will be doing in the military, basically.
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So you're building up, and as you progress through the years and get promotions and excel in the military, you're building up on that foundation of basic training, but you always have to refer back to it
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before even moving forward.
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So thinking about the Lord, we always have to refer back to him, going back to the basic, returning to our first love.
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Because if we find ourselves getting distant and we find ourselves feeling...
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what, maybe rejected or ignored.
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It's not a good feeling to feel ignored.
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So think about, I know God is supernatural and sovereign and all that.
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He doesn't, he's not in human emotions like we are, but just imagine the almighty
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Randy said, given this part of our lives to the Lord and not that part, but Jesus gave it all, his whole self.
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He took on a full body wound for us in order that we will be set free and delivered from sin.
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He gave him his whole self.
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He gave his whole self.
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So we are to give our whole self because Jesus is our prime example.
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He's the one that paved the way for the lifestyle that we are to live.
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He lived it here on earth as an example to us as to how we should live for God.
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How many of us?
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You don't have to raise your hand.
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You don't even have to shake your head.
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You can just answer on the inside of you.
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But how many of us are actually doing?
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How many of us are trekking Jesus?
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Patterning our life after his lifestyle.
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Living like Jesus.
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Living like Jesus.
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And in order to live like Jesus, we have to know how Jesus lived.
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In order to know how Jesus lived, we have to delve into the word and study his life.
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And then once we study his life and become knowledgeable of how he lives, then now we allow this to become applicable to life.
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And we apply his word to our life.
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Not having a form of godliness and denying the power thereof or just speaking the word but not doing it.
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James tells us about that.
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Be doers of the word and not hearers only or else you're going to be deceiving yourself.
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Nobody wants to be deceived.
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So it's really vital to life and important to us that when we hear the Lord beckoning, calling, come away with me.
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Because sometimes we're too busy.
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And, you know, sometimes I wonder.
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I had this thought this morning.
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Because, you know, we do a lot.
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We're born-again believers.
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Some of us are in ministry.
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We have prayer groups.
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We have Bible studies.
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We have time at our local assembly church.
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We feed the hungry.
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We do this and that.
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And it's all in the name of Jesus.
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But I wonder sometime in our activity, is God saying, what about me?
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Yeah.
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Out of all that you're doing, that you say that you're doing for me, while I'm beckoning you to just come and spend some time, just spend some quality time with me while you're here, there, and everywhere.
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What about me?
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Can you come away with me?
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Can you answer when I call?
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When I'm beckoning, will you come?
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Will you enter into my presence?
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For there is fullness of joy.
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There is no way that we can enter into God's presence for real, for real.
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And come out the same.
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Yeah.
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100%.
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Because in that presence where there's fullness of joy, there's communication, revelation, transformation, reconciliation, all kind of shuns.
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So when we just enter into God's presence.
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So I'm gonna put a challenge out here for us.
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Because the beautiful thing about the Lord is we can enter into his presence anywhere.
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Praise God, amen.
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We just enter in.
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So I'm gonna challenge us that on some of our hardest, most challenging days,
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When we feel like, what is this all about?
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Just take that moment right there and just draw into God.
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Just enter into his presence.
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And sup with him.
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Spend time with him.
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Soak in his presence.
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Be saturated with his presence.
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And sometimes we don't have to say anything because sometimes we do talk a little too much.
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And we can listen.
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It'll pay to just listen sometimes when we enter in so the Lord can just reveal his heart to us.
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Do we ever ask God what's on his heart?
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Do we ever take time to say, Lord, what's on your mind?
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What's on your mind?
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What would you like?
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What do you want today, Lord?
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What can I do for you today, Lord?
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Where can I go for you today, Lord?
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I'm going to put another challenge out there.
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Are you all up for that challenge?
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The one I just gave.
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Are you all up for that challenge?
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Okay, so here comes another one.
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This one is a doozy.
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I'm going to challenge us to, for the next 30 days, this is a big one, spend an hour with God.
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One hour.
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Remember, he asked his disciples, will you not tarry?
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How long did he say, Brandy?
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One hour.
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One hour.
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And we know what happened there.
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So I'm asking us tonight.
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With no distractions.
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Exactly.
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No distractions.
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Just him.
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And us.
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Well, it'll be y'all individually with him.
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Don't come to my house.
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No, I'm just kidding.
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But it's just our individual selves.
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Y'all, seriously.
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And just take an hour.
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Because if for one instant anybody in her think that they're too busy to spend one hour out of 24 hours with God,
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something's probably off kilter.
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But then I would have to give up my scrolling on my social media or my Facebook.
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I don't know.
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Who gave you your finger to scroll in the first place?
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Right?
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So when you spend your time with the Lord, part of the challenge, leave yourself somewhere else.
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Get your paper Bible out instead.
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Because then you won't be inclined to check, okay, what time is it?
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Am I almost done praying?
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That's so true.
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Yeah.
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And it's so refreshing.
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Yeah.
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And you get lost in it.
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Once you get into that routine and he sees how faithful you are and your persistence towards him, you desire that more and more.
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And then you start becoming faithful.
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like he created you to be.
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You wanna be more like him, you know?
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Yeah, seriously.
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Even the people that you once hung out with, you don't hang out with anymore.
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Like, no, I can't go clubbing.
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That's not who I am anymore.
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Not that I was a clubbing girl anyway, that wasn't me.
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Well, I sure enough was, but.
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We're not going to talk about that.
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But you're alive.
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You see the patterns in your life start changing.
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I don't have time for that.
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I don't, you know.
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I have a date with the Lord at 5 o'clock every morning.
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That is my time with the Lord.
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Set your alarm.
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Set a time.
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Whatever works for you.
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But I encourage you to do it first thing in the morning.
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I jotted this down.
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And I put God is my schedule.
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And...
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I put, we shouldn't center God around our stuff, but allow our stuff to be centered around God.
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So we do everything that we believe is important or needed or we're obligated to do, and then...
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Maybe there's God or maybe we're too tired because we're worn out from all that activity.
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And then we don't spend quality time with him.
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And he's the most important person in our lives.
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He's the one that can supply every need.
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He's the one that will never leave us nor forsake us.
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He's the one...
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That's a constant in our lives.
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And he's consistent always.
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And we need him.
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We need him.
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And as Brandy was saying, the more we spend time with God, the more we're going to want to spend time with God.
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Because stuff's going to start just falling away.
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falling off those things that we thought we needed or thought we desired man we're not going to even have an interest in those things because guess what we see how beautiful God is how refreshing and freeing and loving oh my goodness that time with God is and it's like the presence is so thick it becomes so tangible and
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when we enter into God's presence and just allow him to be God in our lives.
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And he surrounds us with that presence.
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And I was thinking about that beckoning and drawing nigh to God.
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So Brandy, draw nigh to me.
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Come on, get a little closer.
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I have to do that.
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Okay, no, just come on, draw a night.
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So she's drawing a night to me.
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She's me, and here I am.
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I'm drawing a night to her.
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So I'm getting close.
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So I picture it this way.
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You drew nigh to me.
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I'm drawing nigh to God.
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He draws nigh to me.
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And there is a level of intimacy there.
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There is a level of where he can communicate to me in very close proximity and allow me to know even hidden things, mysterious things, secret things, and he can whisper in my ear.
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Remember you were talking about sometimes we ignore the beckoning, but remember Elijah when he was...
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on the mountain and the wind and all that, the fire and all that came, but it wasn't God.
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And he came with that still, small voice, the whisper.
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And in order to hear a whisper, you have to be close.
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So when we draw nigh to God and he draws nigh to us, I believe we can feel him or hear him whispering things to us, intimate details about our lives, maybe our families, maybe situations in this present day we're living in.
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Because we've taken time out to listen.
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Because we become intentional to listen to God.
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And sometimes we say, I don't know God's voice.
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I can't hear from God.
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God doesn't speak to me.
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God speaks and he talks.
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But sometimes we're not listening because we what?
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Ignore.
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Or you don't know his voice yet.
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Because.
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Just like Samuel.
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Yeah.
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You haven't heard it yet.
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You haven't taken the time or you're still learning to listen.
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Mm-hmm.
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To quiet your mind and listen.
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So.
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Yeah.
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Thank you for the challenge.
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I'm going to take her up on that.
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Who's going to take that challenge?
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Spending one hour with God for the next 30 days.
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If this episode encouraged you, don't let it end here.
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Open your Bible, seek God's heart, and discover the life-changing power of His promises for yourself.
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Until next time, keep pursuing the God who changes everything.