October 27, 2025 • 34 mins
What if the pace you live at is starving the person you’re becoming? We explore why a culture of acceleration cannot produce a deep soul, and how real spiritual formation requires a slower, steadier path. Using a simple visual of four concentric circles, we show why the inner life—personal growth, healing, and spirituality—sets the ceiling for everything public and visible. When the outer expands faster than the core can sustain, life forms sinkholes. The antidote isn’t more polish or better systems; it’s a return to presence.
Together we walk through five stages of prayer that unfold across a lifetime. Verbalization honors the dignity of your voice and the beauty of asking. Reflection shifts the question from “Do this” to “What are you already doing?” and trains your attention through daily examen. Listening often arrives through a dark night, where feelings fade and obedience deepens around the still, small voice. Watching loosens our grip on outcomes as we keep people and plans on the altar and let God move. Being, inspired by Brother Lawrence, becomes a quiet, continual awareness of God in ordinary moments—no performance, just presence.
Along the way, we name the risks of leading from the outer rings and the quiet practices that strengthen the center: unhurried Scripture, honest confession, patient silence, and gratitude in the everyday. We challenge the myth that growth must be fast, and we pray for a pace that your soul can carry. If you’ve been measuring success by visibility, numbers, or timelines, this conversation invites a reset toward depth, sustainability, and joy with God.
My hope is that this podcast helps grow your faith and equips you to accomplish your dreams and goals!
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
SPEAKER_01 (00:07):
Welcome to another episode of the podcast.
Today I'm going to be sharing ateaching that I recently did at
our staff chapel.
My hope is that this encouragesyou and that your love for God's
word keepens.
Well, I think you might likethis.
(00:30):
It's been um on my mind and it'sshaping me.
And so a quick pause fromPhilippians.
Don't worry, we'll be back.
We're coming back.
We will not leave Philippians.
We've come too far to quit now.
Um, but I I think this willbless you, hopefully, maybe.
(00:51):
Um, you're good.
Thank you so much.
Thanks, Sam.
Um, okay, I want to talk to youabout um this is again, like I
said, something that's kind ofbeen on my mind and um something
I came across, and then I'vejust been kind of digging into
it deeper and it's speaking tome.
(01:13):
So hopefully it speaks to youtoo.
Um, but just thinking about ourculture, society, and how fast
everything is.
Like we are an instant society.
In fact, I will say when I go tobuy something, like if I can't
(01:34):
do Apple Pay, the likelihood ofme buying it goes down
drastically.
Because if I have to get up andget my wallet, I really have to
evaluate if I like it that much.
Is anybody else honest in thehouse?
Okay, great.
And then, but if it's Apple Pay,I just like black out.
And then the next thing I know,Brian's like, where did this
(01:56):
come from?
What did you order?
I'm like, I ordered nothing.
I don't know what you're talkingabout.
And then I open it, I'm like, ohyeah, the other night at 3 a.m.
when I was up, I bought that.
And but then the other thing is,is I want it like instantly.
And so sometimes whenever you gofor shipping on something and
it's like it'll arrive in likefive to seven days, you're like,
(02:19):
I don't, I need it tomorrow.
I don't want it in five to sevendays, or then sometimes it's
like 10 to 15 days.
I'm like, this is fake, this isstupid because no real business
has this.
And I've just been thinkingabout this, and one of my
professors said this statement,and it's kind of stuck with me.
(02:39):
And he said this as our cultureaccelerates, the formation of
our soul will not accelerate.
As our culture accelerates, theformation of our soul will not
(03:01):
accelerate.
There was this couple they wentthrough um fast track, and they
were in our community group.
Brian and I did a grouptogether, and they stayed behind
after and they were just crying.
And they were like, God blessyou.
And they were like, I'm justfrustrated, you know.
(03:22):
We went, we we started coming tothe church this many, you know,
months ago, and we did the fasttrack, and now we're in the
group, and like we still havethese things happening in our
life.
Like, where is God?
And I'm like, like, fast trackdoesn't mean fast growth.
And I think for all of us, weare trying to grow spiritually
(03:45):
so fast, and we almost arefrustrated ourselves.
We're not like celebrating wherewe're at because we're so
frustrated where we're not.
Does this make sense?
And and when he said that, I waslike, it's so true.
Like as culture accelerates, theformation of my soul is not
going to accelerate.
(04:05):
And in fact, anything that'sgrowing fast, somebody that
appears to be growing fast, I'mactually suspicious.
Because there's a lot of falsegrowth.
And we can look reallyspiritual, but inside be hollow.
And then on the flip end ofthat, whenever somebody actually
(04:26):
matures, and we're gonna talkabout five stages of prayer, and
when they actually hit all fivestages at a young age, they
usually die young.
So actually, like as we're gonnago through these five stages,
don't be discouraged if you'rein phase one.
Actually be like, okay, good,I'm probably gonna live a long
(04:48):
life.
Because somebody that God'sgonna use really quickly, you
look at um Saint John of theCross, you look at Jesus, you
look at a lot of the saints thatdied early, Justin the Martyr.
They died young, they hit allfive stages really young.
But the old saints, MotherTeresa, different ones that it
(05:08):
took them a long time to hitstage five.
A long time.
They had a whole life.
But when God acceleratessomebody really, really fast,
it's probably because they'regonna die early.
They've got to get done what heput them on this purpose earth
to do.
So don't be like discouraged aswe're talking about these five
stages.
Actually be encouraged.
(05:30):
I'm gonna live a long life.
Are y'all good?
I'm so good at being depressing.
Okay.
So I want you to think aboutthis.
Okay.
Think about these circles.
The innermost circle is theinner life.
(05:57):
This is your inner spirituallife.
This is the outer life.
The second circle is your outerlife.
The third circle is the innerministry life.
(06:21):
And the furthest circle is theouter ministry life.
What everybody sees is thisright here.
The outer, this everybody seesthe service, everybody sees the
(06:43):
growth, everybody sees that, butwhat nobody sees is this inside
thing.
Now, the inside inner life ofthe person, and I will just say,
my growth is not your growth,your growth is your growth.
The inner life of the person,nobody sees, but everything
(07:04):
that's going to happen outsideof this inner circle is
predicated upon what's happeningon the deepest core level.
You will never grow beyond thisinner life of what's happening
in the deepest part of us.
And inside of this, there's ourpersonal growth, personal
healing.
(07:24):
So personal growth.
Personal healing.
Make sure I get this right.
Personal growth, personalhealing, and personal
spirituality.
(07:50):
So Jesus, he calls, he calls hisdisciples.
Every single one, it's adifferent story.
Every single one has the sametwo words.
Follow me.
And somewhere in the journey ofdoing the thing, we became so
(08:11):
obsessed with the outerministry, what everybody sees.
The song set lists, the teamgrowth, the chairs, the the it's
the accessories, right?
It's everything everybody sees.
But we start neglecting thefirst part, which is follow me.
(08:31):
And it's in the follow me thathappens the second part, which
is the inner, the inner, theinner life.
Then we go to the outer life ofwhat's seen to the person,
right?
And the outer life looks kind oflike for Peter, it starts out,
he says, follow me, and I'llmake you a fisher of men.
Fast forward to the end of John,John chapter 21.
(08:54):
He says, Peter, do you love me?
In other words, are you stillfollowing me?
Oh, you want to follow me?
Tend my sheep.
Assignment looks different.
Things shift, things change.
Are you okay with thingsshifting and changing?
Because the assignment's stillthe same.
(09:15):
The inner life is still thesame.
Follow me.
And a lot of us we're so focusedon these outer rings, and we
fall apart when somethingchanges externally because our
inner core isn't solid.
And so in the inner core, thisis where my spirit, my personal
growth.
(09:35):
You never grow beyond like yourtime in the word.
You never grow beyond your timein prayer.
You never, and I'll just say, ifyou're doing ministry and you're
not spending time in the wordand you're not spending time in
prayer, please just go get a jobat Chick-fil-A.
Like, please, because the wheelsare gonna fall off this bus
really quick.
Like you're you're just you'reperformance Christian, and we
(09:57):
don't need that.
Like we really don't.
And and in this, the inner lifeis where God begins to heal
things.
Um, I I read a thing not toolong back, and I think it's true
that our childhood wounds arethe first to arrive in our life
and they're the last thing toheal.
And I'll say that as thesecircles grow bigger, things that
you thought were healed insideof here get to get rehealed
(10:18):
again.
Like you thought they werehealed, but like you get to go
back around that again.
How many counseling sessionsI've had around the same
childhood trauma?
But every season it brings up anew level of it that God's like
ready to heal again.
And I know that as the circle'sgrowing bigger, I have to grow
bigger in here.
My core has to be strengthened.
(10:38):
I have to go to a deeper place.
And so for us, as we are likegoing on this journey together,
and I will just ask you like,how much time are you spending
more time focusing and measuringyour success by the outer rings
of what everybody sees, or moretime on, God, I'm following you.
I'm following you, I'm listeningto your voice, I'm doing what
(11:01):
you're asking me to do becausedon't get messed up.
Yes, we function by systems, butmore of what we do is
supernatural than a system.
And if we're allowing the systemto do the heavy lifting, we are
just a corporation.
We're no longer a spiritualbeing.
And the church is a spiritualbeing first and foremost.
(11:21):
The structure helps us move, butthe spirit gives us life.
And if we are leaders that areleading without the first, the
call of follow me, then we'remissing this whole thing.
So five stages of prayer.
You good?
So think of it like this likethey're on a timeline here.
And basically, here you die.
(11:43):
Okay, like when you when you hitthe final stage, you're probably
about to die.
All right.
So everybody feel good so far.
All right.
So very first stage of prayer isverbalization.
Verbalization.
(12:04):
So this is where we learn thatwe get this in this is that we
every person begins their prayerlife in this phase.
We we, in fact, even Jesus,whenever the disciples ask him,
Lord, teach us how to pray, hesays, When you pray, say this.
And he goes through sixdifferent things: acknowledging
(12:25):
the Lord's character, his deity,um, talking about his kingdom
will to come, asking for dailyprovision, seeking forgiveness
for sin, requesting a protectionfrom temptation, and asking for
deliverance from evil.
Um, really sad thing in Matthewchapter, I think that's Matthew
six, isn't it?
Matthew six, yes, I'm right.
Matthew six, it says, at the endof the Lord's prayer, for yours
(12:48):
is the kingdom and the power andthe glory forever.
That isn't on any of theoriginal scrolls.
It was added by the earlychurch, but it's sweet.
Isn't that sweet?
But it is biblical because wesee it in other places, but it
actually Jesus didn't say that.
Um, but they added it becausethey use that prayer so much in
church liturgy that they'relike, oh, we need to have it be
(13:08):
like, amen, right here.
unknown (13:10):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (13:10):
Anyways, just a little fun fact there.
A little fun ditty for you.
Um early church fathers writing,copying the monks.
We're like, we should add thisin.
This seems good.
Um, but verbalization, this iswhere we get the dignity of
human, um of our human voice.
Like we we learn that God cares,the human participation, that we
(13:34):
learn that God is uh keenlyaware of what we're saying, that
God cares about what we have tosay.
And so when you start outpraying, when any person starts
out praying, they are doing allthe talking in the prayer.
Like they're they come to God,their prayer time looks like you
speak from the beginning to theend.
You're like, good morning,Jesus.
(13:55):
Like today I ask you, you know,that you are great, you're good,
and God, I thank you forforgiving my sins, and like
you're feeling the whole time.
And in this time, inverbalization, this stage, we're
learning that we're seeing veryquickly that what we're asking
for, we start to see changes andshifts in the environment around
us.
We start to see things starthappening, we start to see
(14:17):
miracles in this phase.
And that's a really great,that's a really great thing,
which empowers us to do what?
Go back and pray again.
And so we get excited in thisphase.
This phase, we start to have arelationship with God, but we're
doing all the talking.
So we're the one, but at thesame point, God's like, great,
like you are learning humanparticipation.
We also learn the dignity ofvulnerability.
(14:39):
So in this, we begin to learn.
So that there's like threephases, right?
So there's human participation.
So what I say matters.
Like God wants me to talk tohim, but then vulnerability,
that I can come and talk to Godabout anything.
(15:01):
Like this is the second part ofthis phase.
And we start to realize thatGod, God wants to hear about our
day.
God wants you to talk to himabout, man, I'm I'm really sad
about this.
Like this, this really bothersme.
And you start talking to theLord about it.
Like we start being vulnerablewith the Lord.
Like, I don't, I'm reallystruggling with this area of my
(15:24):
life, God, and you're bringingthese things to him.
This is really beautiful.
This is a great time.
Like, just think about any truerelationship is gonna have a
measure of vulnerability to it.
Like, in fact, I will say, Iknow how close somebody is to
you by how vulnerable you arewith him, right?
And so it's in this phase thatwe start learning to be
vulnerable with God.
We also learn disclosure.
(15:46):
Disclosure.
And so I'm starting to, in myvulnerability, I'm not just
sharing my feelings, but I'mstarting to disclose to God not
just what's currently happening,but everything from my past.
Like, God, these things arereally difficult.
Like I'm feeling these thingslike I don't understand.
Like I'm starting to bevulnerable about where I'm at,
(16:07):
but I'm disclosing to him allthese things from my past, these
things that I don't understand.
I'm bringing to him questions.
I'm wrestling with him in thisphase.
Is this good?
And so this is a good neededform, but it is it is like stage
one, verbalization.
Then somewhere along thejourney, we move into stage two.
(16:28):
And this is reflection.
Reflection.
And in the reflection phase iswhen I start asking God, what
are you already doing?
What are you already doing?
(16:55):
So previously I'm coming to Godasking him to do.
Now I'm saying, what are youalready doing?
Like I'm starting to open myeyes, and I'm not saying, I'm
not coming with thispresupposition that unless I
speak, you're not moving.
Now I'm saying, you're alreadymoving.
(17:18):
God, you're already doingthings, you're already present.
Show me what you're alreadydoing.
And in this, in this um phase,I'll say we begin to move into
the most effective form ofevangelism.
So the least effective form ofevangelism is looking at the
(17:39):
world that's far from God andgoing, you don't know God, God's
not doing anything in your life.
Let me show you a way to findGod.
Jesus never operated that way.
He operated from the place ofwhat was already happening in
their life, and then pointedthem to the solution for
something greater.
The woman coming to the well, Ihave water you know not of.
(18:02):
Does this make sense?
Like he's pointing him to what,like you're you're already doing
something, like there's a hungerinside of you for something.
Let me point you towards thesolution, the greater source,
which is Christ.
So in this phase, we move intothis uh this perspective, like
we shift and we start reflectingon God, what are you already
(18:23):
doing?
In this, um, which is reallycool because this is Laura,
she's gonna be here with youguys this weekend.
She's great, my counselor, Ilove her.
And um, in this, we ask the thequestion, where did I experience
God's love today?
(18:54):
Then I start to also be umkeenly aware of where was I
distant from God today.
In this in this reflectionpiece, this is actually from
(19:16):
Ignatius of Loyola.
Um, he came up with thispractice, and this is where I
begin to find myself um leaninginto God.
So I'm I'm noticing a sunset andI'm experiencing God's love.
I'm slowing down and I'mnoticing a room and I'm allowing
(19:36):
my heart to fill with gratitudethat I'm not just in a room
where there's laughter, but I'mexperiencing God's love.
I'm reflecting.
It's outside of now a prayercloset.
It's in me as I'm walkingthrough.
Uh, Brian and I, we were we wereat the state fair on Monday, and
I had just this overwhelmingfeeling of like God's smile.
(19:58):
And oh, praise God.
Yes.
Amen.
Let's go.
Woo.
And uh I was walking through thestate fair and all of a sudden I
told Brian, I was like, I justwant to cry right now.
Like, I just feel God's lovelike so strong.
But on the flip end of that,whenever I'm walking in judgment
(20:22):
or unforgiveness, I immediately,the more you begin to walk in
reflection, you notice I'mdistant from you right now.
Like I'm distant.
I'm like sitting in judgment.
I'm sitting in a seat ofcriticism, I'm sitting in a seat
of unforgiveness.
And you start to like your mindis able to come back to okay,
(20:42):
Lord, I repent, I'm back withyou.
Like it's like it's like you'rethe smallest little, you're able
to come right back in.
Are we doing good?
All right, the next islistening.
Listening.
This is stage three.
And this one's kind of sad.
(21:04):
So this phase um is only uh St.
John of the Cross talks aboutthis, and you are there's two
levels to this, and you don'tget to do this phase without
this, and you're gonna have togo through a dark night of the
soul.
(21:30):
Dark night of the soul, and thenhe also calls it dark night of
the senses, and in the darknight of the senses, you
basically learn that you can'ttrust your feelings anymore.
This is where I no longer I nolonger get done preaching and
(21:52):
think I did good, so I'm good.
I'm obedient and I feel nothing.
I pray and I feel nothing.
I believe God for a miracle, andI don't have this charge in my
spirit like God's about to dosomething so crazy.
(22:15):
Like, I'm just following becauseI'm listening to his voice, and
it's no longer emotive.
And you're gonna go through adark night of the soul.
Typically, it's through anextreme loss, disappointment,
heartache, where all yourframeworks of everything you
(22:36):
thought you knew about God isgonna completely fall apart.
You do not get this phasewithout it.
That sucks.
But it's true.
And it's in this phase that welearn I just have to listen to
his voice.
I can no longer trust what I'mseeing, I can no longer trust
(22:58):
what I'm experiencing, I can nolonger trust what I'm feeling.
I have to go on what he'ssaying, and so I'm listening,
not for the wind and the fireand the craziness, like those
things are really cool, butanybody can follow that.
But it's the still small voice.
(23:21):
In this phase, I'm not doingreally any talking anymore.
Like I'm coming into thepresence of God.
I pray some, I like some of myprayer time is vocal, most of it
is just still.
And I'll go deeper with you thateven if you're talking about
like your inner life, like whereyou're at, how your inner soul
(23:44):
is doing, if the more noise youhave to have in your
environment, it's because yoursoul isn't healthy.
The more healthy your soul is,the more okay you are with
quiet.
So if you're like, have to havea podcast going all the time,
you have to have music going allthe time.
(24:05):
I call it like air pollution,like constantly.
Like there's always something.
Like you're in the car and it'slike, quick, I gotta turn on
music as fast as I can, or Igotta have the audiobook on like
5.0, like as and he's like, andyou're like, I'm used to it, I'm
used to it.
I'm like, okay, but that's nothealthy.
Like, slow down.
And in this phase, we just learnto just start listening to the
(24:29):
Lord.
We speak, we spend timespeaking, but most of it is
spent um just listening to God.
The next phase is stage four.
And this is watching.
(24:50):
Think about Jesus, he's about togo to the cross, and he takes
the disciples with him to thegarden.
He just wants them to watch himpray.
He says, Stay up and keep watch.
Their role was to watch himintercede, watch him mediate.
(25:14):
And in this phase of our prayerjourney, we spend more time just
keeping things on the altar andwatching to see what God does.
We're no longer coming with ourown agenda.
We're no longer coming with ourown motive of what the outcome
of like, I need God to do this.
(25:35):
And I had a girl one time.
Well, if I'm not married by thetime I'm 30 and I have this,
this, and this, and like, it'sjust there's not even a point of
it.
And I'm like, yeah, well, God'snot gonna bless that.
Like, he's really not worriedabout your timeline.
Like, so not worried about it atall.
Like, he's not moved by it, noteven an iota, actually.
Like he's just looking at youand he's like, really?
(25:57):
And but in this phase, we justkeep things on the altar and we
watch to see what God does.
We just we put our family on thealtar.
It's outside of us, it's notpart of us.
We put the marriage on thealtar, we put the team on the
altar.
God, they're yours, they're notmine.
My job is to watch youintercede, to watch you move.
(26:19):
I'm no longer, because in here,verbalization, I'm in charge of
everything.
It has this false sense ofcontrol of like, if I don't pray
for it, it's not gonna happen.
I've got to speak it, I've gotto declare it, I gotta proclaim
it.
And in this phase, I'm justwatching.
I'm just a spectator.
I'm seeing the things happen andseeing what God does.
(26:41):
The fifth stage, right beforeyou die.
Not everybody hits it beforethey die, but is being.
Being.
And this is the phase in thestage of prayer where we're just
with God all the time.
This is Brother Lawrence, hisbook, Practicing the Presence.
(27:04):
I feel like I talk about it allthe time.
If you haven't read it, you needto read it.
Um, it's fantastic.
10 out of 10.
He's amazing.
Brother Lawrence, uh, practicingthe presence.
I think every person should readit at some point in their life.
Um, Brother Lawrence lived thisbeing.
And basically, he he wanted hislife where he never went more
(27:28):
than a minute without beingaware of God's presence.
And so it's his journal entries.
And he'll be like, Lord, today,as I was peeling potatoes, my
mind drifted from you, and Ididn't think about you for a
moment.
I repent.
Maybe I always sense yourpresence near me.
(27:49):
Today, as I was sweeping thefloors, and because he's a monk
and he's just going through hisdaily tasks, and it's just about
how his mind got to where it waslike constantly aware of the
presence of God, that everymoment of every day, God, I'm
looking for you in everything.
And in this phase, think of itlike an old couple that's just
sitting there on the porch andthey don't have to say anything
(28:12):
to each other because they'vealready said it all.
And it's just the presence ofbeing with them that's enough.
And it's it's in this phase,it's like literally Adam and Eve
walking with God in the cool ofthe day, not walking to a
destination, doesn't tell usanything about the conversation.
It doesn't tell us about thereason.
(28:33):
It was just being together wasenough.
It's not, I'm coming topetition, I'm coming because I
need this done.
No, I just I want to be withyou.
And if you're in the valley, I'min the valley.
If you're on the mountaintop,I'm on the mountaintop.
And so, in this, I think for me,as I've been reflecting on this,
I've just been thinking abouthow, like, A, I've been um
(28:54):
reflecting on where I am at inthe stages.
Have you already kind ofidentified where you're at?
Like, okay, I know where I'm at,but also encouraging you that
we're all gonna progressivelygrow as we go in our journey.
And this, like, let's say thatyou get saved at like 10.
And then let's say you die at80.
(29:15):
This is an 80-year journey tobecome this.
And again, as our cultureaccelerates, this formation of
your soul will not accelerate.
You're gonna slowly go througheach of these, but the goal is
maybe you're on step one ofverbalization.
That's great.
And in time, you'll notice thatall of a sudden now you're
(29:37):
starting to be vulnerable withthe Lord.
All of a sudden now you'rebeginning to disclose to him,
you're opening up other parts ofyour life to him.
And as you continue to grow, Goddoes something in here.
But I'll just say to you be lessconcerned what's happening out
here.
Healthy things just grow.
(29:59):
An orange.
SPEAKER_00 (30:00):
Tree doesn't wake up in the morning, it's like, oh, I
need to produce oranges today,or else.
And it's not going, oh, the treenext to me has got 50, and I've
only got 10, and what's wrongwith me?
And you get it together.
SPEAKER_01 (30:11):
No, he's just growing.
He's just growing.
And you don't grow without thepresence of God.
And maybe we're more focused andwe're measuring our worth by
this.
And maybe we should be moreconcerned here.
Brian and I's prayer, since wordgo, has been God, don't let the
(30:32):
church grow faster than what wegrow here.
Don't let the church grow fasterthan our staff grows here.
And so we're growing.
I mean, like Account of Mills,we've grown 37% since January,
which is insane.
But I've been asking myself, amI internally growing at the rate
(30:54):
that we're externally growing?
Because if we don't, we'llconcave on ourselves.
You know how they have thoselike crazy sinkholes that will
happen all over?
Like these beautiful cities, andthen all of a sudden one day it
just gives out.
Why?
Because at some point the outerbecame greater than what was
under the surface.
(31:15):
And what sustains our life ishis presence.
And if we're growing so fastthat we don't have time with
him, we're doing it wrong.
And if we're growing so fast wedon't have time for the secret
place, we're doing it wrong.
I'll end on this Madison Fowler,I love her.
She's really great.
She's um one of our dream teampeople here in Cato.
(31:36):
And I was talking to her andshe's like, you know, one of
those ultra healthy people thatthey eat everything healthy.
She has a 150-year-old SCOBYthat she grows her sourdough off
of.
It's like 150 years old.
It was like hergreat-great-grandmothers, like
they bequeath the nextgeneration the SCOBY.
I'm like, it's crazy.
And she they never eat out.
(31:58):
And I was like, how do you dothat?
How do you never eat out?
And she goes, just think aboutit.
If you're so busy that you can'tmake a meal for yourself, isn't
it time to reevaluate whatyou're doing?
And I was like, honestly, she'snot far off.
(32:18):
If you're so busy doing the workof the ministry that you don't
have time for the one whosustains the ministry, I think
something's off.
If you can't tell me the lasttime you encountered the
presence of God outside ofchapel, or you having time set
aside during your work hours ora conference that you went to
(32:41):
for the church, I'm talkingabout you and Jesus on your own.
We might need to reevaluate.
Come on, we might need to shift.
We might need to change.
Because this, we're never goingto grow bigger out here than
what we can sustain in here.
Um, Jesus, we just thank you somuch for who you are.
(33:02):
Uh Lord, I thank you that all ofus recognize where we're at.
And Father, I thank you thatyou're leading us all to a place
of being where it's just beingwith you, it's enough.
It's enough.
So, Father, I thank you that nomatter where we're at, Lord, let
us be comfortable in our growth.
(33:24):
Let us be comfortable where youhave us and that you're growing
us from the inside out.
Lord, don't give us more thanwhat we can steward.
Don't give us more than what wecan handle.
God, I thank you that you are umrecalibrating our souls.
Recalibrating our souls, Lord.
Refine our palate, God.
Anything where we've been umdrinking waters that's not
(33:45):
living waters, God, we justrepent right now.
And Father, I thank you that wehunger and we thirst for the
secret place.
We hunger and we thirst for timewith you.
Father, we just thank you forall that you're doing in us.
And God, may what you're doingin us flow through us.
Jesus' name.
Amen.
I love you guys.
(34:05):
Have a great day.
Thanks so much for hanging outhere on my podcast.
Do me a favor and hit thesubscribe button if you haven't
done so already, so you nevermiss out on anything here on my
podcast.
Also, one of the best ways forus to begin to reach other
people is by you sharing.
So if you can do me a favor andshare this podcast with a
(34:26):
friend, family member, or maybeon your social media, help us
get the word out so we can helpothers.
Welcome to another episode of the podcast.
Today I'm going to be sharing ateaching that I recently did at
our staff chapel.
My hope is that this encouragesyou and that your love for God's
word keepens.
Well, I think you might likethis.
(00:30):
It's been um on my mind and it'sshaping me.
And so a quick pause fromPhilippians.
Don't worry, we'll be back.
We're coming back.
We will not leave Philippians.
We've come too far to quit now.
Um, but I I think this willbless you, hopefully, maybe.
(00:51):
Um, you're good.
Thank you so much.
Thanks, Sam.
Um, okay, I want to talk to youabout um this is again, like I
said, something that's kind ofbeen on my mind and um something
I came across, and then I'vejust been kind of digging into
it deeper and it's speaking tome.
(01:13):
So hopefully it speaks to youtoo.
Um, but just thinking about ourculture, society, and how fast
everything is.
Like we are an instant society.
In fact, I will say when I go tobuy something, like if I can't
(01:34):
do Apple Pay, the likelihood ofme buying it goes down
drastically.
Because if I have to get up andget my wallet, I really have to
evaluate if I like it that much.
Is anybody else honest in thehouse?
Okay, great.
And then, but if it's Apple Pay,I just like black out.
And then the next thing I know,Brian's like, where did this
(01:56):
come from?
What did you order?
I'm like, I ordered nothing.
I don't know what you're talkingabout.
And then I open it, I'm like, ohyeah, the other night at 3 a.m.
when I was up, I bought that.
And but then the other thing is,is I want it like instantly.
And so sometimes whenever you gofor shipping on something and
it's like it'll arrive in likefive to seven days, you're like,
(02:19):
I don't, I need it tomorrow.
I don't want it in five to sevendays, or then sometimes it's
like 10 to 15 days.
I'm like, this is fake, this isstupid because no real business
has this.
And I've just been thinkingabout this, and one of my
professors said this statement,and it's kind of stuck with me.
(02:39):
And he said this as our cultureaccelerates, the formation of
our soul will not accelerate.
As our culture accelerates, theformation of our soul will not
(03:01):
accelerate.
There was this couple they wentthrough um fast track, and they
were in our community group.
Brian and I did a grouptogether, and they stayed behind
after and they were just crying.
And they were like, God blessyou.
And they were like, I'm justfrustrated, you know.
(03:22):
We went, we we started coming tothe church this many, you know,
months ago, and we did the fasttrack, and now we're in the
group, and like we still havethese things happening in our
life.
Like, where is God?
And I'm like, like, fast trackdoesn't mean fast growth.
And I think for all of us, weare trying to grow spiritually
(03:45):
so fast, and we almost arefrustrated ourselves.
We're not like celebrating wherewe're at because we're so
frustrated where we're not.
Does this make sense?
And and when he said that, I waslike, it's so true.
Like as culture accelerates, theformation of my soul is not
going to accelerate.
(04:05):
And in fact, anything that'sgrowing fast, somebody that
appears to be growing fast, I'mactually suspicious.
Because there's a lot of falsegrowth.
And we can look reallyspiritual, but inside be hollow.
And then on the flip end ofthat, whenever somebody actually
(04:26):
matures, and we're gonna talkabout five stages of prayer, and
when they actually hit all fivestages at a young age, they
usually die young.
So actually, like as we're gonnago through these five stages,
don't be discouraged if you'rein phase one.
Actually be like, okay, good,I'm probably gonna live a long
(04:48):
life.
Because somebody that God'sgonna use really quickly, you
look at um Saint John of theCross, you look at Jesus, you
look at a lot of the saints thatdied early, Justin the Martyr.
They died young, they hit allfive stages really young.
But the old saints, MotherTeresa, different ones that it
(05:08):
took them a long time to hitstage five.
A long time.
They had a whole life.
But when God acceleratessomebody really, really fast,
it's probably because they'regonna die early.
They've got to get done what heput them on this purpose earth
to do.
So don't be like discouraged aswe're talking about these five
stages.
Actually be encouraged.
(05:30):
I'm gonna live a long life.
Are y'all good?
I'm so good at being depressing.
Okay.
So I want you to think aboutthis.
Okay.
Think about these circles.
The innermost circle is theinner life.
(05:57):
This is your inner spirituallife.
This is the outer life.
The second circle is your outerlife.
The third circle is the innerministry life.
(06:21):
And the furthest circle is theouter ministry life.
What everybody sees is thisright here.
The outer, this everybody seesthe service, everybody sees the
(06:43):
growth, everybody sees that, butwhat nobody sees is this inside
thing.
Now, the inside inner life ofthe person, and I will just say,
my growth is not your growth,your growth is your growth.
The inner life of the person,nobody sees, but everything
(07:04):
that's going to happen outsideof this inner circle is
predicated upon what's happeningon the deepest core level.
You will never grow beyond thisinner life of what's happening
in the deepest part of us.
And inside of this, there's ourpersonal growth, personal
healing.
(07:24):
So personal growth.
Personal healing.
Make sure I get this right.
Personal growth, personalhealing, and personal
spirituality.
(07:50):
So Jesus, he calls, he calls hisdisciples.
Every single one, it's adifferent story.
Every single one has the sametwo words.
Follow me.
And somewhere in the journey ofdoing the thing, we became so
(08:11):
obsessed with the outerministry, what everybody sees.
The song set lists, the teamgrowth, the chairs, the the it's
the accessories, right?
It's everything everybody sees.
But we start neglecting thefirst part, which is follow me.
(08:31):
And it's in the follow me thathappens the second part, which
is the inner, the inner, theinner life.
Then we go to the outer life ofwhat's seen to the person,
right?
And the outer life looks kind oflike for Peter, it starts out,
he says, follow me, and I'llmake you a fisher of men.
Fast forward to the end of John,John chapter 21.
(08:54):
He says, Peter, do you love me?
In other words, are you stillfollowing me?
Oh, you want to follow me?
Tend my sheep.
Assignment looks different.
Things shift, things change.
Are you okay with thingsshifting and changing?
Because the assignment's stillthe same.
(09:15):
The inner life is still thesame.
Follow me.
And a lot of us we're so focusedon these outer rings, and we
fall apart when somethingchanges externally because our
inner core isn't solid.
And so in the inner core, thisis where my spirit, my personal
growth.
(09:35):
You never grow beyond like yourtime in the word.
You never grow beyond your timein prayer.
You never, and I'll just say, ifyou're doing ministry and you're
not spending time in the wordand you're not spending time in
prayer, please just go get a jobat Chick-fil-A.
Like, please, because the wheelsare gonna fall off this bus
really quick.
Like you're you're just you'reperformance Christian, and we
(09:57):
don't need that.
Like we really don't.
And and in this, the inner lifeis where God begins to heal
things.
Um, I I read a thing not toolong back, and I think it's true
that our childhood wounds arethe first to arrive in our life
and they're the last thing toheal.
And I'll say that as thesecircles grow bigger, things that
you thought were healed insideof here get to get rehealed
(10:18):
again.
Like you thought they werehealed, but like you get to go
back around that again.
How many counseling sessionsI've had around the same
childhood trauma?
But every season it brings up anew level of it that God's like
ready to heal again.
And I know that as the circle'sgrowing bigger, I have to grow
bigger in here.
My core has to be strengthened.
(10:38):
I have to go to a deeper place.
And so for us, as we are likegoing on this journey together,
and I will just ask you like,how much time are you spending
more time focusing and measuringyour success by the outer rings
of what everybody sees, or moretime on, God, I'm following you.
I'm following you, I'm listeningto your voice, I'm doing what
(11:01):
you're asking me to do becausedon't get messed up.
Yes, we function by systems, butmore of what we do is
supernatural than a system.
And if we're allowing the systemto do the heavy lifting, we are
just a corporation.
We're no longer a spiritualbeing.
And the church is a spiritualbeing first and foremost.
(11:21):
The structure helps us move, butthe spirit gives us life.
And if we are leaders that areleading without the first, the
call of follow me, then we'remissing this whole thing.
So five stages of prayer.
You good?
So think of it like this likethey're on a timeline here.
And basically, here you die.
(11:43):
Okay, like when you when you hitthe final stage, you're probably
about to die.
All right.
So everybody feel good so far.
All right.
So very first stage of prayer isverbalization.
Verbalization.
(12:04):
So this is where we learn thatwe get this in this is that we
every person begins their prayerlife in this phase.
We we, in fact, even Jesus,whenever the disciples ask him,
Lord, teach us how to pray, hesays, When you pray, say this.
And he goes through sixdifferent things: acknowledging
(12:25):
the Lord's character, his deity,um, talking about his kingdom
will to come, asking for dailyprovision, seeking forgiveness
for sin, requesting a protectionfrom temptation, and asking for
deliverance from evil.
Um, really sad thing in Matthewchapter, I think that's Matthew
six, isn't it?
Matthew six, yes, I'm right.
Matthew six, it says, at the endof the Lord's prayer, for yours
(12:48):
is the kingdom and the power andthe glory forever.
That isn't on any of theoriginal scrolls.
It was added by the earlychurch, but it's sweet.
Isn't that sweet?
But it is biblical because wesee it in other places, but it
actually Jesus didn't say that.
Um, but they added it becausethey use that prayer so much in
church liturgy that they'relike, oh, we need to have it be
(13:08):
like, amen, right here.
unknown (13:10):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (13:10):
Anyways, just a little fun fact there.
A little fun ditty for you.
Um early church fathers writing,copying the monks.
We're like, we should add thisin.
This seems good.
Um, but verbalization, this iswhere we get the dignity of
human, um of our human voice.
Like we we learn that God cares,the human participation, that we
(13:34):
learn that God is uh keenlyaware of what we're saying, that
God cares about what we have tosay.
And so when you start outpraying, when any person starts
out praying, they are doing allthe talking in the prayer.
Like they're they come to God,their prayer time looks like you
speak from the beginning to theend.
You're like, good morning,Jesus.
(13:55):
Like today I ask you, you know,that you are great, you're good,
and God, I thank you forforgiving my sins, and like
you're feeling the whole time.
And in this time, inverbalization, this stage, we're
learning that we're seeing veryquickly that what we're asking
for, we start to see changes andshifts in the environment around
us.
We start to see things starthappening, we start to see
(14:17):
miracles in this phase.
And that's a really great,that's a really great thing,
which empowers us to do what?
Go back and pray again.
And so we get excited in thisphase.
This phase, we start to have arelationship with God, but we're
doing all the talking.
So we're the one, but at thesame point, God's like, great,
like you are learning humanparticipation.
We also learn the dignity ofvulnerability.
(14:39):
So in this, we begin to learn.
So that there's like threephases, right?
So there's human participation.
So what I say matters.
Like God wants me to talk tohim, but then vulnerability,
that I can come and talk to Godabout anything.
(15:01):
Like this is the second part ofthis phase.
And we start to realize thatGod, God wants to hear about our
day.
God wants you to talk to himabout, man, I'm I'm really sad
about this.
Like this, this really bothersme.
And you start talking to theLord about it.
Like we start being vulnerablewith the Lord.
Like, I don't, I'm reallystruggling with this area of my
(15:24):
life, God, and you're bringingthese things to him.
This is really beautiful.
This is a great time.
Like, just think about any truerelationship is gonna have a
measure of vulnerability to it.
Like, in fact, I will say, Iknow how close somebody is to
you by how vulnerable you arewith him, right?
And so it's in this phase thatwe start learning to be
vulnerable with God.
We also learn disclosure.
(15:46):
Disclosure.
And so I'm starting to, in myvulnerability, I'm not just
sharing my feelings, but I'mstarting to disclose to God not
just what's currently happening,but everything from my past.
Like, God, these things arereally difficult.
Like I'm feeling these thingslike I don't understand.
Like I'm starting to bevulnerable about where I'm at,
(16:07):
but I'm disclosing to him allthese things from my past, these
things that I don't understand.
I'm bringing to him questions.
I'm wrestling with him in thisphase.
Is this good?
And so this is a good neededform, but it is it is like stage
one, verbalization.
Then somewhere along thejourney, we move into stage two.
(16:28):
And this is reflection.
Reflection.
And in the reflection phase iswhen I start asking God, what
are you already doing?
What are you already doing?
(16:55):
So previously I'm coming to Godasking him to do.
Now I'm saying, what are youalready doing?
Like I'm starting to open myeyes, and I'm not saying, I'm
not coming with thispresupposition that unless I
speak, you're not moving.
Now I'm saying, you're alreadymoving.
(17:18):
God, you're already doingthings, you're already present.
Show me what you're alreadydoing.
And in this, in this um phase,I'll say we begin to move into
the most effective form ofevangelism.
So the least effective form ofevangelism is looking at the
(17:39):
world that's far from God andgoing, you don't know God, God's
not doing anything in your life.
Let me show you a way to findGod.
Jesus never operated that way.
He operated from the place ofwhat was already happening in
their life, and then pointedthem to the solution for
something greater.
The woman coming to the well, Ihave water you know not of.
(18:02):
Does this make sense?
Like he's pointing him to what,like you're you're already doing
something, like there's a hungerinside of you for something.
Let me point you towards thesolution, the greater source,
which is Christ.
So in this phase, we move intothis uh this perspective, like
we shift and we start reflectingon God, what are you already
(18:23):
doing?
In this, um, which is reallycool because this is Laura,
she's gonna be here with youguys this weekend.
She's great, my counselor, Ilove her.
And um, in this, we ask the thequestion, where did I experience
God's love today?
(18:54):
Then I start to also be umkeenly aware of where was I
distant from God today.
In this in this reflectionpiece, this is actually from
(19:16):
Ignatius of Loyola.
Um, he came up with thispractice, and this is where I
begin to find myself um leaninginto God.
So I'm I'm noticing a sunset andI'm experiencing God's love.
I'm slowing down and I'mnoticing a room and I'm allowing
(19:36):
my heart to fill with gratitudethat I'm not just in a room
where there's laughter, but I'mexperiencing God's love.
I'm reflecting.
It's outside of now a prayercloset.
It's in me as I'm walkingthrough.
Uh, Brian and I, we were we wereat the state fair on Monday, and
I had just this overwhelmingfeeling of like God's smile.
(19:58):
And oh, praise God.
Yes.
Amen.
Let's go.
Woo.
And uh I was walking through thestate fair and all of a sudden I
told Brian, I was like, I justwant to cry right now.
Like, I just feel God's lovelike so strong.
But on the flip end of that,whenever I'm walking in judgment
(20:22):
or unforgiveness, I immediately,the more you begin to walk in
reflection, you notice I'mdistant from you right now.
Like I'm distant.
I'm like sitting in judgment.
I'm sitting in a seat ofcriticism, I'm sitting in a seat
of unforgiveness.
And you start to like your mindis able to come back to okay,
(20:42):
Lord, I repent, I'm back withyou.
Like it's like it's like you'rethe smallest little, you're able
to come right back in.
Are we doing good?
All right, the next islistening.
Listening.
This is stage three.
And this one's kind of sad.
(21:04):
So this phase um is only uh St.
John of the Cross talks aboutthis, and you are there's two
levels to this, and you don'tget to do this phase without
this, and you're gonna have togo through a dark night of the
soul.
(21:30):
Dark night of the soul, and thenhe also calls it dark night of
the senses, and in the darknight of the senses, you
basically learn that you can'ttrust your feelings anymore.
This is where I no longer I nolonger get done preaching and
(21:52):
think I did good, so I'm good.
I'm obedient and I feel nothing.
I pray and I feel nothing.
I believe God for a miracle, andI don't have this charge in my
spirit like God's about to dosomething so crazy.
(22:15):
Like, I'm just following becauseI'm listening to his voice, and
it's no longer emotive.
And you're gonna go through adark night of the soul.
Typically, it's through anextreme loss, disappointment,
heartache, where all yourframeworks of everything you
(22:36):
thought you knew about God isgonna completely fall apart.
You do not get this phasewithout it.
That sucks.
But it's true.
And it's in this phase that welearn I just have to listen to
his voice.
I can no longer trust what I'mseeing, I can no longer trust
(22:58):
what I'm experiencing, I can nolonger trust what I'm feeling.
I have to go on what he'ssaying, and so I'm listening,
not for the wind and the fireand the craziness, like those
things are really cool, butanybody can follow that.
But it's the still small voice.
(23:21):
In this phase, I'm not doingreally any talking anymore.
Like I'm coming into thepresence of God.
I pray some, I like some of myprayer time is vocal, most of it
is just still.
And I'll go deeper with you thateven if you're talking about
like your inner life, like whereyou're at, how your inner soul
(23:44):
is doing, if the more noise youhave to have in your
environment, it's because yoursoul isn't healthy.
The more healthy your soul is,the more okay you are with
quiet.
So if you're like, have to havea podcast going all the time,
you have to have music going allthe time.
(24:05):
I call it like air pollution,like constantly.
Like there's always something.
Like you're in the car and it'slike, quick, I gotta turn on
music as fast as I can, or Igotta have the audiobook on like
5.0, like as and he's like, andyou're like, I'm used to it, I'm
used to it.
I'm like, okay, but that's nothealthy.
Like, slow down.
And in this phase, we just learnto just start listening to the
(24:29):
Lord.
We speak, we spend timespeaking, but most of it is
spent um just listening to God.
The next phase is stage four.
And this is watching.
(24:50):
Think about Jesus, he's about togo to the cross, and he takes
the disciples with him to thegarden.
He just wants them to watch himpray.
He says, Stay up and keep watch.
Their role was to watch himintercede, watch him mediate.
(25:14):
And in this phase of our prayerjourney, we spend more time just
keeping things on the altar andwatching to see what God does.
We're no longer coming with ourown agenda.
We're no longer coming with ourown motive of what the outcome
of like, I need God to do this.
(25:35):
And I had a girl one time.
Well, if I'm not married by thetime I'm 30 and I have this,
this, and this, and like, it'sjust there's not even a point of
it.
And I'm like, yeah, well, God'snot gonna bless that.
Like, he's really not worriedabout your timeline.
Like, so not worried about it atall.
Like, he's not moved by it, noteven an iota, actually.
Like he's just looking at youand he's like, really?
(25:57):
And but in this phase, we justkeep things on the altar and we
watch to see what God does.
We just we put our family on thealtar.
It's outside of us, it's notpart of us.
We put the marriage on thealtar, we put the team on the
altar.
God, they're yours, they're notmine.
My job is to watch youintercede, to watch you move.
(26:19):
I'm no longer, because in here,verbalization, I'm in charge of
everything.
It has this false sense ofcontrol of like, if I don't pray
for it, it's not gonna happen.
I've got to speak it, I've gotto declare it, I gotta proclaim
it.
And in this phase, I'm justwatching.
I'm just a spectator.
I'm seeing the things happen andseeing what God does.
(26:41):
The fifth stage, right beforeyou die.
Not everybody hits it beforethey die, but is being.
Being.
And this is the phase in thestage of prayer where we're just
with God all the time.
This is Brother Lawrence, hisbook, Practicing the Presence.
(27:04):
I feel like I talk about it allthe time.
If you haven't read it, you needto read it.
Um, it's fantastic.
10 out of 10.
He's amazing.
Brother Lawrence, uh, practicingthe presence.
I think every person should readit at some point in their life.
Um, Brother Lawrence lived thisbeing.
And basically, he he wanted hislife where he never went more
(27:28):
than a minute without beingaware of God's presence.
And so it's his journal entries.
And he'll be like, Lord, today,as I was peeling potatoes, my
mind drifted from you, and Ididn't think about you for a
moment.
I repent.
Maybe I always sense yourpresence near me.
(27:49):
Today, as I was sweeping thefloors, and because he's a monk
and he's just going through hisdaily tasks, and it's just about
how his mind got to where it waslike constantly aware of the
presence of God, that everymoment of every day, God, I'm
looking for you in everything.
And in this phase, think of itlike an old couple that's just
sitting there on the porch andthey don't have to say anything
(28:12):
to each other because they'vealready said it all.
And it's just the presence ofbeing with them that's enough.
And it's it's in this phase,it's like literally Adam and Eve
walking with God in the cool ofthe day, not walking to a
destination, doesn't tell usanything about the conversation.
It doesn't tell us about thereason.
(28:33):
It was just being together wasenough.
It's not, I'm coming topetition, I'm coming because I
need this done.
No, I just I want to be withyou.
And if you're in the valley, I'min the valley.
If you're on the mountaintop,I'm on the mountaintop.
And so, in this, I think for me,as I've been reflecting on this,
I've just been thinking abouthow, like, A, I've been um
(28:54):
reflecting on where I am at inthe stages.
Have you already kind ofidentified where you're at?
Like, okay, I know where I'm at,but also encouraging you that
we're all gonna progressivelygrow as we go in our journey.
And this, like, let's say thatyou get saved at like 10.
And then let's say you die at80.
(29:15):
This is an 80-year journey tobecome this.
And again, as our cultureaccelerates, this formation of
your soul will not accelerate.
You're gonna slowly go througheach of these, but the goal is
maybe you're on step one ofverbalization.
That's great.
And in time, you'll notice thatall of a sudden now you're
(29:37):
starting to be vulnerable withthe Lord.
All of a sudden now you'rebeginning to disclose to him,
you're opening up other parts ofyour life to him.
And as you continue to grow, Goddoes something in here.
But I'll just say to you be lessconcerned what's happening out
here.
Healthy things just grow.
(29:59):
An orange.
SPEAKER_00 (30:00):
Tree doesn't wake up in the morning, it's like, oh, I
need to produce oranges today,or else.
And it's not going, oh, the treenext to me has got 50, and I've
only got 10, and what's wrongwith me?
And you get it together.
SPEAKER_01 (30:11):
No, he's just growing.
He's just growing.
And you don't grow without thepresence of God.
And maybe we're more focused andwe're measuring our worth by
this.
And maybe we should be moreconcerned here.
Brian and I's prayer, since wordgo, has been God, don't let the
(30:32):
church grow faster than what wegrow here.
Don't let the church grow fasterthan our staff grows here.
And so we're growing.
I mean, like Account of Mills,we've grown 37% since January,
which is insane.
But I've been asking myself, amI internally growing at the rate
(30:54):
that we're externally growing?
Because if we don't, we'llconcave on ourselves.
You know how they have thoselike crazy sinkholes that will
happen all over?
Like these beautiful cities, andthen all of a sudden one day it
just gives out.
Why?
Because at some point the outerbecame greater than what was
under the surface.
(31:15):
And what sustains our life ishis presence.
And if we're growing so fastthat we don't have time with
him, we're doing it wrong.
And if we're growing so fast wedon't have time for the secret
place, we're doing it wrong.
I'll end on this Madison Fowler,I love her.
She's really great.
She's um one of our dream teampeople here in Cato.
(31:36):
And I was talking to her andshe's like, you know, one of
those ultra healthy people thatthey eat everything healthy.
She has a 150-year-old SCOBYthat she grows her sourdough off
of.
It's like 150 years old.
It was like hergreat-great-grandmothers, like
they bequeath the nextgeneration the SCOBY.
I'm like, it's crazy.
And she they never eat out.
(31:58):
And I was like, how do you dothat?
How do you never eat out?
And she goes, just think aboutit.
If you're so busy that you can'tmake a meal for yourself, isn't
it time to reevaluate whatyou're doing?
And I was like, honestly, she'snot far off.
(32:18):
If you're so busy doing the workof the ministry that you don't
have time for the one whosustains the ministry, I think
something's off.
If you can't tell me the lasttime you encountered the
presence of God outside ofchapel, or you having time set
aside during your work hours ora conference that you went to
(32:41):
for the church, I'm talkingabout you and Jesus on your own.
We might need to reevaluate.
Come on, we might need to shift.
We might need to change.
Because this, we're never goingto grow bigger out here than
what we can sustain in here.
Um, Jesus, we just thank you somuch for who you are.
(33:02):
Uh Lord, I thank you that all ofus recognize where we're at.
And Father, I thank you thatyou're leading us all to a place
of being where it's just beingwith you, it's enough.
It's enough.
So, Father, I thank you that nomatter where we're at, Lord, let
us be comfortable in our growth.
(33:24):
Let us be comfortable where youhave us and that you're growing
us from the inside out.
Lord, don't give us more thanwhat we can steward.
Don't give us more than what wecan handle.
God, I thank you that you are umrecalibrating our souls.
Recalibrating our souls, Lord.
Refine our palate, God.
Anything where we've been umdrinking waters that's not
(33:45):
living waters, God, we justrepent right now.
And Father, I thank you that wehunger and we thirst for the
secret place.
We hunger and we thirst for timewith you.
Father, we just thank you forall that you're doing in us.
And God, may what you're doingin us flow through us.
Jesus' name.
Amen.
I love you guys.
(34:05):
Have a great day.
Thanks so much for hanging outhere on my podcast.
Do me a favor and hit thesubscribe button if you haven't
done so already, so you nevermiss out on anything here on my
podcast.
Also, one of the best ways forus to begin to reach other
people is by you sharing.
So if you can do me a favor andshare this podcast with a
(34:26):
friend, family member, or maybeon your social media, help us
get the word out so we can helpothers.
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