May 12, 2026 • 31 mins
Most of us were trained to look for God in the big moments — the breakthrough, the open door, the dramatic call. But what if God is most consistently present in the ordinary moments we rush past every day?
In this episode, I want to share a 500-year-old practice that has quietly transformed my leadership, my marriage, and my relationship with God. It's called the Examen — and I believe it may be the single most underused tool in the modern pastor's spiritual formation toolkit.
I'll take you through the history of this practice, born out of the life of Ignatius of Loyola — a soldier brought low by a cannonball who discovered that God speaks through our interior movements. I'll share the 2-question version you can start today, and the fuller 4-movement practice the Jesuits have done twice a day for five centuries.
This isn't theory. I'll be honest with you about the years I spent pushing past the heaviness in my chest — misreading desolation as something to overcome rather than something to hear. What I missed cost me. You don't have to miss it too.
The Examen interrupts the cycle of leading from wounds and repeating old patterns. It teaches discernment, not just decision-making. And it begins with just two questions.
Reserve your spot at our upcoming Global Leaders Conference.
September 30 – October 1, 2026
14th St. Salvation Army, NYC
(Live Spanish Translation available)
Register Now: https://ehd.churchcenter.com/registrations/events/3421612
Learn more about the EH Global Leader Conference 2026: http://www.emotionallyhealthy.org/conference
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Episode Transcript
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SPEAKER_01 (01:12):
Hi, my name is Peace Gazaro.
I want to welcome you today tothe Emotionally Healthy Leader
Podcast.
Our topic today is how to findGod in Unexpected Places, the
Examine for Today.
Now, this practice we're goingto talk about today called the
Examine is so powerful.
I mean, it's transformed my lifeover the last few decades.
(01:36):
It will change you, yourministry, your relationships,
everything.
It's that powerful.
But I want to begin with astory.
Just recently, over the lastcouple of weeks, I was in my
planning, strategic, visionarymode for emotionally healthy
discipleship, you know, thinkingabout new directions, new places
to go.
(01:56):
And I was my visionary dreamerpart of me was just so alive,
had a great day, and I got lostin it.
But as I worked over a couple ofdays on some of this project, I
realized, oh, we need to reallyhire someone for a role that's
emerging.
And I saw that, I saw the jobdescription and great.
I was like, okay.
So I called the person, I said,what do you think about this?
(02:16):
I, and uh, they were thrilledabout the possibility.
Uh, but that night, uh, in mybody, I had just, I could feel
the desolation, the heaviness.
Something was wrong.
Uh, the joy was gone of thinkingabout that project.
Uh, I had had this kind of a lowdragging weight I felt was just
like dragging me down whereexcitement should have been.
(02:39):
And so the next morning I calledDrew.
Now, Drew's Drew's the presidentof motionally the discipleship.
I'm now functioning in a role uhwithin him.
And I, and so I said to him howI felt, you know, I said,
because we had talked about thisdream and plan and stuff, and
and uh I shared about how I justthe limits I felt and this
desolation I felt.
And um and he just looked at meand said, Pete, uh you know, of
(03:04):
course, uh we'd agreed uponthat.
You didn't want to superviseanybody.
You just needed to be free topray, to think, to write, to
mentor, to architect somethings.
And uh he goes, we'll figure itout, but it's not you to
supervise that person.
It's someone else.
And it was just like thatmoment, I felt like something
just lifted off me.
And and uh I remember gettingoff the phone, just feeling such
(03:29):
freedom, and I have ever sincethat conversation, uh, a
lightness and a joy and thatkind of a work because it wasn't
mine to carry.
Uh, and I've experienced peaceand joy around this theme ever
since.
Now, 30 years ago, I would havemissed all that.
Uh, I would have pushed back theheaviness, I would have said,
no, you pee, you gotta you gottado it.
I would have smiled, I wouldhave driven on.
Uh, but this time I didn't.
(03:50):
I actually listened to the uhthe quietness of God inside of
me with that, with theheaviness, reminded me of who I
am, who I'm not, and the seasonI'm actually in right now.
And so there's a 500-year-oldpractice to that trained me to
do uh what I just described, tonotice the movement inside of me
of the Spirit of God and torecognize where God might be
(04:12):
speaking in it.
And it's called the exam.
Uh, most of us were trained tolook at God in the big moment.
I'm talking about like majordecisions where we may get a
word of counsel from somebodywho's wise and it just like,
wow, that was God, or we go to aconference, some kind of a
revival type meeting, and we wemeet God in such a powerful way.
(04:35):
We're like, oh yes.
Or we have a Damascus Roadexperience, like like Paul, you
know, in Damascus, and we getknocked off our horse.
Uh, you know, the big moments.
But God is actually in themoments of the very ordinary,
everyday stuff.
And most of the time we we misshim in that.
(04:55):
I'm talking about conflicts, I'mtalking about walls, I'm talking
about uh boring meetings, I'mtalking about uh the five
minutes between meetings thatyou may be going in, the soccer
practice.
Um but in this podcast, I'mgonna I'm gonna share with you
and talk to you about thispractice called the examine and
where it came from.
Then I'm gonna give you atwo-question version that's very
(05:18):
easy to do throughout the day.
And then I'm gonna share withyou a fuller version that uh of
four movements that you can takeand by God's grace build into
your life for the rest of yourlife and experience some of the
lightness and joy that Godintends as in his love.
He's communicating to us andspeaking to us.
Now, no one has been morehelpful in discerning God's will
(05:41):
than Ignatius of Loyola from 500years ago in northern Spain.
Uh, he's the founder of theJesuits and his work on
discernment, of sifting outwhat's God's voice and what's
not, has actually endured 500years.
It's that good.
Now, his history was he was a hewas an ambitious soldier who got
wounded in battle by acannonball which shattered his
(06:03):
leg, found himself in thehospital.
And while he's in the hospital,he's reading the Bible,
scripture, and he's also readingthe lives of the saints.
And as he's doing this, he has abreakthrough in God.
He's realizing something atfirst, it's strange to him that
when he's daydreaming about hismilitary exploits and power and
women and fame and all that, uh,he feels uh empty.
(06:28):
Uh he feels uh a death inside ofhim.
But when he imagines himselffollowing Jesus, serving him uh
like saints of old, uh, he feelsa lightness and a joy, a deep
lasting peace and begins to puta name on that pattern.
He calls them interiormovements.
And he become convinced, hebecomes convinced that God
speaks through them.
And so he develops this thingcalled the examine, where God
(06:51):
speaks through our desires, ouremotions, our longings, and our
resistances.
Um and he coined a phrase thathas endured these last 500
years, and it's called findingGod in all things.
It's a great phrase.
We don't just find God inscripture, we don't we just
don't we just don't find God inprayer and uh church and
worship, et cetera, although wefind God there.
(07:13):
We actually find God in allthings if we're listening.
So Ignatius eventually foundedthe Society of Jesus, called the
Jesuits today, who went all overthe world, uh, you know,
preaching the gospel, but theyhad this one practice that was
core to their existence as anorder, and it was the examine.
(07:33):
It was required that regardlessof how much pressure they were
under, the demands, whatever wasgoing on, they were a Jesuit was
to do the examin twice a day,midday and evening.
Uh and actually to this day, theJesuits do the exam.
Anybody who's a Jesuit aroundthe world, midday in evening.
Uh now think about that.
(07:54):
500 years, they're still doingit.
Uh, and it shapes theirdiscernment in listening to
Jesus and doing his will.
And actually only takes about 10minutes.
Uh and but for most of my life,uh, the reason I didn't do it, I
had two, I didn't, I didn't knowabout it, but I actually, there
were two obstacles that stood inmy way, and I find they stand in
(08:15):
the way of a lot of people.
The first was I had a verycompartmentalized spirituality.
What I mean by that is, ofcourse, I met God in scripture,
I met God in worship, I met Godin fellowship, and uh, you know,
the things of church, smallgroups, uh, and uh but I didn't
(08:35):
meet God so much in places likework and budgeting and job
descriptions and uh conflicts,uh dealing with money, uh dark
nights of the soul.
And so I had this kind ofcompartmentalized spirituality.
I didn't see God in everything,in all of life.
(08:55):
And um and so it got at least mysecond big obstacle, which was I
had a distorted theology.
I lived more in Genesis 3 aboutthe fall versus Genesis 1 and 2,
where God creates us and it'sand he declares us good and the
world is good.
And I had a distorted theology.
That was my second big problem.
Uh I was taught that in youdwelleth no good thing.
(09:18):
Uh Romans 7 or Jeremiah 17, 9,you know, the heart is
desperately wicked and deceitfulabove all things, who can know
it?
And so I wouldn't trust anythingthat was coming from the inside
of me.
It couldn't be good because itwas, I was so sinful and
wretched.
So I'd ignore all those interiormovements.
(09:38):
It was like I was living inGenesis 3, the fall, and not the
fact of, oh without I'm made inGod's image and God the Holy
Spirit lives inside of me.
There's good in there.
Uh, but see, to hear God fromthe inside is one of the
revolutions of the NewTestament.
Jesus came, died for our sins,rose from the dead, and thus the
Holy Spirit is sent to us.
(10:00):
And Jesus talked about in John14 how the Holy Spirit will now
live inside of us.
That's the revolution.
Our sins are removed that God,the God of the universe, can
take residence inside of you andinside of me.
And he is the spirit who speaksuh to us.
And and Pentecost is the comingof the Holy Spirit on all flesh,
(10:23):
young, old, men, women, uh, youknow, children, you name it.
And it's not just for a selectfew as it was in the Old
Testament.
It's for everyone.
And I I had this, I I think whathappened for me as I moved into
emotionally healthy discipleshipand the contemplative and the
richness of church history andthings like the examine, it was
(10:43):
like, oh, wait a second, Godspeaks not just from the
outside, like prophetic words orin a uh through a tremendous
speaker, a word of counsel, uh,or a worship experience.
He actually speaks from theinside of me, not just the
outside.
And uh, and my background wasPentecostal.
(11:04):
That's the irony of it.
I and I realized I spent, Imissed so much of what God was
saying to me through so much ofmy Christian life because I
wasn't paying attention to Godinside of me because of a bad
theology.
Uh and uh, you know, I ignoredthings like the heaviness in my
(11:25):
chest or desolation, like Imentioned earlier, uh, or
lightness and joy that wascoming out of me.
And I spent just years wasted.
So uh I, for example, I felt inmy early years, I used to feel
uh a pretty consistent uh uneaseabout leading as a pastor.
Uh I couldn't name it.
(11:46):
I just I was pastoring ourchurch uh for 26 years, a
multiracial uh church in Queens,New York City, working class.
And uh it wasn't glamorous, itwas slow and it was real people.
Uh but I knew God had put methere.
But I go to all these leadershipconferences, and and the time I
(12:07):
was, you know, pastoring themegachurch movement was was you
know was really big.
And conferences would shine, thebiggest churches, and I would
meet people, you know, I would,I would church of 20,000 people
perhaps and their programmingand be so impressed by the
leadership that went behind it.
And I would try to do theirstrategies, I would try to do
(12:28):
their planning.
Uh, but I wasn't that, and I'dfind myself just discouraged and
feeling a heaviness, but I wouldpush through.
I've got to try to be this.
And and then in the same season,I also actually hired a mentor
uh who used to work at a uhmegachurch, and I admired so
(12:49):
much about him.
He I admired his his strategicwisdom, I admired his his
ability to build teams, Iadmired his clarity.
Uh I uh I admired an enormous uhamount of things from him, and I
learned a lot from him.
I wanted what he had.
The problem was I wasn't him.
And as much as I would try to doit, I would find myself uh
(13:12):
heavy, not enjoying it, um, aswe were pastoring our church.
And the same thing actually evenhappened when I began
emotionally heatherdiscipleship.
I'd look at parachut, but I wasat a different place at that
point, uh, fortunately.
But I would look at otherpara-church ministries and how
they were growing and how theyscaled and how they built it.
And I would say, I that's reallywonderful.
(13:32):
And I admired them for that.
But then I found I it justdidn't work for me.
Uh and it took it, and here'swhat took me decades to see.
Every single time I imaginedmyself leading as they led,
whether it was a mega church uhexecutive pastor or another
great leader, I felt notenergized.
(13:53):
I actually felt heavy, uh, likeI was carrying a low dragging
weight.
And I saw it as something Ineeded to push through because
the work needed to be done.
But it wasn't that at all.
It was actually desolation fromGod.
And it was God very quietlytelling me, Pete, you're not
them.
Uh, you'll never be them.
You're you.
(14:13):
And you don't have to be them.
And uh follow me inside of you,the what's called consolation,
the lightness, the joy, theenergy, the sense of being
alive.
There was a way that I couldfunction that when I settled
down, I began to notice.
I said, oh, this is awesome.
And when I led the church and Iled EH discipleship out of uh
(14:34):
lightness, out of those momentsof consolation, uh, there was
tremendous fruit and joy.
But I had to give up the fantasyof trying to be somebody I was
not, and just let God guide me.
Uh, if and if I had been doingthe examin when I was in my
mid-30s, uh, I would have heardGod much sooner and saved myself
(14:55):
a lot of needless pain.
Uh, but at a at its simplestform, the exam is about two
words, consolation anddesolation, at its simplest
forms.
And uh it assumes, again, thisall assumes that you want to do
God's will and you're open to dowhatever he wants to do.
So that's the assumption inIgnatian spirituality.
(15:16):
Uh, but consolation, verysimply, is this consolation it's
it's inside of you, you feel apeace settling, uh, a delight,
energy, uh, a sense that yourinner life is coming alive with
God.
As Ignatius, he said it thisway: your soul senses feels
(15:36):
inflamed with love for God.
In other words, consolationspull us deeper into a
relationship with God.
Something happens even in ourbody.
We we feel it, a renewed energy,a release of anxiety or strain.
Uh, very often our bodies uhknow before our feelings, as we
like to say, the body is a majorprophet, a sense of relaxation
(15:58):
or peacefulness settles in.
But when we experienceconsolation, it's often a very
good indication that we're inline with God's will.
Now, Chariots of Fire is afamous movie uh from 50 years
ago now.
And when Eric Liddell uh isunder pressure from his sister
to go be a missionary in China,because that's what so many
(16:20):
other people in Scotland weredoing at the time, but he's
feeling all guilty.
And he finally says to hissister, he recognizes God is
inside of him in his heart, andhe says, uh, God made me fast,
and when I run, I feel hispleasure.
And so he recognized from theinside God was in that.
His running, he becomes anOlympian.
Uh, I know for myself, when I'mwriting, uh, I have a writing
(16:44):
day.
I feel like I've had a vacation.
I feel such a joy.
Uh, when I'm researching,writing, it's so wonderful for
me.
My wife can't believe it.
Other people can't be it,believe it.
Uh, I know folks who are inmusic.
And when they're writing andworking in music, it's just like
they're they're in flow, they'rein joy.
I have another friend who's inhe's a he's a builder and uh uh
(17:07):
works, he loves working with hishands.
And I mean, he just when he'sworking with his hands, it's
just life for him.
Uh but the key is desolation,that's consolation.
Now, desolation is the opposite.
Desolation is the name giving tothose feelings when you're
turning away from God.
Uh, it includes things likeIgnatius called it darkness of
(17:28):
soul, turmoil within, disquiet.
It's spiritual turbulence isanother word he used.
We're all churned up inside.
We're preoccupied, we'reanxious, we're negative, maybe a
little bit irritable, depressed.
Um, and again, our bodies oftenknow before our feelings.
You know, we we feel a tightnessin our, maybe in our back or our
neck or our stomach, and uh aheadache develops, and we're
(17:50):
just like, oh, you know, and uhour bodies seem to know
instinctively when we're notusing our gifts, when we're not,
we're making poor choices, uh,when we're not, when we're going
in a direction that's contraryto God's will for us.
Uh, sometimes our bodies herefirst.
I know it happens to me veryoften.
And sometimes desolation can bea nudge or a prod to a better
(18:14):
choice.
I there's a great text in 2Corinthians 2, uh, 12 and 13,
where Paul says this.
He goes, When I went to Troas topreach the gospel of Christ and
found that my the Lord hadopened a door for me, I still
had no peace of mind because Idid not find my brother Titus
there.
So I said goodbye to them andwent off to Macedonia.
(18:39):
So he has this desolation.
Now he attributed it is Titus isnot there.
And so he leaves.
Fascinating text.
But God nudges you to anawareness that something's not
right for you when we'relistening.
I even myself in social media,when I'm doing social media, uh,
or when I'm, you know, maybelooking, scrolling, uh I can
(19:03):
feel the desolation sometimes inmy body.
Like, no, this is not for you,Pete.
I admire people that build greatsocial media accounts.
It's a great way to teach andreach the world, etc.
But uh not for me to go very farinto it.
When I'm too rushed, have toomuch to do in too little time,
and don't have spaciousness, ah,I feel desolation inside of me.
(19:24):
Consolations and desolations arelike a phone ringing on the
inside of us, trying to get ourattention in a certain
direction.
But here's what we need to becareful: consolations are not
always God.
And one of the core verses foruh Ignatius was from 1 John 4,
1, says, Dear friends, do notbelieve every spirit, but test
(19:47):
the spirits to see whether theyare from God, because many false
prophets are gone out into theworld.
So here's a test that helps hasalways helped me most.
Real consolation moves metowards God, and a false
consolation moves me away fromGod.
So you can feel good aboutsomething, but it's actually a
disordered desire and leading tosomething that may be a sin.
(20:09):
Um I like to put yourconsolation is like floating
downstream in the will of God.
There's a joy and love in it.
Uh when we're not in God's will,it can even it can even feel
good for a while, but it's likewe're fighting, we're trying to
make something happen.
We're we're we're we're tryingto swim upstream against the
current.
We want to be floating in theriver of God's love.
That's why we need community andwe need spiritual directors and
(20:32):
wise mentors to help us makesure and keep us grounded that
we're we're hearing God, becauseour capacity to self-deceive is
always there.
So the examin is the practice.
That's the key to help us tellthe difference.
It's a muscle that we developover time that takes time to
build, that enables is helps usdiscern is this God or not God.
(20:52):
So let me give you the simplestway to begin.
Okay, it's the two questionexam.
It the first question is, whendid I feel most alive today?
The second question is, when didI feel life draining out of me?
So that's it.
That can be the simplest examinto do uh each day.
(21:14):
So in fact, do it right now, uh,wherever you are.
Let's take just take you know 10seconds or so, 15 seconds, and
ask yourself the question.
Uh just listen.
And the question is picture yourthink of your day so far,
whatever you listen to thispodcast, and say, hmm, when did
I feel most alive today?
SPEAKER_00 (21:36):
Think about it for a moment, what your day was like,
who you were with, what you weredoing.
When was it you felt most alive?
Very possible that was God.
SPEAKER_01 (21:53):
God speaking to you about that.
Then you can ask yourself, whendid you feel really drained
today?
What was happening?
SPEAKER_00 (22:01):
When did you feel most drained today?
Take a few seconds and thinkabout that.
SPEAKER_01 (22:07):
And it may be very much that you were outside of
what God was doing, and maybe hewas nudging you to a better
choice.
Again, you don't need to doanything with what I'm these two
questions, just noticing that'sthe whole foundation of the
exam.
But let me share with you nowthe fuller examine that I do uh
on a daily basis, and they havefour movements to it.
(22:30):
Uh and again, this is what theJesuits do every midday and
every evening.
Uh, and it's often recommendedto do in the evening.
I find the evening doesn't worktoo well for me.
I often do it in the mornings uhor midday, but I try to do it
each day.
And I often will journal myresponses, especially if I had a
(22:52):
big day that I'm coming out of.
And I'll do it in the morningand I get my journal out.
Uh I like what Morton Kelseysays about journaling.
He says, without a journal, weremain out of touch with large
parts of ourselves.
Wow.
Without a journal, we remain outof touch with large parts of
ourselves.
ourselves.
And I find when I write myanswers to these four movements,
(23:15):
it helps me.
And then not just to toarticulate them, it actually
helps me to re I go back andreview my journals and I look
for threads over weeks andmonths and years.
And it's been very helpful tome.
So I encourage you to do that.
So all right, let's so this is afuller examined.
So you want to get yourselfcentered, you know, prepare
yourself to take a nice deepbreath and you know be still
(23:37):
before the Lord.
And so the first movement isgratitude.
Just look back at the previousday, or if you're doing it
midday or evening your day, andwhere did you see God's grace
today?
For what can you be gratefulgrateful for the grace of God?
And you begin to just note thosemoments of gratitude and you
write those down.
Note them.
(23:59):
Then you move to the secondmovement, which is you're
listening to the consolationsand desolations that is the
movements of your heart of asyou're reviewing the day, what
happened, you're payingattention.
So it could be something as Iwhy was I talking so much in
that conversation and I got allanxious and I I wasn't I I I
(24:21):
just was I didn't I felt lousyabout it.
And what was I trying to impressthat person for?
So you're listening forconsolations, that is, when did
you feel most alive in that day,uh most free, most connected uh
what when did you experiencemost faith, hope, and love and
desire for God and peace?
And when were you drawn in lovefor other people and your cup
(24:43):
overflowing in love for otherpeople?
Those are the consolations andyou and you review your day and
you're looking for that.
And then you're saying wellwhere was there desolations?
Well you felt you were movingaway from God.
You felt drained or anxious orclosed off or numb or medicating
yourself and maybe you wereself-protecting.
Again, not so much you'reanalyzing you're just noticing
and naming.
That's the second movement.
(25:04):
I think it's the core movement.
You're noticing consolations andyour desolations movement
towards God and movements awayfrom God.
That's why again this littlenote here that's why feeling
learning to feel is soimportant.
If we don't feel deeply as humanbeings, we miss God so often uh
we don't follow all ouremotions, but we're we're
(25:26):
listening for God in them.
So first of a gratitude firstmovement.
Second is listening to God inour consolations and
desolations.
To third is receivingforgiveness.
Because probably if you're likeme you'll notice where you
missed it.
And that's okay.
Oh and you receive God's grace.
You don't beat yourself up justreceive the grace of God.
(25:47):
Oh thank you Lord I did talk toomuch in that conversation
yesterday.
Why don't I just relax you know?
And then fourthly you listen forone invitation from God from for
what's ahead of you for movingforward.
So the fourth movement is okayin light of yesterday what might
be God anything you want to sayto me about as I look into
(26:08):
tomorrow or into the next dayand you do that.
Okay so the goal of ex of the ofthe exam isn't insight the goal
of the examine is alignment withthe Father's will for you.
That's it alignment you'reyou're getting anchored.
So uh again let me just reviewthat first movement is
(26:31):
gratitude.
The second is you listen forconsolations and desolations
thirdly is you uh askforgiveness where appropriate
and fourthly and finally you youlisten for one invitation from
God moving forward based on whatyou've done.
That's it.
Those are the four movements.
And again I don't journal everyday those findings but I do
(26:52):
sometimes I find it very veryhelpful.
In fact Jerry and I did an examuh in this past January for the
whole previous year.
Yeah a one year exam.
She went up away for a few hoursI went away for I don't know it
was half a day probably or maybeit was a whole day and we
journaled those four movementsthinking back through the year
(27:13):
we looked at our journals welooked at our photos and our
phone and just remembered theyear each separately.
And then we came together and weshare our findings our
gratitudes our constellationsand desolations where we missed
it and what might be God'sinvitation to us going forward.
It was fabulous.
In fact Jerry's sharing soimpacted me that two days after
(27:37):
we shared together I said to herand I got my journal out because
I wanted to write down Jerrycould you I want to make sure I
really am hearing you about whatyou feel like was God's
invitation to you out of herdesolations from the previous
year.
And here's what she said shesaid life for me flows from
play.
I'm a different person when I'mloving others from a place of
(28:02):
play and fund.
And so I listened to her and herdesire for a less stressful life
and I knew this was God comingto me through her and paying
attention to her.
And it was wonderful.
It was just wonderful.
So see the daily the examineisn't just a daily practice it's
(28:22):
actually a way of living.
And but without this kind ofpractice and I strongly
encourage you to begin toexperiment with it.
And again as I said earlier likea muscle you'll find it becoming
more natural and just likebreathing to you.
But without this kind ofpractice we repeat the same
patterns that are not helpful.
(28:44):
We end up leading sometimes outof our wounds and more most
importantly we end up going downwrong roads that we we miss God
nudging us in a particular waybecause we're not actually
listening.
So the examine interrupts thatcycle that's what's so beautiful
about it.
It reconnects you uh to yourinner life it it teaches
(29:07):
discernment it teachesdiscovering the will of God and
you begin to notice where God isalready at work.
We're joining him that's a greatverse in John 517 my father's
always at work Jesus says andI'm and I'm doing what the I'm
simply doing what the father'sdoing.
It's a lot more joyful and easyand lighter to just do what he's
(29:28):
doing versus us pushing our waythrough life.
And it integrates our innerworld uh we find out that oh
things like our emotions anddesires and longings very often
are doorways to God, notobstacles.
So remember, listen, growing andmaturing in discernment is an
art, not a science.
And what appears sometimesdifficult at first actually
(29:50):
becomes much easier with timeand you wonder how you ever
lived without it.
And so I'm going to commend toyou to begin to do the exam once
a day.
In fact there's so much writtenon the exam uh so many
variations of it.
I gave you mine that I've beendoing for decades uh and I would
(30:12):
encourage you to go look it upresearch so many books have been
written on it uh and I trustthat if you anchor yourself in
the exam as one of your keypractices of your life uh you
will experience much of the joyand abundance Jesus talks to us
about.
So let me pray for you as weclose here together.
(30:32):
May the Lord bless you and keepyou and make his light shine on
you and may you find anddiscover God is not hiding from
you at all, but God is actuallypouring out his love to you
every moment of every day and heis speaking.
And may he awaken your ears andeyes and heart to discern his
(30:54):
movements inside of you by theHoly Spirit and may you
experience the lightness and thejoy of following Jesus which is
better than life.
Oh his love is better than lifeso blessings to you and have a
great day
Hi, my name is Peace Gazaro.
I want to welcome you today tothe Emotionally Healthy Leader
Podcast.
Our topic today is how to findGod in Unexpected Places, the
Examine for Today.
Now, this practice we're goingto talk about today called the
Examine is so powerful.
I mean, it's transformed my lifeover the last few decades.
(01:36):
It will change you, yourministry, your relationships,
everything.
It's that powerful.
But I want to begin with astory.
Just recently, over the lastcouple of weeks, I was in my
planning, strategic, visionarymode for emotionally healthy
discipleship, you know, thinkingabout new directions, new places
to go.
(01:56):
And I was my visionary dreamerpart of me was just so alive,
had a great day, and I got lostin it.
But as I worked over a couple ofdays on some of this project, I
realized, oh, we need to reallyhire someone for a role that's
emerging.
And I saw that, I saw the jobdescription and great.
I was like, okay.
So I called the person, I said,what do you think about this?
(02:16):
I, and uh, they were thrilledabout the possibility.
Uh, but that night, uh, in mybody, I had just, I could feel
the desolation, the heaviness.
Something was wrong.
Uh, the joy was gone of thinkingabout that project.
Uh, I had had this kind of a lowdragging weight I felt was just
like dragging me down whereexcitement should have been.
(02:39):
And so the next morning I calledDrew.
Now, Drew's Drew's the presidentof motionally the discipleship.
I'm now functioning in a role uhwithin him.
And I, and so I said to him howI felt, you know, I said,
because we had talked about thisdream and plan and stuff, and
and uh I shared about how I justthe limits I felt and this
desolation I felt.
And um and he just looked at meand said, Pete, uh you know, of
(03:04):
course, uh we'd agreed uponthat.
You didn't want to superviseanybody.
You just needed to be free topray, to think, to write, to
mentor, to architect somethings.
And uh he goes, we'll figure itout, but it's not you to
supervise that person.
It's someone else.
And it was just like thatmoment, I felt like something
just lifted off me.
And and uh I remember gettingoff the phone, just feeling such
(03:29):
freedom, and I have ever sincethat conversation, uh, a
lightness and a joy and thatkind of a work because it wasn't
mine to carry.
Uh, and I've experienced peaceand joy around this theme ever
since.
Now, 30 years ago, I would havemissed all that.
Uh, I would have pushed back theheaviness, I would have said,
no, you pee, you gotta you gottado it.
I would have smiled, I wouldhave driven on.
Uh, but this time I didn't.
(03:50):
I actually listened to the uhthe quietness of God inside of
me with that, with theheaviness, reminded me of who I
am, who I'm not, and the seasonI'm actually in right now.
And so there's a 500-year-oldpractice to that trained me to
do uh what I just described, tonotice the movement inside of me
of the Spirit of God and torecognize where God might be
(04:12):
speaking in it.
And it's called the exam.
Uh, most of us were trained tolook at God in the big moment.
I'm talking about like majordecisions where we may get a
word of counsel from somebodywho's wise and it just like,
wow, that was God, or we go to aconference, some kind of a
revival type meeting, and we wemeet God in such a powerful way.
(04:35):
We're like, oh yes.
Or we have a Damascus Roadexperience, like like Paul, you
know, in Damascus, and we getknocked off our horse.
Uh, you know, the big moments.
But God is actually in themoments of the very ordinary,
everyday stuff.
And most of the time we we misshim in that.
(04:55):
I'm talking about conflicts, I'mtalking about walls, I'm talking
about uh boring meetings, I'mtalking about uh the five
minutes between meetings thatyou may be going in, the soccer
practice.
Um but in this podcast, I'mgonna I'm gonna share with you
and talk to you about thispractice called the examine and
where it came from.
Then I'm gonna give you atwo-question version that's very
(05:18):
easy to do throughout the day.
And then I'm gonna share withyou a fuller version that uh of
four movements that you can takeand by God's grace build into
your life for the rest of yourlife and experience some of the
lightness and joy that Godintends as in his love.
He's communicating to us andspeaking to us.
Now, no one has been morehelpful in discerning God's will
(05:41):
than Ignatius of Loyola from 500years ago in northern Spain.
Uh, he's the founder of theJesuits and his work on
discernment, of sifting outwhat's God's voice and what's
not, has actually endured 500years.
It's that good.
Now, his history was he was a hewas an ambitious soldier who got
wounded in battle by acannonball which shattered his
(06:03):
leg, found himself in thehospital.
And while he's in the hospital,he's reading the Bible,
scripture, and he's also readingthe lives of the saints.
And as he's doing this, he has abreakthrough in God.
He's realizing something atfirst, it's strange to him that
when he's daydreaming about hismilitary exploits and power and
women and fame and all that, uh,he feels uh empty.
(06:28):
Uh he feels uh a death inside ofhim.
But when he imagines himselffollowing Jesus, serving him uh
like saints of old, uh, he feelsa lightness and a joy, a deep
lasting peace and begins to puta name on that pattern.
He calls them interiormovements.
And he become convinced, hebecomes convinced that God
speaks through them.
And so he develops this thingcalled the examine, where God
(06:51):
speaks through our desires, ouremotions, our longings, and our
resistances.
Um and he coined a phrase thathas endured these last 500
years, and it's called findingGod in all things.
It's a great phrase.
We don't just find God inscripture, we don't we just
don't we just don't find God inprayer and uh church and
worship, et cetera, although wefind God there.
(07:13):
We actually find God in allthings if we're listening.
So Ignatius eventually foundedthe Society of Jesus, called the
Jesuits today, who went all overthe world, uh, you know,
preaching the gospel, but theyhad this one practice that was
core to their existence as anorder, and it was the examine.
(07:33):
It was required that regardlessof how much pressure they were
under, the demands, whatever wasgoing on, they were a Jesuit was
to do the examin twice a day,midday and evening.
Uh and actually to this day, theJesuits do the exam.
Anybody who's a Jesuit aroundthe world, midday in evening.
Uh now think about that.
(07:54):
500 years, they're still doingit.
Uh, and it shapes theirdiscernment in listening to
Jesus and doing his will.
And actually only takes about 10minutes.
Uh and but for most of my life,uh, the reason I didn't do it, I
had two, I didn't, I didn't knowabout it, but I actually, there
were two obstacles that stood inmy way, and I find they stand in
(08:15):
the way of a lot of people.
The first was I had a verycompartmentalized spirituality.
What I mean by that is, ofcourse, I met God in scripture,
I met God in worship, I met Godin fellowship, and uh, you know,
the things of church, smallgroups, uh, and uh but I didn't
(08:35):
meet God so much in places likework and budgeting and job
descriptions and uh conflicts,uh dealing with money, uh dark
nights of the soul.
And so I had this kind ofcompartmentalized spirituality.
I didn't see God in everything,in all of life.
(08:55):
And um and so it got at least mysecond big obstacle, which was I
had a distorted theology.
I lived more in Genesis 3 aboutthe fall versus Genesis 1 and 2,
where God creates us and it'sand he declares us good and the
world is good.
And I had a distorted theology.
That was my second big problem.
Uh I was taught that in youdwelleth no good thing.
(09:18):
Uh Romans 7 or Jeremiah 17, 9,you know, the heart is
desperately wicked and deceitfulabove all things, who can know
it?
And so I wouldn't trust anythingthat was coming from the inside
of me.
It couldn't be good because itwas, I was so sinful and
wretched.
So I'd ignore all those interiormovements.
(09:38):
It was like I was living inGenesis 3, the fall, and not the
fact of, oh without I'm made inGod's image and God the Holy
Spirit lives inside of me.
There's good in there.
Uh, but see, to hear God fromthe inside is one of the
revolutions of the NewTestament.
Jesus came, died for our sins,rose from the dead, and thus the
Holy Spirit is sent to us.
(10:00):
And Jesus talked about in John14 how the Holy Spirit will now
live inside of us.
That's the revolution.
Our sins are removed that God,the God of the universe, can
take residence inside of you andinside of me.
And he is the spirit who speaksuh to us.
And and Pentecost is the comingof the Holy Spirit on all flesh,
(10:23):
young, old, men, women, uh, youknow, children, you name it.
And it's not just for a selectfew as it was in the Old
Testament.
It's for everyone.
And I I had this, I I think whathappened for me as I moved into
emotionally healthy discipleshipand the contemplative and the
richness of church history andthings like the examine, it was
(10:43):
like, oh, wait a second, Godspeaks not just from the
outside, like prophetic words orin a uh through a tremendous
speaker, a word of counsel, uh,or a worship experience.
He actually speaks from theinside of me, not just the
outside.
And uh, and my background wasPentecostal.
(11:04):
That's the irony of it.
I and I realized I spent, Imissed so much of what God was
saying to me through so much ofmy Christian life because I
wasn't paying attention to Godinside of me because of a bad
theology.
Uh and uh, you know, I ignoredthings like the heaviness in my
(11:25):
chest or desolation, like Imentioned earlier, uh, or
lightness and joy that wascoming out of me.
And I spent just years wasted.
So uh I, for example, I felt inmy early years, I used to feel
uh a pretty consistent uh uneaseabout leading as a pastor.
Uh I couldn't name it.
(11:46):
I just I was pastoring ourchurch uh for 26 years, a
multiracial uh church in Queens,New York City, working class.
And uh it wasn't glamorous, itwas slow and it was real people.
Uh but I knew God had put methere.
But I go to all these leadershipconferences, and and the time I
(12:07):
was, you know, pastoring themegachurch movement was was you
know was really big.
And conferences would shine, thebiggest churches, and I would
meet people, you know, I would,I would church of 20,000 people
perhaps and their programmingand be so impressed by the
leadership that went behind it.
And I would try to do theirstrategies, I would try to do
(12:28):
their planning.
Uh, but I wasn't that, and I'dfind myself just discouraged and
feeling a heaviness, but I wouldpush through.
I've got to try to be this.
And and then in the same season,I also actually hired a mentor
uh who used to work at a uhmegachurch, and I admired so
(12:49):
much about him.
He I admired his his strategicwisdom, I admired his his
ability to build teams, Iadmired his clarity.
Uh I uh I admired an enormous uhamount of things from him, and I
learned a lot from him.
I wanted what he had.
The problem was I wasn't him.
And as much as I would try to doit, I would find myself uh
(13:12):
heavy, not enjoying it, um, aswe were pastoring our church.
And the same thing actually evenhappened when I began
emotionally heatherdiscipleship.
I'd look at parachut, but I wasat a different place at that
point, uh, fortunately.
But I would look at otherpara-church ministries and how
they were growing and how theyscaled and how they built it.
And I would say, I that's reallywonderful.
(13:32):
And I admired them for that.
But then I found I it justdidn't work for me.
Uh and it took it, and here'swhat took me decades to see.
Every single time I imaginedmyself leading as they led,
whether it was a mega church uhexecutive pastor or another
great leader, I felt notenergized.
(13:53):
I actually felt heavy, uh, likeI was carrying a low dragging
weight.
And I saw it as something Ineeded to push through because
the work needed to be done.
But it wasn't that at all.
It was actually desolation fromGod.
And it was God very quietlytelling me, Pete, you're not
them.
Uh, you'll never be them.
You're you.
(14:13):
And you don't have to be them.
And uh follow me inside of you,the what's called consolation,
the lightness, the joy, theenergy, the sense of being
alive.
There was a way that I couldfunction that when I settled
down, I began to notice.
I said, oh, this is awesome.
And when I led the church and Iled EH discipleship out of uh
(14:34):
lightness, out of those momentsof consolation, uh, there was
tremendous fruit and joy.
But I had to give up the fantasyof trying to be somebody I was
not, and just let God guide me.
Uh, if and if I had been doingthe examin when I was in my
mid-30s, uh, I would have heardGod much sooner and saved myself
(14:55):
a lot of needless pain.
Uh, but at a at its simplestform, the exam is about two
words, consolation anddesolation, at its simplest
forms.
And uh it assumes, again, thisall assumes that you want to do
God's will and you're open to dowhatever he wants to do.
So that's the assumption inIgnatian spirituality.
(15:16):
Uh, but consolation, verysimply, is this consolation it's
it's inside of you, you feel apeace settling, uh, a delight,
energy, uh, a sense that yourinner life is coming alive with
God.
As Ignatius, he said it thisway: your soul senses feels
(15:36):
inflamed with love for God.
In other words, consolationspull us deeper into a
relationship with God.
Something happens even in ourbody.
We we feel it, a renewed energy,a release of anxiety or strain.
Uh, very often our bodies uhknow before our feelings, as we
like to say, the body is a majorprophet, a sense of relaxation
(15:58):
or peacefulness settles in.
But when we experienceconsolation, it's often a very
good indication that we're inline with God's will.
Now, Chariots of Fire is afamous movie uh from 50 years
ago now.
And when Eric Liddell uh isunder pressure from his sister
to go be a missionary in China,because that's what so many
(16:20):
other people in Scotland weredoing at the time, but he's
feeling all guilty.
And he finally says to hissister, he recognizes God is
inside of him in his heart, andhe says, uh, God made me fast,
and when I run, I feel hispleasure.
And so he recognized from theinside God was in that.
His running, he becomes anOlympian.
Uh, I know for myself, when I'mwriting, uh, I have a writing
(16:44):
day.
I feel like I've had a vacation.
I feel such a joy.
Uh, when I'm researching,writing, it's so wonderful for
me.
My wife can't believe it.
Other people can't be it,believe it.
Uh, I know folks who are inmusic.
And when they're writing andworking in music, it's just like
they're they're in flow, they'rein joy.
I have another friend who's inhe's a he's a builder and uh uh
(17:07):
works, he loves working with hishands.
And I mean, he just when he'sworking with his hands, it's
just life for him.
Uh but the key is desolation,that's consolation.
Now, desolation is the opposite.
Desolation is the name giving tothose feelings when you're
turning away from God.
Uh, it includes things likeIgnatius called it darkness of
(17:28):
soul, turmoil within, disquiet.
It's spiritual turbulence isanother word he used.
We're all churned up inside.
We're preoccupied, we'reanxious, we're negative, maybe a
little bit irritable, depressed.
Um, and again, our bodies oftenknow before our feelings.
You know, we we feel a tightnessin our, maybe in our back or our
neck or our stomach, and uh aheadache develops, and we're
(17:50):
just like, oh, you know, and uhour bodies seem to know
instinctively when we're notusing our gifts, when we're not,
we're making poor choices, uh,when we're not, when we're going
in a direction that's contraryto God's will for us.
Uh, sometimes our bodies herefirst.
I know it happens to me veryoften.
And sometimes desolation can bea nudge or a prod to a better
(18:14):
choice.
I there's a great text in 2Corinthians 2, uh, 12 and 13,
where Paul says this.
He goes, When I went to Troas topreach the gospel of Christ and
found that my the Lord hadopened a door for me, I still
had no peace of mind because Idid not find my brother Titus
there.
So I said goodbye to them andwent off to Macedonia.
(18:39):
So he has this desolation.
Now he attributed it is Titus isnot there.
And so he leaves.
Fascinating text.
But God nudges you to anawareness that something's not
right for you when we'relistening.
I even myself in social media,when I'm doing social media, uh,
or when I'm, you know, maybelooking, scrolling, uh I can
(19:03):
feel the desolation sometimes inmy body.
Like, no, this is not for you,Pete.
I admire people that build greatsocial media accounts.
It's a great way to teach andreach the world, etc.
But uh not for me to go very farinto it.
When I'm too rushed, have toomuch to do in too little time,
and don't have spaciousness, ah,I feel desolation inside of me.
(19:24):
Consolations and desolations arelike a phone ringing on the
inside of us, trying to get ourattention in a certain
direction.
But here's what we need to becareful: consolations are not
always God.
And one of the core verses foruh Ignatius was from 1 John 4,
1, says, Dear friends, do notbelieve every spirit, but test
(19:47):
the spirits to see whether theyare from God, because many false
prophets are gone out into theworld.
So here's a test that helps hasalways helped me most.
Real consolation moves metowards God, and a false
consolation moves me away fromGod.
So you can feel good aboutsomething, but it's actually a
disordered desire and leading tosomething that may be a sin.
(20:09):
Um I like to put yourconsolation is like floating
downstream in the will of God.
There's a joy and love in it.
Uh when we're not in God's will,it can even it can even feel
good for a while, but it's likewe're fighting, we're trying to
make something happen.
We're we're we're we're tryingto swim upstream against the
current.
We want to be floating in theriver of God's love.
That's why we need community andwe need spiritual directors and
(20:32):
wise mentors to help us makesure and keep us grounded that
we're we're hearing God, becauseour capacity to self-deceive is
always there.
So the examin is the practice.
That's the key to help us tellthe difference.
It's a muscle that we developover time that takes time to
build, that enables is helps usdiscern is this God or not God.
(20:52):
So let me give you the simplestway to begin.
Okay, it's the two questionexam.
It the first question is, whendid I feel most alive today?
The second question is, when didI feel life draining out of me?
So that's it.
That can be the simplest examinto do uh each day.
(21:14):
So in fact, do it right now, uh,wherever you are.
Let's take just take you know 10seconds or so, 15 seconds, and
ask yourself the question.
Uh just listen.
And the question is picture yourthink of your day so far,
whatever you listen to thispodcast, and say, hmm, when did
I feel most alive today?
SPEAKER_00 (21:36):
Think about it for a moment, what your day was like,
who you were with, what you weredoing.
When was it you felt most alive?
Very possible that was God.
SPEAKER_01 (21:53):
God speaking to you about that.
Then you can ask yourself, whendid you feel really drained
today?
What was happening?
SPEAKER_00 (22:01):
When did you feel most drained today?
Take a few seconds and thinkabout that.
SPEAKER_01 (22:07):
And it may be very much that you were outside of
what God was doing, and maybe hewas nudging you to a better
choice.
Again, you don't need to doanything with what I'm these two
questions, just noticing that'sthe whole foundation of the
exam.
But let me share with you nowthe fuller examine that I do uh
on a daily basis, and they havefour movements to it.
(22:30):
Uh and again, this is what theJesuits do every midday and
every evening.
Uh, and it's often recommendedto do in the evening.
I find the evening doesn't worktoo well for me.
I often do it in the mornings uhor midday, but I try to do it
each day.
And I often will journal myresponses, especially if I had a
(22:52):
big day that I'm coming out of.
And I'll do it in the morningand I get my journal out.
Uh I like what Morton Kelseysays about journaling.
He says, without a journal, weremain out of touch with large
parts of ourselves.
Wow.
Without a journal, we remain outof touch with large parts of
ourselves.
ourselves.
And I find when I write myanswers to these four movements,
(23:15):
it helps me.
And then not just to toarticulate them, it actually
helps me to re I go back andreview my journals and I look
for threads over weeks andmonths and years.
And it's been very helpful tome.
So I encourage you to do that.
So all right, let's so this is afuller examined.
So you want to get yourselfcentered, you know, prepare
yourself to take a nice deepbreath and you know be still
(23:37):
before the Lord.
And so the first movement isgratitude.
Just look back at the previousday, or if you're doing it
midday or evening your day, andwhere did you see God's grace
today?
For what can you be gratefulgrateful for the grace of God?
And you begin to just note thosemoments of gratitude and you
write those down.
Note them.
(23:59):
Then you move to the secondmovement, which is you're
listening to the consolationsand desolations that is the
movements of your heart of asyou're reviewing the day, what
happened, you're payingattention.
So it could be something as Iwhy was I talking so much in
that conversation and I got allanxious and I I wasn't I I I
(24:21):
just was I didn't I felt lousyabout it.
And what was I trying to impressthat person for?
So you're listening forconsolations, that is, when did
you feel most alive in that day,uh most free, most connected uh
what when did you experiencemost faith, hope, and love and
desire for God and peace?
And when were you drawn in lovefor other people and your cup
(24:43):
overflowing in love for otherpeople?
Those are the consolations andyou and you review your day and
you're looking for that.
And then you're saying wellwhere was there desolations?
Well you felt you were movingaway from God.
You felt drained or anxious orclosed off or numb or medicating
yourself and maybe you wereself-protecting.
Again, not so much you'reanalyzing you're just noticing
and naming.
That's the second movement.
(25:04):
I think it's the core movement.
You're noticing consolations andyour desolations movement
towards God and movements awayfrom God.
That's why again this littlenote here that's why feeling
learning to feel is soimportant.
If we don't feel deeply as humanbeings, we miss God so often uh
we don't follow all ouremotions, but we're we're
(25:26):
listening for God in them.
So first of a gratitude firstmovement.
Second is listening to God inour consolations and
desolations.
To third is receivingforgiveness.
Because probably if you're likeme you'll notice where you
missed it.
And that's okay.
Oh and you receive God's grace.
You don't beat yourself up justreceive the grace of God.
(25:47):
Oh thank you Lord I did talk toomuch in that conversation
yesterday.
Why don't I just relax you know?
And then fourthly you listen forone invitation from God from for
what's ahead of you for movingforward.
So the fourth movement is okayin light of yesterday what might
be God anything you want to sayto me about as I look into
(26:08):
tomorrow or into the next dayand you do that.
Okay so the goal of ex of the ofthe exam isn't insight the goal
of the examine is alignment withthe Father's will for you.
That's it alignment you'reyou're getting anchored.
So uh again let me just reviewthat first movement is
(26:31):
gratitude.
The second is you listen forconsolations and desolations
thirdly is you uh askforgiveness where appropriate
and fourthly and finally you youlisten for one invitation from
God moving forward based on whatyou've done.
That's it.
Those are the four movements.
And again I don't journal everyday those findings but I do
(26:52):
sometimes I find it very veryhelpful.
In fact Jerry and I did an examuh in this past January for the
whole previous year.
Yeah a one year exam.
She went up away for a few hoursI went away for I don't know it
was half a day probably or maybeit was a whole day and we
journaled those four movementsthinking back through the year
(27:13):
we looked at our journals welooked at our photos and our
phone and just remembered theyear each separately.
And then we came together and weshare our findings our
gratitudes our constellationsand desolations where we missed
it and what might be God'sinvitation to us going forward.
It was fabulous.
In fact Jerry's sharing soimpacted me that two days after
(27:37):
we shared together I said to herand I got my journal out because
I wanted to write down Jerrycould you I want to make sure I
really am hearing you about whatyou feel like was God's
invitation to you out of herdesolations from the previous
year.
And here's what she said shesaid life for me flows from
play.
I'm a different person when I'mloving others from a place of
(28:02):
play and fund.
And so I listened to her and herdesire for a less stressful life
and I knew this was God comingto me through her and paying
attention to her.
And it was wonderful.
It was just wonderful.
So see the daily the examineisn't just a daily practice it's
(28:22):
actually a way of living.
And but without this kind ofpractice and I strongly
encourage you to begin toexperiment with it.
And again as I said earlier likea muscle you'll find it becoming
more natural and just likebreathing to you.
But without this kind ofpractice we repeat the same
patterns that are not helpful.
(28:44):
We end up leading sometimes outof our wounds and more most
importantly we end up going downwrong roads that we we miss God
nudging us in a particular waybecause we're not actually
listening.
So the examine interrupts thatcycle that's what's so beautiful
about it.
It reconnects you uh to yourinner life it it teaches
(29:07):
discernment it teachesdiscovering the will of God and
you begin to notice where God isalready at work.
We're joining him that's a greatverse in John 517 my father's
always at work Jesus says andI'm and I'm doing what the I'm
simply doing what the father'sdoing.
It's a lot more joyful and easyand lighter to just do what he's
(29:28):
doing versus us pushing our waythrough life.
And it integrates our innerworld uh we find out that oh
things like our emotions anddesires and longings very often
are doorways to God, notobstacles.
So remember, listen, growing andmaturing in discernment is an
art, not a science.
And what appears sometimesdifficult at first actually
(29:50):
becomes much easier with timeand you wonder how you ever
lived without it.
And so I'm going to commend toyou to begin to do the exam once
a day.
In fact there's so much writtenon the exam uh so many
variations of it.
I gave you mine that I've beendoing for decades uh and I would
(30:12):
encourage you to go look it upresearch so many books have been
written on it uh and I trustthat if you anchor yourself in
the exam as one of your keypractices of your life uh you
will experience much of the joyand abundance Jesus talks to us
about.
So let me pray for you as weclose here together.
(30:32):
May the Lord bless you and keepyou and make his light shine on
you and may you find anddiscover God is not hiding from
you at all, but God is actuallypouring out his love to you
every moment of every day and heis speaking.
And may he awaken your ears andeyes and heart to discern his
(30:54):
movements inside of you by theHoly Spirit and may you
experience the lightness and thejoy of following Jesus which is
better than life.
Oh his love is better than lifeso blessings to you and have a
great day
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