April 18, 2024 • 24 mins
Delve into an insightful episode of "Hope in Him Today", where Gary Miller passionately discusses the crucial tenets outlined in 3rd Nephi chapter 18. Focusing on the powerful merits of prayer and spiritual vigilance, Miller encourages listeners to combat life's temptations through constant dialogues with God.
Living in a reality awash with faith-challenging hurdles, Miller's words inspire a fortified spiritual guard and shine a light on the empowering weapon that prayer presents against adversities. This episode underscores the essential aspect of ceaseless communication with the Divine, positioning it as a conduit of spiritual safeguard throughout our daily lives.
In this engaging discussion, Miller also addresses the risks of spiritual complacency borne from familiarity in faith. He inspires listeners to frequently review their spiritual track, cautioning them about the perils of comfort-induced stagnation in their spiritual evolution.
This episode nudges listeners to leverage their connection with God as their primary shield against the individual struggles they encounter. By understanding the depth of daily trust in God, the transformational energy of the Divine word unfolds and a striking comprehension of spiritual reliance is illuminated.
Exploring the boundless potential of prayer in believer's life, this episode enhances our understanding of God's directive to remain alert and prayerful. It empowers us to anticipate incoming spiritual tests and equip us with the celestial strength required to triumph over them. Moreover, the episode emphasizes the significance of prayer "in Jesus's name" — a paradigm reiterated in three distinct verses.
This nuanced exploration of a believer's prayer life incites a query — is it an uninterrupted link and dialogue with God or merely a conventional task? The episode advocates praying with anticipation and faith, claiming that whatever we seek through prayer, if it aligns with God’s will, will be granted to us.
A crucial discussion pertaining to family prayers is also tackled in the episode, emphasizing the importance of intercession on behalf of our families. The podcast motivates a thorough introspection of our family's current prayer habits, asserting that a family's collective prayers can bring about personal revival, fortified relationships, and rich blessings.
In its concluding section, the episode challenges listeners to apply the incredible biblical truths disclosed and encourages them to expect miraculous transformations and deepened connections with God as they practice the power-stack prayer formula. With a call to reflection, everyone is urged to carry forward these thoughts into their "secret place" for further meditation, leaving an impactful mark for reflection in the listeners' minds.
Want to learn more about Jesus? Start here!
Support Hope In Him Today here.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:01):
Hey there, friends. Welcome back to the show. This is Hope in Him Today.
My name is Gary Miller, and I'm so glad that you're here. We're 14 episodes
in 14 days. We're doing a big run here at the end of April.
How do you support it? Well, we'll get to that in a second. Turn in your scriptures to 3 Nephi 18.
While you're flipping, I'll talk, okay? 3 Nephi 18.
Listen, what's the number one way you can help us during the 14-day run here?
(00:23):
It's very simple. It's super simple, and it doesn't cost a penny.
Just share the episodes out wherever you live online. mind. So a new episode
comes out, you listen to it. You're like, man, he's not crazy.
As a matter of fact, there's something good there.
Share it on your Facebook, share it on your ex slash Twitter,
share it wherever you share, text it to a friend, text it to somebody in your,
in your small group, your cell group, your class, your quorum,
(00:46):
your thing, like just send it. All right.
That's the very best way. You know, people that we don't know,
we want to know your people, right?
So share it out. That's the simplest way.
And of course, you can always plug into HopeInHimToday.com.
HopeInHimToday.com. You can get all the old episodes. You can listen to as much
or as little as you like. It's all there for free, of course.
(01:07):
And while you're there, you can even drop us an email, tell us what you think
of the show, drop a question to us because we are doing some Q&A Fridays coming
up here in the next few weeks.
And or you could support the show, make a donation. We always support and appreciate that.
But the best thing you can do is just share these out. Cost you nothing to do,
makes a huge difference for us. Third Nephi chapter 18.
Now, if you're listening to this friend and you're like, I don't know what a
(01:30):
Nephi is, I certainly don't know what a third Nephi is, what are you talking about?
Well, I've got a link in the show notes. Go in there, you'll see third Nephi highlighted.
Click on it, you can go out there, you can read and follow along with us.
Of course, for free, you can read as much or as little as you want.
But here's what I've got for you, friends, and this is a promise from someone
that spent a lot of years reading this thing now.
(01:52):
Now, if you will go in and follow along with this text that we're going to talk
about today, and then you go back to the beginning of it online and you start
reading through this and you go all the way to the end, then you do it again,
and then you do it again, and then you do it again.
Here's what I know. You are going to encounter Jesus in a way you have never
encountered him before.
And you're going to encounter him more than any other place that you could open up pages to.
(02:16):
This larger book that this is in is not just pages.
It is a transformative, powerful instrument that God has given us to just do
amazing things in our lives through and with Jesus.
So man, if you want more Jesus, open up these pages. Amen.
Okay. Now let's, there's a lot here. Like my third Nephi 18 is a highlight fest.
(02:41):
I want to look at 15. I want to look at 18.
I want to look at 19. I want to look at 20 and 21.
I've got to go fast. I am going to skip stuff.
That is why you need to be in the scriptures. Can I get this disclaimer that
I know that I do periodically?
Friends, your time in study is always more important than a podcast.
Your time in God's word, God's word is authoritative.
(03:03):
Podcasts are not. As enthusiastic and as well-intentioned as I am,
I am certainly not authoritative.
The word is, right? The time in the secret place of prayer is always better than a podcast, right?
Communing with God, fellowshipping with him in the secret place,
much better than fellowshipping with the podcaster.
I'm cool to fellowship with and all, but much better with God.
(03:24):
Much better to go out to the trusted sources, prophets, seers, and revelators.
We've got a link on our show notes as well. If you want to learn more about
Jesus, learn more about his church, go there.
That's the authority. That's the good stuff.
Podcasts are great as a supplement, okay? Let's just make sure that it's always
a supplement. That's why I'm going to move fast.
(03:44):
I'm just a supplement. You've got to go in and have the main dish on your own
inside your study, inside the word, inside where it matters. Amen? Okay.
So let's look at verse 15. It says, verily, verily, I say unto you,
you must watch and pray always, lest you be tempted by the devil and you be led away captive by him.
Friends, I know a lot of you are going to say, Gary, I know these verses, but what do we know?
(04:06):
Familiarity breeds contempt or breeds apathy, right?
I already know that. So I'm going to kind of take my hands off the wheel on
that. No, I think the more we think we know something, the closer we probably
need to examine it for its application in our lives, because we're probably
going to get sloppy there if we.
Are you with me? So it says two things. One, you better watch.
(04:27):
Watch what? You better watch your back spiritually.
You better watch where you're going, what you're saying, who you're doing it
with, where you're stepping.
What does this mean? We have to have a certain level of intentionality, friends.
We can't just be bebopping and sort of neutraling it through life on autopilot.
We got to be watching because there's stuff out there that's set up to derail you and I.
(04:47):
It's set up on social media. It's set up in the media. It's set up with some
of the people we encounter.
There are all kinds of opportunities to get you and I off track.
We better have our eyes open.
Not just our natural eyes, yes, but also our spiritual eyes.
We need to be paying attention.
It is extremely dangerous for the experienced believer, the experienced Christian.
(05:11):
Someone's been around the Bible. Someone's been around the scripture.
Someone's been around church for a really long time.
Why is it extremely dangerous? Because they can get into autopilot mode.
There's a certain comfort in redundancy, but there's also a great danger because
you're not paying attention and you can get taken out.
So he says, watch, number one, and pray always.
(05:32):
That kind of sounds like Paul, right? New Testament, pray without doing what?
Pray without ceasing. In other words, pray without stopping.
Keep praying, right? And how do I do that? Friends, I want to encourage you
to have a walking, talking prayer life throughout your day.
You say, what do you mean? Well, I don't believe in prayer time.
Nearly as much as I believe in a prayer life.
(05:53):
Now, that sounds super Christian and super kind of, you know,
coffee cup verse kind of stuff, right? It needs to be a mean, but it really is true.
If we are walking through our lives regularly in a dialogue with God,
then we're going to be looking to the things of God that's going to help us
to see and watch the first part of this verse with spiritual eyes.
Talk to God all the time. We have a gracious and loving Heavenly Father that
(06:18):
wants to be in conversation with us. He wants to be in fellowship with us.
But if the only time we talk is, you know, 6.30, amen, after my study,
I pray. That's fantastic.
That is great. That's some of the most powerful prayers. First fruit prayer
in the morning, I'm with you. Me too.
But as we're going, man, it's a long time until the next morning at 6.
(06:38):
It's a long time until we're like tired and going to bed saying our prayers.
What about throughout the day?
Father, in the name of Jesus, what am I doing about this meeting that's coming up?
What do I need to be on the alert for? Would you help me to be sensitive to
the needs of the people in the room?
Would you help me to be sensitive to danger, both from others or from myself?
(06:59):
Lord, would you arrest my tongue and help me not to speak when I'm not supposed
to? Because most of my trouble comes from my mouth, right?
So are we praying always? I challenge you to do that.
Man, if we're not talking to ourselves, it sounds like if someone were to look
at us talking to ourselves, if they wouldn't think like, what,
who's he talking to? Who's she talking to?
Then I don't think we're talking enough. And you and I know we're not talking
(07:20):
to ourselves. We're talking to the master.
Man, we're talking to a God in heaven that knows and understands every bit of
what's going on in our lives. And we can tap into that power through prayer.
And anytime we can make that vocal, we should.
You remember Elder Holland talking about that? And not only did he mention that
at the previous or just the most
recent general conference, but he said it before or in other settings.
(07:43):
Yes, we should be praying out loud. And if we can't, yes, of course,
have a prayer in your heart. Do both, right? But we should be praying always.
Why? Because I don't want to get led around by the devil.
If you're in a season of temptation and you find yourself being tempted and
led away into sin, whatever the sin may be, anger, frustration, impatience.
(08:06):
Lust, envy, greed, whatever your sin is, lack of forgiveness,
I don't care what it is, you're being led away in that and you find yourself
repetitiously and habitually going in these directions.
Friends, you need to get some prayer up in your life, not just a prayer session,
but I got to be doing this regularly.
I need to be in a conversation with God ongoing.
(08:29):
Like we don't click off the line. We just leave that line open and we're talking
all day. Now go down to verse 18.
I know what you might say, by the way, in verse 15. Well, I already know that,
Gary. I I mean, Brother Miller, I appreciate it. You know, give me the kind of smile and nod.
No, really think about that.
And maybe reverse engineer it. Go into the secret place and mention to God one
(08:50):
of those things that you habitually find yourself led away in, okay?
Might be a lack of patience with your children. It might be a short fuse with
your spouse. It might be getting super annoyed with a coworker.
I don't know what it is. Take that into the secret place and then think,
okay, I'm being led away consistently here in this area. I keep going down the wrong path.
(09:13):
I need to increase my prayer throughout the day about this thing,
whether it's happening or not in that moment.
I need to keep that conversation open with God so I can be more watchful,
so that I can really attack this and improve.
Friend, I'm really convicted lately that what we're doing in our study should
change I've really had the Lord dealing with me on a couple of subjects, particularly around.
(09:36):
On church stuff. And I've really been convicted personally, things I have to
improve, where the Lord's just really laid it on my heart.
Like, man, Gary, I love that it's all highlighted. I love that you have all these marks.
I love that you can recite it and cross-reference it. I mean,
you can machine gun that stuff out and you can teach it and you can sling it. That is wonderful.
It's a gift. I've given that to you. That is awesome.
(09:58):
But by the way, this should be changing your attitude in areas.
This should be changing your perspective. It should be changing your words.
It should be changing your heart.
And so if we're going to be changed by these verses, we got to get beyond,
I know that and go, wait a minute, let me take it into the secret place and
really pray always about these particular areas so that I can be watchful so that I'm not led away.
(10:21):
So I can actually have victory in Jesus, right?
All right, now look at verse 18. Behold, verily, verily, he's repeating.
I say unto you, you must watch and pray always, place. Lest ye enter into temptation.
Now, friends, if something shows up within four verses, twice telling you and
I to do it, one, God tells us multiple times because he knows we're hard-headed
(10:43):
and sometimes we're just stupid and we won't listen.
Just like my kids, just like your kids, if you've got them, they don't listen the first time.
So he's reminding us again, if this is an issue and it's really important,
do you think he would mention it more than once? Yeah, this is super important.
You must watch and pray always lest you enter into temptation.
(11:03):
For Satan hath desired to have you, that he may sift you as wheat.
I am strongly, strongly impressed by that verse.
I think sometimes we dabble in compromise and what we think is light sin,
not understanding that Satan wants nothing more than to get us in his grip and
(11:24):
tear us to pieces, blow our life out, blow our marriage out,
blow our family out, blow our health out.
He's come to do what?
Steal, kill, and destroy. Troy.
So I don't want to get anywhere near that.
Now, man, God knows I have over the years, little compromises, machined up.
(11:46):
But I'll tell you, here, we're given the solution again.
Watch so that you can see when it's coming and pray so that you have the power to overcome.
It's one thing to see that it's coming. It's another thing to have the power
to overcome. come. We don't have that power on our own. We have it through Jesus.
(12:06):
Verse 19, therefore you must always pray unto the Father in my name.
That seems pretty clear. We come to the Father in the name of Jesus.
That's the model of prayer. But notice we've got verse 15, pray always. Verse 18, pray always.
We've got verse 19, always pray. We just flipped it.
(12:26):
What's the condition of your prayer life?
Honestly. Honestly.
Are you sitting there right now and you think, well, I do have prayer time,
but do I really have an ongoing conversation, open line, not disconnected,
fellowship and communication with God?
Here's what happens as a result. Whatsoever ye shall ask. What now? whatsoever.
(12:52):
I believe we don't see enough bigger or biggest miracles in our lives simply
because we're not asking, because we have limited the whatsoever.
We've changed it into whatsoever I can wrap my natural mind around.
But what it needs to be is whatsoever, truly anything.
If it's in line with the Word of God and it doesn't contradict and or doesn't
(13:13):
contradict the Word of God, it's fair game to pray for.
And our God, who has a cattle on a thousand hills, can provide both materially and spiritually.
Well, I don't know if I should be praying about that. Oh, you should.
Whatsoever you shall ask the Father in my name. There's the model of prayer again, which is right.
How do I know it's right to pray for it? Well, it either agrees with the word
(13:33):
or it doesn't directly contradict it. That covers it.
Believing that you shall receive. Now, wait a minute. Hold a hold.
Wait a minute. I have to pray like I've already received it? Yeah.
Believing that you shall receive. In other words, I'm not asking,
thinking, I hope God will give it.
I am asking, believing I will receive the goodness of God. Now, that's faith prayer.
(14:00):
Don't let the New Age hijack ideas like that and you think they're bad.
Don't let name it and claim it folks or word of faith folks just own the franchise
on that and think it's bad.
No, it's not. That's the word believing that you shall receive.
That means you're going to have to walk some days having believed something,
but not see it yet, but still hold your spiritual and natural optimism,
(14:24):
knowing that you're going to receive it.
Friends, that's faith. Calling those things that are not as though they are.
That's faith. Faith isn't, I sit in the pew every week. That's not faith.
That's attendance. There's a difference.
Attendance is important, by the way. I'm learning more and more the value of
that in different areas of my spiritual practice. us.
(14:45):
However, that's not faith per se. That's attendance.
Now, you may attend because of your faith, and I get you'd make that argument. Maybe that's fine.
Let's not get lost in semantics. The point is, I got to believe that I'll receive that thing.
I'm praying with expectation.
I think half the time you and I are not getting answers to our prayers because
(15:05):
honestly, we don't expect God to actually move.
Do you think that's possible? I tell you, I do.
Or sometimes we go through the rote reciting of it, because,
well, this is what I'm supposed to do. Amen. I'm a Christian.
But we don't actually expect.
I wonder how many of our prayers are hanging in the.
(15:27):
Holding pattern or holding queue in glory, simply waiting for us to increase
our expectation and they would come flooding into us, the results and the favor
and the opening and the move of God that we want. I just wonder how possible that is.
It's just an idea. Just think about that.
Behold, it shall be given unto you. Not maybe.
(15:48):
You and I have an amazing translation technique that we do all the time.
We change shalls into maybes and mights and or ish or no, we seem to revert
the language and twist it. No, it says shall.
It shall be given unto you. It shall be given unto you.
(16:11):
Now, that's walking around with an almost over-the-top prayer orientation,
and it's right here in 3 Nephi.
I wonder what would happen if every single one of us, and there's a lot of people
that listen to this podcast,
if every single one of us, starting right here, started walking around with
a prayer life that was just full of expectation,
(16:37):
and the line was always up, and we were praying always, and our eyes were open,
I wonder how God would move.
You know, folks love to talk about revival. I wonder what kind of personal revival,
we'd experience in our lives, in our families, in our finances,
in our health, in our relationships, in our ministry, in our churches.
(16:58):
Really? I mean, I just wonder what would happen. I don't think he gave this
to us just as a mere structure.
I believe firmly that if these words are sitting inside this Book of Mormon.
They're not mere structure.
They're heavily instruction to take us to places that we can't even fathom.
And not someday over in the by and by, no, now.
(17:22):
What's the Lord's prayer, right? On earth as it is in heaven,
now I should be experiencing some of that heavenly glory, right? We can.
Now, let me leave us with this last one, verse 21. Sorry, Sorry,
my chair was creaking. Verse 21.
And this is now where we turn the prayer to one of its most important,
(17:42):
if not most important, targets. We target our family.
It says, pray in your families.
Are you praying in your family?
And are you praying for your family? A lot of people would say,
oh, yes, we say prayers. Gary, we got that. Check.
Are you praying in your families? Does the family have a prayer life?
(18:05):
Does the family have an open channel of ongoing conversation with God?
Are we training up our children to be walking around talking to God all the
time, right? Just having a conversation.
We would think nothing of talking about sweet nothing to somebody that's just, you know, a friend.
But we think it's strange to be, you know, cooking your dinner and thanking
(18:26):
God and talking to him about your food and dinner and your day and everything
else. Why wouldn't you do that?
I think he loves that fellowship. I really do.
So are we praying in our families, but also are we interceding for them?
2023 was a really hard year for me as a parent.
(18:47):
Not because there was some dramatic story or something really terrible that
happened as a singular event.
And I'm so grateful that I didn't. I don't think I had the bandwidth to absorb it if it did.
But we had some interesting challenges, you know, and many of you are well familiar with this.
When you have large families and the age spread is kind of wide, right?
(19:13):
Everybody's kind of at a different level. You got to be putting on different
hats every day. It really can be challenging.
And in some of my worst and lowest moments, some of my poorest performance as a father,
My complaints and frustrations were high, and my intercession for them was either
super low or nonexistent.
(19:35):
What kind of man does that? I mean, you're talking about a natural,
flesh-ridden, sinful man. You're listening to one right now.
And my complaint, my frustration was so high. I'm like, man, they're not hearing me.
They're not listening. How in the world can we still be navigating this?
What am I supposed to do with this? I just need everybody to lockstep and get this thing in order.
(19:55):
I mean, like I'm trying and man, I mean, my complaints after hours when everybody
went to sleep was terrible.
My attitude throughout, there was an edge to my parenting and to my presence.
And it was exacerbated by the fact that I was not interceding for my family.
(20:18):
I'm ashamed of that. And now I make it a point.
Like if I'm not at least sometime in a week walking around,
standing in their room when they're at school, praying for the Lord to bless
them, praying for him to move and interceding on their behalf,
half, man, then I have missed the whole plot.
(20:40):
It doesn't matter how much I market and how much I sell and what I do in the
agency and all this other stuff and how many downloads we have and how many
people want to invite me to preach and shout this word.
All those stats mean absolutely nothing if I haven't interceded deliberately
and intentionally for them.
It says, pray in your families under your father, always in my name.
(21:02):
Do we have the prayer model yet?
Okay. It's like like been repeated multiple times here, that your wives and
your children may be blessed.
What's your most important job, man of God in your home?
Well, I think we would debate the top two or three, but I can tell you one of
those would have to be direct intercession for our wives and for our children,
(21:26):
that they would be blessed.
Not that they would just get through, not that everything would sort of be okay
not that they'd continue to grind it out not that they would continue to suffer
no no no no I want them to be blessed.
And yes, life will give them plenty of suffering. Life's going to give them plenty of curveballs.
There are going to be ups and down days. Those are real just because we're Christian
(21:49):
and a follower of Jesus does not mean we're exempt. As a matter of fact,
sometimes it means we get it harder.
And so those things are going to happen. But I am still interceding that they would be blessed.
And here's what happens. When you start praying intentionally for the blessing
of your family, you will find that That personally, your burdens as a provider, as a leader will lessen.
(22:11):
You will be blessed and be given supernatural wisdom to lead and to comfort
and to provide and to be the kind of person that you need to be.
Moms, have you been praying over your children and over your wives?
Have you been praying over your husband for intentional blessing?
I mean, like it's an orientation. I am leaning in into the secret place,
(22:34):
but coming boldly to the throne of grace, bless my children,
bless my husband, bless my wife, and then get specific,
bless them with this and this and this and that. Why?
Well, because right upside the verse in verse 20 ahead of it,
I can pray for whatsoever.
And I can believe that not only I receive, but I can believe that they receive.
Father, I thank you in advance for moving in my wife's life to help her with
(22:59):
X, Y, or Z, whatever those things are.
I thank you in advance for moving in the lives of my children and blessing them.
See, if we start walking this, if we start talking this, if we actually do this
kind of power stack prayer equation found right here in 3 Nephi,
and by the way, it's not just found here, but here it is just said so perfectly.
(23:22):
If we apply this, things change.
Do some things change faster than others? Yes. Why does that happen?
I have no idea. I'm not signing up for that class. I don't know why that works.
When we all get to heaven, we can ask him.
Right? When we get to glory, we can just ask him. Okay, so why did that one
go faster than that one? I don't know.
(23:43):
But not only will the situation and the circumstances change in one way or the
other, but we're going to change.
It's amazing when we change how our circumstances change. If nothing else,
our perspective changes the circumstance.
It's weird, right? Like, all of a sudden, we're coming at it differently.
I wonder what our lives would be like if we really applied this.
(24:06):
We were walking, talking, and praying, believing with expectation,
thanking Him in advance, praying for those blessings for our family.
Man, I wonder the revival that would happen just right under our roof,
right inside our living room, right inside our marriages, right inside of our work.
I wonder what kind of things can happen. I want you to take all this into the
secret place. I mean, just hash this out with the Lord.
(24:27):
Secret place time, much better than a podcast.
Scripture time, much better than a podcast.
Go see what men of God have taught about this. Work this out and let the Holy Spirit guide you.
I know that Jesus is gonna have something amazing for you here.
Music.
Hey there, friends. Welcome back to the show. This is Hope in Him Today.
My name is Gary Miller, and I'm so glad that you're here. We're 14 episodes
in 14 days. We're doing a big run here at the end of April.
How do you support it? Well, we'll get to that in a second. Turn in your scriptures to 3 Nephi 18.
While you're flipping, I'll talk, okay? 3 Nephi 18.
Listen, what's the number one way you can help us during the 14-day run here?
(00:23):
It's very simple. It's super simple, and it doesn't cost a penny.
Just share the episodes out wherever you live online. mind. So a new episode
comes out, you listen to it. You're like, man, he's not crazy.
As a matter of fact, there's something good there.
Share it on your Facebook, share it on your ex slash Twitter,
share it wherever you share, text it to a friend, text it to somebody in your,
in your small group, your cell group, your class, your quorum,
(00:46):
your thing, like just send it. All right.
That's the very best way. You know, people that we don't know,
we want to know your people, right?
So share it out. That's the simplest way.
And of course, you can always plug into HopeInHimToday.com.
HopeInHimToday.com. You can get all the old episodes. You can listen to as much
or as little as you like. It's all there for free, of course.
(01:07):
And while you're there, you can even drop us an email, tell us what you think
of the show, drop a question to us because we are doing some Q&A Fridays coming
up here in the next few weeks.
And or you could support the show, make a donation. We always support and appreciate that.
But the best thing you can do is just share these out. Cost you nothing to do,
makes a huge difference for us. Third Nephi chapter 18.
Now, if you're listening to this friend and you're like, I don't know what a
(01:30):
Nephi is, I certainly don't know what a third Nephi is, what are you talking about?
Well, I've got a link in the show notes. Go in there, you'll see third Nephi highlighted.
Click on it, you can go out there, you can read and follow along with us.
Of course, for free, you can read as much or as little as you want.
But here's what I've got for you, friends, and this is a promise from someone
that spent a lot of years reading this thing now.
(01:52):
Now, if you will go in and follow along with this text that we're going to talk
about today, and then you go back to the beginning of it online and you start
reading through this and you go all the way to the end, then you do it again,
and then you do it again, and then you do it again.
Here's what I know. You are going to encounter Jesus in a way you have never
encountered him before.
And you're going to encounter him more than any other place that you could open up pages to.
(02:16):
This larger book that this is in is not just pages.
It is a transformative, powerful instrument that God has given us to just do
amazing things in our lives through and with Jesus.
So man, if you want more Jesus, open up these pages. Amen.
Okay. Now let's, there's a lot here. Like my third Nephi 18 is a highlight fest.
(02:41):
I want to look at 15. I want to look at 18.
I want to look at 19. I want to look at 20 and 21.
I've got to go fast. I am going to skip stuff.
That is why you need to be in the scriptures. Can I get this disclaimer that
I know that I do periodically?
Friends, your time in study is always more important than a podcast.
Your time in God's word, God's word is authoritative.
(03:03):
Podcasts are not. As enthusiastic and as well-intentioned as I am,
I am certainly not authoritative.
The word is, right? The time in the secret place of prayer is always better than a podcast, right?
Communing with God, fellowshipping with him in the secret place,
much better than fellowshipping with the podcaster.
I'm cool to fellowship with and all, but much better with God.
(03:24):
Much better to go out to the trusted sources, prophets, seers, and revelators.
We've got a link on our show notes as well. If you want to learn more about
Jesus, learn more about his church, go there.
That's the authority. That's the good stuff.
Podcasts are great as a supplement, okay? Let's just make sure that it's always
a supplement. That's why I'm going to move fast.
(03:44):
I'm just a supplement. You've got to go in and have the main dish on your own
inside your study, inside the word, inside where it matters. Amen? Okay.
So let's look at verse 15. It says, verily, verily, I say unto you,
you must watch and pray always, lest you be tempted by the devil and you be led away captive by him.
Friends, I know a lot of you are going to say, Gary, I know these verses, but what do we know?
(04:06):
Familiarity breeds contempt or breeds apathy, right?
I already know that. So I'm going to kind of take my hands off the wheel on
that. No, I think the more we think we know something, the closer we probably
need to examine it for its application in our lives, because we're probably
going to get sloppy there if we.
Are you with me? So it says two things. One, you better watch.
(04:27):
Watch what? You better watch your back spiritually.
You better watch where you're going, what you're saying, who you're doing it
with, where you're stepping.
What does this mean? We have to have a certain level of intentionality, friends.
We can't just be bebopping and sort of neutraling it through life on autopilot.
We got to be watching because there's stuff out there that's set up to derail you and I.
(04:47):
It's set up on social media. It's set up in the media. It's set up with some
of the people we encounter.
There are all kinds of opportunities to get you and I off track.
We better have our eyes open.
Not just our natural eyes, yes, but also our spiritual eyes.
We need to be paying attention.
It is extremely dangerous for the experienced believer, the experienced Christian.
(05:11):
Someone's been around the Bible. Someone's been around the scripture.
Someone's been around church for a really long time.
Why is it extremely dangerous? Because they can get into autopilot mode.
There's a certain comfort in redundancy, but there's also a great danger because
you're not paying attention and you can get taken out.
So he says, watch, number one, and pray always.
(05:32):
That kind of sounds like Paul, right? New Testament, pray without doing what?
Pray without ceasing. In other words, pray without stopping.
Keep praying, right? And how do I do that? Friends, I want to encourage you
to have a walking, talking prayer life throughout your day.
You say, what do you mean? Well, I don't believe in prayer time.
Nearly as much as I believe in a prayer life.
(05:53):
Now, that sounds super Christian and super kind of, you know,
coffee cup verse kind of stuff, right? It needs to be a mean, but it really is true.
If we are walking through our lives regularly in a dialogue with God,
then we're going to be looking to the things of God that's going to help us
to see and watch the first part of this verse with spiritual eyes.
Talk to God all the time. We have a gracious and loving Heavenly Father that
(06:18):
wants to be in conversation with us. He wants to be in fellowship with us.
But if the only time we talk is, you know, 6.30, amen, after my study,
I pray. That's fantastic.
That is great. That's some of the most powerful prayers. First fruit prayer
in the morning, I'm with you. Me too.
But as we're going, man, it's a long time until the next morning at 6.
(06:38):
It's a long time until we're like tired and going to bed saying our prayers.
What about throughout the day?
Father, in the name of Jesus, what am I doing about this meeting that's coming up?
What do I need to be on the alert for? Would you help me to be sensitive to
the needs of the people in the room?
Would you help me to be sensitive to danger, both from others or from myself?
(06:59):
Lord, would you arrest my tongue and help me not to speak when I'm not supposed
to? Because most of my trouble comes from my mouth, right?
So are we praying always? I challenge you to do that.
Man, if we're not talking to ourselves, it sounds like if someone were to look
at us talking to ourselves, if they wouldn't think like, what,
who's he talking to? Who's she talking to?
Then I don't think we're talking enough. And you and I know we're not talking
(07:20):
to ourselves. We're talking to the master.
Man, we're talking to a God in heaven that knows and understands every bit of
what's going on in our lives. And we can tap into that power through prayer.
And anytime we can make that vocal, we should.
You remember Elder Holland talking about that? And not only did he mention that
at the previous or just the most
recent general conference, but he said it before or in other settings.
(07:43):
Yes, we should be praying out loud. And if we can't, yes, of course,
have a prayer in your heart. Do both, right? But we should be praying always.
Why? Because I don't want to get led around by the devil.
If you're in a season of temptation and you find yourself being tempted and
led away into sin, whatever the sin may be, anger, frustration, impatience.
(08:06):
Lust, envy, greed, whatever your sin is, lack of forgiveness,
I don't care what it is, you're being led away in that and you find yourself
repetitiously and habitually going in these directions.
Friends, you need to get some prayer up in your life, not just a prayer session,
but I got to be doing this regularly.
I need to be in a conversation with God ongoing.
(08:29):
Like we don't click off the line. We just leave that line open and we're talking
all day. Now go down to verse 18.
I know what you might say, by the way, in verse 15. Well, I already know that,
Gary. I I mean, Brother Miller, I appreciate it. You know, give me the kind of smile and nod.
No, really think about that.
And maybe reverse engineer it. Go into the secret place and mention to God one
(08:50):
of those things that you habitually find yourself led away in, okay?
Might be a lack of patience with your children. It might be a short fuse with
your spouse. It might be getting super annoyed with a coworker.
I don't know what it is. Take that into the secret place and then think,
okay, I'm being led away consistently here in this area. I keep going down the wrong path.
(09:13):
I need to increase my prayer throughout the day about this thing,
whether it's happening or not in that moment.
I need to keep that conversation open with God so I can be more watchful,
so that I can really attack this and improve.
Friend, I'm really convicted lately that what we're doing in our study should
change I've really had the Lord dealing with me on a couple of subjects, particularly around.
(09:36):
On church stuff. And I've really been convicted personally, things I have to
improve, where the Lord's just really laid it on my heart.
Like, man, Gary, I love that it's all highlighted. I love that you have all these marks.
I love that you can recite it and cross-reference it. I mean,
you can machine gun that stuff out and you can teach it and you can sling it. That is wonderful.
It's a gift. I've given that to you. That is awesome.
(09:58):
But by the way, this should be changing your attitude in areas.
This should be changing your perspective. It should be changing your words.
It should be changing your heart.
And so if we're going to be changed by these verses, we got to get beyond,
I know that and go, wait a minute, let me take it into the secret place and
really pray always about these particular areas so that I can be watchful so that I'm not led away.
(10:21):
So I can actually have victory in Jesus, right?
All right, now look at verse 18. Behold, verily, verily, he's repeating.
I say unto you, you must watch and pray always, place. Lest ye enter into temptation.
Now, friends, if something shows up within four verses, twice telling you and
I to do it, one, God tells us multiple times because he knows we're hard-headed
(10:43):
and sometimes we're just stupid and we won't listen.
Just like my kids, just like your kids, if you've got them, they don't listen the first time.
So he's reminding us again, if this is an issue and it's really important,
do you think he would mention it more than once? Yeah, this is super important.
You must watch and pray always lest you enter into temptation.
(11:03):
For Satan hath desired to have you, that he may sift you as wheat.
I am strongly, strongly impressed by that verse.
I think sometimes we dabble in compromise and what we think is light sin,
not understanding that Satan wants nothing more than to get us in his grip and
(11:24):
tear us to pieces, blow our life out, blow our marriage out,
blow our family out, blow our health out.
He's come to do what?
Steal, kill, and destroy. Troy.
So I don't want to get anywhere near that.
Now, man, God knows I have over the years, little compromises, machined up.
(11:46):
But I'll tell you, here, we're given the solution again.
Watch so that you can see when it's coming and pray so that you have the power to overcome.
It's one thing to see that it's coming. It's another thing to have the power
to overcome. come. We don't have that power on our own. We have it through Jesus.
(12:06):
Verse 19, therefore you must always pray unto the Father in my name.
That seems pretty clear. We come to the Father in the name of Jesus.
That's the model of prayer. But notice we've got verse 15, pray always. Verse 18, pray always.
We've got verse 19, always pray. We just flipped it.
(12:26):
What's the condition of your prayer life?
Honestly. Honestly.
Are you sitting there right now and you think, well, I do have prayer time,
but do I really have an ongoing conversation, open line, not disconnected,
fellowship and communication with God?
Here's what happens as a result. Whatsoever ye shall ask. What now? whatsoever.
(12:52):
I believe we don't see enough bigger or biggest miracles in our lives simply
because we're not asking, because we have limited the whatsoever.
We've changed it into whatsoever I can wrap my natural mind around.
But what it needs to be is whatsoever, truly anything.
If it's in line with the Word of God and it doesn't contradict and or doesn't
(13:13):
contradict the Word of God, it's fair game to pray for.
And our God, who has a cattle on a thousand hills, can provide both materially and spiritually.
Well, I don't know if I should be praying about that. Oh, you should.
Whatsoever you shall ask the Father in my name. There's the model of prayer again, which is right.
How do I know it's right to pray for it? Well, it either agrees with the word
(13:33):
or it doesn't directly contradict it. That covers it.
Believing that you shall receive. Now, wait a minute. Hold a hold.
Wait a minute. I have to pray like I've already received it? Yeah.
Believing that you shall receive. In other words, I'm not asking,
thinking, I hope God will give it.
I am asking, believing I will receive the goodness of God. Now, that's faith prayer.
(14:00):
Don't let the New Age hijack ideas like that and you think they're bad.
Don't let name it and claim it folks or word of faith folks just own the franchise
on that and think it's bad.
No, it's not. That's the word believing that you shall receive.
That means you're going to have to walk some days having believed something,
but not see it yet, but still hold your spiritual and natural optimism,
(14:24):
knowing that you're going to receive it.
Friends, that's faith. Calling those things that are not as though they are.
That's faith. Faith isn't, I sit in the pew every week. That's not faith.
That's attendance. There's a difference.
Attendance is important, by the way. I'm learning more and more the value of
that in different areas of my spiritual practice. us.
(14:45):
However, that's not faith per se. That's attendance.
Now, you may attend because of your faith, and I get you'd make that argument. Maybe that's fine.
Let's not get lost in semantics. The point is, I got to believe that I'll receive that thing.
I'm praying with expectation.
I think half the time you and I are not getting answers to our prayers because
(15:05):
honestly, we don't expect God to actually move.
Do you think that's possible? I tell you, I do.
Or sometimes we go through the rote reciting of it, because,
well, this is what I'm supposed to do. Amen. I'm a Christian.
But we don't actually expect.
I wonder how many of our prayers are hanging in the.
(15:27):
Holding pattern or holding queue in glory, simply waiting for us to increase
our expectation and they would come flooding into us, the results and the favor
and the opening and the move of God that we want. I just wonder how possible that is.
It's just an idea. Just think about that.
Behold, it shall be given unto you. Not maybe.
(15:48):
You and I have an amazing translation technique that we do all the time.
We change shalls into maybes and mights and or ish or no, we seem to revert
the language and twist it. No, it says shall.
It shall be given unto you. It shall be given unto you.
(16:11):
Now, that's walking around with an almost over-the-top prayer orientation,
and it's right here in 3 Nephi.
I wonder what would happen if every single one of us, and there's a lot of people
that listen to this podcast,
if every single one of us, starting right here, started walking around with
a prayer life that was just full of expectation,
(16:37):
and the line was always up, and we were praying always, and our eyes were open,
I wonder how God would move.
You know, folks love to talk about revival. I wonder what kind of personal revival,
we'd experience in our lives, in our families, in our finances,
in our health, in our relationships, in our ministry, in our churches.
(16:58):
Really? I mean, I just wonder what would happen. I don't think he gave this
to us just as a mere structure.
I believe firmly that if these words are sitting inside this Book of Mormon.
They're not mere structure.
They're heavily instruction to take us to places that we can't even fathom.
And not someday over in the by and by, no, now.
(17:22):
What's the Lord's prayer, right? On earth as it is in heaven,
now I should be experiencing some of that heavenly glory, right? We can.
Now, let me leave us with this last one, verse 21. Sorry, Sorry,
my chair was creaking. Verse 21.
And this is now where we turn the prayer to one of its most important,
(17:42):
if not most important, targets. We target our family.
It says, pray in your families.
Are you praying in your family?
And are you praying for your family? A lot of people would say,
oh, yes, we say prayers. Gary, we got that. Check.
Are you praying in your families? Does the family have a prayer life?
(18:05):
Does the family have an open channel of ongoing conversation with God?
Are we training up our children to be walking around talking to God all the
time, right? Just having a conversation.
We would think nothing of talking about sweet nothing to somebody that's just, you know, a friend.
But we think it's strange to be, you know, cooking your dinner and thanking
(18:26):
God and talking to him about your food and dinner and your day and everything
else. Why wouldn't you do that?
I think he loves that fellowship. I really do.
So are we praying in our families, but also are we interceding for them?
2023 was a really hard year for me as a parent.
(18:47):
Not because there was some dramatic story or something really terrible that
happened as a singular event.
And I'm so grateful that I didn't. I don't think I had the bandwidth to absorb it if it did.
But we had some interesting challenges, you know, and many of you are well familiar with this.
When you have large families and the age spread is kind of wide, right?
(19:13):
Everybody's kind of at a different level. You got to be putting on different
hats every day. It really can be challenging.
And in some of my worst and lowest moments, some of my poorest performance as a father,
My complaints and frustrations were high, and my intercession for them was either
super low or nonexistent.
(19:35):
What kind of man does that? I mean, you're talking about a natural,
flesh-ridden, sinful man. You're listening to one right now.
And my complaint, my frustration was so high. I'm like, man, they're not hearing me.
They're not listening. How in the world can we still be navigating this?
What am I supposed to do with this? I just need everybody to lockstep and get this thing in order.
(19:55):
I mean, like I'm trying and man, I mean, my complaints after hours when everybody
went to sleep was terrible.
My attitude throughout, there was an edge to my parenting and to my presence.
And it was exacerbated by the fact that I was not interceding for my family.
(20:18):
I'm ashamed of that. And now I make it a point.
Like if I'm not at least sometime in a week walking around,
standing in their room when they're at school, praying for the Lord to bless
them, praying for him to move and interceding on their behalf,
half, man, then I have missed the whole plot.
(20:40):
It doesn't matter how much I market and how much I sell and what I do in the
agency and all this other stuff and how many downloads we have and how many
people want to invite me to preach and shout this word.
All those stats mean absolutely nothing if I haven't interceded deliberately
and intentionally for them.
It says, pray in your families under your father, always in my name.
(21:02):
Do we have the prayer model yet?
Okay. It's like like been repeated multiple times here, that your wives and
your children may be blessed.
What's your most important job, man of God in your home?
Well, I think we would debate the top two or three, but I can tell you one of
those would have to be direct intercession for our wives and for our children,
(21:26):
that they would be blessed.
Not that they would just get through, not that everything would sort of be okay
not that they'd continue to grind it out not that they would continue to suffer
no no no no I want them to be blessed.
And yes, life will give them plenty of suffering. Life's going to give them plenty of curveballs.
There are going to be ups and down days. Those are real just because we're Christian
(21:49):
and a follower of Jesus does not mean we're exempt. As a matter of fact,
sometimes it means we get it harder.
And so those things are going to happen. But I am still interceding that they would be blessed.
And here's what happens. When you start praying intentionally for the blessing
of your family, you will find that That personally, your burdens as a provider, as a leader will lessen.
(22:11):
You will be blessed and be given supernatural wisdom to lead and to comfort
and to provide and to be the kind of person that you need to be.
Moms, have you been praying over your children and over your wives?
Have you been praying over your husband for intentional blessing?
I mean, like it's an orientation. I am leaning in into the secret place,
(22:34):
but coming boldly to the throne of grace, bless my children,
bless my husband, bless my wife, and then get specific,
bless them with this and this and this and that. Why?
Well, because right upside the verse in verse 20 ahead of it,
I can pray for whatsoever.
And I can believe that not only I receive, but I can believe that they receive.
Father, I thank you in advance for moving in my wife's life to help her with
(22:59):
X, Y, or Z, whatever those things are.
I thank you in advance for moving in the lives of my children and blessing them.
See, if we start walking this, if we start talking this, if we actually do this
kind of power stack prayer equation found right here in 3 Nephi,
and by the way, it's not just found here, but here it is just said so perfectly.
(23:22):
If we apply this, things change.
Do some things change faster than others? Yes. Why does that happen?
I have no idea. I'm not signing up for that class. I don't know why that works.
When we all get to heaven, we can ask him.
Right? When we get to glory, we can just ask him. Okay, so why did that one
go faster than that one? I don't know.
(23:43):
But not only will the situation and the circumstances change in one way or the
other, but we're going to change.
It's amazing when we change how our circumstances change. If nothing else,
our perspective changes the circumstance.
It's weird, right? Like, all of a sudden, we're coming at it differently.
I wonder what our lives would be like if we really applied this.
(24:06):
We were walking, talking, and praying, believing with expectation,
thanking Him in advance, praying for those blessings for our family.
Man, I wonder the revival that would happen just right under our roof,
right inside our living room, right inside our marriages, right inside of our work.
I wonder what kind of things can happen. I want you to take all this into the
secret place. I mean, just hash this out with the Lord.
(24:27):
Secret place time, much better than a podcast.
Scripture time, much better than a podcast.
Go see what men of God have taught about this. Work this out and let the Holy Spirit guide you.
I know that Jesus is gonna have something amazing for you here.
Music.
Popular Podcasts
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations.
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
The Nikki Glaser Podcast
Every week comedian and infamous roaster Nikki Glaser provides a fun, fast-paced, and brutally honest look into current pop-culture and her own personal life.