SPEAKER_03 0:19

And that is that I was struggling with this prayer thing. You know, I was reading all the books on prayer and uh the posture of prayer and the positions of prayer and the possibilities of prayer and whatever else of prayer, trying to sort through all this stuff. You know how many books there are and all that stuff? I went into this room, you know, to learn how to pray. That's what I was gonna sequester myself into a room where I was gonna figure this whole thing out. During the time going through the circles I was in was can't can you not pray for an hour? You know, Jesus said that to his disciples. So we are all of us, you know, the big team, all of us spiritual people, were determined we were gonna pray for an hour. So we'd set aside a time during the day, each of us, you know, and we'd pray for an hour. And so there's a whole bunch of ways, mechanisms, you know, start with 15 minutes, work your way up to 20, you know, keep lots of notes, all that stuff. So I think I probably got this up to seven minutes because I'm ADD. So went in the room, you know, closed the door, and all of a sudden, I just said this. You know, I don't even know what to say to you. I really have no idea what I'm supposed to do. Am I supposed to lay down? Am I supposed to kneel? I don't really know what what I'm supposed to do, but I just want to do this right. I I I don't know. I don't know. That probably was one of the greatest prayers of my life because through that I really learned that if we are in the kingdom of God, in this new kingdom, if Jesus is with us, if he's in us, if we have the spirit of truth in us, then we're 2 Peter. We've got everything that pertains to life and godliness in us. And I have it in me. I don't need to ask permission of anyone. I'm fully equipped. And if my conversation with my father is any different than my conversation with you, I've got a misconception of who God is. I think that was one of the greatest revelations in my life. There should be no pressure in prayer. I have a little thing on my podcast, thegracemindpodcast.com, by the way, where I share something about grace every Monday, a fresh episode every Monday morning. But now I'm on YouTube. I don't know if you guys have seen my YouTube stuff, but it's like almost over the top. Nice. So check it out if you like. The thought of being able to live in that kingdom, that's where we should be. It's like this. I'm sorry, I didn't hear what you were saying. I was talking to Jesus.

SPEAKER_02 2:47

Yeah. Yeah, you're living in the unseen realm. You're relying on what is unseen. And yet we always just want to hang on to what we see. I think that's the biggest struggle as Christians. We get afraid about what we see.

SPEAKER_03 3:00

And I don't think that makes us unstoppable or superheroes or anything, but I do think it gives us the ability to keep that same perspective, which is, you know, it's simple. It's so simple. God is pleased with me. We're going to start there. Let's start with God is pleased with me. That eradicates three-quarters of everything we have to deal with. Because man always wants to please God. If you fill that blank in first, then you have a great opportunity to see the treasures he has for you. Because you know, I hasn't seen or heard or is even entered into the heart of man what God has prepared for those that love him. That's the realm we're living in right now. God wants to show us, he wants to give us his treasures. And we're learning. We're learning how to do that, how to accept that.

SPEAKER_02 3:50

Be reconciled. We're living the reconciled life. Paul's like, be reconciled, stop second guessing this thing.

SPEAKER_03 3:57

Exactly right. And you know, Romans 2, you know, don't be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. It's very deep. It's a very deep thing. It's not a superficial thing that everybody says, oh, okay, well, I'm being renewed. Really think about it. I like reading lots of different translations. And JB Phillips says this he says, Don't let the world squeeze you into its own mold. That is like a beautiful picture for me looking at that. Christ wants us to blossom. The world wants us to be compacted. Christ wants us to be able to step out in faith and enjoy the adventures because he created this whole world for us. This world isn't evil. It's the people. It's not the world. He gave us this world to enjoy. I mean, think about the thought that went into this whole thing. He wants us to enjoy it, and we have no idea what that means unless we grow in his grace and reality of his presence in our life.

SPEAKER_02 4:57

That's an interesting fact, too, the worldview as Christians. Is it a fallen world? Is the world good? We know in the beginning it was perfect. That's just a cool perspective. So you're saying the kingdom of Christ is established here on earth and that it's the people that are evil. The world is not necessarily fallen. The world isn't the same place as it was before Christ. Something changed.

SPEAKER_01 5:20

Well, you're talking about prayer. Which way is really the best way to pray, or just pray by what's in your mind, your thoughts? Do you really need the words like, you know, our father, or do you just speak to God? It's just like talking to your dad or a friend.

SPEAKER_02 5:37

Yeah. You know, he's a friend, he's our dad, he's our father. I mean, he's in my opinion, it's easy to mistake him with a human person because he's not, he's way beyond any comprehension. You know, you're not reconciled by anybody other than God. And so he's way mightier, but we have a perfect relationship with him because of Christ. So now we do come before him confidently. How? Knowing what? The message of reconciliation. You're right with him, so now you come before him confidently because you know you can trust him. You can be honest about yourself now, because before that, how honest were you when you weren't reconciled to God? Maybe you just hoped you didn't see something. Maybe your pastor said something about sin that was hard to handle. Our church has taught sin really well. They made it hard to escape. You know you're sinning now, and so maybe you had to make your own interpretation of scripture. That can't be sin because I'm a good person. We can be honest with God because we know that He is good and He's on our side now, and so we can pray essentially however we want. I think it's healthy and okay to have a structure if that helps us. I had a friend of mine telling me that, and they're going through some struggles in parallel with some struggles we're going through, and we're relating a lot on that. And he's like, Have you ever tried praying as a couple? The Lord led us to that early on in our marriage. And I'm like, that's really cool, and that's really been helping them. So the Lord guides you. There's no right or wrong way to pray. And our thought life is prayer, essentially, sitting down and praying on our knees. We can do that.

SPEAKER_00 7:13

Prayer is so important. I think it's important to make time every day, personally. That helps me, whether it's I'm going somewhere, sitting somewhere quietly, or but that doesn't have to mean that you're on your knees for an hour. It could be on your heart while you're working, you know, because the Lord knows our heart, or maybe on your lunch break you do bow your head, and but making time every day to talk to the Lord.

SPEAKER_02 7:39

Busy lives. Yeah. You know, I know for me personally, I do need a discipline like you're describing. In a busy lifestyle, if I don't make a time to do that, I don't do it. I'll get obsessed with work and the world around me, the seen realm. And so I gotta make time to focus on the unseen, and that helps me continue in that focus. Because to me, it's a minute by minute, hour by hour, a Christ consciousness that carries us through our life.

SPEAKER_03 8:06

I think that uh for me it is that God's excited to see me. He loves me, he's excited that I would turn my attention to him in that manner. Not that doesn't have my attention every second. See, that's the difference between the old covenant and the new covenant believer. We start with acceptance.

SPEAKER_01 8:26

You're right, though. I mean, because I everybody goes through their course, you're busy at times, then when you do take the time to thank him for all that you gave me today, you feel good talking. You communicate. Exactly. And for some reason, I sit there and thought, why do I have such a bad day today? I know you've had a whole lot worse being on the crotch, and I'm that's minor. Uh like if you go out in the world talking, people got a lot worse. There's a lot of tragedy. It can always be worse. Yeah. And so you sit there and think, okay, he's just letting you know that I'm still controlling, I still know what you're doing. Just keep plugging along.

SPEAKER_02 9:06

Our attention focused on the Lord is where it's at, and that's where we find his love. It's really that simple. So if we find ourselves like, oh, I I feel lacking in that, you know what to do.

SPEAKER_01 9:17

Yeah, your mind starts drifting, you just say, God, please help me get this stupid thought out of my head. Yeah. Just change my mind. Yeah. It's like sometimes you just need a a break, because sometimes your mind just starts going, go, go, go, and it it doesn't stop to think about why it's doing it.

SPEAKER_02 9:36

Yeah. And then we cast our anxiety on Christ. You know what I mean? He says to cast it.

SPEAKER_01 9:42

Because you feel like you're not being fair to him because he's done so much already. Why does it need my problem? He tells you to give them to him, though.

SPEAKER_02 9:51

He's basically telling you, like, your problems are mine, give them to me. When you do, what happens? You're filled with his loving embrace. When you actually do cast your anxiety on Christ, you find that it's healing. You can faithfully give him your problems, and he is pleased with that behavior because you're trusting him with them.

SPEAKER_03 10:11

Growth is just living in Jesus. I grew up in an environment that said, Oh man, I'm just growing so fast, and you know, I I've heard this message and I'm just growing so fast. We're confused when we say those things. It's nothing more than being attached to the vine that gives us growth. You know, you don't uh go to a watch an orange struggle to become an orange, it just becomes an orange. The wisdom of God is that we would recognize that as we sit in his presence and as we are who we are, that's where we're supposed to be. We don't need to be any more than we are right now. Our mind, because we thought knowledge and all those things would make us grow, would think that if I accumulate more knowledge, I'm gonna grow faster. But we're on God's timeline and we will grow when we grow. We need to revel in what we have right now and rejoice in the growth at the point we're at. That's what He wants us to do. Appreciate where we are, not yearn for something else. Because you know that's what Adam and Eve did. They yearned for something else. They were complete. Just wanted to put a little butt at the end of the line that says, Oh, but I can have this as well. The new creation man doesn't want more than God has. He's already given us everything. We just need to learn to live in it, right?

SPEAKER_02 11:36

Yeah, we have to accept his rate of growth. Because we will grow at his rate.

SPEAKER_03 11:41

We are.

SPEAKER_02 11:41

We I mean he's in control, so times in life that you kind of start going the wrong direction, and you know, maybe you're uh, you know, people that understand grace, they they faith, they believe, and something's not growing. If we really figure out grace, we understand why. It's not automatic, apparently, because you know, you have Christians believing all kinds of things, and you have Christians not really believing that Christ's work in us can do all things and not believing what Peter said. And where do you go with that? We have to understand it and live by it, right?

SPEAKER_03 12:15

Yes, yeah, you well, it's more of a celebration if we think of it that way. That's what I like to do. I think of it as a celebration. Because you remember when you were little and dad was coming home, he said he was gonna get something for you at the store. So you are like little, like I'm four years old and I'm sitting there talking to my sister, and I say, Listen, dad's coming home and he's got something for me. Five seconds later, I say, Dad's coming home, he's got something for me. He's getting something for me. He's gonna have something for me. And I'm excited, I'm running back and forth, you know, I'm looking around and all those things, waiting for that truck to come to the top of the driveway. And when that truck comes to the top of the driveway, I'm still saying, Hey, dad's cut there he is, and he's got something for me. And I'm excited about it. Ready? I've you know what I mean? We've all been there to some degree, what somehow. Yeah. And that's the excitement that we need to live in as new creatures. As new creatures, he's got something for me.