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Yeah, come closer here, come closer, I'm off the edge, woman of beauty, off the edge, yeah.

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Choice, well, this is fun to be in the same space as people often when we're doing

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interviews and chats like this, we're in different places, but not today.

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Today, we're hanging out right here in the office. Yeah, in the same geographical location.

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Bloomin' beautiful. I like your office. Oh, thanks, mate. Very nice. Thanks. So,

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cool to be here with you guys and we've got some fun we're going to be chatting about. We're going

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to be chatting about prayer, building intimacy with God and Matt has also been working on

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something pretty exciting. Yeah, yeah. So, this week, starting tomorrow and we're going to be

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releasing this teaching at 12pm New Zealand time. All right. Every day this week and it's the

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Raising Home Fires prayer school and I'm actually going to be, I have released part one on one of

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these platforms at some stage. Sneak a leak. It's there somewhere, but we're going to be doing part

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two and the basic kind of idea behind the school, particularly for part two is I found

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that in my conversations with people, one of the main things that people are really hungry for

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and I love it, this is what people are hungry for, is they're hungry to

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really, truly, genuinely know God and have a real living relationship with God

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and one of the main questions that people ask is and they ask it in the context of like,

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okay, you know, I'm a Christian, I love God, you know, I have a relationship with God,

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I pray, but man, I feel like there's something kind of not quite there in my prayer life

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and a lot of the time people will say like, you know, in their own different way, but they'll

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basically be asking, how do I pray? How do I pray? How do I pray? And so, this is a real practical

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course that basically goes through some practical ways of how to pray and we'll be doing six

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different sessions, super practical, all for the purpose of empowering people's prayer lives.

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Actually, there's some places you can go and check out what people are searching on Google

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and that's actually a pretty massive question that's asked on Google, just simple questions

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like how to pray or how can I learn to pray or yeah, so that's awesome. So, fam, great to have

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you guys jumping on board. We're streaming a few places, so we'll try and keep up with your

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comments, but feel free to get chatty with us. Hi, Hadley and Paula. Hey, Karen. Shay.

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Oh, Shay. Good to see you, Shay. You're a legend. So, when you jump on, just say hello, let us know

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where you are in the world. And you know what I would love to hear, Benji, in the comments,

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is if anyone has any specific questions around prayer or anything that they found

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difficult or anything they don't understand. Yeah. Now, I would love to have a little convo

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around that. Yeah, totally, because I think we've been praying for a while, you can kind of forget

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what it's like when you were like this different stages of learning about prayer. I remember when

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I first got, this is just a thought that just popped in my head, when I first started speaking

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in tongues. Oh, come on. I thought it was so, I was so weirded out, right? Yeah. But the guy said,

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look, you know, actually what happened for me was this old Anglican guy prayed for me to be

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filled in the Holy Spirit, and absolutely nothing happened, which is a great way to get disappointed

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with God, right? When you're like, nothing happened at all, because you're seeing other

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people, things are happening for them, and this old Anglican guy got his, like, neck collar on

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and everything, prays for me to be filled with the Holy Spirit. But he gave me some really good advice,

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actually. He said, listen, this prayer is 100% guaranteed to work every time. It's not a, this

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prayer can't not work, basically, is what he said to me. Yeah. He's like, yeah, it's impossible for

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this prayer not to work. It works 100% of the time. All you have to do is practice it. I was like, oh,

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okay. So the next morning.

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when I woke up I was like okay let's just see what happens and I actually just kind of implemented the

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advice that he gave me which is just to start just move my lips and let God take over so I'm in my

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bed with the sheet over my head in the student hostel where I was living kind of like almost

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silently and just sort of like hiding under my sheet in my bed like and like oh my gosh something's

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happening and it just began from there so prayer is a bit of a journey uh you know I remember I

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remember when I first started speaking in tongues my journey one of the reasons that I actually

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came up with wanting to do this school um was I was thinking back on my journey of kind of

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learning how to pray yeah and thinking man I had this thought man it would have been epic

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if someone got beside me and actually helped me and kind of taught me some of the how-to

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of how to pray hey hey zoe hey taffety hey um good to see you guys come on some good people on this

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yeah yeah legends yeah so I so I started speaking in tongues I remember um I've got I'm gonna do a

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session on tongues yeah as a part of the school I think that's one of the most powerful things

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yeah um and we can actually we could pray for people now who don't have the gift of tongues

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we could pray for them on this live just to to receive it but 100 percent um I remember uh I

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got baptized in the holy spirit in my car which people generally know that story um but I didn't

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know I had received the gift of tongues in that moment okay um until I got home about two weeks

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or a week later and I started to pray people have been talking to me about this gift of tongues and

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I was like god if I've got the gift of tongues you've got to prove to me that I'm not making

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this up yeah and so I started like I'm just making a noise you know like an unintelligible

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noise yeah um which sounded like whatever yeah and then it turned into this full-on

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Chinese dialect for about 45 minutes and to the and the joy of the lord got me

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I both thought it was super funny and it was the joy of the lord so I was getting double whammy

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and I ended up on the floor of my concrete bedroom and uh just laughing and speaking it

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in this Chinese dialect that I just thought was just the funniest thing in the world and um

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classic that's very funny actually um earlier in this year uh I got a message from a lady in

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Malta she was on the she was in Malta in Spain and um she just sent a message because she'd

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been on one of our live prayer sessions and while I was praying in tongues she like I was I didn't

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realize anything unusual was going on but I was I was just praying in tongues like normal but

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everything that I was saying she was hearing in Spanish and I was just like speaking to her exactly

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about where she was at with her life like she'd just given recently given her life back to Jesus

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she had a whole bunch of stuff going on and everything that I was saying right there she

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was like oh my gosh this is like like right on point speaking Spanish right into her life and

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she's like so yeah so it's kind of fun um kind of fun stuff I love that stuff they might um

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you might know this guy but um I think you do actually one of our friends he um he was in Israel

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and he was in a prayer meeting there and he was just on the ground just under the influence of

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the spirit praying in tongues and there was a guy he noticed that for about an hour there's a guy

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like sitting next to him um like writing down what he was speaking in tongues yeah and he was like

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what are you doing mate and the guy said to him he's a Hebrew guy he said you are speak you're

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prophesying fluently in Hebrew you've been doing it for the last hour and he was like whoa and so

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then he went for another hour the guy wrote like half a book of Hebrew and it was like this

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apocalyptic crap like it sounded like he was the prophet Isaiah or something and he actually um

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didn't lose it he could speak in Hebrew in tongues without knowing what he was saying at the at

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request wow um and he actually started to learn Hebrew from speaking Hebrew so he'd be just praying

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in Hebrew thinking oh I keep saying that word what does that mean and he actually began to learn Hebrew

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from tongues that's classic that is pretty funny um so uh that's one thing give us some like a

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little bit of a heads up um on some of the topics covering this week in the school of prayer and

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just a shout out as well to everyone there actually before we move on shelter uh storm

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good to see you marie good to see you there as well and um uh do you ever write down what god

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says to you as he says it

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Yeah. You know what?

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Hey, just a comment on that, Rowan.

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So if I pronounce your name wrong, that's actually something that I don't

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know. I think I might cover this in the school a little bit,

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but I might actually do something at the end of the score.

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I cover this a bit more.

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But one of the things I do is I have a little file on my

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phone, and I'm coaching a few people right now.

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Actually, some of them are on this live.

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I'm pretty cool.

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Love you guys.

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And I've been talking about breadcrumbs, and I've got this file

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on my phone, and it's called Ideas, but it's a breadcrumbs file.

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And what I do is I've prepared my life to be ready for

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God to speak to me at any moment.

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And you'll often see me driving.

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You'll often see my car pulled over.

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Yeah.

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Won't be pulled over for long, maybe for two minutes.

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And when God drops a thought, and I know that's a God thought

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or an idea or a frightened, often it's a one line.

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It's like a one phrase or even one word.

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And I'm like, I just feel like that's a God's highlighter

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on it. I pull over, and even if it doesn't make sense initially,

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I just write it down in that file as God's saying it, because

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often it's like other people that say stuff.

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If you're not intentional to actually take note of that and

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remember it, then it goes in one ear and out the other.

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And the same is true of God.

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So I would encourage you, Roanne, to get a little file on

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your phone and just start practicing that and see what happens.

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It's like following the breadcrumbs of the spirit.

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And I think you'll find you'll be led to some really cool

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situations, whether it's having notes on your phone or if

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you are a journaling person, definitely having that accessible.

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So I primarily use my phone at the moment as the spot to

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kind of record all the things that are going down.

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It's kind of easy because you've always got there.

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Yeah.

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So that's cool.

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Now, we did just have a question in here from Terry.

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Come on, Terry.

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Terry, how you doing?

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Good to see you, brother.

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Let me just see it.

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The question was from all the way from Timaru from Kat.

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And Kat said, how do you deal with distractions?

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Like, how do you deal with that?

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What's going on with distractions?

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So Matt, what's your best way to deal with distractions?

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And that's a pretty good question.

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I think the first thing is to, Kat, by the way, good question.

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The first thing I think is to determine, first of all, is this a distraction?

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Is this God distracting me from what I thought God was leading me in,

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but he's actually changed the course?

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Yeah.

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Or is this a distraction away from where God's leading me in prayer in this moment?

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Yeah.

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That's the first question you've got to ask.

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Is this a valid distraction or not?

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If you ask that question and the answer comes back,

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we start to feel, no, this has got nothing to do with anything.

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I need to get back on track.

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I think just the actual process of determining this is a distraction

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and realizing that is probably 90% of the work already done.

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Like, you've realized you've been distracted.

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And then you have to ask the question, do I want to be distracted?

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Yeah.

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And if the answer is no, then that's like 95% of the work done.

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Yeah.

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And then if the answer is no, you've determined you're distracted.

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You've determined you don't want to be distracted.

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Then the next question to ask is, what do I do to not be distracted?

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And that is the question you're asking.

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And it's simply, I think, like a refocus.

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Some of the things that I do are, like, if I find myself being distracted,

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one of the main things I do, and you've probably got tons,

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you're like the master of staying focused, Benji.

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So I'm excited to hear what you're going to say.

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But one of the things I do is I read.

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I'll get the Bible out if I'm feeling distracted, and that keeps me on track.

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Yeah.

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Or sometimes I'll even use, like, the Common Book of Prayer or something.

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Yeah.

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And actually read through old prayers.

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I've got a list of old prayers, like the prayer of St. Patrick.

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And all those old Franciscan prayers and stuff.

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And I'll start reading some of those prayers and praying through them.

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Especially if I'm feeling, like, either tired or distracted

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and feeling like I don't have the internal grunt to stay focused on my own.

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Totally, totally.

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So, yeah, like, classic spaces where I'll get distracted is if I'm tired.

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Yeah.

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Like, oh, tired, man.

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That's where our buddy Kristen Williams, I think he may or may not have invented this

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term.

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It's called sloaking.

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Oh yeah.

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You know, you're soaking in the presence, but really actually you're just asleep.

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But the kind of, so I think, you know, a lot of sloaking goes on and it's not a bad way

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of having a Jesus time and a bit of a rest, but depends on what you're trying to get out

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of your prayer time.

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Lynn Packer has a really good, like, kind of thought for us on this.

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It's just like all revelation is an invitation to ask more questions.

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And so sometimes it's kind of interesting, like, are you actually being distracted or

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is God trying to bring you into something?

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So because sometimes our minds are like weird places, and I'll give you an example, right?

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I had this, I don't know, I just one day I just had this ridiculous thought going through

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my head.

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And I just was like, what is this?

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And I just thought it was so left field that I was like, oh, this has got nothing to do

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with anything.

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But what I was, I saw this picture of people smuggling drugs into New Zealand in their

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shoes.

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Glitter.

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I was like, what's that about?

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I was like, you know, it's got nothing to do with anything right back on task, focus

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on Jesus.

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And then on the national news, six o'clock news, I think it was the next night was these

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people who just got arrested smuggling drugs into New Zealand in their shoes.

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Was that recent?

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This was not recent.

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This was like 10 years ago.

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I think that someone else just got busted.

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There you go.

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It's happened again.

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So the interesting thing is, right, is that maybe if I'd asked God a question, there might

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have been something deeper that you wanted to say about that.

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There might have been a message attached to it.

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There might have been a prophecy attached to it and saying, and as you know, like, we

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could have just been more there.

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So what I'm saying is sometimes something on the surface looks like a distraction.

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But if it looks like a distraction or if you're not really sure, then you can just ask like

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deeper questions.

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I think most of the time our distractions are just like life.

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You know, if you've got family, kids or whatever.

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So in that context, one of the best ways to sort distractions out is an undistracted environment.

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So just figuring that out, you know, and often that just requires you to put up some boundaries

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or be creative or get some headphones or relocate yourself.

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And I think actually I had a really cool chat with a friend yesterday who's at the gym.

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And her focus is gym life, you know, like exercise is her focus, nutrition, health.

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That's her focus.

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So for her, she prioritizes working out above sleep and she prioritizes working out above

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food.

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She prioritizes working out in her schedule above anything else.

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And if you're talking about focus, really, when you kind of really boiled down, if you

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really want to master focus, focus is not something that you master on the fly.

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Focus is something that you master as the structure and like the infrastructure and

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the rhythm of your life.

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So how do you not get distracted?

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Well, it's not something if you want to not get distracted, that's not something that

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you can just do really well on the fly in the moment.

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If you want to be focused, then it actually comes from like a much deeper way of organizing

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life around really what's your priority.

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And then you say, well, this is and it's really good to actually ask questions like this.

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Is prayer more important to you than sleep?

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Is prayer more important to you than food?

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Then put it in the order of priority.

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And I think we should do this with all of our stuff, right?

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What is important and then organize our days and organize the rhythm and the structure

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of our life around what is actually our priority.

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Yeah, that's good, man.

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I was talking to someone a while back and they were telling me how they didn't have

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a lot of time to I said, what does your prayer life look like?

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And I said, you know, I pray every so often, maybe once or twice a week.

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And it's good when I do pray, but I don't get much time to pray because my life is largely

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around my kids and da, da, da, da.

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And, and, you know, I want to, I want to make sure I've got time for them.

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Yeah.

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And I said, I said, well, what if Jesus wants to make sure that he has time with you?

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You know, and so we had this conversation and ended up saying, Hey, why don't you actually

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like book in and put some boundaries around some time that you and Jesus can have.

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Yeah.

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And so she put that in a calendar and has, has, you know, almost like put defenses around

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that time.

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Yeah, totally.

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It's such a good idea.

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Right.

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You've got to intentionality is a weapon.

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Yeah.

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A hundred percent.

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A hundred percent.

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Oh, I've just lost it.

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I think not completely lost it, but I've just lost what I was going to things that are

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lost.

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Yes.

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They can be found.

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Oh, but this one's slipped my mind.

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And now Jesus brings back.

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Everyone pray right now.

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Come on.

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Pray.

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Everyone just reach your hands towards Benji and pray.

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Come on, Jesus.

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What was rapture will be restored.

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Yeah.

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So we were talking about this concept.

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Come on, brain.

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Help me out.

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Where were we?

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We were talking about intentionality, focus, boundaries.

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Rachel, I can see your comment there.

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Yeah.

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We'll get back to that for sure.

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It's a good comment, actually.

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Let's come to Rachel and then we'll come back and see if this little fella reappears.

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Can you share an example from each of your own lives of what you would consider a productive

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prayer time?

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Oh, yeah, that's a great, great question.

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I love that.

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I love it.

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I love it because one of the reasons I love this question is because human beings.

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And this is the design that God has put in humans.

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We always look for truth that we can see incarnated.

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Yeah.

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And in flesh.

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Yeah.

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And that's why we have to have Jesus.

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Yeah, exactly.

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Because we see God in the flesh.

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Yeah.

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But when you ask that question, it's like, man, that is always the most helpful thing

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is to actually see something fleshed out.

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That's what's so fun to read.

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Like old revival stories.

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Yeah.

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You know, the stories of people like Father Nash and stuff, those prayer warriors, Moravians

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and stuff.

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But that's a great question.

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A productive prayer time.

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Yeah.

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Oh, you know, for me, it's an epic question and also quite a difficult one to answer.

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Yeah.

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Because what is a productive prayer time?

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And there's lots of elements and there's lots of things that contribute to a productive

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prayer time.

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To me, this is.

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Yeah.

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Yeah.

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Totally.

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I'm just laughing because it took me a while to learn this lesson.

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Yeah.

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Yeah.

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Yeah.

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I can't wait to hear your answer.

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For me, I feel like a productive prayer time is a time, if I boil this all down, where

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I am conscious of the fact that I have just spent time in relationship, in conversation,

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in actual connection with God.

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And, you know, the prayer school that is launching now and will continue tomorrow at 12 o'clock

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every day, New Zealand time, is really like keys and how to, some how to's and how to

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connect with God in prayer.

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And so for me, it's, I might be sitting completely silent for an hour, just thinking with God.

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And if I feel connected to God in that, then that's a productive prayer time to me.

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If I feel like the conversation is back and forth and there's interaction with God, then

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that's, I feel good about it.

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That's great.

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But it can practically look different every time for me.

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Totally.

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Totally.

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So interestingly, for me, my journey of learning about prayer and growing in prayer and praying

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was a really, I'm like, okay, sweet.

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This is what my prayer time looks like.

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I'm going to have an hour and a half with God.

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I'm going to be praying for my list of people.

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I'm going to be reading my five chapters of the Bible.

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I'm going to be recording a verse from each chapter, and I've got a pretty structured

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time of what that's going to look like.

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Here's where it gets funny, right?

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Because I had this mindset.

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It was kind of, there was like a lot of ritual in there and kind of religious in the sense

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of it has to look like this.

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So that went on for years, and it was awesome, right?

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Because I read the Bible over and over.

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you know, just really, really got well grounded in the Bible by reading the Bible over and over,

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loved those times. But then what was really interesting is came to the season where I was

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having this massive encounter with the glory of God. And it would be what my prayer time

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primarily looked like as I get in, I put some worship music on, I'd get in a bean bag and I

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just be whoa. It was a time actually where I started to really, really deeply experience

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the encounter, the manifest presence of God, where before that, it was, I mean, actually,

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to be honest, I went most of my life in church, you know, not knowing that the manifest presence

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of God was a thing. I didn't know that you could have an actual experience with the manifest

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presence of God. I didn't feel like I was missing out on anything either. I just didn't know that

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that was even a possibility. I didn't know you could you could do that. I mean, I'd spent

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hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of hours in prayer before I even discovered that was a thing

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that you could actually experience the presence of God physically and be like, whoa, the presence

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of God. So things started shifting and changing. And I started into the season where I was in a

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massive encounter with the glory of God. I was like, so I'd put some worship music on,

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I jump in a bean bag, it's like, whoa, whoa, so much presence, so much glory that I'd barely

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be able to move for hours, just undone in the presence of God. Oh, yes. And then right,

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I'd be like, flip, I better, I better make sure that I read my five chapters of the Bible, right?

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So I would, I'd drag myself out of a bean bag and then crawl along the floor to

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get my Bible and then try and like read it as I'm well heavy under the presence of God,

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under the influence of the glory. I'm like, struggling and slowly reading the Bible. But

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you can imagine this, right? I'm just trying to shake off what God's doing, like crawl,

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drag myself along the floor. I'm just trying to, yeah, I know. And I'm like, I'm going to read my

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Bible now, take my notes. And it's just so funny that afterwards I started to realize like, oh,

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hey, here's God doing something really deep in me. And because I have this mindset that

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a productive prayer time or I had this mindset of what my time with God had to look like,

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what ended up happening is, because I had such a strong ritualistic picture and kind of religious

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mindset of what it needs to look like, I couldn't see the fact that God was doing something so

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blatantly and powerfully in my life. And I was reverting back to the old, like to just to a

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mindset of prayer looks like this, like time with God looks like this and go time with God has to

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involve reading my five chapters of the Bible and time with God has to look like me recording

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a verse from each chapter. And it has to. So basically, God spent years and years deconstructing

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my mindset around prayer. And so now really what it looks like is it looks like a dance.

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And the whole point of the dance is just to ensure that, hey, I have no preconceived idea

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of what time with God is specifically going to look like. That doesn't mean that I don't have

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some structures in place in my life either. Because I do have some structures and some

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things that I prioritize, like daily declarations. I prioritize daily declarations and I make some

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epic daily declarations and I use those declarations as a way of governing over my

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life. Understand that I have a governmental authority, a governmental grace. I govern over

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my family, I govern over my life, over everything around me by decreeing and declaring and mandating

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and legislating. And what I'm doing is I'm actually with those declarations, they're so

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powerful. And I know for a fact, because they manifest all the time, I'm actually shifting

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the fabric of reality around my life with those declarations. So those things, yes,

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and there's Bible that I'm reading on a regular basis. Yes, it's part of the daily hard things

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challenge. I love those things. But when it just comes to time with God, or even time outside of

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like a specific, like, you know, if I box God into a prayer time or whatever, it's just like,

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actually, it's really become more about a dance and not having so much of a preconceived idea

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of it has to look like that. So yeah.

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Rowan? Wait, yeah, no, Barbara, you asked if prayer times or dance does everyone have

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a different rhythm? Yeah, I reckon 100%. And also, I think that the rhythm of every person

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changes depending on the season and depending on what's going on in their lives. Like I mentioned,

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sometimes for me, prayer looks like complete silence and stillness.

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Other times it looks like me stomping around my living room,

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shouting in tongues, and one is like a high, intense rhythm,

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and the other one is just a full rest, laid back rhythm.

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And both of them are just as productive as the other,

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if they're in their right season.

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Tight link.

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And Liz, interesting, when you start to center on your

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prescribed rhythm or routine above relationship,

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yeah, sometimes routine, our routines are there to stop gap

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of space in our lives.

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Where there isn't a consciousness of the presence of

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God. We rest on our routine and the absence of presence.

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Yeah.

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And when I say presence, the absence of our ability to engage

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with the fact that God is there.

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Yeah.

434
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I used to tell the story in lots of places when I when I preach

435
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about the World War Two family.

436
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Yeah.

437
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And the World War Two family, mom and dad have a baby.

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Then the dad goes to war.

439
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Is it war for six years?

440
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Well, is it war?

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The mom and the girl do this routine to cope with the absence

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of dad. And the routine is at bedtime, mom would say, read

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some things about dad, then say, okay, honey, go give your dad

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a kiss.

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Good night.

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She would walk up to the picture frame, kiss the picture

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frame, say, good night, dad, walk back to bed, go to sleep.

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And then six years later, after she's done this for six years

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and learnt a routine to keep a consciousness of dad in her

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heart, in the absence of dad's actual presence, dad comes

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home and it's bedtime.

452
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And he's like, oh, my gosh, I've been waiting for this moment

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for my whole six years at war.

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00:31:43.720 --> 00:31:45.320
And he's standing at the end of the bed.

455
00:31:45.320 --> 00:31:47.240
He's like, I'm going to give my daughter a hug and a kiss.

456
00:31:47.240 --> 00:31:47.640
Good night.

457
00:31:47.640 --> 00:31:48.280
This is it.

458
00:31:49.320 --> 00:31:50.760
And mom's at the switch.

459
00:31:50.760 --> 00:31:51.720
Dad's at the end of the bed.

460
00:31:51.960 --> 00:31:54.680
He's brace ready for this moment of glory.

461
00:31:54.680 --> 00:31:58.120
And mom says, okay, honey, you can give your dad a kiss.

462
00:31:58.120 --> 00:31:58.760
Good night.

463
00:31:58.760 --> 00:32:02.760
And she walks out, walks up, walks past dad, picks up the

464
00:32:02.760 --> 00:32:05.400
picture frame, says, good night, dad, puts a picture frame

465
00:32:05.400 --> 00:32:08.200
back down, hops back in bed and doesn't acknowledge the

466
00:32:08.200 --> 00:32:10.200
presence of actually dad's at the end of the bed.

467
00:32:10.920 --> 00:32:15.160
And things change when you become conscious of the fact

468
00:32:16.760 --> 00:32:19.720
that is true, whether you feel it or not, that dad's actually

469
00:32:19.720 --> 00:32:20.440
at the end of the bed.

470
00:32:22.120 --> 00:32:26.920
And our routines should serve to lead us into a consciousness

471
00:32:26.920 --> 00:32:28.040
that dad's actually there.

472
00:32:28.040 --> 00:32:28.520
Yeah.

473
00:32:28.520 --> 00:32:29.080
Come on.

474
00:32:29.080 --> 00:32:30.520
So, yeah.

475
00:32:30.520 --> 00:32:31.160
Boom.

476
00:32:31.160 --> 00:32:31.720
Awesome.

477
00:32:31.720 --> 00:32:33.080
All right, Matt, we've got one for you.

478
00:32:33.080 --> 00:32:35.880
Been praying for 20 years to be filled by the presence of

479
00:32:35.880 --> 00:32:36.520
God.

480
00:32:36.520 --> 00:32:39.320
Not sure if it's happened, but I've had some close encounters

481
00:32:39.320 --> 00:32:40.200
with him.

482
00:32:40.200 --> 00:32:40.520
Yes.

483
00:32:40.520 --> 00:32:48.600
Also, I just I mean, we all want all of us.

484
00:32:48.600 --> 00:32:52.760
I'm sure all of us here are hungry for deeper experiences

485
00:32:52.760 --> 00:32:57.720
of our deeper experiences of the presence of God.

486
00:32:59.960 --> 00:33:01.320
There wouldn't be one person here.

487
00:33:01.320 --> 00:33:04.200
There wouldn't be one person on Earth that doesn't want that.

488
00:33:04.200 --> 00:33:04.920
I don't think.

489
00:33:04.920 --> 00:33:06.760
Not if they understood what they were talking about.

490
00:33:06.760 --> 00:33:08.200
Not if they understood what they exactly.

491
00:33:08.200 --> 00:33:08.440
Yeah.

492
00:33:09.080 --> 00:33:11.400
But I will just encourage and say this.

493
00:33:11.400 --> 00:33:14.440
I'm assuming that you're breathing right now, because if

494
00:33:14.440 --> 00:33:16.040
you weren't breathing, you wouldn't be alive.

495
00:33:16.040 --> 00:33:17.880
It'd be hard to get those fingers tightened.

496
00:33:17.880 --> 00:33:18.200
Yeah.

497
00:33:18.200 --> 00:33:22.840
And so the fact that you are alive right now in a breathing

498
00:33:22.840 --> 00:33:27.080
is proof that you are actually right now in the very middle

499
00:33:27.960 --> 00:33:32.120
of one massive encounter with God.

500
00:33:32.120 --> 00:33:34.760
Your life from the beginning of your life to the end has been

501
00:33:35.320 --> 00:33:36.520
in an encounter with God.

502
00:33:36.520 --> 00:33:38.760
And the evidence of that is the fact that you're alive because

503
00:33:39.480 --> 00:33:41.880
life comes from no other than God himself.

504
00:33:42.920 --> 00:33:44.920
Now, that might seem kind of like, okay, cool.

505
00:33:44.920 --> 00:33:45.480
Yeah, whatever.

506
00:33:45.480 --> 00:33:48.520
But I just still want the encounter with God that I'm hungry

507
00:33:48.520 --> 00:33:49.160
for now.

508
00:33:49.160 --> 00:33:49.640
That's good.

509
00:33:50.440 --> 00:33:54.840
One of the ways I think that that comes is by, first of all,

510
00:33:54.840 --> 00:33:57.960
learning to sort of stand and wonder and thankfulness and

511
00:33:59.160 --> 00:34:02.440
appreciation of the fact that I'm actually already in an

512
00:34:02.440 --> 00:34:02.920
account.

513
00:34:02.920 --> 00:34:03.800
Come on.

514
00:34:03.800 --> 00:34:06.840
And when you can acknowledge that I'm actually already in

515
00:34:06.840 --> 00:34:09.639
an encounter with God and the evidence that I'm flipping, I'm

516
00:34:09.639 --> 00:34:10.600
awake this morning.

517
00:34:11.320 --> 00:34:11.560
Yeah.

518
00:34:13.080 --> 00:34:13.400
Yep.

519
00:34:13.400 --> 00:34:14.520
I know you still want more.

520
00:34:14.600 --> 00:34:15.560
I know you still want deeper.

521
00:34:15.560 --> 00:34:16.360
So do all of us.

522
00:34:16.360 --> 00:34:20.440
But when you can acknowledge that and I've gone through this

523
00:34:20.440 --> 00:34:23.719
and this has been a game changer for me is getting to this

524
00:34:23.719 --> 00:34:30.280
place where, oh, my goodness, I wasn't one breath and God has

525
00:34:30.280 --> 00:34:31.400
filled me with life.

526
00:34:31.400 --> 00:34:38.280
Every time I breathe in, that one truth has set me up for

527
00:34:38.280 --> 00:34:42.440
some of the most, maybe subtle, but most life changing

528
00:34:42.440 --> 00:34:49.080
encounters with God that I've had and sometimes some of the

529
00:34:49.080 --> 00:34:53.560
most natural, like easy to miss, but so transformational.

530
00:34:53.560 --> 00:34:53.800
Yeah.

531
00:34:54.760 --> 00:34:55.960
So I just want to encourage that.

532
00:34:55.960 --> 00:34:58.840
So you are in an account of God right now.

533
00:34:58.840 --> 00:34:59.240
Totally.

534
00:35:00.000 --> 00:35:05.920
I think that, oh, here we go. Sue's saying, went to church, they didn't understand what I was

535
00:35:05.920 --> 00:35:13.040
praying for. I don't even know why this comes to mind when I pray. Yeah, I think that something

536
00:35:13.040 --> 00:35:18.480
really interesting around this whole concept of the manifest presence of God, or experiencing

537
00:35:18.480 --> 00:35:24.800
the manifest presence of God, we want, obviously, we want more of that. But I think that it's really

538
00:35:24.800 --> 00:35:31.040
important for us to understand the different dynamics of the presence of God. So there's the

539
00:35:31.040 --> 00:35:36.640
omnipresence of God, right, which is, Isaiah talked about, Isaiah 6, actually, it's not Isaiah

540
00:35:36.640 --> 00:35:42.800
speaking, it's the seraphim speaking, and they declare from heaven. So this is what they declare

541
00:35:42.800 --> 00:35:46.960
from heaven. So this is heaven's perspective on the omnipresence of God, what they shout out in

542
00:35:47.280 --> 00:35:55.680
Isaiah 6 is, holy, holy, holy, the whole earth is filled with his glory. So from heaven's perspective,

543
00:35:56.240 --> 00:36:02.160
there's nowhere on the planet where you can actually escape the presence of God. He fills

544
00:36:02.160 --> 00:36:10.320
every breath you take. He has infused the fabric of reality. So from heaven's perspective,

545
00:36:10.880 --> 00:36:18.240
the whole earth is present tense, filled with his glory. David writes about it in Psalm 139,

546
00:36:18.240 --> 00:36:24.800
you know, like, where can I go from your presence? He's like, I descend into hell, you are there,

547
00:36:24.800 --> 00:36:29.440
if I ascend into the heavens, you are there, where can I go? But there's nowhere I can go to escape

548
00:36:29.440 --> 00:36:38.160
your presence. If it comes to, when Paul writes about it, he says in Acts 17, in him, we live and

549
00:36:38.160 --> 00:36:43.520
move and have our being. And Paul, when Paul's writing about that, he's specifically writing to

550
00:36:44.240 --> 00:36:49.200
the Athenians, or he's speaking to the Athenians and the Arapagos, and these guys are guys that

551
00:36:49.200 --> 00:36:55.760
didn't know anything about Jesus, they had no faith. They were pretty high level sinners,

552
00:36:55.760 --> 00:37:02.320
they were unrepentant, sin loving Gentiles who'd never heard the gospel, right? And so

553
00:37:02.960 --> 00:37:07.680
Paul's perspective, even when he spoke the gospel to everyone, he said, in him, we live and move

554
00:37:07.760 --> 00:37:13.920
and have our being. So that's a really important thing to grasp, right? From heaven's perspective,

555
00:37:15.360 --> 00:37:21.280
separation is an illusion. From the Old Testament perspective, separation is illusion. From the New

556
00:37:21.280 --> 00:37:26.480
Testament perspective, separation is an illusion. No matter which way you look at connection with

557
00:37:26.480 --> 00:37:30.000
God, from heaven's perspective, Old Testament perspective, New Testament perspective,

558
00:37:30.640 --> 00:37:40.080
separation is an illusion and reality is oneness. So here's the thing, wherever you place your

559
00:37:40.080 --> 00:37:45.760
agreement, right? And it might not happen right away, but wherever you place your agreement,

560
00:37:45.760 --> 00:37:52.240
you're going to start seeing fruit from that agreement. So if your agreement was with the fact

561
00:37:52.240 --> 00:38:00.240
that, hey, I'm disconnected from God, I'm far from God, I'm really, you know, like, oh, he's

562
00:38:00.240 --> 00:38:06.560
really turned his back on me. Well, if you've got agreement with that, then get ready for that to

563
00:38:06.560 --> 00:38:12.160
manifest in your life, you know, you can have as much of that as you want. Whereas if you shift

564
00:38:12.160 --> 00:38:17.840
your agreement, and you actually go, no, separation is an illusion. In him, I live and move and have

565
00:38:17.840 --> 00:38:23.520
my being. And if I were to make my bed in the depths of hell, he would be there. If I was to

566
00:38:23.520 --> 00:38:29.280
ascend into the heavens, he would be there. There's nowhere I can escape from him. You know,

567
00:38:30.880 --> 00:38:37.520
his glory fills the very air I breathe. So when you place your agreement there, now that was a

568
00:38:37.520 --> 00:38:44.320
big mindset shift for me, right? Because I had grown up in a church with a church mindset that

569
00:38:44.400 --> 00:38:51.200
endorsed separation. So the church mindset that I grew up in, endorsed separation, right? So

570
00:38:51.200 --> 00:38:57.840
from my perspective, I believe separation is an illusion, right? But when you place agreement

571
00:38:57.840 --> 00:39:05.520
with separation, you get that in abundance. But when you place agreement with seamless union,

572
00:39:05.520 --> 00:39:13.600
with oneness, with effortless union, effortless bliss, then you get that in abundance. So there's

573
00:39:14.000 --> 00:39:20.880
the omnipresence of God. And you might not feel that, right? That's not a touchy feeling thing.

574
00:39:20.880 --> 00:39:25.120
That's just a present reality. So we have to distinguish between what we feel and what is

575
00:39:25.120 --> 00:39:30.800
present reality. So present reality is you're as one with God as you could be. And you've always

576
00:39:30.800 --> 00:39:34.800
been one with him. You haven't been separated from him. In him, you live and move and have your

577
00:39:34.800 --> 00:39:40.400
being. He fills the very air that the entire planet breathes, right? We can't be separated

578
00:39:40.480 --> 00:39:45.520
from him. So there's the omnipresence of God. Then there's the abiding presence of God that's

579
00:39:45.520 --> 00:39:49.280
actually in you, with you. And then there's the manifest presence of God. And it's like,

580
00:39:49.280 --> 00:39:54.880
the more you celebrate the omnipresence and the more you celebrate and steward the abiding

581
00:39:54.880 --> 00:39:59.760
presence, what I've found in my life is that as I celebrate that more,

582
00:40:00.000 --> 00:40:08.960
the more I experience a manifest presence. Yeah. Yeah. There you go. Word, brother.

583
00:40:09.840 --> 00:40:15.760
Word, word. Well, Matt, why don't you tell us a little bit more? Oh, yeah. Storm's saying

584
00:40:15.760 --> 00:40:20.720
visualization really helps you because visualization is part of the process of faith

585
00:40:21.680 --> 00:40:28.560
because faith and your imagination and visualization, they are all part of the process.

586
00:40:29.360 --> 00:40:33.120
Why don't as we kind of just kind of bring this to a landing, why don't you chat about

587
00:40:33.120 --> 00:40:38.640
what people can expect this week in the school of prayer? What have we got lined up?

588
00:40:38.640 --> 00:40:44.000
Well, I want to leave a little bit of mystery in it. Not too much mystery that people don't

589
00:40:44.000 --> 00:40:50.400
know what's going on. Not quite X-Files level mystery. Not quite X-Files or Twilight Zone,

590
00:40:50.400 --> 00:40:54.320
but maybe MacGyver. Yeah, MacGyver. So you're going to know that there's a pocketknife.

591
00:40:59.360 --> 00:41:09.520
My favorite show. So 12 12 p.m. NZ time, I'm going to be dropping on the Raising Royalty site. I'm

592
00:41:09.520 --> 00:41:17.680
going to be dropping some prayer teaching. It's a Raising Home Fires School of Prayer

593
00:41:19.280 --> 00:41:22.960
season two, actually, and season one will be available. I'll point you in that direction

594
00:41:22.960 --> 00:41:27.120
after after we've unleashed season two. Any reason why? I mean, we have actually

595
00:41:27.120 --> 00:41:31.120
dropped season one in the past. Most people may or may not. You may or may not have seen it.

596
00:41:31.920 --> 00:41:34.400
Do they have to see season one to see season two? No, you don't.

597
00:41:36.400 --> 00:41:42.320
Now, season one is all about the mindsets and the principles that undergird a healthy prayer life.

598
00:41:43.200 --> 00:41:48.480
So it's a really good season, and I recommend it. And I will point you in that direction. Season two

599
00:41:49.120 --> 00:41:56.160
is practical tools and how to pray. And so we're going to be talking about things like

600
00:41:56.240 --> 00:42:00.480
the gift of tongues. We're going to talk about thankfulness. When I say thankfulness, we're not

601
00:42:00.480 --> 00:42:05.440
just going to be going into some detail around what that can look like, the dynamics around that.

602
00:42:06.320 --> 00:42:10.800
We're going to be talking about vulnerability. We're going to be talking about heart journaling.

603
00:42:10.800 --> 00:42:14.720
We're going to be talking about a whole bunch of things that you may have heard of before,

604
00:42:14.720 --> 00:42:19.680
may not have heard of before. You may implement now, you may not implement now, but we're going

605
00:42:19.680 --> 00:42:25.680
to go into them in some depth that hopefully you haven't sort of delved into yet. And at

606
00:42:25.680 --> 00:42:29.600
the end of every set, they're going to be about half an hour sessions. So it's not going to take

607
00:42:29.600 --> 00:42:37.120
the whole day. And at the end of each session, there's an activation. And that activation,

608
00:42:37.120 --> 00:42:42.160
if you activate on the activation and actually do it. Implementation is key, right? Yeah,

609
00:42:42.160 --> 00:42:48.400
absolutely. If you do it, it will help you. And then we're going to end with a

610
00:42:50.560 --> 00:42:53.760
session at the end, which will include like a question and answer time for people

611
00:42:54.560 --> 00:43:00.800
to ask questions. So yeah, so it's going to be really cool. Super excited about it and

612
00:43:00.800 --> 00:43:05.440
encourage you if you have a heart to want, if you have a heart for deeper connection with God,

613
00:43:05.440 --> 00:43:08.880
deeper intimacy and relationship with God, or you're feeling like, man, I want to supercharge

614
00:43:08.880 --> 00:43:15.440
my prayer life. This could just be a really practical, some real practical tools that you

615
00:43:15.440 --> 00:43:23.680
could implement to do that. Totally. That's great. Well, awesome, guys. If you've got any

616
00:43:23.680 --> 00:43:29.120
last questions or thoughts, any feedback that you want to drop, now's your moment. So just drop that

617
00:43:29.120 --> 00:43:38.000
in there nice and quick in the comments. And we'll do one last round on the comments, which will be

618
00:43:38.000 --> 00:43:42.240
awesome. So yeah, so this is it. This is your chance. Now, if you've got some other comments

619
00:43:42.240 --> 00:43:48.800
you want to drop there, drop those. We'll do one last check of all the comments. And after that,

620
00:43:48.800 --> 00:43:57.440
we're going to sign off and call that a wrap for today. But thanks, Kerry. A wrap.

621
00:43:59.120 --> 00:44:05.120
Great having you guys with us. Storm, just to help, hopefully, information, meditation,

622
00:44:05.120 --> 00:44:10.800
repetition, application, manifestation. Pastor Norm teaches this about identity and intimacy.

623
00:44:10.800 --> 00:44:16.800
Yep, totally. Good stuff. Cat is asking, how's the surf? Pretty great last week for you guys.

624
00:44:17.840 --> 00:44:25.920
Cat, honestly, last week was pretty all-time. It was pretty good. You should have been here.

625
00:44:25.920 --> 00:44:33.200
Yeah, Cat, you missed out in terms of surf and tidal last week. It was busy. I don't surf,

626
00:44:33.200 --> 00:44:41.680
but I drive to the Zim. I drive to the Zim sometimes. We have a little secret system here

627
00:44:41.680 --> 00:44:47.040
for people who haven't had the jab for how they can go to do some workouts type things,

628
00:44:47.040 --> 00:44:54.880
which works really well. So while I was driving past, driving to the Zim, I had to drive past

629
00:44:54.880 --> 00:44:58.880
Weiroo and Parks if there's going surfing, and it's packed out. And I'm like, most of the time,

630
00:44:58.880 --> 00:44:59.920
Matt's truck is there.

631
00:45:00.000 --> 00:45:03.480
Yeah. So yeah, it's good.

632
00:45:03.800 --> 00:45:05.920
Good times there, mainly in the morning.

633
00:45:06.200 --> 00:45:10.320
Yeah. Sweet fam. Well, lots of love to everyone.

634
00:45:10.360 --> 00:45:12.520
I hope that's been helpful. Just having a chat.

635
00:45:12.520 --> 00:45:16.640
I know you're going to get so much this week out of the School of Prayer.

636
00:45:16.640 --> 00:45:20.520
So we'll be dropping that into the Raising Royalty Facebook page.

637
00:45:20.760 --> 00:45:24.160
But we will also be uploading it onto the Raising Royalty platform.

638
00:45:24.200 --> 00:45:27.200
If you want to get it, check out the Raising Royalty platform

639
00:45:27.520 --> 00:45:29.840
and get free access to that.

640
00:45:29.840 --> 00:45:34.120
Just go to Raising Royalty dot com and you can get free access to the platform.

641
00:45:34.160 --> 00:45:36.680
The replays will be up there as well.

642
00:45:36.680 --> 00:45:40.160
OK, so you can check it out on the Raising Royalty platform

643
00:45:41.280 --> 00:45:46.000
or you can check it out in the Raising Royalty Facebook group.

644
00:45:46.040 --> 00:45:50.240
So if you're watching from my page or the Online School of Sonship, then

645
00:45:52.320 --> 00:45:54.400
or somewhere else, if you're sharing this or watching it somewhere,

646
00:45:54.440 --> 00:45:56.000
go to Raising Royalty dot com.

647
00:45:56.000 --> 00:45:59.800
If you want to get access and you'll be able to get access on the platform

648
00:45:59.800 --> 00:46:01.720
or go to the Raising Royalty Facebook group.

649
00:46:01.720 --> 00:46:08.040
Other than that, if you need, if you're like, man, I want that gift of tongues.

650
00:46:08.160 --> 00:46:12.240
I want to be baptized in the Holy Spirit right now in the name of Jesus.

651
00:46:12.240 --> 00:46:15.280
We will release the baptism of the spirit.

652
00:46:16.000 --> 00:46:19.400
I release right now the gift of tongues, the gifts of the spirit.

653
00:46:19.440 --> 00:46:20.280
Holy Spirit.

654
00:46:21.120 --> 00:46:24.880
Let fire just come and fall and flood

655
00:46:24.880 --> 00:46:28.280
over people's minds, hearts, bodies into their rooms.

656
00:46:28.280 --> 00:46:30.760
God manifest your glory over people.

657
00:46:31.040 --> 00:46:32.400
We activate right now.

658
00:46:32.400 --> 00:46:36.120
We speak out an activation of the gifts of the spirit to explode.

659
00:46:36.160 --> 00:46:40.400
Well, Lord, a gift of faith explode and to manifest in people's hearts

660
00:46:40.400 --> 00:46:43.880
and people's minds, tongues and people's bodies right now.

661
00:46:43.880 --> 00:46:46.680
And we thank you, God, for what you're doing.

662
00:46:46.680 --> 00:46:49.080
We release the flow of the spirit right now.

663
00:46:49.680 --> 00:46:52.000
Wow. Amen.

664
00:46:52.000 --> 00:46:55.560
Amen. Lord, we thank you for your glory.

665
00:46:57.800 --> 00:47:00.760
But there's nothing we will ever

666
00:47:01.440 --> 00:47:06.400
need more or desire more than you in your very presence.

667
00:47:06.520 --> 00:47:10.520
So Papa, you're sure Holy Spirit.

668
00:47:11.520 --> 00:47:15.800
We thank you for your glory, for your presence, for your tangible

669
00:47:16.520 --> 00:47:22.720
manifest presence, for your for the physical manifestation of your love for us.

670
00:47:23.040 --> 00:47:27.160
We thank you for that to flood over people and in people,

671
00:47:27.160 --> 00:47:32.360
for you to baptize them in your glory, for you to marinate them in your glory,

672
00:47:32.360 --> 00:47:36.160
for you to saturate them well in your presence.

673
00:47:36.520 --> 00:47:41.320
Papa, we're asking right now and through this week, Lord, that people will

674
00:47:42.280 --> 00:47:48.280
look that they will get sucked up into a place of divine union.

675
00:47:48.280 --> 00:47:55.080
Look, they will get swallowed up into seamless union with the trinity that your

676
00:47:56.080 --> 00:48:00.160
that this divine dance of love will swallow them up,

677
00:48:00.160 --> 00:48:04.120
that they will be caught in this unbroken cycle of divine love.

678
00:48:04.120 --> 00:48:07.320
So in the name of Jesus, we decree and we declare

679
00:48:07.800 --> 00:48:12.840
and we mandate and we legislate outpourings of the spirit of God,

680
00:48:13.040 --> 00:48:17.480
awakening, shifting, growth, transformation as we build up to Christmas.

681
00:48:17.920 --> 00:48:20.920
May you have radical encounters

682
00:48:21.280 --> 00:48:25.080
with the King of Kings and with the Lord of Lords who came at Christmas

683
00:48:25.080 --> 00:48:28.200
and as he came at Christmas as a baby, may he come

684
00:48:28.880 --> 00:48:33.320
into your life, into your world afresh like never before.

685
00:48:33.320 --> 00:48:34.920
May there be an explosion.

686
00:48:34.920 --> 00:48:41.480
May it be that world Jesus turns up like never before in your world.

687
00:48:41.480 --> 00:48:45.040
So, Lord, I thank you for a fresh spirit of awakening,

688
00:48:45.040 --> 00:48:49.520
for a spirit of revival, for outpourings, Papa, breaking out of people's lives,

689
00:48:49.520 --> 00:48:53.960
for Lord, fresh encounters, baptisms, explosions of your presence,

690
00:48:54.360 --> 00:48:58.280
for eyes to open, for revelations, for signs and wonders and miracles

691
00:48:58.280 --> 00:49:01.800
and visions and dreams and encounters, Lord, in the midst of everything

692
00:49:01.800 --> 00:49:07.480
that's unfolding, in the midst of all the the Christmas and New Year's

693
00:49:07.480 --> 00:49:12.160
busyness and everything that's happening, Jesus, I ask that you would explode

694
00:49:12.160 --> 00:49:15.480
into the primary focus of our lives.

695
00:49:15.480 --> 00:49:17.160
You leave us undone.

696
00:49:17.160 --> 00:49:21.000
You leave us overwhelmed and just, Lord, with our hearts

697
00:49:21.000 --> 00:49:23.680
burning for more and more of you.

698
00:49:24.200 --> 00:49:26.880
Amen. Wow. Amen.

699
00:49:28.000 --> 00:49:30.640
Cool, fam. Well, love you heaps.

700
00:49:30.680 --> 00:49:34.680
And I look forward to a great week with Matt.

701
00:49:34.800 --> 00:49:37.200
Yeah. We'll see you tomorrow.

702
00:49:37.520 --> 00:49:38.960
Choice, choice. Peace out, fam.

703
00:49:38.960 --> 00:49:39.360
See you.