All right, here we go.
Hey, hey, what's happening?
All right, what is up, what's going on?
Hello, hello, what's happening?
What's up?
Yay.
Okay, so as you probably heard,
and we'll see if there's a few others that join us tonight.
I know some people watch the replay.
You know, tonight is Dion's final training with us.
He's done 12 trains with us.
It's been amazing.
It's been an amazing ride.
I know that I've grown, but I would love to honor Dion.
And I'd love to hear from the two of you on here.
And we'll start with Kerry.
Kerry, what's the number one thing you've learned from Dion?
Wow, number one.
You know, it's a great question.
You know, I think the best answer I could give that is really the thing that I keep saying to other people that I've learned here.
And that is, you know, every circumstance, every situation,
everything that we go through is an invitation to an upgrade,
an invitation to experience the presence of Jesus in the heart of the Father.
And so, you know, it's just that invitation, right?
And, you know, in fact, I literally just said this to a co-worker who's going through some significant things in her life.
She has been in her last handful of years.
And, you know, she's gone.
You know, I know all the answers, you know, but it's like, you know, God's timing.
And it's like, you know, why God?
And I'm like, well, you know, and there's no way for me to because of her circumstance, you know, I can't say I understand her situation.
But just know that, you know, the Father loves you and this is an invitation into his heart, you know.
And so that's what I would say is the number one thing that I have said over and over and over again to people that I've connected with.
That's amazing.
So you've learned something here and it's spidered out across all kinds of other people.
That's really, really cool.
That's awesome.
Lisa, how about you?
Well, the one thing that it's hard to pick one.
I'm just saying to you.
Yeah, there's so many good things.
The one thing that came to mind when you asked Ray was the upstairs versus downstairs.
And thinking with our heart or thinking with our head.
And the one thing I've been practicing and catching myself and redirecting is to stop thinking with my head and start trusting with my heart on God's word.
And that's the key is that the whole, I guess I want to say just trusting him and just not allowing other people there.
I want to say negative views.
The world is really crazy and just hearing so much in the world from other people.
Well, you can't do this and you shouldn't do that.
Don't shoot on me.
I got my God.
So that's the cool thing that I've recognized and I'm practicing more and more.
And it's helping me with anxiety and more.
And the one thing with anxiety I actually caught the other day is I'm recognizing when I get anxious, I'm not breathing.
And it makes me be more anxious.
So I'm like, wait a minute.
So I stopped myself when I feel the knot in my stomach and I just take a couple of deep breaths and I'm good to go.
So, yeah, lots of stuff.
Very nice.
So, Angela, I was just we were just going around and you may have seen that it is Dion's final training with us.
This is 12th training with us.
And all of us have learned so much.
And so I had Carrie and Lisa share what was the number one thing that they've learned from Dion so far.
Angela, do you do you have one thing you'd like to share that you've learned from Dion?
Dion, I have many things, but I guess the one thing that I've been practicing a lot through these sessions is that I do have the Prince of Peace living inside of me.
And when life comes up and I, Tico, the electric company calls and says, you know, success.
under dollars, and it was the tenant, really,
that was responsible for the bill.
And it's very obvious that they should be paying the bill
and not me to not just go crazy,
to just really take a deep breath
and make sure that I'm moving out in my report card,
which is the fruit of the spirit, love, joy, peace,
patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness,
faithfulness, and self-control.
But just realizing that I do have the Prince of Peace
living inside of me,
and it's just an opportunity to practice that peace.
I had an opportunity to do that today.
And when you move out that way,
ultimately, people are just more reasonable with you
and more willing to help you as well.
So that's the first thing that comes to mind, Dan.
Yeah, great.
Thank you.
That's awesome.
Yeah, and for me, this may sound strange,
but I shared this with you before,
but my favorite training is when you shared that story
of when you had to write that paper,
you had to write the specs out,
and it was gonna take you four to six hours,
and the Lord said, don't do it,
go lay on the couch, go read a book.
And I think in analyzing, why did I like that so much?
In that it helped me,
like, it was good for me to hear
someone else's kind of odd adventures with the Lord.
And, cause a lot of my adventures seem odd.
And, you know, and they lead me to a weird kind of place,
and I'm questioning my sanity half the time.
And it was neat to hear you go through
that same kind of, you know, similar kind of process there,
and that he's just how playful he is.
You know, he's playful with us,
and he likes to, you know,
not tell us the end of the story, right?
There was a reason he didn't say to you,
hey, they're not gonna need it, right?
You know, he wanted you, he liked you on that edge.
And a lot of times I feel like he likes me on that edge.
And then when we get there, it's like, oh, okay.
And so that was just very helpful for me,
and I just really loved it.
So, but I've, you know, spent so much time with you,
and I've just learned so much from you.
We're just so grateful for you,
and just thank you, thank you, thank you, man.
Oh, no, it's been a pleasure.
I've enjoyed it so much, thank you.
Yeah, it's been a lot of fun coming on once a month.
Certainly, yeah, I wanted to just keen what you said
about how playful he is.
You know, he's playful, but he never messes with us,
you know, it's not for the sake of it.
Right.
And I like what you were saying,
that he could have told me the outcome of that situation,
but he didn't because he likes that simple trust
is a very safe place for us, like a child, you know,
simple trust, and he knows that if he can get us
into that place of simple trust with him,
and the reason is, is because trust is 80% of faith.
You think about what faith is, right?
Trust is, you know, we say have faith in God.
It's interesting, the scriptures don't actually use
the word in, in the Greek doesn't have that word.
It just says, it's more directly translated,
have God's faith.
And so I think maybe more accurately in English,
we could say pistos in the Greek literally means
have God's faith.
And you can do that when you know he is
and you trust him, right?
And so I think he always brings us back
to this childlike trust, you know,
trust me, because it matters a great deal to him
that we feel safe in our relationship with him.
That's why he says, you know, no height, no depth,
no anything will separate you from the love of God.
He goes to great lengths, in modern language,
you would say no alien, no this being, no that,
he would lay it on as thick as that.
And because it's really, really important to him
that we feel safe in his presence.
And I think for many of us,
because of the way we were raised, what we were taught,
we're not quite sure that we are safe.
We're not quite sure where we stand.
We're not quite sure if maybe we've done something
to disqualify that position with him.
And so we talk ourselves out of it,
only because we don't realize his presence doesn't leave us.
It's that childlike simplicity.
Unless you become as a child, you cannot enter the kingdom.
It's interesting, he didn't say you won't go to heaven.
He just said, you won't walk in the kingdom.
And the kingdom is what happens when heaven touches earth.
What's resulting is the kingdom.
We bring the kingdom.
That's why Jesus said, pray for the sick.
He didn't say pray for the sick.
He said, heal the sick.
We came up.
pray for the sick. He said, heal the sick, cast out demons, gave us all of this and then tell them
the kingdom of God is at hand. So in other words, we start to walk in the kingdom or in our simple
language we've been talking about the last year, upstairs versus downstairs. You know, you're in
the world, but you're not of it. You're of a different place, you come from a different,
you're a different, you know, person. You're a different species, you're a guardian dwelt being,
you know. I love when Paul writes and says, I write to you because you're not merely human.
It's like, that makes it clear. You're not merely human. You are a guardian dwelt being. You host
the three greatest geniuses of the universe in you. And with them comes all of heaven,
because all of heaven is aligned with Christ in you. And so we spend so much of our time
trying to qualify ourselves, trying to get aligned, trying to dial it in, trying to be
in right place with God, trying to make sure we've done our part. We've been taught all sorts of
steps to take and things to do and so forth. But the truth is, at the end of the day,
where we land yet, you know, in the 12th time together is, you and Christ are one.
And the rest of it is learning to practice your oneness.
And I think, how many of you were able to attend Brilliant's fall event two weeks ago? Yeah,
couple of you. Okay. Well, you know, we spent a lot of time about oneness. We talked a great
deal about oneness. Because all, all it means about living in the kingdom is just the art of
Well, there are a lot of things you can presume on his goodness, his kindness,
his faithfulness, and that you're one with him. So I think a lot of us are starting point
is many times acts as though we're not saved. Because we because we're not sure we're not
sure we're safe. We're not sure we're in right standing with him. Anyway. Oh,
I love what you shared. I appreciate it. And it's good to hear. He definitely cares about
about us being safe. It's a big deal to him. And I went to great lengths so that you'd have that.
So cool. Yeah, and I loved I loved your talk on oneness. And you said oneness is more important
than purpose. And, you know, and how it's easy to, you might run away with purpose, right? You
might say, Oh, my purpose is to, you know, fight human trafficking. So you encounter every
opportunity around human trafficking, you you do everything around that particular thing,
without asking, Lord, are we doing this? You know, are you with me on this? Is this is this
the right one to go after? And, and I just thought that was really, you know, powerful, you know,
every, every opportunity that I see, I'm like, Lord, are we doing this? And if it's no, it's
cool. No problem. You know, it's just it's just not a big deal. I'm like, Oh, I've got to do this
one. And I just know, you know, hey, if we're not doing it, it's fine. I'm sure he's got someone
better or someone different for this or something different for me, whatever. And so I just I
thought that was really powerful. Because I think I think people can be easily duped into that.
There's a there's a lot of a lot of projects and a lot of things that sounded really, really good.
But when I prayed, I got we're not doing that one. And I go, Okay, cool.
Or at least not now. Yeah, yeah. And I get that, too. I get a lot of not nows. Yeah, yeah.
Well, I think I think a lot of that comes from that we were that we were trained that faithfulness
starts with us. But it doesn't start with him. Even when I'm faithful, he remains faithful.
In other words, your oneness is not dependent on your faithfulness. Your oneness is not dependent
on your behavior. Your oneness is dependent on the fact that Jesus Christ died, paid for all the
stuff that separated you from God, took it to hell and left your old self in hell. And now you're dead
to the old self and your new self, which is in Jesus, you're now a new creation, the oldest past
the newest come, we spend a lot of time going through that verse. And so if you were to ask,
What's my purpose? I can answer that definitively. Your primary purpose is your oneness with the
Lord. Now that oneness will have a purpose. Right together. He called it your yoke partnership. Come
to me all your weary and heavy laden, I will give you rest, rest, the starting point that
opens up that oneness. And then he says, take my yoke, my
partnership and learn from me. And then he goes on to talk
about my, my yoke is easy, my burden is light. So what does
that mean for us? It means then that it starts with him in rest.
And if we can get the oneness sorted, then the purpose will be
easy and light. And so people say, Well, I don't really
experience that. And the reason is we try to bypass the oneness
and go straight from here to purpose. And that's why 70% of
people in full time ministry will end their lives not serving
God at all. I don't mean they won't be in the ministry. I
mean, they won't be serving God at all. Graham, which is one of
big group that started is the last man standing. And, you
know, my spiritual dad had some of the stories. And here's the
thing. That it starts because when you make oneness, the main
thing you have reserves to take on anything. But when it's up to
you, then the way you go about doing that purpose will kill the
purpose in you. Because you're doing you're doing it for God,
not with him. And he was never interested in you doing it for
him, unless you're part of the old covenant. And since you're
not Jewish, you aren't. So that's easy to know. So we don't
have to have this covenantal confusion. We're not in two
covenants. We are in Christ, we're in the new covenant, Jesus
came fulfilled the old so that you and he could be one. So you
went to great lengths. But it's amazing. When we pray, we hear
people pray, which is part of what I wanted to talk about
tonight, about why, why many of our prayers are not answered, or
at least we feel they aren't. And, and you know, Ray, we had a
situation one of our one of our team key team members, you know,
is going through some real big health challenges. And we were
talking about this on text. And let's all pray, you know, let's
all pray for Glenn. And then, you know, Graham just reminded
me of a thought, which was so important. He said, prayer is
not the place you start with. Pray comes later, but it's not
when stuff goes wrong, the first thing you do is not pray. And
we'll talk about why in a second. Because often, in that
moment of concern, maybe even panic, maybe a bit of fear, what
we pray is out of the flesh. It's just, it's, it's the stuff
we pray in that moment of panic is not the stuff of prayer. Now
the Lord doesn't mind if we want to chat to him about stuff,
that's not what we're talking about. But that's not the
starting point in the kingdom. The starting the point in the
kingdom is always Thanksgiving. And so I was thinking about
that. I thought, what a great way for us to land this 12 part
series together. And so I wanted to give you three keys that get
you to have 100% of your prayers answered. And you know, a
little bit, it's going to land towards crafted prayer. So, you
know, spoiler alert. But where I want to take you with it is
this, you know, we always start in Thanksgiving. And the reason
is Thanksgiving immediately puts us back upstairs. You know,
just like Lisa was saying, we go, it's a quickest, fastest
way to go upstairs. Because Thanksgiving flows from God's
initiative. Father, thank you that you're kind. Thank you that
you're faithful. Thank you that you know the situation with
Glenn. Thank you for who Glenn is. Thank you for his
contribution. Thank you for his friendship. Thank you for this.
Thank you for this. And here's the interesting thing, keep
going, and something starts to happen in you. Do you know what
I'm talking about? You see, you're starting with his
faithfulness first, and you're thanking him for who he is,
you're not thanking him trying to get him to do something, which
is where we go with panic prayers. I've been in, I've led
a lot of prayer meetings in my life, in a lot of churches. And
sometimes I listen to a prayer meeting, and I sit there and I
go, Lord, how do you know which one of these prayers to answer?
Because it's like multiple choice, Lord, if it be thy
will, Father, and then they'll do, they'll do every variation
they can think of. It's like they give God 23 options, pick
one Lord, you know, and all that can be settled down with none of
that's necessary. We don't, we don't start from panic, we don't
start from fear, we start in his heart. Lord, thank you that
you're with us. Thank you that you're good. Thank you that
you're kind. And of course, what Thanksgiving does is it
practices your new nature, which is just like him. You're
not, you're not practicing to become someone you're practicing
because Christ is in you. That's what you give thanks until you
gain his perspective. I love the way Graham says, practice
thanks until you become thanks. Now, this is a super simple
exercise. This couldn't be
simpler. I want you to try this. Please try this before this night is out. If you could do that
as a gift to me, I'd be thrilled. Practice this simple thing. Just say to the Lord,
thank you, and then repeat it until you find yourself shifting. Thank you, Lord. Thank you,
Lord. Thank you. You know, it starts in your head, and then you realize you start to engage
your whole being. Thank you, Lord. Thank you, Lord. Thank you, Lord. Thank you, Lord. Thank
you, Lord. Thank you, Lord. Lord, thank you. Thank you, Lord. Thank you, Lord. Just keep doing this.
See what happens. You'll be like two minutes in, three minutes in, and you become thanks.
Thanksgiving is born in you. It's like what shifts in that moment is the joy and peace
in believing. That's what the scripture calls it, joy and peace. They always travel as a team,
hit you at the same time. The Prince of Peace is in you, so just start to say thank you,
because it just resets you back into rest. So when anxiety or worry or negativity,
that's not the time to pray out of that. Make sense? We think, oh, well, I'm post-reaction,
I must pray, but often that's not actually even prayer. I mean, it's you telling God what you
pray. Prayer is something else. Prayer is taking God's intentions and partnering with him and
making it a reality. It's bringing heaven to us. It's taking his will and his intention,
making it on earth as it is in heaven. That's what prayer is. Prayer is partnering. It's
a partnering system. So me panicking in my words and calling it prayer is not prayer.
It's just me panicking and talking to God about it, which is fine. It's just not prayer.
A much better thing to do is to start with thanksgiving. It resets you to rest,
brings you back into peace, and it's a practical, practical kingdom routine
that flips your perspective from problems to promise. It takes us upstairs, and thanksgiving
then displaces that negativity and opens your heart up to, in that moment, be clear with how
the Lord wants to be with you. It settles his presence in you. A simple way of putting it is
thanksgiving makes you present to his presence. That's about as simple as I can make it.
What I mean by that is his presence is always there. We know he's aware. So all our training
is just awareness training. We're just learning to be aware. He's there. He hasn't gone anywhere,
but we cloud and clutter it all because we're so used to feeling alone downstairs and not
safe in his heart. What thanksgiving does is it takes us back up there, back to rest.
So that's step one. Here are three quick scriptures that might
help you with that. In fact, why don't I just drop them in the chat?
And then you will have them too. So there, those are the three I would immediately...
Is it complaining? Too long? Hang on one second. Yep, got it. So I love 1 Thessalonians 5.16.
Rejoice always. It doesn't say rejoice when things are going great or when happy stuff's
happening. Rejoice always. Pray without ceasing and everything give thanks for this is the will
of God. So if you just want to hone in quickly on God's will, thanksgiving is the power hack.
Simple routine that takes you upstairs, straight into his heart, straight into his will.
Super cool. Here's another one. Philippians 4. Be anxious for nothing. That's not a suggestion.
That's not one day when you beg. That's now. That's what you can do as childlike feeling
safe in his heart. Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication
with thanksgiving. Notice that the prayer comes with thanksgiving. Let your request be made known
to God and the peace of God which passes all understanding will do two things. They'll protect
your heart and your mind. So you're putting your protection. So thanksgiving puts protection in
place. And then of course, I think it was Angela who mentioned Colossians 3.15. And let, your job
is to let. Thanksgiving helps you let the peace of Christ rule in your heart. And it goes on and
to which you were called to one body, to oneness and be thankful. Notice how those two are connected
and be thankful. And you can read the rest of the, I've got the rest of the verse there for you.
Right. Yeah. I was just going to say, you know, a lot of people are like, I just want to know
God's will for me. And you know, that Thessalonians, I mean, that's, that's his will for you.
Says it right there.
His purpose is oneness, His will is, you go into thanksgiving, His will will be clear.
Paul's quite brutal with this, you know.
I remember it took me years to figure out, why did Paul say, do not be foolish, know
what God's will is, and I'm like, Paul, you're the apostle of grace, that's not very gracious,
that's not nice, you know.
And then I realized what he was saying, what Paul is saying is, knowing God's will is the
simplest thing there is, childlike.
I think what we mean by God's will is what to do in this particular situation.
God's will is that you and He are one.
God's will is that you grow up into all things.
So those are easy.
What we mean by God's will is, I don't know what to do right now, here and now, and we'll
talk about that in a second.
That's something slightly different.
That's the difference between God's will and partnering.
Take my yoke, partner with me.
So let's say, so that was step one, is Thanksgiving.
And so what happens when there's a crisis and you go Thanksgiving, you immediately wrap
the whole problem up and take it upstairs.
Now you're in Christ and now so are your problems.
So we're all facing a problem.
I bet everyone doesn't have to take too long to come up with one or two problems you'd
like to take upstairs right now, right?
So that's what Thanksgiving is.
It doesn't deal with a mess.
It just wraps it up like a sheet and takes it upstairs, you know, straight away to the
Lord.
Doesn't try to unpack it.
Doesn't try to deal with it.
Just wrap it up and take it upstairs.
Now we start the kingdom process, step two of the kingdom process.
We ask the Lord.
We keep giving thanks until we start to get His perspective.
Remember, downstairs is a perception.
You're in the valley floor, you know, and you think this is the issue, but the issue
is not the issue.
The issue in front of your face is not the issue.
There's an issue behind it, right?
So the issue is not the issue.
And when you go to the, when you go to the top of the mountain, you see the whole value
go, Oh, I get it now.
I see what's happening here, right?
So you move, you move into His perspective and then we ask the Lord, what's your promise
to me in this?
What's your promise, Lord?
Could be a verse, could be a scripture, could be a phrase that jumps up, could be a picture,
could be a dream you have that night, there's promise.
And the reason He gives you a promise, because now He's giving you a promise, which has got
provision attached, right?
It's got the person you're becoming attached because He says, you see this, this problem
we just wrapped in Thanksgiving, I'm going to use that for your next upgrade, which is
I think, Kerry, what you were talking about.
So now we're pulling it all together.
So now we're going to, so Father, so here's, here's three things that come with a promise.
Perspective, Lord, what does this mean?
Now we start talking because now I'm in Thanksgiving, now I can have the question.
If we start with this question before the Thanksgiving, we come with our minds, our
hearts unsettled, we don't feel safe, we're panicking, we're doing all that stuff, we're
feeling stressful.
Thanksgiving now, Lord, what does this mean?
More precisely, how do you see this?
Okay, now that I have your perspective to provision, what must I do?
And we've used the analogy before in World War Two, when the, you know, when the Allied
forces were moving through North Africa in the desert, the advanced forces went ahead
and buried diesel, and they buried water and food, and then they hid it in under the sand.
And then they put a map together and they gave X marks the spot.
And then they send that map back to the commanders.
So the commander would get X marks the spot.
The commander didn't just start randomly digging in case there was provision, right?
That's what I meant by the multiple prayer meeting.
That's like digging everywhere.
It's got to be, you know, it's got to be in here somewhere.
As opposed to, okay, Lord, what must I do?
And now we get into partnership.
And then the third part, I said, gives perspective, provision, and the person, who am I becoming
in this?
How are you going to use this for my good?
So you say, well, why does God use it for your good?
Every problem you face, God has attached a possibility.
But more than that, the possibility he attached, he picked to bring the maximum goodness and
beauty into your life.
Why?
One, because he loves bringing you that.
And two, is he knows that will heal you of your previous pain, problems, traumas, issues,
lack of...
trust, all the other stuff we all deal with, because beauty brings us
into wholeness. So perspective, provision, and the person I'm becoming. Who do you
see I'm becoming? I like to ask the Lord everything from
his perspective. How do you see this? What do you, how do you want me to
partner with you in this? And who do you see I'm becoming?
So that was just about how to manage, you know, because I've noticed this with
believers, don't just make the first mistake, you know, in other words, they go
into panic prayers, but then when they get a promise, they
don't know what to do with one. So they collect them like collecting
stamps. I've got 23 promises, 19 prophetic words, and I don't know what
to do with any of them, you know, but they're all nicely dated,
and if you look through this, you can see my collection,
right? So that, this is what you do with a promise,
and it doesn't matter if it's a prophetic word, or a verse, or word the
Lord spoke to you, or a dream. I've had a lot of those, and I live off
my prophetic promises from the Lord. I mean, I have tons of them. I've written
almost all of them myself. In the beginning, I'd help people would
bring me words, but then I started to learn to get them
straight from the Lord, because I realized you don't have to be a
spiritual giant, you just have to be in Jesus,
and so that means we're all qualified. And so what we're learning now is,
I don't just listen to a promise and then hang on because of panic.
Now I take a promise, and I understand what He's doing. I understand how He sees
the situation. I understand how to partner with Him,
and I understand who I'm becoming, how God's going to use this, and this
is how we thrive in the midst of tough circumstances,
because if we have to wait for everything to be calm before we can
thrive, we'll never thrive, right? The nine times in your life you'll
thrive, or the nine times everything was just
great, you know. But the rest of the time is learning to thrive under pressure.
So I think, yeah, I agree Lisa, knowing the best questions to ask the Lord,
and it's, we position ourselves in His heart,
and what I mean by that is, we go straight into His nature.
We take Him at His word, Lord, you are faithful, you are kind,
thank you that you're with me, and so on. I'm gonna, and that's when we get to step
three, where we put a little simple crafted prayer together.
We once did a series at Brilliant called
How to Have 100% of Your Prayers Answered, and the reason we could make
such a bold claim is because we weren't talking about our prayers, we were
talking about the prayers Jesus and the Holy Spirit are praying for you,
right? Because 100% of their prayers get answered, right?
Because they know the Father's will precisely, and they're praying for you.
So what are they praying about?
Do you think they're praying about, oh Lord, I hope they make it,
oh Lord, I would really like them to have some victory, but no,
I don't know, you know, I don't know if the cross was enough,
when I went to hell and destroyed sin and death catastrophically, I don't know.
There's Him to struggle with that, you know.
He's not praying about sin, He dealt with that. He's not praying about the devil, He
made a public spectacle of Him. He's not praying about the world because
I've overcome the world. In fact, be of good cheer, I've overcome the world.
You will have trouble in this life, but I have overcome the world. So what are you
being happy about? That the overcomer is with you. So what's
Jesus praying? He's praying for fullness, for the full
stature of Christ in you, for you to grow up in all things. That's
what the Holy Spirit's praying, and the Holy Spirit holds Himself
100% accountable to the Father to take everything Jesus paid for and
make it yours. That's accountability now. Of course, we
got the downstairs one where all accountability is up to you. That's the
5% version. The 95% kingdom version is the Holy
Spirit has taken full. So why don't you ask Him,
Holy Spirit, what are you praying for me? Jesus, what are you praying for me?
Now it takes a little practice to get that right, but something will come to
mind, especially after you've just gone through
step one and two, because thanksgiving puts you into a calm place.
Then you went into the place of understanding how He sees it, the whole
promise thing. Now you already have a pretty good idea
because He just gave you a promise. You already know where He's heading
with what He's praying for because He's praying His promise.
Easy enough, right? Yeah, I just love that you're
breaking down these steps because I think a lot of people, and I've
when, you know, in the past when I would get upset at a circumstance,
and then I would skip the whole thanksgiving thing, and I would, you know,
I just go right to, what are you doing? You know, what's happening here?
And that's just not when you hear accurately.
It's just not. And, you know, and so then I then I get something, you know, not his
voice, right, my own voice, usually. And and so I just, I just think it's so important
to understand these, that they are actual steps.
Yeah, there are there are steps that scripture calls, we could call them routines. I mean,
we can call them steps, I think they're good to go through a routine. And what will happen,
you practice these three steps in this routine, they'll become your natural lifestyle. And
you know, you've got to practice for at least 90 days for them to take become natural, right?
So and this feels very mechanical. But remember, the first time you drove a car, right? Okay,
now right key in how to open this door, right is to press the button, which one which order
is there in order, which one works. And everything was everything was a mission, right? Getting
in the car, starting the car in reverse, which is the brake that and if there was
an if it was a stick shift, and you had clutch and put in reverse, and man, you were exhausted,
you only just got to the end of the driveway. You know, I mean, you it was a lot of mechanical
steps. But when you go driving now, you don't think of that at all. In fact, you arrive
at the mall and hardly remember picking up your keys, right? What was what happened there?
The routine became automatic. Another way of saying biblical language is the routine
became your lifestyle, you stepped into your new nature. So what are you doing? You're
practicing how to be just like him. You're practicing. You're not practicing to become
it you're practicing it because you are it you are a new creation. And that's why God
just takes all the pressure off. You don't have to fix that old stuff. I know you responded
badly in the past and you skipped the steps. I got all that. But we're not practicing you
saying sorry, we practicing you stepping into Thanksgiving, you and I agreeing on a promise
coming in alignment together. Now when I'm asking Lord, what are you praying? I already
have the promise. Guess what he's praying? He's paying the promise people. This is so
simple, right? He's praying the promise he just gave you. And then we so when we start
to pray, so that's how we pray with God, not towards him. This develops a lifestyle
where we stop trying to do stuff for God. He's not interested. He's not interested in
you doing stuff for him. That is an old covenant model. It's got nothing to do with the gospel.
The gospel is you and he are one. And this and the sheer pleasure of your company, the
sheer delight of being with you. That's what he loves. And watching you grow up into all
things watching you become more like him and him enjoying the process with you and you
being aware that he's enjoying the process with you, you becoming aware of his delight
in you. Easy to delight in the Lord when you discover he delights in you. He's always the
initiator. There's not a single thing he asks of you that he didn't do first. When you find
out how much joy you are to him, then you can easily delight yourself and rejoice always.
Why? Why not? Because he doesn't change. He's not he's not his mood. He doesn't he has moods
and they go from joyful to peaceful to restful. He has all these moods. None of them are negative.
And so you but you're not trying to catch God in a good mood. He's always in some form
of good mood, joyful to you, happy, always. And here's what I want to tell you. The trick
is with crafted prayers, there is a little hack, make it so simple, you can memorize
it number one, and to get a little prayer journal where you start to write these prayers
in so that you don't have to come back and learn this all again. You know, you go around
the mountain so many times, you get to label all the rocks and things along the way, because
you've just been around so many times, you know, oh, it rained, there's a bit more mud
on that rock than I remembered it was yesterday when I came around. So how about we stop doing
the round the mountain thing. And one of the things I found that by journaling your prayers,
and then as they answer, put the dates in there. This is really encouraging. I've got
some big stuff I've prayed and I've got some little stuff God answered in the same hour
I prayed it. So what I'm saying is pray it consistently. That's why I pray continuously.
Hold on to that, because now you and the Lord are in alignment, you're praying what Jesus
and the Holy Spirit are praying. You're not doing it from fear and panic. You're calm,
you're safe, you're in his heart, and now you're praying. So I knew many of you want
to start a kit. So I stole some stuff from our, well, stole is a wrong word. I took some
stuff from our Green School of Leadership. And I thought, because we teach this, of course,
and one of the ways we teach this, and so I put together six little...
Now, if you can keep them short enough, it's like popcorn prayers, is the analogy Graham
uses, because like popcorn, it just pops.
The heat, when the heat comes, it pops into, it becomes full, you know, what's the word,
it flowers completely, whatever the word is, it opens up.
So the enemy puts you under pressure, pop, more spiritual things, more thanksgiving.
He's going to get annoyed by that, just saying, it's going to get tiring for him.
Every time he turns the heat up, you start popping, pop, pop, pop, pop.
So your six little popcorn prayers, I will drop them in the chat so you can have them.
But they're like starter kit, give you an idea of how to do it.
So we get super practical as we land this part of it.
So here's for something, when something new is beginning, you feel it's new, but you can't
get your finger on it, here's one you can pray.
Father, thank you that in this situation, you go ahead of me to prepare the way forward.
I agree with your purposes and that they will prevail, making the outcome guaranteed.
I like that one, I like that one for sure.
And so the next one is, so when life is tricky, popcorn prayers become a place of agreement, right?
Easy, Lord, I acknowledge your presence in me, with me, and for me.
I know that you will always help me.
I mean, that is so simple, right?
But if you memorize that, pressure comes, you pop, you know what to do.
Next one, during times of opposition and warfare, make a transition that, and you're making
a transition that is painful, you're making a change, it's really tough, it feels not
peaceful at all, then here's the prayer, Father, in this situation, your presence is creating
a growth opportunity to practice freedom.
There is no need for me to become fretful or fearful, because your delight in me is
overwhelming my heart.
See what they made, the shift, you see the shift went from being aware of the pain of
your situation, to aware of, oh, I'm moving to freedom, to aware of your delight in me.
Now your heart's overwhelmed by his delight in you, not overwhelmed by the situation.
Look, you're going to be overwhelmed by something, either by your circumstances and your problems,
or by God's goodness, you get to choose.
So why would you choose problems?
Just saying.
We learned some pretty dumb stuff from the old nature, didn't we?
No, I choose my problems to overwhelm me.
Why?
Why when God's goodness and delight in you can overwhelm you?
Sometimes going to the Lord in the midst of a tough, tough situation, I was in not too
long ago, and I was talking to the Lord, and I knew that sense of overwhelm.
And I said, Lord, I'm not falling for that.
I'm just going to sit here until you just overwhelm me with your delight.
And it's just like, warm honey.
I said, there you go.
I much prefer that.
Right?
Yeah, I like it when you've said, you know, someone will tell you, well, I'm doing fine
under the circumstances.
And then you're like, well, what are you doing under the circumstances?
Right?
Yeah.
That's not what overcomers do.
Yeah.
Overcomers means you live over.
You live over your circumstances.
It doesn't mean they stop hurting guys.
It doesn't mean they're not real.
It doesn't mean we pretend they're not there.
It doesn't mean we deny their reality.
Abraham faced the facts of his body.
He faced the facts of his wife's body.
And the scripture has this beautiful line.
I know we've studied it before.
He did not deplete in any way his trust and faith in the Lord.
Because he knows who the Lord is.
Right?
He's God.
Okay.
So here's another one.
When you realize your emotional attachment to God needs to become more stable, enjoyable,
and consistent.
We started the call with this.
Another way of safe.
I need to feel emotionally safe with the Lord.
This is a very big deal to him.
That you feel this.
That you feel safe.
And I want to put a pause here because I've heard so many believers say feelings don't
matter.
How many were taught that?
Yep.
Feelings don't matter.
It's only about faith.
Okay.
Well, firstly, I know what's meant by that.
We don't lead with our feelings.
But feelings tell us what we actually believe.
Here's why.
It's what the heart man believes.
What you believe your mind starts to think about, right?
And what your mind thinks about generates emotions.
We know from neuroscience, your mind literally creates the emotions
that it thinks will match what it's thinking about.
So that's why we start in Thanksgiving, because that's what we believe.
Then the mind goes, oh, we're thinking about His faithfulness and His goodness
and the last time He helped out and that He never lets us down.
Got that, I'm in joy.
I didn't mean to be in joy, I was in joy.
But if I'm walking in depression, it's not what I'm thinking,
it's what I'm believing. That starts with believing.
Believing leads to thinking, leads to emotion.
So when you see you're feeling unsafe, you go, hang on, Lord,
what is it I'm believing that led me to think whatever thoughts
that's led to this feeling?
Now that you know the secret of how you're wired,
now it's easy to know where to start.
Believing is always the starting point.
So when you feel like you need that emotional, need some reinforcement
in your feeling safe with the Lord,
Father, I'm thrilled to learn in you and from you.
I ask for the joy and peace in believing in your goodness and kindness.
See, God's goodness and kindness is what moves us forward.
Romans 2.4.
It's the goodness and kindness of God that leads us to metanoia,
to change our thinking, to agree with God about me.
Not to repent in the sense of do penance again and say sorry for bad stuff.
That's not what repentance is.
Repentance is me agreeing with God about me.
You say, well, you don't really know me.
Well, I would argue you don't really know you.
You only know the old you, which is dead.
God's trying to introduce you to the new you, which is you in Christ.
Well, Lord, you know, if you knew what I was really like and the Lord saying,
no, no, no, no, no.
If you knew who you were really like, you would love the new you.
You would adore your new you.
So can I introduce you?
And that's when we feel unsafe is when we think we have to serve God from our
old nature.
Many, many believers try to pray from their old nature.
And the Father can't entertain that prayer because to do that,
he'd have to dishonor what he's sundered on the cross.
And he's not going to do that.
So he just quietly waits.
I wonder how much of our stuff we've called prayer really was.
So now you know exactly how to have great prayer.
Two more.
How about two more?
You want two more?
I got it.
I got more.
All right.
Here we go.
When you don't want to be a victim of your circumstances,
how many of you have been in a position?
You don't want to be it.
You know you don't have to be it, but you're feeling it anyway.
Remember, when you feel something, it's because you believe something.
Of course, you do think something.
Of course, you do feel something.
Remember that cascading system?
So here's one that really works for me.
Father, I'm practicing this joyful routine of thanksgiving with you.
Not for you.
With you.
We are together in this.
I am so thankful that in this situation,
you are creating in me the person that you want me to become next.
You are creating in me.
Remember we studied Isaiah 41 together,
the four ways God's going to help you?
I'll go with you.
He said, I will help you.
If you look at it carefully, in five different ways,
he said, I will help you.
I will help you.
Surely, I'll help you.
Graham Moy says there's five inferred ways he's going to help you.
He doesn't use the word help five times.
But he does say, I will help you.
I'll go with you.
I'll protect you.
And I will turn you into a threshing sledge that will take a mountain down.
I'm fashioning you into a kingdom weapon.
I am doing that.
So this prayer just says, Father,
I'm practicing this joyful routine of thanksgiving with you.
We're together in this.
You and I are one.
I'm so thankful that in this situation,
you are creating in me the person that you want me to become next.
Love that.
All of it's on him.
Did you notice that?
I'm just thankful he's doing it.
I just want to be in full alignment.
It takes your will to say yes.
He's not going to override you and force you to become that, obviously,
because that wouldn't be in his nature to do that.
Last one is, you're facing life choices.
Just big life choices.
Father, I choose your image and likeness to shape my identity and character in Jesus.
Lord, I'm going to enjoy this training for all you're worth.
Not for all I'm worth, all you're worth.
Now how much is he worth?
See what you're doing in that moment is you're going into a big unknown thing, you don't
know what it is, and you're taking a mindset up front that this is going to, it's going
to raise you in your, increase your growth in his image and likeness.
And that's what's going to shape that new identity and you're already deciding up front,
I'm going to love the training.
God loves your training, he loves who you're becoming, and he knows exactly who you're
becoming next.
And he's looking at you saying, looking at you, you know, you can be safe, I've got you.
What I want from you is alignment and oneness.
I'll never force that on you.
Like the perfect lover bridegroom that he is, he'll never force himself on you, he'll
never put you in that.
So when you feel uncomfortable, the first thing he does is assure you.
And Ray, I'm through my piece, fumble pot.
And can you, did you try posting those in the chat or?
I will do it right away.
Oh, okay.
And I'll take those because I know sometimes people struggle with copying the from the
chat.
I'll paste those in the replay of the Facebook group.
And I can probably then also put them in the Boxer group.
But you know, one thing that I realized, you know, hearing you go through that is, oops,
what happened?
I'm just doing the, I'm doing it in two sections because it's complaining about too much text.
Sure.
Yeah, it just makes me realize, so I, I've gotten to the point and I've had plenty of
opportunities to freak out, but I've gotten to the point where I'm, I am, I'm no longer
freaking out on circumstances.
So whatever it is, I'm just like, okay, Lord, I know you're with me.
But I recognize there's another level because I'm still like, okay, I know you're with me,
you know?
So I realized I'm kind of sheepishly like, I'm not freaking out about the circumstance,
but I still have some like, okay, let's do it.
And you know, and just those prayers are much more powerful of just going with power, you
And, and so that's, that's, that's really cool.
I think the thing that, which I like that you're commenting on, there is an emotional
state in the kingdom that's different from the emotional state in the world.
This emotional state doesn't exist in the world.
This is an emotional state that's coming out of your spirit.
It's coming out of a different place.
It's a different.
So I would say, take your emotions seriously, in the sense that there are indications of
what you genuinely believe, and immediately switch back to Thanksgiving, start the process
and watch your emotions change.
You're not a victim of your emotions at all.
But you can't force your wiring either.
If your mind, if I wake up, and I think today's going to be a tough day, I'm probably not
getting that deal.
I'm not sure I'm going to pay the rent.
I don't know what I'm going to tell my spouse.
You know, I've been waiting for weeks for the other shoe to, you know, shoe to drop.
Oh, man, what my mind goes, Oh, I know, depression, anxiety, I know what goes with that.
And by the way, you can know that all day long that your brain's doing that.
That's what the famous university study, the 20 year study.
I keep thinking it's Stanford, but it isn't Stanford.
And I'll go look it up again.
But it's a research.
It's well known.
You can get it on TED Talks.
There was a professor who did this study.
And they even went further in the study and proved that even if you know that's what your
brain's doing, it doesn't help.
The reason is you're not changing your thinking.
And you can't just force your thinking to change because your thinking goes of what
you believe.
You see, I might say, no, no, it's not going to be that bad.
Come on, positive thinking.
What you're trying to do is trying to use your thinking to change what you actually
believe, I'm going to fail, what you actually believe, that I get the negative thoughts
out of your head.
That's why you can't stop feeling bad.
But here's the cool thing about that.
That's the weakest part of the whole thing.
The most stronger part, by far, is the one that's life giving, because you're now you're
not alone.
Thank you that I'm not alone in this.
Thank you that you're with me.
Thank you.
When I start to
shift my belief in my heart moves now my mind says oh i know what goes with that joy the joy and
peace in believing you don't have to manufacture peace you don't have to feel try to feel more
peacefully 50 feelings there's no mimicry involved you're not imitating peace you're
letting his peace reign well how did his peace get to you you started in his heart
and so many times so many times the lord says don't have because you don't ask
so well lord you know i need it yeah but i'm the perfect gentleman i will not i'm i think of the
you know think of what the perfect lover would be like you know who really is attentive not just
after a physical act but really intentive really knows you really cares about how you how you're
in this moment that's exactly how he is and there's three geniuses in the universe
so he has a mind-boggling idea that just every now and again i think about this
i love to have thoughts like this for the lord i said lord
amen you're so good and so kind and it's just one day i got this thought hit me yeah we had
eternity to practice with each other father son and holy spirit we're practicing laughing and joy
and being being considerate and thoughtful and kind and good and just all of that
they so perfected that fellowship and now you're included
you're included look at the logo of brilliant do you see the three three plus me there's three
different colors there in my logo if you look at the bottom right corner of my screen you'll see it
probably put up a logo here we designed that logo around that idea that if you look at each
of them they're slightly different those three are not the same but yet they're the same and
they're one and yet they're three and guess who's right in the center of it you you get
trapped in the middle of the father loving the son of the son joking with the holy spirit with
the holy spirit you know rejoicing over you you know to jesus and the back and forth and on rare
occasions and it's something i'm really practicing a lot of on rare occasions the lord says i just
want you to get you can get so quiet in your spirit be still and know that i'm god be so
quiet the rest goes to a place of stillness and in that place i've heard the three of them talking
about me best conversation ever i you know i'm just blown away or i'm laughing so hard
because you know should we tell him i don't know spoil the surprise
they're playful they're loving super sweet hilarious absolutely hilarious god has the
best sense of humor ever he invented it of course he's the master of it so what most of us need to
do is take this very narrow religious nervous not sure where i stand feeling unsafe thing and scrap
it that is not included in the gospel the joy and peace in believing now you're learning to become
like him and here's the really good news he's not in a hurry with the process that's what grace is
grace is his kindness while you learn oh lord i've been learning this for 10 years that's okay
you keep going until you get an a
then we move to the next topic no failing just keep going until you get an a very cool
dion do you have do you have time if anyone has a question yeah
so um so guys uh yeah dion on here and uh do you have a question
okay lisa go ahead lisa go ahead i don't have a question i just want to change my answer from
earlier okay dion your stories and how you present everything to us it's every time
i get on here and i just listen to you it's it's it's like the holy spirit in me is just going
here it is here it is you're right here you're with me and and i just want to say thank you
because i just it empowers me so much more every time and it's like i'm on fire again
from 20 years ago when i first got saved so thank you first love i love that for you lisa thank you
first love yeah yeah and uh carrie i think you had yeah yeah so you know it's just
Based on, again, I'm not going to change my answer, but I'm going to add to it because
through the last handful of months, I've had the opportunity to share a lot. In fact, I'm
sharing a devotional right now on air about rest and living from that place of rest and
going back and looking at, you know, how first God rested, you know, first God rested after
creation, then ultimately Jesus rested because he had the same sentence. It was,
it's finished. And then he rested at the right hand of the Father, right?
And so he invites us to live from that place, which is, you know, things I've learned here.
The other, I think what I've been pondering, so for instance, your logo.
In fact, I was just thinking about this last night. It's, you know, if you look at Shadrach,
Meshach, and Abednego, which again is a perfect example of old covenant. You had these three
young men who were being obedient and they end up in a fire and in the midst of the fire,
there's a fourth and it's God. Now, our God is a consuming fire and in his presence,
there are three, but there's a fourth because in the fire of his presence, he has invited us
into that fellowship. Yeah, that's beautiful. I love that. Yeah, that's good. And so my question
is, and it's related to this idea of, again, if you, you know, the way we speak about the
sanctifying work of the spirit is that he is in, you know, he's forming us. We are being made into
the image of Jesus, but is it so much he is creating the image of Jesus in us or he is
revealing the image of Jesus that has already been formed in us because we have become a new
creation? Yeah. So is he, is he, is he doing the work or is he simply revealing is, is, is,
is this life, the spirit simply revealing that, that image within us? Yeah, that's, that's a very
good theological question. I, to me, I think is, I think of more as a third way. And that is he,
he's nature in you, as he is, so are you in this world. So in that sense, you're correct,
he is in you. But now we're learning to be made in his image and likeness. We're practicing
our new nature here on earth. And the reason we're practicing here is so when we get to heaven,
we were, we were trained how to be there. So when we get to heaven, everything looks familiar. Oh,
I know this peaceful deal. Oh, this is very familiar to me. I know exactly where I am.
I don't want everything to be new to me when I get to heaven. So I think what we're doing is
we're practicing because we're that new person. We're not subject or victims to the old. And so
to help us with that God gives us the permission, consider yourself dead to sin and alive to me.
And the focus there is being alive to him. When Christ died, you died. When he was raised,
you were raised in newness of life in him. So now that you are a new person in life,
but now you learned, so you don't have two natures, you don't have a certain nature,
you just have a certain habit, which you learn from the old self, which is now dead.
So you've got these dead man habits, but gross, right? Now you're learning Jesus habits,
how to be like him, how to think like him, how to, but there's a piece of him that each of us
carry. That's what makes us not all the same, because we carry a piece of his nature,
because there's something he's bringing to the world through you carry that I can't do.
And so I love that. So maybe there's a variant on your second choice.
Yeah, I think I would say this one thing, whatever you do, strip out all the passivity
that that's in that language. Because if we make it passive, we make it God is doing this,
he's revealing it, he's doing this, I stand here passively and wait, you know, because it's all
painful, but whatever, I'm sure it'll work out at the end. We don't make it relational. We don't
catch the sheer delight, the beauty of being in fellowship together with him, the three of them
having conversation, I'm including Christ, I'm not the fourth member of the Godhead. I'm just
including Christ as the bride. And now in that space, I get to learn how to laugh again.
And there'll be times in your relationship with Jesus,
that he will teach you that two warriors partner with him in laughter.
I was when I was in my crisis in 2018-19. I heard Graham say that and it close on offended me.
I say close on because he said true warriors learn to partner with God in laughter.
And and then I realized, hang on a second, the joy of the Lord is my strength. I need strength
for this. I can't be strong afterwards. I'll be so glad when this is over. It's a dumb idea because
I need to be glad now because I need the strength now. Right. But then I realized it's relational.
He looks at your situation. It's not a you're not a challenge to him. This is not a challenge.
Right. And I realized, oh, there's not a challenge to you. And then it was funny. I started to laugh.
So within minutes of Oh, hang on, that doesn't sound very kind to Oh, my goodness,
this is beautifully freeing. So now stepping to so I think, as a teacher, I would ask you,
ask yourself the question, can I make it more relational? Lord, can I make this more relational?
Can I show how you're in this relationship with us? Can I show how you're thinking,
how you're feeling, how you are towards us, and how it delights you when we are, you know,
because I can see that change. I've been watching in you over these
this last year now. That's been amazing. So very cool. I love what you're doing. It's great.
Okay, Angela.
So I go to Pastor Rodney Hard Brown's church. He's the Oh, yeah, he's known for laughter.
Yeah, yeah. Another crazy South African. Yeah. Yeah, that's right. That's right. Yeah.
No. We used to be in the same circles, although we don't actually know each other.
Okay, we've got a lot of common friends. Yeah.
There's a beautiful. So he has four conferences a year. Yeah. And the one coming up is
the faith conference. So it's everyone's welcome. So it's no charge. So eight days.
Um, no, and I know that you're talking about asking, I thought that was really great asking,
you know, Jesus and the Trinity, right? What, what are you praying towards me?
What a shortcut to that just be praying in your heavenly language.
I think, praying in your heavenly language, praying in tongues to me, which I absolutely
love doing of the nine gifts, it's the only one you can trigger at your own will.
The rest are gifts, you have to wait for the moment, right? So they're not grace gifts in
the sense like, oh, I'm person only flows in this all nine are available to all everyone.
But speaking tongues is the fastest way to build a strong spirit. My spiritual dad taught me that.
Do you want a little freebie here? Do we have time Ray? Yeah. Okay, here's, here's what I learned
at 15 years old, I'm driving in the car with my spiritual dad, the pastor, David Goodes.
And he says, we're talking about speaking in tongues. And I'm asking, what's the point and
because your mind's unfruitful, you know, so it's just your spirit praying. So the Holy Spirit
partnering with you praying. So one way you can do that, which I learned was praying the spirit
and then ask for the and then just switch to English and ask for the interpretation. So you
pray your own interpretation, you'll hear exactly what the Holy Spirit is praying for you. So that's
a cheat code, right? You can get straight away what he's praying. When we were learning this
as a business group, we were eight business partners, all engineers, eight engineers all
together. And David would come every Friday morning and pray with the company. So we're coming
an hour earlier in the boardroom. And then, and so, you know, all these heavy, very conservative
engineers in the room. And, and he says, Okay, we're gonna, we're gonna practice this. And he
said, and so what we're going to do, everybody stand up. And he's not going to ask you to
something really uncomfortable. I'm not going to ask you to pray in this, but I'm going to ask you
to shout in this spirit. Now, I know all you conservative engineers all freaking out. He said,
but the reason we're doing that is our spirit is overwhelming my mind, my mind is so busy and
just going to get really loud enough to just overwhelm it. And then just listen to me in the
background. I'll shout pretty loudly. Then I'm going to say now and then everybody switch to
English and listen to yourself. Don't listen to each other. Listen to yourself was the freakiest
thing we've ever done. And that's how I learned, by the way, because he didn't mess with the,
you know, takes 10 years. It's like with him, everything took 10 minutes. So we get in there,
we're doing the thing. We start off, you know, kind of loud. He said, guys, stop, stop. When I
Shout, shout, do you know how to shout?
Yes, you know how to shout.
Like when you had a rugby game or a football game, do this.
So we go for it, finally gets us loosened up enough
to actually do it.
And we're all going for it.
By the way, Rodney Hardwell would know Pastor David Griffiths
just by the way.
Anyway, so we're all shouting and he says,
now we all switched to English and we stopped
and we all prophesied, eight of us, exactly the same thing.
Wow.
And we all went, oh.
See, there's no mental process for that.
Because your spirit connecting to God's spirit,
same Holy Spirit praying to all of us,
praying the same thing in English.
And the last hack is David taught me.
We're driving in the car and he says to me,
so this is a few years earlier than that,
and he says, hey, we're talking about praying the Spirit.
He said, well, that's the only way
you can pray continuously.
So he said, I can teach you.
Again, starts now with David.
So I said, okay.
He said, okay, pray in the Spirit, I am.
And so he said, all right, now can you go from using words
to just coming from your spirit, but don't use your mouth.
So he says, can you hear it?
Yep, yep, still going.
Yep, still going.
So he said, okay, let's talk about this.
We talk for two, three minutes about whatever.
And he says, is it still going?
And I go, no.
He says, okay, you can practice,
but you can keep it going 24 seven.
You can pray in your sleep, pray in the Spirit,
that's what pray continuously means.
It means when you're praying in your mind,
you're praying those things consistently,
but praying continuously can only be done
in partners of the Holy Spirit.
I've never heard anyone teach that before or since.
So that to me is go straight from tongues to English
and you'll hear what he's praying.
I like that, thank you.
I haven't shared that in a long time, so.
That was good.
Yeah, yeah, it's good.
Yeah.
Very cool.
Yeah, I've had an interesting history
with praying in tongues.
I've only had one morning I woke up and it was involuntary.
I wasn't doing it, it was just happening.
And so that made me think, I'm like, oh, is that,
have all the other times been me just forcing it
or something?
So I kind of went away from it,
but the way that you're describing it,
sounds like I got a new ventures.
Yeah.
Well, I think tongues,
the old Pentecostal preachers of which David was one,
didn't believe you go full to the Holy Spirit
without speaking in tongues.
So what would be the point?
And their view was that,
they always talked about being full to the Spirit,
the evidence is speaking in other tongues.
And not just tongues, but other tongues,
meaning that you don't just have one,
you have variants.
Some sound a bit more like this language or that language,
they're not that language, they sound like it
because there's some thought that every language on earth,
and there are a lot of them,
what are they 900 in India alone, dialects and so forth.
But for every one of those, there's a heavenly equivalent.
And then there are languages that only the angels speak
or that we do from in the spirit realm
that there are no,
but I could tell you so many stories of actual languages
that the person was speaking not having learned the language.
So get back to David's stories,
because there's a lot of those.
We were out in the bush and there's a,
there are Bushmen,
they're very, one of the oldest, oldest tribes in Africa,
very old Bushmen.
And they speak with that,
you know, a lot of, five different tongue clicks
and so on, that's very quick.
And so David's through interpreters leading them,
leads them to the Lord.
You know, being David, you got led to the Lord,
got baptized, filled with the Holy Spirit, deliverance.
That was the first hour of your walk with Jesus.
Not this 20 year drawn out thing,
he never believed in that.
So it was like now, so we,
because it's kingdom now with him.
And so they do that and he lays hands on this one Bushman
and she, remember, cannot speak English, breaks out.
She thinks she's just making humming sounds.
She's speaking the Queen's English.
I mean, perfect English pronunciation,
the most incredible vocabulary,
exalting the Lord with this vocabulary.
David had a huge vocabulary, but he said, you know,
it's like, do I have to look up that word?
They were so beautiful.
And so you have that, you know,
I know of a Afrikaans couple that thought
that Lord wanted them to move to England.
They moved, they went to England,
go to the first church prayer meeting.
Somebody speaks in tongues, don't realize.
as they're speaking perfect Afrikaans and the Lord says,
what are you doing? Yeah, I didn't send you here. You need
to go back home. Nobody. And the pastor goes, Hey, we can't have
a time without interpretation. And he she pleases. Now, I
think that was for me, Pastor. He said, Well, do you want to
share with the congregation? No, not really.
That's amazing.
Yeah. So it's a fantastic world that we have. So cool. Yeah.
Anyway, well, those fun things. I'll give it a wrap.
Yeah, very cool. Well, Dion, thank you so much. Thank you.
Thank you for coming in here. We've had you for we had the
pleasure of you for a full year. And I've just seen our members
grow. And we're just so grateful for you. I'm grateful for you.
And just thank you. Thank you so much.
Thank you so much. Yeah, it is been such an incredible honor to
over these 12 months, just sit here and learn from you. So
thank you.
Oh, thanks, Gary. Appreciate it. Well, thanks, everybody. It's
been a real honor. Great joy.
Yeah. Appreciate you. All right, man. Very, very cool. Well,
that was awesome. That was really neat. So I got, you know,
two things I'll be doing tonight. I'll be doing the
Thank You, Lord. practice. I want to do that for, you know, I
heard, you know, Graham did that at an event. I don't know if you
guys are aware of that. But he just, he went on. And he's just
he's just started saying thank you. And the presence of the
Lord was so powerful in that room, like people are just
falling to the ground and crying and everything. And so I'm going
to do that. And I'm gonna get back. You know, it's
interesting, my first, like, maybe, you know, six months or
so, you know, I used to practice praying in tongues and, and then
when I had that experience, I'm like, Oh, maybe I've been
forcing it or something like, you know, I don't know. But the
way he described it makes me I got to go back to that. I got to
pray about that, too. So very cool. Well, as you guys know,
you can hit me up on Voxer if there's anything I can help you
with. And, Carrie, do you want to pray us out? I feel like
you're on fire tonight.
Yeah, absolutely. Thank you. Yeah. All right. So Father, we
do, we come and we say thank you. And, you know, the truth
of the matter is, your Word is very clear that when we come
with that gratitude, that heart of thanksgiving, the Holy
Spirit, you, you bring the glory of heaven, you bring the heart
of the Father, you release everything that we need, as we
give you praise, as we praise the Father, as we praise Jesus,
and as we offer that thanksgiving. And so we end this
night by saying thank you. Thank you for the privilege of
hearing from you. Thank you for the privilege of being able to
hear from one who is your son, not just your servant, but your
son, who's faithfully just sharing, sharing what you've
taught him. And so we say thank you. And we can't, we can't do
anything, Father God, but just to come with this heart of
gratitude, knowing that in that place, we, we're, we're in your
presence and everything flows from your presence. And so God,
we just, we're grateful. I'm grateful for Ray. I'm grateful
for the, uh, the opportunity that we have had to, to really
just be in this partnership with you together, uh, Father God.
So, uh, with that, thank you for your presence and we know we go
with your blessing in Jesus name. Amen.
Amen. Beautiful, beautiful. My friend. Awesome. Awesome. Well,
love you guys. God bless you guys. And anything I can help
with, hit me up on Boxer. Thanks, Thomas. Thanks for
being on here, bud.
Thank you.