Hey everybody, hope y'all are doing good. So for those of y'all who saw that I did
a live earlier on the same subject, I just decided afterwards, I was like, you
know what, I want to explain what I was trying to explain just a bit more
succinctly. So I'm redoing it for y'all really quick. Okay, so to remind
everybody what I was saying in the previous live. Someone had reached
out to me with this question, but I've had multiple people reach out with this
question over the past few months. So I decided that I wanted to address it in
a live that people would be able to reference back to if ever they needed to.
And that is what to do when we don't want to spend time with God. Either, and
we all describe it a bit differently, some of us describe it as, oh well I'm
just not motivated or I just can't be disciplined enough to read my Bible or
to have my quiet time. Or some of us even use the thing of, well I just don't have
time, I'm very busy right now in the season of my life. That's actually an
excuse that we give of the fact that we don't understand what it means to
live and abide in the Lord's presence. If we think that we're too busy or
that too many other, there are too many demands on our time. What we've, it means
that we believe that there's a particular standard in a way that it
should look and we can't figure out how our current season of life allows for
that. Well it means that our understanding of what it is that God is
desiring of us needs to change. Sometimes we also realize, you know,
I'm just not motivated. I am to spend time with the Lord. I'm not motivated to read my
Bible or I really flat-out do not want to. I do not want to spend time with the
Lord. I do not want to read my Bible but I know that I should. So we all describe
it a bit differently but it's the same root issue and that is the fact that
we don't feel safe with the Lord. We struggle to be in his presence. I'm very
very very familiar with this. I loved learning about the Lord. I loved getting
to understand things but I didn't feel safe with his being. I didn't feel safe
with the very essence of who it is that he was and I didn't trust him. So I
wanted to talk today about what to do when we don't want to spend time with
the Lord, when we don't feel safe, whether or not we realize that that's
actually our accusation, what to do when we don't trust the Lord,
what to do if we feel like we have a lack of motivation and we
don't know why. First of all, let's understand that if we want to do
something badly enough, if we actually value it, we do it. So if we're not doing
something, it means that we don't value it and here's how we can see this
even when we think, no I do value the Lord and I do want to spend time with
him and we think that there's something that's keeping us
from it. If we really value something, we don't allow it to allow anything to keep
us from it. If something is keeping us from it, it means that there's something
that that other thing that is keeping us from it is providing us in our lives
that is actually of higher value to us than pursuing the Lord and that can be
the whole idea we feel that God's not pleased with us unless we execute
certain things in our lives, unless we're a good mother, unless we're a good wife
and we've got standards of what that must look like. Well a good wife and a
good mother does these types of things and doesn't do these types of things so
I'm sorry Lord you're gonna have to hold on because I'm too busy trying to be
what you want me to be. God's like, no you already are all of those things and
you need to allow yourself to just be and if you are all of a sudden this it
starts to fix this these areas of your life effortlessly. But the point
is that if there's something that we always spend our time doing whatever is
feeding the highest value that we have and it but if it's if we're spending our
life if you're spending our time doing things that we know in our brain if we
know in our head aren't actually the things that we should be focusing on it
means that but but but in reality we are spending our time and our and our effort
and energy on those things it means that there's something inherently that we
actually there's some lie that we're actually believing because whatever it
is we truly believe we act on period and we can say all the right things that we
want to we can think that we believe all those things but what
Whatever it is that we act on, that's what we truly believe.
And we know that, remember, from James.
James talks about the fact that faith without works is dead.
In other words, that we act on whatever it is that we truly believe.
If we're not acting on it, we don't actually believe it.
Period.
So, none of this is for us to feel shame or condemnation about.
It's just for us to acknowledge what's going on.
So if we don't value spending time with the Lord as much as we value other things, why?
That's my whole point.
It means that we don't trust Him.
It means we don't feel safe with Him.
It means that there's something that the Lord says that He provides us that we haven't been
receiving when we've been in His presence.
Because if we receive, if we truly receive everything that He's giving to us, if we truly
accept it into ourselves, we were made for that.
It satisfies all of our needs.
And what would that do?
It would make us come back for more.
It would make us want to.
It would make us pursue it.
And so if we're not pursuing it, it means that we are not, that when we've been in it,
we have not, when we've been in His presence, we haven't allowed ourselves to actually receive
what it is that He's giving us.
For everything in the kingdom is freely given, but it must be freely received.
Being freely receiving it is the point at which we come into agreement with the Lord.
He's freely giving, we freely receive.
That's us coming into agreement.
And when we come into agreement, it will manifest in our life.
So if we're not at that point, if we do not enjoy spending time with the Lord, I've been
there many times, many, many, many times.
In fact, there's certain aspects of my life in my relationship with the Lord right now
that I am struggling in, and so I'm having to walk this thing out, I'm having to walk
out what I'm telling y'all right now to certain degrees and in certain areas in which I don't
feel safe with the Lord.
So what I recommend that you do is if you're just like, I just can't read the Bible right
now and I just can't spend the time with the Lord, again, we don't feel safe with Him.
So what do we do?
We have to choose that what He says is true, that whatever He says is true really is true
about Himself and about us, whatever He says, that He is who He says that He is, that we
are who He says that we are, etc.
And if He says that He accepts us no matter what, then we make an intentional, willful
decision that that is going to be true in our lives, that that is the law, that those
are the laws by which our world operates.
And so if that is the law by which the world operates, what would we do?
We would sit and we would allow ourselves to be, and we would sit accepting ourselves
as we are, because we're trying to act like our Father, and if the Father says that He
accepts us as we are, then we're going to choose to accept ourselves as we are, period.
So I recommend that you set aside some time, it doesn't have to be long, and it can even
be spontaneous, it doesn't have to be planned, whatever you want to do, it could be first
time in the morning, could be 10 o'clock after you put the baby down for bed, could be you
sit the kids in front of a 15 minute little show, whatever it is.
You carve out some time, it doesn't have to be major, do whatever you have to do to
just do it, don't think that it has to be this big long thing.
What you have to do is to make it, in order to get it done, is to make the time small,
make it small.
And then if you want to, once you get in it, if you want to sit in it longer, you can.
Just do the thing.
The more often that you do it throughout the day, for like a minute, two, five, fifteen
at a time, that's great, but I do recommend that you do it at least once a day.
What you're doing is you're giving yourself practice, just sitting and allowing yourself
to be.
Accepting yourself and your thoughts without judgment, meaning whatever thought comes into
your head, not to judge it and to just move through it and to just let it go.
I believe I talk about this at other places in the Rest Intensive, talking about how to
handle thoughts and just kind of treating them like a cloud.
Just allow them to come at you and for you to just go through it.
Don't grab a hold of it, don't think about it, don't feel embarrassed about it, don't
feel shame about it, don't acknowledge it, just good, bad, ugly, it could be a horrible
awful thing you think about the Lord, it could be a horrible awful thing you think about
somebody else.
It doesn't matter. Don't judge it. Don't determine that it's good or bad. Just let the thing come
and go and just ignore it and allow yourself to just to just be. Sit with a cup of tea,
a cup of coffee, sit on your back porch, sit on the swing, sit at the kitchen table,
hide yourself in the bathroom. Whatever you need to do, just sit for a little bit and allow yourself
to be. Any stress or anxiety that comes up, just try to let it go. Don't condemn it. Don't judge
it. Don't think, oh this is wrong or bad. It's not your burden to carry right now. Let it go.
You can pick it back up in 15 minutes if you really like to worry and be burdened by it and
be worried and distressed and anxious. You can pick it back up later. Let it go for now. Give
yourself the luxury. You're not having to carry something. What you're doing is you are choosing
to put yourself in a position, a situation in which you're being in the presence of the Lord
and you were allowing him to, you were inviting him to, you were choosing to sit in his presence
meaning that you're acknowledging that he is a being and that and that you are and that he accepts
you. So you accept him however he wants to show up and you're acknowledging that he's accepting you
however you want to show up and you just sit there and just allow yourself to be and anything you
don't want to carry you just let go because you're enough. Here's the point of all of this.
When the more that you practice just being and and the more that we practice just accepting
sitting in in a moment, five minutes, 15 minutes, however long we want to do, 60 seconds, just
allowing ourselves to be the more that we will feel safe with the Lord. The more that we will
trust him because we realize God says that he accepts me just that I just like I am and I
practice it every day for 60 seconds, an hour, five minutes, whatever and I've come to discover
he does accept me just the way I am. How do I know that? Because he lets me sit there like that
and therefore if he can accept me in my most vulnerable state where I'm not trying to be
good or bad I'm just being and if I discover by practice by experience
that he I can safely be with him and he allows me to just be then apparently he's a safe place
and apparently I can trust him. So by choosing and acting on the fact that God says something
and us operating according to it by allowing ourselves to sit and just accept it we will
effortlessly come to believe it's true and now that we're acting on it and believing it we will
begin to see the manifestation of it in our lives. You will start to accept yourself for who you are
you will come to you will come to get a greater sense of your identity you will come to desire to
spend more time with the Lord you will come to believe that he is who he says that he is
you all of it will will be effortless. Why? Because you're acting on it you're acting on
it before believing it and you're acting on it before seeing it you're you're you're allowing
yourself to sit and to just be to allow him to be who he is and you to be who you are etc.
And so and then the last thing that I want to mention is you don't have to this again
is something that you just that you allow you be good soil and just allow the seed that is being
planted in you which is the word of the Lord allow the seed that is being planted in you
to just grow. Remember what we've talked about before the the farmer plants a seed he goes to
sleep he wakes up the seed grows on its own and the and the bible says that the farmer doesn't
know how the farmer doesn't know how it happened just allow the seed to grow you don't have to
cause the seed to grow you just be good soil for the seed to be planted into and how do you be good
soil you choose that if God said it it must be true and you start acting like it doesn't mean
that you have to believe it yet just start acting like it that is being good soil and so just go
through this practice just expose yourself to the Lord like okay God you say that you're safe so I'm
going to put myself in your presence so we're sitting here and I'm drinking my tea I'm drinking
my coffee I'm just allowing myself to just be for a bit I'm not allowing myself to stress or to worry
or to be anxious or to solve any problems or to remember my grocery list and if I think about my
grocery list and I think of something I need to buy just let myself think about that in 15 minutes
just let it all go all right if I remembered it now I'll remember it in a little bit and and I
can trust that the Lord will provide for and take care of me and will remind me and just allow
myself to be um allow yourself to be where you don't have to problem solve where you're not a
problem you don't consider yourself a problem
that needs to be fixed. You're not something that needs to be changed.
You're not something that needs to be better at something. You're not someone
that needs to acknowledge that the Lord loves you. Nothing. You just be. And by
doing that, by acting on it, you will discover that you are a... I mean that the
Lord is a very, very safe place. I'm just watching a man and his
daughter walk by. They are absolutely precious. She has special needs, and
they live here on the corner, and he likes to walk with her. I'm trying to
remember. I know he walks with her every Sunday, but I thought... She's got gray
hair. I thought that for a while there they were walking every day,
but maybe not. Maybe it's just every week. Anyway, I just love watching.
I just love watching them because she always brings reading material. She
always brings a magazine, and then periodically she and her father will
be walking, and she'll stop her. They hold hands, and his wife says
that she has... that his daughter has him wrapped around her little finger. Anyway,
she'll stop her dad periodically and hold the reading material up really,
really close to her face like she's reading, and then she stops, and she puts
it down, and they keep walking. She always has a smile on her face. She's so sweet. I
just love... I always have to stop and watch them, you know, and my spirit is
just blessed by seeing how God put her spirit into that body, and how
she just manifests heaven into earth in a very special way. So anyway, I always
tear up when I see her, because there's something about her that just kind of
glows. You know, something about her where you just know... I think that they're
believers, but there's something about her where you're just like, oh my word,
the Lord is just in her, and then shines out into creation in a really
sweet, and innocent, and unhindered way. You know, that the rest of us have built
up all of these obstacles and resistance, too. Anyway, so I just had to say she's
awful cute. So I just wanted to mention that about the seed. Just allow the
Lord to... that his word will do the work. So you trusting, believing, and having
faith in the word, and just choosing it. Okay, Lord, if you say this is true, then
I'm gonna act on it. Then that's being good soil. You're acting on it. You're
putting yourself out there, and you're abiding in his
presence, and then just allow the seed to do the work without you working on it.
Just act on it. Just sit there. Just accept yourself for who it is that you
are, for who it is that he is, and it will effortlessly grow, and you won't even
have to try for it, because the word does the work. Remember when Jesus called Peter
out, called him out on the word come, and Peter was sustained on the word come. The
word does the work. We just choose that the word will do the work, and
that the word will sustain us. Not that we have to have to just believe it, and
now we have to do all the work to make it happen. No, the word does the work, but
we act like the word will do the work. Like, okay, if the word will do the work,
then it means that I can step out into it, and the word will make it happen.
That's what it is. To step out and to just believe it. So anyway, hope this is
helpful. Yeah, so Catherine mentions, yeah, I tend to problem-solve in his presence,
but I feel he doesn't like that as much. Yeah, so no need to problem-solve. No,
there's not something you need to always fix. He's just like, you're enough for me.
I want you to know you're enough for me. You're like, really Lord? Yeah, yeah. So if
you believe that what I say is true, and if I say that you're enough for me,
then just be. Just allow me to enjoy you for who it is that you are, not for what
you bring me, not for what you do for me, but that we can just be together and
it's enough. So anyway, if y'all have any questions, let me know. And y'all, if y'all
are struggling with any of this, and you need to be walked through
something, let me know. But hearing this won't change anything. You must actually
step out and act on it. That is what will change things. If you're still struggling...
with certain things about like how to release and how to and whatever go I
recommend that you go back and you obviously feel free to reach out to me
but I recommend that you can go that you go back and watch some of the rest
intensive again you can go back through the whole thing in order or you could
just watch specific ones but remember that in the whole point of that is is
not that is is true to remember that we actually have to act on what it is that
I'm talking about that in those in the in this year in the rest intensive
series it's not in learning more information being exposed to that
information again isn't gonna change anything it's not gonna Oh inspire you
to action no so often we just get inspired and we don't act on it it's the
acting that actually changes it's not the inspiration not the not the fact
that oh yeah yeah I agree that with that we have to act on it and it's the acting
on it and remember it the choosing and therefore we act on it but then we'll
come to believe it and then we'll come to see the manifestation but it so
actually do the things that's the whole rest intensive is about it's actually
learning to live it not learn something new and for us to all talk in a
different language using different vocabulary if you're not seeing the
change where it means that there's an element in which we're not acting and and
I know this from person firsthand experience when I've been struggling
there are certain things with the Lord that I'm struggling with right now and I
know what he's telling me to do he's like actually act on it do the thing you
know what you need to do do it you keep saying Ashley that you don't know what
to do it's like yeah that's some of it is feeling like you don't know what to
do do it anyway pick something Ashley just pick it you don't know what to do
pick something move do something and then I'll you know show you next time
let's do it a little different but Ashley do something you know show that
you trust me you know act like it by acting so like okay all right so that
that's what I've been doing I I know what it is that he's calling me to do so
I'm walking this journey with you we will we are now living in a different
way and it's so good it is so so good I have seen my God in a way I didn't know
he existed I didn't know he was this good I didn't know I could be this safe
with him even though I'm still I just tell him I'm like Lord I'm so afraid to
be alone with you I'm I I'm just scared are you a safe place for me and I have
to choose that he is by doing it anyway and he shows up so I have wept recently
because I was so afraid of being alone with him because I'm traveling you know
and so sometimes I'm traveling by myself and I get out on the road again and I'm
like the stress and all this anxiety rises up because I'm scared I'm scared
to be alone with my God and so understand that all of this that I talk
about it's very real but but we choose it anyway we we choose to put ourselves
in a position where goodness and where he where where he can come through and
present himself because I'm not working for it and trying to provide my own
my own safety net like okay God here I go I've got I don't have a safety net
it's just you are you gonna be there or not and I have to put myself in in
situations where he where he has the opportunity to show up because I don't
have something that I'm doing to protect myself in the situation that can cover
that can cover me where like because and so instead I'm vulnerable and exposed
it's like okay God I'm not protecting myself are you gonna protect me so
anyway hopefully hopefully this is helpful and I will
I love each one of you and feel free to reach out if you have questions and
remember to act on all of this stuff actually do it even if you're scared
even if you don't believe it and and God I can attest through experience God
honors it so anyway love you