The Way of Jesus 14.0

We're gonna continue with this series, um, uncovering the way of Jesus together,

and I've got Mey with me here this evening and I'm just gonna have a conversation

with her, throw some questions at her.

And I've asked Mey in preparation this week, I've asked her to not prepare to

come and teach, but to come and share, to confess, to reveal, come to show.

To speak about this person of Jesus Christ that she's encountered, and we're gonna

continue on our theme with prayer, that the way of Jesus is the way of surrender.

If you look at Christ through the gospels, his ministry's

life, right up into his death.

Even in his resurrection, he is dependent upon his father in heaven.

Yeah.

He's, he so seeks to glorify his father.

He so seeks to have his father's will come to pass.

We see it in the garden as he pleads with the father in his humanity.

Prayers that I would pray.

If I was Jesus prayers that I'm sure you would pray if you knew

what was ahead to say, father, if there is any other way, please,

but your will be done.

There was this utter surrender that we see in Jesus Christ to the father's

will, and so this life of prayer is a life of being welcomed into surrender.

Surrender to someone,

and as I encouraged us this morning sometimes, and I make this mistake

sometimes in our formation, in our discipleship, in our fellowship of

Jesus, we reduce the fellowship of Jesus to just mental ascent or to knowledge.

I know stuff about Jesus.

Therefore I'm becoming more like Jesus.

Who knows that that can fall short at times.

That the call of us as his followers, as his disciples is to come and to be known,

to be with, to be formed by this ness.

This being with.

God himself in the presence of the Holy Spirit, that the spirit is here to form

us and change us, to renew us, to renew our hearts and, and as I encouraged us

this morning, that if you want to be a follower of Jesus, that is surrendered

unto Christ, can I encourage you?

That the way to surrender in Christ.

The starting point is not to get to know more about theology or

faith or what the Bible says it is to encounter the risen king.

We start there.

That scripture is revealing the risen king, not the other way around.

It's not, we don't come to scripture and that is our main thing that we stop at.

No scripture is a gateway to someone.

It's a gateway to a relationship, isn't it?

Like this invitation and, and so if you meet the risen king, if

you meet the one who is the most glorious, the most beautiful.

The one that the Holy Spirit confesses to us reveals to us.

If you meet him, guess what?

I believe because it's been my experience that I will, I will and you will,

will fall to our knees and surrender.

He's worthy of surrender.

And as I thought about that, I'm like, I know someone who,

who, who looks like that.

Who, how she speaks, speaks like that.

This is, this is Mey.

Mey is someone that has surrendered her life to Christ.

As I said this morning, the only word that came to mind was she reeks

of one who has been with Jesus.

And so what I wanna do is I wanna encourage this as we are listening to

me's, confessions of this has been.

My journey with Christ, a developing heart in prayer to meet him, to be

with him, to be reliant upon him.

I wanna encourage you that Mey speaking in the way that God's created her,

and that might look different for you.

It does for me.

I'm quite heady, right?

I want to know why.

I want to know how.

And so for me, Mey and others have been a great discipleship partnership

to go, actually Luke, you can, you can lay down that heady pursuit

at times and come and just be with Christ and be renewed by Christ.

But the way that I get there is gonna be different to the way that

Milani gets there, and that's okay.

So what I wanna encourage you is.

That if you feel condemned or you feel belittled, because, ah, I'm not like that,

that's my exp that's not my experience.

I wanna encourage you that that's okay, that God's created us all very uniquely.

Yeah, I find it, personally, I find it really hard to just sit down and pray.

I find that really hard.

So what do I do?

I, I need, I need structure.

I need, I need written prayers, so I've got a couple of different

prayer books that I use.

So I sit down and I pray the prayers.

And so I need that because for me to just sit, oh, it is, of the thoughts

that come, it is a kaleidoscope of thoughts and entertaining

rabbit holes that come to mind.

Yeah.

And so I just wanna encourage you that maybe you are like me, but that's okay.

God can still meet us in the means that he has created us in, and so I don't

want, as we listen to Melania, I want you to lean in and catch something.

Catch the desire to come and be with Christ.

That's what I'm, that's my heart tonight.

Yeah.

Amen.

Oh, great.

You're very kind.

So Milani.

Yes, Luke,

I wanna, I wanna do just a little bit of a different start.

Something very, very simple.

Can you just share with everyone who you are, like, what does your life look like?

Like who are you?

Yeah.

Um.

Tell us a bit about yourself before we start.

Yeah.

Okay.

Um, so I am a daughter.

Um, I've got two brothers both in heaven at the moment.

I've got, um, parents.

I'm a South African.

I've been here my 16th year.

Um, I'm married to Johan.

We've got one daughter, um, Alicia.

Um.

Yeah.

And you know, I work.

What do you do for work?

What's, what does work look like

here It in inclines, um, caring.

And at the moment, accounting.

I've done lots of things in my life.

Um, so yeah, a little bit of both.

So caring for different things, um, people

Yeah.

Caring, um, as a carer.

Yeah.

Um, but I did that because coming here, I, you know, for.

10 years didn't work because I was looking after Lehi.

And so if you haven't done what you did for 10 years, you can't

do it again unless you have the time to, you know, um, refresh.

Um, and so I realized the only thing I did for the last 10 years was to care.

So maybe that is a good fit for me.

And so that was the door that opened

because a lot of people dunno.

What's your qualification in, what did you study at uni?

What, what are you qualified in?

Um, I studied chemistry.

So I did, um, a, a master's in chemistry.

That's where I ended.

Um, yeah.

And, and I worked in a laboratory in South Africa.

Um, that's where Johan and I met.

Um, he was a chemical engineer.

I was the chemist and you know, I gave him some grief because he.

Didn't.

Yeah, so that, that's where our journey started at A refinery in Springs.

There you go.

Yeah.

So in a laboratory, love blossomed or was it more clashing to start with?

Um,

so that's how we got to know one another.

But then somebody wanted to set up a blind date and he said, I'll do my own favor.

I'll do my own.

Um, I dunno when you call that English, you are my own.

Help me.

Um, it's I'll, you know, I'll, I'll.

Pursue her myself.

You don't need to do it.

Oh, right.

Yeah.

So they're trying to set you up and you're going, yeah, no, I, I can do this.

That's fine.

So you

No, I'll do, I'll do it myself.

Leave me alone.

Yeah.

Oh, good on him.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Oh, that's so beautiful.

Awesome.

Alright.

Thank you for sharing.

'cause I'm sure for a lot of you, you, you might know of Milani, but maybe you don't

know her and her context all that well.

So thank you for doing that.

Um.

So Milani, I wanna start off with the, with the conversation around prayer.

What has your, what's your, what's been your journey?

What's, what's been the journey of cultivating a life of prayer?

Because obviously, you know, I mean, talking to you, it didn't just.

Didn't just start when you came outta your mother's womb and you,

you know, there was a forming there.

There's been ups and downs.

It's been, you know, been good times, hard times.

So what, what, what has been the journey of prayer for you?

What's that?

What's that look like?

Okay.

Um, I think it's.

You know, it's like Luke say, it's not something that happens.

And really what I have to say, it's God's pursuit of me.

This is my journey with Brie.

So, um, I was in church.

We, we went to church twice, um, Sunday morning, Sunday evening, Sunday

school hour and a half every Sunday.

So we never missed a Sunday.

Um, but when I was 14 years old, I read a book and.

God held in that book, A man in front of me.

And this was a man that was a bond servant.

He was totally yielded to God.

He had nothing, you know, just, just praying and knowing God

and had the word in his heart.

And he went into the Red Army and he was persecuted for his faith.

But what I realized as I read that, I realized, oh.

I don't know this Christ that he's talking about.

I don't have a relationship like that with him.

I know of him and I know facts about him, but I don't know him

because he doesn't speak to me.

I, I don't have that encounter with him.

I don't have that assurance.

That he had.

I don't have that strength where somebody say, I'm gonna kill

you unless you deny Christ.

And all his most utter prayer was to say, I don't wanna deny Christ.

And then Christ communicated to him, Christ in him cannot deny Christ.

And that's where I realized, oh, this is what the Christian life is, is about.

But then I went on my knees and I said, God, I've just realized I don't know you.

And this invitation I wanna accept to get to know you.

So that's, and I knew that prayer is a, um, is a, is is a essential

part of being a Christian because that's what was held in front of me.

Dying to self was the other part.

Um, and then having the word of God in your heart because that's what he had.

But then, you know, it's a journey.

So from the moment of conversion, I had a love for the word of God.

I was up in the morning with God because I wanted to get to know him.

But then, um, what happened, I would say my prayer journey intensified

is Johan gave me a book one day.

We were having, you know, we, we went great.

Um, and he said, uh, the book is the Power of a Praying Wife.

And inside he wrote, can you pray for me?

And then as I read that, I realized, um.

Introduction said You opened this book because you think you're gonna pray your

husband because you wanna change him, but the promise is that you will be the person

that will be changed during this process.

And that was true because God started working with me.

And then after that, I would say the next pivotal place for me in terms

of prayer, I always love Jesus.

Yeah, I always loved his word, but I never had the heart like I have now.

That came through moving here and the suffering, I wanna say, um, firstly,

we never had problems before then.

You know, we were just, everything was just going our way, coming here, having

family there created unique problems.

Okay.

For example, I, I thought my moms would, my mom and dad would be looked

after, but my brothers would take care.

But with them not there, it's a whole different cup.

Um, and it's diff it's, it's difficult here if your parents are aged, how,

how, you know, how much more they, so that, but also the longing.

I think that was probably the, the thing that.

God used the most, you know, I remember looking at the back of my

house and saying, God, there has to be something more than this.

There has to be something more.

And then when I felt the longing of myself for my family and the,

you know, it took me 18 months, I, I really wept through 18 months.

It was so hard because I'm a family person and I came because

God said, come I wanted to stay.

And, um, at that place.

I felt his heart, I felt his heart for his people.

I felt his longing for us because there's a longing where God

wants to be intimate with us.

He wants us.

He, he, you know, he, he wants all of us because he gave all of

himself to us and, and I would say.

From there, it just, it just grew where the Holy Spirit taught me,

and really most of the things I, I learned through prayer is through

making mistakes and through suffering.

Because when, when you are in a tight place, when you are

struggling, when you have nowhere else to run, well, what do you do?

You do and you go to the one person.

That's been faithful all your life and that has never, never

failed you and is not a liar.

And I can only say that is God.

And then he starts showing himself faithful.

And then as he starts showing himself faithful because you believe

him, things start happening and happening and happening, and then

your courage grows and your knowing grows and your understanding grows.

So that's how the journey started.

W would you say that your journey in prayer started in

friendship with Christ and.

Because there's that, that reality that our relationship

with Christ is, is multifaceted.

He's, he's friend, he's the good shepherd, but he's also king.

What has maintained this devotion to prayer over the years is that

his friendship, is it his lordship?

Um, has the fear of the Lord, you know, maintained this, that kept

you in wisdom to go back to him?

What, what, what has he provided that has connected with your heart so deeply?

What is it, Marni?

Probably both, but the one thing is probably his beauty.

Love it.

I remember, um, you know, the first time I heard the song, it's probably

very personal, but I'll share it, is.

What a beautiful name.

We sang it here and I went home and I remember where I stood because

I had my phone against my ear and I was listening to the song, which

I heard the first time in church, and I went and I listened to it.

And I was just weeping.

And I was just weeping.

And this is how Johan found me with my phone in the middle of the dining

room with a phone against my ear because I thought, I agree with that.

He's just the most beautiful.

Be him because of his kindness, because of his compassion for me, because of

the fact that I deserve death and he gave me life, but then his lordship at

that moment of conversion, I knew that God was saying to know me is to die

to things that you want.

It could contain death for you because that was what held

what was held in front of me.

And this is what Jesus says.

He says, you know, follow me, take up your cross and if, if it needs be dying

as well and it's not excluded, um, but it was that awareness that he's Lord, yeah.

He's Lord.

And that means he's in charge of the universe.

It means he's sovereign.

It means he decides.

And that means there's a safety there.

But there is also trembling.

You know, for me, there's always been that trembling.

Um, as Isaiah 66 says, you know, what can you do for me?

What can you do for me?

Earth Is my foot still?

Heaven is my throne.

But to this person, I look, this person has my full attention.

Wow.

The one that trembles at my word and has a contrite heart.

And this is what God wants to birth in us.

A contrite, a broken heart.

And I just wanna explain for me a broken heart is if you go into a war and you

are on a horse, if you have a wild horse, you can't go into war with that horse.

Because the wars will go that way and the battle is that way.

So brokenness means for me, yieldedness, submissiveness to God, yieldedness

to his will, what Jesus demonstrated.

Yeah.

And so that participating in that is the devotion.

Of creating patterns in one's life.

Yeah.

Of going, I'm going to yield my time, uh, throughout my day, wherever that might be.

And, uh, and give this to you, Lord.

Um, what has that looked like for you?

What's your pattern of prayer?

What's your, what's your rhythm look like?

Yeah.

Yeah.

And does it change?

Does it change through seasons?

And

It does, yeah, it does change.

Um, I think you have to discern this, this season as well, so my time

with God is before anybody wakes.

But these seasons where I lapse, where I get tired and then he will tap me

on the shoulder and say, I miss you.

And then I come, you know, like that.

And it happened last week where I just, I woke up and I

realized I had an appointment to pray with somebody and I felt.

The unction to get up and it was cold and you know, all the fleshy

stuff, which we all have to fight.

And then as I went and I sat, I realized it's like the spirit spoke to me, you

know, and it's like a realization.

So why do you make an appointment with Andre, but.

Not with me.

You know, it's like that.

It's like I dismissed the unction of the Holy Spirit to pray.

So I do that.

But when he taps me on my shoulder, I just get back.

So that's my time.

But then I get up early to read the word, because when I read the

word, God speaks to me through the word and I can pray it back to him.

So my life has changed, you know, in the beginning I had a lot of time.

I don't have that time now.

So I have to work with what I have.

And we've changed, you know, um, initially.

Johan and I are praying together at least twice a week.

And if I forget, we, we have certain times that we do that.

Um, and we didn't have that before, but we do that because we, we do that.

And then I pray at this season in my life, so it does change is a

season where I feel that God has called me to pray with people.

And that means, you know, I have specific appointments with people that I pray and I

have this thing on my heart to pray with.

Um, you know, just with the moms where I have been praying with individuals because

there's a battle out there for children.

And I wanted to enter into that battle in a very physical way

because for years I've been praying, you know, um, interceding, prying.

But I felt that God sees now in a more.

Tangible, physical way, because the thing that I see is that so many

people, it's like the disciples.

You're in the boat and you say, God, where are you?

Don't you care?

Don't you care that I'm perishing?

And I feel that because I'm so convinced, I'm absolutely

convinced that God is with us.

I'm so absolutely convinced that he hears me.

I'm so absolutely convinced that.

He knows me.

Um, you know, just things that happens that in my life that I just know he

knows before I ask him what I need.

I know that I've seen it, I've experienced it.

So if I then go, I come with that conviction and I'm like, I feel

like I'm the tangible expression of that with people when you

feel like God has forsaken me.

No, he hasn't.

Let me encourage you so.

So that season has changed.

So there's a lot of prayer with a lot of people.

A lot of it over the phone.

Zoom, you know, that's, it's COVID gave us Zoom and we are driving a Zoom.

Zoom.

So we zoom.

Yeah.

So, so a great encouragement for prayer and continuing in this life of

prayer, of surrender is actually in praying with others, like, is that.

Sort of what you're saying, has that been an energizing factor?

For you or not so much or, yeah,

I think it's very important.

Yeah.

Because, um, and that would be my encouragement for somebody

that struggles with praying.

Start with praying with people.

Yeah.

And the reason for that is we learn from one another.

The second reason for that is I have seen through my life, I've had seasons

where I've prayed with a specific.

Specific per person.

You know, where I was working and she was working the only time

was four o'clock in the morning.

And so I would drive to her place for a year.

We did that.

However, she's in, um, Cal at the moment, six hours away from you.

I will be forever connected with her.

So what I'm saying is, if I pray with you, Luke, you, you see, I pray with you.

God comes through his spirit and he weaves us together.

Yeah.

And because we are woven together, nothing can separate.

That is, that is organic unity for me.

And that is why I feel so strongly that the church must pray together

because that is organic unity.

Because as I pray, you know, if I have something in my heart

against you, I can't pray for you.

That's the first obstacle that I have to deal with.

So I can stay in the prayer meeting, but I can go home and then I can wrestle

about if I'm struggling to forgive you.

God gives me the strength to forgive you, but then in that place where I

pray for you privately, God then gives me his heart for you, and I see you.

His purpose, you know, just the fact that he has chosen you and

that there's a lie that you believe in, so I can start praying that.

And so what was a problem and would've remained a problem is no longer a problem.

And God deposits his love in my heart for you.

I mean, and this is what I've seen.

So, you know, when I struggle with my dad resident, I wanna, I wanna dagger him.

I get angry.

So what I do is I wrestle.

I wrestle, and I allow the mercy of God to come into my heart.

And then I realize, oh, God loves me.

He's forgiven me.

Yeah.

You know, and, and this, this is why I, I really feel so strongly that God wants

to do something in our midst, and he wants us to pray together organically.

Yes, we have prayer meetings, but it's not always possible for people to come.

But we don't have an excuse not to pray.

Um, because if we don't, there's a cost of what are we losing out, you know?

And, and the cost would be that that union of oneness, isn't it?

Like Christ in that high priestly prayer desires for us to experience a.

Oneness that he has with his father, which is love.

And as you've just articulated that, as we pray, as we're with him, we experience

his love as we pray with others.

We experience his love for others.

Our affections grow, don't they?

Yeah.

Such a great encouragement and reminder of that.

And that's, that's something if you're struggling, if you're struggling with

others, oh, I've got this neighbor.

Hey, ugh,

you know, we're chalk and cheese.

And uh, you know, he's done some stuff that's really annoyed

me, but really annoyed me.

And, um, as I've been thinking over the last few weeks around

prayer, I've been led to go.

I, I rationalize, I, I rationalize my responses to him like I just,

you know, def you know, justify, you know, I'm right, he's wrong.

And, um, and just being led to actually start praying for him and that desire

for his good is now bubbling up.

Um, and so if that's, if that's something that you are finding as someone grading,

whether it's your relationships, you know, close relationships, even in

your marriage, I know that's been your testimony, hasn't it, with Johan and

yourself, that as you guys committed to pray, to pray together, God has

done a great healing being with him.

Yeah, yeah,

yeah.

I think, you know, uh.

You asked this morning, um, what did I gain from praying?

So what I, I gained from praying is I gained intimacy, um,

obviously with God, um, and.

When I say the word intimacy, I mean these are knowing, these

are knowing that he loves me.

There's an assurance that I'm saved.

There's an assurance that he's got me even through hardship, and that is for my good.

So that came from that.

But also, I've never had intimacy with Johan.

I always felt like I was married with the enemy.

What?

I mean, you know that that movie.

And that is not a real reflection, but that's what I've sensed inside.

You know, I, I, I was battling.

Um, but for the first time in our lives I feel like we are on the same

page and we are in the same heart.

I can see the heart of Christ in him.

And so that's what I gained.

Um, and the other thing that I wanna say is, you know, there's so many

people that pray for their husbands.

There's so many people that pray.

For a long time in the waiting because God is sovereign.

He always hears, but how he answers and when he answers the prayer is up to him.

And so sometimes he asks you to pray for 30 years to do something on a

deathbed or sometimes he you to, you know, you don't, you can't even see it.

The waiting becomes possible in prayer because you find perseverance there.

You find patience there because God is the one that allow, enables you to endure

and not to say, oh, this is rubbish.

You know, because you know God, and you know timing is everything for him.

Um, so that enables you to India.

And even for me with Johan, I mean, you know, we, we'll be married 30 years,

um, next week after or whatever, but it, it took literally 16 years of recovery

because when we came here, we started over and it's really only the last five

years that we've been praying together.

It's so good.

It's the Lord.

So what have, what have been some disciplines that have

helped sustain you in prayer?

What are some of the practical things, like you mentioned about getting up early?

Um.

What are some other things?

Like are you, do you have reminders on your phone?

Do you, what are some of the practical things that you do or have done, um,

to help build habit, um, in prayer?

You know,

um, I think everybody's different.

So some people are morning people, some people are evening people.

I'm a morning person.

I've always been a morning person.

So initially I set the alarm.

That's what I did.

Um, our alarm goes off early, but you know, through practice my body has.

You know, I wake by myself before the alarm goes off or, or three o'clock

or whatever, because I've been trained in that way, but I go to bed earlier.

Yeah.

But then I've also learned that sometimes God wakes me in the night.

But the, the discipline is, for me, the biggest discipline is to have the word in

my heart, to have the word in my heart.

Some of the other disciplines is to, um, is to fast.

Uh.

You know, prayer is a struggle for our flesh because my flesh is an enemy of God.

And I will hear, you know, just like when you need to exercise,

you have excuses in your head.

Same ex, same excuses.

So I've learned that is silence those, especially if it's

something that is really serious and I didn't know what to do.

You know, you don't have to do 40 days, you can just do a day.

Um, because what happens is you submit your flesh.

You say you are not the boss.

The spirit is, that's what you do when you fast.

That's the purpose of it.

So I do that.

And then the other thing I do when I read the word, because

Jesus is the loving word.

And the word is the written word and there's no contradiction.

I, when I read the word and the Holy Spirit, when I say he speaks to me,

it's like he's got the highlighter and he's highlighting something.

It goes, whoosh.

He's just got my attention here.

I write it down in a book, and so, and then.

When I come before God, because he has spoken to me, he has

quickened that word in my heart.

I then pray that back to God, and this is something I recommend for people

that struggle to pray because the word of God cannot return to him empty.

So when I pray that I'm praying his will back to him.

So when two agree on earth.

So I agree with God's word and I'm praying it back to him,

and that's a good way to start.

I would say, for people that start struggle, because that's

the disciplines that I've done.

I've still got my little green book.

I don't use it that often because the verses are now in my heart.

And that's how they got there because I had that little green

book and I wrote everything that he, he spoke to me, I wrote it down

verses that jumped out, you know?

Um.

I have the mind of Christ.

So that's the thing, you know, I, I got these things in my

heart by meditating on them.

Um, and now they in there.

So, um, although I struggle a little bit with menopause at the moment,

so there's a little bit of a, a mag.

I just can't recall it, but it's still in my heart and the Holy Spirit can

pull it out, even though my mind can't.

Absolutely.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Oh, that's beautiful.

Um, what about the power?

What, what would you.

Will you testify to the power of prayer?

What have you witnessed?

What have you seen?

Where can you remind us and encourage us to its power?

Um, so for me, um, prayer is like a powerhouse where

we access what is paid for.

It is like, it's finished.

He's, he's done, he's paid for it.

The word says, won't he with Jesus always also give us everything.

And so if I, I, I have a struggle and I don't have that,

there's, there's a problem.

So we will have problems in this world all the time, but how do I deal with it?

So what I have found is.

Prayer is the way that I withdraw from my bank account, and it's a debit card.

It's been paid for by the cross of Jesus Christ.

It's, I can tap it, which means this is the way that I get it into my life.

Does it make sense?

And so what I have witnessed is I have witnessed, I mean, my marriage

is a, is a testimony of the power of prayer, um, Johan's life.

Is, you know, before Johan, probably for two years before he came to

the point where he resigned every morning before he went out, I would,

I would get a verse during the day or whatever, just five minutes.

I would pray that over him.

I would pray the word of God over him.

And I was faithful in that for about, I don't know, two years.

So that's where my heart lies.

You know, we can do that over our children, you know,

being faithful in that place.

But I've seen the power of God in answering impossible things

like, um, salvation of my brother.

Uh, he removed the cancer from his heart.

He said it's his time to go and I had to accept that.

Um, but salvation of family members, there's more to come.

But there's some that's, you know, we, we have a testimony

where Johan's, um, brother's son.

He, he literally was in an accident as an atheist because he

was working with somebody older mentor that was a total atheist.

And he went into that accident as an atheist.

And we were praying for them, like Jonah not really, you know, just passionate

like or anything, just consistently.

And um, he.

God literally pulled him out of hell.

He woke up with his words.

Jesus Christ is real.

And so there's nothing impossible for God.

Other practical things like there's no house to live in.

Uh, practical things like a policy has been stolen.

And on TV it's been said, listen, you are not gonna get the money back yet.

A week later, the money was back in the account.

So all I'm saying is nothing is impossible for God, but we have to understand the

difference between needs and wants.

Yes.

And I don't think we always understand that and so, so.

I'm very needy.

I'm needy.

I'm a beggar, but I'm also a daughter because if your daughter knows you, she

has no fear in coming to you and asking you, and she doesn't have a method.

She just barges in like she did the other night, just barges in

and say, this is what's going on.

Can we do this?

And.

This, this is our relationship.

And, and so there's lots of things that God, and so because of that, if he, God

is not an acceptor of persons, so I'm no different than anybody here, but I,

I believe his word and I tremble at it.

And if there's a problem, I do what I've been trained to

do, and that is to run to him.

And you're asking, he always hears.

He always hears.

So good.

Had a, had an experience this last week.

And I share this just as an encouragement.

'cause I think, I think what you've sort of highlighted as well, mey,

you haven't said it, but you've highlighted it in that there are,

there are, there's a time and an hour.

Uh, for different types of prayer, like different types of posture before God.

And there's times when we do find ourselves, you know, in a garden,

you know, going through suffering.

And there are times to pray out to God and say, Lord, you will be done.

Um, whatever your desire is here, be done.

But then there's moments when you and I encounter.

Evil powers and the prayer is to go, Lord, we're calling

upon you to come and deliver.

We're calling upon to come and bring your life.

We're calling upon you to rally against these evil powers.

Yeah, so there's those, those times when we need to call and enter

into spiritual warfare as well.

And for each one of us here tonight, you are gonna be in a different place.

You are gonna be in a unique place.

I think it's really important that we understand the time

and the hour that we're in.

Uh, yes as a church community, but also as individuals in our lives.

And, and this past week we had this, something came up, um,

that was gonna affect us as a couple and also another couple.

And there were some other people involved that aren't Christians.

And we could see, we could see it unraveling and we could see

some evil stuff taking place.

And we encouraged each other.

The four of us went, this is a battle and we've gotta pray.

His kingdom come.

We gotta pray for his power.

We gotta, we gotta pray and intercede that God would do a work in these other people

that don't even know him, and that that life would come out of this situation.

And as we entered into that 24 hours, this situation completely flipped on its head

and what was going to be met with evil.

We're seeing, we've started to see, we saw out of this individual's mouth

that does not know Christ, that does not confess Christ, that obviously is

not living a life dedicated to Christ.

And his desires totally changed his opinion to one

of life, to one of goodness.

And so there is, there's power in joining with.

Christ.

Another encouragement that, um, that I'd like to share with you guys is a

couple of weeks ago, I'm sitting here, we're doing communion and, um, there's

something about God, God knows our needs.

Hey, he already knows them, but there's something that God delights in.

He delights in us joining in with him or growing in intimacy with

him to say, this is our need.

Lord, and I'm dependent on you for meeting it.

Like there's something about it that God rejoices in when his

children requests things from him.

It's all what you said about a daughter coming to you as a

parent and going, I want this.

Or Ethan the other day, who's six years old, right?

Comes and goes, I want a Nintendo Switch, possibly number two.

'cause that's a better one.

And I want to go and watch what, what the heck?

Who are you?

How do you know what a garment watches you're six?

Like that, that joyful request.

But even, even when we as children come in and welcome the presence of God, God

can, can do a work anyway, and that's what I want to confess happened a couple

of weeks ago is we're taking communion as we simply as I was praying with a

couple other people and we simply said.

Come Lord Jesus, we welcome your body.

We welcome your blood communion ends.

And there were two.

There were two different ailments I was experiencing completely healed, gone that

I'd been dealing with for quite some time.

Completely gone.

I didn't ask him to heal me in those ways.

I just said simply, I said, Lau, I want you to come and

I want your will to be done.

And so where are you?

Where are you now?

What is the time and space that you find yourself in?

Can you just, everyone just close your eyes.

You know, we live in a, in a noisy world.

CS Lewis actually wrote in one of his books, he says, the, the

enemy, the the devil, Satan.

His greatest tool to us is noise, to distract us, to fill

our minds with other thoughts.

When was the last time you stopped?

I actually stopped and invited the Holy Spirit to come and almost do a, an audit

of your mind, your heart, your soul.

I actually invited him.

Like, what is, what has been unsaid between you and Christ?

What are.

What are your worries?

What are your burdens that you have not realized you are carrying?

Look, are, are you in a moment where, yes, it is spiritual warfare

and I've, I've been flippant in joining and partnering with God

to step up and say, no, your power come Lord Jesus, your power come.

Satan, you will not have your way.

Come Lord Jesus.

Or are you in a moment where actually you've rallied against the will of

God and you need to fall to your knees and say, Lord, forgive me.

I submit to you.

Where are you?

Where are you with him?

Have you grown distant?

Have you grown familiar with Christ?

Is, is tonight an encouragement of going, Lord, I so want

to walk this life with you,

Andrew.

Can you just come up and, um, play as, as we just sit, just want you to sit.

I just want you to sit still.

Holy Spirit, we're just trusting that you are here with us,

and as Melany encouraged us that in this moment of just

quiet, surrender and prayer,

we're yielding to your desire.

Holy Spirit, right now.

We are yielding to your affections.

The the dialogue is, yes, we speak unto God, but God is wanting to speak to us.

Yes, it is right for us to say, Lord, we delight in you,

but God also delights in you.

He delights in us as his children,

that as His love comes and ministers to us in this moment of time,

that his love has the power to melt, to wash away those heavy burdens.

That heavy yoke that you've put around your neck, that belief that,

oh Lord, I am sufficient,

that his love comes and he says, no, it's okay.

Give it all back to me.

Give it all back to me.

I am sufficient.

I can meet your needs

where you are weak.

I can be strong.

A Holy Spirit, have your way here in this place in us.

Speak to each.

Every single heart and mind here in the way that you speak to them, Lord, in

the way that they can hear each son and daughter speak to them in their way.

Oh Lord, may they have dreams, may they have visions, may they, may they

open the word and may it come to life.

Yes.

And may in the pages of scripture, may they meet someone.

Each and every day.

May they, oh, they meet you again.

Oh, let us taste

that infinite love that infinite joy, that infinite mercy.

That your affections are for us?

Yes.

The unfaithful.

Yet you remain faithful that every morning, oh, your mercies in you,

and therefore I can come back.

I can come back and be with, and be filled and be renewed.

There's, there's some people here that I'm feeling God saying that,

that are thoughts coming in your mind and you're saying, I can I go home?

I've been so far,

there's almost, almost like this embarrassment of, oh, Luke, I,

I've not desired him for so long.

I walk the walk, I talk the talk.

Feeling lost.

If you're feeling

worried about returning, know that Jesus has revealed himself as the one.

It says, uh, lost equals, loved, lost, or far equals one who is pursued.

Come back,

come to me, all who are weary, heavy, heavy laden,

distant.

Unreliant unfaithful, come to me, all who have turned their back,

come back and I will give you rest.

I just wanted to pray over you.

Um, Hebrews 1320.

By the delight of the eternal governance between the father and the son,

may he give you every good thing.

So that you can do his will, everything that you need to complete your

race, everything that you need to be a true witness of Jesus Christ.

Everything, to stand in your lentil patch and to stay with faith and

believe unie that God is with me.

Even when it's hard.

I pray that the Holy Spirit will deposit into your heart what you need.

And so that when God looks at you, when your race is finished,

that he will be well pleased.

And Father, I also pray that you will come and bless every

individual with the knowing

by the Holy Spirit.

That they are loved by the Father as you love Jesus,

that they will know that Jesus is in the bosom of the Father and

they are in Christ, and so they are in the bosom of the Father.

It talks to me about a place of security in God.

So thank you Father that I can just ask that

and that we can agree tonight together,

whatever condemnation there is, whatever accusation there is, whatever voice of.

And often there is that we can silence those voices tonight and that we

can choose through the spirit of God to amplify the voice of love.

The voice of truth, the voice of righteousness over every individual.

And Father, I pray even as we go out of this place, that you will be the one.

That will speak to them in the midnight hours because you do that.

You speak to us when it's quiet, when it's still,

and I pray that by your great grace, that you will

give the surety that we have access.

We have access to this Christ.

We have access to God.

We have access to his provision through Jesus Christ.

Thank you, father.

I

mean,

as Andrew just keeps playing, um, if you need.

Prayer.

If anything's stirred up within you and you want someone to join with

you in prayer, then um, I wanna invite you to come down the front.

I also want to give permission that if you wanna respond to Christ, um, in

the ways of just coming and kneeling, then that's free to do that as well,

to come and just be with Christ.

Um, and I'll just, is that okay Andrew, if you just play for

another sort of five or so minutes.

Um, but if you need to go, um, then that's all good as well.

Is that okay?

Beautiful.

Well bless you.

Have a wonderful week.

If you need to leave again, if you'd like prayer, um, come.

Would love to pray for you.

Beautiful.