Transcript
Speaker: Hello and welcome to From Dublin to Cleveland. i am Logan Howard and I'm joined by the one, the only, Brendan Thomas Merritt. I was like, is there a lag or is he just not talking? the How are you today, Brendan? How's it going?
Speaker: am great. Always great. And life is good. It's been tremendously busy. I started working on a novel in 2020. Forgot it existed until Logan reminded me.
Speaker: And i working way on it profusely. And even on ah the Perks 2 novels, working on rebranding them as my own IP, breaking association with the original publishing company that I used, making it very much my own thing.
Speaker: a So away new covers and everything everything else, giving it brand new flair, a new revamp. So I've been busy, but an exciting time.
Speaker: What about yourself? Nice. um Yeah, i've I've been busy doing ministry. um Today we went and helped a lady who had ah just a bunch of stuff that need moved and was trying to move her brother out. And was a whole mess of a So that was interesting. um Trying to move people's stuff without much direction is kind of weird. But hey,
Speaker: We were able to be a blessing to her. It was encouraging to her. So at least that was good. And then we ran errands. So a lot of errand running, lot of setting up meetings for the future. And we'll see what God does. And I will announce more when I know more in the future. so But things are going well. And got a couple of messages in the works. I'll be preaching on the cost of discipleship. that Jesus is bringing up the, um that you have to hate your family in comparison for your love for me.
Speaker: And that's a pretty shocking statement. That's like, Whoa, Jesus. Whoa, back up.
Speaker: Hate. So yeah, I, I will be going through that. And um hopefully one of these days I can see that the problem is our, the way we post our videos, they're on a separate format. They're not always posted to YouTube. So I can't just like upload them up to our thing. So hopefully I'll be able to figure out a way to, Make that work in the future. So you'll be able to see some of my messages or hear some my messages more likely since we don't record them, but like video record them. So we'll see.
Speaker: um But today what we are doing. throw your phone on the pulpi Record yourself. and just I could, but then, you know, people would be like, why does he have his phone out and charge and start beating me with sticks? You know, I don't want to do that.
Speaker: First century, let them.
Speaker: The church used to literally stop halfway through the service so people could have smoke and break. The vast majority of the congregants at the time when they began came to church with a lighter in one pocket, a box of fags in the other, so the pastor would stop the church halfway through, all spoke their cigarettes, come back, and then put under the word, you do what have to do.
Speaker: yes So, wait a second. You said they had a lighter in one pocket. What was in the other pocket? You Americans. You just changed the meaning of words.
Speaker: You're going to get cancelled. They're going to come for you. Are you worried that you might be killed? They're going to get you. They're going to get you.
Speaker: A box of tags.
Speaker: Oh, yes. Wherever the other brands are. friends Yes. and they're fine The joy of language.
Speaker: um Anyway, today, our episode, we're going to be playing a game first, and then we're going getting into what you've probably seen the title of the episode, which is about prayer. So we're going to be talking about prayer at the end. um Just continuing the series. Just to really en insult some people.
Speaker: You should.
Speaker: praying for those who use friends with a really oh yes kind of thumbnail yeah rainbow clothes yeah so um anyway we're gonna be playing a game so this game is about categories so what we're gonna do is the goal of me and Brendan is to guess the category.
Speaker: So one of the ways that we can help each other is saying what exactly the category is, giving ah at least a general genre of it. So for instance, if it's about people, we would say, hey,
Speaker: You need to be guessing people. And so how we're going to guess, we're going to go back and forth by guessing people, things, items, whatever. So our example we're going to use is a non-biblical example. The example is going to be food. So for instance, I would say my category is food related.
Speaker: And Brendan would then go, OK, so pizza. Pizza is a food. And I would say, yes, pizza fits in the category. Then he might ask, what about cereal?
Speaker: And I would say, no, cereal does not fit in the category. And then I'd guess, then he says, well, maybe hot dogs. And I would say, yeah, hot dogs would work. And then he would guess something like chicken. And I would say, yes, chicken works. And he'd go, is this food that I can have for dinner? And I would say, you got it. You have the correct category. I have had all of those for breakfast in the past.
Speaker: All of those. Even the cereal, folks. Even the cereal. um So ah we're going to be doing a Bible version of that. So I will have a category.
Speaker: Brandon will have a category. And we're just going to go back and forth to see how long it takes for us to get these correct. So for instance, um I will say that my category is people.
Speaker: So this is people in the Bible. So you can now guess a name and I will tell you whether they're in this category or not. Oh, wow.
Speaker: Miriam. No, Miriam is not in this category. All right. What's your category or what is your group? Oh, lost already.
Speaker: No, no, no. We're going to go back and forth, back and forth. We're going both do two at the same time. So, okay okay. I'll be trying to guess yours. You're trying to guess mine. We'll see you who gets it done first. so he this My category is
Speaker: also on people. Yours is on people. Mine also on people. Yours is also on people. Alright, so I'm going to guess Miriam, simply because Miriam must be in your category if you guessed it. So Miriam, is she in your category?
Speaker: You booger. She's not, actually. oh Rats. I can't use that. Maybe would have chance to throw you off. Not really. don't even know the rules either, guys. I think it's going to make this little long.
Speaker: good Okay, so for yours, I'm going to write down all the ones I get wrong. a Moses. I know he's your favorite person in the Bible. No, sorry, that's another person I'm thinking of. I might not see.
Speaker: Moses. Moses. No. Okay. okay Um, let's go with Abraham.
Speaker: Is Abraham in your category? No. No. Okay. All right. No.
Speaker: Jesus. Who? Did you say Jesus? The main person of the Bible? No. jesus Forgive me. Jesus is not in this category.
Speaker: I'm sorry. not Oh my goodness. Wow. I know. It's crazy. um Let's go with Paul.
Speaker: Is Paul in this category?
Speaker: No. no is not. Guys at home, I hope you're playing along too because you might be doing better than we are.
Speaker: might be judas iscariot judas iscariot is in this group i know exactly what your category is i probably have to wait till next time to get a story yep okay um let's see i think
Speaker: deborah is deborah in your category
Speaker: Debra is actually not in my category. Okay, a guess. Okay.
Speaker: Are your people Bible villains? No. They're not Bible villains. I e know exactly who it is.
Speaker: He said this before. Okay. um
Speaker: I am going to guess. Let's go with Joseph.
Speaker: joseph He is my favorite person in the Bible, but not him. He's not in this category. bratts Is your category Jesus Disciples?
Speaker: Ah, he's got me. There you go. Good job. Good job. nice All right. So I have absolutely nothing on the board. I'll just have to guess in order to tie here. Otherwise, I just automatically lose. So um
Speaker: let's say is your category um people who died in the Bible?
Speaker: A little unfair, given that only two people have ever been raptured, perhaps. and That was not the name of my category. do I have to tell you what my category was? You can or you or not. I'm sure people playing along would love to know.
Speaker: I will tell you, because that would make sense. That's a stupid
Speaker: Originally, I was thinking women in the Old Testament. But that was before we we went up we went online. I changed this before the game began to Women in the Book of Genesis.
Speaker: Oh. So I was interested when you were like, you know, Abraham, Joseph. I was like, ooh, you're not too far off. You're just looking at the wrong sex.
Speaker: Wrong. and There you go. There you go. All right. So I have a second category. Hopefully Brendan has a second category as well. And we'll do the same thing over again with new categories.
Speaker: All right. So you asked the first question, right?
Speaker: I, I will start this time. Oh, that that's okay. yeah Yeah. So I will start this time. I'll ask the first person. um Is this people? What is, what, what is my group I'm looking at here for this one?
Speaker: It might actually be really, really obvious once I say it. and Weapons.
Speaker: Okay. Maybe I should have just said things. Weapons. Weapons is the overarching category. Okay. um I'm going to guess a sword. Is it in this category?
Speaker: How specific do you have to be?
Speaker: Do you want the Sword of the Spirit? yeah I'll go with that one, yeah. Okay.
Speaker: Okay, and what's your overarching category? People again. Real original. Mary. Mary. real original
Speaker: a
Speaker: mary
Speaker: No, Mary's not in this group. If you had said yes, I was going to say i know what's category.
Speaker: Okay. Um...
Speaker: Fiery Darts. Is that in your weapons list? Yes. I think you might win this really, really quickly. I don't know. i'm worried that the category is just weapons. Yeah.
Speaker: I'd only prepared one category, which with women and Mugagenesis. Because when you said, oh we'll have three rounds, I thought it would take me 15 minutes to guess yours.
Speaker: would take you five minutes to guess mine. would take me 20 minutes to guess your second one. So that's what thought three categories meant. I didn't realize doing it the way we are. Ah, yeah, yeah. So, yeah, weapons was just like...
Speaker: crap i to them in quickly and weapons was the first word that came to my head. Gotcha.
Speaker: Alright, so it's not Mary. a
Speaker: The Apostle Paul. Apostle Paul?
Speaker: No, he's not in this category.
Speaker: Was that a contemplative, well, could he be, could he not be, or that you trying to throw me off? That's me trying to throw you off. I he figured it was. okay um Okay, I now know what your category is, mouse.
Speaker: It is not men or women in the New Testament. um That's another weapon.
Speaker: Um...
Speaker: Uh...
Speaker: A jawbone.
Speaker: No. Okay. That narrows it down a little bit.
Speaker: When you said Joseph earlier, Was that you guessing for mine? or was that you getting a Freudian slip leaking? was in your list? I'm going to Joseph.
Speaker: Joseph is not in this category. Oh my
Speaker: Alright, I feel like this is the game so this is the game of Battleship right now. I feel like I have two hits on one of Brendan's ships, and I'm like, hmm, I could have it. But if I get too cocky and I take too many guesses, he might just sink me and it will be over. So thank my battleship um so I'm take a guess. Is this Spiritual Weapons?
Speaker: yet shaky p
Speaker: barr sos Well done. There you go. very good Alright, so you get a chance. You get a chance here. Chance to guess. In fact, here, I'll do you one better.
Speaker: I'll let you guess a name and then you can guess the category. Oh my goodness. Wow, this going to be really bad if don't get it. And...
Speaker: Nebuchad frickin' Nezzer.
Speaker: No, he's not in the category. Okay, so it's not... It's not Old Testament villains. It's not Old Testament heroes.
Speaker: It's not New Testament men. It's not New Testament women. and
Speaker: It's not the sons of Jacob. But it could be.
Speaker: Men after whom the tribes of Israel were named.
Speaker: No. but Okay. It was prophets in the Old Testament. Ass stopped the lights. Yeah. That is gas, because one one of the earlier topics i had in mind was, wow, would I go for like the likes of Nahum and Abadiah?
Speaker: And then i just said, nah. Nah. People know their kids enough nowadays. The other the kids, those. all right. Truthfully, truthfully, the fact that our, your category gave it away a little bit and mine, I was able to, I think if I hadn't known that it might've taken a little longer and you might've had a chance, but we'll do one more round since we both have won one. We'll see who gets the third one. Big winner this time.
Speaker: So, um, i i have my category. i am ready whenever you are ready to guess i'm gonna open the bible at random <unk> and something on that page he's taking risks folks
Speaker: he's doing the things that we told you not to do last time when reading the bible open the bible just go with like the first thing you see
Speaker: chicken
Speaker: He burned his daughter alive. Oops. and like Go and do likewise. Oh, I could be so scabby.
Speaker: Do your worst. Why not? Do your worst.
Speaker: mine Mine is harder than the other two I've had, so this is Your second one was pretty difficult, given that I got was like nowhere near them. Yes, but this one only has only has a few names, so it's going to be... okay that's That's your hint.
Speaker: it's This is about people. so People again. It's people again. Yep.
Speaker: And there are only a few...
Speaker: A lot of dead air, folks. He is thinking. King David. David. o That is a good guess, but no.
Speaker: Then how is it a good guess? and That's for me to know and you to find out. Alright, well then, the topic I had in mind was the very few good kings of Israel, and obviously it's not that. Okay?
Speaker: Yep. hey You're crossing things off. Good for you. Good for you. Alright. I am going to guess. i haven't given you my thing yet. Yeah, that's right.
Speaker: People, things, places. Places. Places? Oh, I told you i was going to get you back. phil prophets
Speaker: It's a category? You literally said it was five seconds ago. oh Alright. Alright. New Jerusalem. We'll start there.
Speaker: a Well, you can end there because no. guys so it's not it's not there. when he read them Rats.
Speaker: Crossing off places I want to be. I'll be overrated. Who wants to live in a city inside a golden cube anywhere?
Speaker: Let me see. Let me see. Let me see. Let me see.
Speaker: It could be Bible Villanesses. I'm going to Jezebel. Jezebel. o Man, you are on it with good guesses, but it's a no. I feel insulted.
Speaker: Alright. Um... mega com
Speaker: Let's go with the Pool of Bethsaida.
Speaker: But that's a lovely thought.
Speaker: Places Jesus went, you know. What are you, a tour guide?
Speaker: what are you a tour guide
Speaker: Sad that there were only a few of them. And...
Speaker: They don't kill the awkward silence so people don't think that we know we've disappeared if they're just listening in and not following the visual. And...
Speaker: Could be the Gentile exceptions while Israel had the mandate for the salvation of the world. I'm going to go with the Roman centurion who said, Lord, please help my servant, who some historians think may actually have been a child he had with his servant woman.
Speaker: The Roman centurion. Well, folks, this is his first bad guess. This is a no.
Speaker: He is very cold. I know exactly what it is now.
Speaker: I believe you.
Speaker: All right. um
Speaker: Let's go with um
Speaker: Let's go with Babylon. You know, Babylon, I feel like would be a good guess. Mmm. It does have a soft spot in my heart, I'll be honest. But, negative.
Speaker: Ah, rant.
Speaker: It concerns me that this may be ah very long round. No. Yeah, it's okay. The other two are short. Because I'm gonna win.
Speaker: If there are only a few of them, we're talking women who wrote the Bible, I'm gonna go with Ruth. Ruth.
Speaker: Ruth is a yes.
Speaker: Excuse me. Okay. Okay. Yeah. Oh.
Speaker: Oh. no I know what it is.
Speaker: Okay, hurry up and guess something incorrect so I can win this. Guess something incorrect. um Let's go
Speaker: Bethlehem. Let's go with Bethlehem. That's a yes. Bethlehem's a yes? That is the yes. Okay, cool.
Speaker: For all the good it will do you. I'm ready to make my final guess. Okay. Women in Jesus.
Speaker: Ancestry line. In the look of Matthew. That's a yes. You got it. I was hoping you'd have to get a second name, but you guessed. You got Ruth, and that that was enough.
Speaker: cause I was like, well, I say Esther, I say Ruth, Esther, Ruth, Esther, Ruth. And I just said... If I say yes, it's a bit too obvious that it's women who have a Bible book named after them.
Speaker: I said if it's Ruth, it opens up multiple doors. And for whatever reason, I just new ba i knew that I knew it was the Ancestry line.
Speaker: Very good. Your final guess from mine. Alright. Bethlehem is... the last one here, and I'm gonna go that this is... like another guest, and then and then a category.
Speaker: Oh, okay. um
Speaker: Let's go with just Jerusalem. Yes. Is this... Is this... Cities of Judah. There you go.
Speaker: Let's call that a tie. Let's call that a double victory even for both of us. it's out Very good. Very good. Was it actually cities of Judah? Are you just saying that? me up put them in here Oh, nice.
Speaker: Well, I literally guess I was like, I have to guess Jerusalem because if that would be cities of Judah, if it if it's not true, if it's not that I'm screwed because it's probably like where Jesus was born.
Speaker: oh Oh, that was fun. That was fun. And we didn't take that long. We didn't. I could have gone on for like an hour. ah All right. So we're going to now transition into our time of talking about prayer.
Speaker: um One of the things we talked about last time was the Bible. And one of the other really big, often neglected spiritual disciplines is prayer. And how do you actually do that?
Speaker: Well, that is the discussion that we're hopefully going to be able to ah talk about today. So, um Brendan, when you think of prayer,
Speaker: Where does your brain immediately go to? Or what what does it look like to you? Oh, wow.
Speaker: A number of places. Sometimes it discourages me that Christians don't know how to pray. yeah There is a...
Speaker: yeah There is an illusion or a delusion. Pick or pick. from a lot of church leaders that people will just figure these disciplines out.
Speaker: Because I like what you said there, discipline, it's an interesting word choice, but it's true. There is a sense that go to church one time too many and eventually you just figure it out.
Speaker: You just learn. and Or we don't have to talk about it because everyone knows that, which is not true. um But actually teaching people the different ways to pray, different kinds of prayer that the Word goes into. It's so important.
Speaker: Because people just, they don't know it. um Another thing that I think want to hear prayer is different. movements of prayer that I've been in over the years that actually flopped because after the prayer meeting and before it, people were having a good old juicy gossip and before the prayer began.
Speaker: or you know, people might pray, but actually, especially corporately, what actually they're doing is they're just having vent and a moan, having a whine,
Speaker: And it's like, oh, God, Father Jesus, Father Lord, good God. And, you know, they're giving everyone different titles. You know, sometimes you're the father, sometimes the son. They're just spitting things.
Speaker: And then it's, in you know, just remember our sister, Julie, Jesus. so And even though she's living in such abject rebellion, oh, God, living with her boyfriend, oh, Jesus. And everyone's there with their mouths wide open, like,
Speaker: Julie, fall in the water. don't think they just to have a wine and a moan and a gossip, but they're like Christianizing the gossip. I would have prayer flows before that were destroyed because people could not pray anything beyond thanking Jesus for the birds and the trees. There's absolutely no death whatsoever. So prayer looks different to everyone.
Speaker: But for me, think the word intimacy What is intimacy? Into. Me. See.
Speaker: Holy Spirit impresses on your heart what to pray.
Speaker: You pray to the Lord. He talks back. And you.
Speaker: You have an open, honest, frank conversation with him. And you're open to him having an open, frank conversation. tell-all conversation with you in return.
Speaker: Whether it's things you're doing that he does not like, that he hates, whether it's something he's already told you and is telling you again.
Speaker: um but creating that space say, God, search my heart and know me. Know all my inmost thoughts and reveals me anything that you despise because he is our first love.
Speaker: And if he isn't, prayer gets you there. Prayer the activation of that intimacy. But into me see.
Speaker: It is a tell all with Jesus. Where you just pour out your heart to him,
Speaker: anticipating that he'll respond. And not every response is a miracle. Not every response is breakthrough. Not every response means a rainbow appears though there's been no rain.
Speaker: Sometimes time the response is an instruction. Sometimes the response is... and How about you do this? Sometimes the response is a dream or a vision or a word or a feeling.
Speaker: a reaction. But intimacy. Intimacy. What about you?
Speaker: yeah i think you get when you hear the word prayer i think you're you're right on with intimacy i think that's it's a a depth of relationship that you're building and that's how you build that depth um i think there's an element of reading god's word and hearing what god says but there's also an element of talking to him and um You know, once we accept Jesus Christ, our savior, he lives with inside of us now. He's now living in our hearts. And I think I think of a lot of our life is spent in the shallows of life.
Speaker: You know, the oh, hi, how are you doing? You know, pleasantries and the just stuff that we go through our phones, our social media accounts, all of our life is lived in the shallows.
Speaker: And um it's really bad nowadays. It used to be that when we didn't have technology or we weren't rushing or over busy, that we were actually able to get into deeper parts of even our lives, you know, whether it's with God or not, but to get into the depths. There's the Midlands, which are some of the deeper issues that we try to but push that down, right? The, oh, I have this existential crisis that's coming my way.
Speaker: Ah, panic! It's those Midlands that We also let rule our lives. um But the depths, the depths is where Christ lives. He wants us to be able to be slow, to be able to sit there and meditate on scripture and be able to converse with him and talk about it and pray some of that scripture even into our own lives. Like that deep, that depths, the they'll be able to, as Brendan talked about, be able to show you things, to speak to you, to be able to say, hey, Logan, this is a problem.
Speaker: you've got some You've got some desert parts in your heart that need to go. Like, i need I need to take over those. That's the kind of stuff that doesn't come without an intimate relationship, without being able to talk to him, be able to welcome him into your heart, to be able to. remove the distractions, the things that are so like, you know, the things that just pop into your brain that you're just like, I've got to fix this problem. And you're like, no, I'm talking to God right now.
Speaker: I'm giving that to him. um So honestly, even in my own personal life of the development of prayer has kind of in the last, you know, three or four months has just completely grown in its depth in probably compared to the rest of my life has just grown immensely.
Speaker: um Just by reading through some of John Piper or John Eldridge's books and his talk about resilience, and you can't really be resilient without being reliant on God. And you can't be reliant on God without actually spending time with him, without actually having a conversation and saying, Lord, I let go of everything and everything everyone that is in my brain and is in front of me. I let go of all that, and I want to talk to you.
Speaker: I want to spend this time talking to you. And every time something comes back in your brain that you're like, oh, but what about that thing? Or, oh, I left the stove on. Or, oh, I did this thing. And you have to say, I let that go.
Speaker: I'm here to talk to God. Maybe think you can turn the stove Yeah, please turn the stove off. But... Turn the stove off, come back. But, you know, that's the miracle. If your head is burning down and you're like the name of Jesus, I declare it stops and it all goes away. Great miracle.
Speaker: But as a matter of course, turn off your stove. So, um so there's some of there's definitely that. So, Brendan, as we are continuing our conversation about prayer. What are some things or some tips or some um passages that you like to take people to to help this idea of helping their prayer life?
Speaker: Sure. Yeah. Wow. and I'll go through some of these. In 1 Timothy urge them.
Speaker: deadly stars it says i urge then First of all, you're not going to believe this. Do you know what first of all actually translates as in the Greek?
Speaker: First of all.
Speaker: Ah, what a joker. Do the first thing. Literally. Chiefly in time. Chiefly in place. Chiefly in order. Chiefly in importance.
Speaker: Prayer should be the first thing you do. Wherever that is. The first order, however many hundreds of things have in your day, you start prayer and you give it number one importance.
Speaker: I urge then, first of all, that petitions, prayers, intercession and thanksgiving be made for all people. lot of people look at those words and they're like, ah, sure, they're all the same.
Speaker: Okay, maybe thanksgiving is different, but they assume petitions, prayers and intercession are the same. They really aren't.
Speaker: Petitions means to make entreaties. Heart belt begging. Arising out of deep personal need.
Speaker: It means being real with God.
Speaker: These are the prayers you pray from a posture of humility and dependency based on what you want, based on what you lack.
Speaker: This is when you have to be earnest, fervent, And specific. These are your urgent desires.
Speaker: It means having a childlike confidence as you converse with God. And of course it's anchored in reverence of his holiness. This is when someone is before the Lord and they just start crying.
Speaker: Or pleading. It elicits a more emotional response. It's raw. real. No errors and graces. They are your petitions.
Speaker: Instead, what often happens is people feel embarrassed about coming to God at petitions. Oh, God's so busy running all of reality. He doesn't have time for me.
Speaker: Oh, im everyone everyone else in my world just thinks I'm nutcase. They think I'm annoying. God probably thinks I'm annoying. He won't be happy if I bother him with this.
Speaker: for the 17th time this day. Not due. You're commanded.
Speaker: Chiefly in time, place, order and importance. Bring your petitions.
Speaker: We're also told that verse to bring our prayers. What is prayer?
Speaker: Prayer in the Greek translates as your adoration. Your confession. It includes thanksgiving, intercession, petition, and your surrender.
Speaker: It's built into the meaning of the word that it is not a ritual. It's a relational conversation grounded in trust that you offer through the sun and it's enabled by the power of Holy Spirit.
Speaker: You know, I was once praying for a Friend at university. um Well was friend more more generally. Just that no one that I knew would be in a car crash that day or a road traffic incident and die.
Speaker: And there are moments when you know why I just pray the same thing again and again and again and that's what this was. was Repetitive prayer. And Holy Spirit just excited my spirit to pray it again.
Speaker: meaningfully, thoughtfully hanging on every word out of my mind. So I did. and then I found out that one of my friends university was in a road traffic incident later that day. And while her car was so badly damaged, she had pay to get it scrapped. There was not one scratch, not one scrape, not one burst blood vessel in her body.
Speaker: That's prayer. inspired and inspired under the unction of Holy Spirit, but it comes from not ritualism, but a place of surrender, knowing that God is the only one who can way where there seems to be no way.
Speaker: Prayer can be personal, can be corporate. It also includes the meaning of an exchange of wishes. telling God, this is what I want, this is what I want, this is what I want, and he tells you what he wants from you.
Speaker: And the word prayer also means the place where it's happening, setting that place apart the Lord.
Speaker: A house devoted to offering prayer, that's one of the literal meanings. There's a great song by Eddie James, Lord, make me a house, make me a house of prayer, a house of prayer.
Speaker: And with synagogues, they were often built upon the banks of streams, and people would wash their hands before they began to pray.
Speaker: So before you pray, you do a soul check. Before you come to God to exchange your wishes, well, know, we're told,
Speaker: search my heart to know me, God. Know all my inmost thoughts. What is it that you despise that's in me? What do I do? And you're like, Jesus, I'm on the cross because of that. Hello.
Speaker: What am I doing that's wounding me or others? What am I doing that's actually stopping your plans and my life coming to fruition? What am I doing?
Speaker: Well. And you're well-pleased.
Speaker: Thirdly, we're talking about intercession.
Speaker: Intercession is a legal word. A lot of people say, oh, um I'm an intercessor. I have literally heard this. I'm an intercessor.
Speaker: I said, that's great. Will you please pray for this person? No. No, they're not a good enough Christian for me to pray for them. And I thought, oh, excuse me.
Speaker: oof Yeah, oof. Big time oof. Or... Will you please brief this one? Oh no, they're not saved. I'm not praying for that person. Hmm.
Speaker: Right. Okay. Um... but What about this? No, don't... Don't tag me into that. And I thought, wow. This is a new breed of intercessor, good heavens. that Well, they're obviously better than us, so... Obviously.
Speaker: But intercession's a legal term that involves making appeals to God on behalf of others, making supplication, acting as a mediator, and advocating to higher authorities.
Speaker: These are all words that you would hear in a courtroom.
Speaker: i So when someone is being put through the mill and the enemy is having an absolute, not a field day in his life or her life or their lives,
Speaker: do you go to the courts of heaven on their behalf? You know, Jesus can multiply himself as many times as he wants to, but a layer of him is sitting on the throne in heaven. Do you actually pray Lord Jesus, I'm going into your throne room right now.
Speaker: an injustice has been done on the earth. The enemy's having a field A in that person's life. That person's a Christian. The enemy enemy is trespassing on their lives. I stand in the gap.
Speaker: And I declare the finished work of the cross over their lives. I declare that we do not fight for victory. We fight from victory. No matter what's in their bloodline,
Speaker: And the blood of Abel, like, you know what? Avenge me. Jesus, your blood speaks about a better word. I declare the power of your blood, to your the finished work of your crops.
Speaker: And last one, and that's first, is Thanksgiving. Thanksgiving, and you know the word gratitude is having a grateful attitude.
Speaker: It's not a polite acknowledgement. It's not, cheers JC, or whatever your nickname for Jesus is. It is a covenantal response that recognizes God's character, his works and his gifts.
Speaker: It's rooted in faith. And it literally in the Greek means to thank God for his abundant grace.
Speaker: So I suppose the question is, when we're praying, Is this what your prayer life looks like? Is there a washing of the hands before you start begging?
Speaker: Is there an exchange of wishes?
Speaker: Do you have those moments when you just get real, raw, and beg? Just pour your heart out before the Lord.
Speaker: And do you only ever pray for yourself? Or are you adamantly, passionately, actually standing in the gap for others?
Speaker: And do you remember to say thanks? I remember when I was at university, there was one day I said, God, I normally give you a good long list of things to pray for. it Today, I'm just going to thank you for 20 things.
Speaker: Well, the first five were easy. I'll be honest. I was such an ungrateful 17-year-old. I struggled to think of the other 15. but but I actually had to start doubling up.
Speaker: Do we thank him? Do we actually thank him for his grace? Or do we just take it for granted? Do take him for granted? No. a I can say more and and we'll get, well I'll get into more.
Speaker: plus What, what about you? What is prayer look like? What scriptures come mind for you? Yeah. um I think mine always goes back to Jesus's, this is the model prayer or and how to pray.
Speaker: um And so that's where my, my brain goes as we are even talking about this, is it goes back to what, what did Jesus say? And, you know, some of those, even the ones Brendan brought up, those are ones that are like,
Speaker: the next level. They're there because they are explaining how you pray. um But when I think of what is prayer, Jesus jesus lays it out in Matthew 6. And so we'll start in verse 5. And he says, And when you pray, you shall not be like the hypocrites. Oh boy, he's calling some people out.
Speaker: For they love to stand in the synagogues and at the street corners that they may be seen by men. Surely I say to you, they'll have their reward. um Doesn't sound like it'll be a good reward. Just saying. I I feel like Jesus is going, they'll have their reward. They got the people to look at them. yeah when's coming to you um But as he's pointing this out, it's not it's not to say that we don't have corporate prayer.
Speaker: think some people will immediately go, well, you're not supposed to stand in the public and say anything. It's their heart attitude. Their heart attitude was, look at me. i' am so religious. I am just praying. i have my Bible out. I'm standing in the corner. I'm at church. And oh my goodness, they asked me to pray and I'm praying. oh It's not that at
Speaker: It's this attitude. have very different congregations, folks. We do. yeah um um I tell you that these are not actual voices. I'm not doing actual people's voices. So I'm just, I'm just, just for the, just, just in case you're worried that there's somebody who sounds like that. um But what he says, but you, when you pray, go into a room. And when you have your door shut, pray to your father who's in the secret place and your father who sees in secret will reward you openly.
Speaker: He's, again, working on your heart here. You're supposed to not do things just because other people are watching. You're supposed to do it even when it's just you. That's the intimacy part of this relationship, is you have to actually not have other people around.
Speaker: You do this on your own. And he says, and when you pray, do not use vain repetitions as the heathens do. Don't just go. ah Father, God, Father, Father, God, Father, Father, Father, God, Father, Father, Father, God, God, god Father.
Speaker: You might think I just swore. I'm not. But there are people who would do this. I have met them. They will just repeat the same thing over and over again. And I think even in our prayers, we sometimes do that. you know We say, thank you for this day.
Speaker: And that's not to say that it's that we're not thankful for that, but it is can sometimes get into that repetition. Again, he's not saying that we don't use repetition. Repetition good, but it's not vain in that what we're saying actually has meaning. We mean what we say.
Speaker: um Because as the heathens do, they just just for they will think that they will be heard for their many words. It's not about the amount of words that you say to Jesus. That's not the important thing.
Speaker: um So he says, therefore, do not be like them for your father knows the things that you have need before you ask. Now, what is your first thought when you say that when you read that verse, you go, well, I don't need to ask him because he already knows.
Speaker: Nope. He wants to hear from you. And so then he moves into verse nine and says, in this manner, therefore, pray our father in heaven, hallowed be your name. That's that adoration.
Speaker: That is adoring Jesus for who he is. Hallowed be your name means honored be your name. How high is your name? How great is your name? And he has so many names. If you were to sit down, we could do a whole study. I'm sure Brendan's done it and I have done it of how many names God has.
Speaker: And they're great. They're awesome. That's what it is. It's how amazing are you, Lord, our God and Father in heaven. We use amazing for a lot of things. Could be our chocolate ice cream. Oh, it's amazing.
Speaker: God is amazing. It's mind-blowing. Hallowed be your name. How high in heaven he is. Your kingdom come. What are we all here for? We're here for God's kingdom.
Speaker: We're not here for our kingdom. We're not here for our little houses to be built and our little stuff to be built. We're here for his kingdom, that his name comes first, that he gets all the glory. um Not that we won't get glory for following him, but it's all about him. It's not about us.
Speaker: We always point it back to him. We are image bearers. We reflect back to him. It's his kingdom. Your will be done on earth. God's going to do what God's going to do.
Speaker: He's going to have things done on earth. But we pray specifically that he would work here on earth, that he would do things, that he would show his power, show himself glorious to people, that they would be able to see beyond a shadow of a doubt that God did something here.
Speaker: And that's the power that we are praying in as ah as as it is in heaven. So God we know is in control of heaven. We have very minimal idea of what heaven is like. It is more wondrous and amazing than we can even really fathom.
Speaker: But we want what he's doing in heaven to also be done here. We're wanting his kingdom to come. is Him to return, to come back on the white horse, to conquer all the evil and remove all of it. That's the idea when we're praying. this is I think a lot of us have heard this and we're just going, oh yeah, our kingdom come. We're rushing through it, right? You hear Catholics really love to quote this and just rush through it. But this is how awesome it is that we're building this out is your kingdom come. We're building God's kingdom. Give us this day, our daily bread, Lord, please make sure that we get food as somebody who needs food.
Speaker: We need it. Give us us day, our daily bread too often. ah I, we, at least here in America, we don't sit around going, um, you know I wonder if we're going to have the next meal.
Speaker: We don't really worry about that in our culture. But we do worry about what we're going eat because we know we're going to need to eat because we're we're obese. okay stop But we all need food, whether we're in Africa starving, we're in America starving.
Speaker: ate too much, ah we're we're hungry. We need our stuff. And our bread and our food comes from God. It doesn't come from us. Even though we like to think, you know, I made this much money and I can buy the food I want and the steak I want.
Speaker: um Where did that money come from? it came from your job, which came that God gave you. So give us this day our daily bread that God would take care of us. Just simple. Because as much as we like to think that we take care of ourselves, God, we are, we are heavily dependent on God.
Speaker: We're heavily dependent for our breath. We're dependent for our food, for our water. We're dependent on him. Give us today our daily bread and forgive us our debts. Oh boy. We all are debtors. We've all made mistakes. We've all sinned against other people. We're not miss necessarily financially in debt, but we've done wrong.
Speaker: Case in point, we've sinned against each other. We've thought some terrible things about other people. You know, there was some crazy driver today that was just Why are you going slower than the speed limit?
Speaker: And I probably said, those idiots. I did say that. Whoops. I was the one going slower than the speed limit.
Speaker: So we are to forgive our debts as we forgive our debtors. Because guess what? This is the hard part. We've got to forgive other people too. So we ask for forgiveness. Lord, forgive us for all the the nasty things we said, the things we thought, the deeds we did.
Speaker: the websites we visited, we ask him for all of that for forgiveness. And then we now have to forgive the other people that have done some bad things to us and said some nasty things, thought some nasty things, yelled at us, you know, were unkind, used us.
Speaker: We have to forgive them. That, continues our relationship with God because he's forgiving us. We don't get to be the little servant who goes around and starts strangling somebody for two pennies.
Speaker: okay We've been forgiven so much. We don't get to go around and go choke somebody out and throw them in prison and say, you terrible person, pay me back. We don't get to do that.
Speaker: We've been forgiven so much. we cannot get We cannot then turn on other people. We have to forgive them too. Even when they're going to do it again. Ouch. Ouch, ouch, ouch.
Speaker: And do not lead us into temptation. This is not that God tempts us. It means that God would be with us in our temptation to lead us out of sin. So that when we have those moments of, ooh, that thing on my computer, I'm going to go search that website, that God goes, no, here's a thought that you need to go and do something else. Or you need to change your attitude, change your situation, run away from that sin. that God would protect us from those temptation moments and lead us out of them.
Speaker: Because God will make a way if you look for it. If we're so focused on the sin, we're just going to fall for sin. But if we're looking for the out, God will lead us out. But deliver us from the evil one.
Speaker: Again, Satan roars around like an evil lion, seeking whom he date may devour. He's ready to eat up anybody. And boy, we as Christians are pretty terrible at letting him in.
Speaker: It starts with something as simple as saying, well, The pastor isn't doing this. So I'm just not happy about that. Do you go and talk to him about it?
Speaker: No, you keep it inside and then it festers and then it gets a little loud. You're just like, he just can't do anything right. He's dumb. He's this, he's that. And then all of a sudden, the next thing you go, ah something happens that the pastor did that you don't necessarily agree with. and you're like, I'm never going back there again. He's horrible. He's the worst. He's the devil.
Speaker: That's where we go, that our brains and Satan is trying to twist our hearts. And so what he's saying here is that deliver us from that, deliver us from our our own sinful nature to be able to just cling on to things and go, now I've got a 30 year grudge that I got to hold against this person.
Speaker: Goes back to forgiveness. Let it go. Talk to him. Take care of it. For yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen. There's again, adoration.
Speaker: He's the glory, the power, the kingdom. It's all his forever and ever. Some of us like to think that our little kingdoms are going to last forever. yeah We're going to get all of our glory. We're going to get everything. We're going to become famous. We're going become popular. Our YouTube channel is going to become the greatest channel ever. Everyone's going to watch us. Millions and billions are going to watch us.
Speaker: And we'd love it if he if that would happen. That'd be awesome. But it's not about us. not about Brendan. It's not about me. It's about Jesus Christ. and then That's what it's about.
Speaker: It's all for his glory and his power. It says, for if you forgive men their trespasses, going back to that before, your heavenly father will also forgive you. If we forgive others, God's going to forgive us. It's tied to this prayer idea.
Speaker: If we are unwilling to forgive, he's not going to forgive us and he's not going to hear us. it's There's going to be a problem there, a break in the relationship. Because he says, if you do not forgive men their trespasses, neither will your father forgive you.
Speaker: Ouch. He won't forgive you for your sins. He'll say, why aren't you being forgiving? Because this is all the stuff that you did. you want me ah you want me to list make a list? Because you've just made a list for you know your brother Joe over here and how terrible he's been to you.
Speaker: You made a list and you said, can't forgive him for that. Not that, not that. You want me to make a list? Because God can make a list way longer and we would not want that. So we have to forgive just as Christ forgives, just as God forgive us. So that's the idea. And it pulls out some of those those things even bre Brendan said. I think of um think the way I've always had it framed was, Adoration is where you start. So you adore Christ. You confess your sins. You say, look, I messed up.
Speaker: We saw that in here. I'm a sinner. You thank him for what he's done. Thank him for the good things. Thank him for the things that he has brought to your life to grow you. And then your supplications, the things that you pray for other people and that maybe are going on in your life as well. But again, supplication is brain. Let's talk about others.
Speaker: So That is a passage and that section really just pulls it out for me what prayer has to look like. So as we continue this topic, maybe to land the plane or bring it close to home, what are some ways, Brendan, that you or some ah ways that you have seen work, maybe not necessarily for you, but for others to practice prayer, like some practical application of prayer?
Speaker: I know of some people who literally set an alarm on their phone, let's say 1241. Maybe their lunch break at work.
Speaker: Yeah. And
Speaker: they will pray every every day 1241. and twelve forty one a For some people,
Speaker: um
Speaker: you know what? They just love a good long prayer sesh. They like to... like i like starting the day of prayer. i I have a group of friends and probably for 9, 10 months straight.
Speaker: We're praying every morning, let's say from 6am. Sometimes till 7, sometimes till...
Speaker: Ace. and Have ace. Whatever. our People were finished, really. and So I think, yeah, it's good to have that kind of regularity.
Speaker: and Whether it's the same place, same time. um i did an Alpha course years ago. Went to a an Alpha course workshop. And they give some helpful materials on different ways you could set up a player room.
Speaker: what some people people call their prayer closet. In a way, no offense to people call it a prayer closet, it's just not part of my lingo. It's not mine either. back And it might even be like an an older version of what you just read and Matthew 8. It's just not my lingo.
Speaker: and But it shows you different ways in which you could actually set up a yeah, in the practical, I think... having it at set time absolutely helps 100%.
Speaker: And then there are times when you'll feel this groan on the inside and you might not entirely understand it, you might not really know where it's coming from per but Romans 8 26
Speaker: It refers to, again, that Holy Spirit groan, that tug, that feeling on the inside that maybe you don't even know what it is. Maybe it's a feeling.
Speaker: and like the feeling has words, almost. And that's ah that's a Holy Spirit thing. And maybe maybe it's not exactly you know a practicality per but there are moments when Holy Spirit will just say, pray.
Speaker: be moved something's happening just go there and it could happen when you know maybe you're listening to someone speaking about a tragedy and you just get this tug in your spirit like oh my goodness oh wow okay i need to pray into this straight away i can't not pray um there's praying in the spirit um A lot of people kind of use that as a synonym for praying in tongues. It's not the same thing. um Praying in the spirit just means you're praying with the help of Holy Spirit. You're praying in the sphere of Holy Spirit. Your spirit's connected to Holy Spirit in a very big way at that time.
Speaker: and he's just putting the words in your mouth, whether it comes... automatically whether it comes in the context of a vision or you just get a word or just get an impression like i remember being in pakistan the start of the year and was praying for somebody sorry i was talking to somebody a couple and i just got this
Speaker: got a vision of twins a boy and a girl yeah And I knew it wasn't symbolic.
Speaker: I knew it was meant literally. And I just said, guys, they were a married couple. Is it okay if I prayed for you for a moment?
Speaker: And they were like, oh yeah, of course canny you And I kind of prayed general prayer, hoping that God would somehow bring the whole baby thing into it. He didn't.
Speaker: um I was very much skirting around the issue. And then I just said, okay, this might sound a bit mental. I don't know if every person I'm talking to is okay hearing the V word or if they're like, a vision? What's a vision?
Speaker: But I said, Holy Spirit's given me a vision of two babies, a boy and a girl. And oh my goodness, they broke down crying.
Speaker: And I was thinking, whoopsie. And when they com composed themselves, they said, well, actually, Brendan, we've just had a miscarriage. Adds of a couple weeks ago. But they said i was the third person who had come to them and prophesied that they would have twins, a boy and a girl.
Speaker: And I was like, okay, wow. And then prayed into that. That was praying in the spirit because Holy Spirit very clearly dropped the word he wants to praise.
Speaker: And then the onus is on us as kids to do this. Because there are things God wants to do in the earth, but he lives in eternity. He made the spirit realm for us to take dominion of in step with him.
Speaker: But we have to do it in obedience to him, and if we're disobedient, or apathetic, or indifferent, or don't care,
Speaker: we have any number of enemies who will swoop in to that void, into that gap. And your disobedience is not neutral.
Speaker: They will take up that space, and that is when you see more Stealing, killing, devouring, destroying. and You see the world more and more conforming to the likeness of the evil one.
Speaker: And then of course there are people I know who pray in tongues and all sorts. So yeah. and The practicalities i would say set and at a time.
Speaker: But the big thing of prayer is we can't make it overly practical. Because it is a supernatural discipline. um But knowing that Holy Spirit will tell you what to pray, even if you don't know what to pray.
Speaker: a And you just have to ready your heart to hear from him. And be brave enough and obedient and enough to go where he wants it to go. and What about yourself? What are some of the practicalities?
Speaker: Or... supernatural um elements that you've seen people use to refine and get the most out of prayerful discipline.
Speaker: Yeah. um i think I think you're absolutely right. Time is important. um I think ah if you can manage it, having even if it's just a short time in the morning and then having one before you go to bed because The morning is your day starting.
Speaker: Nothing's happened yet. You know, you've just woken up. And then the end of your day is is everything's been done and you're just trying to, you know, you need to talk to God before your day closes out.
Speaker: So i think those are the two best times. But like you said, it doesn't mean that we don't pray throughout the day. In fact, praying continually is is a very important thing. um And so um even as we as so for me, what I found recently to work really well is I use this John Eldridge has a app that is called the pause app.
Speaker: And what it does is it's sort of like a guided a guided prayer. So for those of you who don't know how to pray or have never prayed before. it helps get you into the mindset of what does prayer actually look like. And so what he does is he works through some of the things in our soul that is, we need to work through. He talks about how we need to restore our soul, restore it like Eden.
Speaker: That the temple is, you know, it was, was a outlook of Eden. It had all of these trees and stuff in it to point us back to, you know,
Speaker: walking with God. And that's what he wants us to do in our hearts. He talks about how we have to work on loving Jesus, that Jesus lives within. And we have to say, Lord, I love you.
Speaker: He talks about how we, again, get so distracted with things, we have to pray, i let go of everyone and everything. And sometimes we have to name those things. Sometimes we have to say, you know, I let go of this situation.
Speaker: I let go of This person who's frustrating me. I let go of this thing that is just bothering me and I can't like my future. i'm My future, I don't know what's going to happen. I'm freaking out about it. I'm so anxious about it.
Speaker: I let go of it. In order so that you can have that depth, you can sink into speaking with God. um And so building that intimacy. Another thing that I found really helpful. So that's the pause app. You can, it's free. has a ton of prayers. It even has um like certain days you can work through 30 day program to be resilient, a 30 day program to experience Jesus, and then prayers that you can fill in. It's been really good. I have been working through the 30 day one and it has been great. And I start my day with it and end my day with it. And it's been really good.
Speaker: um Another thing i I also pair with that is um ah one of the things I I've, been working to in my Bible study is just praying, Lord, where do you want me to go in the Bible tonight?
Speaker: Instead of saying, you know, I'm going to feed my stuff. I'm going to pick out which passage of the scripture I'm going to read, and that's what I want to read. So I like Joseph. I'm going to read Joseph. You are very inspired tonight. I love this.
Speaker: Instead of doing that, Lord, what do you want me to read? And usually what will happen is I will get a number. I will get a book and then a second number.
Speaker: And so the first number is usually the chapter. You have the book of the Bible, and then you get the second part of it. Now, I usually read the whole chapter. So last night's was Exodus 9, and I was like, Lord, why are we going to Exodus 9?
Speaker: This is the plagues. What do you have for me in the plagues? This is dumb. it Again, this is me thinking. I didn't call God dumb. I'm just saying.
Speaker: you know maybe um Maybe I had too many Froot Loops in the morning. you know Maybe i had too much sugar before bed. you know Maybe I'm just, why Exodus? So I pull this open. I get to Exodus 9. In Exodus 9, it's talking about the plagues.
Speaker: And it gets to, he specifically talked about verse 12. And verse 12, if I'm not mistaken, says that Pharaoh hardened his heart. And I was like, oof.
Speaker: Lord, don't let me harden my heart. And I don't know if I was about to face a temptation to harden my heart, whether that's against someone else, whether it's against other things, but I was immediately impacted that I needed to to know that that I shouldn't harden my heart and that other people will harden their hearts. And so I prayed specifically for certain people who brought God brought to my mind that I was like that person, that person might be hurting their heart. And I pray that they would not harden their heart, that God would soften their heart um and so that happens every single night that i will have a passage it'll be psalms that i'll go to psalms and i'll god will take me to a psalms and i'll be like all right i don't know about the psalms we'll see what it is and it's like whoa takes me to ezekiel takes me to isaiah takes me to these books that you're just like what are you doing in those books nobody reads those those are the white pages of the bible logan
Speaker: And God has stuff for me there. Takes me to Ephesians. Takes you all the all over the place. So um if if it had only been, like, if I had had a bunch of times where I was like, well, this is impractical. This is impractical. I'd have been like, okay, I'm just crazy. This this doesn't work. yeah But the fact that God continually, time after time, brings something that I'm like, oh, I need to hear that.
Speaker: Okay. Okay. You got it, Lord. i I'm listening. It's a way to let God speak for himself instead of me always trying to say, well, this is what God's saying or this is what God's interpreting or this is what this is what this is about. Like letting God just say what he wants to say.
Speaker: yeah um And so then I close my time by, again, doing those supplications. you know In that time of reading the Bible, finding my time of adoration for what God is and being thankful for the things he's done. but also then going through people I need to pray for. um One of the things I've done the past is alphabetical. So A through Z, think of a thing to pray for, a B thing to pray for, a C thing to pray for. So 26 things that end up filling this list. And sometimes you get to things like Q or Z and you're like, I have no idea what kind of word I need to pray for here. I don't have anyone I know. It starts with either of those letters, and that's where you can go, okay, I get to add one in for free. Woohoo! Somebody needs to double up. you know Maybe you have two friends who are both named Matt, and you can only pray for one during M. So you add another Matt in the Q section.
Speaker: What's that? Quiet Matt. quarrel Yeah, Matt. Queenly Master Rouse. Because again, God knows your heart, so it's about who you're praying for. It's not necessarily about following a strict pattern. but So those those are some practical things that I do personally that I have been able to see that God has blessed. um So Brendan, have you – I think this is an important question for those who don't pray very often.
Speaker: What are some things that you have seen God answer prayer directly? that Does prayer actually work? Great question.
Speaker: um In short, I would say yes. But there are times when he'll answer things in the immediate, suddenly. And there are things that ah we have to toil for. And then there are, let's be honest, God's timing is a thing.
Speaker: And there are certain things, not everything, there are certain things that he has a certain season for and will not do a headed season.
Speaker: I don't believe in saying God's timing as a cop-out. It's an actual thing. it is. A lot of Christians say, it's just God's timing, which is basically their way of trying to pat themselves on the back.
Speaker: when things didn't work out because of people's apathy or sin, that's not a thing. I mean, God's timing, literally, there are certain things just are in your future. But, it was for me, I was but badly bullied as a child after I became a Christian. um Some people become saved and then they're like,
Speaker: My life gets instantly better. Well, good for you. Clap, clap. I'm delighted for you, Aaron. Glad you were blessed by the Lord.
Speaker: I was forged by the Lord. was floored by humans, by demons, the whole shebang lava by Christians.
Speaker: and And yeah, that that continued for eight years before I actually knew I could do something about it.
Speaker: And... then, when I was 15, I remember... have the scripture here... reaching the absolute end of my tether. was at the end of my rope, but at the end of everything.
Speaker: And... I picked up my Bible.
Speaker: I don't encourage everyone to do this, because, you know you might pick up something like Judas went and hanged himself. but Go and do it likewise. If it happens to you, just turn the page.
Speaker: perfect You did it wrong. um But I picked my Bible and I said, Lord, it was this Bible actually. And I said, if you can create all of reality in six days, you can do this for me.
Speaker: I said, going to open this sucker. And the first line of the first page that I open, you have to speak into my situation, into my circumstance, and help me.
Speaker: Otherwise, I'm dumb. I said I will always believe that I didn't think my life would last for a very long, always. um But I said I would always believe that you exist, that I've seen too much to doubt you.
Speaker: a people getting healed of cancer and yada yada, I mean was brought up around miracles, it didn't faze me. When I was 15 I learned...
Speaker: You know, should I say it, we're all adults, it's fine. ran up for a TV show about, you know, touching yourself and I was thinking, that just sounds a bit mad. And then one day they lost like the watch pin at an event that there were like, you know hundreds of people at. And I said, oh my word. I wasn't doing around the hundreds of people, but it had badly affected the pin on my watch.
Speaker: And then, know, I still love Jesus. I went looked, walking around like this massive big auditorium. And it was like this supernatural spotlight shone on my pin while there were like, you know, hundreds of feet jumping up and down with hands in the air.
Speaker: So I'd seen God move like a needle in a haystack. Miracle. I'd seen all this before. I knew he was real. I knew that I knew that I knew.
Speaker: But I did not believe his love was personal. I believed in his love in the abstract. I believed it was a cold love.
Speaker: I believed that he... loved everyone, wanted everyone, we were a treasure. But once he picked you up, he put you in his little treasure chest, and he slammed the door shut.
Speaker: And you were fated to live in darkness until eventually died. And then heaven, wow. And that's, I just like, God, I, I, it's like I'm dying literally every day.
Speaker: can't do this. This is not... living an abundant, succeeding life. Yeah. So I said, either your word is wrong, and it isn't.
Speaker: Or maybe there's something wrong with me. So I said, the first line, the first page that I open, you gotta speak, or I'm done. And by done, I just meant I was, I believed he was real, but I said, I'm not dying for you anymore.
Speaker: said, I can't. And I opened it up. And it was done. You may ask anything in my name and I will do it.
Speaker: And it terrified me. I slammed it shut through the bathroom.
Speaker: Terrified.
Speaker: that he would actually answer my prayer.
Speaker: And I said, that may have been hallucination because I was having those. I was so, so lonely. I was literally imagining having friends or having like, you know, phone calls with people who didn't exist. or It was nothing.
Speaker: So I picked it up, could not remember what the female verse was the life of me. I just remember it was in John. Eventually found it and I was like, oh, thank God, it's still there. And i had my first open vision where suddenly eyeballs appeared all around my bedroom.
Speaker: It freaked me out. I didn't know about Cherubim or Ofan, wheels in wheels, covered in eyeballs.
Speaker: I didn't know about the eyes of the Lord going to and fro or and that you're looking for the righteous who or need of help. I didn't know any of that. But I remember as clearly as if it were yesterday, knowing that I knew that i knew that I knew that heaven was watching me.
Speaker: that I had heaven's attention, whatever that meant. And, oh, I gave God a piece of my mind. gave him a good long list of the petitions.
Speaker: i didn't have that language at the time, but petitions, the heartfelt prayers, the urgent pleas, the spontaneous desires, the real and the raw.
Speaker: And it's not that I'd had a shallow relationship with God up until then, but a level of faith got activated in me that I had never had before. And And yeah, I gave a good long list of all the things that i felt I needed in order to rebuild, put my life back together again, begin some degree of a clear out or a clean out.
Speaker: I would say at that point had already had quite a religious mindset, which had not really served me very well. I suppose that was when I kind of began to get my personality back.
Speaker: I'd basically, i' but I'd been a ghost. And this is my time of relearning laughter, learning how to tell jokes 15, help. and I would literally go online and say, funny things to say in a conversation to make people like you. I mean, that was probably my first ever Google search. That's how pathetic it was.
Speaker: bad enough I was 15. Beck and me I was like, you know, I want my one friends. What do I say to people? a But that night things really... he saved my life, basically. So it was a major one.
Speaker: And then I've had other moments where, like, you know, for my master's, I sent a dissertation off to the university. And next thing I heard the postman come to the front door.
Speaker: For you guys, it's the mailman. me And I just heard God say, still and know that I am God. And I was thinking, oh, crap on things. Who's at the front door? Because I heard like the door, something happened at the door. i didn't know what God was telling me to take a chill pill before I got to the door. So ah so I said, God, whatever it is, help.
Speaker: So got to the door and my dissertation arrived at my house. rather than the university. And obviously I did not write my address on the envelope, I was there with the university's address.
Speaker: It came back to my own house. And there would have been a time i would have had a conniption and pulled the hair in my head. And I said no.
Speaker: God has already told me to be still and know he's God. Yes, the deadline is in. ah Two hours. But... B-grand.
Speaker: and And that all worked out.
Speaker: Yeah. and Deliverances. Chaos Knight Demons. If you're going to be praying for people. And speaking to the darkness... and You put your money where your mouth is in those situations.
Speaker: There is no, i hope this works. It does or it doesn't. um So yeah, I've seen God do the most wonderful things in the spontaneous, in the suddenly, in the immediate.
Speaker: And then there are times when, you know what, I'm praying for something. i am For a long stretch, there's still things I'm praying for that I've been praying for for years. Just there recently.
Speaker: Just about before our birthday, actually, my mother was diagnosed with cancer. So that's something that we're praying for as a family. um And the health system in Ireland as of the last 20 years or so is criminally bad.
Speaker: It's shocking. And yet, I cannot think of a single person, and I'm not exaggerating, who has had the regularity of CTs, CAT scans, PET scans, that she's gotten. It's been boom, boom, boomo boomo boomo boomo boom, boom.
Speaker: Whenever someone's tried to, well, not just anyone, but you nurses have tried to take blood from her veins, They tend to blacken her arm with ten bad attempts before they get any, whatever's up with her veins.
Speaker: But she said a nurse walked up to her last week, said, in the name of Jesus Christ. Dabbed in the syringe, out came the blood, and like two seconds, the nurse just began praying for her, did one needle prick, and the whole thing was resolved. She went on a holiday,
Speaker: I was with an holiday, I got a call from the hospital saying they had a bed for her. Literally from the day after she got home. So we've just seen God do so many beautiful and amazing things every step of the journey.
Speaker: And there are things that you'll pray and you'll avoid certain obstacles. And there are certain battles that are there to be fought.
Speaker: They are there to be taken down. It tears down the enemy it makes you stronger. And you look back on all those million little miracles and it makes you fall in love with Jesus all the more.
Speaker: Indeed. So, listen, I could give 30. two and half years for the testimonies but I think those three are sufficient for tonight. and What about yourself? Share some examples if you will.
Speaker: Yeah, definitely. and You've seen fair work in your life whether in the suddenly or in the slowly. Yeah. i um I remember um graduating and not having a car and not knowing how I was going to get one. Sure am.
Speaker: And praying that, you know, Lord, I'm going to need a car and I don't know where it's going to come from and I don't have any money and I don't know what's gonna happen. And then my uncle called out of the blue and said, hey, I've got a free car. If I can get it fixed, it's free. you can I'll bring it out and you guys, you can have a car.
Speaker: So I remember that. i remember um one of the things feeling like I didn't want to be in debt, especially to go to school and when everybody else is in debt. And I remember praying, Lord, I don't know what I'm going to do. I don't know how I'm going to be able to do this because, you know, I've gotten my associates. I'm going to need the bachelor's, which is the further step. And I don't know how I'm going to be able to pay for it because i don't make enough money to do it. And it was literally a day or two later that, um, we were sitting,
Speaker: at our school and there was a flyer that was for this college that would do everything online. And it was even cheaper than the college I was currently going to, to try to get just half of my degree.
Speaker: And, um, I was like, is this real? And then they didn't even have a partnership with the college I was at by the time I actually applied. uh, So it wasn't like they were there for long. They were only there for like a year or half a year of a connection. And I was able to see that flyer and be able to pay completely for my college and without any debt because of God's provision. of the man i i remember my um i remember my friend, he got in a really bad accident with a fire.
Speaker: And I was told about it. um And I remember getting really broken up about it and pretty much just on my floor crying and asking the Lord to protect him. He was my friend. We had ah you know spent a lot of time together. We had spent almost every weekend when we were growing up and in high school just spending time. And I remember praying for him. And um the Lord was able to heal him and save him from something that should have, should have taken him out. Um, I remember another time being woken up in the middle of the night and it was the same friend. And, um, it was like three in the morning and it first thought came to me was him. And I was like, well, i better pray for him. So I prayed.
Speaker: And then I think was a week or two later, I got a call from him and he was like, dude, I had this crazy thing happen. And I was at this party and there was a fight. Somebody had a gun and, um,
Speaker: But thankfully, you know, nothing happened. And I was like, what time was this? Yeah. And he was like, well, was three in the morning. was like, why? What? what Okay. Pause. What day was it?
Speaker: This day. I was like, well, the Lord woke me up to pray for you. So um those kinds of things that is only from God. um It's just, and i I could go on and on and on and on of time and time and time. Even recently, um one of the things I've felt that is I don't really know where I'm going. um I know that what I've committed to is I'm following Christ wherever he wants me to go.
Speaker: Even if it means it's places I don't want to go. Even if it means I have to go to a grocery store. Even if it means I have to do this. I have to do whatever is in front of me, but um I want to obey him wherever he wants me to go. and It was feeling where I was at that the doors were closing, you know, being an intern, there wasn't really going to be an opportunity for me to join the staff. They didn't really have the money for it. And I was just like, what's going to happen, Lord?
Speaker: And then just the other day, ah we were able to have a phone call and a conversation with one of the guys who's in our, the head of our association of churches. And my pastor laid out that this was the situation and that we're really, feel like Logan could go and lead somewhere, but we don't know if anyone would hire him because he doesn't have, you know a seminary degree. He's a single guy. So people might be concerned about that issue. And he went, well,
Speaker: off top my head, without looking at any spreadsheets, I have at least two places we could go. So, yeah, let me know. We'll have a conversation. We'll sit down. We'll talk about it, and we'll see what God does. So, um if, you know, for those of, as we're talking about prayer, be in prayer for that, you know, be praying for Brendan and his mom. Be praying for me in this situation and what God's going to lead with it because to me, it was like God just opened up the pasture of, oh, look, there's pastures over there that you might work out in. Not bad.
Speaker: And so it's an answer to prayer that God, he gives you a hope, um, gives you the hope of another day, hope of what he has. Um, because it's not that even as Brandon was saying, um, we're, we're not just these little pieces on the shelf of God that he just goes, well, guess you get parked for 80 years and nothing happens. right Oh no! He uses you.
Speaker: He uses us. and even I think even as Brendan was sharing his story that I think God has specifically forged Brendan to be who he is today.
Speaker: To put him in those roles. The fact that he went through all of that stuff and how tough and hard it was for him was God's molding and making him into the person he is today and into the roles that he has today. That if he had stayed the same person without facing any of that, he might not have been able to handle it.
Speaker: um So god God builds us, he makes us, he forges us, and so even those hard things, he he makes us into who we're supposed to be. and I think of Joseph, right? Joseph would not have been the second in command if he had just been daddy's boy back in back in the land of Canaan. He wouldn't have saved Israel, he wouldn't have saved even the whole known world at the time by saving them from a drought. He wouldn't have been able to do that because he would have just been daddy's boy with his... nice coat and everybody loves him except his brothers who all hate him.
Speaker: It never would have worked out that way. But God orchestrated a beautiful plan that in spite of the frustration, in spite of the just sin of others, God still orchestrated it to be a beautiful masterpiece of how God protects and takes care of his people.
Speaker: So God does that in, if God can do that in Joseph's life, if God can do that in Brendan's life, God can do that in my life. You can do that in your life. So anything else, Brendan, you want to add before we close and pray? Yeah, no, I just say. am
Speaker: It's so easy for people to discount you from the purpose and plans of God. I'm talking is these for Christians discount you.
Speaker: And to discount yourself, even the examples you just gave, they're regarding me yourself, you know, oh, Logan doesn't have a seminary degree and oh, he doesn't have a wife. Some people who are younger than us might listen to that kind of roll their eyes like, if that matters.
Speaker: Let me tell you, when God told me to start the Joshua Generation Church, last year, he told me in December 2024, sorry, I started it in January last year.
Speaker: Let me tell you, it took a good six or seven months for me to kind of settle into the role, literally, because
Speaker: zero members were thinking this. Only was. But thinking, I don't have a wife. When I go to bed at night, I go to bed alone.
Speaker: What did that have with teaching the Word God? Nothing. But let me tell you, for me, that was the elephant in the corner of the room.
Speaker: Because I couldn't think of anyone else in my world and beyond. I'm sure there are many. I could not think of anyone in my world or beyond.
Speaker: who is teaching the word of God, leading a fellowship, and they don't have a spouse.
Speaker: And as for seminary degrees, no offense if you work in a seminary personally, but the students of that seminary are understood to be fitting servants of Christ so long as they regurgitate what their teachers have told them.
Speaker: They don't actually want depth of theology. They actually want to be like surprised. Oh my goodness, this person knows more than I do. They've opened my... Not really. They want their own thoughts echoed back to them.
Speaker: Just so, oh, well, you're safe for the demographic that we're targeting or the beliefs that we want said demographic to have. um And while that can be helpful,
Speaker: They can also be incredibly unhelpful. So these are two things that you can use to disqualify yourself. I'm not saying everyone listening to us has a pastoral calling on their life. I'm not. No.
Speaker: But whatever the seminary degree and the spouse is in your world, don't let them disqualify you in your own estimation.
Speaker: Hmm. And don't let other people despise you for not having what they see as the right criteria.
Speaker: yeah What matters is what God sees when he loves you. amen And I've heard people say, but I don't know how God sees me.
Speaker: You're told to put on the mind of Christ. You're commanded to. This is the mind of Christ. Whatever is good, whatever is pleasing, whatever is perfect.
Speaker: man Whatever is lovely, whatever is noble, whatever is true, whatever is praiseworthy, whatever is commendable.
Speaker: Good, not evil. Prosperity, not harm.
Speaker: You... achieving an anticipated, expected, preordained end.
Speaker: That is the mind of Christ. That is what God sees in his head when he thinks about you. And we're told that love is kind, love patient, love is yadda yadda yadda, love always trusts.
Speaker: God trusts you to do it. He trusts you to achieve it.
Speaker: Whatever you've walked through, whatever you are walking through.
Speaker: Some things you'll avoid, praise Jesus. Some things you'll have to walk through. Sometimes, like Naaman, to get his healing, can to go into a filthy,
Speaker: River.
Speaker: Disgusting compared to the rivers in Syria, as per his diagnosis of the quality of rivers. He literally had to wade through mud and filth, dunking in it seven times before he got his breakthrough.
Speaker: There are times you'll be in filth and squalor and God will leave you there. Because there's something at the bottom of that river you've got to get. Yeah. And if you go through it prayerfully and don't put yourself in a bad situation unnecessarily.
Speaker: Don't stay in a bad situation unnecessarily long. But if you are there, you've put yourself there, the devil's put you there, God has put you there,
Speaker: You are ah to be obedient to God. You are to be prayerful, faithful of good character. Let God break off what needs breaking off.
Speaker: Let him remove what needs removal.
Speaker: And he will do in you something that will sustain you when he gets you where you want to be. Amen. um What Logan said for me was correct.
Speaker: I was a karate kid. All the people who came against me as a child, I absolutely could have poleaxed the whole iron lot of them physically, and then some.
Speaker: But I didn't. And no God has entrusted to me beautiful, delicate, difficult,
Speaker: Wonderful. Testing. Children of his. And in those moments, as a child and teenager, that showed me not to fight with these. Yes, there are times in physical self-defense, I'm not saying there aren't, but in general, with his own children, not to fight with this.
Speaker: But fight with this. in here. The word in my heart and coming off my tongue. For Logan, there have been many times when he's seen God open a door only to feel stuck.
Speaker: When God's opened the door and things look to be rosy and shiny and amazing, and the grass absolutely looked greener before he stood garden.
Speaker: but but And it's so easy to feel like the almost guy. But actually, what's happening? Sometimes the best lesson you will learn is what not to do.
Speaker: and man Learning to be patient with people. To take off the rose tinted lenses. With which you would see people to the benefit of absolutely absolutely absolutely nobody.
Speaker: am
Speaker: Anything strategy. Oh my god, if I had that person position. wouldn't that. I'd do this. that situation, I would not do that.
Speaker: I'd change this. ah Yeah, that can that can be on the long finger. I'd prioritize that. He's growing in an analytical pastoral mind, which will help our overall administration.
Speaker: um No moment is wasted. Amen. Unless you waste God will work all things together for your good.
Speaker: If you let him. Exactly. We can avoid a lot of the enemy enemy's nonsense.
Speaker: people's nonsense by prayer. There are things you have to walk through. There are battles to be fought. The human body was made to fight.
Speaker: Our soul and spirit were made to fight. There are things to overcome. There are things we have to take dominion of and bring into subjugation to the word of God and the kingdom of God in the abstract.
Speaker: a And we pray to God beforehand. You pray to him during. You thank him afterwards. And you keep that dialogue open.
Speaker: Don't just run to God when you want something. Because he wants to hear from you all the time. going to finish with just one last scripture. And it is from 1 Thessalonians 5, verse 17.
Speaker: It says pray continually. yeah Not continuously. And there's a difference. Pray continuously means pray and never stop.
Speaker: But, you know, we do have lives. You have to sleep, you have to talk to people, whatever else. Continually means you do it, you live your life. You do it, do something else. You do it, you listen. You do it, quiet time. You do it, sleep. You do it, day job.
Speaker: But continually, in the Greek, means pray like you have a hacking cough. When you get that tickle in the back of your throat, and there are germs in your mouth,
Speaker: The best thing you can do is cough and get those germs out. Pray like you have a mouth full of germs. And the most natural thing you can do, and the healthiest thing you can do, is splutter to get them out, no matter how undignified it looks.
Speaker: Pray continually. Pray in all things. Pray without ceasing. That's what it means. Pray like you have a hack and cough. So, uh, they did my closing words, my final two cents.
Speaker: I'm happy we did this. It great topic, Logan. Logan chose the game and the topic for today. He thinks they're both awesome. and And, yeah. Why don't you pray us out and release God in their merry way.
Speaker: And i I do want to add quickly before we pray and we close, but if you have any questions about any of this stuff, or maybe we did go as in depth as you wanted, you wanted more detail or you had more questions, feel free to send us an email. Feel free to, you know, in check us out personally with our, uh, you know, Facebook and Instagram and send us a message because really that's, that's what this is about. This is to help you as our listeners to be able to, um, um,
Speaker: to To know prayer to be able to live it out to experience it and to talk and build an intimate relationship with God I highly recommend checking out the pause app I highly recommend even finding a good formula that fits you.
Speaker: It doesn't there's not one size fits everybody we all have. all created differently. We're all think differently. And so find your thing that works for you and apply it to that. And again, be always praying continually, just like Brennan said. So with that, let's close in prayer.
Speaker: Jesus, thank you this day. i thank you for all this you do for us. I'm thankful for um our ability to be able to even talk about this on a podcast with people who we have never met, never seen their faces. Lord, we just pray that you'd help them to and bless them in their prayer life, that they would be able to see and they would be able to know the things that are the heights and depths of your love for them, that they would be able to go forth, Lord, and take some of the things that we have given them and that they would be encouraged, that they would be able to pray, to speak to you. Lord, we want everybody who listens to be able to have an intimate, close relationship with you.
Speaker: And Lord, as we've talked about, there's sometimes you don't answer Our prayers. You don't you don't give us the thing we want. And there's there's reasons and there might be waiting. There might be patience that you're building in us. But you're always doing something. There's always an answer. Even if it's no, there is an answer. So Lord, help us to be able to be patient and wait on those things that we are praying for. Lord, we think of Brendan's mom. We just pray that you'd be with her to encourage her. Lord, help her to be able to grow through this time of um fear and concern that it could be. We're so thankful for the blessings you've shown so far. We pray that you continue to bless in her journey and that you would bring her to you. Lord, we think of even in my life as we look future and Brendan as well as he looks the future of what do want us to do? Who do you want us to be? Where do you want us to go? Help us to follow you every single step of our way. We pray for each of our listeners who are listening, Lord, that they would be listening for your voice to be able to know where you want them to go, who you want them to be, where you're having them and guiding them and what you're teaching them. Lord, help them to be able to see those things and open their eyes and that they would be looking for what you have for them.
Speaker: Lord, we are so excited to be able to do this. We pray that you would again, bless all those under our teaching and under our listening today that they would be able to be blessed and to be encouraged and grow in their faith.
Speaker: Give us good evening tonight. Help us to get the rest that we need to be able to um do the things that you call us to do tomorrow. In Jesus' name, amen.
Speaker: Well, thank you, friends. We'll see you all next time. Bye. There you friends. Always remember, God is absolutely good. Indeed.
