God Conscious part 4 | Chad Gonzales

[Music] so we've been doing a series called god conscious so how is your consciousness today remember we gave you a a goal last week a goal last sunday for you to come in today more conscious more aware of him than you left and we actually had a pretty good little prayer time that lasted i think was about seven minutes five seven minutes but just just in that that small little time period there we spent just a little bit of time praying as we were doing that i mean it was very very very easily aware that our awareness went up just in that small little time we didn't have any music we didn't have anything going on we just spent some time just just praying there and you could see just your awareness or you could say your sensitivity just increased maybe if it was just a little bit but it was different than what it was than what we started and so that was our challenge to you that when you walk out last sunday and i told you it's not easy it's hard because of the distractions and everything that's going on this world you know even jesus said there's many voices out there right there's all these things that's going on to try to take away or pull us away from our consciousness and our awareness of god and so it doesn't happen by accident it's something that you and i at the very purposefully and intentionally do and always putting our mind on the things of god and just as a reminder for those that maybe this is your first time here in person or watching online we're talking about being conscious of god being aware of god we're not talking about you know what the average joe blow christian is talking about and the fact that i believe that god is real that god's alive he's out there somewhere remember last sunday we were talking about being very god inside minded you know the apostle paul told the corinthians he said he told him three times do you not realize don't you know that you are what you are the temple of god you're the temple of the holy spirit he said that god he lives in you he dwells in you that was god's thing that he said in the old testament he said they will be my people and i will be their god i will walk in them i will live in them i will dwell on them well if someone if someone's there right with you how could you not be aware that they're there you know we just went through thanksgiving and some of y'all went through family hell you know you got all these relatives there and you wanted to hurry up and get out you were very aware that they were there right christmas is coming up some of you you're going to have family coming in and some of you are excited about it and some of you are dreading it some of you are going to have a you know a griswold family christmas where you're really excited about it and then they show up you're like oh my gosh let's get this thing over with but it's absolutely impossible for you to have people living in your la in your house and you not know it unless you just got some massive house and people on one wing and you're on the other it's really really hard for that for that to be possible well the same thing god came to live on the inside of you so how could you not be aware that he's there the only way that it's possible is number one you don't know it or number two your attentions and your focus and your desires are so taken up with everything out here that in this soulish realm that it's just really clouded up but it doesn't change the fact that he's still there and so we spent some time looking at the relationship that jesus had with the father and remember jesus he's always the standard always in every situation he's always a standard not for just how we should live and being a good person and right but it's also he shows us the standard for what's available for a man or woman filled with god united with god we see the the miracles that happen with jesus and jesus also said whoever believes in me will do the very same works that i did and he wasn't talking about just feeding the poor and you know housing the homeless and clothing the cold he wasn't just talking about those natural he's talking about the supernatural power of god he said these works right here and then not only do we see that we also see what's possible in a relationship and fellowship with god a relationship and fellowship with god now you know that our relationship with god our righteousness our right standing with him that doesn't change does not change you know why because that's not based on me and my works that's based on jesus works and what he did right right second corinthians 5 17 brand new creature in christ verse 21 he who knew no sin became sin so we would become the righteousness of god whose righteousness god's righteousness where in christ in that position so my righteousness or my right standing my position or you can say my relationship with the father it doesn't change can't change it's not going to change whether i do something stupid or not that doesn't change but my fellowship or you could say my awareness of him my consciousness of him it really has nothing to do with him it has everything to do with me so my relationship is everything on him my fellowship is all on me it's all on me but we saw where jesus was going through and doing life and we know what he was doing life as a man admitted by god you would see where jesus made statements like this i only say what i hear the father say and he said i only do what i see the father do you see this multiple times in john in john chapter 5 chapter 8 uh chapter 6 chapter 10 he says there's numerous times i only say what i hear the father say only do what i see the father do he said the words that i speak are not my own i do not speak them on my own authority but what i hear the father speak that is what i speak what the father commands me to say that is what i say so obviously jesus is hearing and he's also at times doing some seeing and that shouldn't be such a far-fetched idea for us and it sounds a little sci-fi i know and it may sound a little out there but but these aren't my words these are jesus words he said i hear what he says and i see what he shows me well i mean think about it is it isn't it uh interesting that jesus got such wonderful results all the time well that's the key he said what he shows me to do that's what i do and what he tells me to say that's what i say but you're not going to have that without fellowship without spending time with him so you can get those those downloads from heaven so to speak so jesus show us shows us that there's some hearing and there's some seeing possible and we've made mention of this and i say this just as reminders but you know you and i we are a spirit being okay this right here no matter how good looking you you think you are in the mirror that ain't you or how ugly you think you are that ain't you we are a spirit being and this is simply the house and so because i am a spirit being and god is a spirit and the bible said jesus said that he is the father of spirits god is spirit because he's a spirit and i'm a spirit it should be more natural and normal for me to hear spiritual things or hear from a spiritual source or to hear from my father it should be more normal and natural to me as a spirit being to hear from the father of spirits than it is for me to be in this natural world and hear natural things the only difference is is that we we very much learn how to use these five physical senses of seeing smelling touching tasting is that all five we've grown up with these things but we haven't really been taught much about the spiritual senses and we haven't been taught and it hasn't been taught in church and told that it's normal to hear from god but you listen to most christians and they act like you know you got to be some spiritual giant to hear from god but then that's why it's good to go back and look in the old testament and look at people like david look at people like moses moses and they were all sinners salvation wasn't made available and that's why i love looking at moses he's one of my favorites because here you have moses he's a sinner he's not saved by grace he he was a murderer and yet here you have moses he's hearing from god he's singing from god he creates that he goes and builds that tent exodus chapter 33 maybe a couple weeks ago we looked at that and he said this is this like i'll call the tent of meeting and this is where i'm gonna go and meet with god and in exodus chapter 33 it says that god would come down and he would meet with moses and he would talk to moses face to face as a man speaks to his friend that phrase right there i mean that lit my fire years ago and it showed me what was possible for the christian because if god would not deny the hunger of a former uh murdering sinner then he sure ain't going to deny the hunger of a child of god filled and united with him and so it goes to show you that that the amount of god that i experience is not on him it's on me and it's on my hunger and on my awareness and so we looked at some of those things over the last few weeks and last sunday we started giving you some some keys some principles steps on how we could not only develop that awareness of god and maintain that but also increase that that so the first one we told you we need to become god inside minded and we went through some of those scriptures number two we talked about something that people don't like to talk about and that's when god's telling you to do something do it in other words obey and obey immediately right because why when the lord's leading me to do something whether it's to be a blessing to somebody and so in somebody's life or you know whatever when he's leading me to do something well if i'm hearing from him but but once i hear from him i deny that i don't act on that then what am i doing i'm elevating the voice of my soul my flesh and i'm decreasing the voice of god in my life and i can get to the point i can get to the point where i get what we used to call being hard-hearted i can get to the point where god's still speaking but i ain't listening because i've allowed the voice of my soul my mind my flesh becomes so loud i can't hear from him anymore and so one of the ways that we can we can maintain that sensitivity to his voice and his leading and guidance and also increase that is to obey when he when he tells me to do something whether he's telling me hey you need to forgive that person i mean they may have wronged you and did you really bad but but when you sit there and say no no i ain't listening to that you don't know what they did to me you don't understand and i'm just gonna go on i'm gonna let my emotions and my soul tell me what to do what am i doing i'm elevating that voice and i'm decreasing the voice of god in my life so we need to obey immediate whether it's something you see in scripture or something the holy spirit is speaking to you you need to obey you need to do it now we also pointed out that you know as you grow and you mature we start getting past this this baby hood stage of sin you know where it's following the rules and this and that and trying not to lie and trying not to cuss and it was funny i was we were talking about this last week and i got a text from somebody and they said i love jesus by still cuss it's like hey we're all at different stages just keep growing but you know we we start working get past that and then it comes to these things on the inside you know what we call sins of omission where god's telling us to do something you're hearing from him he's telling us to do something we just we say no and that's where you're really going to get judged a little bit more harshly because those things are affecting the plan of god for your life and for other people's life where he's trying to get something to somebody or he's trying to get something to you and by you sitting there and saying no it's affecting the plan plan of god and the will of god for your life so number one we we need to become god inside-minded number two we need to obey immediately number three we spent a lot of time talking about this that we need to sanctify ourselves now that word sanctify it's kind of a fancy spiritual churchy word sanctified but it wouldn't it really simply means is to separate yourself now we're not talking about separating yourself from the people of the world or people who don't follow jesus you don't want to be you don't want to be a spiritual hermit or you just know you live your own little life and you're you're away from everybody else because how are you going to reach people who don't know jesus that doesn't make any sense but no what we're talking about is we're separating ourself from the world's way of thinking and the world's way of doing and that the world's always looking to everything but god to protect me to deliver me to heal me to prosper me everything is a source except for god and so we looked at john chapter 17 where jesus said he's praying in the garden of gethsemane john 17 17 i love this one because he says father he had just said he said father i don't ask you to take them out of the world but keep them from the evil one verse 17 he said separate them sanctify them by your word for your word is truth and that word truth there in the greek it literally means reality he said your word is reality now this is where it gets a little sci-fi that there's an alternate reality that you and i can live according to and it's that alternate reality the kingdom of god when we live according to that we can be in this world but we can be living from another world and therefore get different results in the very same situation and when we do that we're acting according to his word and we're endeavoring to separate ourselves we're putting ourselves intentionally in a position to hear from him and see from him and so we spent a lot of time on that this is where i want to spend some time on today three things i've got three more for you number one we need to acknowledge him in the little things we need to acknowledge him in the little things it's interesting if you look at romans chapter one i think we've got this scripture in there romans chapter one in the message translation i read we have that one yeah so message translation is really good on this he said open your eyes there it is by taking a long and thoughtful look at what god has created people have always been able to see with their eyes as such can't see eternal power and the mystery of a divine being so nobody has a good excuse if you look in other translations it it's all talking about looking at nature have you ever walked outside at night you know if you don't live in the city kind of live out in the country a little bit walk outside and you see the stars and you just look up and you see the stars for me it's hard to look at that and and think there ain't no way there's a god you know the the little the older i've got i don't know if it's just because i'm getting older and more gray and that makes me more wise or something like that but i've really really begun to appreciate nature i really have i'm not i'm not a hunter i'm not a real big fisherman or something like that but i've really begun to just enjoy going outside walking into the woods finding a tree stump sitting down and just listening to the you know the the breeze flowing through the the leaves and watching the squirrels go by and listen to the birds i mean i don't see myself being 80 out there you know with the binoculars all the time looking at birds and stuff like that but like i really am i'm really enjoying nature and for my quiet times that's what i've been been doing when the weather's pretty good i'll just go outside by myself and go go find a stump we've got about 11 acres and so i can go find a secluded place but i've really just began to to look for god in just the little things find the little things in life to always be a reminder of him you know i i could maybe be a little sappy in this but like i really enjoy sunsets just a beautiful sunset why for me it's a reminder of of how big god is how great god is how awesome he is and that no sunset is ever the same and yet just the other day i mean i went and grabbed my phone and took a picture because it was just gorgeous i mean there was pinks and purples and reds and oranges i'm sitting there and for me it's a reminder god not only are you good not only great but it was a reminder hey you're with me too because you love me that much isn't it interesting too that that the things that god made versus the things that man has made a lot of things that man has made it almost kind of detracts from our awareness of him because it makes us busy it distracts us but if you look at the things that god has made i'm not saying everything but you look at the things that god has made and so many of those things it produces quiet and peace in your life and it kind of causes you to look to him and so i've really been working on this and that not to always be looking for the big things you know the big miracles and thank god i mean we've seen them so many times that the blind eye is opening and deaf ears opening and tumors dissolving and skin disease is healed i mean we've seen just just crazy crazy stuff and thank god for that but you don't always want to be waiting for the next big thing to be a reminder to you that god is good and god is great because if you're waiting for the next big thing i mean depends on you know what you're doing and where you're going but you can always be experiencing god in the little things always those things are always available always available nothing stopping you from going outside at night when everybody's going to bed and just going outside for about 10 minutes and just looking at the stars and just praising god for how big and awesome and great he is nothing stopping you from doing that nothing stopping you from going outside and looking at the sunset you know for a few minutes and just praising god for how awesome that he is and you know you all know i mean me and me and lacy have this love-hate relationship with animals you know i mean like if there was just one animal i'd be cool but i mean i sent my friend a a text the other day i messed the other day because now we got this possum called polly that showed up on the on the back porch and paulie's out there eating the cat food and polly isn't leaving and i i i've learned once once an animal gets a name i'm done the chickens have a name the cat's having it i mean there's multiple cats chickens dogs donkeys go once they get a name i mean i'm done and one of my friends commented on a post that lacy put about paulie because lacey was concerned about one of these illegitimate cats that have been there that don't need to be there they need to go and the cat was going there and swatting the possum's tail and lacey was so concerned about this cat she ran outside and she filmed it she ran outside and she's trying to warn the cat to get away from the possum neither one of them should be there and so in the but i told my friend i said i need help the ark's getting full but even in the midst of that i've really even begun just looking at the animals and and we know this from a natural standpoint especially those of you that do some therapy and stuff like that people have begun to learn especially like horses you know taking people out they use them as therapy animals and stuff like that because there's just such a calm and a beauty there but i've gotten where i don't really like messing with them much but i do like to sit out and just watch them and again just looking at these different animals and looking at all the different features that they have i mean it just shows you how amazing god is and then if you're kind of a nerd like me i mean i i really like the human body anatomy and the one i wanted to be a doctor but i didn't want to go to school for you know 10 years of course all the school that i've done i could have been two doctors you know honestly i could have done that a long time ago and probably came out cheaper but but but i love just the intricacy and the things about the human body because again you look at those things and how could there not be a god and it begins to show you just the magnificence and the beauty and the awesomeness and bigness of god just in what he did in creating the human body what i'm talking about is the little things just the little things that are out there that god has made and even scripture says paul says how can you not look at these things and it not show you and tell you that there's a god that really in reality nobody has an excuse for not believing in god because of nature and any of it that he gave us yes but what i'm trying to get across to you is that if or to start appreciating and seeing god in the little things then when it comes to the hard times the rough times the the hard patches the storms in life you've been so accustomed to to to being aware and sensitive of him and little things and doing it on a day by day basis being conscious of him then when it comes to the big times in life you're not running around and having to fast and pray for 21 days just so you can sense him my friend jim hockaday he made this statement several years ago and i love it he said this he said how you do life is how you'll do faith think about that statement powerful statement how you do life is how you'll do faith and it just comes down to that if if i'm doing life with god on an everyday basis throughout the day and recognizing him in the little things then it's going to cause my faith to be high all the time or you can say my consciousness of god high all the time so that when the hard times come when the storms come you know when the giant shows up i'm not sitting here wondering if god's there i already know that he's there and it's not coming from an intellectual standpoint i'm not having to scrounge around and and find me a scripture i'm not having to go and google and and and google you know promise or scriptures about prosperity or scriptures about healing i'm not having to do those things and you know what even if i didn't have a scripture if i have a consciousness of god that god is with me that what now please understand what i'm saying but if i have a consciousness that god is with me not just knowing facts but i know he's with me and he's in me that will far supersede some little memory verse that i learned and i've got memorized and i can just regurgitate very mechanically because that's where majority of christians are they've got a scripture about a particular thing and so when life hits that's what they start quoting and just starts coming out and it really doesn't mean anything here it's just coming out of my head and that's where a lot of people get when it comes to the area of healing i mean thank god for first peter 2 24. by his stripes i am healed but so many times people get in those situations and and that's one of most people's healing scripture they got and so that's the thing they start quoting but just because it's coming out of here doesn't mean it's going to do anything you could say it like this that that knowledge of scripture without knowledge of his presence let me say it again knowledge of scripture without knowledge and awareness and experience of his presence it's just going to make you smart in the hard times it's just going to make you intellectual in the hard times in other words you're going to be one of these people i'm saying the right thing and i'm doing the right thing but i'm not i'm not really seeing results all the time like i should and it's because so many times that the this data these facts about god and scriptures that we know about god we've got them here and i'm all for memorization because you're doing that you're renewing your mind to the things of god but if we don't have a consciousness of him then in one sense and i don't say this critically but in one sense you're no different than the pharisees because the pharisees knew the scripture i mean they they knew the old testament better than anybody in here including me they knew they had it memorized that was part of it they had to memorize it can you imagine memorizing genesis through malachi they had the law genesis this exodus leviticus numbers they had it memorized but they didn't even recognize the presence of god and the son of god standing right in front of them and again that's where a lot of christians are we we are the smartest generation of christians today and yet most christians today wouldn't recognize the presence of god if it was sitting right beside them why we're very smart here but we haven't developed the consciousness and awareness of him so we need to recognize him and acknowledge him in the little things uh the uh the second thing that they are asking that'd be one two three four so number five fifth little key is this is that you need to protect your peace you need to protect your peace because if you are always living in stress then why are you stressed because the voices out here are what's really loud in here the voices here are really really loud and so that's why we get stressed because we're allowing the things out here to tell me what's true and you need to do everything you can to protect your peace and i've really been working on that over the last couple months so much so that i've kind of gotten a little a little overboard in one sense and then i've gotten testy or a little snappy when people come around me that are stressful now lacey's not in here and it's been it's been it's been a source of contention here for a little bit but she understands where i'm coming from i had to explain myself but i've just kind of been in this this kind of solemn quiet place the these these last few months because i'm very i've been very intentionally working on some things because there's somewhere i want to get and um and most of you i mean you know how lacy is i mean just she's very animated and stuff like that and i love that about her but you know there's times that that's going on life situations and and she kind of gets stressed out about it and she just wants to talk about it and you know i'm good hearing it one time and i got it hearing it ten times yeah i just need the one and so i'm i'm working on trying to be a better husband and be a better listener and stuff but but my patience isn't so great when it comes to the just the repetition of the life's problems and stuff like that because i'm over here i'm not saying right or wrong but i'm trying to work on something and so i'm trying to i'm trying to protect my peace i'm trying to keep my mind quiet so i can get better and be more sensitive and listening and hearing and so when life's problems are coming and it's stress and it's anxiety and and fear and worry and and all these things what that starts doing is it starts detracting from you hearing and you being aware of god too it starts putting your mind on natural problems and earthly problems and the stress and the worry and the fear and the anxiety and the more your mind is on those things then the less i'm conscious of him the less i'm conscious of him so i'm having to work on this other side of not being testy and snappy and snippy when you know life's problems are coming on i you know brother hagin kenneth hagin he made this comment years ago and he talked about all the time he said you know because he was kind of talking about this thing about your piece protecting this he said hey if the house is burning down don't call me he said we got insurance we'll build a new one you know he said the church is burning down don't call me we'll take care of it tomorrow it can't do anything about it if it's burning you know and uh and you're just talking about situations like that life situations you can't do really much about i don't i'm trying to protect my peace i don't want my mind constantly yes you got to deal with life but you deal with it and then we come back over here and we try to stay here as much as we as possible and but the problem is where most christians are we're over here we're living in the stress living with the anxiety and then what we do is every once a while we try to step over here be aware of god for a little bit and then we step back over here and we live here what we need to do is the opposite we need to live here maintaining developing my intimacy and my awareness my consciences of god as much as possible and then when necessary i step over here i deal with life i deal with situations i deal with circumstances and then i immediately as soon as i can i come back over here that's the way jesus was living he wasn't living over here in constant stress and anxiety and stuff jesus was living over here as much as he could and it's very interesting because if you go through and look at the life of jesus look at how many times number one you see him withdrawing from everyone and going off and spending time in the wilderness or on a mountain by himself to pray but there's another and we're gonna look at that sec but there's another piece i never really noticed until just the other day i was reading through mark and i started noticing it several times that that jesus and the disciples when they'd be traveling along because i mean there's multitudes and when we say multitudes a lot of bible scholars believe that when when jesus was going through the cities and stuff because of all the miracles and things that were happening multitudes i mean there might have been 10 20 30 000 people just surrounding him all the time trying to get to it and there's many times that you see this if you just read through you see that jesus he would tell the disciples or they would go another way so that people wouldn't know that he was there or he would go into a home and tell the disciples don't let anybody know that i'm here why yes we're all about people we're all about helping people we're all about doing good in life and for humanity and this and that but if that's all you're doing and yet you're not protecting that fellowship with god then you're going to get to the point where you're either going to burn out you're going to you're going to lose out on everything that you have and you're going to be no good you know the great john g lake you know one of my heroes i can't wait to give him a high five when i get to heaven and shake his hand and say thank you sir for what you did and inspired me can't wait but you know what when the tragedies of john g lake's life this guy saw so many miracles so much so many wonderful encounters with god inspired so many millions of christians but you know what he died young he died young he died he died right before not too long before the great healing revival hit america in the 40s and it's interesting i came across a letter of john g lakes that he had written to alexander dowie and uh these are some of the these guys you know back in the late 1800s 1900s to be good for you just go search them and read some stuff about it but he was writing a letter to alexander and told him about how he had just run himself ragged in life and in ministry doing good stuff seeing miracles but not taking care of himself and his relationship and fellowship with god and he wore his body down so bad he had to step out of the ministry for three years just to recover and then it was just a couple of years later that uh he actually i believe he had a stroke and died it was because of the wear and tear and everything he put on his body he wasn't taking care of himself but and it's interesting you see this with jesus he was always withdrawing he was always withdrawing he'd get away from people and live in those moments and then he stepped out of those times with god and you see miracles happen he ministered to the people and then you'd see him withdrawal there's a wonderful regression uh that you see that jesus spent time with the father you see him spending more time with peter james and john then you see him spending time with the 12 disciples then you see him spending time with with the people and then you spend time with the disciples spend time with peter james and john and then he's back with the father you see it all throughout scripture but i want you to see this in mark chapter is it mark chapter 1 mark chapter 1 or yeah there we go luke chapter 5. notice it says jesus often withdrew to the wilderness and prayed he often withdrew to the wilderness and pray now we spent some time looking at jesus's time in prayer with the father it obviously wasn't jesus just sitting there and doing all the talking was it no and that's a tragedy that's happened in the church is that when we talk about prayer we talk about praying we talk about us talking and not hearing not seeing we don't talk about communication two-way communication with god we talk about us doing all the talking and usually when it comes to prayer and christians it's not us even talking it's just us whining it's us griping it's us complaining it's us having a complaint gripe woe is me session with god telling him all the bad things and then i'll walk away can you imagine being on the reciprocating of that end of that relationship where the only thing that happens is someone comes to you and tells you about how bad their day is and why won't you do anything and i'm doing everything i'm believing i'm standing and i ain't seeing nothing happen amen and then you walk off that's all you get all the time but remember we see jesus he's withdrawing and praying and this is the only instance there's plenty of them but we see jesus saying i only say what i hear the father say so jesus is talking and the father is talking back and jesus said i only say what i hear the father say or i only do what i see the father do so obviously again don't don't think this is some crazy nut job here but jesus said it obviously in his times of prayer the lord's showing him some stuff too with his spiritual eyes he's shown him some things now not to get a little zany okay but remember when jesus was on that mountain and he was praying he took peter and uh james and john with him and remember when the bible says that he was transfigured and the very life of god began to flow out of him where he was visible and he was talking with god elijah and moses showed up now i'm not saying your prayer time you know dead people showing up or anything like that i'm just saying in this instance you see something happen with jesus something so much to the point that the even god spoke out of heaven and the disciples heard it and peter got real smart and said jesus it's good for us to be here yeah you think so numbnut he said it's good for us to be here let's let's create a little little houses little shacks for you and elijah and moses the bible says peter was so freaked out about it he didn't know what to say but that's the only that's the only instance that we see outside of jesus pray in the garden that's the only instance that we see of jesus spending time we get first-hand experience there of jesus praying with the father and you see some supernatural spectacular things happening that leads me to believe that probably wasn't the first time that probably wasn't the only time and remember when that happened with jesus he wasn't doing that as god he was doing that as a man anointed by god and filled with god exactly like you to think about don't think i smoked anything kind of kind of funky this morning it's a scripture but it's not talked about it's not talked about in church people people pass over those things and when they don't pass over it they read it from the standpoint well that was jesus well anytime you say well that was just jesus you just eliminated you from the supernatural you eliminated yourself from the things that jesus died so you could access and have too let's finish up here right here real quick matthew chapter 6 verse 6. this is in the message translation again and um this is so good this has been a scripture for me that i've actually got it posted on a wall in my office just as a reminder this is the last little key is this you need to be okay with the quiet times we live in a world today i mean we've got to have the tv on we have to have the radio on music going on all the time we always have to have noise we've got our phone we've got our laptop we've got our our you know ipad we've got all these things that are supposed to make things easier in life and they do but essentially they've made it so easy it allows us to become more busy it allows the voices out here to become so loud god's speaking and i can't hear god's speaking and i can't hear and and there's so many of us we don't like quiet we don't put two people in a room together around each other and let them have a conversation and let one person stop and notice how uncomfortable you get after about 10 or 15 seconds somebody needs to say something real quick those awkward times anybody went on a first date with somebody you know and you just kind of have this awkward kind of conversation you don't really know what to talk about and there's there's those quiet times that makes it awkward why we don't like quiet and a lot of people have a have a hard time being by themselves and having some quiet but and i know we need fellowship and we need to be around people i mean i'm a people person i'd much rather just kind of sit and watch people i'm kind of like a walmart people watch it there's always something good going on at the walmart i sit there and like to watch people but really over the years i've really begun to appreciate the times that i have by myself so much so i've gotten to where i need them i really do lacy can tell i start kind of wigging out chad needs some me time i need some time by myself jake it was so funny he had us laughing and cracking up the other day because uh i'm not really a morning person i'm working on it when i wake up in the morning the very first thing i do i go brush my teeth and i go grab my v8 that blueberry v8 and uh and i go to my office and i sit down and i've got some some soft music playing in there and i spend that's my time with god start off my day that way and just spend some time just spend some time praying in the spirit and just just reading stuff and so jacob made this comment to one of his friends and uh and jacob said something i said what'd you say oh he said oh i think it was actually jonathan that he was telling us he i'm pretty sure it was jonathan he said oh i was just telling him that my dad's real cranky in the morning if he doesn't have his v8 in his time with god like well okay i'm working on it it takes me some time to wake up but but i've really begun to enjoy those quiet times and lacey's actually been working on that here as well because she was one of those ones that she always got to have some music music or something going on in the background i gotta have some noise i don't want any quiet and she's been working on that and it's been making a difference in her life too but notice what he says here this is jesus matthew 6 he said here is what i want you to do at secluded place find a quiet secluded place so you won't be tempted to role play before god you see that happen a lot of time in church see we know how to act wherever we are don't we there's a lot of good actors in church we know how to lift our hands during worship we know how to to smile at people at the right time we know what to say to the to particular people at right times we know how to act spiritual and christian in church and we kind of role play a little bit but then when you get off by yourself sometimes it's a little bit different he says you don't role play before god but just be there very simply and as honestly as you can manage so that the focus will shift from you to god and you will begin to sense his grace i love the way that's worded there find a quiet secluded place now i will tell you this and we've talked about before when i'm driving when i drive i'm usually spending that time i'm praying in the spirit i'm praying in tongues so i'm driving when i'm on the lawnmower i'm out there and i'm praying in tongues i mean i'm spending more time praying in tongues more now than i ever have i'm taking advantage of those times but even in the midst of those times my mind is still many times on something else you know if you're driving i would not suggest you pray in tongues and close your eyes you know something bad is going to happen and if you're out there in the lawnmower and going pretty fast i wouldn't suggest you pray in tongues with your eyes closed and i wouldn't suggest you do that in walmart either when i when i'm at walmart when i'm at the grocery store you know under my breath so i'm not looking weird or anything i'm just very quietly just just praying i'm not shaking and you're spitting all over the place and acting stupid and i don't have my eyes closed or anything but even the midst of that my mind's on other things those things are good to do that but you still need to have those quiet times that you're away from everybody else and you can have those times to put your mind exactly and specifically on god and nothing else and yet friends i'm telling you if you haven't done it for a while it is very hard i'm telling you it's hard have you ever sat down for five minutes to pray and all of a sudden that key that you couldn't find instantly to your head you remember where it was at and all of a sudden these things that you needed to do this to these to-do lists all of a sudden they start coming against you you start remembering all these things i'm telling you i mean just uh what's today sunday yeah so yesterday saturday saturday lacey went to walmart okay we had a real busy busy week and i didn't get some of those times in the morning that i almost always do things some things that happened and so yesterday lacey went to walmart i knew she was going to be gone for about 30 45 minutes jake was in the game room and he's playing video games so i told myself all right i got 30 minutes i'm going gonna take advantage of it so i went my office i put on some some real soft music just playing some instrumental stuff i don't i don't like praying with uh music with words because i don't want my mind going off on the words and singing and stuff so i as some instrumental stuff and the first 10 minutes i mean it was like a battle because i'd be praying it and my mind's on him and all of a sudden i think of something and then i'm such a workaholic my mind would start going over on that and then i have to stop it pull it back over here and say nope nope nope and put it back on it and i set a timer on my phone just to check myself i was ashamed of myself i lasted like a minute and and and i was constantly having to do this because if you're not careful you can spend those times praying and your mind on something else and you're really not accomplishing much where you begin to sense him and become more aware of him is when you can keep your mind stayed on him isn't it interesting that god even the old testament he said be still and know that i am god be still not be busy all the time be still and you see with jesus he will withdraw and he would go by himself off in a secluded place now we're in here in today's world is extremely difficult to get secluded you may be away from people but you still got this and i've gotten to where when i go those times i gotta leave my phone somewhere else i go i cut cut the ringer off i go put it somewhere else i got to get away from my computer i got to get away because me knowing me i got to protect myself from me because it's very easy for me to find something to start working on dude but jesus he would go off by himself and you and i we're gonna have to and in today's world we can be honest about this today's world is even harder than the day jesus walked on the earth distractions voices noise there's something everywhere for you to put your mind on it to distract you and take you away from god so you and i we have got to be very conscious we've got to be very intentional about it of setting aside those times yes we should take advantage of times we can be praying and and keeping our tongue hooked up to our spirit and putting our mind on god but we have to have these quiet secluded times away from the kids away from your spouse away from your friends you've got to have that you have to have that if you're going to be successful and do everything that god has called you to do i even tested this out the other day we went to target and um at least he went into target i don't like going to the stores and jake didn't want to go in either so jake was sitting in the back had his headphones on he's playing the game so i knew he wasn't going to bother me and so i knew i had about 10 or 15 minutes so i sat in the front seat of the car no music no anything and i did that i spent i spent about 10 minutes just praying in the spirit focusing on keeping my mind on him and it was amazing what happened in 10 minutes nothing spectacular happened but it was amazing to me just in 10 minutes i'm just just just keeping my mind there on him of how much much my awareness of him began to increase just in that 10 minutes just like we did last last week for seven minutes we kept track of it so i was we were going to spend some time praying this morning a little bit but we kind of ran over time but we'll do that in a couple of weeks but i just want to encourage you i give you the same challenge that i gave you last week when you come next sunday be more aware of him than you were when you walked out these doors how is that going to happen it ain't going to happen because god's sovereign and god's good and he loves you it's going to happen because you made a choice it's going to happen because i'm hungry and i want to know him and experience him more that's how it happens it happens by me being intentional and setting aside time away from the people in my house if you have to tell them look give me 15 minutes do not bother me do not touch me do not yell for me do not call for me it's going to be me and god time do not interrupt me i love you leave me alone you're going to have to do that you're going gonna have to do that and if you you if you are somebody who you live at home by yourself i mean you live at home by yourself i mean there's pros and cons to having people in the house and not having people have if you don't have somebody in the house and maybe maybe struggling with with all that quiet time and not having people around decide to take advantage of it and use it as a positive that i'm going to increase my time my awareness not just my time but my awareness and consciousness of him i'm going to take advantage of these times because i know other people don't have these times that i've got right now you

Channel: Chad Gonzales Ministries

Views: 1,776

Rating: 4.8596492 out of 5

Keywords: Chad Gonzales, healing, miracles, faith and healing, the healing academy, faith healer, cures for cancer, blind eyes, deaf ears, covid 19, god and the Bible, inspirational YouTube, inspirational sermons, tv preacher, Steven furtick, bill Johnson, Kenneth Copeland, Jesse Duplantis, Kenneth Hagin, smith wigglesworth, John lake, healing revival, awakening

Id: Vf-PXskLp70

Length: 49min 49sec (2989 seconds)

Published: Fri Jan 01 2021