Power of Separation - James Aladiran & Rob Sharp

hi thank you for joining us today on the show my name is James Allah Darren and I'm the founder of Prestone and I'm here with my good friend Rob shop who was a director of ministries of fresh stone and we're excited that you join us today on the program we're going to be talking about the power of separation and we're going to be looking at the life of John the Baptist as a prayer ministry John and his lifestyle has been a very inspiring figure for us and how he lived set apart to God how he lived a life of praying fasting we believe as a movement pressed on we're called to see a prayer evolution across the body of Christ but more than just calling people to pray we we feel like God is calling the church to a lifestyle of being set apart to him and John is just a great picture of that in Luke 180 the Bible says John grew strong in spirit and he was in the wilderness until the day of his manifestation to Israel I think that's just a great picture of how God prepared John for the ministry they had now John's ministry impacted the whole nation but he had to be set apart and a wilderness like I don't know how many years it was there but Muslim there for many many years just doing stuff like eating locusts and wild honey and doing strange stuff and he was just so on fire for God and that was his expression of his love and his devotion to God and I I do feel it's a picture of something God's called us to in our generation that he's calling us to be set apart to him in a radical way like John was to prepare the way for what he wants to do so that's power in being set apart and separated the other two and from what I understand a lot of people believe that John the Baptist was a Nazarite which is again a kind of a key idea that Preston gravitates around is that idea of not just living the bare minimum but actually taking you higher cool so what would you say is your understanding of an answer well the nazzer I vowed the life of a Nazarite and all that you know concept is it's it's it's it's very significant part of our DNA as a movement and you find the whole message about the Nazarite and number six and it talks about the lifestyle of the Naza right now you know in Israel there was like the twelve tribes of Israel you had the Levites and they were kind of born into that service so they served got in a very unique way however the law of the Nazarite was not just specific to any tribe it was open to everyone anyone that wanted anyone that wants to be a radical in devotion to God they could give themself four seasons of their life to this vow to be another right and basically what they would have to do is they would they would not have to drink wine they're not allowed to drink wine and they grow their hair long and then they're not supposed to go near any dead thing and this is a picture of a life of radical devotion to God now drinking wine is a picture of letting not drinking wine I mean it's a picture of letting go of pleasures of this world okay for the purpose of experiencing eternal pleasures of knowing God so letting go of temporary pleasures of this world for experiencing eternal pleasures of God so it's a picture of just letting go of all those things that's that's the wine bit no drinking wine and they're not going they're dead thing is a picture of not flirting with sin and compromise staying away from things that represent death sin and compromise and then growing their hair long is a picture of their abandonment they were radical in the devotion you said that earlier on it's not about how much can I get away with it's not about how much can I gave is know about you know how little can I do and get into heaven is mobile how much can I gave to God and see heaven come to earth you know it's like God how much more do you want me to give they lived a radical life so the Nazarites were a peculiar group of people and anyone could take that vow and they gave themselves to radically seeking God and some of the most significant personalities in scriptures when Nazarites because God had to raise out of that place of radical devotion to change a nation one of the things that's really interesting about the Nazarite vow is that although there's a lot of people in the Bible that take it for a lifetime number six actually says that it can be a time frame and I think what's really powerful if you look through the person of people's lives in the Bible that it was greatly used by thought there was always a period of separation even Jesus had to go through the wilderness where's that separation from civilization separation from friends separation from food separation from comfort and I think that's what we're really wanting to talk about John the Baptist because there is power in separation and that separation is actually preparation for the purposes in the call of God on people's lives and I think it's so often again in a generation and even a Christianity that can be about these three steps and these seven principles nothing ever is a substitute for going through the processes of God and I know in my life I've had hard periods and they've been periods of separation maybe separation for family separation from friends separation from success and what John the Baptist symbolizes is that his key message was prepared that was the message that God gave him prepare ye the way of the Lord and I really thought there's a generation that God is raising up they're not also gonna be preaching prepared and I think there'll be people that we watching this that are going through seasons of separation seasons where they seem to be sowing and nothing seems to be successful seasons where they seem to be misunderstood as well because the Bible gives no real reason why John the Baptist is wearing camel skin and eating locusts but that's not part of the vow yeah that's just like an odd thing and I can only imagine God told him to do it hmm and maybe God didn't even tell him why hmm but that process of separation includes a period or often being misunderstood a period of not being fitting in with everyone else not just being willing to say well this is the bar of what sin is so I'm just going to stick around there when the Bible actually says in Hebrews 12 he says cast away every sin and right there stops you running and so I think John the Baptist for me he symbolizes a June nation of people that burn the fat off their souls they don't say I'm just gonna try and avoid sin but say anyway anything that stops me I'm gonna separate myself the Bible comes to Abraham and he says separate yourself from yeah that's right and we could probably both tell stories about how in order to come into where we are now and there's probably many more periods as a preparation for us we had to go through periods of separation and as I said that could be physical time of you know spending time with God but I think it also is a separation sometimes from your friends sometimes from being understood sometimes even church yeah you know where you have to leave a church for not an ungodly reason but it's just God is calling you out and no one understands why they're calling you out and I've never read a life of anyone used by God in the Bible and throughout church history where they've not had to do something that no one can understand from them Wow in fact another time Abraham will be separated but separated in his heart is when God told him to lay Isaac down on his promise at the altar and the Bible says he woke up early and he saddled up his donkey he didn't talk to his wife yeah call the Trustees meeting he did not say guys I just said the prayer meeting out I feel God has just calling me to sacrifice my son he didn't do that why because there are things that God calls us to do that we can't even talk about because no one can understand them even ourselves and that is the power of separation it is it is incredible how this pattern is all through Scripture God sets people apart separates them to himself doesn't work with them in a wilderness type place and then releases them into the world to impact the world so they impact the world from a place of separation so if there is it's no separation in a kind of elitist mindset of I am better than them because the Bible says we're in the world but we're not of the world so you know the people of God who become of the world while in the world lose the authority to change the world and the problem with most of us in the church is we're in the world and the world is influencing us as opposed to ask influence in the world so to really stand in that place like John did when he spoke his words cause the nation to be raised from spiritual death because there's such authority on his words it's because he came from a place where he was not connected to anything that was in their world he came from a place where the lifestyle was so set apart that I like to look at it this way before God gave him the voice to preach that message he lived that message for years of separation so when he eventually preached there such authority that people had to be woken up from the spiritual death and boredom and I see that pattern over and over again in many people's lives and I feel like that's what God's calling us to we need to learn to embrace the seasons of separation where God says no I don't want to do that no I don't want you to do that and it's not that those things are bad like you said there's a difference between the seen and the weights according to Hebrews the Saints and the weights don't be in a lay those things aside another thing that I like and I see in the picture of John that I feel is connected to what we're talking about is John's primary calling your service earlier on was to prepare the way of the Lord okay and I do see a prophetic picture here John was called to prepare the way of the Lord he went into the desert fasting and prayer prepare the way of the and then God gave him a voice impact the nation and he prepared a way for the first coming of Jesus okay now I believe before Jesus returns again God is gonna raise up another generation now carried the same spirit like that was okay the same spirit like that with John Kerry which is spirit of Elijah to prepare the way for the second coming of Jesus but with that lifestyle of separation they're not gonna necessarily eat locusts no well done in well camels hair because that's gonna be as weird we can make some money but they're gonna be radical just like John was radical I think that's the key thing they're gonna be a radical just like John was radical and they have to start from that place of embracing the separation being okay with the fact that some people may call them crazy some people may call them weird but they're gonna just give themselves fully to God and I think one of the things when you look at Jesus life he went through a period of separation that's right he actually says that a servant is not above his master if I have to go through it you have to go through the process and what's really interesting is the end of that the Bible actually says the enemy left him to wait for a more opportune time and that more opportune time was actually in the Garden of Gethsemane and what's really powerful is just before the Garden of Gethsemane is Jesus's final temptation he utters these incredibly powerful words he says the Prince of this world is coming to tempt me but he has nothing in me when our separation isn't just about being more holy it isn't about any of these things it's about coming to a place where the enemy has nothing in you because the moment you want something the moment you desire something that has power over you know the moment you desire to be celebrating people go man that was a great message or you were really good at you know setting out the chairs today or man you're such a successful banker as soon as you design people to think well of you that has power over you and you subconsciously start working not unto the Lord to please the Lord you subconsciously start working so that people celebrate you and go man that was a great book or you well done for getting a first-class degree and one of these things but when you go through the process of separation it's actually a symbol of not just outward separation symbolizing an inward separation so just like Pinocchio who had strings attached to him and could be moved around by his master in that period of separation don't begin to cut the strings of your desires strings of things that are important in your life so when you come well you can say hate me not like me think I'm a flop or all these temptations can come to you to down to whatever it is but you like Jesus can say the enemy is coming to tell me but he has nothing in it why because I've gone through the process of both outward and inward separation because separation is operation and that's incredible because as I look back at my own journey I realize the times when God has called me I mean I know God I've always had a sense of God's calling in my life for the times when God has wanted me to step into new things in him there's always been seasons of separation some of them have lasted years like the Nazarite vow and I felt God call me to lay down some things I thought God why are you asking me to lay this down this is all painful you know and this is no sane and you know so we're not talking about saying right now we're talking about legitimate places like the wine so to speak you know people drank wine in Bible days so you know the Nazarites not having wine was letting go of those pleasures and there times when God calls us to let go of some of these pleasures that are around us not because they're necessarily bad but because it doesn't want us to be drunk on them he doesn't want us to get used to the taste of them to the point where we don't actually realize how much we're missing him how much we need him our desire for him is weakened and in those seasons of my life when I have actually followed through in obeying God I have seen things change in me and I think I love how Luke 180 puts it John grew strong in spirit so I think that's incredible yes yeah yeah yeah yeah so that's the important role in the middle of nothing going on so Jonah was growing spiritual strength when it seemed like there was not much happening around him he didn't have a big ministry he didn't have anyone calling his name he didn't have anyone trying to say oh you're the man of power for the hour nothing like that yet he was growing strong in spirit because it wasn't dependent on any external thing of success out there he was more about what was going on on the inside in fact I think John 5:35 says John was a burning and a shining lamp is a picture of how his heart was on fire for God and this is where we need to see how God works I think many times God increases our strength spiritual stamina in those wilderness season because in those wilderness times like you said he's preparing us for purpose it's preparing us for great things but we have to embrace the wilderness we have to embrace the picture of the nasara letting go those legitimate pleasures and I remember you saying to me not long ago you know in the end what's in the wilderness you say something like there's nothing in the wilderness apart from God you know as in there's nothing else there's no entertainment there's nothing to make him feel good there's nothing there's nothing in the wilderness there's tickle in the flesh and I think that's so key because we often preach the message or preach the verse where the scripture says we're not unaware of the enemy's plans and that was poor preaching I don't think most of us can preach that I think we live in a generation where actually we are clueless of the ways that the enemy is distracting and inhibiting our own and I think one of the important things for separation and remember the Nazarite vow stands for separating your inward life even if there's busyness around I really believe that were the biggest strongholds in our generation is a spirit of entertainment well not be honest I've been there it's in right I'm gonna pray you know and I'm there and then five minutes I'm like I'm bored I'm bored and I'm like I'll just check though what's happening in the news and I'm still really praying in the spirit and I'm checking stuff and I remember one time clearly a few years ago where it was night I worked hard all dates and about nine o'clock and I wanted to pray or something and I just felt this like draw to watch like the latest program on BBC iPlayer and I knew right then I had an entertainment addiction well and you know most people wouldn't say oh that's just natural you know most people would but I knew in my spirit it was an entertainment addiction why because it was distracting me from time that I wanted to set away from God and we've been in different situations when your body is just pulling you and you know what in fact the Bible says the the biblical word for desire means to focus hmm it means to focus and entertainment the spirit of entertainment is a spirit which always wants to have your focus on something else for is your focus on something else and I really believe there is a generation that God is calling up that are gonna be able to say no to entertainment yeah I would even go as far as saying that for most people fast and entertainment would be more powerful and more important than fasting football because entertainment rather than food is the thing that is stopping us from being still before God and if we're honest both me and you I think we'll be honest in anybody's prayer like that what's the prick in to what God is doing you have to break through the barrier of boredom yeah there is a point in prayer where it is just flat boring and you know we can talk about angels dancing or pinhead well you have to face being bored here in periods of my separation um which you know won't go through but you know one of them was when I was called to do a PhD in doing it by myself in a city I didn't really know anybody and it was really hard and one of the most powerful things is I couldn't escape from myself Wow it is in the moments of silence when you can't which is also Peter the wilderness that's exactly in the wilderness you cannot escape from yourself you are faced with it's up and I know for me entertainment I'm watching this and seeing this creature whatever it is me distracting myself from myself and God had to put myself in front of myself and I could be like man there were parts of me that I don't like that do not reflect the mirror on Jesus Christ pan and it was only in the purest separation that acts like a surgeon's table that God can come along and start pulling things out that he couldn't pull things out in the business and we live mentally in the most busy generation that has ever ever ever occurred even to the point that psychologists and sociologists are concerned about people's attention spans well and I really feel that the power of separation is partly and largely in the power of quietness so you go on and I just think that is something that our generation is in serious danger of losing yeah absolutely and again it's just something that the more we talk about it the more I'm stirred about this reality for our generation we need to embrace that place where there's nothing else to entertain us but God now how about God becomes our entertainment see I don't think many of us can actually say we find our joy and delight in his presence because the Bible says in Psalms and his right hand are pleasures forevermore so that tells me their pleasures in God that foul far exceed every or any natural pleasure because his realm God's realm created our realm so if their pleasures forevermore at his right hand that tells me there's a lot that we are yet to experience in God that's actually spiritual pleasure that has an impact on us and I really do believe we're less seasoned where God is saying this is the time for us to embrace the wilderness this is the time first embrace being set apart this is a time for us to say no to those things that may not be saying well it's just wait it's like we're getting drunk on the wine of entertainment and say well how about we just put that aside and we start to embrace the wilderness and begin to embrace going deeper in God even when it's difficult and my you said it's kind of struggle the boredom of how do I deal with this I believe he says in the scripture blessed are the poor in spirit there's something about embracing the poverty that we feel when those moments come when you feel like oh I feel disconnected this feels hard I believe when we begin to embrace that something really happens yeah already believes it and I think people out there that are doing through periods of separation I think really so much what we wanted to say is that doesn't necessarily mean you're out of sync with God in fact I would say if you've never if you can't look back with your life and see a period where God has called you to be separated I would say that is more likely that you want to say wait God where am I missing you where am I not in error in where am I not in my wilderness embrace the wilderness yes Syrians embrace the wilderness and this is a key message I wanna and we want to encourage you to begin I say Lord you know what does wilderness look like for me how can I be prepared like John in the wilderness and how can I grow strong in the wilderness this is a seed where God is wanting to raise up warriors people that are not spiritual wimps or people who are spiritual Giants and that means you have to grow strong and to grow strong you have to go through something difficult you have to build your spiritual muscle and sometimes that's gonna look like the wilderness there's no one around it's just you it's just God you and God and their God is developing you embrace these seasons because I believe there's power in it Rob do you want to pray and let's agree together for every single person watching to come into this reality of learning to embrace the wilderness yes the Holy Spirit is to invite you into the living rooms of people watching this right now and we just invite that same spirit that worked on John the Baptist that same spirit that led Jesus into the wilderness so that Jesus could return in the power of the Spirit I pray in the people that are watching and in our hearts you stir such an incredible desire to live our lives in the power of the Spirit and to embrace the seasons of the wilderness knowing that the fruit of the wilderness is a lifestyle of the power of the Spirit so father I just pray for the grace I pray for those that are in wilderness periods maybe there are people right now that are feeling such an incredible sense of loneliness no we know it is never your plan to live a life of loneliness but there are seasons of loneliness and just as Jesus said for though everyone will abandon me behold I am NOT alone because the father is with me so what I pray especially for people that are in a wilderness of loneliness a wilderness of company I pray for them father that you would comfort them that you would strengthen them and that they would come out of the season in your power knowing your interest in Jesus amen amen well thank you so much for joining us on the program today and I hope you can join us next time god bless you

Channel: PrayerStormTV

Views: 4,123

Rating: 5 out of 5

Keywords: Fasting, Consecration, Nazarite, Nazirite, Prayer Storm, James Aladiran, Rob Sharp, Prayer

Id: l0aiBbbbkPc

Length: 23min 33sec (1413 seconds)

Published: Sat Jan 28 2017